KelsonAK

[KelsonAK]

Yea, have been resisting doing this for about a year or so. In part because I didn't know what I didn't know. In part because it seemed a bit narcissistic.

Well... I've been playing some sort of shooting game for 2 years now - first F class and then 3 Gun and now add in USPSA and Steel Challenge. And I am beginning to know what I don't know.

So... backup into July. Had been shooting Limited and 'Tac Optics' (vs Tac Ops which is something very Xboxish) with an M&P Pro in .40 that morphed a bit over time. Had installed the goodies - flat Apex trigger, blah blah blah. Thing is - I was never happy with the precision it could deliver. Did I actually miss that long steel, or did the gun 'help' me out. Yea - truth is I actually missed that long steel. But I digress.

And.... I've always wanted a Tanfoglio. Like - for 15 years or so. I remember seeing them in magazines when I was 'younger' and got to shoot a 10mm Witness about 10 years ago and... well. Want more than need. So got a Stock 3 just in time to go to the Sectional match in Fairbanks. Really - like the week before the sectional. Put about 2-300 rounds through it - re-affirmed my 'love affair' with how the pistol felt - and went off to the 'banks to do really fairly poorly at the sectional match. When I say poorly - I'm referencing my times, not my points. A LOT of A's. Within a couple A's of the GM that won the match generally - but taking twice as long to do it. A few gun issues. Hindsight that should have been a 'duh' - but I had been shooting an M&P which I am convinced doesn't actually need cleaning unless you bleed on it - and the Tanfo is tight.

Move forward a week's worth of dry fire and some live fire practice and the next 'major' (this is AK after all) match - and my times improve significantly, points stay high, and I move from bottom 3rd to top 3rd in production. Sure - a different mix of competitors, but I did MUCH better.

Video of the matches showed a couple of issues. First shot - slow. Like glacial. With the M&P at Steel Challenge matches I'd get a 1.4 regularly and a sub 1 'occasionally.' With the DA - a 2 second first shot was where I was at. First match was even worse.

Finding my sights after movement was slow. Better at the second match - but still.

Finding my sights between shots was slow. Actually - it wasn't - I just didn't believe the gun.

All this stacked up.

Fast forward to this Range Diary entry:

Steel Challenge match on Sunday. Did Pendulum, Roundabout, Outer Limits and Showdown. 22.26, 18.88, 30.99 and 18.84.

Moments of 'yea, freakin awesome' - like a 3.86 Roundabout - but no consistency. Not consistently good or bad. Draws were much better - in the 1.5 range or better - but the real work coming up is on transitions from the first to the second target. That is what I'll be working on this evening. And groups

[KelsonAK]

Worked transitions from first to second shot. If I bend a bit at the knees am much more consistent. I have a tendency to stand tall - a bit more of a body forward stance seemed to help.

Note to self - shooting into the setting sun sucks.

Set up 'roundabout' for the Tuesday night steel stage - after some tweaking of stance time consistency went way up with most times coming in at sub 4's - which is the right direction. Keep that up and it will drop my aggregate by 2 seconds...

Next shooting day will be Saturday the 15th. USPSA club match.

[Hi-Power Jack]

shooting into the setting sun sucks.

Thought the sun never sets in AK in the summer.

Sounds like you're going to be shooting much better next summer.

Any winter shooting up there? (What part of AK are you?)

[KelsonAK]

Winter? Winter is just summer with snow...

Live in the Anchorage area. There's an indoor range in Palmer (north of Anchorage a little) that does monthly USPSA matches, and the Birchwood range just north of Anchorage does things year round. I find that below zero starts to not be a lot of fun for shooting, but some of my best groups with a .22 were at -20f.

Birchwood has lights on a couple of the bays and heaters above the firing line on those bays - so no excuse to not keep at it.

[KelsonAK]

Yeah... Came in first in production at the local match.

Oh... 2 shooters in production. The other shooter? My wife.

Will review the video tomorrow.

[KelsonAK]

Thoughts on video review:

Dude - I seem stiff. Very upright. Makes it 'slow' to start movement/finish movement. When I had a more 'athletic' stance - movement was faster and smoother.

