TrukSnave Posted August 21, 2013 Share Posted August 21, 2013 CB45 suggested that I start a range report to document my progress... I have been shooting pistols all my life...shooting paper targets and random plinking in the woods. It was just something fun to do once in awhile. On a Saturday two months ago I had a free day and decided to go shoot a steel challenge at ACC. I was pretty accurate with a pistol...so I thought! I found out I sucked....bad! I was dead last, I had a blast though. I was definitely coming back next month. The second steel challenge went a little better but not much. Someone told me I need to go to a USPSA match the next week. I shot the USPSA match and again I was terrible. SO nervous! I shot every no shoot, fumbled reloads and had gun problems. I figured I would try it again the next month. My second match I did just a little better, now I am into it. I went to a match the following weekend...sucked! CB45 invited me to a great match in southern IN Silver Creek. I was in a squad with Chad, Steve Anderson and Andrew Hyder. WOW! what an experience to see them shoot! I AM OFFICIALLY ADDICTED! I had a ton of screw ups!. I can't reload my 1911 worth a shit! I just blast targets and get deltas and mikes. I have a lot of work ahead of me! I spent the day talking to Chad about shooting uspsa. He helped explain a lot of things to me that I didn't understand. He told me things that I should focus on. Things to do differently and the importance of dry fire practice. I had a great day and learned a lot that day. CB45 invited me to practice with him 3 days later. I decided two weeks ago that I just don't want to have fun, I want to compete as well. I practiced with Chad (CB45) and Chis (fourtrax) I took in a lot of valuable information. They helped me with transitioning from near, intermediate and distant targets. I wasn't taking the time to line up my sights properly on all the targets. I get wrapped up in GO FAST and MISS mode! They set up some drills to work on movement and efficiency. After an hour and a half with them I could feel things starting to change! I went home that night and practiced reloads for an hour. The next 3 days I spent an hour each night working on reloads. reloads while stationary, while moving, between target transitions. I am officially addicted now. I built 10 metric target stands to practice dry fire in my yard. I have been working on transitions, sight picture, trigger pull, grip, reloads, and movement. I can notice I am getting a little better in a week with practice an hour a night. I shot another uspsa match Sunday at WVPPS in Terre Haute. For the first time I felt a lot more relaxed! I can't complain about my performance, there is a ton that I need to work on though. I was the first shooter on the first stage. We had to start out with gun on a table sitting in a chair with hands on knees. I am tall, I can reach the gun from the seated position...awesome I thought. Well I slammed my hand on the gun and when I shot the first shot, yep, the mag dropped!. that cost me a lot of time! I got mostly alphas, some charlies and a detla. The lost time really screwed me!. Lesson learned...don't slam your hand on the gun....scoop it up instead!. the rest of the stages went pretty well for my 4th match. I placed 3rd in single stack. Not really sure overall probably in the middle? I am excited that I had a decent match....my addiction is kicked up a notch! I practiced reloads for an hour today...That seems to be my number one flaw although I didn't fumble a single reload at the match sunday. I practiced turn and draws for 30 minutes today...that seems to be going ok. I put it all together with some El Presidente runs... I have practice with CB45 tomorrow night. I can't wait! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
APL-G35 Posted August 29, 2013 Share Posted August 29, 2013 Welcome to your new addiction. Sounds like you have some good mentors available to you. Good luck in your progress. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted September 3, 2013 Author Share Posted September 3, 2013 I haven't made time to update this diary! I spend too much time reading and not enough time typing! So since my first post, I Have shot three more matches... I practiced the El Presidente for a match last Sunday at Atlanta Conservation Club. I shot the prez ok in practice, but in the actual classifier I shot it in 5.80 with a few mikes. I keep telling myself to take my time on classifiers, but I don't. I wanted to get classified high and now I will be a "D" shooter because of it! Oh well, I will work on execution more, I need to treat the classifier like a normal stage! I shot classifiers better the first two matches than the last four. I started caring about doing well and it has hurt me. I told Steve Anderson today, "I thought I was taking my time, but I know I didn't !" I will overcome this dilemma! The last three matches.... I shot half of the stages really well, and half not so great. Each match has been very consistently inconsistent! I am letting my mess-ups ruin the rest of the stage and then carry on to the next stage. I need to work on letting go of the