2014 NEWS

21DEC

Today we had 37 industrious souls shoot in what can only be described as ideal temperature given it was overcast, looking like it was ready to open up and drop big ole Texas sized raindrops on us.

We want to welcome our newest shooters, Gil Salazar and Demi Garcia. Demi just happens to have recently graduated from the USAF boot camp. Welcome to our new veteran and we wish you much success in your USAF career. We would also like to welcome back our shooters who traveled from The Valley and San Antonio.

We tested some more stages that might look similar over the Valentines Day weekend. <hint, hint> We also had a surprise stage where the targets were not only hung upside down but also required the shooters to only shoot the heads. Hope you paid attention.

The TC Gang wants to thank all our shooters for making 2014 a rousing success. We
implemented some new props this year and we have already ordered some more new props to be inaugurated in 2015. It's ONLY because of you, our shooters, that we have been so successful and we just can't thank you enough for your support.

REMINDER: Pirates of Texas Carbine Championship is filling up fast and the deadline for early entry is December 31st and your envelope with application and check must be postmarked by 12/31/14. After that the next deadline is January 15th which is the last day t-shirts can be ordered. Our graphics designer has really outdone himself this year and we are sure you will really like the design.

Between now and the Pirates match on February 15th, we may run more carbine matches on weekends that would normally be pistol or shotgun so be sure and check this page.

The staff of Texas Carbine would like to wish all our shooters and their families a Very Merry Christmas and a Healthy and Happy New Year. We look forward to shooting with you in 2015.

Regards,

The TC Gang

07DEC

Today was a great day if you are a duck. It started OK but then, it began to drizzle but not enough to dampen the spirits of the 29 guns that came out to have a go with our five courses of fire.

Stage 2 featured a Texas Star and a plate rack. Stage 3 was a free and open shooting area, so if you wanted you could run up and powder burn the targets. Stage 4 had a wig-wag and the peek-a-boo initiated by a single electronic sensor.

Welcome to Nick Paleschic and Aram Chaghatzbanian our two new shooters. It was also great to have Todd AK and Yarek back again too. And Todd, Phil, and Ben...many, many thanks once again for the welding help.

Scores were up by 5pm, not bad, considering.

The last TC match of the year will be Carbine on Sunday, 21 December.

Finally, today is Pearl Harbor Day and we hope all of you will take a moment and consider what an important event that was for our country back in 1941.

30NOV

Today we had big fun with our shotguns! Twenty-two shooters challenged five courses of fire two of which featured our new clay kickers.

Welcome back to Bill Luick and a big welcome to our new shooter, Chris Gonzalez.

Phil Stewart learned a couple of valuable lessons today..the first being that if you put a lock on your trigger guard, be sure and bring the key! Secondly, not all the keys are the same. <grin>

LT Dan learned that you cannot operate the shotgun without the charging handle.

Sergio has definitely raised the bar on range carts with his new Polaris Ranger.

Thanks to Maytag’s squad, all the hulls were picked up, the other squad was a wee bit lacking in that regard.

In December we’ll be back to our two match per month schedule with pistol on the 7th and carbine on the 21st.

Remember, early registration discount deadline for the 2015 Pirates match is December 31st.

Thanks again to the Milks for making the drive all the way from Houston! We sure appreciate it.

Scores were up by 4pm, not too bad.

Finally, a HUGE thanks to everyone for coming out to join us today because without your support, there would be no Texas Carbine.

16NOV

HURRAY, we weren’t rained out for our first carbine match since August! Forty guns came out to challenge our five courses of fire and fortunately, despite an iffy forecast, the weather held and it turned out to be a really nice day for shooting.

We had a first for TC with an idea we’ve been tossing around for a number of years, i.e., figure out a way to incorporate a moving vehicle in a stage. A golf cart was the only truly feasible vehicle and Maytag designed a stage where the shooter begins the stage sitting in the cargo box of a cart, facing downrange. Then, on the signal, a designated driver mashes the pedal, (which is blocked to give the same speed for each shooter,) and the cart moves uprange with the shooter engaging targets on both sides. Some thought the speed of the cart was too fast while others thought it was just right so we’ll play with it for future use but everyone seemed to enjoy the stage nonetheless and LT Dan was the only person to fall out of the cart. (grin)

Welcome to our six new shooters: Mel Rodero, Tracy & Mark Self, Brian Bertrand, Armando Galvan, and Michael Martinez. We really appreciate your interest in Texas Carbine and hope we’ll see you again at future matches.

