How Much Do You Love Shooting?

The Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun Match is the hoplophile's Mecca in Mesa. Ten stages of 3-Gun Fun set in the normally sun-splashed hills east of Phoenix draw many shooters from all over the country to match skills against Master 3-Gunners vying for truly impressive prizes and bragging rights for excelling in one of the premier matches in the country. Out-of-towners were in for a big disappointment when high winds on Day One and a Day Two forecast for 90% rain showers and 57 degrees F turned into 100% wet, wintry misery of 37 degs F. Day Two had a superslow start because plastic target sleeves needed to be placed and soggy target tape lost its adhesive properties. One range official confided that another delaying factor was that some of the big-name sponsored shooters decided they'd rather hold court in the relatively drier comfort of the shelters than go out with their squadmates and help reset stages for their fellow shooters. These pampered poofters will remain nameless--forever so on this blog, since I've lost whatever awe and respect for these "luminaries" of our sport.

Damn those weather-guessers! I think the industry sends their rejects to Arizona, because even a pin-head can be right most of the time when 300 days of sunshine per year are the norm. This weekend broke a long dry spell for the region, but there were no farmers in our midst to really appreciate it.

My friend Jon and I were only moderately prepared for the slushy misery of Day Two. I was pretty dry under my USAF poncho, but cold, wet feet and hands were unavoidable. Maybe if I'd bought some rainproof boots....


We got to "sleep in" on Day Two with a 10-something start time for our squad's first stage of the day, but we were hours late starting each due to the early delays and LaRue mechanical target breakdowns here on Stage 5 and the other Long Range Stages (breakdowns required declaring all three LR stages as "cold" while the intrepid Range Officers zoomed downrange on quads to fix or replace them). Does this range look cold to you? :) We almost completed this stage, our second out of four scheduled, but three of our squadmates were to reschedule for the next day when darkness finally closed the range.
We were more prepared for Day Three. Thank heavens for USAF aramid thermal underwear! Though our oh-dark-thirty departure from Jon's house was welcomed by a starry predawn sky, the longjohns and heavy jacket I'd borrowed were welcome comfort against the crisp, cold morning. By noon, the Ussery Pass range was its familiar, sunny self, with only the snow-covered Superstitions in the background to remind us of yesterday's hardships. We greased through our scheduled stages and the two stages left over from the previous day, thanks partly to the thinning of our squad's numbers by folks who'd had enough misery the day before. We remaining diehards were all locals, veterans of many SMM3Gs, Cactus Matches, and other Arizona venues, who weren't about to let a little uncomfortable weather dampen our enthusiasm for the sport we love.