pdh USA Trip Report Back and Pictures

[pdh]

Match Details:
Participants - Around 250
Thursday - Top 16 Pros from the 2015 Pro Series go through the eliminators
Friday - First 4 stages for all competitors
Saturday - Last 4 stages for all competitors
Saturday Afternoon - Top 8 Pros who progress through the eliminators shootoff for $50 000 top prize



Area: The match was in Tulsa, around a 5 hour drive from Dallas (where I flew into) and a 1 hour drive from Oklahoma City. The shoot took place in Owasso which is 15min from Tulsa. I would say the area is like a mixture of the veld of the Free State and green of Cape Town. The flights to Dallas was a total of 27 hours, not something to easily shake off. On a side note, most people drive ‘trucks’ which are basically bigger bakkies. I really want a Ford F150!

Practise sessions (Tuesday, Wednesday):
I was lucky that I could practice after 4 at Jesse’s range so that I could get used to the guns and the ammo being used. 2 late drives back home were definitely worth it and nothing a Red Bull couldn’t solve. I did this on the Tuesday and Wednesday and always good to finish off a range session with some beers and gun talk.
On the Tuesday I visited Bass Pro in Broken Arrow which was awesome, like a Makro but with camping, gun stuff, fishing equipment, clothes, hunting, boats and pretty much anything related to outdoor activities. Unfortunately this was the only ‘gun shop’ I visited as time was quite short on most days this trip.







Walkthrough (Thursday):
On Thursday we were allowed to do a walkthrough of all the stages from 3pm onwards. This I assume was to save time on match day and also so that people knew what they were doing on each stage. You could take video and spend as much time as you wanted on each stage. This was then followed by the Pro Series eliminator of the top 16 Pros from this year’s Pro Series.

Pro Series Eliminators (Thursday):
This consisted of a first stage which was a Polish Plate rack with a shotgun, swinging Texas star with a pistol, 3 pistol targets, 3 rifle targets and rifle plate rack. The 2 winners of this progressed straight through to Saturday’s shootoff of the top 8 Pro’s. There were 6 more slots which then were decided on the next stage which was another stage with the 3 guns but the rifle targets were 4”x10” steel plates with a rifle offhand at 45 yards, not an easy task.
The atmosphere of the shootoff was amazing at night and everyone had a good time. The pressure the Pros had must be quite intense.



Guns:
AR15:
Boomer Shooter Lower with Timney trigger, Magpul MOE stock and Magpul MOE grip (as per my request)
Rhino arms 18” rifle length gas system upper with AP custom forend (I wanted to put this in my bag back to SA so badly!)
AP custom low mass bolt and Vortex Razor HD Gen 2 and Magpul Mags
An amazing gun which now has me looking for an 18” rifle length gas system gun.



Shotgun:
Benelli M1 with Accurate Iron job on it. This included opening up of the load port and modified shell latch. The smoothest shotgun load I have ever felt in my life.
Nordic components +8 extension and a 22” barrel
The recoil on the M1 was more than I was used to but still very easy to shoot.

Pistol:
Glock 17 Gen 3 RTF
Dawson Precision sights and magwell
Fulcrum trigger (brought from SA)
Shot this better than my gun back home

Ammo:




All of this equipment was organised by Jesse, thanks again to him


Match Overview:
It was a very dynamic match with a lot of choice and very technical shooting. A lot of long range shotgun slug targets and small rifle poppers. A mix between fast burn em up Pro Series stages and long regional stages (without the distance).



Overall finish:
I finished 97^th in Practical, with a bad to average time on stage eight I would have come around 57^th. My goal of making the Pro Series I would have to have come 32^nd in Practical.

Stage Reviews:

Day 1 overview (Friday Morning):
On the way to the range it was raining and as soon as I got to the range the downpour started. As it was early and shooters were grouped into a morning session or afternoon session the range was not that busy. Shooting in the rain and trying to organise kit is not fun and definitely added to the difficulty of the stages. The afternoon session of shooters had some good weather.
I was feeling less pressure than I thought I would have on the day and enjoyed the feeling of being there. The targets on the first two stages were damp and so shooting was not as easy as it could have been. My GoPro ran out of battery so I did not get any stages on it for Day 1. There is video which I need to get off someone’s phone. This will be up on Youtube Asap.
I started on Stage 3 with squad 3

Stage 3:
This went well although I missed out one target completely and so a 7.5 sec penalty was added. This was down to stage plan and first stage jitters. I easily put this behind me as I was happy with how the stage had gone. It consisted of rifle steel and paper, shotgun clays and steel and pistol targets with a spinning Polish plate rack, much a like a propeller spinning with 8 steel targets attached. An average time for the day.