A big thanks once again to Gerrit and Nick Milks who came all the way from Houston, to Don Springer (and company) who drove up from the Valley. That is truly a big compliment to our club.

Also thanks to those who came out on Saturday to help us set up and, to those who came early today to help us finish up.

Another reminder...our annual Pirates of Texas Carbine Championship which this year, we’re calling it, The Terry “Spider” Panknin Memorial Classic as a tribute to our dear friend who we lost in April of this year. The application is available on our website,

Pirates Application

and will be held on February 14, 2015. Check our dedicated match website,

piratesoftexasmatch.com

for additional info and email us if you can’t find the answer to a question.

Our next match will be a Tactical Shotgun shoot on November 30 where we will be introducing some brand new clay throwers which should be a lot of fun.

Finally, thanks to everyone who joined us today, it was a tremendous turnout considering the weather and we really appreciate your support.

11NOV

We are now accepting applications for the 2015 Pirates of Texas Carbine Championship and we are honoring our departed teammate, Spider, by calling the match,

The Terry "Spider" Panknin Memorial Classic

We are also soliticiting volunteers for staff positions as SO's and Scorekeepers so if you're interested, email us.

Finally, the Pirates application can be downloaded here:

2015 Pirates Application

02NOV - Welcome back to our Winter friends; Gordo Thompson and Billy Rogers, and a welcome back to Johnny Ninja as well who was away nursing a bumb knee.

Today, twenty-two intrepid folks challenged five courses of fire in the most beautiful weather in months.

The Knolle Hill Mob was well-represented by four of their ninjas.

Numbers ran all the scorekeeping for one squad and did a fantastic job and obviously, it was great to have her on the range again.

Reminder: Next weekend will be 3Gun at CCP&R so come join Rick “Justin Credible” for a great 3Gun match. For details, see www.cc3gun.com.

Texas Carbine’s next match will be Carbine on November 15th. Numbers decreed that Maytag could not use the stages from the previous two rained out matches.

Also, on November 30th, we’ll be holding our first Shotgun match in a good while.

Look for Pirates of Texas applications to be online sometime next week and finally...

Please keep Rod Henderson and Ty Gentry in your thoughts and prayers.

05OCT

Twenty-two able souls joined us on a spectacular weather day for five HAL9000 original courses of fire which, by the way, were excellent. Even the mosquitos mostly disappeared early on. It was also nice to be shooting again after all the rain we’ve had lately.

Welcome back to John DeLaGarza, Paul Kowalik, Spider Jr., and Todd “AK” who we haven’t seen for some time. We hope we’ll see more of you all in the future.

On another note, we are planning to have Pirates applications online by November 1st and as in the past, there will be an early signup discount. The match is scheduled for February 15.

A special thanks to Billy Carbine, Rusty Fickes, and “SkyGod” for coming out yesterday to help us set up since we were short a worker bee with Maytag galavanting around the country.

Scores were up by 4:30 which isn't too bad for a non-Practiscore outfit. [grin for Rick]

Carbine is next up on the schedule for October 19th and hopefully, we’ll have great October weather for it, too.

Also, don't forget CC3Gun's match next Sunday at CCP&R.

Thanks again to all our shooters today, you are the reason we started TC in the first place.

07SEP

Twenty-four shooters showed up to chase away potential rain and challenge five pistol stages. Of those twenty-four, nine had the cajones to answer your Beloved Maytag’s 1911 Fatwa. And the winner is..Mike Merkler.

Welcome back to Betsy who has returned from Yankee Land and Yarek from East Texas. Also welcome to Mark DeMarco.

Betsy announced that Rio Grande Shooters is hosting a shoot Saturday, September 27th, to benefit underprivileged children in the Rio Grande Valley. This shoot is billed as Law Enforcement Officers against civilians. Betsy says it’s really fun to out-shoot them! <grin> Entry fee is $60 and you can do your application on the Rio Grande Shooters website.

Our next shoot is Carbine on September 21st, the weather should be slightly cooler so please come out and join us.

Planning for Pirates 2015 is well underway. If you’re interested in a staff position as SO or Scorekeeper, please send Maytag a note at maytag@texascarbine.com.

Finally, thanks to everyone who joined us today a special thanks to those who came out on Saturday to help us set up.

17AUG

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls today found 28 guns challenging Texas Carbine's five fun rifle stages.  Welcome to our new shooter Eddie Chambliss, thanks for coming out.  Thank you to everyone who came out to help set up Saturday.  Also thanks to those who helped this morning, and most especially those who helped put everything away after the match.

