CB45 Range Diary

[Racer377]

Well didn't exactly have the best results at the Warsaw classifier match. Ran both SS and limited. SS results were better than limited. I was swinging for the fences in limited. Had a few good stages. We'll see Saturday what the results are. May end up in B in SS afterall. Limited will most likely be a C. I spent the week thinking about what classification means to me. Turns out it doesn't mean a lot. I really just enjoy shooting sports and having fun. I want to do my best each time I pull the trigger, but a GM card wont make it any more fun. This weekend is a steel challenge match and uspsa match. May run the used open blaster at the uspsa match, just for fun.

They ran the update early. You're an SS B. Congrats (even if it doesn't mean much to you. )

[Chris iliff]

Congrats Brother. Good job!!!!!

[CB45]

Took last weekend off from shooting. Went out of state for a wedding. Missed my weekly trigger time. Went Tuesday to the range for some stress relief time. It was relaxing. Didn't really do any drills or training. Just fun. Haven't really done that all year.

Last night was FNS at MCFG. Had a good match, minus two strings. One was the very first, my head wasn't in the game yet. The other was a barricade stage. Shooting from the left side, I had issues with the far right target. I tried to engage the string from right to left, taking the hardest target first. I should have worked it left to right. I would have been more settled into the shooting position. Always learning.

Made a plan to prepare for the Indiana SCSA match in three weeks. Live fire practice once a week and dry fire twice a week. At this point thats all I'm willing to invest. I've shot more this year then I have all my life, and I'm running low on motivation to practice. Still want to shoot, but practice may have to wait until winter.

Something I noticed for the first time last night. I can see the front sight. All night I felt like the front sight was always on target. I just needed to pull the trigger. All strings felt slow, but times were good. Few excellent strings. I call that improvement

[CB45]

Shot a "No" match at SCGC. It was fun. Definitely learning what my operating speed is. At some speed I start to make mistakes and get mikes. Today I had three field course where I exceeded my limit. At least I know what my problem is. My mikes comes in the last couple targets of an array. So I would shoot a few targets, speed up and loose the front sight. I know I do it. In L10 & SS I didn't shoot more then 4 or 5 targets at a time, so I haven't had this issue. Limited definitely has its own set skills to learn. I enjoy it, but need to practice arrays of 20 at speed.

[CB45]

Results are in from the "No" shoot at SCGC. As expected, results were poor for the stages with mikes. Kind of surprised with the other two stages. On those two stages I was competitive with the M & A shooters. That's kind of neat. The classifier should come in right around 61%. I should be an low B limited shooter now.

In one season U to B in Limited & Single Stack. U to C in Limited-10. Not a bad year. Next year should be fun.

[CB45]

Chris picked me up this morning to carpool to the South Central match. It was definitely one of the best club matches I've been to. Lots of fun and fancy activators and moving targets. Personal best on a Texas Star. Only one make-up shot! 6 shots on a 5 star! Hit all the moving targets too! Still had 4 or 5 mikes on the day. A few of the mikes came from pulling off of last shots in an array of targets, just like last week. By the last 2 stages I figured it out and ran them great.

Twice today I engaged the thumb safety during a reload. Got to get that worked out. Dry fire.

CB45

Edit: Finished 12 overall. Jake M whooped me in L10. He had better hits and shaved ~8sec off my overall time.

Edited October 8, 2012 by CB45

[CB45]

Live fire practice at MCF&G on the plates. Focused on seeing the front site with minor and major loads. It's totally different with major ammo. The Indiana SCSA state match is coming up in a couple weeks. Shot about 350 rounds. Fun day

[CB45]

Friday Night Steel at MCF&G last night. I lacked motivation and focus. Results showed.

Hoping the weather holds out for the Warsaw match tomorrow. I am not as motivated to shoot Steel as I am USPSA.

CB45

[CB45]

Weather was great today at Warsaw. Shot the match in L10. Probably will not run L10 for a long time. Limited it is for a while. Ran two great field courses. Rob hooked me up with some video of today's match. Thanks!

