JerryDGeek

coolduckboy ... This would be Stephan, right? Hey, I'm glad you finally got that Edge you've been drooling over for the past year, but I know how disappointing it can be when your new rod doesn't look run as well as you expected it to when you pull the trigger. When I bought my 10mm Edge in 2001, I had feeding problems too. All the good advice you have received here is worthwhile; these guys are very knowledgeable and they really want to help. But it seems to me that you are missing the obvious: The gun don't work? Go talk to the man who built it. Most of the folks here know Dave Skinner at STI, and they know he doesn't skimp on quality control. When I had the IDENTICAL problems you are experiencing, I took the Edge to a reputable gunsmith and had him bore out the chamber a couple of thousandths. That fixed the problem. (Actually, the Edge may have a very tight chamber ... witness the dings on the bullets that try to feed ... but don't quite.) I bragged about this, and caught an email from Skinner: "You realize you just voided the warranty on your barrel, right? Why didn't you send the gun back to the factory? Why do you think we have a Custom Shop?" The answer here, Grasshopper, is that complaining about your new gun on a public forum, and going to a local gunsmith, are not as satisfying as asking the manufacturer to make it right ... and then learning that this is the sole source of expertise for the STI Edge. I strongly encourage you to go to the STI Website ( http://www.stiguns.com/ ) for contact information. Call STI, describe the problem. Get a Return Authorization Number (RA). Then pack it up and ship it UPS to STI along with a sample of ammunition. (The STI customer rep will tell you how much to send, or even whether you should send ammo ... since you seem to be using only factory ammo, that may not be necessary.) If they are as helpful to you as they have always been to everyone I know (who has bothered to ASK THEM about gun problems), they will fix the problem and it won't cost you an arm and a leg. Ask Chuck Bradley (Hi Chuck!) if I'm right or if I am wrong. Or go to my website (Cogito Ergo Geek), find the email address at the bottom of the page, and write to me. I will be glad to help you work with STI to fix your problem. (Or, you can see me at a CCS match and we'll talk.) I predict that you will eventually learn that your STI Edge is probably one of the finest guns you will ever own; I feel that way about my own Edge, and I have a slew of guns. But none of the 'other' gun manufacturers, of those I own, have as comprehensive a warranty policy as STI. So take advantage of it, and call STI today. I have every confidence that they will make it right for you. It's their job. (Note: here's the STI URL for contact information: http://www.stiguns.com/contact.html )

Last year, California passed a "Microstamping" law which required all ammunition to be encoded with serial numbers -- supposedly, to help police catch bad guys. Actual purpose: to make it too expensive for shooters to buy ammunition, to forbid reloading your own ammunition, and to ultimately impose draconian gun control laws. This month both Illinois and Indiana State Legislatures have proposed similar laws, titled "Encoded Ammunition". The text of the bills are eerily reminiscent of the California bill which was enacted. Features of these bills include a five-cent tax on every round of ammunition (no exclusion for .22 rimfire- adding $25 to every 500-round brick), a de facto requirement that everyone who buys ammunition is registered with The State, and (implicit in the context of the bill) such severe and insupportable regulations that ammunition manufacturers will be unable to comply with the restrictions. Details and links available at Cogito Ergo Geek: http://jerrythegeek.blogspot.com/2008/01/e...s-illinois.html The NRA, as of this date, has absolutely no reference to these bills as 'Alerts' or 'Issues'. The NRA won't tell you about this. But I will.

