DD78

I've been shooting about 25 years, only 5 of which have been action shooting. For the first 20 years, I shot with one eye open. Once I started shooting USPSA and 3 gun it became apparent that the one eye method was slowing me down so I started practicing both eyes. 5 years later, and I still have issues with it, but each year it gets a little better. The best way to train yourself is lots of dry fire, which is one thing I'm ashamed to admit that I almost never do.

For the last year I've been focusing on entering positions, engagement order, and leaving positions. For your scenario, as others have said it's hard to take the multiple variables into account, but for arguments sake let's just say that your body and shoulders need to move to the right for targets a bit further down range from the current three you're engaging. Take this with a grain of salt because I'm not a GM or anything, but during my walk through I'd airgun it both ways and see which way puts my body into the correct position for the next array and next target. To me, I'd engage 3 open targets on the left from left to right knowing that if I'm shooting on the move on those three open targets, going from right to left will turn my shoulders away from what I want to go (to the right). Then I'd need to turn more to engage targets on the right than I would if I shot them left to right. I also shoot a lot of 3 gun which I'm a bit better at, and depending on when I see certain targets, I'll engage them the opposite way. For example if there are 4 clay targets on the right, but one of them is behind a barrel, I'll engage the three I can see going from farthest to nearest, and by the time I've shot the nearest one, I'll see the one hidden behind a barrel, even though that might put my body facing a position away from the next array of targets. I've noticed that all the high level shooters do this. They seem to do their best to eliminate extra distance between transitions, and putting their bodies into position for the next array.

Almost everyone I know shoots somewhere between a 6-8 MOA dot. I have a 6 MOA dot on my rimfire pistol, and honestly I wish I would have gone with an 8 MOA dot. I'm not overly practiced with a dot on a handgun, so I occasionally lose the dot in the window. With practice I'm sure this would improve, but when I've shot pistols with the 8 MOA dots, I don't seem to experience that same issue. I'd say that what you have is perfect. Shoot it for a while, and if you don't like then make a switch.

I don't know if someone's mentioned this, but I highly recommend the book "The ABC's of Reloading". It does a great job of walking a complete beginner through the basics. From there reading the loading manuals typically will give you a bit more info, and then start watching some reloading channels on youtube. Ultimate Reloader has videos where he's just loading various cartridges, but watching what he does helps. He's also really good at explaining what he's doing as he's doing it.

It really depends on what your preference is, what you're better at, and what your goals are. I'll typically shoot my limited gun in 9mm if I have a 3 gun match the next day. Otherwise I like shooting my RFPO gun, and RFRO. I'm typically better with a long gun, but I've noticed that when I shoot RFRO and RFPO, I crush my RFRO scores with that rimfire pistol. If you're not better with one over the other, then it might be worth practicing whichever platform you want to improve with. If you want to get better with pistol, shoot a pistol, and vice versa.

For limited, which is the division I almost always shoot, I have a dozen mags. 2011 mags aren't cheap, and I'm not one to blow money, but I have 10 2011 mags for my 9mm limited gun I use in 3 gun, which I also used for USPSA for a while and 10 mags seemed to not be enough. Depending on the range you shoot on, if it just rained, and you did a mag change and the mag dropped into a puddle, or mud, you'd need to take whatever rounds remain out, take off the base pad, wipe down the spring, brush out the mag, reassemble, and then load again. During a match I don't want to deal with brushing out mags so once a mag hits the ground and it's wet or dirty, that mag goes into my range bag and stays there. I shot a sectional earlier this year, and the bays were sand. As soon as a mag hit the ground, that mag wasn't used again for the day. I like spending my time chatting with friends, or watching people shoot. I have a single stack rig, even though I don't really shoot single stack. But when I considered it I shot two matches. I have 15 single stack mags. This gave me the ability to load up my mag pouches on stage one, then have all fresh mags for stage two. Once I shot stage two, I'd start reloading the mags. If I decided to get into single stack more, I'd likely at least double the number of mags I have. Obviously you can get by fine with one mag in addition to what you need to carry on your belt. But having extra is a really nice benefit. Another benefit is having less wear on your springs.