Reloads - wtf (as in why) am I moving my left hand so slowly? That really screwed with the timing of movement when I'm still loading when I get to the next shooting position, and I'm dropping the gun too much. The pistol was in the right place when I dropped the magazine but I brought the pistol to the magazine as much as the magazine to the pistol so I have to raise the damned thing up to get onto the next target. Bah. Guess what I'm going to be practicing next in dry fire.

Points were pretty good. Even so, one stage I 'lost' my front sight for a bit - 3 up close targets - was not cool. Found it again on a longer target and kept it for the remainder of the course. Still not tracking the sights consistently and 'believing' that they are there when they are. 'Seeing faster' required. Am calling about 75% of my shots - possibly more (didn't really track that, maybe I should?)

Overall - happy with my stage planning as far as go here, shoot this, reload here. That worked out well.

So - a plan:

Dry fire reload drills this week. Stand and reload, move and reload. Break it down into steps and iron it into muscle memory. Keep the damned gun up.

Live fire reload drills this week. (steel challenge set up per the usual Tuesday night, shoot two, reload finish array)

[KelsonAK]

Life fire practice last night. Set up 5 to Go in anticipation of that being one of the stages at the next local match - wife wanted to practice it. Wound up with 9 folks showing up - which is almost as many as we have for the regular match. Lost 2 2x4s to angry beavers - but to be fair, it has been a few weeks since we lost a post.

Kept to the plan when I was shooting - worked on keeping the gun up during the reload - but spent most of my time helping out a new 12 year old shooter and running the timer for other folks. Next live fire will likely be in a week - which isn't bad exactly, since I need to catch up on loading 9mm.

Shot a glock for the first time in about 8 years also. Weee. Still don't want to buy one.

[KelsonAK]

Sunday morning range - er... rant? - report: I am amazed at how bad a shot so many folks are, and how folks will put absolutely crappy optics on very fine rifles. Went to the range to help a friend sight in their rifle for moose season. Get there and he's brought 5 or 6 rifles out - seems I'm helping the extended family as well. Ok - I set him up on a bag and put my Sinclair F class bipod on another rifle for him. 6 shots later - at 50 yards - a shot gun group from a stainless Winchester 30-06. Ask him if I can have a go - clover leaf about 6 inches high, a little left. Ok - no problem. clickie clickie clickie. Group doesn't move for the next two shots. Scope has no makers mark on it that I can find - ask him where he got it - dunno, my brother brought it home. Tap the turrets - click beyond and back. tap again. Group moves 2 feet. Finally get it on the X by click'n and tap'n.

Next up? Same rifle in 30-06 - again, he shoots a pattern, not a group - and I'm back at it. At least this one had a decent scope. After I get 5 of the 6 (and all were 30-06 or 'above') sighted in at 50 we move the targets to 100. One had a scope that the cross hairs fell apart on the first shot. Anyway - at 100... He misses the backer. From a bag, with the stock supported. Really. At that point I pulled out my F T/R rifle and set it up and spent about an hour coaching him. By the time we were done - he was at least getting things into a 5" group at 100..... sigh.

Wound up helping a couple other folks get sighted in - what's an extra .338 or two among friends....

And the best part?

He has a nice little buckmark - put a red dot on it so he could hunt spruce hens and rabbits with it. Can't understand what happened to the battery because he can't see the red dot..... it is on backwards. Ok - no big deal... but to check? of course - turn the gun around so that you can look through the scope 'right way' to check the dot. Perfect.

So - what did I learn or have reinforced? #1: There are places to save money. Scopes aren't one of them. You don't have to spend a LOT - but don't scrape the bottom of the barrel. Better to buy a 'cheap' rifle than a cheap scope. #2: Safety can not be assumed to be a shared value. He saw nothing wrong with pointing a gun at his nose to look through the red dot - and was offended when I just about came out of my shoes to get the damned thing on the deck. He wanted to handle his firearms while the range was cold and people were down range. And it goes on. I don't think I'll be shooting with this guy again any time soon.

