markwilliston

Where am I?? Oh ya, I just started holidays Finished up work and got home sunday afternoon. After supper got the rig out for dry fire. According to my dry fire log, the last practice was May 6... May aparently was a tough month work schedule wise, now it's time to pay the piper. This weekend is a two day match so I better get some gun in hand time between now and then... Live fire monday with Murray and Tracey. Did a bunch of strong/weak hand from 15 yards, that's gonna be easy points on the weekend. Did some movement drills, both forward and back, and side to side. Tonight, did live fire on my own. Freestyle-reload to strong, and freestyle-reload to weak. Movement drills, turn and draws, and finished with a few mags of bill drills. My best was 2.4 all A's. The match on the weekend is gonna be a 90% speed match, get the hits, clean, and I will be sitting pretty. Between eating, and going to the gym, and going shooting. I have been reloading like crazy as well. I have a couple gallons of match ammo loaded, so that's a good thing. Practice ammo, I am just staying ahead of myself... I have two weeks to do as MUCH shOOting as possible so lets do IT!

Finally finished my two week tour in Toronto on monday morning, jumped on the next flight home. Live fire monday night with Murray and Tracey. It was accuracy day. We have some standards at nationals that are at 50 yards, so might as well get some easy points and practice those. It went pretty well actually, we started off at 15 yards with about a 3" circle to hit. Then moved out to 50. We finished practice off with some happy finger (how low can your splits go). I was exhausted when I got there, but was just happy to get the gun in hand. I have to go back to Toronto tomorow still sunday, but after that is gonna be two weeks of dry fire, and live fire, plus one two day match. It's kinda soggy today, so the plan is to get caught up on reloading. When I got home monday, and started looking for a bucket of practice ammo I didn't have one so I had to shoot match ammo at practice... Gonna fix that right quick.

Work is getting in the way of shooting a LOT these days Monday after the match last week, I had to get back to Toronto and start flying again. Luckily I had a Vancouver overnight on monday this week, and got out to Practice with Murray and Tracey. The lack of dryfire over the last month is showing. We worked mulitple targets getting the cadence up with A's only. It wasn't spectacular, but things were flowing better by the end. On the bright side, it's not that many more days before I'll be back home, and able to get back into gear again. Next match at TMSA in mid june.

Our squad got split up for sunday, so it was Brad and myself in one group and Murray and Tracey on another squad. We didn't have what I consider a guru in our new squad, so we walked the stages sunday after lunch to come up with some good plans. We shot in the afternoon on sunday. Sunday was kinda a fun day the whole day, we just sorta bounced around from one thing to the next. First we didn't know any of the guys we were shooting with, then we were at the wrong stage Didn't get wound up, just sorta oh whatever. Anyhow we got ourselves and the rest of our squad at the right place which was stage 4. Stage 4, I learned a very big lesson here. COUNT ALL OF THE TARGETS.... This was a fun stage, run left get 4 paper, run across to the right side, 2 paper and one steel. Run up onto a platform, push open a window and shoot one paper and 5 plates through the window. Walked it through a few times, felt good. I had a little bit of butterflies but much more relaxed than saturday. I ran it well, dropped some points on the paper, but awesome cadence going through the plates. After hammer down and holster, the RO says "one procedural" I'm thinking what the hell did I do????? Then he says look through the window to the right, and sure as shit there is one more paper.... I had never seen it. My time was blazing second fastest to Murray, but the loss of points on 2 misses, and one fail to engage dropped me from 7th to 18th with 44%. Good lesson. Stage 5, easy stage just rushed the shots finished 18th with 54% Stage 6 I kinda won the lottery here. We even talked about this in the morning. We all use CR speed holsters, and anytime I put the gun back in the holster the lock goes on. Well, when moving "hot" from one stage to the next, the gun doesn't necessarily come out of the holster before the next stage starts. This stage happened to start with the gun unloaded, in the holster. Starting back to the targets, turn, draw, load, and engage 2 shots into 3 targets freestyle, reload, 2 shots into 3 targets freestyle. I stepped into the box, facing Kathy the RO. BEEP, turn and the godamn gun doesn't come out! got the lock off, and the gun out and finished. After hammer down and holster, the CRO calls for a reshoot. Once again, I'm thinking what the hell? Although this time I'm not complaining in any way shape or form. The timer didn't work. So they patched the targets, and the second time around with the lock OFF, I smoked it pretty good. 6th place @78% in 8.91 seconds with 1 C and 1 D. Stage 1 Much easier than yesterday with no backing up, I shot it well only dropped 1 point. The speed wasn't fast enough. Got 11th @63% Stage 2 Very fun stage today, Vision barrier in front of you splitting the left and right side. 4 paper eacy side, then advance and get two paper behind a barrier downrange, then over to the other side for 2 more paper behind a barrier. We agreed, without moving take the targets on the left, then the first target on the right stepping out of the box, reload and shot the last three on the right on the move. Engage the 2 paper behind cover, reload while moving to the left side and finish the last 2 paper. Flowed well, dropped a few points. 8th with 74% Stage 3 Big stage with pretty much all port shooting. I had some problems with trigger reset, and ran myself dry twice. The time cost, finished 14th 61%. At the end of the day, I was 12th out of 20 @65%. Finished 1st in D both days (my last matches D classified ) Heck, I would have been second in C both days... Our group all shot well. Things are very much looking up, I need to work on getting myself calmed down sooner through the first couple of stages. Here is where I sit after shooting shooting 6 matches: Date Match Percent 2007-05-20 2007 Qualifier 8 65.68 2007-05-19 2007 Qualifier 7 64.60 2007-04-07 2007 Qualifier 3 61.42 2006-09-03 2006 Provincials 43.36 2006-06-11 2006 Qualifier 10 35.71 2006-06-10 2006 Qualifier 9 44.15 Now classified C, Pretty easy to tell where I picked up Steve Andersons book. Overall AWESOME weekend! To Gunnar, Marlin, and Sheldon, you guys and the rest of the PG group put on a great weekend.

