How to do everything perfectly all the time

[CHA-LEE]

We need updates on the beard growth

[thermobollocks]

Beard status: Toshiro Mifune

Practice was difficult but rewarding. I only made it to the range around 1 in the afternoon, so it was a half-day instead of a full day, but it was still about as much exertion I could handle. I imagine with a few more hours I could've set up the easier courses I wanted to do, but the all-steel course was exhausting.

Here was the basic idea. I even have it written down so I can set it up some other Saturday where I get bored. I ditched the tall barrels in the setup notes, though.

I shot the steel portion with my 1911 as a warmup. Here's what that mess looked like:

At the very least, I found out that I can, in fact, hit the KD plates from a way away. That was one of the big things I wanted to check on from the weekend before last's 3-gun match. I had hell of a tough time with the long distance plates for some reason. I wanted to know if there was something about .45, something about my guns's sights, or something about me that was making the shots drop two feet lower than I expected. It was me.

After setting everything up, I had to figure out how I wanted to do the fake thrower.

I wound up using some cheap lath from Home Depot, duct tape, and clays. That particular run, I technically missed a clay, but other than that I was doing well.

This was my second attempt:

Neither of those did I hit the clays, and on the second one I was slower. I'm thinking I should get out and do some 16y trap with an open choke and work on picking up targets faster.

This was my first attempt at the entire 20 yard course. My reloads were crap and I still couldn't hit the aerial.

The second one was much better. You'll notice a "Finally!" after I got both aerials in time.

After I shot up all of my lath, I switched to the 16 round course, starting with an empty gun.

Afterward, it occurred to me that maybe a loaded chamber and an empty tube would've made more sense, so I wouldn't have to keep screwing with the slide release. But, I very clearly need the reloading practice.

Lastly, I made a playlist full of videos from yesterday's club match at HPPS.

It was six stages, and I got 5 of them on video before my camera died. That should have them in order of when I shot them.

The first stage I shot was Stage 3, a 28 round field course. This one was actually fairly straightforward to remember what I wanted to do. I'm fairly sure the entire day I was overaiming -- I mentioned Friday that I was worried about my accuracy with that gun, so, it seems like I've gotten that part figured out.

Stage 4 was a 32 round field course, and I think probably my best performance of the day. However, since I knew I'd been overaiming on the previous stage, I evidently decided it was time for some makeup shots on those KD plates.

Stage 5 was the one I designed, another 32 round field course. I did it pretty well, but it definitely had more than one viable solution for 8 or 10 round plans like mine. The KD plates at the end were fairly tough shots, and on top of that, between this stage and the last, people were catching wicked frags.

Stage 6 was CHA-LEE's creation. It was a 4 string standard exercise involving SHO, WHO, and freestyle components. Movement was mandatory -- you had to start at one end of the box, and to reach the final target, you had to make it to the other end. I'm not sure why I took so damned long, but I did. My points blew, though. I had at least one delta by the skin of my teeth. I was probably freaked out because the least time I WHO'd that 1911, I ND'd. I think I made it harder than I needed by picking the longest distances to engage the targets rather than the shortest.

Stage 1 was another Virginia count standard exercise, with 3 targets and a mandatory reload. It was basically an El Pres on steroids: lots of hard cover.

Watching it over again, my transitions were entirely too leisurely, like I was trying to track the front sight through the entire arc of movement, which makes no sense unless I intend to shoot the dirt. Steel Challenge should break me of this fairly thoroughly.

[CHA-LEE]

You need to get some urgency built into your non-shooting movement and transitions. You are giving up a lot of stage time by not being aggressive in your movement.

[thermobollocks]

You need to get some urgency built into your non-shooting movement and transitions. You are giving up a lot of stage time by not being aggressive in your movement.

Yep, I keep having to go back to transitions. I think I might be having some cross-training scars. Shotgun, I can only reload while moving at such a pace, while with pistol as long as I've got a magazine in my hand I can haul.

[CHA-LEE]

For transitions you need to really beat in the skill of immediately looking for the next target as soon as the calling of the current shot is done. If you start looking for the next target aggressively your physical movement will usually follow suit.

As far as letting your reloading skills determine your movement aggressiveness I think this is usually due to us not wanting to be finishing a reload after we get to the next position. A lot of times we want to complete the reload while we are moving so we can be ready to shoot as soon as we get to the next shooting position. But the trap there is that you start moving slowly while reloading so the movement time matches a slow reload time. I would much rather move aggressively to the next shooting position and still be finishing by reload while I am already solidly planted in the next shooting position. Sure, I am waiting on getting the reload completed before I can start shooting, but at least in that scenario finishing the reload is the ONLY thing I am waiting on. Obviously if you have slow reloads you will feel like you are completing the reload in a "Standing Reload" situation. But that is a better situation to be in verses moving around the stage like a slug and reloading slow on top of that.

