Sundevil827 Alpha Mike 3-15-15

Sundevil827 Alpha Mike 3-15-15


It's been a busy few weeks, so in dry fire I wanted to focus on a couple of things, getting the safety off as part of the draw, and getting a solid grip on the gun. Those were huge issues in Waco, and I had to address them as part of the foundation of my moving into Limited. Wanting to get classified in Limited, and without a match in Temple, I decided to head down to San Antonio, and check out the Alpha Mike match. Gotta say, beautiful range, shooting into the side of a "mountain" (or really big hill) was cool. I saw a lot of progress from Waco, but as always, a real long way to go.

Biggest step, was an awesome amount of Alpha's, I mean when it came to paper, I thought I did a great job, and it was rare when it was not 2 Alpha, that's the kind of accuracy that I've wanted to have on paper, but never got there. The downside was that I struggled with steel, I focused on the steel, not my sights, and that I have slowed down a fair amount to get hits, I really need to (and am able to) push harder, go faster, and still get these hits.


Stage 4 Boogalo Jones:

I started out just the way I wanted, I cleared the first few array's quickly, had a great cadence, and felt very good about the way things started. Per the stage brief, all ammo had to start on a barrel, so I left an extra mag and put it on a pouch off my reload barrel, that cost me a couple of seconds too much. My biggest error was not taking the two steel plates that were only visible from the left position. I knew it when I left, you heard the "oh shit" but I kept on going, and tried to salvage my plan. Too many shots on the steel that only the top third was visible behind the barrel on the right hand side. Finally, I had to go back left, reload, and take those two steel. That mistake cost me an awful lot, and basically killed the stage. (8th of 13 in Limited)


Stage 5: Clear The Building

Good hits, I started out fairly strong, but the gun should not have come down while moving, I wasted time having to get it back into a shooting position between targets. Decent reload, and then while I cleared the targets from the port, my cadence was not good, and I was hunting and pecking for targets, this is where I need to be running the gun harder, and seeing better transitions. Doing that would have saved time, and been a better stage. (6th of 13 in Limited)

Stage 1: Boxcars

Struggled on the star, and then struggled on the poppers. That kind of hurts, good cadence on the paper. I caught one on my leg and cut myself pretty good on the popper, that made me lose focus for at least a couple of shots. I'm really unhappy that I'm struggling on steel, but I definitely was looking at the steel and not looking at my sights. I distinctly realized that on this stage. I can fix that, but it's a real step backwards.


Stage 2: Classifier 03-02 Six Chickens

Listing what went right would probably be shorter than what went wrong. I hit the targets on the freestyle run? Here is where my only mikes were in the match, strong hand, and that really hurt, throw in a poor reload, and I just about zeroed this stage. Strong hand/weak hand practice incoming? Yes sir. (11th of 13 in Limited, and I lost a ton of points and about 3 places in Limited here.)


Stage 3: Onyx Club

Not a bad stage, but I left points and time. I could have backed out of the first position on the move and taken the final target. I did not get aggressively into the 2nd position, and I actually had to search for my first target. I was slow and not 1 for 1 on the plate rack, and I took several shots at the steel plate in the final position. All of those things cost me some time. I'll estimate I left close to 4 seconds on the table with those errors, and that's s another few positions. (5th of 13 in Limited)


Summary

I finished 10th of 13 in Limited, which is not a good showing, The classifier I left points on the table, and with a mere 10 more points, I would have moved up 3 spots, with 20 more points I would have moved up 4 spots. The thing is, I know I left points on the table, and where I left them. Second match in Limited I can't be all that upset. I got good hits all day long (expect the strong hand string). I need to focus and do some work on steel, and really start pushing myself to go faster again. I'm not out running or out shooting this gun anytime soon. I'm going to be disappointed if I can't pick up the points and start showing progress in those areas by middle of May. Dry fire practice really did improve the few things I wanted it to, and I'm going to keep expanding that going forward. No shame in the finish, huge improvement over next month, and next week I'm headed back to Waco, hopefully we'll see some more progress, and clean up a few items that need to be addressed.

Running with Roy and Bryan (Both multi-division GM's) both makes the match an awful lot of fun, I enjoy shooting with those guys, it definitely pushes and teaches me. It's not Les and Kozy, but the more good shooters I squad with, the harder I push myself to improve. I like that.