This week’s match featured a complementary dermabrasion on Stage 3 thanks to Mother Nature.  Gosh the wind was whipping.  The glasses got a good polish.  We ate enough sand during that match that we weren’t too hungry for our after match lunch.

We instituted our new TC MAX TIME SCORING on Stage 3 this week and it worked very well. This new scoring method will be used on all future stages that are all steel.

Ken Dog almost got a new name thanks to our Texas speech patterns; several shooters thought we were saying Ken Doll.   One shooter even commented that he looked kina buff so that’s why he thought we were calling him that.

Even though this month has five Sundays we are not having a match on the 31st “it is just too damn hot”.  In addition to five Sundays, this August has five Fridays and five Saturdays. This is a very rare happening every 823 years, so that means Ben I and Brass Catcher have only seen this once before, just kidding!

On a serious note, Rod Henderson announced that he has stage four cancer of his tonsils and is starting treatment Monday.  He is in good spirits and shot the match today.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. 

Next match is pistol on September 7th.   Remember this is the match that Your Beloved Maytag has issued his “Fatwa”, that all Real Men should shoot a 1911 in 45 ACP, girly men and real girls may use a lesser caliber.  Please understand you may still participate with the handgun of your choice, it’s just Maytag stirring the pot! 

Maytag and Nightmare's thanks to Hal9000 and his daughter Jessie for doing the scores today.  Thanks to those who came out and help set up and those who stayed after to help tear down.

Finally, Nightmare is in Yankee Ville (Boston for a friends's daughters's wedding in Maine next weekend) as of this writing and the delay iin scores posting is due to that fact that he was out having fun with friends this evening even though HAL9000 got the files to him a good bit earlier.

03AUG

In honor of the fifty-third anniversary of hurricane Celia, 21 shooters came out for a fun pistol match none of whom were new shooters.

A huge thanks to team DILLIGAF's squad for tearing down and stowing the gear on four stages. Thanks to them we were at lunch before 1330.

Another big thanks to Rusty Fickes who helped set up yesterday, did not shoot the match, but came back afterward and helped tear down the stages. Now THAT is dedication and we REALLY appreciate it!

Maytag’s pick for most interesting approach to shooting goes to Clark “Oppossum” Apusen for tackling the stages with a 1911 that had neither front nor rear sights.

Scores were up by 4pm.

Next match is Carbine on the 17th. Even though there are five Sunday’s this month, we are NOT hosting a shotgun match. Sorry folks, it’s just too darn hot this time of year for three matches in one month.

20JUL

Five new shooters were among the thirty-nine guns challenging our five courses of fire today which featured a three-position two hundred yard stage. It was hot, go figure, South Texas summer, but with everyone pitching in we were done and put away by 2:30.

Welcome to Jake Benth, Rusty Fickes, Derrick Chavana, Erica Gonzales, and Bryan Macrum. Thanks for joining us, hope you had a good time and will come and shoot with us in the future. Welcome back to Pete Carpentier and Bill Luick, long time no see, glad to have you back.

We also got to see our good friend Yarek who was in town visiting a friend in the hospital. Good to see you, amigo and we sincerely hope your friend is well again soon.

Just think I’ve been trying to get Erica to shoot for months and she pays me back by breaking one of our steel plates! Just kidding, it was due to be replaced, glad you made it.

Remember our next match is pistol on August 3rd and carbine on the 17th.

06JUL

Great turnout today..thirty guns, no new shooters, but we welcome back some old friends; Tom Alexander, Mike Merkler, Sonny “Sally” Strother, and Mike Mansilla. Good to see you again and hope to see you all again real soon.

Today was the first sporadic Diesel Revolver Challenge, five shooters dug out their trusty wheel guns to challenge Diesel’s skill. This inaugural challenge was won by your “Beloved” Maytag.

Don’t forget the carbine match on the 20th which will feature one long-range stage for all of you folks who need to shoot a LONG ways. Approximately 200 yards for centerfire shooters and approximately 100 yards for rimfire.

Thanks to those intrepid individuals who helped set up on Saturday and thanks to all who lent a hand to tear down and stow the props today.

Be sure and check out the article in the latest issue of the TSRA magazine on page 37 which features our very own Donna “Numbers” Lowery.

Scores were up by 5pm which is pretty darn good.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Independence Day weekend and look forward to seeing you next time at the range.