I did this a few years ago shooting 3 gun with a bunch of guys who were really, really good. The stage was very shotgun heavy, with most arrays being 6-8 clays side by side. Their splits on these arrays were crazy, without any misses. For whatever reason, I subconsciously emulated those same splits. The result: I literally missed half the clays lol. It was one of those lessons that I won't forget. Before I shoot a stage, as I'm making ready I tell myself that I need to see my sights before pulling the trigger. It works most of the time, which is all I can ask for lol.

Trash talking is fun when you give it back. In my experience, trash talkers can't handle it when you trash talk in return. I used to play a lot of golf when I was younger, and almost always played for money. Skins, match play, whatever. I played with different people, all who loved playing for money as much as I did. I remember two guys who constantly trash talked while we played. I never let it affect me, tuned it out, and focused solely on my visualization of my shot. At a certain point it became white noise in the background. One day I wasn't in a great mood so I became tired of listening to it, so I decided to trash talk, but subtly. "Oh man, that water looks to be in play if you slice it". I'd say this knowing that the trash talker battled a slice. The trash talker would be on a part of the green that I knew broke the opposite way than it looks, and I'd say "you got lucky, that's a simple left to right break". The ball would break the opposite way lol. Sure enough, the trash talking stopped because these people fold up like a lawn chair when you give it back. They'll spend so much of their mental energy trying to figure out how to get to you, that their own games suffer. There's one guy I know who trash talks. I just ignore him, but if it continues, I have great ways to get inside his head. I managed to let him get into my head on one stage at a recent match, and tried to burn the stage down, and had mikes all over the place. After that stage, I turned on my ability to tune people out, and shot well the rest of the day. Try giving it back. Find something they're self conscious about with their shooting, and point that out to them. You can either give it back, or learn how to tune it out better. Or just don't squad with those people. One of the things that affects my shooting more than trash talkers is people who don't paste and reset. I try to avoid shooting with them as much as possible.

Burnout is definitely a serious issue. I started shooting USPSA and 3 gun about 5 years ago. Each year I didn't get burned out, until this year. The thing that was different this year is that even with Covid cancelling some of the early matches, I've shot matches almost every single day on the weekends since about mid April. I've had maybe a handful of days off on the weekends. When I look back at what was different those first few years compared to this year, there are two things I can see - 1. shooting way too many matches and not having time off except for during the week, while I'm working 60-70 hours a week. When I'm putting in that many hours at work every week, and not having a day off on the weekends, it seems to have led to being burned out. 2. I also shot more indoor matches over the winter last year. While it wasn't every weekend, it was 2-3 times per month. I'm very much looking forward to getting through this weekend and only having 3 more matches for the rest of the year. Earlier this year I shot a sectional about 3.5 hours away. I took Friday off, drove there to walk the stages, and then shot the match the following day. I drove home, and then got my stuff prepared for 3 gun the next day. I woke up the next morning in a piss poor mood, with absolutely no interest in shooting. Combine that with shooting with a slow squad that you constantly had to yell at to paste and reset, I basically shot terrible. In hindsight, I should have just taken the day off. If you wake up in a bad mood, you have to try to change it, otherwise there's no point in shooting. For the most part, all of us are doing this for fun and aren't making a living off of shooting. As soon as it becomes miserable, it's time for a break, otherwise what's the point? I'm personally looking forward to taking the winter off and focusing on getting into shape, dropping weight, and focusing on dry fire. I may throw an indoor match into the mix maybe once a month, but that's it. I love shooting too much for it to become a source of unnecessary stress. This is why I stopped playing golf. I played literally almost every day from the ages of 16-25. I'd show up in a bad mood, and not be able to shake it, but still played well. Once I stopped, I'd play every so often and loved playing again even though I couldn't perform the way I did before I stopped playing. The way I look at things that cause me stress today is if it's causing me stress, it better be paying me money. If I'm not being paid, why am I voluntarily adding stress into my life?