Linda At Waco 2-21-15

Linda At Waco 2-21-15


Linda came out of Waco feeling like it was her best match since she got to Texas, and she expected to be middle of the pack, and to have beaten me. She had 3 outstanding stages, one decent stage, one bad stage, and a rough classifier that ended up her costing her. When the scores came out, she was disheartened, because it was not as good a finish as she expected, but when she saw the video of her from the end of last year, to this month, she saw a huge amount of improvement and smoothness.

This match marked three weeks of dry fire, which is not a ton in the scheme of things. She should be proud as can be, and if she stays on track, I think she'll have an excellent season. There is no doubt in my mind that when she puts it all together, she'll far exceed me.



Stage 6:

Solid start, she made some stage plan decisions that perhaps she would have changed, but on the whole, fairly solid, and it was a good stage to get the pre-match jitters gone.

Stage 1:

Reloads are low, but Linda is killing the steel, she may have buried a shot in the black, but much smoother. She did notice that her reloads need work. She is not dropping the mag until the gun is back in, and she is bringing in the gun very low.

Stage 2:

This was the rough stage. She did not want to hear suggestions on a stage plan, and was convinced that the best thing she could do was run to the middle, and lean all over to shoot. She had to hunt and peck for targets, and she ended up with a no-shoot as well. Thru the drive home, she insisted that she had a good plan, but when she saw the video, and saw the scores and realized how much time she lost, then she understood that the plan was poor. This is something I think you only learn at a match, it's something I still struggle with, and Linda is smart enough to learn from it going forward. Hard lesson, but a good one, especially now that she sees it. Even with a rough stage, you can learn a lot.

Stage 3:

Arguably Linda's best stage of the day. She ran the steel like a champ, had solid hits. Best part, is she did it after a stage that was a struggle, meaning that she left the bad stage behind, and came back on fire. Positive mental attitude is a plus, and she's got a much better one than I have. Pretty proud of her.

Stage 4:

Again, another solid run, some struggles on the last bit of steel that cost her an awful lot of time. I think I would have taken the swinger from the activator, but that's arguable. She had a lot to be happy with on this run.

Stage 5:

CM-99-13 Quicky II. Not a bad run, but a couple of weak hand mikes doomed the run, and it looks about like a 33% run. More practice on strong hand and weak hand.


Summary:

Linda just transitioned from her CZ to my old CZ, and she noticed a world of difference, all in a very good way. She showed confidence, did not let mistakes rattle her, and shot a solid match for 3 weeks of dry fire, and 2 weeks of live fire practice. Sure, there are always things that we want to do better, but the last time she felt this decent was June of '14, so she really needed this boost of confidence.

Waco 2-21-15

Waco 2-21-15


Last weekend we made the trip up to Waco for a match we had heard was pretty good, and gotta say was pretty impressed. The match only had 35 shooters, 10 of whom were GM's or Master class shooters, so the heat and the competition was on. The squad that Linda and I were in had 3 GM's, a Master, us, and one other shooter. Small squads, 6 stages, and were out done shooting in just over 3 hours.

This was to be my first mach with the Edge, and only having it about a week, I was not expecting to light things on fire, and I did not, by the end of the day I had some decent runs, but it's obvious that the switch to Limited from Production is going to be far greater than the switch from the Walther PPQ to the CZ and staying in Production.

Early on, I had issues with the gun shooting nearly 6"-8" low, being honest the issue was my trigger control about 95%, and adjusting the sight up about 4 clicks. This is what happens when you let someone else sight the gun, do it yourself so you know it's hitting where you want it to hit. My own fault. The trigger control issue took four bad stages, but another shooter tightened up my overtravel screw, and made the trigger better, and I realized I had too much finger in the flat trigger and was pushing the gun when pulling the trigger. Again, a switch from Production to Limited, and a new gun is a set-back.

Stage 6:

First stage I shot, I had an issue getting the mag in, it did not seat, so I dropped it and went on. I did not have a great grip, so I did not have the grip safety engaged, and then I had the first of the bad sight issues with the steel plate.



Stage 1:

Struggles on steel, hitting low, almost hitting the post instead of the plate. I put a couple shots into the hard cover as part of my struggle. We stopped after this stage to help get me sighted in correctly, and that was step 1 in the process.


