Usc (trojans That Is) Bigdawg!

[uscbigdawg]

BTW...please critique the videos (although the Rio video, I was fighting the previoiusly mentioned jam-gremlin).

Rich

[uscbigdawg]

Wow...been a long time since I've logged in here.

What's happened since September....

Shot the Bay Bridge Classic in Richmond:

Stage 2 & 3 at BBCC

Stage 4 at BBCC

Stage 5 at BBCC

Stage 6 at BBCC

Shot 5 out of the 6 stages pretty solid. Dan Carden and John Bagakis were my shooting buddies that day and both complimented me. I was in a greet mood emotionally at the match and just felt smooth in everything I was doing. Nothing spectacular, but just shooting. The results were great. Luckily, we didn't get footage of Stage 1, a 145 point field course that I got a resounding 0 on. Yep...I let myself get rushed and took no extra mags for the stage with me. Well, in the second position that I reloaded in to, to finish the stage, the follower rolled and I had a nice shiny baby's rattle for a mag. Count misses, FTE's and you have a zero. Finished well on stage 6 though. So even with zero'ing the second largest stage of the match, I finished 19th out of 103 and 204 match points behind a good GM. Basically, had I just finished the stage with a decent score, I would have been probably only 80 points behind him and been in the top 5. Oh well...it happens and a valuable lesson learned.

November was the Area 2. Shot again with Dan & John. After surviving the 3 DQ's in our squad, I really should have done much better at the match. The stages were my style of shooting and I feel that I TRIED to shoot well, instead of finding the mindset above, where all I was doing was just shooting. I pushed beyond my abilities and didn't put myself in a position to succeed. Again...lesson learned and it was a lot of fun. Too High Military though.

Too...Nick Santiago (a.k.a. little kahuna) is THE nicest kid on the planet. He was genuinely excited at everyone that went to the awards table on their job well done and shook every person's hand. Big Kahuna is rightly a proud pappa.

Got engaged in November too. Definitely the highlight of the year since she put up with me being gone all last year.

Me and Stefanie at Disney...I got her good!

December was Ft. Benning 3-Gun. I was supposed to go in 2006, before deploying, but training got in the way, and this was my first chance to shoot THE BIG ONE of 3-Gun matches. Awesome stages! Shot with Sam Keen (hopalong), Tom Iten (itento), Johnny Jackson (bluemax???) and the guys from Sabre Defence to just name a few. A blast considering the CSM of the AMU (he might be a SGM, but when in doubt promote everybody) as well as Col. Mark Lisi (I apologize for misspelling your name sir) was in our squad and the man can flat out shoot. Frankly...there was a lot of military brass around and I'm the lowly E-5 (yeah...got promoted). In our squad we had 2 Colonels, a lieutenant, a CW3 and a CSM. Most of these gentlemen were vendors shooting the stages and at the core was the RO's for the bridge stage. We were also joined by 3 of the AMU's finest rifle shooters and all were excited to run our guns on the bridge stage after the weekend's shooting was done (any those boys can shoot an AR!).

After that match, I purposely set all the shooting aside and took the winter off to work on the fitness. As you can see in my proposal video...the kid's put on some weight since leaving Uncle Sam (December 1st was my official ETS for active duty). Working on it, but still have a ways to go. Started getting in to long range shooting with the help of Bobby Keigans (kgunz11) and it definitely is making me a better shooter.

Shot my first match in 3 months today and in spite of some rust to shake off and the squad in front of us taking far too damn long to finish, so we could shoot the last 2 stages, it was a blast. Honored to have Dan Carden and THE STAR of Team MGM Targets Chris Sechiatano (a.k.a. Chris) on my squad today. I did fair for taking that much time off and will be back at the range working on the fundamentals and doing a lot of dry firing this year. First full year home and uninterrupted by Uncle Sugar, so there are NO excuses!!!

Hope everyone had a great holiday and (so far) a great New Year!