[KelsonAK]

Light range day - Tuesday night steel practice went well and is growing quickly. Had 12 shooters show up for the practice session including a new to shooting shooter that seems to have fallen in love with the pow/ding steel game. She told her husband that he needed to bring more ammo next time.

Set up smoke and hope for folks - modified slightly in that we use 'B/C zones' instead of the rectangles. A little smaller - makes smoke and hope look a bit different when you are in the box. There is actually space between the targets...

Settled in and had a couple of 3.7ish runs in a row - consistency is improving and I didn't even think about the double action first shot at all. Most of the evening was spent running the timer for folks and doing some 'coaching.' Times aren't setting the world on fire, but is a big improvement from where I was 4 months ago.

Being used to excelling at everything you take on and seeing the improvement come so 'slowly' here sometimes is a bummer.

Had a few instances of the front sight winding up way left in the notch after a shot - did not 'naturally' return to center. Self diagnosis is that my grip sucked

[KelsonAK]

Well - that was fun...

Did some work on the Stock 3. Springs and replaced the firing pin with one of those fancy pants units from Henning. A bit of polishing here and there. Double action pull was reduced to about 8.5lbs - and it doesn't set off the S&B primers all the time. About one out of 10 ish. Ah well.... will put the factory spring back in I suppose.

Set up a steel stage with a C zone at 10 yards off to the left, a C zone at 25 yards off to the right, and a diagonal string of 12 inch rounds going far to close 16, 13 and 10 yards) centered on the box. Something that would force a wide transition, and mix up folks 'tempo.' That was fun. My focus for the session was to work on my stance. I seem to stand upright like I have a freakin rod shoved up my backbone - if I put some more bend in the knees and have a bit more forward approach the whole thing just works better. faster transitions, faster sight recovery, and better trigger control. and yea - it helped. Even with the .22 - standing 'forward' without hunch backing was just faster. It was a bit more physical - I was noticing my core by the end of the evening - just a little - but enough to know that I was actually changing something.

Also spent a little time strong hand only. Next week - same thing with weak hand....

And then.... the practice crew kinda devolved into 'hey, lets see who can do a sub 1.0 draw to the C zone at 10 yards' - which was a fun and light hearted way to finish the evening.

This weekend there is a steel match on Saturday and a club USPSA match on Sunday. The steel match will finish up the 8 stages needed for 'classification and ranking' on the steel challenge site - the USPSA match may wind up getting switched out for a 3 gun match depending on State Fair traffic.

Net net? I'm feeling pretty positive about my progress. Need to get more dry fire in - but the limited dry fire and the regular practice is definitely having an effect.

[KelsonAK]

Range diary catch up.

Saturday - Good Steel challenge sesh. Dropped 4 seconds off my aggregate on the 4 stages run. Biggest drop was on Accelerator, and almost no change on Pendulum. Dropping my scores into my tracking spreadsheet - Since June 1 when I started tracking these things I've dropped about 15% off my times give or take. Yippee... pat on the back.

Big news for me was that I was calling my shots much better - and perhaps more importantly, calling a halt to my finger if my sights weren't aligned right. Recognizing that the front sight was off to the left during shot recovery and NOT shooting until I had an acceptable sight picture was the score for me. About 2/3s of the way through the day I started seeing THAT part of things.

Also have managed to scrounge up enough 22lr to make that worthwhile - and shot rimfire pistol for the first time in a match. The ruger 'V' rear blade sucks. THat's all I'll say about that.

USPSA Match on Sunday. 09-02 was the classifier. Shot about a 55% according to ClassifierCalc. That's an overall improvement as well - going from mid/low C's to high C's in production will work for me... Again - the 'what did you learn Timmy' was seeing the sights BEFORE you pull the trigger. Was overall happy and see an improvement from past performances - I just have to not be trigger happy and have some visual patience.

The other thing I need to spend some time on is getting a sight picture after movement. Video review was a bit painful there - and it is the same thing in Outer Limits - that I'm taking FOREVER to shoot after some movement. Not fluid at all.

