Back in the 1990’s a pistol club in Midland, Texas ran a cool match called the Texas Paper and Iron Championship. Like the Steel Challenge and Bianchi Cup, it featured the same stages each time. It had surprisingly strong sponsorship (including Coors), and a great prize table. Penny and I and others from the KR Training family shot the match many years in a row, with our last visit being in 2001.

It was, for a short time, considered the “undiscovered jewel” and was expected to become a major national match. Top shooters including Rob Leatham and Michael Voigt were regulars and frequent match winners. There was a great American Handgunner article written about the match, but my attempts to find it in their archives was unsuccessful.

Someone recently asked me about the match and the stages, so I dug out the old match booklets, found one of the original cardboard targets in my shed, and found a few photos to share.

Poppin W was a mix of stationary and falling steel. 3 runs, all counted for score. Everyone had to do a mandatory reload between first and last shot. You had to shoot all 5 stationary steel targets before engaging the two falling steel and the gong. The falling steel were stacked one behind the other, with a smaller falling plate behind the large one. Most people would shoot the 5 stationary plates, the large steel, reload and shoot the last two plates. My stage runs from 1999 were all around 7 seconds, with sub 6’s being my training goal.

Time’s a Wastin used the International Speed Shooting Association target, which was an 18″x24″ cardboard rectangle, with 8″ and 12″ circles in the center. Shots inside the 8″ circle were “down zero”, Shots outside the 8″ but inside the 12″ added 0.2 seconds, and shots on the paper but outside the 12″ circle added 0.5 seconds. This version of time only scoring pre-dated the scoring used in IDPA, and had smaller time penalties for poor accuracy than most of the current Time Only scoring rules.

This was a classic accelerator/decelerator stage, again with a reload required between first and last shot. Most people, depending on gun capacity, would reload between T1 and T2 or T2 and T3, regardless of which direction they were engaging the array (front to back or back to front). 1999 times were in the mid 5’s, with a training goal of sub 5’s on each string.

Sgt. York’s Way was a 4 string, 6 round drill where you shot all 4 variations: front to back, back to front, each from the left and right boxes. The back target was at 19 yards and the front target was at 2 yards, so the shooter’s ability to adjust their transition speed (and not overrun the zero down zones) was key.

Runs on this stage were quick: 2.90-3.39, with training goals of 2.5 per string.

Triple Roundabout was a Steel Challenge style stage with a mandatory reload. The plates had to be shot in 3 groups: P1-3 were in the center, P4 and P5 on the shooter’s far left, P6 and P7 on the far right, and the stop plate, which had to be shot last, at center back. The common strategy on this was to start with P1 and move right across those 5 plates, reload to engage the last 3 left to right: P6, P4 and the stop plate. The ability to do a quick reload between two 15 yard targets with a wide spread was a key skill for this stage. Another strategy was to reload between P1 and P2, on the closest two targets. In the early days of this match, most people were shooting single stack .38 super 1911’s and minor loads – typically the same gear they would use at Steel Challenge but with a slightly higher power factor load to ensure the reactive steel would fall. Doing the reload between the first two plates would leave the shooter 10-11 rounds to hit the remaining 7 targets, leaving a thin margin of “extras” available to make up misses.

1999 match runs were between 6-8 seconds, with sub 6’s being training goals.

The Gauntlet was most people’s favorite stage – a one string run and gun with a mix of stationary and falling steel. There was falling steel to shoot from each of the 3 boxes, stationary steel to be shot on the move when outside the boxes. With the low capacity single stack guns, it was possible to run the stage with one reload, if you did it between the two falling poppers from Box B, but the safer option was to reload twice, between each box. When the 2011 pistols became popular, and 24 round magazines were available (and allowed), the removal of the need to reload sped up the winning times on this stage.

My 1999 Gauntlet time (shot with a 24 round magazine and a dot), was 17.17. The training goal was sub 16.

V Double was yet another Steel Challenge style stage but with 3 runs all counting for score, and a mandatory reload during each string. Most people would shoot left to right, a group of 3, another group of 3, reload and a hard pivot to hammer the last 2 on the right.

My 1999 times on V-Double were all sub 7, with sub 6 being my training goal.

Hung Over and Strung Out was a moving Bill Drill stage that involved precise footwork to be in the correct box for each target. Back in the single stack days it required two reloads, which meant reloading during one of the 6 shot engagements. 6 on T1 as you moved forward in Box A, 2-4 on T2 from Box B, 2-4 more on T3 as you moved into Box C, then a flat footed reload in Box C to fire remaining shots on T3 and 6 on T4. 24 round magazines made this stage a lot easier.

My 1999 stage time, with the 24 round mag and a dot, was 7.60, but I had too many shots outside the 12″ circle, and one miss, for a total time of 15.10. If I recall correctly I came back with a sub 8 second run in 2001.

This stage is from the 2001 match, where they switched to using the NRA D1 target instead of the original ISSA’s, after they ran out of the original production run. The D1 was used for Bianchi Cup and Glock Shooting Sports matches and were easier to get. They also offered a larger area outside the 12″ circle, which turned a few would-have-been-misses into 0.5 penalties on this hose-fest stage.

Pack Em and Stack Em was another paper stage, one shot per target, top row reload bottom row, repeated for bottom row reload top row. Unlike Steel Challenge every run at Paper and Iron counted for score. When they switched to the taller D1’s, I remember the bottom row of targets starting at ground level, with the top part of the tombstone D1 overlapped with the bottom of the top row, to keep the target stack from being taller than the berm.

My 1999 stage times were 5.67 and 6.25, and my training goals were sub 6 second runs.

Now that I’ve dug up all the stage drawings, maybe they will show up as stages at one of the Chicken Ranch Shooters summer weekday evening matches this year.