Part one covered the pre-lunch stages I shot at the Open, part 2 is for the 2nd half of the match for me.
Stage 1: Ancient City Conquest
19 Alpha
6 Charlie
5 Delta
2 Mike
33.77 Seconds
I'm glad we broke here, because I needed extra time to walk this stage, and learn the "trick". There was some definite distance here, but the big part should have been the swinger. At rest, the target was visible from the low port, so the plan was to hit the swinger, stop shooting, and then walk over and tap the activator. Since the timer will register the last shot, the time you spend walking to touch the activator is not counted, and you get to shoot a target at rest. You must hit the activator, or you get a penalty, so doing it, no moving target, all seem like a win to me.
What went wrong with that plan? Well, again poor hits, but I missed the non-moving activator from the low port. Again, something I'm not used to doing, taking a long shot from a non-conventional position. Something I need to work on.
Stage 2: Cigar City Comeback
23 Alpha
6 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
32.61 Seconds
A shoot house type stage that was fun? Again, I ran a slightly different plan that cost me some time. Position 1 and 2 was the same as everyone, and I struggled to take the 3rd position on the move. I elected to dive into the window in the 4th position and take a longer target, other shooters waited to take that target because it saved them several steps from having to go into the port. It definitely cost me time.
I took the next 2 targets on the move, and then into the far window. I wanted to close then on the 2 targets near me, but I pulled off the closest target to me, and threw a mike on a target about 7 yards from me, just blew my mind, I was trying to transition, and just missed. This is where everyone else took the long target, it was a lean, but after the fact I can where and why my plan cost me time.
Stage 3: Capital City Shuffle
23 Alpha
7 Charlie
1 Delta
1 Mike
34.84
This was my second best finish, top 40% in Production, even with a miss. It was also perhaps one of the most straight forward stages of the match. The only variation was taking a hard lean at the start position, and hitting the 3rd paper target. You'll notice I slowed, and had to take that target from the port, had I done it on the move, it would have been okay, but stopping cost me some time, and then I had less time coming out of the reload. This was easily a place I could have shaved some time.
The delta and mike were on the same target, the 4th position had a hard cover target and I buried one in the delta, and one in the hard cover, telling me that I did not see my sights, and I almost broke the first shot before the transition was complete, and I was taking off to the next target before I got the 2nd shot off.
Here is a video of Roy Steadman running the same stage:
Stage 4: Jax Juke
25 Alpha
3 Charlie
2 Delta
2 Mike
31.09 Seconds
By the book, this was my 3rd best stage. I liked the set-up, but I failed to execute the way I wanted to. I started the first position right back to left so I could take the last target on the move backing out of position, instead I just stood there and cost myself a couple of steps. Position 2 went well, but my reload sucked, and I had the misses on the poppers into the 3rd position, the slow activation on the swinger meant I really could have taken the activator steel first, went to paper then to the swinger, rather than doing what I did and waiting. Slow reload into the 4th, open middle position, and again I had some misses on the small steel on the final position that cost me some time.
There was a single miss on each swinger, again proving I need to put some time into swingers and make sure I add that to my practice routine. Watching the run, I think I should have shaved off 5 or 6 seconds. However this was two solid stages in a row, so I was not too unhappy, although I was just starting to feel like I was getting it together.
I felt better about my sight picture on this stage than any other stage all day long, but it also was a stark contrast from what I had been seeing, and looking past the sights to the target. Practice!
Stage 5: Orlando Overkill
23 Alpha
5 Charlie
8 Delta
2 Mike
1 No-Shoot
34.13 Seconds
Last stage of the day, this had a lot of shooting positions, and there were a couple of good ways to run it. I'll just say that my plan was not one of those ways, I took some longer shots than I needed to, I got caught waiting for the max traps to work, and I never paid attention to the 4th position, that once the max trap opened, the target was half covered by no-shoot. Alpha, Mike, No-Shoot....ugh.
The reload coming out of the 3rd position, and out of the 4th position left me feeling like I had a bad grip on the gun, and in the final position, I felt the gun, and the sights creeping up in my hand. So failure on the grip, and that cost me on the long targets.
Final:
I managed to keep my enthusiasm, and energy level up all day, I did not let things get me down, so both of those I see as positives. Let's face it, almost 90 days with minimal trigger time, one match since October, and one live fire practice? Perishable skills deteriorate, and I saw it first hand. I'm not going to dwell on the bad stuff, no point in it, focus on sight picture, incorporating swingers into live fire, and some shooting from uncomfortable positions will help eliminate many of the issues I had on the range.
I was not going down with any idea of winning my class, or kicking ass, I knew it was going to be a rough match, and with the mikes, and deltas it definitely was. I showed how out of practice I was, however the good stuff was a new side of me, and a skill I've struggled with. I'd like to think that in a few months with some hard work I'm going to start putting it all together, and shooting the way I think I'm capable of. No, that's not a GM level, but I think I can put together and be a solid "B" class shooter. I'm not afraid to work at that.
Florida Open will be a permanent fixture on my shooting schedule from now on. This was an amazing match, technically challenging, fun, well run, and the people are really what make it. Next year I'm going to raise my game quite a bit for this match. In order to do that, I'll have to get busy now, and really keep up the training.
No comments:
Post a Comment