Jake Di Vita

I'd love to see what SAAMI would say about my 9 Major load.

Grease was the worst possible thing I could use with my 9 Open gun....it NEVER ran if I had put any type of grease in it.

Guys....the damn thing has already been decided...how about we all just shut up and quit speculating and see where it goes....we can analyze the hell out of it once we have hard data.

Damn....wanna know what's really freaky about that? When I started reading that thread...I was listening to that exact song. Thanks bro...I appreciate it.

Good god....it is FAR worse than I thought... I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Motion picture armorer

Ooooh....touche.

Replace kiss with kick and I'm good to go. Wouldn't it be great though to actually have them know what the hell they were doing and why... Dream on I guess right?

I think I see where you are coming from now... Who knows, I'm probably not experienced enough to fully realize it. I think it could be useful if it was done with the proper intent?

Someone that actually knows their shit about guns and how to shoot seriously needs to teach these "actors" a thing or two... I'm on my way to hollywood. lol.

I don't necessarily see where having a par time would make you more consistent on steel challenge stages? If anything it seems to be that in trying to beat a par time you would end up being less consistent. Seems to me consistency in these types of stages come from shooting them hundreds or thousands of times a piece.

I've hit .75 draws in a match with my Open gun...unlightened, and a full bigstick in it. Personally I think the craze over light guns is way overrated. Look at the two shooters with the fastest transitions in the sport...TT and Jarrett. Ironically those two shooters also use the heaviest guns out there...Caspian and Para.

I'm not sure I see the point to it?

If I could get 8 + 1, I would definetely shoot major.

You crazy bro. I like your routine, it got to the point where I was doing something very similar to that every day. Lately I've just been keeping it simple though with mainly draws and reloads and a few other miscellaneous things...I'll post a routine one of these days if anyone is remotely interested (probably not huh? ) Kinda strange that I have come nearly full circle now....I feel I get the vast majority of my improvement from live fire. The main thing I work on now is getting in and out of positions, and while you can do that a bit in dry fire, I've found live fire to be at least 10 times more effective for developing this skill.

I am not a very experienced rifle shooter, but to me it seems as if a zoom wouldn't really matter that much. Even if your using a 10x....magnification doesn't make you hold the more stable or increase your proficiency at pulling the trigger without disturbing the sights. Am I totally wrong here?

Yeah...I'm from Michigan, but that doesn't mean I like the cold.

Dudeski....do some research before posting huh? About whether to laugh or cry....I can't seem to do either...mostly my mouth is just hanging open.

The problem is people are thinking of GMs like they are something other than a competitor. Replace GM with C for all I care...the only difference is skill. Do I want to shoot with the top guys as much as possible? Yes...but if I don't get squadded with them it isn't going to affect my performance. I just want to shoot.

Yeah but I figured rather than getting back into position or possibly breaking the 180 I would continue with the stage and take my chances.

