Zack's Match Summaries

[Nimitz]

Nice! Amazing what a little practice will do ...

Yup I figured I'd improve but 5 seconds was a huge leap forward. When you work on draw during dry fire what kind of par time do you use for your Open gun?

I'm currently using 1.2 secs for a 12" plate at 18 yds. I start at .1 sec above that & then work down in .1 increments until I can't make it. I then back off by .1 and use that for my new par time for my next session.

[ZackJones]

Congrats Zack, glad to see the hard work paying off

Thanks! I still have a ton of work to do to hang with you though.

I'm currently using 1.2 secs for a 12" plate at 18 yds. I start at .1 sec above that & then work down in .1 increments until I can't make it. I then back off by .1 and use that for my new par time for my next session.

Thanks. I will be spending more time at the range working on steel next year so feel free to pass along any hints and tips you pick up along the way.

[Nimitz]

the most important tip I can tell you is to dedicate time every week to training. That above all else pays dividends ... most people don't train regularly and it shows. One of your goals for the year should be to execute 100% of your training sessions for the year. You'd be amazed how many people can't do that ...

[ZackJones]

Posting B Class summary so I can refer to it this time next year. Ranked 736 out of 2245 shooters listed on steel challenge web site.

Five To Go - 23.64

Showdown - 21.52

Smoke & Hope - 10.83

Outer Limits - 26.46

Accelerator - 18.39

The Pendulum - 21.39

Speed Option - 24.20

Round About - 16.67

Rank Total - 163.10

Classification Total - 112.44

Edited December 31, 2015 by ZackJones

[ZackJones]

Well I started off the year on the wrong foot. I managed to earn an all expenses paid trip to DQ at the match this weekend. To top it off my son who is a newly certified USPSA RO had to do the honors . While trying to figure out why my trigger wasn't working properly on my Ruger 22/45 I had an AD. Turns out there was a little mechanical problem. The pre-travel screw was in too deep and it wasn't allowing the trigger to always reset like it should. I adjusted the screw yesterday and then ran several rounds through it and it functions fine. If the problem happens again I know what to look for. What sucks is I was shooting RFPO and Open so the DQ took me out of the running for open division win. Oh well live and learn as they say. On the bright side we shot PCC as a separate side made and it's a ton of fun. Looks like I'll be going through a lot of 9mm ammo this year!

[ZackJones]

Shot the match at MidCarolina Rifle Club yesterday and managed to not get DQ'd .

I finished 4th out of 4 shooters in Open and in RFPO I finished 4th out of 7.

Accelerator

Open - 17.52 - 4th place. New personal best time.

RFPO - 13.21 - 2nd place.

Pendulum

Open - 23.40 - 4th Place.

RFPO - 17.76 - 2nd Place.

5 To GO

Open - 22.71 - 4th Place. New personal best time.

RFPO - 27.24 - 5th Place.

Roundabout

Open - 16.45 - 4th Place. New personal best time.

RFPO - 12.54 - 3rd Place.

Smoke & Hope

Open - 15.87 - 4th Place.

RFPO - 11.12 - 2nd Place.

Two things that really stood out to me from the match:

1 - When I grip the gun like I know I should I have very good runs. I just need to figure out how to do that 100% of the time.

2 - When RO's don't use the standard commands it messes me up. "Give me a nod when you're ready."

Next month we should be able to start shooting PCC in steel challenge so I'll be concentrating on that for the rest of this year. On the pistol side I have to decide if I'm going to stick with Open or switch to Carry Optics. I'm inclined to stick with Open but we'll see.

[Nimitz]

In my pre-shoot mental routine I always say "grip, eyes first" to remind conscious mind that I should be gripping the gun hard ...

I always correct "RO" when they don't use the proper range commands ... At Tier 1 matches I'm pretty easy going except for that .... It's really not hard & there are no excuses for not getting it right, particularily if you make the mistake of telling me you're a certified RO .... Then we're going to have a discussion ...

[ZackJones]

In my pre-shoot mental routine I always say "grip, eyes first" to remind conscious mind that I should be gripping the gun hard ...

I always correct "RO" when they don't use the proper range commands ... At Tier 1 matches I'm pretty easy going except for that .... It's really not hard & there are no excuses for not getting it right, particularily if you make the mistake of telling me you're a certified RO .... Then we're going to have a discussion ...

I wrote "Kung Fu" on my left palm at one match to try and remind me to use the GI Joe "kung fu" grip but it only works if you look at your hand to get the message .

I'm trying really hard to get eyes first working for me but I still find myself following the dot more than leading it.

Fortunately the RO only did one stage and it was the last and I was the last shooter. Had it happened at the first stage I would have corrected him more than I did.

[Nimitz]

The Enos transition drill is a really good one for working on your transition skills. It only has a visual goal not a time goal so you really focus on only what you should ... Your vision .... It' like learning to call your shots .... Difficult to learn to do but well worth the effort ....

[Onepocket]

Drink more Rock Star. Zack I swear it helps with all that and more.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Onepocket

[ToddKS]

Next time write on the back of your hand just below the thumb joint. Kung on the left, Fu on the right and you will be all set.

Congrats on the personal bests.

Sent from my SM-N920P using Tapatalk

[mosher]

don't you have a jr carbine for pcc with the glock mags? how you like it? saw one in 3gun match and thinking of getting one. wife wants a pcc

[ZackJones]

The Enos transition drill is a really good one for working on your transition skills.

Thanks. I will check it out.

Drink more Rock Star. Zack I swear it helps with all that and more.

I'm sure there's more to it than that . Congrats on your first and second overall at the match.

Next time write on the back of your hand just below the thumb joint. Kung on the left, Fu on the right and you will be all set.

Congrats on the personal bests.

When I took Stegger's class in Atlanta he did the permanent marker thing to make sure I was getting the same grip. That helped. I spent some time at the range yesterday shooting and concentrating on gripping the crap out of the gun.

don't you have a jr carbine for pcc with the glock mags? how you like it? saw one in 3gun match and thinking of getting one. wife wants a pcc

Yes. I like it quite a bit. It will eat anything I feed it.

[ZackJones]

Shot our club steel match yesterday. I was shooting the last of the Blue Bullets I have to get rid of them. I would have been better off using them for practice only as they didn't run with a flip in my open Glock. I think I only had one stage where I didn't have an issue or some sort and that was on Speed Option. I did manage to drop my time for speed option from 24.20 to 21.83 which was good enough for 2nd place on that stage in Open. My overall ranking on Steel Challenge web site moved up from 736 to 699 (Yeah I know no one cares). I shot RFPO as well and finished with a total time of 68.14. After the regular match we shot the same 5 stages with our PCC's. My total time was 69.14 so I'll be putting the .22LR stuff away for a while and will just shoot it at our quarterly NSSF Rimfire Challenge matches. I'll be switching from Open to Carry Optics as well. That's what I like shooting in USPSA matches so I think I'll see what I can do in steel challenge with it as well.

[ZackJones]

Shot my first match with my CO gun today along with my production gun. I think this is the first time I've shot an optic and irons back to back and it was kind of difficult. I was the only CO shooter so I won my division. I am awesome!

CO Stats

5 To Go - 21.36 (22.71 in Open) so that's a new PB.

Pendulum - 29.06 (21.39 in Open) so I blew that one.

Showdown - 20.90 (21.52 in Open) so that's a new PB

Roundabout - 18.00 (16.45 in Open)

Smoke & Hope - 17.14 (10.83 in Open which I honestly believe is a mistake but I'm stuck with it)

Production Stats

5 To Go - 23.89 (28.16) so that's a new PB.

Pendulum - 29.81 (29.26)

Showdown - 21.16 (21.73) so that's a new PB.

Roundabout - 25.08 (20.29) so I blew that one.

Smoke & Hope - 15.31 (15.91) so that's a new PB.

I'm very pleased with my times on 5 To Go. That's the stage I concentrated on in dry fire this week and it's clear that actually practicing does help .

Next weekend is our club match and I'll shoot these same two guns again. My schedule is slammed for the next several weeks:

26 March - Club Steel Challenge (CO / PROD)

2 April - JABS Extreme Steel Match (CO / PROD)

9 April - SC State USPSA Championship (CO)

16 April - MidCarlina Steel Challenge (CO / PROD)

23 April - Area 6 Match (PROD)

[ToddKS]

The optics to irons can be tough. If I am shooting both back to back I always start with the irons. The other way around did not work for me. I have a hard time doing anything but target focus right after shooting with the optic.

Glad to see the practice is paying off.

[ZackJones]

The optics to irons can be tough. If I am shooting both back to back I always start with the irons. The other way around did not work for me. I have a hard time doing anything but target focus right after shooting with the optic.

Glad to see the practice is paying off.

I probably should have shot it that way but I wanted to shoot CO first so I would be shooting each stage cold with that gun. We had a small squad and I had enough mags to shoot back to back so I shot CO and then production gun. My eyes are getting to the point where I should probably give up on the iron sights and stick with an optic.

[ZackJones]

Shot our steel match today and it was basically a melt down for me. The match was delayed for over an hour while a thunderstorm rolled through. I shot CO and Production like I did last weekend and it was just ugly. My son was shooting with us and I think I put extra pressure on myself to try and beat him. Big mistake. I should have just shot my match and let the chips fall where they may. In the PCC side match (I freaking LOVE shooting PCC) I got beat out for HOA by 0.28. My total time was 61.58 versus 61.30 for my son. I did win 3 of the 5 stages though and shot Roundabout, Smoke & Hope and a stage I made up in under 12 seconds on each stage. Next up is falling steel match in Dothan, AL next weekend.

[ZackJones]

I know I shot two steel matches last month but didn't post anything about either one so they must have been very uneventful or I just got tied up with other stuff.

Shot RFRO and RFPO today and decided to try some different things out. I tried some different ammo. Field and Stream had Remington Golden Bullets on sale so I bought some of those to try. They have a faster FPS rating that what I've been shooting and I liked them so I'll be buying some more of those.

On Pendulum I tried shooting 1,2, 5,4, S on a few strings it didn't feel as awkward as I was expecting so I'll probably stick with this sequence for a match or two and see how things go.

On 5 To Go I had some gun issues on the last two strings of RFPO and got stuck with a 6.45 string . Things didn't fare much better with RFRO either.

On Accelerator I won the stage in RFPO and had a 3.13 and 2.97 back-to-back run so I'm happy with that. On the downside my time was still 2+ seconds slower than my best run. On the RFRO side 1.2 seconds separated the top 3 shooters (I was 3rd)

On Round about I changed my shooting order from 1, 2, 4, 5, S to 5, 4, 1, 2, S based on the discussion I had with Bobby Buckner and how they shot it in the class with Max. I finished second on the stage but my time way slower than in the past. In RFRO I finished 4th and had two sub-3 runs but again my time was slower than I've shot in the past.

S&H was a total meltdown with RFPO. It started with a mike on the first string and ended with back-to-back feed issues resulting in a total time of 28 seconds for the stage. RFRO I won the stage with a 10.02 time. My last 3 strings were 2.32, 2.24 and 2.41. I'm knocking on that sub 10 second door and will break through that barrier soon.

Even with my meltdown on S&H I finished 2nd overall in RFPO and was 3rd overall in RFRO.

Next weekend we're shooting at our range and I'll be shooting either Open or CO and PCC.

[ZackJones]

Shot our club match this past weekend. In RFPO I finished 2nd of 9 and in PCCO 4th of 7. On the RFPO side I managed a new personal best of 11.56 for Showdown. I also finally felt very comfortable shooting the stage. I shot two strings from left box and three from the right. From the left box I shot a 3.05 and 2.76 and from the right a 2.88/2.87/3.49 which was tossed. My total time was fast enough for a stage win. I really must learn to ignore my times when I hear them called out. On Accelerator my first time was a 3.22, followed by a 2.93. After hearing the 2.93 I really tried to go fast and of course crashed and burned with a 5.11/4.56/3.39 with miss that was tossed. Surprisingly my time of 15.82 was still good enough for a stage win.

On the PCC side I shot personal best times on 3 of the 5 stages and shot Accelerator for the first time and established a baseline time of 14.34 for that stage. Despite setting 3 personal bests I still have to find another 6 seconds or more to trim off my time to be competitive for winning that match.

This coming weekend I'll have an opportunity to shoot matches on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I'm going to Pinetucky Gun Club in Augusta, GA to shoot a 5 stage match. After that match we're heading over to the CMP Range in Talladega, AL for a Sunday match. I'm planning to shot RFPO and PCCO on Saturday and most likely RFRO and PCCO on Sunday. I think it would be interesting to shoot the two rifles back to back to see how things go.

5 To GO

RFRO - 12.79

PCCO - 17.68

Showdown

RFRO - 11.39

PCCO - 15.77

S&H

RFRO - 10.20

PCCO - 10.91 (Personal Best)

Outer Limits

RFRO - 18.99

PCCO - -

Accelerator

RFRO - 12.52

PCCO - 14.34

Pendulum

RFRO - 13.51

PCCO - 13.82 (Personal Best)

Speed Option

RFRO - 14.77

PCCO -

Roundabout

RFRO - 9.87

PCCO - 11.37 (Personal Best)

[ZackJones]

A .22LR case got caught between my glasses and face. That's not a pleasant experience! It's hard to see in that photo but the top layer of skin was burned off.

Edited June 5, 2016 by ZackJones

[ZackJones]

This made up for the burn on the face though. First HOA ever.

[mwx40x40]

This made up for the burn on the face though. First HOA ever.

Congrats Zack on those two wins. All your hard work is paying off. Also, thank you very much for assisting me with my Practiscore ineffencies:)

[ZackJones]

Congrats Zack on those two wins. All your hard work is paying off. Also, thank you very much for assisting me with my Practiscore ineffencies:)

Thanks, Mark! Between your match and the one on Sunday I should have trimmed enough time to make A class in PCCO as soon as the new classification system goes live. I'll help out with PractiScore anytime I can.

[ZackJones]

I worked and shot the FL State Steel Challenge match last weekend. I finally got to to meet Nimitz and put a face with a name. I had high hopes for for the match but those hopes were pretty much crushed right out of the gate. I started on Pendulum which ins't that bad of a stage normally but my mind wasn't in the game. I had other stuff on my mind that I couldn't shake and my match performance suffered greatly from it. I guess I'm going to have to read With Winning in Mind to help get my head into the game. The match did have a few bright spots though I managed to lower my overall times in two stages with PCCO and one in RFPO (which I shot with a borrowed gun). The best part of the match for me was shooting Smoke and Hope. I had one of those zen like moments where for 3 of the 5 strings the stars aligned and the angels sang and I shot a 2.25 / 2.39 and 2.22 and it was a glorious thing. I know what I was doing differently on those 3 strings and now will work to do it on all strings. I realized I have been shooting target focused and on those three strings I had complete focus on the dot on the gun. Now that I've experienced it I'll be working my ass off to make sure I start shooting every string like that and I'm certain it'll make a difference. I'll be shooting RFPO and RFRO this coming weekend so it'll be a great opportunity for me to work on my focusing technique.