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DocMedic

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TLDR~WGaS notes; My NEW general shooting Diary and Shot Mile High Showdown

Funny how things go full circle.

So I've been going back and forth for the past month about deciding if I wanted to restart a online Diary, this really came about when I finally renewed my USPSA membership. I've been real bad about keeping written accountability about my shooting for the past several years, but after RM3G last year (2nd year in a roll where I messed up my match) I decided enough was enough, I needed to keep some sort of accountability of how I'm shooting. That was also the tipping point of me starting in a new division in 3gun and going with it, and luckily finding great success in not only my ability to shoot this new division better then I have then any other division I took seriously, but also learning new things about myself as a shooter. The more serious I do take this the more I realize how much I've been slacking too.

This was apparent after SM3G when it came to my pistol handling, I've been so use to "3gun" pistol target presentations of open paper targets at 10-15 yards shoot fast and hope you either got 1A/B or at least 2 hits it never really dawn on me how much my fundamental pistol skills deteriorated. The tight shots of partials wrapped around No-shoots at SM3G made me very timed and wasn't able to shoot what I thought was my potential. But the more I thought about it, the more I realize what I thought my full potential wasn't even close of where it should be and I've been mistakenly confusing it as 'Just good enough' pistol shooting.

Looking back on a older thread here on the forum I debated if I should just post on my old thread that I created in Diaries section, but after a brief pause, I feel it is better to allow it to fade out and start a new. One of the things the things I really tried to push hard in the past thread was to make master from C class in production, that goal never did happen, I wasn't terribly crushed when I didn't do it at the time either as in that year I changed over to Open, and at the end of that year I took 3 Gun Seriously and it took all my attention away from USPSA pistol matches, so much in fact that I let my membership lapse the past 2 years and was completely ok with it. The more I think of it now the more I came to the realization that it was never about "earning" the M on my card but to get a point where I just wanted to be at a Master shooting Mentality.

So I decided to go head first renew my membership and get back into the USPSA pistol scene, 3gun/multigun will always be my main discipline and thus take most of my time but I feel and know the stuff I learn from shooting USPSA translate very well into the 3gun seen. (ie mental preparedness, and stage break down, etc etc.) As much I want to jump back in Open I realize since now I'm shooting a iron sight class, shooting a reddot isn't going to help me out in the short run. and reality is I want to get back into production and just be Baller status, so as of now I'll be receiving my new Production pistol in several months, but I needed to shoot something till then, so I looked into the gun room and dusted my 6y/o 40 edge, since it was closer to my 9mm STI I use for 3gun, and go shoot limited for a while. I'd probably would have stayed in limited if it wasn't for the issue... Recoil :sick:! Anyways we had a Level 2 match come up and I was able to get with Cha-lee too see if I could get on the waiting list as my membership was pending to get turn on active, while waiting I started constructive Dry-firing to improve on skills I felt I was lacking (like lack of finding a front sight). in case I would be able to shoot the match I didn't want to be to unprepared, luckily I was able to get in and was able to shoot this match.

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So this past weekend I shot the Mile High Showdown. When I signed up for this match I only had one goal in mind, to find out where the hell I am at with my shooting. I dusted off my .40 Edge two weeks prior and shot one local match and 2 Night matches to see what rust I need to knock off and what I needed to focus on dry-fire before the match.

The first night match was needed just to see if the gun would run correctly with Factory ammo, since i didn't have my .40 dies setup on my 550 and to see if they make PF, (WWB came out to be a little over 175PF in my gun, little spicy) Everything went well and the grouping with WWB was surprisingly tight at 25 yards, so that's when I realized not to mess with it and just go with WWB till after the Mile High. (This kind of made shooting this match a bit expensive :surprise:) knowing that I wasn't going to use any of this ammo for live fire practice, I put a large emphasis on dry-fire. The Weekend Prior I shot the Local USPSA match to kind of gauge who I need to shoot against who I felt was at my level of shooting, which I did based on % of how they finished at the match compared to the winning GM score. Monday night match following was when I put everything together from Dry-fire and where I wanted to push a little to see where I need to refine my skills at. Ended up placing 2nd that night behind Charlie.... like 71% behind Charlie lol. Besides that I did get a lot of intel on what I should work on prior to the match.

Day 1 of the Mile High Showdown; I did have the "butterflies" going on as this has been the first big pistol match only I've shot in a few years, and on stage one you could tell it. Stage 1 was a wide open field course where shooting on the move can net you a good HF. I flow through the stage quite well but didn't do as much Shooting on the move as I would like. I opted to shoot the stage from 3 shooting positions instead but keep light on my feet so I can transition to the next spot seamlessly. My focus on my front sight was good on the first shot of every target, but the combination of nerves and the little voice in the back of my head yelling to speed up, made me break with less the optimal follow up shots, but with that being said I never lost sight of the front blade through the whole time, I ended up pulling the trigger on my follow up shot just as the front sight as it got within the rear sight. I believe the first 9 targets I shot at where A/C, with throwing a A/D in the mix, by the time I got to my ending shooting position I was a little more settle down and was able to see what my front sight was doing, which was great as the end part of the stage required a little more focus due to partial no-shoots. I ended up 4th on this stage behind the 3 GM's that where shooting in the Division, which I was quite happy with.

Stage 2; Nothing fancy or out of the norm on my part, I did end up having a Jam after the 7th shot which I needed to cycle the gun real quick, that did cause me to completely stop all movement due to how the target where arranged, and I ended up doing a unplanned early reload because of this. My mags being unturned only are reloadable at 17rnds ( I can get a 18+1 start). I ended up reloading one target to early which caused me to slow way down on the steel as I plan to only shoot 16 rounds out of my last mag to finish the stage. I needed to hit the two mini poppers with the first shot or I would had been in trouble. In retrospect I had plenty opportunity to load into a 3rd mag before I reached the window but I didn't plan on it so I never gave myself the opportunity to think that I had it on my belt.

Stage 3; Was Front sight bias and had 2 swingers that to me seem turbo'd charged. Even activating them early and shooting them last they were moving pretty good to the point where I even know I couldn't engage them with 2 shots on one passing, So I placed a great amount of energy in my walk through on how I would engage them with one shot per pass. I ended up doing well on the stage finishing 4th.

Stage 4; Required a heavy front sight ususage, and was a partial memory stage with 8 targets either at 25 yards or beyond. For me I could best see array of 6 targets from one position with a little bit of hunting and shoot the last 2 targets from another spot in the shooting box. I'm not sure if it was the best way to shoot it but did end up 5th on that stage.

