Slumdog Grandmaster 2.0

[DonovanM]

Shot a club match today with a CZ Shadow I had an hour of dry fire practice on.

I expected hilarity to ensue but turns out switching guns the night before a match wasn't that big of a deal after all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-Gi3z_qvBY

[rpcruab]

Was the CZ a new purchase? If so, do you plan on switching over from the glock? I've been thinking of switching to a CZ platform to mix things up a bit. Enjoying the range diary and looking forward to more posts btw.

[DonovanM]

Nope, I borrowed it from a friend. I was going to shoot it for longer but I really don't like the stock safety so I'll give it back until I decide it's worth buying a set of the low-pro safeties just to give it a real test drive. I'd like to, but not enough to throw $100 at someone else's gun quite yet. I activated the stock safety a number of times with my grip and it started digging into my palm - I'm missing a chunk of skin - so I backed off on my grip pressure on a few stages causing me to drop more points than I would have liked.

Thanks, glad you enjoy it.

[DonovanM]

So, I shot Area 5.

I rode my bike out to IL for the match, from WA, so I just got home yesterday. The ride was quite the experience.

Anyway: the match. The match was also quite the experience.

Over the course of the two days of shooting, I learned, experimented, and grew as a shooter. That may be the most gratifying experience I have ever had at a match. It was good.

Since I felt I overprepared for the stages at A1 - I ran them over and and over and over and over again, but still failed to execute - I tried different ways of preparing for stages here at A5. For the first part of the match, I straight up did not prepare enough. I only had 3 or 4 somewhat solid stage runs on the first day, and they were all small stages. I did not do well on the bigger stages.

I also tried to shoot on the move a little more and play around with what I saw on steel, and think I had a little success with it. Lots of makeups but it's all part of the learning process. Also, I tried to really burn close targets down. Did that pretty well too I think.

Stage 14 - First stage shot. I completely missed the first position - ran right past it. Had a few too many makeups too. I can't remember what else I did, and didn't get video, but it certainly wasn't pretty. That's OK.

Stage 1 - I ran this OK, just slowly. I hesitated on the reload and basically did it static since the flashlight was in my hand. Oh well.

Stage 2 - Good run here, I fumbled on the reload off the table but no big deal. Small stage, did fine.

Stage 3 - Fumbled the reload. Everything else was fine though - another small stage.

Stage 4 - This was an OK stage, I can't remember exactly what my plan was but I remember I wasn't pleased - think I had to wait for the activator.

Stage 5 - IIRC I fumbled the reload again here. And I shot a stupid delta... Argh! I did shoot the steel clean at least, and had good movement.

Stage 6 - Last stage in my video - the order got reversed. I planned OK on this stage, but execution was not there. Missed the activator steel. Then missed it again. The two extra rounds screwed up my plan, as I didn't know if I would have enough to finish the position as I had planned it. So I skipped one of the targets, which made me just sit there with my thumb stuck up my... magwell... as the clamshell activated. Sigh. Then it was OK from there other than 2 more steel makeups. Four in one stage - ugh. Not a great stage for me. Oh well.

Stage 7 - First stage of day two. I was feeling much better prepared to shoot - planning wise - as I had worked through some kinks on day 1. So I came out swinging on stage 7 and... failed. Not really. I shot OK other than on one popper that must have been dancing back and forth. My plan might not have been the best - I would have had to see the stage again to be sure. Always learning.

Stage 8 and 9 - Good gunhandling, poor shooting. Bad plan on the swinger on stage 9. More live fire would help with stages like this... just pure shooting.

Stage 10 - This was the first stage that really felt good. I felt like I was waiting on the activators, which felt good at the time, but not when everyone else seemed to have doubled them. Oh well. I shot this stage really well, and am pleased with it.

Stage 11 - f*#kin' solid, no complaints. Down a few charlies, would have liked to clean that up but NBD.

Stage 12 - Ah, now this was an interesting stage. I spent a lot of time with it the day before. I couldn't actually get on it as squads were running through it nonstop, and didn't know what the second part of the stage looked like, but I just watched a bunch of people run it cause I had nothing better to do. When I finally got the chance to take a look, I got to know it inside and out, and quickly developed a pretty good plan for it. Once I was on the line, I delivered everything it wanted from me... Other than a delta and a makeup shot on steel. Sigh. Close but no cigar. Awesome.