29JUN

Today was fun and the wind kept us from bursting into flames. Twenty-two shooters with one new shooter, Terry Hughes, came out to challenge our five courses of fire. One stage featured natural terrain behind the Swamp. So far, no ticks were discovered but we advise checking yourself at home. <grin>

Thanks to the Milks, Gerrit and Nick, for making the long drive all the way from Houston to join us. Good to see you guys.

Thanks to those who came out on Saturday to lend a hand with setup and thanks to those who stayed around to help tear down the stages and store the props.

Next month we will be back to our two-match schedule, pistol on Sunday the 6th which will be the Diesel Revolver Challenge, and Sunday 20th for our regular carbine match.

Scores were up by 3:45pm which is pretty quick after a long lunch at Jaliescience. And as expected, Master Blaster turned in the fastest time at 81 seconds followed closely by Benny at 82.70. Unbelievable. <grin>

15JUN

We are SO stoked, Father’s Day, hot, vacation time, and we still had 34 guns come out to play. Five new shooters; Mike Paxson, Romeo Gonzales, Florencio aka “Flo” Hinojosa, Alex Garza, and Juan Cervantes. Thank you for coming and we hope you enjoyed yourselves enough to come shoot with us in the future.

Today featured five new courses of fire with a new twist on activation...open the mailbox to start the swinger..electronically!

Thanks to everyone who helped us setup on both days and to those who hung around after the match to help us stow the gear.

We had a wonderful surprise when our good friend Yarek joined us today..he came down from the Beaumont area and, he even shot his WW II master blaster Garand. Great to see you, Yarek and look forward to your next trip south. Having good thoughts your way, too.

Two of our newest core members had the opportunity to start learning the SO trade and both Morgan and Mason did very well indeed..thanks guys.

We got word that LT Dan’s daughter who joined the Air Force recently, graduated with honors and in the top company this weekend. So, hats off to her!

Scores were up by 6:30pm after a huge gathering at Catfish Charlie’s and a lot of jawing at Casa KB.

Reminder: Shotgun match next weekend..plan on 75 rounds of birdshot (#6 or smaller) and no slugs.

OK, thanks to everyone who endured the oven baking heat with us today and we look forward to seeing you again next time.

01JUN

Today two new shooters; John “Johnny Ninja” DeLagarza and Tomas Duran joined sixteen of the Texas Carbine faithful to challenge five fun pistol stages. It was a great day but some whiners wanted a little more wind. Imagine, a calm day in Corpus Christi.

A BIG TC thanks to everyone who helped set up on Saturday, especially Ben 1 and Brass Catcher for coming all the way from Fulton to lend a hand. And of course, a REAL BIG thanks to everyone stayed to tear down and stow the props. We made it to the restaurant by 1:30 which hasn’t happened in a long time.

Our next match is carbine on the 15th and with this being a five-Sunday month, we will have a shotgun match on the 29th.

Scores were up by 4:30 which is respectable.

So, thanks to everyone who joined us today and we hope to see all of you again in the future.

18MAY

Welcome to our two new shooters; Avery Bean and Terri “Mama Doc” Ellis. Thirty brave guns came out to exercise their “smoke poles” on five new courses of fire. This match also featured the “Kilt Challenge,” only two brave(?) souls participated. For some in the group is was a sight to behold.

Special thanks to everyone who came out Saturday to help with setup, it was extremely appreciated due to our current critical shortage of core group members.

Safe trip to Betsy Price who is heading up north for awhile, see you back in August(?) Betsy, most people are leaving Brownsville in August, not heading home to it. (Smile)

Remember June is a five-Sunday month so in addition to our pistol match on June 1st and carbine on the 15th, we will have a shotgun on the 29th.

04MAY

Today marked our first match after the passing of our dear friend and cofounder, Terry “Spider” Panknin, the match was good but God we all miss him dearly.

Three new shooters; David Griffith, Ryan Hundl, and Morgan Lamprecht came out to challenge the five all-steel stages which proved very interesting.

Thanks to everyone who came out to help set up on Saturday, it was very much appreciated. And of course, thanks to everyone who joined us today for the match, we certainly appreciate your support.

Scores were up by 5pm..not bad.

We want to wish safe travels to our Winter shooters; Gordon “Gord” Thompson and Billy Rogers. Enjoy the wonderful summer weather and hopefully we’ll see you again next Fall.

30MAR

We just finished our first shopgun match of the year and fifteen of us had a birthday lunch for Jennifer, (Mrs. Nightmare.) She is thirty-one years old today and doesn't look a day over twenty-nine.