Stage 5; was a 32 round stage with one shot per paper target score'd and lots of steel. Issue, you started with gun unloaded and on barrel with all magazines on belt. So that means I was only going to get 17rnds in my first mag, but I planned accordingly, before my first reload I would get at least 16 targets, and finish off the last 18 targets from one shooting position, if I happen to miss any targets I would throw a 3rd reload and engage some of targets a little further back that way I would have extra rounds on my 3rd mag by the time I got to my final shooting position in case I needed them. I thought I had everything worked out, but I didn't plan on murphy. Moving from my first shooting position to my second spot, I got in tight and fast on the stop, problem is when i did that the force dislogged one of the mags from my belt and sent it airborne to the side berm... Great.. Can't miss one shot, got it. I approached the top of the shooting area hit my final position and my only my only reload. From this position I they're 18 targets and I only had 18 rounds (17 in the mag 1 in the chamber) and at least half those targets were steel, as I aimed at my last target I was clean, I pulled the trigger and... click, sadface. I thought to myself I only loaded 16rnds in the mag I need to do a better count next time, I went to unload and show clear and guess what a round popped out, dead primer.... damn. Stage was scored 31 A's 1M 1FTE. This stage also cost me 4th place in the match itself as it was damn close between me and the guy I wanted to race.

Stage 6; was a standards stages with weakhand and stronghand shooting with shooting freestyle being the last two strings, only kicker was the targets where spread out enough that you had to move in order to engage them. You could ether try to shoot on the move or get into a good spot and engage as many targets as you can and hit another spot, I did the later.

Stage 7; was a repeat of stage 1 minus two steel targets, the difference is you started at the front of the stage, retreating backwards to targets. This stage went well for me and ended up finishing 5th

Stage 8; was a repeat from stage 2 starting at the shooting window and the stage cut in half, I shot this stage maybe a little on concretively and didn't do as well as I wanted, thinking of it right now I just didn't shoot it as aggressive as I would like.

Day 2:

Stage 9; This stage is a mirror copy of stage 3, I basically did the same thing in reverse and shot it well placed 4th.

Stage 10; was stage 4 but the memory portion removed a second shooting area put in, creating a mad dash to run up to the 25yard targets for a 8 target 3yard engagement between snow barriers that were considered walls. This where my first legit miss of the match came from. I got to the second shooting box and just went target focus as best as I could and just started to go as fast as I could moving left to right. Some how at 3 yards I yanked a shot :ph34r:. never did call it, never saw a front sight lol.

Stage 11; was stage 5, with all steel removed, and loaded pistol start. This was also another stage that having only 17rnd mags sucked, I ended up having to change my plan from others and engaging two paper targets from a longer distance, just so I would have enough rounds to finish with only one reload, it cost me some time but not to much.

Stage 12; was stage 6 with the standards removed, it basically 30 rounds as fast as you can with minimal movement with 3 shots per target, I ended up with a 13.5HF but only good enough for a 6th place finish. (Recoil sucks :sick:)

All in all the match went well for me and I ended up finishing 5th limited in the match, being just a little over 1.5% behind the shooter I wanted to chase to beat. The 3 GM's in the division shot phenomenal and couldn't be catch by at least 20%. I feel this has re-invigorate me a little to start taking USPSA pistol matches a little more seriously and I cannot wait to get my new production gun here a in a few months.

~EDIT: I'll Correct some grammar errors, when I have time. This took me a minute to type all out...

Edited by DocMedic
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Looks like you shot awesome for being out of the game for as long as you have been.

Can't wait for you to shoot Production. Getting more and more good shooters in the division motivates me to keep improving.

Does USPSA make you start your classification over again if you let your membership lapse for a certain amount of time? I thought you were an M in at least one division.

Edited by d_striker
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From what I remember reading, that is only the case if you let your membership expired and they issued the member number it to another shooter. Mine had lapse for over 2 years with X's across my Rankings, when I renewed it, the X's removed and my rankings stayed the same. That's ok though, my ability will be reflective on the ranking card eventually, till then I'll ride that B ranking as long as I can :P

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This was stage 6 at He-Man Nationals several weeks ago, this one of the better stages I shot.

Edited: I was in the wrong starting position, sorry.

Edited by DocMedic
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Yesterday was our monthly Tactical rifle match here in Pueblo, Colorado, and it was blistering hot. This is a 3 stage match at 100+ second per stage. 2 stages are field courses and the 3rd stage is a Standards stage, which this month was a Vtac Wall . I shot my limited rifle with vortex 1x setup. This match is generally not easy for non magnified shooters due to the smaller target presentation at times, and no backers for the targets. Target size range from 3 MOA to 6 MOA and most are diamond shape or rectangular shape steel. Due to those events I'll try to be the 1st shooter on each stage that way I'll have nice painted targets to start off with, (at least the first stage) and also I can help start RO'ing shooters after I get done shooting.

Stage 1: 5 targets where set at (2)115yards and (3)210 yards, and 5 shooting positions. The final shooting position had a 5 plated dueling tree just outside of 100yards. Shooting area one was on top of a dirt hill prone, the hill resembled more of a roof top type prop require to use your magazine as anchor so you didn't slide down the dirt hill. Position 2 is a silloute target stand 2.5 feet high that can be shoot either kneeling or sitting. located about 20 yards forward of the hill which either you required you to run around the hill where the dirt path was or run through the front of the hill which had tall weeds about knee high and a small depression in front of it. I chose to run to the left around the hill and take a sitting position, while slower it allowed me to have less reticle movement in my 1x scope for the smaller steel targets. Position 3, 10 yards off to the left on top of a standing barrel, I ended up having to pass on two targets on this one after I pulled 3 shots per missed target, I wasn't able to keep the dot steady long enough to call a good shot and there was just to much scope/dot bounce. I ended up shooting over the barrel magazine pushed into the edge of the barrel with me leaning over the top, not the best position stability wise but the fastest way to exit off it. If I were to be able to do it again, I would get behind the barrel, lay the hand guard flat on top and pushed the magazine into the barrel to get more stability. Position 4, was another 10 yard movement to the left on a table that was put on its side but table canted in such a way that It wasn't a easy shooting position, with table top and legs pointing to the sides of the berms. I ended up using a funky over hand clamp grip and cinched my hand guard to the bottom, while it worked ok I ended up not getting really comfortable behind the rifle ended up throwing more shots then I needed. Last Position was another Berm/hill that you had to shoot over to engage the dueling tree. There was no good way to go prone on this hill without slipping. Plate rack steel targets where 4 MOA ish. I was having issue with my zero on this stage, I was missing right on most targets before I hit them, I thought this had more to do with the funky positions. I felt like I broke every shot I could clean and on target, but was not getting consistent hits. My transitions where slow due to not hitting every target on the first shot, I tended to stay on target and waited till I heard the hit due to not being able to see the plate move. (heavy plates and no magnification). The stage was a little frustrating to me but I felt I needed it to knock some rust off my rifle shooting game.

