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5 Mikes and a Charlie..


90lxracer

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So, it was roughly 40 degrees, kind of damp as it had rained the night before and below is what greeted me as my 1st ever stage in USPSA.. Results are in the title.. lol  At least I didn't hit a no shoot! lol To my defense a bit.. I was told it was a tough on in general to start with.. So being cold and full of nerves.. I didn't hit crap!! lol 

 

The rest of the day went well, I guess.. After a stage I don't think could have been any worse. I calmed down.. the day warmed up, and I think all things considered I did ok. I surprises a coupld folks when I told them it was my first ever match. From one gentleman, I got a "REALLY?!?!? I thought you've been doing this for a couple years! You're doing really well!" Which he very well may have been saying that.. lol But I was kind of hyper aware of a couple things.. 1: Not trying to push and over speed 2: That even in doing #1I wasn't holding up the flow of the squad. 

 

Needless to say I had a great time.. didn't get DQ'd, and got to play all day. I will be continuing down this path for sure! One thing...  I have zero idea of what my score is.. How do I go about looking that? I know it's not all that important right now.. but I'd still like to see how things shook out. It is a benchmark. 

 

http://2zroky9.jpg

Edited by 90lxracer
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If you had fun and didn't get DQed for a safety violation then that is all you can ask for first time. I guess the next thing is, after the dust settles, is are you still excited about the next match? I wouldn't think about your score. When your at the bottom you have no where to go but up.

 

BTW we have 2' of snow on the ground here.

Edited by firewood
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5 minutes ago, firewood said:

If you had fun and didn't get DQed for a safety violation then that is all you can ask for first time. I guess the next thing is, after the dust settles, is are you still excited about the next match? I wouldn't think about your score. When your at the bottom you have no where to go but up.

 

BTW we have 2' of snow on the ground here.

 

Very excited actually... There's another match closer to me tomorrow that I was passing up because I was going to go to the track with my buddy and help him with his car.. but the weather isn't looking great... so he called it.. and I looked at getting in another match! lol  I looked and it seems that it's full... whammy..

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1 minute ago, 90lxracer said:

 

Very excited actually... There's another match closer to me tomorrow that I was passing up because I was going to go to the track with my buddy and help him with his car.. but the weather isn't looking great... so he called it.. and I looked at getting in another match! lol  I looked and it seems that it's full... whammy..

 

Yes.

 

Where I'm at in general (NE PA) and in particular the club I belong to (but not exclusively)  is probably as close to action handgun match heaven as you can get. Within a reasonable drive there are various types of matches literally every weekend, usually several to chose from and some during the week in the evening. The weather is really sucking right now but hard to believe the first match that I intend to shoot for the season (PA Steel League) is only 2 weeks away. Some of the big sanctioned matches (section 8 championship, East Coast Steel Challenge Championship and others) which are not cheap to enter, sell out fairly early. I'm BTW not that good at this so I don't go to the big matches.

 

Again I'm a piker but my plans for this season are at this point between steel (of various types), USPSA, IDPA and maybe a few wildcats is to shoot in about 22 matches that I'm almost certain to attend, more possibly.  Plus in addition to dry fire I want to hit the range at least twice/week once the weather breaks. I want to start taking this whole thing a bit more seriously this year but I really need to narrow my focus. Still, I'm in it for mainly for fun and as long as I shoot a clean match and don't come in dead last I'm ok. I've been DQed and it's not a pleasant experience. To be honest it took a while for me to recover from the shock and to regain some semblance of personal confidence.

 

Not sure if you mentioned it but hopefully your handloading your ammo.

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Scores

You should check the web site of the club where the match was held to see if that is where the scores are posted. If they used practiscore or some other online registration service then scores might be there also. Some send out emails with results. If they used manual (paper) scoring then it might take a few days for the results to be posted.

 

So in other words, it depends.

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57 minutes ago, firewood said:

 

Yes.

 

Where I'm at in general (NE PA) and in particular the club I belong to (but not exclusively)  is probably as close to action handgun match heaven as you can get. Within a reasonable drive there are various types of matches literally every weekend, usually several to chose from and some during the week in the evening. The weather is really sucking right now but hard to believe the first match that I intend to shoot for the season (PA Steel League) is only 2 weeks away. Some of the big sanctioned matches (section 8 championship, East Coast Steel Challenge Championship and others) which are not cheap to enter, sell out fairly early. I'm BTW not that good at this so I don't go to the big matches.

 

Again I'm a piker but my plans for this season are at this point between steel (of various types), USPSA, IDPA and maybe a few wildcats is to shoot in about 22 matches that I'm almost certain to attend, more possibly.  Plus in addition to dry fire I want to hit the range at least twice/week once the weather breaks. I want to start taking this whole thing a bit more seriously this year but I really need to narrow my focus. Still, I'm in it for mainly for fun and as long as I shoot a clean match and don't come in dead last I'm ok. I've been DQed and it's not a pleasant experience. To be honest it took a while for me to recover from the shock and to regain some semblance of personal confidence.

 

Not sure if you mentioned it but hopefully your handloading your ammo.

 

I'm in NoVA.. I'm actually about 10 min away from Quantico. I just joined the club there and it loks like there's at least 2 matches a month. Steel Challenge, and USPSA, there's also multi-gun which is what started this whole thing for me.. A Navy buddy said he wanted to start doing that.. and I thought.. sure why not?! lol It was Hi-Power jack I believe that mention starting on the pistols.. thanks Jack!! I'm digging it for sure!!

