bierman

[bierman]

Ok, after spending WAY too much time reading the diaries of others (PB's, Catfish's, Airic's, Xre's, many others) I have decided to start my own. I have been inspired by what I have read in others diaries and that inspiration has gotten me off of my butt many times.

I started my competitive shooting journey about 3 years ago. I was a police lieutenant at the time and really needed a stress relief outlet. Some of the guys I worked with got involved in a 7 man full contact football league and really wanted me to play. I thought "what the heck" and gave it a try. I really don't know what I was thinking. I played in high school, but that was 20 years and way too many pounds ago. I started to rethink my decision when, during the very first practice, one of the guys got his collar bone broken. I made a few more practices and realized I was going to get hurt so I hung up the helmet and decided that shooting was where I needed to focus my attention. I was already a fairly decent shooter, though not very fast. I looked into IDPA, shot a couple of matches, and then started shooting some "other shooting sports" games. I really enjoyed the game, but turnout was small, usually no more than a dozen shooters. I really wanted to test my skills against more, better shooters so I made the drive to Waco for my 1st USPSA match. I had a great time and quickly realized that this was where I wanted to be.

I started shooting about 1000-1200 rounds a month at the time and when my first classification came in it was in B class, production. I was shooting the Beretta 92FS that was my duty gun and I ran it fairly well. I was very happy to come in at B class, especially after one old, crusty MD told me not to worry about my classifier scores, that I would start off with my D card like everyone else and move up from there. I shot local matches around the DFW area for the first year and then my life took a very drastic turn.

I left the police department in June of 06. I was extremely burned out and disillusioned with my profession and desperately wanted out. I made the jump and without going into the long, boring details, things with the new career did not work out. Money became a very big issue and shooting became a luxury I could not afford. I shot my last match in November of 06. I became so frustrated and depressed about not being able to shoot that I completely pushed shooting out of my life. I quit coming to the forum, sold my Beretta, sold my shotgun and almost sold my reloading equipment.

A few months ago, things started to turn around for my family. My wife landed a great job, paying more than she has ever made, and, with a few changes in our lifestyle, it looks like I will be able to do the stay at home dad thing. We homeschool my daughter and my wife had been the teacher/caregiver for the first 10 years with my daughter. Now, I will be able to do that. I will also be able to start shooting again. Got the reloading room set up again, made up some 1/4 and 1/8 sized targets and have begun a dry fire program. I realize now that I wasted so much time over the last year, feeling sorry for myself, time that could have been spent dryfiring, even if I did not have the money to shoot.

I have promised myself that I will dry fire at least 4 days a week and get to the range one day a week. My current shooting budget will allow me to shoot about 1000-1200 rounds a month and shoot 2-3 matches. I am using Steve Andersons first book, Matt Burketts website and some other drills I have picked up from guys like PB and Catfish, from reading their diaries. I am also getting ready to start a workout program, as I think one of the biggest impediments to my goals is the extra 100 pounds I am carrying around. I am hoping that the peer pressure I will get from posting my progress, or lack thereof, will keep me on track with both the dryfire and workout programs. My goal is to lose 50 pounds and make A class in the coming year. I believe I can do both.

Thanks to Brian for providing us with the greatest forum on the Net, thanks to the others who post their ups and downs in their diaries and thanks to my wife for recognizing that I NEED to shoot and doing everything in her power to make sure I can.

Edited September 26, 2007 by bierman

[mjbine]

You took the first steps back now keep it going and good luck.

[Thomas Moore]

Keep it going Bierman, PB is one of the biggest reasons I started my diary. Currently my diary is about weight loss and general health.

I've ordered a Marvel 22 top end for practice since bullets prices are through the roof. I will be cleaning out my basement so I can have a place to dry fire and I'll be posting routines here in the colder months. Right now my practice is one local match a week sometimes two.

Good luck and keep posting.

[Catfish]

Excellent!!!!

Let me know what I can do to help.

[dfwmiket]

Glad to have you back in the fold. Which gun are we shooting? You know you are always welcome to borrow one of mine if need be.

I really need to take your path and start focusing on shooting.