Edited April 21, 2014 by CHA-LEE

[thermobollocks]

I think I can hammer on my eyes a little this Wednesday afternoon. 24 strings on 5 plates ought to do something

[thermobollocks]

You need to get some urgency built into your non-shooting movement and transitions. You are giving up a lot of stage time by not being aggressive in your movement.

I think I was able to accomplish this successfully at Saturday's 3-gun match.

Unfortunately, I forgot to remember other little things like "where my big fat rifle bullets go when they're at 200 yards instead of 100"

Regardless, as usual, I learned things, and I've got some practice materials on the way to hopefully help me figure out what that FAL does.

[thermobollocks]

I still have yet to stick my other 3 Gopro videos up on Youtube, but as soon as I don't have work in the way, I think I can manage that.

Last Saturday was the club 3-gun match at Weld, and the last 3-gun match I have before He-Man Nationals on 9-10 May. Frustratingly, I tanked the long distance stage. The weather was exceptionally finicky. Before He-Man, I am trying to get a set of rifle gongs set up, and that's looking promising. I'm going with a rebar and pipe fitting setup that I saw on Snipershide.

The Wednesday before that was Steel Challenge, I got 1st out of 13 in rimfire irons, and I think overall I was pretty solid. There were a couple times finding my black on black sights was difficult, and the faster I try to transition, the more I find my 6-7/8" stainless MkII feels like a baseball bat. With any luck, that'll give me big ol' Popeye arms.

This Saturday, there's no normal 3-gun match, but Weld is hosting an 8-stage Steel Challenge match. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do this weekend -- if possible, I will be up at about 6 AM dropping plates at the 200-600 yard range. I will also have a giant slab of plated 230gn RNs to stuff.

One of the larger takeaways I had from last Saturday's 3-gun match was a squib. It made it out of the barrel, but it was still extremely concerning. I have to wonder if my measure was binding, or if I managed to screw something up. If it were just a primer, it wouldn't have exited the barrel. The other possibility is I noticed (and scraped clean) a few cases that had managed this nasty buildup of grit, probably after being stomped down into range silt. I will have to be more careful about checking my brass before shoveling it into my press.

I have been getting more dry-fire practice in with my 1911's high ride holster and my quad load stuff. I'm going to keep at it until I can perform at an acceptable level while sweaty and covered in antelope shit, as the case usually is in Raton.

[thermobollocks]

Hahahaha craaaaaap

So, lessons learned:

- You can do a LOT with JB weld and duct tape

- Pipe sizes are based off magic, and a 1/2" pipe fitting is like .8x inches wide.

- I got the wrong sized quick link and hope to Space Odin that my FAL doesn't frag the hell out of that cable tie

- Home Depot opens at 6 AM tomorrow.

[Tom Freeman]

Convery belt strap and grade 8 bolts are about a million times better than chains...

I know a guy that can hook you up with the conveyer belt.

Edited May 3, 2014 by Tom Freeman

[thermobollocks]

Convery belt strap and grade 8 bolts are about a million times better than chains...

I know a guy that can hook you up with the conveyer belt.

So I've heard! Part of what I wanted to do was mash something together myself, and the other part of it was scaring something together before He-Man.

In case it's unclear, the zip ties were more of a placeholder/smoke test. I made it out this morning and got some more hardware. This thing's resilient enough for what I need it to do -- If I had to have 30 dudes lob stuff at it all day, it'd definitely be bulletproof.

The zip ties on it lived for all of 5 rounds before putting the bolts on, 'cause what else am I going to do with them?

I got some carriage bolts for the plates, and oddly enough that paracord at the top held all day, 140-ish rounds of .308.

I ran about a magazine each at 200y, 300y, 400y, 500y, and 600y, and laughed like a maniac when I hit it at 500 reliably.

Oh, and the finished stand was about 40 bucks. It's cheaper if you cut your own rebar.

Edited May 4, 2014 by thermobollocks

[thermobollocks]

I had a practice session last Saturday with that sweet Bubba gong, and a club match at Aurora, shooting Limited 10. I'm getting more confident with this gun, which is good, because I have to shoot He-Man Nationals tomorrow and Friday. I still overaimed badly -- looking at my times compared to the speed demon we have on Single Stack, I leave a lot to be desired. I got a ton of alphas, but despite the overaiming, I also pulled at least one no-shoot. I don't get it. If I loosen up I start screwing up, but if I just turtle through the whole stage, I still wind up doing just as badly. I think I'll be glad to can this 1911 and get back to my plastic gun.

