Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory

[rhino]

In today's club match, I was having an incredible (for me) run on the big field course in the match. I was scambling as fast as I could, I was shooting well (almost all As), calling my shots, and not doing anything stupid. Even my freakin' reloads were going well! My plan had come together!

So ... there I was (this sounds like a story you tell in bar now) ... having just completed the slickest reload of my shooting career, I engaged the next to last array of targets. Six shots ... six alphas (I think) ... then, as I was swinging to the last, solitary target (of 16) ... a gust of wind blew it over.

My great run was erased by a freak gust of wind. It was the only target I saw blow over the whole day. It was not windy. It just fell over.

Needless to say, I threw a fit and started screaming and jumping around like a scalded chimpanzee with cerebral palsy. I believe that one point, I was apoplectic I was so frustrated.

Then came the reshoot ... and the mistakes started a-rollin'. On the very first target, I thought I'd missed on my first shot (it was actually a C hit), so I threw an extra round. Well, that's not a problem, except I'd planned my reloads to have just one left in the chamber ... but I ran dry instead. Which then caused me to run dry on the next array of targets. Which caused me to do a standing reload. Which made me even more insane than I was previously.

The end result was worse hits (by a few points) and about seven addition seconds on my run that counted. At that point, I actually threw my empty magazine and started leaping around and screaming like the aforementioned scalded, palsic chimp again. The upside is that 3QT chose to not DQ me for unsportsmanlike conduct.

If you heard some unusually primal screaming coming from the direction of Indiana at about 13:30 EST today, then you were hearing Moi.

Obviously the target falling over was beyond anyone's control. The problem was that instead of building on a very good performance, I allowed my frustration to throw me out of whatever groove I'd found. I did worse on the second run because I'd already sabotaged myself psychologically.

Then it got worse ... I was still upset when I went to the line to shoot Keen 1. For some crazy reason that we may never understand, I got into my peabrain that moving left to right was how lefties like to shoot stages, so I started in the right side box and moved right to left. Given that I am right handed, this was an ill advised choice, but when I went to that box, I was convinced I was doing it the right way. The previous nine years of shooting experience wherein I proved to myself many times that the contrary was true was apparently not available to my conscious mind at the time. It probably didn't hurt me that much, but I think it cost me at least a second or so, perhaps a little more.

So today I beat myself worse than I usually beat myself.

If you'll all excuse me, I must step outside for another round of screaming.

[Kingman]

I am just the opposite. I have to blow the first stage to shoot the rest of the day well. Just kinda lets me get warmed up.

Anywho sorry to hear about it.

[Chuck D]

Rhino:

We had similar days.

After not shooting a match in Limited Division in 3 and a half years (I'm an L10 junkie), I decide to give Limited a try. How bad could it be?

It was just one of your usual 4 stage 100 round club level matches...well put together with good COF's.

1st stage went well...met my expectations.

2nd stage went just as well...maybe a bit better than I had anticipated.

3rd stage has me earning a "mike" on a 5 yard open target. The scorekeeper marks down the "mike" as a "D" instead. I sign the scoresheet before I notice it. I make him correct the scoresheet. Afterall...it is MY "mike" and even though I have no idea how I did it...I want it just the same.

4th stage has me "going back" for a US Popper that I blew by without noticing. Costs me an extra 4.5 to 5 seconds to "run back" and engage.

Day goes to "hell in a handbasket" in a hurry.

Oh yea, did I mention on and off rainfall ?

[SiG Lady]

Sorry I missed the show!

But I could tell you about a coupla-three stoopid things that have happened to ME on the range, yet it would be boring and would pale in the glow of the apoplectic event you seemed to have experienced. Once yer momentum gets thrown in a course of fire, it's hard to get it back.

[short_round]

Well ... after coming off my best run ever on a Texas Star, I started my reload "late" leaving that position so I got to my next array of targets "early." While my weak hand was still searching for my next magazine I started shooting the array strong hand.

I'm headed outside to join you.

[KentG]

Having never seen you even close to mad and pi$$ed off I would have paid the match fee just to see it. Now that I got that out of the way and I would have told you in a most loving manor Im laughing with you, not at you, isnt it a bitch when the fates seem to do you in??

Tell me there is something else you would rather have been doing today regardless of the gremlins! I had to do the Fam thing in the AM and was lucky to hit the range after lunch. Wanna trade???

[blkbrd]

I thought it was mandatory that I blow at least one stage per match?????

[rhino]

First of all ... thanks for the support ...

