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A Tale of Two Matches


38supPat

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Where to begin....I guess from the start

I have done lots of accuracy work this year and thanks to members here work on body position and movement.

Just prior to our provincials this year there was a level III match in Kingston which would serve as a great warmup. Unfortunately, or at least it identified some issues, I made a series of comedic errors, stuff I never do. I took a procedural for multiple sight pictures, dropped mags on the ground and had to retrieve them or not have enough to finish a stage (5 mags minimum for one field course) forgot to reload, did too many reloads, and exhausted all the mags on my belt only to find that I had a full one still in the first pouch as I stood in front of a target array trying to figure out how I ran out of mags. In spite of those issues I had a good points scores and some good runs on speed shoots.

So I went back and dry fired out any issues with reloads and unloaded starts. More accuracy drills and zeroed my Open gun.

The Provincials this year featured some difficult long shots and some tight closer shots. I saw a lot of good shooters have bad runs because they could not get their hits, more than one stage was being led by shooters with multiple penalties. Having done so much work on accuracy I was feeling pretty confident going into the match. The first stage was a field course which featured 3 poppers, two big one small) and three IPSC targets at 45m. It took 13 rounds for me to get them all down which meant a static reload. I completed the course and ended up with 2 misses on the paper from the first array. That pretty much set the tone for the day, any long shots usually ended up with misses. One of the last stages was a speed shoot that had 5 minipoppers at 38m. Since my day was crap anyways I went prone on the start and shot with the gun in a rested position. It took me a mag and a half to drop them all. Needless to say I had my worst finish ever at a Provincials ending in 10th place.

I took the gun to the range the following Tuesday and benched and quickly found out that my zero had shifted 8" to the right at 40m. I adjusted it back to center and locked it down.

I did a couple more practice sessions and the last one right before I left for the Nats I ran a good practice with some groups shot at the beginning a series of drills and then some groups at the end...only to find my zero had shifted again. This time it was off about 6" at 15m. I adjusted once again and locked it down.

We drove out to the Nats arriving on the Monday night before the match. I now made a grave mistake, despite the fact that I zeroed before I left I should have checked my C-More. Not having done that I should have gone to my backup gun which I know holds Zero. But since there were a couple of unloaded starts and my main gun has a cocking handle and my backup does not I chose to shoot the main gun. Things went bad from the first stage. An unloaded start with Ipsc targets and a mini popper at about 18m. It took 3 shots to take the popper so I ended up taking a mike since I had only 10 rounds and didn't deem a reload worth the time loss. I made it through the next stage since it featured full size poppers fairly close and a couple of clamshells. The next stage had four mini poppers from the start position a couple of which activated 2 clamshells. It took three shots to drop the first one, the third shot I aimed left of the target and it dropped. The next 3 poppers I held left and dropped them 1 shot each but again had to do a static reload. I finished the stage without any more issues since the rest of the targets were close. At this point after talking it over with the team I arranged (they made me) to go sight it in. Sure enough it had drifted about 6" right at 15m. I got the MD to find me a range and set a target at 25m and got re-zeroed. The problem now is I had no confidence, I had no idea how I was doing in the match but knew I had thrown too many points already to have any hope of winning and had no idea when the scope would shift again. I tried a risky approach to the next stage and it netted me more misses but this time it was all my fault, it was a bad plan. At lunch I bought a new Aluminum C-more and figured I would put it on at the end of the day. I finished the day out holding my own but nothing fantastic. When the day ended I attempted to install the new C-More but managed to strip the mount. So things just weren`t going my way. I made the decision to go ahead and use my back up the next day. I got permission to switch, chrono`d and checked Zero. This is the gun that had me place top 5 at every Nationals I shot with it as well as winning a Provincials, USPSA Eastern Lake Sectionals and several top finished at Area and AWARE Matches, It was built by Millenium Custom in `97 so it is 12 years old and had many, many thousand rounds through it. Day two of the Nats could not have gone better as far as I`m concerned. What I aimed at I hit, fist time, every time. I had the utmost confidence in this gun, it`s reliability, accuracy and feel, even though I had not shot it all year since building the new gun. I had some great runs on stages and finished strong...unfortunately the damage was done and I had my worst finish at a Nationals.

Looking at it in the end though there is promise, on the first day, even on stages I shot well I could barely get into the top 10 on any stages, without confidence in my ability to hit the targets I just could not my normal pace. My best stages were around 6th and 8th overall, my worst were in the 50`s. On the second day, with the backup, I was shooting on pace, I had a first place two thirds and all but 2 were in the top 5, I had one 9th and an 11th and that one out of the top 10 was due to a miss from pulling off a target early. A mistake to be sure, but now a mistake was still almost a top 10!

Now in fairness my new gun is awesome, totally reliable and very accurate and this is the first C-More that I`ve had that has had this issue, every other one I`ve owned has been perfect. I`ll send it in for a rebuild and it should be fine.

The moral of the story is that you must have total and unconditional confidence in all parts or your gear and ability. I have done lots of accuracy training this year and I feel I am shooting more accurately than I ever have in the past. But without the confidence that the gun will hit the point of aim, it doesn`t help much. Make sure your gear is right in all ways. If it`s not, fix it or don`t use it until it is fixed.

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Been there, done that, got a T-shirt too! I think it's called brain fade...it usually follows that little noisy thing called the "Buzzer". :goof:

Don't sweat it, we have all been there and still arrive there on occasion. You just need to get into the mental part of the game.

Mental :sight: Physical.

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