2012 Liberty Match at Valley Forge

On October 27th, I had the pleasure of attending the 2012 Liberty Match at Valley Forge. Despite the name, the match was held at Lower Providence Rod and Gun Club in Audobon, PA. This was my first Sanctioned Match and leading up to it, I had some reservations.

By the time I decided that I wanted to attend the match, I had to complete a handful of tasks in a short period of time. The first, and most important, was that I become a member of the IDPA organization. The turnaround time on my membership would play a role in how and where I would shoot the classifier, which was a prerequisite for the match. The kicker was that these tasks would need to be completed in short order to make the match registration deadline.

Despite the challenges, I was able to put it all together and participate. The toughest part of the match was making the decision on how I planned to actually shoot. Would I shoot my Glock 17 and do my best to win or would I shoot my Glock 19 (Carry Gun) and shoot the match with the practice / tactical mindset? Ultimately, I decided to go with the Glock 17 and earned 4th Place SharpShooter (SS) in Stock Service Pistol (SSP) Division.

Being that this was my first Sanctioned Match, I didn’t know what to expect. The only warning I received was to be careful with procedurals, otherwise I would be hammered with penalties. I believe I had one PE on the day and had a great time overall. The staff did an excellent job (I liked some more than others but that is to be expected) and the courses of fire were fun.

I look forward to shooting the Liberty Match at Valley Forge again next year. Perhaps I’ll have better luck at the gun raffle (I would have been thrilled to have any one of the guns that were given away)