Stage 2:

This was a memory stage, I had a pretty good plan, some slow execution in the middle, but no mikes at all, and in a tough group of shooters, I was 14th overall on this stage, so no complaints, I thought I was doing okay. Notice though that I was ignoring my mag on the front of my belt, and going immediately to my hip. Either I need to move the front mag, or I need to get in a lot of practice to get used to that.


Stage 3:

Had a near total meltdown on the steel plate, almost a full mag on it, and I could not understand why with the sights lined up I could not hit it. Wade looked at my trigger before the next stage to make the overtravel adjustment, but it's also where I realize that the gun was hitting but I was exhibiting poor trigger control and pushing the gun. Look at the way I ran the plate rack after not being able to hit the steel plate. The last plate shocked me, I had poor control because I was wondering WTF was happening. Poor attitude.

Stage 4:

With the sights being fixed, the trigger being in shape, and me showing much better trigger control I had my best field course stage of the day, and showed improvement. My only real error was running down the "long hall" without a reload, another shooter said that's what they were doing so they would have extra for the star. Considering how I had been running, extra on the star sounded good, so I changed my plan, I should have stuck with the original, and I'd have been better off. No mikes, and I felt good about the run.

Stage 5:

This was Classifier CM 99-13 Quick II. I had a single "mike" on the weakhand run, it was slow, my reload and transfer were not smooth, and I ended up with about a 41% "C Class run". I'm not saying this was a raging success, but neither was it a failure, and considering where I was on the first 4 stages in the match, it was an improvement.

Summary:

A lot of dry fire, and live fire are in the cards. Kozy told me it would take me at least 6 months to get used to a new gun, and with the Production switch I did not believe it, and it did not take that long, but from Production to Limited it will be every bit of 6 months before I'm 100% comfortable. I'm hoping that in 60-90 days I should be eliminating a lot of the little mistakes that I saw in this match.

I also feel like I'm going to be a better shooter in Limited than I was in Production. Right now I'm running slower splits, around .21-.22 seconds instead of .18-.20 in Production. The difference is that I've really been able to see my sights, and once the gun, and my finger was doing what it should, I felt extremely dialed in, and I did get good hits. I'm not saying I don't have to push, I do, I'm just saying that I feel an instant comfort with that aspect of the new gun.

I'm aiming to run two matches (Temple and Waco) in March, and the ALSPPC match in April, so I can be classed by the middle of April. I know it'll end up in the "C" area, but that's probably where I deserve to be, and I think I'll be able to get competitive in that class sooner. Keeping up with the dry fire, and live fire is going to be the name of the game. I saw some progress, but the new gun was a step backward as well. When it comes together though.....I'm really looking forward to this season.

Live Fire

Live Fire


Limited is going to take some time, and some practice, a LOT of practice. Linda and I trekked out to the range today to get some live fire work in, and for me it was the first chance to really put some rounds down range with the Edge. I put a mag and a half shooting some groups, getting used to the sights, I think I'm going to make an adjustment and try them again, the POI is lower than my POA, and I'd like to have it mimic the sights on my CZ.

First run was the best run with El Prez, 6.92 seconds, with a slow 2.12 draw, and 1.80 reload. Most splits were in the .24-.25 area, and transitions in the .36 area. I know I can shoot faster, but I felt like I was waiting a bit longer to wait for the sights to settle. I don't have a problem with that, it just feels slower than with the CZ, although being honest, waiting for the sights to settle gave me a much better sight picture, and I had better hits.

It was not all sunshine and roses, because that was the only run I had that was much good. Most runs were in the 9 second area because I either blew the draw, the reload, or both. Flipping the safety off is not something I'm used to, and it's going to take some serious practice to learn how to do that naturally. My best draws were in the 1.7 area, in Production I expected a 1.3-1.5 second draw. So I definitely have some work to do here.

I've spent 2 plus years reloading from my hip, and I kept going to the mag on my hip, instead of the mag that was on the front of my belt. That's also something I'm going to have to invest a lot of practice in changing. In a Production gun, I'd heard it bandied about that it could take 6 months of practice to get used to a new gun. From Walther to CZ I never had that steep of a learning curve, it was 30-60 days before I felt comfortable with the change, but then again I had a lot less to unlearn. Making this change to Limited division, I would not be surprised if it takes me 90-120 days at least to get comfortable. It's going to be a steep learning curve, and dry fire alone is not going to cut it. It will help build muscle memory, but doing it on a timer will be a whole different story. It may be that I won't put a mag up front, and will get them all close to my hip, we'll see.

