CHA-LEE's Tale

[Stician]

Looking forward to Mile High Blast.

[CHA-LEE]

The Rocky Mountain 300 is now in the books. This was a long but fun weekend of shooting. I decided to drive up to the range on Thursday evening to check out the stages. Only 2 of the stages had the targets up so we could see how they were really going to look and one of them was the “Memory” stage which was a good thing. The other was the all steel stage so we could formulate solid stage plans for both of those stages. The remaining three stages didn’t have their targets up but the stands with lath were setup so you could guess as to the locations of the targets but you really didn’t know what type of target was going to be installed. The two field course stages were pretty straight forward and you could figure out a stage plan pretty easily regardless of the target type put up. The enigma of the match was the speed shoot stage as we didn’t know how the targets were going to be put up in a couple of sections and there were a bunch of different ways to shoot it. Since we had basic stage plans for the no-target stages and solid plans for the stages with targets I felt that we were prepared pretty good.

Friday morning we showed up to the range early and I hit the ground running doing Range Master duties as I had signed up to take on that responsibility for the match. All of this running around kept me from being able to check out the stages again in the morning and this ended up costing me quite a bit, especially on the speed shoot stage. The weather threatened to rain in the morning with overcast skies and dark clouds. The rain held off until the third stage of the match then it rained on us pretty hard for about 20 – 30 minutes. That lead to some slightly muddy conditions, but it wasn’t horrible. After that main rain we had a few more slight rain/drizzle events but nothing horrible. Overall I thought that we got pretty darn lucky with the rain on Friday as it could have been way worse. I shot fairly solid on most of the stages. I got jammed up on a popper on the all steel stage costing me several seconds of wasted time. But I held it together and shot the steel very well overall. This was probably my best steel stage performance through the years of shooting this match. Being patient for 60+ pieces of steel is not easy.

The major mistake of the match was on stage 1 which was the speed shoot stage. I didn’t get a chance to check it out after the targets were up from a stage plan perspective so I went stuck with my original plan. I was also the second shooters up on the stage so I didn’t have time to reformulate my plan even if I wanted to. I shot my plan and it wasn’t optimal and on top of that I had a miss due to trying to shoot on the move too much. After seeing others on my squad shoot the stage it was obvious that I had missed the best stage plan and I was bummed because I had given up about 40 match points on the stage due to the bad plan and the miss. After the squad was done I reshot the stage with the correct stage plan and did it 2 seconds faster with better hits, which would have given me a stage win. Bummer, but the cost of trying to work the match and shoot it as well.

We completed the whole match on Friday and I was sitting in second about 50 match points behind Bob Krogh. It was a bummer to know that Stage 1 probably cost me the match win, but it is what it is. We still had to see how the Saturday shooters would do to see if our overall standings would hold up.

Saturday I was in full Range Master mode and did my best to help the shooters and staff get through the match efficiently and fairly. I had to deal with may rule calls and issue some DQ’s, but it was fun and challenging. Being in this position always forces you to get more intimate with the rule book and this time was no different. It was a great opportunity to get to know the rules even better and will make me a better in the future. The weather on Saturday was perfect. Clear skies and mid 70 degree temps made for perfect shooting weather. I am not going to lie, I was a little jealous of the Saturday shooters as I would have much preferred to shoot in the better lighting conditions. But it is what it is.

When the shooting was done on Saturday the overall match results didn’t change and I would stay in 2^nd in Limited at 96% of Bob. I will take a close second of Bob given the circumstances. Would I have preferred more time on the stages and better lighting conditions, hell yes. But sometimes you have to roll with the flow. Bob is shooting SOLID these days and just came from the Northern Arizona Classic where he beat Nils. So finishing second to that level of skill isn’t too shabby. I was able to get all of my stage runs uploaded to YouTube if you want to check them out.

Now it’s time to dig in and prepare for the Mile High Showdown where I am serving as the Match director. There is still a crap ton of work to get done before the start of that match on June 19 so I will be busy focusing on that over the next couple of weeks. I am going to shoot this match as well but I am putting ZERO expectations on my performance. Running the match is the top priority and shooting it is way down on the priority list.

