I know, out of order, but things are how they are. This was once again, a typical match for me, I had some good, and some awful, although one of the awful ones was of my own manufacture. I could underplay it, or over play the results, but the truth is this had one of my best stages at a MISS Match this year, and possibly this entire season. For some reason (thank you Les) I ended up shooting first on three different stages for the night, an all-time record for me on four total stages.
Stage 1: Longshot
No video for this stage, but it was a 3 position memory stage where you needed to remember what targets you were shooting from each spot. I had a hard time in walk thru, and only figured it out the last couple of runs, but once I had it, I was okay. My time of 23.34 was the third fastest in Production, but my hits were pretty bad, 9 Alpha, 8 Charlie and 7 Delta. I'm not sure in retrospect if I was not seeing my sights or had some other issue, my hunch was that it was sights.
Stage 2: Plate This
This was the stage I was feeling good about. I was keeping score, had just called the first shooter to the line, and was actually last, when Les came in, said he'd score, and put me first and at the top of the order. I had to laugh, but this was good practice, I had to shoot the stage on demand, and bring a good performance. I ran out the 4th fastest Production time, and combined it with 23 Alpha and 7 Charlie, and finished 3rd in Production on the stage. The video showed pretty solid reloads, a passable draw, but an issue with "Kozy Foot", and some other technical improvements to be made. I felt really good about this stage, and I wish I could bottle the way I felt, and saw my sights and pull it out on demand.
Stage 3: Take Your Choice (Classifier)
I knew what I needed, a 50 point, 7 Alpha, 5 Charlie run in 10 seconds. Talk about eminently doable. We'd practiced this, and even if I did not get it in practice, I was confident I could do it live. My "original" time was fine, 9.29, but I did not know that. I kept the squad waiting, and did the math in my head to see where I would have been. I counted up 7 Alpha, 2 Charlie, and 2 Delta, and then realized I threw a mike on my very first shot. Even if the mike had been a Charlie, I would have fallen just a hair short, as the 2 delta's did me in. It took me 12-13 seconds to do the math, and then I iced it by putting three more into the no-shoot to insure I'd zero out the stage.
Stage 4: Quick Shot
After the classifier, I was out in the lobby with Les, going over the video review of Stage 2, and I missed walk-thru, and had to be told twice to enter the range. When I did, every single bastard in my squad was, arms crossed, facing the door, waiting for me, and told me that I had to shoot first. I'll get 'em for that! I made a lot of fundamental mistakes on this stage. I ended up starting off on a head shot only target. This meant I had a slow draw to a tough target, when I could have drawn to an open target, and closed on the head shot. 3 Mikes, and a No-Shoot, 2 Delta did not mesh well with 16 Alpha, 1 Bravo and 6 Charlie. My time was not bad, but the poor hits, and plan doomed me. Notice the almost standing first reload as well. No reason to do it, but I did it....
Summary:
The best part of shooting is that I'll never be 100% satisfied with my performance, there will always be things that I can improve on. For some reason I'm having issues with the front sight, or with planning, and it's all the rough edges that need to be ground off for me to achieve some consistency. I can feel it's not all that far off, but until I grind off these edges it'll be more up and down performances, and that's what I'm trying to avoid. A real commitment to focus on fundamentals for the next couple of weeks in dry fire should go a long way to at least knocking off a few of my issues.
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