CHA-LEE's Tale

[CHA-LEE]

BritinUSA> Thanks for the input. On stage 6, I seen those target angle as well if you were jammed at the end of the COF on the left and right to get more open shots on the steel. Thinking about it now, it probably would have been better to jam into the left and clean up most of the steel, then transition over to the swinger as I moved to the right and finish on the final plate. I know I could have shot the steel faster if more of it was exposed.

I got bitten by the Palm "Random" sort of being one of the first three shooters on almost every stage. So that didn't give me much time to check out the movers in action much while other people where shooting the stage before me. On Stage 9, I was the first shooter in the squad so I had pretty much nothing to go on being the first monkey shot out of the cannon

[BritinUSA]

I got bitten by the Palm "Random" sort of being one of the first three shooters on almost every stage. So that didn't give me much time to check out the movers in action much while other people where shooting the stage before me. On Stage 9, I was the first shooter in the squad so I had pretty much nothing to go on being the first monkey shot out of the cannon

Yeah, that kept happening to Dan Morgan.. He kept getting put at the top of the list.

[CHA-LEE]

I have seen that happen a couple of times actually with the palms at local matches. I am thinking that the "Random" isn't so random but instead a predetermined shooter numbering sequence followed by another, and another, every time you hit the Random Sort button. Oh well, you have to shoot when you have to shoot right?

[BritinUSA]

I just checked out the Stage 2 video:

Just some thoughts; I saw Ron Avery shoot this and he took about one step back from the start position to shoot the steel. I noticed that you moved almost to the rear of the shooting area so you had to shoot the star from a few yards further away. I think that cost you some time. I took one step back for the star/steel then one big step right to shoot the paper targets then two big steps left to shoot the final two.

You're as tall as I am, so I think you could try using that to your advantage with stages like this. For me it was 3 steps to engage all the paper but you had to do that shuffle move backwards while shooting at steel. I honestly think that cost you a couple of seconds.

[CHA-LEE]

BritinUSA> I thought about doing it your way initially. But I figured I could be engaging the two poppers fairly easy as I was backing up to the rear of the shooting area. That way I would have one solid shooting position for the star and the rest of the targets. The make up shots on the plates hurt my time and I wasn’t very aggressive cleaning up the paper. First stage of the day though and I think I was playing it ultra safe on my shooting speed. This is yet another stage that I would like to have shot a couple of different ways to see which way really is the best. I think that since my goal for the match was to call every shot I also wanted to avoid up close point shooting conditions, which that would have been the case if I went to the left and right sides to mow down the paper quickly. Oh well, lesson learned.

Shooting is full of lessons and the more I figure out about shooting the more lessons I see and learn. I think the number one thing holding my performance back is lack of experience. Just like in this case. I didn't know which way would be faster/better. Now I do because I experienced it. I am still only a year in on this stuff. I am sure there are a ton of shooting experiences that I have not been exposed to yet. The big ones for me this match were shooting prone, the 65 yard stuff, and funny enough picking up two mags at once in one hand off of a table in a way that allows you to put one in your mag pouch and then put the other one in the gun easily. My skills tool box is growing, slowly, but its growing.

[CHA-LEE]

This weekend is shaping up to have some fun shooting. I am going to attend a flashlight match this Friday night at an indoor range in Boulder. The last time I shot this flashlight match I was shocked at how blind I was by not being able to see the sights. I had a flashlight on the targets but nothing on the gun so I had to shoot pretty much on index alone. The results were less than desired. I think I am going to try shooting the match Strong Hand Only and have the flashlight held against my chest just below my neck to see if I can get the light on the sights and on the target. Some testing will be needed tonight to see what flashlight position works the best.

Saturday I plan on doing a little bit of live fire practice with my cousin then go on an ATV tour after that. I am still trying to think of what I want to work on that day. Or instead just work with my cousin to help him shoot better. I always seem to learn something new when I help other people shoot so I will probably just focus on helping him.

Sunday is a local USPSA match that I help with running. It will be an early morning with lots of work but we have some really fun stages planned so I am excited to have some fun shooting them. My goal that day is to NOT get sucked into the RO trap of ROing until its my turn to shoot and then I don’t have a solid stage plan. We will see how it works out.

[CHA-LEE]

The Friday night match was a lot more tuff than I expected. The first stage was interesting. It was a low light situation where you couldn’t use your flashlight. You started seated next to a table and you had to open a drawer and engage three targets with an unknown revolver. I had not shot a revolver since I was a kid so that was a cool experience in its self. Holly long trigger pull!!! I wasn’t expecting that. Once you were done with the revolver you backed up to another table to where your unloaded pistol was located. You load it up and then start engaging the targets. This is where my solid iron sights absolutely failed me. I could barely see my rear sight and seeing my front sight was an absolute joke. So I was forced to point shoot everything on the stage. With some tight shots I ended up with a miss which wasn’t a surprise given the conditions. I felt like I ran through the stage decent. I just wish that I could have seen my sights, but this is what the match is all about. Shooting in non optimal lighting situations. The shooters with Fiber Optic front sights or Glow in the dark sights were at a real advantage in these shooting conditions.

The second stage was a box to box situation moving from left to right. You had to use a flashlight to light things up because for this stage the lights were completely out. There was a huge mix of flashlight usage between the shooters. Some guys were using the over under grip, basically shooting strong hand only with your flashlight in the weak hand and the weak hand wrist pressed up against the underside of your strong hand. Other guys were trying to pinch the flashlight between their weak hand fingers and use a “Normal” freestyle grip. The last time I shot in a completely dark situation I had the flashlight below and forward of the sights and I could see the targets well but couldn’t see my sights worth a crap. So this time I decided to shoot strong hand only and basically hold the flashlight up against my head at eye level. That way I could be shining the light on the sights and the targets at the same time. This worked out really well. I could see my sights pretty good and could call my shots. But I shot the stage too fast and to make matters worse it was a 22 round COF and I loaded up 22 rounds in the gun. So there was no room for error on my hits. Since I shot too fast I called three misses and failed to make them up because I didn’t plan on a mag change. Oh well. My hits were not good but I learned some more about shooting in the dark. It was a really cool experience.

[CHA-LEE]

I got some live fire practice in today with my cousin. We have wanted to shoot together for quite a while now and it was great to do some shooting together. I mainly focused on working with him on shooting better and shot about 100 rounds myself. It was nice to help him shoot better and get more confidence in his abilities. He ran through 300 rounds and had a great time so it was well worth the time spent.

I did some more work on changing gears in my shooting speed with the main focus on shooting fast then slowing down for far/tight shots. Man, that is a hard thing to perfect. It is hard for me to transition from warp speed point shooting to medium distance/tight shots. I can go from super fast to slow shooting, but the medium speed shooting is hard to keep under solid control. I keep wanting to shoot too fast and not give the sights enough respect for a given shot. Give me some close shooting with .12 - .15 splits and I can tear it up all day long getting solid hits and be 100% in control. The same goes for long distance or really tight shots with .25 - .30 splits. I can do those all day long very solidly. But the medium speed .18 - .21 split shots just eat my lunch. The first shot on the target is usually very good, but the follow up shot is a little wild. Lots of randomly located C’s, D’s or Mikes for the second shot. I have been thinking about it a lot today after practicing and I think it’s a mental transition issue. I respect the first shot and give it the time it needs to be accurate, but for the second shot my brain keeps screaming “SHOOOOOOT!!!!” so I end up breaking the second shot before I should because I feel like I am behind schedule. A lot more live fire practice is going to be needed for this medium speed/distance stuff. Right now, I feel that this is the main weakness in my shooting.

Edited September 6, 2009 by CHA-LEE

[mhop]

if you are getting good hits on the first shot and not the second maybe it is to sights aren't settling back and you are double tapping on the target one sight picture and then 2 shots make sure you see your sight on every shot you take, may i ask why you always explain everything in splits when that is not where you make up time you do it on transitions

[CHA-LEE]

mhop> Thanks for the feedback. I am not "Double Tapping" the targets. I am seeing every shot, just not giving the second shot enough time to settle to a refinement the way it should. I am calling the second shot marginal. Its like I can't stop myself from settling for a more marginal second shot. I give the first shot the time it needs to be good, but not the second. I am not cadence shooting either. I break the shot as soon as I can call it but for whatever reason I am allowing a less than optimal sight alignment quality for the second shot. Like I said, if its further away or a tighter shot, I give both shots the time they need to ensure a solidly called shot. But for the medium distance/difficulty shots my brain is not following through with the second shot. I have thought about just using my slow & accurate shot calling for all medium and long distance shots, but I can't stop thinking that I am selling myself short. I need more than two "Gears" of shooting speed and shot calling. If this stuff was easy then I guess we would all be GM's right?

[bkeeler]

I have been doing the same thing lately. For me I believe it to be not following through and staying with the second shot(rushing the shot to get to the next shot/array of targets) like I do on the first shot.

"I am allowing a less than optimal sight alignment quality for the second shot."

I don't think this is it at all. I think it is all about following through on the second shot and having visual patience to stay with the shot until the sights lift. I think some where in between (seeing the sights on target and the shot actually breaking) your shifting your focus somewhere else (this is where the doubt comes in that you called the shot marginal)either next movement or position or the next target array.

For me lately it is all about not rushing and follow through on every shot.

Don't know if this will help, just my opinion.

BK

[CHA-LEE]

USPSA Match today. It was a rugged match for me. This is the match that I help run and setup the stages so I had zero time to check out the stages before the match from a competition standpoint. I realize that this pretty much cripples my performance and I let myself get lax in stage planning. I had two significant stage planning errors. The first one I planned on shooting all the paper up to a door which was 22 rounds so on the reload I knew I was going to have to rack the gun to make it hot again. I was fine with that but then had a called miss and thus a makeup shot during the first section of the stage and ran out on the last target before the door. So I had to do a standing reload to finish off the last paper target before the door and then continue on. Total bone head situation because I could have done the reload further up the stage where there was a break in the shooting while moving forward. My thought process was that I could be more aggressive with advancing through the front half of the stage and it would take time to reload and get to the door anyway so having to rack the gun wouldn’t be much of a time loss. It seemed like a good plan before I shot the stage.

The second stage planning error came when I decided to engage some targets on the move strong hand only. They were super close targets but I still ended up with a miss on that string. Then right after that I reloaded and got my pinky stuck between the magwell and the mag and had to reseat the mag after the first attempt. This screwed up my timing for the next section of targets and I had to back track a little bit and ended up shooting faster than I wanted because I felt like I was behind schedule and was rewarded with another miss.

I think I am done with trying to incorporate strong hand only shooting into a normal stage run. The results are just too wishy washy with it. I know I can shoot a lot faster and accurate with a two handed grip in the same shooting conditions so I just need to do it. Some times you have to slam your head against the wall an extra 20 times before it really sinks in that what you are doing isn’t a good thing. I guess I was trying to find some hidden advantage in picking SHO shooting for certain situations.

I also need to give myself some more buffer room for make up shots. Pushing the limit of shots before performing a mag change when you really don’t have to is just stupid. Its not an advantage if you don’t give yourself some room to perform make up shots.

Overall my performance today was up and down. I think I am getting better at shooting fast and accurately, moving better, and planning stages better. But I still use these club matches to “Try stuff’ and some times it works out, and other times it doesn’t. Its obviously frustrating when it doesn’t work out. I am starting to see this time in my shooting as my “taking the training wheels off’ portion. The training wheels are off and I am trying stuff that may or may not work out and some skinned knees are to be expected when things don’t work out. I am trying my best to build up my locker of experience as fast as I can. Playing it safe is not the fast way of experiencing the right and wrong way of doing things. So I think the maverick in me will be evident in the local matches for a while.

[CHA-LEE]

bkeeler> I think you are onto something there. I know I tend to be in a hurry to the next target and don't give the proper follow through on the second shot. Its just so darn hard to not be done and over with the current target so you can move onto the next. Once again, way more practice on beating in the correct follow through is needed.

[CHA-LEE]

I know this is a "Range Diary", but I thought it would be cool to mention that I am getting married tomorrow. I am really excited and it is going to be a great time tomorrow. My lady is awesome and I look forward to spending my life with her. We are going on our honeymoon this coming weekend so I will be sipping mixed drinks on a cruise ship when the rest of you guys are sweating at the range

[eerw]

I know this is a "Range Diary", but I thought it would be cool to mention that I am getting married tomorrow. I am really excited and it is going to be a great time tomorrow. My lady is awesome and I look forward to spending my life with her. We are going on our honeymoon this coming weekend so I will be sipping mixed drinks on a cruise ship when the rest of you guys are sweating at the range

dude...congratulations and best wishes to the bride..enjoy the time away..

[rtr]

I am getting married tomorrow.

Be prepared to shoot less.

But seriously congratulations and have a great time on your honeymoon.

[eerw]

I am getting married tomorrow.

Be prepared to shoot less.

yeah definitely...

they have this thing about hanging out..

[wfwsorge]

Congrats

[MarkCO]

CONGRATS!

[CHA-LEE]

The wedding was awesome last night!!! What a great time with family and friends. Everything went off without a single hitch and it looked like everyone that attended had a great time. Now its time to recover and pack our bags as we are heading off for a week long Caribbean cruise this Friday. I am really looking forward to doing nothing but a lot of relaxing for a week.

[CocoBolo]

Congrats and Best Wishes. Your going to have a great time on a cruise, the wife and I have done two, no need for a window or a TV. Don't miss the Dessert Buffet they have at Midnight you might just need that energy rush.

Not sure where your going but it sounds like Tequila country, that stuff sneeks up on you slow like a big hammer.

There was a hitch in the wedding since you got hitched!

[CHA-LEE]

At last Sunday’s match one of my friends surprised me with a Bachelor’s Last Night out hat and a flower lay for fun since I was getting married the next day. I shot one of the stages with the lay on and wore the hat all day for fun. They also videoed my stage run with the stuff on and I listed the link below. Friends like this make shooting so much fun!!! Thank you to everyone for making my last “Single Man” match fun and entertaining

Here is a picture of me with the hat and lay on standing next to my good friend Conrad.

[redmanfixit]

Cha-Lee,

From my Bag O' Evil Tricks. Sneakily get yer wifley wife into shooting. Buy her a nice gun and see that she has the right stuff to go with it. Let her select the gun. It does not matter if you think it is the right one for her, buy what she tells you she likes. You will shoot more. Trust me on this one. Congratulations, may you live happily ever after!!

K

The match you put on with RW & Master Z was very good!

[SA Friday]

Does he or does he not resemble a big panda?

[CHA-LEE]

SA Friday> That Panda pic is awesome!!!! Now only if I could use a rail gun like that at the matches......hhhhmmmmmmmm