Slabbie Shooter

[Slabbie Shooter]

Hi folks.

Bob Patterson here, USPSA A-60772.

To begin, let me say that I used to shoot some IPSC style outdoor matches back in the day. Like 1989-1990. Was never last place, but let's just say i kept him company! Now I have gotten back into competitive shooting, and am enjoying it a lot. I'm a single stacker and will wave the Big Bullet flag forever! (lol) I have my third USPSA match under my belt today, and feel good about my progress.

A word about my gear. I shoot a Kimber Tac Custom II, stuffed into a Blade Tech SRB with belt slide. I have a bunch of Chip Shooting Star and a couple Wilson mags. All 8 rounders. I shoot 185gr flat nose rounds loaded by Bruce Bennett (A9882), and I highly recommend his work if you're in Central Florida and need quality match ammo. So I have a good basic match setup.

My biggest issue currently is my eye dominance. But it's not like you think. I'm left handed and left dominant eyed. But, my right eye is stronger at distance than my left. So when I'm shooting with my prescription glasses, both eyes fight for the sight picture. I sometimes see two front sight posts. It sucks. So today, I decided to shoot a stage with my shooting glasses, with a paster over the right lens. Wow! Razor sharp sight picture every time. Now I can begin working on my game.

As a result, today I finished 61st out of 78 shooters (combined divisions). A new personal best.

I'll go over the stages I shot in a later post.

Glad to be here!

[Chris Keen]

Glad to have you here Bob!

Jealous that you live in FLA where it's nice and warm (snow and ice storms here in Ohio) and yet you dropped out for a little while ??? You FL guys can shoot every weekend if you want to.

Here's a quick tip ... try a piece of scotch tape on your shooting glasses instead of the paster. It'll still do what the paster does, but without looking like you just got tagged by the squad jester.

Keep waving the Big Bullet Flag as long as you can afford it, and Welcome to Brian's Forums! You'll find a wealth of information here.

[dajarrel]

Welcome Bob

dj

[Slabbie Shooter]

Thanks for the warm welcome fellas! And I will try that scotch tape thing. I'll be at Titusville Florida on Saturday the 1st, where the stages give me ample practice on reloading!

[Chris Keen]

I've shot there.

Great bunch of guys.

[Slabbie Shooter]

Starting with this post, I'll be keeping a record of every match I shoot, to track my progress and remind myself of what I did well and poorly.

FEB 23rd, 2008

Central Florida Rifle and Pistol Club

Overall Place

61 of 78 123.8109 points (22.76%)

Single Stack

4 of 6 197.1891 points (34.00%)

Stage: 1 El Strong & Weak Prez (Classifier 03-11)

Place Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %

46 92 40 40.16 1.2948 26.4429 22.04%

Notes: This was the first stage I shot without my glasses. Got two misses and a No Shoot.

Alphas and Charlies other than that. It was raining and all the targets were covered in plastic.

Stage: 2 When It Rains

Place Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %

73 89 0 85.09 1.0460 12.4822 12.48%

Notes: Ironically named. This one had two racks of 6 steel plates

each with it's own box, and 4 paper targets between. I lost my fear

of steel at this stage, missing only 3 rounds to knock 'em down.

That was kind of a breakthrough for me.

Stage: 3 And Then there were Stars

Place Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %

50 95 0 30.87 3.0774 31.8512 30.33%

Notes: My best stage of the day and the first time I shot

a Texas star. It cooperated by dropping a plate for me.

Stage: 4 10 - 4

Place Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %

67 88 10 48.16 1.6196 22.3771 18.65%

Notes: I got stupid here and didn't reload on the run to the last box, and wound

up doing a standing reload to hit the LAST SHOT. Not gonna do that again. I

will always come to a new box with 9 rounds in the gun.

Stage: 5 Two Barrels

Place Pts Pen Time Hit Fact Stg Pts Stg %

62 126 0 51.77 2.4338 30.6575 22.71%

Notes: My first stage of the morning and it started with the gun on the table and me on a

chair. It had 10 paper and 7 poppers. I did OK on the poppers, but won't waste that much

time again.

Edited February 25, 2008 by Slabbie Shooter

[Slabbie Shooter]

According to Flexmoney's homework assignment here,

I could have taken 52.36 seconds more to get all As and have the same hit factor on the classifier I shot.

Almost a minute.

