Hardball

Actually, you know me well enough DP to know that the rules are what we shoot inside of, that's it. I don't argue the rules anymore, no point in it. I think alot of what my issues stem from, is that nagging feeling that I really should be fired up, but find that it is easier to make the excuse that "I just don't feel like it today". We shall see what happens when I finish this new limited gun. New job, new outlook on life, new (better) paycheck, we shall see. Dan, I have to agree. The "want to be or just feel as though I should be" here is something I look at consistently. I do want to be, but sometimes it is more difficult to see than it should be. Make sense? Like I said, I am building a new blaster, and as soon as it is put together, I am pretty sure I am gonna be fired up again. Been the same ole same ole for 10 years now. See you guys soon.

It is my belief that you couldn't ignore the 80 points. 10 seconds or not, and it wouldn't have been 10 seconds, you would lose far too much ground. If we both shoot it in 30 seconds and I have 80 points on you, well, you ge the point(s), or don't. Wait, dang, confusion...... Anywho, as Daniel called out, it is a test of who has the fuzzies to try it. Intentionally prepping mikes into your stage is suicidal to those who wish to be competitive. I can count on one hand the competitors (none of em were the big boys) who intentionally skipped the disappearing targets on stage one, Ghost Town. There were literally three people throughout both days that intentionally skipped them. I figured I would shoot them just because I watched the big boys shoot em. Alpha charlie, alpha charlie. Now could I believe that I did it? Hell no. Then again, I had already screwed up the stage with a close up mike and running it at half speed due to the previous two days of ass kicking that I had taken. We shall see. Physical limitations or not, I am gonna start trying to pick up the comeptitiveness again and get back to it. Just for this one match next year. Had a blast...or was it 600 of em...

Reading that, leads me to a question. I had a competitor at a match fire his last shot (completing the stage). Upon unload and show clear, it was apparent that he had racked the slide, and the cast lead projectile was still half way in the chamber, half way in the barrel. It was stuck. The wax ring had melted and then cooled on the barrel. It would not fall out, and a squib rod was called for. Now remember, this is BEFORE the range was called clear, and after the command to unload and show clear. No time had been written, and the competitor had not holstered the gun yet. Should he have zero'd the stage?

Alright, I spent almost three whole years not shooting. There have been a few things that I have personally noted about myself after coming back. I am interested to see if there are others who have taken some time off and dealt with similar circumstances. Part of the purpose of taking time off was to find myself and why I was so disgusted with not physically cutting it anymore. Part of my drive to be the best somewhat made me angry at the fact that it was ten times as difficult for me to run certain stages in the same time as someone of my same class. It is physically harder because of former injuries that limit my body to certain things. I saw, and still see, myself as no different than those around me, but the reality is that I can not move as efficiently. In short, a long time ago, in a land far away I was shot and lost my left hamstring. I have muscle there, but it is from elsewhere in my body, and it is just enough to allow me to walk and jog slowly. When I run, it takes enormous energy for me to start, and enormous energy to stop. So, in short, I began to feel as though I was being unrealistic with myself prior to taking the time off. Now that I am back I am finding these few things are apparent: 1. I still have the same routines when I prep a stage. I still do the same mental walkthrough, etc. but I find it hard to really get fired up and run "at full speed". 2. I have at times noticed that I will walk up to a stage and find it hard to actually care. Not that I am not having fun, I just don't care about whether or not I shoot the stage to the best of my ability and it shows at the end of the stage. 3. I have found that I can still call my shots, but almost always am a half trigger pull away from being able to adjust them when needed. I know I need to not shoot because I am in hard cover, but keep on the follow through with the trigger and just move along. 4. I have found that I am less than concerned about where I finish while actually prepping a match and shooting it, but am still just as disappointed when I perform poorly. Meaning: I go to a match to shoot now, and not compete necessarily, but it still disappoints me not to finish competitively. 5. I see those who I used to shoot along side of routinely now about 1-3 classes above where I am and find that it is no longer an inspiration but almost an embarrassment. Those who know me, know how competitive I was (and am) and know that I have the desire to be competitive with them, I just find that it is hard to get motivated to get back up to speed so to speak. 6. I have found that drills that used to work, now only bore the living crap out of me. Dry fire excluded, Bill Drills, etc. just prove to me that I have a lot to work on, but I can't figure out what it is most of the time. More so that I don't know where to start fixing things, than what to fix because there are so many. 7. I wake up on match days (Saturdays mostly) and decide at that point whether or not I am shooting that day based on whether or not I want to sleep in. At times I would rather sleep till I can't, than get up and get to the range. I used to wake up before the alarm clock, be digging through my bag and making sure all of my gear was together, etc. because I used to LOVE coming to the range. These days, I am lucky to LIKE shooting enough to not just turn the alarm off and roll back over. I still LOVE to shoot, and love to smell the gunpowder burning, but it takes real motivation for me to get to the range. Once I get to the range I am usually happy as hell that I went. ( I guess the point to this one is I don't know where my motivation has gone.) Anywho, not trying to QQ, just trying to pew pew. (gamers know what that means)