Stage 2: 4 Targets at the 300yard berm line, with 1 target being a round plate and being 3 MOA.(Tough target) 5 shooting positions, with movement to each position going forward with at least 50 yards of movement from P1 to P5. No prone, and reverse kneeling worked for the first 3 positions, P4 was a barrel put on its side on top of target stands, bit wobbly and you really can't get into a reverse kneeling unless you are about 7 feet tall. P5 was a Binachi Wall and you had to stay inside the box to engage targets. I ended having to skip 3 targets on this one, and all 3 where on the small round plate, I was just not able to hit it. The reticle of the Vortex middle dot is 3moa and the target was 3moa, so unless you had a prefect hold on target it was hard to hit. This is When I found out my zero might be off, I was consistently off that target to the right, by the time I got to my last shooting position, I was holding one dot to the left on each target to be able to get one shot hits on.. oh well, going to have to check my zero.

Stage 3: Vtac standards shooting a full size IPSC at 150ish yards, I ended up missing at least 2 shots per string for 6 misses total. On my first string I loaded a round in the chamber popped my mag out to verify the round fed and placed the mag back in the rifle, well I must have not set the magazine all the way in, after the first round fired the magazine just fell right out of the mag well... so I ended up spending 20 secs on the clock trying to get the mag back in the rifle, and it wasn't locking in, so I ended up needing to lock the bolt back inserting the mag to get it to run.. Fun times, I believe that's the first time that has ever happen to me. On the clock I've dropped several 30rnd mags due to them having to many rounds in them before but this is a first not being able to seat the mag before the start, pity. The thing I need to remember next time we shoot a Vtac wall is to wear gloves and a long sleeve t-shirt. I ended up getting a nice brass burn when I went sideways prone for the low ports.. This seems to happen every time we do Vtac standards.

Overall: The heat was getting to me a little. I ended up RO'ing 90% of the shooters on my squad every stage and the heat was a hot 90 degrees. This is the first time in a long time I can remember that the weather effected my shooting performance, I must had taken a 2 hour nap when I got home due to minor heat exhaustion. I felt that I wasn't moving aggressively enough and I wasn't getting into shooting positions smoothly, It also didn't help that I wasn't hitting targets where I was shooting at.

IMPROVES: Need to check my zero on rifle with my reloads to see if anything shifted, Practice dryfire at the house going into and out of shooting positions. Bring gloves and long Sleeve T-shirt for vtac walls. Bring MORE water.

Edited by DocMedic
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Rifle zero and AMMO PF Check

Bullet: 55gr Hornady FMJ-BT W/C

Powder: 25.0 (+/- .1 grain) Benchmark

Brass: Mixed Range

Primer: CCI#41

Time of day: 0830

Temp: 75 degrees

Elevation: 4662 ft.

Wind: up to 2mph

AVG MV: 3074.81 FPS

Notes: No changed done on 550b, OCT2014 AVG MV was at 3150fps. less then 2000 rnds have been shot from then till today, Not sure where I lost 74fps from, Rifle POI shift at 300 yards 3MOA right and 1.5 Low. Rifle last zeroed before SMM3G2015, going to mark turrets to see if they're staying in place. Vortex 1x spitfire. Groups held well. 1.5 Being the largest 5shot group at 300yards.

Bullet: 165 powder lead TC

Powder: 4.5 Bullseye

Brass: Mixed Range

Primer: CCI#550 Magnum SP

Time of day: 0830

Temp: 75 degrees

Elevation: 4662 ft.

Wind: up to 2mph

AVG MV: 970 fps

Notes: Shot soft in STI Edge. POI/POA at 20yards. Bumping powder charge to 4.7 grains.

Bullet: 115 Powder Lead TC

Powder: 3.6 Titegroup

Brass: Mixed Range

Primer: CCI#550 Magnum SP

Time of day: 0830

Temp: 75 degrees

Elevation: 4662 ft.

Wind: up to 2mph

AVG MV: 1103 fps in STI, 1135 FPS in M&P pro

Notes: Ammo shot soft in 9mm STI Tactical, POI was higher then POA at 20 yards. Snappy feeling in M&P pro POA/POI at 20 yards

Edited by DocMedic
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This past weekend, I ended up shooting two local 3 gun matches, one at CRC Byers, CO and the other one close to home SoCo 3gun match. My Benelli M2 was still not game ready yet so I took my backup shotgun which is a FN SLP, one of the issue is have with this shotgun is that its not setup for quad loading, the hand guard sticks out a little to much and doesn't allow a smooth wrist motion with 4 shells in your hands so I was limited to run a Load 2 setup which I haven't really practice since I started to load quads. In total I shot 9 stages (4 on Saturday 5 on Sunday) where the average stage times were in the 50's.

Saturday CRC Byers 3gun

This day started out great... first thing as we park, the GF noticed one of my rear tires were leaking, Luck would have it thought that EricM had a patch kit so with his help we spent most of the morning pulling my tire and patching it and remounting. Thank you Eric!

Stage 1: 2gun choice of slugs on paper and then pistol at steel, or pistol on paper with buckshot on steel. I ended up doing the later more so because of Logistics, I let the GF use the slugs and I didn't have enough to run to courses of it so I ran the Buckshot, everyone on my stage ran buckshot also. This stage was a disaster for me, first off I was the second shooter, this did not bold well for me as all morning I was repairing my tire so I didn't get to walk through any stages prior to the start of the match. Thinking the stage was very simple, ( Basically, 2 position shooting, Paper and steel are evenly split on both sides, 9 paper where at 30 yards and 12 steel targets at 15 yards. with a V wall blocking the middle portion of the shooting area.) I took one quick walkthrough thinking thats all I needed, turned out that wasn't the case. First thing the Buckshot I was using wasn't 2 3/4 size shot, it was closer to 3 inches so it made a interesting situation when loading into a shotgun that I haven't put rounds in well over a year. Secondly there where 2 steel targets inside the V part of the wall which you could only hit if you were leaning out of the corners of the shooting area, which I did not know during my walk through. After shooting on the left side of the box to the right I saw the steel that I left behind causing me to go back to the left shooting position (10 yards of movement) before I could dump the shotgun and go to my pistol. Also turns out the 115 lead TC bullets group like a shotgun pattern at 30yards. Even though I called good on my sights on the far paper I ended up with 2 FTN and one paper with no misses.. Joy..

Stage 2: 2gun, Rifle Pistol. This stage was very strait forward, 2 shooting boxes that you started rifle first and shot 8 mini papers 4 within 15 yards and 4 just over 30 yards. Dumped the Rifle and run up about 10-15 yards and blaze away with the pistol. I did fairly well on the stage, and I only had to make up 2 shots with the rifle considering how fast I was transitioning between targets. What's interesting about this stage was Mark is now using a new Lay down target that is horizontal and floating several inches off the ground. I would put my money on it that we'll see these targets at Noveske this year in some fashion.

