The 2004 Steel Challenge took place on August 19th-22nd in Piru, CA. Mike Fichman and Mike Dalton were the match directors as usual. There were a total of 251 shooters in various divisions, with over 140 sponsors and $300,000 in prizes! This is not like your normal IPSC match, that's for sure. It is a huge event and if you haven't shot it before you are truly missing out.

The match always consists of the same 7 stages every year. This year was slightly different as they had dropped one stage and replaced it with another. I was happy to see a change in one of the courses. I always like something new as it adds to the excitement. Every stage consists of 5 steel plates/gongs varying in size from 10"-24" and distances from 7-35 yards. You must shoot each course of fire 5 times and they take your best 4 for score. I think this is one of the things that make this match so unique. Although this is not your normal IPSC style match it brings out the very best form all over such as; Todd Jarrett, Rob Leatham, Jerry Miculek, JJ Racaza, JoJo Vidanes, KC Eusebio, and Mike Voigt. This match always has incredible talent show up to compete for the title of the World Speed Shooting Champion.

As a full time IPSC shooter, I only devote about a week to train for this match every year and I am very pleased with my results with such little preparation. I was very lucky this year as I had a friend in Atlanta, GA offer me a place to practice. My range at Ft. Benning is pretty nice but it's not set up properly to train for the Steel Challenge. I drove back and forth to Atlanta for about 4 days. It was definitely worth the drive as I had some great practice sessions. After shooting in Atlanta for a few days I decided to fly out a couple of days early to Los Angeles. The Steel Challenge offers a practice range for a small fee every day. I'm sure glad I decided to do that. Going from a beautiful green background in GA to a desert type background in CA was a lot different. At times it was very hard to see the plates, almost like they blended in with the background. After 6 days of practice the time had come and the match began. The match remained close between all the top shooters throughout the day and we knew it was going to be tight down to the wire.

The results are as follows:

What can I say about the Steel Challenge? It is a great match and nothing can prepare your for the nerves you feel when you step into the box except shooting it year after year. This was my 4th year competing in it and I feel that I get mentally stronger each and every year. The match officials are some of the very best you will ever see. There is actual one official that goes to every stage with the super squad to make sure all the calls from the RO's are correct and fair. In fact, it is the same official every year, talk about consistency! The two Mikes have done it again, but I'm sure they couldn't have done it without their great and enthusiastic staff. I wanted to personally thank all who had any part in putting on the 2004 Steel Challenge as it seems to get bigger and better every year. I hope to be back next year and many years to come!

Until next time,
Max Michel, Jr.