Area 6 doesn’t disappoint. Hosted by the South River Gun Club, the competition has always been top notch. Honestly, this match could be a national level championship. There are certainly enough competitors. A whopping 384 shot the match!

The event started out with 12 stages, but Stage 4 – Bridge of Death was thrown out. That still left 11 challenging courses of fire with plenty of props, steel and moving targets. This was a tough match with targets that could be seen from multiple positions and moving targets with critical activators. The fun factor was still high though with a good blend of short and long courses of fire.

There are some matches where you see just a handful of women on the range. Not the case with the Area 6 Championships!  At the helm, Cindy Noyes was once again the match director. There were women working at every level from Chief Range Officer Beth Wingfield and 15 lady range officers to 7 women serving roles in Stats and Registration. Thank you ladies for all your hard work!

I had the pleasure to shoot with two other women in my squad, Randi Rogers and junior shooter Tierani Hendrix. I have enjoyed competing with Randi many times, but it was the first time I had a chance to meet Tierani. The NHL Atlanta Thrashers sponsored a stage where competitors had to activate a swinging target with a hockey stick. An ice hockey player, Tierani showed just how handy she is with a hockey stick on Stage Five – “Face Off.”  She activated the swinger and grabbed her gun from the table with perfect timing.

I also had a chance to catch up Jessie Abbate and Tori Nonaka as they scoped out the stages before their Saturday shoot times. Fresh off teaching yet another successful Babes With Bullets(TM) Ladies Action Shooting Camp, Kay Miculek and Lisa Munson stopped by for a quick hug and hello. I also had a nice visit with Tammie Bordwell after meeting her at the USPSA Nationals last year.   (Click here for a our interview with Tammie on her first nationals.) Katie Harris took the time to introduce herself early Friday morning. Katie is another talented young shooter in Production Division. I just love seeing all the junior females participating in the sport!

I wish I could have stayed to meet and chat with the rest of the women at the match.  I encourage you to take a moment, like Katie did, to introduce yourself to another lady shooter. Strike up a conversation with your fellow female competitors about their match. It could lead to a wonderful friendship. Celebrate the success of the talented and very special women who compete in our sport!

There’s been plenty of coverage on the first Area Championship of the year. Check out Women of USPSA on Facebook for links and in depth ladies results! In closing, a huge thank you to Match Director Cindy Noyes, Area 6 Director Charles Bond and the hard working range officers on another fantastic Area 6 Championships.

Check out these photos taken by Marla Hendrix (Tierani’s Mom) and Paul Erhardt with many more posted to DownRange.TV.

Randi Rogers concludes her daily coverage of the Smith & Wesson US Steel Shoot National Championships…

Good Evening Ladies! Today is the third and final day of the US Steel Shoot. The last shot has been fired and our goodbyes have been said and nothing is left but preparing for next year.

The ladies shot awesome today! On our squad we had Jessie Abbate, Kay Miculek, Sarah Irish, and myself shooting Open sighted firearms. We also had Tori Nonaka shooting Limited. It started out a little rough, but by the end everyone had completed an excellent day of shooting.

To see the final scores please visit http://www.ussteelshoot.com/2007MatchInfo.htm. My unofficial memory, as flawed as it may be is; Jessie Abbate came in High Lady and Lady Steel Master. Kay Miculek came in second Lady. I was able to capture third lady and second overall in production.

Unfortunately, there weren’t enough ladies to complete all the categories so the lady scores were lumped together. Hopefully, next year we will have enough ladies to recognize each category.

In the juniors categories we had lots of winners. Tori Nonaka won the Super Junior category, which is 16 and below, and Ashley Bolda came in second. James McGinty won Junior Open centerfire and Junior Limited centerfire, Sonny Morton was second junior Open and Limited, and Cody Tucker was third Junior Open and Limited. Sarah Irish was fourth Junior Open and Junior Limited. It was such a pleasure to see all of these talented young people learning and growing our sport. I hope to see many more in the future.

There were also many juniors that competed in the rimfire categories.

Again I would like to thank all the match staff and I look forward to seeing everyone back next year. Until next time. Shoot Straight Everyone!

Thanks again, Randi and congratulations to all the winners!  Check out the Women of USPSA Facebook page for more results posted later this week.

Randi recaps Day Two…

Good Evening Ladies. Day two of the S&W US Steel Nationals is in the books. Today was another beautiful day. High 70 temperatures and sunshine all day. It was a great day for shooting.

During day two of most Steel Challenge matches is reserved for iron sighted firearms. Competitors competed in Limited, Production, IDPA classes, and revolver classes. Some competitors also shot their open sighted firearms if they were sharing guns or had other scheduling issues.

