Stage from today

[Pro2AInPA]

Here's a stage from today. Second match shooting open. Comments welcomed.

[Nik Habicht]

Wasted time shooting the center port on the right, while moving to the first papers on the right. You had to move past the port anyway, and limited and production shooters barely had to slow their movement to engage those targets. Your movement from the barrels to the corner could have been much faster, without taking longer shots on the move....

Shooting on the move slows down the movement (and for most) may cause accuracy to supper a little -- so the goal is usually to shoot on the move, when you're as close as you can reasonably get...

[Chris Keen]

Nicks right, those 3 papers on the right were right there as you ran past them. But more than anything your reload was virtually a standing reload. Must have cost you at least a second. But you still had 6 or 7 paces to go to your last position. Reload on the move.

[Singlestack]

When you arrive at a shooting position, have your gun up and ready. You are wasting time there.

When you picked your gun up off the barrel, you went over your line of sight and back down. Always press it out.

[Pro2AInPA]

Thanks guys!

As far as the three targets in the middle. You guys are completely right. I just tried to overthink on my walkthrough. As far as the reload, no excuse for that, it just sucked. As far as when I picked the gun up, I got a bad initial grip and all that bobbling around was trying to correct it. Trust me, I normally don't swing the gun up and back down like that!

[CHA-LEE]

You really need to work on your stance and movement through the stage. One major bad habit you have is bending left/right at the waist when you want to shoot around stuff. You are also standing with your feet close to one another in an almost lock kneed condition. Both of these things waste time but more importantly they greatly circumvent any semblance of a solid shooting platform. Your recoil management and ability to move aggressively while in the shooting position (transition between targets) is greatly diminished. If you have to shoot around something get lower and spread your feet further apart. The lower you get the easier it is to get out of the shooting position aggressively and the more solid your foundation will be while shooting.

Lastly, when you have to run more than 2 - 3 paces without shooting RUN HARD like your life depended on it. Any time you are not shooting is wasted time so minimize the wasted time by really hauling ass to the next shooting position so you can get back to shooting as soon as possible.

[outerlimits]

at the array you did the reload, you engaged the steel to the far right first. some guyz hate leaving on steel, but as you came into that port, the paper on the left is what you see first. you could have shot those walking into that port, then hit the steel as you were leaving towards the other port. YMMV.

[TMC]

I would have picked up my gun and started moving to the right and shot those big steel on the move (don't stand still you have a long way to go on that stage), then ran like hell and set up to take the same target you did but would have put my left foot at the fault line and shot the second target while falling out. By doing that I would not have to lean out unbalanced and when my right foot hit the gound outisde the shooting area I can push off and move easier to next array. Next shoot the group of 3 (you shot after the steel) on the move taking the first one I could see first, then at the next array (as outerlimits said) take the target on the left first because you could see first and shoot the array as you are moving across the port, make good and sure I had the last steel cold and then as soon as my gun recoiled I'd be pushing the mag button and moving out of there. I would have come into the last array the same way you did but as I was slowing myself down I would have had my gun up so as soon as I could see a target I could start shooting. I would not break my grip in the transition to the targets on the right. I'm an open Master if you care.

I see allot of guys hold their gun up high like you do when they run but they don't have it out in front of them the are getting close to an array. When I run hard my gun is just below chest level. I don't understand or see any benefit of holding the gun up real high with the elbow at shoulder level.

When you transitions from the steel to the paper you lowered your gun. If that was a good way to shoot the stage you lost time by lowering your gun, you should have just swung you whole body around as you moved in that direction.

Looks like a fun stage, your time was around 24 if the youtube clock is close. I would think it could have been done in the mid to high teens.

Edited March 7, 2011 by TMC

[waktasz]

Not to hijack your thread...but here is the same stage with me shooting Limited Minor with an M&P Pro.

I took two makeup shots on the steel which RUINED my plans and caused me to do a standing reload in the third position. It was my first time shooting Limited in about 3 years and I had told myself I was going to reload going into the last position and was not fluid enough to change my plan on the fly.

Probably should have taken all of those close shots on the move too but I didn't want to move past them and have to worry about the 180.

[Pro2AInPA]

I would have picked up my gun and started moving to the right and shot those big steel on the move (don't stand still you have a long way to go on that stage), then ran like hell and set up to take the same target you did but would have put my left foot at the fault line and shot the second target while falling out. By doing that I would not have to lean out unbalanced and when my right foot hit the gound outisde the shooting area I can push off and move easier to next array. Next shoot the group of 3 (you shot after the steel) on the move taking the first one I could see first, then at the next array (as outerlimits said) take the target on the left first because you could see first and shoot the array as you are moving across the port, make good and sure I had the last steel cold and then as soon as my gun recoiled I'd be pushing the mag button and moving out of there. I would have come into the last array the same way you did but as I was slowing myself down I would have had my gun up so as soon as I could see a target I could start shooting. I would not break my grip in the transition to the targets on the right. I'm an open Master if you care.

I see allot of guys hold their gun up high like you do when they run but they don't have it out in front of them the are getting close to an array. When I run hard my gun is just below chest level. I don't understand or see any benefit of holding the gun up real high with the elbow at shoulder level.

