On Sept 21-22, 2019, many of the key figures in the early days of Practical Shooting reunited for a weekend of shooting and socializing. The event was hosted by Bill and Joyce Wilson at the Circle WC Ranch. Part one of this blog post series has more details about the event and who attended.

As part of the event we shot a four stage match built from courses of fire from the pre-1985 days of practical shooting. One of them was called the “Advanced Military Combat Course”. The match was shot from open carry, with everyone shooting 1911 pistols from holsters in common use prior to 1985.

Type: PAR time standard exercise

Targets: 3 standard IDPA silhouettes spaced 3 yards apart edge to edge

Scoring: 5 points, 4 points and 3 points. Complete misses and/or overtime shots are -5 points each

Possible score: 250 points (50 rounds)

Procedure:

Stage 1: 25 yards. Draw and fire 5 rounds at T1 (left target) from any position, 30 second time limit

Stage 2: 25 yards. Draw and fire 5 rounds at T1 (left target) from any position, 10 second time limit

Stage 3: 15 yards. Draw and fire 2 rounds on T2 (center target) offhand, repeat 4 times for a total of 10 shots, 3 second time limit per string

Stage 4: 10 yards. Begin with 5 rounds total in the pistol. Draw and fire 5 rounds on T3 (right target), mandatory slide lock re-load and fire 5 more shots on T3, 14 second time limit

Score and paste targets

Stage 5: 10 yards. Start in front of T2 (center target) facing 90 degrees right or left, on signal turn, draw and engage T1, T2 and T3 with 2 rounds each. Repeat for a total of 12 rounds. 5 second time limit per string

Stage 6: 7 yards. Start in front of T2 (center target), draw and fire 2 rounds at T2, repeat 3 times for a total of 8 rounds. 2.5 second time limit per string

Calculating Drill Difficulty

Given the high level of skill among those that attended, this course, like the other 3 events, became a contest of who could drop the least points. This stage included 25 yard strings that had generous time limits, as well as some medium speed par time strings. Because of the 25 yard targets, more shooters dropped points on this course than the others.