weedwhacker

April is coming:) YAY!!!

congrats!!!

So it looks like I did not even make a single post in 2012 in this topic... I guess cause shooting was not a priority... And my shooting skills have deteriorated greatly LOL.. I was hoping i could just pick up a gun and go BANG BANG down zero More like down 5

Is mud season over yet:)

Great job dave!!! For giggles setup an online poll at www.soliminihit.com See what WE want to see you shooting this year:)

YEs using a ultra small soldering iron tip... Took about 1hour to do it under the microscope... I did the same texture on my M&P and love it...

I do not know the COF for 2012. The starting position could be just about anything form on your person to in a nightstand. For placement on your body Im sure a debate could be had, however a fairly recent article in the Tactical Journal comments that flashlights are a commonly open carried item on a daily basis. And sugest concealment is not required for flashlights. Pouches and pockets are the most common method of carry in a match. No doubt it will come down to the stage description and how the SO views the rule book and how the stage is written. I plan on focusing on the shooting aspect of the match and look forward to a good time:)

WElcome which IDPA class are you taking.. I have been known to shoot some IDPA in mass THis site is a great resource, no matter what you shot no doubt you will pick up some info from here:) Aaron

I have been joining the masses when it comes to grip stippling. And have found a pattern and technique that ressembles "sand paper" or "grip tape"... I ran out of guns I can practice on, so I moved on to my Surefire G2Z Stippling the tail cap really allows a firm grip, both during shooting and while removing/turning on from the pouch. The shaft I on the fence about. However it looks "nice" IMO.. Will be giving this a try at S&W Indoor Nationals

Shot my clubs local IDPA club match yesterday. And emphasis on just "SHOT" it... This was the first match I did not work in any capacity it was very very odd... .I did not like like it LOL. As MD for next weekends match I know I will be back to my old self.. Again basics I need to focus on the lack of practice is showing. I was analyzing a COF. i was the on deck shooter, I said to my friends "im going to try something different" they looked at me and said "OK"...... I did the something different and then gave me my PE LOL... And it then hit me like a ton of bricks I totally ignored near to far priority... I know the rules..... I was happy with MOST of my shots there were two long targets that needed engagement from a lowered port... t1 down 2 on top of each other.... ... t 2 down 4 , almost down 6 on opposite sides of the target LOL !! Movement felt solid , transitions felt good, use of cover seemed natural... Many skills are still solid. We did have a unique stage this match.. Hands tied to a table with a rope about 18" in length, 6 rounds in each mag 3shots per ... FYI I 100% cleaned and lubed the gun the night before and twice in this match I had problems as shown here... I am never cleaning my stuff again:)

So this summer my match's have become my practices...... The last match we had had 5 long shots that my previous training last summer I think helped. 2 8" steel plates at 30ish yards(they sure looked small in my sights!!!!). From a static position I just took aim and squeezed the trigger and went 1 for 1 on them and down 1 on the paper.. I was very pleased with those shots as I just shood there told myself aim and squeeze the trigger and do not rush the shots.... and it worked like magic:) I guess it like riding a bike LOL Still loving the sport and having a great time shooting.. Just wish I could practice more!!!!!!

Still have not been practicing much. Work/Home/Life Match's have been my practice time..... Took 1st place ESP/EX at CT state recently... 1 shooter away from a match bump... Next time!!!! Today I had a semi breakthrough. USPSA has been been a challenge for me determine how to shoot stages. Today it just came to me breaking things down to sections where to do my reloads. Looking forward to trying to duplicate it Back to life

Awesome you found the fix... Do you have ANY clue on how many rounds??? 100K 200k ??

Been a while:) I have not been able to get to the range to much this summer for practice. However I have been able to attend all events:) June 25th was my home clubs monthly IDPA match. It was also my first time as a match director, great experience overall and quite the learning experience. But man us shooters have allot of opinions LOL The local shooters have all been asking will MWT be doing any DMG stages this year. The AMD for the June 25th match setup what I consider a great stage for 3 gun. We ended up with 21 shooters for the DMG stage!!!!!! Which was almost half the attendance for a match day that started with downpours and lightning. Shows there is some local interest in the DMG... I personally had a wonderful time and cannot wait to do it again. Now if we just can get some more folks to step up:) Vid of the DMG below. THis morning I will be heading to a Steel Challenge match. Its not my favorite event but I do enjoy hearing the DING:) My IDPA classifiers have been consistently 95-99 range now for both ESP and CDP. A recent USPSA classifier scored in the high B range which I am very excited about LOL I hope you all have a safe and happy forth of July..

