ihatepickles' shooting log

[ihatepickles]

The results are posted, I finished 8 of 21. I shot 79% of the available points.

I did a poor job getting my mind focused on the job at hand. On at least 2 of the stages, I didn't have a plan nailed down until after I saw the first 3-4 shooters make their run. I know how poorly those would've turned out if I'd been the first shooter on the stage.

Grumble, grumble... I need to find some ways to turn my performance in the right direction. Right now I'm probably reaching too hard and the let down sucks.

[monicataliani]

The results are posted, I finished 8 of 21. I shot 79% of the available points.

I did a poor job getting my mind focused on the job at hand. On at least 2 of the stages, I didn't have a plan nailed down until after I saw the first 3-4 shooters make their run. I know how poorly those would've turned out if I'd been the first shooter on the stage.

Grumble, grumble... I need to find some ways to turn my performance in the right direction. Right now I'm probably reaching too hard and the let down sucks.

Just keep in mind, even a "bad" day at the range is better than no day at the range!

[ihatepickles]

Just keep in mind, even a "bad" day at the range is better than no day at the range!

Thanks for the perspective, and you're right.

I feel the potential that I have and I see glimpses of really impressive shooting within. I think I'm expecting too much too quickly though. I want the brass ring!

[monicataliani]

Just keep in mind, even a "bad" day at the range is better than no day at the range!

Thanks for the perspective, and you're right.

I feel the potential that I have and I see glimpses of really impressive shooting within. I think I'm expecting too much too quickly though. I want the brass ring!

I find that I have that same problem!!! I just started shooting this summer but get discouraged sometimes when I can't be competitive with the pack.

[ihatepickles]

I shot the Gun Warehouse match today. Their format is a morning session with 5 stages. If you want a second run, you can shoot the afternoon in a different division. Morning session I shot Production and afternoon Lim10 (minor) with my Production setup. I think I got more out of today than the score will reflect. My footwork will probably improve based a few things I saw today from other shooters.

The stages had a lot of hardcover and no shoots. The classifier was CM03-08 Madness. I ended up making a mental mistake on the second run of the classifier, I took a make up shot on a Virginia count stage . Lots of mags on the barrels stages. A deceptive shot on a 20 yard plate messed with my head a lot, so much so I'm going to double check my zero later this week.

There was one stage I'm wondering about. Starting at a closed door with 2 firing positions about 7 yards uprange from the door, all reloads had to be done off the barrels at each firing position. I shot it differently than everyone else, including what I think were the better shooters at the match. Everyone I saw opened the door, stood and shot, reloaded off the barrel and then retreated to the other positions. I opened the door and made a slow backwards walk away from the targets while shooting, then performed my reload off the rear barrels and finished the stage. It seem to come down to a stand and shoot, reload, haul ass vs. shoot on the move and reload coming into the next position. I dunno really, I liked my way but better shooters did it their way. I wish I'd bounced this off a few of them to see what they thought.

My mag changes are still quirky. I had a few hard hangups trying to feed the beast. In stress, I'm not rotating the magwell to be inline with the incoming mag. The hand/wrist with the mag in it isn't straight, I end up seating the mag with my fingers. It's very different than my dryfire practice mag swaps. More reps on the mag changes are needed, and I need to find a way to add stress to my dryfire so that practice better mirrors matchday.

Scores may be up later tonight, we'll see. I'm guessing I got 85% of the points. The Production and LIm10 runs felt the same to me, I don't think I materially improved my hit factors.

[steel1212]

I shot the Gun Warehouse match today. Their format is a morning session with 5 stages. If you want a second run, you can shoot the afternoon in a different division. Morning session I shot Production and afternoon Lim10 (minor) with my Production setup. I think I got more out of today than the score will reflect. My footwork will probably improve based a few things I saw today from other shooters.

The stages had a lot of hardcover and no shoots. The classifier was CM03-08 Madness. I ended up making a mental mistake on the second run of the classifier, I took a make up shot on a Virginia count stage . Lots of mags on the barrels stages. A deceptive shot on a 20 yard plate messed with my head a lot, so much so I'm going to double check my zero later this week.

