47July/August 2007 • FRONT SIGHT

BY PATRICK KELLEY, TY-14401

I’m never doing this again,” Imuttered to my wife at thelunch break at this year’sIdaho State Glocks Only

Championships. “What?” she replied,“I thought you were having a greattime!” “Errr…aaa.. yes, I am, kinda,but I should have taken a cue fromRobin.” I’d spoken with Front Sight’sassistant editor Robin Taylor weeksearlier. He knew sacrifices would haveto be made if I was going to cover andshoot this match. How right he was.

Sleep was the first casualty. I hadfinished the Ephrata Sportsmen 3-GunChallenge 18 hours before. I found mybed too late and my alarm clock tooearly, followed by the 6-hour predawndrive to Emmett, Idaho. Shootingprowess was the second as I arrived atthe match a little late and already “ondeck” as the final shooter on my firststage, picking up two mikes and a FTE

in my foggy execution. This shootingpattern was repeated all too often overthe 268 round, 9-stage match. To topthat, Mother Nature showered us onand off during the day, making us shootand tape through those darned plasticbags! My desire to play outside waswaning fast.

Despite my inner-self wanting tobag it and sleep, I stayed and shot bothmy G34 and a camera. Somehow this

group of Glock enthusiasts kept me go-ing — or maybe it was our CRO MikeMcCarter’s booming voice keeping meawake as he ran us through the stages,or the high-speed staccatos that pouredfrom Darrion Holiwell’s and TomDean’s pistols, or maybe it was the ef-fortless draws that I witnessed the copson our squad make from their

“

A Collective EnergyThe 2007 Idaho State “Glocks Only” Championships

A Cooper Tunnel with curtains?What would the Colonel say! That’sDarrion Holiwell ducking throughthe drapery.

Cases fly as Jessup Davidson drillshis shots into a target.

49July/August 2007 • FRONT SIGHT

Level 3 retention holsters. Whatever itwas, stay and shoot I did.

Of the 93 competitors, all but a fewwere running and gunning with Gas-ton’s creation. Approved by and rununder USPSA’s banner, rules, andcourse design, this “Glocks Only”match was an IPSC match in every wayexcept equipment. Instead of “Lim-ited” and “Open,” the divisions werebased on frame size. At the top wasFull Size division (G17 and largerframe sizes), followed by Compact di-vision (G19, 23 etc.) and then the de-manding Sub-Compact division whereG26’s and 27’s barked in the shooters’hands. All calibers were scored minorand magazine length was held to140mm. Scopes and compensatorswere allowed, but relatively few shoot-ers used them.

The stages were the brainchildrenof the “oldest teenager” in the USPSA,Rich “Rocket Man” Redovian. I haveknown Rich since I first met him at the10th anniversary of the Area 1 cham-pionships in Nampa, Idaho roughly 15years ago. He is just as fast, fun,friendly and fit now as he was then,only now he qualifies for the senior di-vision! He and his lovely wife Carrie,along with an energetic crew, set upand ran this one day $20 match at theGem County Rod and Gun Club. Thismatch had an energy that was palpable.

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USPSA’s oldest teenager placedwell enough to earn his match feeback. Note the fistful of 20s thatCarrie Redovian is giving out.

FRONT SIGHT • July/August 200750

Between Rich’s “always on the go” at-titude and the warm greeting by thestaff and stats this match made you feelgood that you were there.

Redovian’s stages turned you“every which way but loose” over thecourse of the day. Stage #1 made use ofa Cooper tunnel, forcing shooters toget low. Shooting while standing fourfeet in height tempted many to raisetheir head up to get a better view of thelow targets – knocking off the penaltysticks as they did. Match director RichRedovian flew the 32-round low-levelstrafing run in 14.81 seconds to pickup one of his three stage wins.

Stage #2 had shooters turn to entera single shooting area, picking theirway around the tightly spaced targets,no-shoots, and walls to place their 26rounds accurately. Tom Dean was themost precise on this stage.

Stage #3 really taxed the shooters’ability to maintain a fluid transition be-tween shooting ports. After retrievingone’s blaster from the table, the portscame up faster than all but the best-choreographed plan. Brad Holtdanced his way to victory here.

