AlphaCharis

Haha, yeah I saw your journal entry afterward saying you wanted to make Master in Limited by this time next year. Limited is an excellent division as well I'd be shooting Limited, too, if I had an Atlas haha Welcome also to the dryfire/livefire side of competitive shooting, you'll make Master in no time!

Hi! Production is a good division

Noooooooo!!! another Production shooter lured by PCC! LOL We've had several production shooters move over to PCC and CO where I shoot in WA and the division keeps getting smaller. I only complain (all the time) about it because I shoot Production (A-class). PCC *IS* pretty fun though, I shot PCC at Berry's Steel Open a few months ago.

Hello! Are you new to shooting in general? or new to competition shooting?

Hello and welcome!

Ah! Welcome back! You going to start shooting matches regularly, again?

5/27/18 USPSA Renton - 3rd Production, 72.34% Little sloppy on hits at the match, but my movement seemed to be better, so I wasn't totally bummed. Had some weird mistakes on basically every stage. All my percentages are % of Hwansik since he had all the stage wins (except for my win on stage 3): Stage 1, 2nd, 64.58%: Had a weird stovepipe and had to strip the mag, cost me a lot of time. 30A, 1B, and a stupid mike into the hardcover from transitioning off the front target on the rightmost position. Also, since not feeling confident, threw an unneeded pickup on the partial after the first two plates on the star for 3A on it. Horrible last reload. Stage 2, 4th, 68.38%: Horrible reload, just aimed center of brown on head, all charlies. All alphas on torsos. 6A, 6C Stage 3, 1st, 100%: Stage win. Had trigger freeze at the end and a little slow on last reload and last few transitions between targets. 26A, 5C, 1D Stage 4, 4th, 76,79%: Turn and draw was fine... I didn't draw early! Should have gotten low and started backing up right away and AIMED, nicked the perf on the noshoot (barely!). Looks like I was totally over-aiming on the last array of targets, I think I was worried because I was disappointed in "so many charlies." 24A, 4C, 1NS. Need to stop thinking and just shoot. Without the NS would have been 83.08% Stage 5 - 12th, 52.34%: UUUGH. I screamed because I wasn't completely 100% positive on my second hit, but already started running. I'm usually cautious/non confident on swingers and hit them extra for good measure. Then I started laughing because I had screamed so loud and basically laughed through the rest of the stage. Then had trigger freeze twice and a light strike. BUT... I think I could have rocked this stage if I had just kept my mouth shut after the initial scream! dang it REDO! 17A, 5C, 1D, 1M Stage 6 - 4th, 68.09%: Fumbled my mag, wasn't too bad in grabbing another. I think I need to tighten my belt a lot more so I can grab my mags with NO movement.24A, 7C Stage 7 - 6th - 68.87%: Last stage was a mess. I may have drank too much Red Bull, my shooting was... erratic. Started out fine, but then in the port I thought I had another light strike, but it was just trigger freeze (again!). I had 5-6 TRIGGER FREEZE moments in this match, which was really weird. Last year around this same time I had a problem with trigger freeze as well for a few months. 22A, 7C, 1D

Matches March-Present Just looking back at the past few months of matches, seeing what I need to focus on in dryfire this month, besides "everything". Links are ones I hadn't reviewed in my journal. *no match video, yet 3/4/18 USPSA Shelton - Production Win (journal) 3/11/18 USPSA Paul Bunyan - 6th Production 3/18/18 CRO Class in Bend, OR* (clip in journal) 4/7-8/18 Berry's Steel Open* 4/15/18 USPSA Marysville - 2nd Production (journal) 4/17/18 USPSA Mt. Rainier Shadow - 2nd Production (journal) 4/22/18 USPSA Renton - 3rd Production 4/28/18 IDPA - 4th CDP, 15th Overall of 46 First time shooting the 1911 Kimber .45. Practice for the 1911 Hawtech Match in Parma, Idaho 4/29/18 USPSA Paul Bunyan - Production Win 5/1/18 USPSA Mt. Rainier Shadow - 2nd Production 5/5/18 2018 HawkTech Arms 1911 Classic Parma, Idaho - 27th Overall of 71* 5/6/18 USPSA Nampa, Idaho - Production Win 5/12/18 USPSA Paul Bunyan - 10th Production* 5/13/18 USPSA Paul Bunyan - 7th Production* 5/15/18 USPSA Mt. Rainier Shadow - Production Win (15/35)* 5/19-20/18 USPSA Area 1 Championship - 12 Production of 60, 3rd A Class (journal)