Sometimes I wonder... The week leading up to the match was pretty much maximum stress, 58 things on the go at once, jumping back and forth across the country. I actually considered just dropping the qualifier weekend to take a break. GLAD I didn't Managed to get seats for Brad and I on the friday morning flight to Prince George, and I didn't have to sit on the jumpseat so it's all good. Found our way out to the gun club, and helped with some of the last minute setup. Murray and Tracey arrived later in the day after driving up from Vancouver (with our guns, and range bags). We shot in the morning on saturday. One of my goals for the weekend, was speed. In particular foot speed. I realise you can't possibly shoot fast enough to make up for misses, but I just wanted to push myself a little more realising it was gonna cost a few points here and there. The first stage I had the startup butterflies, it was a backing up stage and really muddy. Had great hits, only dropped 2 C's, oh and one very expensive miss on a target that I didn't get into my brain properly on the walkthrough.. That was expensive. Finished 17th out of 23 @54% not going by that target would have moved me up to 9th and 74% Second stage was standards, very happy with 5th and 93% Third stage was a big one, and mega mud pit... pretty much all port shooting, and some really tough angles. I could have lit this one up more, it just seemed to have DQ written all over it so I took my time and got through it. Finished 16th @50% Fourth stage was a sprint. Starting in a chair, you had to run downrange and catch two targets behind cover as you went. Murray showed me to change my direction of movement into the target as I was going by them. That helped alot. After the 25 yard sprint there was 2 more targets behind cover, and one steel and one paper at 25 yards. Finished 8th 71% Fifth stage I was one of the ones I that I got lots of speed on, and it didn't help 14th and 35% just some poor hits. Sixth stage was a fun big one. It had two ramps to go up and down, and lots of back and forth. The finish was tough with 5 steel at 25 yards partially covered. I had a foot fault just off the start, but other than that was pretty happy. 13th @59% Overall I finished 13th out of 23 @64.6% very happy with that. More later....

