Richc2048

This weekend was great for shooting. I went to the USPSA match in Pueblo on Sunday. I was squadded with some great friends and the stages were fun. I couldn't ask for it to be better. The scores came out and was surprised to see the results. I squeezed pass some great shooters for a win. The heat was getting to my concentration and could not stay focused when I was not up to shoot. I've been getting into the habit of going over a proper grip, focusing on the front sight and and when I am in the hole or on deck I would go over every detail of the stage as far as foot placement/movement and key markers on walls/barrels to get me that advantage. I like to have a good plan in place before we are the squad getting ready to shoot and I like to refine it at every chance I get to run the course. Kind of like a layer of icing on a cake. I was not doing that so I was shocked to see I won production. I would be out of it and not realize the shooting order and was caught off guard on almost all of the stages. I had my plan already set but I didn't do my ritual while I was on deck getting ready to shoot. Some of the shooters I know I am usually on par with and some of the ones I usually am behind were having gun/equipment issues. D-Striker is one I know I am usually about 5-10% behind usually and he had issues with his gun during this match. I know that from when I started tracking my results with his I was usually 15-20% behind him so I know I have to improve more than him to catch up to him. He has been getting real hard-core with it so I'm hoping if I can maintain the 5-10% less of him and occasionally squeek one by I am in good shape. Being able to be friends with the people I shot with this weekend is definitely beneficial. It keeps me on my toes and makes me strive to improve. There are great people I can talk to in every class and division in my area and I am taking full advantage of this. One day I hope to make GM with all these people and I need to catch up quick to make that happen. My movement and fundamentals are still what I see as keeping me from reaching A class territory. I finally had a classifier in the 72% range and that was very welcoming to see. When I shot "Fluffy's Revenge 2" I was able to have enough discipline to hit the steel on the first shot and get good points. I "unfocused" a little too early and had to take 3 shots on the last steel. If I could work on my transitions from target to target and get a little more confident on hitting steel I know I could have made that score about a second better. In the large courses my movement will help me settle in better in shooting positions and I could make the gun sights come up faster. I am still very slow and not confident with my shooting on the move so I need to work on getting lower with my stance to not bounce around so much. All in all I do like the steady improvements I have seen and although I could try to reach A by doing hero or Zero stuff I think I can do this by working on fundamentals and not have to get lucky 6 times. I would rather know I can easily shoot 75%+ classifiers. I hope that makes sense. I'll save the hero or zero stuff for when I am Master and too impatient to do it the correct way for GM. haha. Making GM would be a great accomplishment for me.

I hear they are super accurate. I'll miss being able to blame it on everything but myself.

I finally gave in to peer pressure and ordered a CZ for production. If you think Glock owners are a kool-aid cult then CZ people are a way of life! I can't wait. I will have it in 8 weeks and may start running it this season. Possibly this season for the Colorado State match and Utah State Match. My wife was out of town with the kids for 9 days so I practiced dry firing a lot and reloading for the rest of the season. I have noticed that the classifier scores have been spot on for me. I have been shooting in the 65% range in classifiers and ending in the same percentage at major matches. I am hoping to work on my transitions and shot calling more at matches. I heard that you can get all the way up to B class without much training but getting out of B will take effort in improving fundamentals and just hauling ass out of shooting spots while performing a reload. I am excited to see I have hit a brick wall. It seems that making it from D class to B just took unleashing confidence in shooting. Now I must train and improve to see any gains. It may seem weird but I look forward to the challenge of reaching GM at this point. I really do think that with practice I can climb the ladder, however slow it may be. Fundamentals are what I need to improve. My grip is still inconsistent and my reloads are hit or miss. Although they are starting to be more hit than miss. I guess I see that as an improvement but I will need to work on things until I see a consistency in time. I really do love this sport and see improving to GM as a challenge that will be fun and satisfying to try and reach for. Thank you ALL for the help and making this fun! This is an individual sport but at the range it seems that we are all on one big team and that's awesome.

Godzilla grew legs! Watch out. It's like a T-Rex with long arms!