There were many ladies out on the range today. In the Limited Category Jessie Abbate and Sarah Irish were battling it out. Sarah who is only 17 years old was also competing for the juniors title. For Production there was myself and Tori Nonaka, also a junior shooter. Shooting Open, Ashley Bolda a junior, fought hard battling her way through a migraine. There were also a couple of ladies from Jamaica!

The shooting started out a little rough with our squad on Smoke N’ Hope, but smoothed out quickly. Jessie Abbate gave us all a show by completing four smoking runs on Speed Option. Tori Nonaka was holding her own by shooting three excellent runs on Outer Limits! I enjoyed shooting Showdown, and Sarah had some excellent runs on Roundabout. Ashely’s best stage of the day was her last, Five to Go, she really hunkered down and shot great.

All the ladies shot well and they look forward to shooting again tomorrow. The last day will be for the open sighted firearms. We are all looking forward to a good day and a strong finish. Keep your fingers crossed, the weathermen are predicting rain, but hopefully it will hold off until afternoon.

There were also several junior boys. Trevor Koenig, who I believe is only 11, was shooting on the men’s super squad with his open gun. Sonny Morton shot his limited gun today, and Cody Tucker brought out his Open gun today as well. It is great to see so many young people out there!

Tomorrow I will have the final results and be sure and let you know who all wins what.

We look forward to hearing the results, Randi. Best of luck to all competitors on the final day!

Continuing coverage of the Smith & Wesson US Steel Shoot National Championships with Randi Rogers…

Hello Ladies! Today is Friday March 26th, 2010 and the first day of the US Steel Nationals is in the history books. The day dawned beautifully with a few clouds and a comfortable temperature perfect for shooting. There was rain Thursday night, but everything cleared up by this morning. A few spectators braved the mud, there were several media representatives and a baby alligator even made an appearance, but stayed safely in his pond.

In steel challenge competitions, competitors have the option of shooting the match multiple times with different firearms. Most competitors choose to shoot a rimfire category, an iron sight centerfire category, and an open sighted centerfire category. This will allow them to compete for the title of “Steel Master”. The first day of most steel challenge competitions is reserved for the rimfire categories.

There are several different rimfire categories. There are iron sight .22, open sight .22, iron sight .22 revolver, and open sight .22 revolver. During competition today I saw many different kinds of rimfire firearms. There were Brownings, Smith & Wesson 41’s, conversion kits for 1911’s, conversion kits for SigSauers, and revolvers too. Not only that, but several companies, such as Tactical Solutions, sell aftermarket barrels. The possibilities are almost limitless.

Just like any shooting match the shooting was top quality and the competition was fierce. Several ladies competitor participated in the open rimfire category. I saw several ladies shooting for the Open rimfire category. On my squad there was myself, Jessie Abbate, and Kay Miculek. That is not even including the juniors.

Our squad started on Smoke N’ Hope and ended on Five to Go. We were able to shoot through lunch and finished about two o’clock. The day started out with everyone trying hard and working to do their best. The most difficult part of the rimfire event is that rimfire firearms are prone to malfunctions. For the most part everyone had a good day and the firearms and ammunition worked well. Kay Miculek shot an excellent score on the stage Showdown and Jessie Abbate shot the most amazing Roundabout I have ever seen. I think that my favorite stage today was Outer Limits. I shot three good runs right from the get go and got to play on the fourth! Scores were not posted when I left the range this afternoon but from what I have heard the unofficial winner was Jessie Abbate! Way to go girl.

However, the tightest competition I saw was in the Junior Girls Open rimfire. On my squad along there were three very beautiful and talented young ladies; Tori Nonaka, Ashley Bolda, and Sarah Irish. Each girl shot great! Ashley and Sarah were both shooting guns with Tactical Solutions barrels and accessories beautifully with their pink and red guns. Tori was shooting an S&W 41 with a Bully barrel. The competition was fierce, and I will let everyone know who won as soon as the scores come out.

There was also plenty of competition in the Junior boys categories as well. I saw three excellent juniors at the shooter’s meeting. Cody Tucker, Sonny Morton, and Trevor Koenig were all there preparing to take on the world. From what I saw today the future of our sport is in good hands.

Congratulations to all those who competed in the rimfire event. Tomorrow will start the centerfire events for most competitors. For those shooting an iron sighted centerfire and an open sighted centerfire the iron sights will compete tomorrow. This will include Limited, Production, the IDPA categories, and the iron sighted revolvers as well. The range was open for practice after the match and I saw several great competitors sharpening their iron sight skills. I look forward the shooting tomorrow is promises to be great.