 

As of now.. I'm not reloading.. but I think that's going to have to change in pretty short order. I think I'm going to buy a couple thousand rounds and work through that, then hopefully I'll figure out more weights and things. Maybe get a 40cal upper and shoot limited major?? It's all still very new.. but sinc eI have access and matches almost within walking distance.. I see things progressing quickly.. lol 

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54 minutes ago, firewood said:

Scores

You should check the web site of the club where the match was held to see if that is where the scores are posted. If they used practiscore or some other online registration service then scores might be there also. Some send out emails with results. If they used manual (paper) scoring then it might take a few days for the results to be posted.

 

So in other words, it depends.

 

They were using Practiscore. So would it then be a matter of looking the club up? All the scores were being tallied on nooks... 

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1 - Stage 1 20 43.38 58.5642 99 2.4918 39.73 Limited U   MINOR PENDING 14 0 8 5 0 0 0
2 - It's Not Bra 19 0.00 0.0000 3 0.0000 7.39 Limited U   MINOR PENDING 0 0 1 0 5 0 0
3 - Stage 3 23 49.01 71.0624 137 2.7953 49.01 Limited U   MINOR PENDING 26 0 2 1 0 0 0
4 - Stage 4 23 50.86 73.7440 131 3.0380 43.12 Limited U   MINOR PENDING 22 0 7 0 0 0 0
5 - Stage 5 23 39.07 62.5079 150 2.6610 56.37 Limited U   MINOR PENDING 27 0 5 0 0 0 0
 
 
 
 
 
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I finished 71st out of 99 and there were 6 DQ's. 

 

Now that I can sort.. 

 

I was # 23 out of 35 shooting limited, and #8 out of 18 shooting limited minor. 

 

Not bad considering zeroing my start.. and I think stage 1 is being thrown out.. it was kind of funky, and unclear about what the 180 was. 

Edited by 90lxracer
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Trying to keep your shots 80% As and 20% Cs when shooting minor is a guide I suggest to make it simple for people who are just starting out:

 

In a 20rd stage 15 As and 5Cs is just fine. Over time as you get more skilled, you'll try to clean that up to something more like 17-18 As while actually shooting faster, not 'slowing down to get your hits.'

 

 Charlies only costs you 40% of the points an Alpha would have gotten you and that's not the end of the world in moderation. A Delta costs you 80% of the points, so Deltas and Mikes are never to be left behind when you know you shot one. If you know you shot something that may not be inside of the A/B/C zone, make it up.

Edited by MemphisMechanic
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Memphis-

 

Thanks for the guideline!! It's something to shoot for and also improve upon. Honestly, and this may sound bad, I'm a bit shocked I didn't have more misses and deltas.. lol 

 

But I don't know if it's just me.. it seemed like time slowed down a bit as I was shooting. I would dare say I could call a shot.. but I thought to myself "trigger pull" after sending a couple misses at a mini popper or two. I could kind of tell in my haste that I was pulling left.. I readjusted my finger on the trigger and *ting* down it went. 

 

I think I'm still a bit on a post match high... lol 

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9 minutes ago, firewood said:

You can shoot all As and still do poorly if you are slow. But for your first outing I think you did well. Probably better than I would have if I were there!

 

This is true.. and  thank you! Really, I was basically walking between shooting positions. Maybe a light trot.. I was FAR more concerned with being safe.. muzzle awareness in relation to me, the 180, and finger off the trigger to really try and build a head of steam between shooting spots. 

Edited by 90lxracer
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Sometimes there will be a target on the side with a barricade I front that gives you only (1) approach and about 2 degrees of freedom to shoot without breaking the 180. This is why taking the walkthrough and planning your way around is important.

 

One of the things I like about steel competitions is you usually get 25+ strings per match. Shoot 5 or 6 of them in secession and you begin to lose the dread of the start tone. BTW, consider getting a book or two on dry fire and your own timer (or app for your phone). If you have a timer like the ones used at matches you get used to the sound. Also being able to set par times is handy.

Edited by firewood
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1 hour ago, 90lxracer said:

As of now.. I'm not reloading.. but I think that's going to have to change in pretty short order. I think I'm going to buy a couple thousand rounds and work through that, then hopefully I'll figure out more weights and things. Maybe get a 40cal upper and shoot limited major?? It's all still very new.. but sinc eI have access and matches almost within walking distance.. I see things progressing quickly.. lol 

 

Handloading is another whole thing and can get out of control very quickly. If you are going to consume high volumes of ammo, even 9mm, handloading is practically a must. Some will tell you that it isn't worth it to handload 9mm. I disagree, even if I factor the cost of 9mm once fired brass (which I probably will lose at a lost brass match), it is still almost half the cost of factory. I calculate it as follows, .02 for brass, .07 for coated 9mm bullet, .03 for primer and .01 for powder. That is .13 cents per round and can be less than that sometimes. You are probably going to pay about .24 +/- for factory ammo. FMJ drives the costs up. Free range pick up brass lowers the cost. I have been handloading less than 5 years and at this point have scavenged enough 9mm brass (about 30,000 pcs) to not get mentally crazy leaving my brass on the ground at lost brass matches.

 

But then you will need or want a reloading bench with all kinds of reloading tackle. This is where it becomes an expense that can spiral out of control. My bench is modest compared to some and yet I have some serious bux out in my garage. And component wise (powder, primers, bullets and brass) it's like insane what I have and again I'm a piker.

Edited by firewood
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