As a whole, my hits were better, mostly because I had slower splits and transitions, and I really saw my sights this evening. I'm not going to push that a ton right now, that's a good thing, but I am going to keep hammering the other fundamental aspects of my game.

Linda tonight had some good runs. Her best run was a 7.26 run with a 1.82 second draw but a 2.21 second reload. What she found out was that she can shoot fast enough, generally around .28 splits and .35 transitions, if she can get her draw and reload in the 1.6 second area she'll be just fine. What was disappointing for her is that her dry fire reloads are coming in about 1.6. She had a few runs around 9 seconds, again a 1.88 draw, so she is consistent there, but an even worse reload at 2.47, it was her cadence that she needed to improve, with .40 splits and .61 transitions.

No bullshit, she just get's it. She's quick, she had good hits tonight, and she is building confidence. Her progress from dry fire really shows up when she is out there, I think as she get's some more live fire work she'll really make some big jumps. I'd be willing to bet that if she keeps up the practice she'll earn her "B" card this year, and be competitive. The truth is, she'll be a better shooter than I am in no time. More experience for the win. Pretty proud of her!

Limited: The Edge

Limited: The Edge



Okay, this will take a few people aback, and I've already caught some flak about this decision, but I've decided to leave the Production Division, and move to the Limited Division in 2015. In Production you generally see stock type guns, no magwell's, and there is a limit of 10 rounds in the magazines. It's been a fun run in Production, but at the end of last year, post move, I was a little burnt out by the the sport, and it was just not as fun as it had been in the past. I attributed it to missing my friends, and I realized that a large part of my shooting fun was not just the shooting, but the people I went shooting with. I started to gear up for 3-Gun, thinking that maybe that would be something new and exciting, and would restore the fun that I was not having.

My New STI Edge

A few weeks ago I said to myself that what I really enjoy is pistol shooting, and maybe I just needed to make a change in that. The CZ Shadow is about as good as it gets in the Production Division, and there was no real reason to change guns. Maybe it's because I was having a harder time fitting in at the range, as it did not feel like the same community that I left in Illinois, I thought that maybe if I changed the game around it would be be enough to restore the luster. I had no interest in Single Stack, and revolvers are alien to me. That left me Open and Limited, and I've seen enough "Akai Magic" when Kozy is shooting that kind of scared me off Open. The constant tuning the mags, the gun, the sight's issue, I'm just not quite ready for that.

Limited allows me a nice big magwell, and 20+1 or 21+1 in the magazine if I can fit them, which really changes the game. Instead of planning stages, usually around, 8 shot array's, now I can plan around 16-18 shot array's. In addition, Limited is a major power factor, meaning it's scored a little differently than Production. Alphas have 5 points still, but Charlies and Bravo's are 4 points instead of 3 points in Production, and Delta's are 2 points instead of 1 point. Now it's not really an advantage because everyone shooting Limited is playing under the same set of rules, and I'm not competing against the Production shooters.

I'd looked at the new STI DVC, because it looked great, and came out of the box with a lot of highly desirable features, however it's brand new, not yet released, and frankly I'm a little hesitant to buy something like that. Let someone else run it for the year, see how reliable it is, and maybe down the road I'll look at one.

STI DVC

I spoke to some local shooters, did a little shopping, and decided on the STI Edge, it's been around for years, it's one of the most common guns in the Limited Division, and it's got a track record of success. I got an introduction up at Dawson Precision, and went up there to order one, and Dave Dawson spent some time with me, and assured that he'd personally go over the gun, and make sure I had a good one, and one that I wanted. A premier gunsmith, the guy who developed the gun while the Production Manager at STI? Hell yes!

The New Edge

In any case, I picked it up, and have started dry fire with it already. It's going to take some time to really get things down, and it's probably going to be a couple of steps backward before I can go forward. My early impression is of course favorable, my reloads thanks to the magwell are as fast, and more consistent than they were with the CZ. My ability to index the gun to a target is remarkably better than the CZ as well, it points more naturally, and I like the weight distribution more than the CZ. My draw is inconsistent, when it's on it's solid, but having to take the safety off, my early dry fire runs have found me not quite getting the web of my main hand in place, and not engaging the grip safety. That's something practice will address, but I'm excited to get going.

