he 28th annual Golden Bullet Championships, sponsored by Hogue, took place at the Richmond Rod and Gun Club in Richmond, California, over the weekend of June 7-9, with 378 shooters from California, Nevada and the Pacific Northwest taking part in this USPSA Level 2 match. The club is located by the water of San Francisco Bay and is known for its variable weather. The week of the match, as expected, the weather was consistently inconsistent. Tuesday and Wednesday were stage building days and it was hot, with temperatures getting into the unseasonably 90s; the weekend had a 30-degree temperature drop and everyone was in jackets.
Match director Jim Griffiths did an amazing job running the match, especially considering this was his first time running a Level 2 USPSA match. Jim has run state IDPA matches before, but nothing of this size; however, he was able to scramble in a much shorter than usual time frame and get it done.
Volunteers were organized for stage building on Tuesday and Wednesday, staff was organized for food, match sponsors and scoring, and Chief Range Officers and Range Officers were assigned to manage and run each stage. Additionally, Jim was available all day, each day of the pre-match and match for any issues or problems that may have arisen. The designated Range Officers shot the match on Thursday and were the “guinea pigs” to sort out any of the stage bugs. In additition, Range Master Carl Schmidt ran a tight ship and kept things running smoothly in an organized, professional manner, all the while keeping his usual sense of humor.
Section clubs Richmond and Solano Targetmasters stepped up to design, build and staff at least one stage, while Diablo Action Pistol staffed a stage. Originally there were 10 stages, but due to some unfortunate circumstances one of the stages had to be removed. The stages were challenging, with a mix of short, medium and long courses, including many moving targets which presented different challenges to different shooter strengths.
Pistol-Caliber Carbine and Overall match winner went to 14-year-old junior shooter Migz Valencia from Las Vegas.
Migz said: “This was my first time attending Golden Bullet. I’ve heard great things about it. My grandfather attended years ago and so did my dad more recently. I felt it would be a tradition if I attended too. The stages were great and the staff and ROs were amazing. Thankfully, I was able to shoot well and win the title this year. I am already looking forward to next year’s GBC and I know it will be another amazing match Big thanks to all the staff and ROs for welcoming us out of state shooters to your range.”
High Lady went to Richmond's own Janet Tsui.
Janet had the following to say about the match: “It’s always special when the Golden Bullet is hosted by my home range. It’s like a reunion of friends from out of town that are here to compete at my training ground. The match staff, competitors and range officers were the best. I’m surrounded by Northern California’s best. They have seen me through growing pains and I am eternally grateful.”
Seasoned competitor Nilo Nunez took home the Open division title. He said, “As always, the match was great.”
As for the Limited Optics division, the title went to Richmond’s Sebastio Filho.
He said, “I have been shooting [Limited Optics] for only five months, transitioning from Limited division. I am still in the process of learning to shoot this new division, and I was fortunate to win Limited Optics. I had a great time shooting GBC. It was one of the best matches with well-designed stages with many options, yet still fun to shoot. The match was very well organized and even had great food.”
Additional division winners include Sean Kellejian in Carry Optics, Mike McMullen in Limited, Ross Thompson in Limited-10, Tim Zheng in Production, Rich Wolfe in Revolver and Brian Brazeal in Single Stack.
A big thank you to Jim Griffiths, Carl Schmidt and all of the Range Officers and volunteers who helped the match run smoothly. Additionally, a huge thanks to the match sponsors, including Hogue as the Presenting Sponsor, along with Gold Sponsors Red Hill Tactical, Hunters HD Gold and Mighty Armory. Division sponsors include Carver Customs, Atlas Gunworks and Springer Precision. Stage and additional sponsors include Weapons Grade Waifus, Blue Bullets, FGS Engineering, Laser Ammo, Taylor Freelance and Manny Bragg. As of now, it seems next year’s Golden Bullet does not have a club destination yet. Hopefully, we will get one of the section clubs to step up and keep the tradition of Golden Bullet going.
Article from the July/August 2024 issue of USPSA’s magazine.
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