Yessss, my pretty ....... ! The Evil Oregon Star is indeed the child of Evil Bill Marrs and The Evil Star (which I've linked to ... somewhere.) We shot Version 1.0 this weekend, and there were some problems with splatter and Plates striking the too-near cardboard targets. I talked to Bill during the match, or rather he talked to me, and he has some fixes already in mind for Version 2.0. First is to move the cardboard-target back another foot, second is to remove the angle-iron splatter-shields (so-called by me) with flat plates made of mild steel. In fact, he'll plate over the entire double-rod support armto make bullets bounce back instead of splattering. I'm sure there will be a Version 3.0, or at least a Version 2.1 in the future. This is a "Work In Progress", and we all know that development of a new system is bound to involve some problems which need to be worked out. Do any of us besides me remember the problems with using the .38 Super in IPSC? The good news is, there is almost no probability of experiencing "Thirty-Eight Superface" during the development of this target. The Texas Star is almost universally accepted as a legitimate target, at least in the lower levels (I and II) of competition. Rumor has it that it has been included in at least one Level III competitive venue. I have no investment in the promotion of this target design, except that I have shot the stage presented April 28 at Dundee, Oregon, and I saw no insurmountable problems with it. The folks who use the word "bubblegum" in relation to this target are wearing blinders. I understand that the phrase originated with Ron Avery, but I have no idea why it was used or why it applies to this target. This target adds a new dimension to IPSC/USPSA competition, in that it requires the competitor to engage small, moving targets agains a confusing background. I challenge those who would demean it to provide a reason why it should be denigrated as "bubblegum", which I assume implies a meaningless, inapplicable challenge. Since when has IPSC competitiion rejected a shooting challenge as being too difficult? As far as I can see (lacking a clarification of the "bubblegum" canard), the only reason to reject is is that the target array is too confusing. Does anyone have a better reason to reject it? After all, the last time IPSC competition rejected a target was the "Hanging Ninja" issue, which applied correctly to the "Classic" target, but included not exception to the non-assymetric "Metric" target. You think that was well considered? ... Neither do I.

Yup, I voted for Julie, too. The field needs some diversity, and I would love to see her matched directly against the men shooters. I would have voted for Travis Tomasie if he was on the list, though. Of course, I would have voted for ME if I was on the list. What? No Geeks in the line-up? You got something against Mediocre B-level shooters? Oh, right. Can't shoot, look goofy . . . these are probably good reasons. Okay, I go back to voting for Julie G. Pete would be so proud.

Everybody who's talking urges you to 'shoot what you've got"" Sounds like good advice to me. You'll be buying a new gun eventually, but your decision will be made after you've developed some basic skills, and have learned what does and does not work for you. Listen to what other people say, but make your decisions based on your own hard-won knowledge and the things you've learned from people you trust. You don't know anybody here; you can't trust us, because we all have our own agenda and our own favorite gun . . . which we've chosen because we took the time to learn what works for US, or because we made a lot of bad choices before we made the right choices (usually, the latter.) Get a good quality gun that you can afford to shoot a lot. If you don't already reload, you will. 99% of us can't afford to compete without building our own ammunition, and we've learned that knowing how your ammunition works, and how your chosen gun works, not only enhances the experience but makes us better competitors. How? When you go to a match, something's going to go wrong with your ammunition, your gun, or your equipment. Knowing what problems are mostly likely caused by which shooting element helps you to recover quickly. As most of us can tell you, the shooter who screws up least will probably win. It doesn't matter what gun you shoot, as long as you can sight it in, make it work reliably, and fix it when it tanks. The first few years are typically spent learning the game anyway, unless you have a dedicated, knowledgable coach. Juniors have the edge here, as their parents is usually their sponsor and is able and willing to spend an exorbitant amount of time with training, equipment maintenance, and ammunition manufacture. If you are a junior, chances are you have a significant edge; for us old folks, we have to learn it all on our own, the hard way. Save your money for the things you will discover are MUST HAVE items, such as ammunition components, range time, and coffe & donuts to schmooze with the old-timers so you can learn the easy way the lessons they learned the hard way. Leave your ego at home. Chances are you won't be winning any matches this year, and probably not next year, either. When someone gives you advice, consider it carefully before you reject it. Somebody is going to tell you something that directly contradicts what somebody else just told you. You have to choose which person to listen to, and also understand why the contradictory advice was offered. You thing you have time to break in a new gun while all this BS is being tossed at you? You don't. The only thing you can rely on is your gun, and your own developing skills. Spend more time working on these things, and less time trying to figure out what your next gun should be. When you need a new gun, you'll know it; and you'll know what gun it should be, too. This advice is free, and should be accepted for what you paid for it, which is exactly nothing. Some people thrive on new guns, but usually these are people who discover that they have a natural talent for pistol shooting and they don't have to learn everything the hard way. They can afford to break the rules. The rest of us can't. We have to learn the basics, we have to build our own knowledge base before we can make intelligent decisions. You may discover that you not only can afford, but can shoot exceptionally well with, a brand new Race Gun from STI or SV. Go for it. If you're not sure, you're probably not going to be very well served by buying the hottest, niftiest weaponry. Remember, you'll be competing against people who have the same gear, so if you're not absolutely certain that this is the best and only equipment for you, you may be disappointed in your place-of-finish. The very best shooters in IPSC today are using fairly basic guns. They just know how to shoot them well, and it's a skill you can learn, too. You can either learn these skills on a $3000 race gun, or on a $1000 Production, L-10 or Limited gun (and one gun can be used in any two of these three divisions.) As you get to know folks, I'm sure you'll discover that they've got a gun sitting around that they'll be happy to let you use long enough to learn what the pro's and con's are of each model. Don't spend your money on a new gun. It's exciting, but it's not necessarily productive.