Tuesday night steel practice was a bit of fun. A 12" and 10" round at 10 yards on the right, a B/C and a 12" on the left at 15 yards, and a B/C at 20-25 yards down the middle as the stop. The way I wanted to shoot it was Far right, right, far left, left center. The way I was tank turretting though I kept pausing before I'd get far left. I'm not leading with my eyes, bring the gun to the target. Ah, well that is what practice is for, eh?

Dry fire for this week is move into the box and dry fire, focusing on getting on target faster. Will break it down in to pieces and practice my scales.

In other news... replaced the hammer spring with the factory spring and the light strikes went away... maybe I'll play around with things this winter, but for now it works and I'll leave it as is.

[KelsonAK]

Steel challenge club match on sunday went well. ish.

Dropped 3 1/2 seconds off the outer limits, and 2 seconds off showdown. Unfortunately I found them added into my 'speed option' It took 4 runs through to get things sorted. First run was an absolute disaster - I was channeling the 'angry beaver' on the 2x4 posts. I blame the poor performance on 2 things....

First - I was shooting like crap. Only way to explain it really - sights, trigger... wood? Really? Grip was good, sight picture was right - that leaves trigger.

Second - did a heavy day weight lifting session that morning. Arms are still feeling it today - and... maybe that wasn't a great idea before going out to shoot. Both speed option and 5 to go were late in the day - and both were not my best performances - so in addition to screwing up the trigger - I think I was just wore out.

So... Showdown and Outer Limits are both showing a 25%ish improvement over baseline (June) - will be another day before I see that improvement on Speed option.

But the good news is... this will put all the stages in the bank for classification and ranking - and should have me within 2 seconds of 'B' class. And THAT is pretty cool. On par with my last USPSA classifier - within spitting distance of B.

This week? Dry fire practice will be reloads and table starts. USPSA match on Sunday. Live fire will be setting up Speed option, since that is the stage that sucked the most on Sunday - and a Dot drill or two.

Next three gun is the end of the month - good thing. It gives me time to get some ammo loaded

[KelsonAK]

Scores from the last steel challenge match got posted and now all 8 stages show a time. 2.5 seconds-ish off B classification. So... in two weeks - need to figure out how to drop 2 seconds from my aggregate. That would actually be pretty easy.... don't miss the damned plates

It's good to see that the steel challenge classification system (the current one) and the other uspsa classification system are pretty close. I'm typically a high C shooter on classifiers trending upward. And... in both cases it is consistency that keeps me down.

Weekend club match.

Started the match out well, declined over time. I didn't do any dry fire last week, and I think that showed. It led to a lack of consistency in my grip and my trigger press. Stage plans were fine. Did a reload where I was going right to left instead of left to right - right handed idiot here - that in hind sight I think may have been a bit better the other way. Good points overall - but a lot of 'low in the a zone' hits - and the same thing on the plate rack and poppers meant a couple of make up shots that forced standing reloads.

Classifier - again - low to where I 'intended' to aim. Really crumbled that one up - putting 2 into hard cover on a Virginia count kind of screws things up there....

Plan for this week? load ammo. Load development underway for TAC and 55gr Z-Max bullets to use in 3gun, and have been working through a couple 5 gallon buckets of brass for sorting and cleaning.

Got the 22 conversion unit for the AR worked out so will be running it in Steel challenge in a couple weeks. Set up 5 to go at the range Tuesday and was able to consistently turn in 2.2-2.4 runs and when I turned up the heat I could make a 1.8ish about half the time.

NRA RSO class this weekend - so that will take up the lion's share of my time.

[KelsonAK]

Starting to get hugely annoyed at myself. My trigger control is really letting me down... and when I 'think' I'm seeing my sights... it seems I'm not really getting a good sight alignment. Close up stuff - yea no worries. But there is no excuse for missing a 6 inch plate at 10 yards - repeatedly. Good shot... bad shot bad shot good shot...

