I like that even with a bad day of shooting a good squad can keep it fun and enjoyable.
The last two matches I've attended my performance has been less than what I expect of myself.
Some of you know what I'm talking about. As soon as the buzzer sounds you've forgotten everything about how you "planned" to shoot the COF. Walking with the RO and hearing "alpha-charlie, two alpha, two alpha, alpha-mike..." Swearing up and down you have the sites lined up when you break the shot on that mini-popper that just won't fall.
So as I'm sitting here smoking a cigar reviewing the rmatch esults and some video of my ineptness I wonder why I wasn't more "bummed" but still excited to attend the next match. And I remembered even though the competetive shooting part of the match was not good the people I was shooting with more than made up for it. Everybody was upbeat, having fun, exchanging good natured ribbing. I left a popper standing during on COF and one of my squadmates suggested that if I was going to leave one standing I should leave the far one up so he didn't have to walk as far
During the second match a Master Open shooter figured I was fairly new, I've only been competing in USPSA for about a year, and offered some advice on something he noticed I was doing and instead of just telling me what I was doing wrong he suggested some drills to practice to help improve the skills. Same match I was able to bend a squadmates ear on his opinion on custom build vs. semi-custom for a Limited Pistol I've been considering in the future. Another shooter gave me 100 precision 115gr 9mm bullets to try to see if I liked them when I mentioned I was still tinkering with my competition load.
I want to thank all the folks who I've shot with recently, Mark O. Eric F, Jerry "The Geek", Doug N. Roger N, Guy N, Neal T, and anybody I've forgotten, at Dundee and TCGC in Oregon for making this fun sport even more enjoyable.
John "Mac" M.