My Experience at the 2019 World Speed Shooting Championship

My “majors” season of shooting kicked off on May 16th when I drove to Talladega, Alabama to compete in the 2019 SIG Sauer World Speed Shooting Championship.  Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) I had three back to back majors to shoot, so it’s taken me a bit longer to write up this article than I would have preferred.  The WSSC was a very special match for me for many reasons, not the least of which is that it was the first WSSC I’ve attended.  So the following will be less of a report on the match, and more of a personal account of the most amazing, most enjoyable, and most successful major practical shooting event in which I’ve ever competed.  In 2017 I shot in Steel Challenge’s other “big” major match – the US Steel Nationals.  Great match.  Lots of fun.  But everything about WSSC was a notch (or more) above the US Steel Nationals.

The challenge of the WSSC begins with registration process which back in January.  When the match opened for registration on Practiscore, you generally have less than an hour to get registered to ensure you can get all the guns you want in the match and have your choice of stages on which to start.  I managed to get three guns registered – Carry Optics (CO), Pistol Caliber Carbine Open (PCCO), and Rimfire Rifle Open (RFRO).  I typically only shoot 2 divisions – CO and PCCO.  But with this being my first WSCC, I decided to register three guns over three days and stay for the awards ceremony.  The match was moved back to May in the hopes of having cooler temperatures than what the 2018 match saw, but I decided to make all three of my matches in the morning just in case it got hot in the afternoon sessions.  Great planning on my part as it turns out.

The drive to Talladega from my home in Dayton Ohio wasn’t terribly difficult – just 7 hours which includes a couple of stops.

I drove straight to Civilian Marksmanship Park which is every bit as magnificent as you’ve probably heard or read about:

As a first time visitor, I headed straight away to sign in and watch the  safety video that’s mandatory at Civilian Marksmanship Park – all competitors had to show their completion cards to the ROs at each stage on which you start.

This year, eight practice bays were made available to competitors – each set up with one of the eight Steel Challenge stages.  I signed up to use the practice bays for three days (at $30.00 each) begining on the day I arrived.  I went straight over to the practice bays and started practicing for my CO match the next morning.  It was HOT…nearly 90 degrees.  I practiced on three or four stages that I had not yet shot yet this year (it had barely hit 70 degrees by this time of the year back in Ohio) and called it a day.  The following days I never made it back to the practice bays…it was just too darn hot.  But I sure appreciated having the practice bays available and hope that they’re available next year too.  After packing up, I headed back to my hotel to check in, shower, and meet friends for dinner.

The next morning I reported bright and early for my match – I usually was on the range around 7ish even though matches didn’t start until 9am.  I was blessed to have shot my best-ever eight stages of Steel Challenge in CO to date with a total match time of 134.44 – good enough to place in B Class CO Division:

I also shot four “personal best” stages, which brought me to just 1.29 percentage points away from qualifying for A Class – one of my 2019 goals.

After my morning match, I ate some lunch then visited with friends you only see at a match like WSSC and got some photos:

Brian Conley of Hunters HD Gold – one of my sponsors:

Here he is with Larry Steeley of Steel Target Paint – I’m a member of the Steel Target Paint Shooting Team:

This is my first year as a “sponsored shooter” and I can’t thank both Larry and Brian enough for all the support and friendship they’ve each shown to me.

Chet Whistle of CWA also had a booth at the WSSC:

Chet manufactures some of the finest custom 1911-22 pistols money can buy:

I came back home from the WSSC with an example of Chet’s work – look for a review coming soon!

I also visited with Tippman Arms and was extremely impressed with their AR-15 style rimfire rifles.  The magazines are particularly nice:

Finally I got to sample some fantastic PCCs from MBX:

After a nice afternoon I headed back to my hotel to get cleaned up for a very special evening.

