RangeJunkies Practice Log

[Chris iliff]

Not once in almost 9 years has a classifier matched helped me. But, some shooters love them. I would rather just shoot a normal match.

I like how Warsaw will sometimes do a classifier match and in addition set up some crazy stage or two.

If I had my druthers, all classifier matches would also have a regular match set up, shoot one or both. It'd be a tough one to set up and a lot of work, but I'd probably go and just shoot the field courses.

Bummer about today, huh! I was 10 miles down the road when I got the message.

[RangeJunkie]

Not once in almost 9 years has a classifier matched helped me. But, some shooters love them. I would rather just shoot a normal match.

I like how Warsaw will sometimes do a classifier match and in addition set up some crazy stage or two.

If I had my druthers, all classifier matches would also have a regular match set up, shoot one or both. It'd be a tough one to set up and a lot of work, but I'd probably go and just shoot the field courses.

Bummer about today, huh! I was 10 miles down the road when I got the message.

I really don't think it will help me honestly as well, just another match to shoot.

Did chad get to you first or me?

[RangeJunkie]

It seems priorities are shifting unfortunately for the year.

If I plan to get into real estate I'm going to have to focus more on building the business and working some extra days.

7 day weeks do not sound fun but it could make the difference on buying a property cash or not.

I will know more in the coming weeks but it appears for a really, upsetting, good sort of way I may have to put shooting on the back burner again.

Growing up and investing sucks, but one day it will be worth it.

Until next time..

Brandon

[Chris Keen]

Do what helps pay the bills first and foremost! The hobbies come somewhere after the priorities!

[RangeJunkie]

Do what helps pay the bills first and foremost! The hobbies come somewhere after the priorities!

Absolutely, gotta stay focused on the bigger picture!

[CB45]

I am kind of sad and happy for you. I hope you find a way to balance your priorities. Work and money are necessities, but hobbies are an essential part of life.

In the end you need to find a balance. Whether its family, motorcycles, or shooting, you will need something to work for.

Sacrifices are nothing without something to make them worth while. Take care my friend.

OK. that's my zen/emo moment for the year.

Seriously I wish you the best,

CB45

[Esther]

hey Brandon, I'm super impressed that you're thinking of buying property at age 22. I wish I could have done that!

"in a really, upsetting, good sort of way" is a great description. All the best and keep us posted -

[RangeJunkie]

Well a few days off of work have been extremely nice. I havent had any days off since I was back in college. I graduated on a Sunday and was working that Monday.

So it's been really, really relaxing.

The parts to fix my Yamaha R1 are on the way back home and when it's put together it will get sold. I'm really happy about that for sure, it's been 4 months in the making.

I havent even touched my gun other than to shoot with the girlfriend for about 40 rounds the other day. She actually wanted to shoot, I had zero desire to.

To my surprise, I shot iron sights better than my dot..prolly just me being lazy and not having the drive.

Anyway, thats sort of made me think about selling my open gun. It's an amazing sweet piece, but I don't think I use it enough to merit it.

I hate to think about getting rid of it, it's been 100% reliable and that's so hard to find in open class.

I'm gonna think on it a couple days and wait. I sorta do miss production, it's a lot more practical and realistic for sure.

All my decisions are things to do with hobbies, life is extremely good, and I'm happy to be where I am at my age.

Until next time..

[Chris iliff]

Hey, is that Open gun "eating" anything?

It's bought and paid for, right?

Maybe just sit on it awhile, like all summer. I'd hate to see you sell and then have an unexpected turn of events that would allow you to shoot a little.

I do like your priorities, you are definitely wise to invest in your future first and foremost, over any hobby.

I have told Chad before that I've never seen a newer shooter that does so many things as correct as you do. For the amount of time in the sport you certainly have some things down that took me a whole lotta years to figure out. I hate to say "natural", but it seems to me that your shooting is better than your " time involved" should permit.

I understand and agree that not shooting as much, if any, this summer might be what you have to do. I'd just hate to see your kind of talent sell some stuff, then in a month or two, realize you could shoot a match because things have changed a little. Life's fast......as Ferris says.

Hey, this is coming from a guy that would buy every 9mm bullet you have!! What am I saying........sell, sell, sell!!!!!!

Just kidding, wait it out some, things change.

