Davids Road to Running with the masters

[waxman]

Well, What an abortion that turned out to be. I think a total of 50 people told me I would regret my big mag button,Low and behold, Wed night, they were right. Shot the classifier Mini mart, which requires a shelf start. My last Classifier was a M, so I was really psyched to nail this one too. I grabbed the gun perfectly, and guess what, the mag hit the ground, before I even brought it up. ARRRRGG.I only had 2 mags in the box, so by the time I scrambled for the second one, I knew it was all over. Instead of the 4-5 sec run, I should have had, It ended up being a 9 something. I did something out of frustration, that I now trully regret. I emptied the rest of the mag on the no shoot. This was really childish and stupid, and I have been beating myself up about it since that night.I guess All I can do is live and learn. I have a zero'd stage, which was the first in my life, to show for my actions.The bigger picture here is the large mag button, Needless to say, about 10 minutes with the dremel tool, and the button is no longer large.I have done about 20 dry fire table starts now, and the problem is resolved. I guess if there is any kind of silver lining to this, is that it was at a small club match, and not a large area match or something. Have another match Sunday, so I will redeem myself.

[waxman]

Shot a match today, and I am not real pleased with the mental side of my game. In the last 2 matches I have done things that I have been told not to do, since I started USPSA. Last match it was the big mag button that bit me, today, it was leaving a steel stand for calibration. I have been told many times to not go for a calibration, instead to let the RO call REF. I knew I hit the steel popper 2 times, I was so sure of it, I just kept on going with my plan, knowing I didnt have any more shots to spare with my lim 10 mag. The steel was not painted, so all of the black spots on it meant nothing. The 9mm calibration proved me a liar, and it was ruled a steel Mike. I feel like such a dumdass, I know better then that. My next biggest folley of the day, was chasing my m card. I shot a classifier which required freestyle, SHO, and WHO. I really nailed the freestyle string so though I would shoot quickly SH, since this classifier was shaping up nicely. My first shot hit 1 " low into the hardcover. I called it there, I was just on my way up with the gun, and kapow, another ruined classifier. The WHO I was worried about was not a problem.Overall, I thought I shot very poorly today, and did not shoot with any speed. My hits overall were pretty decent, but I just didnt want it today, and the results showed it.I am having a very hard time bringing my speed and accuracy parts of my game together. I am really not sure what to work on this week,How do I work on speed with accuracy?

[waxman]

Been kinda neglecting this diary lately, since I have not done much in the way of training. This economy has really hit construction hard, and I have been fighting to get work in whenever I can. In the span since my last entry, I have missed matches due to work, ran a awesome match, and then screwed the pooch on the next one. I have been working 6- 7 days a week, to make up for a slow spring, so USPSA has taken a back seat, and the match standings have reflected this. I think I finished like 4th at the last match which is lower then poop, as far as I am concearned. I finally got called back to work with the union last week, which will make a huge difference in my training time. Today, I finally hit the range again, and hit it hard. I had so much frustration built up with my last poor showin that I really wanted to make something happen. Today i worked on table starts, coupled with shooting on the move, and finally finishing on my steel A zone targets. The wife is really progressing lately, and I am so proud of her improvements. I bought her a pair of cleats today. I really worked with her on comming and going on target arrays.As of today, with this training session, I have decided that I really need to work on shooting target arrays faster, and gettin that first shot off after comming into a target array. This will be my next area of work. I think I need more work on the mag change while moving, this will bethe subject of tomorows training session. I am so happy to finally have a real job again, this working for peanuts is really messing with my game.

[waxman]

Made it out again today. I worked on Tripple six .My first run turned out to be a 9.69 after adjustments.Trying to devise a way to work in some movement, we decided to start at the 25, and shoot the whole drill as 1 string , changing mags between yard lines. Wow what a great tool that is. We only had enough ammo to run the drill once each, but the adjusted time was 15.99. I really want to get this under 15. I challenge all of you "Top shots" out there, to run the drill this way, and break into the single digits. We had 10 rounds a piece left, so We decided to just shoot a 10 shot group at 25, trying for all A's. I dropped my second shot into the C, but the other 9 were in there.My training partner is really struggling with this, and was only able to put 4 into the A zone at 25. Not sure how to help her long range accuracy. We are going to try our best to get to the range every day, from here till the Pro Am. Gradually introducing more steel.

[waxman]

As much as I hate to say it, I am going to have to end this diary for who knows how long. I wished and wished for more hours and a steady job, and boy did I get it. Last week I worked 7 days a week, and for as far as I can see in the future, it will be 6 days a week.I can either practice and keep up with this diary, or sleep, while I am not at work. As Of now I am choosing sleep.My last entry here will be about the match Wed, which was the only match I litterly wanted to walk off the range. Pretty much everything that can go wrong in a match did.I think I had something like 2 NS, and 3 M's on the night, Simply horrible.My first shot out of the gun was a hardcover Mike, and it just went down from there. I could pick 1 of a million excuses, but I am going to stick with simple fatigue. I actually worked in a fair amount of dry fire earlier in the week,so it cant be from lack of practice. I was just starting to get my head back in the game when I suffered from my first ever squib. I shot on a trap league for 2 years, 3 gun for 2 years, IDPA for a year, and now USPSA for 3 years, this is the first time this has ever happened.There was a huge controversy about whether or not I should get a re shoot, and I am still not sure what the right answer should be, But I did reshoot the course, which was the stage I received the 2 NS on.Just a huge loss in focus. I think overall My shooting is decent, and the there has been steady improvement. I still really struggle in 1 area, and I have yet to figure out how to cure the problem. Whenever the stage is basically a speed shoot, or a speed classifier, I shoot my second shot just as the sight is comming back onto paper. I tend to do this when I am trying to squeeze every tenth out of the run. At home I always work on my A zone size steel, and force the second shot just as tight as the first, but when I know the time matters, I cheat on this. Maybe 90% of the time, this will land a good hit, but when combined with a aggressive trigger slap, there is the random M , D or NS. Since this is what is the biggest reason My match scores suffer, I think I may only work on this with what limited range time I am going to have.

[waxman]

The rest of this diary will just be to keep track of skill tests, and new personal best's

First rounds out of the gun this morning, 6 -8" plates 10 yards 2.97, New personal best. 4-12 11

3yrd target 1-reload 1, with good hits. .64 fs, .84 split, total 1.48 4-6-11

Bang and clang classifier 2.87 clean 85.68 % 4-11-11

[waxman]

3 more plate rack runs 3.03

2.85

2.85, new personal best

New personal best draw to first shot on a 10 yard plate.94 not actually in a plate rack run, just working on the draw to shot on plates.Most in actual runs still at 1.10 to 1.16.

[waxman]

Ran the plates again after my practice session. 3.05 2.84, and another personal best. 2.73. Tried something new with my last 2 rounds shot the first plate, reload, and then the last in the group, First attempt was a 2.66

[waxman]

Plate rack 10 yards 2.70 ,Just clicking away hundreths now.

Tried Tripple six again. 2 attempts 10.33 clean, and a new personal best of

7yd -1.88 clean

15yd-2.59 3c

25yd-3.30 1d

Time 7.86, adjusted 8.97

Edited June 7, 2011 by waxman

[waxman]

Plate rack 10 yards 2.57