GunBugBit

I'd say our match performances show our actual skill level relative to the other shooters. Everyone else at the match is dealing with the same conditions, such as weather, lighting, etc. Nearly all the competitors could shoot better than their match scores if given the chance to warm up. If one shooter posts better scores across all stages, he is very likely the better shooter that day. When we're both warmed up, he's probably better than me. When we're both cold, he's better then, too -- he just proved it at the match. I'd like to know: how do we get our match shooting closer to our best shooting? If I could answer that, I'd probably be making good money as a sports psychologist.

Oakley Radarlock with VR28 lens.

CR Speed. I saw it discussed on this forum, ordered one, and have been happy with it. No reason to change.

Great journal, I learned a bunch by scanning it. I'll be coming back to read it more thoroughly and watch some of your videos, etc. Cool!!

The rules and scoring system for the practice matches were thoughtfully put in place for good reasons and they serve well to make the practice matches run efficiently. As for the practice stage itself, which you seem to think is non-USPSA: adding some steel into a stage that is similar to the USPSA 09-05 Quad Standards qualifier seems like a fine idea. If you shoot a USPSA-sanctioned match at this club, I'm reasonably sure any discrepancies you find between the rulebook and what you experience would be respectfully discussed toward a satisfactory resolution. Most likely, you would not experience discrepancies. Sorry our 40-year-old club did not consult you before instituting its rules and policies.

There's a family-run donut shop -- Desert Donuts -- just a few minutes from the range. They give you the donuts within about a minute of being cooked. They are amazing.

Pro Ears Gold working very well for me.

Reshoot, thanks for the encouragement. And hello to a fellow Army veteran (2d Cav, Nuernberg Germany, mid-1980s). The bad match served a purpose, which was to show me things I need to work on and get me thinking about how to manage myself when my plan doesn't go as expected. My emotional state isn't driven too much by these matches, but then again I won't pretend I'm entirely unaffected. I want to do well but I've made it through enough phases of life to know there will be ups and downs, always. Looking back on that match, I actually enjoyed it a lot because I had some good conversation with some of the guys I hadn't talked to up to that point. And I did have one very good stage -- my first negative score (below zero is good in the club's Thursday night scoring system, meaning my A's subtracted enough bonus seconds from my time that my hits more than offset my time). For me, it's about the journey, not the destination. I will never "arrive" as a shooter, just as with everything else in life. Thanks again! Best regards, Bob

You're used to managing the recoil of your M&P and the 2011 feels different. Maybe your muscles unconsciously return the gun to a non-optimal sight alignment after a shot, even though you watch the sights. Sure seems like a timing/grip thing could be it. I imagine you've already slowed way down to try and see what's happening. Maybe in slow motion the problem doesn't manifest?

Very true. Maybe it would have been an act of mercy to DQ me that bad night. However I'm happy to say my gun handling was very safe.

We (Cactus Combat Match League ) are as USPSA as you want, motosapiens. The matches I'm referring to are our weekly local/club matches, which are USPSA-style but with modified scoring. The stages are designed by Terry Allison and others; many are quite similar to USPSA classifiers. Some of these stage designs very likely pre-date USPSA classifiers. USPSA-sanctioned matches are held at the same location one Sunday per month. We also have a Steel Challenge once per month, plus monthly multi-gun matches. Terry Allison is still the head guy. I was watching a video about Rob Leatham where Terry's name was mentioned in the same sentence as Jeff Cooper and Jack Weaver. Those guys are the better-known old Leather Slap guys, and Leather Slap more or less morphed into USPSA. The most recent FrontSight magazine mentions how USPSA originated in the Southwest, and these are some of the guys who were part of it. Rob Leatham used to shoot at our club, and gives credit to it in his bio: http://robleatham.com/wp/1978/01/27/robs-story-shooting-history/ "Rob shot his first competition in either 1978 or 79, he doesn’t remember for sure now. It was at the Mesa Police Department range and it was a night shoot. He shot a Smith & Wesson M-27 revolver with a 6-inch barrel loaded with 200-grain round-nose bullets he bought from the Mini-Gun shop and loaded himself. The custom holster was made by a local leather worker, Jess Bird, who had built holsters for Rob’s dad, Nyle, for many years. Every pistol the Leathams owned had a Bird holster. That first match, Rob finished third revolver behind Mike Henry and Charlie Mills. Rob was now addicted! He would play hookie from church to go to matches on Sundays at the Cactus Combat Match League in Phoenix. Rob remembers riding up with his friend Guy Hammond, who built Rob’s first pin gun, for the Monthly match and soon Rob was threatening to win every category he entered. At those events you could shoot Auto, Revolver, Snubby, Rifle and Shotgun. The Cactus League also had a best-of-the-day competition, pitting the top revolver against the top auto shooter in a man-on-man type shoot-off. This could be where Rob came to love, and excel at, shoot-offs." If I've got any of this history wrong, please let me know.