Finally, a BIG thank you to all the match staff, especially Derek Janowicz and Mike Calloway. We couldn’t compete without your help and support and we are all very grateful.

Stay tuned for more from Randi as she continues to cover the match for Women of USPSA!

Sarah Irish is one talented young lady and definitely someone to keep your eye on in the future.  This junior shooter tore it up on the stages in Las Vegas at this year’s USPSA Open Nationals.   She even posted a stage win among an extremely talented field of women!  We took opportunity to ask Sarah how she got her start in the sport…

“My family has always done things together: from boating, to motorcycle riding, to horseback riding. But when my dad introduced me to shooting when I was 12 years old, I was hooked.

We spent that winter at the indoor range practicing on paper targets.  The indoor range offered pin shoots one night a week and after watching it awhile, Dad and I gave it a try. It was more challenging than paper, but it wasn’t long before I held the record for fastest time on a table of 5 pins at 15 yards – 1.96 seconds with my Ruger 10-22. Dad met a guy at the pin shoots who shoots USPSA matches and invited us to give it a try. At the end of October that year, Dad and I went to the match. That was the beginning of our latest family hobby: USPSA. Shooting as a family is a truly rewarding experience. Although my parents and I shoot in different divisions, we are continually learning things from each other to improve our shooting.

In 2009, we traveled to many matches. For me, this was a rewarding experience because I got to see the best shooters and learn their techniques. In September, I flew out to Las Vegas for the Open Nationals. It was my first nationals, so naturally I was a little bit nervous. However when I saw that I was squadded with some of the best female shooters, I became very excited. I realized how beneficial squadding with better shooters is at the awards ceremony for the match. When it was announced that I was high lady on a stage, I was truly surprised. As a junior shooter, I have all sorts of time constraints from school and extracurricular activities, but traveling to matches and shooting as a family are both definitely worth it.”

As we countdown the days to the USPSA Handgun Nationals, we’d like to recap some of this year’s major championships starting with the first event of the season, the Smith & Wesson US Steel Shoot National Championships. Did you know that the Steel Challenge is now part of USPSA? Known as the fastest of the action shooting sports, there are eight challenging courses of fire at the Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championships.  In addition to the opportunity to win a world title, you can also shoot the S&W Steel Shoot Regional Series and US Steel Nationals.

There are just five steel plates in each Steel Challenge course of fire.  Competitors shoot each of the stages five times.  The best four  out of five scores are kept with the exception of the stage Outer Limits.  This stage is the only one with movement and competitors shoot Outer Limits four times with their top three runs kept for score.

In March, some of the best steel shooters in the country traveled to sunny Titusville, Florida for their chance to claim a national title.  The event started out with the Rimfire match.  Arguably the two best female steel shooters in the world, Jessie Abbate and Kay Miculek faced off with their .22 caliber pistols in the first of the three events.  Jessie posted impressive scores with a total time of 81.67 seconds earning her a 7th place finish overall in Rimfire Optic.  Kay was not far behind, placing 11th overall with a total time of 86.31.  Though she was the only woman to compete in Rimfire Iron, Randi Rogers shot impressive scores to earn her a top ten finish. With a total time of 104.04 seconds, Randi placed 8th overall in Rimfire Iron.

Day two, the women hit the range in the iron sight divisions.  Once again Jessie and Kay battled to earn the Limited Ladies National Title.  Jessie continued to put up top scores and posted a decisive lead over Kay by 21.45 seconds.  Jessie’s final time was 117.72 earning her 12th place in Limited.  Kay finished 24th and second lady with 139.17.  Randi continued to represent the women proudly in the Production division where she once again placed 8th overall with a total time of 131.50.

The final day, the women competed in Open. Known primarily as a stock gun shooter, Randi holstered up a race gun and finished 3rd Lady with a score of 134.06. Kay shot a 113.07, enough to earn her second place.  The winning streak in full momentum, Jessie finished at the top once again with a score of 103.03 and 12th overall.  Jessie’s domination in all three events earned her the 2009 Ladies Steel Master National Title.

Junior ladies also made a great showing in match.  Lena Miculek, daughter of shooting legends Jerry and Kay Miculek, earned top honors in Junior Female in both Rimfire Optic and Open. Ashley Bolda placed second behind her in both divisions.  Ashley also wrote about her match experience for Junior Shooter Magazine.  Alysa Janowicz was the High Junior Female in Rimfire Iron.

Check out the live streaming coverage from this year’s US Steel Shoot Nationals by our very own Sharyn Cohen. Congratulations to the winners and all the ladies competing in the event!  For more information about the Steel Challenge please visit steelchallenge.com.  For dates and details for the 2010 US Steel Shoot National Championships and Regional Series, visit ussteelshoot.com.