Richc2048

The Area 2 Match was a blast. I definitely could have finished stronger but I guess that is with everyone in the match as they evaluate how they did like I am doing. This was my first match that was not a local match so I had a lot of anxiety built up going into this and especially into the first day. I started to do better once I realized this was an accuracy match. I only learned this on day 2. My front sight focus was on and off. I need to make that #1 for every stage and every match. I switched to a yellow safety glasses color from clear on day two and that changed everything. It brightened everything up for me. I wore it all night after we got back to the hotel and I'll wear these at every match now. It was a fun match and what made it even better was the people there and the people on my squad. It is very fun shooting these matches with good friends from Colorado. Even the few people there from other areas were totally awesome to squad with. Reading my previous posts and other people's comments, Cha-Lee was right. The speed cross 3's did not give me the magical talent of running. There was one stage where I had a re-shoot due to a steel that nothing could take down. The running on that was horrible. It even looks "weird". I made it my sole intent to run that first stretch the best I could but it looked exactly the same only slightly faster but just as weird. I never put the two together but I did have surgery on my hip when I was 12 and 15. They put 2 screws in my hip at 12 and took them out at 15. I could have left them in but I elected to take them out so I could join the Navy. I have always had an awkward time running after that. I think that now that it doesn't hurt I can run again but I think my funky run comes from learning to run like that since I was little and it didn't get diagnosed until I was 12. My main training that I will be doing is running bursts and reloading. Looking at my match videos I have plenty to work on. It may sound silly but I think I need to learn how to run. Looking at my videos I filmed at area 2 I see that I am slouched over while running and my reloads take forever. I see that my support hand is not rocketing to grab the magazine and I'm hunched over trying to reload it. I need to start completing the reloads within the first few steps and I need to correct my posture while shooting, reloading, and during every day life now that I think about it. I just noticed myself slouched while I am typing this. I was able to get as many points as the big dogs just in a slower pace. I really need to increase my front sight focus and get the gun booming quicker and transition to other targets faster. I did see that my shot calling is getting better and every now and then I am able to do this correctly and only when needed. That is an awesome feeling. I can't wait until I can figure out why I am able to do this sometimes and learn it. Right now it's just happening occasionally and I'm not sure what I am doing differently when I miss a target and not know it. Thanks for reading my post and I can't wait for the mile high showdown, rocky mountain 300, and Area 3. The squad for Area 3 looks almost identical to Area 2 so I know I will have fun at the very least. The shooting fun will depend on how I fare with my training in the mean time. I am on a euphoric high right now from that match can't wait until my gear gets driven back here so I can get serious about it. Some people have commented that when it feels like work it sucks and you should shoot to have fun. I see it as having fun with the people there and that will never change no matter how poorly I shoot. I could have had the worst match ever there and I know I would have still considered it a fun match because of the people. I am deliberately making my shooting and training work and see the fun/satisfaction coming out of the progression that all the hard work being put in will hopefully create. Am I wrong in compartmentalizing the fun? It seems to me that making GM or M didn't come from just having fun shooting but rather hard work and determination made them get better and the fun comes from the people. I would be interested to hear everyone's opinion on this.

I finished on 13 today. That stage was fun for a leftie like me.

Will do. Looking forward to that one. I'm thinking I'll shoot those static due to my humbling performance today. The talent here is incredible.

I just completed 3-6 today. The staff are awesome here. Can't wait to visit the staff in 7-13. BOLO. We are the Team Godzilla folks!

What's the goal grouping for shooting at 25 yards? I'd assume this makes sure the fundamentals are in place to shoot this. 5" groups?

My guess is precision delta.

