Zack's Match Summaries

[ZackJones]

Place holder to link to match summaries for the ICORE, Steel Challenge, and USPSA matches I've shot.

I'm getting back into shooting after a 10+ year break and will be concentrating on shooting a revolver to the best of my ability. Since renewing my USPSA membership my previous classifications have been activated again. As of this post I'm currently classified as follows:

Open - D

Limited - C

Limited 10 - C

Production - D

Revolver - D

Single Stack - U

Edited November 17, 2013 by ZackJones

[ZackJones]

Match Date: 20 Oct 2013

High Point: Won the first stage of the first ICORE match I ever shot.

Low Point: Bombing Stage 4

Overall Finish: 4th out of 5

Division Finish: 4th out of 5

Summary: This was my first pistol match in over 10 years. I used to actively shoot USPSA matches in the Limited Division but got out of shooting for an extended period of time and recently got back into it. The match director allows semi auto shooters to shoot the match but they shoot it in the fun category. I shot in the classic division which is for 6-shot revolvers that reload with speed loaders. Moon clips are prohibited from the classic division. I don't recall too many specific events from each stage so below I'll just summarize the match as a whole.

- Shot the Texas Star for the first time ever. I think I got lucky and cleared it with 6 shots.

- Many of the target arrays were setup for 8 shots which meant there were a lot of standing reloads.

- I didn't know which powder I would like using the best so I bought rounds loaded with Bullseye, Red Dot and Trail Boss. I really like Trail Boss and will use that powder from now on.

- Front sight, front sight, front sight. Not focusing on the front sight caused me major problems on stage 4 which was all steel. It was made up of a plate rack, a single knock over steel target, and an array of 5 pepper poppers that you had to shoot through a barrel. I did okay on the plate rack and single knock over target but the poppers kicked my butt. I just could not seem to get them to fall no matter what I did. In hindsight I know it's because I was looking at the popper and not the front sight so I have no idea where I was hitting them if I was even hitting them.

Edited November 18, 2013 by ZackJones

[ZackJones]

Match Date: 26 Oct 2013

High Point: Being accepted by the squad I shot on.

Low Point: Slow reloads when you don't get all of your hits

Overall Finish: 31 out of 32

Division Finish: 2nd out of 2

Summary: I had been reading and watching a bunch of YouTube videos on Steel Challenge matches and knew it was something I would enjoy shooting. I also wanted to challenge myself by shooting it with my revolver. For those that may not be familiar with Steel Challenge you shoot an array of 5 steel targets 5 times. You throw out your highest time and the sum of your remaining strings, plus any penalties is your time for that stage.

Stage 1 - Roundabout [sC-108] (30.84) 7.71 AVG

7.65, 7.25 + 3 second penalty = 10.25, (10.53), 6.00, 6.94

Stage 2 - 5 To Go [sC-101] (48.09) 12.02 AVG

21.22, 8.45, 9.70, 8.72, (25.96)

Stage 3 - Smoke and Hope [sC-103] (22.64) 5.66 AVG

5.69, 5.36, (17.77), 6.43, 5.16

Stage 4 - Trick Or Treat [N/A] (40.11) 10.675 AVG

(11.97), 10.11, 9.72, 11.46, 8.82

Stage 5 - Accelerator [sC-105] (39.98) 9.745 AVG

9.02, 9.37, 10.15, (21.45), 10.44

Total - 180.66

Note: Times in parens were excluded as those were high times for that stage.

Something I have learned is that as long as I ensure I hit the stop plate I'm actually better off taking a 3 second miss penalty than I am to try and reload and make up the shot. At my current skill level I can't reload and make up the missed shot in 3 seconds. Hell I'd be happy if I could just reload in 3 seconds .

I said above that the high point of the match was being accepted by my squad. I helped paint one of the targets before it was my time to shoot and as I stepped into the box the RO and I had the following conversation:

RO - We have a rule there that you can't paint your own targets before you shoot them. (They knew it was my first steel challenge match).

Me - Man I'm sorry. I wasn't aware of that rule. I won't do it again.

About this time I start to hear the peanut gallery laughing behind me and one of the guys on the squad says "We only "F" with you if we like you."

Edited November 19, 2013 by ZackJones

[ZackJones]

USPSA Oct 2013 match topic

[ZackJones]

ICORE Nov 2013 Match topic

[ZackJones]

November 2013 USPSA Match

Match Date: 2 Nov 2013

High Point: Winning my Division.

Low Point: Watching a shooter get DQ'd for breaking the 180.

