Brazos SC Shooter

[Brazos SC Shooter]

7/15/07

Match - Shot a match at Rayner's today. These matches are always a blast and they put on one hell of a match. There were some great new props I hadn't shot before. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera set correctly so I don't have any video of this match. There were 8 stages and I shot the match twice. It was awesome to get that much match time in.

I felt I was seeing targets better today and was really comfortable with the game plans I had on each of the stages. I had some challenges on the props I hadn't seen before, but after shooting them, I did much better on the reshoot. I still have too many penalities/no-shoots. I can feel my confidence growing. I haven't been practicing every day but I have felt like I am been able to still make gains.

56 Days until Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

7/19/07

Results came in from my match this weekend. I was the first B-Class shooter and second in Limited. My misses were much higher than I would like. I am still not seeing or calling every shot which is why they are high. I wanted to see what running the match on the outer edge of my abilities would mean in the way of results. Obviously I won't win at Area 8 or Nationals in that fashion but I was really curious what would happen. I tried to remain consistent from stage to stage. I won 3 stages, was 2nd on two, 4th on one and the the last two were bad 10th and 12th which knocked me out. I have read many times on the site how "monkey motions" and moving targets are designed to distract you and that is exactly what happened the first time through. Now I just need to work on how to feel as calm as I did on the reshoots on the first run.

Place Name No. USPSA Class Division PF Lady For Age Match Pts Match %

1 Rich W. 24 A44777 A Limited Minor No No Senior 566.9749 100.00%

2 Drew B. 21 A56546 B Limited Major No No 551.5144 97.27%

3 Randy H. 30 B Limited Major No No 534.7590 94.32%

4 Mike S. 9 A56088 D Limited Major No No 521.3330 91.95%

5 Frank H. 2 FY47389 B Limited Major No No Senior 512.5565 90.40%

6 Jesse R. 28 FY42906 B Limited Major No No 474.2051 83.64%

7 Mike M. 12 A47043 C Limited Major No No Senior 462.6066 81.59%

8 Gary R. 20 FY40277 B Limited Major No No Super Senior 438.7706 77.39%

9 Jim A. 17 A51168 U Limited Minor No No 410.0463 72.32%

10 Tom R. 7 L2634 C Limited Major No No 404.5215 71.35%

11 Dan B. 25 Pen U Limited Major No No Senior 363.2084 64.06%

12 Tim K. 1 U Limited Minor No No Senior 236.8154 41.77%

13 Jim D. 13 A57437 U Limited Major No No 228.7657 40.35%

14 Sue M. 5 A56728 U Limited Minor Yes No 145.8807 25.73%

Speaking of Area 8, I sent in my application yesterday and am looking forward to getting another major match under my belt before Tulsa. After this one I will have the Ohio Sectional as my last major match tune up.

My dry fire practice schedule has really taken a hit lately. Things are pretty crazy in the Brazos household. I gave notice at my job last week and am making fairly drastic career change. My career priorities have really shifted over the last 6 months and things that were previously important to me no longer are. I am making this change because I want to be 100% responsible for my income, I want a better home/life balance and I want the flexibility to shoot more without trying to figure out how to fit all that in to my meager two week vacation.

52 Days until Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

7/22/07

400 round live fire session - I was able to get an early evening live fire session in. I didn't have any ammo loaded up for my limited gun so I went and shot the single stack. I worked on slow fire and really seeing my sights. I am forever working on keeping a good sight picture as the tempo increases. It doesn't always happen but that is why I practice it. I also spent a fair amount of time on strong hand and weak hand shooting

Session Observations

1. My groups for weak hand were much tighter than my strong hand.

2. When engaging two targets from a draw, my groups on T1 are much better than T2. This has to be a lack of visual patience.

3. I need a new load for my 45. My cases are really dirty as am I. Last time I checked I was running about 167-169 PF. This is just too soft for TG.

I made the decision earlier last week to go to Area 8. I sent in my application for that and the Ohio Section Match. I am looking forward to getting two more major matches in before heading to Tulsa.

