so many zombies, so little time

Having just come from another round of “competitive shooting is really fun and you really should get into it one of these days”, and while pricing out the various accessories I would need to do so, I am once again reminded of just how annoyingly steep the bar of admission can be for those kinds of events.  This is further compounded by the amount of time the range officers spent at my recent shooting event explaining how the rules they were abiding by were not like this organization, and not like this other organization, but kind of like this third organization. 

Expensive and confusing?  Great.  Just great. 

Well imagine my surprise and pleasure when I happened to stumble across a relatively new competitive shooting sport that has the following equipment rules: 

Handguns shall be broken down as follows:

CLASS
> Any SAFE single/double action semi or revolver of any barrel length
> Regular Sights – any type, no optics or lasers
> Not regular sights – any optic or laser
NICE AND SIMPLE

DIVISIONS
6 DIV: No more than 6 rounds loaded at any time.
8 DIV: No more than 8 rounds loaded at any time.
15 DIV: No more than 15 rounds loaded at any time.
24 DIV: No more than 24 rounds loaded at any time.

If your ammo isn’t centerfired and not strong enough to knock down steel, too bad!

1) Any safe holster that is not a crossdraw, small or back holster, or shoulder or shoulder rig may be used.
2) LE/MIL may use thigh rigs or duty gear.
3) AMMO can be carried anywhere on the body, but safe retrieval must be considered (use mag holders or speedloader or speedloader holders) but if you need some extra in a pocket, no problem, just be safe.

Woah.  You can carry ammunition in your pockets?  And if your magazine can hold more than 10 rounds, you can actually fill it to capacity?  And you can pretty much use whatever holster you would otherwise use to carry your sidearm around?  Dude.  What is this?  I want it.  I need it.  Now. 

WELCOME TO ZOMBIE SHOOTERS ASSOCIATION!

Home of a new fast paced shooting sport, geared towards the new shooter as a gateway to safe, competitive, firearms fun.  Seasoned shooters will also definitely find many challenges to improve their game.

… There are zombies?  I think I just squeed.  But, y’know, a manly squee. 

But, I mean, seriously, check out their hit requirements: 

1) Zombies are standard targets and need 1 head shot to kill.

2) Infected targets  are also standard and need minimum of 3 body hits, at least 2 must be “Good” (“C” or better, or “Down 1″ or better) to score a kill.

3) STILL WALKIN’ (SW) is a failure on Zombie and incurs 5 second penalty.

4) CREATED A WALKER (CAW) is failure on an Infected and incurs 10 second penalty.

5) WRECKED A MEAL (WAM) is hit on living target (white) and incurs a 10 second penalty no matter how many times it is hit, each WAM target can earn penalty if hit.

How could you not have fun at something like that?  And, more to the reason of why I am eyeing competitive shooting, I have to wonder how much more-useful training this could be, given that you are both trying to get hits on really small targets, and just get hits (almost any hits) on human-sized targets…  I know what IDPA and all are training for is COM hits, but anecdotes indicate that any hits are “good” in the sense that they tend to encourage predators to find weaker prey. 

But the real bummer?  They are based out of Virginia/North Carolina.  Sad Linoge.  I wonder if I could talk one of the Knoxville ranges into doing something like this…  Still, if you are in their area, and want to have what looks like a rocking good time, look them up – there are certainly worse ways to spend your time than preparing for the inevitable zombapocalypse! 

(Courtesy of Fill Yer Hands.)