While all that's good and well, and it is what it's going to be, my tune changed a little bit coming back from Florida. While I was there, being able to shoot with friends, I had so much fun, I found everything that I thought I'd lost, I found my passion about the sport again. I did not need to look at 3-Gun as another way to find it, or to move to Limited, I could have stayed right there in Production happily. If this match had happened in December, I doubt I'd have committed to 3-Gun or Limited. That said, I do want to experience both, and I'm looking forward to them, and going to put my best effort and energy to compete in both.

I caught a little grief from someone who thinks I did it because I wanted the game to be easier, and he felt it would be amusing to see me do it. That's fair, but that's not the real reason I wanted to, and knowing that, I'm okay with it. I'm looking forward to it. Part of me had some regret, but the die has been cast, and believe me, picking up that gun for the first time, shooting it, and now practicing with it, no regrets, and nothing but enthusiasm.

Limited.....2015

Florida Open Match Review (Part 2)

FLOP Match Review (Part 2)


Part one covered the pre-lunch stages I shot at the Open, part 2 is for the 2nd half of the match for me.


Stage 1: Ancient City Conquest

19 Alpha
6 Charlie
5 Delta
2 Mike
33.77 Seconds

I'm glad we broke here, because I needed extra time to walk this stage, and learn the "trick". There was some definite distance here, but the big part should have been the swinger. At rest, the target was visible from the low port, so the plan was to hit the swinger, stop shooting, and then walk over and tap the activator. Since the timer will register the last shot, the time you spend walking to touch the activator is not counted, and you get to shoot a target at rest. You must hit the activator, or you get a penalty, so doing it, no moving target, all seem like a win to me.

What went wrong with that plan? Well, again poor hits, but I missed the non-moving activator from the low port. Again, something I'm not used to doing, taking a long shot from a non-conventional position. Something I need to work on.

Stage 2: Cigar City Comeback

23 Alpha
6 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
32.61 Seconds

A shoot house type stage that was fun? Again, I ran a slightly different plan that cost me some time. Position 1 and 2 was the same as everyone, and I struggled to take the 3rd position on the move. I elected to dive into the window in the 4th position and take a longer target, other shooters waited to take that target because it saved them several steps from having to go into the port. It definitely cost me time.

I took the next 2 targets on the move, and then into the far window. I wanted to close then on the 2 targets near me, but I pulled off the closest target to me, and threw a mike on a target about 7 yards from me, just blew my mind, I was trying to transition, and just missed. This is where everyone else took the long target, it was a lean, but after the fact I can where and why my plan cost me time.

Stage 3: Capital City Shuffle

23 Alpha
7 Charlie
1 Delta
1 Mike
34.84

This was my second best finish, top 40% in Production, even with a miss. It was also perhaps one of the most straight forward stages of the match. The only variation was taking a hard lean at the start position, and hitting the 3rd paper target. You'll notice I slowed, and had to take that target from the port, had I done it on the move, it would have been okay, but stopping cost me some time, and then I had less time coming out of the reload. This was easily a place I could have shaved some time.

The delta and mike were on the same target, the 4th position had a hard cover target and I buried one in the delta, and one in the hard cover, telling me that I did not see my sights, and I almost broke the first shot before the transition was complete, and I was taking off to the next target before I got the 2nd shot off.

Here is a video of Roy Steadman running the same stage:

Stage 4: Jax Juke

25 Alpha
3 Charlie
2 Delta
2 Mike
31.09 Seconds


By the book, this was my 3rd best stage. I liked the set-up, but I failed to execute the way I wanted to. I started the first position right back to left so I could take the last target on the move backing out of position, instead I just stood there and cost myself a couple of steps. Position 2 went well, but my reload sucked, and I had the misses on the poppers into the 3rd position, the slow activation on the swinger meant I really could have taken the activator steel first, went to paper then to the swinger, rather than doing what I did and waiting. Slow reload into the 4th, open middle position, and again I had some misses on the small steel on the final position that cost me some time.

