Sloppy, lazy, poor shooter!

Been quite awhile since I've posted---and indeed, my shooting shows that I haven't been putting in the thinking time that effective shooting has needed. So, back to actually tracking what has been going on...

Some background: Last year was full of gun problems---and I don't mean shooter-induced gun problems (though my shooting suffered significantly). I mean the gun itself had numerous problems that resulted in significant numbers of gun jams on stages. And during practice. And all the time.

As such, much of last year's practice time was spent trying to FIX said gun problems, which meant that I didn't actually get to spend much time practicing shooting skills. Much to the detriment of my shooting ability.

So---last year's matches went horribly badly. Including Nationals, in which I ranked 60th---compared to the 25th from the previous year.

I have since retired the G34s that I was using, and will be writing Glock to see if there is any way they can get them fixed and running. (Factory ammo of multiple types STILL resulted in multiple jams of the slide-over-base type.)

I've been using a Gen 4 G17 for the last couple of months, and the first local match of 2012 occurred last week. [sigh] 4 jams over 3 stages, plus one stage that I completely blew on my own. As such, I scored significantly worse that I should have.

NOT acceptable. I don't mind losing---but I DO mind shooting significantly below the level of which I am capable.

I've since switched ammo types, and between the gun change and ammo change, have not experienced any other problems. (Including shooting SHO and WHO.) We'll see if that continues....Steel Match this coming Sunday, which will be a good indicator of where I'm starting (skill-wise) this year.

I have a lot of work to do, to get myself back up to Master-level shooting. At the moment, I'm about mid-B, from what I can tell. Last year's degredation in skill level really hurt, and the Roger's Shooting School (while a good thing) ingrained a set of habits that I need to alter.

So: dryfire at minimum every other night (I've actually been doing 5-6 nights a week for the last couple of weeks) and range practice as often as I can, even in extremely cold weather. One thing that helps is that I'm part of pistol-forum.com, which has a Drill of the Week which is a lot of fun. Pulls me out of my normal zone, gets me out to the range on a weekly basis, and makes me think from different perspectives. It helps...

Short-term goals: In March, I'm taking the Aim Fast, Hit Fast class from Todd Louis Green in Pittsburg, Kansas. As part of that, my goal is to do well on the FAST drill---specifically to win a challenge coin.

Long-term goals: Significantly increase my accuracy at distance (25+ yards). Consistently hit (at speed) low-percentage targets at 10 yards or less.

Specifics to follow. (Measurable goals are always better.)

Time to get to work----because the current skill level is flat-out unacceptable.