I DON'T SUCK AS BAD AS I THOUGHT #ammodrama #area1stress So.... I've been frustrated this year and down on myself, didn't know what was wrong with me and why I "couldn't aim" anymore. Had a horrible match the Sunday before Area 1, got no-shoots and mikes like never before. I thought I was calling my hits, but then there would be surprise no-shoots and mikes. I was so confused and depressed that I sucked so bad and have had no confidence in my shooting at all lately. Next day, Monday afternoon, I decided to chrono my ammo at a friend's house to make sure it was still good to go for Area 1 and then practice the following day. Tuesday afternoon: Since there was a Tuesday evening match, I showed up a few hours early to shoot some groups and get my trigger under control and learn to aim again. I had been doing long distance trigger work at home in dryfire, but guessed it hadn't been helping. Results from my session were good and bad. BAD NEWS: turns out... my bullets were tumbling past 7 yards. GOOD NEWS: this whole time.. it wasn't me!! The group at 25 yards was around 18 inches and random. Wednesday morning: Pulled my bullets to check the crimp, my crimp die was maladjusted and over-crimping my bullets. Backed off the crimp completely, made sure the bell was just smoothed out, tested, still not as accurate as I would like. Super stressed lol Wednesday afternoon: bought Federal factory ammunition. According to the velocity on the box, it should make around 129-130 PF. Wednesday evening: Tested factory ammo. Ran fine, acceptable accuracy. Crossed fingers PF would be fine for chrono at Area! Thursday 4:45 AM: Wake up to travel to Montana for the championship. Chrono: 128.6 PF Area 1 Championship Missoula, Montana Production: 12th Place, 75.83% 3rd A Class Haven't seriously sat down, yet, to analyze my stages. What I do know is that (1) I have gotten into the habit, again, of not calling my last shot of an array and rushing off it/starting to look at next target before I'm done with the one I'm shooting. Call all my shots. Stop rushing. (2) Need to be confident. Know what I can do and be confident I called a shot correctly. Know how fast I can do something. I've been over-aimed the past few months since things were not going where I wanted them to and thought it was me. (3) Let go of mistakes right away and don't even think about it. Stage 7: Smokejumpers, I let a few minor things in the very beginning frazzle me throughout the entire stage. I ended up rushing off two different targets, last on both arrays, and got two mikes. What could have easily been two alphas with basically no more time added resulting in an 84.41% stage, was a 67.30% with the mikes. Got a lot of mental game work to do. Match video stages in order that I shot them -- Day 1: Stages 12, 7-11 | Day 2: Stages 6, 1-5

Here was the spinner at the end of the run when I almost messed up the turn on the spinner but had a fortunate need to rack the slide that saved me. "UNLOAD and show clear! UNLOAD and show clear!!" "..... Don't shoot!!"

It was a lot of fun! There was one stage in particular that was 150 yards uphill and it took me 96 seconds and I thought I was gonna die. I haven't made the video for it, yet... but you can hear me say, "I'm going to die," twice in the video. And afterward, "I'm going to pass out now." I was trying to go faster than walking at the end and yet was sooooo slow, somehow managed to still aim and got the spinner over. My pickups on the baby popper set me back quite a few seconds. Definitely need to add some short sprints and some running to my dryfire haha I was 36th of 70 on the biathlon stage, so wasn't last at least. For the match I placed 27th.

5/5/18 HawkTech Arms 1911 Match @ Parma, ID Went to the 2018 HawkTech Arms 1911 Match in Parma, Idaho. Had A LOT of fun with my first big match with a 1911 (my first match with it was last week at IDPA). Haven't quite gotten used to seating the mag on the reload, yet. Had several mag drops. Placed 27th of 70 shooters. My first shot of the match with the .45 caught me off guard LOL... definitely not my 9 mm. 5/6/18 USPSA @ Nampa, ID Since we were in Idaho, we planned on going to the local USPSA match at Nampa the next day. NickBlasta ended up geting Open division win (and HOA), another friend got 3rd Open and 6th overall, and I got the Production win and 11th overall out of 63. It was a pretty good day of shooting and I had two stages that were pretty good - finally felt like I shot some stages closer to an A class shooter! I am feeling much more confident and ready for Area 1. This was our second stage of the day and felt really good about it except for a few minor messups and a few pickup shots. I got the Production stage win by 15% and was 8th overall (74.38%). 30 A, 3 C, 25.30 seconds.