Time to stop screwing around with steel challenge stuff and put up some dot drills for live fire training. Yep - that's going to be the next range session. USPSA next Saturday (local indoor match) that I may or may not be able to get too - and Steel match on Sunday - again, may or may not. We'll see. Goal for the steel match is to dink about 2.5 seconds off my aggregate time to have a 'b' class rating. We'll see - winter is coming and I may have chores...

Other than that - Am now an NRA RSO. Filled out the online bit this morning. Yea baby. And - I got 1100 rounds of .223 loaded up for 3 gun matches this winter. Only another 900 to go and I change the press back over to 9mm...

3Gun went ok. Had some issues with the AR on close targets (stationary midi clays) at about 12 yards from 'poor' shooting positions. Missed the first one twice and started doubting the sights. always a bad sign - and my fault since I was shooting ammo that I had not fully checked out. Good news is that with one exception I ran the pump gun well - not bad for the second time out with the Nova. Had one short stroke trying to 'go fast' - stage was a simple one, forward fall popper, stationary clay, forward fall popper, two aerials triggered by the poppers - missed the second aerial futzing with the pump.

Need more time at the range and dry fire - less time at work, taking care of the dogs, and personal relationships.... Hmmm. yea probably not going to go that way.

[KelsonAK]

Was a reasonable weekend. Steel challenge match on Sunday. A little practice on Friday evening (dots for the win...)

Cut 4 seconds off my aggregate steel challenge time. Mostly in Accelerator and a little bit in smoke 'n hope. The other two stages.... bleh. Consistency. Bleh.

After - the spouse wanted to practice a bit. Group shooting... a frustrating time... she has trouble focusing on the front sight - needs something different with her glasses.

Will probably take the next week or two off. That will be the off season for me...

[KelsonAK]

Yea - ok, so my off season isn't really off. Practice session last night.

Watched a video of Bob V at the Nationals yesterday. I had an 'ah ha' moment as he shot - that it isn't just the placement of the hands on the gun and the way the HANDS hold the gun, but the way the upper body is engaged in the grip. I think I've been coming to the realization that shooting well is a 'whole body' work out. Last night, set up Pendulum (since that was what sucked most on Sunday) and shot it using my normal grip/stance, etc. Times were consistent with what I've been shooting which is a 22-26 for the stage, with singe run times being fairly consistent in the 5ish range.

I engaged the upper body more rather than just the forearms, and immediately dropped times to the 16ish range for the stage, with single run times up 'n down from 4 slightly, and MUCH easier sight acquisition shot to shot. Like - a LOT easier.

Am going to do a little reinforcement with dry fire, but am likely to not hit the range with anything until next Tuesday evening's practice session. A bit excited about this - we'll see if it holds.

[KelsonAK]

First solid 'B' classifier run. Like .5% under A solid. 99-10, HF of 6.718. Went ahead and did a 'reentry' and ran if faster, but worse. A mike tends to screw up your score.

Overall - very happy with today's club match. I worked on exits and entries this past week in dry fire and live fire practice - and it showed. Spent a few hours on the range last night - worked on entries and exits with a .22 and steel plates. Then - same with the center fire. Focus was on taking the shot and moving - then getting into the box and shooting. None of this waiting around for things stuff. It still takes me a little time to get the sights on as I hit the box, but I have cut that down significantly.

A pair of long stages to start the match - first stage went 'ok' - but could have gone better if I didn't have a couple make up shots that screwed up my plan and had me at slide lock twice. Note to self. If you get into a pickle and are skinny on rounds in the magazine, better to make an extra reload to get back on plan than go to slidelock.

Second long stage was fun. Some strong hand only and retreat shooting. Lesson there - move faster between arrays. I was moving quickly, but I could have moved faster.

Two short stages and the classifier finished the match. Did well on them - but for some reason I was having trouble with the little steel activator for the swinger today. Was very annoyed...

So... what to do, what to do.

More dot drills. More dry fire with a focus on fundamentals (draws, reloads, and basic movement.) Next match is Nov 8. Plenty of time to get ready Nov 1 will be the next Steel Challenge match.

