CHA-LEE Posted February 16, 2010 Author Share Posted February 16, 2010 I was able to shoot the Monday Night indoor match last night. This was their hybrid ICOR/USPSA style match where the scoring is time plus. The focus is suppose to be on getting really good hits to not get time penalties but I shot it like a normal USPSA match shooting at a speed that would net me A & C zone hits on normal USPSA style targets. What can I say, I can’t resist being an outcast. I was able to shoot my normal pistol and also shoot my wife’s .40 minor pistol as a second gun. She has been asking about shooting a match in the near future and I wanted to make sure that her gun can run without any issues. Her gun is sooooooooo easy to shoot its funny. I can shoot her gun twice as fast as mine simply because it has ZERO muzzle flip and very minimal recoil. Her gun ran great and I am 100% sure its ready for her to shoot in a match. I got to try out my new Rudy Project sunglasses and they worked great. My new canted Blade-Tech holster setup also worked really well. The only equipment let down for the day is that I found the top of my slide is starting to crack right on the front upper corner of the chamber cut. It’s a small crack, but I don’t trust trying to get it repaired. I will have to get my backup gun built up and put into Primary gun duty sooner than I thought. I also need to see if I can get a replacement slide or top end from EAA to fix this current issue. It sucks that it cracked and it seems like this pistol has had a hard life with many failures. But that’s racing I guess. I am just harder on equipment than most I guess?? Maybe I can get a side job as a product robustness tester? I seem to be really good at breaking stuff by simply using it. I shot the match “OK” but was still battling the seeing side of the street. The first run of the day I has nice and relaxed during the run but always defaulted to having a target focus with my vision. I was seeing blurry sights due to not refocusing my eyes on the sights. This translated into some less than stellar hits. On my second run I consciously forced myself to focus on my sights and it went a lot better but its still a different sight picture due to the sights looking larger than before when I had my glasses. I started thinking about this focus thing during the match and then it dawned on me…… My natural relaxed eye focus is opposite than before now that I got LASIK done. When I wore glasses my “Relaxed” eye focus was close, basically where the front sight is when you have the gun mounted. Then I would have to refocus my eyes to see the far away targets clearly. Now with a relaxed eye focus I can see the targets clearly but have to refocus to see the sights clearly. This flip flop in my natural focus has been throwing my shooting for a loop because my sight picture by default is opposite of what it was before. This is going to take a while to get use to but now that I know what is going on it will be easier to train myself to switch up my focus while shooting. Now my training plate is heaping full. I am trying to burn in the new further out arm position style grip, prep squeezing the trigger, and on top of it all refocusing my eyes back onto the sights. I honestly feel like I could focus on improving these three things for the next 6 months and still barely make a dent in improvement. I know what I need to do, I just need to do it. The retraining grind is going to be a long up hill battle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted February 19, 2010 Author Share Posted February 19, 2010 It does not look like we will be able to do any shooting this weekend due to the weather. The Saturday match has been canceled and I am sure the Sunday one will be canceled as well given the weather forecast. It’s a bummer for sure. I was able to talk to EAA about getting a replacement slide for my Limited gun but they don’t sell just the slide for the Limited and I have to buy a whole top end, which is about $500. The kicker is that the Limited upper’s are on back order and the people at EAA could only tell me to call back in 60 days to see what the status is on the back order. I think at this point my only options are to either fully build up the new backup gun or take the top end off the backup gun and put it on my current gun. Given how close the Double Tap match is I think I am just going to swap the top end for the new one and test it as much as I can between now and the Double Tap to ensure functionality. At least that way I can feel confident about the lower and trigger being the same and confirmed functional. I have also thought about just shooting the cracked slide from now through the Double Tap and then changing it out after that match. My gun has been functioning well for so long I hate to make any major changes to it right before a big match, even if the slide is cracked. It’s a gamble though. A catastrophic failure of the slide in the middle of the Double Tap would really suck. I have been tracking the growth of the slide crack since I found it and it has not grown any more in the 100 rounds I have shoot through it since finding it. So it might be “OK” to keep shooting. But who knows how long that will last. A third option would be to shoot my ladies Limited Minor gun at the Double Tap. That match seems to be somewhat of a hoser type of match and shooting Minor may be an advantage for unloading mass quantities of lead very quickly. I have never shot a match being scored Minor though so I am not sure how much of a punch in the nuts that will be from a scoring standpoint. This option would also be a gamble, but at least I KNOW that gun works 100%. Oh well, that’s how it goes. Things break and need fixed. I just wish that it wouldn’t happen at such an inopportune time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkCO Posted February 20, 2010 Share Posted February 20, 2010 You might want to talk to Henning and James about the crack in the slide. I x-rayed James' and found two obvious inclusions (casting defects) plus more cracks in his slide. I am not sure what he did, but I think it is a manufacturing defect and yours is cracked in the same spot. If you want to bring your slides by the office, I'll x-ray them for you so you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted February 20, 2010 Author Share Posted February 20, 2010 MarkCo> Thanks for the offer. With all of the fiddling I have done to the gun I don't think I have a chance in hell of getting it warranty replaced. Due to my fiddling I honestly don't think it should be covered under the warranty either. These pistols are not that expensive and I make them earn their keep so when they fail its not too much of a surprise. Nothing lasts forever right? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted February 21, 2010 Author Share Posted February 21, 2010 Thanks to my buddy Kevin reminding me that there was a one off match taking place in Boulder on Saturday, I got to shoot a match. This is a hybrid match that is kind of like IDPA but not quite. The scoring is time plus and any hits C zone or better count. A D zone hit is considered a miss. Procedurals and misses are crazy penalties, like 60 seconds added to your run. So basically, if you have one miss or no shoot your stage run is sunk. They shot two stages in the indoor range at the Boulder Rifle Club. All of the shooting positions are dictated so its pretty much who can follow the leader the best. You also have to shoot stuff from behind cover and not poke your gun through door thresholds or ports or you get a procedural penalty. Since its indoor you are very limited in muzzle movement through the stage. Which really isn’t a problem until you do your reload. The standard point the gun at 10 O-Clock as its up close to your face style reload is a big NO NO. So you had to reload with the gun at belly level with it pointed down range. Basically the normal way new shooters usually do their reload. My first stage performance was OK but nothing to write home about. It felt very choppy and commanded because I was spending most of the time second guessing the mandated shooting positions. I ended up with one D and a no shoot hit so that pretty much sunk the match for me. I think I could have shot the stage at least 5 seconds faster if they allowed us to figure it out on our own and shoot where we wanted. But its all a game and you have to follow the house rules. The second stage was a 24 round Virginia count stage with six different shooting positions. The cool thing about this stage is that there was a raised stair step platform thing that you had to go up over and down during the COF. You had to engage two targets on the stairs going up, two on top of the platform and two on the stairs as you were going down. I wanted to shoot one the move going up over and down the platform. That was my only goal for the stage. I was able to shoot while moving up and over but I had to stop as I was going down because my shot was starting to get blocked by a no shoot. Oh well. It was fun shooting that stage because it was a very different style of challenge that we don’t get to experience much in USPSA matches. I ended up shooting that stage pretty good. The only screw up that I had was during the mag change. Man, reloading at belly level while trying to keep the muzzle pointed down range is an instant way to make yourself feel like a retard. I fumbled the reload and it cost me a good second or two to recover. If it wasn’t for the fumbled reload it would have been a perfect run. The good thing for the match was that I was getting better at keeping my arms extended further out and it really showed in my accuracy and shooting speed. I was also able to keep my focus back on the sights good so I could call my shots well. The lighting in the range was pretty dim so seeing your sights well was a challenge in its self without battling the focus thing. It was nice to get some blasting in today. The weather is really crappy this weekend so any amount of shooting is better than nothing. The Sunday match has been canceled due to the weather, which isn’t a surprise. We would have to be insane to try to shoot an outdoor match tomorrow. I like to shoot but that would be over the top for me. I need to spend more time Dry Firing. I have to burn in the arm position and focus stuff so it just happens during the live fire stage runs. Lots of work to do….. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted February 24, 2010 Author Share Posted February 24, 2010 My eyes have been getting back to normal a little every day. I don’t have to use eye drops as much as I did before. I usually only need them in the morning some time around dinner and then I just do it again proactively before I go to bed. I am also working on exercising my focus speed every day which can be tiring but its getting better as I do it more. Both of my eyes are a solid 20/15 now and the 20/10 line has been getting a little more clear as well. The only downside right now is the night vision. I still have halo’s and star bursts around lights but its better than it was before. I would say that its only half as bad as it was before. One thing that has been hard to get use to is seeing things up close which appear to be larger than before when I had my glasses. Its kind of like seeing everything for the first time again when its up close. The other is relearning how and when to focus on things from near to far. I now have to focus on up close things with effort and then relax to see far away. This is opposite of what my focus was before with glasses. Both of these things are more mental than anything else and I am sure they will become “Natural” with time. The one thing I was really concerned with was the possibility of switching dominant eyes. Before the surgery my right eye was my dominant eye. After the surgery my right eye was healing slower than the left and I worried that I would transition over to left eye dominance during the healing process because my right eye was the weaker link. But it hasn’t changed and I think that I am over the majority of the hard core healing process. So far I am very happy with the results of LASIK surgery. Now all I have to do is remember to stop trying to reseat or adjust my glasses that I am not wearing. I have caught myself doing that here and there. I think it’s a subconscious thing that makes me want to do it? I guess its hard to break some 25 year old habits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted February 28, 2010 Author Share Posted February 28, 2010 Finally we get to shoot a USPSA match today!!! The weather was pretty good to us today which has been hard to come by lately. This is one of the matches that I help put on so I had to head to the range early and help setup the stages. Due to the recent snow followed by some fairly warm days the range was going to be in “Swamp” mode due to the melting snow. We had to do some creative stage setups to work around the mud bog areas. This made the stages have a lot less movement which sucks but you gotta do what you gotta do. I worked my tail off in the morning helping setup the stages and keeping all of the volunteer help on track. Even though I busted my ass working in the morning I am super grateful for all of the help that we get. The local shooters here in Colorado ROCK when it comes to pitching in to get stuff done!!! Due to helping setup the match I didn’t have much time to check out the stages from a competitor standpoint before we started shooting. This is the normal mode of operation for this match so its not a surprise. I was able to do some dry fire draws in the safety area before the start of the match and this helped me get into a competition mindset, at least somewhat. I ended up on the last squad and we started off on the last stage of the match. Below are the stage breakdowns with some entertaining video to go with it. Stage 5 – This was a box to box style stage where you started in the middle and had to engage at least two targets from all three boxes. I never had a solid stage plan on this stage as there were a boat load of options on how to shoot it. I finally settled on a conservative plan but didn’t have enough time to really burn it in. This showed tremendously in my shooting. I wasn’t confident at all during this stage run. I also screwed up my plan by reloading after exiting the first box. My intention was to reload after exiting the second box but for some unknown reason as I exited the first box my thumb pushed the mag release and I had to make due. I shot this stage way too tentative but there was nothing more I could do other than find targets to shoot once I entered a box. The only saving grace here is that I got all of my hits and didn’t have any penalties. I know I gave up at least 2 – 3 seconds on this stage due to my poor planning and tentative shooting. Stage 1 – This is an interesting port work stage. You had to engage all of the targets through a port. There was one wall with two ports, one port on each end of the wall, and then you had to shoot under the wall through a make shift port made by blocking barrels. The under the wall shooting position was fun because it was awkwardly low and you couldn’t go prone due to the size of the shooting area. So you had to get down on both knees and hunch down to get under the wall. There was a lot of whining about the low port by other shooters but I thought it was cool because it was something new to experience. I shot the stage ok but needed a couple of make up shots on the steel, which is always a time killer. My video camera had an issue on this stage and I didn’t get any footage Stage 2 – This stage had you starting on one extreme end or the other. Lots of long tight shots and two small steel plates about 25 yards away. These plates ate peoples lunch, including mine. The way the stage was setup you had to start on a plate for the first shot. I had a good draw to first shot, but it took three rounds to take the plate down. Not a good start to the stage. I did my best to keep from getting impatient after the start but I still had the little voice in the back of my head saying “YOU ARE BEHIND SCHEDULE!!!”. On the right side of the stage I had like 5 make up shots on both paper and steel. This is where it was getting odd in calling my shots. I was calling shots “Bad” on the paper and making them up but when I got done shooting all of the paper targets I made up shots on had good hits already. So I had a bunch of wasted makeup shots. I think this is mainly due to me not being use to seeing the new/different sight picture post LASIK surgery. I think its going to take me a while to get use to the new sight picture as I relearn what a good or bad shot is. Never the less all of the extra shots for the stage really hurt my stage time. I can’t say much other than it was pretty frustrating. Stage 3 – This was the classifier stage of the match. We shot classifier 03-04 called “3-V”. This is an interesting classifier as it tests your fast blasting speed fortitude due to there being a No Shoot on every target covering more than half of the A-zone. There were two distinct modes people shot this stage in. Slow and steady to ensure their hits, or Fast and Furious as you racked up misses and no shoot hit. I did my best to not think of shooting it fast or slow but to instead simply shoot as fast as I could call my shots. I prepare myself for the stage wait for the buzzer and when it goes off I nail my draw to first shot and its off to the races. I shoot the right side quick and in control. Nail the reload and go to work on the left side. I called my first shot on the first left side target marginal and the second shot solid. But since this is Virginia count you can’t make up bad shots. I really expected my hits to be there but was bummed out to see that the first target on the left had a Delta Mike. The Delta was just barely cutting the outside perforation as well. The rest of my hits were also not so steller with only 1 A-zone hit and the rest being B’s or C’s. The time was really good at 6.11 seconds, but without your hits a fast time doesn’t mean squat. This was my first miss of the day (Hint, hint, more to come). Stage 4 – This was the last stage of the day and the speed shoot. I flip flopped around on my plan for this stage back and forth between three different plans and ended up using a plan that was a mixture of all three plans. Once again, not getting a solid plan locked in far enough in advance nips me in the butt. I start the stage by completely not respecting the first target I engaged. I tried to point shoot it and ended up with a Delta Mike. How many times do I need to relearn that same old lesson??? Anyway…. After engaging the first target I had a decent hesitation trying to locate the step pad for the drop turner and after dealing with that I got to the port and was lost due to me missing my setup point. Instinctive blasting of the targets commences and I luckily end up with decent hits. I really screwed the pooch on this stage. You don’t have time to dick around on speed shoot style stages. I think that my first plan would have been executed better if I just stuck with it and simply shot. Lessons come in funny packages some times but it stings when you keep getting the same lesson in the same package and don’t learn. My overall performance for the match was far less than ideal, but I think I have to cut myself some slack on this due to not really getting a chance to break down the stages ahead of time due to working the match. The plus side of the match was that my new holster setup worked great. As did my new Rudy Project photochromatic sunglasses. They automatically darkened just enough to keep the brightness down in the varying sunny/cloudy conditions. The thing that is really cool is that they error on the lighter side so you don’t feel like its too dark. The negatives for the match are for sure all of the extra unneeded makeup shots. I need to learn this new sight picture so I can call my shots accurately and stop wasting time and ammo. I also don’t think that I was able to use the new arms forward style shooting much in the match either. But I kind of expected that due to not having time to really break down the stages so I could try to burn the arms forward stuff into the stage run. Either way it was nice to shoot today and I think that a lot of others had a great time as well. I can tell that the non-shooting cabin fever has gotten to a lot more people than just me. Now if we could get this lucky with the weather every weekend……… We will see what old man winter still has in store for us as winter isn’t over yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 1, 2010 Author Share Posted March 1, 2010 My post match blaster inspection shows the slide crack is continuing to grow just a little. I think its time to shit or get off the pot on what my match plan is going to be for the Double Tap. Right now the options are to shoot Limited Minor with my ladies gun since I know it works. I need to load up some 180gr minor loads though because I don’t want to burn up all of my ladies 200gr ammo. Or I could just run my cracked slide like a rental from now through the Double Tap and then work hard at building up my backup gun after that. If at all possible I would like to keep shooting my normal gun cracked slide or not, but it’s a risk. Maybe the best plan is to just bring my lady’s gun to the double tap as a backup and shoot it with Major rounds if my primary gun takes a dump. Everyone I have talked to about shooting Limited Minor says that it’s a huge blow to stage points, especially if you have not been working at shooting solid A’s all the time like the Production guys. If EAA had replacement top ends in stock then it would be an easy situation to recover from as I would simply swap the top end and shoot the piss out of it between now and double tap to ensure its functionality. But EAA does not know when the top ends will come off of back order and in a best case that’s still a couple of months away. I will get it all figured out. Its just frustrating to have to deal with right before a big match. I am sure all of the seasoned shooters are like “welcome to how it goes….”. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redmanfixit Posted March 1, 2010 Share Posted March 1, 2010 Cha-Lee San! I think you should take MarkCO up on the offer of the X-rays! If indeed there are inclusions in the slide from which the crack is propagating, I can't imagine that what little fiddling you've done with your gun would cause them to void the warranty. Particularly since you would likely be able to count on support from both James and Henning as regards you NOT being an idiot. I think Tanfo wants to be a brand in USPSA and I also think if they found out a little about the drive you have shown in becoming a top shooter, they'd want someone like you running one of their guns!! Both you and James are careful hand loaders ( James, I've been around when you've been testing ammo ya know) and as far as I can tell all you guys do is shoot A LOT and really fast!! Gun oughtta hold up to that, I'd think!! I'd make sure that copies of the films were included with your request for consideration of a warranty. In stressed parts especially, manufacturing engineers are constantly trying to eliminate defects of that sort. Ya never know!! There are other companies that have figured out how to make high quality STRONG investment castings, I would expect them to be very interested in failure analysis to improve the product!! If they're NOT I would certainly like to know, as after shooting yours I thought I wanted one! Just my 2 cents worth, and quite possibly worth EXACTLY what you paid for it too! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 1, 2010 Author Share Posted March 1, 2010 Redmanfixit> I don’t want to throw anyone or any company under the bus on a public forum. So lets just say that EAA’s effort in the “Warranty” department does not have the same standard as other USA pistol manufacturing companies. You could also be onto something about the “You get what you pay for” factor. There is a reason the EAA pistols are half the cost of an off the shelf STI/SVI. I have gone fiddle crazy on this gun and I have also shot it quite a bit. I also seem to be genetically gifted with being able to break stuff by simply using it. A good example would be the rear sight. I have gone through 6 of them on this gun when others that shoot just about the same amount as me have not even broken one. Maybe its my iron grip that does not allow the gun to muzzle flip much at all when I shoot? I can see how anything mechanical getting slammed back and forth at high speed in a relatively unforgiving position can break stuff more than a more forgiving position. I understand that stuff breaks and don’t mind the cost of replacing broken stuff. That’s why we have backup guns and parts right? It just sucks to get caught off guard with an unplanned failure, but how is that any different than anything else right? You don’t plan on having a flat tire on Monday morning, it just happens and needs to be fixed. This cracked slide situation really isn’t any different. Even though I have had some mechanical failures with this EAA pistol I still think it’s the best platform for me. I like that its longer grip fits my big panda paws perfectly. I like its heaviness. I like its light slide. I like that I am able to do all of my own gunsmith work on it. I also like that they run solidly in any range conditions no matter if its clean or dirty. All of these “Likes” outweigh the mechanical issues I have had. Don’t let one crazy panda’s issues sway your decision on wanting to own one. If they were crap guns then no one would be shooting them, not even me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 2, 2010 Author Share Posted March 2, 2010 I attended the indoor USPSA match down in Colorado Springs last night. We had two stages with one being a classifier. My goal for this match was to prove to myself that I can shoot as fast with my major gun as I can with the minor gun. To do this I would have to shoot with my arms in the more forward position. Stage 1 – This was a 20 round box to box stage. Four open targets from the first box. Three targets from the second box, all with either a no shoot or hard cover. Then three open targets from the last box. The stage was pretty straight forward and with the open targets this was going to be a perfect exercise for my warp speed blasting test. All was going well before we started shooting and then they turned down the lights in the range to make it a low light condition. This threw a slight monkey wrench in my plan because low light + black on black sights + poor night vision due to the recent LASIK surgery = sights??? What sights??? I was forced to point shoot all of the targets since I couldn’t see my sights at all. This worked well for the first and last shooting box but in the middle, even though I slowed down to shoot more deliberately I still ended up with a miss on two of the three targets. The good thing was that I was able to get very good hits on the rest of the targets while going blast crazy. I think I can attribute the good hits to forcing myself to keep my arms out a little bit more. In the video I can see the advantage by there being almost ZERO muzzle flip and my body isn’t being overwhelmed by the stack up of recoil. It was a lot of fun to unload some lead with much fury. Stage 2 – This was the classifier stage 99-22 called Nuevo El Presidente. With this being only a two stage match, and having blown the first stage with two mikes, I figured I would try something different. I figured that I would look at the targets instead of my sights and shoot as fast as I can. It has been a long time since I have tried that so I figured why not. Plus it gives me another opportunity to continue my blast crazy shooting speed. The buzzer goes off I turn and hose the first string, reload, and hose the second string. The time was crazy fast at 5.05 seconds. But the targets had an incredible amount of NO hits. The first target had NO hits at all save for one shot in the no shoot. The second target had two hits and two misses and the third target had three hits and a miss. I zeroed it good. I think my tendency to avoid no shoots and hard cover pulled my shots off target. I think I will setup a standard El Presedente in the next live fire practice session I have to see how this “Look at the targets” shooting ends up with fully open targets. Either way it was fun and more than anything it at least shows me that I have some flaws in my shooting index that keep me from keeping the gun aligned on target when point shooting. That is some good stuff to work on in dry fire. Overall I proved to myself that I can shoot just as fast with my major gun as with the minor. I need to do some more exploring with this in normal outdoor range lighting conditions. I also have a lot more dry fire work to do so I can better refine my shooting index coming from a turn draw. I rarely practice turn draws in dry fire practice so its not a surprise that I suck at them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 3, 2010 Author Share Posted March 3, 2010 Powder Valley called me today out of the blue asking me if I still wanted the Winchester Small Pistol Primers I ordered in April of 09. HELL YEAH I still want them!!!! I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to hear from them on that order. Almost a year being on back order, that is crazy!!! With these primers and the ones I ordered the other day I should be set for the season. Its nice to not have to worry about needing primers, at least for the rest of this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 8, 2010 Author Share Posted March 8, 2010 This Saturday I got a boat load of live fire practice in. This is a good thing because I needed it. We started off the day at my buddy’s house who has a private range in his back yard. This is really cool and I wish I had it at my disposal at any time, but then again I would run out of bullets really quick if that was the case. Anyway… We started off the day by doing 25 yard one shot draws to head shots. I was pounding the crap out of the trigger so my hits were really sucky. Its funny how little extra trigger press totally ruins the shot. Its even more funny to realize that for the hundredth time and it is still a surprise. I think the accuracy stuff is going to be a must for all of my live fire practice sessions now. A high quality trigger press is a must in this game. There is no reason to not practice and improve it. We did drill type stages with box to box stuff and also setup some match stage stuff. My shooting was less than desired. I still wasn’t seeing what I needed or simply couldn’t see it. We had to cut the practice early due to another group of shooters wanting to use the range. I still felt like I was lost wondering in the unknown woods of shot calling so I went to another range to try and iron out what was wrong. My buddy Conrad has a membership at another range that was pretty close so we headed out there. I thought that the slide cycle timing was off so I swapped my 10lb slide spring with an 11lb one and tested it out. I could see the sight lifting and bouncing down then coming back up. It also made the recoil feel harder so I was gripping a lot harder. Still confused and grabbing at straws I put the 10lb spring back in and FORCED myself to shoot with my arms further out. It was like a light just got turned on in the room. I could see the sights track straight up and down and return right where they should be. As funky as it sounds I think that my weaker bent arms grip was allowing the front sight to flip out of sight so I would lose it in the recoil cycle then have to pick it up again. The straighter arm grip allowed me to manage the recoil all that much better and I could see the front sight the whole time. SUPER COOL. Knowing