Pensfan

Not sure if this is official or not, but what happens in our range is the RO calls "stop", then instructs the shooter to stay put, place hands on top of head, another person goes downrange to reset steel/paper, etc. Once the range is clear the RO instructs the shooter to again "make ready" and proceeds from there.

A few months ago I had EERW build a CZ 75 Compact for a few pennies cheaper than the Pro-Tek as I wanted a safety rather than decocker. I have run around 2K rounds through it so far and it is my daily carry piece. I absolutely love it and would highly recommend it for anyone. I have turned three shooters into CZ converts with my carry and competition CZs that Stuart has worked on now.

The biggest difference I have seen in my pistol between the two is the 124s tend to be more snappy and give a slightly sharper muzzle flip, while the 147s give more of a push backwards with less muzzle flip. Both are easily manageable, it really comes down to personal preference. I prefer the 147s, but for cost reasons may switch back to 124s after this current batch.

As long as the new pistol does not grant a competitive advantage you are good to go. Now if your M&P broke and you replaced it with a CZ... well... you might be out of luck.

I believe 50 posts is needed for classifieds right? Hint hint...

I use WST for 9mm 147gr and love it. It is clean, not too smoky, and very affordable/available.

Had a great week in terms of training, stuck with my plan everyday with the exception of only doing reloads instead of the actual dry fire program on Wednesday evening. My reloads are leaving a lot of room for improvement so I wanted to try and work out some kinks there before a live fire session and two matches this weekend. All in all though, I felt like the practice was working well. Thursday: Quick Skills Test - Using Ben's "Quick Skills Test" posted on the BE forums, I wanted to establish a baseline for more new training drills and start identifying and tracking areas that need the most work. Using this data I was able to fill out the skills assessment form taken from Saul Kirsch's book "Thinking Practical Shooting" and generate a very beneficial list of skills to be worked on first. As a 70% B shooter, the times here are fairly in line with what other posters in the Quick Skills Test thread reported. Total Time: 46.03 Penalties: 9.80 Adjusted Score: 55.83 Saturday Match: Shot a 6 stage match and sucked it up haha. I was joking around too much and didn't take it as seriously as I needed. A friend and I were joking about beating him and I continued with that thought process during the match. When I focus on beating a particular person, I don't shoot to my own game and that kills me. I had a decent match, but overall reverted to old undisciplined habits and shot with abandon rather than focusing purely on vision, watching sights, and calling shots. And yes... blew the classifier as well. big fat goose egg on it. I reshot it once, but it was nearly as bad so I didn't bother submitting it. Sunday Match: Shot this match at PASA much better than Saturday's match. Rather than focusing on beating anyone, or speed, I simply focused on calling every shot and watching the sights rise every shot. I shot MUCH better on Sunday. My mental game is a make or break for me and I will get more focused on maintaining the proper competitive mindset from now on. The stages today were some of the same from the Illinois Sectional so I had the benefit of running them two weeks ago. Visualizing the stages was much easier as well obviously. I improved my scores today over the same ones from two weeks ago, in one by as much as over 25%. I need to work on my mental game as much as anything this week and focus on what made the PASA match successful.

I ran this last Thursday as a baseline for my new training regimen. Not the best numbers, but it gives me a place to start and some great feedback on what I need to work on. Total Time: 46.03 Penalties: 9.80 Adjusted Score: 55.83 I am currently a 70% B shooter

Liked and posted.

Thanks for all the feedback everyone. It's funny that "Bad Day at the Diner" I had originally envisioned as the simplest one to setup and run... in all actuality it is turning into the most discussed haha. Before it is finalized for the match next weekend, I agree it might simply be changed to "shoot as visible from A/B" and leave it at that.