[CHA-LEE]

I shot the Indoor Whistling Pines match last night. Before heading to the match I decided to replace my old Fell Raiser shoes with some new ones as this indoor match would be a good break in for them. Shiny new shoes have good traction but the sharp edges of the traction lugs like to catch on things. On the last stage of the match I was entering the final shooting box that was pretty small and my feet got caught together somehow. I didn’t fall down, but I had to fall out of the box to separate my feet and regain my balance after my feet stuck together. I think that the new sharp traction lugs caught on the top of the other shoe in the laces or something. It sucked to do the “Lord of Dance” in the last shooting box trying to recover from my feet being stuck together, but it is what it is. The first three stage runs were solid though and I was happy with my shooting performance.

I also got the chance to test out the ESS Crossbow shooting glasses that I modified to improve ventilation. They still don’t have enough ventilation and started to fog up unless I moved them further away from my face. With no wind to improve the ventilation these Crossbow glasses are just too stifling. I ended up switching back to my Rudy Project Rydon glasses about half way through the match because I got tired or wiping the sweat off of my eyes and continually screwing around with the position of the glasses to minimize the fogging. I think that the ESS Crossbow glasses will work great in the winter time when there is bone chilling wind blowing in your face outdoors. But they are not ventilated enough to work properly in the hot shooting weather.

I am glad that the Whistling Pines gun club started up the matches again after a two month hiatus. It’s fun to shoot indoors on Monday nights and have lighting good enough to actually see your sights.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I was pretty busy doing pretty much everything else other than shooting. I did get to shoot the Aurora USPSA club match on Sunday but I wasn’t into it and had a dismal performance. Shadow targets + Mentally disengaged = poor performance. I racked up 5 misses and 4 D’s total for the match so I was sucking big time. I could blame a host of things that didn’t go my way, but in the end these excuses really don’t matter if you are not mentally “There”, which I wasn’t. It was fun shooting with friends though and at least I got some blasting in over the weekend.

Right now I am 100% focused on getting the Mile High Showdown match pulled together. There are quite a few loose ends to wrap up before the start of the match in two weeks. It’s coming together though and I am feeling good about being as prepared as you can be. The number one factor that I have zero control of is the weather. It’s been a really wet spring so far with rain just about every day. I can only cross my fingers that we can avoid the rain during the match.

[d_striker]

Wish I could have committed to days where I could help with the Mile High but this is the time where we have to make the majority of our money for the year at the pub.

Aside from helping with setup on Thursday, let me know if there is anything else I can help with.

[CHA-LEE]

This was a busy weekend for me. On Saturday I headed out to the BLGC range to get some work done for the Mile High Showdown. There were 5 of us out there working hard to get all of the outstanding busy work items finished up before the start of the match. We got a lot done on Saturday and we should be in good shape from a props perspective for the Mile High Showdown. I still have some administrative stuff to get done for the match but I will get that taken care of this week.

On Sunday I headed down to Pueblo for their club match. The weather was hot in the morning and through most of the match then a crazy rain storm rolled in right as we finished up. We had mega rain and hail as we were driving away from the range. I was super glad that we were not still shooting at that time or it would have been no fun for sure. My match wasn’t too good. For the second week in a row I wasn’t mentally into it and it showed in my performance. I think I am simply too distracted by trying to get this Mile High Showdown match all pulled together. Right now it’s crazy with trying to wrap up loose ends along with dealing with all of the last minute competitor changes, questions, and whatever else. The one good thing that happened during the match was one of my stage runs was very solid. It was about as perfect as it can get for me and it’s rare to experience that level of performance. I don’t like to brag about my shooting performance, but I am sure that stage run would have been a stage winning performance at the Nationals even with all of the big dogs in attendance. It’s cool to experience that kind of stuff, especially when I was having a pretty “ho hum” day of shooting otherwise.

Tonight I am heading down to Colorado Springs for the Whistling Pines club match. This will be my last opportunity to get some shooting done before the start of the Mile High Showdown. Hopefully I can snap out of the distracted mental state and get some decent shooting done. We will see how it goes.