And, in the end it was very funny, especially when I started jumping around like a deranged howler monkey on a week-long PCP & chrystal meth bender.

Needless to say, it was still a lot of fun ...

But the day got even worse, so get a comfy seat and a cool beverage. Here comes Part Deux . . .

On the way home, my blood pressure had finally dropped low enough to not peg the needle on the gauge when I saw the sign for Shades State Park. For some reason, I immediately recalled that a new gun club just inside the park's entrance road has weekly bowling pin shoots at 15:00 and it was just about that time. I thought to myself, "Self, you can redeem yourself by going to that club and waxing the locals and perhaps take home a couple of bucks in the process." Oddly, there was no voice that replied (this time), so I did turned around and headed toward Shades.

The gun club was not difficult to find. The crowd assembled for the match was about twenty strong, and none looked like serious shooters. It was going to be a good afternoon. I paid my money to a cute teenage girl behind the counter was assigned #21. Excellent ... I'd have some time to load magazines and observe the competition. They set the pins at 32 feet for some reason unknown to me, and on very shallow tables. It was going to be easy to knock them off of there.

In my first match, I beat one of the better guys there pretty easily, even though I missed a few times. Second match, the same deal. On my third match, I was paired with their "big dog," the fellow who has won for the last four weeks in a row (since the first match). I beat him without much trouble, again with several misses.

At that point, I was counting the money in my head. I decided that I should probably take more time and just knock the pins off the table on the first shot since no one was blazingly fast, or even moderately fast, or even as fast I was, for that matter. I wasn't happy with my misses, but it was still going okay.

On the fourth match, going slowly and deliberately (and still faster than the rest of them), I could not hit the pins. I was focused very clearly on my front sight, but it just wasn't happening. The next thing I knew, the guy next to me (the guy who always wins second place) had cleared his table and I got the command to show clear. WTF?!!

Okay, settle down ... it's double elimination ... I'm still good ... no problems ...

Clearly I didn't have a clue. My next match, again I couldn't hit the pins and the guy next to me got lucky and cleared 2-3 of them with one shot. Show clear and I as done. I was finished. I was out of the contest.

Now, the worst part of this is that I embarrassed myself. We have a small crowd of people who live with 15 minutes of my home that believe they witnessed a fair representation of my shooting ability (perhaps that's true!). One of them in particular is a recurring thorn in my side ... a fellow I know from my FLG's shop who once told some rednecks in a group at a redneck gathering area that I was a BATF agent (and they believed him! I was lucky to get home that day!). It's only a matter of time before that guy tells everyone within four of five counties how I can't shoot.

No, wait ... that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was when the crowd tried to "console" me afterward, telling me how hard it is to shoot bowling pins, and that people don't know how hard it is until they try it. I know they meant well, but having a crowd of very non-competitive shooters treat me like their little brother who just doesn't have a clue was a little on the humiliating side. I smiled and nodded a lot.

After the match was over, I fired the gun I used (the Kimber I retrieved from Kustom Ballistics on Friday) at a paper plate to see where I was hitting. It was about six inches low and about three inches to the right. Curiously, I was dead-on for the most part in the IDPA match with the same gun on Saturday. Logic should have told me that it was me and not the sights, but my pride overwhelmed what remnants of common sense I still retained. I started tinkering with the rear sight and firing groups and all I did was make it worse.

So now I have a gun that probably was dead-on that is now in need of rezeroing.

Finally I decided I was just not going to do anything useful or productive on the range, and I left for home. For some odd reason, I chose to not return the way I came, but instead head in the opposite direction as "short cut." Do you all recall in the first message in this topic wherein I got confused and ran "Keen 1" backward?

Well, my sense of direction was apparently no better at that point.

Wait for it ... wait for it ...

I got lost on the way home. In my own county. Lost. Less than ten minutes from my home town. Lost.

See, what I failed to remember was that even though the part of the highway near the park ran north and south, the overall direction of the road is east and west. So I was heading away from home, realized it, and tried to undo my mistake by taking unmarked county roads. Big mistake.

Did I forget to mention that I bit my tongue while I was eating an Atkins protein bar on the way home too?

Or that gasoline was twenty cents cheaper on my way to the USPSA match than the price I paid the night before in my home town? That's no big deal, except I put TWENTY-SIX FREAKIN' GALLONS in my tank and I had plenty left before the fillup to have made it to the match and back. Gas is always cheaper on my way down there too, so it's not like I couldn't have foreseen it.