Shoot every match you can reach. Practice? Sure. Do the standard drills, but every time you go to a match you see something that you don't do well. Work on your weaknesses, not on your strengths. (The things you do well, you WILL do well.) And the people you meet there will be happy to give you any advice they think you're ready to hear, and some advice that you're not ready to hear. Can't hit steel? Steel is your friend; you can tell when you hit a steel target because it falls down. Learn the sight picture you need to hit steel targets, and remember that the most common error when engaging steel targets is shooting too fast. Slow down to speed up. Are you taking too many make-up shots? Learn to call your shots. KNOW when you have hit your target, KNOW when you have missed. If you miss, make up the shot RIGHT NOW. Dont' stand there and look at the target, trying to decide whether you have to take another shot. EIther take the shot, or move on. Rememer the"Tuco Rule" (from the Clint Eastwood movie, "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly"): "If you'\re gonna shoot, shoot; don't talk". That is, don't talk to yourself, just shoot it or scoot. Getting real good scores, but losing matches big-time because your time is too slow? Learn where you can save time by taking less steps, finding the best time to reload, practicing ogod ammunition management techniques. Basically (in IPSC, at least), ten-roundshooters' rule of thumb is . . . if you're moving, you probably should be reloading. Generally speaking, most new "Action" shooters have good accuracy skills, when given the time to get the sight picture. You're probably not going to improve by rushing your shots. The LAST place to save time is by shooting quickly. Instead, learn to save time by moving quickly, being decisive, moving into and out of a shooting position expeditioiusly (which may not mean 'quickly', but may mean 'promptly'.) Again, one of the most common places where new shooters lose time is by making standing reloads. You run out of ammunition in the middle of engaging an array, but you've spent several seconds moving from one position to another. Consider having enough magazines to engage every array with a new magazine. Reload 'almost' every chance you get. If your chosen sport requires that you retain partially loaded magazines, go ahead and reload while you're moving anyway, but save your magazine; you'll save time in the long run, and you'll have a wealth of partially loaded magazines to make up shots if you run your new magazine dry (remember where you stashed your short magazine, don't be shy about going to it to finish a target array). Here's the hardest lesson to learn, for a new shooter: When you've made your very best effort to score on a target, and it's just not working for you . . . move on. Remember that you're shooting for competition, not for blood. There are times when it makes good competitive sense to leave a very difficult target standing instead of spending a lot of time trying to take it down. If your chosen sport doesn't penalize your outrageously for leaving a target 'not neutralized', and you don't really need the points as much as you need to save time, just move on. Any target you've already shot at more than x number of times (you choose your own limit) and can't hit, maybe you should find a new shooting problem to address. You might even find a better place from which to shoot at it, later in the stage. I realize that the 'leave a target standing' philosophy may be anethema to some shooting sports, but the cold hard fact is that spending a lot of TIME shooting at a single target just undermines your confidence until you eventually convince yourself that you CAN'T hit it. You need your confidence; allow yourself to believe that you're saving a lot of TIME by breezing by it. You have to pick your fights; don't fight a target you don't really need. Here's a summary: * Shoot often, shoot safe, shoot well * Work on your weakness; don't reinforce bad habits, but when you aren't doing well you should find out what you're doing wrong and change your style. * reload when you're not doing anything else; a rule of thumb, not a mandate. * make up time in movement, save time using good ammunition management techniques * do NOT try to make up or save time by shooting faster; slow down to speed up * Are you hung up on one target? Forget it - move on. You can lose more points by losing time thatn you do by not 'neutralizing' a target. Final point: Have fun with it. That's what we're there for. Your new friends on the range will have plenty of advice for you. You don't need advice from some anonymous goof on the Internet that you've never met. Just be sure that if their advice doesn't work for you, you can throw it away and try what the OTHER new friend on the range suggests. Not every technique works for every shooter, and until you have established your basic skills sets, every safe technique is worth trying at least twice.

