Top 3 mistakes shooters make these days?

[Darryl Means]

... trying not to try.

+1

[TonyH]

1. Preparation (equipment, zeros, ammo, stage discriptions, etc.)

2. Accurate Reliable Equipment

3. Practice, Practice, Practice

[gino_aki]

1) Getting into this sport when you don't have the time to really devote to it.

2) Letting distractions divert the precious time you CAN devote to it.

3) Not having fun because of the first two.

[MarkL]

for me, the mistakes that cost me the most (still and probably always) are:

1. not focusing on the front sight

2. not prepping the trigger

3. not seeing (or mentally recording) the front sight lifting, which is probably another way of saying not being able to call the shoot

[Matt Griffin]

Further on equipment. The day that I received my timer in the mail, I of course burned a mag into the berm just to see how fast I could pull the trigger. I believe at the time (I had about 5 matches under my belt) I could only get down to .18 splits. This was as a relative C shooter, I'd reckon.

A year later, many thousands of rounds downrange, some big wins and an A classification, my absolute splits are now down to .16.

What's the point? Before, I couldn't USE what the equipment had to offer. Now I consistently can USE .18 splits on close targets for A zone hits, whereas before it was just my finger manipulation threshold. My useable splits were around .30. So, did the gun get faster from then until now? NO. Did my finger get faster from then until now? NO.

My brain got faster, and my eyes got faster. That's where the game is played.

H.

[Throwin Lead]

My thoughts as a Noob that only started shooting this past March.

Paramount is range safety - know how to conduct yourself and your weapon in a safe manner. Know what breaking the 180 means, finger out of trigger guard when moving or reloading, what the range commands are, etc.

After getting comfortable with range safety the fundamentals of shooting apply. A dry fire & live fire routine should be developed. Pharoh Bender is living proof of that.

1. A good consistent grip & a good stance.

2. Know what a sight picture is. This will lead to calling the shot.

3. Knowing that when you have a good sight picture you need to be smooooth on the trigger. This is my downfall - trigger control.

4. Learn to shoot tight groups freestyle, stong hand & weak hand. Tight groups would be shots that can consistently fill a 2" circle at 10 yards.

5. How to break down a stage for your division - I shoot production or L-10 so I'm always looking for that sweet spot in the stage that may let me shoot 10 rounds - it may be less but I'm learning not to go to slide lock & learning to reload on the move.

6. Don't get caught up in how fast the other guy shoots the stage in your squad. Know your limitations but at the same time be willing to challenge yourself on ocasion. Raise the bar a bit, set goals to shoot a club match clean.

7. Become a student of the game. Read all you can. BE's book is a great resource, Steve Anderson's book on dry fire drills is great too. Rob's training video's are good as well and there are many other resources out there including this forum.

If you reload develop loads that your weapon likes within the PF range you are shooting. A matter of personal preference but do you want a snappy load or one that shoots flat? Developing loads & testing them for accuracy & feel is also an important aspect of the game.

8. More dry fire

9. Question other shooters. Ask the more experienced shooter questions such as why did he choose to shoot the stage that way etc.

10. Be honest with yourself. If attending a few club matches a month for fun is your thing - great! If you want to be serious about competing then you need to do your homework. Learn your weaknesses and try to improve them to assets.

11 - 100. More dry fire

[Chills1994]

Another common problem or mistake I see NOOBS doing is NOT numbering their mags. They have a malfunction during a stage, drop that mag, insert a fresh one and then when they're done w/ the stage and collect their mags, they don't know which one caused the malfunction.

As far as new shooters being new to reloading, the biggest mistake I see them doing is NOT using plastic ammo storage bins. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking: one more reloading gee gaw gadget to buy.

It's not really a gadget if it'll ensure that your gun doesn't puke and worst case scenario keep your gun from being blown up. I get nervous when I see a guy reaching into a zip loc bag full of reloaded rounds and then loads them directly into his mags. It makes me NOT want to RO/SO him/her.

Once your rounds are in the box headstamps facing up, run your index finger over the primers, make sure they do all have primers and that they are not proud, errr... above flush. When you do this, you will also find which rounds the bullets are seated too long or too short in.

A little 2 dollar plastic box is cheap insurance versus blowing up a 500 to 1,500 dollar gun not to mention if you have to get rushed to the ER for a blown up hand or face.

Pardon my shameless plug for one of my earlier posts here on the BE forums, but you can find an ammo box label "form" here:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...32&hl=avery

It uses the avery 2" X 4" , #8163 labels.

