Coming up in a week is the GSSF Annual Shoot XXXI, at the Talladega CMP Range in Talladega, Alabama. For those not familiar, this is essentially the GSSF National Championship, as it will include the Gunny Challenge, where the winners of all the GSSF matches in the past year get to have a shoot off to see who is the best.
So next Saturday I will be driving to Talladega, and I will compete with Liberty, my G19, and Bruce, my G17. I am also planning to go to a nearby range this week and practice with both.
Now, I will be honest, pre-match practice has not been a consistent thing for me in the past, which is unfortunate, because when I do at least dry fire in the office, I can tell I do better.
Now, I already shot the River Bend Ballistic Challenge back in March, and I came in 96th out of 156. So, after I add practice, let’s see how this improves my outcome. Stay tuned.
Saturday July 27, 2024, I shot in the monthly USPSA match at River Bend Gun Club. I have been shooting USPSA for 16 years now, and I have managed to improve my scores some from the early days, mostly by moving from Production to Limited.
But I must admit, I have not done as well as I would like. I mean, who really does?
This week, I noticed something that, to be honest, had been somewhat in my mind as an advantage, but really isn’t. I noticed that on short range shots, I was able to shoot rather accurately, without actually aiming. My arms and brain were able to point the gun well enough that I could shoot two Alphas out to about 7 or 8 yards, without actually aiming.
The problem with this, though, is that I noticed that in the last couple of years, I have tended to move that range out some, and I was now in a mode where I very rarely actually used my sights. This led to a lot of misses, but the thing that really made me realize it was how difficult it had become for me to knock down steel with just one shot. In fact, steel became quite an annoyance to me.
But what happened this week was we ran a Classifier, where there were six steel targets in the middle, and a paper target on each end. When the RO said “Make Ready,” I drew my pistol, and actually took a good sight picture of all the targets. Then, when I shot, I actually aimed at each target.
My results: 4 Alphas, and 6 steel, all on the first shot.
I know . . . what a concept!
So then I decided, what if I did this on all the stages? Well, the video above is the next stage, which was the last stage. Scoring: 3 Charlies, the rest Alphas, and . . . the most awesome part . . . all the steel down on the first shot.
So, now I am planning to do some dry fire practicing, and to go to the range and practice, and move myself back into better scoring.
Some time ago I wrote a concise piece on what I do to prepare for matches. Since then I have added a few things to my to-do list, and it occurred to me that I haven’t shared them.
First, I still do the same gun prep, including changing to connector, and lubricating. I also load magazines, only now, since I shoot Limited and not Production, I load to fully loaded, which with my magazine extensions, is 22 rounds per magazine. (Of course, if I am shooting GSSF, I only load to 11 rounds.)
One other thing I did was to create a Match Prep Checklist:
As you can see, this lets me be sure I am doing all the things I need to do. Basically there are four stages: Clean and inspect, Prepare, Pack, and Load. There are a few things on there that I didn’t do back in 2011, like adding an extra phone battery and USB cord. I print this 2 to a page, and complete it before every match.
This also gives me a chance to mention a couple of additions from the past few years, both in the Load section. First, I have a pair of football cleats that I take, as I have found they are very useful if I am shooting in the rain, or on a wet range.
The last is” Bourbon bottles,” which takes a little explaining. But I will leave that for another time.
Having been a USPSA Certified Range Office since 2013, for many years I have acted as RO in local matches. After some time, I felt like I wanted to do more, and when the USPSA Georgia State Championships came to River Bend Gun Club in 2020 and 2021, I took the opportunity to act as RO for those matches.
ROing the State matches was a wonderful experience, as it gave me the opportunity to engage with other excellent competitors, as well as see the top tier shooters in a very close fashion.
Then, in 2023, I got the opportunity to act as RO at the USPSA Open / PCC National Championships, over at the Talladega CMP Range, and wow, was that an awesome experience. While the ROs and shooters at the State matches were a great experience, working with the next levels at the Nationals was something else.
So, this year, I am planning to do both the State Championships in Savannah in October, and the Handgun Nationals in Talladega in September. And, since I shoot Limited, I will get to shoot in the Nationals, something I didn’t do last year, since I don’t shoot Open or PCC.
On the next tier of this, I got to watching some Steel Challenge videos, and it occurred to me that this would be a wonderful next step for me, shooting my 10/22 Captain America. So, look for this next step in my shooting travels.
Fill Yer Hands 