ALPHA CHARLIE BYLINE
Published by the IWLA Pistol Committee
March 1999

It's said that variety is the spice of life and variety was what we had at the 1999 IWLA House Gun Invitational. Competitors found everything from a hi-cap 15 round Taurus to a lo-cap Smith, a shotgun to a wheelgun. Thesewere firearms you'd only find at a house gun match, a well stocked gun shop or Greg's place. Five stages were shot, four scored in this initial match of
the 1999 shooting season.

Shooting began with a simple speed shoot, six rounds out of a revolver at close range. With each target engaged with 2 rounds and reloads off the table, individually, reloads were nonexistent and times were quick. New York Reload was without a reload and Terry Zortman ripped the quickest  time and the highest hitfactor with a 3.14 second run down 3  points.

Moving to another speed shoot of a different perspective, hozing Runnin' Pierre featured a single stack Smith auto. An initial shot or shots at a popper activated a moving IPSC target that could be engaged with 6 rounds. Unfortunately noone was able to get 6 rounds on the speedy demon, before it disappeared behind a noshoot. Howard Thompson was one of a handful of
hozemasters to get 4 hits on the mover as he topped the stage with a 3.47 hit factor.

Turning to the world of  high capacity, we had a tough time choosing weapons. Final decisions led us from the simple to the exotic. It was obvious that Uzi Does do It on our 18 round field course. Nine targets at 1 to 5 yards was engaged with blazing speeds.    Sights were seldom used, look over the gun and shoot was the rule of thumb. The close targets encouraged foot faults
and shooters squeezed out rounds as quickly as possible.   Greg Gruendler showed that he has mastered this 9mm long gun as his sub 8 second run yielded a stage win on Uzi Does It.

The final scored stage was shot with a plain old 15 round Beretta clone. This 17 round stage found the competitor pulling his recalled sidearm out of the mailbox at the last minute to engage a variety of targets. From a bianchi barricade 3 poppers were engaged. Through a skid 3 close IPSC targets were engaged. Finally after a reload four stationary targets were shot with a wide sweep. The newly enlarged center pit was ideal for this diverse field course as we moved through a range of target spacing, with relatively little mud. Terry Zortman won his second stage of the match, just
edging Rick Herman by a couple of tenths.

Another stage was shot with a diverse 3 gun flavor. Although not scored, competitors had a blast  with the shotgun, 44 auto mag and the AK. Russ Dennis' hip shot poppers (all fell by BTW) and Cory Daugherty's quick 3 gun run were highlights.   Shouts of PUMP and Limp Wrist were also memorable.

We congratulate all competitors for doing a great job with for the most part unfamiliar firearms. Everyone will be awarded a Certificate of Placement in the 1999 House Gun Match. We also appreciate your patience during the malfunction delays, we've learned a lot and will iron out the problems next time.  

The next IWLA match will be held on April 10th. Squad times will remain 10:00 and 12:30.    Call Greg 717-428-2564 for slots not earlier than a week before Apr 10.

Match results and the newsletter for 1999 will again the available through Kevin Solito's website, http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/4144/index.htm . Please update your web browser's bookmarks to this site as the home page name may have changed since last year. Full match and stage results are usually up in a day or two and the newsletter follows shortly thereafter. We can also email results to you. Leave your email address and we will send you results. Other local IPSC news can be found at the Team TZP website , http://hometown.aol.com/tzortman/index.htm . Let us know if can access this information on line so that we may save the copy and postage costs.