Why would you want to do this? It wouldn't hurt the dedicated sandbagger. As mentioned before, he is only going to tank both classifiers to gain an advantage at major matches. He doesn't care about club match results. Everybody else is GENERALLY going to try to do well on classifiers. Why do so many people reshoot them? Answer: They want to continually test their own performance against the best shooters in the region. If someone is perennially willing to ruin their chances to win at a club match, their perspective on the sport is already warped. Let them go their own solitary way. Eventually, losing will become a habit, and they find themselves unable to maintain the competitive edge because they have become accustomed to losing. My experience with sandbaggers is that the shooters who are right on the cusp of breaking into a new class just before a major match will allow themselves to throw a classifier stage for the sole purpose of retaining the lower classification for a limited time. They will either do extremely well within their class for that single major match, and then find them selves bumped to the next class, or they will have learned that the sandbagging has undermined their ability to compete consistently to the best of their ability. I have no argument with either result. The only time when sandbaggers win is when they maintain a low average within their own region (say, for the sake of example, Jamaica) and go to a major match in another region (USPSA?) and do well. Their rating in their own region may not be enhanced by their performance in this 'foreign' region, so they are rewarded for their manipulative performance. This is a situation which can't be addressed within club matches in USPSA; it can only be resolved when the every region considers match results from 'foreign' or 'international' matches, which not all regions do. The problem with having mystery double classifiers in club matches is that it hurts the average local shooter. This can happen because the local club becomes so competition-oriented that it begins to play games with it's competitors. It becomes manipulative, and confrontational. It's no longer fun for the honest person who just wants to go shoot an IPSC match with the intention of doing as well as possible on any given day. IPSC is a game. Don't make it a game in which the participants don't even know the rules.

Ah-Nold, in "Total Recall". The Mars Movie (Am I too late, and too little, again? Damn! I hate that!)

My CMC 10-round magazines fit nicely into the 140mm side of an EGW mag template. Either somebody is either jerking you around, or they do NOT understand the rules.

