billdogg's match log. Beginner shooter to....?

[billdogg]

A quick bit about myself. I bought my fist gun 8 months ago, an XD9. I saw some videos on youtube of competitive shooting, and knew I had to try it out. After watching countless vids on youtube, I was really hooked onto 3 gun. I signed up and competed in my first match last weekend.

The first stage was a USPSA classifier (99-51 Single Tap Standards). I was the 2nd shooter after a random draw, and the nerves were definitely apparent then. I told myself to just take it easy, get the first few stages behind me safely. I had a HF of 2.7490. That puts me in the D class, which I wasn't real happy with, but I think with some more classifier shoots, I can move up to C class. The rest of the pistol stages went ok and I finished with 2 7ths, 1 6th, 1 4th and 1 3rd out of 11 in production class, giving me an overall finish of 7/11.

Shotgun stages were next, and I'd like to forget them. I had a few FTE with my 870 where I really had to wrench on the forened to get it back. On the 2nd stage as I was going for a reload, my mag tube wouldn't load after 5 shots for some reason. I fiddled with it for a few seconds, then dediced to run the gun dry and load. By then my head was all messed up, forgot to load one in the chamber which took more time, then missed a couple shots. Finished 28/30 in limited shotgun. I've been thinking of a 930 JM Pro for a bit, and I think I've been pushed over the edge after this.

Rifle stages were last. Like the shotgun stages, the rifle stages were the same stages as pistol with a few more targets thrown in. The first stage was set up with 11 IPSC targets and 4 steel plates. The 4 steel had to get engaged behind a fault line where you started. You really had to plan how to engage all the IPSC targets as some were stacked 2 high with the bottom behind a barrel so you had to move to another position to get the shot. After going through the plan for the stage in my head over and over, I got to the line and forgot 2 steels before I moved up for the IPSC targets. I realized what I had done with about 2 IPSC targets left. I looked back at the RO and asked if I could go back and shoot the steels, which I did, but running backwards 30 feet really killed my time. I still finished 10/24 for the stage so I was pretty happy. Stage 2 was straight forward with all IPSC targets and 1 drop turner. I felt good with the stage and finished 7/24. Overall rifle finish was 10/24 for tactical division.

I am already looking forward to the next one and am trying to find more matches local to me. I'm also going to try and get video of any matches I do in the future.

Edited June 3, 2012 by billdogg

[billdogg]

**UPDATE** I've been keeping a long on other sites for a while. I've decided to switch forums, and keep everything here on BEnos. I will be transferring threads from the other site to here.

Shot my 2nd match this last Sunday. It was a USPSA pistol comp at Pine Tree Pistol Club in Rockford, Illinois. It was set up much different than the 3 gun I did and had a lot of partial hard cover targets and lots of no shoots obstructing the targets. At the end of the day I realized I should have slowed down and got better sight pictures for each shot as I had a few mikes, and a couple no shoots.

I got myself worked up too much for the classifier (which was an epic fail). I found out what it was a few days before and setup the stage at my range at home and practiced. I was shooting ~50% for a solid C class rating. I don't have poppers at home, but used static steel plates. When the poppers didn't fall at the match, panic started and it went downhill from there. Last paper was a delta mike.

Still had a good time though, and look forward to the next one. Hopefully a 3 gun this coming weekend.

[billdogg]

Shot my second 3 gun match this last Sunday. It was held at The Hollow Training Center in Mount Carroll, IL. If you're in the area, you should check this place out. It's awesome. It was my first match that involved transitioning between firearms. I never practiced it before because I didn't think it would be a big deal, but it plays with your head when thinking if you got that safety on/off. Only ended up getting 1.5 of 5 stages recorded. After my last USPSA match which included 2 mikes and 2 no shoots, I told myself to be sure to get good hits. It worked out as I got 3rd lowest points down out of 59 shooters. My worst target was down 2. I probably could have benefited by going a little faster.

Anyways, he's the vids I got. First stage was 7 steel targets pistol only. 7, reload, 7, reload, 7. Second vid is shotgun/rifle. The first 3 rifle targets were pretty difficult as there were 2 no shoots directly in the way. Our squad was instructed to engage the targets through the port although we questioned if we could engage them from shotgun grounding barrel. After seeing some other squads vids on youtube, they all engaged from shotgun grounding barrel which was much easier and faster. Some confusion between ROs. Ended up getting 7/28 in Tac Optic, and 9/59 overall. In all, I had a great time, and can't wait to do it again.

