I am very new to the sport, a good buddy of mine introduced me to it a few months back and since then we have never looked back, we were hooked. I have participated I a few and I mean a few local area matches so by no means am I considered a seasoned shooter, but as most know that the best way to get acclimated is to jump right in, well that's what I did. I spent the entire week getting my gear ready for the texas open, so by the start of the weekend I was at least gear ready, new pistol was running great, light loads were spot on and at a good power factor , clothes were washed and ready. Well the weekend started, our group shot Saturday morning, myself and my buddies were pretty excited as we couldn't stop talking about this weekend since we signed up. our first big match. 1st bay we got to wasn't too hard 16 shots, pistol and mag on separate barrels for starting. almost everyone did well on this bay, I honestly shot all alphas on the 1st run and a decent time, (my thoughts were man this is gonna be a good day, lets keep this goin). Well needless to say that all came to a quick hault on the 2nd bay we went to. We had a barrel in the front, a metal plate on either side, fencing behind that on both sides with a shooting hole, and barrels on the end of the fence. 2 paper swinger targets activated by shooting the metal plates in front, 1 step back allowed you to shoot the swinger targets and 2 paper targets on the ends on each side that needed to be shot from the very back. Now I played it over and over in my head how I could do this and get the most advantage for me time wise by shooting the metals first, the outsides next and then the swingers (allowing them to slow down a bit to make sure my shots count). Here is where I messed up, as I made ready (pistol loaded and chambered, put on the barrel in front of me) I took a step back to the starting line, range officer gave the commands and I was off, first shots were perfect, metal plates fell, I then took a step back, and out of the corner of my eye I could see the 2 targets to the left, I spun enough to point but then I realized I was REALLY close to hitting the 180 rule, I never fired as I did not want to break that rule, but as I turned a bit back to the right the range officer called it and let me know that I surpassed the 180 deg mark. I honestly thought I had stopped far enough that I did not break the rule but the R.O was certain of the infraction. I was pretty disappointed in myself, more so when I realized that we were only on the 2nd bay of 12 and still had a whole day ahead of us. well I stuck around to support a fellow shooter for the next 8 bays then decided to leave with a sense of understanding what I did wrong and what all I needed to do to fix it.
So please learn from my mistakes and play the scenario out in your head with every way you can make the best time and not be tempted to break that 180deg rule...