this I proceeded to run though about 300 rounds trying to burn in the straight arm shooting. It was getting more and more grooved in the more I shot. Then I ran out of ammo. I think I could have shot another 500 rounds further burning it in, but I am not sure how much return on investment that would have been. I knew what I was doing wrong, knew what the fix was, and got it burned in pretty good for that training session. A huge thanks goes out to my buddy Conrad for letting me come out to his club and leverage his membership. He is always willing to do whatever it takes to get trigger time in for either of us and its much appreciated. I hope that all shooters have friends like this, because it really helps me out. I hope I can help him out as much as he helps me. But then again I do load all of his ammo so I think it’s a mutual addiction Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 8, 2010 Author Share Posted March 8, 2010 USPSA Match today. This is the match that I help put on so getting there early and working hard is just part of how it goes. I was in such a rush to get out the door in the morning I forgot a couple of stage diagrams and had to run back home to get them right before the match. I apologize to all of the shooters for having a stage setup without a description until right before the match started. I could see that this was frustrating to some shooters and hate to see that. Happy shooters are what we want. On an up note we had 87 shooters attend the match. This was crazy and made for a long day of shooting. Due to the missing stage description flub and having to go back home to get it I didn’t get to see any of the other stages at all before the match started. It was like Christmas coming to each berm in the match seeing the stage for the first time. Stage 5 – This was the long field course for the match with multiple shooting positions and two no shoot swingers activated by a step pad. I was the second one up and didn’t have much time to formulate an efficient plan. There where a bunch of ways to shoot the stage and due to the time limitations on programming it I chose a “Battle Axe” type performance that allowed me to shoot aggressively but had one additional shooting position. I was starting to freak out before the stage run because I knew that I wasn’t shooting the best plan and at that I didn’t have my plan burned in well. I forced myself to put the stress out of my mind and told myself “just shoot…”. I ran the stage decently but due to the extra shooting position I left at least 2 – 3 seconds on the table for others to capitalize on. When the results were posted I was shocked to see that I won this stage. A few others had a faster time by a few seconds but miss or no shoot penalties sunk their run. I got lucky on this stage win, but I will take what I can get. Stage 1 – This was a medium field course with 22 rounds. I can load up 22 in my gun but it was risky to do that and there was plenty of time to do a reload during the stage run. A lot of the shooting was pretty close hosing so shooting at a decent speed was less important than hitting your positions. I was too choppy in the first shooting position which killed some time and was also too close to the ports which killed more time. The second target on the stage really sucked you in close to the wall as you had to shoot over a no shoot. I had one D hit on this stage which hurt as well. I am glad that I did a reload as I had two extra shots where were both needed to secure my hits. If I had a chance to shoot this stage again I think I would have reloaded between the first and second port. I think that I would have been able to move at the same speed between those two positions and complete the reload in time to start shooting through the second port just as I got there. Reloading after the second port really killed my aggressiveness in moving towards the end of the COF. Stage 2 – This was a 20 round stage that was somewhat of a memory stage as the same targets could be seen from multiple positions. I programmed the stage to start at one end and keep moving while shooting. The funny thing is that I tried to change my target order engagement plan not too long before I shot the stage, but after the buzzer went off I reverted to using my original plan. This was probably good as it kept me shooting the whole time. I think the only thing I could have improved on here is to get lower as I shot the third target on the right as it would have allowed me to exit the position faster. I had a good second worth of delay as I was digging deep to get moving back to the right. You can hear the Angry Panda frustration as I exit that position in the video. For some funny reason I let out grunts when I am really trying to get after it with movement. I am sure its entertaining for others to watch and hear. Stage 3 – Classifier 99-12 called Take your Choice. By this time in the day it was getting late and the faces of the targets were in the shadow. I have had a real hard time with this lighting condition on the targets and being able to read my sights in the past and the issue continues to propagate on this stage run. I had a miss on the first target, first shot. I called it high but figured that it would be on the target, but it wasn’t. I also had two other D hits, only one of which I called marginal. My shooting speed was an target for a GM run, but with sucktactular hits this will not be worth anything. Of course the classifier has to be the first and only stage of the day that had a miss. But it is what it is. I just need to shoot better next time, plain and simple. Stage 4 – This was the speed shoot stage of the day. Lots of angry blasting for this stage. The most important part of this stage was speed of movement and getting yourself positioned for the next shoot as soon and as efficient as possible. It took me forever to get going at the start and I picked up the gun a little too slowly. I always fear pushing down on the gun and hitting the mag release so I have always been slower and more ginger on these kind of gun on table starts. This is something I need to practice at home for sure. After I got the gun I think I shot the stage about as fast as I could, a little too fast as I needed a couple of make up shots. Its always hard to balance shooting fast and shooting too fast and needing makeup shots. Either way it was fun to get some real hosing in for the last stage of the day. Overall I had a pretty solid day of shooting. The only penalty of the day was the miss on the classifier and I think I only had three or four D’s for the match. Two of which being on the classifier. I always wonder on these matches how I would perform differently if I did have a chance to see and break down the stages before the match starts. I know that on at least two stages I felt like I shot the stage in a less than optimal plan. But I also told myself to shoot the best I could to make up for the stage planning weakness and it paid off. So maybe it’s a wash. I knew that I was going to have a decent match before the results were posted simply by seeing others shoot in my squad. The match results were sent out and I ended up winning Limited division up 2% over second place. I will take the win with pride as I felt that I shot the best I could given the conditions. It was a good day of shooting and my main goal was to simply keep my arms further out while shooting and I did a good job of doing just that. That to me was the real win of the match. Now I just have to do it more consistently and have it become second nature. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 9, 2010 Author Share Posted March 9, 2010 Time for a post LASIK surgery vision update. Its been a little over a month since I got the LASIK surgery done. My eye sight is starting to get more consistent from one day to the next and the need to use eye drops to keep them moist is getting less frequent as well. I can usually go a day or two without needing to use the eye drops. I am basically in the mode of only using the drops when they feel dry, which doesn’t seem to happen too often. It usually only happens when I am in windy conditions without sunglasses to block the wind from hitting my eyes. My long distance focus is awesome. I am able to see a SOLID 20/15 in both eyes and I am almost able to see the 20/10 line clearly as well. Both eyes have balanced out in focus strength so that is good. I am able to focus on things that are close, but if things are closer than 4 inches from my eye I am not able to refocus enough to make it clear. I remember being able to refocus on things closer than that before the LASIK surgery without my glasses. But the slight loss of very close focus is to be expected and the Dr said it would happen. I think it’s worth the trade off from before. Sure I could see super close stuff before, but couldn’t see much at all more than 3 – 4 feet away without my glasses. Now I can see everything clearly from far away up to about 4 inches from my eye. I will take that trade off any day. The only thing that isn’t optimal is my night vision. I am able to see things in focus but anything that produces light has a slight halo and or star burst. This seems to be getting better as time goes on but its been slow to recover. Seeing my black on black iron sights in low light conditions is a joke though. I think I would need to switch over to a fiber optic or night sight setup when shooting in low light conditions. I guess the positive thing about this is that low light match shooting conditions are very few and far between. I do think it will be a must to invest in some night sights for my home defense pistol though. I seem to be getting more use to this new vision in my shooting. I have slowly been reprocessing the sight picture while shooting and calling shots is getting a little easier. I have been consciously forcing myself to pull my focus back to a closer distance right before the start of a stage run and it works really good for picking up the sights quickly and staying with them during the stage run. I have also been slightly closing down my left eye (non dominant eye) right before the start as well to minimize the focus contention between both eyes. I still have my left eye open enough to see things peripherally but I try not to leverage it to locate and focus on the next target to shoot. I leave my dominant eye up to that task. Even though my shot calling is getting better it still feels like I have a fairly narrow cone of focal vision to work with and if I get sloppy with my grip or arm position and it allows the gun to muzzle flip outside that cone I lose the sights and my shot calling goes in the