10 hours of sleep was wonderful. I really really didn't wanna go to the gym this morning, in fact I could have gone back to bed. I do need the gym, so I went figuring I would feel much better after Just did an easy full body workout so I won't be a cripple for the match over the weekend. At the end, I still felt like crap Loaded up some more match ammo and ran it all through the tumbler before chamer checking them. I don't mind loading on a nice sunny day, cause I can tan at the press... which I actually did today. Cleaned up all my mags sitting on the balcony, kinda relaxing. Everything all packed for Prince George. Live fire with Tracey tonight, honestly I could have slept instead I am just plane worn out. We did have a good practice though, worked on the standards for the match. One is a modified El Presidente starting with the gun unloaded, and from 6 or 7 yards. Tracey nailed it pretty nice, and I wasn't far behind her. The other standard is 6 targets, farther 12m, closest 2m and some kind of vision barrier. First string 1 shot each target freestyle, reload after the 6th shot, 1 shot each target strong hand in 10 seconds. Second string the same, but weakhand after the reload. I think I'm gonna eat this stage up. Time for a very intense pillow and eyelid inspection. It's gonna be a fun weekend.

Okay, I'm back Thanks, I do like that part Okay, I just survived hell week... Pretty much been going flat out since last thursday. Only had the gun in hand for some live fire on Sunday with Tracey. That went pretty well, we did some drills for the match coming up this weekend. Tuesday and wedsneday in Toronto this week were my first recurrent sims at work. It was pretty heavy duty, with mutilple compound fractures of the ego. After just under four hours in the box this morning starting in at 5:30am.... well lets just say I had enough Finished debriefing at 10:23am, and made the 11am flight home Walked in the door, at just after 2pm. Quick check of email shows the gang going for practice at 3:30pm... One protein shake, and a range bag and out the door. We had a pretty decent live fire today with Murray, and Tracey. One of the stages for the weekend starts with the gun unloaded, back to target. I had been doing a fair wack of turn and draws, but never turn, draw, and load. Identified a bad habit that I had picked up with my trigger finger. After the shot goes off, I was taking my finger off the trigger. I think we fixed it, and it showed on the paper. The lack of dryfire the last couple weeks is showing. On the bright side my stress level just dropped to close to Zero, so it's gonna be a fun weekend. For now, time for 10-12 hours of sleep.

Only home for a couple days so make the most of it. Up early, load of laundry and big breakfast before the gym. Chest day, along with rotator work on my shoulders. It all felt good, pushed the weight up a little on dumbell bench and it didn't hurt, so that's good. 12 days left before next qualifier, if I had more hair left it would be on fire... there isn't enough hours in the day right now. Made an afternoon, and evening of shooting today. Live fire practice on my own this afternoon, my energy really wasn't into it. I did some work off the bench, tried to relax. Enjoyed the sunshine, and picked a bunch of brass. Evening shoot after dinner, with Murray, Tracey, Jim and Dave. Jim is getting back into IPSC this year, and Dave is brand new. We mostly did Standards for the qualifier. If anything, I need to come off the gas a little. My comfort level is good, we did the targets at a longer distance than the match will be and my hits were excellent. It's fun having new shooters out. Dave does long gun shooting, but it's fun seeing somebody where I was a year ago. Making sure they take their time, nice slow solid A's. Plus just getting them used to the sequence before and after a course of fire. SLOW DOWN We finished with a few mags of Bill Drills, I managed a 1.96 with a 1.03 draw. Did get 3 C's out of it though... I know, I know if it's not all A's it don't count.... Plan for the week: Tuesday, Back workout in the morning. Get the right 200gr LSWC bullets that my gun likes... Pick up my Long gun if it's ready. Dry fire in the evening, work on reloads. Wedsneday, Arm workout in the AM, plus Dry Fire. Catch afternoon flight to Toronto. Thurday through Saturday hop, skip and jump around the east coast with overnights in Boston, and DC. Gonna get a good workout in DC cause Gold's is a block from the hotel. Saturday afternoon, back to Vancouver, and dry fire in the evening. Sunday morning, Leg and shoulder workout, and live fire if possible (need bullets and powder between now and then...) either sunday night or monday get my butt back to Toronto for my first recurrent Simulator training on tuesday and wedsneday. After sim on wedsneday get my butt back to Vancouver ASAP, and maybe live fire or dry fire weds night. Thursday, chest workout in the morning, live fire in the afternoon leave my gun and stuff with Murray to take to Prince George. Friday, Brad travels with me to Prince George for the match. Piece of cake... Chapter 16: The mind as a Weapon Samurai Strategies