As should be no surprise to anybody, Troy is absolutely correct here. In fact, everybody who said, in effect: 'no compromise on safety rules!" is correct. I've been RO-ing for a while, and I've made almost every mistake possible. I've never felt that I was wrong in imposing a safety rule. I've DQ'd my friends. I've even DQ'd my sweetheart, SWMBO. I felt bad about it, but it was the right thing to do. I've also failed to DQ people who broke the safety rules. Once out of ignorance, and once (an an Area match) out of sheer softheartedness to a 15-year-old Phillipino lass who holstered her pistol without applying the safety. In the latter case, I had already DQ'd another lady on the same stage (who had an AD on the reload), this was the VERY NEXT competitor on the stage, and she had a half-dozen of her fellow countrymen looking on proudly. Instead of busting her, I leaned over and quietly whispered "look down, check your safety. Put it on. I OUGHT TO DQ YOU, BUT I WON'T ... THIS TIME." Yeah, I was a nice guy. But I was wrong. And I've felt 'wrong' about it ever since. Even though I wasn't a 'dedicated RO' ... I was just another competitor serving my half-day obligation as a worker bee ... I really didn't have the heart to DQ two competitors in a row. Breaks of the game, right? The breaks of the game are, if a shooter, or two shooters, or ten in a row violate a safety rule, then every one of them are not in the best frame of mind to compete today, and they really really ought to go sit down and watch everybody else. It's not a matter of teaching anybody a lesson. It's not a matter of being a nice guy, or being a 'range nazi'. It's not a matter of choosing to damage or enhancing your own personal reputation. It's not a matter of encouraging (or rather not DIS-couraging new, young, or vulnerable) competitors. It's a matter of accepting the responsibility to ensure range safety. Everybody goes home without bleeding. It doesn't mean everybody goes home without having their ego, or their reputation, damaged. Stuff happens, you're responsible for what you do. If I saw somebody getting away with violating a safety rule, it shouldn't matter who they are, or who I am, or what the circumstances are. I would HOPE that I would counsel the RO to the effect that he wasn't doing his job. I would also HOPE that I reported his derelection of duty to the RM. That's in the area of "what would you do". In the actual event, I probably would stop after taking the RO aside and talking to him, or her, about what the job entails and about hard decisions. I probably wouldn't take it to the RM unless the RO refused to acknowldge his error and/or seemed inclined to be more responsible in the future. Why? Because we need to be supportive of both people who want to compete, and people who are willing to volunteer to do the hard job of officiating. If they can learn to do better, they deserve a chance to learn from their mistakes. But if they can't learn, they shouldn't be in the position of insuring the safety of others, no matter how strong their sense of dedication may seem. I've seen people bleeding on the range, and it ain't pretty. I invariably find myself thinking "This could have been prevented with training and supervision". And I'm grateful the the self-imposed victim could walk off the stage. It only takes ONE blood-on-the-saddle incident to affirm your dedication to the proposition that it's better for the competitor to be pissed off, and perhaps to quit playing the game, than to see him lying in a pool of blood. I've also seen a person cut himself with an axe while chopping wood. Not a pretty sight. It wasn't my job to keep him from hurting himself. On the range, it's everybody's job. Troy is right. If you see somebody 'getting away' with violating a safety rule, you're not doing anybody a favor by ignoring it.

Dave, Some people just shoot, some people just RO, some people do both. Shooting is easy. ROing is hard. I've been DQ'd twice. I never took it well. I've DQ'd ... I don't know how many people, but it's darn sure more than two. Or ten. Every time, I would have rather been DQ'd myself than to send somebody else home. Nobody likes being the guy who sends somebody home. But it's the job that has to be done, and if you don't do it chances are the job will fall to someone who isn't as knowledgeable or committed or caring as you are. Yeah, it's true. I've read your posts, and I admire you for being uncomfortable ... but still willing to put aside your angst and willing to give back to the sport part of what you have received from it. But it's still hard to do. I hope you can make the same decision that the rest of us have: master the rules, and be the kind of RO you hope you draw every time YOU shoot a stage. If you give it your honest best effort, and just can't handle the pressure, don't feel obligated to continue in a losing avocation. Quit ROing and pick up a tape gun, or score, or do something that is less personally upsetting to you. The RO has to make judgement calls in every match. A "judgement call" means that you have to know right now, without time to think it over and without reference to a rule book, that something is wrong and action should be taken. Your judgement may be wrong sometimes, and you will probably beat yourself up for your fallacy most times. People who enjoy the luxury of a Monday Morning Quarterback may criticize you for your judgement, after the fact. But as long as you know you made the best decision possible under the time-limitations and (probably) without benefit of having ALL the information available, you can take comfort in knowing that at that moment, under those conditions, you made the right call and gave the best service possible to the competitor AND to the sport. You're the best there is, Dave. Don't let nobody tell you any different. PS: About the idiots who tell you that you're wrong, and they obviously don't understand the rules? Pity them, smirk at them. Don't listen to them. Remember the words of that great American, Bugs Bunny: What a bunch of maroons!

