The best advice any new competition shooter can receive is to “be safe, and have fun.” While being safe is something that will always be a part of a shooter’s mindset, sometimes along the way of chasing a higher classification, a match win or dwelling on a poor performance, the fun part can begin to slip through your grasp.

Events like the 2018 Halloween Shotgun Match at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club are a great opportunity to recapture that spirit of fun and camaraderie we have all grown to love about the shooting sports and remind us all of why we spend so much time, money and effort doing what we love.

After the match was first announced via my local Phoenix shooting network email, I navigated to Practiscore and found divisions such as “boomstick,” which featured double- or single-barreled shotguns and “action hero” for pistol grip only shotguns as options.

This immediately brought a smile to my face and it was obvious match director Paul Shanks was going for the max “fun” factor at this match. To sweeten the deal, a costume contest with prizes and a barbeque for all were included for a modest match fee of $15.

The costume contest required you to wear your costume the entire match in order to be eligible for the prizes. I quickly signed up in the semi-auto division and eagerly awaited Halloween weekend while contemplating whether or not to get a costume together for the event.

I decided that I definitely was not going to miss partaking in the costume fun and rose extra early in the morning the day of the match to ready my Suicide Squad Jared Leto Joker costume. I felt pretty silly and had no idea what I was doing as I applied face makeup and blinging jewelry to myself and thought I was probably going to be the only one crazy enough to show up in costume.

As I parked at the match I could see that luckily the spirit of Halloween was shared by many. All around were shooters dressed as characters from Stranger Things, Ninjas, Pirates, Rick and Morty, Jurassic Park, Unicorns (and a hilarious dead unicorn) and the like. With my embarrassment eased, I collected my gear and gathered with my fellow shooters where I received the most hilarious match briefing of my competition shooting life.

Match Director Paul Shanks giving a match brief in his Teletubbie costume.

Paul Shanks stood on a chair and gave the rules of the match dressed as a Teletubbie. He along with three of his friends donned the uncomfortably hot outfits to complete the group.

It was comical to watch him point at things we needed to know in his neon yellow mitts and head antennae. With the briefing complete, we headed to our stages still laughing at everyone’s costume choices.

As I’ve grown accustomed to during my competition shooting career I was “randomly” selected to shoot first. I quickly loaded up for a stage consisting of four Texas Stars concealed by barrels with three possible shooting positions. The props were 25 yards away so I selected a modified choke and tucked my silver Tuxedo jacket behind my vest rig as I walked to the line.

As I was making ready, RO Keith Manning asked if I was Beetlejuice. I laughed and told him I was the Joker. Having to explain your costume after spending so much time crafting it is never a good feeling but gave me a laugh at my ridiculous getup.

Once the buzzer went off, the stage proved more challenging than I expected as some of the plates settled behind barrels and required a contortionist type position to hit them. I finished reasonably well but some of my fellow shooters found the stage was harder than it first appeared.

Ron Aschenbach as Doc Holiday shooting in the Boomstick Division with RO Keith Manning as Jurassic Park character Robert Muldoon.

My friend and match director Ron Aschenbach was competing in the Boomstick Division with a double-barreled shotgun and dressed as Doc Holiday in the true spirit of the Old West. Ron and other shooters discovered the 25-yard distance gave anyone running anything under a Light Modified Choke fits as the plates were failing to fall with anything less.

Ron patiently navigated the stage shooting two shots at a time with his skeet chokes until time ran out. I applaud him for taking on a challenge like that in the spirit of fun.

One additional lesson the stage taught those of us in costume was that it was hot. I mean uncomfortable, almost 90 degrees Phoenix hot. Wearing a tuxedo jacket with face paint was seeming like less and less of a good idea, and I was just grateful not to be wearing a wool Teletubbies suit as the temperatures soared! We all held true to the match rules and endured the sweltering heat with a smile on our faces.

The next stage was a maze of barrels that featured a spider prop blaring scary Halloween sounds at you when you passed it while you navigated four plate racks again concealed by barrels in a maze of targets.

With the lesson from the first stage, the shooters that could choked up their shotguns to handle the longer than expected distances and better plate falling results were obtained on this second run for most everyone. I personally learned a hard lesson on this stage when I attempted to “game” the stage by running outside the shooting area to make a particular prop turn easier.

Unfortunately and unbeknownst to me, this incurred a 30-second penalty per infraction and added a whopping 60 seconds to my stage time for stepping out twice. I shrugged it off as a reminder to listen to the Teletubbie next time during the match brief instead of laughing at his comical expressions.

Stage 3 featured another maze with 12 falling steel plates and an array of clay launching steel at the end. Due to the height of the berm, the clay launchers were set to throw the clays at a relatively low height. This greatly decreased the time you had to engage the targets and required quick reaction times.

Standout shooter Jordan Henderson rocking his Eleven from Stranger Things costume.

The lowest I saw a clay launched was a mere 4 feet above the falling steel target, which equated to a second or so to engage it before it disappeared and brought a 10-second penalty along with it. After my last disastrous stage, I was determined to get back in the match and turned in a top five overall stage time to get myself back on track.

I love shooting clay targets and tight clay shots like this help me work out of a deficit if I, unfortunately, have one. The match was getting progressively harder as we went along but everyone’s spirits remained high and adjustments were made from learning along the way.

The final stage was a no-tricks, all-treats speed steel stage centered around Halloween props in a triangle formation and fault line. Twenty steel targets with 10 targets slightly obscured again by barrels were present but as each shooter shot, it was discovered you could get as many as three targets at once on two of the arrays if you placed your shots correctly.

Little touches and stage props like these made the match fun and different.

It was fun to watch so many targets fall with one shot if done correctly and the times for each shooter were razor-thin. I again was able to turn in a top-level time and my huge penalty, though not erased, was somewhat abated with the last two stages.

It was a great way to end the match, and once done I shook hands with western folk heroes and Teletubbies. With the match complete we headed to the barbeque for a much-needed recharge after the unusually warm Phoenix October weather we endured.

At the barbeque, prizes were handed out, pictures were taken and just a great after match time was had by all. There were no national championships or $1000+ guns handed out, just good times and fond memories.

Of all the major matches I’ve attended or small accolades I’ve obtained, this match had some of the best memories I will take with me along my journey in the competition shooting world. I see some of the worst humanity has to offer in my law enforcement day job but the shooting community offers some of humanity’s best.

If you’re not taking small opportunities to just have fun like this in your shooting experience it may be time to stop, take a breath and just enjoy that spirit and feeling of fun, comradery and challenge we all fell in love with the moment we heard, “Shooter, are you ready?”