Whirlwind week, Montreal on monday for Grandpa's funeral. 4 days of flying started on wedsneday and the schedule went out the window pretty quick. First night in Atlanta, second night back in Toronto, friday night in New York, then home just after midnight on saturday. This morning I felt kinda like I was run over by a truck... had some breakfast, and managed to get my candy ass off to the gym for a light leg workout. Tonight I didn't feel much like dry fire, I am just plain whupped. I emailed the gang, to confirm everyone is in for practice tomorow, and put together Tracey's video from last weekend. Got the timer out, put the belt and gun on and did a good half hour of dry fire. The Prince George qualifier is less than two weeks, gotta step it up a notch. Live fire tomorow, right now time for 12 hours sleepy....

Shot a club match at TMSA on sunday and it went pretty damn well. We had 20 shooters in standard, here is the top 10 overall: 1 100.00 680.7979 7 Randy F S M 2 67.78 461.4501 24 Lewis K C 3 65.21 443.9216 33 Andrew C B 4 64.64 440.0927 31 Andrew L C 5 64.63 439.9789 18 Mark W D 6 63.09 429.5407 21 Stephen L B 7 62.20 423.4284 17 Tracey M B 8 57.05 388.3996 16 Philip S C 9 56.87 387.1783 1 Sheldon W C 10 54.62 371.8796 15 Edgardo M S C complete results here: TMSA April 29 club match results Club matches are fun and kinda weird at the same time. The stages are published so it's a big unknown when you show up. Gotta come up with a plan that works, and will stick in my brain without having thought about it before hand. We had a fun group of people in our and most of us were shooting Standard so it was fun pushing each other to do well at each stage. A friend of mine wanted to come out and watch, which worked out pretty well cause I put him in charge of the video camera TMSA club match video Tactical booboo on the first video stage which is stage 4, if I would have left the last mini poper alone after missing it. Would have placed higher than reloading for 1 shot. The next stage was a weird fixed time stage. 4 targets at 15 yards, and 2 more at 25 yards. 10 seconds, mandatory reload after the 6th shot, maximum 4 shots on target. 2 shooting strings. On the second string for watever reason reloaded after 5 shots and got a procedural. Stage 6 was a fun blaster stage. 3 shots on each paper, two steel on either end. Almost went through the barrels on the left hand side Stage 1 way back up at the top of the hill. This was the most complicated stage, with mulitple positions and back and forth to get everything. Kept it as simple as I could. Bobble at the second spot looking for targets otherwise happy stage. When I was setting goals for this year I really wasn't sure how high to aim. I use Steve Anderson's book, no doubt it is making a huge difference for me. No excuses, I don't get to dry fire every night, and dry fire practice isn't an hour and a half for me. I try and keep it around 30-45 minutes. I knew I wasn't going to be a "D" ranked shooter for too long, not worried about that, I"m just curious to see where I can end up by the end of the year. Things are definitely looking up I'm away flying again, so no dryfire till next sunday just gonna have to do some good reading in the meantime

Thanks GamePlayer, appreciate it. It's time to get my head back in the game. With everything going on, I hadn't touched my gun in 10 days. That's a long time... There's a club match tomorow at TMSA, so I went out for some live fire practice today. Mostly just to get the gun back in hand. When I read some of the other diaries, some people keep closer track to how much they shoot. I have a cardboard box in my range bag. Before I leave home, I take the lid off one of the bullet pails by the reloading bench and scoup however many handfulls of bullets into the box till I figure it's enough (or heavy enough) for todays practice Todays practice wasn't a defined plan on anything in particular, just wanted to hit a little bit of everything to get it back into my brain. Started with a few groups off the bench, which went very well. The gun still works Then did some draws, reloads, shooting on the move left to right, and right to left. I wasn't sharp, but it felt good to get back on track. Time for a good sleep, and club match in the morning! Chapter 15: Confuse your Oponent Samurai Strategies