[DocMedic]

That wouldn't be the stage that you pushed us mere mortals to 70% of your stage score and having shot 6 seconds faster then anyone else o.0.. I'm not worthy.

[CHA-LEE]

I shot the Whistling Pines indoor USPSA match last night. They had four fun stages to shoot and they were a good mixture of aiming and blasting. During the shooters meeting the match director announced that they were going to scale back the frequency of matches to only once a month. That is a bummer but I understand why they had to do it.

We recently had an RO class here in Colorado so there are a bunch of new RO’s eager to dive in and start running shootings at the matches. It’s nice to see the new RO’s go through the paces and learn that side of the sport. For some new RO’s I think it’s a pretty decent eye opener on how much effort and responsibility actually goes into ROing properly. Good for them and good for me. I would like to step back from ROing most of the time at the local matches and settle back into a “Normal Shooter” type of participation.

The start of the Mile High Showdown is only a couple of days away. I am doing my best to get all of the loose ends wrapped up before the start of the match and I am making decent headway on it. We will setup the stages on Thursday then run the match on Fri – Sun. So this is going to be one Loooooooong weekend of ass busting. I hope it goes smooth with as little drama as possible. We will see how it goes.

[obsessiveshooter]

Thanks for all your hard work on the MHS! It was creative and tough, and it went smooth as far as I experienced it. Great match.

[BritinUSA]

The match was amazing ! The stages were challenging and provided lots of options for the competitors, the whole event ran like a swiss watch.

[birdog]

Awesome job Panda. A great opportunity to stretch the comfort zone = GROWTH. Thank you and all of your super staff.

[Vanniek71]

Great match, although I now think my name is Mike.......

Can't wait till next year, thanks for all the hard work

[DocMedic]

Charlie, this was on heck of a match. It had a great mix bag of of shooting arrangements that were fun and also challenging. Due to my mags not being tuned (can only do 17 reloadable) I had to shoot some stages a little different then other shooters, but I didn't feel I was hindered much in doing so, the stages had plenty of different options on how to shoot them, which is awesome.

[d_striker]

Awesome match. The only way it could have been better is if you turned down the temp 20 degrees.

Thanks for all the hard work. It's such a privilege having matches of this caliber so close to home.

[CHA-LEE]

You are welcome guys. I busted my hump to make the Mile High Showdown the best it could be and am really happy with how it turned out. I am just one cog in the machine though. The match staff as a whole doing their best is what made the match run smoothly and effectively. I am really proud of the match staff for stepping up to the challenge and knocking it out of the park!!!

Now I would like to go into a coma for a week after this exhausting long weekend. But I have to get my gear reworked and ready to rumble for the Area 1 match next weekend. No rest for the Big Panda!!!

Edited June 22, 2015 by CHA-LEE

[drewbeck]

Thanks for all your hard work on this match it was great. Also a huge thanks to all the staff and sponsors. I did notice you had a few opportunities to take a seat in the shade over the weekend, which speaks volumes to how much effort and preparation you had put into the match prior to it and how efficiently if ran without drama throughout the event.

Also a big thanks to Rick Hebert (rickhebert.com) for his huge donations of the gift certificates for a new custom build, this was a significant sponsorship and shows how much he supports both the local matches and the shooting sports as a whole.

Awesome match Panda and staff!

[CHA-LEE]

I am finally somewhat recovered from the Mile High Showdown so I can put some effort into making a range diary update. The Mile High Showdown was a success. I busted my hump from Thursday through Sunday and was totally wiped out by the end of the weekend. We got all of the stages setup on Thursday with a bunch of help from others. There was only one stage that didn’t turn out exactly the way I envisioned it. I needed the bay to be about 10 yards wider to make it the way I wanted it to be. But at that point in the process I simply had to suck it up and make due with what I had. We got done setting up early enough that I actually got a chance to walk the stages from a competition perspective. I was pleasantly surprised in how well the stages turned out as I looked at them from a shooting perspective. Every stage had many different options in how to shoot them with no “follow the leader” only one way to do it stages. This was exactly what I was looking to accomplish for these stages. Since there were so many different ways to shoot the stages it made stage planning a significant factor in doing well on them.