Rich

[uscbigdawg]

Went to the USPSA website just to see what my current percentage was last night. A couple of us had been talking about our journey to Master and all of us being the 'B' class sandbaggers. It was nice to hear the same frustration in others over our collective lack of consistency. Well...not remembering my last couple of classifiers, I was surprised to see a 74.68%. On a hunch, I went to the Top 20 and while it's kind of a dubious distinction/accomplishment, but I'm now the #5 B Open shooter in USPSA. Go figure.

Rich

[uscbigdawg]

With recent events, I ran across this great quote:

I BELIEVE

I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I believe that every right implies a responsibility; every opportunity, an obligation; every possession, a duty.

I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but that it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

I believe that thrift is essential to well ordered living and that economy is a prime requisite of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

I believe that truth and justice are fundamental to an enduring social order.

I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man’s word should be as good as his bond; that character — not wealth or power or position — is of supreme worth.

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

I believe in an all-wise and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individual’s highest fulfillment, greatest happiness, and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.

I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.

John D. Rockefeller

Edited March 12, 2009 by uscbigdawg

[glock17w]

uscbigdawg,

long time no hear. i see you got out. i am still in and headed to either fort riley or fort hood in august. haven't shot too much but trying to get back in to it.

[kgunz11]

Congrats on your greatest victory in life to date (your engagement)!

[uscbigdawg]

G17 - Going to Ft. Hood. Well...hope you like Gary Owen and don't mind packin' your bags again. 1st Cav country out there.

Bobby - Yep. I definitely got lucky and will be marrying my best friend (although I'm PISSED at her this morning ).

Back to training:

Monday - Did my "Body by Hagan" Weight training and it was awesome. Jason Hagan is my trainer and has a very dynamic way of doing his training. Definitely making me stronger and faster. Now, if I could lay off the mexican food I haven't had in 4+ years, I'd actually get a little skinny.

Tuesday - Cardio day. I love the elliptical and it was trying to kick my butt today.

Wednesday - Rest day

Re-instituted my dry fire routine. About 30-40 minutes per night working on the fundamentals. It's been really nice as it's really bringing me back to my gun and I'm paying a lot more attention to gun presentations and calling my shots. We've got a Glock match and 3-Gun match this weekend and so we'll see how that goes. I'm really excited for both and looking for simply smooth and consistent performances. I'm starting to lock in to my mental program and am looking to test it out at the range.

Affirmation and key points (ala Bassham) are coming soon.

Rich

[uscbigdawg]

Let's see...where should we start.

Shot a GSSF match and did okay except on Glock M. Pushed it a little hard and in GSSF, points down are never a good thing. After that, shot a 22 3-Gun match which turned out to be a waste of time as the rules changed on each stage based upon me bringing open gear to a "run what you brung" event full of IDPA guys and well...they weren't happy.

Shot the monthly match at Richmond and my legs felt like garbage. My trainer and I have been working on my base and core and from our Tuesday & Thursday smoke sessions, I wasn't sore on Sunday, but I definitely was down on the juice. It showed on the stages as I was flat out slow.

Last week, shot the monthly at my old home range. Finished 3rd overall and 2nd Open with 2 Master class shooters above me. Here's the video:

12 APR 09 Targetmasters

Really went well. We altered my program, training wise, to something more aerobic rather than heavy lifting on the Thursday before a match and it paid off. Legs and core felt great. Just gotta lose some pounds now. We're pushing hard this week on the training with recovery this weekend and then the same work hard on Tuesday and do more aerobic/dynamic training on Thursday to keep fresh legs before the Golden Bullet.

I'm focusing the dry firing on three specific areas:

- Draws: They're fast, but not consistent and I know it throws me off for the balance of the stage.

- Transitions: A bit on the speed but also on seeing the exact spot on the target that I want to hit and moving the dot to it.

- Reloads: They're a little sloppy and I'm not getting on the release fast enough. Break the shot, call the shot, release the mag. Period.

Rich

[outerlimits]

dude-ditch the wrap music!!!