The one time I didn't bring my Gopro, they set up a really top notch 4 field stage Star Wars match. They went all out, and I have to give big ups to the Aurora BoD for the hard work and creativity.

I also had a number of mental errors, like forgetting a target completely. This worries me, because at Raton, half the challenge is figuring out where all the damned targets are in the first place. It's really, really hard to focus on good fundamentals when I'm not even sure I'm going to shoot everything I need to shoot.

[thermobollocks]

I shot and RO'd He-Man Nationals in Raton.

WHEW.

I got all my stages on Gopro. I was a little embarrassed at how sloppy a few things were. I was happy with some but not others -- the FAL did better than I expected on the longer shots, but it was still an extremely technically challenging match.

I also wound up doing well enough to get a small pile from the prize table. Nothing fancy like a rifle or a scope, but a Nordic brake, a neat bag, some hats, and some gift certificates. The best gear is earned

Edited May 12, 2014 by thermobollocks

[thermobollocks]

He-Man was an adventure. My goals for this one were to basically not vomit spending 4 days in Raton working myself like a dog. As somewhat of a barometer, in tac optics I'm often 60-80%-ish at club matches (depending on the venue and who shows up), and overall, I wound up 51% of the scope division winner in this one. Worth noting, I didn't see a name that I recognize locally on the results list until about 79%, so clearly some really, really sharp people showed up. I feel like I probably shot about a 51% match, and my biggest losses were in stupid things like missing aerials and forgetting targets. Some more physical training on my part would help, since most of the time I felt completely lethargic.

Going in order of what I shot, let's start with stage 5:

This was a Shotgun/Pistol stage with a pile of birdshot targets and a couple of slug gongs. This one made me remember little things like "what kind of ammo am I going to shovel into this thing" since most of the shotgun segments I can remember have had very clearly delineated slug portions, often at the very beginning or the very end. So, I generally tried to remember a birdshot target as a landmark, stuff slugs into my magazine, then take the birdshot and proceed immediately to slug. I apparently ran past a birdshot target in the ditch on the left, a very high pistol gong as well, and in general I take to natural terrain like an octopus to an Airbus. I also fell on my face, but that only made me lose a couple of seconds (I have no pride to injure). Remember CHA-LEE's comment about building some urgency into my non-shooting movements and transitions? It's worse on a stage like this.

Stage 6 is the one I wound up ROing for the main match. To be fair, Rich CRO'd something like 90% of the shooters without rest, complaint, or blinking.

There were 13 birdshot, 2 slugs, and 10 rifle targets from 100 to 250 yards. First, I can't move and shoot with a shotgun at all, and neither could most people who tried. Since I was choked mod, it would've made plenty of sense to simply take the first 3 targets right out of the gate instead of wandering around looking for them as I did. This is one of the rare stages where the targets were not difficult to find, however I was still unhappy from blasting past targets on the previous stage. The rifle segment, I did not unsling my rifle until I was at a dead stop at the first shooting position (after taking a nice detour on the way). I also learned a very important thing: my shotshell carriers jam into my stomach when I go reverse kneeling. So, for the entirety of the rifle portion I was shooting from a straight up seated position, which offered poor recoil control. Not good on a big fat piston gun. Because of freak weather, I wasn't able to make the two scheduled tactical rifle matches that Pueblo holds, and that hurt a lot. I think I gave up on two of them from the top position, which is quite frankly embarrassing. I had a lot of fun running downhill though.

Stage 7 was probably the most fun of the match, and also the most challenging rifle portion.

The first rifle position was standing behind a sandbag, and the second was up a staircase. I took care of everything from the first position, but the second position, two targets gave me trouble. The longest, and the shortest. I wound up trying to go rollover on the one cranked all the way to the left and high, but that didn't work. Someone later asked me why I didn't just go kneeling, 'cause it was pretty short. Apparently because I don't like hitting my target I gave up on both slugs, and they weren't even particularly tough shots. I just have a soft spot for orange plates, I guess.

Stage 1 (39 birdshot) was a complete clusterf*#k and I'm going to go shoot trap this afternoon and not think about it so much.