On Friday I hit the ground running getting to the range at about 6:30AM and got everything and everyone wrangled where they should be for the start of the match. I tentatively planned on shooting the whole match on Friday as well, but kept my shooting as a back seat to the MD duties. I was on a great squad of shooters and I ROed most of the time unless I was shooting or pulled away to take care of some match issue. They were great in letting me step away as needed to handle things. Luckily there wasn’t much “Drama” to deal with that day and the match ran pretty smooth so I was able to get all of the stages shot on Friday. My shooting was conservative as my primary goal was to simply get all of my hits and not worry about anything else. This resulted in some stage runs that were a little slower than they normally would be, but I shot the match clean with zero penalties and only 4 D’s. This consistent performance put me in second place about 22 match points behind Paul Clark Jr who had a solid match performance. I thought that if I shot clean I would be able to pull ahead of Paul, but I was being a little too conservative. Oh well, shooting the match clean while being tasked with Match Director and Range Master duties that day was a personal WIN for me. After shooting I still had to button everything up for the next day and get the match results processed and sent out. By the end of Friday I was TOAST and got home at about 9PM.

Since I was able to get all of the shooting done on Friday I could focus 100% on running the match over the weekend. The Sat/Sun shooting schedule had the bulk of the shooters and we also had standing RO’s for the stages. Jerry Westcott also stepped into the Range Master roll for the weekend so I could focus on MD duties. Along with being the MD I was also the score keeper so I had to keep the Nooks going and get them synced up throughout the match. The match ran like a well oiled machine over the weekend with no major issues. I was super glad that I got the whole match shot on Friday because I was really feeling physically beat up on Saturday and Sunday. I don’t know if I could have run around the stages aggressively in that beat up condition.

Bob Krogh was shooting the match on Sat/Sun and I expected him to pull ahead of Paul and myself in the results given how well he has been shooting lately. I watched him shoot a few of the stages and it was cool to see him use slightly different stage plans but yield the same or better results. Bob shot very well over the whole weekend and ended up 34 match points ahead of Paul Clark Jr. It was cool to see the results end up so close between the three of us. Bob won Limited, Paul Clark Jr was 97% and I was 96%. Could I have made up those 50 – 60 match points if I wasn’t running the match? Maybe, maybe not. I know my match performance was circumvented by running the match, but that comes with the territory.

I am super glad that the match turned out the way I wanted it to. Everything happened as it should and there were very few issues to deal with. I am glad that I had the opportunity to pull this match together and make it a successful event. I am also glad that it is over so I can move from underneath the crushing weight of it. Now I can get back to focusing on my own shooting!!! With that, I am heading to the Area 1 match on Thursday. I still need to get my shooting gear reworked and ready for the match and plan on doing that tomorrow. It just seems like there are not enough hours in the day to get everything done. That is why I am pulling together this range diary entry at 10:30PM. Time to hit the sack and get some sleep!!!

[PatJones]

Good luck at area 1 boss. Show them how it's done in Colorado.

[CHA-LEE]

I am finally caught up from the Area 1 match. We decided to drive up to Idaho Falls where the match was hosted on Thursday and it was a long and boring 10 hour drive. We got up on Friday morning and headed to the range to check out the stages and watch the competitors shoot. We had to bounce around quite a bit to get a chance to check out all of the stages because of the squads shooting, but it gave us a chance to see the moving targets while they were shooting so that was nice. There were 12 fun stages to shoot with varying shooting challenges. The dirt at the range tends to be super fine dust that is like moon dust when you walk on it. Keeping that dust out of your mags and gun would be super important to keeping your stuff running solidly through the match.

I signed up for Squad 52 which was scheduled for a Sat/Sun schedule with us competing in the AM’s. This turned out to be a HUGE plus since Idaho Falls was experiencing record heat in the triple digits. It was nice to get the majority of the shooting done before it got mega hot.