bad energy, and focus on the positive achievements of the stage. Saturday I shot one stage great, faster than production, limited, and all but 2 open guys. I had my hits...I called my shots...it was great!. I need to celebrate that and not dwell on the stages I messed up! Today I went to Steve Anderson's Dry Fire Tune Up. He explained a lot of things to me that make perfect sense. I need to stay positive in practice and match practices! I tend to focus on the bad things so I don't repeat the same mistake. Then I make the mistake again, just let it go.... Also when I do something well, I don't give myself an atta boy. I just beat myself up over not doing it right. For the rest of my uspsa future, I will be positive! I have a solid dry fire practice schedule now, every morning somewhere between my first cup of coffee but before my second pot. Doing my practice in the morning will help me stay consistent since my evenings are never the same. I have the books and the proper drills to work from. I have learned a lot today.... Thank you Steve. Wednesday is practice with CB45 and Fourtrax can't wait. Sunday we are carpooling to Silver Creek. Glad I can save you guys gas money. #dieselpassatgets60mpg (I hate twitter people...this is me making fun of them) Every thing in my life between daily practice and weekend matches is a blur and doesn't matter to me. I am motivated and determined!, what a scary combination! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Can't wait for Sunday. Awesome shooters at Silvercreek!! Gonna be fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CB45 Posted September 3, 2013 Share Posted September 3, 2013 Well I'm glad you went to see Mr. Anderson today. Dryfire is scarey powerful, and Mr. Anderson wrote the book on it. Steve also does a good job explaining the mental game. That itself is something many shooters don't understand. Practice Wednesday will be good, we are going to get better! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted September 9, 2013 Author Share Posted September 9, 2013 I shot two matches this weekend...Wildcat and Silver Creek. One match went pretty good...the other could have been good! I used junk ammo that wasn't intended for a match. I ran out of match ammo and didn't want to miss shooting, so I used bad ammo. As a result I did not finish two stages! The good news is...I was able to shoot 4 stages! Luckily CB45 gave me 500 bullets to load up saturday night. Sundays match went great as far as ammo goes!. I feel like I did a good job with my stage breakdowns.. well the best I can do with a single stack. It just feels very inefficient shooting SS. Even two more rounds would have really help speed up the stages! Both matches this weekend were challenging! Back to dry fire today and the rest of the week. Live fire practice will be solo this week. I think I will try to go tomorrow and thursday. I have a bunch of junk ammo that I want to use for SH/WH practice. I will also practice classifier drills in live fire. I have a classifier match next weekend and I want to freshen up those skills Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted September 10, 2013 Share Posted September 10, 2013 Was good shooting with you on Saturday. Too bad I couldn't go Sunday, maybe soon things will lighten up and I can get back to my regular schedule of weekend shooting. Wait.......wife has more than a year of school left, oh well, I'll go when I can. Lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted September 12, 2013 Author Share Posted September 12, 2013 (edited) I went to the range today at noon and practiced my SH/WH. I practice drawing and transitioning to weak hand a ton! I mainly wanted to practice accuracy with my weak hand. I just can't seem to find the best way to do this! I have been trying to slightly angle the gun inwards to my body....It doesn't like that. I seem to be more accurate with the gun straight up and down?? Maybe I just need to keep practicing with the gun angled and work on aligning my sights better? I am going to practice weak handed at every live fire practice from now on. I think I will either start the practice or end it with a few weak hand drills I skipped dry fire practice today....I was pretty busy and just settled for live fire only. Tomorrow I will resume dry fire practice. I am going to try to get to the range again Friday or Saturday. Chad you said you weren't going to practice today??...Did I inspire you today with my middle of the day practice? Edited September 12, 2013 by TrukSnave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CB45 Posted September 12, 2013 Share Posted September 12, 2013 Eh. I got the itch to shoot. If I don't shoot every 2-3 days, I get to jonesin' pretty bad. Haha, no seriously, I may have a problem ... Maybe I need to start Shooters Anonymous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted September 12, 2013 Author Share Posted September 12, 2013 Shooters Anonymous would be good for wives and jobs....bad for us guys! I enjoy my addiction! in dry fire practice this morning...I think I figured out the best way for me to shoot weak hand. Going to the range tomorrow to confirm! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted September 18, 2013 Author Share Posted September 18, 2013 I shot a classifier match Sunday. I threw a couple mikes on the draw. I am trying to get that first shot off too quickly! I went to the match not giving a shit and took my time shooting. Other than a couple mikes I got my hits. I know what it takes to get my hits and I had some room to go faster and still get my hits. That was some great practice for classifiers. I needed a good classifier practice match. I no longer care about my classification...just another stage that I have to shoot. I was way to nervous and trying to hard to get into a higher class. That feeling is gone. This month there updates wont be posted until the first of October so I will remain unclassified for a couple more weeks! I just dry fired tonight. I slacked off yesterday. I am consistently getting my turn and draw in .08, hands at side in .06 and surrender at .07 burkett reload in .06 I am out of ammo until some bullets come in sometime this week. I hope I can get a live fire practice in this week. I need to get a load chronoed for the TN Sectional match in two weeks. Thats right....I will be going to my first major match. It will be great experience for me. I'm 9 or 10 matches into uspsa and still not classified! Its probably not common that a new shooter goes to a big match?? I just want to shoot as much as I can. I can't get better by not going to matches. In my head this is just a longer match than the local ones. I will treat it like the last couple of weekends when I have shot two matches in a weekend. I'm so excited to go to this match. I am getting better and learning a bunch every week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted September 20, 2013 Share Posted September 20, 2013 (edited) Take a look at where you finish this Sectional match. That will give you a great idea of your classification. I have seen people want to classify high when they start. This is the wrong way to go about it. You are right to forget about how you classify. Constantly strive to finish matches better. That is the best advice I can give you. You and I know a shooter who has done that and he just recently made Master. And, lo and behold, that's were he finishes the big matches. Hmmmmmmmmm. Edited September 20, 2013 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CB45 Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 Well your initial classification is C! Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted October 3, 2013 Author Share Posted October 3, 2013 Race to GM??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted October 3, 2013 Share Posted October 3, 2013 C class, not for long! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted October 8, 2013 Author Share Posted October 8, 2013 I guess I don't update this as much as I should! I shot a match at atlanta a few weeks ago. I shot pretty OK. I was second in SS if I would have not had a mike I would have won SS. I placed 17th in the combined results shooting 77% of the winner. Which wasn't so terrible! I also shot a 72% on the classifier. A few more of those wouldn't hurt. I practiced with CB45 Saturday....I learned how to do some things better! I left the practice session with pretty big improvements! I'm happy about that. I shot a match in the rain yesterday, first time for that. I had a good time, better than watching football! I won single stack and 4th in combined shooting 72% of the winner and shot another "B" run on the classifier. Only need a couple more to move on up! Practice with CB45 is paying off! Thanks man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted October 15, 2013 Author Share Posted October 15, 2013 (edited) Well I found out I really need to practice shooting partials!!! We have worked on a lot of things in the last two months...this has not been one of them. I shot a record number of mikes on Sunday!! I would have had a nice run on the classifier CM 99-07 Both Sides Now #1, but I had a mike and noshoot! I had two field stages with 4 mikes each...ouch. Times were great though! haha I only shot 3 stages clean....and those were great. I shot them as fast as the production GM's. I don't lose any time on my reloads now. My stage planning is getting good. CB45 is right...you CAN run SSTK as fast as limited guys....even beat some open guys. I have learned a ton in the last couple months, and I will continue to improve everything. I was losing a shit load of time on movement, entry/exit, and reloads...now that is my strong point. My gun is always up and ready to shoot when approaching a shooting position, quick reload while exiting....gun up for next array. At our practice sessions, even if there are only 4 targets and two positions...I am throwing a reload in. It has really paid off. Next practices sessions I will focus on shooting partials until I no longer suck at it!! I noticed at the matches Saturday and Sunday, either I was on or off. Trigger pull sucked bad on one stage and great on another. I will keep working on this as well. Open gun will be ready in a few weeks....F U single stack! I can't wait to start practicing