There was one stage I'm wondering about. Starting at a closed door with 2 firing positions about 7 yards uprange from the door, all reloads had to be done off the barrels at each firing position. I shot it differently than everyone else, including what I think were the better shooters at the match. Everyone I saw opened the door, stood and shot, reloaded off the barrel and then retreated to the other positions. I opened the door and made a slow backwards walk away from the targets while shooting, then performed my reload off the rear barrels and finished the stage. It seem to come down to a stand and shoot, reload, haul ass vs. shoot on the move and reload coming into the next position. I dunno really, I liked my way but better shooters did it their way. I wish I'd bounced this off a few of them to see what they thought.

My mag changes are still quirky. I had a few hard hangups trying to feed the beast. In stress, I'm not rotating the magwell to be inline with the incoming mag. The hand/wrist with the mag in it isn't straight, I end up seating the mag with my fingers. It's very different than my dryfire practice mag swaps. More reps on the mag changes are needed, and I need to find a way to add stress to my dryfire so that practice better mirrors matchday.

Scores may be up later tonight, we'll see. I'm guessing I got 85% of the points. The Production and LIm10 runs felt the same to me, I don't think I materially improved my hit factors.

Me and Shaun did the stand and shoot do to the difficulty of the shots and keep from doing a standing reload. It allowed us to shoot a little faster and do the reload coming back

Scores will be up Tuesday when I'm back at work.

Edited October 17, 2011 by steel1212

[SteveU]

I agree. A lot of shooters would choose NOT to take a partial hardcover target with a NS covering yet another portion on the move. Plus you never know if the door is going to swing closed when you are too far back to stop it

Having said that, if it worked for you, great. I personally have more confidence in my ability to make up time running than taking those shots moving. But I would have definitely done it your way if I knew that the door wouldn't swing open and closed again, and if the NS wasn't there.

[ihatepickles]

Me and Shaun did the stand and shoot do to the difficulty of the shots and keep from doing a standing reload. It allowed us to shoot a little faster and do the reload coming back

I understand. I don't mean to make this sound like I'm calling out your shooting (or Shaun's), it just looked like a standing reload to me at the door when I saw your runs. Especially Shaun's second run, it looked (to me) like bang x8, standing reload, haul ass to the second position. You two hit your mag changes so smoothly it's hard to fault one way vs. the other though.

In my case, simplifying the mag change was a priority. I was concerned about pulling off the rearward movement plus mag change. It's just cool to see different ways to break down stages regardless, for instance the 32 round stage and the SS vs Prod mag changes.

[ihatepickles]

Having said that, if it worked for you, great. I personally have more confidence in my ability to make up time running than taking those shots moving. But I would have definitely done it your way if I knew that the door wouldn't swing open and closed again, and if the NS wasn't there.

Yeah, and that's cool. I can see that, trading one set of hard skills vs another (shooting on the move plus hardcover vs mag changing plus uprange run). I've always had pretty good confidence shooting on the move though, trying to maximize my better skills vs. pushing my questionable ones.

For what this is worth, I never feared the door moving. I made sure not to gorilla the door when I opened it. I tried it about 3 times in the walkthrough and never had it drift closed. We all pay our money and take our chances though.

[want2race]

I considered shooting the door stage the way you did. Here's what changed my mind: First, the difficulty of the first 8 targets, mainly the the bottom two. I felt I could still hose them pretty fast if I was standing still. Second, standing reload. Shooting on the move is good, but it's not always the fastest way. Once you got to the back left barrel, it was a straight up standing reload.

Grabbing the mag off the front barrel and reloading while moving back allowed me to be ready to shoot as soon as I got to the position. It wasn't a standing reload at the door, just had to grab the mag off the barrel, then start moving back.

I saw many do this also, if they started on the harder bottom targets they never sped up the shot cadence one the easier top targets.

Let's say you are getting .5 second splits and transitions on those 8 targets shooting on the move. 4 seconds. At that time you are now a the back left barrel ready to reload, let's estimate 2 seconds for a reload off the barrel. Now to shoot it standing still. Easier to shoot so let's say .25 splits and transitions. 2 seconds for the same 8 targets. Grab mag and move back while reloading. Figure about 3 seconds to move to the back left barrel and ready to fire. 5 seconds vs 6 seconds with a MUCH lower crash factor. The numbers may not be right, but that was my thought process.

