SinistralRifleman

The American Confederation of Tactical Shooters is a relatively young competition shooting organization having existed only since 2005 and only having 3 chapters currently.  The focus of ACTS is to test practical shooting skills with rifle and pistol in scenarios representing civilian self defense, law enforcement, or military engagements.

I am fortunate to live close enough to attend the Arizona chapter based in Tucson, and have been participating there since 2007.  I’ve been competing in action shooting sports since 2002, primarily 3 gun, and ACTS is very different from that genre of competitive shooting.  The more main stream 3 Gun has become, the more routine, watered down and game centric it has become.  I very rarely encounter a stage that makes me think “Can I actually do this?” in 3 Gun vs “How fast can I do this” anymore.  ACTS regularly pushes the envelope through physical challenges, awkward shooting positions, and highly technical shooting. ACTS regularly faces the shooter with problems that make them question if they can actually accomplish the stage.

The difference between ACTS and other multigun competitions was emphasized greatly at the December 2011 match in Tucson.

Stage 1 required the shooter to wear a heavy pack and sprint back and forth between positions while using rifle and pistol.  Any missed shot was plus 10 seconds to the shooter’s score.

Stage 2 involved shooting upside down and crawling out of an obstacle representing an over turned vehicle.  In the linked video you can see the shooter handles his gun aggressively, throwing it clear (which would likely result in a dropped gun DQ anywhere else, even though its not inherently unsafe).  ACTS is hard on equipment, and I don’t recommend bringing any guns or gear you want to maintain show room quality finish on.

Stage 3 had a 20 second par time for the shooter to engage 6 targets and get out through a hole in a prop.  Short par times are often used to force shooters to move faster and increase the urgency in completing the stage.  (unfortunately this was the only video of myself from the December 2011 match, I had camera issues.  I placed 1st/14 Enhanced, 2nd/39 overall)

Stage 4 required the shooter to engage a pistol target at 50 yards and a rifle target at 100 yards crawling back and forth through a tunnel in the dirt every 5 hits with each gun.  ACTS Stages often get competitors and their gear dirty; carpet or other ground cover to make it more comfortable for the shooter is a rare occurrence.

Physical challenges combined with hard technical shooting is the next evolution of the practical shooting sports.  Physical fitness plays a key role in self defense or combat.  Correspondingly ACTS has higher participation than other competiton venues of active or reserve military, law enforcement personnel, and recently out of the service veterans who enjoy the challenge and want to keep their skills sharp.  Likewise self defense oriented citizens, and students of tactical training schools are likely to find ACTS more interesting and relevant to their interests than other multigun competitions.

I’m not dismissing 3-gun or multigun as not useful or not fun; it certainly can be and is probably a better place for shooters without a lot of experience or skill to start.  There is however a demand for the type of competition ACTS offers.  Whether people want to run clubs under the ACTS umbrella or start their own matches, the time has come for the action shooting sports to progress forward into this area.

Moving to fill the market demand for rifle/pistol matches Phoenix Rod and Gun Club is running a new format of Carbine match.  Divisions are based upon the equipment shooters wear rather than the accessories on their guns.  This may seem counter-intuitive if you are used to the way most other matches are run, but the CQB nature of the match reduces or eliminates any equipment based advantages.  The physical nature of the stages also makes what a shooter chooses to wear to compete more of a distinguishing factor.

Heavy Weight Division:

• Plate carrier with plates & soft armor panels.
• Chest rigs, tac vest, Battle/duty belt , CCW and/or drop holsters.
• Sling mandatory for transition stages.
• Helmet optional (including light weight ‘skate board’ types).
• back pack optional

Lightfighter Division

• No armor requirement , soft armor (no plates) optional
• Chest rigs, Tac-Vests, etc and/or
• Batt belts,CCW & drop holsters permitted.
• sling mandatory for transition stages.
• pack optional

Note: Heavy/LF div; weapon mounted lights for both rifle/pistol are optional and encouraged.

