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USPSA Going
Multi-Gun
BY ROBIN TAYLOR, USPSA STAFF, TY-
19724
Since the early days of USPSA
shooting, enthusiasts have
brought their long guns out and
held informal matches using the
USPSA pistol rules as a guide. However,
the number of rifle and shotgun
matches has exploded in the last few
years. Call it the war on terrorism, call
it what you will, new shooters and new
sponsors are jumping in right and left,
with major equipment innovations and
new matches cropping up almost
monthly.
USPSA has held a 3-Gun national
championship for years, but recently,
regional events have started cropping
up, along with rifle- and shotgun-only
events. Independent tournaments like
the MGM “Ironman” and Superstition
Mountain Mystery 3-Gun are the
biggest growth area, drawing hundreds
of competitors per match. All of them
Photo by Robin Taylor.
Jerry Miculek, U.S.
National Champion.
have gone to a
“multi-gun” format,
where shooters employ
more than one
type of firearm in
each stage.
Check out Jerry
Miculek (left), he’s
shooting a shotgun,
but has pistol mag
still on his belt. In
Multi-gun, shooters
often need to ditch
one weapon and
switch immediately to another to finish
the course.
Equipment And Competitors
Developing Fast
Since 2002, the competitive bar in
Multi-gun has been rising — quickly.
Very few shooters walk into matches
unprepared for a 200-yard rifle shot,
or without enough shell holders to deal
with a 25-round shotgun course.
Joe Cabigas and Craig Salmon are
part of a growing segment of multi-gun
specialists within USPSA. You won’t
see either of them at pistol matches
very often, but they’ve got the Multigun
bug.
“I shot pistol real heavy for about a
year and kinda got bored with it,” says
Salmon. “I still get the pistol, but
there’s so much more to 3-Gun.”
“I got kinda tired of pistol, but a
friend of mine (got me involved) in 3-
Gun down in Arizona. I went down
there and got hooked. I’ve shot Superstition
Mountain four, five years now,”
says Cabigas.
Course design in Multi-gun is developing
fast as match directors learn
what shooters really can and cannot do
with their long guns. At the 2003 Area
1, for example, shooters faced four
partially-obscured 235-yard steel targets,
and engaged them in two “shoot
four, reload, then shoot four” strings.
Very few shooters did well here, since
this course DEMANDED intimate familiarity
with one’s rifle to succeed.
However, the rise of optics on tactical
rifles has made this course much more
“do-able” than it was using iron sights
just a year or two earlier.
USPSA released a 3-Gun supplement
for the club program manual in
2003, which helped streamline policies
for Multi-gun stages nationwide.
(Members can download a copy from
the USPSA website.)
Today, we’re seeing surprising support
from the military, as the U.S.
Army Marksmanship Unit has begun
hosting 3-Gun matches of their own,
inviting various high-ranking officers.
Following the third annual Fort
Benning 3-Gun Challenge, USAMU
Commander Lt. Col. Frank Muggeo
was quoted by the on-line magazine
The Shooting Wire saying, "As the proponent
for the All-Army Small Arms
Photo by Robin Taylor.
BJ Norris dealing with a low port.