10 Days until Area 8

40 Days until Ohio Sectional

49 Days until Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

8/2/07

Spent the morning cleaning the gun, reloading my ammo for Area 8 tomorrow. Loaded up 400 rounds, matched head stamps and chamber checked all of my rounds. I am ready to go. I have been reviewing the stages casually for the last week or so. Things have been really crazy in the BSCS household. Tuesday was my last day at my old job. I started my new career on Wednesday and I have been spending a ton of time preparing for this move.

I am not feeling much tension about tomorrow morning's match even though I have not practiced much the last two weeks. I am excited to for the remaining two majors before Nationals. Now that I have made the jump to my new job AND I have significantly more flexibility in my time, I am going to refocus these last days.

I am headed to bed shortly since I am making the 3 hr drive to Area 8 in the morning. This is probably not the best scenario for shooting at the top of my game, but I need to conserve money right now and this is only way to participate in this match. I won't always have peak conditions mentally, physically or weather conditionally. This will be a great opportunity to practice maintaining a good state of mind regardless of the situation.

1 Day until Area 8

30 Days until Ohio Sectional

38 Days until Nationals.

[Sunuva]

Have a Great match Drew!!!!

Robert

[Catfish]

Be smooth, and have fun!!!

[Brazos SC Shooter]

8/3/07

Thanks for the well wishes Robert and Catfish. This was an amazing match. The stages were fun and challenging and the staff was great, only one small contention here. I continue to learn so much by shooting these big matches. It was such a last minute decision to shoot this one and it has paid off huge. I had a blast. My squad mates were a great bunch of guys. Special thanks to Glyn for filming me. I will post the videos later. I had the great pleasure of shooting with Travis and Lee from the Army Marksmanship team. These guys are two class acts. Always willing to answer questions. Watching them both shoot was worth the price of admission.

All of my stages were posted except one, but when those results are included I am currently standing in 1st place for Limited-B. I realize there is a ton of shooting left tomorrow and Sunday, but it is where I wanted to be. Now we will have to wait and see if they were strong enough to hold folks off for the rest of the weekend.

Disappointments

1. Not being familiar enough with the rules. This one really chapped my ass. On my first stage of the day I was shooting along doing well then I came to a target that wasn't pasted. I stopped and said something and the RO looked at me like I had three heads. It is my responsibility to keep shooting and sort it out afterwards. It is also his responsibility to make sure that the stage is presented exactly the same for all shooters. I didn't get so much as an apology for f'ing it up. Again, another lesson learned and it pointed out that I need to continue to read the rules before nationals.

2. Still more misses than I would like to see. Once the buzzer goes off I don't seem to remember that smooth is fast. I had some great times but did not get all my hits.

Proud moments

1. My reloads were smoking today. I hit every one of them and they felt smooth and fast.

2. Continue to improve on stage plan and then the execution of said plan.

3. Shooting o nthe move today felt very loose and relaxed.

4. After shooting with Matt T. at Circleville last month I really started tpaying attention to "quick feet" and moving in bursts while shooting on the move rather than steady.

Things to work on

1. Leaving positions faster

2. In conjunction with #1 good follow through on the last shot before leaving a position and the last shot before reloads.

3. Calling shots. I am still behind the curve here. The misses cost me huge points.

Notes for those shooting Sat/Sun

Stage 11 - must engage all targets. Everyone I have talked to and everyone in our group shot it as follows

String 1 - Depending on which side you prefer to start on - middle, far, close - reload - repeat

String 2 - Six shots on T7

Stage 3 - tough stage, looks nothing like the original design. We were the first team of the day to NOT have an FTE. There were close to 10 total for the groups before us. Travis burned this stage up.

4-8-9-10 are really the only ones that looked like the original design.

29 Days until Ohio Sectional

37 Days until Nationals.

Edited August 4, 2007 by Brazos SC Shooter

[Brazos SC Shooter]

8/4/07

30 min dry fire - focused almost entirely on good solid sight picture and follow through. I realized that part of improved my reloads in this last match was the decision to shift my equipment around. I have moved my mags counter clockwise around my belt. In my last several matches I have been grabbing the second magazine from my belt on my first reload. I have actually had this problem since I started shooting limited. I finally decided to stop fighting it. My first magazine when from being located right on my pants button to just before my hip bone. I was hesitant to make a change like that the night before a major match but it was helpful. I didn't pull a reload from the wrong pouch all day.

anxoiusly awaiting updated results!!!

