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:
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
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!
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!
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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:
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.
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!