[KelsonAK]

Steel challenge match was fun, but was very inconsistent. Good run followed by bad run. Lacked some visual patience, and my head wasn't fully engaged.

Last night was a special shooting night however. Sure - I had some good shooting. Practiced being patient actually on wide transitions for target focus kinda stuff like smoke and hope.

It's dark here about 5:45 or 6:00 now, so shooting is under some lights. Was warmish (28 or so) and no wind. Turned the lights off after putting the steel away and looked up. The northern lights were dancing - and it was quite a show. A new shooter had come out and happened to be there - first time he saw the lights.

[KelsonAK]

Good match yesterday. Plan for the week didn't go as hoped, but still turned out well. Got about 15 minutes of dry fire in this week after the Tuesday night steel. Set up for Strong and Weak el Pres - but never actually went to practice it. Had a couple of brain farts in the match - didn't stick to the plan for a reload or two. Even so, much improved. Movement was better again - the swinger cost me dearly.

Need to work on backing up/reloading stuff. Shooting while backing smoothly... no worries. Moving quickly to the rear and reloading as I go... yea. Just haven't practiced that.

Classifier was good for 68% and change - second 'B' classifier in a row. Keep this up and I'll have a 'B' card for Christmas. The next USPSA match is the sunday after thanksgiving. Between now and then there is a steel match and a few Tuesday night practice sessions.... so, a plan.

Dot drill and whatever new steel the local target guy has dreamed up on Tuesday. He was working on an 'Alaska star' - we'll see what he brings out.

Dry fire practice - white wall and reloading on the move (forward, backward, left, right)

Sunday looks like it will be cold - possibly single digits. Maybe just run a .22 that day.

Next Tuesday - more dot drills and a faux rack - 10" plates at 10-15 yards.

21.22 Nov - nothing planned.

Following Tuesday - who the heck knows......

[KelsonAK]

Range notes:

-5 sucks. Makes it a 'lost brass' practice session to be sure.

Shooting with gloves sucks. I can wear one on my weak hand, but on my strong hand it's a looser. Maybe a fingerless glove would work - but bleh.

So... just shot groups. Was good to see where I'm at with group shooting compared to where I was a year ago. When it was warmer. When I started getting 'serious' about pistol shooting, I had trouble keeping 5 shots in a 2" at 7 yards at any speed. Now, inside 1" at 7 yards is easy peasy. At 15 yards... things were starting to fall apart. In part - cold. Feeling your finger is not as important as you might first think, and in fact I learned a bit about 'surprise break' when there was no feeling in my finger... However. It is important. In part - lights and my eyes. And cold. It's hard enough to see the damned sights clearly under the lights on the range - but when your eyes start to have issues because of cold/dry where it feels like they may be freezing partially open.... yea. In part - well, I just need more practice. At 15 yards I found myself starting to fight the wobble zone or to try to force the shot in the middle of the wobble. Guess what. That doesn't work.

Also did some SHO work. Compared to a year ago, all I can say is 'damn I've improved.' Not ready to jump into playing bullseye but I really sucked at it a year ago. Now I only kinda suck. Net net is that although my speed in SHO is certainly lower than two hands - my accuracy isn't that far off.

All in all - was a good practice session. But -5 sucks.

[KelsonAK]

Had a fun match this weekend. Did well - classifier was 03-08 Madness - was able to turn a reasonable score there (68ish% per classifier calc) which should have me within about 1/2 percent of B overall.

Video review showed a few things: My transitions are slow, regardless of the distance between targets. I'm bringing the gun down to far during reloads, and they just aren't 'fast.' And... I'm not moving quickly enough during the important 'not shooting now' parts. Now, in all of these areas there has been a significant improvement over where I was with this during the summer - but I could probably drop my times by 25% by just improving on those areas. Goal is to make B by the end of my first year shooting USPSA - I'm sooooo close.

First time I have ever shot prone with a pistol! I should probably practice that someday. No rush - once in a year doesn't seem like it's all that important just yet.

