Alaskan454's Range Diary

[Alaskan454]

Once or twice a year I shoot my CZ 75 in a match to see how things look from the other side.   It was a bit rough getting used to the semi-auto platform.  Several times I started to reload prematurely, or forgot to reload when I should have.  Once I got warmed up it went pretty well but I did get a wee bit trigger happy at times.  I didn't let the gun settle on steel plates and poppers, so I broke shots early or moved the gun off target too quickly.  Wasn't used to the SAO trigger.  I might consider shooting a LII match sometime with the auto, but I would need to practice quite a bit so it doesn't feel awkward in my hands.  Anyway, here's some video from the match:

 

 

[Alaskan454]

The IRC is coming up in a few weeks.  I recently did a few hundred round training session focused on SHO and WHO with my Ruger GP100 to burn up some old 38 special.  Went surprisingly well for not shooting one handed much this year.  USPSA last weekend was fun and I tried to focus on balancing speed and points to mimic how I would shoot an ICORE match.  My accuracy was pretty good earning 95% of points.  I had 150A, 19C, and 1M.  The Mike was totally my fault, time a swinger poorly and didn't have rounds in the gun for a make up shot.  I figured reloading and firing one more round would have been lower overall HF on that stage for a static target, let alone a moving one that was not fully visible most of the time.  I'm running a Steel Challenge match this weekend and was hoping to have some time to practice beforehand, though work is super busy and I haven't even loaded me ammo yet.  Will try to sneak in some dry fire and make GM on Sunday.  I only need to shave ~1 second at this point. 

 

 

    

[Alaskan454]

Last weekend I shot the 2018 International Revolver Championships.  It was a great learning experience for me as I ended up shooting with the gentlemen who won Classic and Limited 6.  In general I was shooting too fast and didn't eat/drink enough the first day to stay in prime shape.  I was worn out and got sloppy on some targets which cost me a considerable amount in penalty time.  I racked up 30 seconds in penalties across 14 stages.  Only about 5 seconds worth were legitimate errors, the rest were entirely preventable with a different shooting cadence.  If I approached the match differently I likely could have shot it with a quarter of the penalties and minimal added clock time. 

 

I also lost about 10 seconds in clock time due to a serious error on WHO steel targets.  Definitely learned some valuable lessons from this match.  It was one of my worst matches from an accuracy perspective, but also the best I have ever finished at a match of this size.  I wound up with three stage wins in Limited and managed 2nd overall on a new classifier.  Not bad when you're comparing times with the Open shooters.  Once I figure out the appropriate cadence and sight picture for ICORE, I should be able to place even better next year. 

 

I'm still compiling the third person video and will review the footage to pick some things to work on before USPSA Nationals in a few weeks.  I think my speed would have been okay for USPSA scoring but it just killed me with the ICORE penalties.  Anyway, here's some video from my hat cam:

 

 

[Alaskan454]

Here's the third person footage: 

 

 

Edited October 11, 2018 by Alaskan454

[Alaskan454]

Today was an interesting day.  I ran our monthly Steel Challenge match and it was pretty cold, wind chill in the 30 degree range.   I had mixed results on the first few stages since I couldn't really feel my hands while shooting.  From there things went very well and I shot 4 or 5 personal bests throughout the day.  I haven't had a chance to dry fire all week and hadn't even picked up my gun since the last USPSA match.  Quite honestly, I was surprised by today's performance.  I was cold, tired, and hadn't practiced at all.  I think the difference was my approach to shooting the stages.  Since I wasn't planning on shooting that well I just focused on shooting clean,  which apparently meant fast.  I totally smoked some of my personal bests by 1-3 seconds.  I was most impressed by a 10.72 run on Roundabout, sadly it will count towards LTD and not ISR since I had two entries with the same revolver.  I also shaved over two seconds off of my prior best time on Outer Limits.  I went five for five and it showed.  Based upon today's results it seems I will make GM in ISR and M in LTD with the same revolver.  Just to add icing to the cake, I received a match bump to GM in ICORE as well based upon my finish at the IRC. 