Back yesterday from a whirlwind tour of east coast early mornings. Had a wonderful warm day walking around DC. The captain and I decided to visit the holocaust museum, we've all seen pictures of what happened. It was interesting seeing it all presented in one place, although not the most pleasant thing I am glad we went. I didn't get to spend a day in Dallas as I hoped. A panicked call from crew sked about somebody missing a wake up call had to off to Houston for the day instead. Another bright side, on the oh so early shuttle ride to the airport in DC, I noticed Gold's gym a block away from our hotel! SWEET! I have two overnights with good workouts to look forward to next month. Legs day this morning, went very well. Had my trainer take a peek at me on the legpress, she was happy with the range of movement. She also said I was putting meat on my legs so that's good Picked up a new toy after the gym. Been keeping an eye out for a 308, seeing as there allready isn't enough hours in the day one more toy can't hurt right? Murray had a gun come in that he wanted me to see. 30" heavy heavy barrel, mauser 98 action, awesome trigger, bunch of other stuff with it. It's in 308 Norma Magnum, which at first didn't seem like a good idea. After some reading, I decided what the hell. There's a bunch of brass and dies, and bullets etc... with it. With no scope it weighs something like 14 lbs... should be fun once it's setup. The day was really going well, and the plan was for live fire in the afternoon. Unfortunately I got a not soo good call from my mom. She has been back in Montreal helping out with my grandpa who has been on the downhill slide for the last while. Today was his last day I should be happy for him that's he's not uncomfortable anymore, but damn he was a good grandpa. Really miss him

Yesterday wasn't very productive shooting or gym wise, but I did get a lot of other stuff done. Got over to Nanaimo and woke up the airplane, ran it, filled it up with gas and it's all ready to run up to Oliver tomorow for it's annual checkup. This morning was leg day, swapped in Front squats instead of hack squats. Getting stronger, but not pushing too hard, wanna get my body in good shape all the way around before really pushing things. It's not quite there yet. Live fire this afternoon. Good weather, first day shooting in shorts this year. We did mostly movement drills, diagonal forward, diagonal rearward, straight forward and back. We took a break when one of the RCMP (northern version of FBI) instuctors came over to visit. It's always fun talking about shooting. When we got back into it, did a bunch of shoot one, reload shoot one drills. and then finished with 4 mags worth of Bill drills. My draws were kicking butt today, from 10 yards good hits 1.3-1.5 up close at 5 yards good hits 0.9-1.2 Reloads went pretty well, still need work. I was getting them down to 1.5 but not so sure on the hits Shooting on the move is feeling better and better each time we do it. Bill drills, I was all A's between 2.05-2.1 One time I got it down to 1.95 but there was a C on the draw. Still VERY happy with that. I really enjoy the group that I practice with, it's always positive, and it's good to push each other to do better. Saturday, I have to go back to Toronto for the better part of two weeks of flying. That's gonna be a long time with no shOOting On a lighter not, it apprears I just bought a long gun. I kinda wanted a 308, and asked Murray to keep an eye out for one for me. It's a 308 Norma Magnum, with a 30" heavy heavy barrel, Mauser action, awesome trigger. At first I didn't want the oddball cartridge but after reading more on it, I'll try it out and see how it goes. Don't think there is gonna be a lot of time for it, but at least I have it Always ready to learn something new. Chapter 14: The Power of Fear Samurai Strategies

I'm still scared of the concept of having kids, but your little guy is AWESOME! Any light at the tunnel for getting your Kimber back from NY? How are you finding your new toy? Mark

.... If you shoot that thing upside down, you could skip the magazine completely, just fill it full of bullets..... Nice work!

There was a hail storm when I got to the gym this morning, it never hails in Vancouver. Had a decent, but light shoulder workout. My left shoulder is still grinding, but it doesn't hurt as much. Dryfire was excellent tonight, really really solid. Went over a couple drills I hadn't done in a while and they felt good. It is gonna be an AWESOME year. Tomorow I am going over to Nanaimo to wake up my little airplane, it's been in storage since new years. I hope it's not too mad at me.

Geez, hope you didn't do a real booboo on your trap. It's tough when you want to train, and you have an injury that needs rest. Better tone it down, and see what's happening with it. Got a question for you, Do you guys do live fire somewhere on tuesdays? I'm gonna be visiting a lady friend of mine in Dallas on tuesday the 24th. She is a new shooter, and I wanted to introduce her to some local people that could steer her in the right direction.