One other thing, NOOBS new to reloading at the least need to buy a 5 subject spiral bound notebook, the kind with the plastic cover. Then take that when they go to the range with their reloads and chrono. Dedicate each subject for each caliber they reload for.

Edited September 5, 2007 by Chills1994

[Jake Di Vita]

What about putting rounds in a case makes them safer than in a zip loc bag? Half of the time I gauge all my rounds, check all the primers, and put them into a baggy just to save an extra 10 minutes.

Believe me....a little plastic box (nor what you can see from the little plastic box) will do anything to change your gun from blowing up if you loaded bad ammo.

[Chills1994]

Ooops Jake, I was editing my post when you replied.

Yeah, I suppose you're right. If some guy squibbed, double or tripled charged one out of 50 rounds, or all 50 that he carefully placed into a 2 dollar plastic ammo box, that ain't gonna help him much, or the RO/SO standing behind him when the gun blows up. Been there, done that, wish I had the posercam rolling when it happened. I was the RO.

But you still have guys that will load a PRIMER-LESS or a BACKWARDS primered round directly from a zip lock bag into their mags, that is after traveling 5 hours one way, blowing money on the gas to get there, more money on the hotel room, and then about a 150 dollar match entry fee. Then they get the mother of all jams on a stage and wonder why. 2 dollars seems like cheap insurance against that.

Some people aren't like you Jake, they don't case gauge their ammo. Some people have reloading set ups that case gauging would just be redundant and a big waste of time for them.

If you handle your ammo that much, all the better your Quality Control is. Good on you, Jake. If I ever RO/SO you at a match, I won't get the jitters seeing you load your ammo directly from a ziploc bag to a mag.

This has never happened to me, but I have to wonder if it would be possible to accidently load a 10mm round when loading .40's, or the other way around load a .40 when loading 10's, or load a .380 when loading 9's. If you went to stick those in a box, it would be a real obvious case of "one of these does not look like the other!"

Edited September 5, 2007 by Chills1994

[boz1911]

Not learning from mistakes made. After every match I try to learn to correct the mistakes made. I also keep a diary and refer back to it.

Not watching and listening to more experienced shooters, they weren't born that good.

Not having equipment or ammo that runs. Usually because they read too many gun mags where all guns(ie:advertisers) are the latest and greatest.

[Steve Anderson]

Most Costly Mistakes?

1. Not memorizing/visualizing the stage

2. Thinking about speed/time

3. Poor/negative attitude at LAMR

SA

[Jman]

for me, the mistakes that cost me the most (still and probably always) are:

1. not focusing on the front sight

2. not prepping the trigger

3. not seeing (or mentally recording) the front sight lifting, which is probably another way of saying not being able to call the shoot

Very good. If you know the problem you can solve it.

[rr4406pak]

What is "LAMR"?

[gunsablazin]

What is "LAMR"?

LAMR= Load & Make Ready

Robin

[mjbine]

Most Costly Mistakes?

1. Not memorizing/visualizing the stage

2. Thinking about speed/time

3. Poor/negative attitude at LAMR

SA

I am with Steve. But I think number 2 should be number 1.

[Steve Anderson]

Those were in no particular order and were based on match errors...General errors would be:

1. Lack of honest self-analysis

2. Lack of consistent training

3. Not learning from better shooters

Shameless plug: my second book has a full rundown on the most common mistakes I see and how to correct them. Sorry, couldn't resist.

SA

[Nik Habicht]

This has never happened to me, but I have to wonder if it would be possible to accidently load a 10mm round when loading .40's, or the other way around load a .40 when loading 10's, or load a .380 when loading 9's. If you went to stick those in a box, it would be a real obvious case of "one of these does not look like the other!"

I've had some .380 cases roll through the assembly line, as well as 9x23: The .380s are obvious because the resizing effort is much less than the 9, the longer cases you notice when you place a bullet into the soup bowl that is the expanded case mouth. Of course if someone's not paying attention, anything is possible....

/drift

[WickedBag]

Here's an obvious one, but since I just did it this past weekend, it might not be obvious enough:

NEVER put a partially filled mag bag in your belt mag pouch! I was so focused on the walkthrough, I forgot to top off my mags. The first mag was full, but at the end of the stage...well, you know how this ends. I had picked up the bad habit of picking up my mags after the stage and putting them back in the pouches. Not anymore.

[Chills1994]

That's why I try to make it point to wear cargo pants or cargo shorts at matches. All the partial mags go in the cargo pockets. Never back into the mag pouches. It's a mistake you make once. Once I'm behind the line and the next shooter is up, I take an inventory of my mags, make sure I have all of 'em and then start loading them back up again.

Edited September 8, 2007 by Chills1994