Here are my match results for the GSM match I shot this weekend. I shot Wes Howe's M14 that I recently built for him. I shot the "unlimited modern military" class and it shot fantastic! At 200 yard slow prone with iron sights I scored a 99-4X!




During the 200 yard rapid I shot a 98-4X!




For standing, I just told myself that if I could shoot in the 70's, I'd be a happy man. Well, I shot a 72. I'll take it!


This rifle came out great, and I'm happy with the results.

Moving on, I shot the Vintage sniper match with my ugly M14 and scored a 98-2x at 300. I typically shoot a 99, so this was a bad day for me.


I also shot a 98-2X at 600. This is on par for what I normally shoot. My average ranges between 96 to 99. Haven't cleaned it yet.


Tony.

Shot a PCSL 1 gun match last night, practical rifle division, night vision category and finished 13/46 overall. Best stage of the night was a 5.42 hit factor, finished second in practical rifle and fifth combined. Next best stage was 5.07, 5th and 7th, respectively. The other two stages, the penalties sunk me. I know I got a couple of no-shoots, I think one or two were failure to neutralize because of hard cover. I didn't hold enough for the offset on one stage and the other, I think I was just fatigued because it was the last of the night and the heat and humidity being spun up from Priscilla took a toll on me. If it hadn't been for shooting hostages in the head, I would've placed considerably higher.

I think my big takeaways for this one are getting a really good grasp on the offset stuff, and at what ranges it ceases to be an issue. There were two stages where there was only a headbox of a target and the rest was hardcover, and they were close. Like, five feet close. I got both of those just fine. The stage with the penalties, I hit a no shoot in the head and called it right as I did it. I shot part of that stage with the LAM and I think my brain switched off on still holding for the offset while using the laser. I traded into a full power PEQ-15 a week ago and up to now, have done almost all of my shooting passive. I think the value of it will be really situational, and knowing when and how to use it will come with time.

I just reviewed a clip I took of the guys taping targets on the one I got all the penalties on, and realized one of mine was a failure to engage because it was just a headbox over a hard cover at about fifteen yards and I aimed for center mass. Oops.

I'd like to give PCSL a shot. I think hit factor is far superior to time plus and I don't like the one alpha or two anywhere neutralization scheme in USPSA multi gun. We do a little hit factor rifle at work and I really like it.

The stages and how they were laid out felt a lot more translatable to real life than the USPSA matches I’ve shot. Two shots to neutralize or one shot in the T zone in the head for a “kill” instead of an alpha also felt more realistic to me. I also think the targets are better, the various zones seem more anatomically relevant. Definitely shifts the focus to more deliberate shooting. I enjoyed it, I want to do some PCSL 2 gun soon.

quote:

Definitely shifts the focus to more deliberate shooting.

I've read up some on PCSL and the above stuck out to me as well, and the idea really appeals to me. I wish we had some local matches around here so I could try it out and see what I think.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:
The stages and how they were laid out felt a lot more translatable to real life than the USPSA matches I’ve shot. Two shots to neutralize or one shot in the T zone in the head for a “kill” instead of an alpha also felt more realistic to me. I also think the targets are better, the various zones seem more anatomically relevant. Definitely shifts the focus to more deliberate shooting. I enjoyed it, I want to do some PCSL 2 gun soon.

Most of the discussion I have seen on PCSL (from higher level guys) is that they don't really see the benefit of shooting the T/K zone in the majority of situations because the time it takes to ensure a hit is greater than just sending two to the A zone.

It makes sense to me. I can send two to the A zone and know that as long as I did everything right, the worst I am likely to see is 2C. If I shoot one at the T/K (depending on which target as the original target phases out) and I do not get the T/K hit, the best I can hope for is A/M.

I'm sure there are scenarios where it will make sense but I question how many it will be. I also think that like USPSA, different clubs will build stages different ways that may exploit the T/K zone more or less.

Well, if you look at just about every police target out there, and you overlay a USPSA target over it, most are C zone style scoring areas.

Personally, I didn't bother with the T zones, except of course, when the head was all that was visible.

I shot a Tuesday Night Steel match last week. I had problems. Those Strike extended baseplates work great on several mags, and on a few others, the followers hang up. I installed the first several on new Gen 5 magazines and the last batch of four on a mix of Gen 5's and some really old Gen 2's just to see if it would make a difference. Evidently, it does. I swapped the Strike baseplates onto Gen 5 bodies and followers and marked the ones I had the problems with.

