Our First Big Match In 17 Years I Am Freaking Out!

[zhunter]

Lady, way to go, sorry about the Malf!!

[GentlemanJim]

Mixed results..

We had a wonderfull time Lots of very nice people! I even met some forum members

A very sweet lady named Debbie Keehart was our Squad Mom..She passed out green smiley face stickers to all for St.pattys day and kept our shooting order..she was sooo helpfull and full of smiles.

We also had the mad belcher...he would frequently erupt emmiting enormous oral outbursts that made my grand daughters laugh and blush

Also on our squad were the roaming gnome keepers thats a very funny story that can not be discussed in public(you know who you are!!!)

THE MATCH.......

Well in keeping with advice that I recieved from our friends on the forum...I did remember to breathe...very fast , but breathing

I was intimidated at first...complex stages(for me) lots of strange equipment ect

On the first stage I ran past a target and forgot to shoot it oops That did not help much.

Later on stage 8 I had a bad jam..lost my place, and forgot to shoot one more target

Those were my low points

After about two stages...I started to relax...all the adrenalin my body could possibly produce had been expended!!

As I progressed from stage to stage..my focus slowly returned and a long forgotten but vaguely familiar, calm open mind came to replace the chaos.

My shooting improved, I saw time slow..I saw empty cases slowly leave the gun and spin away into the air I could see the holes appear in the targets, dust from the rounds hitting the berm..its been a long long time since I was able to be aware of any of those things !!

MY HIGH POINT

The last stage swinging door cafe...three arrays of 4 targets three positions, around left of cafe ,right of cafe then thru doors and through a barrel...lots of no shoots very small target areas.

This was the only stage that I was dead calm at the start

It seemed that I was moving soooo slow I saw every sight picture called every shot!

I hope I can find that place in my mind again!!!

When I was finished I thaught I was so slow that I would be way down on it!!

But I was only a little slower than a master and an a shooter on my squad.

On that stage I was #25 of just under 200....how did I do that??

the funny thing ...the RO,s that shot this stage on friday,....did it wrong...sooo to be fair to all...they through it out of the match

Over all I placed #82 nothing special but for me its just fine!

If I can bring anything away it was having sooo much fun with such nice people!!!

And If I can find that calm still place in my mind again...I will surely improve in the future!!!

thanks so much for your help and support...It DID help

I cant wait for the next match...I had two very bad classifiers It was just too darn cold for me to function...so two fair and two bad gave me a C,I only have 4...I intend to get a B

by next month!!!!!

Then the real work will begin!!

Thanks to all!!!!

END OF THIS EPIC

JIm

[zhunter]

Jim

Great report.

Sounds like you had a good time and are BACK!!!!

Congrats!!

[Merlin Orr]

Sounds like you ended up having fun. The IMPORTANT part was accomplished.

[Dan Sierpina]

Jim and Nanci,

You both had a good time, that was the MOST important part of the match. Heck, fun is what's it about, isn't it? My wife doesn't shoot in matches anymore, but, she'll still admit the people we met over the years were great! My "vacation" wasn't as long as yours, (10 years), but, I do enjoy the game, and don't regret that time off. Now, you have to get into 3 gun! All the fun x3!!!......as long as all the guns work

I truly hope to be able to have a cold one with you, as with others on this forum, in the future.