Twi-nite Doubleheader

Arriving at the appointed time (1800 PDT) for my HR-218 qualifications, I found I was at the back of a long line waiting for the opportunity to shoot on a small range.

The Tri-County range complex is a strange place, with lots of little ranges that were borrow pits, as the entire place is a former gravel mine. The Lake Oswego Police Department, which conducts this Qualification for local retired officers (theirs and other local jurisdictions) was assigned a range not capable of taking more than 13 shooters at a time, and about 70 showed up. It seems that most of the geezer cops who came to be qualified disregarded the instruction in the confirmation email which said not to arrive early. Most except myself and 4 others, most of whom I knew from my police career. I got there at 1748, and there was already qualification shooting going on.

So, it turned into a gab-session at the back of the line, and by 2000 hours, we were finally in the paperwork processing part of the drill, which went fast enough, and with a 2028 sunset time staring us in the face, we commenced the first qualification attempt 20 minutes before sunset, in a hole in the ground, on a cloudy evening, with a cold wind blowing.

I had skulled this out beforehand. I intended to shoot in both the revolver and pistol classes, so as to be certified to carry any handgun. My revolver was to be Shorty, my Ruger SP101. It does NOT have night sights, only a two-color, painted-on scheme of my own invention. I shot it first. I passed the qual with 100% in the K-5. Mandatory passing is 100% for all 5 stages. There were about 4 of the group I was in who had to shoot again (do-overs get the range to themselves while re-trying), but they all succeeded the second time, so by five minutes after sunset we were ready for second guns.

I strap on my Kel-Tec P11 9mm, which has a very clear three-dot sight set-up, similar to a Sig-Sauer or Walther P-99. It's even clearer than factory issue, because I over-coated the factory enamel in the dots with "Liquid Paper".

Yep, "White-out" is your buddy on a twilight shoot. I shot a very respectable group averaging 7" over the whole qualification, all stages.

It was not as easy at it sounded, though. On the FIRST round of the FIRST stage, where we run from the 15 yard line to the 12, drop down behind a barricade (55-gallon drum), peek around the barricade, acquire the target and bring it under fire with the strong hand, one round only, I took a bad grip on my pistol while trying to maximize my concealment (which we weren't being evaluated on, but I play by ALL the rules). I got a nasty "slide-bite" on the top of the mid-knuckle thumb of my left hand. I proceeded to the next round, a peek-over the top of the barricade and one shot on the target, then for the third shot, I had to put the gun in my off-hand (again, to maximize the reality of the training, most shooters fire this shot using a strong-hand grip, but you expose most of your body that way), and I fired the final peek-around shot of the stage with blood FLOWING from the wound.

As I finished and holstered, I immediately reached for a "field-dressing", my cleaning rag, a 4"X8" piece of old T-shirt, and I fashioned a bandage and tied it on. The Range Master is watching me with interest now, and I give him a thumbs-up (very visible, with bandaged thumb) and he gives me one back, so I am good to go. I had to adjust the bandage a couple of times during the following stages, but I shot one of my best-ever quals with that little Kel-Tec, now properly named "Slasher".

"Slasher" came equipped with two 10-round magazines, one having the finger-extension on it, and one not. Both are made by Mec-Gar, an Italian firm which makes very good magazines. I was shooting the last round of the last stage, a two-yard quick-draw encounter simulating a field interview gone bad, where we throw our notebook in the opponent's (target's) face as a distraction while drawing and firing a double-tap, then shifting sideways in a ready position to engage again (but not engaging, fight's over). The non-finger-extender equipped mag was in the gun.

The P11 smokestacked on the last round of the double tap. A peculiar kind of smokestack. I did a "tap, rack and go", but (and I spent a half hour with dummy rounds trying to duplicate this last night), somehow, the empty hull got caught in the lips of the magazine, instead of the usual smokestack where it is resting on top of the magazine lips. The next immediate action is a magazine change. Now, the shoot is actually over at that point, but we have not been given the final command ("Holster an empty weapon"), so I'm supposed to have an operational pistol. I then discovered that it's DAMN HARD to get the magazine out of the P11 with a bandaged hand, and no finger-extension to grip. That WILL be remedied.

At the conclusion, the Range Master came over, looked at my target, looked at my hand, and just shook his head and grinned, quipping something to the effect of, "You've been retired HOW long and you STILL take this shit seriously as if you were going out on patrol at midnight?" then, "You don't need EMS for that mangled thumb, do you?"

I thanked the Lieutenant for his concern, and told him I had a first-aid kit in my POV, and would clean it up and apply a proper bandage, and I was going right by Urgent Care on the way home if I needed more help.

I was so cold, and so pumped at having done it RIGHT, that I never noticed the pain until the truck heater had been on for 15 minutes.

Comments

[Aaron Neal]

Congrats on the qual, and sorry about the thumb. I had a friend do that several years ago; he had grown up shooting revolvers almost exclusively, and learned the hard way when he bought a 9mm that thumb-across-the-wrist is a bad grip.