Thanks, I'll definitely check that out.

This year I've shot a few more majors than I have in any of the 5 years I've been shooting USPSA and 3 gun. One very strange thing happens that I can't quite put my finger on as the cause. When I shoot local matches, whether they're USPSA or 3 gun, I generally do well, shoot very free, and execute my plans really well. As soon as I make ready on the first stage of a major, that all flies out the window. What winds up happening is I suddenly start shooting slow. While I'm accurate, I'm just not shooting stages as quickly as I would at a local match. It's not nerves because my heart rate is about the same as it typically is. It just seems like I'm hesitant to shoot at my normal speed, almost like I'm trying to avoid a miss here or there, when I don't have a whole lot of misses at local matches. One of my friends who is a much better shooter than I am asked me a question that may be the answer, but I figured I'd also ask here to see if there are any other idea on what may be my issue. The question he asked me is "when you're shooting a local, are you thinking about where you're going to finish before and during the match"? My answer was no, I just show up and shoot my best and try to push myself. He then asked "are you doing that at majors"? I laughed and said no. One of the things I have a bad habit of doing is taking a look at who is registered at a major in my division, and trying to figure out where I'd likely finish. What ends up happening is that I don't finish where I thought I would. Next year I'm going to try out not looking at the registration page and just showing up and shooting like I would for a local and see if that makes a difference. I'd be interested in hearing from others here who may have an idea about what might be causing this issue, or others who have had this issue and seemed to be able to get over it.

If you're talking about a local match, and are looking at place rather what percentage you finished compared to the winner of your division, the placement is meaningless. For example, let's say you came in 5th in limited. Awesome right? Then you look at what percentage you can in compared to the person who won limited and see that you're 40%. That's the bottom of C class. A lot of people look at their placement versus the more important metric of percentage of the winner. If you went to a sectional or area match, that 5th place would likely turn into a 60th or lower. Don't take my post as criticism, or trolling because it's not. I use percentage of the winner in my division as a way to gauge whether or not I'm improving. If I'm consistently improving, that percentage should keep rising when shooting against the same better shooters. Regarding guns, the gun doesn't make the shooter, but a good shooter with an expensive gun knows how to leverage the gun to shoot better. A new shooter with a 6K limited gun will not shoot much better than if they were shooting a Glock or some other plastic gun. They might improve a little bit, but not that much. There is one local guy who has an expensive 2011, and when he made the switch, his skills or percentage of where he finished in his division didn't change. He just doesn't have the base fundamentals of shooting down. If you ask him to shoot a group at a head box at 25 yards, out of 10 rounds one might be in the head box.

It really depends. When given the choice, I'll squad with friends, and most of my friends are pretty good shooters. If I have to shoot with people I don't know, I'll generally try to choose a squad with shooters who are better than me. I try to avoid signing up to squads where everyone is "unclassified", or there are people known for being lazy and not resetting.

I typically don't count shots while shooting a stage. With that being said, I have caught myself counting when shooting a shotgun in 3 gun. I typically have my load plans in my head to avoid counting, but after factoring in a miss or two, if it winds up being more than a couple misses, I go back to counting how many shells are left in the gun so that I don't run dry. On pistol I haven't found myself counting because I'm typically dropping the mag well before I run out and plan stages that way.

Absolutely. The best part is watching how they break down a stage, and how they actually shoot it. Most are also willing to share their plans with you, and explain why they're going to shoot a stage a certain way. The flip side of this is if you're a good shooter who constantly shoots with shooters who aren't good. I've seen this with a few local shooters who are good, but kind of stalled out at a certain level because they're not shooting with people who will push them to step up their games.