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Springfield, Massachusetts; By Damien Ober 02/28/2010 Snow was falling hard outside the Smith and Wesson Shooting Sports Center and Academy in Springfield, Massachusetts, but inside, on the state of the art 12 stage course, the shooting was hot. Match Director Frank Glover pulled out all the stops, creating a fantastic and challenging course for this year’s Smith & Wesson's 2010 IDPA Indoor Nationals. “There are lots of opportunities to test the shooter,” said head statistics official Michael Crister. “A master might do the stages faster, but each stage is designed to be fun and challenging for shooters of all levels.”
Challenging seemed to be the buzz word during this annual 3 day event. Over 300 shooters from Connecticut to California flocked to the area to kick off the IDPA season with a bang. “Here, inside, you have to use cleaner powders,” said shooter Pat Hogue. “It’s a completely different game than outside. Smoke is dancing up in the lights. Great atmosphere. It makes you realize what you take for granted in an outdoor course.” But the smile on his face and the eager banter among the other shooters revealed how much they were all enjoying the great stages and the even greater competition.
After a rough stage 1, John Bagakis settled in to shoot a great course. “Went into stage one without a game plan,” he said. But he put the early trouble behind him and cruised through with some of the course’s fastest times.
Former champ and Western Mass local, Craig Buckland, was working through some trouble of his own. “Equipment problems,” he smiled. But it didn’t keep him from lighting up stage 10, where shooters maneuvered in the dark to load and then engage three hostiles around a moving non threat. Buckland was clearly enjoying himself. “This is the best indoor facility in the country.” The other shooters with him all agreed.
In the tunnels behind the Smith and Wesson store, research and development testing sites had been converted into a series of creative and vastly diverse sport shooting stages. “You really have to slice the cover well here,” said Joe Linskey, a competitor and law enforcement officer from central Connecticut. The stages here feel more industrial, based on well-conceived defensive shooting scenarios in close quarters and under tight lighting conditions. The attention to detail created an atmosphere closely mirroring real life situations, leaving all the competitors bubbling with adrenaline and swapping war stories. “People will tell you both things,” Linskey continued. “They’ll say these types of courses are good training for police work. And others will tell you that there’s absolutely nothing similar between the two. The truth is it’s somewhere in between.”
Whether starting seated at a restaurant table, under a smock in a barber’s chair or in the pitch dark with an unloaded gun and flashlight on the counter beside him, steely eyed Jerry Miculek navigated the course with his characteristic even-tempered cool. Even he was impressed with the with the high level of difficulty presented by Glover’s stages. “Ain’t nothing fun about that one,” he smirked after depositing 3 body shots and one head shot while reloading in the dark.
Stages 6, 7 and 8 were explained by official Ron Rodin with quick military efficiency. In this series of low light stages, shooters engaged 10 targets through three successive windows. “Lot’s of information,” Pennsylvania shooter Josh Gentz quipped. But by the time the competitors finished the walkthrough, they were chomping at the bit to get a chance at the stage. “It’s a great course,” said Gentz, here in Springfield for the 4th straight year. “They do a lot with light control. It really makes for great shooting.”
Winners of the 2010 IDPA Indoor Championship
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