There was a single miss on each swinger, again proving I need to put some time into swingers and make sure I add that to my practice routine. Watching the run, I think I should have shaved off 5 or 6 seconds. However this was two solid stages in a row, so I was not too unhappy, although I was just starting to feel like I was getting it together.

I felt better about my sight picture on this stage than any other stage all day long, but it also was a stark contrast from what I had been seeing, and looking past the sights to the target. Practice!

Stage 5: Orlando Overkill

23 Alpha
5 Charlie
8 Delta
2 Mike
1 No-Shoot
34.13 Seconds

Last stage of the day, this had a lot of shooting positions, and there were a couple of good ways to run it. I'll just say that my plan was not one of those ways, I took some longer shots than I needed to, I got caught waiting for the max traps to work, and I never paid attention to the 4th position, that once the max trap opened, the target was half covered by no-shoot. Alpha, Mike, No-Shoot....ugh.

The reload coming out of the 3rd position, and out of the 4th position left me feeling like I had a bad grip on the gun, and in the final position, I felt the gun, and the sights creeping up in my hand. So failure on the grip, and that cost me on the long targets.

Final:

I managed to keep my enthusiasm, and energy level up all day, I did not let things get me down, so both of those I see as positives. Let's face it, almost 90 days with minimal trigger time, one match since October, and one live fire practice? Perishable skills deteriorate, and I saw it first hand. I'm not going to dwell on the bad stuff, no point in it, focus on sight picture, incorporating swingers into live fire, and some shooting from uncomfortable positions will help eliminate many of the issues I had on the range.

I was not going down with any idea of winning my class, or kicking ass, I knew it was going to be a rough match, and with the mikes, and deltas it definitely was. I showed how out of practice I was, however the good stuff was a new side of me, and a skill I've struggled with. I'd like to think that in a few months with some hard work I'm going to start putting it all together, and shooting the way I think I'm capable of. No, that's not a GM level, but I think I can put together and be a solid "B" class shooter. I'm not afraid to work at that.

Florida Open will be a permanent fixture on my shooting schedule from now on. This was an amazing match, technically challenging, fun, well run, and the people are really what make it. Next year I'm going to raise my game quite a bit for this match. In order to do that, I'll have to get busy now, and really keep up the training.

Florida Open Match Review (Part 1)

FLOP Match Review (Part 1)



I'll run my breakdown in order of stages shot, not numerical order. We had 3 stages early A.M. facing east just after sunrise, and on our first stage the sun was just over the berm, and it was a significant challenge.



Stage 6: Miami Muscle

21 Alpha
8 Charlie
1 Delta
4 Mike
45.28 Seconds


I was the 2nd shooter, and got lucky. I had mag issues (no feeding) at both the 2nd and 3rd shooting positions, and had to take those mags out of the match. However as closed into the final shooting position, I noticed nobody had pasted the "strong hand" and "weak hand" targets. Re-shoot was a blessing, or it could have been. There was a low target at a cross direction from me that I had to take at shooting points 2 and 3. First run I had A/C and A/C, 2nd run thru I had 4 misses. Short version is that I did not show enough respect to the targets, I never saw my sight, and I took the tough shot too fast. The sun did not help, but I should have taken the time to deal with, I did the first time, and failed the 2nd time.

My stage plan was not optimal, most people hit the middle after the 2nd position, but I was concerned with it taking too much time with the leans and the transfer's, so I wanted to finish there. I changed my mind the morning of, but at that point, I was too far down the path, so I kept to my plan, and figured to run with it.

Stage 7: Space Coast Challenge

17 Alpha
8 Charlie
2 Delta
1 Mike
31.24 Seconds

This was my best stage of the day. I was 29th of about 90 Production shooters for the match, so top 1/3rd, and I did not shoot it clean, I left points. The stage plan was awesome, Roy Steadman came up with it, and it was so good, I think our entire squad (save 1) used it. The moving shots as I came from position 1 to position 2, were both Charlies, and I should have been better there. I took a mike on the cross target paper shot from the final position. This was again a sun one for me, I did not have a great sight picture and I squeezed it off anyhow, I'd wager had I waited for the sight picture to come into place, I'd have had at least a Charlie.

Consistency is always an issue, but to me, this is probably the upside of where I am in Production right now, I can clean this run up for points so I know I can get a lot more competitive than I was the remainder of the match.

