I may or may not have drowned my sorrows in a shot of Jameson, some Shiner Bock, and 3 shots of Merlot, which I realize is a wine and to be sipped and savored, but that would not have taken the sting out of my day quick enough. It would not have been an unreasonable expectation that post dinner I was going to pass out and complete a crash and burn on the final day, on the last 2 stages that were longer range, including the signature long range stage that the match puts on.
I had other plans though, and I stayed up until 1am doing homework, plugging all my data into Strelok, memorizing my stage plans, and my holds for the longer range rifle. I walked Stage 8 a few hundred times in my head, and I did the same thing for Stage 9. No matter how Day 2 finished, I wanted Day 3 to be my best day.
All results are just my division (Tac Ops)
Fallen Brethren Match Results
Stage 8:
(First the video from a squad mate who had the 4th best time on the stage.)
(Now my video so you can see how much better he was in various places.)
On my match book, I had written down how many steps between position, I had everything written down, and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. 22 steel pepper poppers, call them 12-25 yards, I ran those fairly solidly, nothing great, but nothing bad. I could do it faster going forward. I was pretty decent on pistol. What got to me, is the final array, I was so pleased I lost some focus on the reload and lost some time there, but it was a high match point for me, next time I'll keep shooting and savor the good feeling afterwards.
Back to a prone shooting position, I was ready this time, 30 round magazine with basepad was fine, I knew my holds and I cleaned 5 targets on the left hand side. Of course there were 7 targets on the left, and I had missed the ones at 135 yards and 150 yards. I had to pop up from the optic and look and visually spot what I had missed, and then try to find them, and that was another eye relief issue trying to get back on the scope. The longer ones (175 yards, 220 yards, 230 yards, 265 yards, and 280 yards) I visually identified and just went to the right holds, that was a good learning experience. I moved to the right of the power lines, and easily nailed the 227 yard and 196 yard, but I could not spot the 156 thru the scope and had to visually find it, and acquire it again via the scope.
My time was 137.49 clean. Which was 132nd place. Most of that I think was spent on the rifle, and I'll have to see, but I'm sure I could have run pistol faster. Same theme, give me that 6" Hayes Custom gun, and let me get used to it, and I'm sure I can shave some time there. The biggest gain though will be simply practicing long range rifle. Top time was a ridiculous 53.80 seconds.
Stage 9:
This was another stage I had all mapped out. From the start position you shot the two steel plates on the left, then ran to a big rock, and shot another two plates, that was easy, it got hard from there for me. Add in a 6th gong to the left of the power line, roughly inline with the other 5 gongs, and I had 8 shots between 175 yards and 191 yards. All fairly doable. My plan was to go left to right, prone, and then up the right hand side, at 217, 246, 249 yards (all similar holds), then the 345 plate to the right of the line on the picture, and then left to the 3 plates at 350, 355, and 410 on the left of the paper. I'd come back to the plate at 440 and finish on the one that was 627 yards off. The reason I share the plan, is because I did not do it at all. I changed at the last minute when trying to explain to the 2 RO's who were acting as spotters because most shooters were going from left to right, and I was doing the opposite to keep similar holds together longer.
Instead I started on the left, tried to go up and then right, and every hold I had written on my left forearm was wrong. This is almost in line with forgetting a gun in terms of rookie mistake. Don't let someone change your plan for you, I could have explained it more clearly but I took an easy out, and it helped cost me. If I can get the video, you'll see I went prone to the right of the rock, and it was not an ideal spot, I used a 30 round mag with baseplate, and it was too low, I should have used a 40 round mag with baseplate. Prone, I should have went to the front of the rock, and many shooters used the rock as a rest, and shot off it, either one would have worked better.
My choices left me with massive eye relief issues, wrong holds, and too much moving, which meant I again missed shooting at plates, it also left the RO's confused, because I heard one tell me that I needed to alert them if I was moving on, I know I had a hit not counted because of that, but again, that's my responsibility to know, they are doing their job.
The one thing I did not want to do was take misses at less than 200 yards, I could handle longer misses, but all my mistakes played into it. I took 200 seconds in penalty, and 170.54 seconds, putting me in 167th place of 169 on the stage. What's worse, is I think I could have hit the 4 between 345 and 410, in fact I had done it at that range on my very first stage. The winning time on the stage was 80 seconds, what is remarkable is that nobody was within 25 seconds of that time, talk about amazing long range shooting.
I was disappointed by my showing on the stage, but the reality is that I had shot long range rifle exactly one time before this match, and I struggled with it. Setting aside that if it was my AR, I'd have done a few things differently to have it better suit me (this is Linda's AR) this was hard. I should not have thought that I'd kill this stage, it was a great learning experience, and it gave me a chance to see, and understand things that I will need to practice going forward.
Final Thoughts:
I'm lucky that I got the squad that I did, a couple of 3-Gun Pro level shooters, including 3 of the Top 20 Tac Ops shooters in the match and 5 of the top 50 in the match meant I got a chance to see how some really good shooters approach the match, and the individual stages. I got some great tips, some solid coaching, and a foundation that if I want to get really involved in the sport, will get me off on the right foot. I don't think that there is any doubt any more that I'll spend some significant time in 3-Gun going forward.
Sure I did not get better on every stage, and I did not finish where I wanted, I took some lumps, but I'll come back a hell of a lot stronger for it. Linda made the comment that I should not have gone because it was just too much, but honestly I'm glad I went. I got the full experience, and if anything it sucked me in even deeper. This isn't easy, and there is so much to the sport. The top guys are just plain amazing, and I don't expect to ever be that good, but I'd like to push and improve, and do even better. I'll be back for Fallen Brethren next year, and it won't get the best of me again. I'll always be able to "thank" the match, and the facility for helping get me hooked on the sport.
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