Video of My Crash on the Ramp

Is there anything more fun than watching someone fall down and hurt themselves? No, of course not. So, hold my beer!

It's less funny when it happens to you, at least in the moment, but I can laugh at it.

Here's the deal, I'm shooting the fifth annual Top Cop 3-Gun match at Sioux River Sportsmen's Club in Canton. My fourth time doing so. What was supposed to happen in this video is that I would finish up shooting the pistol portion of the stage, then run over to a ramp that has an elevated platform on top of it. Then you would shoot a rifle at some close and long-range targets until you are done.

I never got to the rifle shooting part.

The ramp was built for the first match, four years ago. It has sat outside with just that one coat of paint on it. It was also made out of some OSB plywood that wasn't really meant to soak up so much moisture and was only meant to be laid on, not jumped or ran on.

After my 30 yard run to the ramp, I was able to get my 265 pounds up to top speed, which isn't terribly fast, but pretty fast for an out of shape 265-pound dude. I came in hot and meant to take two steps up the ramp, grab the rifle and start shooting the close targets, then lay down and hit the long ones. Instead, my foot went through the ramp, tripped me up sending me flopping like a scorpion up the ramp, and then losing my balance when I tried to stand back up.

It's okay, you can laugh. I did. No serious injuries, just bruises on my chest and butt and a scraped up and mildly bloody shin. But I got a do-over because if equipment on the range fails, you get the do-over. This was the very definition of range equipment failure.