Ok, how is this for response to the "I want it cause I won it or it is just more crap".... I have no hamstring in my left leg. I stand little to no chance of making it past A class. Not my desire, but probably going to be reality. I can not start and stop like most of the top shooters. I can, however, bust my azz and shoot to the best of my ability. If that ability get's me 100th limited shooter, then so be it. But to me, I am no more or less important than anyone else on the range. We all are fighting the gun grabbers, trying to grow our sport, share our wealth of knowledge with newcomers, and we all get a bit of a buzz off of seeing someone else bitten by the same bug we have been. I can appreciate the attitude that if you didn't win it, it is just more crap, but there are those who are relegated to the scrap pile when you preclude class rewards, and class recognition. In certain instances the sandbaggers can take care of themselves. I.e. a B class shooter shoots a 92% of ole DP there. Well, let's see, unless DP flat out fell flat on his face, well, it ain't gonna happen so, yeah, I would hate to reward that. On the other hand, if that B class shooter had one hell of a match and things just happened to work his way, I would hate to discourage it too. My opinion is just that. My opinion, but if you take everyone from B class down out of the sport, the sport will be broken and in the history books so to speak. All it would be at that point is back to the 80's. Ten guys shooting on a range and tring to convince the rest of us that we really count and we could learn from them.

I gotta tell ya DP, I am not a fan of "leaving out" classes, etc. and I tend to agree that the "order of finish" awards system is a reward from the lower classes to the higher classes. I can see a match being rather empty. I liked what we did with the FLSSC. Matter of fact, I walked away with nothing but hard work put into them and a pair of grips, but I liked what we did. Only change in that format that needs to be made is that we run it as a Limited match. Same challenging types of stages, same enthusiasm, etc. Precluding the point that, say, 14 guns, half go to top guys, one to staff, the rest by random as was stated earlier (whatever the numbers you gave, not looking back at this point), there are shooters who will feel shorted in the end. A pat on the back with "Nice 70%" would be offensive to some especially when they have busted their butts to get it. Sandbaggers are going to be sandbaggers no matter what sport it is. I agree that we shouldn't reward it, but there is no real alternative to actually make EVERY shooter feel as though they are part of the sport. If it weren't for us B class shooters, you GMs wouldn't have anything to do but brag to each other. I will help with anything that needs to be done, but man, let's debate it a bit before we tick some folks off.

BAA, good luck with the M card and higher, I am going to continue to get further into shape and try to compete with you once again. I actually got home and cut off the portion of my fiber that was hanging and I kinda like that "shorty" look to my front sight now. Gonna try it out this weekend and see what it does for or against me. By the way, Jeff D, the Icy Hot is supposed to go on your sore muscles, not your cheekbone. I shoulda yelled "INCOMING!" but couldn't get it out fast enough. For those of you who don't know, Bigbadaboom, Jeff D, and I went to Wally World Saturday night after dinner to find him the IcyHot back patches. I tried to toss a jar of IcyHot ointment into the basket and BigBadaboom thought I was throwing it at him, tried to deflect it and it hit JeffD in the cheekbone. Coulda been disasterous, but we were laughing like the delinquents that we are. You shoulda been there. As other customers rounded the corner into the aisle, Jeff is holding his eye, I am laughing, Bigbada is laughing and we all go limping off looking like the three broken down musketeers. So, training now begins for the next monster match. It will take me at least a year to get into any form of shape not to hurt like I did Sunday and yesterday. See ya on the range!