Training in the gym has been going great, had an awesome leg day on saturday, and chest and tri's on sunday. The workouts were good enough that I really wasn't moblile enough for dry fire those days . This morning was light back day, and the intent was live fire on my own this afternoon, then group shoot this evening. When I got out of the gym, it was raining BIG TIME. Decided on Dryfire, dry at home. Went out for live fire practice with the gang tonight. Did some movement drills, some draw and two shot drills, and some multi target different distance drills. One thing I think always looks neat when somebody wings the wooden sticks the targets are stapled too. It's fun seeing chunks of wood fly. I decided to play chainsaw on the stick a where it was sticking out just above the target. Two mags later it fell over Chapter 13: Change the Rules of Engagement Samurai Strategies

If it's the same brass, and the extractor isn't broken, swap the recoil spring for a new one.

Thanks fish, he has some good stuff on there. Yesterday started in Houston waking up at 4:15 to be downstairs for 5am checkin. Really good breakfast burrito in the terminal, and pushed back just before 6:30am. After getting back to Toronto we were supposed to do a Chicago turn, then I was gonna head back to Vancouver. Fortunately we got a message that the chicago flight was cancelled, so I got to head home early (in time for live fire practice ) Got home and did the opposite of when I left home last saturday. Got changed, grabbed the gun bag etc... and headed for the range. We did some movement drills, mostly I wanted to go out for the after match debrief at Starbucks. Oh, and I got HARDWARE from the match Tracey had a first place D class trophy for my 61.42%. Hopefully next qualifier will have me well out of D. We went over the stages together, and came up with places for improvment as a group. Looking forward to next live fire pratice. Some meathead forgot too turn off the alarm clock on his cellphone, so at 4:15am this morning my damn phone woke me up , got back to sleep easlily enough. Still pretty exhausted so only did Bi's at the gym this morning. Dryfire tonight, once again kinda pooped, but worked my way through half an hour worth of drills. Chapter 12: The Power of Silence Samurai Strategies

+1 tungstein guide rod, and lighter recoil spring+shock buffs. It's not going to "reduce recoil" but you will find the gun comes back on target faster being more nose heavy. I'm not a gun expert, but the guru that I listen too tells me the recoil spring is for closing the action. How polished up the interenals of your gun are determine how light a spring will work. My STI has a tungstein guide rod from EGW, and has had some polishing internally. It runs happily w/ a 10lbs spring, and one blue wilson shock buff. my 2 cents Good luck with your shooting.

Just spent the day walking around seeing the sites of Washington DC, really a beautiful city. Also gave me time to ponder where I am at with shooting after my first qualifier of the year. Shooting from one position, I can shoot with the big boys. Movement drills need more work, both getting from A to B and shooting on the move. Fixed time/stronghand/weakhand excercises seemed to work out pretty well. I need to spend more time on swinger targets though. I am very happy with how the year is starting off, and it's only going to get better!

