David E.'s quest to get into a 3GN shoot-off!

[Nuke8401]

Shot a club level shotgun match today.

The good: - No unplanned or empty gun reloads.

- Only missed 2 pieces of steel and one clay (maybe 60-70 targets in the match), made up the steel, but missed the clay with 2 shots (flipper)

- No bobbled reloads, not smoking fast but pretty good.

- No flat foot reloads

The bad:

- Time to first shot seemed sloooow. I have been practicing time to first shot both dry fire and live fire and had live fire down to about .8 from Port arms or low ready. I doubt my times to first shot were less than 1 second.

- Missed the flipper clay!!!!!!

Scores are not out but I think I did pretty well.

Forgot to mention, 3rd week of CrossFit and about 4 1/2 weeks on diet. Feel better than ever!

Club level rifle/pistol match tomorrow.

Edited June 10, 2012 by Nuke8401

[Nuke8401]

Shot a club level rifle/pistol match today.

The good: - Weapon transitions were smooth.

- Accuracy was great with rifle, rushed a few pistol shots.

- No equipment malfunctions

- No brain malfunctions!

The bad: - Ran the handgun dry while prone vice reloading on the move prior to going prone (old IDPA habbit, I guess this is a brain malfunction)

- one stage had clays stuck in the head area of IDPA paper targets. I was looking for hits, slowed me way down. I think I would be much faster to just double tap and move on, calling my shots vice looking for holes/broken clays. I need to practice this and approch them no differently than paper or steel targets, shoot,call, move on!

I think I did pretty well, kept out of the ditch and all the wheels on, just felt slow in places.

Have to wait for the scores.

[Nuke8401]

Finished first in Limited in the shotgun match and second overall (6/9/2012).

3 stages, 2 were 15 round(2 reloads) and one was 11 rounds(1 reload). You could register twice and shoot 2 seperate scores.

Very limited number of shooters in this match, 5 limited (8+1, no speed loaders), 6 open, 13 pump)

I think I did well to beat 5 of 6 Open shooters.

3 GUN this comming weekend, can't wait!!!

Still waiting for last Sunday match results.

[Nuke8401]

So this week I have been working hard on shotgun loading with my 8 shell par time set at 6 seconds.

- While I can hit this par time during dry fire, I think it is much harder to achieve in live fire.

- I plan to test myself in live fire this Friday.

- I use 6 round caddies with normally 4 rounds in them. I went to 5 rounds/loading 5 in one grab and have made significant progress loading 5. More importantly loading 5 has made loading 4 seem much easier. I will put it all to the test on Friday.

- I hope to have a chance to use the load 5 option at a match this weekend depending on the COF.

[Nuke8401]

CrossFit yesterday after work was the hardest workout so far. Looking forward to weighing in this sunday after 4 weeks of CrossFit and 5 1/2 weeks of diet.

Practiced some shotgun reloads again last night. Hard work after the CrossFit workout.

I did well at the club level rifle/pistol match winning 2 of 4 stages, 1st overall.

Weapon manipulations and transition between weapons made a big difference and only 6 seconds in penalties out of an overall time of 155.74

Club level IDPA match tonight if it doesn't rain, need the pistol trigger time.

[Nuke8401]

Pelham Fish and Game Club level 3 gun 6/16/2012

5 Stages using all 3 guns on every stage. This was a good match and tested gun manipulations/loading/transitions/stage planning.

The Good:

- Accuracy was good/great, maybe at the expense of speed? Scored IDPA so accuracy is more important I think.

- Shotgun reloads went smooth, used a 5 shell weak hand load twice without fumbling.

- I thought I bombed the long range (165-220 yd MGM Flashers from a VTAC barricade) rifle stage (I was the first shooter in the squad) but after others shot I thing I did OK.

The Bad:

- 35 yard head shots, weak eye/hand/shoulder with rifle. I had to hold my right eyelid shut with my right hand to see through the scope. Three eye surgeries as a kid left me with a weak left eye. If any stage affected my match it is this one. Time was 150 something seconds with about 8 seconds in penalties.

The Ugly:

- FTF at least 5 maybe 10 rounds with the rifle. I have to figure this out. Plan to take the rifle to the range without touching it to duplicate the problem.