[Chris Keen]

I agree with the Indiana Chris. Some times you think you wont want to do it, or dont have time to do it, but then things change and you get the urge to get back out there! I know that's happened to me before. If you were having trouble making this months car payment, then maybe I can see it. Just don't think you'll save a ton of money shooting Prod. instead of Open cause the GUN is the cheapest part of all, no matter what div. you shoot. The bullets are the big consumables. So either way you go, you'll still spend approx. the same amount of money to shoot. And sure, iron sighted guns are more "practical" but then again, this is more or less just a "game". and I like playing the game to the highest level of my potential, so I love shooting Open just for that reason. And like Chris said .... you got potential bro!

[RangeJunkie]

Thank you guys so much for your kind words, it means a lot to me as you guys are both really talented shooters.

I'm sure I'll always be around in some way, production or open.

I just don't think right now is the correct time to commit 100% to something anything other than work.

I'm thinking about getting into RC cars as well, as silly as that sounds. A place 40 minutes away races twice a week. That way I can tinker for cheap!!! Lol

In all seriousness tonight was nice because the girlfriend was at work, and I just drove around in my car. I use to do that a lot back in school. It was my "get away". Sitting out in the country in the middle of know where just relaxing. It's nearly perfect.

I guess this week I've really found my inner "zin". Just enjoying every moment...

Thinking about ordering some goodies for the zx14 this week, it's needs some toys for the drag strip this year.

Fun fun!

[RangeJunkie]

What a past half year it has been! Perspective is the word of this summer!

Picked up RC racing, got backed by a few sponsors, climbed to the near top in a really short period of time. An absolute blast, but nothing that I planned, or plan to do for a long period of time.

The time away from shooting was about the best thing I think could've happened for me.

It allowed me to clear my head, open my year up for other experiences.

Luckily, or intelligently (lol), I did not get rid of any of my production rig, or my loading press.

As I sit right now, I need Solo 1000 and I am good to go shooting again. So nice know that I don't have to spend thousands to get back into this sport.

Timing is everything, and going into the winter this timing somewhat stinks. But I'll look at it as a positive, so I can really hone my fundamentals with the help of CB45, and others hopefully willing to help me progress.

Tonight I spent an hour cleaning up my hobby room, changing it from the RC setup, getting everything ready to come back to shooting.

Got my belt setup, and spent a little over a half hour slowly shaking the rust off dry firing. Rusty obviously, but I expected A LOT worse.

So as I sit here writing this up, I think of the possibilities to come.

The girlfriend really wants to get into shooting more, which is great for me and us.

Until next time...I'll be working on all that lost time I've missed!!!

GLAD TO BE BACK!

[RangeJunkie]

Today I started reloading some ammo!

Midway through, I got a message from CB45 about practicing tonight. I dropped everything and scrambled up to ACC to get some trigger time in.

6 months cold to live fire, 1 year cold to iron sights.

Interesting day to see the least.

I learned so much from him in just the session tonight. Movement, movement, movement.

I need more of this.

I also need to get use to the index of my gun again.

So many things run through my mind but I'm glad to be back, glad to be around good friends again.

I need to load ammo, practice more, clean up my range, and attempt to progress!

[RangeJunkie]

Bitter sweet night.

Loaded enough ammo to shoot this weekend.

Followed by getting some dryfire in tonight. To say the least I'm really frustrated. Leaving the sport in Open, coming back to production and literally not trying to shoot iron sight in over a year besides yesterday.

Shooting and practicing should be fun and tonight it just wasn't.

I couldn't see anything (sights) and I'm forcing myself to shoot partials during dryfire.

Feeling like a baby deer trying to walk.

It's upsetting to say the least. Bitterness.......

[Chris iliff]

I call BULLSHIT!!!!!!

Brother you were shooting!!! It's all good. Just shoot. No expectations. Just shoot and observe.

Oh,...... and welcome back!!! Bout time!!!!!!!

[RangeJunkie]

I call BULLSHIT!!!!!!

Brother you were shooting!!! It's all good. Just shoot. No expectations. Just shoot and observe.

Oh,...... and welcome back!!! Bout time!!!!!!!

I need to get to that level, just accept it as it comes.

[CB45]

Shooting is shooting. Gun/gear won't make you a better shooter. More bullets will. With shooting Open, you get an instant sensation of speed. It doesn't mean you are getting better, it just feels faster.

Its going to take a thousand rounds or so before the gun will feel natural again. You have some work to do, but your naturally driven for speed. That's a huge advantage in this game in whatever division you shoot.