Stage 3: 2gun, Rifle/Shotgun with "that" platform. Started with rifle shoot 4 paper targets from a distance, less then 40 yards, transition to some close in paper. Dump the rifle go up a set of stairs and engage the remaining targets with a shotgun. Nothing special about the rifle but the shotgun had some interesting shooting presentations. The platform is about 12 feet high so basically your walking to the second floor of the shooting area and once you have your shotgun you had to engage 4 clays that were directly under you. so your shooting strait down over the balcony, this prove to be tough for those who were not tall as you couldn't shoulder the shotgun properly and see down the barrel to get a good sight picture. After that it became a standing reloading contest with the shotgun. Quad loading would have been MUCH faster then loading 2 over and over again, also I had a weird jam with the shotgun where the hammer went forward as it picked up a new round, this caused me a lot of time to clear.

Stage 4: all 3 guns, all unloaded on table bolts forward(empty pistol holstered) and only one shooting position. At the beep you can start with any gun you wanted and engage the proper shooting array. I decided to start shotgun first as its usually my weakest gun out of the 3. I just couldn't get my mind right and I end up dropping 2 sets of load2. Part of it is that the lifter on the SLP is much stiffer then on my Benelli which caused me to "bounce" out of the loading breach, and 2 I was so fried by the end due to the 90+ degree weather. Transition to the pistol to engage 10 fullsize targets at 5 yards... problem is I didn't load up my mag from the last couple of stages. So ended up having to do a reload after running dry, fun times. I transition to the rifle and decided to use lay on top of the table and only shoot 1 A shot per target 30 yard full size paper10 each. I believed this was a good strat as my splits were only .6 per target with only one makeup shot knowing I didn't get A box hit.

One of the nice thing about this match is that we were done before 12pm leaving us plenty time to enjoy the rest our 4th. The 90 Degree weather with no wind or cover really took its toll on me shooting wise, and I ended up also RO'ing a good portion of the match. Luckily we had a couple experience people on the squad and I didn't have to beg for someone to take the clock from me when I was the in the hole shooter. I kept a eye on my Heart rate through out the match, at about the 3rd and 4th stage my Heart rate stayed above 100bpm and spiking to 150ish while not shooting. Part of that is because of the stairs on stage 3, I must had went up and down them 8 times plus my self as I was shooting. On stage 5 my heart rate never went lower then 120ish and I was feeling irritable because of it, ( part of the reason why I didn't offhand the rifle targets) I tried to stay hydrated as best as I could but the heat took its toll and I probably had some heat drift issues with my HR. The stage was easy to tear down which was really nice and Mark broke down the 2 stages that shooters were not shooting on prior to us finishing which helps out a lot, thank you Mark!. All in all I felt I only shot one stage well, which I ended up winning on but the other 3 felt sub par, One because I just didn't have enough prep time too develop a solid plan and the other 2 due to being exhausted due to the heat.

Sunday: SoCo 3Gun Colorado Springs

This was 5 stage match, the stages were technical and challenging, offering a good mix of blazing and tight shots. This match had pretty close to 60 people... 20+ may have been new shooters. I was excited to shoot this match as I haven't been able to make any of these since they changed their sch to the first weekend of the month. (military obligations) I was bumped off my original squad due to not having enough room to get the GF in the squad and was moved over to squad of shooters I've never shot with ever before, not usually and issue for me. This was one of the time it really took a toll on me, out of the 10+ person squad, 5 were Brand new shooters to not only 3gun but shooting competition in general. 2+ others where new to 3gun but have shot cowboy or some sort pistol matches before, and besides me and the GF there was only 2 other people that shoot 3gun regularly and none of them had any RO experience, so I ended up being on the clock pretty much the whole time, begging and pleading for someone to take it when I was the on deck shooter, it got better at the end of the day but was still an issue. It made for a very long day... It didn't help that 4 of the new shooters showed up 30mins late after we started and they were all sharing the same rifle/shotgun.

Stage 3: was a Pistol / Shotgun stage that was a med-long field course with 2 slugs at the end, lots of movement to do reloads which was nice for the shotgun portion as I could only load 2 with my SLP. The SLP shoots real nice and flat problem is its a boat anchor. You started off with a pistol and shot 6 or 7 zebras then 3 standing gongs 30 yards away, transition to shotgun and shooting a 7 target array with 2 flipping clays, do some reloading engage more steel then shoot slugs at like 15 yards at 2 paper targets. My pistol shooting was fine and shotgun shooting was ok, I had a plan where I was going to try to get 2 "doubles" with the shotgun but required me to get in a acquired shooting position to do it... I ended up not getting the doubles despite getting into position and ended up wasting lots of time, the kicker I ended up dropping a slug at the end, and since I only brought 2 slugs with me I had to take the time to pick it off the ground to load. More time wasted.

Stage 4: Shotgun / Rifle stage requiring you to engage a spinner and 2 flipper clays on a shaky platform plus a bunch of steel ( 10 targets in general ) head to the rifle / shotgun drop off table and engage 2 swingers a bear trap and a drop turner with the rifle over a 15 yards movement. Everyone on my squad chose to activate both step pads before engaging targets, starting with the drop turner. Most were not successful in getting the drop turner before it went away. as it was the furthest target in the array. What I ended up doing was engaging the 2 swingers on the move after activation between the hard covers, stepping on the second pad to activate the drop turner but took a step back instead of forward around the barrels, and then just taking head shots on the bear trap target. I ran the course in 25secs but did take a 5sec FTN on a Swinger, but still had one of the fastest time on the stage.

Stage 5: All 3 guns, rifle and shotgun in barrels, long field course. Started with Rifle then shotgun then pistol. pretty strait forward you shot some rifle paper at a distance then hosed close in paper, dump the rifle, and shot shotgun targets moving forward till you dumped the shotgun then finish up with the pistol.

Stage 1: 2 gun stage Pistol / rifle. All paper can be engage with either or. There was for skinny mini auto poppers 100 yards away with 4 10" plates at the same distance. I did ended up gaming this stage a bit, even fresh painted auto poppers they were hard see from a distance and I was shooting a Limited. Everyone that I ro'd even with scopes they were not hitting all 4 mini poppers and moving to the next section inside of 50secs, with a lot of time being soaked up from setting up against a pole to shoot to poppers then moving to the other side doing the same on the last 2. I decided to try to take them off hand in middle of the poles as you could see all 4 poppers, I knew I'd probably wouldn't get all 4 poppers but the goal was to at least hit 2 given each of the ones I did miss 3 shots at the very least. It ended up working into my advantage as I did end up hitting at least 2 and got out of the first shooting position in under 10secs. raced to the dump barrel and shot the last 4 pieces of 10" steel off hand before dumping rifle and finishing the whole stage with pistol. This is unfortunately where having a non experience RO hurt me the most. When it was said and done he didn't see me hit all the plates near the dump bucket nor was he calling hits... Even though I KNOWN I hit all 4 plates before I dumped the rifle he insisted I only hit 3, I know he wasn't very experience in RO'ing specially in a 3gun match so I didn't argue the point to much and I just said I'll take the penalty for it. I also ended up taking a FTN on paper with pistol, little to much target focus and not enough front sight.