So - what to work on next? Well, from the statistics from my review of the video, movement is the 'duh' area of improvement. However, it's freakin winter out there - and running inside the house at 5:30 am is frowned on by the missus. And the dogs. So - focus on basics with dry fire. Draw to first shot - stationary and on the move. Reloading during small movements (left/right.) And live fire? If it isn't stupid cold, dots and a V drill. If it is stupid cold, I'll practice my hot tub sitting....

[Glock26Toter]

I like the way you are objectively reviewing your performance and noting positive areas of improvement along with identifying goals.

Keep up the good work and you'll get there.

One thing that helped me with the reload was to stop thinking about it from the perspective of the gun hand, and think about it from the magazine's perspective. Practice snatching the magazine out of the pouch as quickly as you can with a quick "down-up" motion and you'll find the hand returns to its starting point (in front of your face) very easily without thinking about where the gun is. (do it without a gun a few times) Secondarily the gun hand will meet the mag... up high where the mag hand is waiting.

Cha-lee is the one that showed me that and helped me a LOT in my reloading. Maybe not the sweeping change for others but seemed to help me a lot to stop thinking "keep the gun up" and started thinking "get the mag ready."

[KelsonAK]

That is a significant part of it - and when I get my reloads 'right' it is because I'm thinking about my left hand getting to the magazine and back up again vs. keep the gun up. Or perhaps... in addition to 'hey, lets start a reload here, keep the gun up while I do important stuff.' I think that part of the issue is that I'm lowering my head and the gun follows - perhaps in anticipation of looking the magazine into the well. In any case - the 'plan' is to break down the complex action into little bits, and piece them back together into a single complex action. And not just 'stand and do x' - but move left and do x, move right and do x, move forward and do x... etc. I know - damned reformed musicians and their 'practice theory.'

[KelsonAK]

The Saturday match went well, for the most part. In general, very happy with how things went. Will review the video later today. Had a magazine fall out after 3 shots (no freakin idea there...) on a 10 round stage/table start. Classifier - took a conservative approach and if classifier calc is to be believed, I have now 'ascended' to B. That was the goal for year 1 in USPSA. Goal for next year is A. I did the math in my head - and then did a re-entry to see what would happen if I just went stupid. Classifier was 08-03 'Six' - and stupid was a time of 2.97, 2 steel, 2 C, 1D... and a mike in hard cover off the A.

Will be taking a break until January - maybe mid January - and then pick up with the fundamentals again. Groups, dot drill, simple dry fire, and steel challenge stuff. And will take the RO class

[KelsonAK]

And... we're back.

Steel challenge match yesterday and a USPSA match today. Steel challenge sucked because it was single digits with a breeze - freakin cold. That said -- had some of my best smoke and hope runs to date and really had a blast with a 22 conversion kit in the AR. Will continue to work the 22 LR in prep for some spring time 3 Gun fun. It was just fun to get out and shoot again after taking a month off.

Todays USPSA match I went in with the focus on 'Go Fast.' For the most part - that worked. My hits suffered from that strategy on the classifier - but the longer field courses worked out very well. It isn't a big pool of shooters - and I was the only production shooter - so I measure by how close I am to a couple of guys that always do X well... and even with taking a month off I shot better than I had against those guys previously. A good sign and I'm quite pleased. In raw times - I'm hanging or beating the limited shooters even with additional reloads (what I wanted to do this week...) Just need to continue to work on trigger control and I'll get where I want to go.

Also renewed my USPSA membership this month. That's right - one year anniversary...

Had a mental issue with the first stage - started moving from one array to the next where I was NOT going to reload and executed a reload anyway. Didn't let it throw me and got back 'on plan' and did what I wanted to do. Which was shoot stuff and move my butt when I wasn't shooting stuff.

Classifier blown however. Just couldn't seem to keep it in the A zone. Ah well... it did highlight the PLAN for the next 6 weeks.

White wall dry fire, single target dry fire, draws and reloads for 2 weeks. Dots for live fire practice. Then some transition practice (dry fire and live fire) and so on... Put together a training program for my wife (who wants to get to B class this year... C class by July) and will follow along since it's all fundamentals baby. And I need to keep working on my fundamentals.