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My First Match! I AM HOOKED!!!!


anonymouscuban

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Hey fellas. 

 

I've made several posts, over the past couple of years, seeking advice as a new firearm owner wanting to get into USPSA. You guys have all been extremely helpful answering my questions and giving me general advice. 

 

I finally shot my first match this last Saturday. WOW! What a day. Met some great guys. Have so much fun. I finished with all my toes intact and without being sent packing to Dairy Queen. Icing on the cake is that I finished 80 out of 97 overall. I expected to come in dead last so that was a pleasant surprise. 

 

Here is a video of my very first stage. Nerves were a bit high. I also decided to heed everyone's advice to take it slow. Ended this stage with a hit factor of 3.69. All alphas except for one charlie. 

 

I know I will improve next match because I know I can move faster when I'm not shooting. My time killed me. My 2nd Texas Star also killed me. I completely choked and it took me 12 rounds to bring them all down. What sucks is I shot the first one in 6 rounds. 

 

There is plenty of room for me to improve which is all upside. Really looking forward to my next match.

 

One question.... what do you all wear for shoes? 

 

I want to make sure I'm wearing shoes with good traction. I was wearing hiking boots which have some good tread on them but wondering if there is something better. 

 

I witnessed a really scary fall. Guy went down head first. Worst part, he had his finger in the trigger well. Gun discharged as he was going down. We all thought he shot himself. Luckily, it went off just before he muzzled himself and the rounds went down range. Fortunately, he was OK except for a some cuts on his hand from the fall. 

 

Really sobering moment. Rattled the crap out of me. Just a reminder not to ever become complacent with the fundamentals. Muzzle and trigger discipline. WOW.

 

 

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I've been wearing alpha sharks (football cleats). I was wearing Salomon trail runners but they wore quickly because I would use them for . . . you guessed it: trail running. The Alpha sharks are for matches (2x per month on average) and have held up well for the past two seasons. I added some gel inserts and I have no problem with fatigue. They're okay on hard packed dirt. Pretty nice on gravel. I haven't been to a range with turf/grass so I can't comment on that.

 

They're decent, but the one's I have don't breathe. I was up in Redding shooting the golden bullet last year and it was just north of 100 degrees if my memory serves me correctly. I would douse them with water to cool down.

 

And thanks for posting the awesome photos on Calguns!

Edited by Rez805
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Glad it went well and you had a safe and fun time! It looked good for a first match. I think you hit the nail on the head with moving more quickly between arrays (and make sure you get your reloads in while moving instead of standing still). Taking video like this and analyzing your performance will help you spot things to work on and accelerate your improvement, so keep it up. 

 

One tip I had from watching your video is to keep your pistol up high when you are doing your reloads. On both the reloads in the video you dropped it down to around your stomach, which meant you had to take your eyes away from the target to perform the reload, then bring the pistol back up, reacquire the target, and engage. I think almost everyone starting out does it because most are used to shooting stationary in a stall at a range and pick up their spare mags from a bench/table in front of them at waist height. It wasn't until my 3rd or 4th match (and lots of dry fire reloads) that I started to break that habit myself. It will take a good amount of practice to train that habit out but it will give you a pretty substantial speed boost once you get it down. 

 

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Glad it went well and you had a safe and fun time! It looked good for a first match. I think you hit the nail on the head with moving more quickly between arrays (and make sure you get your reloads in while moving instead of standing still). Taking video like this and analyzing your performance will help you spot things to work on and accelerate your improvement, so keep it up. 
 
One tip I had from watching your video is to keep your pistol up high when you are doing your reloads. On both the reloads in the video you dropped it down to around your stomach, which meant you had to take your eyes away from the target to perform the reload, then bring the pistol back up, reacquire the target, and engage. I think almost everyone starting out does it because most are used to shooting stationary in a stall at a range and pick up their spare mags from a bench/table in front of them at waist height. It wasn't until my 3rd or 4th match (and lots of dry fire reloads) that I started to break that habit myself. It will take a good amount of practice to train that habit out but it will give you a pretty substantial speed boost once you get it down. 
 