Sixth club match, I did my best so far. My total score was 21st in a field of 60 shooters, including Open and everyone else. Amongst the other singlestack guys, I came in 3rd out of 11. Zero penalties and a good amount of A's really helped. Seventh club match, I had my worst night so far, even counting my very first match. One stage had a mix of paper and steel at 25 yards (initial distance) and we had to count our rounds (8 only) at each of 3 distances. My plan was to first take down the 4 steel poppers in the center of the target array. When execution of my plan did not unfold as expected, I got flustered and lost count of my shots. I shot more than 8 from two distances. The procedural penalties, plus the long amount of time I took to clean the targets, put my score in outhouse. I'm sure similar things have happened to the more experience shooters, just thought I'd share. I'll be working on 25 to 50 yard shooting in the near future, believe me.

Phoenix area temp has dropped to around 108 but it's more humid now, feels a lot nastier.

Thank you JBP55. I don't, I haven't. The G20 is my only Gen 4 Glock and it's all stock as I mentioned earlier.

The donuts would give a nice energy boost. I don't always drink coffee, but when I do, I want donuts!!

Is your emotional state too tightly coupled with your shooting? Just something to be honest with yourself about. I like the idea of complimenting shooters who you see do well. A positive attitude is something people want to be around, and it will come back to you.

I don't compete with Glocks, but my trigger jobs on most of my Glocks are: 3.5 lb trigger connector, 6 lb trigger spring, metal parts polish themselves in just the right places from lots of shooting. If you do more than that, I believe you are wasting your time and money. But your time and money is yours, do what you want with it. You can spend a lot of dough buying the fancy trigger kits in pursuit of the sweet trigger, but it's still a Glock and the basic trigger architecture has to be a certain way, and you are likely to feel you wasted your money. A Glock trigger feel like a 1911 trigger? Not gonna happen. I've left my G20 trigger unmodified, so it is around 5.5 lbs. It wouldn't be nice for competing, but I find if I can shoot warm 10mm with that trigger, and be pretty accurate, I have my grip and trigger press basics down pretty good. It's a good training tool. Of course I have to go back to the 1911 and re-acquaint, but that transition is always a pleasure.

I drop the club match scores into a spreadsheet to see how I did against all shooters in one part of the spreadsheet, and in another part I break down the scores of only the singlestack shooters. For the singlestack shooters, I break the scores down by stage to see how we ranked on each stage. I type in comments so I can go back and see what I thought I did well, what I would have done differently, mistakes not to repeat, what my state of mind and energy level were, what I was seeing versus the reality of the clock/cardboard/steel, etc.

The variety of tips is terrific.

I watch a young guy shoot most weeks who is M in Production and A in all other divisions. Every once in a while, I'll do better than him on a stage, but when he beats me on (most) stages, it's by a good margin. I am a newly minted USPSA D singlestack shooter, so nothing special at all. But if I can sometimes shoot better than that guy, I believe I have the potential to be much better than I currently am. There's more to it, of course, if I'm going to get to A and above like he is, but he isn't superhuman, just better at shooting. For now!

There are few problems 12 feet of duct tape will not solve.

Yes, be careful with shoulder exercises at any age. The shoulder is an incredible joint but can be hurt pretty easily. Usually the injuries happen when someone doesn't warm up properly and then go too heavy, and/or are stressing the joint from angles they shouldn't.

I avoid caffeine before a match. It's a double-edge sword, something I figured out when I went back to school after the Army. When I had to think fast and recall a lot of information during exams, coffee did not help at all. I did better if I didn't drink coffee before the tests. On the one hand, caffeine gives me a hyper feeling that helps in doing repetitive tasks. On the other hand, when I really need to be sharp (such as when planning/executing a stage efficiently and safely), I wouldn't want to be caffeinated. My brain needs every advantage it can get! An Internet search turned up this: "Caffeine is a commonly used neurostimulant that also produces cerebral vasoconstriction by antagonizing adenosine receptors." For those who are more fit than average, or just for certain people for whatever reason, it might not matter. The plus side of the caffeine might even outweigh the negative for them. Personally, I get a net negative.

I hear you on the stamina. After a full work day, my mental sharpness, which is needed to shoot my best (true of all of us I'm sure), along with physical steam, are fading by the 3rd stage or so. So I do exercise. Nothing extreme but I go to the gym a couple of times a week. I'm fortunate to have good access to exercise facilities. It helps.

I started competing at 56 and I'm not telling myself I can't do any given thing, including make it to GM. I don't know what class I'll make it to and that's part of the fun. I'm going to try hard and enjoy the journey. I don't think 56 is very old at all.