I got into Area 2.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I got into Area 2.

Awesome!

I shot my first major of the year last Sunday. The Cornhusker Classic in the Omaha area. My personal goal was to finish at 80% or higher. I ended up at 80.94%. I had an excellent match hits wise with 178 Alpha, 40 Charlie, and 2 Delta over 11 stages with no penalties. This was refreshing as I've been a little plagued with penalties and vision mistakes recently. My overall time was disappointing at 35 seconds behind the division winner. The division winner was super squad level GM Lane Gries and there were several other GMs in Carry Optics at this match. I also won high law enforcement for the match so that was kind of neat.

To prepare for this match, I shot a couple thousand rounds the week before including running my monthly LE hit factor match, which I shot in back to back squads (we start squads every two hours) to give myself 10 stages and somewhat simulate a major. I ended up finishing 2nd and 4th in that match, just 8 points out of the win. The turnout for the June LE match was the best for the year so far and was a real shot in the arm for keeping me motivated to continue running them.

For July I've got a couple locals to shoot but the focus will be on training and trying to find some speed going into August where I'll shoot two majors (one of which is nationals).

What's up with everyone else?

I’m shooting 4/5 local matches a month. Shot a PCSL match this morning, finished 6th overall out of 20 something shooters. (25 I think?)

I’ve got a pattern of dry fire/live fire that I work at like a part time job. I have 4 more (possibly 5) matches this month. Next month I have 3 local matches I plan on shooting, a two day Brantley Merriam course and then the Valor Cup.

After that I’ll use local matches to train up for Area 2 in November.

A friend and I shot the local match this morning. Short result: mine was absolutely not a match to brag about. I shot like garbage.

Misfeed on the first stage set the tone for the day, I think. That cost me time and scrambled any confidence I might have had. On the fourth stage, I skipped over one target altogether — lost focus, after stepping back from the point of cover and concentrating too much on the swinging target. On the fifth I took a hit for dropping a not-yet-empty mag to the ground on a reload.

I could toss out “it’s the first time I’ve shot a match with this gun,” but that’s just bogus. The short reality is that I just didn’t perform well.

It was hot and humid, and we sweated like a bunch of old hogs. And we had fun doing it. :^)

IDPA or USPSA?

IDPA. This group labels it Action Pistol, being a bit less than super-strict about some rules.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
I’m shooting 4/5 local matches a month. Shot a PCSL match this morning, finished 6th overall out of 20 something shooters. (25 I think?)

I’ve got a pattern of dry fire/live fire that I work at like a part time job. I have 4 more (possibly 5) matches this month. Next month I have 3 local matches I plan on shooting, a two day Brantley Merriam course and then the Valor Cup.

After that I’ll use local matches to train up for Area 2 in November.

Thoughts on PCSL? Which format (pistol/rifle/2 gun)?

Shot a local last Thursday and won. I would say I win that match a little over half the time. Not a super deep one but I enjoy shooting with the regulars.

My plan going into the season this year was that I would make Master in carry optics and then switch to limited optics to get classified before nationals. Unfortunately, I have had big classifier problems (for me) this year and am still stuck in A at around 81%. I realized the other day that nationals is about a month out and that I statistically cannot get to enough matches to classify in LO so I ended up finding a six stage all classifier about 3.5 hours away.

I got up at 4:45 AM yesterday and made the 220 mile trek to shoot the match. It's at a club I've never shot at before halfway across the state. It was somewhat surprisingly not sold out. Classifier matches seem to be really popular most places but this one only saw 19 shooters (of 30 slots). The selection of classifiers was good - all stage style ones and no stand and shoots. I don't really care either way normally but if you're doing six of them it's much more engaging to shoot stages that involve moving.

I ended up winning that match and should classify at 78% in LO. I had one total abortion of a stage (due to a miss) at 57% but the others inlcuded a 93%, 90%, 77%, 76%, and 72%. Most of the times were solid but the hits on the ones in the 70s were rough. I'll probably be able to pick up two more classifiers before nationals to give me a best 6 of 8 that will hopefully bring that up.

quote:

Originally posted by DaBigBR:


Thoughts on PCSL? Which format (pistol/rifle/2 gun)?

