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

[billdogg]

Shot my local club's annual big tournament The WIIT, Winter Indoor IPSC Tournament. While it has IPSC it the name, it is a USPSA event. 8 stages with 126 shooters. I shot decent, I know I can do better, but I was consistent. I told myself to slow down and get good hits. I ended up with 2 mikes, and 1 no shoot for the match, but I did shoot more alphas than normal. I noticed in the video, that I need to be more aggresive on some stages. I also need to work on shooting on the move. I'm wasting too much time, running, stopping, shooting, running, stopping, shooting, etc.

Ended up 15/38 in production at 61.9% 2nd C. The shooter who took 1st production actually won the entire match by 2.1%

[billdogg]

Another Thursday night shoot. I felt I was too conservative at the previous match, and tried to cut loose a bit tonight. Other than the dueling tree on the first stage, I felt good at how I did. A couple of small errors here and there, but a strong night for myself. Stages 2 and 3 were 100% points. Yes, they were all close, but still happy with that. Finished 3/16 93% production. 10/32 74% overall. The local production GM wasn't there, so that's why my % is much higher.

[billdogg]

Here's a classifier match from 3/24. As you can tell, it was cold! I was really trying to bump up to B class, but it didn't happen. A couple of the "sure thing" classifiers that I new I could do well, didn't work out. My reloads were very slow as I had to use my weak hand to push the mag release since my strong hand thumb was frozen and literally couldn't push the button.

[billdogg]

Monthly local club match from 4-7.

I shot ok. 1st stage was tough with some long shots. 2nd stage was a very fun hoser stage. 3rd stage was a classifier that I bombed again (will I ever make B class?) 4th was ok, 5th stage was a memory stage. I was up first, and had a plan in my head. After the reload, I saw a glimpse of a target I already engaged, then second guessed myself, and engaged it again wasting time. 6th stage was fun with a pretty good split time on the center low target. I should have checked the timer to see what it was.

Overall 5/19, and was happy with that.

[billdogg]

First outdoor local club match of the year. Same place as the classifier match, but much warmer.

Overall, I was happy with how I did. My reloads were very sloppy, but I hadn't touched my gun since the 7th, so I can only blame myself. Once again, I bombed the classifier, to keep me in C class. It was the first stage of the day (I put the video in stage order, not order shot). Shooting the classifier cold after a month wasn't exactly what I wanted to do. You can't tell in the video either, but my back magazine actually hooked the steel folding chair when i stood up. It was hanging on my back while shooting which was pretty distractive.

Overall 1/12. I was happy with my first win. Yes, the normal A, M, GM guys weren't here, but I'll still take it.

[billdogg]

[billdogg]

Shot the first 3 gun of the season. It was a small turnout as some morning rain scared some guys away.


I changed my setup on my rifle and shotgun since last year. My rifle now has a 1-4x24 scope. The only trigger time I had on it before was a quick 50 yard zero. I think I will adapt, and pick up some speed with it as the year goes on. I am now using the dual load shotgun load system. Again, I had very little experience with this method prior. It's pretty evident as I had a habit of not rolling the shotgun over far enough. Again, once I have more time with this, I'm sure I will become faster at it. My pistol shooting was poor. There was some difficult shots on the plate racks with other steel hiding 1/2 - 3/4 of some plates. While the shots were tough, I know I should have done better with the 34.

I also shot my first 3 Gun Nation classifier (shotgun/pistol stage). I'm anxious to see how this compares with USPSA classification system.

[billdogg]

Another club match down. This was a monthly multigun match.

5 pistol stages in the morning went ok. Still need a lot of work on accuracy. I'm dropping way too many points. Reloads are still sloppy also.

First stage went good. Had 1 mike on partial. Took stage win.

Second stage was fun. I wasn't planning on reloading after first array, but for some reason my body took over and reloaded. I was trying to think of plan B as I was shooting the 2nd array. On the plates, you can see I spun one sideways. I planned on trying to knock it down with any remaining rounds in the mag, but went to slidelock getting last plate. I decided to leave it standing as it would have been tough to knock it down how it sat. I also forgot to rack the slide after slidelock. 1st production.

Third stage had me a bit worried. I just changed my load to a 147gr bullet, and was worried if my zero on my sights were still good for the medium - longish distance small plates.. Luckily, they were good enough, and I didn't have too much trouble getting the smallish plates. Another stage win here.

Fourth stage was the classifier. No shoots on classifier always scare me. I took my time, and shot it clean, but dropped a lot of points avoiding the white. Ended with a 55% classifier. 2nd production.

Fifth stage was another fun one. I did take another mike on the far right target as I tried to hit it while slowing down from the run. After I got into the last port, it seems as if I had fallen asleep. I was transitioning very slowly for some reason. 4th production.

Sixth stage was rifle. My mind blanked, and forgot about height over bore compesation, and blasted my way to 40 penalty points. The steel is hard to see, but there were 4 12" targets at about 80 yards that you had to engage twice. 6th division

Seventh stage went ok, except for a few cases of trigger freeze. You can tell where as I was trying to transition to the next target with only 1 shot. I've never had this with my rifle, so I'll have to keep an eye on it. 2nd division.