With just a couple technique tweaks and some trigger control exercises, you are going to see some huge gains.

Practice getting into and out of positions. Gun up early and start aiming before you are settled into position. Shoot as soon as you can shoot an A. Do this until the footwork becomes subconscious.

Stand and shoot distance change up drills until you can shoot 2-A every time, no matter how hard the shot is. Learn what sight picture you need, and what the trigger feels like. Smooth and steady press for harder shots. For easier targets you need to know how to ride the reset and hammer dowm on some targets. This will be hard at first, but it is so important to know how to shoot every target, no matter the difficulty. Its OK to take a few extra tenths of a second to shoot harder shots. Everyone has to slow down for 15yrd partials.

-ramble off-

[RangeJunkie]

Your 100% correct and I really do enjoy everyone that has input on my page.

I appreciate your offer about the STI as well, and very well may take you up on it depending on how other things work out.

Tonight I received some SNS casting bullets for my G34. That's good now I've got a little stock in those, now just need more powder and I'll feel comfortable again.

I value your input Fourtrax and CB45, keep it coming!

[RangeJunkie]

And....we're back.

Finally got a new load worked up that works thanks to CB45 and got to get down to the range for some practice today.

I will say other than not really shooting much in the past year, switching from Open back to iron sights has been fairly challenging. Today I finally realized focusing on front sight is what I need to do. I've been focusing on the target this entire time which explains why my hits at the last USPSA match were all over the place (duh.).

I'm so glad to be back, and really enjoyed seeing my friends again.

So, goals for this year. STAY IN PRODUCTION.

I just want to not worry about my gun running correctly, and travel around shooting other matches in other states.

In the last two year I was racing RC cars, and traveled around a lot doing that and realized how fun traveling can be.

Furthermore, it seems as if the girlfriend wants to get into USPSA as well.. Let's do this!

Edited December 23, 2014 by RangeJunkie

[RangeJunkie]

Classifier match went so-so. Performance was poor, but still waiting to get the muscle memory back.

I think I ended up in B class for Production, I'm happy with that for a start.

Had a couple mikes and no shoots, but called each miss so that's the silver lining.

I've been really lucky having each of my stages video recorded. It's helping me break down my weaknesses and I'm continuing to work on them.

I suck, but I will get better.

New load has worked well, and ran 100% so far. Looking forward to going to a couple matches in the next couple weeks.

Found my Steve Anderson book again..let the fun begin.

[RangeJunkie]

Doubled.

Edited December 29, 2014 by RangeJunkie

[RangeJunkie]

And tripled?

Edited December 29, 2014 by RangeJunkie

[RangeJunkie]

Been dry firing about every other day. Not so much on th fundamentals of draws and reloads, but movement.

Thanks to the girlfriend going to matches with me, I've been able to video tape every stage.

I have had definite improvement with entering arrays as well of coming out but now I'm rushing everything.

Last night I shot an indoor match at Parabellum and was fairly quick on the clock but literally had a couple mikes on each stage.

I really need to work on rushing the movement, but shooting slow enough to really see what I need too.

I was moving so quickly last night that I was losing front sight focus, and it translated to my scores.

Furthermore, I can tell from the video that by time I'm getting done with an array, my weak hand grip is loosening. I can visible see the recoil increase on video with my sloppy grip.

I've got a lot to work on, I know I will improve though.

On a side note, talked to CB45 for about an hour last night on the idea of buying a CZ for Production. I came away puzzled. I feel that it "could" help my game in some ways, but also know it's not going to "fix" anything if that makes sense also.

[S8MS01904]

Keep going, your improving. The lighting at Parabellum's is something to get use to. It has made me slow down (even slower than I normally am). Much like you, my grip sucks. So that is my focus this year.

P.S., stay away from Production or Single Stack.

[RangeJunkie]

Shot this past Wednesday at Parabellum again.

I'll make this one short.

The good:

Grip Strength is definitely getting better

I slowed way down to get my hits, had one mike on the one Virginia count stage, but called it so that's good I suppose..

The Bad:

Instant I'm out of rhythm I can't get it back. I seem to scramble the rest of the stage.

Stuck in the habit of going slow enough to get my hits makes me lazy with movement and reloads. I need to work on pushing all movements besides the actually shooting part.

Placed second I believe in the Division, Highest U...rofl.

Practicing with CB45 tomorrow hopefully after work in the morning. And shooting Racer377's Tanfo. Good stuff.