[CB45]

400 round live fire practice last night at MCFG on the plates. At first, I didn't have a problem seeing the front sight. By the end, I had problems reacquiring the front sight at speed. Dry fired at home for 30 min. My shoulder hurts a little today. I want to dry fire tomorrow and get one more live fire practice in this week. Saturday is the IN State SCSA match.

[CB45]

300 rds yesterday, 200 today. Worked on the draw today. Surrender draw is better if I think about pulling up out of the holster, rather than getting my hand on the gun. Also practiced snapping my eyes. That's fun.

Tomorrow is the IN SCSA match. Will be fun.

[CB45]

Well today was fun at the IN SCSA match. Weather was good, considering the time of year. I think I ended up with a slight sunburn. Shot well. I think I ended up 4th limited. Pendulum was my Nemesis today. I don't remember shooting this stage at the local matches this year. The other stages went pretty good. Not a shabby showing, for my first year shooting SCSA. Looking forward to next year.

Tomorrow I'm going to run SS at the Riley USPSA match in preparation for the IN SS/Prod/Rev match next week at ACC.

[CB45]

Yesterday I went to the USPSA match at RCC. Shot the SS stack setup for the first time in months. Decent performance. I let it all hang out on the last stage of the day. I paid a price for that, I gave up the SS win from the 7 mikes.... haha. But I definitely learned something from it. My front site isn't coming back to the center of the notch for the follow up shot. It's coming back just left of notch. I going to work on my grip this week. It's different than the double stack grip...

Got to get some practice ammo loaded tonight....

I'm all ready for the IN SS/Prod/Rev match.

[CB45]

Well, classifier calculation came in. I missed calculated, I will have to drop off a few low classifier's to make B in limited. I have 2 in the 30's that will keep me in C for a while. Oh well.

Loaded 500 rds last night for practice this week. Going to be a good week!

[CB45]

Live fire at Chris I's last night. Worked a few movement drills, gun and body. Didn't really burn anything down, I just wanted to get familiar with the way this skinny gun feels. Front sight issue appears to better. Didn't notice any problems there. I'm definitely over thinking long shots. Line the sights up, pull trigger straight back, watch front sight lift, and repeat. KISS is my strategy.

[CB45]

Shot the match today. I had fun, buy now I'm tired. Did a lot of things I wanted to do, and found things I need to work on. I'm going to spend some time thinking some goals and methods to achieve them this winter. I've had a blast this year shooting!

[CB45]

Yesterday I attended and shot my first IDPA match. It is weird. I heard the word "Tactical" way more than I wanted to. I have viewed shooting as a competitive sport, IDPA felt more like a video game. I don't like that. Maybe next time I'll be able to squad with others who approach shooting like I do. Maybe that will change my outlook on IDPA. That's a lot of maybe...

I dropped all my mags during reloads, so that was entertainment for the veteran IDPA guys. Met a few friendly people willing to help me stay legal and not get penalties... they do have a lot of rules.

Highlight of the day was to engage 2 head shot targets from 45ft with 3rds each, freehand . Only had one makeup shot. Definitely getting some of my accuracy back. Also shot from "retention" for the first time. I was surprised on how accurate I was, granted the targets were only 2-3 feet away.

[CB45]

Friday I shot FNS at MCF&G. Won limited. Overall happy with my results. I really had to work at getting the front sight in between the rear notch. Maybe I've never noticed the rear sight before. It is amazing how much more accurate you are when you use both sights.

Sunday I went to the USPSA match at Silvercreek conservation club in Sellrsburg, In. The facility was abnormally large. Many bays with varying depth and width. The match was 5 field courses and a classifier. Lots of hard cover, few no shoots, and plenty of steel. Activators were not to difficult. Stages were not hosers, targets set far enough away to keep people honest. Lots of targets close to the 180. None of them would be a safety concern if broken, but it was definitely a challenge to know where your body was in relation to the back berm on one stage. Overall, worth the drive. I was welcomed by the staff. I will go back.