The Rocky Mountain 300 was this weekend. I was able to be 44th overall, 6th in production and 2nd in B class production. I was very pleased with how it turned out. I was able to complete this match without having to say I screwed some stages up bad. I do see there's always room for improvement but I shot very well for my skill level. Running 60+ round stages for the first time was quite an experience. The phrase they use is "We'll melt your trigger finger off". The speed shoot did just that. I've heard people say this but I could not comprehend. I thought at best they were exaggerating the story. My speed shoot video sounds very strong in the the beginning and just gets horrible around round 40. I felt my trigger finger not releasing the trigger. The things I want to work on for future matches is movement, grip, and transitions. I still see this as sub-par. My wife is going to Tennessee with all the kids this week so this will be a perfect time to get a good dry fire regiment going. I still don't have a consistent grip from a draw and I think some of that has to do with my holster. I have had to replace/add some things and although the gun is secure there is movement which causes the grip to not be in the same place or angle. Replacing my guide rod spring has seemed to give me the impression of shooting a new "softer gun" so I still have that to work with. My goal this summer is to get in better shape. I know it can't hurt to be dragging 20-30 pounds less across a stage. I would also like to get into the finer details of being able to estimate a H.F. prior to shooting it. I have been trying to make guesses before I shoot and I think I get lucky sometimes but for the most part I am way off in my guesses. With all the things I can work on I am excited about this shooting season and where it will land me next year if I start doing my part with the dry-fire and really examine my shooting and make improvements based on that. One thing that got me down on the match were not related to me but it still effected my mood at the RM300. A good friend of mine that always helps me out was having a horrible day. His stages were going down hill; not because of his shooting but equipment and overall bad luck. He had to switch to his backup gun after the second stage because his sights were just not right and he also dropped 2 magazines on a stage while reloading one. on a 62 round stage and arrays of 8 every magazine was needed. I really felt bad for the guy but also couldn't help thinking how I was doing. I really wanted us team godzilla's to do well and have a close match between the two of us while we shot. Three Godzilla guys received plaques for our finishes. 1st D prod, 2nd B prod, and 1st A Limited That's really good for us! Now it's time to get ready for the Mile High Showdown. I know there is way more competition in production B class than the RM 300 so I really need to step it up if I want to place well in this match. There were a few people I know that are production B shooters that were not at the RM300 that I am really looking forward to shoot with. I know it will take a lot of hard work to come close to their scores, and a little luck of course.

You shoot like a well oiled machine now anyway. Might as well make it literal and make yourself an actual machine for shooting. ha!

Ha! Didn't even see how old this thread was! Oh well. At least no one can say I don't use the search feature.

The problem I had was the lowest part of the funnel was .352 and the die was sizing to .374. With some case thickness the inside diameter was smaller than the funnel so it would be a snug fit. I dremeled the funnel just on the part before it starts flaring then polished it. Now it doesn't stick at all.... Like ever. It's like a whole new machine. I was like Sarge and accepted it as the norm. But not anymore. It's awesome!

It's been a while since my last write up. I have FINALLY seen improvement in my movement. I am now able to match or nearly match the stage times of some of the winning shooters in the area. I even had a few stage wins due to my time being on par or better. It's been a long road for me to finally grasp the movement techniques needed. Now that my times are almost to the level of the great shooters I see there is still a lot to be learned and to train for. I have been trying to be more active and taking walks with the family and ride my bike. I think that helps a lot. I had hip issues as a child and had the screws that were in my hip removed prior to joining the Navy and never really did the physical therapy to get them back to par. exercising them has really helped my movement. I tried the steel challenge today and it was very humbling to see where my transition level is and where it should be. Also sight discipline in another thing I need to work on. I did fairly well but did see where I could lose the time in these short strings. I think I will definitely have to put this into my shooting schedule. I'll use it as a USPSA training tool. I am excited about the few major matches coming up and really need to train hard to make sure I am not just wasting my money and that I am giving it my all. I am not expecting to win but I am expecting to do my best and building a strong dry fire regiment and making sure every practice round down range is positive is one of those things I need to do to make sure I get the most out of going to these matches.

That's good to know. I just made some myself 5.5, 5.6, 5.7 5.8 out of my tanfoglio witness elite. I wonder how close they'll be. Mine will be at 1.135 OAL

I like the look of your black slide and burnt bronze frame. Looks tough.

I joined Uspsa a little less than a year ago. I can count on one hand how many times i couldn't make it to setup due to three kids. I shoot at least one a weekend. (Lucky in colorado to have so many clubs) I am on bod at one of them. I think it's helped my shooting tremendously being eager to help. I seemed to have clicked with the people tat have been doing this for a while. I truly believe I get the support I get from people because I try to help. Knowing all the BOD guys and getting invited to practice with them helped my get to B in just over 6 months. I've definitely surpassed many of the "consumer shooters" that started around my time.