Stage 2 was the first stage of the day on Friday. It was approx. a million rounds of rifle (I used 58) and had 12" plates at 400 or so. Those were the toughest. There was also a full IPSC at 650, which wasn't so bad thanks to the proportions involved (and that I got some 600y practice on a 12" plate in the weekend before). The hosing portion of this stage involved a lot of right to left movement, which was awkward for a number of right handers. Right handers who knew what they were doing took care of it, but I decided to go left shoulder. With some left shoulder practice, it would've worked well. This one felt a lot more plodding than other stages did. I went to war with one target at the very first long range position, and I'm not sure why. Maybe my mental range card was off by a couple mils. I also got lost at some point, though I only needed one shot after I found the target. I breezed past at least one offhand target at one point, which was even dumber than usual because that one wasn't even hard to find. There were two targets that were visible only from the third and final shooting position, and I'm still not super sure whether taking everything I could from the rooftop then moving to the wall was a good idea. I wasn't happy from my performance on the two ladders from stage 6, so I wound up trying what I could off the obstacle I like less. Luckily, I didn't time out, but barely.

Stage 3 was a fun stage. It was all 3 guns, with something like a 100-200y rifle segment to begin.

I'd checked out these obstacles at the last club match, so they felt kind of familiar, and more importantly, I could use both without too much awkwardness. The down side was it was cold enough for my hands to hurt. I was pretty happy with my movement on the shotgun portion and my performance on the rifle portion, but I learned not to try and hero the birdshot, no matter how disorganized my belt might look. I had to dig into a cargo pocket because of a makeup on birdshot, which was pretty fun. The pistol portion didn't go as badly as the previous day, though I did wind up with a double engagement (RO: "You got that one." Me: "Cool! :D")

Stage 4 was the last one I shot, Rifle/Pistol.

It also had a fun pickup gun after the rifle portion of the stage. You had to double fist S&W 617s and get at least 3 rounds on paper. I decided to go balls out and dump cylinder on each. Unfortunately, before that, I blew past two mini-papers for rifle that were extremely visible and not difficult shots. Oops. Right by the dump bucket, there was an opportunity for at least 4 fullsize paper with the rifle, which helped reduce the counting I had to do on the pistol portion. I also blew past a rifle gong that was a required offhand engagement from right by the dump bucket. I was leaning hard enough on recoil control that I forgot about it completely. So, there's a free 45 seconds to my time right there.

[thermobollocks]

Last Saturday I shot and worked the Pike's Peak Shotgun Challenge. It was an exceptionally fun match unlike anything else I've ever heard of -- all shotgun, testing basically every possible task a shotgun can do. Something like 20% of all targets were aerials (by my wild-ass guess). Our very own MarkCO and co-exprs ran it, and they kicked ass at doing so.

I only got a few stages on my Gopro, and nothing really sticks out from the ones that I didn't get (aside from that I need more practice on aerials...)

Here they are in convenient playlist form

Stage 6, where I started (I think), was 17 rounds of birdshot and 2 slugs. They had a pile of clay targets, including white no-shoot clays, which was new for me. The stage was arranged in a way that encouraged candycaning, but most shooters (including me) found it more efficient to shoot 1 view of 4 clays, 1 view of 4 clays, then 2 views of 1 slug each. Part of that came from how most people were dual loading. However, it would've worked much better if, in the leadup to the slug portion, I had left a clay up so I could fire my live birdshot instead of racking it out. I don't think I made this mistake the rest of the day. I was fairly pleased with my reload topping off the magazine going down the center, and I think I even did well on the Texas star at the end.

Stage 5 was kind of a showcase stage for the match. Mike Griswold of Rocky Mountain Target fabbed up a breaching door, so, the frame was basically birdshot rated steel, and a clay held it shut at the approximate position of a door lock. We had recurring problems with the wind cracking the clay -- maybe rabbits would've worked better. It worked fine for me, though. A stomp pad activated two swingers and two clamshells. One thing about the stomp pad was that it was generally best to just run over it and get into position, because the clamshells are quick. It's not like some other stomp pads where you can stand on it and wait for stuff to happen. The first clamshell, I was too slow and had to account for the no-shoot, and I think I managed to not break the perf on the no-shoot. The end of the stage got a little tight, and maneuvering through the ports with a 24" gun got a little sketchy. I also had to take some time to remember which targets I wanted to take from where, and part of that was that I wanted to hang back instead of screw around trying to get even deeper into the shooting area. At some point, I also loaded like 4-6 more rounds than I needed.

Stage 8 a fun stage where the shooter did not know which color of clays to shoot until the buzzer went off. Some clays were on stands, others were aerials. I drew white as my random color, so I had to remember not to shoot the orange stuff that got flung into the sky. I wasn't as good at ignoring them as I wanted, so I tracked them a little while before thinking "oh wait." Oh, and by the way, the entire thing was shot from a wobble platform, and if any part of your body rested on the frame, you would be penalized per shot fired. The RO squad had numerous ass faults. I didn't want my butt penalized, so I was trying to stay to the center of the platform as much as I possibly could. This also meant that the ports were not super friendly to people waving 24" muskets around. I think I was successfully able to keep my lower body from transmitting the movement of my pumping to the platform.

