South Island Action Shooters Make the News
by Cheryl Henley, South Island Action Shooters
On August 13th and 14th, SIAS hosted 2 IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation) Level 2 sanctioned Matches at the Multi Purpose Range.
We spent the 3 days leading up to the Matches doing Range maintenance, building the Stages and making sure that all the small details were taken care of to ensure that our Matches were successful, and enjoyed by all of the participants.
There were 129 shooters at Saturday’s Match and Sunday’s had 113. Competitors came from all over BC, staying in local hotels, Air BnB’s or at the campground at the VFGPA. There were approximately 41,900 rounds put down range over the weekend, with 7 different Stages, or Courses of Fire, each day, that challenged even the most experienced competitors. The weather cooperated, with just the right temperatures, sun vs cloud, and a light shower of rain on Saturday morning to cut down on the dust. Once again, we heard overwhelmingly that the Matches put on by SIAS and the VFGPA were worth the trip. Our Matches were a complete success!
In light of Bill C21, our Executive took the opportunity to invite local media and the MP of our constituency to come up and see for themselves what one form of sports shooting by law-abiding handgun owners looks like. CTV VI was the first to take them up on their offer and came up on Friday. We had 3 of our shooters demonstrate 3 different Divisions, or types of firearms used in our sport, by shooting a small Stage, and then talking about what the Sport means to them, and how C21, if passed will affect it.
If you haven’t already seen the story, the link is here: https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/pistol-shooting-competition-comes-to-vancouver-island-as-feds-work-to-tighten-handgun-laws-1.6026175
A huge thanks to Carl G, Dawne Deeley and Jurgen Brandmeier, along with our Executive, and Brandon Strain of CTV for such a positive message about handgun sports shooting! The story was also picked up nationally.
We had CHEK news visit us on Sunday. They filmed one of our SIAS shooters, along with a couple of our out-of-town competitors and talked with Kevin Wheatcroft, who is a long time IPSC shooter and President of the Independent Shooters League.
The August 14th broadcast link is here: https://www.cheknews.ca/live-news-british-columbia/ beginning at 8:32.
Alistair MacGregor, our local Federal MP, came up on Saturday, and spent a few hours hosted by a couple of members of our Executive, checking out the Match and educating himself by speaking with various shooters and spectators. He was treated to lunch and sat down with a couple of our competitors to hear about how Bill C21, if passed in its current form, will adversely affect not only those who compete in our sport, PPC and SAS, but every handgun owner.
It was a hugely successful weekend of Matches. I would like to thank all of those who came up to help out with range maintenance and set up. We couldn’t put this event on without the incredible volunteers that we have! I would like to give a special shout out to the SIAS members who came out to help, even though they didn’t shoot the Matches, Jason S, Martin L, Mark W, Aaron M, Garth R, Doug B, Alissa G, Tracy A, Jim W and Jurgen B. If I’ve forgotten anyone, my apologies!
The biggest thanks of all goes to my fellow Match Directors, Jay Yates, the diabolical designer of Stages and Practiscore genius, and Dom Piluso, the mastermind behind everything and of course, the Exec and Board of the VFGPA who supports us. Until next year…
Our final SIAS Range Safety Course of the year is scheduled for September 24th, with our Club Championship Match, our last match of the year being on September 25th.
If you want to learn more about Action Pistol Shooting, please email SIAS@vfgpa.org or actionpistol@vfgpa.org
