CHA-LEE's Tale

[SA Friday]

SA Friday> I know, I am such a sand bagger …….. Seriously though, I am trying my best to bump up to A class. I think I am shooting at A class level now on most of the stages, but seem to keep missing the mark on the classifiers. Oh well, it will happen sooner or later.

A real gauge of how well I am doing will be the regional match next month. I will be attending the High Desert Classic in Albuquerque and there are currently 4 GM’s in Limited. So my goal is to finish at least 75% of the winner of Limited division. We will see how it goes. If I don’t run into any freak equipment issues it should be doable.

You ARE shooting at an A level, and in some cases an M level. That's why I'm bustin on ya. Classifiers, for the most part, are stand shoots requiring a different skill set to perform well when compared to a high round count stage. The draw, reload, splits, transitions, accuracy... They are all magnified in the classifiers. A 1.5 second draw in a 32 round field course is virtually insignificant when compared to your two draws in the classifier Can You Count. The same goes for the reloads in that classifier. One 1.5 sec reload in the 32 round course is fine. Two 1.5 second reloads on Can You Count just sucked up half of the alloted time for a 100% run. This is why you are having problems with the classifiers and yet score much better in matches than your classification reflects. It's only a matter of time. Since the larger round count stages (which you shoot well) impact the overall results of a match more than the classifier, you end up with a higher overall score for the match. Then that darn B ends up way high in the results; thus giving everyone (especially me) an excuse to harass you .

Speaking of only a matter of time, by my basic math of your classifiers, dropping the last one and adding the 88% you shot on the Mini-Mart classifier, you come out a bright and shining 75.5%. So I think the amount of time you will have to wait to see your A Limited card will boil down to when Sendro posts his reviews in June .

You're shooting the NM match? crap Guess B limited is going to be interesting. You better bring it.

[CHA-LEE]

What a fun weekend of shooting!!! I took the day off on Friday to attend the Rocky Mountain Steel Challenge match. Then I shot local USPSA matches on Saturday and Sunday. The steel match on Friday was nothing but a fun shoot for me. I didn’t care how I did and since I had never shot any of the steel challenge stages before they were all new and a learning experience. I found it more challenging to shoot each steel plate with only one shot than anything else. I switched it up during my strings and should shoot each steel plate twice before moving onto the next and surprisingly enough my times doing double shots on each target were almost the same as trying to do single shots. I also had some fun and did some strong/weak hand runs as well just for the fun of it. All of this jacking around had my squad mates laughing and I had a fun time doing it so it was a fun experience. I am not a fan of steel matches and this will probably be the only one I go to this year, so I figured I would have some fun with it while I could.

Saturday was a local USPSA match and it was REALLY nice to get back into the normal groove of things with shooting on the move and having to figure out the COF. The high lights for the match were finishing first on one stage, then second on two others. Then on the classifier and a low round count box to box stage I came in last on both due to zeroing out the stages. The classifier was CM 08-04 called Seven. I had an ultra fast time of 2.79 seconds but also had two mikes. Going along with the “Hero or Zero” mantra for the classifiers this one got set into the “Zero” column. The other stage was a box to box Virginia count stage where you had to engage the same targets from three separate boxes. The furthest back box you could shoot freestyle, then in the middle box it was strong hand only, then from the front box it was weak hand only. I got all of my hits in the first box, then my plan was to try and move though the middle box while shooting strong hand only but I knew I called at least two mikes as I was pushing the shots too fast. Then in the last box I knew that the stage was already toast so I just blasted through the targets weak hand and racked up some more mikes. I know I could have shot the stage clean if I planted my stance in each box but I was just pushing the envelope on moving through the box while engaging targets. Oh well, lesson learned. Since I did so well in the other field course stages I ended up third overall in Limited behind two Master shooters. If I would have scratched together 30 stage points from the two train wreck stages I would have been second overall. Oh well.

Sunday was another local USPSA match up in the mountains. The stages were pretty open and had a lot of fast blasting sections so it was right up my alley. This match had local hot shoe GM’s Paul Clark Jr competing in Limited and Glen Higdon also shooting Limited as a second gun. I lucked out and ended up on the same squad as them and got to see some great shooting. I asked a bunch of questions and they both are great guys willing to answer whatever questions you have. I was able to shoot most of the stages within a second or two of these guys and I was super stoked about that. Its nice to be able to traverse the stages in about the same time as these big dogs. Granted my hits were not as good as theirs at that speed, but that can be honed in with time. The highlight of the match was the classifier CM 99-10 called Times Two. When I shot the classifier I ended up with a 74.6% run WITH A MISS, so I opted to shoot a second gun on it and ran it a tenth of a second slower, but got all my hits all be it was 7 points down. SA Friday ran the hit factor through the Classifier Calculator website using his cell phone and up comes a 99.8% result. That had me super stoked. It was really nice to get a grand slam on a classifier like that and this one definitely goes in the “Hero” column for classifier results. I just hope that it actually counts for my classification average since it is above 15% of my current classification. We will just have to wait and see how the “Crazy Math” works out when USPSA runs the report again next month. I uploaded the 99.8% Classifier run into YouTube and listed the link to it below.