When you transitions from the steel to the paper you lowered your gun. If that was a good way to shoot the stage you lost time by lowering your gun, you should have just swung you whole body around as you moved in that direction.

Looks like a fun stage, your time was around 24 if the youtube clock is close. I would think it could have been done in the mid to high teens.

My time was 25.32. The fastest time of the day in Open was 22.47 by a very good A class shooter.

Thanks so much for the constructive criticism guys. I really like having specific things to work on.

[Nik Habicht]

I would have picked up my gun and started moving to the right and shot those big steel on the move (don't stand still you have a long way to go on that stage), then ran like hell and set up to take the same target you did but would have put my left foot at the fault line and shot the second target while falling out. By doing that I would not have to lean out unbalanced and when my right foot hit the gound outisde the shooting area I can push off and move easier to next array. Next shoot the group of 3 (you shot after the steel) on the move taking the first one I could see first, then at the next array (as outerlimits said) take the target on the left first because you could see first and shoot the array as you are moving across the port, make good and sure I had the last steel cold and then as soon as my gun recoiled I'd be pushing the mag button and moving out of there. I would have come into the last array the same way you did but as I was slowing myself down I would have had my gun up so as soon as I could see a target I could start shooting. I would not break my grip in the transition to the targets on the right. I'm an open Master if you care.

I see allot of guys hold their gun up high like you do when they run but they don't have it out in front of them the are getting close to an array. When I run hard my gun is just below chest level. I don't understand or see any benefit of holding the gun up real high with the elbow at shoulder level.

When you transitions from the steel to the paper you lowered your gun. If that was a good way to shoot the stage you lost time by lowering your gun, you should have just swung you whole body around as you moved in that direction.

Looks like a fun stage, your time was around 24 if the youtube clock is close. I would think it could have been done in the mid to high teens.

My time was 25.32. The fastest time of the day in Open was 22.47 by a very good A class shooter.

Thanks so much for the constructive criticism guys. I really like having specific things to work on.

Dave,

where were your misses/no-shoots/penalties? Was either of them in the center port -- which you shot too early? Fastest time on the stage was by a Limited GM -- who thought that 16-18 seconds should be possible by someone not feeling their age. I'm slow, rusty, and had a tough time with the steel, which cost me at least an extra 4-5 seconds. I ran the stage in 34 seconds, dropping 16 out of 160 available points, in Production. At my best, maybe I could have gotten the time down to ~27-8 seconds, with a few more points on paper...

You've got me by 1/2 a hf point -- 4.6 to 4.1. A slightly better plan, maybe not even shaving a lot of time, but picking up a few points and not racking any penalties, and you widen that to at least 1 hf....

[Pro2AInPA]

I would have picked up my gun and started moving to the right and shot those big steel on the move (don't stand still you have a long way to go on that stage), then ran like hell and set up to take the same target you did but would have put my left foot at the fault line and shot the second target while falling out. By doing that I would not have to lean out unbalanced and when my right foot hit the gound outisde the shooting area I can push off and move easier to next array. Next shoot the group of 3 (you shot after the steel) on the move taking the first one I could see first, then at the next array (as outerlimits said) take the target on the left first because you could see first and shoot the array as you are moving across the port, make good and sure I had the last steel cold and then as soon as my gun recoiled I'd be pushing the mag button and moving out of there. I would have come into the last array the same way you did but as I was slowing myself down I would have had my gun up so as soon as I could see a target I could start shooting. I would not break my grip in the transition to the targets on the right. I'm an open Master if you care.

I see allot of guys hold their gun up high like you do when they run but they don't have it out in front of them the are getting close to an array. When I run hard my gun is just below chest level. I don't understand or see any benefit of holding the gun up real high with the elbow at shoulder level.

When you transitions from the steel to the paper you lowered your gun. If that was a good way to shoot the stage you lost time by lowering your gun, you should have just swung you whole body around as you moved in that direction.

Looks like a fun stage, your time was around 24 if the youtube clock is close. I would think it could have been done in the mid to high teens.

My time was 25.32. The fastest time of the day in Open was 22.47 by a very good A class shooter.

Thanks so much for the constructive criticism guys. I really like having specific things to work on.

Dave,

where were your misses/no-shoots/penalties? Was either of them in the center port -- which you shot too early? Fastest time on the stage was by a Limited GM -- who thought that 16-18 seconds should be possible by someone not feeling their age. I'm slow, rusty, and had a tough time with the steel, which cost me at least an extra 4-5 seconds. I ran the stage in 34 seconds, dropping 16 out of 160 available points, in Production. At my best, maybe I could have gotten the time down to ~27-8 seconds, with a few more points on paper...

You've got me by 1/2 a hf point -- 4.6 to 4.1. A slightly better plan, maybe not even shaving a lot of time, but picking up a few points and not racking any penalties, and you widen that to at least 1 hf....

To be completely honest, I don't remember hearing ANY mikes or NS called out during scoring. As a matter of fact, I specifically asked the guy with the clipboard if I had any mikes on those three targets. All three were alpha charlie. I didn't feel it necessary to bring it up when I saw the scores posted, though, since I didn't check and sign off on my score sheet.

Please keep in mind, I'm not arguing. My plan DID suck.

Edited March 14, 2011 by Pro2AInPA