Friday morning, up at 7:15 to be at the range for an hour of shooting before starting setup for the weekend qualifier. Good practice, and long day setting up the range. Pounded a LOT of spikes.... Saturday match day, normally shoot half the day and work a stage half a day. In my case shoot in the morning, and catch a flight to Toronto in the afternoon. Qualifier #3 The match went very well, learned a lot and had a great time. With me having to be in Toronto saturday night I wasn't sure if time would allow me to shoot with a squad through the morning, or just shoot through and get it done. I started off with a great squad that i have shot before, and just watched the clock. It worked out perfect. Right off the bat I'll thank fellow squad mates Don Leedham, Charlene Vilkas, John Mavritsakis, Steve Price, and the rest. There was a ton of experience on the squad and I appreciate the help, and enjoyed the day. We started on Stage 3, fairly easy stage. Made a mental booboo on the first part of the stage. 4 targets pretty close up with no shoots between, shooting and backing away to move to the next part. The last target, my eyes registered the miss but I kept going. Made good time, and Don pointed out starting with feet together and starting the movement on the draw, that worked great. 10 points down for a miss on a smaller stage was killer. Learned from it, time to move on. 38/54, 61 points 10.64 seconds, 5.4 hit factor, 49.88% Stage 4 Straight forward stage, little weird picking up the loaded gun off a table. 23/54, 79 points, 12.22 seconds, 6.46 hit factor, 64% Stage 5 Probably biggest mental booboo of the match, but that's okay. It was a more complicated stage with two sides to the stage with swingers on both sides. I'm still working on nailing swingers so I would rather get the suckers moving, nail everything else then finish the swingers at the end. Don (who is a former National Champ, and current Provincial Champ) suggested just shooting the left side (7 shots), reload then the right side (9 shots). Done, easy. I should have stuck with that plan I had a plan, but it wasn't 100% in my mind and that's not the way to start a stage I ended up looking around to see what the hell it was that I hadn't hit yet. Oh well. 32/54, 44 points, 23.67 seconds 1.85 hit factor, 32% Stage 6 No big comments, just work on foot speed. 22/54, 85 points, 18.55 seconds, 4.58 hit factor, 62% Stage 7 Good plan, shot it well, work on shooting close up targets on the move. Would have saved 2 seconds. 23/54, 89 points, 13.85 seconds, 6.42 hit factor, 60% Stage 8 Fixed time We have been putting a lot of practice time into these. There was one thing in practice that I didn't pick up, kinda important. DON'T shoot AFTER the BUZZER It cost, but I won't do that again. It was soo funny with Tracey the other day too I was saying, aww come on you can get one more shot! Even with 2 procedurals I still ate this one up pretty well. 18/54, 64 stage points, 62% Stage 9 I lit this one up big time! 3 full size targets, 2 A-zone only targets. Nailed it 5/54, 37 points, 4.68 seconds, 7.9 hit factor, 89% Stage 10 This stage was on the same range as stage 9, and we loaded for stage 10 after finishing stage 9. I flipped the lock on my CR speed before stepping out of the box. Somebody forgot to flip the lock off the holster.... Aparently if I would have really yanked on it, the gun might have come out of the holster. Anyhow after the first yank, awwww s#$t!! flipped the tab, and got the job done. Oh and one miss too.... Those are very expensive. 39/54, 21 points, 7.35 seconds, 3.03 hit factor, 30% Stage 1 Good stage, no real comments 18/54, 78 points, 11.02 seconds, 7.07 hit factor, 67% Stage 2 My head wasn't thinking more about getting my ass home/changed/off to the airport, than one the stage. I dropped more C's and D's that I should have. 31/54, 67 points, 13.97 seconds, 4.79 hit factor, 54% Overall: 24/54, 61% VERY HAPPY with that. Allready a big step up from last year, and looking forward to more. Was back on the road by 12:30, home at 1:15. Quick shower, grab my bags and out the door by 2, made the 3:15 flight to Toronto. Piece of cake.... Now 5 days of flying out of Toronto before some time back in Vancouver.

Any comments on using Longshot? A friend is trying it out on his .40 and I was thinking about trying it on the .45

Not enough hours in the day, just gonna write this and hit the pillow. One of my goals for this year was to not be loading match ammo the night before a match. I beat it by one day for this qualifier Now I have probably two matches worth of match ammo prepped, cleaned, chamber checked and ready to rock and roll. Started the day with a pretty good back workout, staying light on the weight is keeping my elbow happy, so that's a good thing. We had a good long live fire this afternoon. I wanted to do a bit on my own, so I went out a little early. Everyone else had the same idea First practice of the year with the regular gang of Murray, Tracey, Brad and myself. Started off with my aftec not aftecing, I don't know what happened, but something isn't working with it. Didn't want to mess with it today, so the old standby went back in and ran fine. We practiced some of the fixed time standards for the weekend. The weakhand excercise was working well for me with a good draw, and good shots. The next excercise was giving me brain farts with, 3 targets 2 shots each, reload, 2 shots each target strong hand only. Good draw, good cadence, half decent reload, but I'll be damned if I could get the gun back on target without having both hands on it! Got it sorted out after a couple tries, just funny conditioning. Then after watching me do it, Brad did the same thing... Throughout the practice I seemed to be pushing the first shot off the draw pretty hard to the left. Just squeeze the trigger. Overall good practice, now sleepy time so we can do it again tomorow! Chapter 11: Pay Attention to Details Samurai Strategies