Stage 2: A game of cups. all Guns where set in dump barrels minus pistol and you started behind a bunch of clay birds that had a piece of ammo under them, you had to flip the bird to reveal which ammo to start off with and had to run back and forth all 3 times. Optional targets for pistol and shotgun where a T-star and 6 mini poppers, all but 2 took all optional targets with pistol. I ended doing well on the stage and happy that the match was done.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I shot a Monday night match at the local indoor range. The match consisted of 4 stages 2 were fast blasting stages and the other 2 required BS one hand shooting. I'm not a fan when you do more then one of these stages at a match, and while one stage didn't "require" you to shoot one handed there was just no other way to do it without being competitive.

On the first stage buckets where hung from the target rafters and part of your body must be touching the bucket to engage the targets. Only way to be able to see all the targets from the buckets was to grab them and drag them as far as the string would allow you to engage the targets, so you basicly could only shoot them one handed. My first target was a tight zebra'sh target with the left side a no-shoot and right side hardcover, first 2 shoots, 2 Alpha / 2NS, right on the pref... so that already started a GREAT match for me. The other one-handed requirement stage was the classifier CM99-14, and by far is the worst classifier I've ever seen, AND by worst I mean the most boring and probably one of the hardest classifiers to move up a class with, I guess I'm not a fan of fixed time stages. I ended up with a 4 out of possible 90 points...

This will be the last match I shoot as limited for USPSA for at least a while as I received my CZ75 from CZC, and for this week I'll be working on dryfiring skills for RM3G that starts next week. I believe my lack of focus because RM3G is going to happen next week is the reason I didn't really shoot this match well, that and my lack of joy shooting one handed.

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Dang everyone was fast on that classifier. I've never seen 50 hit factors before.

What's not practical about holding onto a bucket tied to a ceiling while you shoot one handed??? You never know when that scenario might present itself in real life. Like maybe jumping up and grabbing onto a chandelier while spinning 360 180 around the room blasting.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I just got done RO'ing and Shooting the RM3G 2015 match. This is always a hard match to RO, and this year was no exception, I believe this is the first year in 5 years of ROing this match that I just felt completely tore down and body broken. I ended up RO'ing a stage that was complete uphill run for some 50-60yards. On top of that the stage ran a little long as I say a good 25% of shooters where close to or were timing out at a 300 sec par time. The stage itself was relatively easy to reset but we were pushing almost 8 min turn around times, the goal was try to get under 6 minutes, so we ended up working through our lunches to keep it on time. Since the Rifle targets were close (211yards) and in, the He-Man shooters were blowing up rifle targets and backers on almost every squad, I believe that I had to replace 3 broken rifle targets, 1 set of target legs and fix / repair at least 10 backers this year. Also I tired to keep the rifle targets painted and visible for all shooters between squads while they were doing there walk through. Unfortunately targets would start painted with clear yellow backers, but by the 10th shooter either a backer get blown apart or the backer would get covered in dirt and lead particles that It would turn the backer orange and made the target a little harder to see in certain light conditions. Also we had everyone's favorite prop, the "shooting sticks"... So much cursing, so much hatred. I ended up running all 200+ shooters up and down that stage.

As for shooting goes, I ended up doing ok, not my best but not my worst, Placing 4th in Limited Irons. I was having some trouble hitting long range targets at this match, I'm not sure if it was because I was being impatient or the weather was getting to me (first day it rain pretty hard) I ended up having to skip on the 550 yard, and several 300+ yard shots. Also I had issues with slugs with the shotgun, I had to pass on 4 slug targets that were 85+ yards due to not being able to hit them. I also ate a Failure to engage angle iron for the shotgun, never saw it, never programmed it for my walkthrough, 15 seconds later. My shotgun shooting has gotten much better this year as for shooting fast and loading/reloading fast thx to being able to quad load and having my shotgun port worked on by MarkCO, but the issues I'm having still is I'm still to slow on the All shotgun carnival stages. I shot the all shotgun stage at 130 seconds with only 1 miss bird. Other shooters in my division were shooting it in the 80s. I felt I shot it a little slow but not to warrant a 50% finish on the stage, I really need to see what the faster shooters are doing that I'm not, the only thing I could think of is there not waiting for the aerials to peak out or they're engaging multiple birds at one time.

Stage 1, was the first stage my RO squad started on, this had the long range steel target at 550 yards, and a unloaded shotgun start with 6 slug and 6 bird targets at the start. In the early morning before the sun shined in the valley I could see the IPSC metric target at 550yards even if it was pink. But when It was my turn to shoot I got to the rifle portion of the stage there the sun was shining in the valley, that target was GONE, I had to rip a shot just so I wouldn't get a FTE on the target. Sucks being colorblind and shooting 1x. I also had to pass up on 2 slug gongs, 85 yards, I just couldn't hit them. Pistol portion went fine.

Stage 2, the stage I later RO'd on was ok but not great, I got through the pistol portion fine, and went 1 for 1 on slug hits, but at the end of the shotgun run I had a jam that took me a little bit to clear, turned out what I found out later after discussing with MarkCO, that I might be running a little to "light" of a load with my Benelli M2. I wasn't paying attention the the OZ weight of shot and ended up shooting the match with a 1 oz load instead of the normal 1 1/8s? load I normally would run. I didn't have any real trouble with the shooting sticks, but when I got to the second shooting position which was leaning on a spool I was having a hell of a time hitting the 211yard target and the 180ish target. It wasn't stability I was having issues with but shooting through the High Grass was causing a issue from shooting from such a low shooting position. its crazy how a few hundred strans of grass between you and a target can slightly alter your bullet path enough for you to miss a shot. By the end of me RO'ing the stage of the last shooters you could see "shooting lanes" burned into the Grass to the targets.

Stage 3, was a cluster F*, You started with shotgun had a slug target right in front of you with a few bird shot plates, ran through a field and engage a few more slug and bird plates on your way to the rifle. I wasn't expecting to miss the first slug plate with both slugs but I did. I knocked out the couple of bird shot targets on the move and started to load a couple of slugs to try to reengage the slug target but as I brought the shotgun back level to the field, that target was GONE. Green slug target in a green field. being colorblind sucks. So now I have 2 extra slugs in my shotgun in middle of a birdshot target array... great. I ended up trying to hit one of the slug target at 100+ yards to get rid of the slugs which didn't connect anyways. and by the time I got through the shotgun portion I ran past a shotgun birdshot target... Rifle went pretty smooth, I believe I was 1 for 1 on most of the rifle targets.