- Shotgun light strikes after hand chambering a rounds resulting in 2 down 5's for not shooting at all slug targets on 2 different stages. Didn't have a backup plan to load/shoot more slugs if I missed. Bad plan!

Had some really good shooters there/in my squad, was a good time.

Since every stage required shotgun loading I may have done better than I would have otherwise done if it were just shooting.

Video of stage 4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGfrw3s4hoI

- Started with 4 shells in the shotgun, rifle loaded, pistol loaded empty chamber.

Waiting for the scores, by my count I came in at just under 500 seconds total.

Edited June 18, 2012 by Nuke8401

[Nuke8401]

I finished second in TO in the Pelham match, better than I would have guessed. Stage 5 I thought I really dropped but I had the second fastest time, I think mainley because I only dropped 1 headshot. The first stage, long range, I came in second also, surprise. I was happy that I came within 2-3 seconds of the leader on 3 of 5 stages. I think/know he can out shoot me on every weapon so the shotgun loading had to be the key. I watched a vidoe of KurtM reloading and pickd up a tip to keep the thumb on the lifter between shells, have to make sure I'm doing this, dang he is fast.

Club level 3 gun this sunday then New Bedford on the 7th.

The NewBedford match will be scored 1A/2 within the perf (which I think is called "Time Plus"). It's really a struggle for me to switch from down zero/As to 2 anywhere.

Lots of practice needed between now an the 7th.

Edited June 21, 2012 by Nuke8401

[Nuke8401]

After watching 3GN video about KurtM and weakhand reloads I have been concentrating on keeping my thumb on the lifter during weak hand loading, he says this is a common mistake. It has definity improved my speed, I just need to practice a few thousnd times. Plan to time livefire this weekend. Close to upgrading to ELS and quality 4x4 caddies.

CrossFit and zone diet still going strong, about 205 lbs now, down from 225, next big goal <200 lbs. 2 months before the AR-15 PRO/AM match, goal? <190?, weight is not the real point but overall condition; agility, speed, flexibility, endurance are all improving.

Making some practice targets for 1A/2 in the perf. Using full size on larger white background. I have been practicing on 3GN (18" pizza/8" center, scored 1 center or 2 anywhere) targets. Still really hard to just "shoot at brown" as Jerry M says.

[Nuke8401]

Practicing Shotgun loading (dryfire) and live fire yesterday.

My load 4 time shot to shot is 3.5 - 4 seconds.

My load 8 time shot to shot is 7.5 - 8 seconds.

My goal is 6 seconds for load 8.

My time to first shot averages .8 second from either low ready or port arms (18yd plate rack).

AR running flawlessly now with standard buffer spring and Wolff EP extractor spring.

930 running well after detail cleaning and fluff/buff of some parts. Still need to open the loading port more and remove more material from the forend to improve loading.

Several practice session shooting 2 inside the perf, really hard to make the transition to shooting at "brown". At this point I am focusing on shooting loose zeros/As or good -1s/Cs as I have done this before and it is a skill I have somewhat programmed into the brain.

My last handgun match I shot 4 of 8 stages as fast as possible with just shooting for -1s and had what I think is my best finish in some time, just 3-4 seconds off the winner (8 stages). He normally beats me by 15-20 seconds in 8 stages. My raw time was faster on 3 of 8 stages and I had 2 stage wins.

3 Gun match on the 7th, supposed to be HOT and humid.

I'm ready, my gear is ready, can't wait!

3GN semi-pro standings are out and have about 75 shooters listed. The rules say top 25 will compete for spots in 3GN pro series. The current top ten or so commonly finish at the top of national matches and could already be competitive in the pro series.

I can't wait for the AR15 match to see how I stack up. The 3GN pro series is like NASCAR, only the top 2-3 maybe 5 win every match and everyone else is just riding around.

Edited July 5, 2012 by Nuke8401

[Nuke8401]

Had some problems with rifle function again at the 3 Gun match on the 7th.

Affected my mental game as my stage planning suffered after getting angry with the rifle.

So on the last stage of the day we had some close paper, 2 shots inside the perf required for full score, so I decided to just shoot. I had one miss on the first array but luckily the one hit was an A. Hard to believe I could miss this close

http://youtu.be/8vNTpbB_qy4

Edited July 11, 2012 by Nuke8401