5/1/18 #heroORzero So.... zeroed my first classifier on Tuesday (It's Not Brain Surgery 09-07). My time was really good, though hahaha I thought the ones on the black were touching the perf but they were a millimeter too far, ended up being okay classifier-wise because they needed to be alphas anyway. I aimed... and then totally wasn't watching my sights when I fired the gun. Sundays classifier wasn't even that great I didn't think, but I got 81.6002% on Mini Mart. If my next two are 81% or better, I'll make Master. I really need to stop worrying about it (obsessing?), though.... I'm barely A class field course so, no need to rush. Mini Mart 99-21 12 A, 6.58 seconds, 9.1185 HF I was 7th/74 people Overall and 1st in Production I look like a toddler next to this table.

Thanks!! It's been a fun ride. Going to keep working at it, I need way more consistency.

5/1/18 So glad I'm shooting more now, I think I can keep my dryfire in line better. I was super frustrated the first part of the year. I've dryfired every day the past week except for my two match days. I'm feeling more hopeful now, but I'm also going to dryfire despite how I feel. I loved one of Steve Anderson's podcast last month where he basically is saying it doesn't matter how you feel - get to work. Make a goal, make a plan to achieve it, stick to it. I shot 95% of points on Sunday, but my splits seemed really slow. I did get 4/7 stage wins, and one of them was the PRONE stage. I was surprised about that. There were 14 in Production on Sunday and I won by less than a TENTH of a match point. So close! Too close! Still kinda feel like I'm high B class, but starting to feel like I'm shooting closer to A class now. Fun squaddies as always..... I think I had that on me for about 7 minutes and didn't know it. Shot an entire stage and it didn't fall off! haha Found the pics on my phone later. ALMOST Master Class! 3.25% away. If I don't nail my classifier tonight, I'll probably fluctuate between 79-82% for awhile, because I have a hundo dropping off. But I've been shooting better classifiers, making less errors. It'll get there! MOAR PRACTICE!!

4/26/18 #Berry's Steel Open So, little behind on match videos. I went to Berry's Steel Open for my third year in a row (love that match!) and shot two divisions this time. I shot Production and also PCC for my first match :) I shot a classifier match with the same borrowed PCC last summer, so the unload and show clear and all that stuff wasn't as bad as my first time. Need some practice running with the rifle because it's not subconscious with what to do with it. They have three different types of stages pro-am (par time), time plus (field courses) and fixed steel (steel challenge) type courses. For PCC, I was 60.18% overall with the combined stages of Max. That broke down in each category to 52.85% (of Max) in Time Plus; 62.08% (of Brian) in Pro-Am; and 75.28% (of Max) in Steel Challenge. I thought I did okay for not really having shot a real match with PCC. And it ended up being a lot of fun. :) Dryfiring the night before, I thought I wouldn't be able to finish the match because of my neck problems, but I think it ended up helping stretch it out more. #dryfire So.... I kinda went about a month without dryfiring, the few weeks before and after Berry's was a bit busy. Been dryfiring the past couple weeks, though. I think just three times last week and four times out of the last five days. Basics and trigger pull. #pewpewing My last match I finally felt like I was able to aim again. Before is felt like "uncontrollable" alpha/charlies - not calling that second shot, and totally what Steve Anderson talks about when he says: "rush/try/hurry/fail." Also yanking my trigger like crazy and/or too much pressure with my strong hand or something because I was shooting right of center. I just need some more livefire to keep my dryfire honest. #Master Class soon? Totally not competitive in A class, yet, but.... two more classifiers around 88% and I'll move up to Master. I'm at 79.3209. Kinda want to just get it out of the way and move up, even if it's just Paper M. We'll see. Finally starting to shoot more matches, so feeling more confident, again!

#pewpewing 4-15-18 USPSA @ Marysville - 2nd Production Still not feeling very confident, but had a fun time. Had several mental errors, and crappy reloads.... but finally feeling like I can shoot and aim a little better again. 4-17-18 USPSA at Mt. Rainier Shadow - 2nd Production Tuesday nights are a little rough....

I didn't know how to delete this duplicate post from my phone...