Recreational division

• no armor or tactical gear requirement
• common three gun/sport gear permitted
• No pistol or sling requirement

Results, I was 2nd place Heavy, 2nd place over all.

The scored drills format is definitely a good skills tune up vs elaborate stage designs. If the format continues like this it will give competitors a good gauge of their skills month to month, even if the stages/drills aren’t the same.

I also liked having a division where armor is required, I don’t feel like I’m sabotaging my score by shooting with it on this way.

The August 2011 match allowed the shooter the option of standard ACTS scoring or putting 5 hits on paper targets for no time added penalties. Hits are normally scored on paper and add time to the shooter’s score.

I believe I shot faster with volumetric scoring on the move. The fact that hits outside the zero zone add a full second at ACTS makes me slow down more than I normally would for those shots. Maybe its just a psychological effect and I feel more comfortable pushing my speed when I know I can get 5 hits on a target rapidly on the move and have it neutralized rather than have a couple seconds added if I went too fast. Ironically most of my 5 shot groups were in the 0 zones.

After watching my videos I think it was probably a wash between firing two shots and getting two -1s, or firing 5 at targets past 25 yards. Obviously someone getting double 0s with only 2 shots would be faster. Firing 5 has the most benefit to shooters that would get at least one -3. If you’re not hammering them out, firing 5 is a waste of time even if you would have gotten at least one -3. I’d like to experiment on my own shooting stages both ways to see which is faster.

The Rio Salado Sportsman’s Club hosted a special 3 Man Team 3 Gun Match on Agust 13, 2011.  The rules and scoring were similar to normal 3 Gun matches, with the additional stipulations that each team could only have one Open division shooter.  There was no moving with loaded guns, and competitors could only engage targets from designated shooting boxes.  Three of the four stages were shooting gallery style that the team was free to engage in any way they saw fit.  One stage was a relay race with one shooter using each type of gun pistol-rifle-shotgun.

Team Cavalry Manufacturing consisted of the following shooters

Russell (myself)
Rifle: 16″ Sabre Defence with Troy TRX rail, Aimpoint T-1 Micro, and Cav-Mfg Stock set.
Shotgun: Benelli M2 24″ Field with Williams Fire Sights and Nordic Components Extension
(I did not use Pistol)

Karl- ACTS AZ Match Director, student of multiple tactical training schools
Rifle: 16″ Daniel Defense with CMR 1-4X optic (he shot all the far targets)
Shotgun: Saiga-12 with Aimpoint in RS Regulate Mount, 20 round drum, and 10 round mags.
(Karl did not use pistol)

Mark- US Army Veteran, IDPA Shooter, student of multiple tactical training schools
Pistol: Glock 17
Shotgun: Remington 870 with Williams Fire Sights

The three of us had previously trained together and competed in the 2009 Tiger Valley Team Match.  I was the only shooter on the team with a significant amount of 3 Gun experience, but the shooting gallery nature of the stages made the match more of a pure test of shooting skill rather than stage planning, target sequence memorization, and the other little things that give a competitor an advantage.

We did do some pre-stage planning, to the extent that each of us was put in a position to play to our strengths.  Mark, shoots a lot more pistol, so we put him on the pistol targets.  Karl had the the skills and right equipment to shoot long range.  On the shotgun stages we positioned Karl where he could maximize his effect with the Saiga-12 and pick up the slack of the tube feds.  I filled in the middle and engaged most of the flying clays with my Benelli, and got the close range rifle targets.

Our skills and strategy worked out well for us, placing 4th/23 teams.  Considering the number of quality shooters at Rio Salado, I view this as a respectable placement.

The team format drew out many more spectators than normally found at a 3 Gun match.  As a competitor I personally found it more interesting to watch the other teams while waiting my turn than it is to watch individuals shoot a stage at normal 3 Gun matches.  I hope more team format matches will be held in the future.