Stage 7 was deliberately built to screw with long-barrel havers, but I don't think it was too bad by this time. The target arrays were very straightforward, and there were a couple of ways to accomplish it. It was 4 arrays of 4, so it even worked out evenly for 8-round tube havers and quad loaders. My hand did slip once, but I recovered. It was pretty solid.

Stage 1 was the last one I got on video. This one had two foot activated clay throwers, a spinner, and a big pinwheel full of clays. I even hit both aerials, so I was pleased with that. I think I forgot to count in the middle, though, 'cause I ran the gun dry. I handled the spinner about as well as I could with the bulk target ammo (1-1/8 oz #7-1/2 1150 fps), and spun it in 3 shots. However, I learned about Federal Prairie Storm after I saw some of the more experienced shotgunners shoot it. I now have a couple boxes.

The other stages, we had a goose blind stage, which was tough for the starting position (laying down in a coffin blind), and it had tough aerial shots, coming straight at, from behind, and at different angles left and right. There was a bank of steel in the middle, which tempted many shooters to attempt to drop a plate in between the 3 second automated clay sequence. So, in 3 seconds, shooters could wait for the shell, or dismount the gun and risk a failure to engage on a clay. A lot of shooters also took way too many pickups, and found themselves having to throw in some ammo. This stage was one that would actually reward a traditional weak hand loader or someone with a side saddle/arm cuff, since you can re-mount the gun so quickly using that technique.

Another stage had some 60-ish yard slug shots from some very interesting ports right at the start, then two slug swingers at the end, with a long corridor of clays and a Texas star in between. I think after stages like this, I am less afraid of ammo management when I have to take a slug gong in between a bunch of birdshot targets.

We also got to shoot from an extremely high platform at the sporting clays facility, which if I remember correctly involved shooting downward (which is different), but also 5 foot activated aerials, which meant I couldn't always have the footing I wanted.

The stage I RO'd all day Saturday was a gully run, but compared to a 3-gun gully run, a 1-gun gully run isn't so bad. It was very long to reset, despite the helpers we had. Shooters frequently ran the gun dry on the clay kickers, or, even worse, had some kind of jam after dropping the poppers. Even the extremely skilled shooters seemed to struggle to remember they could knock down a popper in the time it took to activate the clay. The only irritating part was when the forward-falling poppers would stick or stutter, I had to stop people at the very end of what might've been an excellent run. But, I don't think anyone was unhappy about it.

There were 10 stages total, and each were innovative and challenging on at least some level. I wouldn't call anything a "filler" stage. The name "Pike's Peak Shotgun Challenge" is well-deserved.

Overall, I finished 39 out of 102 (if I can count) and 9th out of 22 overall in pump division, at 70% of the division winner. Coming off my somewhat expected but still humbling 50% at He-Man, I was happy. I think I'm better able to take care of stages with one gun and targets that are easy to find, even though the aerials were tough. I got some gift certs to Xtreme and a Shooters Source +2 tube extension extension for my efforts, and on top of that, an extremely generous shooter gave me the Xtreme cert he had won for being a kickass RO.

[thermobollocks]

Since I ran up my word count for the big shotgun match, I'm saving a whole 'nother post for the two club matches I shot this week. I shot Production on Monday night at the indoor match, and even though I was extremely happy with my movement, I neglected to take into account that USPSA requires me to hit the A-zone from time to time. Consequently, I shot only 75% of available points, which is bloody abysmal.

I didn't get to do Steel Challenge this Wednesday 'cause I got stuck in a freak hailstorm, so instead I bounced on over to the gunsmith's shop to see if they had a barrel wrench and an upper receiver vice block to finally get the Larue boat anchor off the front of my 3-gun rifle. That is on my list for this week. Friday I was able to get my MTAC

Today, I didn't bring the Gopro 'cause its battery is being a dong and I just wanted to worry about shooting. I went to a club 3-gun match at Greeley, and it was a ton of fun. The weather held, though it was very humid. I had one malfunction in my Larue, which I think was a high primer. I'm impressed that it continues to run, but I'm not going to press my luck too much tomorrow at the rifle match in Pueblo. I will try to hose down the BCG and wipe out the upper receiver so it doesn't barf on itself. I also found out I really like the 48-round magazines for monopodding, even though they don't have all the glow tape on them to make them go faster (yet). I accidentally passed over a target on a tough to remember stage, even though I thought I had a solid plan. There were four ports, and you had to use all four ports. I remembered which targets would be hidden from where, with the exception of steel which was just shoot it 'til it goes down. One poor guy blasted past 5 plates after what would've probably been a sub-minute run and a stage best. I was glad that I was able to maintain a type one focus while chowing down on a stage full of close targets, then transition quickly in the middle to a front sight focus for over-the-no-shoot headshots and 25 yard plates. The rifle stuff also went quite well. I'm glad to be back to my Larue.