Thanks for that. I noticed this as well too. It was something that was pointed out to me to work on during a training class I took. I guess I gave to work on it more so it becomes muscle memory.

Watching the videos definitely helps a lot. Watching yourself, you get a completely different perspective than how you thought you ran the stage. You can see exactly where you made mistakes or where technique can be improved.

On the topic of reloads, there was a stage where we started with a mag in the gun at position A and 2 spare mags on a table at position B. The stage required 2 tactical reloads. The first when you got to the table at position B. The 3rd was a few feet away from the table.

What is the best way to approach a stage like this as far as the spare mags:

When you get to position B, load the spare mag onto your belt then continue?

OR

Reload, engage the next array, then grab the next mag off the table and engage the last array?

I did the latter and I think I lost time coming back to the table once to reload. I think I would have spent less time putting the mag on my belt.

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15 hours ago, anonymouscuban said:

What is the best way to approach a stage like this as far as the spare mags:

When you get to position B, load the spare mag onto your belt then continue?

Steve Anderson says it best, “if you’re not shooting, you’re losing points.”  

 

Remember your total points are divided by time giving points per sec (HF) as your score.  With that in mind you have to decide if it will be faster to either grab the extra mag(s), stow them in belt, or reload from the table/prop. 

 

I find most often planning stage to reload by grabbing mag as I go by table is faster, but not always. This is stage planning and you get to make the call.

 

BTW, assuming you’re not shooting first, watch what others do and see if that fits your plan. Eventually you will figure out the limits of you skills and plan accordingly. 

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First time I went to a USPSA practice at my now home club I finished my run and was like "man this is the most fun you can have with clothes on :P

 

Then about a year later after shooting a good bit of USPSA and some IDPA I tried 3gun...now that is my most fun you can have with clothes on activity.  I am planning on focusing more on USPSA this year as my pistol game needs work but will still shoot a little bit of 3gun.

 

For shoes I have been wearing some New Balance cross trainer type shoes, they are officially worn out and will be looking at Boombah Hellcats for this upcoming season.  Going to order them soon.

 

Welcome to the Club...prepare to open your wallet 😁

 

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Thanks for the replies everyone. 

 

I'm gonna look into some trail running shoes. Seems its the type of shoe that you all are recommending. I'm particular about footwear so will see if I can try a few different brands on to see which are comfortable and provide good traction. 

 

I studied up on Practiscore yesterday and have a better understanding of scoring. @HesedTech poin - See that it basically boils down to points per second. If you're not shooting, you're not scoring and time is ticking. I knew that going in but now I see how important it is.Watching my videos, lots of room to shave time without a lot of effort. 

 

I also realize how much mikes and no hits impact your score. If I understand it correctly, you not only get hit with the penalty score, you also miss out on the potential 10 points on for the target. Example.... you have a 2 mikes on a target. First you get hit with the -20 points for the misses. But then you also lost out on a potential 20 points for that target in the stage. So score is now down 40 points. I can see where on some stages, a couple of misses or no hits and you can never recover. 

 

Honestly, that makes me love this sport even more. It really requires you to stay on your toes. What I love too is that, kind of like golf, you're really competing against yourself. Trying to improve your game at each match. 

 

Can't wait for my next match!!! 

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19 minutes ago, anonymouscuban said:

 What I love too is that, kind of like golf, you're really competing against yourself. Trying to improve your game at each match. 

 

Couldn't agree more with this!  I know that I don't get to practice anywhere near as much as I could/should but going out to a match and trying to get a little better each time is keeping it fun and I don't worry how anyone else is doing, just me.

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53 minutes ago, anonymouscuban said:

Thanks for the replies everyone. 

 

I'm gonna look into some trail running shoes. Seems its the type of shoe that you all are recommending. I'm particular about footwear so will see if I can try a few different brands on to see which are comfortable and provide good traction. 

 

I studied up on Practiscore yesterday and have a better understanding of scoring. @HesedTech poin - See that it basically boils down to points per second. If you're not shooting, you're not scoring and time is ticking. I knew that going in but now I see how important it is.Watching my videos, lots of room to shave time without a lot of effort. 

 

I also realize how much mikes and no hits impact your score. If I understand it correctly, you not only get hit with the penalty score, you also miss out on the potential 10 points on for the target. Example.... you have a 2 mikes on a target. First you get hit with the -20 points for the misses. But then you also lost out on a potential 20 points for that target in the stage. So score is now down 40 points. I can see where on some stages, a couple of misses or no hits and you can never recover. 

 

Honestly, that makes me love this sport even more. It really requires you to stay on your toes. What I love too is that, kind of like golf, you're really competing against yourself. Trying to improve your game at each match. 

 

Can't wait for my next match!!! 

If you're liking it and think you're gonna get serious, I'd suggest taking a class from a solid shooter fairly soon.   

 

A lot of the top level folks teach. Very helpful early on. 

 

Good luck. 

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14 minutes ago, B_RAD said:

If you're liking it and think you're gonna get serious, I'd suggest taking a class from a solid shooter fairly soon.   

 

A lot of the top level folks teach. Very helpful early on. 

 

Good luck. 

Are there folks that teach specific to competition shooting?

 

I've take a DEF/TAC Handgun 1 and 2 but these were more focus on defensive techniques. 

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22 minutes ago, anonymouscuban said:

Are there folks that teach specific to competition shooting?

 

I've take a DEF/TAC Handgun 1 and 2 but these were more focus on defensive techniques. 

Yes. All the pros do classes. Several GM's will do some type of teaching as well. 

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Yes. All the pros do classes. Several GM's will do some type of teaching as well. 
Thanks. Good to know. I will check my local area to see if I can find some classes.

I was invited to the range this upcoming Saturday by a couple of the guys from a local club to get some practice. Should be a good learning experience.

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18 hours ago, anonymouscuban said:

On the topic of reloads, there was a stage where we started with a mag in the gun at position A and 2 spare mags on a table at position B. The stage required 2 tactical reloads. The first when you got to the table at position B. The 3rd was a few feet away from the table.

What is the best way to approach a stage like this as far as the spare mags:

 

One thing that a local Carry Optics M shooter told me in my first match (which had a similar stage, but with an unloaded start, pistol on one barrel, all mags on the other) was to lay out your mags in a V pattern with the base plates of the mags just touching kind of like \ / with the bottom of the V pointed towards the direction you are going to be approaching the table/barrel from. You'll have to experiment with it to find what angle is comfortable to grab with you and your mags. That shape makes it easy to grab both and maintain separation between the two (you'll split the two mags with your index finger and have your thumb and middle finger on the outsides). Then stash the first one and reload with the second one and continue shooting. 

 

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14 minutes ago, anonymouscuban said:

Thanks. Good to know. I will check my local area to see if I can find some classes.

I was invited to the range this upcoming Saturday by a couple of the guys from a local club to get some practice. Should be a good learning experience.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 

Elias Frangoulis is having a training in Feb at California tactical academy

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1 hour ago, regor said:

 

One thing that a local Carry Optics M shooter told me in my first match (which had a similar stage, but with an unloaded start, pistol on one barrel, all mags on the other) was to lay out your mags in a V pattern with the base plates of the mags just touching kind of like \ / with the bottom of the V pointed towards the direction you are going to be approaching the table/barrel from. You'll have to experiment with it to find what angle is comfortable to grab with you and your mags. That shape makes it easy to grab both and maintain separation between the two (you'll split the two mags with your index finger and have your thumb and middle finger on the outsides). Then stash the first one and reload with the second one and continue shooting. 

 

 

Interesting. Going to practice this in dry fire to see what works best for me. Thanks. 

 

 

1 hour ago, HoMiE said:

Elias Frangoulis is having a training in Feb at California tactical academy

 

Thank you. Going to see if I can make this training. Not sure if my schedule will allow. Next month is pretty busy for me with weekend stuff. Maybe I can talk the wife into letting me out of some of it. 😉 

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11 hours ago, anonymouscuban said:

also realize how much mikes and no hits impact your score

 

Yep, it’s a great game that rewards both speed and accuracy.

 

When I watch top level GMs it amazes me how easy they make it look.

 

I took a class from Todd Jarrett and he demonstrated his draw to us. Three sub .8 sec draws at 10 yards - 2 As and 1 C and it looked slow.

 

Best advice I’ve gotten, Read and do Steve Anderson’s Dry Fire program and then listen to his podcasts.In the end you will be a better shooter and have and appreciation for Van Halen.

 

”Get to work!”

 

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On 1/30/2019 at 8:09 AM, anonymouscuban said:

I also realize how much mikes and no hits impact your score. If I understand it correctly, you not only get hit with the penalty score, you also miss out on the potential 10 points on for the target. Example.... you have a 2 mikes on a target. First you get hit with the -20 points for the misses. But then you also lost out on a potential 20 points for that target in the stage. So score is now down 40 points. I can see where on some stages, a couple of misses or no hits and you can never recover. 

 

Close, but let's be more accurate here. 

 

A basic Mike will set you back 15 points, not 20. It's 5 points that you could have made with an A and 10 points penalty. However, a basic no shoot will set you back 25 points - you will get "Mike No Shoot," where you lose potential 5 for alpha, another 10 for Mike and another 10 for No Shoot. If you make up the shot and avoid Mike, you will be down just 10 - you got your hits with the make up shot, but are still penalized for No Shoot.

 

Also, there is a  "Failure to Shoot at a Target" procedural penalty that you can incur if you don't send at least one round towards the target. So, if you skip a target you will get two Mikes (15 each) and additional 10 points for not engaging it. 

 

It gets a bit more complicated if you do the math on Virginia count stages (classifiers), where people can trade some of the penalties for a slightly better score.

Edited by IVC
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Close, but let's be more accurate here. 
 
A basic Mike will set you back 15 points, not 20. It's 5 points that you could have made with an A and 10 points penalty. However, a basic no shoot will set you back 25 points - you will get "Mike No Shoot," where you lose potential 5 for alpha, another 10 for Mike and another 10 for No Shoot. If you make up the shot and avoid Mike, you will be down just 10 - you got your hits with the make up shot, but are still penalized for No Shoot.
 
Also, there is a  "Failure to Shoot at a Target" procedural penalty that you can incur if you don't send at least one round towards the target. So, if you skip a target you will get two Mikes (15 each) and additional 10 points for not engaging it. 
 
It gets a bit more complicated if you do the math on Virginia count stages (classifiers), where people can trade some of the penalties for a slightly better score.
Thanks for clarifying. Helps to know these details. I asked a couple of guys how the scoring works and they said they weren't sure. That its complicated. I guess I'm a weirdo that likes to know as much as possible about anything I find worth doing.

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What a great way to start your USPSA shooting.  Wonderful stage and you did very well.  Now that you are on your way listen to other shooters and look at their equipment and ask to try stuff you like before buying it.  Other shooters are very friendly and I'm sure they will let you check out their guns.

 

 

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On 1/30/2019 at 9:47 AM, anonymouscuban said:

Thanks. Good to know. I will check my local area to see if I can find some classes.

I was invited to the range this upcoming Saturday by a couple of the guys from a local club to get some practice. Should be a good learning experience.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 

I’m from SoCal as well and shot the same swpl match that you did. California tactical academy in piru hosts a large majority of the classes pertaining to competition shooting. 

 

Most of the guys, including myself, run soloman trail running shoes. They really help with the terrain that we shoot in. 

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I’m from SoCal as well and shot the same swpl match that you did. California tactical academy in piru hosts a large majority of the classes pertaining to competition shooting. 
 
Most of the guys, including myself, run soloman trail running shoes. They really help with the terrain that we shoot in. 
Hey. Thanks for the info. Are you shooting next months match?

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