It's very fun practicing that way. I love being able to do a course over and over and seeing how the HF is effected. I wish I concentrated on practice more but the group of guys were just too great to isolate myself and focus on practice. Oh well. My hit factors weren't great but the fun factor was through the roof. Haha

I made the 4.5g of titegroup for my glock 35 and was getting around a 172PF. I haven't chrono'd it with the tanfo. Sounds like it's not gonna make though....... If you don't mind let me know what you get with your 5.9g of CFE load..... That will give me a great starting point to try. thanks! Will do. I'm assuming it'll still make PF but who knows if that powder will burn clean that low. I've heard many say the powder like higher pressures.

I did not shoot a match this Weekend but I got some practice in on Sunday with a group of good people. We set up a 40 round difficult stage. It was pretty tough. But it was said "if you make practice tougher than matches, you should smoke the matches". I had a last shooting with everyone there at practice but I don't think I used it properly. I was just kinda there and not concentrating on shooting much. Next time I go I need to make sure I set goals or at least experiment with a few things. I definitely could have taken advantage of a course practice day more than I did. I felt like the kid goofing around in class. I won the benos book at area 2 and started reading it a couple days ago. I tried at practice to not concentrate too hard on mechanics and just let it happen. I think I am still at a point where the fundamentals are not quite where they need to be and I still have to think about them from time to time. The book has a lot of good things in it to think about.

I have an elite limited. I was pushing 4.6 with TITEGROUP not making major consistent enough. I did 6.1 of CFE at 1.135 using xtreme 180 rn fp and made 180+pf. I recently made 5.9 gr of cfe with 1.135 and same xtreme 180's. . shoots well. Haven't chrono'd yet though.

I like it. I load short for EEA witness so a powder that makes PF at super low range is a plus.

I think the majority would pick WST. Even though loading long would make titegroup work too.

1.135 with precision delta 124 jhp works great in my Glock 34. 1.150 touched the rifling during a plunk test. Would drop but not spin freely. I can do 1.150 with 147 RN from extreme.

This is the year of the Panda. I know it!

I tried the Tangfolio in limited yesterday at the CGC practice match. Wow. It's a very fast gun and would be awesome if I did my part. I had trouble with keeping the safety down. There were more than a few times where the safety wasn't completely down and messed with me. I'm thinking I need an even bigger one that's maybe angled lower so my thumb can rest on it. I also kept instinctively kept reaching by my hip for a new magazine. Looks like shooting production put some habits in place. Which brings me to another point. I made B class this week and couldn't be more excited. I think I'll put limited on hold for a little longer so I can see how far I can go in production. I was shooting limited minor at first and switched to production in September. I think I'll give it a solid year and then make the decision. Who knows... Maybe I'll never switch. I have to admit that shooting limited was real fun. I was getting good a hits at first. I realized the scoring major part so I stepped on the gas a little and my hit factor went through the roof! Since it was a practice match that I setup at CGC I just shot as fast as I could just kinda index shooting most targets and trying to get the speed down. I had a few deltas but still did pretty well. I see the untapped fun that limited could be if I could shoot that fast and controlled. As much as I'm enjoying shooting production that one match shooting limited was a blast. Now it's the path to A that I'm working on. I know that classifiers can be done to get an A title but to really shoot like an A class shooter I think my biggest hurdle to overcome is movement. I really concentrated on running at weld and although I saw a big improvement there's much to be achieved. Sounds funny but I have to learn how to run. Thanks to everyone that's given advice and support. This sport is the best thing I've discovered. And the people I'm surrounded by make this awesome.

That phrase seems to be said here a lot. "I shot my first match and now I'm hooked!" Congrats!

This was my first match outside of club level matches. It was awesome. Thanks for the fun times. Both staff and shooters! Hope to see all of you in Area 3. Speaking of... Hope to see you guys on that thread when it pops up!

Those are good ways of putting it. Compartmentalize the work. I agree the fun aspect comes from the great people. The work put in at the range and at home makes not sucking the fun part. Thanks guys! Any of you shooting weld this Sunday? I don't think I can make CRC Saturday.

I think that's the attitude I have. I am going to make practice "work" and enjoy the matches. I also forgot to mention the best part of the Area 2 match. All the uber fast swingers got hits on them. I took 3 on the fastest ones though and needed them. Thank you Cha-Lee for that. I took a class that he had me practice on swingers and it helped tremendously. My mikes were on static with no shoots. I guess I need to be more confident and not take those so high to avoid them.