I'm sure some other things happened as well, but at some point you get a little numb and don't really notice. Right now the leg of my chair is sitting on my foot. It hurts, but I pretty much lost the will to live a few hours ago.

Were I an optimist, I'd be thinking that today could only get better. Being a realist, I'm just going to take what I can get and hope I wake up again tomorrow morning.

[rhino]

Oh, and when I got home I also noticed that at some point during the day, I had lost my new folding knife. It was a very spiffy Camillus "Heat" with the spring assisted opening.

[KentG]

Just think if you had decided to shoot a match in Illinois!!! Does that mean you only had 4 knives on you then????

[SiG Lady]

rhino--

I noticed that last week was equally doofy for me, too, all week long (including one bad range session, but mostly OTHER life-oriented things), and was for a number of other poor souls as well. It was COSMIC, rhino... just COSMIC this time. A bad week. Just chalk it up to planets and vibes and 'a bad week'. In the end I had to do that or go certifiably nutz. People around me were sick (including me), dying (yes, actually), forgetting important appointments to meet with me(crap!) and generally in such a fog that none of us could think straight. Chaos officially set in last week. Major dumb-ass bummage for all.

I had a typically good range session yesterday, however, which led me to believe the worst is over. Good thing, too... we have a 4-week league thing coming up starting Wednesday!!

[Skywalker]

rhino--

It was COSMIC, rhino... just COSMIC this time. A bad week.

I must be stuck in last week cosmic jam, since monday didn't start too well for me...

[rhino]

Kent ... Four that I'll let you know about, anyway!

SiGgy ... cosmic, eh? Does that mean I'm bleeding hard luck into the universe?

[SiG Lady]

...No, IT was bleeding all on its own and we just happened to walk in it...!!!! (bleh, how do you get cosmic blood off your shoes...?...)

[diehli]

(bleh, how do you get cosmic blood off your shoes...?...)

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser.

[rhino]

Use a swirling motion for best results.

[BDH]

Rhinomeister, you have a perfectly good opportunity to redeem yourself this weekend! See ya there....

[rhino]

You make a good point.

The question is, should I clean my gun or not? I know it works now, but will cleaning it make a good gun go bad? And if I do clean it, should I clean the bore? Will I be more or less accurate with a cruddy bore?

[BDH]

You make a good point.

The question is, should I clean my gun or not?  I know it works now, but will cleaning it make a good gun go bad?  And if I do clean it, should I clean the bore?  Will I be more or less accurate with a cruddy bore?

Well, you will have to make your own decision on that issue! All I can tell you is that I am not (and will not) be cleaning mine. It has been running like a top, and I don't want to take the chance.

In other words, the reason for my scores is uh, well, all ME!

[AikiDale]

Hey Rhino! Come on down out of the stat shack and say hi next Sunday morning, Mary and I just filled out squad 30. I did not shoot as well as I could have Sunday either, but the next time you have to throw a hissy fit do it in my squad!!!

[rhino]

Will do!

Maybe we can do a hissy fit version of "Simon Says . . ." I'll be like Bob Euchre (sp?) leading the athletes on the old "Superstars" show.

[rwmagnus]

rhino,

I was in tears laughing at that post. I feel for ya. This past Sat I felt like throwing my own hissy fit. I went from winning the State IDPA Championship to loosing it in the span of 95 very long seconds. With just a couple targets to go I had some defective ammo I couldn't get in my revolver. Had I just stopped and taken the down points plus FTN's I would have won by a landslide. Instead the ex-Marine came out of me and said I'm no quitter finish the fight. Well I won the battle and lost the war. Went from 1st to last in 95 seconds! IDPA isn't a fight it's a GAME!!!

But a "hissy fit" sure sounds like good medicine

[rhino]

But a "hissy fit" sure sounds like good medicine

A good one can be very liberating!

Sounds like your little problem cost you a lot more than mine did me ... I'd have had a triple hissy fit in your case!

Don't forget to case gauge all of your ammo before the match next time.

[rwmagnus]

Don't forget to case gauge all of your ammo before the match next time.

I did that but with the wheelie you also need to make sure the moonclip isn't worn out, as they have to work together. I hear ya lima charlie, point well taken.

At least I know I can pull it off just lack of match expierence. I'll know better the next time plus theres always next year.

The redeeming value after that disaster I had the final stage to shoot and it was one of the more complex designs kinda of a house clearing deal. I shot the best score of all the wheel guys. So each match is a learning expierence and knowing I can get my head back in the game is something positive to take away from the event. Overall I was very pleased with my performance but disappointed with my result, if that makes sense.