Goal Update

Wow! I was reviewing my goals and some of them I either completely forgot about or haven't been doing correctly. Here's a breif update on how the goals for the year are going.

Goal: Write commentary/reviews of at least the larger matches I attend and any shooting classes I participate in. Include stage times, scores, and anything that went exceedingly well or exceedingly poorly and why.

Update: I have actually written reviews of most of all of the major matches I've attended this year. Some of them included my scores/placing etc. but many did not. I could go look those up and add them to the entries, and I believe I will do so. Perhaps that will give me an idea of how I've improved and what I need to work on.

I haven't been as analytical as I probably should be on many of the matches. I am not very good at picking out exactly what I did wrong. I should practice that and suggest possible fixes.

Goal: Gain knowledge of guns other than Glocks. Handle 15 different types of hand guns over the year—either in a store or out on the range. For each, work the safety, magazine release, wrack the slide, lock the slide open (where possible).


Update: I handled about 5 different handguns at the NHA introduction to firearms class and it was really useful. I still have a lot to go though. Even though I have not handled as many new handguns as I would like, I have got to shoot a bunch of different rifles and shotguns that people let me try out. :D

Goal: Look up (via the internet) and research the following “major” handgun manufactures and their various models: Smith and Wesson, Ruger, CZ, Beretta, Colt, Sig, Springfeild, Glock, Browning, and HK. Ultimate goal is to be able to recognize the maker of a specific handgun on sight.

Update: Completely have not touched this goal, I will work on it.

Goal: Learn to manipulate my Glock 19 in limited vision. This could be when it’s dark, when I don’t have my contacts in, or for some other reason I can’t see.

Update: I am actually pretty good at this. As long as I can get my hand on the gun with a normal shooting grip, manipulating it becomes really easy as there's a lot of muscle memory involved.

Goal: Work on being able to shoot with combat accuracy and not competition accuracy.

Update: Getting better, but I still feel the need to shoot "A"'s all the time.

Goal: Read 10 books on Defensive Tactics or self defense over the next year. For each, write a short summary and thoughts in my DT blog.

Update: I have not even started. Eeek!

Goal: Be able to manipulate a shotgun and a rifle as well as I can manipulate my pistol. Practice loading, unloading, locking it open, and making safe etc.

Update: Getting better, but I am still not as good as I am with a pistol. I have hard time clearing it at the end, especially. :/

Goal: Make C Class in USPSA.

Update: DONE! 43%! Woo! :D :D :D

Goal: Work on transitioning from one target to the next. Take out the pauses where I tend to try and find my hits on the target.

Update: I have been working this one a lot in dry fire. Improvements are being made. :)

Area 3 Championship

I went to the Area 3 Championship this year in Grand Island at their public range there. They did a great job, especially for such a new club, and running the logistics of a public range couldn’t have been easy. Really, they have a beautiful range there.

The stages were well put together and a ton of fun to shoot. I do have to say though, 14 stages in one day is just a bit much, it really is. On RO day we shot from about 9:30 to 6:30-7:00 and still had one stage to shoot in the morning. Other squads and four and five stages to shoot the next day. Yikes.

Before I go on, Sabumnim was nice enough to film me shooting and put together this video:

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

You see stage 8 there? That one there with the two ropes you had to pull, I bet you’re wondering why I holstered and ran backwards? Well, that falling target up front was FAST, seriously fast, I couldn’t even get one shot on it, so I had to go back to get the rope to pull it back up—there were no disappearing targets for the match. Well, those ropes had A LOT of slack in them. I had to lean all the way over that rail to get the ropes and pass them between my hands to get all the slack out. I was just too short to do it one handed, and I couldn’t think of a way to do that safely without holstering. So I did. It wasn’t random. :)

There were a lot of stages with weird things like that throughout the match, the “doctor bag” stage, one where you attatched yourself to a line to shoot strong hand only (the one I missed a shot on), etc. You can see it on the video! I personally like things like that, but some people don’t.

I was standing too high a lot of the time-- okay pretty much all of the time. So, that’s something to work on. Also, I don’t always make a plan. I get tired or frustrated with myself and it makes my shooting suffers. I have started doing a weird thing with my grip, putting my weak hand thumb up, but not my strong hand, which results in an overlap and thus a gap. Need to work on that two. On the plus side, I have gotten faster, my new sites have helped me a lot, and I haven’t lost any accuracy!

For the match I had 12 Deltas and 1 Mike. The rest were Alphas and Charlies (302 and 53 respectively). In that way not a bad match. I really wanted to shoot the match clean, with no Mikes, Procedurals, or No Shoots, but I still think I did really well.

I won 2nd D class. :)