Every year, the Rio Salado Sportsman's Club host's the Arizona PCC (Pistol-Caliber Carbine) Championships. I signed up initially planning to use my Calico carbine, but my travel schedule kept me from getting the gun in shape to use in time. Instead, I polled my Patrons to choose a replacement, and they picked the Hotchkiss Universal (it won overwhelmingly over all the more modern alternatives I offered). Note that this match does not allow machine guns, but my Hotchkiss is a semiauto model and thus suitable. Of course, if I was going to shoot a historic French carbine, I would need to pair it with French lizard camo, double-buckle ranger boots, and a kepi.

The match consisted of 10 stages, with round counts of 30-60 rounds each. They were generally split between a lot of close range (7 yards max) paper and steel and a small number of smaller steel targets at 100-200 yards. Unfortunately, the Hotchkiss sights are not adjustable, and mine does not shoot to point of aim. I needed to aim substantially low and left at range, and I would have substantial trouble hitting the long range targets in the match. The gun itself is quite accurate, but the sights made it difficult for me to exploit that mechanical accuracy.

There were 202 competitors in the match, of whom 2 did not shoot all the stages and 7 were disqualified for various reasons. Among the 193 people who completed the match, I placed 191st. Ha! Not quite dead last! In my division (Iron Sight), I was 6th of 7, but the 7th place guy was disqualified.

Next year, I hope to compete again, with an equally interesting historical gun - but one that I can properly zero. Thanks to my Patrons for the support and feedback!