Hardball is Chris. And I must entirely agree. The timer is just that, just a timer, but I was glad we did as well. I knew it was somewhere in our mess. As tired as we were, any one of us could have clipped it on our belts and not been able to tell the difference. One thing that everyone forgets to mention is that Smitty could have totally walked away with his own match and was gracious enough to sit it out. Smitty, Sharyn, you guys are some of the inspiration for us "human" shooters. I hope one day to be able to shoot beside you and actually keep up. I do have to say that Charles needs to stop his sandbaggin and get his A card. (And I need to get off of my dead butt and start shooting again.) Move along now Charles... If there was one shooter who didn't crash at least once in the match, they weren't trying hard enough. It is hard enough to have completed two of the stages without your forearms screaming at you, let alone all 10 stages. Smitty, I have an idea for a stage for next year. Gonna be emailing it soon. Oh, and Tammie, thanks for the offer of something to eat. You and your crew were a great squad to run. You guys are the reason all of the RO's do what we do. We volunteer because folks like you and your squad make it worth it!

Hate to put my two cents on top of everyone else's, but when it comes to the Monster Match, and matches like it, for example the Florida Single Stack Classic, you have to realize that the rules come from somewhere. We are all aware, and Smitty made no bones about it, that the rules would be followed except for the round count and division friendly format. Not quite sure what you thought you were adding, but it turned out to be not a whole lot. The rules WERE followed with the exception of that. The range nazi "you shouldn't announce you are following the rules" crap doesn't fly. The intent of the match was to let the hosers be hosers. Personally, having shot exclusively a singlestack for the first five years of my experience in USPSA/IPSC (prior to Lim10 and SS divisions) and having made B class LIMITED with a singlestack, I kind of LIKE having a large round count. It keeps me honest, and it keeps me practiced. So we stood in one spot under a par time and slammed reload after reload for a period of 35 seconds. Those who hit more than others (due to patience and a solid sight picture) made it out of it higher than those who just slapped the trigger and prayed. Nothing wrong with that, and it is allowable under the rules of the match. Would you have preferred that Smitty announce that there were no rules for that particular stage or even the match for that matter? Or could you soon learn to understand that the intent is to provide a set of boundaries for a match that isn't sanctioned, but only recognized, as a hell of a time for all involved. Smitty busted his tail to put on a FUN match for everyone involved and took great care of his staff. That is more than can be said for half of the sanctioned matches in the sport. But then, there is always one person who will point out the obvious. "This isn't right." or "That isn't according to rule XYZ123." My question is this, "Who really cares?" It wasn't a level II or III match, it was a "fun" match put on to relieve some competition stressors that we all go through from trying to be competitive with one another all year WHILE FOLLOWING THE RULES. To Smitty. Man, I am glad you asked me to participate. To the shooters, thank you for your participation and patience with the RO's. Stage 1 "Ghost Town" was an awesome stage to run and thanks to Bill Q. for hangin out and teaching me some finer points of RO'ing. Awesome. My dawgs are still barkin. To Wadette for every ounce of energy she puts into every match she helps administer, you are as incredible as one could be and thank you for all of your contributions to the sport in general. To all of the other RO's at the match, thank you for everything that you do as well as being one FUN group to shoot with. To Bill S., you really really are going to pay for makin a fat guy flop (read that: great stages). To the other stage designers, great job.

To those attending. Please take the ten seconds it takes to thank Smitty, Sharyn and the RO's. We were exhausted yesterday trying to shoot all ten stages in one day. Where we shoot it all in one day, the competitors get to shoot it over two days, so you can imagine what a truism my last statement was. Sharyn makes a great "squad mom" and motivator, and Smitty, well, we all know does a great job at the helm. Thanks to all who participate and shoot. It's a great match every time and gets better each time Smitty puts it on. Let's perpetuate that! Have a great day everyone and see ya at the range! Oh, and BTW, I did NOT shoot it with my singlestack. Was just bustin. Productions guys? Good luck with that.

