little_kahuna

Does anyone feel COMPLETELY naked when they are not wearing their gun? I was just playing XBox, and I had this insane urge to wear my gun, as if I was naked without it. It's not the first time I've felt this way, but this time was pretty serious. So now I'm just wearing my race-rig around the house. Is this normal for active competitive shooters? Just wondering if I'm alone or you all feel the same sometimes. LOL -Nick

That is very insightful, and easy to relate to lol thank you both

Yeah that Terry guy was pretty good! lol I thought that this guy was alright too, pretty impressive =)

So my mom and sister watch this show occasionally, and I just got a taste of it. Some of these acts are pretty nifty, then there are those that are just ridiculous. There are so many talented shooters, why aren't any of them on this show? You don't figure they'd let a 16 year-old kid on stage w/ a gun would they? I didn't think so, but I think that most of USPSA shooters are pretty talented. Sub-second draws and reloads, 8 rds in 1 sec (Jerry Miculek) I think that a shooting act would be a big hit . We should register for the show!!. Haha -Nick

So I just got back from the NorCal Sectional: Golden Bullet, and it was totally rad. Friday morning I put about 350 rds thru the gun just before we left for the match. Ran smooth as usual. We got to the match in the blazing heat and shot 7 stages on Sat. Finished up Sun. morning, which was more moderately temperatured. Cool stages, and lots of good competition. I shot a most stages at my potential, and a couple which I got a little squirrelly on. I had a nice chat with Peter Quan about consistency. He said that it is not about beating the other guys, but simply letting them lose. Between any certain number of competitors of a similar level of skill, he who makes the least mistakes will emerge victorious among them. I believe that is a great peice of advice, and one in which I need to spend some serious time working on. I can feel it coming together, and I'm more easily finding issues with my performance which need tweaking. Came out; 7th Lim. overall, 2nd "B" Lim., and High Lim. Junior. It was a ton of fun, and I got to see a bunch of great people. Thanks to the RO's and match coordinators, it was really a pleasure. -Nick

I'm on MySpace a bunch, so I was wondering if any of y'all were active there. If so, I'd like to add you as a friend. If you wanna add me; You can search for me via full name: Nicolas Santiago Display name: Nick last time I checked, i was on page 2 of 3 Loc: Ridgecrest Just wondering if anyone was interested in MySpacin' it up! -Nick

Hey Robby! I had the same problem with my glock paddle at the last Left-outa-rio match. The quick fix for us: saw it off, make it just a regular extended. We eventually just switched back to stock. For me, if I was having another problem like that, I would just switch back to the stock button. I would practice like hell to just get it right and break my grip. Thats how I started, and thats how I do it now. I use a stock button (HC'd) on my STI right now, and it works fine. I have never been able to maintain a regular grip and sight picture while executing the mag-change. IMHO just get used to breaking the grip, and practice soo much that it becomes just as fast/smooth as yours is now. To me, reliability is a high priority, and the stock STI magbutton seems to work every time. That's what I think, but I could be full to my eyes with crap though. -Nick

Lol, he also needed a shave, got some white coming in... All righty, shot the SoCal Speed Shoot this last weekend. It was lots of fun, I won a Stage in Lim. I actually did some things right this time, I hope it becomes a tradition lol. Definitely have to work on the first and last shots when coming into/going out of shooting positions. I pulled a mike on one target due to visual impatience Any tricks to "cushion" yourselve into/out of positions to relax the shots? Also need to calm down right before a stage. Dad said that I look calm, but I don't feel calm at times. When I was calm though I had good stages. I think I am getting better at identifying problems with my shooting now. Had a few stages that were completely clean, all alphas. Practiced Thur. and Sat., both good sessions. Worked mostly on hitting the target in the middle, then smoothly moving to the next one, and doing it again. I can feel the slow but sure crawl of progress. Now its time to drill in these good habits, and fix the entrance/exit visual impatience. Planning on a few trips to the range for some livefire practice this week, working up to the Golden Bullet in a couple weeks. -Nick Santiago p.s. Thread about my stage win. First Lim. Stage Win

So I have been working really hard to balance out my game. I have recently begun focusing much more on accuracy, when before I was going to fast to see anything. This was the first match since I have been practicing seeing more. I was amazed at the results. On some stages, I did really well, and some not so well, but (in lim.) I won a stage. One person shooting open beat me in the overall though. It was really fun and unexpected. Hopefully, I can maintain this type of practice schedule, due to the obvious improvement at this match over the last few I've shot. I was much more consistent than I have been in a long time. I plan to keep this trend of consistency up! It's Stage 4. CA SpeedShoot Results -Nick