Stage 13 - I thought I had a good run on this stage. And I did, got the steel great on the move and was really aggressive on the close targets, but so did everyone else. Way too many points down though. I dunno what Mink puts in his cereal but he sure can farm some alphas.

Video - stage order is reversed, starts with 12.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HI3NtWic9ac

Edited June 21, 2013 by DonovanM

[DonovanM]

On a somewhat related note, I am way better off than I have any right to be.

I stopped dry firing with any regularity or consistency sometime last year, and am now down to a few times per month. I did a bunch of it, for years, so I built a pretty good foundation of skills - along with a few training scars. I have so little live fire practice it's sad, and frustrating to not be able to get more. It really shows in my shooting.

Most of what little work on shooting I could squeeze in has been on mental game in the past while. I still haven't finished With Winning In Mind... agh.

Any small success I have attained is a massive victory for me, given how little I have invested in this sport. Maybe if I had sunk more money into it, my relaxed attitude about my performance would be different. I'd like to think it wouldn't (won't) be.

Edited June 21, 2013 by DonovanM

[toothguy]

Looks like you got 4th place production at area 5, good shooting.

[DonovanM]

Thanks

Just came back from one of the three live fire practice sessions I've had in the past year.

I feel like I have to grip the gun too hard to get it to do what I want it to. I've been slacking with the grip training, gotta get back on it. My goal has always been a certification-style close with the #3 with both hands. That's gonna take some serious doing.

Also I had to basically re-learn trigger prep with the new trigger in my Glock while working on a 6" square plate rack at ~25y. Can't rolling-slap it anymore for tough shots. That's alright.

Interesting experience overall. I definitely need to shoot more :/

[dravz]

I feel like I have to grip the gun too hard to get it to do what I want it to. I've been slacking with the grip training, gotta get back on it. My goal has always been a certification-style close with the #3 with both hands. That's gonna take some serious doing.

I have the same goal. I can click the 2.5 closed with my strong hand and the 2 with my left. Mine have always been uneven that way, dunno why.

[DonovanM]

I feel like I have to grip the gun too hard to get it to do what I want it to. I've been slacking with the grip training, gotta get back on it. My goal has always been a certification-style close with the #3 with both hands. That's gonna take some serious doing.

I have the same goal. I can click the 2.5 closed with my strong hand and the 2 with my left. Mine have always been uneven that way, dunno why.

You've probably been single a lot longer than I have

[DonovanM]

The last few club matches have been eye opening for me.

I'm definitely getting rusty. I haven't done any meaningful practice - dry or live - all year. But I have done some work on my mental game, which is just as important as the shooting and gun handling, so there's that.

But my last two club matches especially I have not done very good at. Apparently the first thing to go for me is points.

And oddly enough, I have never been closer to GM. Even though I don't feel I'm there yet, I would be oddly happy with making it with my two Area match results being counted towards my percentage.

I did pretty good at this match, minus my first stage of the day (foot fault, mike, and three makeups on one easy popper). No real complaints though, in retrospect.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHgWHp6iNgM

My first 3gun. I sucked it up bad but it's not like I'm gonna get all butthurt over it. It was a whole hell of a lot of fun, and I've definitely got the bug now. My shotgun and rifle upper were borrowed - so I've now almost finished building my own rifle upper, but I won't be getting my own shotgun any time soon unfortunately. Gonna be doing a lot of long gun dry fire in the coming months though.

Edited August 6, 2013 by DonovanM

[DonovanM]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRlkk8ZUefU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAcQ4fh8swo

Pretty abysmal performances all the way around in these last two. Some of the only stages I did OK at were at the end of the day when I was just completely demoralized by my performance and didn't have a care in the world for how I performed. Funny how that works.

This weekend is sort of a mini-major for me. I'll be heading down to Oregon for a sectional on Sat, then will be back up here for one of our championship series club matches Sun. Should be fun.