Dood, I just bought 1k rounds of .45. Can I shoot my singlestack?

I still won't admit to being DP's date to that movie. Geeze, take a guy do Fudruckers and he pays you back I guess...... Yes, I do agree, the movie sucked. As Larry T. Cableguy would say, "What the hell is this? Russia? I was more frustrated than Janet Reno trying to get Melissa Ethridge concert tickets." Anywho, sorry to out ya DP....

Ditto. And I have to get off of my lazy "donkey" and get going as well. The believing in yourself thing is rather difficult to do at times. Especially when there are more excuses (in my case) as to why you shouldn't than why you should. So I figure I will just shut the hell up now and shoot. Build that new gun.....get highly interested again....... and actually get back into something resembling "in shape". (Yes, I know, round is a shape, but hey, who we kiddin here?)

Well, I would have to say that is like seeing another man's girl naked before he has. I am kinda glad there were no pics. Now after he see's it.... that is a completely different story.... I would like to see the gun too....

I think that the hardliners here won't appreciate what I have to say about this, but... Having been a Staff Sergeant in the Army, I can agree with not helping a promotable soldier by passing him on his PT test. Those were two responsible adults who chose their own paths. The soldier failing the PT test could have chosen to put more effort into preparing his body for the PT test, drinking less, etc. I can agree that a classified shooter (adult) should never help another classified (adult) shooter when it can affect the outcome of the match. Here is where I disagree. Not too long ago, I had my 16 year old son (he is now 18) shooting a match, unclassified, and shooting his third match. We had practiced till he was tired of practicing and was "ready" to shoot a match. During the match he encountered a situation that he nor I had any idea was about to happen. During the practices, he had done well, encountered few problems other than a couple of jams, etc. During the match, he encountered a case rupture. It startled him to a point that he stopped and didn't know what to do. He looked at the RO for help and even asked, "What do I do? What just happened?" The RO just stood there looking at him as if to say, "So what are you going to do now?". IMO, the RO should have stopped him, and checked him for safety purposes, he did not. So, I spoke up and stopped him. The RO looked at me like I had 2 heads, and then told me to shut up. Having said that, I became a bit upset, and demanded that my son stop, unload, and show clear. Pressing the issue, I was dq'd from the match. That's fine. DQ me. No, I was not being "unsportsmanlike", I didn't get an option for a penalty, it was straight to the DQ for "coaching" my son. My point is this, there is a little thing called discretion. If at any time a competitor is actually helping by pointing out a target another competitor shot or forgot to shoot, then the actions should be taken to stop it. When it comes to a "new" shooter, or a new situation for a shooter that involves safety, then discretion should be used. As for the comment about parents helping kids, well, either you aren't a parent, or you have absolutely no clue what this sport should really be about. It should be about carrying on our sport with newer generations of competitors. With that, comes the patience to actually teach someone (not necessarily a youth) how to compete in our sport safely. If that entails that we take the time to say things like "watch your trigger finger", or "drop the magazine, then rack it" to keep them from shooting themselves in the arm when they have a jam, then that's what it takes. It gets tiring dealing with the egotistical side of our sport. (not accusing you because of the comment, but it is getting more and more prevalent) There are those of us who could pass as "real shooters" with little to no training. Then there are those who, for whatever reasons, have never often handled firearms of any type before our sport. Those are the people that need the help. In closing, I will say that I can agree that there should be no coaching from one "classified" shooter to another, however a bit of understanding should be shown when in a "local" match with a beginner being "coached" through a stage in order to keep things safe for all parties. I highly doubt me coaching my son during his encounter would have gained him any advantage other than fixing any damage to his body that may have occured. If you hate it when parents "coach" their kids, then don't squad with them. Remember that all of us started somewhere. Not one of us started as a GM. Some of us won't make it to GM because of our own limitations be them mental or physical.