Weekend Review

Weekend Review

There was a reasonable amount of lead put down range this weekend! Saturday morning I hit Alpha with Dave to get our weekly practice in, and we had a decent couple of hours. I had my draw in the 1.50 to 1.6 seconds range at 10 yards, and about 1.20 seconds from 7 yards. More than anything, my draw is starting to feel consistent, so the dry fire routine is showing some results for me. I know it can and will get faster, but being consistent was the first step towards that.

We ran a few transitions, steel plates, and some El Pres, and I had times between 6.36 and 6.88 with hits. My struggle was the first target for some reason, and I’m going to have to work on my draw to a target on my left. With more practice that will improve as well.

HK 416 22 Rimfire

The family ended up back at Alpha Range late Saturday afternoon to help set-up for the match this morning, and we had a good time, and Linda got to see what stage set-up is all about. She also felt that the experience helped her prepare for stages. A friend showed up as we were getting done to shoot, and he let Lauren and Linda to shoot his HK-416 .22 rifle, and both them were hooked. Lauren liked it better than any .22 rifle she has shot to date, and mentioned that Christmas is just around the corner. Linda had such a good time with it, she said that she could shoot that .22 rifle all the time, while she’d never give up pistol, she thought that was a ton of fun. I get the feeling that there may be some Steel Challenge matches in our future, and for Lauren, some other rim-fire matches.

Today we shot the MISS match, and it was a mixed bag. First video here is of Linda. She came into the match with a few goals, she wanted to stop re-adjusting her grip during a stage, and she wanted to get all of her hits. I’m proud to say that she accomplished both goals in stellar fashion. She knows she wants to get faster, but she got amazing hits. Her hard work in dry fire is starting to pay some dividends. Right before the match, she added one other goal, she wanted to beat the other lady shooter there, and she absolutely got that goal as well. After Pine Tree she has done a great job, and rumor on the street is that she is the next “shooting project” for Les, he believes that he’ll turn her into a “B” Class shooter next year as well. If he can do that for me, it’ll be an easier path for a more naturally talented shooter like Linda.

My stage breakdown is a little different. I got there, started on the stage I set-up, and I had the shooting cadence I was looking for, and at the end of the run I realized I never really saw my front sights, had a ton of misses, and while I looked fast, I did not hit shit. If I was in a boat, in the middle of the ocean, I'd have missed water falling out, it was that bad. (Okay, there was good stuff, and I'm exaggerating, but I still need to focus more and get my shit together from the start.) That stage was so bad in terms of points, there was no way I could really recover the match. Second stage I dialed my cadence down, and I’m unhappy that I did, but I put in a 10^th place overall run. I had forgotten about my first stage, and this one just felt a lot better, and re-instilled any confidence I had lost. Third stage was the classifier, and I deliberately tanked it once I realized I had a hit in “hard cover”. My goal was to shoot a 0% so it would not count against me when classification is run. Other than annoying the Range Officer with my antics, I did accomplish that goal. That said, I want this classifier again, I know I can nail it. Last stage I put together an 8^th overall run, and again, it felt better to me.

One of my issues in the past was that I did better on accuracy stages, and I was struggling in some of the “field courses” that require more running. In two of the three longer courses, I did fairly well, and I believe that improvement is because of the practice and instruction with Les. I’m seeing sights, I’m drawing, running, and reloading better. None of those things is perfect, but it’s light years away from where I was eight months ago, and it’s even better from where I was as little as three or four months ago.

As always, gotta have video from "Random Dude". This time we grabbed video from Terry, who always amazes me with how fast he goes, and how solid his plan on stages are. This was not one of his better matches though.

This “B” class card is just around the corner, and in way I've got that in the back of mind, the front of my mind is the little steps, small improvements I’m making and starting to show. I think a quantum jump in results is inevitable fairly soon, simply because I’m seeing more and more good points, and I’m starting to string them together. Breaking the sport down to individual parts like seeing sights, transitions, draw, reload, like Les has so far, make things simple, but allow me to really focus on the fundamentals that the whole damn thing is built on.

Last note? It was strange to shoot a morning match, and go out for breakfast or an early lunch as opposed to the typical shoot late, and go out for a 10:30pm “snack” and beer. Not only do I love the sport, I really like and respect the people.