On Saturday we shot Stages 1 – 7 and I had what I would consider an “OK” day of shooting. I shot some stages well, but most of my runs were nothing special. On stage 3 I had two shots that were super close to one another on a down range target and it was called as an Alpha Mike. I requested the CRO to double check it and it was ruled as a miss even though it looked different than the other hits in the targets next to it. Oh well, sometimes target rulings go in your favor, sometimes they don’t. The real sucky thing is that I also ended up hitting a no shoot on the same stage. So eating a Miss / No Shoot on one stage was pretty bad. I did my best to put it behind me and ended up pulling together a very solid run on the next stage which ended up being a stage win in Limited. After that was a standards type of stage with two strings of fire using freestyle, strong, and weak hand shooting. I didn’t want to risk any more misses for the day so I shot the stage really tentative and got all of my hits, with only 2 C’s but was too slow to be competitive. After that was the “House” stage which I did pretty well on but nothing special. Then we wrapped up the day on stage 1 which had a trap door and a low port to shoot through. I botched up Stage 1 pretty good needing 4 rounds to take down the steel then ran the gun dry and needed to rack it after getting into the final position. I gave up 3 – 4 seconds on that stage is screw-ups but at least got all of my hits. I wasn’t too happy or bummed about my performance on Saturday. I had some mistakes but nothing too bad to totally kill my overall performance.

Sunday was a huge train wreck for the most part. I did the math the night before, and if I simply shot clean on Sunday with fairly decent stage times I would have a good chance of finishing at 95% of Bob Krogh who was leading the match. Well……. That didn’t happen. On the first stage of the day I racked up a miss that I called a miss then went back to make it up and made it up on the wrong target. Crappy time + a miss, yuck. The next stage I shot fairly decent but needed a few extra shots on steel. Then on the suit case stage I kicked some butt. Solid stage run with good points and it yielded another stage win. I thought I had dug myself back out of the hole, then I got to stage 12 which had two clam shells activated by a step pad and the train wreck hit. I decided to not engage the clam shells back to back like most others but instead engage the left clam as I headed down range then shoot the sliver of the head on the right clam at the end of the run. Well, I ended up waiting for the left clam to open wasting a second, then I proceeded to clip the no shoot on the sliver head right clam and at the very end pulled my last shot into the black then made it up after I had dropped the gun down. I gave away a lot of time and 10 more points with the no shoot clip. At this point in the match I knew that I had to knock it out of the park on stage 13 to get somewhat back on pace for 2^nd overall in Limited. I shot stage 13 as aggressively as I dared and forced myself to haul ass as much as possible. The run felt SOLID and I knew I didn’t leave much stage time on the table. But I ended up with a miss on the lay down target through the port. It was a super elongated hit that could have been two hits so I called for a ruling, but only one hit was “found” so I had to eat yet another miss. At this point my motivation for even trying to do well was crushed. I had screwed the pooch so bad already that no matter what I did on the last stage of the match I would be lucky to finish in the top 5. The last stage of the match was yet another train wreck of unfocused shooting because I had already given up before even getting to the bay. My unfocused shooting netted me yet another miss to add to the pile. All told I racked up 3 misses and 1 No Shoot on Sunday and that effectively took me out of contention for getting second place. Bummer.

When the results were tallied I ended up 4^th in Limited at 88% of Bob Krogh who crushed second place by 9%. I had an opportunity to solidly move into second overall but I squandered the opportunity. It sucks to fail like that, but it is what it is. On the long drive home I wondered what the heck happened to me at this match to perform so poorly overall and the only thing I can think of is still being mentally and physically beat down from running the Mile High Showdown. I probably needed more down time to recover from running that major match. This sport is full of lessons to learn I guess.

I uploaded all of my stage runs on my YouTube channel if you want to check it out. Huge thanks to by buddy John Arenas for getting great video of all my stage runs!!!

[Bkreutz]

Good to finally meet you at the match. I'm still recovering from the heat. Sitting in a motel in Missoula MT I'll make it home tomorrow.

[CHA-LEE]

This past week I seemed to still have the “Mile High Showdown” hangover being very unmotivated to deal with anything shooting related. This situation is a surprise to me as it hasn’t happened in the past but I guess I am dealing with a little bit of burn out due to hosting the match and being run like a rental for so long.