Since shooting at brown without using my sights is problem number 1 I am working on right now an Number 2 is that my mental prep isn't as strong yet as it needs to be, I addressed those primarily in practice last night. Previously when the timer went off, I had the tendency to just start shooting at targets since my plan went out the window. I would over run targets, pick up unnecessary shots, etc. I am getting more disciplined every day now with dry fire and making a much more concerted effort to watch the sights for every trigger pull and focus on calling shots. As for yesterday's practice, I worked through 15A and B last night for a little over an hour of overall practice. I was doing well with the "laid back" par times for all the drills with the exception of the reloads. I have lots of room for improvement with speeding up my reloads. After about 30-35 mins of dry fire, I spent another 30 minutes focusing on smooth clean reloads. No par time, just trying to go perfectly smooth with Draw, two upper A shots, reload, 4 lower A shots, reload, transition to next target, 2 upper A, repeat. I pretty much worked reloads until my shoulders were getting tired and I was starting to get sloppy. So I figured it was a good time to put everything away and focus on mental training. I spent some time working through some mental exercises (positive self-talk, visualization around the house, and writing in my shooting journal) before wrapping up with about 7 minutes of speed reading eye exercise videos on youtube.

Reviving this thread so I can post my scores to it after Thursdays' practice session.

haha, I got exactly what I needed. And it led to a setting up a new system and practice routine as well. For this first week I have a schedule laid out for practice, both dry fire and live fire, as well as a match this weekend. Right now I am using Ben's Dry Fire routine until I finish reading Kirsh's book and re-reading Steve Anderson's book. After these are digested I will likely combine aspects from all of them into a training routine that targets my greatest deficiencies. Mon: Live Fire Drills, Ben's 15min Dry Fire Routine, Aerobic conditioning training Tue: Dry Fire 15A & B, Strength training Wed: Dry Fire 15 & C, Aerobic conditioning training Thu: Dry Fire 15A, Live Fire with Trigger Time group at local range, Strength training Fri: Dry Fire 15 & D, Aerobic conditioning training Sat: Dry Fire 15A & E, Strength training Sun: Local Monthly Match Daily: Positive Mental Self-Talk, Visualization Practice, Physical & Mental Relaxation Exercises Today: Hit the range for the first day of my new training regimen to work on shooting with more discipline, particularly paying attention to the sights on every shot. I have been sloppy in the past with not seeing my sights and simply "shooting at brown" with the obvious results. Sometimes the hits were there, most of the time not. When they weren't there I would let negative self-talk tank the next stage and eventually the match. Today I will see the sights rise and settle for every shot fired Goals for the day: - Align the sights for EVERY shot - See the sights lift and return for EVERY shot - Focus on calling shots, not looking for holes - Establish baselines on drills to track improvement Warmup: - 5 Min Dry Fire: Draw and engage T1-T2 (two yards apart) with two shots each - 5 Min Dry Fire: Box A, draw and move to Box B (5 yards away) and engage T1-T2 with two shots each - 5 Min Dry Fire: Bill Drill T1, reload, Bill Drill T2 Drills: All paper drills performed from 7yds and Plate Rack from 10yds - Bill Drill x 3 (only shots in A zone count) - Tight Group x 3 (picking one spot on the target and emptying the mag as fast as possible while keeping the shots grouped as tight as possible) - 3 Sec Par Drill (set timer to 3sec par, engage the A zone as many times as possible) - Plate Rack: 2-reload/2-reload/2-reload, Freestyle x 6 - Plate Rack: Inline, freestyle x 6 - Plate Rack: Outside In, freestyle x 6 - Plate Rack: Inline, Strong Hand Only x 5 - Plate Rack: Inline, Weak Hand Only x 5 Baselines: - Bill Drill: Fastest clean run - 2.47sec - 3 Sec Par: Draw, engage 10 shots (1.32sec draw, .20 splits), 3.10sec - Tight Group: 10 hits, 2.5", no timer - Plate Rack 2-reload: 7.21sec - Plate Rack Inline Freestyle: 3.33sec - Plate Rack Outside In Freestyle: 4.08sec - Plate Rack Inline SHO: 4.73sec - Plate Rack Inline WHO: 5.46sec Even with trying to focus on the sights, old habits came back and bit me hard at times. I will make a concerted effort during dry fire practice this week to make sure I see the sights on every trigger pull and work on calling shots rather than looking over the sights at the target.

