On March 18-21, the ever-hard working crew at Rio Salado Sportsman’s Club put on the 26th annual Superstition Mountain Mystery 3-Gun Match (hereinafter SMM3G). This is the longest-running multigun match in the world. It’s a match I never miss.
Open 3-Gun (the largest division with 104 shooters)
Tactical 3-Gun (99 shooters)
Stealth 2-Gun (76 shooters)
Stealth 3-Gun (39 shooters)
Heavy Metal (30 shooters)
Limited 3-Gun (23 shooters)
There were eleven stages requiring 379 rounds for the 2-gunners and 389 rounds for the 3-gunners. After winning it last year, I opted again for the Stealth 2-gun division, which is a combination of two very recent trends in the sport.
2-Gun requires only rifle and pistol, abandoning the shotgun. This option was first introduced last year, and participation doubled this year. I expect that this trend will continue as the shotgun becomes less relevant and more specialized.
Meanwhile, the Stealth rules are designed as an update to the old Soldier of Fortune rules. The goal is to maintain a level of real-world practicality:
The rifle may have multiple optics and a bipod but is restricted to 30-round magazines
The pistol must fit in a box of 8.938” x 6.938” x 1.938” with the magazine
Red dot sights (RDS) are allowed on the pistol but typically at the cost of reducing magazine capacity
Individually and together, these change up the feel of the match a lot. In the stage descriptions below, you can contrast the stage descriptions between the 3-Gun and 2-Gun match booklets.
For the match, I shot my JP-15™ with an 18” LWT barrel, LMOS™ steel bolt carrier, and Competition Series compensator. The JP-15™ was topped with Vortex 1-10x with MRAD reticle zeroed at 200 meters. For ammo, I shot Hornady 75gr. HPBT and a Leupold Deltapoint zeroed at 50 yards with Hornady 55gr. FMJs. My pistol was a CZ Custom Bull Shadow with iron sights.
The match was shot under the “outlaw” format of the International Multigun Association. The closest target was at about two yards with the farthest at 500 yards with everything in between. Overall, the match had a good balance of “technical” and “hoser” target presentations.
Here’s how the stages broke down and my strategy on each one.
The shooter started with three pistol targets from a small box and then required the shooter to enter the larger shooting area, engage four pistol poppers and then transition to the rifle. The rifle targets started out with a wide array of well-hidden IPSC Classic targets which required the shooter to hit nearly every corner and pocket of the shooting area. The stage ended with the shooter ascending a tower, engaging one more Classic target at about five yards and then finished with two full-sized Steel Metric targets at 500 yards.
The pistol portion of the stage was pretty straightforward. I shot the short-range rifle targets with the RDS and 55-grain bullets and did a magazine change to a 20-round magazine of 75-grainers on the way up the stairs. I went with the short magazine to prevent any tilting issues with the bipod on top of the platform as the 500-yard targets were at a higher elevation than the platform. I shot the 500-yard targets on 10x with a 2.3-Mil hold.
A danger zone on this stage was Shooting Area C on top of the tower. If the shooter had their feet outside the shooting area lines and touching anything else, procedurals would be handed out. Knowing this in advance, I went all the way forward in the shooting area and made sure my feet were in the shooting area before engaging the 500-yard targets. In the video you can even see me raise a leg to check its position before firing.
This was more of a maze with nineteen pistol targets, including two plate racks and six classic rifle targets. The shooter had to hunt and peck while engaging pistol targets before moving up to the rifle. The rifle targets were a close-range affair from three separate spots. One pistol target array was a plate rack with cleverly placed no-shoot pates in front of the shoot targets. I chose safety on this stage, doing two magazine changes so as not to risk a standing reload. I shot the no-shoot plate rack from a couple of positions to have clearer shots on the plates.
This was one of my favorites as it required a great deal of “gear shifting.” It started with a couple of very close pistol targets and transitioned to two farther pistol targets. Moving to the back of the car, there were four very close pistol targets followed by two mini-poppers and a plate rack that required some aiming. The shooter then transitioned to the rifle wherein the shooter had three close paper, a moving target and six plates, which the shooter had to engage at 50 yards from two different positions.
The key to this stage was getting acceptable sight pictures on those pistol plates, crushing the 50-yard steel—as you can see, the RO can’t keep up calling hits—and not fearing the mover, which I got on one pass with a three-round burst. I chose to not run the bipod as the stability offered was not needed, and I was worried that it might hang up on the first shooting port. And yes, I shot the hood of the car but called it and made it up.
Here was another pistol hose-fest while advancing to the rifle portion with lots of close-range paper and a Texas Star with one no-shoot presentation to keep the shooter honest. Once the shooter got to the rifle, there were three wide-open Classic targets and two swingers followed by two steel flash targets at 200 and two at about 375 yds.
This video is of Eric Miller, who being a lefty, shot it a little bit different than I did. He started on the left with the pistol while I started on the right. On the last shooting position, Eric goes for the hard targets first and then finishes with the easy targets whereas I shot the easy targets first and worked my way to the difficult ones. I also chose to engage the first three rifle targets while moving as this is IMGA scoring and not Hit Factor scoring whereas Eric posted up and engaged all three stationary.
This was a field course starting with twelve pistol targets including a swinger and finished with a rifle plate rack at about 60 yards and two larger targets at about 200 and 250 yards. These targets were engaged from the top of a spool and again over the top of rock. Once again, the stage required the shooter to shift between very fast shots on easy targets and then transition to hard targets.
