Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

What keeps shooters from getting out of D class?


nasty618

Recommended Posts

On 11/30/2018 at 3:45 PM, nasty618 said:

 

That pretty much sums up my thoughts as well.

 

 

 

 

I hear that.  But all of these issues are technical problems that can be fixed with work, agreed?  Maybe more work would be required as we age, but still...  We're not talking match performance - moving, running, crouching, going prone, doing super long shots... We're not even talking about making A or M, forget about GM... we talking hitting 40% for C and 60% for B - with good fundamental skills it should be doable! So is it all coming down to one's willingness to put in work to get to a goal?  That's what i am thinking. Especially for my buddies - they are all relatively healthy men who just dont want to put in the hours - they have other things to do.   They are casual shooters and that's ok too.

In that context, it's the casual non-interested issue.  As in any endeavor in life you can only expect to receive a benefit based on the effort that's involved.

The key is to be happy with the benefit your efforts have produced.  The curse is in expecting a benefit you haven't put the effort into.

I am always of the opinion that as long as one is content with their position, all is good.  Not everyone needs to be driven, not all care to be in that competitive mindset. 

I respect the "D" shooter who enjoys the game, but just on the weekends or whenever they can get the time.  We just don't seem to see a lot of them, as anyone who dives into a competition usually enjoys it and wants to get better it's part of the thrill.

.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shooters who can’t break out of D or C class usually suffer from a severe lack of urgency and efficiency in their gun handling movement. 1.5 - 2.0 second draws are common with these failures. Then to top it off, their marksmanship skills are usually poor. 

 

If your gun handling is slow or inefficient and you can’t hit what you are shooting at with any level of consistency then you will forever be stuck at the D/C class level.

 

Another commonality I see with the D/C shooters are congenital  gun malfunctions. If your equipment isn’t reliable then your performance isn’t going to be reliable either.

 

All of this combined usually translates to people who really don’t care about getting better and enjoy the social aspect of the matches more than the competition. There is nothing wrong with that either. 

Edited by CHA-LEE
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Getting out of D or even C class, barring serious physical limitation, is really just about putting a small bit of effort into practice outside of matches. I completely agree with the original post in this thread... a few minutes of dry fire every few days is enough to get you up there. 

 

My initial classification was B, with maybe an hour of dryfire every other day (3 times a week). For someone who has shot a few matches and has an idea of what they actually should spend their time working on, I bet it would take even less than that to accidentally stumble into B. You could probably do it in a half hour of well focused practice every other day.

 

One of the keys with ALL dryfire though, is being honest with yourself and your results. That is something I see all too often. "Well Ryan, I just don't get it! I swear I can shoot an El Prez in dryfire in a 3.7 par consistently, but I can't break 5 seconds in live fire!" <--- If you are this person, you are lying to yourself about your abilities. Adding the recoil and "bang" isn't enough to slow you down that significantly. You just aren't actually aiming during your dryfire. Dryfiring at a realistic pace and with good aimed shots is infinitely more valuable than just slinging the gun around like a crazy person. Probably a 2:1 ratio of effectiveness. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...
On 12/2/2018 at 1:24 AM, CHA-LEE said:

Shooters who can’t break out of D or C class usually suffer from a severe lack of urgency and efficiency in their gun handling movement. 1.5 - 2.0 second draws are common with these failures. Then to top it off, their marksmanship skills are usually poor. 

 

If your gun handling is slow or inefficient and you can’t hit what you are shooting at with any level of consistency then you will forever be stuck at the D/C class level.

 

Another commonality I see with the D/C shooters are congenital  gun malfunctions. If your equipment isn’t reliable then your performance isn’t going to be reliable either.

 

All of this combined usually translates to people who really don’t care about getting better and enjoy the social aspect of the matches more than the competition. There is nothing wrong with that either. 

Failures?  Are you calling the Shooters failures? I certainly hope not as that would not be nice. 

 I totally agree, and resemble the rest of your remarks. I have been in C class since returning to shooting in 2003. After taking 10 years off because my boys were of the Little League, school sports age. I never fire a shot in practice, I do not dry fire, I will practice my reloads a bit.  However, that being said, I shoot a LOT of matches. I also RO a lot of matches. I love shooting matches, and I don’t care that I’m C class. I am perfectly happy being wherever I am as far as classification. 

I travel 16 hours sometimes to work matches, as I will in 2 weeks for the FL State match. Then 8 hours each way twice in March alone to work at Dothan & Talledega. I spent 4-12+ hour days on the range for the FL Open last year, as did all the other RO’s, then drove 16 hours home. I love it. 

I am usually 4-6th place in class, as I will have one phenomenal, for me, stage,(as in 6th place on stage 1 at Area 6 a few years back)then a couple of good stages. Throw in a couple of mediocre stages and go downhill from there. But I am nearly always upbeat and I work my tail off shooting days & work days alike. 

But I’m not a failure😁

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, gmantwo said:

Failures?  Are you calling the Shooters failures? I certainly hope not as that would not be nice. 

 I totally agree, and resemble the rest of your remarks. I have been in C class since returning to shooting in 2003. After taking 10 years off because my boys were of the Little League, school sports age. I never fire a shot in practice, I do not dry fire, I will practice my reloads a bit.  However, that being said, I shoot a LOT of matches. I also RO a lot of matches. I love shooting matches, and I don’t care that I’m C class. I am perfectly happy being wherever I am as far as classification. 

I travel 16 hours sometimes to work matches, as I will in 2 weeks for the FL State match. Then 8 hours each way twice in March alone to work at Dothan & Talledega. I spent 4-12+ hour days on the range for the FL Open last year, as did all the other RO’s, then drove 16 hours home. I love it. 

I am usually 4-6th place in class, as I will have one phenomenal, for me, stage,(as in 6th place on stage 1 at Area 6 a few years back)then a couple of good stages. Throw in a couple of mediocre stages and go downhill from there. But I am nearly always upbeat and I work my tail off shooting days & work days alike. 

But I’m not a failure😁

 

I can see how my comment could be interpreted as calling "Shooters Failures". That wasn't my intent. I was talking about failing at the skills defined before that. I also pointed out that climbing the Classification ladder isn't the end all be all goal for everyone. There are plenty of "C Class" shooters who are perfectly fine with their level of skill and fully enjoy the matches they attend or choose to work like yourself. There is nothing wrong with that. Different strokes for different folks. Be safe, have fun, and enjoy practical shooting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just made C class in single stack after a year of D. My equipment is reliable and reloads work quite well. It helped getting my sights worked out, thank you CHE-LEE for the excellent article on sights!

 

I'm not really dry firing yet, rather working on my draw and consistent grip. 

 

My stage planning is still still a work in progress. One year in and having a great time. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...