Jerry Miculek of Team Smith & Wesson looks on as a competitor blasts an aerial target (upper left)
I had the good fortune to compete in, and cover, the shooting community’s coolest adventure, otherwise known as the Crimson Trace Midnight 3 Gun Invitational. As the name implies, this is a full-blown outdoor 3 Gun match.
The third annual Crimson Trace event was held at the COSSA shooting range located in the high desert about 7,394 nautical miles outside of Bend, Oregon. The remote location and match schedule ensures several things: it will be dark, as in black hole kind of dark; your equipment will have to perform in exceptionally dusty and dirty conditions (drop a magazine in the dirt here and it will sound like nails on a chalkboard for the rest of the match); and, you will not sleep for several days.
A look down at some of the shooting bays in use.
1. Sleep
More accurately, lack of sleep defines this event. Shooting begins around 9 pm and continues until four or five in the morning. The first night of competition, I rolled back into my hotel room after sunrise – exhilarated but tired. Lest you think you can catch up during the day, busses leave for the range before lunch for training, safety briefings and sponsor range demonstrations. Next week, I’ll get into some really neat new products demonstrated at the range event.
2. Safety
As safety is the number one concern, range officers are more plentiful than fake ID’s at a Justin Bieber concert. As all of the range officers are avid 3 Gun Shooters themselves, there is a full match for them the two nights prior to the pro match Friday and Saturday nights. We media weasels squad up with the range officers and shoot the full match with them Wednesday and Thursday nights. This is a great win-win solution. We media hacks don’t have to shoot with the pros and face total humiliation, the range officers shoot the full match, and we all work the bugs out before the pros start Friday night. As you’ll see from the photos, every person on the range wears glow sticks front and back for absolute visibility. A big hat’s off to the professionalism and dedication of all the range staff. They preserved the perfect safety record while adding plenty of fun.
Nope, not dark enough yet. A pre-match briefing at Stage 7.
3. My Sig Sauer P226 Elite SAO
I wrote about this gun prior to the match. Hard use in the dusty match conditions confirmed my early opinions. Dumping mags in use dry dust all week got the gun plenty dirty, but it ran like a champ. The best part was comfort of high-volume shooting. I used American Eagle 147 grain 9mm ammo that clocks in around 950 feet per second. The recoil impulse was light and smooth – perfect for high-speed competitive shooting.
4. Live entertainment
During the awards ceremony, Crimson Trace founder Lew “Joe Cocker” Danielson stopped mid-speech, ran to his truck to retrieve his guitar, and broke into a rousing rendition of “Leaving On A Jet Plane.” As a special tribute to the ladies’ present, he followed with an a capella encore performance of “You Are So Beautiful.” Lew explained lack of guitar accompaniment to the fact the song requires seven chords and he only knows four so far. An inspiring moment from one of the industry’s finest individuals. It was epic.
Be sure to check out Tom’s latest books! They are ON SALE now for a limited time!
i love that you thought Lew’s singing was epic….. Well this is Lew;s wife.. for 40 years 45 dating…. met Lew when i was 15 yo.. he has always been epic to me…… He is getting better at the guitar… only learning 6 months… What makes Lew masterful is his sheer joy of learning and having the balls to express that while still learning….. I adore him….. live with him 24/7 …. even i can listen to him trying to learn a song every morning a dozen or more times over and over again……. creativity is like business.. over and over till you get it right 😉 Syl D
Congratulations on your 45 years together! He told us all about his guitar journey and more importantly, his 40 years of happy married life!
Dear Tom (and your family) are always welcome to our home if you ever come to Oregon…besides the midnight shootout… ya can shoot off the patio ….. just not at the deer and quail and birds…kill allthe ground squirls vermon ya want… good for you for giving up the corporate world… although i will say i bought microsoft at 23$ a share many years ago….. should i thank you ? he he hugs syl