Makeup Steel Challenge Match...

Today was the makeup date for the rescheduled July Steel Challenge match at ENGC. We had 25 shooters (Well, 26 initially, but one quit two stages in---I must admit, I don't understand that. If you aren't shooting well, stopping isn't going to make you better. Since you've already paid the fee, why not stay, not worry about placing, and work on better accuracy/timing/speed?) covering pretty much every division.

In Production, Dennis, Zeeb, Shawn, and I were all shooting, and we were squadded together---so (not trying to be immodest) it was fun to watch everyone check each other's score to see who was going to win Production.

Today went GREAT. Let me say that again---it was FANTASTIC. Pretty much all day, I shot to my level. Watching the videos, I don't think I shot better than I normally do, nor faster---I just consistently shot like I am able to. On all stages.

I wish I could have shot like that at Area 3!

Here's a video of my shooting today:



I won! High Overall! Beating three high-level Open division shooters! Two A-level and one Master class! (Enough exclamation points there, do you think?) Even better, they all said that it wasn't that they had a bad day---they had thought their day went pretty well.

Excellent!

Of course, we have a regular pistol match in one week, and another steel match in 3 weeks---so we'll see if I can do it again. :)

Looking at the video a couple more times, I see some things I can work on. (Not surprising---there are actually a LOT of things I need to work on.) First off, more dryfire practice--basic trigger control, don't-move-the-gun, stand there and click again and again, dryfire practice. I haven't been doing that, and it shows.

I was out shooting the other day (for once), and after shooting a string, dry fired once, and the pistol dipped about 3 inches. Ug! My trigger control is slipping badly. So, dryfire practice.

The other thing I'm probably going to practice (because I will probably only be able to get to the range once before the next steel match) is my draw/first shot speed. I seem to have two gears---either I do both slowly, or both quickly. What I'd like to get solid on is drawing quickly, then carefully taking that first shot. In the video, I'd draw fast and take a fast first shot--often missing, or draw slowly and take a slow first show, often hitting--but having the whole process be S L O W.

I need to smooth my draw and make it faster, then make sure I take the time to aim before the first shot. So, more dryfire practice of a different style. Mostly, once that first shot is done, I do all right. But if that first shot is bad, I tend to keep making bad shots until I settle down. Rather not do that...

So, dryfire practice it is...

Julie was out shooting today, and she had fun. She might even come and shoot the pistol match next Sunday. Both she and Ardi are currently planning on coming to the next steel match in three weeks---I'm going to make everyone buy NHA Firearms shirts/hats and wear them to the match. Team NHA! :)

What do you think?

Rock Your Glock and the RO Class...

Been rather behind on my blogging---have been running around getting all the details ready for my students at the beginning of the school year. As such, I've also NOT had time to do much in the way of pistol practice, even though my Area 3 showing demonstrated strongly that I need LOTS more.

That being said, I shot the Rock Your Glock match last month, and as always, it was fun. Ardi came with me, and we worked the match all day, and she shot in a competition for the first time. I shot about normal, perhaps a little slower (not much---but I didn't get first, either). Ardi did a very good job, particularly for her first time. No misses. I put up video of her shooting on the NHA blog page, so go there to take a look.

Today, at a makeup steel match at ENGC, one of the ROs from the RYG match came up to me to specifically congratulate me on how well she did---but most particularly, to let me know that he was impressed at her handgun handling ability, with regard to safety and procedures. She did everything right, all the time.

So I was happy to hear that, both for her, and because it means I'm teaching her correctly. :)

In other news, I went to a Level I Range Officer class in Jefferson City, MO a few weeks ago. I'd been wanting to get my RO certification for quite some time, but there just haven't been any classes nearby. This one (6 hours away) was the closest I'da seen.

One full day of class time, and about half a day on the range. The class itself wasn't difficult, and it was interesting with all the examples. To be certified, a shooter has to take the class, then complete the open book exam by answering all of the questions and citing the specific rule for each question. I finished my exam, checked it two or three times, and emailed it to the instructor yesterday--so we'll see how it went...

With any luck, he'll be able to grade it in time to send it to USPSA headquarters before the 10th of September. If he does (and I passed), it should be in the computer and I'll officially be an RO on the 10th. (I'll get my offical RO stuff later, but I'll count as an RO from that point in time.)

Amusing thing from the class---on the second day, we were on the range, with an "RO stage" set up for us to shoot. The stage itself was straightforward, but not easy---the layout gave shooters many many chances to mess up royally. The point wasn't to have a competition, but to give potential ROs a chance to run shooters, and learn to score targets in potentially confusing situations.

But none-the-less, the shooters were still competitive. We couldn't help it. :)

There were 19 shooters, with some in every division. The stage was only 12 rounds, with a mandatory reload in the middle. And like I said, it gave shooters many chances to screw up---which many did. Six people (out of 19) zeroed the stage, due to misses and no-shoot hits.

Here's the fun part: I took first place, with 100%. 2nd place---had 66.35% of my score! Third was another shooter from ENGC at 60.62%, so the two ENGC people got two out of the top three places. But boy, was there a gap between first and second.

Made me feel better about shooting. :) And evil, too---because the stage I'm designing for next week's regular pistol match is based on the RO stage. Should be nice and straightfoward...but not easy.

Area 3 Commentary...

So, Area 3 this year was indeed fun---a whole day of shooting are varied targets, presented in interesting and difficult-to-handle fashion.

That all being said, I apparently could NOT aim to save my life. Throughout the entire day, I was plagued by bad luck on every single stage, except for one. Except you can't really call it "bad luck" when it was just poor shooting.

In this one match, I had more misses/no-shoot hits/procedural penalties than in the last 12 months of matches combined. It went that badly.

I just couldn't aim correctly, for some reason---and yet, oddly enough, my aim was just fine (good enough for my normal shooting) about 80% of the time. The other 20% of the time, it was just bad. And that 20% didn't occur in only one type of shooting (for example, it didn't happen only in long-distance shooting) --on one stage my distance shooting might be fine, but I would clip a no-shoot on a near target. On another stage, I couldn't hit a plate at a distance with anything less than 4-5 shots.

Erratic and strange. And very poor shooting, for me. I'm supposed to at the very least, shoot mid B-class level. For this match, it was pretty much barely B class at all---and seriously, these days on a large match I tend to sometimes beat M and A class shooters. Sometimes.

This time, I placed 10th out of 32, and 7th in B class. Among other things, three of the people who beat me, have been beaten by me in the past fairly solidly.

[sigh]

Here is some video of the match:



Not good. I'll add more commentary about the Weeping Water 3-Gun Match I attended the day after, in a day or so. It went similarly. [double sigh]

Rock-Your-Glock last match of the year this coming Saturday. Hopefully, it'll go better.

Quick Comment on Area 3 and the latest WWGC 3-Gun match...

...I suck.

More to follow. But really--I shot like a mid C-class shooter. While there isn't anything wrong with that if I was a C-class shooter, the fact that I'm a B-class who has shot considerably better than B-class fairly frequently means that at least for the last two competitions I've been in---I suck.

For those people who were expecting more adult, reasoned, and appropriately selected language, I'm afraid that nothing else quite covers exactly how badly I shot.

[sigh]

Details in a later post.

(And it is all Ardi's fault.)