toilet. Even though this is a not so fun situation it is forcing me to be more diligent at properly executing my grip and arm position fundamentals. This is a good thing as it is really showing in the quality of my shooting and makes me earn the shots because I know I can only call my shots if I am executing the fundamentals well. Overall I am happy with the results of the LASIK eye surgery and feel that it was worth the cost and risk. If you are a good candidate for the procedure I would suggest looking into getting it done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 12, 2010 Author Share Posted March 12, 2010 I went to a home grown match last night at a new indoor range up north. The range is really nice and they have both rifle and pistol lanes at the facility. The people are also really nice as well. The match was a man on man 5 round stage with two paper targets and then a knock down stop plate in between them to finish your run. It was setup at about 20 yards and they used silhouette type paper targets. It was single elimination so if you lost, you were done. They also lumped all of the shooters together in the same gun class. There was one Open shooter, who is a good shooter, and the rest of the people had single stacks, carry guns, and a few limited guns. But I knew that there was no way that anyone was going to even come close to beating the Open guy. Dim lighting conditions, 20+ yard targets, are chump change to a Dot gun. Iron sights on any gun in these conditions were at a severe disadvantage. I was in the second pair to shoot and when I got up there I was told to make ready and then wait for the start command. I say “Ok” and proceed to make ready and holster, then the next thing I know the RO yells something and the other guy starts shooting. Evidently there was no “are you ready”, “stand by” or start buzzer. Just the RO yelling “Fire” at some random time after you holster your gun. Needless to say I was way behind the other guy since I was expecting to hear a buzzer but found that I was extremely behind schedule when I heard his shooting when I was still holstered. I draw, shoot and of course lost due to the botched start. So that was the match, $15 bucks to wait an hour before the match started and shoot a total 5 rounds. Yep, that’s $3 per bullet shot for a match fee. I don’t think I will be back to attend this match in the future. But at least I tried something different I guess. They are a new club and I think they need some more experience hosting matches. When someone pays that much per round for that little bit of time to shoot, they will not have too many repeat customers. I hope they get it figured out though, because it’s a really nice range and nice people too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SA Friday Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 I went to a home grown match last night at a new indoor range up north. The range is really nice and they have both rifle and pistol lanes at the facility. The people are also really nice as well. The match was a man on man 5 round stage with two paper targets and then a knock down stop plate in between them to finish your run. It was setup at about 20 yards and they used silhouette type paper targets. It was single elimination so if you lost, you were done. They also lumped all of the shooters together in the same gun class. There was one Open shooter, who is a good shooter, and the rest of the people had single stacks, carry guns, and a few limited guns. But I knew that there was no way that anyone was going to even come close to beating the Open guy. Dim lighting conditions, 20+ yard targets, are chump change to a Dot gun. Iron sights on any gun in these conditions were at a severe disadvantage. I was in the second pair to shoot and when I got up there I was told to make ready and then wait for the start command. I say “Ok” and proceed to make ready and holster, then the next thing I know the RO yells something and the other guy starts shooting. Evidently there was no “are you ready”, “stand by” or start buzzer. Just the RO yelling “Fire” at some random time after you holster your gun. Needless to say I was way behind the other guy since I was expecting to hear a buzzer but found that I was extremely behind schedule when I heard his shooting when I was still holstered. I draw, shoot and of course lost due to the botched start. So that was the match, $15 bucks to wait an hour before the match started and shoot a total 5 rounds. Yep, that’s $3 per bullet shot for a match fee. I don’t think I will be back to attend this match in the future. But at least I tried something different I guess. They are a new club and I think they need some more experience hosting matches. When someone pays that much per round for that little bit of time to shoot, they will not have too many repeat customers. I hope they get it figured out though, because it’s a really nice range and nice people too. How was the match advertised/named? That sounds like a shoot-off format and there is always the chance of elimination on the first round. If it was advertised as a 'match' I would feel cheated a bit too. Shoot-off's around here are typically pay-out for the top three also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 12, 2010 Author Share Posted March 12, 2010 SA Friday> It was advertised as their "Combat Match" and every week is something different. I assumed that something different was meaning that different stages were going to be used. But I got something different alright by being told when I showed up that it was going to be a man on man shoot off. I called the day before and asked what kind of match stages they had and they said they usually ran a few IDPA style stages and to bring at least 100 rounds. They also said that every week is different so you don't know what its going to be until you get there. So I figured that it would be at least a fun evening of shooting. If I would have known that it was going to be a single elimination shoot off situation with no more than 5 rounds per run I wouldn’t have gone. It is a lesson for me about assuming that other non USPSA matches would be shot like USPSA matches. That’s what I get for assuming. That lesson is learned and hopefully won't be learned again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkCO Posted March 12, 2010 Share Posted March 12, 2010 It is a lesson for me about assuming that other non USPSA matches would be shot like USPSA matches. That’s what I get for assuming. That lesson is learned and hopefully won't be learned again. Having shot many types of "action," "combat," "defensive," "practical" and "tactical" pistol matches, I have found nothing to be "like USPSA matches" except USPSA matches. Consider them an investigative experience while donating your money to keep their club and or match running and you will get a lots less frustration. When you are really ready to experiment, come along to a 3-gun match You can even use my guns! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 15, 2010 Author Share Posted March 15, 2010 USPSA match this Sunday down in Pueblo. The weather was a little iffy going down to the match with heavy overcast skies and cold temps in the mid 30’s. The PPPS club setup six fun stages to shoot for the match but the ominous weather ran away quite a few shooters. There were 42 total shooters for the match which is down by about 20 from normal. Their loss I guess but to be fair, it was pretty cold shooting conditions. I don’t think that the temp ever got above 35 which wasn’t too bad but a consistent wind and fairly high humidity made it feel bone chilling cold. There were a lot of shooters on my squad whining about cold hands while shooting, including myself. Through the match we had a few snow flakes drop and then after that it was spitting rain/sleet here and there. The snow, rain, or sleet didn’t affect me much while shooting but it was entertaining watching the Open shooters as their C-More’s don’t work so well when they get droplets on the lens. For some reason I think its funny when the Open guys have equipment issues and whine about it. Serves them right for being cheaters anyway using those dots to make us iron sight guys look like chumps. Listed below are the stage runs from the day in the order that I shot them. Stage 4 – This was a medium field course with a bunch of different shooting positions and options. You could start standing behind any barrel within the COF and your gun was loaded sitting on a barrel then your magazines had to be on the barrels as well. There were three different ways of shooting the stage and to me there wasn’t a time advantage/disadvantage between either one because you had to go to the extreme ends of the whole COF anyway. So it came down to picking one that made you feel better about executing. I chose to start in the forward position and then back up to the second left position and then finish on the right. This seemed to flow the best for me overall and put my reload in a place that allowed me to keep moving at a good speed to the final shooting position. The only screw up I had on this stage is coming into the last shooting position where I engaged the first target I called one of my shots very marginal as it broke when I was taking a hard step slowing down. This forced me to transition back to the target for a make up shot after leaving it. When I was done shooting I was not happy to see three alpha hits all within about 5 inches of one another on that target. I wasted about a second going back to the target for the make up shot. But in the end I would rather waste the time and get an extra hit on target verses not being sure of getting a hit and ending up with a miss. I figure that this unneeded makeup shot is more teething pains with calling shots with my new eyes. Or simply stepping too hard as I enter the shooting position allowing the gun to bounce around too much. Stage 5 – Classifier 06-10 called Speedy Steel VII. This is a fairly simple classifier to shoot IF you execute your fundamentals solidly. The 100% hit factor on this classifier is insanely fast with a 2.98 second run. So you would have to shoot this stage with zero flaws to get a home run. I made the cardinal mistake of thinking “I want to shoot fast” and after the buzzer went off I proceeded to take three shots before getting the first popper down. I slowed my shooting down and cleaned up the rest of the poppers one for one, but shot too slow and deliberately. You would have to shoot this stage with a soft focus and semi point shoot the poppers at a fast pace to do really well on this classifier. I tried to do that and it didn’t work out