Edited October 17, 2011 by want2race

[ihatepickles]

Some other thoughts on my match, I need to increase my weak hand grip pressure. I think I'm overgripping with my strong hand.

Thanks for the comments as well, I'm always looking for ways to improve.

[steel1212]

Steve, I like having you at my matches, you dissect my stages and you'll make me a better MD as well as a shooter!

There are somethings I do for certain reasons and somethings I do just because I've always done them, doesn't mean I'm right lol.

I'm like Surge, I have more confidence that I can shoot faster stationary than trying to hit that array while moving and I'll describe what I did on your other post

[ihatepickles]

Scores are posted. I won (1 of 13) Production by a little over 1% and placed second (2 of 5) in L10 nearly 43% behind the first place shooter. Production was a field of mostly C, D and U shooters. L10 was won by an upper A shooter. I'm not saying I'm not pleased to get a win, but the field wasn't an even mix of GM-D shooters so it's taken with a grain of salt.

I shot 78% (Production) and 81% (L10) of the available points. To put this in perspective, there were some hard shots at this match. However, regardless of difficulty I still need to get the points and not accept less.

Also ongoing is building a 9mm load. The work on the garage is done and the XL650 is back in action. The XDM won't eat 147 gr Precisions loaded longer than 1.100" OAL so I'm trying to figure out if a safe Solo 1000 load can be assembled. I think I'm going to build 20 of each: 3.0 gr, 3.2 gr, and 3.4 gr of Solo 1000 all loaded at 1.100" and see how these feel and shoot. I gotta get off the Internet though and get that done, the Enos forums strike another heavy blow on my productivity...

[ihatepickles]

I shot the Indiana Prod/SS/Rev match this past weekend. On the upside, I added to my list of forum members I've gotten a chance to shoot with. I peeked in Flex's range bag while he was shooting and got a glimpse of the banhammer but I was way too scared to touch it.

The downside was my points. They stunk. I shot 85% of the available points. Lots of extra shots. I lost count of the the Charlies I made up with new Charlies. I finished 36th out of 80 Production shooters.

My reloaded ammo ran flawless. My magazine changes are better. They're not good enough yet, but they're better. I had one mag change hang up really badly and it was due to bumping my elbow on a stage prop, kinda hard to count that as a purely mag change mistake.

I successfully argued a procedural and helped another shooter get some Alphas that cut the noshoot perf that overlapped an A zone behind it. I also found a hiding Delta that a pesky RO was trying hang a Mike on me for.

I broke down all the stages pretty well with an exception of the memory stage. I didn't have a solid enough plan to run in 10 round chunks, I defaulted to 6 round chunks so I could play it safe in the event of extra shots. It was my worst stage, I place 60 of 80 shooters. The worst part of this stage for me was realizing how lame my plan was prior to my run. I tried to work out something solid that would be more efficient but just couldn't settle on something that I knew would be more solid than the 6 shot chunk plan I had. I could've gambled... who knows. Really though, no reason to gamble on this. I didn't realize being a bit conservative would've hurt my overall so much though, I really felt playing safer would've benefited me but now I'm convinced otherwise.

I found a cool gamer trick for the gimmick stage that required port activation in the WSB. The targets were available strong hand only with a hard lean around a prop and the port could be activated off the clock once the shooting was done. I didn't feel I personally would saved time with SHO shooting vs. port activation so I chickened out and went for solid points. I saw a better shooter use my trick to good effect, he finished 2nd on the stage even with a Mike.

I've decided I need to put several weeks of practice and effort into reducing my extra shots. I took 293 shots on a 234 minimum match. That's 59 extra shots although I know I dropped at least 3 of my ULSC rounds so call it 56 rounds. I'd estimate 8 of those rounds went towards steel. I triple tapped 4 swingers. The rest of the extra shots went to sloppy work on my sights while on paper. If I didn't register the shot call, I took a makeup shot. I'm torn about this. I'm glad I took the make up for a unknown shot. I'm not glad about all the extra shots though.

I need to get more solid on my shot calling to reduce my extra rounds. I can call shots but I lack the discipline to do it every time. I'd call it fading focus on the job at hand. I'd estimate my shot calling is turned on 80% of the time, not sure where the 20% is going.