Got to the range around 7:30 and it was C O L D. As in hands and fingers totally numb cold. Stage 5: Assume The Position. Wonderful luck for us....start on the stage with targets at about 15 yards surrounded by no shoots with frozen fingers...great. I shot the stage with a decent time of 16 seconds....unfortulantly I got greedy for alphas and had a no-shoot/mike. Great way to start the match. Here Lee, have 22 match points, I don't want them. Lee - 117.4301 Jake - 95.2029 Stage 6: Tons O' Ports Getting a little warmer....this is my kind of stage with a lot of movement, I hope to make up some ground on this stage. Off the table draw, nail the two poppers, come into the right port and shoot 10 perfect A's....while running to the next port I'm thinking "hey that was pretty nice" come into the next port, shoot the first 2 targets then index on the hardcover target on the 180....first shot is an alpha, 2nd shot was questionable...I had already started moving so I decided not to make it up. Finished the stage with great points...and a mike. Wonderful. 3 penalties on the first 2 stages...this is looking promising.... Lee - 237.7387 Jake - 215.9365 Stage 1: Load and Be Ready Ok now I'm pissed. 3 penalties is not like me at all...this has gotta stop. And what a perfect stage to do it on. Start on a chair...at the beep hauled ass to the barrel where I picked up the gun....did a little ballet move because I didn't keep my weight down, then once I stabalized started shooting. Stage went pretty smooth and I ended up with a decent time. I walk back to reload mags and the RO comes up and says you got a reshoot because someone pasted a target (thanks Dave, j/k). So I say fine and start prepping to shoot it again like a whole new stage. Run it the second time with a couple extra shots, but slightly faster with good points. Alright that is better...starting to come back a bit. Lee - 367.6362 Jake - 355.9365 Stage 2: Teetering on The Edge This stage is mine. Very long stage with a ton of running and hosing....running is my specialty. Lee shoots the stage pretty solid in 17.39 dropping 3 points. Not bad at all. I get up to the starting position...thinkin ok, time to do this. At the beep I take off like a bat out of hell....so much momentum I need to grab ahold of the bridge to swing my around because I couldn't turn fast enough. I ran it fast as all hell in 15.75 but dropped 12 points....shot way too loose. Still a stage win, but not by as much as I would have liked. Fun stage though, big props to the designer. Lee - 485.3769 Jake - 475.9365 Stage 3: X Factor Alright now I'm startin to feel good. Makin a comeback and have closed the gap with me and Lee to 10 points. This stage looks promising for me. Get up ready to shoot but have to wait 8 minutes for a popper calibration. Spent that time workin the stage in my head....probably too much, but I'm feelin good and confident with my plan. At the beep, run to the left and shoot the first array really well. Move into the next position...full target at about 12 yards. Folks, let me digress for a moment before I continue. There is a universal truth I wish to relay to you. When the dot is not on the target, and you pull the trigger anyway, you will not hit the target. What? You ask how I know this? I know this because I threw a mike on a totally full target at 12 yards....knew it...and just continued on my merry way to finishing the stage. Lee, I don't want to make a comeback, please, take some more match points because I really don't want them. Lee - 625.3769 Jake - 606.4385 Stage 4: Does Speed Matter Alright now I'm pissed again. Get to this stage, which was 6 plates at the beginning at about 18 yards and then a bunch of hard cover only targets. Shoot this stage....didn't feel like I was going that fast but ended up with a great time and all A's. Amazing how getting pissed can affect your shooting. Gained a lot of ground on this stage and felt pretty good. This was out last stage of the day. At the end of day 1, this was where we were. Lee - 742.1553 Jake - 746.4385 Day 2. Not nearly as cold this day...thank god. Only 3 stages today and 170 match points. Not very much area to gain a lot of ground so I decide to shoot consistently and try and keep my 4 points lead. Stage 8: Madness Crazy classifier with tons of no shoots. Figure there is a lot to possibly lose so I'm just gonna shoot my sights. Dropped 2 points in 7.4. Gained another point on Lee so I'm feelin good. Lee - 803.2847 Jake - 808.8530 Stage 9: Heels R Toes Real fast stage...Hit factor ended up being 13.8...only a 60 point stage. Lee shoots it first and posts a great time with 4 down. Instead of pushing it and possibly miking I just shoot consistently a little slower than him with 2 down. He gains a point, but I still feel I shot the stage well. Lee - 863.2847 Jake - 867.9254 Stage 7: The Four Mesquiteers Last stage of the match....40 points possible. Go into it with a 4.5 point lead. Lee and I talk it over and I decide to go first on the stage. If you have ever shot this stage...it is a bitch, with 2 targets right on the 10 and 170 degree mark and 2 others out at 10 yards with no shoots. A lot of possible points to lose. At the beep I throw the lid open and grab a chunk full of gun....in other words...not the best grip. Have a little bit of trouble finding the dot but eventually got it and shoot the targets. Final two shots were a Charlie, Delta...I knew it as soon as I shot it and I knew I had just opened the door bigtime....dropping 5 points on a 40 point stage is not a good idea. Lee needs to shoot the stage and beat me by 10% to win. He does his job and shot faster and better hits. Figured out that the last shot of the match (the D) cost me 2.8 match points. Final Results were. Lee - 903.2847 Jake - 901.4064 Major props to Lee for him shooting the best match I've seen him shoot. Shot a totally clean match and shot every stage in control...pushed when he needed to and won the match. You da man bro! Overall I am pretty happy with how I shot other than the penalties. I think I made a good comeback until the end. Easily, the closest match I have ever shot...and I loved every second of it.

I'll post a match report when I get back into Michigan.

The reason there are super squads is so that usually everyone that is capable of winning the match shoots it under the closest to the same conditions. Stage back ups are never caused by how long it takes to shoot a stage....they are caused by how long it takes to reset the stage.

Speed never really crossed my mind when I visualized a stage. In thinking about that concept though I did realize something. If I visualized a stage superfast I usually had a great time (or terrible if that visualization made me try) but sloppy points....if I visualized a stage slow....I had great hits and a not so great time....if I visualized like Brian said...only visualizing exactly what I needed to see, I shot great. You can look to how to are visualizing a stage to realize what you are asking from your body for performance.

I don't really understand how you can shoot the required number of hits on ANY target without counting them??? There is really no way around it. If counting is too slow....practice it more often.

Great match. Awesome stages, very well run, very good ROs. Left with a bad taste in my mouth but no need to discuss that on a public forum... Shot semi decent....had 4 penalties on the first 6 stages with ended up killing me....lost to Lee by about 1.5 points (ARGH). Congrats to all the winners, you all deserve it big time.