[CB45]

Saturday was SCSA @ ACC. Shot well, 2nd Limited. Shot a few great strings. It was a fun match.

Sunday I went to Riley CC for their last USPSA match of the year. They had a "No" match and a shooter appreciation lunch. Great weather and friendly people. Finished the match @82%. Shot El Pres @ 8.61 H.F.

It turns out you have to look at targets if you want to shoot them... that's my lesson for the day. Each target is important, each shot is important. I nailed my tough shots, but didn't respect some close targets. Movement was smooth and executed well. That is a huge improvement.

It's been a good year! I've learned so much and I am thankful to everyone who has helped me this year.

[CB45]

Saturday I went to a Dueling Texas Star match at MCFG. Normally this is a Bowling Pin match, but due to the weather they used Texas Stars. I won one out of three brackets. It was really good practice. It's really fun to shoot those things. I was able to try a couple different patterns. I still prefer hitting the top, then top right, followed by the rest as they rise from the low left. That piles all of the plates on the same side so its easier to reset...

It was cold Saturday, high of 35. Almost to cold. It would have been more enjoyable if it were sunny. Oh well.

[CB45]

Yesterday was the last USPSA match of the year for SCGC. I had a blast. I shot L-10 division. I still like the magazine changes... I focused on watching the sights. Really paid off. Only a couple mikes. One on the classifier (had to reshoot for a clerical error) and one on a static target after a popper activator... I tried to get two static targets before the swinger. I didn't get lucky hosing those targets, but it was fun trying!

It is rewarding to see improvement. When about 3 months ago I started seeing the front sight when I was shooting. Before that the second shot was always a prayer shot. I'm finally able to use the sights to get the second shot on target. I can call the shot because I see the sights. That's fun.

This weekend I'm going to meet Mr. Anderson and develop a dry fire regiment for the winter.

[CB45]

Steve Anderson’s dry fire courses level I &II Review:

Saturday I rode along with Rob (Racr377) and Chris (Fourtrax) to Columbus Ohio to attend Steve Anderson’s dry fire course. When Chris asked me to go a few weeks ago, I was a little apprehensive. I am not nearly at the level of Chris or Rob, but I want to improve. I realized that this was an opportunity for me, so I decided that I needed to do it. Now about the course…

I should start out by saying that I had basically no dry fire experience before Saturday. I had drawn from my holster a few dozen times, but no practical drills to engrain technique. The day started out with an introduction of the students, experience level, and goals. The level I course is basically a review of the drills and how to do them properly. It was clear at first that I was the runt of the pack in terms of shooting skills; however Steve never let that become an issue for the course. Steve was very encouraging, and made sure I didn’t beat myself up for errors or mistakes. The level II course was a review of movement drills and techniques. This was definitely an eye opening event. I learned that I can develop the skills to improve shooting on the move in dry fire. I didn’t know that was possible. I definitely have a plan now for the winter season and will use what I learned to achieve my goals in 2013.

As mentioned before, I was a little apprehensive about going to this course, I am truly glad I went. I not only got the book, but I was shown the book. A little bonus is that I received a few little tweaks that really will help me improve my shooting technique. This course was not just about dry-fire drills, but about what it takes to perform well. Steve definitely takes this sport seriously, and wants to help everyone around him improve. This course is a must for anyone interested in improving.

[CB45]

Just completed drills 1-12 of the Steve Anderson dry fire book. Man my hand hurts... took 1.5 hrs and felt real sloppy. I know it will get better. Look forward to doing it again tomorrow. Im going to do a week of drills 1-12 to get into a routine, then work in the movement drills next week.

Watch out, I'm going to be great next year!

Edited December 11, 2012 by CB45

[Chris iliff]

Good job!!

[CB45]

Day 2: Great improvement. Less mistakes getting through the drills. Tomorrow will be all about getting the "asp". Today was a little sloppy with the sight picture.

Been thinking lately, why didn't I dry fire over the summer?