I also had a failure where a live round jammed up hard in the chammber of my Ballistic Advantage barrel for the 17. Lesson learned: stock barrels work fine, that's what I should use.

Thankfully, I also brought my G45 with me and finished the match with that. No problems, ran fine. Lesson learned: always bring a spare.

I shot the last outdoor USPSA match of the year on Sunday. I needed 77.8662% on the classifier to make Master class.

I shot 77.49%.

To say it was disappointing was an understatement. I used Practiscore Competitor (which is a thief of joy) to figure out just how close I came. One less C or 0.05 seconds.

I know I'll make it eventually and I'm reminded of Jerry asking for goals for this year and I recall saying I'd like to make A class, so I'd say the year was a success, but it still sucks to end it this way.

That's a tough one, man. Sorry to hear it. Is there an indoor match anywhere you could hit up? A qualifier, maybe?

quote:

Originally posted by DaBigBR:
I know I'll make it eventually and I'm reminded of Jerry asking for goals for this year...

I said I wanted to make at least one match a month. I'm on schedule for that, registered for my tenth of the year. I have a match credit for a Thursday night PCC match as well, I need to register for next month's when it opens up. That'll bring me up to 11, and the NV matches are a monthly thing now, so that'll be December handled as well.

I have improved a noticeable amount in the last year, but want to do more in the way of dry fire and weapons manipulation drills this coming year.

To make a long story short, not really. The changes to the USPSA classification system, the recent approval of the 2025 provisional classifiers, the match schedules around me, and my work schedule are all factors. I have one more classifier before a 98% drops off my record. That 98% is doing a good job of propping me up right now. Once the 2025 provisionals that I have shot are factored in, my percentage will stay about the same, but my best six will be more consistent, which will help.

I'm not really that worried about it. It happens when it happens.

A wise man once told me that the bump between A and M is mainly the ability to stage plan and execute that plan wisely.

I can shoot at a M or low GM level. But fully acknowledge I’d be a paper GM. My stage planning sucks too much.

I am at the top of my game with a pistol and rifle right now in my world. Ask to follow a stage plan consistently and I’m drooling and rubbing shit in my hair.

I think at every stage of the game you start feeling like you don't belong there and probably class up right when you think you've got it. I remember squadding with a couple A class guys last season and feeling like I was seeing wizardry. I made it to A at the start of this year and felt like it was luck. But the classifiers kept saying otherwise and crept up to the mid 80s. I'm certain that when I class up to M I will feel like I shouldn't be there.

Well I ended up burning a vacation day a couple weeks back to go shoot a match a couple hours away after I found out they were using the same classifier I came up just short on in October. Because of the way the system works, whatever I shot would override the last attempt and I would effectively just be getting a reshoot, albeit a few weeks later.

So I got up at 5 AM and drove two hours and did the thing. I needed 77.86% for M class and I shot 81%. It was awesome. The only thing that could stop me was the new 2025 classifiers being placed into effect for the following weeks classification update. So of course that's what happened. Instead of going up to 85.X%, I dropped from 84.9379% to 84.0212%. It's disappointing because I did what I needed to do to make it, but didn't, and because I was technically at 88% in August after shooting an all 25 series classifier match, but that doesn't count because the classifiers are no longer part of my last eight, which is all the system looks at.

I remain convinced that I'll make Master sooner rather than later, but it sucks continuing to just miss it. I think there are now six or seven ways it could have happened.

What do you believe is holding you back? Hard skills behind the gun? Or technical skills like movement?

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
What do you believe is holding you back? Hard skills behind the gun? Or technical skills like movement?

I don't want to sound overconfident, but at this point it's a little bit of luck and the way the classification system works.

While the last two classifiers I have shot have come up short of 85% (technically they were the same one run twice a few weeks apart), at least as far as classifiers go, I know that I have the skills and consistency to get the numbers I need.

My major match performance, however, has been lagging a bit behind the classification. My average of three majors shot in August, September, and October was 76%. My actual classification percentage is 84%. Because those majors count as a classifier, two of those end up being the low two of my last eight. The best six of my last eight actual classifiers put me over the mark, also.

