Chris iliff

The key for me after reading that book was the mental program. I have Steve Anderson's book and he states a simple mental program that helped me a good bit. "Shoot "A's" at my natural speed" If I can mentally run the stage as a movie in my head, then I shoot it tons better. I have learned to try to run the movie like a camera behind me, and I try to run the movie like the camera is my eyes and I see the gun "floating" in front of me. It is harder to do the latter, but I'm getting better at it. I think the "camera is the eyes is better, but that could just be for me. I try to never use "words" in my mind. I just run the video in my head without words and then get that feeling and at the buzzer execute. Great book!

I am a "feeler". Almost everything I do, the feeling is what sets the tone. Even mentally breaking down a stage I feel the emotions. I feel therefore I am. My grip is a feeling floating in front of my vision. I have tried the 60/40 grip and the thinking distracts me from the shooting.

I hate movies that show slow motion action scenes of the "hero" shooting the wings off a fly and you can see him/her blink with every shot fired. Ruins the whole thing for me. First "Lethal Weapon" comes to mind. Anybody think of others?

We've got you now!!!!

Went to a friends and shot his Matt Cheely 6" Limited. Holy sweet mother!!!!!!!! What a nice gun. I swung from a paper to a plate machine and cleared those plates like I was shooting my open blaster. Makes me kinda want a limited .40.

I know that you specifically asked for anything other than "shoot more southpaw", unfortunately there is no other thing. Strap that pig iron on and draw and transfer that gun and find the sight. Get your method of draw and xfer down and practice, practice, practice. It really helped me to dryfire my weak hand and then live fire it immediately. I may not be the greatest, but now on those types of classifiers I am not as "hosed" as I use to be. My confidence matches my skill.

I hit that "level barren field" and until I followed some of the suggestions here on the forum's I never improved. It took me forever to make "B" in open. When I started to practice one or two things at a time the "B" card showed up and within a couple of months I started to knock on "A's" door. I think I worried about everything so much that it all seemed insurmountable. When I picked a few things and started to work on them one or two at a time I eventually got off that crappy plateau. Good luck and have fun. Oh, Steve Anderson's dryfire books helped me. I used them to help me develop a routine catered around what I thought where my weaknesses.

Two years into this great sport I started suffering trigger freeze. Luckily a Master shooter pulled me to the side and shook my hand. As he's shaking it he says, "You feel how hard I'm squeezing your hand, about like I would holding a hammer." I said " Yea, you're not really squeezing, just kinda firm." He says, "That's right, well you probably don't realize this, but you are death gripping with your strong hand. Doing that screws up your trigger finger." "Grip that gun with your strong hand no harder than I shook your hand." Man do I wish I could shake your hand, You'd be suprised at how light "firm" is compared to a grip that could result in trigger freeze. Good luck, experiment, pass knowledge.

Funny.... I went straight to my Navy days.... You nailed my feelings. People have asked, "What do you miss about the military?" Camaraderie is always my answer!

+1 splashdown

Want some good rock, try Wolfmother, my favorite right now. Once you listen you won't believe how much of their stuff is being used and hardly no one knows them. Outta Australia I think.

To get to your idea/goal, I think you are right on. I started 4 years ago in OPEN simply because my Dad gave me an open gun. I know, lucky me! One summer to a "C", then 3 lonely years to make "B". When I think of a "do-over", I lean towards Production division. Do you want to become better at the "game" or a better shooter? If I had the money and resources I would start my own Junior program and everyone would have a Glock/Smith/XD...etc. To me it is easier to shoot an "OPEN" gun, but that doesn't necessarily make me a better shooter. I feel that if I would have started as you are suggesting above, I would be a better shooter now. I think the fundamentals of shooting really come in to play and are more involved when you are shooting any stage with a production/limited 10 gun. I think that since I wasn't forced on most stages to do some fundamental things, like reload, or really break the stage down, it slowed up my development. For me, in my neck of the woods, (Indiana) I was competing at the local level fairly early and all the practice I wasn't doing didn't seem to matter. I am now a high "B" and knocking on the "A" door. I also started practicing, calling my shots, reading the books, and generally listening to the folks here on the forums. I think that maybe if I would have started in Production then everything above would be switched. I guess it depends on your perspective and platform of proficiency maybe.

5 targets at 10 yards with clay pigeon size holes in the middle of the "A" zone. White side of target facing shooter, clay pigeon in the hole. I shot this at a local and the guy that set it up rigged supports in the back to rest the clay pigeon on. Pure time run, add half second or whatever you want for each hole in the targets.

Mr. Ball did a great job and I think that Jake and his crew will carry on with a great match. Jake and Aron are shooters shooters, but the Briggs name, oh I could go on and on......

I would go with the G17. If I didn't already have a preference, I'd listen to Matt Cheely!

I'm with the buy the new rig crowd. I got a rig and range bag for each of my competition guns. Just makes my life easier. Yeah, I'm lazy.

How many rounds have been shot through the gun? The parts are among the best. No way to get around spending 100.00 bucks + a pop for good tuned mags, Hsmith did mine and that's who I'd recommend. I've seen good used Open guns with belt/holster and mags for 1800-2200. Hopefully some more in the know guys will chime in for you. Its hard to pin down, people are going to want the round count.

Flex is right on for you. I am also RH/LE dominant and Flex's advice rings true for me. Don't tilt your head. Just shift the gun to that eye and dryfire it until it is natural. Welcome to the best sport in the world.

enfj Ronald Reagan

I feel the exact same way when people try to push the "one" way. Whatever that "only" way happens to be. I could write for hours on this, but what's the point, all any one has to do is google darwin or intelligent design and make up their own minds.

Ain't that the truth!

Well of course evolution happens. I just don't believe in Darwinism. I believe that the more science examines the more we understand that the inexorable truth lies in Intelligent Design. Theory, ..... is not fact. Darwin himself posited that several details of his theory, if proven by future scientific discoveries were untrue, then his whole idea needed to be scraped. Well, guess what? The very tenets of Darwin's theory have been blasted in the last 50 years. Here we are 150 years later and they are still teaching a THEORY as if it is a fact. Well, it's not called Darwin's Fact. I don't mind schools exploring any theory, but to do so in such a manner as to exclude all possible alternatives is indoctrination. As for me and my house........PM me. I'm out.

load?

Not very valuable. My faith requires no evidence, that's why it's FAITH. Scientific evidence that requires faith.... well .... that would be Darwinism!

I use True Blue in my open gun. No muzzle flash and good dot tracking. I know that's not a .45 as per your question, but the muzzle flash should be consistent accross the calibers I'm thinking. Good luck.