28 Days until Ohio Sectional

36 Days until Nationals

[Brazos SC Shooter]

8/5/07

The results are in. I should be happy since this is my highest finish in a major match. I was 28th overall and 6th place among the B shooters. I was pretty sure that my 1st place after day one was not going to hold up. Stage 9 and the significant number of misses did me in. I don't know what it is about me that will not slow down.

I went back and reviewed the changes in position by stage that would have resulted if I eliminated the misses and replaced the miss with just a C. It resulted in an average of 13 positions per stage where I had a miss.

I am without my laptop for a couple of more days but I will post videos when I get it back this week.

27 Days until Ohio Sectional

35 Days until Nationals

[A_Med]

8/5/07

The results are in. I should be happy since this is my highest finish in a major match. I was 28th overall and 6th place among the B shooters. I was pretty sure that my 1st place after day one was not going to hold up. Stage 9 and the significant number of misses did me in. I don't know what it is about me that will not slow down.

I went back and reviewed the changes in position by stage that would have resulted if I eliminated the misses and replaced the miss with just a C. It resulted in an average of 13 positions per stage where I had a miss.

I am without my laptop for a couple of more days but I will post videos when I get it back this week.

27 Days until Ohio Sectional

35 Days until Nationals

Drew you shot a really good match. Enjoyed shooting with you and the rest of our squad. Didn't realize you were Brazos SC Shooter . I'm terrible with names.

Angel

[Brazos SC Shooter]

Drew you shot a really good match. Enjoyed shooting with you and the rest of our squad. Didn't realize you were Brazos SC Shooter . I'm terrible with names.

Angel

Thanks Angel. I enjoyed shooting with you as well. I have been without my laptop and negligent with my dry fire practice due to getting things up and running with my new job.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

8/13/07

Spent time this evening reviewing the stages for Nationals. Maybe there is something I am missing but at first blush the stages look fairly straight foward and not a great deal of difficulty. The two stages with strong/weak hand shooting look to be the most challenging but that isn't all that difficult.

The teeter totter (balance beam stage) might be the toughest distraction.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

8/23/07

Shot a match at Rayner's this last weekend. Came in 3rd out of 17 and was the first B shooter in limited. This is still not where I want to be. I continue to have too many misses. Some of that is by the design of Tom's stages. There is a always at least one stage that is completely sick. I did ok on that one with only 1 miss. The Area 5 Standards classifier ate my lunch and with 6 misses I zeroed the stage. Oops

I have been extremely busy getting my new business up and running so my practice schedule has taken a back seat. Certainly that will make peak performance a bit of a challenge but never the less, I am looking forward to Nationals and the Ohio sectional.

10 Days until Ohio Sectional

17 Days until Nationals

Edited August 24, 2007 by Brazos SC Shooter

[Catfish]

8/13/07

Spent time this evening reviewing the stages for Nationals. Maybe there is something I am missing but at first blush the stages look fairly straight foward and not a great deal of difficulty. The two stages with strong/weak hand shooting look to be the most challenging but that isn't all that difficult.

The teeter totter (balance beam stage) might be the toughest distraction.

You can rest asssured that the stages will have some distance thrown into them; and that's the words out of the MD's mouth when I saw him at the TSL this past weekend. Distance can add all sorts of complexity to some of those stages....

[Brazos SC Shooter]

8/13/07

Spent time this evening reviewing the stages for Nationals. Maybe there is something I am missing but at first blush the stages look fairly straight foward and not a great deal of difficulty. The two stages with strong/weak hand shooting look to be the most challenging but that isn't all that difficult.

The teeter totter (balance beam stage) might be the toughest distraction.

You can rest asssured that the stages will have some distance thrown into them; and that's the words out of the MD's mouth when I saw him at the TSL this past weekend. Distance can add all sorts of complexity to some of those stages....

