Indiana State SMG Championships!

[shooter521]

Yesterday, I participated in the 7th Annual Indiana State Sub-Machinegun Championships (ISSMC), held at the Old Trails Gun Club near Richmond, IN. Thanks to word-of-mouth advertising, positive exposure in Small Arms Review and other industry publications, and the tireless efforts of Dave Bane and the rest of the ISSMC organizers, this event has become one of the most popular subgun matches in the country. This year's event - 150 slots - sold out in 3 days.

The ISSMC has a theme every year, which is reflected in the courses of fire. 2004 and 2005 were WWII themes, with courses evoking particular battles (50th anniversary years), while 2006 gave us "the Roaring Twenties" and saw the introduction of the popular Thompson-only division. The 2007 match (which I missed due to my brother's wedding in Aruba) had a "Great Sub-Machinegun Raids" theme, and that was carried over to this year as well.

STAGE 1 was "Operation Magic Fire," a GSG9 raid in Somalia in 1977.

On October 13, 1977 Lufthansa flight 181 on its way to Frankfurt, was hijacked by 4 Arab terrorists demanding the release of Red Army Faction members. With 84 hostages, the airliner was ferried to various countries, finally setting down in Mogadishu, Somalia. Commander of the operation, Ulrich Wegener, gathered a team which also included two British SAS members and pursued the hijacked airliner.

The Captain of the aircraft was killed, and GSG9 felt that time was running out for the passengers. Towards midnight a diversion was created, and GSG9 crawled to the aircraft with IR goggles. Using flash-bang devices for the first time, the aircraft was entered and all terrorists killed.

The stage began with the shooter placing his unloaded gun on a table behind a curtain. At the buzzer, the shooter drew back the curtain and threw a "flashbang" into the passenger compartment of the mock aircraft. He then loaded his gun and went through the doorway, moving down the aisle and engaging banks of targets hidden amidst large groups of "passengers" (no-shoot targets). At the end, he had to engage 3 terrorists in the cockpit, who had taken the flight crew hostage, by neutralizing each with at least two rounds.

STAGE 2 was "Operation Thunderbolt," the famous Raid on Entebbe by Israeli Defense Force commandos in 1976.

On June 27th, Air France flight 139 was hijacked carrying 248 passengers and a crew of 12 as it left Athens heading for Paris. Two Palestinians and two Germans commandeered the flight and headed for Libya. It was there for 7 hours to refuel and then on to Entebbe airport in Uganda.

At Entebbe the four hijackers were joined by three additional terrorists – led by Bose. They demanded the release of 40 Palestinians held in Israel and 13 other detainees in other countries. The hostages were held for a week in Entebbe airport terminal and eventually non-Jewish passengers and the crew were released. The hijacking led to the Israeli government sending an elite group of Commandos on a daring night raid on the airport terminal, which by chance had been designed by an Israeli firm.

Borrowing a Mercedes like President Amin, the Raid used C-130s in infiltrate and begin the daring 30 minute raid. After destroying Amin’s Mig fighters at the airport, the Commandos hit the terminal. Of the 105 hostages left at the airport, three were killed and 10 wounded. 45 Ugandan soldiers were killed, 11 Migs destroyed, and one Israeli Commando was killed by a Ugandan sniper and 5 were wounded. All of the terrorists were killed.

This course of fire was pretty straightforward. Shooter started at position 1 in the low ready, and on the buzzer, engaged 2 poppers partially hidden behind red-painted no-shoots; the poppers fell to reveal a small steel target which also had to be neutralized. After that, the shooter moved to position 2 behind a low brick wall, and engaged a large group of black-painted targets of various sizes; once all those had been defeated, the shooter transitioned to his support side and engaged three white targets – all while avoiding the large number of red-painted no-shoots.

I got into the first squad on stage 1 and went through it a little too fast, failing to see/engage 3 "shoot" targets and taking out two no-shoots (the latter was about par for that stage; there were some *very* tight shots). All the BGs in the cockpit were successfully neutralized, with no further loss of innocent life. :-)

Stage 2 went better, with a good base time and only 2 no-shoots down. Shooting my SMG from the support side was something I hadn't done before, but it didn't prove that big of a challenge (red-dot sight helped a bunch, as did the support side practice I'd previously done with my carbines). No equipment issues at all on my end, which was a nice change from previous years!

We started shooting at 9:15, and I was on the way home by 11:00. I only shot one run this year, and Sundays are usually the slower day of the two (yeah, they shot during Saturday's deluge - hardcore MF'ers!). But this was also a testament to the bang-up job that Dave and his staff do at putting on this event every year. They've pretty much got it down to a science.

I'll have a few pics up in the next couple days, but you can see a TON of pics and video from this and past ISSMC matches at http:/www.issmc.com.

If anybody from the ISSMC crew is reading this, thanks for another excellent match! See you next year! Everybody else - if you have a subgun and are interested in doing something with it besides just shooting at the range, Email Dave to get on the mailing list for next year's match. You'll be glad you did!

[bigcraig]

I would have liked to have attended as a spectator, it sounds like it was a h00t.

[Fenway]

Thanks for the write up!

[shooter521]

A few pics:

My 2008 ISSMC rig.


Lotta money on that table!


Stage 1, looking down the aisle of the aircraft cabin... the "red X" targets are no-shoots. photo by Garrett J.


Chuck P. gets busy whacking Tangos on Stage 1. photo by Garrett J.



A couple of the tight target arrays on Stage 1 - most definitely NOT "spray and pray"! photos by Garrett J.


Starting Stage 2


Ringin' steel on Stage 2


Finishing up Stage 2 from the support side... not something I regularly do with the SMG, but not real hard.


Veteran shooter rocks Stage 2 with his M3 Greasegun.

[Pami]

Beautiful!

[Scutter01]

Gotta get me one of those!

[Yamaha]

p90 would prolly do this well.....

[shooter521]

Originally Posted by Yamaha

p90 would prolly do this well.....

Not likely, since the match rules require a straight wall cartridge with an FMJ bullet (no HP, AP or steel core).

[Fenway]

Great review and pics. Thanks for posting them!