GunBugBit Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 (edited) Sixth club match, I did my best so far. My total score was 21st in a field of 60 shooters, including Open and everyone else. Amongst the other singlestack guys, I came in 3rd out of 11. Zero penalties and a good amount of A's really helped. Seventh club match, I had my worst night so far, even counting my very first match. One stage had a mix of paper and steel at 25 yards (initial distance) and we had to count our rounds (8 only) at each of 3 distances. My plan was to first take down the 4 steel poppers in the center of the target array. When execution of my plan did not unfold as expected, I got flustered and lost count of my shots. I shot more than 8 from two distances. The procedural penalties, plus the long amount of time I took to clean the targets, put my score in outhouse. I'm sure similar things have happened to the more experience shooters, just thought I'd share. I'll be working on 25 to 50 yard shooting in the near future, believe me. Edited June 29, 2015 by GunBugBit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corey Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 Everyone has bad days and luckily enough this sport is great at telling you stuff you need to work on . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RJH Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 You could always win, DQ, win. Then it would be best to worst and back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted June 29, 2015 Share Posted June 29, 2015 what kind of shooting sport? obviously not uspsa by the mix of limited shots and steel. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 (edited) We (Cactus Combat Match League ) are as USPSA as you want, motosapiens. The matches I'm referring to are our weekly local/club matches, which are USPSA-style but with modified scoring. The stages are designed by Terry Allison and others; many are quite similar to USPSA classifiers. Some of these stage designs very likely pre-date USPSA classifiers. USPSA-sanctioned matches are held at the same location one Sunday per month. We also have a Steel Challenge once per month, plus monthly multi-gun matches. Terry Allison is still the head guy. I was watching a video about Rob Leatham where Terry's name was mentioned in the same sentence as Jeff Cooper and Jack Weaver. Those guys are the better-known old Leather Slap guys, and Leather Slap more or less morphed into USPSA. The most recent FrontSight magazine mentions how USPSA originated in the Southwest, and these are some of the guys who were part of it. Rob Leatham used to shoot at our club, and gives credit to it in his bio: http://robleatham.com/wp/1978/01/27/robs-story-shooting-history/ "Rob shot his first competition in either 1978 or 79, he doesn’t remember for sure now. It was at the Mesa Police Department range and it was a night shoot. He shot a Smith & Wesson M-27 revolver with a 6-inch barrel loaded with 200-grain round-nose bullets he bought from the Mini-Gun shop and loaded himself. The custom holster was made by a local leather worker, Jess Bird, who had built holsters for Rob’s dad, Nyle, for many years. Every pistol the Leathams owned had a Bird holster. That first match, Rob finished third revolver behind Mike Henry and Charlie Mills. Rob was now addicted! He would play hookie from church to go to matches on Sundays at the Cactus Combat Match League in Phoenix. Rob remembers riding up with his friend Guy Hammond, who built Rob’s first pin gun, for the Monthly match and soon Rob was threatening to win every category he entered. At those events you could shoot Auto, Revolver, Snubby, Rifle and Shotgun. The Cactus League also had a best-of-the-day competition, pitting the top revolver against the top auto shooter in a man-on-man type shoot-off. This could be where Rob came to love, and excel at, shoot-offs." If I've got any of this history wrong, please let me know. Edited June 29, 2015 by GunBugBit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted June 29, 2015 Author Share Posted June 29, 2015 You could always win, DQ, win. Then it would be best to worst and back. Very true. Maybe it would have been an act of mercy to DQ me that bad night. However I'm happy to say my gun handling was very safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reshoot Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 (edited) The important thing is to never let a bad day discourage or stress you. Quickly, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and move on. Put that match behind you and plan for the next one . . . do not dwell on the past Edited June 30, 2015 by Reshoot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share Posted June 30, 2015 Reshoot, thanks for the encouragement. And hello to a fellow Army veteran (2d Cav, Nuernberg Germany, mid-1980s). The bad match served a purpose, which was to show me things I need to work on and get me thinking about how to manage myself when my plan doesn't go as expected. My emotional state isn't driven too much by these matches, but then again I won't pretend I'm entirely unaffected. I want to do well but I've made it through enough phases of life to know there will be ups and downs, always. Looking back on that match, I actually enjoyed it a lot because I had some good conversation with some of the guys I hadn't talked to up to that point. And I did have one very good stage -- my first negative score (below zero is good in the club's Thursday night scoring system, meaning my A's subtracted enough