Six Days Later......

Six Days Later....


Whew, a ton of miscellaneous stuff that's been on my mind the past week post Fallen Brethren. I've never been a golf aficionado, but the few times that I have played, I've always had that one shot that kept me wanting to try again, it could be seventeen and a half holes of pure awfulness, but one great shot was enough to do it. I'm always that way about shooting, especially a match, no matter how rough, or how much I can struggle, there are just a few moments where everything goes right, and it has me hungering for even more. At Fallen Brethren, those moments were couched into parts of stages, or just offered glimpses.


On Stage 6, I had an awful experience with the rifle which tanked my score for the stage, but I ran the shotgun really well, and I kept it up with the pistol, at least until I got to the clay target. On Stage 5 I was doing fairly well until I forgot my pistol. On Stage 8, I was not aggressive enough on the pistol, but I started out well on the rifle. I'm still convinced that if I'd had my shotgun broken in, I'd have rolled thru stages 3 and 4. Granted, I'm not talking rolling compared to the pro's, or even people who have done it for awhile, but I know I had it in me to do an awful lot better than I did. That's the thing that helps feed the competitive flame, that makes me want to get out on the range. We got home on Sunday evening, and I was tired, burnt out, I thought I'd want to take some time off, but by Monday afternoon I wanted to hit the range and start working to level out some of my issues, by Wednesday when I stopped in the Hayes Custom shop, I was wishing I was going off to 3-Gun Nation Nationals in Tulsa. Being honest, if I did not have a big work week planned with several corporate types in-town, I'd have packed my bag, and tried to get a slot and been on my way.


One of the other things that has me laughing at myself, is that I keep looking for Linda's shotgun. It was the one gun I was least interested to shoot when considering 3-Gun, and now it's my favorite gun that we own, and I feel that comfortable with it. The problem is, that at the bitter end of Day 2, one of my squad mates took off on the Kawasaki Razor that my gear was on. He and I went down to another stage to recover a gun that was forgotten by another competitor, and he was showing me how the Razor ran, and at one point hit it, stopped, and took off hard again. Unbeknownst to either of us, the shotgun popped out of the clamp, fell out of the buggy and into the road. We discovered it was gone later on when packing up and I asked where my gun was, and about that time an RO stopped an asked if were missing any gear. Mag tube snapped, stock scratched up, and barrel nicked up, my heart sank for the less than month old gun. There was a little anguish, but I know it was an accident, and the driver is a good dude, and is making it right. It's been 6 days since I've had it in my hands though, and I want to go to the range with 400 or 500 round of birdshot, and finish off the breaking in process. I want to go practice my loading and improve it. But alas, it's not around, and that is absolutely killing me!

Since I can't do what I want to do, I'm instead focusing on what I need to be doing because I'm obviously bitten by the 3-Gun bug, and I'm not going to be satisfied until I improve, and start to deliver the performance I know I'm capable of delivering.  For me, that means spending time with the shotgun practicing loads. I'm ready to start working on my quad loads, and I figure I have three or four months to it squared away, with 15-20 minutes three or four days a week, I think I can show some significant improvement. I won't be world class, but I won't get killed on time either. I also need time with the shotgun, the term "cruiser ready" was not one I knew. With my pistol I'm comfortable with everything, but shotgun, I need to know what to do, no questions, not having to think, it's got to be second nature. Hell, I need to practice taking the safety off, as that's been something I have consistently not done.

I need time with AR, it's just not a platform I'm used to so I need a ton of time just handling the rifle, and getting to know it. Now that I've had a little time with the AR, I'm starting to understand why I have some of the struggles that I've had. I can eliminate some struggles with hardware changes, and I've had some chats with Aaron about my upcoming build in February. Eye relief has been an issue for me, so I'll probably use the Luth AR AMB stock I won at Fallen Brethren to help my cheek weld, and give me a little stock adjustment. I'm going to look into a slightly higher mount, and an optic that offers a little more in the way of eye relief. Steve's gun has a higher mount and I've had far less struggle with eye relief when I have borrowed his gun in the past. Once I've got the technical items where I want them, then it'll be time to practice "odd positions", doing things like getting my sights on top of the couch, on a chair, around from behind things, and learning what I can do to be comfortable, and when I should have different height magazines. The biggest thing will be getting a consistent cheek weld, each and every time, if I do that things will go much smoother. Then...and I know it seems like a lot, but then it'll be time to go out and really learn to shoot longer distances. The reality is I had 40-50 rounds tops a couple of weeks ago, and then the 3 stages at the match. I need to learn how to do it with consistent fundamentals. Time invested here I think will pay me back in spades.

Pistol will keep on going, I'm right on the edge of my "A" card in both Limited and Production, and I know that I can earn both of them in 2016. I know shooting Limited minor isn't going to help me with points, but the reality this year is that I've done far better shooting Alphas, and that needs to be a focus for Production. Since I really don't want to load .40, and I'm not a fan of shooting .40, Limited minor makes sense. I can load an awful lot more 9mm, and also get out and shoot more. For me, verifying my dry fire with live fire practice is critical, and that's exactly what I did not do this year. My pistol dry fire is easy enough, and I think three or four days a week for 20-30 minutes will get me where I need to be. Honestly though, once I stabilize a few things, I can tailor my dry fire to address areas that I'm struggling. Am I struggling with shotgun reloads? Let's work on that for a few weeks, or am I struggling with pistol transitions? Let's work on that for a few weeks and iron things out.

2016 I expect to be on the range a heck of a lot more than I was this year, I've got an actual plan for getting out there, and I know what I want to accomplish. After a big match I always feel extra fire to work, so I'm going to stagger my matches to keep that burning. This year there was a massive gap between the rained out Double Tap, and Area 4, that won't happen again. Tentatively, I'm looking at 8-11 Major Matches for 2016, the majority will probably be 3-Gun, with the remainder being the USPSA Major's in Texas. (Still on the list though are Area 5, Florida Open, and Gator Classic). It's a big schedule and that means a big investment, but I'm hooked!

Finally, give a listen to this: The 3-Gun Show podcast. Aaron Hayes is the guest, and to me it was a continuation of conversations that I've had with him in the past. He's got some great, and honest perspective, some amazing experiences this year, and some insight on cross training and how it helped him improve his game. Great example of why this is one of the guys I definitely pay attention when he talks shooting.