Sgt Rock

SG, I don't think you will ever "turn off" that "nagging witch" in you, however, I be-lieve that all of us have the same little voice in us. The control over that voice is like the comparision of the "good angel' & "bad devel" that sits on your shoulder day to day, that is the real deal. The competitive nature in most of us wants "us" to do better, even if better is not good enough for (the voice). So what am I telling you? Let the voice motivate and drive you, just don't let it control you. I had the same voice talking to me this weekend, and I like an idiot listened. Hence, I did not shoot up to my expectations or the voices. All the while my bud "Hardball" is there telling me to let the bad stuff in the last stage go and just get to the shooting. I tried, but could'nt get certain things out of my head, ie; having a mike and knowing you could have picked up a good hit on that target, (idiot). You gotta let that voice motivate you....just don't let it control you.

Shot this yesterday at our club match, damn near fell out of the box while making the last shot from the left side going left to right! Ended up with a mike and three "D" hits. Rushed it and was thinking too much. After the match was over, just shot it without thinking only had one drop "C" on each of the four and made a up 3 seconds! Then again, it was during the match I was over thinking the stage. Now I can relate to just get to the shooting.

Crap, and I was cruising right along feeling good. Then, 6 mikes and a extra shot later.....zero baby atleast I learned from my mistakes

I shot this today at a local club match, 6 mikes, 1 extra shot, and not enough "A's" to mention. To make matters worse, 5 of the mikes where on the T3 (far free style) target. Zeroed it.... What really pissed me off was I never even realized I made the extra shot in the first string, and I know I can make those long range hits. After, I cooled down I realized what PaulW told me before I shot it, use about +4.5 trigger control. Now, I know what I have to do next time. I was fairly happy with the previos 4 stages, no misses, fair times, and good hits. Up till this one. This last stage blew my goal of no misses for the day I will do better next time (Edited by Sgt Rock at 8:46 pm on Mar. 23, 2002)

You know you have passed over into the darkside when you are a high school baseball practice and you start to compare swinging the bat(without a being pitched to) with dry-firing. Funny, after awhile they started to understand. When asked how much they should (dryfire their bats) I replyed as much as they needed.

I have always been partial to the .45 after all it is the true man's gun I started out with one and most likely will always shoot one, cause it's the one I can play with on the weekends and go to work with Monday through Friday! Next in line would be .40 then 10MM and last the lowly 9MM. Just one mans opinion.

Worked this stage in the Florida State match, it was called long and low.. swinger T11 P1 P2 T1 T2 ------------------ hard cover wall T10 US P4 T8 T9 O O O O O T5 T6 T7 l l l l l ------------- T4 NS l l l l T3 P3 Start Box 33 yards to the long steel engage P1 P2 T1 T2 & P3 from starting box before leaving and re-entering the free fire zone at the first wall. T8 & T9 were on the ground under a hard cover table and behind hard cover drums. P4 was the steel that activates the swinger behind the wall. Engage tagets as they become visible. It was really cool to see both PaulW and ChrisT run this stage in under 20 seconds with "A" hits on the swinger and no misses! Average times ran right around 30 seconds for the other mere mortals with one miss or more an average run.

Thanks Paul, I had a blast of fun and sun! Check out the thread in tip's for improvement.

This was a tricky stage if you were the first shooter and had not seen the stage run before. I shot it first on Friday, pulled too hard on the rope and darn near knocked my gun loose from the holster caught the end of the grip and managed to get two hits on the targets before they disappeared . I overheard several competitors say they had similar problems. A gentle tug was all it really took. (Edited by Sgt Rock at 8:01 pm on Mar. 20, 2002)

Thanks bgary, I checked the rules you listed, as usual you are right on the money. I do have to take some responsiblity though. Next time, I will know to check the score sheet over after each stage. I'll let the match director know of these rules so next time he won't arbitrally add on misses. David (Edited by Sgt Rock at 7:47 pm on Mar. 10, 2002)

I know according to the "rules" that the shooter and the RO are supposed to sign off on your score sheet after each stage. Since, I just started back shooting again after 16 years, I have'nt seen anyone doing this. But, after today I will. I got charged 6 misses because the score keeper did not write down the proper score for the stage. Unknown to me till after the match was posted. And there I was happy as hell I had only "one" miss today. Crap!

First I want to say that I started shooting IPSC in the early 80's, it was then a different game: but it was still a game. There was no gun restrictions for class as there are today. I believe we will never be entirely perfect, so as to make everyone of our shooting members happy. However, it is still the best game going. I had the pleasure of meeting Paul today, I also had the pleasure of shooting a couple of stages with him. Paul is truley a gamer, a intensive competitor, a fellow competitor who will tirelessly give advice and recommendations, and lastly one of the best reperesentatives of our sport I have seen since my return from a 16 year absence from the sport. As to a seperate class for pro-shooters. I will leave that to the powers to be. In my opinion a "Pro-shooter" is one that derives monetary gain, the same as any Olympic athelete. True all other sports have two catagories: Bass-fishing, bowling and a myrid of other team sports. Classes, seems to be fine the way it is. I might never achieve what Paul has, but I damn sure will try. I know, my single stack can not compete on the same level as an open gun: however, it is my choice and I can switch anytime I wish. My main competitor is myself. The one constant I have observed since my return is that those who are at the top levels, make shooting look "easy." Ever notice the smile at the end of the run?

Eric, when I was stationed out at Ft. Lewis. I could walk out on my front poorch and get a birds eye view. Always wanted to climb it, but had to settle for the Olympic's instead. I still have some awesome pictures from back in the day...I'll never forget the day the mountain blew, we were called in to assist in rescue operations. Man, the soot and ash were so thick we had to put panty hose on the air cleaners and still lost a bunch of engines. Seems like just yesterday..what a mess....!!