MISS Match Re-Cap

MISS Match Re-Cap

Safety, the number one thing that we pay attention to when we are out at the range, and last night I ran into my own safety problem. During a stage I was looking at the Kindle and had my head turned, and got caught in the corner of my eye with a piece of steel. It’s not uncommon to catch a little steel when a lot of steel targets are up, but it’s almost amazing that I got a little piece beneath my shooting glasses. I spent some time looking at them today, and I realize they are too big, and they don’t touch my face in a few spots which is what made yesterday possible. I rinsed it out, and eventually got it, but my eye itched, and hurt, and only today feels okay. Safety is not something to screw around with, so I’ll take steps about getting some proper eye wear.

The match itself was a disappointment for me, but as usual, I learned a few things. First stage I shot, I went out and blazed, I had a very good time, I had a great cadence, and other than the first few targets, I did not hit a thing. Very simply, I lost my front sight, and I was trying to keep my practice cadence into the first stage. My cadence in practice is great, but in practice there is no recoil, no muzzle flip, and so on, and I never let myself get ahead of it. I had a grin on my face after shooting the stage, thinking I shot a baller round, only to be in shock when I realized what I did actually do.

Second stage I got a little more accurate, but I forgot a piece of steel. I meant to take it from the first port, not the outside, because I could take it, and be in a position to back out of the port easily. This is a case of me not walking it properly, and committing it to memory. My time again was pretty solid, but that was a crucial mistake that really was embarrassing.

My third stage was a little slower, but I got on my game, and had pretty solid hits, nothing I did not like, I’m sure I could have gone a little faster, but I found a spot where speed and hits were where they should be.

Last stage was the classifier which is a new one.  Many folks felt that sitting to shoot it was ideal, save some time standing up. Before the match we were watching the “Super Squad” shoot it on liveshots, and only Matt Mink shot it sitting, the rest of the people stood up. I get that sitting may be some extra support, but I figured that if standing is good enough for Eric Grauffel, it’s good enough for me. My time at 7.96 was not great, but I had, almost, my best accuracy run of the night with 7 Alpha’s, however on my first shot on the last paper target, I transitioned over into the white “no shoot”, and broke my shot. I knew it when I did it, and I got the “head” of the target. If there was not a no-shoot, it would have been another Alpha. Instead, I had a meager hit factor, and essentially blew the stage. Disappointing a little, but I was happy the rest of the stage was solid.

I've got some work to do, Thursday has been a “rest” day, and tomorrow I’ll do some dry fire before heading up to Alpha for an evening practice session with Dave. I’ll leave this blog with a video of Les at Nationals, the smoothness with which he shot it, it what I’m striving for, that’s a great cadence.