The Sunday match got canceled so I decided to go out and practice with friends instead. My primary goal for the practice session was to simply have fun and not worry about my shooting performance. I succeeded in having fun shooting with friends and it was nice to simply shoot and have fun while doing it. Since I simply let the shooting happen at whatever pace it wanted to go I actually shot pretty solid during the whole practice session. Having fun and shooting well was a nice change of pace.

It was hot at the range on Sunday peaking out in the high 90’s. There was very little wind at the range so it made it feel a lot hotter than it was. Much sweating was had by all. One of my buddies said “Man, its Africa HOT out here today” and that made me laugh and cringe at the same time because he was right. We wrapped up shooting at about 1PM and headed back home for the day to escape the heat. That was fine with me as I was pretty much done with wanting to shoot anyway.

It was nice to go out and shoot and just have fun. I need to do some more of that to get out of this MHS post match burn out. Tonight I am heading down to Whistling Pines for their indoor match and that should be fun as it always is.

This week I have to get a bunch of ammo reloaded as I am running low on my stock pile, then get my gear ready for the Great Plains Sectional match in Nebraska this coming weekend. This is the busy major match time of the year so I have to shake off this burn out and get back on the band wagon. We will see how it goes this week.

[CHA-LEE]

Last night I went down to the Whistling Pines indoor match in Colorado Springs and FORGOT my shooting belt……….DOOOOOH!!!! Luckily one of the local shooters had a spare shooting belt rig for an STI at home and lived close enough to go get it before the start of the match. The holster & mag pouch setup wasn’t ideal for me, but it worked so I wasn’t complaining. Beggars can’t be choosers and I was happy to have ANY holster and mag pouches to use for the match. It got the job done and that is all that mattered. The thing I really like is how fellow shooters will go out of their way to help each other out. Shooters are AWESOME like that!!!

I shot the match fairly solid except for one stage where I didn’t seat the mag properly and it fell out of the gun in the next shooting position. The day before this match I put new mag springs in the mags and they were pretty stiff while loading them up, which is normal on new springs. Well, on my STI tube mags I can cram 21 rounds into them but the top round will not compress any more so it won’t seat in the gun during a reload. Normally I can “Feel” some extra effort needed to cram that 21^st round in the mag, but with the new springs it was hard getting the rounds in the mag after about 15 rounds so I ended up cramming 21 rounds into a mag and didn’t even realize it until I tried to load to it during the stage run. I had to reload using that same mag off of the floor after it mag fell out and I hammered it home with big panda vengeance the second time. Somehow it seated and I was able to finish the stage, but that was after I wasted a good 7 – 8 seconds dealing with the whole situation. I am sure it was entertaining to watch for the squad. I am glad that I could provide some comic relief for my fellow shooters in the middle of the match.

Other than the mag dropping debacle, I had a fairly decent performance on all of the other stages. I wrestled with the holster a couple of times during the draw as the gun wouldn’t come out cleanly unless I drew the gun straight up. But Most of the time there was some kind of movement during the draw to mask the issue. Like I said before, I was just happy to have ANY holster to use verses not having one. Most importantly, I had FUN the whole night and didn’t have any “Mile High Showdown” hangover/burn out feelings. It’s looking like I have successfully shaken off the post major match funk of almost burning out while running a major match.

This week I have to get my blaster cleaned up and load a crap ton of ammo. Then get my gear ready for the Great Plains Section match in Nebraska this coming weekend.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I attended the Great Plains Sectional match in Louisville Nebraska. I drove out to this match with my buddies Nick and John so we piled into my 4Runner and headed out early on Saturday morning. It was about an 8 hour drive to the range and we got there at about 3PM to check out the stages. This match is shot all in one day with the staff shooting on Saturday and the competitors shooting on Sunday. The weather forecast for this match was in the mid 90’s with about 80% humidity so I knew this was going to be a hot and sweaty weekend. We got a chance to check out all of the stages in about an hour and a half and by then we were all drenched in sweat. Knowing how brutal Sunday was going to be while at the range all day we headed to the store to stock up on water, snacks and even bought a cooler.

