I’ve been going to a pistol league at Shooting Sports Northwest for a few weeks now. I’ve never competed in any gun related things before, so this is a first for me.
There are 3 events every week, and you shoot each event twice.
The first part is called “zombies”, and is worth the most points. 10 rounds, 9 targets. the back row of 3 poppers pops up, and is up for a few seconds. Then the middle row of 3, then the front row of 3. The zombies are scored on distance; the back row is worth 20, 18, 15, middle 12, 10, 10, putting the front row at only 7, 7, 7. Most people will use as many rounds as they can to get the back row.
The second part is called “blackjack”. only 3 rounds, all 9 poppers pop up and stay up 8 seconds. The object is to get 21 points (without going over!). All of the targets are again assigned point values: Ace, 10, 9 in the back row, 8, 8, 7 in the middle, and 6, 5, 4 in the front row. Most people aim for the middle’ish area, doing 8+5+8. Depending on a miss, you might try something else, like 8, miss, 10. With all of the poppers up, seeing and hitting the back row can be a challenge though! 8 seconds seems like an eternity, so almost everyone is going too fast.
“Stop and Go” on the dueling tree is the last part, and this part is timed! 10 rounds, 7 targets. When the green popper in the background falls (it pops back up instantly) time starts: shoot the 3 green targets on the tree, then the green popper in the background, then the three red targets on the tree. Time ends when you hit the last red target, or when you’re out of ammo. Scoring is 5 points per target hit, minus one point per second on the clock when you’ve hit the last target or are out of ammo. This one is everyone’s favorite, it seems. The fastest people (I’m not one!) are doing it in around 5 seconds. I think I’ve been in the 7’s mostly, although one week I did have a 5.66. The fastest people are doing bottom to top, so that you follow the recoil up to the next target. Although I think people are still working down the red side after shooting the popper though…
The theoretical maximum number of points each week is ~320. After 6 weeks, I’m averaging ~185 with a high of 241 (I was #1 last week, but only because most of the high scorers were gone :)). The highest person in the league is averaging 256 with a high of 291, so I have some work to do!
Here’s a phone video of me doing one run of stop+go:
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