Minor note, when I ran from the 3rd position to my final position, I grabbed mags too far back, and that was a theme on the day, I lost count of where mags where, and I started grabbing from the back. Little thing, but still needs fixing.

Stage 8: Conch Republic

My worst finish on a stage, but not, I felt, my worst stage.

15 Alpha
9 Charlie
2 Delta
4 Mike
1 No Shoot
35.02 Seconds

My video got messed up, so I'm actually going to use the video of Les. We ran the same plan, but he did it faster and better. That's what a GM looks like.....

My Delta's and Mike were on the swinger and the long target, again proving that I need to keep on working those aspects.

Stage 9: Hog Town Hustle

20 Alpha
7 Charlie
3 Delta
38.62 Seconds

Hold the presses, a stage without a miss? What the hell happened? Well, the truth is I was every bit as slow as it looks. There was some memory to it, and the Cooper Tunnel, where the plan was to only have to go thru the 1st tunnel, and finish before the 2nd. This kept down the chance for a procedural, but I'm not sure if it was all that fast for me. I had an issue after closing down the swingers on the right, it was fast, and only partially available, I did not seat a mag headed to the next position, and had an extra mag change. Again another mag pulled from the match.

Stage 10: Daytona Drag

16 Alpha
4 Charlie
3 Delta
5 Mike
1 Failure to Engage
41.03 Seconds

This was my absolute worst stage of the day. This was the train wreck I was afraid of having. Match results say I finished better than Stage 8, but the reality was this was bad. From the minute the buzzer sounded, I completely forgot my stage plan. In reality, there was a lot of memory to this stage, and my plan was different than other people, and it was crappy to begin with. I'd looked at a few different ways to do it, but I never settled on one way. I paid the price.

After the first target, I was going to shoot the 2 orange steel, but when the buzzed sounded, I did not do that, I moved outside before going in. From the starting position, the 2 pepper poppers were partially hidden making for a very small aiming surface, and I managed to hit the wall a couple of times before I got them down, and got the swinger moving. Once that happened, I forgot what I wanted to do, and I never engaged the paper that was directly down range of me. I suspect on the video you can hear me cursing about what happened, because I knew I was in a bad spot.

My original plan allowed me to skip the 3rd position, but I forgot that, and ended up never finding the targets in the order I wanted to. In past matches, this would have derailed me for the entire match, and I admit it was pretty bad. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. I did take a couple of things from it, I needed to put the same attention to detail in it that I did every other stage, I did this to myself. I also need to not let a bad start derail me on a stage, and I need to finish it as best I can to still earn as many points as I can, both things let me down.

Stage 11: Palm Beach Bash

12 Alpha
18 Charlie
2 Delta
3 Mike
34.94 Seconds

This was a crucial stage. History says I would train wreck this stage after the debacle on Stage 10. I had a bold plan that Les encouraged me to try. Shoot 4 paper targets and 3 pepper poppers at the first position. That's right, shoot to 11, go to slide lock, and reload on the way to the 2nd position. For a GM like Les, no problem, but I was worried that one miss, or one make-up shot, and now I eat a standing reload. Did I mention that there was not a single open target? Every paper target was a half target, just depended on which half was open.

Position 1 I was 10 for 10, and missed on the 11th shot, so I ate the standing reload, and got going from there. Despite it not going my way, I did not get upset, I ran my plan, I kept it going, and I finished the stage. My hits sucked because I was so afraid of ending up in the black, I was literally aiming at the C section because it was open, not the half of the A zone that was. When you are not being accurate it's tough to trust your sights. My mikes were all shots that ended up in the hard cover area of targets.

Going too fast, not paying attention to sights, it all kind of got me, but the realization was that I needed to get back to "aim small, miss small," and trusting my sights. Good idea, even if the execution was not what it should have been.

After Stage 11 we broke for lunch, which gave me a needed break to try to right the ship, and get my focus where it needed to me. Unfortunately my phone was ringing off the hook and I had to spend a good portion of time trying to close a sale. Even on a vacation day, I got caught up, that won't happen again, but it is what it is.

Last video for Stage 11 was Roy Steadman, Limited GM, Open GM, and the reigning IPSC National Champion in the Modified Division. (Reigning because the did away with the division the year after he won it....) My point is Roy is a great shooter, awesome squad-mate, the author of the plan on a couple of stages, and someone I learned a lot from this weekend.