I shoot 1 gun. I don’t know if my experience quality is PCSL as a whole or the one club I shoot it at. PCSL seems way more laid back and less technical. A lot of true hoser stages. There however are way less rules/divisions. CO and LO is one division as an example. Some interesting rules like a single round to the head A box is scored two alpha.

Most of the guys are USPSA shooters that have this one PCSL club in their rotation. Everyone has a good time. I usually place a little better at PCSL than USPSA. Despite that as an empirical data point, the level of shooters are higher in that club. Lots of really talented guys and the bar is high.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
IDPA. This group labels it Action Pistol, being a bit less than super-strict about some rules.

Yeah. A couple places here do the sane thing. Or call it an “outlaw match”. 99 percent of gun owners didn’t show up. You did. All that matters.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
99 percent of gun owners didn’t show up. You did. All that matters.

And I'll keep showing up. Each match shot -- even if shot poorly -- is a chance to improve, and to learn from mistakes.

Shot PCSL the last two days. Held around 75 percent match points both days with some really good dudes shooting open. Had one stage I bombed with 55 percent. Had a Mike on hard cover that I didn’t call. Watched a Glock blow up due to a double charge on a dudes reloads. Which is as interesting.

I'm on it!

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

I shot the Illinois Sectional this past weekend. It's my second year shooting this match. I shot limited optics since I'll be shooting that division at Race Gun Nationals this coming weekend.

Ended up at 69% overall (51/204) and 77% (15/81) in LO. This was overall about the same performance as I had last year and that was a little disappointing. The silver lining is that I was 55 seconds off of the guy that won carry optics last year and 22 seconds off of him this year (although he finished 2nd). That tells me that I have picked up the aggression and I would agree that I feel like that is the case.

Unfortunately, it was at the cost of a lot of penalties (6 Ms, 1 NS, and somehow FIFTEEN...15...FIFTEEN(!) Ds). The misses were largely stupid (aren't they all?) with one of them coming from a massive mental lapse on a sequence where I only shot one round at one target and at least two coming from very close targets that there is no reason to miss.

Probably the brightest point in the whole thing though was that I was on just a killer squad of dudes that were all there to hype each other up. One guy had a bluetooth speaker and we played music basically the whole match and everybody cheered for everybody. I know that might sound silly, but the match was an absolute blast. 10/10 would do that again.

Good job man. Proud of you.
I took a class last weekend as a primer for Valor this weekend. I’m nervous and excited at the same time. Got in at least a dry fire session every day (2 today) this week and a 200 round live fire Monday and yesterday. Got range in the morning and leave on Saturday.

And it’s done. Really fun match with some running, shield work, etc.

Ended up 32/100. Pretty satisfied given the talent that was at that match.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
And it’s done. Really fun match with some running, shield work, etc.

Ended up 32/100. Pretty satisfied given the talent that was at that match.

Solid!

Race Gun Nationals...

Awesome experience, mediocre performance. Rolled into town Thursday night to walk stages and then shot the AM/PM/AM rotation through the weekend. It ended up being 17 stages as one was tossed because some of the pre-match squads shot it with the wrong starting position. The stages were straightforward, but technically complex. Lots of wider transitions, far steel, etc.

I ended up putting up just short of 71% in Limited Optics. Through the regression scoring model that is currently being proposed, the equivalent classification percentage for that is 80.4%, which almost exactly matches my current classification, so it sounds like the model works.

The nationals experience and environment was great. There was a smaller vendors area but the big thing is that everybody there is very committed to the craft (enough to spend $450 and three days plus hotel, ammo, fuel, etc to be there), which makes it pretty easy to find people that want to talk shooting. It was also neat getting to see the super squad level guys shoot and what is truly possible on the stages. I didn't ever feel particularly starstruck or anything like that by any of them, but I was surprised to see Christian Sailer walking stages on Thursday, unaccompanied. He was very kind and patient with the folks that wanted to talk to him.

I'd definitely recommend trying to make it to nationals at some point if you get the opportunity.

Sailer seems like a good dude. But the younger “super squad” brat pack seems genuine. It’s also cool seeing those guys placing well in LO…….with their carry optics striker fired gun and a magwell attached. To me that’s innovation of the sport.

Your progress seems about a year ahead of mine. I shoot A2 in Novemer. My first major match. Tomorrow is dry fire and live fire. Probably will shoot an IDPA match on Sunday. Back to my normal rotation next weekend.

Congratulations man!

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