Right before I left the east coast one of the local clubs started doing shotgun action matches and I loved them. They were basically like an IDPA or USPSA stage only you'd use a shotgun and they were a lot of fun. Is there anything like that out here?

WaGuns organized a one-time shotty shoot at the RFGC action bays a few years back. Good times. Maybe it's time to do another.

Nothing like that is around these parts... Formal shotgun action shoots.

Every club has their members that have specific interests. If enough are grouped together with some proper guidance and/or leadership...

The best you could hope for are side matches in an established IDPA match or sporting clay or 3-Gun matches.

Was the club you shot the match organized as a national organization or was it most likely a homegrown match?

Did they have official rules or did they just follow the basics of other action matches?

No national organization just a homegrown thing.

The club had monthly IDPA, USPSA and rimfire steel matches and they tried doing 3-gun but the furthest distance of that range was 30 yards for the action matches so rifle wasn't challenging or terribly interesting.

So someone had the idea of let's have a 2 gun match, shotgun and pistol and because attendance was low someone decided let's just have a shotgun only match.

I can't remember if equipment rules were based on some IDPA or USPSA multigun but they basically boiled down to 3 classes; pump, limited, and open
Pump was any pump
open was any semi with a detachable magazine like a Saiga 12 or MKA 1919 or whatever and pump and limited
Limited was any other semi and limited and pump were something like 8 or 9 shells starting in the gun

I think having a red dot pushed into open but hardly anyone had an optic on their shotgun anyway.

Most stages were 12+ targets so you had to reload at least once.

In that part of Maryland you couldn't hunt with a rifle so you had some people that only owned a shotgun no pistol or rifle and generally had no interest in IDPA or USPA show up with their 50 year old 4 shell pumps and skeet bags on their hip and having fun knocking over steel plates and clays giggling when they left. One guy showed up with a side by side and sure he was slow but he was having fun. Pretty much everyone was having tons of fun.

I have a video of the match somewhere.

I was asking because I saw in the Washington USPSA Facebook group that someone in Eastern Washington is doing one in April and while part of me wants to get a shotgun ready for it if it's only the one match I might just wait. If it was quarterly even I'd get a gun ready for the next one.

Nothing like this that I know of. You could always organize one, I'm sure some of the 3 gunners would attend.

Shotguns are tough on targets and target stands.

The range you use will determine Distance, Type of shot (Slugs, Buck shot, shot size, etc) and any other specific range rules of use.


So, it's all about focus. The divisions for competition isn't always set up for the average "joe"
Speed loading and use of extended magazine and speed loaders and other modifications as you may see in 3-Gun.

Hosting a shotgun shoot with these "focuses" isn't an easy task.
So, it's not as if some Joe-Blow off the streets can set one of these up. If you can... Hell - Go for it!

One thing I will point out... if you have never been to a trap range or even skeet - the focus of muzzle control is very lax... please remember that a break action (over and under or side by side) has lead to many shotgun ranges with very lax muzzle control (compared to a rifle or pistol range).

For these special precautions would be in order - Just like 3 Gun or even Cowboy (which is the original 3 Gun).

No unfortunately no regular shotgun only matches locally. There is a upcoming ALL shotgun match in Benton City on April 9th at Rattlesnake mountain. Approximate round count of 200 birdshot, 16 slugs and 15 buckshot. 10 stages. 8 squads of 8-12. Still spots open.

https://practiscore.com/rattlesnake-mou ... h/register