 

When I first started writing down goals here, I never thought I would make GM in any shooting discipline.  Now I've managed to get there in USPSA, ICORE, and Steel Challenge.  I think Steel Challenge was the hardest for me since I always run the matches, it's hard to focus on the shooting part sometimes.  Looking back, I've managed to win multiple State and Area Championships in USPSA and Steel Challenge.  I also finished 4th in Limited and 9th Overall at the IRC this year.  USPSA Revolver Nationals is coming up in a few days, so let's see how things go.  At this point I've exceeded any goals I had set for myself.  I guess the logical extension is to put an optic on my revolver and shoot for GM in OSR.  I'd then like to try and win a division at the IRC or WSSC, and perhaps try to win USPSA Revolver Nationals.  Again, I have no idea if those are truly possible but let's give it a try.

[Alaskan454]

USPSA Nationals was quite a learning experience.  After three days and 21 stages I ended up in 7th place at 90.89%.  Shooting with the super squad helped me realize several things about my shooting abilities and what it takes to win.  I did not arrive at the match with the skills necessary to achieve 1st place.   In order to win a national event, I need to improve my skills on classifier type stages,  increase my efficiency in motion, and focus on shooting clean in a timely manner.  It's really a somewhat simple set of skills I need to work on, though executing them at the necessary level and with a high degree of reproducibility will take time.  For the winter months I will likely focus on my mental approach to shooting, and work on my fundamentals of marksmanship.  Confidence in my ability to make a given shot plays a major role in the risks I am willing to take during a match.  On Sunday I moved our plate rack to the 30 yard line, and that will be my minimum distance for a few months.  I'll also spend some time on the rifle range knocking steel from 50-300 yards with my handguns.  The goal will be knowing my absolute ability to hit a given target.  From there we can work backwards to find an acceptable level of risk, which would then result in shooting clean at some level of confidence.   I'm going to work on Freestyle, Strong Hand, and Weak Hand throughout the process.  Should be fun. 

 

 

 

 

[WFargo]

Great shooting, man!

And I was looking for some revolver footage of the Nationals to get 'inspired' for the Nationals here in the Netherlands taking place in two weeks    so... thanks!

 

[Alaskan454]

Here's some plinking video from the rifle range.  Anyone who hasn't shot to 100 yards or more should give it a try.  It's a lot of fun.

 

 

[Alaskan454]

Well, last weekend my home range had our first ICORE and USPSA matches of the year.  For 2019 we are running ICORE on Saturdays with USPSA the following morning.  Helps reduce set-up time if we reuse the barriers, just change out some steel and paper placement between matches.  I have not practiced in a good long while but managed to survive both days.  I also decided to shoot an auto at USPSA to work on my stage planning strategies.  I often find myself not looking at stages with an open mind so I will be shooting the occasional Limited match to help with that.  I even ordered a 140mm magazine to boost my initial capacity.  After reviewing the footage it is obvious that I'm a bit rusty in certain areas, and will be trying to improve upon those before my first major match this year.  Footage of both are below, you will notice that we got a bit of snow overnight! 

 

 

[Alaskan454]

ICORE was a disaster, tested some new brass and left my container of the usual match ammo at home.  Wound up banging brass out of the cylinder all match with a port wall or pocket knife.  Didn't take video at all, it was rough.  USPSA went pretty smoothly the next day, decided to bring the CZ again and play around in Limited.  Very different mentality to stage breakdown when you only reload once per stage.  I'm still going too slow with the auto, I keep forgetting it has all of those extra rounds.  I plan to continue shooting an optic and iron sights at every ICORE and Steel match for the rest of this year.  I need to decide which division I'll compete in at the IRC.

 

 

Edited May 16, 2019 by Alaskan454

[J_Allen]

Wow, I just watched the video of you shooting steel to 150 yards. That was impressive!

[Alaskan454]

@J_Allen Thanks!  I do alright on the long range stuff.  It's only when the timer goes off that I get a bit trigger happy. 

 

I realized I have been delinquent in keeping notes about my shooting.  Long story short, I need to practice more.  Here's a dump of match video from the last two months.  The take away point is that I'm getting sloppy without any practice.  

 

 

 

 

 

[Alaskan454]

I am very pleased to report that I won Limited division at this year's IRC.  I still have plenty of skills that need improving, but it was nice to finally win one of the big matches.  Each year I keep improving a little bit more, and I plan to put a focused training program together this winter to really take it to the next level.  One key factor in winning this year's match was shooting at a pace I felt would result in the maximum likelihood of shooting clean.  Unfortunately, my inner "Ricky Bobby" came out a few times and I did wind up with quite a few penalties and make up shots.  I ended the match with 389 Alphas, 23 Bravos, 1 Charlie, and 1 Mike.  The Mike was an accident that I called, but it was a shots limited stage so I couldn't make it up without further penalty.  In general, penalties added around 7% to my overall time, I would like to reduce that by roughly half next year while also shooting at a faster average pace.  My "full speed" pace is considerably faster, but I have not built up the confidence in accuracy to risk shooting like that in ICORE.  I need to dedicate the time this winter and figure out where my current limits are in terms of shooting pace.    