Diligentia - Vis - Celeritas Accuracy - Power - Speed After shooting competitively for a little over five months, I finally had the epiphany and realization that I need to get more serious about my training and shooting if I intend to earn a GM classification in this sport. I have kicked around the idea of what I want to get out of shooting several times in the past five months, vacillating from "having fun with friends" to "being the best in the world" and everything in between. The great epiphany came last week while shooting the 2012 Illinois Sectional with three GMs, including one of the best in the game Ben Stoeger. I went into the match thinking how great it was going to be to watch these three GMs tear up the stages, that I would learn so much from them regarding stage break down, reloads, entering/exiting shooting positions, etc. What I actually learned was not so much what these guys do... rather what I DON'T do. At that time, I lacked mental discipline and acuity. After tanking a stage, Ben told me point blank... "You are your own worst enemy" followed later by "you shoot with no discipline". At the moment I was taken aback by those statements, but knew right away they were 100% accurate. Rather than being bitter about those statements, they consumed me this entire week. They fueled my competitive nature and pushed me to take a serious look at my current training and goals and how inadequate they were. I have been reading Saul Kirsh's "Thinking Practical Shooting" and have adopted several concepts in it regarding goal setting and establishing a training regimen. I now have a new set of goals, a new training regimen, and a path to earn my Grand Master card and be a world class competitor. Thanks Ben! I am gunning for you next!

Thanks! I think they are going to be fun. Feel free to take them and use them anytime! Hmm... I am not seeing how to add anything to make it more appealing to stay seated. That is completely based off of my inexperience, not questioning or taking offense. What would make it a better stage? What about lowering the port and targets so they are easy to see from the table, but getting up close makes the shooter crouch, kneel?

Edits made based on feedback. Thanks!

That is largely a result of my lack of drawing ability haha. The wall will be a double barrel high wall with mesh used to divide the stage which is why I added the hardcover statement since you will be able to see through it. I will add the infinitely high and ground level wording as well. Thanks!

Good point... we have plenty of "gamers" in our matches, heck myself included haha, so I am trying to minimize the gamesmanship. Would back against rear of chair suffice and not have to worry about knees?

Ahh... thanks for pointing that out! I will definitely add a shooting box under the chair and fix that. How about the stages themselves? Do they seem fun, challenging, worth inclusion in a local match? Validate me!!! haha

Exact same experience here, and for the same reason too. When I am squadded with friends I don't visualize nearly enough, heck sometimes I come to the line still not having formulated a plan at all and just end up "shooting targets". I am definitely more of a social shooter, however I WANT to be a more serious competitor but I enjoy the sport and hanging out with friends more it seems haha.

So I jumped in and started helping our local range setup stages as our current MD and Assistants are starting to feel the pressure of not having help, stage design burn out, etc. I am new to the sport still (only 6 months or so) and felt like this was a good way to help out and learn how to break down stages as well haha. I designed one stage last month that was simply a modified version of someone else's stage that I added some new components too. The below three are my first real attempts at designing from scratch. The biggest problem we have with our bays is that they are narrow and the side "berms" are concrete blocks that we are not allowed to shoot. So we are forced to design stages that largely only fire straight downrange. We have two bays that are wider, one of which will host Decisions Decisions as it is a bigger stage with some wide angle shots. So any input on design, layouts, loopholes in the rules, heck let me know if the stages just flat out suck, would all be greatly appreciated! Thanks! Bad Day at the Diner.DOC Crazy Eights.DOC Decisions Decisions.DOC

This is my first sectional / lvl II match and I am really looking forward to it. PASA puts on fantastic local matches, I expect this one to just as fun!

In the Heart of the Sea, the tragedy of the whaleship Essex by Nathaniel Philbrick. I started this book a few weeks ago, then had to return it to the library unfinished. I recently just got it back and will finish it now. The real life story of a whale crashing into a whaleship that inspired Herman Melville to write Moby Dick.

Competitive with the big boys...? probably not. Check your combined match results and see where you stack using your production rig compared to the other limited guys. If you are beating them with only 10rds and more reloads, you'll be even more competitive with full mags and fewer reloads. However you can still try it out and see how you like the division before dropping cash into all the bells and whistles.

I have a spreadsheet I use to keep track of my own scores for every match in excel. It is pretty basic, but it gives points based on breakdown of A/B/C/D/M/No Penalty M/Procedural & No Shoot, hit factor, % of points scored, shots scored as A, and a couple other things. It would be pretty easy to modify for your purpose I suppose. Message me if you want a copy emailed to you. Thanks and welcome to the forum!