They had record heat on Sunday topping out at 97 degrees with about 80% humidity and it was BRUTALLY HOT. I don’t think that I have ever sweated that much in a whole weekend much less a single day. Since I knew that this would be a mega sweat fest I drank water treated with the Advocare Rehydrate constantly all day. By the end of the match I had drank over 2 gallons of water + rehydrate and was still showing signs of dehydration. I am not going to lie, shooting in those hot and humid conditions was absolutely miserable. The good thing is that keeping on a steady drinking regiment along with nibbling on snacks every stage kept me Mentally and Physically alert. I didn’t experience the mental brain fade that I normally would in these kind of conditions and I physically felt like I could continue performing to the peak of my abilities even after finishing the last stage. In my mind, the ONLY way that was possible was due to the Rehydrate stuff. Rehydrate works awesome in these kind of conditions.

As for a match performance perspective, I started out pretty crappy then finished up pretty solid. The first two stages of the day I was battling the “Shadow Target” can’t see my sights issue. I ended up with one miss on each of the first two stages of the day which were Stages 5 & 6. Both of these misses were uncalled as I couldn’t see my sights worth a crap. Then Stage 7 was more of the same mixed in with some bad luck. Stage 7 pretty much did me in from an overall match win perspective. I could get away with the two misses on stages 5 & 6, but stage 7 sunk me. Stage 7 was horribly executed all the way around. I ended up missing steel like crazy needing 6 make up shots on steel. Then I ran the gun dry when I got to the center of the stage to engage the swingers and had to rack the gun and wait for the swingers to appear again. To top it off I ended up with one miss on each swinger. Holly Crappy Bat Man!!!

Since I had racked up 4 misses on the first three stages I went into ultra conservative shooting speed mode on the next two stages, which yielded good hits and no penalties, but were just too slow. Stages 8 & 9 are good examples of going way too conservative after screwing up a bunch on the stages before that. After stage 9 we took a break for lunch and I regathered myself and decided to shoot the remaining stages as I normally would without being overly cautious. The Sun was high in the sky by then and the “Shadow Target” issues were over with. The only remaining thing I really had to battle was staying Hydrated so I wouldn’t degrade into a mental or physical slump. After lunch I shot the remaining 4 stages (Stages 1 – 4) solidly and only gave up a couple of D’s. I was happy with the last four stage performances and my hydration regiment allowed me to finish up strong. I wish I could say the same for my squad mates though as I really seen their mental and physical abilities go into the toilet after lunch due to the extremely hot and sweaty shooting conditions taking their toll on them.

As soon as we were done shooting we hit the road back home. Everyone was eager to get into the air conditioned 4Runner to stop the torture. We stopped at a Flying J to take showers and get freshened up for the 8 hour drive home. While driving home I wondered how I finished overall with the four misses and train wreck stage 7 performance. Eventually the match results were posted on Practiscore and I ended up 2^nd Overall In Limited at 98% of Master class shooter Craig Tappe. I got beat by 20 match. It just goes to show once again, that you can’t expect to do well with a bunch of misses and a blown stage. It is what it is though and many lessons were learned or weaknesses confirmed. I confirmed once again that I suck at shooting “Shadow Targets” early in the morning. I also confirmed that shooting in mega hot and swampy range conditions is not very fun. The positive take away from this match is that I confirmed that Rehydrate WORKS when you are shooting in crazy hot & sweaty range conditions. I have never finished mega hot & sweaty match like this with a solid mental and physical condition like I did this time. Confirming this alone was worth the trip for me. Now I can go into the Area 3 match with more confidence in being able to mentally and physically deal with the horribly hot and humid weather.

Edited July 13, 2015 by CHA-LEE

[Vanniek71]

CHA-LEE - glad the Rehydrate is working for you, love to hear about these products working in extreme conditions and making a difference!

Signed,

The " Dealer"

LOL

[d_striker]

Ordered another jar of Spark and am trying the Rehydrate.

GM juice in a can, right?