Ok. ~2499 rds thru the gun, pretty broken in. I've been working solely on type5 focus, and I think that I can pretty much actually slow down and hit what I'm aiming at on demand. Most of the issue is with the familiarization to the new platform. I practiced on some small plates today, about 10-15 yds. Goal: hit everything in the middle. The trigger control is what seem's like the hardest for me to get used to. So accustomed to that darned Glock trigger! lol I felt a lot of progress today, especially with familiarization. Working the type 5 focus shots has been one of the biggest aid's to my shooting. I realize it's importance now. Without this dedicated practice towards hyper-emphasized accuracy, I would be stuck at my current level of skill. It has really brought my attitudes and performance into a state of greater balance, thus allowing me to achieve a higher level of competition. Yet more rounds downrange will only help the handling of this new gun become second-nature. That definitely means more dryfire and precision-based shooting. -Nick

Welcome to your shooting home. Don't feel bad, IMO, SS is one of the coolest/challenging/(manly)/fun divisions. Although I have a cool new Lim. Blaster (thanks Benny and Larry ) I may give SS a whiz when I GM in Lim. (LOL, it could be a couple years) Anyway...welcome, the people here are just too cool. -Nick

Neat stuff

So... I have approx. 2042 rds. thru my gun so far. The last few hundred have all been absolutely Type 5 Focus; a massive emphasis on accuracy, and even de-emphasis of speed. Only a couple charlies/bravos and few/if any deltas in the last few hundred on paper. lol The gun runs smoothly and still no malfunctions. *insert knock-on-wood icon here* Thanks again Benny! I used to have a hard time with seeing, but now it's getting hard to NOT see anymore. I can feel the improvement in my performance already! Thanks to great coaches: AAron, Pops, Joe, and others. Wouldn't even be this far without you! Looking forward to possibly attending some big matches in the next few weeks: Golden Bullet and Pro-Am. If anyone's going, hope to see you there! -Nick Gotta go practice more!

Finally ready to post! lol I got my new gun; a 6inch by Benny Hill (grip by Larry White ) Shot ~1600 rds thru it in the last week; absolutely no malfunctions I was having so much fun shooting that I didn't remember to update my range diary until now Still making the change from glock to S_I, and its hard. First match with it was the CA Silver Buckle. I did all right with it, although I can see I have many things to work on before I start feeling okay about the switch. Within the first few practice sessions, there was a noticable improvement, especially with the splits. The sights return extremely well, and the recoil is very smooth. The 6inch gun makes it easier to call my shots. Even though the gun is really cool, I am still struggling with inconsistent performance. My mindset fluctuates even between matches, and it's probably the most important area to improve on. When I am actually calm, relaxed, and faithful in my unconcious fundamentals, all goes well...when I push to go fast (like I'm trying to win stages), then TSHTF. My concious mind interrupts my unconcious abilities. When I try to alter my practiced fundamentals, my performance suffers. Recently, I have over-emphasized speed, at the cost of smoothness and accuracy. When I get nervous on match-day, I want to go faster. I now realize that: Speed is an illusion. What I will be focusing on is consistent and precise execution of fundamentals. The time for improvement is during practice. "You can't miss fast enough to win." -Nick p.s. Joe: here is a link to the thread for pix 6" 2011 Limited guns, whip out your big 6"

Interesting question. I'm curious as well. I started shooting limited at 14; I'm 16 now. I'm not sure there is any database or list of the members of USPSA by age though.

Triangle Shooting Sports blaster continued...

A Triangle Shooting Sports blaster. Larry White did the grip. It feels awesome. ...continued in next post...

I have little exposure to IDPA and Steel, but I try to shoot a USPSA match at least 2-4 times per month. I'll do what I can to help in that area. If you haven't read Brian's book, I'd start there. I definitely get a lot of info scanning the forums every day. As far as drills go I learned a bunch from Steve Anderson's drill book. It's great for drypractice at home and whatnot. Most everything you could ask for is here in the forums somewhere. My favorite drills that work on a lot of skills are the different versions El Presidente USPSA Classifier. There a many variations, and they are really handy (for me) to drill in the fundamentals. What division are you shooting in? -N

hehehe...nice

HAHAHAHA ...retarded...

As far as holsters go, I like the Bladetech Dropped Off-set. Secure, and fast, IMO.

Excellet shooting! I went to Jerry's camp, I would definitely recommend checking it out. I had a great time, and learned a bunch.

I like the CR Speed belt, but to my knowledge, the Double Alpha belt is just as good. I'm a big fan of the Bladtech DOH. IMHO its the best balance of speed and security in any holster, thats why so many people (that I know of) run it in Multi-gun. Not much personal experience with the CR Speed pouches. I love my Safariland 771's though. Mostly is a matter of preference though.

That sucks...I wouldn't know what I would do if i couldn't hold my gun... I hope you feel better soon!

Miss you guys too! I'm excited to come up and take responsibility for this equiptment upgrade. Thanks Looking forward seeing ya'll this week. Resting is going well, protein+glucosamine/chondroitin+xbox=physical rehab X 100 haha -Nick