Corey's road to success

[Chris iliff]

Glad you are back!! Sounds like you had a good time. See you Sunday!

[Corey]

First match after vacation: little rusty....Ok, a lot rusty! Tanked 3 stages hard before I finally gave up and just shot to see what I could do. The last two stages where I had zero care and was trying some things were my best of the day by far!! Won them both in my division, one by over 10% and one by almost 30%. They were also a 1st and 2nd in the combined overall with a couple of good Open shooters in the mix. Pretty interesting. I like how it felt and I don't know if it was a combination of shaking off the rust and getting back into my groove or what. I'm hoping so. No video this week as I was in a hurry and running late this morning. Despite the rough start and fighting rain and shooting bags all day, it was an ok day. Time to get myself back in gear with dryfire and at least weekly practices. Got 2 months until the IN Section and I'm close to getting my A card in Limited. If I get there, Ill have my work cut out for me at the Sectional.

[Corey]

We had a guy in our squad set up a camera down range for one stage and the video turned out pretty cool. My run starts around the 8:00 mark. This was the stage that I won the division in by almost 30%. Looking at the video it could have been faster. Glad I at least got this one filmed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNVkXVMVZsY

ETA: They were all there

[Corey]

Just realized I have a 3gun match this weekend that I'm totally unprepared for, haha. I hate playing catch up after vacations. Need to verify zeros with the rifle and get some 9mm ammo ready. Thinking of using the M&P for Thursday night's practice to get in tune with it. I can shoot paper with it fine, but I have struggled with steel the last couple 3G matches with only a couple more local matches before my Major 3G match schedule starts, its time to get it dialed in. Also may start shooting classifiers with it as a second division entry. Wouldn't mind getting my classification up a bit, plus its more trigger time with a still semi-new-to-me gun.

[Corey]

I must have some bad karma on me from somewhere. First I have to fight rain at my match this past Sunday and now last night's practice gets rained out. Dryest summer on record my ass! Looks like Ill have a busy Saturday morning at the range verifying zeros with the rifle and doing some pistol work as well. Gotta get everything packed up for the 3gun match. Looking forward to actually getting to shoot some distance with my rifle this time. Hope I still remember how to do it!

[Corey]

Shot the INMG match on Sunday down at Wildcat. 6 fun stages, some technically demanding shots, some fun blast away targets. As usual I had some good and bad. Missed the slug poppers on the 2nd to last stage which forced me into an empty chamber reload, then I somehow managed to miss one of the 2 AGAIN! That'll be an extra 10 seconds I didn't need. On the same stage, I did come up with a nice plan to not waste any time waiting for the clay flippers but still not risk missing a chance at one of them either. Instead of hitting both steel and hoping for 2 good flips (wasn't happening much that day)I hit the flipper popper then instead of just waiting, I shot a small steel in front of me then went back for the clay. Timing was great and I liked it a lot.

Also shot my pistol really well this match which is redemption from the last time we were down there. Recoil control felt better, sights tracked better. Just a good pistol day. Shotgun was good too minus the slug incident. Didn't have any problems loading at all and most of the shotgun steel was fine as well. Rifle was the worst of the 3 guns which I don't care for. Didn't shoot the long range stage as well as I'd hope for. Also had some trouble shooting the clays off hand at about 40-50 yards. I guess that's what happens when you don't practice at all. I need to get out on the range for a couple hours with my rifle and work some things out.

Here is the video from yesterday, minus one stage that we forgot to video:

[Corey]

Spent a little bit of the holiday on the range working on some things. Had the rifle double on me time or two recently. Seems to be when I don't hold it into my shoulder like I'm supposed to. Shot some long range groups at 200 to verify zero and then did some rapid fire off hand shooting at 50 and 100. Very happy with all results. Feel like the rifle is dialed in for this Sunday's 3gun match at ACC.

Also did some more testing of some B&P slugs I have. I know they are being discontinued but I had about 5 or 6 boxes left and wanted to give them another whirl. Fail. Those slugs are scary accurate but they will just not run reliably in my Benelli. Back to the drawing board as I'm about out of my Remington Reduced Recoil slugs.

Shot the 6" Cheely of the rest while I had it out on the bench. If I miss any shots out to 25 yards it is undoubtedly my fault, not the gun's. Off the bench I was easily able to keep shots in the A/C zone at 50 yards and the 25 yd groups were very tight (by my standards at least).

Good day on the range all around. I wanted to devote some time to USPSA practice, but I didnt have the time and frankly it was just too damn hot! With my schedule, I won't be shooting any pistol matches until maybe August. Not a lot of time to prepare for the IN Sectional. Going to have to rely on tons of dryfire and a couple of Thursday night sessions. Hopefully I can sneak out more, but my schedule sucks and its only getting worse.