I have been doing something every day to get ready for Area 2. This is my first match above a club level match so I am very excited. I've decided to bring the 124jhp loads I have been using over the years vs the 147's I've been trying. I just have way to much experience with my old loads and feel I do better with them. I've gone back and forth with them at matches and feel I am very used to the loads I have been shooting for a couple years. I've been improving and a slow but steady pace at the matches and I am very happy with where I am with my shooting since I started 9 months ago. My goal for one year was to be a solid B class shooter and approaching A. I may have been a little too eager for this goal but I do have 3 months to reach this so I am trying. I feel right now the best practice I can do for myself is to dryfire and work on movement at home. My biggest time losers are movement, transitions, and reloads. These are things I can practice at home so these next week is going to be all practice at home. I did buy soloman speed cross 3's hoping it will give me a type of placebo confidence in my movement that I can take advantage of. New things do give you confidence so hopefully it is in me and the shoes will unleash the inner speed. haha.

I'm in the same boat as OP. Based on what I had I was chasing a method to load long. I tried loading to the longest possible with k40 mags but found the +5 base pads didn't accept them at 1.150 anyway. I could load only 15 then would get caught up at the base pads anyway. I just loaded at 1.135 and called it good. They fed reliably. No need to fix it by tackling the wrong problem. The problem not the 1.180 oal. Once you do this you'll find there's no problem.

I did 6.1gr at 1.135 out of tanfoglio limited and shot well over 180pf. I used extreme 180gr. I'm going to try 5.9 and 6.0 to see if I can get it to 172ish PF. I like this powder a lot so far. Granted it was only 50 rounds. I'm gonna buy another lb before I commit and start collecting 8lb jugs of this.

I chronographed today and found out the temperature didn't effect the speed much. I was hoping for about 40fps but 10 shot strings confirmed they stayed about the same. The spread was a little less but the average increased only the slightest. And so slight that it may have just been different cases that changed the speed. I think I'll have to bump it up to 4.7 or even 4.8 with titegroup. Cfe pistol made major PF easily with just slightly over their min charge. I did notice a thump with it but it may have been the fact that it was over 180pf. I'm kinda liking the cfe pistol so far. But I don't really feel differences in powder much so I'm just basing this on the fact that I can make major very easily. I don't like that I'm pushing titegroup to max or slightly over published to reach it.

What gun are you shooting out of? Are you loading long as well?

That sounds about right. Looking back I was trying to think about round count but couldn't finish a thought because the stage and movement would be on my mind. Makes sense. I know the "why" now of why it didn't work. Thanks man.

That's a good point. I think if I would have just taken two shots then reloaded again (where I planned) I might have gotten on track again. It was the weirdest feeling to snap out of it and look at the rest of the course like it was my first time seeing them.

Today's match at pueblo was awesome. Not because I had great, bad, and fair stages but because I learned a lot from my shooting and others. I learned the i must push myself at every stage to grow and that it is a marathon, not a sprint. I placed fairly well despite a poor stage. I learned that I am capable of matching the time of some great shooters and in combination with a good grip, I can keep up with their transition and split times. With a proper grip my sights seem to be right where the need to be almost instantaneous. I learned that just trying to push myself and match the speed with an improper grip/stance and plan is disastrous. While I do see the need to push myself on the time, I cannot sacrifice fundamentals in doing so. I had a stage that I gave up too many points because of this. I need to fix my grip when I see it or during the next reload or something. I'm not sure when this should happen exactly but I will read up a lot more on this. I learned that I am not very well at recovering from a mistake from my plan very well. I reloaded after 3 targets vs the 4 I planned. This threw my plan out the window and I shot to slide lock after that and never recovered. In hindsight I should have seen that my next group was 8 shots and could have recovered at that point. I saw that I hit a no shoot and I found my self just confused. And since I was sitting there doing nothing my subconscious decided to do a reload since I was doing nothing. After that happened it was like I was lost in New York City. I couldn't recognize the sequence of targets or remember how to get back on my plan. It was like seeing the array of targets for the first time ever. I guess I have to read up on disaster recovery maybe? Any thoughts from you guys would be appreciated. I used something I learned at this match which was to not detour from my plan at a stage because I saw someone do it differently and I seemed to like it a lot. I stuck to my plan and did very well. The reward may have been a second or two but the risk of that complicated sequence not going as planned would have been far worse. To end this on a good note: I felt very good about my shooting and despite a flubbed stage I managed pretty well. I'm starting to notice I'm placing among a different group of shooters which I never noticed before because they were always finishing strong. I see improvement and more importantly I am starting to see/feel where I am weak. The ability to be able to see what I can do better is keeping me from being frustrated and stuck. I constantly see things I can work on and improve for the next match. I feel like I'm finally out of the matrix and shooting at a different level than when I first started.