I use to clean my guns anytime they have been fired. This is a good policy. But I'm old, and fat, and lazy. Now, I fieldstrip the gun after every match (or practiceI and wipe it down. Paper towls are good for this, if you do it before the gunk has time to set. For the bore, I use any reasonable solvent (Hoppe's, Simple Green, etc.) and use a bronze bore brush. Precede and follow that with a solvent-soaked rag on a stick. Follow it with ... a solvent-soaked rag on a stick. Then a couple of dry rags on a stick. Wipe everything you can see with a solvent-soaked rag, until you don't see any more blacky accumulations. Then use brake cleaner to wash away the residue. Oil the bejimmineze out of if. The lightest oil you can use, for the climatic conditions the better. I use sewing machine oil during cold weather, and synthetic motor oil in hot weather. Slide Glide is okay in the hottest weather, but perhpas not the best choice the rest of the year. Slide Glide is a grease ... you want oil, because it will help rinse away powser reside. Once a year, I take the gun to a gunsmith for a thorough detail cleaning. Do NOT use WD-40 on your gun, or your gunsmith will not respect you. It's too cheezy, and doesn't get rid of gunk in the parts you can't get to when you field-strip your gun. Listen to your gunsmith. Lubrication is at least as important as cleaning your gun. You need to get the gunk off your gun, by dissolving it ... and then sluice it off with massive doses of degreaser. That's why the cost-effective influence of Brake Cleaner is helpful. After that, oil it up to provide lubrication and prevent rusting. Don't forget to oil the exterior parts of your gun, but it's more important to oil the interior parts. If you over-oil it interiorly, the oil will seep out. Wipe your gun's exterior parts with a clean, dry rag when you're done. If you don't have exterior plastic parts, you can clean your pistol in your dishwasher, this is no joke. You need to oil it thoroughly when you're done to keep it from rusting, even if it's stainless steel. This is not good for elecronic dot-sights, so don't do this with parts which will be adversely affected by copious amounts of hot water and soap. Simple Green is good Hoppe's is better. Always oil your gun copiously after cleaning. Wipe off excess oil when you're done. Put lots of oil on your gun. Wipe off the excess. Oil your gun. Clean the bore frequently; use a bore brush or wrap a copper dish scrubber around a stick and scrub it, then use more solvent. Consider a Lewis Lead Remover or a Hoppe's equivalent. If you use soft lead bullets, it will lead up your bore to the point where the tun won't shoot consistently. Don't use swaged bullets or soft lead bullets. What have I forgotten? No lead in the bore. No powder-residur crud on the exterior surfaces. No rust ANYWHERE! Once a year ... or better ... have your gunsmith detail-clean the interior of your gun because you (like me) are too ignorant to detail disassemble the gun without screwing it up. Keep it oiled ... more is better. Yeah, that pretty much covers it. Everything else is just detail. If it doesn't adversely affect your accuracy or functional reliability, you don't need it.

Brake cleaner is a degreaser. Okay, you clean your gun and it's got all this solvent all over it. Spray it with brake cleaner ... or Gun Scrubber if you can afford it. Then oil it up good. (Glock owners, feel free to feel superior ... I hear that Glocks don't need lubrication. I don't believe it, but you can go with whatever toots your horn.) In cold weather, I prefer sewing machine or similar very light oil. In hot weather, synthetic motor oil is a good choice but anything that can handle high temperatures and isn't likely to break down will work. (I've seen guns that get so hot from a single stage that they're still too hot to comfortably hold on the next stage .. an hour later on the next stage.) Gun Scrubber may do the job, but it won't do anything that Brake Cleaner won't do. Your choice.