[thermobollocks]

The Sunday before last I got to do one of my favorite matches, the rifle-only one in Pueblo. I got two stages on video, the other one was standards. Standards out of the way first: I didn't suck as bad as last time. I don't do very much plain old offhand and sitting practice, which is why I like the standards stage to begin with. I need it.

The long-range stage was the first of the day, and I got very frisky with my ammunition management. I was really excited for 48 round pmags after coming from the 20 round FAL, so I burned something hilarious like 75 rounds on 25 required engagements. Oops. Call it inefficient zero confirmation. If I hunker in, remember how to get support on each obstacle, and remember clear sight pictures and proper trigger presses, I know I can go very nearly one for one. I just got sloppy.

I was much happier with the short-range stage (short range here is 100 to 200 yards), where I came in I think 87% of the winner.

I was also having persistent cleanliness issues all day -- my Larue hasn't been cleaned since October or so. So, I fixed that this week, and it functioned admirably the last couple matches.

Today was the CRC Multigun June club match, which was 1 enormous stage. It took me 420 seconds to complete, and I shot it dirty as hell. It was exhausting -- I need more time at the gym. Further, I couldn't find the sling I've practiced with, so I used the POS "universal" one that isn't really universal at all, and has no ability to adjust tension. I was in awkward positions for almost all of the rifle portions, on top of running completely out of oxygen from hauling ass.

The stage was set up on five bays. The first was shotgun/pistol, 5 buckshot and 28 birdshot. I couldn't hear the RO call "OVER" on the spinner, so I engaged it twice, which probably ate something like ten seconds. I was also a little disturbed to discover that I brought the wrong size of buckshot -- I wanted 00, but I grabbed my #4. I also had some 3" buck I had brought just in case, but I didn't wind up needing them. They were calling hits on the buck plates, since they weren't really calibrated. In between shotgun fun time were ten pistol paper, at modest distances. My ammo management was not awesome on shotgun -- because we were required to shoot shotgun, pistol, then shotgun, it was difficult to figure out where to reload. I basically ran it to the "click" most of the time.

Segment #2 (this is still on the clock and hot holstering/slinging were required) was pistol/rifle, with nine metric targets for rifle at about 40 yards, and 9 knockdown plates for pistol at around 7 to 15 yards. I was pleased with being able to hit things with my pistol after running that hard. It didn't work out on segment #3 though.

Segment #3 was 10 targets each for rifle and pistol. The heads of metric targets were for the rifle, and the bodies were for the pistol. This is one of my least favorite target presentations. I also found it extremely difficult to offhand my Larue, especially with an ill fitting sling, so on the second half I just monopodded off my knee. It seemed to work. I am sure I pulled many shots off target, since I had godawful sight pictures almost the entire time. Pistol probably went a little better -- my recoil control was awful on the first array, but it got better on the second. I had to haul ass to segment #4, and about 80% of the way I just gave up on running. This was about the time the ghost of Johnny Cash started giving me spotting advice.

Segment #4 was five pistol KD plates, five rifle steel at 100 yards, and six rifle paper (full targets) at about 40 yards. I passed over 3 rifle paper after getting done with the 100 yard steel -- oops. There's 45 seconds in penalties.

Segment #5 was the long distance bit. There was one token pistol target so the RO could get a stop time, and I did a one handed five shot burst on it for style points. After showing clear the pistol, we had one minute to rip off our belts and get onto the mat, where we'd get another "are you ready?" to engage 15 precision targets with 15 shots. FTEs did not count, but misses did. In 15 shots, I managed to hit the 5 10" gongs at 200 yards, but the 5 sporting clays were not having it. The 5 poker chips were right out. Shooters could use a boltgun or a second AR with different optics, but I didn't have that available at the time.

It was a ton of fun, and I'd do it again. I think the best time was in the low 300s, and mine was 419, but with all the penalties, I didn't do so well.

[thermobollocks]

Today was something. I made it to the range for some practice for the first time in a while. The biggest thing I wanted to work on was visualizing an A zone when I need A's (namely, USPSA minor). To back up a little, I've noticed that when I come to USPSA from 3gun, I shoot at brown, while if I come to 3gun from USPSA, I visualize A zones instead of brown. Neither is productive -- 75% of points shot or taking too long to punch As.

I can't say I learned anything this time, which is troubling. I shot worse than I do with my 625. Revolver splits (.25 @ 8y) to get As is not where I need to be. It's also nowhere near where I know I can be. My draws also sucked, and about the time I found that out too I decided to just bust pop cans left hand only and go home. My front sight was tracking weird, and my recoil control was oddly wobbly. Aside from being out of practice, I think my newly stippled backstrap may not be providing enough texture. I will slap the no slip tape back on and hope I don't eat a freckled fart at the club match tomorrow.

[PatJones]

My front sight was tracking weird, and my recoil control was oddly wobbly.

All bottom feeders do that. Get your revolvers out and come play. The ICORE Rocky Mountain regionals are next weekend at Weld county.

I'm driving to the ICORE Midwest regionals with another shooter over the July 4th weekend if you're interested.

[thermobollocks]

My front sight was tracking weird, and my recoil control was oddly wobbly.

All bottom feeders do that. Get your revolvers out and come play. The ICORE Rocky Mountain regionals are next weekend at Weld county.

I'm driving to the ICORE Midwest regionals with another shooter over the July 4th weekend if you're interested.

Hah.

This time it was worse than usual. I narrowed it pretty definitively to the backstrap. So, I get to can that and go back to grip tape. I'm very okay with that.

I shot a club match today with limited minor, just 'cause I didn't feel like worrying about reloading and hitting my target. I just threw on the 23 rounders, nothing else. I shot a ton of points, and wound up 4/16 Limited and 10/42 overall, which is a lot closer to where I know I can deliver. I wasn't as bold in movement, but that's the tradeoff I get, I guess.

[thermobollocks]

Last Sunday, against my weenie-like urges to "practice" and "not drive 2 hours in the morning and 2 and a half in the afternoon" I went to a USPSA club match up in Greeley. I also got all of it on video! I was extremely pleased with my performance on everything but the classifier. I'm going to start with the most photogenic ones

Stage #4 was 16 rounds, but you started seated a couple of yards back from your loaded gun staged on the barrel. For this one. I was able to pay attention to how to grab the gun most efficiently and get into position at the port I wanted to start. I planted my foot down in one spot, leaned forward to get the gun, then stepped back on the same foot to get into the port, and that was about as efficient as I could make it. I was able to burn hard and get good hits on the close range paper, and I didn't find myself having to spend a lot of energy remembering how to be precise on the steel. For some reason, transitioning to the star, I found my green dot on a low plate, and I took the shot. That could've wound up very annoying, but I was able to take the star down without difficulty, even hitting it in the wrong order.

Stage #5 was a little closer to the indoor matches' stages. The first four targets you could take while walking, and I did, without sacrificing my hits. The next two arrays of 4 each, you had to take from the associated boxes. I checked on which side I wanted to be of the barrels, and I was able to execute that. I did, however, clip a no-shoot (without earning the miss), so I got a bit of a penalty. Contrasted to my 3-gun videos, I was able to run a lot faster without sacrificing shooting ability. I think part of that was shorts + trail runners instead of combat boots, and the other part is I've been hitting the stairmaster more.

Stage #1 was challenging -- the small shooting area was surrounded by barrels, so it was easy to pistol whip things and get lost on transitions. But, I think I was able to keep my trunk positioned well throughout without any awkwardness. I was also happy that even absent practice, I was able to execute reloads extremely well. It took a little longer than I had hoped to get all the steel, but they were fairly tough shots. When poppers are that close together, I have a hard time distinguishing the individual pieces of white, and sometimes I can make the shots harder than they need to be by trying to do foreground-background-foreground-background instead of taking everything in the foreground and going back again to the plates in the rear.

Stage #2, the classifier, I took far too many makeup shots to be competitive, for exactly the same reason as above. Were I able to pretend it was steel challenge and bust single, accurate shots from left to right, then engage the remaining plates after their cover was down, I think I would have done a lot better.

Stage #3, which was actually the first one I shot (the classifier was the last), I still did pretty well, though I was a lot slower starting out than other stages. Nonetheless, eating a couple hundredths on splits definitely beats getting terrible hits, and I think that set the pace for the rest of the day. I didn't feel much of the timidity that I often do with tight shots squeezed between no-shoots. If I can visualize the zone I want to hit, I think I'm getting better at doing what I need to do to hit it, and no more.

The ports were fairly straightforward to work with, and there were a few different ways to shoot the stage. However, even for Limited, it was one of those situations where executing a halfway decent plan well is far more important than selecting the most efficient possible plan. I was squadded with some very talented shooters in Open, and I don't think any of them did it quite the same way. Every shooter has their own talents, and one of the things I love about this sport is being able to execute things to your talents.

