EatMeerkats

I agree with Coach... I just tell myself I'm going to do it every day so even when I skip days, I still get 3-4 days in a week. An hour is quite a long time to dry-fire, and even 20-30 min. is really helpful. Just do what you can and you will get better. Hopefully you can stop sandbagging D class soon, cause I'm pretty sure you're the best D shooter I've ever seen.

Those are some really nice photos, thanks!

DUDE LOOK AT THE HOLSTER WEAR ON THE SIDE OF THAT GUN!! You are like a God to me! Of dry-fire!

I dropped mine for the first time during last Sunday's match... was running though the stage as it was being reset for the shooter before me and *PLOP*, my gun was on the ground.

Comic relief, anyone? I just remembered that I have some videos of my first few matches up! South Central 4/1/2007 (my 3rd match ever): Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 WVPPS 4/29/2007 (5th match, first one with my current XD-9 Tactical): Stage 1 Stage 2 Stage 3 Stage 4 Stage 5 It is quite amusing to flip back and forth between these videos and my latest one.

9/25/08: Live Fire My brother got an XD-9 sub-compact on Tuesday, so we went out to break it in today. I just did some group shooting with my XD-40 and Ruger .22 pistol. I wasn't really focusing on anything... just watching everything. It was a nice and relaxing range session. As for the XD-9 sub-compact, it seems to be very concealable and I want one now. My brother will be shooting it at next Saturday's Steel Challenge match. October 18th There are 3 events on Oct. 18th that I'd like to attend: Ben's first class, a NROI Level I Seminar, and the IN State Steel Challenge Championship. CRAP! I will most likely end up at the NROI class, but if that falls though for some reason, I will do one of the others. I even had a daily dry-fire training plan all worked out until I realized that the SC match was on the 18th... In other news, Jessie Abbate saw my post about getting her autograph in Jane's diary and offered to send it to me directly. It arrived today!! Just another reason this is the best sport in the world!

Well, USB isn't really designed for connecting 2 computers together (and it can't be done, AFAIK), so I'd say your best bet would be to format the drive you've got as FAT/FAT32 on Windows and copy everything onto it. The Mac should be able to read it just fine. As for the iTunes music, I believe it lives in "My Documents"? Hope that helps!

Yep, that's what it means to me too. Thanks guys, I definitely plan on trying to pull it off as often as possible from now on!

That is quite possibly the AWESOMEST muzzle flash photo I've ever seen!

As I wrote in my range diary, I'm proud to report that I shot my first clean match today, 2 weeks after my first match win at a Steel Challenge match. It's been a 1 1/2 years in the making, but it finally happened. It was the perfect end to a great weekend!

9/21/08: WVPPS Match Video of the match (comments welcome, as usual) I got off to a great start, dropping 0 points on the first stage and only 2 on the second. I was "admiring my work" again on the classifier (actually, I was thinking about the Charlie that I had just called on the 1st target), and I hesitated for a moment before remembering to reload and keep going. I somewhat fumbled the reload on the fixed time stage after that, so I cranked up the speed for the last 6 shots, picking up a Delta and a few Charlies. I had a pretty good run on the following steel stage until I reached a popper that I took probably 5 shots to drop (from misses, not edge hits). I also hit a forward falling popper that didn't go down (hence the creative method of unloading and showing clear), although we had quite a bit of trouble getting it calibrated correctly earlier. The next stage went off without any major problems, although I had a tiny bit of trouble getting the mag off my belt on the second reload. The final stage had some longer shots that I knew I had to be careful with, but I went into it feeling like I could get all my hits. I started to lean/fall as I was leaving the 3rd array, called a Mike, but was already moving and instinctively reloading so I stopped and shot it again after the reload, costing me a couple of seconds. It turned out not to be a Mike, but a Delta. Oops. Overall, I shot a TON of Alphas and felt very solid shooting on the move. I made a few minor mistakes, but this was definitely my best match ever and my FIRST CLEAN MATCH!! I feel like a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders, as this has been something I've been after for a while. I also haven't been afraid of missing during the last 3 USPSA matches, and I feel much more calm and in control. I finally feel like I'm shooting without the fear of failure, and it's translated into greatly improved hits. The funny thing is that I actually haven't dry-fired for 2 weeks... shhh. Been busy, but I will get back in the groove soon. P.S. I forgot to mention in a previous entry that I won the most recent Steel Challenge match. My closest competition had a couple of jams with his Glock, or it would have been much closer. It was my first match win of any kind... now to repeat the success in USPSA! I'm ready to KICK SOME ASS BEN! Edited to add: I forgot to mention that Nathan had dared me to wear my free Obama button to the match (as a joke, of course), and as you can see at the end of the video, I did. I found that not missing is a change I can believe in! Sorry about the slight political drift that is a no-no here... I felt this was important to mention LOL.