Stage 4, All bird stage, Man I really thought this stage went well for me, I didn't feel that slow on it, I was hitting my reloads and I only missed one flying bird. I ended up with a time of 130. faster shooters creamed me with sub 80sec runs.. I gotta see if those guys had video of there run on this stage, because I just don't know what I'm doing wrong, and going 50% on this stage ended up putting a possible 2nd place to 4th place finish, as 2 through 4th was only 30 points.

Stage 5, I had a pretty solid plan going in it, I felt strong with both pistol and shotgun. I ended up engaging the minimal targets I needed with the pistol and finish up with the shotgun, I only had one mishap with the shotgun in running dry and doing a standing load to finish the course, total time was 88 secs.

Stage 6, 3gun stage, Got through the Shotgun portion fine. I couldn't get steady on the first rifle position, so I lost a little time there, and I didn't hear the RO call hit on my last rifle target from position 1, so I ended up double engaging the target. Pistol portion went fine, overall a OK run outside of not hearing the Hit call.

Stage 7, Rifle/pistol stage. Started with rifle behind a small ladder, was able to hit all the rifle targets from the first position from the first spot, then came a little loose on the second position. I was not able to get a hit on the 300+ target, I'm pretty sure it was just me not being patient and letting my sights settle on the target before pulling the trigger, but I ended up shooting at least 5 rounds and skipping it. I got a little loss on the pistol portion while running up the trail hunting and pecking for a target I already hit, lost a little time because of that. Stage went a little better then average.

Stage 8, was a all pistol stage with a pickup gun MP5 shot from the hip, Stage went pretty well for me and I ended up running a good stage.

Stage 9, All rifle and also the last stage of the match for me, by the time we got to the stage half the rifle target where down so since it was the last stage in the day, we decided to take a little longer before starting the stage so I could run up the mountain and repair the backers and putting a fresh coat of paint on the targets. I did end up having to skip the 300+ target again from 2 position, that targets was pretty small 12 inch plate and I wasn't being patient enough and had to eat 20secs worth of penalties. my run of 89secs turn into a 119sec run. oh well.

All in all it was a good match, being not able to get any good practice in prior to the match didn't help things but I felt I did as well as I could given the circumstances that we were shooting 5 stages the first day with rain and 4 the second day. 2 More weeks before Noveske i'll be targeting my efforts for that match.

Edited by DocMedic
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  • 1 month later...

Little over a month since last update, since then I've been able to get a couple local steel challenge matches and and the Noveske Multigun match. I won't get into to much detail about Noveske as it was probably my poorest performance I've had in 3gun ever. Forgetting targets, guns not working, being mentally drain shooting all day all played into my subpar match performance.

I'm down to one more Major 3gun match for the year. Fallen Brethren, last year I had a pretty good match finishing 2nd in limited. This year I hope to Repeat if not do better even though this match is wicked hard on limited shooters depend on what time of the day you shoot a stage, still I'm up for the challenge and going to take some new skills to help me achieve that.

This weekend I was able to take the new CZ-75 CTS LS-P out for a spin and shoot my first production USPSA match of the year. Up till now I've have I probably had put 500 rounds through it with a couple of practice/ zeroing sessions and at least 2 local night steel challenge matches, I've also practice dry firing with it nightly to get use to gripping it for one and getting use to the double action trigger. I can get a nice and high grip on the CZ but I find that my support hand rides the notch of the thumb safety quite a bit causing me to have this odd grip on the gun, I really thought this was going to effect me because it really did draw my mind to it each and every time I dry fired the gun. I was going to give it this match to see if I was going to keep it or change out to a narrow thumb safety, but the reality of it was I didn't notice it once during shooting the match, and if anything I think it help me keep the gun a little flatter due to being able to sink in my hand deeper around the nub.

I had a couple of objectives I wanted to accomplish at this match, first was just to grip the crap out of the gun, for the most part I believe I done this well. The other goal I wanted to see was if being able to shoot as many points as possible could stack up and beat someone that was much faster. I thought this was a perfect time to test that considering I been having a "vs" discussion about this very subject with another Eno's member that happens to shoot in my Area :). It was only Icing on the cake when he proposed a bet of who would win if he shot fast and I manage to stay within my point % goal. (originally it was anything higher then 95%) Not one target at this match was past 12 yards, and out of all the stages I could say only one had a Hit factor less then 6. So it was a very speedy match with lots of close in paper and very few (two) No shoot covered targets.

So the bet was on! luckily enough are first stage was the one stage in the match were you really needed to get on your sights or you'll throw a shot in the barrel or hard cover. I had a reshoot on this stage due to one of the steal being down by the time I got to the end, but the end result on paper on that stage was I dropped on C on full open paper during my transition. I actually remember not seeing my sight clearly when I pulled the trigger, and during my reshoot I made sure to make it a effort to always see that front sight before I press on the trigger, and after the reshoot it kind of set the precedence of how I would shoot the whole match, I can't remember if I ever shot a field course with all A's before but this time around I end up doing so and while my time wasn't as great as I could had push it, the points I shot made up way more then I would had imagine.

On the second stage it wasn't my intent to shoot all A's also but it just ended up working like that as the targets where so close and open, it just felt natural to aim just below the neck and shoulder line every shot. After getting all A's again I decided then just to shoot all the A's I could even though the match would favor a hoser style shooting more. But I wanted to shoot those A's as fast as I comfortably could, so I didn't spend to much time to get that prefect hit, but if my sights where in the A zone I was on the trigger. That is the first time since shooting USPSA that I have ever shoot a 100% clean match with nothing but A's.

Now to reflect back on it. It was slow, I was 3 to 5 secs slower then faster shooters doing this method on the close in stages, and this style of shooting I only won one stage out out of five, HOWEVER I stayed within 95% of the stage winners, only giving up a few points per stage, in the end it was consistency that won me the division. I did feel I shot at the speed that I can get all A's comfortably, but in the future I want to focus on getting all A's as fast and uncomfortably as possible, meaning pushing myself to get faster without the need to drop points, possibly a foolish tasking. I believe I have other spots I can really strip time off, one being my reloads, there was at least 2 times I remember when I didn't exactly nail my reload causing me to lose a little time. Draw to first shot on DA and then recovery is another, while I hit everything I wanted to on the DA, it wasn't really snapping the trigger back, and going from DA to SA kind of mess with my mind on the first target almost everytime.

Edit: Video of 3 stages from the match. (forgot to turn on camera on one and the other is a classifier.)

Edited by DocMedic
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Dang everyone was fast on that classifier. I've never seen 50 hit factors before.

What's not practical about holding onto a bucket tied to a ceiling while you shoot one handed??? You never know when that scenario might present itself in real life. Like maybe jumping up and grabbing onto a chandelier while spinning 360 180 around the room blasting.