So I guess if I was picking a demon right now, it's major match performance, which is a non factor since I won't see another major until probably July or August.

Looking at the classifiers that I have shot recently, I tend to do a little better on the movement-based ones, but those have all been 2025 series ones so it could have something to do with the HHFs and how they were set. I also find on the stand and shoots that I tend to shoot GM times with A class hits, which gets me high A/low M results. Always chasing a better mastery of the visual side of things to fix that as I think most of the hits issues are vision problems either in not looking at specific enough spots quickly enough and/or accepting an inadequate arrival of the dot and shooting early if that makes sense.

Finished 9th out of 40 overall last night in a low light/NV match. It would've been higher but for the last stage that was shot on a balance beam. My knees didn't like it and my balance has never been amazing, so I was really slow on that one. Balancing on a wobbly 4" beam with NODs... not easy. I placed 4th on the first two stages and 19th and 22nd on the other two. I did a lot better with my offset shots at close distances this time, and paid more attention to what targets were obscured in different places. First the first time ever, I found myself shooting fully active and not passive once, and it's not something I even thought about until afterward.

I think conditioning, speed, and movement are the big things to work on this next year.

quote:

Originally posted by P220 Smudge:

I think conditioning, speed, and movement are the big things to work on this next year.

I think we find ourselves in much the same place.

I shot my last match of the year today. Here's my year in review:

I shot 38 public matches this year plus 6 LE only matches that I hosted. Of the 38 public matches, 3 were Level 2 state section matches. I shot Carry Optics in every match. The PDP 5" SF Match has been my jam since I started in this stuff and I don't see that changing. I shot a 2nd division in about half of the LE ones (usually production) just to experiment with irons (remember when we used to experiment with optics?).

I had 5 overall wins and 16 division wins. My classification went from 54% to 85%. I definitely achieved my goal of making it to A class. I was disappointed to not quite be able to notch M. The thing that I am perhaps most proud of this year was that 25 people from my agency (about 30%) shot at least one match. Some did a lot of them. Some did one. Some only did the LE only matches. All of that is fine. Getting the guys and gals to go out on their own time and test themselves is the most rewarding thing.

Personal Goals for 2026:

• Make Master in Carry Optics.
  
• Increase A percentage to 75% for the season (71% for this season).
  
• Decrease D percentage to less than 2% (2.18% this year).
  
• Decrease M percentage to 1% (1.36% for this season).
  
• Increase major match participation to 5 (3 this year).
  

LE Match Goals for 2026:

• Increase match count from 6 to 8.
  
• Increase average participation to 20 (16 in 2025).
  
• At least one hit factor rifle or two gun match.
  

What say you guys...what are you trying to do in 2026?

Edited to fix a typo on classification percentage.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: DaBigBR,

quote:

Originally posted by DaBigBR:
I shot my last match of the year today. Here's my year in review:

I shot 38 public matches this year plus 6 LE only matches that I hosted. Of the 38 public matches, 3 were Level 2 state section matches. I shot Carry Optics in every match. The PDP 5" SF Match has been my jam since I started in this stuff and I don't see that changing. I shot a 2nd division in about half of the LE ones (usually production) just to experiment with irons (remember when we used to experiment with optics?).

I had 5 overall wins and 16 division wins. My classification went from 45% to 85%. I definitely achieved my goal of making it to A class. I was disappointed to not quite be able to notch M. The thing that I am perhaps most proud of this year was that 25 people from my agency (about 30%) shot at least one match. Some did a lot of them. Some did one. Some only did the LE only matches. All of that is fine. Getting the guys and gals to go out on their own time and test themselves is the most rewarding thing.

Personal Goals for 2026:

• Make Master in Carry Optics.
  
• Increase A percentage to 75% for the season (71% for this season).
  
• Decrease D percentage to less than 2% (2.18% this year).
  
• Decrease M percentage to 1% (1.36% for this season).
  
• Increase major match participation to 5 (3 this year).
  

LE Match Goals for 2026:

• Increase match count from 6 to 8.
  
• Increase average participation to 20 (16 in 2025).
  
• At least one hit factor rifle or two gun match.
  

What say you guys...what are you trying to do in 2026?

Nice work BR. I shot one match in 2025. I'd like to shoot at least 2 in 2026