with this new gun!! Edited October 16, 2013 by TrukSnave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted November 3, 2013 Author Share Posted November 3, 2013 I am waiting on my open gun...It SHOULD be done soon. I have been anticipating shooting open so bad. I have not been very excited to shoot SSTK lately! Last weekend wasn't very fun to me, I kept wishing I had my gun! CB45 let me borrow his back up gun "Trudy", to shoot until mine arrives. I practiced with it Wednesday and Today, Holy shit batman! This is awesome! So far it is better than I expected it to be! Tomorrow we are traveling north to a match. This will be my first open match, I can hardly wait! I think the arrival of my new gun will be perfect timing! Maybe I can shoot a match or two with it before the season is over. I plan to dry fire like a mad man over the winter. I will have several months to familiarize myself with the new gun and set up. I should be able to come out swinging in March! CB45 has helped me a shitload the last 3 months. Hopefully I will be good enough that we can practice together instead of him putting so much energy into helping me! Baby steps! I need to see how tomorrow goes!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted November 3, 2013 Share Posted November 3, 2013 (edited) I thought you had a good first match shooting open. "Trudy" held you back with some ejection problems on a couple stages by being finicky, but I can't bad mouth the behotch too much, she did get me to Master. It was a great day shooting and thanks for picking me up and doing all the driving. I can't wait to shoot your new open gun myself, lol. Edited November 3, 2013 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted November 8, 2013 Author Share Posted November 8, 2013 I shot my first match with open..It was a good time. Had a lot of jams so I didn't have a great match. My gun has been pushed back so I won't be shooting open this year. I think I am going to shoot my 1911 in Limited 10 for the next few matches. I changed my grip and magwell on the 1911...It feels like a totally different gun! It brought back the excitement of shooting it. Now I can't wait to shoot it Sunday. I was over shooting SSTK...I'm glad I was able to change the gun and get happy with it again. I practiced a little bit last night. After shooting an open gun for the last week, I was thrown off a little by the recoil of .45! Forgot how much different it is than 9mm grenade. I shot 100% run on CM 13-05 Tick Tock. That was a great feeling! I really can't believe I did that. I have improved a shit ton in 4 months! I was absolutely terrible the end of July when I started! Now I just need to start shooting clean matches. At first I was shooting No Shoots...then I stopped that and started shooting mikes!. Then It was deltas, from now on that shit is over with, I had a mike last sunday. This sunday I WILL SHOOT A CLEAN MATCH. That is my goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted November 8, 2013 Share Posted November 8, 2013 You can do it. Shoot it clean then ramp the speed up again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted December 5, 2013 Author Share Posted December 5, 2013 Sunday I shot the Toys for Tots match at Bluegrass Sportsman Club with Chad and Chris S. I was shooting with great shooters and was very nervous the first couple of stages. The third stage I started to settle down. This was my third match with my new open gun. ( They first two matches I wasn't very comfortable with it and had some issues with my grip that I needed to work out. My thumb was riding the slide and keeping it from going all the way into battery. I dryfired several times last week and really started to feel more comfortable with the gun. I got the grip issue sorted out. I felt like I shot ok for being new to open. Shit really for being new to USPSA. I had way to many mikes though. mostly on the first 3 stages until my nerves settled!! I shot some stages very well Sunday and it helped with my confidence. I think it was a great match and a great way to end the season! Its been a blast this past 4 months! I have made big gains and I will continue to grow as a shooter over the winter! I can't wait until the spring!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted December 5, 2013 Author Share Posted December 5, 2013 I think we are going to the Florida Open....Awesome! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeMartens Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 I think we are going to the Florida Open....Awesome! You need to go to Area 6 in April Bill and I are going to shoot Battle in the Blue Grass on Friday and load up and drive to Area 6 and shoot it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrukSnave Posted December 6, 2013 Author Share Posted December 6, 2013 (edited) I want to shoot every big match possible! Is the Battle in the blue Grass filled up yet? Wait this is a SS production match....I probably won't shoot it? I want to concentrate on open! I think the only SSTK match I will shoot is the Indiana match Edited December 6, 2013 by TrukSnave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now