This Saturday, I will be missing out on the Rocky Mountain Regional ICORE match to instead shoot a big dumb Production gun at High Plains (and do my BoD duty). Sorry PatJones. To be fair, my training plan for the year is to do the M&P in the spring/summer and play with the round gun in the fall, and even though it can be annoying to miss some of the fun things, I think it's even more fun to learn and perform well. I can't change gears as fast as other shooters, going from major 3-gun to ICORE to precision rifle matches, so it really does behoove me to spend a couple months dedicated to a certain platform.

[thermobollocks]

I was finally able to get out to a Steel Challenge match last Wednesday. I felt extremely rusty, not necessarily in transitions, but in calling my shots and actually pressing the trigger, in addition to my surrender draws. I'm doing okay with normal ones, but it's been so long that I don't move my arm as decisively and precisely as I like. Well, only one way to fix that. I think I was also letting the new brass magwell psych me out. Normal draws, I don't feel the weight, because I'm just powering through whatever mass the gun has to offer. If I let myself think "oh this thing swings like a bowling ball," then I'll swing it like a bowling ball.

In any case, the magwell works great after some minor buffing to keep it from binding on the Taran basepads. But, for USPSA, since I'll be sticking to Production it's really more of a 3-gun accoutrement. Luckily, it pops off with a single screw.

I also swapped out the factory BCG in my Larue to a nickel-boron coated BCG I bought off a fellow 3-gunner. My main reason for getting it is for an eventual second upper, but dropped into the Larue, I could immediately feel a difference. There was a slight POI change in doing so, which I'm not sure about the mechanical cause, but I did not experience any accuracy problems. I'm going to put together some "match" .223 ammo for Rocky Mountain 3-gun coming up with the Nosler 69s. With uniform trims and same manufacturer headstamps, it seems to do pretty well:

That's at 100 yards, rested on my shooting bag, using the Burris MTAC, which isn't super group oriented. The constellation in the lower right is another ostensible group from different ammo. Also, it sucks getting a sight picture on yellow notecards.

I thought I learned something else this week, but I forgot.

Yesterday was the more or less regular Johnson 3-gun club match at the NRA Whittington Center. I was able to get my stage runs on video, and as soon as all of them are done processing I'll have to write about those, too. In short, I'm getting better at running around and shooting without getting exhausted, confused, and useless.

[thermobollocks]

For once I did maintenance on my M&P. My magazines were sticking in the frame, so during my bimonthly dragging a paper towel through the magwell session, I decided it's time to detail clean the frame, except for the sear housing block 'cause I didn't want to potentially mess up any of those little parts if I could avoid it.

I soaked the locking block and trigger group in solvent, and scrubbed all the carbon buildup out of the feed area with a toothbrush. I had honestly forgotten what it looked like not caked in crud. I was afraid the non-chlorinated brake cleaner might've been too much for the trigger group (I didn't use that on the frame), since when I shot it Wednesday night it was very sticky. The reset was like a marshmallow, and the return spring was almost not powerful enough. I pretty much pretended it was a double action trigger all night.

Last night, after Steel Challenge, I took apart the sear housing block, and hooooly hell. I either pushed crud into it or it was just too dirty to take it any longer. "I'm givin ya all I've got, cap'n!"

Cleaning the sear housing block took care of everything, and I asked another M&Phaver how often he cleans his. Needless to say it was a number smaller than the 20,000 rounds it's been since I took mine apart.

It also reminds me I want to build up one of my frames into a Limited-legal one and another into a Production-legal frame. That way I don't have to screw around with the magwell on my one frame, and I can play with some of Apex's other stuff.

[thermobollocks]

Oh, I'm also thinking about modifying how I do my surrender draws. What I've been doing is keeping my strong side elbow cocked back and keeping my arm pretty much fixed so I only have to rotate along one axis to get my hand on the gun. I'm wondering if getting my hand above the gun and then proceeding as a normal draw might work better. I find that I can't establish my grip as surely with the pivot method I've been using. Maybe, also, I just need more practice with one method or another.

[thermobollocks]

I had a couple of halfway decent club matches in Production. It's frustrating how much more aggressive I am shooting with 23-rounders contrasted with 10-rounders. I don't know if it's a matter of sight, or having a reload always on the horizon, or what, but I've got a pile of .40 bullets in, because counting that much just isn't fun.

Speaking of not fun, I had a club 3-gun match up at Weld, and I would rather have stayed home. The rare combination of unpleasant stages, getting up early, and a frustrating squadmate left me unable to derive joy or improvement. I consider that an extreme personal failure on my part.