I figured there had to something else to it. Regardless I am pumped up!!

[Brazos SC Shooter]

8/25/07

30 min dry fire - My last match was a little rusty so I thought it best to get in some additional practice before the Ohio sectional. Last match I had a couple of bobbled reloads so I spent some time working that back up to speed. There wasn't much else exciting about the practice. I did run the "Can you Count?" classifier 15-20 times. I haven't shot this one and I figured it wouldn't hurt to drill it over and over in preparation for next weekend's match.

Tomorrow I am heading down to the range to help Flex with some set up of the field courses.

All of the plans for Nationals have been finalized and we are going to pick up Caspian_45 in IL on the way so it will be cool to meet yet another BE poster.

8 Days until Ohio Sectional

15 Days until Nationals

[Brazos SC Shooter]

9/1/07

30 minutes of Dry fire - spent time with SOTM and a solid sight picture in preparation for tomorrow's Ohio Sectional Match. I am looking forward to a good match. I feel confident that I will have a good outing and it will be a good final step in preparation for Tulsa.

Loaded and chamber checked all of my ammo for tomorrow. The gun is clean, and slightly modified. Purely cosmetic, there is no way I will mess with the action of the gun. Bob does great work so I am not messing with that. I under cut the trigger guard a little for both my strong hand and my weak hand. It is just enought to have a nice snug taylored feel.

Hook'em Horns!!

1 Day until Ohio Sectional

8 Days until Nationals

[Brazos SC Shooter]

9/9/07

IT'S HERE!!! Woo Hoo

After a long drive Steve Moneypenny, Bob Vogel and Tony Hawkins and I rolled into Tulsa at about 10pm. The trip was easy but long. We also had several stops along the way.

I have 4 stages coming up today. We don't start shooting until 3pm and we will begin on stage 10 and finish on 14 today. I am squaded with Chris Keen and Bill Seevers so I am looking forward to that.

Let me say thanks again to John Bagakis for reaching out to me about spliting a hotel room.

I feel relaxed and prepared for this match. While the dry fire has not been as extensive I was able to get an hour of live fire on Friday.

I have to finish getting ready.

0 Days until Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

9/9/07

4 stages are in the books. Everything has gone pretty smooth with one exception. I had a scary incident on stage 11. Fortunately the malfunction was on the last popper and it only cost me one miss. I had, what I think was a round with a double charge. As a result the case head was blown off the round and the remainder of the case was stuck in the chamber. The next round would not go into battery. I was able to take the gun to Bob at the vendor booth and he was able to get it out with a chamber reamer.

I have completed the following stages.

10 - I Hate Drop Turners

11 - Field of Dreams

12 - Tire Change

13 - Balance Act

Off to bed.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

9/10/07

More stages in the books. It was a good day all in all. The rain was brutal for 3 stages. A couple were short and one was long. As a result, things slowed down and the stages were slow. I hate shooting through plastic. I was able to get good hits and not be distracted. So far I have gotten all my hits on all of the swingers and drop turners with the exception on one which was a NP Mike. I pulled off all of my stage plans exactly as I pictured them and I was very happy about that.

The stages I shot today were

14 - House Arrest

15 - The Split

16 - Swing Low

17 - Garden City Alley

18 - Mr. Strong Hand

1 - Over a barrel (I was most pleased with this stage)

[Brazos SC Shooter]

9/16/07

Nationals was a great time. I enjoyed meeting new folks from the boards and also folks from around the country. Congrats to my travel buggy, Tony Hawkins (Caspian_45) for the 6th overall finish in Production and my roommate, John Bagakis for his second place overall finish in Revolver. I got to spend a lot of time with great shooter, I just wish I would have picked up more by osmossis (sp).

My final finish was 111th overall and 18th out of 68 B-Class shooters.

111 Drew B. 103 A56546 B Limited Major No No 1169.3916 67.67%

I continue to shoot faster than I can see the front sight and have more misses than I care for. The positive thing is that I shot within my current ranking which lets me know I am right where I should be, for now. I was able to stay focused for 4 days of shooting and my stage plans were strong and I executed them just as I had memorized them.