Yup. 180gr played extremes. That makes me feel better knowing it takes that much. I'll have to try the 4.6 I created and see how that goes. I almost made it with 4.5 and 30 degree weather.

Thanks Silver. I'll keep an eye out. It seemed that on paper titegroup would make it easily but I may take an offer of different powders from drew if it's the same on a warm day.

I was surprised to see the near max load barely made their min velocity. I even have a longer barrel but did load it .010 longer. I just had no idea how much the cold effects it. I'll have to recreate those loads again and try it when it's fair weather, like above 60 degrees. It must be temp sensitive because I see people reaching major PF in the 4.3-4.4 range easily when loaded at 1.135.

I have a new to me tanfoglio limited and tried to make a major load using titegroup. I went with a few books minimum and worked my way up. The powder website states 4.2gr @ 908fps and 4.7 at the 970fps "roughly" out of a 4" barrel. I made all the way up to 4.5 gr thinking they'd be fine but that gave me an average of 910fps. The 4.2gr were in the 860fps area. These loads were shot in the cold. Like 30 degrees and almost snowing. My oal was 1.135. Can the cold effect it that much or is it like I hear about every gun is different? I thought for sure 4.4 would get me there. Any experience with how much slower 30 degree weather can do to titegroup?

I guess being Asian I only know the short strokes. Haha. I'll definitely have to look into it. I know there were a few where the brass came out the hopper upside down but I thought I removed the brass. And I had a .380 slip through all the way to where I seated the bullet. I kicked it out but I wonder if the next round didn't have a full charge in the powder bar. Hmmm. I might just kick out the next brass after a malfunction. Let it fill with powder and then dump it back.

Yes. I use titegroup on the 650. I've never had this issue and the only difference is the powder hopper and I'm using Hornady one shot. I'm wondering if it's the one shot.

I had a great weekend of shooting two matches last weekend. The weather was a little cold Saturday but nothing that would make me debate whether I should shoot it or not. Sunday’s match was indoors so the weather was not an issue. I’ve been trying to find the good in the matches I do and log all the things I could have done better and need to include in practice and should have done better because I have been practicing this and I did not come through with the execution. I was pretty happy with my reloading on Saturday. I made it a point to not look down and although it seemed slow I did it properly so hopefully the technique is solid and now I just need to build speed. The bad part of Saturday was that it took me the first stage to realize that this was a very accuracy biased and I had more Deltas than I could imagine. It was embarrassing. My movement was slow and I can’t blame it on the mud. I need to consistently remind myself to haul ass and act like I mean it. I also find myself not concentrating enough during the walk through to pick up on some of these things. I am doing mediocre at best as far as stage planning and I definitely need to get more focused on it. The way I am doing these walk throughs is not going to help me improve on anything. I know that some of the best matches I’ve had were because I knew everything I was going to do right down to deciding which target to engage first and considering my stance so I could move faster out of it etc. I did not do that Saturday. It was more basic like “I’m gonna shoot (these) then move here and shoot (these)” Nothing specific and I didn’t run it through my head enough to get the confidence when I ran it. I also has a round that I perceived as a squib or at least a significant decrease in the amount of powder. I stopped myself and zeroed the stage. It was not a squib and simply looking at the target would have determined that a bullet had left the barrel but I was just looking at my gun like what the heck. I’ve recently started using Hornady One Shot and that’s the only thing I could think of. Maybe I need to let the stuff dry a little more before I load it in the case feeder. I don’t know. I had two out of 1000 do this and both sent the bullet out. It just scared me so I stopped. Sunday’s match was an indoor one which I am part of the BOD. I helped setup all the stages including one I came up with. We had issues in the past of not being ready when the shoot time came up due to the bays being open to the public until 30 minutes before the first shot so I came in early around 3:30pm and built everything so all we had to do was bring in the pre-made props and set it up. It came down to the wire so I did not have chance to walk any of the stages and I was so busy building the stages I didn’t see any of them from a shooters perspective. Just in segments and making sure we didn’t have any shoot-through scenarios. I now understand what Cha-Lee goes through when he writes of this. I was on a squad with inexperienced people so I ran the clock almost the entire time other than when I shot. A few of the stages were completely done blind other than watching others. I wasn’t in the position to see what the targets looked like from the shooters perspective or anything. It went well but I wish I could have had time to really break down the stage and had time to think about it. I also had a stage where I scratched an itch by my eye real quick when I was up subconsciously pushed my glasses into my face a little too far. They started fogging up as soon as I heard “stand by”. That was a disaster and had 3 mikes. Not bad for index shooting 15yrd targets. So based on the shooting this weekend I’ve made a little index card with keywords written on it to help me remember things right before I go to the line. They say things like (grip, front sight, reload technique, run stage in head during load and make ready etc…) I am hoping this will help me. I find myself realizing not doing some of these things as soon as I am “unloading to show clear”. If I read this every time I fill my magazines and when I am on deck I should see improvement of things I know to do but don’t sometimes. I also made myself a classifier log book. I PDF’d all the stage descriptions and added a page where I can enter my score and stuff. My idea is that if I see one I have already done and see that I had no shoots I can keep that in mind and also if I got a perfect score but slow I could step it up. I’ll show you guys at the next match I go to. It’s kinda cool looking. So to close this long rant: I need to get more serious about critiquing myself and looking for some things that went right that I practiced and I need to be way more focused during the stage walk through and planning. I need to consistently think about shooting it and make sure I can get it as detailed as possible in visualizing how I am going to shoot it and move.