[uscbigdawg]

That's not rap. However...if it's rap you want...rap you'll get. Time to dustoff some golden oldies...just for Butch.

Rich

[little_kahuna]

I'm focusing the dry firing on three specific areas:

- Draws: They're fast, but not consistent and I know it throws me off for the balance of the stage.

- Transitions: A bit on the speed but also on seeing the exact spot on the target that I want to hit and moving the dot to it.

- Reloads: They're a little sloppy and I'm not getting on the release fast enough. Break the shot, call the shot, release the mag. Period.

I think that those skills are the most easily "practice-able". I spent quite a while drilling those area's specifically, and incorporate them into all of my dryfire, especially transitions. I think that making techniques such as these 100% consistent and smooth is what eliminates the "human inconsistency factor" in shooting. Dad tells me the only way to do make 'em on-demand, is through brute-force repetitions. lol. What drill(s) are you doing to work on these skills?

[uscbigdawg]

On all of them, I have small IPSC targets pinned on the wall in our office/guest bedroom. On the draws, I do the basics and draw variations (surrender, up range) and just push the par time.

On the reloads, I do a lot of Burkett reloads to warm-up and then go to the kitchen table and do 5-6 off of the table. From there, it's back to the small targets to push the par time. On all of them, the key is seeing the inside of my magwell.

On the transitions, it's not so much pushing the transition that I'm working (although it is). It's really paying attention to where the dot is at when I want to break the shot.

Rich

[little_kahuna]

Right on.

I practice using small Hardcover and No-shoot targets, to train my eye to look for the A zone. I occasionally will paint coins (quarters and such) white and use them as steel, as in setting them in a window sill or something.

I use a paint-pen (found at walmart or any equivalent) and paint stripes in my magwell. I often use red/white alternating stripes. It REALLY draws attention, and you can immediately assess whether you were looking IN the magwell during the reload.

[uscbigdawg]

Since April 15th...

Shot a steel challenge-type match on the 19th. Did okay but not horrible. 2nd open and 4th overall (the other 2 were using 22's and I'm using major PF ammo).

25 APR 09 - GBC 2k9

Shot all 8 stages on Saturday and RO'ed a half day on Sunday. I purposely other than check for any weird starting positions, did not look at the stages both online and on Friday at registration. I have found that I do MUCH better when I treat stages as new events (i.e. like a club match) and just shoot the stages. However, on arrival on Saturday, as I walked up to Bay 1, the stages didn't appear to have any points to be "really fast" either by footwork or trigger speed. Frankly, the stages looked like they could be shot faster with an iron sight pistol than with optics. The stages were "points" stages and while you had to move FAST on a couple, points were WAY more important. And, before someone says, points are always important, on some stages, your time is as important.

For the match I had 1 miss on a very difficult swinger, 1 no-shoot that I picked up with an A and 8 D's. I wasn't very happy with the D's, even when it was only 1 on a stage. I look at D's almost as misses. Overall though, I was just more consistent than my competition and got a class win and 16th overall. I was shooting for a Top 10 and, not having done the math, think that one stage that I took WAY too long on, may have cost me those 6 places. Waiting for the overall results to be posted though before knowing.

First match under the Rudy Competition Squad banner and have to admit that for the first time, I was a little nervous. However, being able to talk with little_kahuna and being squadded with Norbs, TMC and The Boffman's definitely helped that. I stayed on edge the whole day, but felt it was a good place to be emotionally. While I don't think it helped in performing at my best, it kept me grounded from pushing and going crazy.

Wratcheting the speed down and going for points was a huge accomplishment and lesson learned. I say this to myself every time but finally listened:

- Trust your speed. You are fast. Don't TRY to be fast.

- Do not think too much. Just shoot.

- The most important target is the one in front of you.

Little break coming and then might be shooting the Silver Buckle with the Kahuna's!

Rich

[big_kahuna]

Hey Rich, congratulations on making A in open!