Hey now, some of us shoot XD-9 Tacticools in Dark Earth!

That was awesome, thanks Sharyn! The live stream was really, really great too. You've definitely earned your M.O.M. award.

Yes! After reading your post about needing more training, I almost suggested that you give classes to fund this. I would certainly be interested... keep us posted.

Congrats! Just out of curiosity, how long have you been shooting?

I was hoping to take some today, but decided against it when I saw the remains of Ike heading our way. It rained during about 2 of the 4 stages. I promise to get some next week as long as the weather's nice.

I had a cold last week, so I took the week off from dry-fire. Daily dry-fire begins tomorrow, Pharaoh Bender style. 9/14/08: Atlanta Match While I was on the way to pick up my friend for the match, I had just gotten off the phone with him when I thought to myself, "hmm, I'm going kinda fast... wouldn't that suck if I got pulled over?". I looked up, and *BAM*, there was a cop right there. I instantly got pulled over, but he only asked to see my license and warned me for doing 41 in a 30 (I guess I had already slowed down by the time he clocked me). Seriously, it was the most painless 15 second stop ever. As for the actual match, we started on a fun stage with 4 boxes and 16 fully exposed targets. I felt like I did a better job (than I have in the past) of having the gun up and ready to go as soon as I entered each box. I shot quite a few A's, although I was edged out by the stage winner by 0.23 seconds and 4 points. I had a bit of an uncharacteristic no-shoot problem on the classifier, Peek-A-Boo No-Shoots. On the closer two targets, I didn't apply enough visual patience and got 2 no-shoots that were to the SIDE of the targets, which I usually don't have a problem with. The next stage was a mess of activating targets and I executed my plan almost flawlessly, although I took 1-2 extra shots on an array and wasn't sure if I had an empty chamber or not. I looked at the loaded chamber indicator on my XD as I reloaded and it was sticking up, but I decided to rack the slide anyway for some reason. I didn't quite rack it hard enough, so the chambered round got stuck, which cost me a few seconds. I still came away with good points (I was the only Production shooter to break 100), which prevented a low finish on that stage. We finished on a stage from Nationals, that I had just happened to see Travis Tomasie absolutely SMOKE. All the movement got me a little excited, so my hits started to go South into the C and even D range. I think I only shot about 1-3 D's the entire match though. I had a slight moment of hesitation after I dropped the last popper on the starting array and before I started to run to the next target. There was supposed to be a 5th stage, but it had a bunch of movers and somebody shot the cable before we got there. I felt that my movement was very solid today and like last week, I shot more points than I typically do. I also nailed every reload (hey, technically the jam was after the reload). Lessons learned: Trust your loaded chamber indicator. Even better, know how many extra shots you have for each array (I usually do, but for some reason I had a feeling I wouldn't miss today, so I didn't plan accordingly). Points are good. C's are bad in Production. Every fraction of a second counts. Go as fast as you can while still shooting A's. I feel like it's been my mental game that's really been improving recently, and although I might not shoot much faster than I did a month ago, I have a much better idea of what I'm going to do and how long it'll take me. This really helps when shooting activators. Making the extra effort to shoot A's has also improved my consistency quite a bit. I'm really looking forward to a long 7 stage match at WVPPS next Sunday!

I just heard from jimbob_texas' Twitter that TGO got DQ'ed?!?

Didn't work for me in Windows Media Player either. I headed over to http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html and grabbed one of the Windows binaries and it worked. Just extract the .ZIP file somewhere, and then drag & drop the video file onto mplayer.exe. Hope that helps

That's the column for "Lady"... looks like #17 is the only one who shot minor.

Congrats on your finish! You may have "sucked", but you still beat Angus, BJ, and a hell of a lot of other top shooters... I sure wouldn't mind being #3 in the nation. I look forward to seeing you continue to train to WIN next year! You've certainly inspired at least one person to believe that they can make GM someday... and I think that's certainly something else to be proud of.

