Team Erhardt Project: The 9 Circles Of Hell

This is the latest installment in the Team Erhardt Project series which appears on The Shooting Wire.

With the Steel Challenge just a week away, maybe it’s nerves, or pure dread, but I’ve come to the conclusion that the match is modeled after Dante’s Inferno.

Instead of Limbo, Lust, Gluttony, Greed, Anger, Heresy, Violence, Fraud and Treachery, the actual nine circles of Hell, the Steel Challenge gives us Outer Limits, Accelerator, Pendulum, Five To Go, Showdown, Speed Option, Roundabout and Smoke & Hope.

(Yeah, I know that’s just eight but keep reading.)

The Steel Challenge is like a cruel joke perpetrated on the shooting world, leaving me cursing Mike Dalton and Mike Fichman, the evil geniuses that came up with the format.

They designed this amazingly simple course of fire and made it irresistible by calling it a ‘speed’ match, when in fact, as Michael Bane once explained to me, it’s an accuracy match.

Albeit one conducted at a high rate of speed.

Once you shoot the Steel Challenge you cannot stop. It’s a powerful drug that won’t let go once you’re hooked.

That’s why Jim O’Young has shot it every year since day one. It’s why Tatsuya Sakai, and others, fly in from Japan to compete. And why Mark Itzstein, who now lives in Dallas, used to fly in from Australia.

And it’s why I am going to shoot it one more time.

But as much as I love the Steel Challenge, I can still hate the stages.

Outer Limits: WR-B.J. Norris, 11.40 (2007), My Best: 27.27
Outer Limits is the succubus of the Steel Challenge. You can roll into Outer Limits with a strong time, be in front or within striking distance of the lead, and come out hoping there’s a cash payout for top 15.

Outer Limits is where good scores go to die.

The only person who seems to be able to master the stage is B.J. Norris, and how he does it is a complete mystery…like crop circles.

Accelerator: WR-Max Michel, 8.94 (2007), My Best: 22.90
Introduced in 2006, all I can say about Accelerator is that I hate it. It’s the only stage situated away from the other stages in Piru, and by ‘away’ I mean the other side of a mountain.

It takes like a half hour to get from one side of the range over to Accelerator, which totally throws me off my game.

Since my best time is 22.90 seconds, that’s gonna be my excuse..and I’m sticking with it.

Pendulum: WR-Max Michel, 10.07 (2008), My Best: 27.19
Introduced in 2004 to replace Flying M 2000, Pendulum has easy written all over it, though apparently not in any language I can read.

My best time was set in ’06 when I first shot it in 27.19 seconds, and I haven’t gotten any better.

Compare that to Max’s 10.07 and you can see why Pendulum, my second worst stage, is likely to be my own personal circle in Hell called Misery.

Five To Go: WR-Max Michel, 9.58 (2007), My Best: 19.12
Five To Go is a stage I know I can actually shoot well (for me) and come in under 20 seconds.

However, my best time of 19.12 was shot back in May and I can’t seem to break 20 seconds again, which is amazingly frustrating.

I’m bracing myself for disappointment on this one.

Showdown: WR-B.J. Norris, 8.11 (2007), My Best: 22.19
The last time I shot Showdown was in practice with Paul Dandini after having shot Outer Limits. And all I could think was that this stage is Outer Limits Jr.

This bastard son of Outer Limits gives me the creeps if for no other reason than I think of Outer Limits when shooting it and OL just scares the crap out of me.

Yeah, I know this isn’t a logical way to approach the stage but who said ‘stage fright’ was logical?

Speed Option: WR-K.C. Eusebio, 9.73 (2010), My Best: 20.18
This is one of the Scholastic Steel Challenge stages so I’m a little more comfortable on Speed Option than say Outer Limits, which also has a long distance target – two in fact.

My runs on this stage could be characterized as ‘less speed, more option’. If I can stick close to my personal best, or even beat it, I’ll consider that a win on this stage.

Roundabout: WR-B.J. Norris, 8.00 (2010), My Best: 16.28
Besides Smoke & Hope, Roundabout is the other stage I feel good shooting and breaking 20.00 seconds. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to shoot the stage in the high threes which would put me under 16 seconds.

But, I do look forward to shooting this stage and it, along with Smoke & Hope, should be the high points of my match.

Smoke & Hope: WR-K.C. Eusebio, 7.39 (2004), My Best: 15.53
If Outer Limits is the succubus of the Steel Challenge then the sounds of ringing steel on Smoke & Hope are the match’s siren song.

This is where the Gods of speed flex their muscles, and nobody has flexed them like K.C. Eusebio with his 7.39 second blowout.

The four giant 18″x24″ plates of Smoke & Hope dare you to go fast. And you do go fast. As fast as you possibly can…bang, bang, bang, bang.

Then comes the 12″ round stop plate, which quickly reminds you that it’s nothing like its four brothers…bang, bang, bang again…bang one more time.

And now your fast has just set a new land speed record for slow. Lucky you, you’ve got four more runs so what do you do? Try and go faster, natch.

And you’re not really going fast until you start missing the big plates – trust me, I know.

Smoke & Hope is a trap, and Dalton and Fichman should be ashamed for ever having created it.

The Scoreboard
While the eight stages of the Steel Challenge are the eight outer circles of Hell, the scoreboard is most certainly the ninth.

Up until you see your name on the posted score sheets you live in denial, convinced your times weren’t really that bad. And hey, you just might be able to pick up a good prize.

Then you see your name…down somewhere in the triple digit territory. Well, it’s not that bad. Oh wait, that first number is a 2 and not a 1…it is that bad.

The only way I can figure avoiding pure torment in that 9th circle is to go in with three goals…

Goal #1: Hit my grip solid each and every time.

Goal #2: Focus hard on the front sight, and not the steel plate in the distance.

Goal #3: Go slow.

Yeah, I know that #3 seems counter intuitive but the old adage of ‘slow is smooth, smooth is fast’ is very true at the Steel Challenge.

If I can rein in the crazy desire to go faster, I’ll have time to hit my grip, see the front sight and actually hit the target in a single shot, rather than the two and sometimes three it takes.

These are modest goals but considering I’m aiming for a time of 150 seconds or under, cutting 50 seconds off my 2007 performance, they make cautious sense.

I’ve been advised to also think more positive. So maybe I’ll add Goal #4: Think Positive.

Of course, considering that this advice came from Athena Lee, the two-time women’s champion, who suggested my mantra should be “Beat K.C.” – Really? Beat K.C.? – that might not be considered positive as much as it is INSANE.

But what should I have expected when Athena offers up “the cat ate my gun” as an excuse?

Better to be negative than crazy I always say.

– Paul Erhardt

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