It's practical because there's only so much I can do to keep you lot from getting bored :D

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Dang everyone was fast on that classifier. I've never seen 50 hit factors before.

What's not practical about holding onto a bucket tied to a ceiling while you shoot one handed??? You never know when that scenario might present itself in real life. Like maybe jumping up and grabbing onto a chandelier while spinning 360 180 around the room blasting.

It's practical because there's only so much I can do to keep you lot from getting bored :D

All it takes to make me happy is to put a lot of open targets, really close.

Your stage at HPPS was awesome. Definitely the best stage of the match.

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Wednesday Night steel challenge match, we shot smoke & hope, and accelerator as well as plate rack and mix plate stage. I ended up using the LS-P with first shot being double action to get use to getting a quick shot on the first pull, if I would had plan a little earlier I would had also brought the 9mm STI since I have FB3G next week.

On S&H I really focused on going target focus only till I get to the stop plate, out of 6 runs I think I only shot 3 of them one for one, best runs were 2.70 going 2,1,5,4,3 on the plates. I don't have my numbers in front of me but I think at my best with a open gun I was around 2.10 to 2.20 clean, I don't think I've ever broke under 2. Since I don't get to practice a lot of target focus shot going fast it was a nice change of pace, the transition to get back on the front sight took me a few try's but I was able to get a clean sight picture after a few runs.

Accelerator was shot from 1,2,5,4,3 with a average string shot at 3.9 This is my normal pattern of shooting this stage and it also gave me a good work out trying to get the double action pull. The first shot did feel a little slow as I work the trigger through the DA shot, but my trouble with this stage was plate 3, I kept over swinging when I missed.

with the Mixed plates I kept drawing to the bigger plate as it just worked better for the stage plan. I wanted to work on going from a hard target focus on the draw to just before breaking the DA shot to a more Sight focus since the rest of the targets were 1/3 the size as the first plate. There were several times in my draws though that the gun would go off before I would transfer my eyes into a front sight focus, causing me to rip a shot high or low on the target, this is a good indicator that I'm getting on the trigger to early on my draw as the gun isn't going off when I want it to go off and I had the same thing happen during the plate rack.

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Due to needing to pickup a shotgun from a good buddy up north of me I wasn't able to make my normal Tactical rifle match, but since I was on the north end of town I decided to pack my pistol instead and shoot a USPSA match that I haven't shot in like 5 years. The other time I was in Clear Creek it was almost 20degrees in temperature... but this time around it was almost to hot probably hitting high 80's easy. This was a 5 stage match, with the classifier and a short run course in one berm, a all steel 32 round stage a few 28-29 course of fire stages.

I ended up starting rough on my first stage, on first shooting position you had to start at a texas star with no shoots in front of it, on my 4th shot I had to get a re-shoot due to plugging the no shoot and knocking a plate off the star. What I should have done was just sat out for a couple of shooters recoup then done my reshoot, but what I DID was put that magazine away and told them I can go right now, Big Mistake. On the reshoot I clean the texas star then went ahead to the next shooting position and start engaging targets, I forgot to hit a reload so I ended up running my gun dry on a target... The only thing on my mind was I needed to hit another reload before I got to the end of the course but the time I mentally made that decision I was already there shooting in my last position with a half filled mag, I just went auto pilot while I was trying to figure in my mind what the hell to do, when I finally snapped out of it I ended up doing a standing reload that I didn't want to do to be able to finish the course, and to top it off as I was ULSC the target that I came into position on, had a shot in the hard cover so with the one bullet I had left in the gun I strong handed a headshot. I was miffed on my stage performance, and I didn't care that shooting that shot just cost me points as it was pointed out by D_striker, I just wanted to have a "clean" stage to start of with... Later I would find out that little action would cost me 1st place in production, I ended up being 2nd behind the winner with less then 5points down, after figuring out the math if I had just took the miss and didn't waste all that time to re-engage that last target like I did, I would had and extra 9 points for the match.. Lesson learned, don't ever give up points EVER.

The rest of the match I slowed down and remember production is about a game of getting your hits, which worked out well for me for the rest of the match till I got to the Classifier 13-08 More disaster factor.. I don't know why I have such a disconnect from my shooting performance in a match vs my shooting performance on Classifiers, its not that I'm trying to Hero or zero them, I just cant for the life of me shoot them at my potential I know I'm capable of. I ended dropping my only Delta hit for the match and during the upper head shot portion I called a bad low shot popping the NS, and since it was a Virginia count I also ate the Mike that came with it.. Great.

Besides my first stage and the classifier I felt the match went well, although after the first stage I did end up taking a black marker and blacking out the top portion of my red fiber, I notice after the first stage all I could see was the "blob" and it really distracted me from seeing the smooth edges of the front sight, using the black marker helped dull glow of the sight. in the past I've always replaced my red fiber optics with green as I recall the red fiber optic just being to over powering, but since the LS-P came with a red one I figure I'll give it another shot. After I get back from FB3G I'll be replacing it with a green fiber.

Edited by DocMedic
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  • 2 weeks later...

I had a pretty good match at Fallen Brethren 3gun this past weekend. I took my first division win at a major match, taking first in Tactical Limited division. Not a bad way to end a 3gun season :) This years target presentation for long distance rifle targets was so much better then it was since last year, every target past 300yards had a bright yellow backer on it, and the targets were placed in open areas to limit the "hunt". This year was a bit light on birdshot which suited me just fine! It had its fair share of prone and off hand rifle targets and lots of precision long range pistol targets, and I was glad that all the practice I did with 40 to 50 yard pistol shots didn't go in vein.

All in all it has been a pretty good year for me when it has come to shooting, probably one of my strongest years yet, but I still see where I can make improvements and will be focusing on them during this off season as well as getting back into USPSA to go for the GM card. One of the biggest things that help me progress this year is not to try to make it to every local 3gun / shooting match this year and instead go to the range and practice small but intense drills. Which is hard for me, I want to go shoot everything, everywhere. After being stuck at a local 3gun match for nearly 10 hours one day due to 15 some new shooters, I decided to give the new process a try and see how it work. I was amazed on the improvements even in such a short time. Now with my off season starting I'll be picking up my new production pistol and working towards the drive to get a GM card. I'll still might shoot some 3gun before the start of next year season but it will not be my primary focus. I'll also need to bust out the shotgun and get really hot and heavy with it as through out the year I was having all types of trouble with it.

I'm not sure if I'll sneak in a another major match before the years end, if I do it might be just a pistol match but as I mention earlier it was not a bad year, quick recap

Superstition Mountain Mystery 3 Gun: 8th Limited

Ruger Rimfire: 2nd Irons

Pikes Peak shotgun match: HAHA...