Eighth stage was shotgun. Reloading went ok, but I need to be faster. I also had to do another +2 load toward the end that wasn't planned as I missed a clay. That cost me a lot. 1st division

Ninth stage went ok, except for another miss. I shouldn't be missing with a scattergun! You can see after the miss that I was trying to come up with plan B for reloads in my head and was bobbling. My plan B was to use the shell on the fore end for last shot. It was a great plan until I totally bobbled the load and dropped it. I had to grab one off the belt. 3rd division

Tenth stage was a setup from 3GN classifier. Again, another miss with the shotgun set me back. A couple misses with the pistol set me back also as I was trying to make up time. 3rd division.

Overall, I won production pistol. 1st (tied) shotgun. 5th rifle (40 penalty points on 1 rifle stage killed me). 1/12 restricted aggregate, which is basically an overall for all 3 guns (I guess). I'm not really sure how they calculate that, but I'll take it.

Placing high boosts the confidence, but I know I have a ways to go with a lot of work to do. Next weekend is a USPSA shoot with local GM, M, A class shooter. Not knocking anybody that was at this match, but nobody was over a B class.

[billdogg]

[billdogg]

Headed down to my range for some practice. Did Ben Stoeger's drill, and some El Prez drills. Did some others, but camera battery died. Still need to work on accuracy.

[billdogg]

3 gun in Plainfield. They're only doing 2 these year, which is a bummer. They set up a great, fun, hoser match.

First stage was all rifle. I thought I did ok, but after seeing the results, and other shooters vids, I should have shot this on the move. My time was 16, and some guys were 11 second range.

Second stage was all shotgun. Everything went ok, but need to keep practicing reloading to shave time off.

Third stage was rifle/pistol. Had to make up a few shots on the star, but decent stage.

Fourth stage was shotgun/pistol. The plan was to run the shotgun dry, but I got a double on the last array. It's a good thing, because I had a FTL on last shot that you can see. I bobbled and hesitated a bit grounding the gun as I was deciding to just push the safety on, or clear the malfunction. On the pistol, I hosed as best I could. It was 2 shots anywhere scoring, so I wanted to make up some time. I ended up with fastest raw time, but had 1 mike from trying to transition too fast. Still ended up ok in standings with penalty.

Fifth stage was rifle/shotgun. I short stroked the shotgun, which threw me off mentally. I didn't get a good grip on my shoulder, and while adjusting, missed 1 of 8 steel. I knew I would have to load off the matchsaver, but miscounted,and tried to load it 1 early. Bad stage for me.

Ended up 2/43 tac optics, 3/58 overall.

The rest of the vid is the other guys I rode in with.

[billdogg]

Thursday practice night.

[billdogg]

Local 3 gun. I did ok, except for a couple bonehead mistakes. 1st stage was ok. A couple tough shots on steel with pistol, and I need to work on speed on midrange rifle targets. 3GN classifiers went ok, except I didn't seat rifle mag completely, so that cost me a couple seconds. Shotgun/pistol stage was a meltdown. The shotgun plate rack was sticky for everybody, and I ran my shotgun dry. When it's dry, I load off my matchsaver, then load 2. I forgot to put a shell on my matchsaver, so I flipped the gun over to load, and the lifter wouldn't budge. The pressure of the clock got to me, and it took a long time to remember I needed the bolt forward to load. The 20 seconds I took from missing the plates cost me the match. I finished 4th by <20 seconds.

Edited September 4, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

Polo 3 gun. Another average match for me. Pistol was ok. Forgot my plan on stage 4 towards the end. Shotgun and rifle were average.

Pistol 1/12

Rifle 5/11 (I had 2 procedural's marked on results, which was a mistake somehow. Should have been higher)

Shogun 3/12

[billdogg]

August Pine Tree USPSA match. I bombed the classifier, and shot the rest of the match ok. 2/7 production

[billdogg]

Gateway 3 gun. This was my first "big" 3 gun. A humbling experience from local 3 guns. Also had a lot more choices as to how to complete the stages. Looking back, I would have done some stages different. Stage 2 would probably have been done all pistol for example. Stage 6 was all shotgun, and I failed on that one pretty bad. I am going to try and make another one of these this year, it was a great match!

Finished 12/42 tac optics.

Edited September 4, 2013 by billdogg

[billdogg]

The Hollow 3 gun. My local 3 gun. Shot a decent match. Shot a couple 3GN classifiers, except they made us load shotgun to 8 total. I tried telling them 3GN is 8+1, but they didn't believe me. I will have to print out the rules and bring them with next time. It did screw me on 1 classifier, as it was 9 shots, so I had to load 1. Also got to do some shootoffs with a buddy after the match.

1/16 OA.

As you can see, the stages are not very exciting. A lot of stand and shoot for a 3 gun event. Me and some buddies are trying to volunteer our time to setup stages in the future. Their attendance has been steadily dropping this year. It is a group of guys who run the event, and I think they are making it easier on themselves to tear down after the match. I really believe it's killing their attendance numbers though.