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Shot another 3 gun match today. This one was held at Tri County Gun Club in Polo, Illinios. I'm pretty happy with the results, but there's still areas to improve.

Pistol stages were clean with no big errors. Just need to work on getting faster while maintaining accuracy. I've been looking into swapping out stock sights for a black rear w/ FO front.

Rifle was somewhat clean. The stage shown had 1 miss which hurt. The other stage didn't get recorded which I got 4/17.

Shotgun was the weak part. I had the first stage planned out in my head. I reloaded what I needed halfway through, and should have ended bolt locked back. I missed one of the last steels, so I told myself to load 1 off the "oh ****" caddy when I finish off the others. I went to load 1 and realized the bolt was forward and had one in the pipe. I couldn't figure out why so I took the last missed steel. After looking downrange after making safe I saw I failed to engage 1 clay on the rear left side. 2nd stage was 18 rounds, 9 on each side. My JM Pro is 8+1, so I planned on running left side dry, then fully load again for right side. It worked out ok except for 1 missed target on the last shot. The "oh ****" caddy came to work again. I need to practice more with loading. I tried not to go too fast and fumble and drop shells, but it woulda helped if I coulda gone faster.

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Another 3 gun match down. This one was held in Plainfield, Illinois at Oak Park Sportsmans Club. 84 total shooters which makes my biggest match yet. I didn't end up with all the videos this time. I will hopefully be picking up a Contour camera for future matches.

Stage 1 was a rifle/pistol stage where I got 9/84 (they didn't break down the stages by division).

Stage 2 was a fun 20 round shotgun stage. I practiced my reloads a bit the week prior and felt it helped as reloading was the main part of this stage. 7/84 on this stage.

Stage 3 was a rifle only stage. It would have been a lot faster if I shot on the move, but have never practiced this. I was nervous that I would screw it up, so I shot, ran, shot, ran, shot. 8/84

Stage 4 was a rifle, shotgun, and pistol stage. It's the only stage I got (most) of the video. You can't see in the video, but the steel for pistol were huge. Bigger than normal poppers, so I tried to hot rod it, and missed quite a bit. A lot of other guys in my squad did the same thinking it was a piece of cake. 11/84

Stage 5 was shotgun, pistol. Started with 9 rounds shotgun which I had a FTL with my 930. While trying to fix this, I ejected a live round, so I had to do a quick load for the last target. 8 pistol targets came after that which I found out I had a failure to neutralize. I remember having a decent sight picture on each shot, so I'm not real sure what happened. 44/84 for that stage.

Overall, I got 9/46 in Tactical Optic, and 11/84 Overall. I'm happy with the results, but of course wanting to do better and knowing what I need to work on.

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Shot a USPSA pistol match Sunday. I'm a bit disappointed in my performance. Coming off a couple competitions that are pretty wide open and geared towards going fast, this one was geared toward more technical shot placement with no-shoots everywhere. Most stages I had the 3rd fastest time (behind a grandmaster shooter, and master shooter). Unfortunately I usually had the most penalty points. After the 3rd stage, where I hit a couple white targets, I told myself to slow down and make sure my hits count. It didn't happen though. Ended up 7/9 in production.

I sent my slide out to get a set of Dawson/Warren sights installed. Should have them back in before my next 3 gun on the 26th.

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Was scheduled to do another 3 gun, but a couple days before the match, we got on email saying the match director had a family emergency and could only do pistol so he could get out by noon. It worked out good as it started to rain as we were tearing down after the final stage.

I had just gotten new sights installed, warren black rear, dawson FO front, and hadn't had a chance to use them yet. I tried to go my normal speed on the first stage and hit a noshoot and generally not so good scores. I realized I wasn't quite adjusted to the sights, so I tried to slow down the remaining stages. I still had the fastest times in production, but my scores still suffered. I ended up 3rd out of 4th. Not the best, but my 3rd was 89%, so not terrible. I really screwed up the classifier, and that killed me in points. (I seem to screw up classifiers regularly).

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Shot another 3 gun match at The Hollow Training Center in Mount Carroll, Illinois. A great place to shoot on a perfect weather day. There were 5 total stages, including the recurring shotgun only "jungle walk". I ended up with 2nd out of 50 shooters. I'm very happy with the results, and can't wait for the next one.

I got a new Contour camera that I attached to my earmuffs, so I don't have to rely on somebody on my squad getting footage. I did end up missing one of the stages, and I was first to shoot, and was rushing a bit to get ready.

