Here are the practical long-gun events we have scheduled this month at Rio Salado:

3-Gun (Multi-Gun) Match: Saturday April 8th
We are on summer hours, so sign-in runs 7-8:30am, with first shots at 7am. New shooters should come in time to attend the New Shooter Orientation at 7:30am before they shoot. Our usual format is 3 short-range rifle, shotgun and/or pistol stages, plus 1 long-range rifle stage. Bring 150 rounds of rifle ammo, 50 shotgun birdshot (#6 or smaller), and 50 rounds of pistol ammo. Pre-registration opens at 3pm on the Tuesday at the Practiscore website.

We are fortunate to have four very generous sponsors for our monthly match: Carbon Arms provides "loaner" shotshell caddies for competitors to try, and they donate a $100 gift certificate. VLTOR donates two of their excellent AR15 rifle stock kits. LUTH-AR send us one of their fine MBA-series rifle stocks. KE Arms provides a gift certificate each month. All prizes are distributed by random draw from the list of competitor who finish the match. With typical attendance around 75 shooters, your odds of winning something nice are pretty good.

Tactical .22 Rifle Match: Tuesday April 11th & 25th
Registration opens at 4pm, with first shots shortly thereafter. Location is the Smallbore Range right behind the Activity Center. The rules are simple: Targets are reactive steel - shoot them per the stage briefing, fastest combined time (+penalties for misses) wins. Pretty much any .22 rimfire rifle is OK - the most popular guns are AR15-clones and Ruger 10/22s. We have two divisions: iron sight and optical sight. Now that .22 ammo is more available, this is a match you won't want to miss.  Scoring is done on paper, so no pre-registration is required.

Tactical Shotgun and Pistol Caliber Carbine Match: Thursday April 20th
Registration starts at 4pm, with a new shooter orientation shortly thereafter. The match format is four practical scenario-based stages similar to what you would encounter at a 3-Gun match, except that you only need to bring one gun - you choose either shotgun or pistol caliber carbine. There will be separate divisions for shotgun (Open, Limited and Pump), centerfire carbine (Optic and Iron) and .22 rimfire carbine (Optic and Iron). Any tactical shotgun suitable for 3-gun competition will work well in this match, or you can shoot a pistol caliber carbine (straight walled pistol calibers only please) or even a .22LR rifle. Scoring is done on paper, so no pre-registration is required.

Run-n-Gun Rifle-Pistol Match: Saturday April 29th
This will be a RIFLE + PISTOL only match (no shotgun required). There will be five practical scenario-type stages; four CQB-type stages plus one longer range stage. Almost any semi-automatic centerfire rifle and pistol will work, plus a safe, secure belt holster for the pistol. Bring 150 rifle rounds & 100 pistol rounds. Sign-in runs 7-8:30am, with first shots at 7am. New shooters should come in time to attend the New Shooter Orientation at 7:30am before they shoot. Pre-registration opens on the Tuesday before the match at the Practiscore website.

I'll be at the shotgun match on the 20th.

REMINDER: Run-n-Gun Rifle-Pistol match on Saturday (4/29) at 7am. New shooters should come in time to attend the New Shooter Orientation at 7:30am (about 45 minutes), then you will get to shoot the match. Any semi-auto centerfire rifle, and a centerfire handgun plus a secure belt holster, will work. Also bring a couple of spare magazines for each, and about 200 rounds for each. NO SHOTGUN REQUIRED. Sign up on PractiScore: CLICK ME. The match is already 2/3 full, so don't delay.

Thanks to everyone who came out to yesterday's rifle-pistol match. We had a strong turnout and saw lots of new faces. We hope you are inspired to become regulars at our monthly 3-Gun and other practical shooting matches.

I want to give a HUGE shout out to KE Arms, who stepped up at the last minute as title sponsor. They gave me several great prizes that will be distributed to some lucky participants by random draw today.

For those of you that did not participate in the match, check out our MATCH VIDEO ON YOUTUBE to see what you missed. if you want to try this kind of shooting, consider attending the excellent match run by AZ 2-GUn up at Cowtow (they have their next match on Saturday), or come to the Rio Salado 3-Gun match and simply skip the shotgun stages. This sport is too much fun to let it pass you by.

My match video