Townsville PC held the 2021 IPSC Nationals this year. The match was held over from last year, as it was cancelled due to COVID -19. This year COVID still had an effect on the match, as Victoria was put into lockdown just 2 weeks out from the event causing them to miss out on the event. In saying that there were a lucky couple that were able to make it up to the match and shoot but the majority had to stay at home. I really missed meeting up and shooting against some of my shooting mates from down there this year, as I have not seen them for well over 2 years now.

Above Picture from 2019 Nationals with a lot of my mate that were not able to make it this time.

COVID or not the match went on and what a great match it was. My trip up to the match started on the 05 Jun 21 where I flew up to Townsville early to help set up and just help out in general. I was planning on holding a separate match for AASPA members, but because of the VIC lockdown that had to be cancelled. So I had a little extra time on my hands, so I made the most of it by going shooting. I was lucky enough to be introduced to a bloke up in Townsville that offered to take me Rifle shooting on the Sunday after I arrived.

Another mate of mine from Darwin was also invited to attend the rifle match. We went out to the match where we met a great bunch of blokes and had a try at SPECTRUM. Spectrum is the rifle match we shot. It is quite like PRS or IPSC/NRA Action match. There is a stage with a time limit and a number of targets you have to shoot. Not having our own rifle made it hard to hit anything, as well as it was not zeroed correctly. But at the end of the day we had a good time and I will be shooting NRL 22 because I liked this style of match so much.

On our way back from the rifle range we popped into Townsville Pistol Club (TPC) to see if they needed a hand with anything. Once we arrived we found out that a couple mates of mine had gone out to another range down the road to check zero and chronograph their pistols. This was something my mate had asked if we could do and luckily enough it was able to happen. We set off out to the other range to chrono our ammo and just practice some of the start positions coming up in the match. Both of our ammo was above power factor and was consistent with what we had thought it was going to be.

Over the next couple of days, I was in and out of TPC helping out with stage fixing and rehashing. It became very windy one of the days and extra bracing had to be fixed to a lot of the stage walls to prevent them from falling over during the main match. We would go help for a couple of hours then head back out to the other range and do a little practice while having some friendly competitions between each other.

Group photo of all QLD shooters at the Nats.

Match day was upon us, the format was - 3 areas containing 6 stages each - half day format, which means you shoot 1 section (6 stages) in half a day in either the AM or PM session - 18 stages over the 3 days of shooting. I was in squad 17 with my QLD gold team a long with 2 members of the silver team and the WA gold team.

Squad 17

QLD Gold Production Team

DAY 1

We started of in the PM session in Area 1, our first stage was stage 2. Area 1 was a challenging lot of stages consisting mainly of mini targets and mini target moving targets. These mini bobbers and swingers were quite the challenge. I ended up with 2 of my worst stages for the match in this area stage 2 and stage 4, having a mike and NS on stage 2 and a mike on stage 4 dropping me down into the high 40% range of the points. Biggest thing I learnt here was to not be to over confident with your sight picture make everyone count through the hole stage. However the last stage of the day, stage 1, was a great stage to finish off the day with and my result was over 80%.

DAY 2

Started off on stage 8 where I was first of the bat in the AM session. The light was really great for me at the time when I shot but it didn't stop me from putting one into the hard cover of the bobber leaving me with a mike on the stage. The pressure was off after this one and I really had a good day after that first mistake. Crushing it on stage 9 where I came away with a win on my first stage ever in a Nationals. A long with 4 other great stages this day, I felt like Area 2 was my favourite area of stages and now I have finished I still think it was the most fun. Again the take away was to shoot stages the way best suits you and concentrate on your sights on every shot in the stage, don't let your confidence get the better of you.

Medal for the stage win and a picture of me traversing stage 9 to hit the last array.

DAY 3

Last day and another PM session. Looking back I definitely liked the morning sessions better. Again not off to a good start hitting my last NS for the match. Only just it took a good couple of minutes to give me the 2 alpha NS. It had literally only just cut the line which was no existent because of all the patches where the shot landed. Managed to still get above 60% which was lucky. Area 3 was all the big stages and the one handed stages. weak hand and strong have been my weakness for while now, being DQ at the 2018 QLD state titles on the weak hand stage and then basically zeroing both of them at the 2019 QLD State titles. I have been working on them in training a lot and it paid off. Both weak and strong hand stages I managed to place up other the 80% mark which I am really proud of. While the other 3 stages of this area I ended up finishing above the 80% mark as well, nearly braking into the 90's on stage 18. Stage 18 was designed by me back in 2019 before I had left Townsville and the organising team was good enough to keep the stage in for this Nationals, which I am very thankful for being the first stage I have designed for a Nationals.

Take Aways and Result

The main take away for me at this nationals is to not get to over confident in a stage that you are doing really well in. Remain focused the whole stage and get all of your shots on, getting to cocky in the middle or the end of a stage does not help out with your end result. Practice shooting at the higher triangle of the alpha zone especially when there are NS involved and shoot the stage plan that is best for you. You can change your stage plan but do what works best for you and execute it exactly how you planned.

I was very proud of my result of 6th overall and 4th in master grade. My overall percentage was 88.56% which is a Master grade score. I was also very proud of my team mates, we ended up 3rd for the gold teams production and my team mate Shaun who ended up coming 3rd overall and just missing out on a grand master score by under 2 %.

I would like to thank everyone again who helped out and the Nationals possible and I look forward to, what is going to be a sensational match, the next Nationals in 2022 up in Darwin.

Catch you down the Range

Azza