bonus seconds from my time that my hits more than offset my time). For me, it's about the journey, not the destination. I will never "arrive" as a shooter, just as with everything else in life. Thanks again! Best regards, Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 We (Cactus Combat Match League ) are as USPSA as you want, motosapiens. Perhaps not. I want them to use USPSA rules. But back to the topic... You should be glad when you have a bad match. If you are paying attention, a bad match will point out exactly what things you need to work on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GunBugBit Posted June 30, 2015 Author Share Posted June 30, 2015 (edited) The rules and scoring system for the practice matches were thoughtfully put in place for good reasons and they serve well to make the practice matches run efficiently. As for the practice stage itself, which you seem to think is non-USPSA: adding some steel into a stage that is similar to the USPSA 09-05 Quad Standards qualifier seems like a fine idea. If you shoot a USPSA-sanctioned match at this club, I'm reasonably sure any discrepancies you find between the rulebook and what you experience would be respectfully discussed toward a satisfactory resolution. Most likely, you would not experience discrepancies. Sorry our 40-year-old club did not consult you before instituting its rules and policies. Edited June 30, 2015 by GunBugBit Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 (edited) The rules and scoring system for the practice matches were thoughtfully put in place for good reasons and they serve well to make the practice matches run efficiently. As for the practice stage itself, which you seem to think is non-USPSA: adding some steel into a stage that is similar to the USPSA 09-05 Quad Standards qualifier seems like a fine idea. If you shoot a USPSA-sanctioned match at this club, I'm reasonably sure any discrepancies you find between the rulebook and what you experience would be respectfully discussed toward a satisfactory resolution. Most likely, you would not experience discrepancies. Sorry our 40-year-old club did not consult you before instituting its rules and policies. Thanks for sharing. Sorry you interpreted my nitpicking as representing some sort of judgement. Back to the topic, I would recommend that you constructively look at bad matches or bad stages as a valuable learning opportunity. Edited June 30, 2015 by motosapiens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RangerTrace Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Easy guys.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jadeslade Posted June 30, 2015 Share Posted June 30, 2015 Judgment has no e. " I know, let's try a spelling contest" Cactus League is legendary. No reason to criticize. Feel good you get to shoot/practice there. A bad match is just that. As Yogi says, 90% of baseball is 50% mental. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted July 1, 2015 Share Posted July 1, 2015 Judgment has no e. That's a personal opinion, and one that is unlikely to be correct in a few more decades. Languages are living things, which is why we don't spell stuff the same way chaucer did. Certainly 'judgement' is quite common among educated english speakers, and it definitely makes more orthographic sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 since your club already holds a USPSA sanctioned match every month, what's the reason these 'practice matches' as you called them are not also just USPSA sanctioned matches as well? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bdpaz Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 (edited) since your club already holds a USPSA sanctioned match every month, what's the reason these 'practice matches' as you called them are not also just USPSA sanctioned matches as well? What is the reason they should be USPSA sanctioned matches? As you stated, they already hold an official USPSA match every month. I can't speak for the OP but I don't think most people look at it as practice match but as a stand-alone fun match. It is similar to Tuesday Night Steel at Rio Salado that doesn't follow any sanctioning body's rule book but is also very successful and popular. Edited July 2, 2015 by bdpaz Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyGlock Posted July 2, 2015 Share Posted July 2, 2015 This thread is trying hard to live by its title... from best to worst Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yellowfin Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 But back to the topic... You should be glad when you have a bad match. If you are paying attention, a bad match will point out exactly what things you need to work on. My problem with that is that when I have a bad match like I did today, there's not enough hours in the week to work on all the things I appear to need to improve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyZip Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 When I have a bad day or a bad stage, I just remember I am not at work, or dealing with home repair or chores, I'M SHOOTIN! Which is by far better than either of the other things. The next day will be better. Dryfire, and relax, you will work it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyGlock Posted July 13, 2015 Share Posted July 13, 2015 A bad match performance is not the end of the world. In fact it can show a new world to conquer if Im receptive enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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