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Another 3 gun shoot in Plainfield, Illinois. It was held at the Oak Park Sportsmans Club. Participants were supposed to be limited to first 75, but 98 total shooters shot, while at least 10 were turned away. It was cool to have so many guys, but it really made some problems with 1 stage of the event. It was a rifle/shotgun/pistol course with a minimum of 70 rounds. I love these long kind of courses, but it caused a major bottleneck with this many shooters. Many guys were upset that they had shot 4/5 stages, and were having to wait 1-2 hours to shoot this final stage. A lot of guys left without shooting their final stage, so the match director made the call of not counting that stage for score. I disagree with that decision, since it was those person's decision to leave. It did work out for me, as I totally bombed that stage though.

On to my shooting. 1st stage was pretty standard rifle only house invasion stage.

2nd stage you'll see I shot through the barricade on the first shot. A few of the guys before me did this also resulting in 1 procedural penalty per shot. The port was too low to bend and shoot, but a little high for us shorter guys to kneel and shoot through. I kept telling myself to put the muzzle through the port before shooting, but the buzzer went off and I completely forgot.

3rd stage turned out to be my best. After shooting the back array of shotgun targets, you had the choice of shooting the front array of poppers with either shotgun or pistol, and the platerack was pistol only. I know my shotgun reloads aren't the fastest, so I reloaded the minimum and did all the stee with pistol. There was a total of 14 targets, and I had 20 rounds, so I knew I could miss a few and be ok. I ended up taking 1st on this stage.

4th stage was terrible. 34 rounds rifle, 15 rounds shotgun, and 20 rounds pistol. I was looking forward to this stage as I like long stages. I missed too many shotgun targets which through my head off, as I usually dont make steel fall with the shotgun. Once I got to the pistol, I realized my new sights are still not zero'd in perfect. The back array of round targets were probably 50-60' out, and I could not hit them with a perfect sight picture.

5th stage was shotgun only. I was pretty burned out by now, and it showed. I forgot the load my "oh ****" caddy which left me fumbling for a few seconds. I also need to practice my reloads more.

I ended up 9/98 for the day which is better than I thought I would.

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Another monthly USPSA match at Pine Tree Pistol Club in Rockford, Illinois. I haven't had time since the last 3 gun to zero in my sights better, and it showed on stage 4.

Also, I bombed another classifier. I took it slow and just wanted all hits with zero no shoots or mikes. I had 1 no shoot on the far right target about 1 inch away from the A zone. I think I might end up with a D class rating. I have 2 50% scores, with a 14%, 16% and now a 26%

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Shot a "practical rifle" event in Ottawa, Illinois at the Aurora Sportsmen's Club. Not really advertised as a competition, but everything is still scored and ranked.

First stage was a bit of a memory stage with 20 targets. I was first up and still didn't have a concrete plan of how I wanted to approach the stage. I ended up just going down the line blasting as I saw them.

Second stage was more accuracy than time important. As long as you were under 2 minutes, there was no advantage of finishing as fast as you could. I did a slow jog, and was still 20-30 seconds under the limit I could have slowed down a bit and made better hits. Score was a 10.

Third stage was El presidente, mozambique style. I loaded my rifle out of my pouch instead of out of my back pocket pre-stage, so I fumbled a bit on the reload.

Fourth run was just for fun after everybody was done.

Ended up getting 7th out of 52. I knew they were doing IDPA scoring, but I did not know that each point down equaled 1 second. The last time I did IDPA type scoring, each point was 1/2 second. Some of the guys that finished toward the top had slower times with better hits. I didn't adjust right for the scoring, especially coming off comps with 3 gun rules of 2 hits on target = down.

[billdogg]

Shot the last multi gun in Polo, Illinois. I tried a different camera angle this time. I know it's low, I will work on getting it up a bit.

My first time shooting a Glock 34. Overall, I like it, but it's going to take some time to get used to it. A couple of times when indexing a new target, I had the "glock angle" where my front sight was sticking up to the sky.

Finished 6/8 in production pistol. I need to work on my pistol. Lots of dry fire and live fire practice this winter.

3/12 for tactical rifle.

1/12 (tie) for limited shotgun.