There were three “Lows” for the match. On one stage I completely botched up my reload and wasted at least 3 seconds recovering from it and ended up with a miss after the reload because I was in warp speed trying to make up whatever time I could and it back fired on me. The second was me not locking my gun down in the Ghost Holster and that ended up with my unloaded pistol falling out and taking a trip into the dirt. Luckily I had enough sense to stop immediately and call for an RO to come and pick it up for me. Did I mention that I really don’t like this Ghost Holster? The third super bone head move I made was finishing a fast stage then after the last shot broke I knew I called the last shot marginal so I looked at the target and didn’t immediately see two hits on it and took an extra shot on the target about 2 seconds after my last shot. Then to make matters worse when I got up on the target there were in fact three hits on it so I didn’t even need to make up the shot. This was probably the third time that I had done that in the last two months and I must STOP doing it. The hits are either there or not. It does NO GOOD to look for holes in the targets after the shooting is over to see if I need to make up any shots. All it does is cause my stage time to be horrible and even if I make up a miss the extra time added will just end up being a wash for the overall hit factor of the stage. I just need to accept that if there is a miss, there is a miss. If I make up the shot during the middle of the stage run then fine, but if I have shot the last target and the stage is over, I need to keep it in a “Done” state. Overall though I held my own and ended up third in Limited. If I didn’t have the botched reload I could have been second, but once again, oh well. There is always next week right?

I am suppose to get my new CR Speed holster some time this week. It will be fun to get it in and all tuned up for my pistol. It has to be better than the Ghost Holster that I have pretty much lost all confidence in. We will see soon enough.

[CHA-LEE]

I got my CR Speed holster in yesterday and eagerly put it together. I got it all together and then found that the retainer nub plate that is suppose to hold the trigger guard is way too high allowing the gun to slop forward and up with minimal movement of the holster. When the gun is resting in the correct position it feels really nice and the weight of the gun isn’t pushing in on my leg at one single point, unlike the Ghost Holster.

I kept thinking that maybe I ordered the wrong holster or put it together wrong causing it to flop around so I fired up the laptop and did some searching on the issue. I found that there are many people that had issues with getting this holster to work with the EAA/Tanfoglio pistols. I found a few solutions that showed the gun biased extremely high and forward to force the front of the trigger guard to engage the retaining nub. But these “Fixes” required an extension piece put on the top of the holster to extend the trigger guard cover. I really didn’t want to set it up in his “Super Jerry Rig” fashion so I spent the evening thinking about the best way to solve the issue while keeping the gun placed correctly in the holster.

After pondering a couple of options I figured that if I moved the retaining nub plate down and back on the frame of the holster that would be the best solution. I eye balled where the nub plate should be and trace its shape into the side of the holster where I will have to remove frame material to install the nub plate into its new location. I grab my dremel and slap a routing style bit in there turn it on and with the holster in one hand and the dremel in the other I pause and ask myself “Are you REALLY going to modify this brand new $165 holster with the possibility of rendering it useless???”….. Well after a short pause pondering the question I figured what can I really lose, it doesn’t work properly already so why not try to make it work the way it should? I have always been handy with a dremel and made short work of the job at hand. I fitted the nub plate into its new location and test fit the pistol in the holster and what do you know, its PERFECT!!! I am glad that I took the plunge on modifying the holster as it now works exactly how it should. I did some dry fire practice with it from both hands at sides and surrender positions and it is smooth as silk. No flopping around, no jamming up, and super secure when locked down. I will take some pictures of my handy work and post it up in the EAA/Tanfoglio section of this forum. But I am not sure how many shooters would be willing to risk ruining their holster by dremeling on it. I say Go Big or Go Home

[CHA-LEE]

Busy weekend of shooting. I took a class from a local GM on Saturday. Much was covered and learned. I think the biggest thing that hit home for me was using proper follow through for the last few shots in a string. Lately I have been getting poor hits or misses on the last targets in a string when I moving to the next shooting position. I found that I was starting to move my head towards the next targets/position before I was done with the string at hand. Keeping my head on the string at hand resolved the poor hits on the string. The second thing was breaking up my shooting cadence when shooting strings of targets. Lately I have been trying to keep my splits and transitions the same and this has been creating a some “Walk the dog” kind of hits. Were I will have an Alpha on the first shot then Charlie or Delta to the right on the second shot if I am shooting from left to right. We did some drills where I would shoot faster on target then take a little more time on the transitions and very much to my surprise doing it this way yielded the same time but WAY better hits on target. He also showed us some really effective standards type drills that can be done in practice to sharpen the skills as well. I burned through about 600 rounds that day and every round was worth it. It was a very effective training session.