Happy Birthday America!!

[Corey]

With the multigun match cancelled last weekend, I decided to get in one more USPSA match as practice before the Sectional next month. Warsaw had some great stages as usual and a good turn out, 48 shooters. Shot fairly well all things considered. Too many Mikes for my liking trying to push the envelope a bit too hard. I really wanted to push myself this match and tried to make the focus mainly on non-shooting movements but I started rushing the trigger bit as the day dragged on. I ended up winning Limited with about 25 shooters in the division and came in 2nd overall behind a M class Open shooter. I came close to him on a couple stages but never got him on any. I won 3 stages and came in 2nd on a 4th stage within the division. Tanked one pretty bad trying to push the speed too much and it cost me (last stage of my match video). The next couple of Thursday practices and personal sessions if I can get out there will be accuracy work and trigger control. I need to just shoot to get the hits then do everything else quickly, haha.

[rvb]

I ended up winning Limited

-rvb

[Corey]

Got my new TWinS loading caddy to work on some new shotgun loading methods. I like it so far, but haven't had a real chance to put any time on it. I only have one so far and if practice goes like I think it will over the next couple weeks, I'll have to get at least one more of them. About a month and half away from starting my Major 3G season with the Pro-Am. Looking forward to it! Got one more INMG series match as a tune up next month to dial everything in. Also got the IN Sectional. I need to hit the lottery so it'll free up some time during the day. I got too much to practice and not enough time, haha.

[Corey]

Work has been crazy. Im finally home from 8 days working the storefront at Camp Perry. Always a good time over there, but it sucks not being able to do any practicing of any kind over there. Hoping the weather holds out for us this Thursday for weekly league practice. I need it!! Being back in town again means I'm back in the CrossFit gym which feels great. I'm hoping to step up the workouts as well. Shotgun loading practice and pistol dryfire are on tap tonight after my workout. I need to get the rust knocked off. Nothing to shooting this coming weekend so I may try to sneak out to the range for my own training session. We'll see what time allows.

[Corey]

Thursday night practice went well tonight. Had a lot of shooters there so it made it tough to really work on specific drills for myself. Had 8 plates and 2 poppers set up, ran a variety of runs shooting them down. We had enough people there so we set up a mini man-vs-man shootoff. 4 plates and a popper to end it. Really fun!!!! having someone to shoot against puts that little extra pressure on you, similar to a match. Might have to do that more often!! not sure if I'll have a chance to get out this weekend and shoot or not. Hoping to sneak out to work on drills just by myself. Got at least next Thursday night and maybe Angola's match the week before Sectional. Dryfire until then....

[Corey]

Been working out a lot lately and started taking some Olympic lifting classes at my CrossFit box to help with form and technique. I can't believe I actually love working out now and feel pretty bad if I go a couple days without doing something in the gym or at least fitness related.

Probably the last live fire pistol session before the IN Sectional tonight. Planning on setting up a small stage, running a few rounds then changing it up and doing it again. Want to work on movement, being smooth in and out of positions and being ready to shoot the instant I arrive at a new position (or at least as close to instant as I can get). Planning on doing a little shooting challenge from another website as well and I printed out some Dot Torture pages! I'd like to run this at least once tonight as its something that I can't believe I've never actually done before. We'll see how it goes. Hoping for about 200 rounds of live fire tonight

[Corey]

Pretty good night on the range. We set up a 20 round stage with a lot of steel and movement, ran it a few times. First one was rough, second run was better. Good tune up for the Sectional. Got some pointers from RVB on a couple things I did not realize I was doing. Set up a little challenge drill after that. 3 targets with a paper plate at 7 yards, draw and 2 shots on each. best time was 2.05 but a couple shots were pulled off the plates. I think I had one clean at 2.14. We got videos of most of the runs. After that I ran the Dot Torture for the first time ever. Holy good drill batman! Only shot a 41/50. everything was a bit low due to the close distance. I'm confident I can get a lot closer to clean, missed some of the ones I shouldn't have. SHO/WHO was surprisingly good, but I did take plenty of extra time there. Ryan showed me how to accumulate times on my timer so I will run it again and get an overall time. I don't like the drill as its written b/c there is no time pressure and you can just take forever. Not totally practical for our sport. I like adding the time factor as something to work on, as well as distance added as i get more consistent. Overall good night of shooting. Need to see if I have enough ammo to get back out on the range with the Cheely. If not I may run it with the M&P to get ready for the 3gun season.

[Corey]

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly from this past weekend's INMG match at Wildcat:

Had some stupid mistakes here and there. Had some good points too. Really fun day and despite a few problems here and there finished 7th in Tac Ops. Never shot a texas star with a rifle until that day and there were two of them!! lot of fun! I'm in 4th overall in the series standings and in good position to make the final shootoff. Haven't put in the time i need for 3gun yet. Focus is going to switch to 3gun when the Indiana Sectional is over.

[Corey]

IN Sectional is in the books! Long weekend shooting on Thursday then RO'ing Fri-Sun. Weather was hit or miss and just generally some long days on the range. I had a few goals in mind coming into this match:

I wanted to shoot at least 75% of Manny Bragg's score as he was the biggest name in Limited. Despite some mental errors here and there I shot 76.75% of Manny. Happy!

I wanted to finish top 10 in Limited. Ended up 9th out of 92 shooters. Happy!

I wanted to win B class. Ended up 2nd by 7 match points. I gave away too many points(over 30 pts on one stage alone) due to stupid errors (not topping off mags, poor stage planning, etc). Live and learn.

Using the combinedresults.info page, it looks like I was 25th overall with mostly Open and high classed Limited shooters in front of me. Overall a good shooting weekend, but I know I can do better. Got video that I will try to work on tomorrow and hopefully some info can sink in on my shooting. I did some things really well, but I know there is still a long way to go.

[rvb]

Sounds like you had a good match! Congrats!

-rvb

[Chris iliff]

You did have a great match!! Good job!

[Corey]

Thanks guys. Its easy to pick apart all my mistakes, but in general I'm happy with my match performance.

[Chris iliff]

Ft. Wayne shooting Sunday?

[Corey]

Ft. Wayne shooting Sunday?

Yessir!

[Corey]

Been watching my IN section video for the last couple of days and noticed a few things, good and bad. My movement is better than it has been, but still needs a lot of work. I feel like I'm faster when moving fromm A to B, but I'm hesitant to get started. I need to EXPLODE out of one spot and get going to another. I've been trying to plan stages where I can roll into targets and roll out on the last one which is helping my times a bit, but when I have to stop to shoot a difficult target or array, or when I have to change directions totally, I'm slow and cautious to get moving. Why!?!? This is something I will be working on in the future, both in practices/matches as well as in the gym.

I have been trying to shoot on the move more and have been successful, to a point. I need to work on getting my hits at speed. I had a great run on stage 8 at the IN Sectional only 1 second off of Manny's time. looking at the video I could have saved that much time or more various places, but what concerned me were the dropped points. I think I had 5 or 6 Deltas on that stage, of which all shots were not further than 5 yards and most were within 2. I need to real in my pure foot speed WHILE SHOOTING and make sure I get the points. foot speed when doing other things needs to be still kept high, but while shooting I need to slow it down a bit and see the sights/get the hits. Definitely something to practice (who would have though you need to practice being accurate in this game?! ).

With the exception of maybe the classifier match coming up next month, I think I am going to shoot Lim minor with my 3gun M&P the rest of the year. I need to shoot minor to get my focus back on shooting points, not just raw time. Plus I need to shoot that gun more to get better with it. I think the only time it comes out it on match day. With a couple big 3gun matches this fall, I need the work with it.

[Corey]

Short range session with the M&P tonight. Only thing I did was run a single Dot Torture drill. Stayed at 3 yards again to set baselines for my plans with this drill. I used the "combined comstock" mode on my timer to add a time pressure element to it. Really like the potential with this drill. As usual, I got a little excited and pushed harder than I should have. Ended up with a hit score of 44/50 in a combined time of 67.20. Threw a couple errant shots on dots 3 and 4 rushing. WHO dropped a couple as well. SHO was great, but def need some work with the weak hand. Can't wait to get back out and try it again soon.

[Corey]

Well that was a disaster, haha. Minor does suck! Missing the target and hitting No Shoots like they are going out of style doesn't help much either tho. Haven't reviewed my videos yet, but had a rough match in general. Couple stages went ok, couple others were downright bad. That's why I like what I'm doing tho. Its a challenge I've given myself to learn to shoot this gun better. My work schedule is all jacked up this week so prolly won't be able to get to the gym at all, but maybe I can sneak out to the range to do some accuracy work before the Pro-Am this weekend.

[Corey]

Back from the Pro-Am. What a great weekend! I love going to Rock Castle and the guys behind the scenes at that match did a great job again this year. Didn't shoot as good as I would have liked, but still faired ok. Ended up 66th out of 236 in the Pro Division. I went into the match hoping for top 50. I screwed the pooch on stage 6 (flying clays) by ignoring the voice of reason on my squad (Ryan Zamberlan) and instead of just shooting the clays then the steel, I tried to do a little of both. Ended up running the gun dry and missed 4 clays in the process. Had I been smart and done it the safe way, my final finish may have been as high as in the low 40s. Live and Learn. Ill be back to Rock Castle in Oct for the Blue Ridge match and Ill be taking Ryan's advice: Survive.

(dumb video wont embed for some reason?)