-Mike

Edited September 27, 2007 by cnemikeman

[gunsablazin]

All the best to you on your journey. You and I are lucky, my wife understands how important this sport is to me. Having the support you need at home makes a big difference. Good luck.

Robin

[bierman]

Thanks for the encouragement everyone. Its nice to have support outside of the family.

Mike, I am shooting a M&P 9mm. I used the tutorial from Dan Burwell's site and did the trigger myself. Not as nice as his trigger, but I was being very cautious not to remove too much material. It is an improvement over the stock trigger though. I also blacked out the front and rear sight which also helped a bit as well. You do what you have to when shooting on a shoestring budget. I was planning on shooting last weekend at the NTX sectional at DTR, but my sister had a baby so we went to Waco to visit them instead. Its not everyday I get a new nephew.

[bierman]

Spent about 1 1/2 hours dryfiring today. I was using Matt Burketts dryfire drills as I do not yet own a timer. I started off just working on a nice, clean draw, with a 1.5 sec par time. I was also working on reacting to the timer. I moved on to working on my reloads as this is an area of weakness for me. I know that a match may not be won or lost based on reloads alone, but I do shoot Production, so I will be doing a lot of them. One of the areas I am trying to work on is moving my left hand off the gun to the magazine as quickly as I can. At first I was doing the whole reload but could not get into a good groove so I started just doing them to the magwell. This seemed to let me focus more on moving my left hand. I started with a 1 sec par and worked on it for about an hour, just focusing on being smooth and consistent. I was able to work the par time down to .6, which really surprised me. Didn't know I could really move any part of me that quickly.

If everything works out as planned, I will shoot my first USPSA match in almost a year first weekend of October at Tyler. Hope to see some of you there.

[dfwmiket]

You KNOW I'll be there. Squad up, it'll be good to see you.

-Mike

[Catfish]

Draws and reloads ARE basic to our sport. And an expert is someone who does the basics better than anyone else.

[bierman]

Mike,

Barring any unforseen circumstances, I will be in Tyler. See you there .

Derrick,

So true. I think most folks forget that little gem of wisdom and pursue the next "trick" or somesuch hoping it will make them better and faster when all they really need to do is focus on the basics.

Edited September 28, 2007 by bierman

[Catfish]

Yes, remember there are no silver bullets. A big field course is just a logner combination of basic skills.

[bierman]

Finally broke down and ordered Tru-Grip last weekend and it showed up today. Wow, I should have ordered some sooner! This stuff is so much better than the crap I have been making on my own. Thanks to EricW for a great product and fast service. Can't wait to get some dryfire in later today.

[Slowhand]

Congratulations on your commitment and being blessed with the support of

your wife. I am looking forward to reports of your progress.

Go get em.

[bierman]

Slowhand,

Thanks for the kind words. Yes, I am truly blessed to have my wife. Without her I don't really know what I would do.

Got in about 1 1/2 hours of dryfire tonight. Really like this Tru-Grip. I felt like that scene in Spider Man where Peter has the tray and everything else sticking to his hand Can't wait to get to the range for some livefire.

[bierman]

Live fire on Sunday, about 250 rounds. Worked on the draw, short and long transitions, SOTM, and reloads. Overall, a pretty good day, no misses and 5 deltas, most of which I picked up during SOTM. I can do ok moving straight forward and backwards, its the moving sideways and at angles that still need lots of work.

Did notice that the reloaded ammo is quite smokey in the waning sunlight of a Texas evening. Completely lost my target a couple of times. I am using up an old (10+ yrs) stock of Hodgdon Clays, so I will be looking for a considerably cleaner powder when this runs out.

As I stated earlier, I was hoping to make a match this weekend in Tyler, but that may not be. An opportunity to help teach a class this weekend has come up and I am probably going to take it. If so, I will make Greenville the second weekend.

Dryfiring tonight, as usual.

Edited October 2, 2007 by bierman

[bierman]

One really cool thing that I forgot to mention...during livefire yesterday there were two seperate occasions when, shooting at full speed, I called my shots as C's, and made the make up shot without hesitation. I was right on both occasions. Very cool moment for me. First time I have been able to do that. Guess all this dryfire is paying off.