on the first popper so I defaulted to deliberate shooting to just get it over with. Stage 6 – This was a fun box to box stage where you had to go to all four boxes to engage all of the targets. This whole stage was about keeping moving through the boxes when you could. The first and second boxes you could shoot as you were moving through them. The third and fourth box had targets positioned that kept you pinned in a single location. I shot the first and second boxes well and then botched my reload going to the third box and this sent be into a blasting frenzy. I still don’t know why the botched reload rattled me so much because I still got the reload done well before getting to the third box. I shot way too fast and had a bunch of make up shots. Then to top it off I had one miss where the hit was just into the black in the center A-zone about a millimeter into the hardcover. Without the miss this would have still been a decent run. But with the miss it pretty much sunk it. I am sure the blasting frenzy at the end of the COF was fun for the others to watch. Its not often that you get to see the big panda go into crazy blast mode. Stage 1 – This was somewhat of a speed shoot style stage where you started with your gun on a make shift shelf and you were facing up range. You had to engage either all of the paper or all of the steel then reload and engage the other set of targets. I chose to engage the paper first and finish on the steel. I shot the paper opposite of my favored direction (Left to Right) and man it felt super clunky and slow. After the reload I shot the steel my favored direction and it went better but I got too impatient on the last popper and missed it needing a make up shot. This is where the weather was starting to take a turn for the worse and the wind was really kicking up along with some rain/sleet. Stage 2 – This field course had you start with a laundry detergent jug in your weak hand and you had to either retain the jug in your weak hand or place it in the laundry basket at the end of the COF. It had to be in either place, in your hand or in the basket, for all shots fired. This basically forced you to shoot Strong hand only for a portion of the COF. I thought it would be an advantage to do more shooting SHO as I am fairly decent at it, but it killed me in stage time. I shot all of the paper really well SHO but I missed a popper about 15 yards out a bunch of times which killed about 3 - 4 seconds of stage time. Then I was pushing the limits on round count (20 rounds) for the second half of the stage and due to feeling like I was behind schedule I shot too fast and had to do an extra unplanned standing reload. What a train wreck. The only saving grace to this run is that I got all of my hits which were decent. But decent hits divided by a sucky time still equals crap. This was a pure failure of logic on my part. No matter how good I think I am at shooting SHO its still slower and less accurate than shooting with two hands. I should have shot it like everyone else where they shot only two targets SHO and then basically shot the left half of the COF, reloaded and then shot the right half of the COF. Stage 3 – This was the last stage of the day and was a medium course with a bunch of port work. The stage was laid out in a fashion that made it really clunky to shoot. There was a lot of stop and go with not too much ability to make it flow. The back section of the stage had four poppers and one of them activated a clam shell style target. This was a risk verses reward setup to see how many steel you could take down after hitting the activator popper and still get the clam shell target before only a head shot is left. Then you could lean around a wall and finish the last three targets with one being a head shot only blocked by a no shoot or move to another port which had all three targets fully open. I shot the front section as fast as I could due to the stop and go style port shooting then was able to get down three of the four steel before nailing the clam shell. But then I proceeded to shoot around the wall to finish the last three targets and dicked around with the head shot target taking four shots at it looking for hits. I wasted a stupid amount of time on the head shot and should have just moved to the other port to get a fully open target instead. Then when I was done shooting I was greeted with a solid hit in a no shoot and associated miss on a target from the second port when I was shooting fast. The no shoot and miss penalty along with the extra time wasted on taking the head shot totally sunk my stage run and cost me the match win. Oh yeah, I had 4 hits on the head shot target when I got up to it. AAAGGGHHHHH, what an idiot!!! Camera man failed to get this stage run so no video, probably a good thing Overall I had fun shooting with friends and ended up 3rd in Limited at 96% of the winner. I wasn’t happy with my misses and other issues for the day but to be fair, I was pretty much over shooting for the day on the last two stages. I was chilled to the bone by then and I was pretty sapped for energy so it isn’t a surprise that my shooting as well as decision making went into the toilet. My number one goal for the match was the same as last week where I wanted to keep my arms out further while shooting and I think I did a decent job at that so that was a win. I think I am ready for the Double Tap and am really looking forward to the predicted 65 – 70 degree sunny weather out there. This shooting in the cold is getting old, we need some summer weather on the weekends already. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 16, 2010 Author Share Posted March 16, 2010 (edited) Indoor ICOR style time plus scoring match last night. This was a break from the normal last night because there were ports to shoot through and no boxes so it was more freestyle. There was also a little shooting on the move which was nice. The first stage was a 24 round COF where you could see multiple targets from a few different ports so it was a little bit of a memory stage. If you used every port available you could engage the same targets multiple times so you had to come up with a plan of attack that minimized the chance of that. I shot the first stage at a decent speed and kept moving as much as I could with the limitation of the ports. I fumbled my reload a little bit which cost me some time but I think that the main thing that killed time on the stage was the a hesitation between bringing the gun up on target and then waiting to start shooting. I don’t know if this delay was due to waiting for the sights to be aligned or if I am transitioning my focus from the target to the sights or something else. But it killed about half a second on the stage run from how it felt. But then again its hard to gauge time while you are shooting. I forgot my camera so I didn’t get a chance to film the stage runs so I don’t know what the stage time impact really was. This delay on breaking the first shot seems to be a growing trend as I experienced it quite a few times on Sunday as well. I will have to do some testing in practice to see what is causing it. The second stage was the same as the first but in low light conditions and they used “X” ring scoring which basically means that every hit in the X ring takes off one second on your stage run. Since I shoot this match like a USPSA match anyway I didn’t care about the bonus X ring hits and instead decided to shoot each target 3 times instead of 2 for the fun of it. With low light being my current visual nemesis I also chose to point shoot all of the targets instead of trying to see the sights which wasn’t going to happen anyway. This stage run was super fun with a lot of fast angry panda blasting. I got three hits on every target but the quality of the hits wasn’t anything to be proud of. I didn’t care though as I had a lot of fun shooting the stage that way and was happy to get all three hits on each target because I was pushing the ragged edge of speed while shooting. There were many shots in the .13 - .15 split range so the lead was flying with fury. This was probably really entertaining to the other shooters watching because I could see a lot of smiles and fun comments after shooting the stage. A win/win situation I guess. The last stage of the night was a simple barricade start and you engaged three targets from one side of the barricade and then moved to the right past a wall and engaged three more targets. This stage was all about keeping moving as you shot so you could keep shooting the whole time. Really good shooting on the move practice. I botched my draw a little and had the same on target hesitation before I started shooting but once the bullets started to flow it was on. I was able to shoot in a seamless stream of shots through the stage as I shot on the move to the right. It was a nice little fast stage to finish off the night. The crack on my slide is still growing a little bit at a time with every match but its still not super bad. I am going to use the gun at the Double Tap and then stop using it until I get a replacement top end from EAA. I will have to put in some serious bench time building up my other gun to get it ready for action when I get back from the Double Tap. In the mean time I will just shoot my ladies Minor gun and just deal with the recoil challenges it has until I get the other gun built up. I am really looking forward to the Double Tap match and for the first time I am not setting any specific performance goals. My only goals for the match are to shoot within my abilities and keep my arms out while shooting. Where that lands me in the overall results is where it does. I don’t think it is very productive to set a specific performance goal of finishing XX% of the winner or anything like that because it just seems too restrictive and you honestly never know what will happen. Sure, I want to do well, but I want to have fun more than winning. Edited March 16, 2010 by CHA-LEE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 21, 2010 Author Share Posted March 21, 2010 I got back from the 2010 Double Tap Championships yesterday. We drove down on Thursday, shot the whole match on Friday, then headed home on Saturday. That is a pretty hectic pace of travel and shooting for me which left me still wiped out this Sunday. I have never shot a whole big match in one day and that was an experience in its self. We got really lucky with the weather and shot in 70+ degree sunny conditions where as the weekend shooters got to deal with freezing temps, snow and the resulting muddy range conditions. For me, the whole match was great, fun to shoot, and it was run like a well oiled