I still enjoy the XDM, but I'm wishing I could run a lighter recoil spring. The muzzle is still a bit flippy for my taste. A lighter spring would help but I don't think the pistol will function correctly with the push/pull of the XDM recoil spring/striker spring setup. I might order the lighter recoil spring as well as a lighter striker spring and see how it goes.

[Chris iliff]

I'm with you on the make up shots. They are a time killer. At two different classes, Manny Bragg's and EIS training, both said that a make up shot costs about 1 second (like a makeup on steel). Also, each time you do it, it lowers your overall match % by 1. It's a killer.

I RO'd the Indiana State match over the weekend and with this makeup/1 second tidbit in mind I really paid attention to times. It held darn close to perfect. Guys would run my stage and I could just about call the time by how they moved and adding a second for each make up on steel. It's a killer.

[ihatepickles]

Thanks for the info from Manny, I'd love to catch one of his classes.

Regarding the extra shots and being patient with my visuals, I know this: I don't shoot matches like I practice. Finding the practical things I can modify in my practice that will carry over to my shooting is a challenge. I feel like I need to start videoing my matches, I can't think of any other way to get the feedback I need.

[Chris iliff]

Yep, vidoe is eye opening. I started video on stages and I've learned a ton about myself while shooting. There are many cameras. I bought a Kodak playsport. Cost around $150 and it's waterproof. In fact you can video under water to 10 feet. Check some of my vids (Fourtrax's Range Report). I like that it is easy to operate and in about 1 second I can hand it to someone and explain how to use it. My Utube name is Fourtrax08, all videos are with the Kodak.

As a side note: I talked to several different shooters, some GM's, the best is third person video This will let you see all your movement. 1st person (camera on head) is good, but you don't get the movement and setup details.

Edited November 2, 2011 by Chris iliff

[Flexmoney]

Your makeup shots didn't cost a second. Well, not any ONE of them, anyways.

At most, your's cost a split...and maybe a few transitions. But, you didn't really ever stop making forward progress toward the last shot of the stage...and that is the only one that stops the timer.

If you had swung away from a target...had to stop...swing back...then swing again to the next target... that could be a second.

Let me know if you want some feedback from what I saw.

[ihatepickles]

Let me know if you want some feedback from what I saw.

Sure, feedback would be great.

[Chris iliff]

[quote name='ihatepickles' timestamp='1320129326'

I successfully argued a procedural and helped another shooter get some Alphas that cut the noshoot perf that overlapped an A zone behind it. I also found a hiding Delta that a pesky RO was trying hang a Mike on me

Not being "pesky". I am glad you noticed, I'm always open. You guys were first of the day, I'll warm up next time with jumping jacks on cold mornings.

[ihatepickles]

Not being "pesky". I am glad you noticed, I'm always open. You guys were first of the day, I'll warm up next time with jumping jacks on cold mornings.

Hopefully the mood of my match post as a whole conveys the goofiness I felt about the match. The ROs were not an issue for me. My issues were my shooting.

If you read back through my log you'll see I generally comment on my match admin stuff and my overall mindset during scoring. I hope things didn't come across us vs. them in respect to shooters and ROs.

I could literally see your coffee kick in when I spoke up about the procedural, your eyes lit up and from there on out you were a lean mean RO'ing machine. Early stages tend to be the most dangerous for me, I haven't quite gotten my head fully into the game. By the 3rd stage I'm usually into my stride. Your stage was a tough one to begin on and I'm glad I spent the hour pre-match checking it out.

[Chris iliff]

Hey, I'm good! Just poking some fun. I am so serious when I say, thanks for pointing out stuff. I'll take that any day over giving out an unquestioned bad call. I'm glad you had fun.

[ihatepickles]

I shot the BGSL match today and the weather was great. It was 5 stages of field courses.

Bay 1 was a V shaped CoF that broke up into 8 shots, 4 shots, 8 shots, 4 shots, 8 shots. I saw no benefit to trying to save a mag change with all that movement. I made 4 mag changes. It was 24+ seconds with 154/160 points. I really felt pretty good about this stage, within my squad my time was quick and my hits were good. To add to this I was the second shooter to run it so I felt a bit un-warmed up.