I just had another revelation.

Edited February 25, 2008 by Slabbie Shooter

[Slabbie Shooter]

Did my normal Monday night indoor run n gun match at East Orange. They use IDPA targets and it's a 3 stager. Some stages have a high round count, and tonight, I sucked. I was using my shooting glasses with Scotch tape on the right side for the first two stages. Found out that USPSA doesn't allow an offset holster for Single Stack but they do for Production. I'm a new guy but I think that's a bullshit rule.

Rant concluded.

Indoor run n gun on Thursday then on to Titusville on the 1st!

[Slabbie Shooter]

Shot the Titusville match today. Had some okay stages and some tough ones. The Titusville match is considered the best club match in Florida by many of the top shooters I talked to. A lot of the stages are the kind of thing you'd see at a State or Regional match.

The classifer, Partial People Eaters, http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-40.pdf, was changed to a regular stage. There's no way I can put 6 rounds downrange from a draw in 4 seconds. So I sort of threw this one. Just to save ammo if nothing else.

The other stages were more enjoyable for me since doing a lot of work on my headspace. Here were my scores of the day.

Total: 37.62% of 6 SS shooters

Stage: 1 Partial People Eaters

41 points 41.0000 HF 42.27% of top

Stage: 2 Say What??

116 points 68.29 seconds 1.4058 HF 33.38%

Stage: 3 2 Plates

95 points 20 penalties 62.12 seconds 1.2073 HF 29.74%

Stage: 4 Elvis Lives

128 points 20 penalties 47.66 seconds 2.2661 HF 43.29%

Stage: 5 Who Done It?

120 points 50 penalties 58.37 seconds 1.1992 HF 24.55%

C class here I come!

Edited March 2, 2008 by Slabbie Shooter

[Slabbie Shooter]

Did the Monday night weekly indoor shoot at East Orange.

Sucked. No preparation, no dry fire all week, doesn't matter why, I had time and I didn't do it. Period.

Had a hard time maintaining a solid grip on the pistol and the groups opened up. Got a no shoot at least once.

Still don't have a consistent draw and grip.

My last stage was not bad. I was successful at tracking the front sight all the way through.

this week: Draws and presentations, sight pictures and dryfire. And reloads. I'm gonna dry practice my ass off.

Indoor match Thursday. We'll see what three nights of dry practice will do.

[Slabbie Shooter]

No match Thursday night, didnt make St Augustine Sat morning either. Cranky as hell about it. But it did afford me more dry fire practice. Another REVELATION:

The weak hand squeezes in a U shape like squeezing juice out of an orange. The light bulb went off.

Went to East Orange today to verify what I learned. Indeed, the shot goes right where the sight picture is. My gun is shooting kinda high, I'm starting to see it's characteristics now. Add to the grip an aggressive forward stance and that front sight pops right back into place after each shot. Damn!

After 120 rounds today, my hands are burning and i'm tired as hell but feel great. More dry fire practice.

Also suddenly realized how relaxed I have to be when doing speed reloads. Really relaxed with the weak hand. Then the mag slides like buttah into the mag well. just as fast as when I did it all tensed up, but this time the load comes off nice and slick.

Relax. Squeeze. Lean in.

[Slabbie Shooter]

indoor match tonight. My first chance to use the new "corrected" grip in a match setting. First stage I went slow on purpose, but shot tight groups in the A zones. Went great and got lots of compliments. 2nd string, got two Mikes when my rounds sailed over the B zone. Sucked but o well. Third stage was decent. Lotta guys had problems on these stages, but I shot 'em all clean.

The grip and stance works. Now comes the burn in period and getting a feel for how much I need to see. Still hearing varying opinions on that but will let my own experience tell me what to do as well.

[Slabbie Shooter]

I scored really well from Monday's indoor match. I ranked in the top of the bottom third of shooters. Best ever, especially considering I'm shooting single stack .45..

Tonight was a more serious indoor match, with USPSA targets and scoring, and I had three real clean stages. All solid hits, only one Mike in 50 rounds. It's starting to come together.

Thinking about going to the CFRPC club match Saturday, though I'm about out of rounds. I'm feeling good and this is a good time to shoot a classifier!