As I mentioned before, I’m part of the Hunter’s HD Gold family of shooters.  Earlier this year, Brian Conley was gracious enough to invite me (and allow me to bring two friends) to a special dinner event hosted by Hunter’s HD Gold.  Brian was coy about sharing details leading up to the event, knowing Brian, I suspected it would be pretty spectacular.  And in true Brian Conley fashion, all me expectations for galactically exceeded.  The dinner took place at a private members-only facility near Birmingham, Alabama called The Club:

What a beautiful facility!

The Club has an absolutely amazing view of downtown Birmingham:

Here’s a shot with the two buddies I brought along – Cory Wyatt (Match Director at Greene County Fish & Game as well as one of the volunteer RO’s at the WSSC) and Junior Shooter Cooper Tincu:

The dinner party was meant to be a “thank you” from Brian Conley to those who have been instrumental to Hunter HD Gold’s success.  He handed out special awards to some key individuals – here he is giving one such award to Larry Steeley:

Brian has also done a great deal to help USPSA and Steel Challenge – well beyond just being “The Official Eyewear” of both organizations.  USPSA & SCSA President Mike Foley acknowledged Brian’s tremendous contribution by presenting him with a watch manufactured by Brazen Sports (the official watch of USPSA):

The next day on the range Brian showed me the watch he received:

I don’t know whether we’ll ever see something like what Brian Conley and Hunters HD Gold put together, but I’m sure glad I was part of it.  Many thanks Brian.

The following day I was up and back on the range to shoot eight stages of Steel Challenge with PCC Open.  I wasn’t quite as successful in the PCCO Division as I was in CO the day prior.  Despite the fact that I set “personal best” times on three different stages, I did not have a personal best overall time, and finished 8th out of 16 shooters in A Class.  Not horrible, but I was hoping for better.  One of my goals this year was to finally shoot 8 stages under 100 seconds – I came in at 101.92, which is about one second slower than my current best time.  I’ve got three more chances to do it this year.

After my match, I didn’t feel like getting on the practice range due to the heat, but instead continued to visit with folks in the match:

Saturday night saw another WSSC “first” – Match Tracker hosted a pizza social in the main building at Civilian Marksmanship Park:

I thought the get together was a fantastic idea as it offered an innovative opportunity to engage socially with both competitors and vendors which did not previously exist.  Thanks Match Tracker!

Sunday morning finally came and I shot my final match in Rimfire Rifle Open – division in which I was unclassified and had never before tried.  And it showed – I classified as a middle-B Class shooter despite the fact I’m closing in on Master Class in PCCO.  But it was certainly fun and made me want to spend more time in RFRO.  I shot the match with Steel Target Paint Captain and World Record Holder Steve Foster.  I got to meet Steve the for the first time at the Tennessee State Championship match, and I’m part of the team largely due to Steve – thanks Steve!

After the match it was time for the awards ceremony, which was preceded by a very nicely done buffet with cake:

The award ceremony itself (which was a packed room with many people standing due to the growth of the match) was very well done, and presentations were made which really gave the audience a sense of history for our sport which I thought was great.

Brian Conley of Hunters HD Gold live streamed the awards to Facebook:

What else can I say except that the 2019 World Speed Shooting Championship was the best shooting event I’ve ever had the privilege of attending.  USPSA President Mike Foley, Director of the Steel Challenge Shooting Association Zack Jones, Jake Martens, Troy McManus, all the volunteer staff…everyone involved worked very hard to make this a world-class event and they certainly hit the mark.

The 2020 WSSC will again be held at Civilian Marksmanship Park, one week later on the calendar – Memorial Day weekend.  Doing so over the holiday will allow for one extra day of shooting, so another world record breaking attendance should be possible.  I don’t see how the 2020 event could possibly top 2019, but I look forward to be proven wrong.

Thanks to all the sponsors who made the match possible:

Finally, here’s a video showing hightlights from all eight stages of Steel Challenge I shot in the Carry Optics Division at the 2019 World Speed Shooting Championship: