My Second Match Full Scale Meltdown!

[SA Friday]

OK, shot my second USPSA match yesterday. What a train wreck! I think I forgot every single piece of shooting skill I've learned in the last 26 years of my shooting all in one day. My accumulative mistakes are as follows:

Stage one: The stage required the shooter to shoot from one far side around barricade, and finish the taregets on the other side barricade (essentially). I lost my place on the targets in the middle, and re-engaged a target I had already shot. Here's the kicker. I jammed in the middle of my unneeded last two shots and doubled my time clearing it to fire one shot (which I missed). When I saw the three holes in the target I couldn't believe it. So, did I try to figure out why I had a jam???? No, I was wrapped up in self loathing. (Bet you old timers see where this is going.)

Stage two: Guess what happened... Another jam exactly like the first, and it was a doozie. Burn another 20 seconds getting is cleared, then added a couple of misses after that... Good times. OK, finally decide to figure out the jamming problem. I have one older designed (LE only, but new) magazine, and all the rest are the newer "brady bill expired" mags. I'm pretty sure it's the LE mag, so I pull it.

Stage Three: "Step one read the stage directions"... Check. Grab football with strong hand and throw down range, then draw bla, bla, bla. BEEP, grab football, throw, draw, bang, bang, bang, great reloads, 2a's, great time, great reloads. Guess which hand I threw the football with.... PROCEDURAL!

Stage Four: Classifier. No problems. Hey, finally got it worked out.

Stage Five: 6 targets, two plates, two shooting boxes. One shot on each target, move forward, one shot on each target. Shoot plates in either box, shooters choice. BEEP. draw, double tap, o crap, just one per, keep going, last target, then move, bang, crap a no shoot. Move forward and extra round to make up for the no-shoot, bang in the white again... and it went down hill from there.

Thank god there were only five stages.

So, I went home and ran 3 miles to clear my head and then practiced for another two hours to relearn everything I had forgotten instantaneously at the single sound of BEEP...

I still had fun, and learned more in one day from failing (really bad) than succeeding.

What a newbie learned:

1. The most important thing I learned: humility.

2. Its easier to take the loss of the last round than the time to clear the jam.

3. Read and UNDERSTAND the stage directions.

4. Accuracy first, speed second. You can't get there if you wreck the train on the way.

5. Deal with mechanical issues IMMEDIATELY, they don't fix themself and they usually are not a fluke.

6. Your LIVE firing at a match is a direct reflection of the amount of time you DRY fire in the basement.

[SA Friday]

On a secondary note, while this match was going, we were informed Special Agent Dean Williams, Federal Air Marshall, Denver Office, and avid USPSA shooter in the CO front range lost his battle with cancer 30 minutes after the match started.

I never met Dean, but multiple phone calls between him and I is what got me interested in and trying USPSA. I never got to shoot a match with him.

He will be missed.

[38superman]

Don't feel too bad.

As the old saying goes, everyone has a plan until the buzzer goes off.

When you first start this game it feels like the buzzer signals your brain to stop working.

You made a lot of typical newbie mistakes but it sounds like you learned from them.

Most important lesson:

First, get your hits. Don't worry about speed... it will come.

Becoming a polished competitor is a long journey.

It takes time and hard work.

Relax and have fun you have nothing to prove.

Tls

[eerw]

SAF

you did great for your second match..don't beat up on yourself.. it looked like you did well, you cleared the malfunctions and you moved on..

it is amazing what is bulletproof in thousands of rounds of practice..will break, jam, misfeed on you in a match..it happens..

at least you didn't make my mistakes..which included...switching plans at the very last second...causing two misses and a FTE..

keep at it..and keep asking the questions your asking..you are do well..

[eric nielsen]

Don't feel too bad.

I drove 4 hours round-trip yesterday to shoot a 5-stage, 150-round match. Except that I required about 180 rounds to finish it. Not in record time either. Had many make-up shots on steel and quite a few make-ups on paper where, in hindsight, I was seeing my own D-zone hits punch the paper & fired a third/fourth shot.

I was kicking myself for not seeing hits [near my dot, anyway] and not seeing any bullet splatters on steel. I'd started to see this 3 weeks previous and was bummed at all the bad hits & non-calls of my shots. The only thing I did between was 3 weeks of dry-fire.

Would've been good to squeeze in a live-fire practice beforehand. So driving home, I pass near the indoor range that NOW I make time to visit, and find out, WTF, why can't I hit anything. Fire a couple of beautiful sub-2" groups at 25 yards. Thing is, they're 6" to the left of the aiming point.

Oops.

I immediately think, "bullets hitting the comp baffles" and go looking for that. Didn't find it. Okay, crank the scope adjustment [full 360degr] get it sighted & go home. And why the heck is my gun so hard to draw out of the holster now???

At home, I look at the barrel again. Find a funny-looking shiny ridge at the edge of the last comp-hole. Metal smushed. Hmmm, when did I do that? Oh, yeah. Go look at the doorway where I've dry-fired barricade transitions. Shoot left, mag change, shoot right. Very proud of my progress on that one. Except for the couple times I banged the gun into the door jam. I look at the little dents in the wall. Look at how my comp is binding on the muzzle plug of the CR Speed holster.

I'm an idiot.