[bierman]

1 1/2 hr of dryfire tonight. I had a recurring thought while I was training, something that I am probably paraphrasing or stealing from someone else. If so, my apologies. I kept thinking "Did you dryfire today? Did your fellow competitors?" It just came to me and kept repeating in my head over and over. Don't know why or if it really means anything or not. Either way, it seemed appropriate to me at the time.

[gunsablazin]

If you a'int somwhere practicing, remember I am. I've seen that around here somewhere.

TANSTAAFL: or somewhere reading Heinlen. When your forearms ache you've probably done enough for one day!

Robin

[bierman]

Yeah, I kinda paraphrased it from a screen saver I saw at the PD years ago:

Somewhere, right now, someone is training. If you are not, and one day the two of you meet, you will lose.

[bierman]

Shot my first match in 11 months on Saturday. It was just a small. local match, 4 stages. We had 19 shooters turn out. Only 2 of us shooting production. I ended up 14th overall, shooting 65% of the high overall score (shot by a Ltd GM) and of course 2nd in Production, shooting 75% of the high Production score (shot by a Production Master who placed in the top 20 at Nationals). I managed a low B class score on the classifer (99-23 Front Sight) at right at 60%. So, the good news is that I have not really lost any ground during my nearly year lay off. The bad news, if I had spent more time dry firing during my lay off I may have gained some ground. Guess we will never know.

One thing that was glaringly obvious to me at the match is the fact that I need to lose a bunch of weight. I gave up at least 5 seconds on one field stage. mostly due to the fact that my 40 dash time is measured with a sundial. I know that I will never be as fast as some guys (I was not built for speed even at my perfect weight) but it sure could not hurt to shuck some weight. Time to get started on the workout program.

Anyway, I had a great time at the match. Great to see some folks again and get some trigger time in. Can hardly wait for the next one.

[bierman]

Second match back. Much dryfire practice in the last week and one live fire day last Sunday. Made the trip to Waco for what is usually a pretty good local match and today was no exception. I did great on the first stage I shot but crashed and burned on the classifier (03-09 On the Move). Did ok on the next stage but had a fail to extract on the very last shot. Next stage my gun tanked on me after the 8th round. FTE and then the trigger would not reset. DNF and my first time to zero a stage. Luckily I was able to borrow another M&P and shoot the final stage of the day. Overall, not a great day shooting, but I still had fun.

Got the gun home and the striker tang was broken off . Hoping I can get a replacement before next weekends N. TX. Sectional Championship match.

[dfwmiket]

You were smooth and looked good today!! I could tell you had been working! Keep up the good work!

-Mike

[bierman]

Thanks for the backup gun Mike. Even though it was set up for right brained folks, I managed not to flub the reloads too bad .

[bierman]

First "big match" for me tomorrow. N. Texas Sectional Championship match at Double Tap Ranch. I have never shot there, and have never shot a match that had more than 6 stages. I have no chance of winning a slot to Nationals, so I am just going to get some experience at a bigger match and a shot at winning one of the twelve guns being raffled. Even though there is really nothing riding on it, for me, I am still a bit nervous.

I have been able to do some of my dry fire drills this week even though the striker was broken on my gun. I worked on mag changes, transistions and movement throughout the week and then about two hours last night on all of that plus draws.

I am still struggling with putting together a sound plan for each stage and then working that plan. Last weekend, on one long couse I "planned" on not making a reload after the first array, since it was just two targets and the next array was two paper and one steel. My "plan" was to make my first reload upon exiting from the second position. However, when the timer went off, I shot the first array and took off for my second position. Almost automatically, I made a mag change on the way. Luckily, it did not hurt me, but I was running on my last mag when I got to the last position. Even though it did not hurt me, it was still frustrating. Where it did hurt me was on the classifier. We shot On The Move and I thought I worked out a good plan (with the help of a better shooter). Timer went off and I started working the plan, but while I was busy working my plan, I forgot about the shooting and, without thinking, called a "C" and made it up. Crap, extra shot and hit. Next string, did it again, TWICE! I guess I have been working so hard on learning to call my shots, that I just made them up without really thinking, because I really did not think "make up the shot" when it happened, it just did. In one way that is good, but on a virginia count stage, that can kill you. I guess it is just an example of my inexperience rearing its ugly head. I forsee this being a struggle for me for a little while.