Stage #4 humbled many with aprecise first shot. At the signal com-petitors had to engage a single platethough a hole in a guard plate to opena trap door exposing four paper tar-gets. Having completed this initial bar-rage we were to move quickly down-range and engage a mixture of below-ground (dug into foxholes) paper tar-gets and steel plates, making our wayto the end where a combination ofbobbing and weaving targets were acti-vated via a pressure plate. Tom Deanshot the quickest while on the move toclaim top billing on the longest fieldcourse of the match.

Stage #5 was an exercise in speedmanagement with transitions from theup-close paper to the deviously-placedno-shoot targets behind U.S. and stan-dard Pepper poppers at better than 20yards. King County SWAT officer Dar-rion Holiwell showed no fear herewith a wining time of 19.63. (KingCounty includes Seattle, Wash.)

Stage #6 gave the competitor anopportunity to demonstrate theirstrong- and weak-hand-only gun han-dling skills. Stage #6 used three strings

of fire on three separate ar-rays of four paper and onesteel target. All stringsstarted with the gun on atable and all shots were firedthrough a port.

String one: pick up the un-loaded gun, charge it andengage the targets requiredthough the port. Stringtwo: pick up the loaded gunfrom table and engagestrong hand only. Stringthree: you guessed it, pickup and engage weak handonly. I personally like to seethese stages in majormatches as they balance theskill set. Again, Mr. Redov-ian had his skills together onthis one.

Stage #7 did not lookas quick as the top shootersmade it. Starting 10 yardsuprange of your unloadedpistol, on signal retrieve pis-tol from the table, charge it

and engage targets as visible. This isone of a couple of stages where Ithought someone must have slipped anOpen gun into Tom Dean’s hands.Some of his transitions and splits wereamazing!

Mr. Dean’s speed paid off with histhird stage win.

Stage #8 was where I began mymatch by picking up the FTE and two(or was it three?) misses as I moved pasta target that was hiding behind a 55-gallon drum. I know it was laughing atme! This stage had the shooter movingretrograde to begin and then advanc-ing downrange engaging the mirrorimage arrays. Idaho state Trooper and“all around good guy” David Nethmoved the best here, getting the lastlaugh.

To finish the match stage #9 againtested our less-used skill sets with threestrings Virginia count on two partialtargets at 13 yards and one full targetat 25. String one required two roundson each target freestyle with a manda-tory reload. String #2 required tworounds on each target kneeling. String

The match owes a great deal to itsvolunteers and its range officers.

Match winner Tom Dean shoots past the remotecamera. Although scopes/comps are allowed in“full size” division, Dean didn’t use either.

FRONT SIGHT • July/August 200752

#3 required two on each target proneto complete the 32-round stage. Onceagain, Rocket Man Redovian had lit-tle problem with this stage picking uphis third stage victory.

A good group of shooters stayedto the end to offer thanks for the hardwork of the cast and crew that makethis match possible and applaud theirfellow competitor’s achievements.Ok, maybe it was the cash pay back toa goodly portion of the competitorsor the really cool stainless steel cus-tom trophies the division winners re-ceived, but stay and applaud they did!

Tom Dean trumped the field of 70in the full size frame division. DavidNeth grabbed second at 97.4% andBrad Holt held onto third with 95.9%

Compact division garnered 12 en-trants with Kepa Zubizarreta on topwith Bruce Blair in second and RexHanson third. Note: in an overallcombined match Mr. Zubizarretawould have placed sixth overall! Fineshooting to be sure.

The Sub-Compact division foundseven brave souls battling torque andrecoil rather than each other for tophonors. Mike Gibson, Russ Huneywelland Tom Neth were the top three re-spectively.

This was my first time at this matchand I must say that I ended up having agreat time. I may not have conveyedthat feeling to my squad mates as at thetime I felt like I should bag it and headhome. Why did I stay? In reflection itwas some kind of “collective energy”that radiates from people that findtheir way to the Idaho State “GlocksOnly” Championships. Had it notbeen for them I may have missed outon a well-run, well-attended match,bagged my gun and slept. Thanks toyou all!

Darrion Holiwell in motion. A well-known Production Division competi-tor from the Seattle area, Holiwell is aforce to be reckoned with at a “GlocksOnly” match.