#pewpewing Went to a falling plate match on Wednesday night. Wasn't calling my shots at all, horrible trigger press. I really need to get to the range lol. THIS WEEK: positive thoughts!! good isolated trigger press, and making sure I'm not standing too straight in dryfire. This run was so horrible in the beginning, I saw how far behind I was and went for it. My heart was pumping on this one! lol. Fun little match, was final 3 in the open division with my prod gun.

3/8/18 Dryfire 45 minutes 5 minutes draws and reloads; continued with lots of reloads, aiming at multiple targets. 6r6r6, 6.2 sec x5, 6.0 sec x 15, reloads with dummy rounds. #6 Starts and Stops in Anderson's book, 5 minutes. Target array: Steel 1, T1-T3 / R / T1-T3, Steel 2; 10 yards with dummy rounds Another 8 minutes, but could tell I was getting tired. I had whacked my hand REALLY hard on the corner of my TV stand right before I was going to practice. Took about an hour to be able to grip and start dryfire, started hurting again toward end of practice. 3/10/18 CPR Class Spent this Saturday getting First Aid/CPR renewed. Not really related to practice, just reminding myself why I didn't dryfire lol 3/11/18 Match at Paul Bunyan I did get to shoot a match, but haven't finished my match video, yet, and haven't really analyzed it. I was super bummed at my placement of 6th. I totally bombed the Texas star stage. Had I shot it well I would have won Production. Also had a really funny time trying to shoot weak hand unsupported while PRONE. I've never laughed (uncontrollably) on a stage, my sights were already all over the place and that made it so much worse. At least it was a low hit factor, low point stage, and a lot of people didn't do great on it. Here it is with the freestyle portion of String 2 of this standards stage. 3/12/18 Dryfire 20 minutes Did some focus on trigger pull and long distance shots. Had a busy rest of the week leading up to my class on the weekend and am behind on dryfire! Only 8 weeks until Area 1! 3/17 - 3/18/18 CRO class This weekend I traveled with a friend to Bend, OR for the USPSA CRO class that was at the COSSA range. I left sunny Washington for snow on Saturday! We decided to set up stages the next day as the weather was supposed to be better, and finished all our book work on Saturday. There was still snow on the ground the next day, but it was sunny and clear and warmed up around the time we got to shoot the stages. We shot a three stage mini-match that we set up from submitted stages from the participants. Had a lot of fun! And... there are 15 new CROs in USPSA now

#dryfire 3/6/18 25 minutes Draw 0.6 seconds x20, focus on reacting on beep, support hand thumb placement - almost back to the habit of correct placement 4 Aces 2.7 x5, then no timer for 5 minutes Exiting to the right and left with/without reloading 3/7/18 25 minutes & 15 minutes Did an earlier session while the kids were at AWANA and about fifteen more before bed. 4 Aces 2.7 seconds x5, 2.6 x 10 Indexing on various targets at different angles. Index is getting good for freestyle and strong hand, I can point at targets and it will be lined up. Weak hand only, I'm still having to aim with my front sight. Also on hard leans it's not always lined up, but is definitely better than it was a few months ago--in January it felt like I was shooting Open, hunting for the dot. Draw, 0.6 seconds x 20, and draws off the timer with perfect grip and thumb placement. 5 minutes - Burkett reloads--good grip on mag before pulling it from pouch, calling all shots, pausing at magwell, getting into better habit of looking where I need. Reloads and leaving a position. Felt tired and heavy during first session, later on in the night I felt lighter on my feet and exits seemed much faster. Anderson's Drill #5, Can't you Count 5R5.

Awwww thanks I'll put this one behind me and practice more I have the whole season ahead of me for some good matches and improvement, right?! I'm excited for the sun to be out this weekend for the Paul Bunyan match! Can't wait!

#match 1st Production, 10th Overall of 30 Don't know what I was doing at this match. Whole thing was horrible. Totally messed up every stage, except first stage was okay. Somehow shot an entire array in the wrong order on stage 2 without realizing until half way through it. Shot at a target not knowing if I forgot it, and was half expecting four hits on it after. Messed up the position before that one because I meant to shoot one more target before leaving, but forgot about it and dropped my mag and then shot the target once because my brain wanted to stick to the plan. Was going to start on that target I shot at once, somehow looked at it coming into the position and must have thought I shot it, and instead, shot the other one I hadn't shot ONCE when I entered, ONCE when I left. I don't know what was wrong with me. I did spend all day at Emerald City Comicon and got home late the night before, so maybe just wasn't fully rested from that and having been sick forever. Haven't dry fired since last Wednesday and it feels like it's been FOREVER. Ready to feel normal again. I'm excited for the match this weekend! Need more shooting.