It sounds as if you could relax FIRST, then just shoot the stage. It may be that you don't recognize that you're relaxed until you have gone past "the hard part" Next time, don't think about the hard part as "hard". Just pace yourself according to he shooting problem that is presented to you. It's all easy, to one degree or another. Easy to say, eh?

It sounds as if the "blacked out" phenomenon is similar to the not-uncommon experience of driving a car for a long period of time, and suddenly realizing that you can't recall what you've done for the past ten minutes. Sure,you know you were there and doing the control thingies necessary to keep the car on the road; you have the incontrovertible evidence of still being on the road, so you must have been driving the car adequately. When I experience this, I realize that I have been thinking about something else, usually out of boredom (does anyone experience this on a twisty mountain road? I don't think so.) The analogy is imperfect, because you have only been shooting the stage for a few seconds, and that's not long enough to achieve a fugue state for most people. But I suspect that the shooting version is sufficiently similar that you are somewhat discomforted when you realize that you've done all of this 'stuff' and you don't have the impression that you were "there" at the time. You probably were "there", and I think you may have been concentrating so hard on what you were trying to accomplish that you simply weren't paying attention to the actual event as it unfolded for you. It may be more like having steeled yourself so intensely for the effort of shooting the stage that you locked yourself rigidly into the state of concentration, rather than that of 'focus'. Evidence of this is that when something goes wrong, it is a distraction and it breaks up your plan to the point where you don't deal with it as you know you can and should. Ideally, we establish a plan to shoot a stage during the walkthrough, and we pay particular attention to timing, sequence of events, and points of aim (eg: noting a spot on a vision barrier where, if we have our eye pointed there and the gun is mounted where your eyes are fixed, when we 'round the corner' the gun and our attention is perfectly set to take the first shot without any delay or confusion.) When your focus is ideal, you are indeed aware of everything that is happening, but you are following on as nothing more than an 'interested observer'. If something goes wrong, you are aware that you need to take corrective action and have the presence of mind to do so smoothly, quickly and flawlessly. While you may not have aural memories .... you may not remember the sound of the gravel crunching beneath your feet as you take each step ... you can later visually recreate in your mind the exact sequence of events, and you see your progress on the stage as a mixture of your point of view (the view over the gun) and you can also call up the image of yourself shooting the stage as if you were outside of your body, watching you shoot the stage. Perfect focus happens rarely for most of us, but when it does happen everything seems to happen SLOWLY and the memories are there for you to call up at will, even some considerable time after the event. For example, I can remember a stage I shot in the 1999 Area 1 match in Reno, as a C-Limited competitor (before L-10 Division existed) with my Kimber Single-stack. I remember it so vividly, I can still see every movement and every target in my mind. Eric W. was squadded with me, and I remember him saying at the end of the run "Yeah! That's looking like a B shooter!" because ... I was in the zone, I was floating, I couldn't affort to miss a shot and I didn't. The stage was potentially intimidating, but in that mind-state it was easy. The answer to the question is to <b>just shoot the stage</b>. Don't over-train yourself, don't let yourself feel any tension. Shoot it as if it doesn't matter. Drive the gun, certainly, but don't "drive the car". After you have mastered the fundamentals (I'm going to sound even more like a Brian Enos acolyte than I have so far, and perhaps like a Ron Avery acolyte too), you don't have to worry about the mechanics of the game. Just relax, let the muscular tension go, see what you have to see, let the gun shoot when it's pointing where it needs to be pointing. You don't have to control the gun, you don't have to control the trigger or the sight alignment or the sight picture. You can just focus on the larger goal of shooting the stage. You already know that there is noting on the course of fire that you can't do. Say to yourself: "just shoot the stage" Watch it happen. Smile to yourself when you're done, and listen to that still, small voice that says "I coulda shot it faster" Let that voice be a nag during practice, not during a match. Because it's a technical thing, not a shooting thing. It's all in your mind. PS: <sigh> I sure wish I could do that every time. Or even most of the time.