I'm going to try some cfe pistol with 180 extremes this week. I haven't loaded them yet but I'll start at the hodgdon minimum and work my way up with their berry's bullet data. I've loaded cfe in 9 and 45 and didn't see any flakes. I had unburnt powder using universal and fixed it by bumping it up a tenth or two. I have a lot of titegroup but I want to try the cfe pistol I have because it seems that major PF will be achieved without being close to max pressure.

Thanks Dominic. I was surprised to see that myself.

I had a great few weeks of shooting since the last entry. I've had 3 matches of steady shooting. By no means are they perfect but I do have some consistent scores now where I could gauge where I am at as far as my shooting skills. I am slowly creeping my way into B class. Man it's tough. I have a few scores above 60% now so I know it can be done. A few months ago I was in the stink and could not see it happening. Now that it is close I can cast the doubt away when I am approaching A, them G, then GM. It can happen even if it looks impossible at times. I just need to keep working on it. The one thing I see I am doing now that I wasn't before is stage planning and movement. I have really started to push how fast I am moving into and out of positions and movement. I still have a lot to do but that one little thing did allow me to start beating some of the people in matches that were always beating me. I still have a lot to work on. I don't think Ive improved much on the skills rate I did earlier. I guess movement was the only one I could add a point to on how I scored myself on. I have been really slacking in practicing what needs to be done to improve. I've been going to these matches every weekend and not really working on dry fire as much as I would like. Even when I go to the range, I feel my time could be better spend dry firing. The only practice I've been getting is when I go out to shoot with Cha-Lee and what I take from each one of those sessions is amazing. I don't think I have the process of evaluating myself down and once it gets pointed out to me during the practice it makes so much sense. There is a match this Saturday and Sunday. I am still debating if I should go to the one on Saturday. I am on the BOD for Sunday so I'm definitely going to that one. I'm wondering if my time Saturday would be better spend reloading and dry firing. It's so much fun doing these matches and it being winter I'd hate to miss one. We'll see what happens. I am all about making poor choices so i'll probably do the wrong thing.

Awesome. Thanks for the great knowledge. I kept reading that parts are like hen's teeth but I did find henning's site. Mags are everywhere so I'm good. I'm just getting into limited. Came from shooting glocks so maybe a limited amount of choices won't make my head explode from all the choices.