AAR: Marty Brown Memorial Open Round #2

This year’s Marty Brown Memorial Open™ Round #2 was held September 16th at the Gray Property just north of Zionsville. The twelve participants were treated to phenomenal weather with clear skies and comfortable temperatures.

After an initial safety briefing and an overview of semi-auto pistol function (with a few quick references to revolver function for the oddball revolver aficionado present; you know who you are…), we quickly moved to firing the Revere’s Riders Whittemore Pistol Qualifier to gauge participant’s marksmanship prior to instruction.

Subsequently, instruction moved to a sequence of topics each of which was followed by live fire to put what was taught into practice:

• isoceles grip/stance
• weaver grip/stance
• ABCs of firing the shot
• transition between two targets
• “pace of fire” for both large and small targets

In between instruction, 2-3 participants were called upon to each read a short sentence or two about Marty, her life, her interests, and her struggle with ovarian cancer. These participants then drew an envelope from a stack which specified their “give-away” item. We gave away a firearm and many other fantastic items donated by our generous event sponsors:

After the above instruction, pizza was delivered to refuel both participants and volunteers/instructors. At the end of lunch, event director Phil Brown spoke to everyone on the signs/symptoms of ovarian cancer and the importance of catching the disease early for the best possible prognosis. Typically, we have a speaker from Ovar’coming Together, the beneficiary of these events, but unfortunately their annual Ovarian Cancer Run/Walk fundraising event was scheduled for the same day.

After lunch, we returned to the firing line and learned the pistol qualification test course of fire. After several untimed iterations for practice, participants shot the test under the clock. Four of our participants “shot a score” on the qualifier test and received patches to signify their accomplishment.

Interspersed with the instruction, we ran four separate “skills contests” with the winner of each contest being determined by closest to the bullseye. The four winners then faced off in the skills contest finale which consisted of a side-by-side course of fire with the fastest competitor scoring hits on all targets being the winner.

The skills contest placings were as follows:

• 1st — Darrell Hammer
• 2nd — Mark Simmons
• 3rd — Brian Heeter (with a revolver!)
• 4th — Sue Mogle

The winners selected from the following prizes:

• Glock pistol certificate
• Diamondback Sidekick revolver certificate
• Mantis X10 Elite
• $150 Galco gift card

Sound like an enjoyable way to spend a day or two of your weekend? We hope so and invite you to join us at one of our upcoming events: