My 2017 Cowtown Classic Part 1

 My 2017 Cowtown Classic


2017 Cowtown Classic Scores

So where should I start with this match? I know early on I wanted to score 70% of the overall winner, but dry fire and live fire had me realistically thinking that 60% would be a reasonable finish, and I ended up at 59.47%, with a couple of issues that had me feeling reasonably good. It's funny, I always seem to find a ton of things that I'm doing wrong, and places I can improve, but it's been a long time since I've walked away from a match feeling like I did okay. This was my highest ever Major match finish. (82/187 and 29/44 in Open.)

I'm not going to kid myself and say it was "great", it wasn't, but it was not bad, especially since it's been 11 months since I've shot a USPSA match (okay, one classifier in there.) I knew I'd be rusty, I knew that there would be some struggles, and honestly, last time I walked away from the range feeling good about a match I shot was June of 2014, the last Oak Park match we shot before moving, that's a long time.

So let's begin:


Stage 1:

So keyed up that after the reload I forgot to go strong hand only, talk about a lousy way to start. The procedural hurt, but it also served as a reminder that I really needed to focus, so if it was going to happen, better to happen early, and on a low point stage.


Stage 9:

I finished 19th in Open on this stage, my second best finish for the match. My time was not outstanding, nor were my hits. I got stuck in the 2nd position longer than I wanted, and for some reason I kept looking left after the turn, and I knew the target was to my right, and that cost me having to post up in that spot. 16/9 Alpha to Charlie ratio was not too hot, but it felt good to get my first stage out of the way. 24 second time was 8 seconds slower than the top, and 2-3 seconds slower than I hoped to be.



Stage 10:

Multiple mistakes here. 41 second time was slow, and I was near the bottom of Open. Right off the bat, I screwed up my draw by not drawing straight out of the holster. My plan with the lean was a little risky, and I think I wasted more time by being slow in that first position. Then, for the first time, I lost the dot headed into the 2nd position, and while my hits were okay on the stage, I never got that sense of urgency back, and I took a lot of time making my way thru the stage.



Stage 11:

My time of just under 26 seconds was not bad, about 5 seconds off the top, but my 11/10 Alpha to Charlie hit ratio really cost me a ton of points. I also threw a mike, first target, 2nd position on the obstructed steel. It sure looks like I started to transition away from the target before I broke that second shot. I also felt fairly slow into, and out of my positions. I think I lost a few seconds, but the reality is my points, not speed are what hurt me here.


Stage 2:

Sub 25 second time on this stage was really not bad, it would have been in the Top 16 or so in Open, and I lost time by being slow off the first target, and taking the head shots on the following two targets probably slower than I needed. Much better ratio 19/4 Alpha to Charlie, so what got me? Two delta's, and one Mike. The mike was on the hardcover target in the last spot, I just buried my 2nd shot in the hard cover. Maybe a second or two I could have picked up here, but eliminate the Delta's, and the Mike, and I would have had a really solid stage.


Stage 3:

Uninspiring 27 second time, about 10 seconds off the top times hurt, and I had a  target with 2 Alpha and a Mike, since the shot broke the perf, and that was on my last position, as I came into the paper. Here is a stage where both got me, buy in general, by this time I was starting to pick up my dot better, and felt confident it was going to be where I expected it to be. Just listening to it, my cadence seems a lot slower than it was on earlier stages as well.

Stage 4:

I took 20 seconds, top times were just about 15 seconds, and I see a few places I could have picked up a second or two. Namely, I need to get moving as soon as I hear the beep start, and a slow reload, and when I posted up in the next to last position I lost maybe a second or so in there that I did not need, if you listen, it sounded far slower there. 20/6 Alpha to Charlie Split (toss in 2 Deltas) but by this time I felt like I was really starting to see the dot, and know where it was.


Stage 5:

25 second time put me about 6-7 seconds behind the top, but what got me was the mike/no-shoot coming into the obstructed target after the run down range. What's worse is that I thought about that in walk thru, and wanted to make sure I had the gun up high enough and dot up so that would not happen. It did though. In terms of time? Cadence slowed down on the 3rd target on the right hand side, I stopped downrange coming into the far target before jumping into the last 2 positions, and I think I could have moved faster in there. In all? I'm not talking a ton of time, maybe a couple of seconds tops, but it's there.

Stage 6:

This is the stage that just went wrong. Top times were 15-16 seconds, and I was 39 seconds, and being honest, I thought I was going to finish around 24-25 seconds with my plan. What got me was that dot went out after the first array. I thought I lost it, spent time trying to get the dot on, to find it, and it was just out, so my remaining 24 rounds were shot with me just pointing the target in the general direction and hoping to hit something. That explains a 12/8 Alpha to Charlie Split, with 5 deltas and 2 mikes. I guess now I'm officially an open shooter!

Based on a suggestion from a squad mate, I put some electrical tape in the battery compartment and changed the battery, but that seemed to keep the contact, and I was fine the rest of the match. I'm not worried yet, but I will keep an eye on the RTS-2, because I've seen that as a common issue.


Stage 7:

Let's see...yes, I did go all gangster style on the last couple of targets, it was the fastest way for me to finish. I did throw a mike coming across the stage onto the first target, 2nd shot I did not commit to, and I pulled it. 26.46 second time, top times were around 18.5 seconds. I think that I could shave a couple seconds early on where I'm taking a long time on transitions, however the top C shooter on this stage was a half second slower than me, but had 30 Alpha, 1 Charlie, and 1 Delta, which tells me that, as always, if you get hits, you'll have a good finish.


Stage 8:

Smart call to not worry about the activator, and take the two no-penalty mikes. It saved me some movement, and I hoped to finish the stage in about 10 seconds. Instead I finished it in 12.5 seconds, and I ended up 16th in Open, and 26th Overall, which was my best finish on a stage for the match. 10 Alpha and 4 Charlie, I think I would have taken 8/6 and saved the 2.5 seconds, but I wanted a speed where I knew I would get good hits, this was just a little slower than I thought I would be, but no complaints. Top times were 8.5-9.25 for skipping the activator, and 11.31 while taking the activator. Good way to end the day, solid stage.


Summary


This really was the most fun I've had a match, any match, USPSA or 3-Gun in years. I came home excited, physically I was not worn out, tired, but not beat. Mentally I kept it together, I did not let my issues carry from stage to stage, and more than anything I woke up on Sunday morning wanting to dry fire and start to practice. I'm not going to say it was the greatest match ever, but it has me back in the game again, really wanting to get out there and compete.

My match got better thru the course of the day, and I know more dry fire, and trigger time will really help me feel confident that the dot is always going to be where I expect it to be. There is a ton of movement improvement that I can see helping me but the biggest, and fastest thing I think is going to come from getting more Alpha's.

It's not work anymore, it's fun, and while I know you can overdose on it if you push it too hard, I'm having no issue sticking with my schedule on dry fire. I finished here 4th in "C" class about 12% behind the winner. I finished 4 points behind the 3rd place guy, which is eliminating some of the 22 Delta's that I had. I honestly think if I did not have the 2 stages with dot issues, I probably could have picked up about 5%, which would have put me second place in "C". Double Tap is the first weekend in June, which means I've got plenty of practice time, and early goal is going to be single digit combined deltas and mikes. I do that, and it'll take care of the other stuff on it's own.

Really can't stress enough how good it felt to shoot this match, and how excited I am to get out and improve. Shooting is fun again, and I can't tell you how much I have missed that feeling.

Adnil827 Shoots Cowtown Classic 2017

Adnil827 Shoots Cowtown Classic 2017





Stage 1:

Stage 9:

Stage 10:

Stage 11:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

Stage 4:

Stage 5:

Stage 6:

Stage 7:

Stage 8:

Adnil's New Blaster: Peine Custom

Adnil's New Blaster: Peine Custom



Got the pictures today for Linda's new gun, and I'll be headed to pick it up tomorrow. She is pretty excited to get her hands on it, and start practicing! The plan is to load up a ladder of loads tomorrow, and go chrono on Thursday, and then find the right load, and get her ammo for the match loaded up Thursday night.

So yes, tentatively, the plan for Cowtown is for her to run her new gun! We've got all our gear in hand, so no excuses, we can dry fire, live fire, and it's time to get going.

Now that's one great looking gun! Season opens!

Akai Live Fire Day 1

Akai Live Fire Day 1



Spent a couple of hours this morning on live fire, so I was extra excited to get out and do some live fire this afternoon, and go get a feel for the gun. I continued to work on draw during dry fire, but live fire showed me that I need to focus on a few other items while in dry fire.

Draw/Grip: So I tend to not put a ton of focus on my draw in dry fire. I figure that if I get it into a "competent" area, like a consistent 1.5 second draw, then I'm not going to hurt myself too badly. I was hitting that mark in dry fire, but evidently I was getting an inconsistent grip. Short version, to utilize the thumb rest I had to move turn my hand a bit further forward than I normally have done. In live fire, if I got a good grip, the dot moved a lot less, and I had far better control over the gun, if I got a bad grip, dot bounced all over, and my hits or my time suffered. While I may only draw once a stage, if I don't get a good grip, it impacts everything that I do. Can't cheat myself, need to do this right, and focus on it.

Reloads: Same thing here as in the draw. Sure I need to go faster, I was hitting a 1.3-1.5 in dry fire, but I was 1.9-2.1 in live fire. Sure, I don't have to reload often in Open, but I will have to reload on Standards stages, and it's a basic skill. I need to look at the video, but I suspect I'm slow off the gun to get moving. In addition, getting that grip is going to be key. Foundation type of fundamental, and if it's not right, I'll struggle with everything else.

So what did I do? Well, I spent time just shooting at a few black pasters from different distances, so I could learn what to expect from the dot, and how I need to adjust my aiming point based on distance. It was a learning process, but a good one. I'll improve because of it. We went back and ran a few El Pres drills, and I just wanted to benchmark myself. I was running consistently in the 6.5 seconds to 7.0 second area, with solid hits. Huge room to improve the turn and draw and reload, (2.1 seconds on turn and draw, and the 2-2.1 range on reloads). I see an easy 1 second improvement just on those two things possible. Splits were in the .21-.23 area, and transitions in the .31-.33 area. Again, I'm sure that in time I'll be able to run the gun faster, but I felt comfortable at that speed, and I called my shots effectively.

Oh, it was a sub 1 lb trigger!

Lastly, based on a suggestion from Les, we set up a "mini-stage". We started about 18 yards to a card board target, then to a mini-popper, break and run to three open targets at 10 yards, followed by a finish on steel. The goal was to run it for the highest Hit Factor possible, so it wasn't just about running it fast, you needed to get hits as well. This was fun, because it made practice a little competitive for Linda and I, and in order to "win" we realized there was a lot going into it, draw, transitions, and how you left the first position, and entered the second position, not to mention getting hits.

Damn, I'm excited to shoot, my hands feel torn up from gripping the gun so hard, but I want to get back out there. I'm anxious to clean up my mistakes. I realize that I may have set my goals too high for next weekend, and I'll like "downgrade" it during the week. This is not going to be an easy transition, it'll all start with grip. The other part is that I just need to put rounds thru the gun, the more I shoot the better I'll get. Sure, in some ways I was frustrated because I wanted to drill Alpha's all day long, but I'm so excited to be out there, and I appreciate that if I invest the time I'll get there.

Akai V6: The Open Journey Has Begun

Akai V6: The Open Journey Has Begun



Today is the day that I've been waiting for, my new Akai V6 has arrived, and now I'm firmly on the path of shooting Open, and making good on what I want to accomplish. It's been a few months since I've done a blog, but my time has not been "wasted", nor have I forgotten about what I wanted to do. Up until now, all I've really been able to accomplish is the prequel type of work, but it's things that I needed to do in order to be prepared to work, and fortunately, those things are done, and I have my ducks in a row.

Early on I identified ammo as something that "could" hold me back. Running Open, I have to reload, I can't buy any factory ammo, and frankly reloading is something I considered a chore in the past. Buying a 1050 was supposed to make things easier, but so far what I've found is that it's not just made things easier, it's also reduced my "error" rate substantially. In the past it would not be uncommon for me to have 1-2 rounds per 100 that would not case gauge for a variety of reasons. In the last 500 rounds I've put thru the 1050, I had one round that did not case gauge, that's it. I need to go Chrono the the gun, but looking at 8.3 grains of HS-6 with an OAL of 1.140-1.149. Kozy says this should put me around a 170-173 Power Factor, which gives me enough room to safely make major. While Les was in town this past week he made a few relatively small adjustments for me, and I'll run another few thousand rounds by hand before I install the Mark 7, and go fully automated. Both Les and Kozy impressed upon me that I need to know and have the 1050 running at tip top form before I go automated. Since Kozy learned it the hard way, I've committed to learn from his mistake, and wait just a little bit longer. In the picture? That's 20,000 Precision Delta 124 grain JHP bullets ready to be loaded. There are 64 lbs of HS-6 Powder, and 30k CCI Primers as well, so I've done all the basic things that I need to in order to be prepared to start. The good news is that there isn't anything standing between myself and my goals than me. Now it's up to me to put the work in, and get it done.

Early impression is that Shay put together a real shooter for me. The gun shipped first to Kozy so he could run it for 750-1k rounds and make sure that it was in perfect condition, and his report to me early on was that it was astoundingly good. He did some little things, like add some blue loctite to the grip screws. Below is a slow motion video of Kozy shooting the gun.

As you'd expect, the gun looks amazing, but when I picked it up we put it on the trigger gauge and the pull is a mere 1 lb. 3 oz. which is by far the lightest trigger that I've ever had, combine that with a nice reset, and short take-up, and I'm pretty impressed. This is an open gun among open guns!

A good looking gun, and lot of conveniences though don't make me a better shooter, as I said earlier, it's all up to me. As soon as I got home I started my dry fire routine. In addition to basic things like draw's and reloads, I wanted to spend time working transitions and movement, because I expect the hardest thing for me to do is to not lose the dot. Early on I think losing the dot will be the most likely thing to cost me time in a match, and that's something that I can work on in dry fire.

Admitting that my times were better three years ago in Production, you need a starting point, and that's what I got today. I was consistently hitting a draw to first shot on an open target in 1.5 seconds, I was hitting 75% of the time at 1.4 seconds, and at 1.3 seconds I was about 50-60% successful. My issue was more getting a good grip. Grip is an adjustment on this gun for me, I have to adjust my support hand a little forward to hit the thumb rest, but it's a better feeling grip. Going forward I'm going to set my par at 1.3 and work to push at that level.

My reloads started out at about 1.8 seconds, and I got them down to 1.5 seconds on a consistent basis. I did not spend as much time on reloads as I did on the draw, simply because in Open I'm just not reloading as much as I did in Production or Single Stack, and I think reloading on the move will be a bigger deal for me. Don't get me wrong, I'll spend time on reloads before Cowtown, but had to make some choices today, and keeping my eye on the dot was a big deal.

Last thing I did was more about movement, and I did not put a part time on it. Draw to an obstructed target, break grip and run, turning to an open target, breaking grip and running to another position and shooting a piece of steel, and finally breaking grip and going back to a final spot and coming in hard on a final cardboard target. My goal was to get the gun up, and have the dot right where I expected it to be so I could get on the trigger as soon as possible, and get moving again. Mission accomplished here, at first the dot was higher than expected, but the last half dozen runs were absolutely perfect, and I felt comfortable getting the dot on the steel quickly. 

I know, things will change with live rounds, but to me this is a simple exercise I need just to get comfortable with basic gun handling with the Open gun. Where does this leave me? Well, live fire practice with Linda on Thursday afternoon, and I'll dry fire Thursday morning. I'll be dry firing every day thru next Saturday's match, as long as I've got the time, I'm aiming for at least one hour every day, but if something comes up, I'll take 30 minutes. There is a match at ARC on Sunday, which I'll shoot, it's due to storm on Saturday, so we'll see, if it's too messy I won't go, but we will play that by ear. Live fire and chrono on Tuesday, and then get the gun cleaned and ready, and get my ammo loaded for the weekend. In live fire, going to spend some time checking my hold over's, that'll be fairly big for me as well.

So, what's my goal for Cowtown? There are 41 Open shooters, and 11 in "C" class, plain and simple, I want to win "C" in open, but I'd settle for a Top 2 finish. There are 5 Open GM's, so I'm hoping to finish at 70% of the top score in open, which would mean a consistent match, and really a mid-upper "B" level performance. Is that setting the bar high? Yes, it probably is, and maybe that would be a better goal for Double Tap in just over a month, but I want to set a goal that is worth achieving. 

So here we go, now I'll have to start updating the blog more frequently, and I absolutely will be on dry fire, looking forward to a class mid-summer with Les to get me going. It's not just that I'm out of excuses, but that I'm actually excited as hell again to do all of this. Reloading might be work, but the rest of it is something I'm passionate about again. Time to let it rip!

The Myth of the One Second Draw, For Me

The Myth of the One Second Draw, For Me



No, I'm not saying it's impossible, and I'm not saying it's not worth doing, it definitely is. What I'm seeing in so many places is people focusing on having a one second draw when they can become better shooters by focusing their attention in other places. Let's look at the example of a major match, you shoot 12 stages, and if you have a one second draw, versus having a 1.3. Over 12 stages, assuming it's all a draw from holster, you are talking about saving 3.6 seconds, and don't get me wrong, that's extremely valuable.

Let's say that your split and transition are .28 and .40. If you get those numbers down to .20 and .30, again, both very reasonable, you have say 12 transitions and 11 splits. Those two numbers would save you about 2.2 seconds a stage, or 26.4 seconds over the course of the match. That's 22.8 seconds greater savings by getting splits and transitions down, and that's why the "cool, one second draw" isn't worth the same investment at those levels.

Excellent shooters are going to have that one second draw, and get their splits in the .12-.18 area, with transitions not much slower. That's the well rounded shooter who has all of his skills at a very high level. For me? I understand why Les started us at a 2 second draw, and as we practiced I got that number down to a fairly comfortable 1.3 second draw. At the "B" level, that was more than enough to be competitive, and it was time for me to start putting more time into all the other skills that would help me improve my overall score.

With that in mind, I'm going to get my draw into that comfortable 1.3 second draw range, but I'm going to invest more time in dry fire once that happens to keeping the dot on transitions, and running the gun faster and harder. Those have to be the skills that I work on first, because I'll see the most gain, and this is nothing new, this is really just a summary of what Les had me do before. Since Open is a game where speed really matters, the next step is going to be movement, it will be key to start shooting on the move, go point to point quicker, and handle ports even better. Gun needs to be up, and in position so I don't waste time once I hit a spot.

There has to be a level of competence in all those skills, before having that one second draw really even matters. I associate it to the same process it would take going from a D shooter to a GM. The gains you can make from D to B/A you can probably do reasonably quickly. As long as you invest consistent time you can make some fairly quick (relatively) progress. Going from a 2 second draw to a 1.3 second draw is something that I did in somewhat fairly short order. I'd expect going to from a 1.3 second draw to a 1 second draw would take me quite a bit longer, and would require a great investment of practice time. The effort to go from M to GM is immense, I mean as long as you don't re-shoot classifiers non-stop to get the score that you want.

Maybe I knew this before, but I'm not sure that I understood it. Whole point of this blog, for me, is that I'm going to need to focus my time where I'm going to get the best return, at least for now. When I'm at the point where a one second draw will matter to me, the rest of my skills should be at a close to equal level. That's an issue with Brian Enos Forums, you've got a lot of "C Class" advice being given out and taken as gospel. People are regurgitating things that they have heard, but really don't have the same application for every level. For a C or B level shooter, they don't need to be practicing to have a one second draw, those are the people who I suspect end up floundering in a class and wondering why they cannot reach the next level. The lesson at least I got out of this, is that I need to tailor my practice properly, and in stages to best achieve the level of progress that I expect.

Right or wrong, that'll be the methodology for practicing the way I'm going to set-up my practice.

2017 Is Upon Us

2017 Is Upon Us



In the past, I'd started out most years by setting some shooting goals, and I did it with good intentions, and what I thought was real desire, but the reality is that my commitment was just not there, so I was really just setting myself up to fail. My heart was just never truly in it, because in fairly short order my passion waned, and I just stopped. This year, I'm doing something a little different. For the first time in almost three years, I'm excited again, I'm passionate. I spent time going back thru my blog, looking at the very first lessons that Les started to teach me, and how I needed to start there again today, if I really wanted to achieve my goals.


This year, I want to earn, and be competitive in "B" class, by my last two major matches in September. I'd like to be in a position to work towards earning my "A", and I want to start showing some real progress again. I'm going to run 3 or 4 dry fire sessions a week, I'm going to go back to fundamentals until I develop a consistent draw, reload, and shooting cadence. Once I can do those things again, and I think I did them in 2014 towards the end of my time in Illinois, then I can start working on improving some other parts of my game.

So what has me all passionate about shooting again? What has me more excited to go shoot than any time since the first time I ever picked up a gun? Shooting Open! Yes, for 2017, I'm going to shoot Open Division, and believe me when I say it wasn't an easy choice, nor was it a fast choice, I put a lot of time into the decision, and I also put time into thinking about everything that I needed to invest. Before I get into all that, I'll share how I came to the decision.

To begin with, I was struggling with my sights in 2016, turns out it was not my sights, but it was my vision. Shooting iron sights means you focus on your front sight, but when I focused on my front sight, I could not see targets beyond 8-10 yards, it was just a blob. I had to see sights, then look at a target, then re-focus on my sights, it was a legitimate struggle. I went to an eye doctor, and was given the "bad" news. People in their 40's start to see their sight deteriorate, my astigmatism was twice as bad in both eyes as it was a few years ago, and it was time to look at switching to progressive glasses. The issue with progressives, is that they are "blended", I look out the top to see at a distance, and the bottom for close things, it's a step in the right decision, but it's still not near as fast as someone with good vision, and I'd have to adapt. Ultimately, I believe that I'll get Lasik surgery, and that will be the best course of action. Originally though I was against the idea of Lasik, and considered that perhaps moving to a "dot" gun, PCC, Carry Optic's, or Open would be possibilities. A few friends suggested PCC quite a bit, and I'm definitely intrigued, but still, it's shooting a rifle, even if it's 9mm, and for USPSA, I wanted a pistol.


In early January, I borrowed an Open gun from Ryan Banks, took it to the range, and I ran the gun, hard, fast, and had great hits. Sure they were open targets, but I was pulling splits in the .16-.18 range, with transitions in the .25-.28 range. Those kinds of splits I hit on "hair on fire runs" in Production, and I know that I'll have to go faster in Open, but for the first time shooting the gun? I was blown away, and what made it even better, was that I was able to call shots at that speed. After a run, I knew where the hits would be when we went to paste. It wasn't perfect, but I'd say I called over 80% of my shots, and again, I'm not sure I ever had that level of confidence even when I shot production.

Look at the multiple pieces of brass in the air!

What came as a bigger surprise, is that Linda was trying to figure out what she wanted to do, and the range trip was more about her than me. She ran some Carry Optics (Lauren's Glock 17 with DPP), she ran my Single Stack gun, she ran Ryan's Limited gun, she ran her Hayes Custom 5" 9mm 3-Gun gun, and she ran Ryan's Open Gun. One of her big issues has always pulling the trigger, and going fast. Going back to her old stats, her typical Production splits have been in the .40-.50, with transitions in the .60-.80 range, and it was probably about the same in Limited last year. No matter the drill, no matter what we did, she still had issues like that, and it was her nemesis. Once she picked up the Open Gun, her first few runs featured splits in the .18-.20 range, and transitions in the .30-.35 range. Think about it, she'd go target to target faster than she took a second shot on a single target with another gun. She had a hard time saying it, but it made it fun, and she wanted to shoot Open in short order.


While there are a ton of builders out there, I started to do some research. Personally, I'd never touch anything by Freedom Gunworks, and by default that means I'd have a hard time looking at anything from CK Arms either. I've spent an awful lot of money with Hayes Custom Guns over the past couple of years, and if I was looking for 3-Gun, I'd go back no hesitation, but for such a specialty item, I want to go with someone who specializes in that. Kozy has been one of the key guys in my progression as a shooter, and he and I have had a lot of talks about Akai Custom guns, and he was, of course, my first call. Without hesitation he told me that the only person he'd recommend was Shay, and I needed to get a gun from him. My hesitation is that Shay is in Florida, and I hate the idea of not working with a local builder. If I have a problem, or something goes wrong, the gun get's shipped to Florida, and I'm out of a gun.


The other finalist was Peine Custom Firearms. Ryan's gun, the gun that hooked us, is a Peine Custom gun. Local Open GM Heath Parsons and his son run them, and they have a great rep as being reliable. Those guns run and run, and nothing seems to break. That was a huge, huge selling point to me, that and the fact that he is local. The other massive point in his favor, is that at the Area 4 match in 2014, he showed integrity and class. When MD Ken Cobb was pushing me to not file for arbitration on the stage that was shot one way on Friday, and a different way on Saturday. Greg is one of the guys who shot it legally the same way I did on Friday, and he saw other people do it. I asked him, and he came and told Ken how he shot it, knowing that it could and should have gotten the stage tossed. Ken said he could not believe it, because people could all be coming up "doing me a favor". Which being honest means he was saying that those people, Greg included was lying for me. That day Ken could have said a lot of things about me that I would have let go, but calling someone innocent a liar like that is one thing I'll never forget. Sounds like a lot in Peine's favor, no?

Well, Linda and I made a decision, I went and ordered an Akai custom gun that was getting built for someone else, and is about to go out for coating so I'll have it reasonably quickly. Linda ordered a Peine Custom gun and is looking for delivery in 7-9 weeks, again pretty quick. The method behind the madness, is we'll shoot the hell out of both of them this year, and come October or November, we'll make a decision on which we like better, and we will order a 2nd one of those, and then sell the other pistol. It may not be ideal, but it let's us buy from both builders where I do feel some obligation.

Mine will look roughly like this, but with a Hard Chrome coating

So what else needs to happen to make this happen? I mean the reality is Open Guns are not cheap, just buying them isn't going to make me a better shooter, by doing this, I need to commit to everything that goes with it. To start with, that means shooting 9 major, not 38 Super Comp. Super Comp brass is expensive, and you really need to pick it up religiously. I'll have money using 9mm brass, and load it instead. I'm committing to live fire once a week, and even if it's around 200 rounds, that means I need to feed the beast.  While I had a Dillon 650, in early February, I'm going to order a Dillon 1050, along with a Mark 7 1050X, which can load up to 1800 rounds per hour automated. Let's call it 1500, and I think in a 3 hour reloading weekend, I can load and case gauge about 3,000 rounds, which is a pretty solid number per month. It doesn't include case prep, and that's going to have to be taken to a new level of precision and detail, but again, this is a big investment to do this right.

I'm going to keep the 650, and I bought a new, sturdy, wood reloading bench. The 650 can stay set up for 9mm, or eventually be switched to .40 if I ever wanted to go shoot Limited, or I could sell it. Gut feeling is that it stays for the time being, or it could get used to run a 9 major load for Linda's gun if her gun is better off with a different load than mine, which is likely.

What else? Well, need to order 64 lbs of powder, 10,000 Precision Delta bullets to get going, and I've been pricing out some steel targets. I'm looking at a couple of mini-poppers, and 4-5 8" steel plates than I can set at different heights, and use kind of like a plate rack. Having a few extra props of my own is a good thing. I'm not a APSC Club Member, so I can't be using their props, with those, and some regular cardboard targets, I can do a few things to help improve my practice sessions going forward.

Finally, next week, I ordered the Shooting Sports USA arcade game. It's the same one that was up at Alpha Range, and Les says that he used it as part of his dry fire routine, and that it actually has some value in his practice program. Be it limited use, or more use, it'll be something fun at the bare minimum.

This one is on the way

In some ways it was a dumb decision to switch to Open. Speed has never been my strong suit, and I'm going to move to a Division where it's imperative to embrace your inner Ricky Bobby, because you want to go fast. In reality, Linda moves quicker than I do, it should benefit her more than me if she can actually run the gun. Hell, I think this year she will earn and be competitive in C class, with a shot to earn her B card if she puts in her time. In fact I suspect her ultimate upside in Open is better than in any other division. She will do better than me in the end.


In terms of practice, if I look at my matches last year, and the first match this year, I see flashes of the old ability. I see areas or arrays where my cadence is great, where I keep the gun moving, and mow targets down, but I don't see it consistently, and that's the mark of a legitimate shooter. Anyone can put up good bits of a stage, or a solid stage, but doing it over the course of a whole match is how you compete in B class and above, and I'm not close. Post reload on Sunday, I accidentally flipped on the safety after a reload. Not only was embarrassing, but it shows that I have not practiced, if I dry fire, that's the kind of thing that just doesn't happen.

The thing is, I'm excited again, I don't see dry fire as work. I've done the math on where I need to be to earn my B card in Open, where my splits, transitions, draw's, and reloads need to be again. That's what I'm going to practice, and it's going to be fun. For the first time, I've found my own motivation, and I'm not borrowing on someone else. I'm not depending on having someone tell me to be at practice, I want to do it for myself.

Me Thinking About Shooting Open

So I've said stuff like that before, I've committed and failed. So maybe you should take it with a grain of salt, but that's okay. I've got to prove it to myself again.. Either I'll do it, or I won't do it. I'm going to relearn the fundamentals, I like that with Open, my eyes focus on the target, and I just wait for the dot to get there, but that means I need to have my dot on my draw, and after a reload, and unless I practice, I'll always be losing and looking for the dot, and costing myself time.

End of each month, I'm going to post a picture of a calendar, I'm going to check off live fire days, I'm going to star off dry fire days, and I won't lie to myself. It'll be in plain sight. I'm going to make it happen, and I'm going to do it because I'm excited again. I can't wait to begin. One day at a time, one month at a time, we'll start with raw fundamentals, and go from there!

2016 Where Did You Go?

2016 Where Did You Go?



Ever have a hobby that you just lose interest in entirely? Or you realize that your commitment to it, just isn't the same any longer? In late spring I realized that I was failing at the goals that I had set, and frankly it did not matter to me. I'd make the case that I spent more time busy with work than anticipated, or that I got busy going to Lauren's softball games, and taking some family vacations for the first time in a long time. All of those things were true, but the reality is that I lost my passion for shooting, it's probably been going down ever since I moved, but last  year I was finally ready to admit it.

This is what I'd call a "participation  award."

The last pistol match I shot in 2016 was the Texas Open in June, so there definitely was a fairly long layoff. The last 3-Gun match I shot was Fallen Brethren at the end of September. My finishes were about what you would expect:

Texas Open    (134th of 203)

Fallen Brethren Match Score  (180th of 208)

Definitely a "participation award"

Getting a "C" class plaque isn't something I'm ashamed of, if that's where I'm classed, I want to do the best that I can competing within my class. However a 3rd place in my class plaque pretty much means that I just showed up, and there is not an once of pride in "winning" it. None of 'em have ever been hung up (The 3rd Place Production C from the 2014 WIIT), but they have provided motivation for me here and there.

So how did the year wind down?

I stopped making excuses. Before we left Illinois, I borrowed some desire, and a lot of motivation from being able to go and practice with Les and Kozy. Being with them, watching them shoot, made me work. I dry fired because I did not want to show up at practice and not show progress, I went to live fire every single week because they expected me there, I'd have let them down. So where was my own motivation, my own desire to do it? Wherever I had it, I lost it entirely from the time we left. I said the right things, I made some effort here and there, but it was never consistent.

Let's be honest, if you really want to dry fire 20 minutes three times a week, you'll find the time. It's not a huge investment of an hour. I just stopped finding it fun, I let myself go, and that was that. Time I owned up to it.

I also think I unconsciously made a decision that even if I liked 3-Gun, I'm not sure where or if it'll fit in future match schedules. Starting a little later in life, I need more practice than most to get familiar with all three guns, and if you aren't practicing, well, you are going to be equally bad with all three guns. At Fallen Brethren, my overall finish was 180th, but my worst overall stage finish was 145th, and I had two stages at 102nd. What does that tell you? I was consistently mediocre, I never got anything going at all. Three major 3-Gun matches in 2016, and I don't see shooting one in 2017.

I could have gone down a couple of different paths, I could have just stopped shooting, and called it an experience, I could have continued to not be honest with myself, and made false starts, or I could take some time to self evaluate, and figure out what I really wanted. I took the last path, and in late November and early December I spent some serious time thinking about what I really wanted. A big part of me felt like I had given up on something that meant something to me. Earning my "B" card was never supposed to be the end game, it was supposed to be a starting point really. I never found out how good I could be. Honestly? It made me feel like I let some folks down who invested time teaching me, but I also realized I'd failed to earn an ounce of respect from local shooters, who never saw me at my best, never saw me put in the work. That's not something that has not felt too good.

The batteries started feeling recharged, and when I found out in December that I had hit my work goals, stress started to bleed out of my life, and suddenly I started to want this again, but I wanted it for me. I saw my effort before was not my best, and that disappointed me. All that said, there was not one overwhelming thing kicking me in the ass, and I wanted everything to be fun. In Illinois it was fun because of who I shot with, I don't have that here, so I needed it to be fun of it's own accord.

In January, a few things happened, and suddenly I was excited to get out to the range, I found myself having fun again, and that's when it all started to click, and really came together, but again, that's for another blog.

We Get Back to USPSA

We Get Back to USPSA



It's been far too long since we've been too a match. I'll have to sit and write a long update, but the short version is that I was starting to think that shooting was passing us by, that at this point in our life it just wasn't important to us. We'd stopped dry fire, we'd stopped going to matches, and it just was not a priority for us. Back in November we started talking about how we missed it, and making what is a long story short, we decided to get back into USPSA. There are some good changes coming, but we'll get to 'em soon.

For today, we hit the classifier match at Austin Rifle Club, put on by APSC. Let's just say that we've got a long way to go, and it shows, but today we staked out a place to start from, and we'll take it a day at a time, with some reasonable short term goals, backed up by some longer term things. Enough though....the match!


Match Scores

You might notice that we we registered and shot Open, with our 9mm Limited guns, but that's a whole other story for another time. The mission today was to have fun, get classed, and figure out how far we had really fallen. Oh, and survive! Both of us suffering from the flu, high fever, not a great place to be, but hey, it was fun!

No commentary to start, just some match video.


Stage 4: Razor's Edge (CM-09-11)








Stage 5: Bookout's Boogie (CM-99-57)







Stage 1: Paper Poppers (CM 03-05)














Stage 2:Big Barricade (CM 06-01)











Stage 3: Works For Me (CM 99-41)














Conclusions:

Not a whole lot there that was pretty, and while I should be discouraged, I have to admit, I had a good time out there. For the first time in a long time, I just shot, no RO'ing, just shot, pasted, talked with other people, and enjoyed myself. My reloads sucked, I shot slow, I had no shooting cadence, and yeah, it was a "D" level match, but I can deal with that. Step one is complete, let's see how things go from here.

Fallen Brethren 3-Gun

Fallen Brethren 3-Gun



So, not a lot of video, and frankly a pretty poorly shot match again this year. My goal was to improve on my 2015 finish and I did that, but I still finished 180th of 208 shooters, even though I never had an individual stage finish of lower than 145th, and I had a couple of 102nd place finishes. Meaning that I did not have the good stages other people did, I was mid pack or lower 3rd for the bulk of the match. The highlight of the match was that I was meeting Chris Hall, and he was going to come down, take a whack at shooting 3-Gun. Go figure, first ever match is a major match!

Things did not go quite according to plan, since Chris had a little accident a few days before the match and serious hurt his wrist, he managed to shoot one stage, and frankly I'm amazed that he was able to finish it. Being the absolute kick ass guy that he is, he stuck around and reset non-stop for three whole days, more character there than most people have. In fact, there was a certain squad mate who liked to shout to get people to help, he would reset one piece of steel and then he took the rest of the stage off from re-setting....some people....


My highlights are a dinner at Sweetie Pie's Ribeye's, and then two nights at Go Go Gumbo! That should really tell you all you need to know about the match!


Fallen Brethren Match Scores


Stage 7:






Stage 8:






For grins, I added in the 2015 version of the same stage, where I went all pistol. I was so convinced I would do better in 2016, but if you look what happened, I was darn near better off in 2015, and someday, I think I should put big boy pants on, and shoot it all shotgun. If I had the reload down, I suspect that would make it legitimately better.





312 Shoots:

Happy Father's Day From an Awful Dad

Happy Father's Day From an Awful Dad


Friends,

Confession time. I am an awful parent. It's true, what it took for me to come to that realization is a recent article in the NY Daily News by Gersh Kuntzman. I read thru his piece, and his follow-up and it got me thinking. You see, I've taken my own daughter shooting, and I never really considered the "bruising" or "short term PTSD" she was suffering from when I did that. I never thought about
"the smell of sulfur or destruction" (Speaking of, is that what destruction smells like? I wasn't quite sure, I thought his description smelled like bullshit, but I've been wrong before.) Heck, I did not realize that I was making her "anxious or irritable", his erroneous definition of PTSD.  Finally, I did not realize the the explosions were "loud, like a bomb." Evidently Gersh has more experience in New York, in his "safe space" about what bombs sound like than I do, I'll have to take his word for it.

My ten year old daughter shoots, and I'm not ashamed of that, but other than friends, I don't generally advertise that fact either. Until I read Mr. Kuntzman's article, I can tell you exactly what I thought it had done for my daughter. You see, Lauren has shot some shotgun, some AR, and some pistol, and more than that, she's spent some time with me at matches, and I can run down some of things that I thought she had learned.


Be Strong, Overcome Your Fears:

I picked up a gun for the first time at 39, so I admit, I was nervous, even a little afraid the first time that I went to shoot. I mention that because it helps me relate to her. At 7, she was nervous picking up a .22 and shooting it, under supervision, at the range. That was 3 years ago, in the last year she's fired slugs from a shotgun, (which if you've run one, you know that's where the recoil is), she's run a full-size AR-15 (she has her own in .22), and recently she graduated to her own 9mm pistol from a .22.

She became stronger, she found out that she had inner courage, and the strength to conquer her fears. Moving from IL to Texas was a big change, and growing up presents all sorts of challenges, I'd always thought it was important to instill that self confidence in her, but perhaps I went about it the wrong way?


You Want It? Earn It!:

I've put in varying levels of practice shooting USPSA, and I've seen my performance peak, and then drop. My daughter has also seen how good people become when they put in the hard work. Math was a subject that she never really cared for, but this year I watched her ace it, and do it with confidence. At the beginning of the year she told me she wanted to be in the "top" spelling group, so I watched her work, practice, and achieve her goal.

The thing is, she learned her lesson both watching me, and watching friends, and then she applied her lesson, with very little encouragement needed from my wife or I. It's funny, she sees Bernie Sanders talk, and she get's upset that there are so many people out there who feel entitled to things, and want thing without having to work for them.

Yeah, evidently that doesn't fit in with the mainstream millennials these days.

Help Strangers:

 At a recent match, we were having problems with a gun running smoothly, and while a friend came up to help, a random person at the match came forward, ran to his car, and gave me a $10 part. I don't know who he was, had never met him, and he refused to take the money for it. I expected her to ask me why the guy did that, but when I did not get that question, I asked her, "Why do you think that he helped us?" Her answer was elegant for a ten year old "Gee Dad, that's what shooters do, we help each other at a match, we all want to have fun, now you have to help someone too."


Conclusions:

Those are just a few of the little things. I won't speak at length how a shy, young girl, found more confidence being with adults. It may not apply how she has spent time working to help set-up matches (even when I did not) because she wanted to help a club succeed. All things that I was proud of, at least until I had to reconsider what kind of damage I was doing to her psyche, much less her shoulder.

Mr. Kuntzman posted several responses in his follow-up article, and being honest, I see some angry people, and of course cherry picking them is easy, and it makes a point, even if it's a little disingenuous.  Of course that's something that Mr. Kuntzman should be familiar with, notice he apologized for saying his experience was "short term PTSD", because I think we all know that it's not true, he was just saying it to make a point, elicit a reaction, and guess what? It worked.

Is an AR-15 inherently dangerous? Is a knife inherently dangerous? FBI Statistics on US Murders will show you that in 2014 that 248 deaths were reported by rifle, 1567 were reported by knife. In 2014, just under 10,000 deaths were reported as having occurred as the result of drunk driving, and that's just about 1/3rd the total deaths that occurred by automobile. Are cars that inherently dangerous? When you read about the death of an entire family because of a drunk driver, do you immediately blame the car? I'll be honest, I've seen people blame the driver for their choices.

I'm not trying to sell you that guns are safe, and I'm not even trying to change your point of view, but there is an alarming amount of propaganda being thrown around these days, that people have stopped paying attention to facts. A Philadelphia columnist recently wrote an article about how she was able to buy an AR, and the paperwork and background check took only 7 minutes. Shocking right? That a background check would have any pertinent court records, or arrest records of a U.S. Citizen be accessible to a gun shop that quick. Can you imagine though, if there were no court records, no records of any kind, how long would that be? How thorough is that background check? Oh, wait, all the Syrian refugees are getting a background check, but without access to actual background information. Think about that a little more, if you can't do it in 7 minutes for someone with a background you can check, how can you do it for someone without a background you can check?

I digress a bit, from my point though. My daughter read some of the salient points from Mr. Kuntzman's article, and asked me why someone would publish something like that, something that is not true. I had to explain her that an editorial is an opinion piece, not a factual piece, and in this day and age is often simply used to push a political agenda, facts be damned. As a journalism major myself, it stung to admit that, and the lesson that journalists report news, they don't make the news was perhaps no longer valid in today's society.

Did we all  appreciate the irony in  Mr. Kuntzman article? His comment that "You can't even have an opinion on assault rifles-unless it's their's, Here's the proof:" I'd point out that Mr. Kuntzman singles out certain responses, but what is he actually doing, other than mocking people who don't agree with him? Isn't he pretty much saying that unless you agree with him, you are worthy of be mocked? Strange, he had to write a follow-up people to express the fact that he did not appreciate being mocked himself.

 He closes his piece by saying "...if that makes me a girl, well, maybe we should have a girl running the country." That's an interesting point Mr. Kuntzman, I'd suggest that instead of that being the punchline of your argument, you instead illustrate that ignorance, and unethical behavior are not gender specific. You make a great point that like Mrs. Clinton, when you can't talk intelligently about something, or lack the character to admit you are pushing a political agenda, you resort to the same tactics that she does. Bravo!

I took a philosophy class in college, I went for a couple of hours twice a week, for a semester, but I don't present myself as knowledgeable. I'd wager I spent more time in that class than Mr. Kuntzman did researching, or shooting for his article.Sure, Mr. Kuntzman did not present himself as knowledgeable, and considering his hyperbole, it's evident he isn't. You know what else comes across? The appearance that he went to shoot an AR to reinforce an opinion that he already had. Does anyone believe he went with an open mind, wanting to really find out? Or do you believe that he went with an already formed opinion, and simply wanted fodder to take advantage of the recent incident and write his article? So let me ask, how much should his opinion even matter? I have strong opinions about several types of food, but I don't think my opinions are universal, nor do I think that everyone else must appreciate things the same way that I do.

And that's why I realize I'm a bad parent. I've got a ten year old who has developed something that I don't see in politicians, and almost never see in the media. It's perhaps less socially acceptable than ever, and it may give her a harder time growing up. It's called character. I might be a bad parent, but I guess I'm still proud that she has more than many of the knee-jerk, reactionary bull-shit artists that dominate the headlines have.  I remember a time, not long ago where that mattered.

 This year I'll skip Father's Day celebrations, and ponder the damage I've done to my daughters shoulder, and her psyche, and how much I'll have hurt her future by thinking that character mattered. I hope it goes without saying that there are thousands of ways for parents to instill that, and shooting is not the only way, it's just the way it worked out for our family. That said, look at what's going on, and you'll see it's a trait that obviously many did not value.

Short Term PTSD or Genuine Happiness? You Decide

There is definitely a discussion to be had about guns, but as a country we seemingly aren't ready to sit down, talk facts, and work towards a solution, no, we're going to continue to let the politicians divide and conquer us, thinking our special interests matter, and not realizing it's simply a matter of power. Someday we'll talk about violating due process, and your belief that the government should have the ability to remove someone's rights without any proof, with no notification, leaving a person to find out for themselves why it happened. That scares me, that's more dangerous than any gun has ever been, but then again, that's just my opinion, isn't it? We could talk about how passing laws that duplicate laws we have already have will work. We can talk about what makes you believe that criminals will suddenly obey laws, and turn in guns if that sort of law is passed. 

Is it strange that I believe my ten year old daughter has more character in her little finger than someone pushing a political agenda without a clue like Mr. Kuntzman? Perhaps, but what should really be alarming to anyone reading this, is that it's probably true. Mr Kuntzman, a suggestion? Stay in your "safe place", don't dare to think beyond yourself, or to use your pulpit to make this a better world. There are 10 year olds out there who are better prepared to do that than either of us.

Until that day.....

Sundevil's Texas Open

Sundevil's Texas Open



Okay, match video will be all out of order, and since I'm inserting this blog into the correct time from six months later, I'm not even sure I have all of the stages properly labeled. Rough match, don't remember a ton, other than I was not happy with the way I shot, and that midway thru the day I was suffering from some heat stroke. I turned about 7 shades of purple, was not sweating, and this despite the fact that I was drinking at least a bottle of water per stage. One of our squad mates saw it, and he sent me off to the truck to sit in the AC for 20 minutes, and put away even more water so I could finish the afternoon. Only thing I know for sure, is the stages with the goofy hat and grey shirt were post that incident, the black shirt and hat was morning.



Texas Open Match Scores

A "Participation Award" almost humiliating

I did get a plaque, but damn, I'm about embarrassed to have gotten 3rd C in Single Stack, I think there were only 4 of us shooting. Not exactly the way I want to remember the match.









































And that's the end!

Adnil's Texas Open

Adnil's Texas Open



A little screwy, but I'm inserting this blog back when it should have happened, even though I'm writing it in January of 2017. With that in mind, not all the stages are in here, we had to shoot out of order, and self RO. Heck, I may even have some of the stage numbers wrong, but at least it's here.

Texas Open Scores

































































And that's all she wrote......

Double Tap 2016 Star Wars!

Double Tap 2016 Star Wars!


With the rain from last year ruining the match for us, I was really looking forward to getting up to Double Tap this year. I'll start out by saying that I had a great time, fun squad, we got all 12 stages complete by about 3:30, so we were able to move, and that's not always the case at a match like this. No big expectations, but one thing I wanted to do was get that first major with single digit misses, because that's a big step, especially being close at Cowtown and then blowing it wide open the last 2 stages. With as many as I've shot, that should have happened a long time ago, and it's a step in the improvement direction.

Let's start from where the match began for me:

Stage 9:






18 Alpha
2 Bravo
4 Charlie
25.83 Seconds

Not a great stage, but had the Alpha hits that I was looking for. Slow transitions on the 2nd stage, and I blew a reload going into the port in the 3rd position, first time it's happened with Single Stack at a match, could I have shaved time? Of course, biggest thing I'm feeling was that my transitions were not great, and my splits at close targets were not happening as quick as they should. Things I can solve with some live fire, but not a horrible way to start the match.

Stage 10:






14 Alpha
5 Charlie
1 Delta
5 Steel
19.77 Seconds

Again, fairly slow on the draw to find, and feel comfortable on my sights, but I started to pick up a little bit of speed from there. Very slow to find my sights after opening the door, and that's a spot I could pick up some time as well. Kind of like my first stage, it was not horrible, but there are definitely things that I can clean up and improve on. Unhappy to throw a delta, and need more Alpha's especially since I'm shooting minor.


Stage 11:






6 Alpha
1 Bravo
4 Charlie
1 Delta
8 Steel
22.10 Seconds


Fun stage! Based on the plan that Tim Meyers gave me the day before, I was able to reload on the move, and never have to eat a standing reload. The Production and Single Stack shooters in my squad thought I was stupid because it meant extra movement, but I'll stand by it being the right plan, I'm able to move quicker in that area, and the standing reload sucks. I lost some time because I had to slide lock reload, it was the dreaded 11th shot because of the steel miss, and that cost me a few seconds easy. So the stage could have been a little better, but I had no trouble with the activators, and moving to get the targets on the clam shells.



Stage 12:






8 Alpha
5 Charlie
3 Mike
4 Steel
19.47 Seconds

Oops? This is one that really got away from me. Awkward lean and shooting position had me starting off slow, and when I headed into the 2nd position I wanted to really blaze thru it and make up some time. It was a great idea, but I never really saw my sights, had bad hits, and 3 mikes. This was a stage I'd really like to have back because I knew I blew it.



Stage 1:





20 Alpha
8 Charlie
4 Steel
30.42 Seconds

Not much to say other than I was just slow. Guess who got bit again by not letting the trigger reset after his first shot, for about the 10th time lately? Yep, and that's going to be trigger time going forward, it was just disappointing. Into the 2nd position I was horribly slow on my second shot, and I never really got going. Video doesn't show it, but I suspect that I had a crappy grip, and that's part of what caused it.

I laugh because I took and extra shot at the paper in the last position, and I did not need it, I had 3 Alpha's on the paper, sometimes you need to trust you called your shot. That's a mistake I made a few times in the match.


Stage 2:






19 Alpha
5 Charlie
3 Delta
1 Mike
2 Steel
35.85 Seconds

Another one that I wish that I had back. I struggled again with a slide lock reload, and you can see it ate up significant time. Why? Because I took an extra shot at a target because I thought I missed it, and I ended up getting 2 Alpha's, but either the make-up or the first shot was a Charlie. Either or, had my hits there, the miss was on a target on the other side. RO told me he almost DQ'd me for a past 180 reload headed into the last position. Video doesn't show it clearly, and I don't think I was, but it's possible, so some reload practice going to my left is going to be the agenda. Not a ton, just enough so I'm comfortable I'm doing it the right way.


Stage 3:






10 Alpha
9 Charlie
4 Delta
1 Mike
42.16 Seconds

Dot Drills, on the agenda as well. My accuracy on this stage was off pretty much every where, I had hits on the swingers, the one on the left had 2 delta hits, which to me means I was either not seeing my sights (best bet, because I was trying to remember where I needed to be to see everything.) or I was also struggling with grip issues. The bottom line is I need trigger time, a lot of trigger time to really get going, and get in shape.

Sun was out, I went full Gilligan with the hat in the afternoon.

Stage 4:






19 Alpha
7 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
1 Steel
32.16

First stage after lunch, and I felt a little sluggish. The mike was on the steel, and I'm a little unhappy about it. There were some overall issues that multiple people had with the steel. I hit the 2nd steel in the center scoring zone (it was painted after every shooter so you could clearly see the mark) where the "head" meets the "neck". I saw it move, and decided to take a risk on calibration and went with it. It did however have me thinking about that, and I forgot to grab my mag for the reload. Did you notice that I took extra shots again? Guess who did not need them...again....

In any case, I called for calibration, the RM came over, with his 121 PF (alleged) ammo, and shot the very top of the popper, and it went over, so I had to take the mike. He did tell the RO on the stage that it was loose, and they tightened it up. Here's the thing, if you know it's loose, you can see the hit in the scoring zone, gimmie a break.....I understand it, and I did not spend all day arguing it, but it felt like things were kind of stacking up, and now I just needed to forget about everything, and just pull my game back and focus.


Stage 5:





15 Alpha
6 Charlie
3 Delta
4 Steel
45.65

Lot of issues happening here. I struggled on the steel plate from the first Tie Fighter port, that was not a lot of fun, and you see I hesitate before going to the last paper in that position. I knew I was almost out of ammo, and I did not want a slide lock reload, and of course after one round, I was back in that position again. Really frustrating myself that I lost count, could have saved time by reloading when I thought about it.


Stage 6:





16 Alpha
2 Charlie
2 Delta
4 Steel
18.34 Seconds

Hands down best stage of the match for me. It was top in SS for Day 1, and I think it ended up 4th in SS, and top 70 of 240 shooters. I'm not going to say I'm unhappy, but if I'm nitpicking (and I am) slow off the draw, and to the "longer" target. My transitions on the close stuff could have been a hair quicker, and by the time I was to the end I was almost easing up just a hair. I think I could have shaved about 3 seconds off my time, where I was, put me in the B-A range of Production shooters, but 3 seconds would have put me in the M group of Production shooters.

Sure, I'd like to clean up the 2 Delta's, I had a ton in the match, but stages like this give me a glimpse of where I know I can get to, and consistently shoot with practice. This is where I was spring of '14, so it's been a long time, if I want to deliver a big match at Oilfield, it'll start by turning in stages like this. That's my goal.


Stage 7:






21 Alpha
1 Bravo
3 Charlie
1 Delta
1 Steel
29.20 Seconds

I'm going to say I liked my first reload. I was a little slow going into ports, and I think that's more about my positioning than anything. I need to bend my knees, rather than get the gun up, and then drop to see the sights. Improve that, and I'll be a little faster on my own. Good hits, but again, 1 Delta...really?



Stage 8:







9 Alpha
5 Charlie
2 Delta
2 Steel
19.08 Seconds


Fun stage, the crossing activators made it a challenge. Notice on this stage I bent the knees a little, and was maybe just a bit quicker on the ports? I'll have to run it thru shot coach, but it tells me that again, with some focus and practice, I can do it. Hits kind of stunk, but on the whole, the last 2-3 stages were some of the better ones on the day for me, and while I may have been disappointed earlier, it felt like some mental toughness that for once I closed strong, rather than fading at the end.


Summary:

Double Tap Scores

I finished 8th of 18 shooters in Single Stack, and I was 3rd place in C Class. I was only 4% behind the winner, and being honest, there are a ton of ways I could have made up those 55 points. 6 Mikes is my lowest ever, so that's a goal that I hit, but 19 Delta's is just plain awful, and being honest at this kind of match, I think I should have 2-3 mike's top. Too many bad hits.  175 Alpha's and 63 Charlie is also not a great split, If I would have had 200 Alpha, and 30 odd Charlie, then I'd be closer to the mark where I need to be shooting minor in this division.

Top Finisher in C beat me by 30 seconds (over 12 stages you are looking at 2.5 seconds average per stage, and when I watch my video, I see most stages where I lost at least that much time, if not more. So speed and accuracy are things that need work, shocking right? That said, 2.5 seconds per stage, how much did I lose with the slide lock reloads? How much did I lose with poor positioning, and other errors?

On the last 3 stages I shot, I was 4th, 6th and 7th, and I beat the C class winner pretty handily on all 3. On Stage 12 I lost 33 points to him because of those 3 mikes. Stage 2, with the slide lock reload issue, I lost 28 points to him. Between those 2 stages, I dropped 61 points, and I lost by 55 points....

Not trying to sugar coat it, but while I spent a lot of time focusing on what went wrong, and I need to do that so I can address issues, and try to get better, in the overall picture, I was not as horrible as it felt. I could have put myself in a position to win my class. Until I get out of C class, I feel like I should be in a position to fight for a class win in every major match. Sure, it's a low bar, and I do better comparing myself to the Production guys, but may as well aim to win, and beat whatever competition that is there.

Because they did prizes just for Saturday shooters, Linda and I hung around, and she managed to win a new shooting bag that she was pretty happy with, and I won some steel. Nice for pistol, but it will come in handy (I need to get a stand) for 3-Gun, so Linda and I will have some steel we can shoot slugs at, and practice 100 yard rifle. These aren't 3-Gun level prizes, but still the nicest things we've managed to win at a USPSA match.

It's funny, I was embarrassed to wear the goofy hat, especially when Jay, Linda, and Lauren made fun of me when I thought about it at the 3 Gun Nation match, but damnit, when it's hot, and the sun is out, it was nice as hell to keep cool, and I got zero sunburn on my neck for a change. Plus, even if it was a slow afternoon start, it was a strong afternoon finish. New lucky hat? May have to break it out in two weeks at Texas Open!

Finally, big congrats to Linda who managed to win D class in Limited. I know some folks might look down on a "D Class" shooter, but she went out, and she beat the people in her class. That's a pretty big deal for her, and I'm awful proud. I think she felt it was her best ever major match, and while there is a ton she might like to do better, she did it the best she could here.

Linda has her own HCG Blaster Almost Ready

On Friday night, she got the above picture from Ben Hayes, and that completed her weekend of feeling good. She shot her best match, she has a new blaster that is what she wants. I hope that it all helps motivate her, and help her want to dry fire, and get out there this summer with me, so we both can push each other, and get better!