2/27/18 #dryfire 25 minutes An abbreviated practice tonight. Concentrated on thumb placement of support hand, making sure it's not above my take-down lever. 90 degree transitions x20 @ 1.7 sec, Bill Drill x20 @ 1.6 sec. Draws; reloads, one step reload, exits. Had to constantly remind myself to put my thumb in the right spot, not unconscious, yet. Support hand is canted forward slightly more with my thumb in the correct spot. #fitness 20 minutes Did the next exercises in my little app. 30 second rests in between sets. lunges x24, butt bridge x12, mountain climbers x12, flutter kicks x20 sec, squats x14, adductor stretch x12, trunk rotation x30 sec, reverse crunches x14, bent leg twist x16, bicycle crunches x16, Russian twist x16, crunches x20, plank 25 seconds. Still not feeling 100% from being sick, congested and coughing a bunch. Four kids in school bring home all the cold bugs in the county! 2/28/108 #dryfire 30 minutes Reloads and more reloads. Indexing on leans and multiple angles, 90 degree transitions, long plates. Still having to pay attention to thumb position on support hand. Feeling like I need to spend a lot more time dryfiring, or spending longer on each drill. Haven't really set dryfire goals and haven't been timing stuff enough to even see whether I've improved on speed. Need to pull out my timer more often and push speed. #fitness 20 minutes Weights, lunges, reverse lunges and then trying to burst up from the position. 13 pushups - couldn't finish my second set of pushups so did 5 pushups and 30 second plank. Practiced leaving position quickly and walking low. Still tracking my calories. Been eating 1,200-1,700 calories a day the past few weeks. My goal is 1,200, but it adds up so fast when I'm not careful what I eat. I had a peanut butter and banana sandwich the other day and it was like 600 calories

GM CARD! 99.78 wtturn (A84978) Production - GM 98.50 Gooldylocks (A84371) Open - GM 97.49 Maximis228 (TY80219) Open - GM 96.61 KALI (A59244) Limited - GM 96.44 kosh79 (A78528) Limited - GM 96.02 NickBlasta (A89438) Open - GM 95.79 j1b (L1439) Open - GM 95.70 digby7 (TY69633) Limited - GM 95.13 jht05016 (TY90226) Open - GM Race to GM: 94.31 j1b (L1439) Limited 93.01 wav3rhythm (A88052) Production 92.72 flackjacket (A15883) Open 92.60 kosh79 (A78528) Open - M 92.12 Raceinready300ex (A81062) Limited 91.73 hankdiesel (A70998) Open 91.24 KALI (A59244) Production 90.96 db10bo (A87619) Production - M 90.65 JayDubU (FY81419) Open - M 90.44 trgt (L4070) PCC - M 90.40 ltrain7281 (TY78645) Production 90.31 brianhansen (A68543) Limited 90.29 APL-G35 (A69094) Limited 90.21 mwc (TY72757) Production 89.64 tbarker13 (TY73964) Production 89.53 Sin-ster (TY72166) Production 89.47 waterboy (A75471) SingleStack - M 89.40 FTDMFR (A79153) Production 89.35 shooterDrew (TY86867) Production - M 89.08 Raceinready300ex (A81062) Open 88.72 BBoyle (TY33537) Open - M 88.41 brianhansen (A68543) SingleStack 88.11 swearengen (A86288) Production 87.41 Magnus_DUX (FY62682) Production - M 87.00 rugerp89ipsc (TY47760) Production - M 87.00 Mhall (A90179) Limited - M 86.96 saibot (TY64113) Production - M 86.39 OzzieF (A69205) Open 86.19 lvipscshooter (A64139) Open 85.93 rowdyb (TY82278) Production 85.92 redbird1976 (A58560) Limited 85.81 dravz (A71261) Production - M 85.75 Joshg (TY67558) PCC - M 85.74 megarush (A78429) Limited 85.43 ArrDave (A96933) Production - M 85.04 drewbeck (A85028) Open - M 83.87 enzo357 (A81018) Limited - M 79.44 digby7 (TY69633) SingleStack - M 78.83 j1b (L1439) Production 74.99 JayDubU (FY81419) PCC - M 71.69 digby7 (TY69633) Open - M 71.31 wtturn (A84978) Limited 10 - M