Bottom line? Bianchi Cup is an awesome match – you never know what you might walk away with.

BERRYVILLE, Ark. – Blade-Tech, a leading manufacturer of custom, production thermoplastic, injection molded tactical holsters, knife sheaths and magazine pouches, will be stage sponsor of the 2012 Carolina Cup shooting championship, according to officials with the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA).

Blade-Tech, which is one of the most popular holster brands in IDPA competition, joins Remington Arms and Smith & Wesson, the Carolina Cup’s two major sponsors, and Comp-Tac, GlockTriggers.com, Safariland and Trijicon in supporting the championship.

“Thanks to companies like Blade-Tech competitive pistol shooting is thriving, and their generous support of the Carolina Cup has helped to make this one of the biggest and best championship events on the IDPA schedule,” said Scott Ruby, sponsor coordinator for the Carolina Cup.
“Blade-Tech is a proud sponsor of IDPA Carolina Cup,” said Ryan Preece, media relations manager for Blade-Tech Industries. “The Carolina Cup is one of the premier matches in IDPA. We are thankful for the chance to sponsor the competition, and Blade-Tech will be on hand at the event to demonstrate and answer shooters’ questions about our newest products.”

The Carolina Cup, one of IDPA’s three major championships, will take place June 14-16 at The Range in Oxford, North Carolina. More than 360 of IDPA’s top shooters are expected to put upwards of 75,000 rounds downrange in pursuit of titles in Custom Defensive Pistol, Enhanced Service Pistol, Stock Service Pistol, Stock Service Revolver and Enhanced Service Revolver, the five divisions in IDPA competition.

Considered by many to be among the most popular matches in IDPA competition, the Carolina Cup is known for its challenging courses of fire that creatively test all of a shooter’s skills. Due to both the match’s popularity and the explosive growth in IDPA membership, the Carolina Cup has been sold out since early March.

For more information on the championship visit www.The-CarolinaCup.com, or use #carolinacup to follow match news and competitor updates on Twitter.

Founded in 1996, the International Defensive Pistol Association is the international governing body for IDPA competition which offers shooters a fun, safe, and challenging format to practice and test their gun handling skills through defensive-based scenarios. Today IDPA stands as the fastest growing shooting sport in the United States with over 20,000 members from all 50 states and 54 foreign countries. IDPA’s 321 affiliated clubs offer weekly and monthly matches as well as host major championships.

To find a club near you, join IDPA, or just learn more about this exciting and fun defensive pistol shooting sport, visit www.IDPA.com. You can also follow @OfficialIDPA on Twitter, like IDPA on Facebook, watch IDPA TV, or check out the Down Zero Blog to keep up with the latest news.

Media Contact:
Media@IDPA.com
(870) 545-3886

Photo by Barb Baird/Women's Outdoor News

My two events that I have today, the Mover and the Barricades I’ve shot fairly consistently on. Day 1 practice saw me shoot a PR on the Barricades of 437, and yesterday I improved that to a 444 out of 480. The most difficult part of the Barricades for me as a shooter is coming around the right side of the barricade, because I can never really find a position that lets my feet get comfortable. Most shoots shoot the right side better, but for whatever reason I actually tend to shoot the left side better. My goals for the actual match today are simple: don’t crowd the wall, and stay in my cadence.

For the Mover, I’m honestly not too worried about it. I’ve shot it well in practice, and today’s run on the mover is with my “second” gun anyway. Shooting it in Metallic means I get to avoid the DA trigger pull, so I’m just going to head out there and have a good old time. In practice I’ve been very consistent on the Mover, regularly shooting it in the 440s. It should be a lot of fun to see how my practice scores hold up to the main match scores. In the past, I’ve always gotten really amped up before each stage, just all sorts of adrenaline and nonsense in my system. This year, for the first time I feel calm about the whole thing. Like I said in the post below, now the only thing I can do is relax, see the sights, press the trigger, and don’t worry about it. Once the bullet has left the gun there’s nothing I can do about it.

Like my shirt? Get a Who is Charlie Mike shirt for your next USPSA match.

Today we’re also starting the Livestrong Donation Tally – for every X I shoot, at the end of the match we’re going to donate $1 to Livestrong. I’ll be wearing my Livestrong shirt through the day, and of course on Saturday at the Celebrity event I’ll be wearing the fantastic kilt you’ve seen in the background of some of my videos.

Now, the only thing that matters are the sights, the trigger, and the target. Do I wish I’d had more time behind this gun? Sure. Do I wish I’d has enough time to install an EGW sear and do an action job so the first DA shot was lighter? Definitely. But like I said – none of that matters now. One of the past winners of the Production Cup gave me this advice the other day: “Use the time. Be visual. Trust what you see, feel the trigger. You know what to do.” He’s absolutely right. As long as it’s just me and my good old buddy the front sight, I’ll be just fine.

Shooting would be a prime example. I hadn’t been to the range for over a month when I finally rolled in on Sunday with a stack of M&Ps, a Browning Buckmark and a few hundred rounds of ammo for each. It was great to see the guys. I did my normal routine, picked up some ammo and a few IDPA practice targets and holed myself in the quietest corner of the range I could find. My shooting? Not a pretty sight. I’m not even going to tell you how badly I did because it was so horrifying. Part of it I know to be a combination of mental distraction, having had too much coffee and too little food and a series of other excuses I could likely develop. But the truth is I haven’t been following my own advice.

Practice is important. That’s what I’m getting at here. No matter how much you’re improving and no matter how little skill you think you’ll lose shooting is a perishable skill and practice is important. It’s easy to get caught up in the whirlwind of life and find new jobs or new friends and let going to the range fall to a low priority. It’s important to make time though, at least to dry fire. It’s funny, because there was a period of time I couldn’t afford ammunition. I actually improved during this period because I was unemployed and therefore sitting at home doing  a lot of dry fire. It’s not a matter of money. It’s a matter of finding the time, making the time.

And here I am not going on a run again, what a hypocrite.

I ran the .38 Super rounds through the EAA Witness Elite Stock II in two quick ways – shooting a group at 25 yards, and running them in a practice run on the Barricades. They shot a 1.25 inch group standing unsupported at 25 yards, so accuracy was just as good as the Atlanta Arms .38 Super I’ve been using for match ammo. Then I took the rounds over to the Barricades…and promptly shot the best practice score on the Barricades I’ve ever put up. Obviously, 50ish rounds isn’t a lot to do a thorough evaluation of how a round performs through a gun, but I was pretty impressed with how the rounds from DC Ammo have performed so far. After the cup, I plan on ordering up a couple thousand of this load to really shake it out through the Witness.

Big thanks to Doug for the ammo, and we’ll have a full and proper review of the ammo in the upcoming weeks here on Gun Nuts.