[uscbigdawg]

Thanks brotha. Just found out. Maybe some of the complaints of sandbagging will stop now. Now it's time to work with Jenny and Tanner back in the mix again.

Rich

[uscbigdawg]

Just got the green light that I'm off this coming weekend and so I'll be going down south to the Silver Buckle. Should be interesting having not shot a match since the Golden Bullet. I'm in the middle of a planning/paying for a wedding, coordinating a major career change and fighting with guilt for not still being in the Army as my Brigade is now running all air operations in southern Afghanistan and my guys e-mail asking where "Doc" is at.

So...as a result of the schedule shift, I have that it's been an opportunity rather than a mountain of adversity. I've spent much more time dry firing and visualizing. J. Michael Plaxco once said that (paraphrasing) thinking about shooting is often as good, if not better than actually shooting. I've been doing a lot of the basics and just studying a lot of video and "feeling" my way through this little bit of distraction from actual trigger time.

So in getting ready for this weekend's Sectional, my plan is to spend as much time in the gym and dry firing as I can. Make sure all my gear and guns are good and ready. Pack my bags days ahead of time. All to reduce emotional and mental stressors albeit that those are normal. Thursday and Friday afternoon, I'll be at the local range, just working on trigger control and reaffirming my sight picture and timing the gun.

Rich

[uscbigdawg]

Silver Buckle report to follow, but in advance, definitely an okay performance, but far from what I'm capable of as well as far from my 'normal' performance. A lot of external factors, but ultimately it comes down to me just not being patient and shooting EACH stage.

Rich

[uscbigdawg]

More later on the Silver Buckle and the 3-Gun match that Brian and I shot. Finally getting a break from work & school to do anything. Played hookie today from work and went out and decided to stretch out the long rifle. 1k practice today!!!

24 JUL 09

Wind: Between 0-8mph, EVERYWHERE from 12 o'clock to 9 & 3, full value to 10 & 1 fractional values

Temp: 74-80 degrees

RH: 28%

Baro: 29.65

Time of Day: 0927 to 1100

We downloaded the cars, and piled in to a couple of trucks to start out from the pits. First stop was 200 yards and I drilled it. Elevation and wind were dead on. My wind calls were perfect (2 MOA elevation/0.4mil wind @ 10mph). Cold Bore was DEAD THE F@#$ on at 200.

Next stop was 300. 4.8 MOA elevation/0.7 mil wind @ 10mph). Dead on and killin' it!

Next stop was 500. Data card read: 11.9 MOA elevation/1.2 mil wind @ 10mph. Good news. Actual dope (for above conditions) is 10 MOA elevation and my wind is solid.

Next stop was 600. Data card read: 16.2 MOA elevation/1.5 mil wind @ 10mph. More good news. Actual dope (f.a.c.) is ~13.75 MOA elevation and again, wind is solid.

Next stop was 800. Data card read: 26.5 MOA elevation/2.2 mil wind @ 10mph. This is where the wheels were trying to come off. Made a rookie mistake of dialing back to zero after leaving the line. Not generally bad...unless you dial your scope the wrong direction. Lesson learned: Check it before you turn it. I was 2 (that's right 2!) revolutions off (30 MOA). Luckily caught it and worked my way down to where it's supposed to be. More good news there too! 24 MOA elevation/2.2 mil of wind is perfect!

Next stop was 900. Data card read: 32.8 MOA elevation/2.5 mil wind @ 10mph. Yep...continued to out perform the model*. Actual dop (f.a.c.) is 30 MOA elevation and wind is solid.

Next stop was 1000 (a.k.a. "1k" or "K"). Data card read: 39.8 MOA elevation/2.9 mil. Everything on paper, but just need to work on building a more solid position. Given that, actual data came out at 37 MOA elevation and wind was PERFECT! Too...my last shot was only 3" from center of mass. I'll take it.

It was an AWESOME day today in northern California. Great weather and better shooters to be around. These guys make it look too easy. Best 50 rounds I've fired in a long time!

Rich