CB45 Range Diary

[CB45]

Hit the range tonight after work. Test fired my backup Trubor some more. Ejection Perfection!!!

Did some entry/exit drills with targets @ 15yds. Was pretty fun. Worked up a pretty good sweat. Focused some on trigger control. Mid way through I saw a dramatic increases in accuracy. That felt good!

[CB45]

Last Sunday was my first HOA win at a local match.

Score sheet reflects my performance. Not Enough Points! Time was fine.

I've been practicing and training to shoot more A's. I think its working. In my next practice I'm going to try to get some 30yd targets up. That will be fun.

I'm shooting a small match at Wildcat Valley tomorrow. I need the practice for Area 5.

Edited June 7, 2013 by CB45

[CB45]

Shot a small match today at Wildcat Creek. It was 2 field courses, 3 "practice" classifiers (unmeasured and without all the cover/no-shoots), and one classifier.

Shot the match clean! Only one or two Delta's (on partials) that I rember. One field course was 17 pieces of steel!!! Holly Moley. Went 1 for 1 on the Texas Star! I had 2 make up shots on for that stage. Not to shabby.

Classifier was CM03-05 Paper Poppers. 9.225 HF should come out to 88% I didn't push it just drove the gun. It felt awesome. 4 A's, 6 steel, surrender draw, reload in 5.42sec.

Tomorrow I'm going to Warsaw for their club match. I'm feeling the mojo!

[monicataliani]

Last Sunday was my first HOA win at a local match.

I need the practice for Area 5.

Congrats!!!!!!!

Hope to see you there!!!!

[CB45]

Warsaw was an awesome match today. Just the right amount of steel, hoser targets, and options. I had a brain fart on the standards stage, 4 proceedurals. Its my own fault for not visualizing the weak hand transfer. Ah well, I learned something.

Classifier was CM 09-03 Diamond Cutter. 3.30s down 3, is 11.2HF. CM calc puts it at 90.1%

[Chris iliff]

Wow, good on you for another HOA at Warsaw!!! Awesome job!!!!!

[Racer377]

Another HOA, nice! That's some good mojo going into A5.

[CB45]

Thanks Chris and Rob! My big accomplishment for that match was shooting 95% points before penalties!

I'm happy with my progress. I'm happy I emerged from my slump quickly. Looking forward to Area 5. I know it will likely be the harder than anything else I've shot. But my plan won't change.

Waste as little time as possible.

Visualize Stages with all the targets.

Be mindful of sloppy trigger control.

Pull trigger when dot is in the shooting area.

Execute stage plan.

Practice tonight. Time to go.

Edited June 10, 2013 by CB45

[Chris iliff]

I must say, you have listened to all the good advice everyone has given you and applied it. I am envious of all your shooting and accomplishments this summer. I know if you go to Area 5 and shoot like you can shoot, you are going to be rewarded.

I will take you up on borrowing a blaster after Area 5. I really appreciate it too. Funny, we sweated getting components and with your help I got everything. Now I need a gun and here you are again helping out! That is the best thing about this sport IMHO. Friends.

[CB45]

Thanks Chris! I am super bummed that you are in between a rock and a hard place. I know you are right on the verge of accomplishing your goals. You will get through this.

I am very thankful for all the mentoring I have received this past few months. I believe that it is very important to have some guidance in order to get better at this sport. Thanks to everyone who has gave me a helping hand!

Practice yesterday was postponed until tonight. ACC was under water yesterday! So I went home and reloaded. Made 1k of match ammo. I just need to get some practice ammo made up now, and I'll be ready for the next month or so.

Practice tonight was good.

Near-to-far on partials was good. Ran it about 6 times, only dropped one in the white.

Movement drills are getting smoother.

I really like the way my gun is shooting right now. I don't have go think about aiming. I just look and the dot is there. I'm still working my trigger pull. Its getting better.

I'm ready for Area 5! Let's rock.

[CB45]

Light dry fire tonight after work just to keep the mojo flowing.

In another forum, a long time veteran of this sport talked a little about his burnout experience. It got me thinking about my own level of involvement and personal goals for this sport.

I'll devote some time after A5 to make sure all that is in check.

[CB45]

Area 5:

Penalties: 1 mike in the dark room. 1 mike on a speed shoot. 1 no-shoot on a distant target. 2 penalties for foot faulting.

I struggled with distant mini poppers and hard cover poppers. Lots of wasted time making up those types of shots. I will work on that.

The dark house got into my mind. I didn't know how to attack it. I held the flashlight behind my gun. That didnt work out at all. The targets were in the shadow of my gun. I figured out that if you hold the flashlight out by your weak hand shoulder, you can actually see the target.

The mike on the speed shoot was disappointing. I executed with a lack of discipline. I called the mike and didn't make it up.

I did have one FTE/stovepipe on the first stage. That killed that stage. I retired that mag, and Frankblue ran like a top the rest of the match.

The two foot faulting penalties was a foot work issue. It was a seated table start that I got a little too aggressive with. My back foot was supposed to be up when I shot that target!!!

I only had one stage execution issue. I bypassed an array and had to go back for it. I am pleased with my stage breakdown. There was only one stage that I really couldn't figure out. A veteran stepped up and helped me develop a stage plan. Worked out nicer than my breakdown. My plan was inefficient.

I learned a lot about where I am at in terms of shooting skill. 50 penalty point on a 14 stage match. Not bad for my first Area match. Could have been better, could have been way worse. I lost time with little things that can be fixed, like turning on the dot before the buzzer goes off! Haha!