Yup sounds like the IDPA rule book I know:) heheheeeee

Shot and SO'd my home clubs match yesterday. My only goal for the day was focusing on getting to the line without getting amped up. Focus only on shooting the stage and how I was going to do it.. I had some moments of perfect clarity, planned foot steps reloads came flawlessly to my ability. Had an issue with one target with a "high risk" stage Steel T2 then a T1 a drop turner. Got a down 10 and a FTN on the static target and a down zero on the drop turner LOL.... As an SO I really dislike SOing in the mud. Range conditions plain sucked, people were careful on movement but just sucked... Come on dry ground!!!!

First practice with the new. Had a great practice. TOnight the PD ran stages the whole night, awesome!!!! My kinda of practice. Tonight my only focus was blocking out the peanut gallery in the back, did a pretty decent job at it. One bonehead PE... Left cover with an open gun and reloaded in the open.... But overall great practice. Feeling more and more confident with my skills.

The M&P gods are cursing me for going for a 9MM Trojan and cursed me with SLR issues... Sold the STI and built a dedicated M&P Pro 9mm for ESP. Have not run a match with it yet however had a chance to run a classifier today with a friend also one of the better local shooters today. I'm going to OUT him sooner than he is and state he made SSR Master today. I ran with an ESP time of 96.10 on my 3rd run. This would be my fastest ever classifier. Stage 3 I really pushed myself on with the raw times as stage 3 I have a tendency to go slow and get zeros but with average speeds in 16-17 raw seconds. Today I ran in the 13 second range raw but had many down 1's.... and one miss grrrrrrr... The change in gun is purely simple to me. I need to focus on my shooting and have a tool that is as reliable as it possibly can be. The 9mm 1911 can run for sure, but I do not have the time or the patience to make it work. I also have gone so far so quickly with the M&P platform why change it up!!!!! M&P Pro 9mm SSS ESP Magwell SSS ESP Basepads Serrated Front Sight Sevigny Rear sight LOTS of ammo:) Last weekend local match I shot with my old standby M&P Pro. 3rd place SSP MA(only 3 in class) 5th overall out of 57 shoothers, with the 2 ESP MA taking 1st 2nd Place. Area's to improve are not really known at this moment. I shot to "win the match". However one bonehead PE for slicing the pie.... Dumbass... Some focus needs to be placed on blocking out the crowd IMO... And just "relaxing" prior to the stage. Also want to take the time to thank everyone for all the advice they have given me over the last year it has been awesome!!!! I cannot wait for 2011 shooting!!!!!!!!

Man another bunch of days waiting:) Thanks for your work!!

Well I have returned from the 2011 S&W Indoor nationals.... Had a great time but some gun issues made the results less than desirable. While the issues are still Fresh in my head so I can recap them later Stage 1: Got a PE for failing to engage the 1st 2 targets in tactical sequence , gun jam on the reload took about 5 seconds to get it back into battery, was unable to complete the stage. Stage 2: Was unable to complete the Stage gun jammed after the reload and took a down 20 and FTN.. All shots I fired were down zero i guess they had "pity" on me and only gave me one FTN... Stage 3: I think I did well in performance in this stage. Gun failed to slide lock reload then a double feed LOL in the dark... It was fun but the down 11 on low light stage with a bag in hand reloads from a bag. I did well this time working with the bag in hand while shooting, placement of the bag on the ground and getting the reloads out of the bag. In the past I have had difficulty working with these types of props. Stage 4: 1st stage I shot in the match. mechanically I shot the stage well small issue with the reload but got it fixed very quickly. Down 10 and a FTN.... On a close target head shot... I just did not respect the target lesson learned..... Ok with the rest of the stage down zero and I felt my shots and transitions were quick and movement was precise. Stage 5: I was kind of rattled with the down 10 and the FTF on slide lock reload from previous stage and in my head I thinking "calm down" "focus" "run the stage in your head" and I did over and over... It would have been a great stage for me other than..... During the reload got a jam... Got it fix quickly, came back up on target and "BANG" let one rip way before I was on target it hit the floor, bounced into the down zero of the no shoot then into the down 3 of the threat target..... reasonable raw time but the down 3 and HNT killed it... Stage 6: Must work on SKILL DRILLS...... Weak hand with flashlight down 25............. Ya that was rough.... Not much I did right on that stage other than not get myself DQ'd LOL Stage 7: Pick up gun stage... Learned that when you HAVE to use a laser and flashlight do not put the flashlight where the laser would be as you cannot see the laser as your light overpowers the laser LOL!!! My plan for this stage was to go at a speed that got me down zero's with pickup gun which I did and blaze with my gun 6rounds which I did ended up down 1 on that stage time was slower but my game plan was not get allot of down and stay clean... Stage 8: Which was a 6 round speed stage... "my kinda stage" Came in 42nd overall out of 280.. Even with a SO yelling at me to MOVE to activate the drop target I did not get rattled... Stage 9: Low light flashing light shooting through prison bars with 3 shooting positions... I choose to to a Tac-Reload at P2 as I did not want to deal with any slide lock reload issues in the dark:) It was a wise choice 62nd place overall clean run. One thing I noticed that I did which I do not know why.... I decided t put the barrel of the gun through the bars to ensure I did not hit one and deflect off them... But instead of picking ONE spot I removed the gun and went to the next slot over to engage the 2nd target... Next time I will pick one position and stick with it.. Stage 10: Low light no flashlight...AWESOME RELOAD IT WORKED!!!!!! But I was so amazed I got down 12 LOL Stage 11: IMO this was a tough stage... 4 targets 3 rounds each... a no shoot swinging across all 4 targets... I had decided that I was going to shoot it like the no shoot was not even there and take a down 5 as it did not matter if I hit it once or 12 times... Took the gamble and it paid off 46th overall. the reload SUCKED but i got the gun back into place quickly.. Accuracy was a big player in this one also.... tough shots from cover and bullet stopping 2x4's in front of the down zero.... Stage 12: OMG So props and buttons... I pressed the button to engage start the moving target went to draw realized CRAP the target is not moving went back to press the button again... By the time I got to the button ughmmmm the target was moving at me.... CRUD!! DRAW CRUD target disappeared down 15 Totally got me rattled.... ended up down 24 on that stage.... the clothing stopped my bullets.... Grrrr