I shot off the spool with the bipod and went right-to-left as it is easier to transition that way when shooting off the bipod even though I had to start with the hardest target. Once I got to the rock, I went left-to-right as I felt it was easier to transition left-to-right off the top of the rock. I notice most shooters will almost always start with the easiest target and work their way to the hardest wherein I will engage the targets with an eye as to how quick the target transitions will be. I shot the optics set at 6x so I would not get lost on the plate rack.
This was an all-pistol affair, and now it was time to aim. The shooter started in a helicopter with the pistol in a box and then had to engage twenty steel targets in the shooting area including moving target arrays with no shoots, lots of partial presentations on mini-poppers and well-hidden poppers. This stage required a good plan as it could be shot in a myriad of ways. I chose a straightforward non-complicated plan and watched the sights, which resulted in the fastest time on this stage at 28.50 seconds.
This all-rifle stage centered on a clever moving High Value Target (HVT) at 300 yards that was to be engaged from two different shooting areas. The HVT was rotating on a circular axis and required a bit of lead but I was able to go one-for-one on it. I used the ambush method on the HVT by placing the reticle at one spot and firing the shot once the HVT came into view about 2-3 feet from my ambush location.
The stage also had a swinger and two disappearing targets. Unlike in USPSA, disappearing targets incur failure to engage/hit penalties and must be engaged. I shot the short-range targets with the side RDS and the long-range targets on 8x.
This stage began with shooter standing on an activation box which tripped two disappearing drop-turners when the shooter stepped off. There was also a bear trap activated by a pepper popper. The shooter had to advance back up range to engage some more pistol paper targets, abandon the pistol and then run to the next bay and engage six close-range rifle paper targets (one with a tight no shoot) and finish with three 300-yard targets from the back of a pickup truck. The shooter had to make sure to get the drop-turners to avoid massive penalties. The winning sequence was right drop-turner (which only had one exposure), activator popper, left drop-turner on its second exposure and finish with the bear trap.
Sequences like this can be intimidating. My best advice is to watch other shooters do the stage if possible and try to get a good handle on the timing of the targets. Make a plan that you are confident in being able to execute and then go do it! For the rifle, I shot the close range with the side RDS and the long range set on 10x.
Here was the scary stage starting with a pistol plate rack then transitioning to rifle. The rifle shooter had two 60-yard offhand knockdown targets and then two shooting areas wherein the shooter engaged four targets at 300 yards and two at about 100 yards. The shooter also had a 6-plate rack at 200 yards that could be engaged from either area. The first shooting area had a tall series of barrels that I chose to rest on the top of and shoot standing. The second shooting area had a shorter series of barrels and as I could use the bipod, I chose to engage the plate rack from here. Note that I mounted the bipod to the rear of the handguard as it would not be in the way in the first shooting area, and it was more stable in second.
I had the optic set on 4x to engage the two offhand targets since I wanted more field of view. My plan was to power up to 10x for the long range arrays. I forgot to make that adjustment from the first position and shot it on 4x. Note that I did not adjust the power from the first position and just rolled with the optic on 4x. I will rarely adjust scope power when not moving since doing it while actually shooting tends to add more time than it’s worth. I then adjusted the power to 10x while moving to the final shooting position, which did not add any time to my run. I also once again went right-to-left and started on the farther targets as I think that right to left is faster off the bipod. Don’t be afraid of the far targets! You have to shoot at them eventually.
This stage switched things up by starting with the rifle and ending with the handgun. The shooter started seated in a helicopter and had to engage a series of roughly 50-yard plates from the side window. He then advanced to the rear of the bird, engaged some close-range paper and reengaged the plates from the doorway The shooter then entered the next shooting area and engaged a series of pistol targets. I shot the rifle optic on 4x and had a pretty good run except I failed to follow the stage description and shot through the wrong window, earning a procedural! Read and understand the stage descriptions!
For the 2-gunners, this was the USPSA-style stage with two all-pistol sub-stages. The first stage required the shooter to shoot poppers that activated swinging and drop-targets. The shooter had to run back and forth to engage targets. My best advice was to try shooting the swingers when they were at the end of their arc or ambush them right when you could see them swing out. There were also some partial no-shoot targets that required a good deal of accuracy. The second sub-stage was all steel, finishing with a partially obstructed Texas Star. This stage bit me as I missed a plate on the Star which set it moving, and I struggled to get accurate shots through the port.
And that’s how it went. After a closely fought battle, I ended up taking 2nd place to Brian Nelson by just .5%. Like always, the crew at Rio Salado did an excellent job putting on a challenging and fun match.
As for 2-gun, I predict it will be more and more popular. Speaking personally, it felt like I had about half the gear to manage that I do when I shoot 3-Gun.
The future of practical shooting sports may hinge on our ability to bring in more shooters to the competition world. I suspect that the specialized nature of shotgun gear keeps a great many shooters away.
A large number of shooters have an AR-15, some magazines and some sort of 9mm handgun that can readily be used in practical shooting events. Far fewer have shotguns, arrays of choke tubes and a multitude of highly specialized shell caddies to carry upwards of two full boxes of shotgun shells on their persons. 2021 already has some 2-Gun events scheduled, and if we want to continue to thrive as a sport, I expect we should have some more.
As a final note, the match was dedicated to Frank DeSomma, titan of POF USA, patron of the shooting sports and true patriot. Frank was tragically killed in a car crash on June 18, 2020. Frank donated a great deal of his time, energy and financial resources to support the shooting sports in general and the Superstition Mystery Mountain match in particular. We are diminished.
Kelly Neal is a legacy member of the JP Shooting Team and long-time friend of JP. He has been shooting 3-Gun alongside John Paul since the Soldier of Fortune days.
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