Overall Finish: 39 out of 43

Division Finish: 1st out of 1

Summary: First USPSA match is a LONG time and it was fun to run and gun but once again I need to concentrate on the front sight as I had 4 mikes (not counting no penalty mikes on classifier). I shot this match with my S&W Model 10 which shoots .38 Special so I was scored using the Minor Power Factor.

I really should have taken pictures of the stages and will do that from now on. It's difficult to try and accurately describe a stage with only words.

Stage 1: Speed Bump

38th place. Hits were 4 A, 0 B, 3 C, 1 D, and 2 mikes.

Stage 2: Six in Six Challenge USPSA Classifier 09-01

40th place. Hits were 1 A, 1 B, 4 C, 0 D and 18! NPM. My percentage on the USPSA classifier summary was a lowly 16.666% which actually caused my overall classification percentage for Revolver division to drop from 21.44 to 20.48. Oops. Hard to move up to C class when I'm moving in the wrong direction!

Stage 3: Wicked Kitty

36th place. Hits were 11 A, 4 B, 4 C 1 D and 3 Steel. This was a unique stage in that you had to move a cat carrier from barrel A to barrel B while also engaging targets. It was a very fun, but challenging stage!

Stage 4: Head and Shoulders

37th place. Hits were 10 A, 8 B and 2 Steel. Only the head and portions of the shoulders were exposed on all targets. The rest of the targets were covered in hard cover.

Stage 5: Which Way Did He Go George?

39th place. Hits were 17 A, 3 B, 4 C, 4 and 2 mikes.

My hits break down as follows:

A - 33, 57%

B - 8, 14%

C - 15, 26%

D - 2, 3%

Edited November 20, 2013 by ZackJones

[ZackJones]

November 2013 ICORE Match

Match Date: 17 Nov 2013

High Point: No Mikes.

Low Point: Pinching finger in pistol while closing cylinder.

Overall Finish: Unknown

Division Finish: Unknown

Summary: For the ICORE match this month we participated in the 13th annual ICORE International Postal Match. In this match shooters from around the world shoot the same 4 stages and then email the results to the match coordinator. In Jan 2014 the official results will be published and we'll be able to see how we did against all other shooters that have shot the match.

Stage 1 - Fumble: Fumble is a very appropriate name for this stage because there are plenty of opportunities to screw up your load/reload. The stage consists of 6 targets that you have to engage multiple times from three separate shooting areas. The kicker is you start with your pistol unloaded. To shoot the stage you have to load/reload a total of 6 times. I shot in the classic division which prohibits the use of moon clips so there were plenty of opportunities to fumble the reload.

Stage 2 - Bit of Each: As the name implies you get to do some of each shooting style - freestyle (both hands), strong hand only and weak hand only. This stage pointed out to me that I really need to work on weak hand shooting. It's one thing to shot a semi-auto with a relatively light trigger weak handed but shooting a double action revolver well weak handed takes some skill that I don't yet have.

Stage 3 - X Ring Test: In ICORE we shoot the NRA-D "tombstone" targets. The center is known as the X-ring and on some stages shots inside the X-ring actually deduct one second her hit that is inside the X-ring. In this stage we shot 3 targets 6 times each so it was possible, in theory, to deduct up to 18-seconds from your time. I don't think anyone went 6 for 6 in hitting the X-ring but I know we had some shooters put at least 4 of 6 shots into it. This was a fun stage to see just how accurate you could be with your revolver.

Stage 4 - Ported: Four targets, four ports ranging from 30 to 12 feet from the targets. This was more like a USPSA run and gun stage than a stand and shoot stage. I shot it like an USPSA stage and it reflected in my score . In ICORE accuracy is king. Any shot outside of the A zone adds time to your score. B hits add 1 second per B and C shots add 2 seconds per C. I know on one target I had 3 C's which tacked on 6 seconds to my time . Still though it was an extremely fun stage to shoot.

ICORE_IPM_2013.pdf

[ZackJones]

November 2013 Steel Challenge Match

Match Date: 23 Nov 2013

High Point: No Mikes with my revolver.

Low Point: High primer causing issues with revolver.

Overall Finish: 18 out of 24 with .22 and 21 out of 24 with the revolver.

Division Finish: 1 out of 1

Summary: Perhaps I was trying to do too much at once. I was shooting a new revolver (S&W 625 JM), a new .22 LR (GSG 1911-22), and running the scoring tablet for our squad. After shooting the match last month and seeing how much fun the guys shooting .22's were having I decided I wanted to get in on that action. It is fun, but for me, at this point in time, it's too much for me to try and shoot two different pistols and score for the squad. The revolver is my primary focus right now so I'm going to concentrate on that. I will probably shoot .22 in future matches but I don't think I'll shoot both during the same match.

The Pendulum [sC-106]

(rimfire) 7.64, 7.01 + 1 Mike = 10.01, 9.24, (12.68), 8.77 - 35.66 AVG 8.915

(revolver) 21.18, 11.53, (30.00), 8.58, 11.02 - 52.31 AVG 13.08

Roundabout [sC-108]

(rimfire) 10.40, 6.94, (14.48), 6.02, 7.72 - 31.08 AVG 7.77

(revolver) 11.14, (18.13), 9.18, 7.56, 8.42 - 36.30 AVG 9.08

Smoke and Hope [sC-103]

(rimfire) (7.08), 4.50, 4.56, 3.31, 3.63 + 1 Mike = 6.63 - 19.00 AVG 4.75

(revolver) 7.12, 5.45, 5.19, 4.97, (19.88) - 22.73 AVG 5.68

Climb the Ladder

(rimfire) (11.25 + Mike = 14.25), 7.47, 7.88, 8.70, 8.54 - 32.59 AVG 8.15

(revolver) 9.49, (17.21), 8.86, 9.87, 8.74 - 36.96 AVG 9.24

Showdown [sC-102]

(rimfire) (7.94), 6.49, 6.85, 6.99, 7.93 - 28.26 AVG 7.07

(revolver) 8.56, 8.01, (20.08), 9.21, 9.34 - 35.12 AVG 8.78

Once these times are posted to the Steel Challenge web site my classification should upgrade from unclassified to D so that's a step in the right direction. All and all I'm pretty pleased with my performance especially considering I was shooting two new pistols. I think for now I'm going to concentrate on the revolver and shoot an occasional match with the 22.

Edited November 24, 2013 by ZackJones

[ZackJones]

December 2013 USPSA Match

Match Date: 7 Nov 2013

High Point: Winning my Division.

Low Point: Having loose screws on holster.

Overall Finish: 35 out of 46

Division Finish: 1st out of 1

Summary: Second USPSA match and first one with my S&W Model 625 revolver. The gun performed flawlessly. I love it! (Which is good because I'll be shooting it for quite a while).

From previous report: I really should have taken pictures of the stages and will do that from now on.

Oops - I forgot to take pictures.

Stage 1: USPSA Classifier CM 13-03

24th place. Hits were 10 A, 0 B, 13 C, 0 D, and 1 mike.

Stage 2: Double Pain Window

33rd place. Hits were 11 A, 0 B, 7 C, 2 D

Stage 3: Sidewinder

36th place. Hits were 12 A, 3 B, 3 C 0 D .

Stage 4: Where is Waldo

36th place. Hits were 13 A, 0 B, 4 C, 0 D and 1 mike.

Stage 5: Take it Near Or Far

35th place. Hits were 18 A, 1 B, 5 C, 0 D and 1 mike.

My hits break down as follows:

A - 64, 60%

B - 4, 4%

C - 32, 30%

D - 2, 2%

Mike - 4, 4%

Despite the 4 mikes I'm very pleased with my performance. I made sure to concentrate on the front sight and it paid off for the most part.

Up next is a special classifier match in January. I'm planning to shoot single stack in that match so I can get classified in that division.

[ZackJones]

December 2013 ICORE Match

Match Date: 22 Dec 2013

High Point: Shooting the match with my son.

Low Point: Changing stage plan at the last moment.

Overall Finish: Second

Division Finish: First 1 of 1

Summary: For the ICORE match this month we participated in the 13th annual ICORE International Postal Match. In this match shooters from around the world shoot the same 4 stages and then email the results to the match coordinator. In Jan 2014 the official results will be published and we'll be able to see how we did against all other shooters that have shot the match. This was our second month in a row shooting the match. Last month I shot it in the classic division and this month I shot it in the limited division with my S&W 625 JM.

My son was home for Christmas and he came out to the match with me and shot it using my S&W Model 10 in the classic division. I wish we would have had a chance to get him more trigger time with the pistol as he was shooting high all afternoon and that severely impacted his score .

Stage 1 - Fumble: I screwed up and changed my stage plan at the last moment. Doing so cost me dearly. I ended up engaging the targets one more time than required which resulted in a longer time than necessary and extra hit penalties. From now on I'm going to plan the stage and then shoot my plan. No more last minute changes!

Stage 2 - Bit of Each: Shot this stage well though I did have a bit of trouble transitioning between boxes. Unlike USPSA in ICORE our match director paints the boxes on the grass and I had some difficulty trying to transition between them. Oh well, live and learn. This just gives me another area that I need to work on in practice.

Stage 3 - X Ring Test: I won this stage! I shot consistently and had several X-righ hits from each string. We allow semi-auto shooters to shoot the match and they are almost always faster shooting than we revolver shooters are. My time with the revolver was only beaten by one semi-auto shooter and he's a high A USPSA shooter so I'm very proud of my accomplishment.

Stage 4 - Ported: Just like last month this stage gets your heart pounding and just like last month I shoot it too fast and dropped too many points.

I found out our club is planning to shoot ICORE every other month in 2014 due to the match director trying to do IDPA, intro to IDPA, and ICORE matches so he's getting burned out. With that in mind this will probably be my last ICORE match. I look shooting against other revolver shooters but I already work the USPSA and Steel Challenge matches so I'm already out at the range half of the weekends per month.

[ZackJones]

It's been quite a while since I last posted and after my South Carolina sectional match I think I need to start writing this stuff down so I'll have a place to look back through my notes. Since my last post I've abandoned the revolvers and moved to production the 8-shot minor revolvers have made the 6-shot major revolvers obsolete, IMO. I'm now shooting with M&P Pro with .40 minor and also have an M&P CORE also in .40 that I use a KKM 40 to 9 conversion barrel for shooting open in steel challenge with.

The 2014 South Carolina sectional match, score wise, was the worst match I've ever shot in my life; however, it may have been just what I needed though.

Of the 9 stages I managed to shoot 2 of them clean and on the other 7 stages I averaged 2.7 mikes. Obviously you can't have a fractional mike but you get the point. I was missing shots and that has got to change. I also had a total of 4 procedural penalties for FTE's. In one case I failed to shoot a popper that activated a swinger and in another case I shot two targets 4 times and two targets none. To add insult to injury I also zero'd a stage. Although I deserved to come in DFL due to my performance I ended up 73 of 75 in production.

I was fortunate enough to have my wife with me and she taped all of my runs so now I have an opportunity to review them and learn from my (many) mistakes.

So It looks like I've reached rock bottom as far as my last performance when and now seems like a great time to start fresh and really work hard on becoming a better shooter and that's exactly what I'm planning on doing - starting today.

[ZackJones]

It may all be in my head but I've convinced myself that I need to start shooting 9mm in production so I've ordered another M&P Pro this one in 9mm and it should get here tomorrow. I have a match coming up this weekend and I'm thinking about shooting it in the match. I know the trigger will suck compared to the one on my 40 Pro but if I'm going to make the switch I might as well do it now. I have 3 mags already and the new M&P will come with 2 so I'll have 5 mags which is plenty for the match. Of course I'll have to find time to load some ammo. That may be what keeps me from shooting the new gun. We'll see.

[ZackJones]

Yesterday I shot my first match with the new M&P Pro 9mm. The trigger sucks as you would expect for a stock pistol but otherwise the gun ran flawlessly. I loaded 125g Blue Bullets with 3.3g of e3 and these made the minor power factor but it's a little too close for my comfort so I'll bump it up to 3.5 and chrono again this coming weekend.

My match went pretty well considering I was coming off the worst match of my life at the South Carolina sectional. My best stage was the classifer CM03-08 Madness. My HF on the stage was 5.5202 which classifier calc says will be a national percentage of 62.9980. If that's the case it should get flagged as being too high for my current classification (39.06%). 4 mikes and 9 D's isn't good though. I have to get better hits if I want to be competitive. I'll be doing lots of dry firing with the new M&P to get the trigger broken in some and then I'll have the gun smith I use do a trigger job on it for me.

[ZackJones]

I made C class in Production! Yeah I know, it's still a long way from GM but I'm at least one step closer! I'm sitting at 45.42% now and will be clawing my way up to B class one classifier at a time.

[ZackJones]

Saturday I shot my first match as a C class production shooter and got soundly spanked . On a positive note there was a bunch of targets with hard cover and I didn't have any stray shots and I didn't get DQ'd. We had two shooters on our squad get DQ'd .

Overall 13/15 in production

Stage 1 - 13/15 - 79 of 120 points (66%)

Stage 2 - 7/15 (best placement) - 64 of 80 points (80%)

Stage 3 - 9/15 - 100 of 120 points (83%)

Stage 4 - 12/15 12 of 60 points (2%)

Stage 5 - 10/15 62/80 points (76%)

46 - A's

5 - B's

32 - C's

6 - D's

3 - Mikes

As a production shooter I'm dropping way too many points with those C's and D's. I've got to improve my accuracy!

[ZackJones]

Shot steel challenge match at our club today. I'm the MD so it makes for a long day between setting up, registration, and making sure the match runs smoothly and finally tear down. I shot two divisions in the match Open and Production. I shoot open with my CORE with the KKM 40-9 conversion barrel in it and production I shoot my new 9mm pro. The 9mm pro isn't broken in yet and the trigger really sucks. As soon as I get about 1000-1500 rounds through it I'm going to have my gunsmith do a trigger job on it. He has already done trigger jobs on my other two M&P's so sometimes switching back and forth between the production gun with the crappy trigger and the open gun is challenging. We shoot 5 stages per match and this month we shot Five To Go, Roundabout, Smoke & Hope, Accelerator and Outer Limits. I ended up winning Open (yes I actually had to beat someone to get the win). The faster open shooters were at the World Speed Shooting Championship so there were only two of us to that division. In production I placed 8th out of 9 .

Some stage notes.

Five to go

- Open time 23.64 with best run of 5.64 (1/2)

- Production time 35.02 with best run of 6.84 (8/9)

Roundabout

- Open time 24.25 with a best run of 4.98 (2/2)

- Production time 23.46 with a best run of 5.63 (8/9) Interesting that my production run was faster than open.

Smoke and Hope

- Open time 20.20 with best run of 4.45 (2/2)

- Production time 20.89 with best run of 4.24 (9/9)

Accelerator

- Open time 26.10 with best run of 5.71 (1/2)

- Production time 36.15 (ouch!) with best run of 7.91 (8/9) Clearly this is a stage I need to work on.

Outer Limits

- Open time 26.46 with best run of 8.35 (1/2)

- Production time 37.95 with best run of 9.51 (7/9)

Total time for all stages

Open - 120.65

Production - 153.47

[Rokihsa]

I think we need to get out and start practicing. I think the only way any of us get better is to put rounds down range. After reading your posts you didnt mention the loads you are using to reference the goods with the bads and that might help out also. A load might feel good but not be as accurate as you think (accounting for the mikes) and could be costing you some quality hits and or speed. I am looking forward to practicing with you , AJ and George soon.

[ZackJones]

I think we need to get out and start practicing. I think the only way any of us get better is to put rounds down range. After reading your posts you didnt mention the loads you are using to reference the goods with the bads and that might help out also. A load might feel good but not be as accurate as you think (accounting for the mikes) and could be costing you some quality hits and or speed. I am looking forward to practicing with you , AJ and George soon.

My first reply! You do make a good point about the rounds being used. I'll include that from now on. This weekend I'm shooting steel at MCRC using the remaining .40 minor loads I have. I need to burn that ammo up so that match seems like a good chance to do it.

[ToddKS]

I think we need to get out and start practicing. I think the only way any of us get better is to put rounds down range. After reading your posts you didnt mention the loads you are using to reference the goods with the bads and that might help out also. A load might feel good but not be as accurate as you think (accounting for the mikes) and could be costing you some quality hits and or speed. I am looking forward to practicing with you , AJ and George soon.

Good advice on understanding your load. I ran into an issue with this at my first outdoor USPSA match last month. I had switched from a 115gr load to a 124gr load. There were a couple 50 yard targets that generated a lot of mikes. I had never tested that load at that range. Turns out that load shoots to a left POI out of my gun. I had not noticed it at closer ranges but at 50 yards (combined with my lack of skill and general tendency to shoot left anyway) it put me off the target.

Edited July 18, 2014 by ToddKS

[ZackJones]

Shoot steel challenge match today and thought I had a very good match until I saw the results. I finished 13/13 in the center fire match and 8/12 in the rimfire match. I'm not upset about my finish by any means but was surprised by it especially since I shaved nearly 3 seconds off of Smoke & Hope. My previous best time was 18.92 and today I shot it in 16.00. Reviewing my other stages though I'm shooting them slower than I have in the past for some reason. The loads I shot today were some left over .40 minor loads. I found the ammo in the garage and decided to shoot it up.

Stage / Today / Best Time to Date

Smoke and Hope / 16.00 / 18.92

Accelerator / 31.67 / 26.10

Five To Go / 27.10 / 23.64

Pendulum / 37.10 / 32.96

Roundabout / 27.68 / 23.46

On the rimfire side I felt good. I was shooting one of the Browning Buckmarks we use for our junior program. It was jamming on us last weekend at the junior practice so I gave it a good cleaning this week and it ran flawlessly.

Our club match is this coming Saturday so it will be interesting to see if I can improve on my times after another week of dry fire training.

[ToddKS]

Do you have an idea of what might be slowing down you your times? Extra pick up shots? Slower target transitions?

Are you sure they didn't give you a Hendrix +2[emoji2]

[ZackJones]

Yeah that's the ticket, I was +2'd all day long . I don't recall having too many pick up shots but I know I have an issue using target focus versus front sight focus, especially on the far targets like you have on Accelerator and Pendulum. I tell myself "Front Sight" before each string but that thought seems to leave my brain as soon as the buzzer goes off. I'm going to make it an effort to shoot production only for the next few matches so I'll concentrate on the front site. I had been shooting production and open and I think the switching between the tow isn't helping me with concentrating on the front sight. This match I'm going to shoot production and then rimfire rifle irons so I can have some experience shooting a rifle at a match.

Real reason for slow times -- I'm just slow

[ZackJones]

Shot the club steel challenge match and now I'm pretty much convinced that running and shooting a match is not beneficial to match performance . On Saturday morning Donna (Mrs. Jones) and I setup the 5 stages without any help. Normally we have 1 - 3 other folks helping. I think the high probability of rain kept people from coming out early. For the August match I'm going to do complete setup the night before and see if not having to lug around all of that steel before shooting helps.

On every stage I shot slower times than my previous best. I think part of my problem is lack of consistency when shooting the stages. I'll have good runs and not so good runs. If I can shoot a stage in 5 seconds on one run I need to be able to shoot it at that same pace for all runs. I know some of the issues are things that crop up that you can't plan for such as a stove pipe or other gun related issue. Even though I chamber check my cartridges I know at least twice I had cartridges what wouldn't go into battery. Oh well it is what it is and I'll just have to try and do better next month.

Attached is a screen capture of my times for the match. The average time is the average of the 4 times used.

Edited July 28, 2014 by ZackJones

[ZackJones]

So I practice reloads heavily during the week during dry fire and what do I do? Bumble the reload on the classifier stage . We shot Can You Count (CM06-03) and according to the online classifier calculator my percentage should be in the 47% range which is about right for my skill level. One thing I've noticed is on stand and shoot stages I generally don't give up much time to the other shooter but I'm going up huge time on field courses for some reason. Although it's not an apples-to-apples comparison (production vs limited minor) below is a comparison between me and fellow squad shooter Davin. I'm a low C and Davin's a high C and will should make B class after the classification update runs this month. I think for the most part we shot the stages in a similar manner. I think next month I'm going to get my wife to come out to the match and video us shooting then I can review the match using ShotCoach to see where I'm losing so much ground. Another thing that killed my scores were Mikes. I have to quit having them or I'm never going to move up.

Stage 1 - Stand and shoot:

Davin - 13.35

Zack - 14.51

1.16 slower

Stage 2 - Field Course:

Davin - 26.95

Zack - 33.96

7.01 slower

Stage 3 - Field Course

Davin - 31.48

Zack - 43.23

11.75 slower

Stage 4 - Field Course

Davin - 22.91

Zack - 26.21

3.30 slower

Stage 5 - Field Course

Davin - 18.51

Zack - 24.03

5.52 slower

Stage 6 - Classifier

Davin - 9.49

Zack - 11.90

2.41 slower

[ZackJones]

I had a bit of a breakthrough in dry fire practice last night. If you listen to Ben Stoeger's podcast he recently answered a question regarding target focus versus front site focus (I asked the question). In his response he said to work on the dot drill to force yourself to do front sight focus. Last night I stapled the dot target to the white side of the target instead of the tan side. Doing so made me really have to concentrate on the front sight and not let my eyes get pulled into the target. I found myself still trying to do target focus instead of front sight focus. On a whim I put on my computer glasses which I knew would cause the target to be blurry but would give me a clear front sight. Presto. Problem solved. I started doing repetitions while wearing my glasses and I was getting a clear front sight picture every time. I started out with a 1.5 second par time and by the end of the session I was down to 1.2 and getting a nice sight picture. I don't know if I'll shoot the match with my computer glasses on but I'll probably try it in practice.