Stage 4:
A stage where I thought I would do well, poppers at 50 yards with slugs only was trouble for me here (and for most of my match). Movement needed work and shotgun should have flowed better. A stage where you hear the time and can’t believe you shot it so slowly.

Stage 1:
A long range stage for rifle with shotgun slugs again at poppers. Pistol steel at 35yards which went well. Biggest problem here was the shotgun again, rushed the close up targets and had to make up shots. Left one steel because I shot at it 3 times.

Stage 2:
A fast stage starting with pistol and it had an interesting plate rack. It was a plate rack but had 3 rows with targets that got smaller and smaller. There were six sets of 3. The last target was a tiny triangle. I shot most of this with my pistol and transitioned to my shotgun. A good stage considering how I shot that day.

Day 2 Overview (Saturday Afternoon):
After reviewing my performance and being disappointed that I did not stick to my gameplan from the start I had a chat to a few people back home who reassured me. I felt like I had let people down from SA. On the Sunday morning felt much better and decided to shoot my own game no matter what. Also to soak in the experience of the whole competition.

Stage 7:
This was another stage with long range slugs and was going well until running with my shotgun made my pistol mag drop out of the pouch (the one time I only had one in there) and only realised this after going for the reload. A good stage but dropped 17 secs running back and fetching the mag and shooting the rest of the stage. Seemed like it was one of those tournaments.



Stage 8:
A fast paced rifle and pistol stage where 80% of people decided not to shoot the shotgun. I shot this pretty well and probably was my best stage of the match. Superfast stage with lots of pistol on the move, my kind of shooting.



Stage 5:
A small bay which had lots of options in it. Nice stage to see if your movement was spot on. This was a great stage for me although I hit a shotgun steel and it went side on the stand, had to run back and shoot again which cost me. Highlight of this was the 2 close up rifle targets which were few and far between in the match but shooting 6 shots sounding like a machine gun always is good.



Stage 6:
A stage which was tough, had to go prone with rifle and then move on. Had a completely different plan to most and was going to use my athletism to my advantage. Unfortunately this is where my rifle went tits up and the trigger would work, one of the pins had fallen out, cost me 75secs in penalties with the time it also took trying to figure it out. This dropped me 40 places in the match! Seeing as my match hadn’t gone like I wanted it to I just shrugged it off and finished off the stage.



Prize giving and prize table:
A massive prize table with the first 50 shooters getting a firearm. There was also a separate prize table for the ladies. Top prize was a $4500 Remington Bolt Action Rifle. Even placing where I did I still got a Hornady Duffel bag, Pmag and an AR10 barrel (which I traded for obvious reasons). The funny part was that someone said this wasn’t a particularly large prize table for a 3GN match!

Range Officers:
All were very professional and nice people. Interesting was that when resetting and patching quickly the RO’s would thank the squad with a “We appreciate y’all” and the same would happen when the stage was done. Every shooter would say not just thank you but a proper “we appreciate your effort” which was nice to see and hear. Shooters were given a proxy to check their targets and this worked well.

Squad 3:
A great squad of people ranging from different ages and areas. Lots of great shooters and 5 guys that had qualified or did qualify for the Pro Series next year. I had to change the pace that I was used to resetting a stage as these guys worked fast, was odd to see someone running to the back steel to get it picked up quickly, something I hope to bring back to SA.



Quality of Shooting:
I was extremely impressed with the quality of shooting at the match. The consistency and speed that the Pro’s dominate stages is very impressive. There is constant movement on stages and no wasted movement. There are different styles of shooting, some guys going fast all the time, some guys making sure of sight picture and going one for one. There are also a lot of young shooters, around 16, who shoot very well. Two of them competed in the Pro Series this year and one was in the top 8 shootoff on the Saturday. One thing that stood out for me is that guys would dominate their club matches every match, then go to this match and only come 60^th. We definitely have a way to go in SA in terms of the shooters in the states although as pointed out when talking to most of them is that they have been shooting 3GN for a few years and have the opportunity to compete against around 50 people at a club match and 200 at a regional, which happen all year round.