Made the switch, 2011 I will be shooting ESP. Picked up a STI Trojan 9MM and my path has started. My 1st match with it was not at all what I was going for. In my mind I was thinking "its a gun" I can shoot them..... Well not soo I quickly learned Equipment arrived the day before the match, I only shot 250 rounds with the gun. I had issues all day... one 6 second reload, 4 seconds to figure out how to get magazine released, twice I had to do a slingshot reload as I could not figure out where the slide stop was. Add some "feed issues" which I think are resolved now... Needless to say I was not at all prepared, I felt that I could "force shots" to make up "time" and that led to many downs.... Lesson well learned.... I have been practicing some of the fundamentals but I think mechanical assistance will be needed to help me running ESP with a single stack 1911. Mods Installed or Coming Brazo's Trigger work VZ operator 2 grips Dawson Precision ICE magwell with arched mainspring housing Ambi-Safety Tactical Mag Release(why is the stock one so small??) Comp-Tac gear

Coming back from a great match yesterday. It was my 1st match as SSP/MA... I won the match overall with 48shooters. I shot 2 of the 6 stages shot clean with fast raw times. Thinking back to the match, I was very relaxed before each stage start. A few times the I told the SO i was not ready, the few moments it took to relax seemed to help. Also I did not focus on the draw, buzzer went off and I just drew..... I went with a speed of "slow is smooth" and it appears smooth is fast, not sure what times to 1st shot was but they felt fast. One of the stages had a "high risk target" 6 paper, 1 steel popper. From left side of barricade engage steel which activates in and out disappearing target. It took "forever" for the in-out to appear. Many of the guys were hitting the steel then going for T2 then going back to the in-out.. I choose not to do it, I waited for the in-out and then proceeded... WHY consistency I decided that a possible -10 thing was just not worth the risk. I do think I could have done it but some advice that I have been given so many times is win the match not the stage. Also a new prop was used a "drop forward" steel popper... Kinda cool.. Pic of stage not of me..

SSP/EX 42.57(10) Stage 1 12.92(3) Stage 2 12.11 (5) Stage 3 4.95 (1) Stage 4 12.59(1)

2010 is coming to a close, I have achieved many of my goals for 2010 and had a blast while achieving them. I have learned many things over the last 12 months of shooting IDPA and dabbling in USPSA. One them being there is not one magic thing that makes you a good shooter. Every little thing you do matters. And I am up for the challenge in 2011. A small announcement. A 2010 goal was SSP/EX classification, which I achieved 4 months ago. A select few people knew that I changed my goals quickly after classifying EX, a new goal was to make SSP Master in less than one year. 12/19/09 was my 1st IDPA classification, on 12/18/10 at a private classifier I squeaked out a SSP time of 98.65 earning a classification of SSP/MA. Shooting with an awesome bunch of guys has made the journey that much better. Goals for 2011(as of this moment) Division I plan to shoot in... Not sure what division I plan on shooting but I think I hear ESP calling, same gun just some mods... Shoot S&W Indoor Nationals in (XXP/XX division/class) Classify ESP Master Loose 50 pounds by April 2011 Attend every local IDPA match and USPSA match should be 4 a month. Continue to SO/ASO at all home club IDPA match's. I am also MD for one:) USPSA A Classification Merry X-Mass everyone!!!

did this quickly the other day.... when I get time I will post some pics..