Bay 2 was a field course with a seated start in the middle and long lateral movement. It was 12 shots in the middle, 8 on the right, and 8 on the left. I was the first shooter. I decided to take 4 shots on the start, reload and then work right to left. This would prevent a standing reload in the middle. I threw a miss on the middle array, on the 4 targets I took right at the start. No idea about that really, but my hits were very sloppy on all targets so I'm assuming that Mike was a result of the sloppiness. On the right side I had to hop onto a platform and shoot. No sweat on the right, good hits. In the middle position I foot faulted and got a procedural. On the left I had to kneel for shots and had 2 misses. This stage killed me, 4 Mikes and a Procedural. Insult to injury: I'd taken my knee pads out of my bag for the Indiana match and forgotten to put them back in, so my knees are ripped up pretty bad from going down quickly on the gravel for the left array.

Bay 3 was a pretty elegant little puzzle with hard cover targets. I threw a miss into hardcover. Perhaps worse than the miss I plugged 2 Charlies on the 3 yard gimme through the final port. OK the Charlies weren't as bad as a miss, but dropping such easy points is stupid. I find it easier to accept I screwed up a tough shot that screwing up an easy one. I do remember I ripped through a quad array with a centrally placed no-shoot. I shot that part like greased lightening and didn't let the no-shoot scare me at all, I had really strong confidence in my front sight.

Bay 4 was the classifier, CM 99-10 Times Two which I shot last month at Silver Creek. Slowly but surely I'm dumping out the 2007 percentages I shot and working towards a better classification. I was a bit sloppy on the classifier and shot 50/60 points in 7.57 seconds. The classifier calc says 73%. Not great but decent. I missed my magwell slightly on the reload, I figure that was half a second I lost.

Bay 6 was 16 paper with hardcover in groups of 4 with ports and leaning required. I shot 150/160 points in 19.78 seconds. Again, I'm not sure where that puts my overall but in my squad it was a decent time with solid hits.

The CoF was super heavy on paper and light on steel. I think there was only 2 pieces steel all day actually.

Hopefully between bay 1, bay 4, and bay 6 I end up competitive for the day. Realistically I did bad enough on the 2 and 3 that my chances are slim.

My mag changes are better. I found myself at least once trying to reload low. I improved on it on the next chance to shoot though. My reload practice is helping, I still feel clumsy though and I need to keep on top of that. Other things I noticed was I was slow to pick up the first target as I came into a new array. I also missed my shooting ports a few times with an overrun and an underrun. The snow-fencing is good for being able to find your next target in a walled stage, but it also messes with your head and it's easy to lose track of where the proper port is that needs to be used.

I think I shot <80% of the points, mostly due the debacle on Bay 2.

It was a super fun match though. You couldn't have picked better weather to shoot in. I gotta remember to take something to drink though, I seem to always forget drinks at BGSL.

[ihatepickles]

Results posted from BGSL, I placed 9/21 and shot 67% of the points. Finished 16th on stage 2 and 11th on stage 3.

The winner of stage 1 ran similar points but 6 seconds quicker. That's the kind of thing I really need to sort out in my game. I remember shooting and moving pretty well on stage 1. Where does an extra 6 seconds come from when you think you're already moving well? I finished 2nd on that stage. For my level of shooting, I think my splits and transitions are fine. I suspect my slowness often comes from my setup entering a new shooting position. Since stage 1 had 5 shooting positions, I think my guess is a good one.

On both stages 4 and 5 I finished 4th.

Going forward, I'm going to keep working on my mag changes as a priority. My secondary goal is improving my setup on new positions. I also need to get a camera so I can break down my matches better.

[steel1212]

Results posted from BGSL, I placed 9/21 and shot 67% of the points. Finished 16th on stage 2 and 11th on stage 3.

The winner of stage 1 ran similar points but 6 seconds quicker. That's the kind of thing I really need to sort out in my game. I remember shooting and moving pretty well on stage 1. Where does an extra 6 seconds come from when you think you're already moving well? I finished 2nd on that stage. For my level of shooting, I think my splits and transitions are fine. I suspect my slowness often comes from my setup entering a new shooting position. Since stage 1 had 5 shooting positions, I think my guess is a good one.

On both stages 4 and 5 I finished 4th.

Going forward, I'm going to keep working on my mag changes as a priority. My secondary goal is improving my setup on new positions. I also need to get a camera so I can break down my matches better.

I'll have stage 1's winner's video up tonight for you to look at