Sunday was a local USPSA match. It was a pretty long day of shooting and if it could go wrong it did. The only stage that went well was the first stage where I had a decent run but shot a little tentative due to it being the first stage of the day. I think I gave away at least a second in being slower than I should have been. The second stage I had a great stage time, but pulled my head too soon on two of the targets and was rewarded with two mikes. The third stage was a classifier named Quicky II and on the first string I had a case head separation which left half the case in the chamber and the missing rim wiped out my extractor. So that gave me zero points for the classifier which pretty much sunk the match for me by throwing away 120 points. I replaced the extractor as I had a spare. I had prepped the depth of the extractor but not the ramp of it and was rewarded with two fatal mag jams on the last two stages. uuuugggghhhhh……. Lesson learned here, if you have spare parts make darn sure that they are functional replacements and you know they will work. I got home and test cycled some rounds through it and the extractor was gouging the rim of every case. I tuned up the extractor to where it should be and it should be ready to go. When I got done tuning the extractor I noticed that the hinge pin on the rear sight is broken and missing a portion of it. GREAT!!! Now I have to buy yet another stock EAA rear sight. These factory rear sights are complete CRAP and this will be the third one I have had to feed to this gun in the limited amount of time I have had it. Unfortunately there are no drop in aftermarket rear sights that I can get instead so I am pretty much stuck with what I can get. Henning is working on a replacement rear sight, but its still not done so I am out of luck this time. I just hope that he gets it done soon so I can get a good quality rear sight that I know is going to be reliable.

The good thing from this weekends shooting is that the new CR Speed holster got put through its paces and it works awesome. This holster is ultra secure when locked down with no flopping around and comes out effortlessly during the draw. I am really happy with how it works. Its way better and more comfortable than the Ghost Holster.

Even though the rear sight is marginal I am going to venture and shoot the evening match tomorrow night. I should get my replacement parts in by Tuesday or Wednesday and then I will have to get those parts tuned in before heading out to the High Desert Classic in New Mexico. My goal is to get the wheels back on the wagon and functioning correctly before I leave for the match. We will see how it goes.

Edited June 1, 2009 by CHA-LEE

[CHA-LEE]

Indoor match last night. I wanted to give my gun a shake down run after fiddling with the extractor to make sure it is working correctly. On the first stage the gun ran great. The stage was a three box to box run with a mixture of open, no shoot blocked, and hard cover blocked targets. I ran through the stage quickly and got all of my hits but fumbled my reload a little bit. It was a little expected because I changed where I was going to do my reload not long before my stage run and it wasn’t fully programmed in. I was really happy with being able to vary my shooting speed to slow down for the tight shots then speed up again for the open ones.

The second stage was the classifier and this is when the jamming started again. I think that the new extractor I put in on Sunday isn’t right. I collected my spent cases and inspected them and found some strange nicks on the rim of the case. These were being caused by the extractor based on their position. I still had the bad extractor that got damaged by the case head separation on Sunday so I started measuring its depth ledge compared to the new one. The new one wasn’t cut as deep so I changed it to match the old one. I am going to test fire it either today or tomorrow to see if it solves the issues. I really need to get these issues ironed out before the big match this weekend. I want to have 100% confidence in my gear when going down there. Its no fun going to a match not knowing if your stuff going to work or not. All I can do it take it one step at a time and see if the problem is resolved.

[CHA-LEE]

I got my gun reworked last night, new rear sight, new extractor and cleaned it up. I test fed a bunch of rounds and it seemed to be feeding the rounds better and not leaving any marks on the rim of the case as it was doing before. I am going to test fire at least 200 rounds today after work to make sure that everything is working as it should. I just hope that I have nipped this jamming issue in the butt as I don’t want to be jacking around with issues out at the match this weekend. We will see…..

[CHA-LEE]

I got out to the range yesterday and sighted in my gun and chugged through 200 rounds. The gun ran flawlessly which was really nice. I now have confidence in the gun again and that will work wonders for the match this weekend. No one likes battling their equipment, especially not during a big match.

I have a lot of stuff to finish up before heading out tomorrow morning so I have to keep my nose to the grind stone until its all done.

[CHA-LEE]

I got back from the High Desert Classic late last night. The match was fun and the stages were challenging, but my performance was pretty lack luster. I completely tanked the first stage I shot on Saturday (5 Mikes and 2 No Shoots) simply because I was trying to shoot too fast. Knowing that I had pretty much sunk a whole stage I knew it was going to be a grind to try and recover from. Every stage but one had some kind of screw up which was frustrating to say the least. Here is my performance break down of the stages….

Stage 1

You start the stage seated with your gun unloaded on a table in front of you. A glass in one hand and a bottle in the other. At the signal you have to pick up your gun, load and rack it then engage the targets. I thought that I would be tricky and grab the third magazine on my belt instead of the first one at the start and ended up fumbling around a little bit due to not being use to going back that far for a mag. I shot the front half of the stage pretty solid, had a couple of make up shots on the steel though. Then I shot the back half of the stage strong hand only leaning over a wall. This went well on all of the targets except for the last one. The last target in the array had hard cover on both sides of the A-zone and was at an odd angle. I pulled my second shot into the black, then pulled my make up shot in the black as well then was out of rounds. So I had a Mike on that stage with an “OK” stage time.