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Shot another indoor USPSA match at Pine Tree Pistol Club in Rockford, IL. 2nd match with my Glock 34. My mindset going into the match was to slow down and make my shots count. Previously, I would try to go faster than I know I'm capable of, and end up with no shoots and misses. I'm happy with the results with a 3rd out of 12 in production. Even with zeroing out the classifier.:mad:

Edited June 20, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Some practice at my home range.

[billdogg]

Shot the monthly "Practical Rifle Course" at Aurora Sportsmen's Club. I made 2 big dumb mistakes which cost me a whole lot of time. In the first stage, I didn't engage a target on the right side. You kinda had to lean to see it, and my mind was thinking about my mags and I forgot. They had you load 3 mags loaded with 20, 10, and 6. They scattered them on the table with your back turned so you wouldn't know which one you were shooting. I knew when I was loading my second mag I had screwed up somewhere. I unloaded the rest of the rounds into ones I know I engaged already. Looking back, with the time penalty, I would have been better off looking at the targets to see which one didn't have holes in it. The targets I engaged were good though. Down 0 for all, but down 20 for 3 misses and a failure to engage on the one.

Second stage was holding an ammo can while shooting. Again, I completely forgot a target that was half hidden by a barrel. After moving left and engaging, I had planned on being dry and reloading while moving to the right. When I still had rounds, I knew I had screwed up again.

Third stage was tough, running and engaging 9" paper plates from 150, 100, 50, and 25. 5 shots from strong side, 5 from weak, and 6 shots from 25 yard targets. It was either a hit on the plate, or a miss. Holes in the brown target didn't count for anything. I knew I did horrible with missing 21 shots of 36. After seeing the results, I was about average though. I think they overestimated that stage. (This stage is very boring to watch in vid BTW)

Ended up 15/53. I am going back to this to try and redeem myself. I had the lowest raw time of the event, which motivates me more to plan each stage better next time.

[billdogg]

Haven't shot a match in a while, and missed the monthly USPSA match, so I had to get down to my range for some practice. Yes, the camera angle sucks, I'm going to work on it.

[billdogg]

[billdogg]

I made some errors on my reloads in this match. The 1st and 3rd stages were setup a bit difficult for production class if you had any misses on steel or had to shoot any make up shots. I had to think on the fly and go to plan B, but it didn't work out. I came in 4th out of 16 in production, so I was happy with that. Next match is this Sunday, and is a classifier match.

[billdogg]

Shot an all USPSA classifier match today. I shot my Glock 34 production in the morning, and my Glock 35 limited in the afternoon. If my math is right, I should move up to a C class in production at a 57%. I'm kinda glad I had trouble with the all steel stage, otherwise I might have bypassed C class all together and became a B. It was the first stage of the day, and it took a couple shots to relax and get the nerves out to get on target.

I only have about 50 rounds through my Glock 35, and they were function checking and zeroing the sights. Today was the first time trying to go fast with it, and it showed. The extra recoil isn't excessive, but I need to be able to adapt to it after shooting the 34. I was unclassified in Limited, and with this match, I squeaked into C with an average 42%.

Finished the match 5/30 in production, and 5/12 in limited.

[billdogg]

[billdogg]

This was my first time shooting limited with my Glock 35 in a regular field course match. The other time was a classifier only match. I wound up 3/10 in the division. The first stage of the video (stage 3 of match) was my best of the night. 2/38 combined behind an open guy. I still hate small steel.

[billdogg]

Steel Match

[billdogg]

[billdogg]

It had been a couple weeks since a match, and myself and the gun were off. I had just installed a new front sight, and thought I was zero'd in. After the match I checked it on a bench rest, and was shooting high. I immediately blamed that on missing the plates. My gun also had a couple malfunctions. I think it was just VERY dirty and the extractor was having a hard time pulling the cases out. I've since gave it a good cleaning, and no malfunctions. You can see on the 3rd stage I was close to calling it quits, but it worked again, and my time suffered.

[billdogg]

Last week's match. Felt better today, and the gun was zero'd. All missed plates were my fault this time. First stage was fun, and was designed after Max Michel's sub 5 second run. I am noticing in the vid, my gun is not shooting flat at all with my new loads. I'm waiting on some Titegroup, and had to settle on some HS-6. I had to slow my shots down to make sure I get the points. Next up is the WIIT (Winter Indoor IPSC Tournament) It's held every year at my local club. 144 shooters over 2 days with 8 stages. I'm going to be a sponsor of the event, and hopefully sell some holsters. I'm also going to do my best to take 1st C in production. It might be my last shoot as a C class as 1 more decent classifier will bump me to B.