Special thanks to Raffle sponsors and ticket buyers:
A big thank you to the Raffle sponsors who aided me in my funding and also to the people who bought tickets. If not for that I would be R50k in debt. Please support these sponsors as they are the future of Sports Shooting in RSA.

Sponsors include:
NicYale
Bernhard Agencies
GI Combat Supplies
False Bay Firearm Training Academy
CHS Guns and Ammo
Rescomp Handgun Technologies
Hailstorm
CKCS
3% Engineering
GripClip

Special thanks to Jesse Tischauser:
Even though Jesse had never met me in person and our previous contacts where brief he was very helpful the moment I got there. He basically set up all the guns for me and made sure everything was sorted, even down to having a trolley and cooler set up for me on both match days. It was great to see how many people chatted to Jesse throughout the match and he always offered his opinion and never turned anyone away. This was the case with almost everyone on the range and also something that is the same in the 3GN SA community. Jesse welcomed me into his home like he had known me for years and I really appreciate all his effort. Hopefully he can make a trip down to South Africa so he can see first-hand all the places I told him about. On a side note, Jesse has some awesome toys. Follow him on Twitter (@JesseTischauser), Instagram (jesse_tischauser) and Facebook (JesseTischauser) for awesome content.





The people:
Putting a South African flag on my shirt was one of the best things I could have done. Most people wanted to know where I was from, the gun laws in SA, if we shot 3GN and how I got into shooting. A few guys knew people in SA and one awesome RO kept asking me about ‘mampoor’. He then later gave me some of his local moonshine at prize giving to taste.
I didn’t meet one unfriendly person who was not willing to chat or trade stories with. I even bumped into Jerry and had a brief chat with him although he was keen to go and help reset and patch targets.
Being in America, there is no shortage of parts and guns that people can get and use, some of the ARs and pistols being used were awesome.
I even had a short interview with the 3GN team which was an experience and went better than I thought it would be in front of the camera.

Social media:
Not having 3G on this trip was a slight inconvenience as I could not get tweets, Instagram photos etc in real-time for people who wanted to follow the trip. However this was a stepping stone and I now will be putting some proper effort to keeping these filled with awesome content and most importantly pictures. You can follow me on all 3: Twitter (@pdhBeepRunShoot), Instagram (pdh_BeepRunShoot), Youtube (pdh BeepRunShoot) and Facebook (Paul Henkel, Athlete) for awesome content.

What I learnt:
No 1 – Don’t get sucked into a big match, shoot your own game and don’t change your game plan.

It was an amazing experience and to meet all the people that I did over there, represent 3GN SA and spread the word about what we are trying to do in 3GN in SA was great. There is nothing like meeting someone face to face and discussing things, email just does not cut it.

To see a big competition like this one was a real eye opener, especially when 3 guns are involved. You also do not get many sports where you can compete and be in the same details as some of the best in the game.

Stage design there is great and helps that they have so much equipment. Heavy use of barricades making where you stand and shoot very important.

I need to work massively on shooting on the move and getting in and out of position. My pistol and rifle treated me well and my shotgun slug shooting needed work.

On the walk-throughs on the Wednesday I should have documented better what my stage plans would be as I had forgotten most of them the next day, this came with experience.

I had routine and rituals which I usually do before a stage which I did not do on certain stages as I ran out of time and was not focusing.

I have to work hard to make the Pro Series and Im sure with the experience I have gained and practice for next year I can do it.

Thanks to everyone involved, it truly was a great experience and hopefully we can get more South Africans over there next year!

[BigT]

Thanks for sharing.

Great write up

[Maciek]

Brilliant! thank you PHD, and well done. Definitely on my to do list.

[dux]

Just 2 words: Awesome, Paul.

[apocza]

Hells bells, what an experience. Well done, you made us proud.

[Bowhunter]

Great, thanks for sharing!

[SeanG]

Awesome, well done

[tims]

Frikkin Awesome, thank you for posting and very well done.

[Ryan C]

Great read, thanks for sharing.

[DS]

Cool and thanks for the info.

Talk to us about ordering you that Rhimo Arms or AP Custom carbon fibre hand guard you are going to need. Or maybe a Rhino Arms 3G rifle.......