[Slabbie Shooter]

I am sure glad I decided to shoot today! Shot the club match at CFRPC and I think it was my best match performance to date. 6 stages total, but with no classifier.. but it was great shooting. I had no reloads so I bought 200 rds of the white box .45s, figuring I was man enough to take it.. haha.

Stages 3-6 were clean. No mikes, no procedurals. Fair share of Charlies and some Deltas, but my share of Alphas too. Times were slow, especially when there was steel involved, but I left no poppers or plates standing.

Stages 1 and 2 were where I took some damage. Stage 1 was a classifier style, with two starts, strong and weak hand shooting thrown in. But not a classifier! weird.. anyway I drilled the NS twice (awesome ) and picked up a Mike. Stage two had one Mike but good time.

So we'll see how the scores shake out in a few hours. Quite a few Single Stackers out today. Maybe 7 or 8.

[Slabbie Shooter]

Been a while since I've posted. Did the Titusville, Fla. club match today, and am happy with my progression. I am focusing hard on the front sight, and squeezing a surprise break from the trigger. Very good hits today. I did have a malf that cost me a whole stage, but my shooting performance has been improving. I did my best on the stage designed by Eric (dirtypool40), and got only two Ds, all the rest A/C hits, and a decent time (66 sec) and a 1.8 HF.

I am cleaning up my act.

Then after the match, Eric took a few of us aside and showed us a better grip, tweaking what we do with the support hand that really locks the gun in hard. Looking forward to trying this on the Monday night indoor shoot.

[Slabbie Shooter]

After a number of years, I am beginning to return to USPSA shooting. Long story, as they say. But I am back.

http://www.uspsa.org/uspsa-display-match-results-detail.php?action=summary&indx=8390&compid=6

Shot the CFRPC Orlando match yesterday. My intent was to take my time and enjoy myself. That's a big mental change from a few years back when all I cared about was my score. And mission accomplished. I enjoyed myself at the match. Hey, shooting is fun! Who knew?

A little tuning up is in order. My trigger finger pressed to the right a bit too much, causing me to waste a mag on a popper, and more Cs than I should have had. Will be working on that.

I'm most pleased with the high number of A hits. My draws were slow, but I didn't intend to rush. Interesting thing though.. I don't remember any of my reloads. I just know that they happened by the trail of mags at the end of my string. Guess that means my reloads were clean?

I will be at the Space Coast match in Volusia this Saturday. Hopefully more A hits await me there.

[Slabbie Shooter]

I've switched to Production. I now have a Smith M&P 9 standard, with Apex innards and Warren Tactical black sights. My rig is all Blade Tech, holster pouches and belt.
The last couple months have been affected by the drills in Steve Anderson's first book "Refinement and Repetition", which have given me much meat for practice. The daily dry fire is good for me.

After years of working a 1911 trigger, I needed quite some adjustment to the M&P trigger. I'm only now starting to come to terms with it, after nearly 1K rounds through the gun. The last match had me deliver stage HFs in the high 3s, which are all time bests for me.

I'm committed to Production, but will attempt to class a C in Single Stack on the next classifier match. I'm happy as a C Production guy. I realized something: It's just a letter. How you do in an actual match is what matters. Getting a plaque for being high C is better than having a card that says A on it. I just want to shoot well.

So here we go.

[Slabbie Shooter]

Aaaand we're back.

I love that Apex trigger so much, I put it in the gun.  Which makes me illegal for Production (Until May I hear).  So after a bit of a time off after the 2015 Florida State, buying a new house, etc.  I'm back in.  And I'm using that trigger and stuffing my mags full and everything.  Yep, Limited Minor.

I don't care if it's a competitive disadvantage.  I'm already at a disadvantage because I'm not good as the guys that are good.  (Silly sentence but you get my point).  I want to have fun and not think about reloading every three steps.  So I tweak the locations of the stuff on my belt and off I go.  

I have already improved substantially.  My last classifier put me at 50% which is solid C territory, and next weekend's match has two classifiers in it.  I'm hoping to bust C by then.  I learned it's time to think about speed now.  I think my accuracy is there.  One stage from a club match told me the truth.  I got 22 As, 8 Cs and one D.  The GM who won that stage also got... 22 As, 8 Cs and one D!  But he did it eleven seconds sooner than me!

So I now enter into a new phase of my game, doing everything more efficiently, sooner and with less time wasted.  I'm not trying to think "faster" because I think that has baggage with it.

Here goes...