This year's AL State Championship was held on 27 March in Pleasant Grove, AL and hosted by The Dixie Shooters. Jon Grisby was the match director and managed to get 152 shooters through the match in a one day format. I have been participating in this match for about 8 years now and this is the first time I have ever seen so much competition on that range. There was a total of 14 GM's in the match competing in various divisions. WOW! You don't see that very often at a State match. This proves that AL State has a great reputation for their match as well as their professionalism.

The match consisted of 8 stages and 225 rounds. The stages were very fast paced and plenty of rounds to go with it. With these types of stages, it allowed for very high hit factors. Only 2 of the 8 stages factored under a 10 and the rest varied from 12-15 points per second! That is huge. You will understand why as you read further through the report. Although most stages were very much in your face, they did have a pretty good balance of testing other abilities as well. Some stages required a good bit of thinking on how you were going to do it, such as where should I shoot that target, should I shoot it on the move or not, etc.

I showed up early Saturday with the rest of the Army team, and the squad started to show up shortly after. We began shooting on Stage 1 at 9 am as squad #1. Chris Tilley was a member of squad 1 and he is always a lot of fun to shoot with. Chris and I were very close after the first two stages. On stage 3, I was the first shooter up and had a great run making it over a 15 factor! Chris shot next and did well but fumbled his reload costing him 2 seconds. Usually this is not that big of a deal but 2 seconds here is 30 match points! I spoke to Chris about it and I basically told him I was sorry that it happened, but I knew that I had to remain sharp throughout the match to maintain my lead as it could happen to me on the next stage. As the match came to an end, I won 5 out of the 8 stages and the final results were:

Results Open:
1. Max Michel, Jr. 100%
2. Chris Tilley 94.66%
3. David Christen 89.18%

Chris Tilley shot a great match and was a true sportsman as always. You have to understand that Chris and I shoot against each other nearly 10 times a year or more. It is always fun competing together and I look forward to SC State where we will be knocking heads again for the 3rd time already this season.

I secured another AL State Championship victory for the 6th year in a row! I love this match and I hope to continue my win streak for years to come!

I would also like to point out that my gunsmith from the Army Marksmanship Unit; Joe Harless shot for the first time ever and won 1st. place unclassified Open! Not only did he win his class but he also fixed my gun during the competition allowing me to win as well. Great job Joe and thank you very much for all you do for me and the team!

Joe Harless in action

This was overall a great match and I plan on attending again next year. The word is that the 2005 AL State Championship will be held at the same location with a little more difficulty in the match. I would like to give a big thanks to Jon and all his RO's as they did a great job! I know it is a lot of work being out on the range all day as well as set up and tear down but we truly appreciate what you guys do. Thanks for a great match and I look forward to 2005!

Until next time,
Max Michel, Jr.