Stage 1 Video -

Stage 2

You start the stage facing up range with a bottle in your hands at chest level. At the signal you turn and pick up your loaded gun and engage 4 poppers and 2 plates to the right of the starting position. The 4 poppers were blocking, two in front, two in back, so the best way to shoot the string was the first row of poppers then the plates then go back for the last row of poppers. I shot the first two poppers great then shot the first plate and it spun on the stand and was facing backwards. At this point I had a mental implosion as I was not sure what to do. Do I shoot at it again? Is it a prop failure? If I don’t shoot at it again and leave it standing will it be a mike? Why isn’t the RO telling me to stop if it is a prop failure? If I shoot the back of the plate is it going to ricochet back at the squad? All of this stuff is swirling around in my head killing time and I finally decide to shoot at it again to take it down. This process completely derailed by stage plan and I ran by the next series of targets and had to come back and reengage them. Since I knew I was behind schedule I shot some of the arrays too quickly and ended up with a Mike as well on an A zone only hard cover blocked target. This was really the only stage where I felt like I got a raw deal by the RO. He should have seen that the plate screwed up and stopped me for a reshoot. The RO was not paying attention though and was fairly crabby with everyone anyway so there was no love given when I asked about it. Oh well, this was actually the last stage I shot in the match so I wanted it to be over anyway.

Stage 2 Video -

Stage 3

You start the stage with a boxing glove on your weak hand with your hands extended above your shoulders. This was the very first stage of the match and I was really amped up. I shot the stage too quickly and racked up 5 mikes and 2 no shoots. Looking back, this stage was the most technical one of the match. It had many shooting positions, a step pad that activated a swinger and drop turn target then a huge clam shell double target array that was activated by a falling popper. I should have tamed it down and got my hits but it didn’t happen. Starting off the match down 70 points in penalties is not a fun place to be. I did my best to shake off the hurting performance and put it behind me.

Stage 3 Video -

Stage 4

This stage was a foot race stage. Run to one side of the shooting area engage three targets, then run to the complete opposite side and engage three more targets. I did my best to get moving and haul ass between shooting arrays and I believe that I did well in my movement. I was chugging through the stage well then when I got to the end of the stage I had a bad mag jam where I had to pull the mag out and reseat it to recover from. This took at least 3 seconds to recover from and was pure wasted time. I got all of my hits and shot the stage well but the mag jam gave my stage time a donkey punch.

Stage 4 Video -

Stage 5

You start this stage with an unloaded gun holstered and all of your magazines on a table to your left. At the start you have to draw, load and rack your gun then engage a tricky series of targets that activate a swinger and a clam shell. I ran though the first half of the stage well then you go up some stairs and have the choice of engaging 5 paper targets from two different shooting positions. There are two poppers in this target array with only one visible from each shooting position. My plan was to come to the first shooting position and engage the single popper then go to the last shooting position and clean up the rest. I did jus that BUT completely blew by the second popper from the last shooting position. By the time I realized it, too much time had passed and I had to take an FTE and Mike on the popper that I failed to engage. This was unfortunate because my stage time was rocking and would have put me third overall for the stage if I would have engaged that popper.

Stage 5 Video -

Stage 6

This stage was a fun weave back and forth engaging targets as you advance forward stage. I shot the front half of the stage well then decided to leverage my height as an advantage to shoot the steel at an angle over the hard cover cactus prop verses going to a port in a wall where you would normally engage the steel. I had a couple of make up shots on the steel but didn’t allot enough patience when shooting the swinger and ended up with a mike on it. This was when the wind started picking up and the sand storms would randomly come on with no mercy. Needless to say, the blowing dust and sand was playing havoc on many peoples equipment. Jams and malfunctions started cropping up on shooters equipment which sucked because I am sure that some shooters had good stage runs ruined by the unfortunate failures. My EAA has never been very picky about working in the dust and since I kept my magazines stored away in my range bag my equipment functioned perfectly even in the ultra dusty/sandy conditions.

Stage 6 Video -

Stage 7

This was a simple fast stage with two Texas stars. I shot it well and only needed one make up shot on each star. I did have a severely fumbled mag change which cost me at least a couple of seconds to recover from. I at least got all of my hits on this stage which was nice for a change.

No Video Due to Dust/Sand storms

Stage 8

This stage had you starting with your unloaded gun in the trunk of a police car. Then you had to stab a target with your strong hand before you could retrieve your weapon and start to engage targets. At the start I stabbed the target, grabbed my gun loaded a mag quickly and racked the gun only to see the magazine fall out after racking the gun. I then had to load another mag into the gun before I could get to the shooting. Once I was shooting it was pretty good. There was one port that you had to hold open with your weak hand and shoot a string of 4 targets with your strong hand only. I was pushing the limits on speed and ended up with a miss on this array of targets. But I shot the rest of the stage nicely which was good. If I wouldn’t have had the mike I would have had a fourth overall finish on this stage. It would have been interesting to know how I would have down done if I didn’t have the mag issue at the start and the mike. But you only get one chance at it and there is always the “Woulda Coulda Shoulda” factor. At this point the wind and sand storm was going at full force and getting quite brutal at times. We would be forced to take shelter behind whatever you could find to minimize the sand blasting that was taking place.