I picked up a 100.00 gift certificate for bullets of the prize table so I will use that to help me get more hits.

Lastly, a very special thank you to Bob from Brazos for his coaching and feedback as well as his handy gun smithing on day one to get me back up and running as fast as he did.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

2/16/08

I was reviewing last year's goals and I thought it would be good to report on them and then talk about what I would like to accomplish in 2008. Starting in January I began to focus on my weight loss in preparation for the 2008 season. As a result I am down 13 lbs with about 10-15 more to go.

2007 Goals

1. Make "A" Class in Limited by July 1, 2007. Didn't accomplish I am only 2% points away from this. We have a special classifier in March so I hope to get this pretty soon.

2. Make "M" Class in Limited by December 31, 2007. Didn't accomplish

3. Make "M" Class in CDP & SSP by December 31, 2007. Didn't accomplish

4. Shoot 4 major matches (2 IDPA & 2 USPSA) in 2007. Accomplished

5. Maintain a minimum of 4 days of dry fire and 1 day of live fire practice per week for the rest of the year. Didn't accomplish

6. Lose 15-20lbs. Didn't accomplish

Here are my new goals.

2008

1. Eliminate hte high number of misses and penalties in my matches.

2. Shoot at least 20% of my matches clean and at least 75% of my matches with no more that 2 misses or penalties.

3. Shoot at 4 major matches, including Nationals.

4. Win my class at a major match.

5. Make "M" class by 12/31/08.

6. Shoot only as fast as I can see good sight pictures.

[Chris Keen]

Here are my new goals.

2008

1. Eliminate hte high number of misses and penalties in my matches.

2. Shoot at least 20% of my matches clean and at least 75% of my matches with no more that 2 misses or penalties. Strive for 100% clean - 100% of the time

3. Shoot at 4 major matches, including Nationals.

4. Win my class at a major match.

5. Make "M" class by 12/31/08.

6. Shoot only as fast as I can see good sight pictures. "Acceptable sight pictures" as Brian would say

[Brazos SC Shooter]

2. Shoot at least 20% of my matches clean and at least 75% of my matches with no more that 2 misses or penalties. Strive for 100% clean - 100% of the time

6. Shoot only as fast as I can see good sight pictures. "Acceptable sight pictures" as Brian would say

2/17/08

I was thinking 100% clean all the time, and it is my goal it just seems SOOOOO far off at this point. Acceptable sight pictures is a great way to put it.

I shot my first clean match in USPSA today. I had no Mikes and no penalties. The match was a small 5 stage 108 round match. I am very pleased with how I shot my first match of the season. I am very much looking forward to getting the results. It was pretty muddy, and reminded me a little bit of Tulsa this year, but wasn't quite as muddy.

I replaced my FO yesterday and about halfway through stage 4 it disappeared. I am apparently looking at the damn thing since I noticed as soon as it was gone. Fortunately, I had more with me and quickly got it back on.

My one critique of the day is losing track of my round count tow times which resulted in my running the gun dry, twice, which resulted in reloads that included racking the slide. SLOW SLOW SLOW. Hopefully the clean match will offset these two longer than necessary mag changes.

I am selling a bunch of .45 goods in the classifieds to fund this new project. Here is a picture of my 6" Limited gun that is in the works. It will be finished in the IonBond satin black diamon coat finish.

The results were posted. I won my division for the 1st time. This is a great start to the 08 season.

Feb. 2008

Rayners Pactical Shooters

2/17/2008

Division Name Competitors

Limited Drew Bennett 9

Limited_10 Steve Moneypenny 2

Open John Fadorsen 3

Production Kyle Farris 4

Revolver Pat Scott 1

Total: 19

Edited February 18, 2008 by Brazos SC Shooter

[Brazos SC Shooter]

2/19/08

Got an email that my new gun is going out to IonBond this week. There were some changes since the last photo I attached. Here is the latest. There were additional cuts on the front and fluting added to the top.

Edited February 20, 2008 by Brazos SC Shooter