 

The majority of what I need to work on is reducing preventable errors and executing the fundamentals at a consistently higher level.  I can shoot fast and I can shoot accurately, though I cannot currently do both 100% of the time error free.  I will also be working to lose around 30 pounds and incorporate some agility training into the mix.  Shooting skills aside, one obvious way to save time is spend less of it moving around and getting into and out of positions.  Lastly, I have decided to put more focus on cross training with iron and optical sights.  I have committed to shooting both regularly in order to try Open at next year's IRC as well as OSR at the WSSC.  There's always something to work on and I hope to continue improving for next season.

 

Here's some video of the match:

 

 

[MikeyScuba]

Thanks for the videos.  I like the way you shot stage 2 & 7.  I lost all kind of time on 2 and 7 I simply needed more visual patience but your plan was better. 

 

  Shoot me a PM if u need any tips for weight loss.

 

see you in 2020.

[Alaskan454]

On 9/18/2019 at 3:43 PM, MikeyScuba said:

Thanks for the videos.  I like the way you shot stage 2 & 7.  I lost all kind of time on 2 and 7 I simply needed more visual patience but your plan was better. 

 

  Shoot me a PM if u need any tips for weight loss.

 

see you in 2020.

Thanks Mike!  I appreciate that.

 

This week started the "be less fat" campaign.  I've picked some 3 mile routes to walk at lunch and 5 mile routes to run at night.  Looking to lose around 30-35 pounds over the next year.   

[Alaskan454]

Getting back into running has been good so far.  Was able to get 3+ miles of walking in during lunch most days and did my first 10 miles of running at night.  Will plan to walk at least 12 miles during the weekdays and run 10-15 miles on nights and weekends.  Should be able to drop around 30 or so pounds by USPSA Nats in 2020.

 

I'm also practicing for Steel Challenge again.  Put my lightweight ISR gun back together and will be going for 100% on my classification tomorrow.  Hoping to make GM in RFPO as well, it's just harder for me to shoot the rimfire guns from low ready, lack of familiarity l guess.  I'd like to work my way through different Steel divisions and try to make GM in several by the end of 2020.  I'm going after the rimfire pistols first, then PCCO.  We'll see how long that takes.

[Alaskan454]

Well, Steel Challenge turned into the worst rain match I've ever shot. Still bumped my classification to 94.62% in RFPO though.  Spent at least two hours dealing with the clean up.  One last match of the year to hit my goals.

 

Operation be less fat has been successful, getting back to a reasonable pace and should be boosting weekly mileage soon.

Edited October 10, 2019 by Alaskan454

[Alaskan454]

Today was a funny experience.  Needed .1 seconds going into my last stage (accelerator) to make GM in RFPO and blew the stage.  Could easily have hit an 8.6-9.0 run and shot a 10.43.  Oh well, perhaps I'll get another shot in early 2020.  Once I get over the hill I'll go after RFPI and PCCO in 2020.

[Alaskan454]

Haven't posted here in a while, finished 3rd at USPSA Nationals this year.

 

 

[Alaskan454]

Bringing this thread back from the grave!  I recently shot the IPSC Nationals and put up my best IPSC/USPSA finish to date.  I only made three real mistakes all match:

 

1. Mike on a swinger from hell, it was mostly blind and covered by no shoots and hard cover.  I had a terrible time figuring out when to pull the trigger - My round actually did hit the paper, but it was outside the perf

2. Poorly timed another swinger and sat there like an idiot waiting for it to come around again, I had plenty of time to shoot it in the first place, but just wasn't ready to do so.  It was a co-located bay and we went right from one stage to the next. I didn't pay enough attention to the swinger timing when the 1st shooter was up, I was the 2nd shooter in queue.

3. Short stroked the trigger on one target, luckily it was an early trigger pull on that moon clip and didn't cost much time to cycle it 1-2 more times.

 

Overall, I shot a little slower than I should have, but it was pouring rain and I was concerned about controlling the gun and getting my hits.  Rich pulled out a nice win, and it appears we shot nearly identical points, he was just ~1 sec faster on every single stage.  Better luck next year!