machine. The Double Tap Crew puts on an awesome event. I shot the match fairly decent with two misses for the day and only a hand full of D’s. I think the biggest affecting item for me was the very minimal stage breakdown time that we had for each stage. We were on a 20 – 30 minute stage turn around schedule and didn’t have time to check out the stages much before we got to them to shoot. Not having a solid stage plan burned into my head for some stages did affect my performance. Then at the end of the day my brain was in shutdown mode. The last four stages of the day had mental blunders in either stage planning or execution which also cost me precious time. I had never experienced this level of mental exhaustion before at a match so it was interesting to deal with and try to work through. I set only two goals for the match. Keep my arms further out in the new position and have fun. I feel that I achieved both goals well and let the rest end up where ever it did. Below are my stage breakdowns with video’s. Stage 2 – This was a fairly simple stage with only one way to shoot it so not much planning was needed. Since this was the first stage of the day and on a berm that was facing the rising sun it was very brutal shooting conditions from a sun glare standpoint. At the end of the stage there are two targets straight forward that you literally could not see due to the extreme sun glare. A couple of shooters got misses on these two targets due to the sun so my main focus for this stage was to get my hits and that’s it. The only issue I had on this stage was coming out of the first position on the left. I got my gun caught on the wall and had to back up to pull it back out so I wouldn’t be breaking the 180. This cost me a good second in hesitation on the run but otherwise it was good. Stage 3 – This stage had some different options on how to shoot it. You could go down the middle and engage the three targets through the second position on the left then swing to the right and engage the two targets on the right. But if you screwed up your body position at all you were in a heap of trouble because the walls would be blocking the targets. I chose a battle axe approach of going deep into each position and shooting what was there then moving to the next position. This is one of those stages that I wish I had more time to plan and program as I think I could have shot it a lot better with a different plan. But there was no time to formulate and program an elegant plan. After the buzzer goes off I shot the first four targets then dropped my mag, WTF!!! So I had to recover from that and then perform a second reload during the stage in the normal place where I was going to do my only reload of the stage. This sent me into a hurried state of mind because I felt like I was behind schedule and lost all respect for the steel at the end of the stage where ton’s of make up shots were needed to take down the steel. This run felt like a train wreck in slow motion. Stage 4 – This was the infamous Hell-A-Port stage. This port could waste a bunch of your stage time and you could rack up a lot of penalties by shooting it wrong. So most of my stage planning was done with the port in mind. There were two schools of thought on this stage. One activate the Hell-A-Port as you got there to the final position or two, activate it on the way to the second to last shooting position in hopes of it being slowed down a little by the time you got to it later. To me the second option of activating it first then coming back to it later didn’t make sense as it wasted time going over to it and then you had no idea where it would be once you got to it. The thing that really sucked was that you had ONE chance to see the up close timing of the port during the walk through. Sure you could see other people activate it but its not the same as seeing it up close so you could actually see the targets behind the port. I decided to give it the Hell-A-port hell and try to shoot all four targets on the first swing back to the right. This didn’t work out to well. By the time the port exposed the first target and I transitioned my vision back to my gun to shoo the port was almost half done with its second swing. This forced me to improvise on cleaning up the rest which took two more passes of the port. The best plan I seen for this port was to shoot each target once on one pass then once more on a second pass. Too bad I didn’t realize that until after I shot the stage. Oh well, it is what it is. I at least got all alpha’s on the four targets behind the Hell-A-Port, which was a lot better than most of the others on my squad who were singing shots in a hurry hoping for hits. Stage 5 – This stage was the devil for me on many fronts. First, the round count for how the stage flowed had you either doing two reloads, a standing reload, or one reload and running around like a chicken with its head cut off. Second, the extreme left and right targets were very hard to access without falling out of the shooting area. You literally had to fall out of the shooting area to get access to the inside target or waste a boat load of time getting into a contorted leaning stance that would be slower to recover from verses just falling out. Third was the breakdown of the stage. You could shoot this stage a bunch of different ways and many were a wash when it came to the time it took but some plans had slight advantages/disadvantages over others. Since once again I didn’t have much time to figure out a solid plan I figured that the start left and go right would be the best in terms of solid execution. I shot most of the stage ok but it had a lot of stop and go shooting positions along with shooting the middle section two slow. Then at the end was a disaster as I fell out of the shooting area before finishing the last target and had to jump back in to finish. This wasted at least 2 – 3 seconds, ouch!!! Stage 6 – This is an interesting stage with quite a few options on how to shoot it. You could start anywhere in Area A, but the steel had to be shot from behind the front wall charge line. This is where the funky steel non-hits started to happen for the match. I would call a good hit on the steel and hear it hit but the steel wouldn’t go down so I would have to engage it again. For this stage it happened on the first popper engaged through the port. Other than the steel issues I shot this stage pretty decent. This was a lot of fun to shoot. Lots of high speed hosing mixed with some hosing on the move as well. How can you not like those kind of shooting conditions? I am not sure what the camera man is doing with the zoom at the start of the stage in the video. He probably bumped the zoom on accident. Stage 7 – This stage was a straight up blasting stage with the only thing you had to figure out is where your reload was going to be done. It was a lot of fun to shoot and I thought that I executed it pretty good until I seen that I had a single bravo hit on the far right target down range after engaging the target behind he barrels. I was engaging this target on the move and I thought that it was two hits when I looked at it as the hit was an up and down oval shape. I asked to have the target pulled to have the RM make the call. Even though the hit was an oval shape it didn’t fall outside of the overlay so a Bravo, Mike was given for the target. It sucks to have a miss on the target but after seeing the overlay on the oval hit I would have called it a miss as well. So the right call was made on the scoring of the target. The first miss of the day for me and up to that point I had only two Delta hits. So my clean match was blown. Stage 8 – Another stage without much planning needed other than where to do the reload. The crazy steel non-hits continue on this stage in the first shooting position. I call and hear two solid hits on each of the two plats but one does not fall so I have to engage it again to take it down. Due to using the extra rounds on the steel I changed my reload plan mid stage to do the reload before opening the door instead of after the door when moving to the right. I didn’t consciously tell myself to change my reload location, it just happened. Its strange when my reloads happen where I don’t intend them to but there is nothing I can do but roll with it. After looking at the video I thing it was probably better to do the reload before the door anyway. That allowed me to shoot almost the whole time after the door. Stage 9 – This was the crazy bowling ball stage. This made the Hell-A-Port stage look like a chump from a stage break down standpoint. The bowling ball activated two swingers and a drop turn target as it rolled down its track. Since you set the speed of the bowling ball the timing of these three activated targets was a nightmare to figure out. This left a lot of shooters simply throwing up their hands and giving up on trying to formulate a specific plan that had the activating targets working to their favor. I went with a simple plan. Throw the ball down the track at a fast pace so I wouldn’t be waiting for the swingers to turn on and blow off the drop turn target. Then simply shoot all of the left stuff first, the barrel stuff then finish at the back end of the stage. This plan worked out for me pretty well and I ended up with all of my hits along with a good stage time. I lost out on the drop turn targets points but it wasn’t worth the mental headache to try to time it all to engage it. I watched a lot of shooters waste 2 – 3 seconds trying to work the drop turn target into their plan and the extra 10 points were not worth that much time lost. This was a mentally hectic stage to shoot and I feel that I got lucky with the speed of the ball rolling down the track. I don’t think I could have shot it again as well with the bowling ball variable in the mix. Stage 10 – This was probably my worst stage from a planning standpoint. I was the first shooter on this stage and never had the time to form a solid plan much less program it. You had to start holding a cat by its scruff then had to throw it through any of the doors threshold before the last shot fired. You were basically forced to shoot while holding the cat in your mouth during the first section of the stage. Then open doors and engage steel outside of the doors. This was a lot of planning needed to execute well and I didn’t have the time to plan it so I just winged it and it showed. It was a 22 round stage and I could load up to 22 rounds in my gun, but didn’t trust it due to the steel issues I was having already in the match and just planned to do a reload. The STI/SVI guys that had 22+1 magazines had an advantage on this stage due to