We had twenty-four shotgunners shot up on a beautiful morning to shoot five interesting stages consisting of clay pigeons, stell plates, and steel poppers.

We want to welcome our first-time shooter, Paul Kowalik, we hope you had a good time and that we will see you again at future matches. Also we want to thank Paul, Gerrrit and Nick Milks for driving all the way from Houston to shoot with us.

Reminders..we will be shooting our monthly tactical pistol match next week weekend, April 6th, which will be an all-steel match.

Thanks to everyone for joining us today and we'll see you next time.

   
16MAR

Maytag conducted a successful rain delay dance which allowed thirty-eight guns to enjoy our monthly carbine match.

We had three new shooters: Ben Lloyd, Monty Farmer, and Chloe Hinojosa...thanks for coming and we hope to see you at more matches in the future.

We were finally able to hold our 3GN Club Series raffle drawing and congratulations to Nightmare for winning the Versa Max, Miles Long for the Hyperfire Trigger, The Hercster and Spider for the Burris scope discount coupons.

Scores were up by 530pm after a very enjoyable post-match get together at Jason’s Deli.

Reminders: We will hold a shotgun match on March 30th, approximately 80 rounds and no slugs.

Finally, thanks to everyone who joined us today, we appreciate your support very much.

02MAR

Happy Texas Independence Day! It was a breezy day for the twenty-one shooters who joined us today but all persevered. We shot five stages with a mix of steel and paper. The t-shirt stage caught a few by surprise. It was a fun match with bowling alley and lollipop stage.

Welcome to our two new shooters; Billy Rogers and Rob Guerra..thanks for joining us and hope to see you again at a match in the future.

Scores were up by 5pm after a long lunch at Catfish Charlies.

Reminders..our next carbine match is March 16th and because we have five Sundays we will hold a shotgun match on March 30th. You will need approximately eighty rounds of #6 birdshot or smaller and no slugs.

Thanks to everyone who helped setup and tear down and to all who joined us for the match.

02FEB

Can you believe it, sixty guns started the match for a new TC record. The weather turned cold and several folks without coats decided to leave early.

Welcome to the nine new shooters; Holden Pattengill, Pete Perez, Don Porschien, Philip Zabzt, Don Hardy, Tom Horashan, Jim Shamess, Steve Schumacher, and Mario Hesles. We really appreciate you checking us out and hope to see you again in the future.

It was great to have so many come out to shoot with us, especially those from San Antonio, considering the iffy weather and it being Super Bowl weekend.

Today’s match featured some interesting courses of fire and props. We’re still working out the bugs in our wireless activators. We suffered a catastrophic of one of our plate racks forcing us to adapt, improvise, and overcome to keep from dropping a stage. However with a wind chill in the mid thirties, one less stage might have been a good idea.

Our after match group feed was at New York Pizza, if you haven’t been there only order a whole pie if you’re with a group of four or more..it’s A LOT of pizza.

Reminder...Pirates in two weeks and for those working the match, stand by for an email or two with pertinent info.

19JAN

We set a new record for a monthly carbine match with a total of 53 guns. We welcomed six new shooters; Cameron Nott, Michelle Nott-Evans, Kirby Evans, Travis Bains, David Ragsdale, Yordany Cortina and, we welcomed a bunch of old friends we hadn’t seen in awhile.

We enjoyed some really exciting stages, thanks to Maytag and HAL9000, lots of running and gunning.

Additionally we tested our mover and with the exception of breaking a string, all went well. We’ll have a new string for Pirates. <g>

In final preparation for our Pirates match our regular pistol match in February will also be a carbine on February 2nd.

Scores were up by 7pm which isn’t too bad considering the large number of shooters today.

Thanks to everyone who joined us today and we hope to see you again soon

05JAN

Happy New Year to everyone. We had our first match of the year and it was super! The weather started out pretty nice until about noon, then the cold front got to us oh did it get cold.

We had a fantastic turnout with shooters..45 guns came out to brave the weather. Welcome to our new shooters: Rafael Cortez, Michael McCully, and Evan Enderle, thanks for the joining. Also good to see some of the shooters we haven’t seen in awhile.

We had five challenging stages that included two motion-activated props that we’ve been working on. They worked well, will probably some tweaking but we will continue to use them to make our stages more fun and challenging.

We will be shooting carbine matches on the 19th and Feb 2nd in preparation for our Pirates match on February 16th. Come out and join us for some good shooting fun.