No Video Due to Dust/Sand storms

Stage 9

This was a pretty simple port to port stage. You had to insert a “Bomb” into one of two tubes which opened the window on the middle port. I watched the other shooters navigate this stage in many different strategies. I opted for the “Keep it simple stupid” method of inserting the bomb into the tube then running to the left and engaging the ports from left to right. This was the last stage of the day and I was thoroughly burnt out, frustrated and tired by then and only gave myself one goal for the stage. HAVE FUN!!! and that’s just what I did. The buzzer went off and I ran through the stage as fast as I could. Mowing down the targets as fast as my finger could go. At the end of the stage I had a huge smile and ended up with a very good stage time. I had one mike though which hurt the run but not as bad as I expected. Even with the mike I still finished 7th on this stage. I was glad to be done for the day as my poor match performance up to that point and battling the weather was making it harder and harder to have fun. I have to give huge props to my fellow squad mates though as they all kept in pretty high spirits even though the shooting conditions were far from optimal.

No Video Due to Dust/Sand storms

Stage 10

This was the first stage of the day on Sunday and the weather was back to being nice and calm. The stage was somewhat of a speed shoot with a mix of 6 steel targets to keep you honest. Some shooters chose to break the stage down into two shooting positions with ultra fast movement between shooting positions and others tried to keep shooting as they moved through the whole stage. I picked a plan that kept me shooting through most of the stage. Since this was the first stage of the day I got to practice my stage plan quite a few times and it really helped. My goal was to keep moving through the whole stage as I shot. I somewhat did that when I shot the stage but I did end up stopping where I didn’t want to. It didn’t kill my time but it did cost me a couple of seconds. The challenge really came in having faith in picking off the mini poppers on the move. When I got to them I just stopped moving. I really need to work on my shooting on the move confidence. I shot the stage clean and only had two make up shots on the steel plates and this performance netted me a 6th overall on this stage. I could have reshot this stage 10 times in different ways to see which way would really be faster/better. I think I will setup a stage like this the next time I practice so I can work on my shooting on the move.

Stage 10 Video -

Final Thoughts

After the dust had settled and the results were tallied I ended up 12th and 3rd in B class out of 62 competitors in Limited Division. With tanking the first stage, I was really surprised that I finished that high up but I think that the dust/sand storms had ruined some other shooters runs by freak jams and malfunctions. My goal going into the match was to finish in the top 10 of Limited and I think if I had put in even a mediocre run on the stage I tanked, it would have been achievable. The biggest lesson I got out of this match was that some stages are a drag race and others are endurance races. I was trying to force drag racing style shooting into endurance style stages. These big matches are all about the points and I gave away WAY too many points in misses during this match. I was happy with my stage breakdown, movement, and shooting speed though and I am going to work hard on my shooting on the move with slower splits. I know I could have saved some time by shooting that way during some of the stages. Overall it was fun. We had a lot of laughs, got to shoot some fun and challenging stages, and I learned a lot. Regardless of results you really can’t go wrong with that kind of weekend spent with friends having fun.

[CHA-LEE]

I got my gear all cleaned up from the stand blasting it received last weekend. Its amazing how much dust and sand can get into a closed range bag. But given the rugged shooting conditions I was not surprised.

I got a solid .90 wide front sight for my EAA and put it on the gun yesterday as well. I will give it a test run on Saturday to see how it works out compared to the dim FO setup I have been running. I think that having a solid black post for a front sight will be a good thing when shooting in varied light conditions. The new rear sight has held up so far but its pretty floppy left to right. You can sight it in fairly close but due to the slop in the sight you can’t make it perfect. The stock “Super Sight” is a pile of crap to say the least.

I will be helping out with an Open House event on Saturday at my local range. We will set up a simple USPSA style stage and let new comers run through the COF. It sounds like fun and if we can get some new shooters involved with USPSA then that would be great as well.

[CHA-LEE]

The latest USPSA Classification report has been run.......... My classification average just squeaked into Limited "A" class at 75.15%

More surprising is that my average is missing the 88% Classifier result from may 10th and I still was able to bump my average up into A class

Its awesome to achieve this goal before my initial time line of December!!!!

[eerw]

The latest USPSA Classification report has been run.......... My classification average just squeaked into Limited "A" class at 75.15%

More surprising is that my average is missing the 88% Classifier result from may 10th and I still was able to bump my average up into A class

Its awesome to achieve this goal before my initial time line of December!!!!

SWEET!!!!

congratulations..you have worked hard for it. Keep at it and we will see that M card soon.

just in time for state match too.