having a little cushion with one extra shot and not having to do a reload. The buzzer went off and whatever plan I thought I had went right out the window and I was forced to shoot the stage from scratch as I navigated the COF. I also had the funky non-hit steel issue again on this stage. By the end of this stage I was pretty frustrated and it shows in my shooting. I just wanted the stage over with by the end. By this time in the match I was sure that the steel had a conspiracy against me. I have never had so many called good hits on steel go DING and then not have the steel fall. Stage 11 – This was another 22 round stage where you started with your gun on one shelf and your magazines on another. I can load 22 in my gun but that would allow ZERO mistakes. The STI/SVI guys had a HUGE advantage on this stage by being able to have 22+1 in their gun. My plan was to shoot it straight up with 22 rounds and if I had a make up shot in the first two positions I would go in for the extra mag to reload before the final position. I shot the first two positions perfectly then went to the last position without reloading and MISSED the last steel going just high with the shot. I was pissed to say the least. A great run blown by missing the last steel by less than an inch. Maybe it’s a good thing that it didn’t hit and not go down like the others. I think I would have blown a gasket if that would have happened like it had on the other stages. This stage has made it my goal to do whatever it takes to make a 22 round magazine when I get back home. Its just too much of a disadvantage for stages like these to not have an extra round just in case. Stage 12 – This was the speed shoot stage of the match where you started yourself by hitting the start button with a club. It was a 20 round stage and I loaded the gun up to 22 rounds and told myself that if I had any make up shots on the paper I would reload as I went down to shoot the steel from under the table. Since I was having ZERO luck with the steel at this match I didn’t want to screw myself by not reloading and running the gun dry while I was hunched down under the table. I start off the stage and right off the bat I have an extra shot on the first target so I know I need to do a reload. I finish the paper fast and strong then go to do my reload and the magazine won’t come out of the gun. I had to pull the mag out of the gun before I could put in the new mag. What a cluster f*#k. That wasted at least 2 – 3 seconds on a speed shoot stage which killed it for me. The only saving grace here is that I shot the steel from under the table one for one pretty fast. I think I could have had a 7 second run without the reload which would have been smoking but with zero confidence in shooting the steel I talked myself into needing to do the reload. Oh well, hind sight is always 20/20. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4BJygtRcUA Stage 1 – This was the memory stage of the match and the last stage of the day for me. I was completely wasted from a mental standpoint by this time and was pretty much over wanting to shoot any more that day. This stage was all about getting a rhythm as you went through the stage shooting alternating targets. I started off shooting too fast and called a miss on the far left target then went back to make it up. This completely screwed up my rhythm for shooting the stage and I was lost. I was forced to shoot whatever I could as soon as I seen it and ended up engaging one target at the end twice. The only saving grace was that I didn’t have any misses or skipped targets. At the end of the run I wasn’t sure if I had engaged all of the targets or not. That’s how lost I was. It was a pretty disappointing stage run. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n28bUaIk0is Overall it was a fun match to shoot. Shooting all 12 stages in one day was a marathon that I wasn’t really prepared for. I don’t think I will sign up to shoot a whole match in the same day again any time soon. I know I left a lot on the table from a performance perspective by having to use less than optimal stage plans that were half programmed at that. Getting to the match a day ahead of time so you can check out the stages and start to formulate a plan is a huge advantage verses showing up to a berm and simply shooting the stage as is with little planning like I did that day. They posted the results to the end of Friday and I was sitting 5th in Limited at about 86% of Manny Bragg who was in the lead. With all of the little screw ups I had I was surprised to see myself that high up on the list. I am not sure how I am going to end up once the match is all done and the scores are tallied but I don’t think I am going to move down too much due to the poor range conditions on Saturday for the other shooters. If anyone shooting on the weekend is able to shoot better than the people from Thursday or Friday they are true bad asses!!! The range conditions on Saturday from what I heard were awful. The mud alone is a big disadvantage to overcome much less the cold and wet conditions. Either way I will just have to wait to see what the final results end up being. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 22, 2010 Author Share Posted March 22, 2010 The Double Tap top 10 results of each division have been posted. I finished 5th in Limited Division at 83% of Manny Bragg who was the winner. This put me second Master in Limited behind three other GM’s. I am not happy or bummed with this result as it is what it is. I gave it the best I could on Friday and made my fare share of mistakes so I knew my finish result was going to be less than what I hoped for. It will be interesting to look at the Stage by Stage results to see how much the little mistakes cost me in overall match points. Either way I feel a little guilty by placing 5th in the results because I know the weekend shooters competed in way worse conditions and it wasn’t a fair playing field. I know that’s just how it goes some times but it still does not make me feel any better about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 23, 2010 Author Share Posted March 23, 2010 The Double Tap results have been posted on the USPSA website so I could check out the stage by stage results. I tallied up the stage points lost with screw ups, misses, or whatever and if I had a completely solid match I left about 125 match points on the table which is about 9% of my total match points. I realize that no one really ever has a completely solid match without any issues. But even if I could have gained 5% more match points by executing better that would have served me better in the overall results. This is a good lesson in how much all of the little things you do wrong during an individual stage add up in match points. It all comes down to being able perform at the peak of your ability consistently. I wasn’t able to do that at this match mainly due to the hurry up shooting pace of the match and not being able to fully breakdown and program the stages. Then losing mental focus at the end of the match compounded the issue. I think that I will not shoot a big match like this all in one day again UNLESS I have a full day prior to break down the stages and have a plan on how to shoot them. Having a plan an being forced to execute it in a hurried condition is still not optimal but way better than not having a plan and still being forced to execute whatever half baked plan you can conjure up before its your turn to shoot. This is the major lesson of the match for me. I was somewhat forced into the situation of not being able to see the stages the day before because I rode down to the match with others and we had to adhere to a schedule that worked for everyone. Next time I will make my own travel plans and give myself the time I need to check out and break down the stages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CHA-LEE Posted March 29, 2010 Author Share Posted March 29, 2010 No matches this weekend due to the unpredictable weather. I instead took the time on Saturday to start building up my new primary gun. Its going to take a while to get the new gun built and all tuned up so I am doing my best to chip away at it when I have some extra time. So far I have the frame and slide prep work done and fitted the extractor. Next on the list will be the trigger. I am really not looking forward to drilling and tapping the mag release button. That has been the most pain in the ass thing to deal with so far with working on these guns due to the hardened coating they put on the parts. I have been thinking about just taking the existing mag release out of my old gun and reusing it on the new gun. But that just seems too lazy. I need to buckle down and just get it done no matter how sucky it is to work on. With no matches this weekend I instead did some live fire practice with friends out at my buddies private range. It was a little bit of a mud bog but I really wanted to get some live fire in and also test out the 22 round magazine I put together. I used the 22 round magazine all day with no issues which is awesome. Its nice to have a functional 22 round magazine at my disposal for matches which makes it an advantage to not reload. This kept me from doing reloads during the practice session but in the muddy conditions none of us were willing to drop mags into the mud. We setup stage based practice with a bunch of tight shots blocking the shots by either hard cover or no shoots. My primary focus for the day was still to keep my arms out while shooting and that seems to be getting more and more burned in as I shoot. My vision has been getting better as well and I feel like I am back to where I was before the LASIK surgery in my ability to call my shots quickly. My visual focal cone is a little smaller than before LASIK so I have to keep diligent in my grip and arm position to keep the gun cycling within the focal cone. This may seem like a disadvantage to others as it leave less wiggle room in the quality of my shooting index, but it has forced me to shoot from a better index or I will not be able to track the sights during the recoil cycle. I see it as a positive change in my shooting since it forces me to do things correctly. I am planning on doing some more one on one training with Ron Avery in April and am looking forward to the training. I feel like I have made some good progress in the changes he suggested for me in the last class. It will be fun to see what the next challenge to overcome is. I will meet my goal by the end of the year. Failing is not an option. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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