The results are in, and it was a squeaker! The Q4 postal match for 2020 ended last week. If you recall, it was a pistol-focused course of fire consisting of 25 shots between 3 yards and 25 yards. There was no timer, no positions, nor anything else. The event was a pure pistol marksmanship challenge against a small target.
Feedback from competitors was very consistent: the 1 and 7/8″ black seems mighty small at 25 yards. As expected, it was the 15 and 25-yard distances that really separated the crowd. From the rules, the actual scoring rings did not count- only hits in the black. However, despite the difficulty, there was a four-way tie for the centerfire irons division.
I’ll get back to that.
The Winners
This match had four divisions: centerfire irons, centerfire optics, rimfire irons, and rimfire optics. There was no distinction between striker-fired, DA/SA, or revolver. As the saying goes, “run what you brung.”
Rimfire Irons goes to Brian D, who squeaked in under the deadline on the last day. For rimfire irons, he shot a Ruger Single Six.
Rimfire Optics goes to Aaron D, a repeat winner from last quarter. Aaron shot a Colt Target Model .22LR equipped with a vintage Aimpoint 1000.
For Centerfire Optics, our winner this quarter is Alex B. He used a .40 cal S&W M&P2.0 equipped with Aimpoint ACRO.
Now for the tiebreaker. There was a four-way tie between Dan K, Mark C, Aaron D, and Tim R (another winner from last quarter). Everyone had a great showing here, but there can be only one winner. So the winner goes to whoever had the most hits in the black at 25 yards. So with that, the Q4 winner for Centerfire Irons is Dan K, who used a Glock 34.
Each winner will receive an Everyday Marksman vinyl decal from our web shop.
Takeaways
Each competitor left a few thoughts about their performance and some lessons learned.
Alex, who won centerfire optics mentioned this about his setup:
The optic is both a blessing and a curse, in my humbled view, since it exaggerated my hand tremble, which itself is a symptom of my lack of pistol craft.
Alex B
Aaron D, winner of rimfire optics,
When you need to be this precise across such a range of distances, you really need to know your POA/POI. And it’s really important to write that down for future use. I keep a notebook in my range bag and take notes every range session, whether it’s at a USPSA match or having fun with Postal Matches.
Aaron D
At the end of the day, this is but one relatively simple test of pistol marksmanship. Pistol, in my opinion, is much more difficult to do well. However, the increased challenge also means that the time spent building pistol fundamentals usually translates well to rifle marksmanship as well.
That’s all, thank you to all participants!