He-Man 3Gun Nationals: 3rd He-man Irons

Mile High Showdown USPSA: 5th Limited

Rocky Mountain 3gun: 4th Limited Irons

Noveske Multigun: 7th Limited

Fallen Brethren 3 Gun: 1st Limited

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This past weekend I shot a local USPSA match in production. The goal was to pick up the pace and try to "look through" the gun at targets that where 5 yards and in to speed up transition times between targets. For the most part I was able to accomplish this without to much hassle and still getting decent hits. One of the stages was a all turtle stages with turtles ranging from 7 to 25 yards with a gimmick prop suitcase you had to somehow touch per shot. my shooting of the stage was strong but my hits were not so great, I haven't shot turtle targets in a very long time and I forgot how the Azone is placed on those targets. I ended up aiming at the lower part of the Azone right the the perm of the Czone, So ended up with lots of A,C hits on targets, mostly due to forgetting how the targets scoring zones are. This match also had a lot of far target engagement with Noshoots hugging most targets, so I ended up getting really front sight focus for most of the match but my hits were they needed to be for such a hard sight focus. I did end up hitting a No-Shoot due to a No-shoot behind a steel target combo. (fun target engagement -_- ) White on White, thought I called a good hit but ended up drilling the no shoot instead. Reloads didn't seem to bad I don't remember getting hung up on any particular reload at the match. For the Classifier we shot 03-09 On the Move, you really need to shoot that one faster then I thought. for a GM score with all A's you would have to be close to 4.25secs per string, I ended up at 9.5sec total with a boat load of C hits. I shot the classifier solid, so now I need to figure out what I need to work on to be able to achieve the outcome I'm looking for.

The goals that I came in for the match were all met and they were to be able to shoot aggressively on full open targets inside of 5 yards, stay above 90% of points shot before penalties and nail my reloads more or less before I got to the next shooting position, and to not score and D hits. Thing I want to work on is to push my target engagement aggressiveness out to at least 7 yards while still trying to maintain good hits.

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I had a chance to go shoot Weld County USPSA this past weekend, I always enjoy coming to this club but one of the issues I have with it is the 3 hour drive time to get there, I just happen to be around the area which cut my overall travel time by 2 hours. And it was a good test to put myself against one of the better production shooters in the state. This match really pushed me getting out of my comfort zone, if I could I usually won't shoot on the move if I don't need too, but this match had several stages that had some long field course with decently close in shots, so if you didn't shoot on the move you were going to get hosed. I've been doing more target focus on close targets to speed up my transition between them, but I've not practice doing that and moving at a good rate of speed, I ended up dropping more C hits then I would have liked.

I'll post video and commentary later: Stage 4 had two activators, one a DT and was a long field course. I decided to shoot the course right to left, opposite of what all the shooters on the squad was doing minus the left hander shooter. This would require me to go to a low port and come out of it, my thought process was to shoot the DT activator plate on the move and have the DT be in full view by the time I stepped in the next port instead of engaging the steel activator and waiting a good bit of time for the DT to show up. My strategy was pretty sound, the only hick up was the low port had a activator that moved a NS out of the way for a moment from the target, I missed time it thinking it was faster then it was and ended up waiting for it to go off while. I still had one target I haven't shot at before the activation and I could had easily engage it and still have plenty time. I dropped 2 C's on the stage and thought I was golden, then Westcott did a 3 second faster run dropping all kinds of points and still beating me by .4 of a hit factor for the stage. That's when I realized that I needed to speed up a whole lot more if I wanted to stay in contention.

We traded back and forth on a few stages but I wasn't able to close the gab as much as he did on me on stage%. I stayed consistent throughout the match increasing my speed vs points. Staying right on the ragged edge of going too fast vs dropping points, but in the end I would only score 99.4% of the winners points, again another classifier debacle with a whiffed reload.

Its been a long time that I felt that type of pressure at a local match, normally I can go into cruise control, stay consistent and have no issue of taking a match. This time around it really did have that feel of a bigger style match even though it was only 5 stages, and that kept me on my toes. I felt like I was dropping points more then I normally would due to shooting on the move but I did end up shooting 94% of the points, while only dropping one D, that I swear I called a A hit. Thinking back on that, I probably did have a solid A hit sight picture but due to the target being far, 20yards? and being my last target before transition of a reload and move I might have moved my eyes away a millisecond before I pulled the trigger, things to ponder. I need to really work on my dry firing, I was doing great about a month ago but then all the major matches started to happen and I couldn't be bothered to it. Its going to be a few weeks before I go shoot another match, so I should really focus on doing so.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Another great weekend of shooting plus one Monday night match. On Sunday I shot a local 3gun match that had 4+ stages, the 5th stage was a shoot off mock up and you could compete against anyone if you wish for no score. The stages were pretty fun even with the gimmicky props. ( shooting a Texas star with only the lower 1/3rd showing.) I was shooting pretty solid and was in a good place to win the match, then I decided on a "hold my beer, and watch this" for a stage plan... didn't quite work out. Oh well it isn't racing unless someone crashes in the wall, I knew my stage plan had a high "Oh crap" factor, but I believe the payout would had justify it, although not this time, ended up shooting the stage almost 30 secs slower with a 10sec miss. OOPS. One of the fun stages was the one with the Texas star, luckily I've shot array like this plenty times in the past and know my timing. I'll usually just shoot the 2 bottom plates move onto finishing paper and by that time the star should be slowed enough to be able to hit the last 3 plates from the bottom port. I did ended up taking an extra 2 shots on it, and doing so I had to wait a full second for the plate to reappear back in a position where I could actually shot it. I've just watched the rest of my squad match come unglue because of that star, I ended up shooting it in 26secs clean, more then 90% of my squad was over 35 secs on the stage due to the star just whipping behind the upper wall when a plate wasn't hit. Things I need to work on? Shotgun timing <--Bad. actually my whole year I just sucked with the shotgun.

Last night we had our typical USPSA Monday night match with 4 stages. I actually had a lot of fun, even with the classifier. I did get a little bit "caught on the headlight" look when I found out I was the first shooter on a memory stage. At the time I didn't have a solid plan so I had to come up with the most basic shooting strat I could put together the last minute, It did cause me to completely slow down more then I wanted to but ended up getting good hits dropping only 2C's on a 22 shot array. I did end up dropping a D through the match on a close range target (5yards) due to trying to target focus and speed up transitions. Still ended up shooting 92% of the points with no penalties, the goal was to speed up a little more then I normally do which turned out well.

Things to take away from this weekend of shooting. Confirm where my bullets are hitting with the STI 9mm, and start working on just shooting the shotgun fast and accurate. I felt I traded my ability to shoot fast with the shotgun by learning how to load it fast this year, time to start working on transitions. As for USPSA concerns I need to pick back up on dry firing, my draw to shoot is starting to get real slow with the double action pull, I didn't look at the timer but it wouldn't surprise me if I was averaging a 1.5 draw. Winter projects? work on putting together a PRS worthy rifle.

Edited by DocMedic
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