Central Texas Match 4-18-15

Central Texas Match 4-18-15


I was excited to have Les down for the weekend to do some shooting, in the last 10 months, I've shot the Florida Open with him, and that's it. For someone I shot darn near weekly with, and in some cases a couple of times a week with before that, it's been a rough go. I also was hoping he'd see a couple of outstanding matches this weekend, and he'd enjoy his time here. His plan was to hopefully shoot with Kale Garretson, but Kale bailed on the match because of the potential for bad weather, which I can't blame him for, because 6 hours for a couple of club matches is an awful lot. That said, bad weather the night before left the match in doubt, and only 18 shooters came. Of the 18 shooters, 8 of the shooters hold a Grand Master or Master class certification in a division, which meant that the match was going to be very competitive, and personally, I did not have a hopes of placing well, I just wanted to shoot well. Of the 8 shooters on the squad, 7 were GM/M, I was the only one not classed that highly.

CTRP Scores


Video in the order that I shot stages:

Stage 3: Ken '40 Alvardo Stage




15th of 18th overall on the first stage of the day does not help me build confidence, nor did the numerous errors that were unforced. I knew my count, and should have reloaded out of the 2nd position, but I did not for some reason, I dropped the mag on the reload, went down the "left" corridor not the right one like I had planned, and I was trying to make up time, and I dragged a shot into hard cover really hurt. I had 28 Alpha out of 32 shots, and that's solid, but the miss, and the mental errors hurt. I did not lose 13 seconds with those mistakes so overall speed in everything is a must.





Stage 4: Poppers Plates & Swingers




Let's see, I started off with a poor first step backwards, I should have taken two quick steps rather than trying to take one long one. The long first step left me too close to the wall to get the gun out during movement, and that cost me some time. With no shoots behind the activators I wanted to respect those shots, and while I did respect them, I again cost myself some time. My trouble with steel since switching to Limited made me cautious. The inaccuracy cost me extra shots, and time, and I finished 14th of 18, with a Mike on the left swinger.


Stage 5: CM 13-01 Disaster Factor





6.9106 run that is about a 68% in Limited. That was good enough for 2nd in Limited and 5th overall, but I think most of the GM/M types were trying to hundo it, so there were some errors. I was a second slower than the top Limited shooter, and I think some of that was that I just plain shot slowly on the top row of targets while I was trying to insure that I was putting hits on paper, and not on the no-shoots. B class is where I belong, I'm happy with the run, but as always I see room for improvement.




Stage 6: Classic of It's Own




The wheels fell off the bus on this stage, 17th of 18 shooters, 50 penalty points. I learned a lesson though, I was running the other guys, and kept saying "I can do that." The thing is, I can't. When I focus on my game, at my ability level, as I demonstrated on the previous stage, I can shoot solidly, when I try to get too aggressive, or do things I don't practice, I get hurt. I struggled on the long steel plate in position 1, and then I shot to slide lock of all things, and the taped targets went badly because I really did not aim, I got 3 on one, some in the tape, and only 1 on the next. I closed thru the port and did not get down or see my sights and did the same thing. Okay, a lot of shooting errors because of one big mental mistake, I did not shoot my game at my pace. Lesson learned.



Stage 1:  Stage 1





Another stage where I was 14th of 18 overall. My time was 6 seconds off the top Limited shooters, and I don't think it was just movement, general inaccuracy hurt and slowed me down, as well as a poor cadence. What was the real killer was I dragged the gun and did not break shots cleanly, so I ended up again with 3 shots on a couple of targets, and only 1 on the other, one in the center array, one on the last array.

Stage 2:  Holes in Hardcover





This was probably my best field stage of the day. 9th overall 3rd in Limited, 156 points, and a 5.87 Hit Factor. I wanted to close strong, and I felt like I started with a decent cadence, I got very good hits, and I proved to myself that I can do this, my time was 3 seconds off the two Limited shooters who beat me, and there was some time lost in movement. I was 6 seconds off the M/GM Open and Production shooters, so obviously there is a lot to clean up, but I'm pretty happy with this stage, and I think with dry fire, I can clean some up naturally.


Summary:

Look, I can't complain. If I had been working as hard as I should have, and as much as I wanted this would not have happened. I'm still doing a lot of things right, and the things that have gone wrong, have really been issues that I can fix in dry fire. Why haven't I? I can make all sorts of excuses but they would be excuses, if I'm going to get to the level I want to get to, then I need to work at it. Go time.