Rio Salado Multigun 7-9-2011
2nd/15 Tac Limited 8/36 Over All

7-16-2011 ACTS
3rd/46 Over All 3rd/18 Enhanced

The match this month was brutal. Two stages had limited round count, one stage of mini-IPSC steel at 125 yards through V-Tac Barricade. Shooting clean was more important than shooting fast.

7-24-2011 Phoenix Rod and Gun 3 Gun

2nd Place Tac-Limited/11 shooters. 345.48 Match Points, 4.98 match points behind 1st place.

7-30-2011 ACTS Shotgun
5th/21 Over all. 4th/8 Enhanced (Semi auto tube fed)

Arizona ACTS ran a one time tactical shotgun match on July 30th, 2011.  The stage designs were done in such a way that I didn’t feel this was much of a reloading race like 3 gun stages often are. Stage 4 was the only one where it was to some degree, but there was enough movement that it didn’t matter a lot.

Maneuvering through the cooper tunnels on stage 1 with my 24″ Benelli was a pain. The ability to transition to pistol after shooting empty + the stage designs would make a Short Barrelled Shotgun much more competitive at this match than other venues.

The 6th Annual Independence Day Action Rifle Match was hosted by Pima Pistol Club’s ACTS division on July 4th.  Since I first organized this event in 2006 it has grown in popularity and rapidly fills up every year.  This year was no exception, we were actually over our cap of 60 shooters with match staff included in that number.

All proceeds from the match go to benefit the Arizona Citizen’s Defense League.   AZCDL has been instrumental in defending and reclaiming gun rights in Arizona.  All competitors received an AZCDL annual membership and lunch was provided by AZCDL while scores were calculated.

The match is run under modified International Multi-Gun rules.  One major difference is Battle Rifle cartridges (like .308, .30-06) only need one C zone or better to neutralize paper targets, vs one A zone with intermediate rifle cartridges.  Two hits anywhere neutralize with both.  Sometimes Battle Rifle cartridges require half as many hits on steel.  This scoring system help keeps Battle Rifles competitive.

We have also been able to test equipment divisions not found at other competition venues.  This was the first year we included a modified form of Trooper division.  The rules were much more simple compared to Trooper at major 3 Gun matches:

Trooper: No limitations on accessories.
• Troopers must carry all ammunition they will use for the entire match on every stage.
• Troopers are required to participate in all physical challenges
• Troopers must use the same rifle for the duration of the match, or have tools/cleaning equipment/parts with them to fix it if it stops working.
Failure to comply with any of these rules will drop the shooter out of Trooper into whatever division their rifle would put them in.

One of my concerns with having Trooper as a division for one day events is that the round count is usually too low and the distance between stages too short to offer any significant challenge.  I believe adding mandatory physical challenges and requiring all the ammo/cleaning gear for the whole match be carried on their person during each stage added enough challenge to make it worthwhile for lower round count one day matches.  Trooper was by far the most popular division at the match with 20 shooters.  Clearly the shooters that want to come and shoot in the heat of Arizona summer are gluttons for punishment.

My video:

I was First Place Trooper and 4th Over All.

Kelly Neal First Place Scoped and Overall.
Mike Panone First Place Reflex and second overall.
Grant M First Place Iron
Ron A First Place Open

Complete Match Results Here

Sponsors this year included:
Cavalry Manufacturing
Desert Patches
Falcon Industries
Hogan Guns
Practical Tactical
Quentin Defense
Shooter’s World
Spec Ops Brand

Cavalry Manufacturing Shooting Team members Russell (left), Brad (right), Matt (front center)

The heat obviously effected attendance for Phoenix Rod and Gun this month.  There were only 14 shooters total.   Shooting matches with low attendance is nice sometimes in that the match finishes faster.  We were done with all the stages in under 2 hours.  The bad thing about shooting matches with low attendance is it limits your ability to compare yourself against your peers.  There were only 3 shooters in Tac-Limited/Iron.  I placed second with 335.30 match points, the winner had 347.58 match points.