[CHA-LEE]

The open house event I helped out with yesterday was a bunch of fun. We introduced some new shooters to USPSA style shooting and needless to say it was an eye opener for every one of them. We setup a pretty simple 24 round stage with a taste of just about everything except for any activated targets. We all felt that an overly complicated stage would be too much for inexperienced shooters. A good mixture of open targets, no shoots, hard cover, steel, and walls made it fun for all. There were four regular USPSA shooters assisting and we all took turns running the shooters through the COF. We also got to run through the stage many times and in the down time between shooters we had some good discussions about strategy for the stage and tried a bunch of ideas for shooting it better. I burned through about 300 rounds that day and had a great time doing it.

I tried out the new solid front sight and I liked it a lot better than the FO front sight that I was using before. I also made some changes to a couple of magazines that have been giving me some problems and ran them all day long with no issues so its nice to get that figured out. My equipment should be ready to go for the CO State match next weekend.

No shooting today as I had to get some stuff done around the house. I do plan on attending the indoor match tomorrow night though. This will be a good test for the solid front sight to see how it does on the indoor lighting that isn’t optimal when compared to shooting outdoors.

[CHA-LEE]

Shot the indoor USPSA match tonight. The first stage was a 24 round course with three shooting boxes and some shooting on the move between boxes. All of the targets were wide open and close so it was pretty much a hose fest. Then the last two targets from the last shooting box were about 15 yards away and you had to take a little extra time with them. I shot the stage pretty good but fumbled my reload so that cost me about a second in lost time. The lead was flying though when the gun was on target and it was entertaining for all to watch I guess given the laughing after I engaged an array of 4 targets at warp speed. I ended up with an 11 second run but it should have been a 10 second run without the fumbled reload. I guess the lack of dry firing is starting to catch up with me

The second stage was exactly the same stage but with the lights turned down. This was an excellent test for my new solid front sight as before I would focus in on the FO and end up with high shots when the lighting went down. I shot the stage pretty good, hit the reload and shot it a little more cautiously to pick up some better points. I did pause too long in the middle box after finishing the string and really had to dig in an move to the next box aggressively. I think the added pause cost me at least half a second. I ended up with a low 11 second run, which should have been a 10 second run without the pause. I have been trying REALLY hard to not move my head off the last target in the string until after the last shot breaks so I don’t pull the shot and I think I went a little too overboard with it on the middle box. But I would rather have a slight pause and get my hits verses moving my head and getting a miss.

Overall both runs were pretty solid and I was happy with the results. I really need to get back on the band wagon with my dry fire practice so I can get my draws and reloads down and burned in. I am just giving away time on stages due to performing them in a substandard fashion. The next time I do some live fire practice I really want to focus on shooting on the move while retreating and switching up my shooting speed between near and far targets within the same string. I know I have a lot of work to do in both of these areas, I just need to get out there and do it

[CHA-LEE]

I participated in the Colorado State Championships at the Gunnison Sportsman Club on Saturday. It was a one day seven stage match. My squad was great and we started on one of the more difficult stages. It was one of the “Start anywhere in the shooting area” stages and had blocked targets all over the place. I took a very conservative approach and focused on getting my hits as well as moving through the stage the whole time. I got my hits and moved through the stage well. My stage time wasn’t stellar but not horrible. From there I picked up my shooting pace through the stages. I felt that I shot the match fairly well but had some mistakes here or there. After lunch the dark clouds started rolling in and we all seen the writing on the wall, it was going to rain. We hurried through the last three stages as fast as we could but the rain caught up with us on the last stage of the day. This was the first time I had shot in the rain and it was an “Experience” to say the least. My grip was slipping and breaking down during the stage run. This lead to the worst hits of the match for me with tons of C’s and D’s then two Mikes on top of that. Even though this poor stage run put a good dent in my overall results I still enjoyed the experience and learned some valuable lessons on shooting in the rain. Such as slowing down your shooting speed to ensure you get decent shots. Other than the rain stage another very good lesson for me was to not “Time” activators until it is almost time for you to shoot. This nipped me in the butt on one stage where I had timed a drop turner before the match and it was really fast. You would basically have to hit the activating steel then go right for the drop turner. But many hours later when we got to the stage and I was the first to shoot it was slow as molasses. I killed at least a second waiting for the drop turner to present its self where I could have engaged at least one static paper target after the activator before engaging the DT. The more matches I attend the more I find that trying to get a super solid stage plan way before shooting the stage isn’t the best thing. Figuring out the timing of things needs to be done right before shooting the stage. There are too many variables involved that can affect the moving targets which makes assessing them way before hand pretty useless.

Anyway, I finished 6th overall in Limited at 78% of the match winner and GM Ron Avery. This netted me a first in A class which got me some money back for my effort. Going into this match my goal was a top 5 finish knowing the competition I was facing. Finishing 6th wasn’t too much of a disappointment, but I know I can do better than that. There is still a lot of practice and polishing of my skills needed. Its time for me to refocus my efforts and set some new goals. Instead of setting a new classification goal, I think I am going another rout with my performance goals. I think I need to break my goals down into smaller chunks, such as turning individual weaknesses into strengths and so on. The way I see it, if I focus on my weaknesses and turn them into strengths my classification will sort its self out. Time to get to work!!!

[eerw]

if I focus on my weaknesses and turn them into strengths my classification will sort its self out. Time to get to work!!!

Rock on!!!

nice finish..wish I could have seen you shoot on some of these stages.

some were quite fun for trigger pullers,

Hey was talking with Todd..he said you had some ideas for challenges during local matches. what he was talking about sounded fun!!

Edited June 22, 2009 by eerw

[CHA-LEE]

Eerw> Thanks man, it was a fun match. There were a couple of stages where my trigger finger got a work out. I am sure it was entertaining for all to watch

Which challenges were you talking about with Todd? Making some stages that didn’t force one handed shooting but put targets in positions that favored one handed shooting?

If stage 7 was setup parallel with the berm I would have been up on that table giving it a go from the right side of the wall strong hand only. I don’t know if it would have been any faster/slower, but it would have been fun to give it a try.

[CHA-LEE]

I have been working on a new theory about the shoes used by the top shooters. I have been paying close attention to the top shooters lately and have noticed a common theme of them NOT using a cleat type of shoe. Given that most of the matches are held at outdoor ranges where the berms are some type of dirt or another initially it made the most sense to me that you needed a cleat type of shoe to get the most amount of traction while moving around quickly during the stage run. The more I watch the good shooters I noticed that their foot/body movements are usually not violent accelerations or decelerations. But instead smooth motions of slower movement. I have been working hard on incorporating more of a “shooting on the move” style verses “Move, Plant & Shoot, then move again” style. When I was doing the “Move, Plant & Shoot, then move again” style I felt like the cleats were a must because of all the violent acceleration and deceleration when moving. Now that I am doing more “Shooting on the move” as I enter and exit shooting positions my body movement and footwork is a lot slower and deliberate, so the ultra cleat traction isn’t needed. The last couple of matches I have been using a less aggressive traction type of hiking shoe that is more suited to flexible foot movements. It has been working out well for me as it makes it easier to move slowly and comfortably through a stage, even though it has less overall traction than a cleat. The way I am seeing it now is that if you need cleats to get traction on a stage you are probably using the wrong approach to shooting the stage. Sure there will be some stages where you need a lot of traction to haul ass from one place or another, or if there is sand or really soft dirt, cleats would probably be the best overall shoe choice. But the more stages and matches I experience, the less and less I can see actually “Needing” cleats to be successful in negotiating a COF. More tools for the skills bag I guess.

[eerw]

Eerw> Thanks man, it was a fun match. There were a couple of stages where my trigger finger got a work out. I am sure it was entertaining for all to watch

Which challenges were you talking about with Todd?

we had talked about putting extra goals and challenges into stages when shooting matches.

like side competitions on shooting A counts with fastest times, shooting SHO or WHO, with A counts and fastest times, etc.

[BritinUSA]

+1 on the footwear thing... My feet were killing me after the CO state and the Weld match the next day. My feet are too narrow for a wide fitting but too wide for a normal shoe. I'm going to be shopping around for something different. 'New Balance' shoes fit me very well, so I just need to find something with a reasonable tread on them but not as extreme as cleats.

[CHA-LEE]

BritinUSA> I have been using some North Face hiking shoes called the Prophecy II. They have a good tread pattern and are a very light weight shoe. The only thing I don’t like about them is that they have a low cut at the ankle and that lets sand and little rocks to get inside them easily. North Face makes another model that is called the Hedgehog that has a mid height ankle but the same tread pattern as the Prophecy II. I ordered up some of the Hedgehog shoes and should get them in some time next week. I look forward to giving them a try at the local matches.

On a side note, I have found that a shoe with a soft rubber but spiky thread pattern like on the Prophecy II produces great traction on slick concrete surfaces. These are a must when shooting at indoor ranges where movement is needed.

[CHA-LEE]

I got my new North Face Hedgehog shoes in and they are great. They are super light weight and comfortable as well. Same traction as the Prophecy II shoes but with a mid height ankle design. I cant wait to give these a try this weekend at the matches. Tomorrows match is at a range where most of the berms are sand so I will have to use my normal cleats. But I will be able to use them on the match Sunday as that range has a mixed dirt/rock type of setup.

[BritinUSA]

I got myself a pair of Merrell's on Thursday. They don't have cleats but I'm going to give them a try at Aurora. If they work in the sand they will work anywhere.

[CHA-LEE]

Lots of shooting this weekend as I attended USPSA matches on both Saturday and Sunday. I wore my new Hedgehog shoes both days and they worked out awesome. They have plenty of traction for getting moving quickly and also plenty of give for shifting or pivoting your feet around. They are also WAY more comfortable than the cleats so that is a huge win in its self.

The match on Saturday was a rugged one for me. I had at least one penalty (Miss or No Shoot) on every single stage. My main focus for this match was to always keep moving through the stage shooting on the move as much as possible. There were a lot of targets that were right outside my shooting on the move comfort zone and it really showed in the quality of my hits. I racked up a boat load of C’s and D’s along with at least one mike on every single stage. I think this is a combination of two things. First, I am shooting way too fast for the given distance of the targets. Secondly, I am not getting low enough while shooting on the move and too much “Bounce” is getting induced into the gun as I take my steps. To add to the frustration, I forgot to unlock my holster on the classifier stage so I had to wrestle it out at the start. I also made some minor mistakes in stage planning that resulted in some lost time. The good of the day was that my stage times were on par with the top dogs so I was able to navigate the COF’s around the same time. I was also able to incorporate some strong hand only shooting during a couple of COF’s that I felt saved me some time. I was really happy with both of those things. I finished 9th out of 25 which is a lot higher that I expected given the poor hits I had for the day.

The Sunday match was a little better. I backed off the shooting speed a little bit and tried getting lower and being smoother while shooting on the move. This improved my hits a LOT and really didn’t hurt my stage times much. I had one miss the whole day and that was on a Virginia count stage so I couldn’t make it up. It was on a Head shot target and the hit was about a quarter inch into the black below the head. On the classifier I was on an AWESOME run, but before the last target in the string I got a stove pipe jam and had to clear it before finishing the stage. I think that would have been a solid Master or maybe even a GM run without the jam, oh well that’s how it goes some times. It frustrated me more about losing match points from the jam verses losing a good classifier run. The only glaring mistake I made for the day was running past a target thinking that I had a miss on it then having to back up and reengage it just to see that it had two good hits on it already. The stage was a real hoser stage so I was pushing the limits on shooting speed and called a marginal hit on the target. The stopping, backing up to reengage, and starting again cost me at least 2 – 3 seconds. Given the fairly high hit factor of the stage, I should have just blown off the marginal shot and kept chugging through the stage, but I think that all of the misses I had on Saturday really ate at me so I didn’t want any this match. Funny stuff what happens in someone’s mind during the heat of the moment on a COF. I was also able to get some strong hand only shooting integrated into a stage run and I felt good about it working for the stage. I don’t think it saved me much time as I had to get into an awkward body position to reach the last target in the stage, but it was fun to incorporate it into the stage run. The last stage of the day was a real hoser stage with five different shooting positions. You started in the middle and went to the extreme left to engage three targets then had to run to the extreme right to engage 3 more targets then go back to the middle and engage three more sets of three targets. The only screw up I had on the stage was not getting low enough when I went to the left and ended up bending at the waist to engage the inner most target. This had me reeling a little bit to get out of the shooting position and running to the far right shooting position. I know this cost me some time, but I also felt like I was behind schedule and turned on the afterburners to finish the rest of the stage so I probably made up the lost time but also got some worse hits. That was a really fun stage to shoot and I could have reshot it 10 times for fun if I had the chance to do so. It was a fun wrap up for the day of shooting. I finished 6th out of 16 shooters in Limited at 77% of the match winner. There was some really stiff competition in Limited at this match and I was ok with my overall placement. I want to get my finishing percentage up into the 80% – 90% range for the local matches as I feel that is where I should be able to finish once I clean up some of these rough edges and mistakes. Practice, Practice, Practice!!!!

[SA Friday]

I want to get my finishing percentage up into the 80% – 90% range for the local matches as I feel that is where I should be able to finish once I clean up some of these rough edges and mistakes. Practice, Practice, Practice!!!!

That was a 77% against Ron Avery and Glenn Higdon after shooting for what, a year and a half? Learn how to shift gears. Get solid on calling your shots. Then it will happen.

[Thomas H]

CHA-LEE said:

The match on Saturday was a rugged one for me. I had at least one penalty (Miss or No Shoot) on every single stage.

...

I racked up a boat load of C’s and D’s along with at least one mike on every single stage.

...

The good of the day was that my stage times were on par with the top dogs so I was able to navigate the COF’s around the same time.

...

I backed off the shooting speed a little bit and tried getting lower and being smoother while shooting on the move. This improved my hits a LOT and really didn’t hurt my stage times much.

Which one of those things contradicts all of the others?

Quick comment from someone who doesn't necessarily know that much:

If you were having misses (and D hits) then your times weren't on a par with the top dogs---the timer may have said so, but if you weren't getting the hits, then you weren't going the right speed. I can run through a course and fire all of my shots as fast as a GM--but if I don't hit anything (and at that speed *I* certainly wouldn't be hitting anything) then I'm not staying with the top dogs.

I've noticed that in several of your posts, you keep saying that your speed was up there with the fastest--right after you talk about bad hits. Sounds like you are focusing on the wrong thing! Especially since you say in your above post that backing off the speed a little improved the hits significantly, and didn't really hurt your stage times.

Feel free to ignore a comment from a lowly B-class, but if you aren't getting good hits (worse yet, getting mikes) at your current speed, then your skill level isn't ready for that speed yet. It'll come--but it isn't there yet. Celebrating a speed that you aren't ready for is possibly counter-productive. On that second day---weren't your actual HFs much higher?