2010 Buckeye Firearms Foundation SW "Gun Skills Challenge" Re-Cap

by Joe Eaton

On September 25 Buckeye Firearms Foundation hosted another of our regional fundraising shoots known as the "Gun Skills Challenge" at the the Izaak Walton Conservation League Tallawanda Chapter in Oxford, Ohio.

Almost 50 donors and volunteers were on hand for an entire day of shooting and networking with other supporters from Ohio. The majority of attendees had never done more then shoot at square targets on a square range, but thanks to the coaching by Randy Bueche's IDPA Range Officers, by the end of the day everyone was comfortably shooting while moving, shooting around walls and barricades, shooting off-hand and many other important self defense skills.

One of southwest Ohio's beautiful fall mornings greeted the group of 30 shooter and 20 volunteers as they arrived at the range just outside of Oxford, Ohio for the 9am start time. Although these events are designed to attract donors from the immediate region to lessen the travel burden, none the less we had about six people in from the central Ohio area and a couple more in from the Cleveland area. There is no arguing that Buckeye Firearms has some of the most dedicated supporters any group could ask for.

The "Gun Skills Challenges" are designed as a great next step beyond your basic Ohio CHL class. We encourage attendees to bring spouses, parents and children who may be looking to build their hand gun skills. It is a great event to share with others who may not feel comfortable trying something like this alone.

The first hour in the morning was spent doing dry fire handling practice. This is something every shoot can and should do between range visits. The dozen or so IDPA Range Officers from the club broke the attendees up into small groups and worked with them on drawing from holster and concealment, magazine changes, weak-hand stance, flash light techniques, cover/concealment and other basic building blocks they would use throughout the day.

By around 10:30 it was time to start sending lead down range. Staying in the small groups, the basics from the first hour were put to work. Donors quickly moved through first shots on targets, multiple shots on target, multiple target transitions, moving while shooting, one-handed and shooting from cover. These basic shooting actions were drilled in with short strings to keep everything moving and all the shooters engaged.

Just before lunch, a water jug demo showed clearly why ammunition designed for personal protection is a requirement for self defense. Then while the volunteer Range Officers setup the shooting bays for after lunch, the attendees relaxed in the lodge where the volunteer crew from Cody's Kitchen provided lunch of barbecued pork, pasta marinara, green beans, cole slaw, tossed salad and Cody's brownies which are almost too good to imagine.

After lunch under totally clear blue skies, the rest of the after noon was spent shooting through four IDPA-style stages. There were stages designed to test all the skills they had worked on in the morning. These included a stage requiring one-handed, weak-handed and barricade shooting. One requiring movement in three directions while engaging multiple targets in each direction. The third included lots of doorway manipulations and some severe angle changes. The last stage provided something new for all the shooters - shooting from a sitting position. This stage then finished with both movement and barricade work.

Once all the shooters had the opportunity to work all of the stages, those who wanted were able to participate in an additional speed shooting fundraiser while others were able to retry any or all of the four stages. The speed shooting section allowed donors to try to best their friends and other attendees and beat the clock on a variation of the famous 'El-Presidente' shooting test. About a dozen men and women participate, many trying multiple times, but only the fastest man and the fastest woman could leave with the trophy plaques. Congratulation to men's winner, Nicholas Subashi, and the woman's winner, Donna Huelf.

Keep watching Buckeye's website for other regional events, seminars and of course our flagship "Buckeye Blast" being held in April 2011 at Tactical Defense Institute in Adams County.

See more large format photos and videos from this event HERE.