Yep, you've got a gun that runs with your ammo, and all your training from this summer behind you. Now just get out there and SHOOT! We'll be cheering you on.

8/27/08: Bad Day So I woke up bright and early to hit the range and get in some live fire drills. On my way to the range, at about 7:50am, a car stopped in front of me on the highway to make a left turn. I stopped behind it, and realizing that I had to brake pretty hard to get stopped in time, looked up in my rearview mirror to see an SUV rapidly approaching. Yeah, I got pushed into the Infiniti G35 that was in front of me (that I had just been admiring 2 seconds earlier), knocked the G35 out of the way, and kept going for about 150 ft. I was not too happy about this, but when my brother picked me up, I figured that I still had guns and ammo so there was no reason not to go shoot anyway. When we got to the range, I realized that the targets were in the almost non-existent trunk of my car, so we ended up shooting the only thing we could find... those blue gas station paper towels. I shot 100 rounds of .22 at 25 yards, just watching the sights lift. I also shot 13 rounds of 9mm that were leftover from a box of ammo, and didn't flinch. I was actually a little high on a couple shots. I'm glad I went shooting directly after the accident, or I probably would have actually been mad about it. Just relaxing and watching the front sight do its thing really took my mind off things, and it was totally not my fault anyway so I got $$$ from the other guy's insurance (which turned out to be more than what we paid for the car). He also got a citation at the scene. The day after the accident, my neck was a little sore so I took some time off from dry fire. 9/2/08 - 9/4/08: Getting back in the groove. 1 hour dry-fire all 3 days. 9/6/08: Steel Challenge Match This match left me feeling much better about my accuracy, although I feel like I'm a little slow when it comes to lining up the sights on tough shots. Definitely something to work on in dry fire. I hit the stop plate on Smoke & Hope on the first try all 5 runs, although I did overshoot the rightmost plate twice. Overall, it was an excellent tune-up in the accuracy department. 9/7/08: South Central Match I went into the match not trying to go fast, but to shoot points. After reading eerw's post somewhere about 7 C's being basically like getting a Mike, I've decided to try a little harder to avoid C's. I did a pretty good job of this on the first stage, getting like 3 C's and 1 D on a 32 round stage. I made up 2 Alphas twice because I didn't have confidence in the call, so I ended up with 2 targets that had 3 A's on them. I ran dry at one point because of the extra make-up shots, and my thumb touched the slide stop and prevented it from locking the slide back. This cost me some time because I didn't realize the chamber was empty. A stage or two later, I fumbled a reload because a mag didn't drop free and I had to pull it out with my weak hand. I usually give my gun a little flick to make sure the old mag drops free, but I guess all those Burkett reloads I've been doing has gotten rid of that habit (since I do them starting with no mag inserted). I will be sure to do some full reloads in my dry fire from now on. The fumbled reload shook me up a little bit, and I accidentally made an unplanned reload between arrays because shooting Production has made that an instinctive habit. On the classifier, Front Sight 2, I had a very close D that was on the edge of the target, which was just pure luck. The front sight was basically all the way at the right of the notch when I let that one go.... I honestly thought it would be a Mike. I don't know if it was the Benadryl I took last night or what, but I felt like my movement was not as solid as it usually is, and I didn't feel like I was driving the gun very well either. I did feel much more confident about my accuracy and shot calling ability, as I did shoot several good make-up shots throughout the match (after those 3 Alphas). There were definitely a few targets with only 2 holes in them that I shot at 3 times. I think you're probably right about the whole "admiring my work during the shooting" thing Coach. I'm definitely not looking for holes on the targets, since I didn't see any of my 3 no-shoots until after the shooting was over, but I am dropping my attention because if I really think about it, I didn't see the sights lift on any of those shots. I'd say that I'm doing a good job of calling the shot for sections of arrays, but then I start to admire the fact that I did, and not pay attention to the current shot I'm making. Those 3 shots cost me -60 points total. Ouch. I can definitely shoot those "no-shoot below target" configurations just fine now if I pay attention though... I remember getting 7 Alpha, 1 Mike, 1 no-shoot on one of them. These past 2 days have restored my confidence in my accuracy, and I think I'm going to have to make the drive up to Atlanta next weekend and see if I can get over the mental roadblock. I know it's just a matter of paying attention to every shot.

I am going to try saying that during my next walkthough