I think alot about my level of participation. Do I really want to be a M/GM? Can I devote that amount of time into maintaining that level of skill for the foreseeable future? I've put a lot of time, money, and effort to get where I'm at. I don't know if I can do more.

Oh. I ended up 76% of the match winner. 11th out of 50 some shooters. 2nd B. Beat a bunch of M's and A's. I'll take that finish.

Edited June 16, 2013 by CB45

[Chris iliff]

Brother you shot awesome!! The B that got you is an A in production, guys do that a lot for bigger matches. The A that got you has way more experience and has been shooting since 2008.

You push what you got is my advice. Don't worry about your classifiers or becoming a Master or Grandmaster. If it happens it happens and was meant to be. Don't sandbag, don't grand bag. It will all be fine and work out for the best. I remember making A and thinking, holy crap I didn't want that yet, it was scary and took me some time to make it right in my head. Now, I see M and GM clearer and it will happen.

When M/GM happen there will always be those that say "Hey, he is a sandbagger," or "Hey, he is a paper M/GM". My response to them will be PISS OFF. I earned everything I've got. Nothing is given in this sport. If you get it, you earned it. As our system is set up, some do standing better and some do moving better. It has always felt to me that one is always leading or lagging and that's just the way it is for me.

When I make M/GM I will work my way to finishing like them, just as I did when I made A class.

And you will do the same. PERIOD

[rvb]

Great advice, Chris.

Just shoot.

-rvb

[CB45]

Went to the range last night to start working on SHO/WHO shooting.

I feel like I'll need to have this in my toolbox if I want to shoot master level classifiers consistently.

WHO:

Anyway, first 20 RDS really sucked. Draw to weak hand is about 1.7s to a 15 yd a-zone. Splits and transitions were about 0.7s -0.8s. That's not spectacular or confident. But I'll work on it.

SHO:

About the same as WHO, but more consistent hits.

[CB45]

Yesterday I went to the range again.

Shot a 8rd 4 position movement drill about 10 times. Every position was a hard lean / hidden target setup. Unloaded start. Gun on table. Seated in chair. First 5 runs were rough. Last few runs I really started to learn some stuff.

Moved on to WHO/ SHO drills. My weak hand needs to HTFU. The thumb safety needs to be smoothed out, or I need to build a chalice on my weak hand. WHO draw is about 1.8s to a 10yd partial. SHO is about 1.4s to the same target.

Skipping this weeks local match at ACC for some personal matters. I am kind of bummed. I really liked the stages I designed for that match. Guess I'll make better ones for next month.

[BillD]

I'll go shoot those stages for you! Any tips?

[Racer377]

I'll go shoot those stages for you! Any tips?

.

Having seen the stages, (they're pretty awesome) the secret gamer way to beat them is to shoot alphas really fast

[BillD]

Sounds like a plan. I've never done that before, I'll give it a try

[CB45]

Back in town. Got ammo laded for a practice/training day Saturday. I should be picking up my gun from my gunsmith tomorrow. He is fixing the compensator, as it was clocking a little bit on the barrel.

I should be all tuned up for this weekend:

Friday: FNS (a local steel match)

Saturday: Training with Chris^2

Sunday: "No" match at SCGC. Classifier - Front Sight. I hope to knock down my 5th M classifier.

[CB45]

Picked up Frankenblue from my gunsmith. He did an excellent job tuning up the comp. Very pleased.

Went to the range last night. Worked on my turn and draw. Not exactly spectacular, but I'm getting there.

I took a week off from shooting. I think it was good to take some time off. I am motivated and excited to start training for the Indiana section match.

[CB45]

FNS Friday was fun. It was good to see the regulars and a lot of new people there! I was disappointed in my performance. I really wanted to shoot less makeup shots.

EIS with Chris Keen at Chris Iliff's range was good. I wish I had taken a pen and paper to take some notes, lots of information!

The NO match at SCGC was fun today. I really went to the match in practice mode. It took me a couple stages to get that out of my system. I was just hammering targets too fast, I have the mikes on my score sheet to prove it. We started on the classifier, let's just say it didn't go well. 3 fields courses went well, so I'll take it as a good day.

[CB45]

Let's see here, where to start. I substituted dry fire this week for 3 range sessions. The first and second I practiced entry/exit stuff and the classifier Tight Squeeze. Best run on the classifier was 92%, average runs of 87%, worst was 71%.

I also did some surrender draw - reload drills to get those tidied up.

I started the day today with a Bill Drill. 1.79s all A's. Surrender draw was 0.98s. That was a good way to start the session. After that I just worked some more reloading drills. My best reload was 1.05s at 7 yds. Pretty happy with that. I'll break a 1s reload soon.

Edit: Forgot to mention that I started working group shooting into my range sessions. I'm pretty pleased with my results. At 17yd, offhand, I was able to put 3 shots out of 5 on a paster! One was left about 1.5" and the other was just low center about 0.25". I can get 5 in the upper A zone with regularity, it will get better.

Edited July 6, 2013 by CB45

[CB45]

Great day on the range with Chris and Dan. Did a bunch of movement drills. Lots of awkward shooting positions and tough shots. Worked in 17yd partials and 6" plates @ 15yds most of the drills. Getting Better!

[CB45]

Match Sunday at SCGC was awesome. Had one mag issue, that mag is no longer going tl be used in a match. Only regret was loosing my discipline with the Texas star. That was my only mental issue for the day. That's about it for that match.

Practice tonight was tough. It was humid, and I was sweaty. Movement drills with partials, and Ben's Minnesota Drill. Awesome!