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.
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.
On September 19, 2020, I visited the Talladega CMP range to participate in the GSSF Glock Annual Shoot XXVII. I will be honest, since I didn’t get a chance to practice much, I didn’t shoot as well as I could, and I ended up placing 97 out of 170.
But I must say, as usual I really enjoyed my time there. And I even got to see the Gunny Challenge, won by Brian Giovaninni of Savannah.
In my post yesterday about my return to GSSF, I talked about how I felt my extra time on Glock the Plates was probably because that was my first shots of the day, with no warm up. Butch Barton commented that I shouldn’t shoot the plates first, but rather 5 to Glock, them Glock M, then the plates at the end. I have to admit, I agree with Butch, and, in fact, that’s normally the way I shoot it. However, when I showed up at the GSSF match, I let convenience get the best of me, and when I saw I could shoot second at the Plates, I took it. Bad call.
This led me to think about my strategy for shooting the GSSF stages, and how I have tweaked them over the years. So, here are my strategies for shooting the GSSF stages.
5 to Glock
Strategy: Shoot the farthest targets first, then work my way to the nearest.
Why: I have found I can shoot 25 yard targets well, if I take my time and line up the sights correctly. Closer in, I can almost double-tap them and do well. But if I start close in and work my way out, I don’t take the discipline to line up the sights on the farthest targets, and this leads to the Dreaded Mike.
Glock M
Strategy: From right to left, shoot the paper targets in order, then shoot the steel target(s).
Why: Consider – I have 11 rounds loaded, and it takes 8 rounds to engage the paper targets. This leaves 3 for the steel. I have found that, on a bad day, I can miss the plates with the first few shots. So, worst case scenario, if I go left to right, and take 4 shots on the steel, that means I am out of ammo by the time I get to the last paper target. So I make sure I have shot all the paper, then I have 3 rounds for the steel. If I miss with the first one, I take a concerted moment to line up my sights and hit it on the second shot.
I will admit, I am much better shooting steel at the Glock M distance of 11 yards than I used to be, and I haven’t missed the steel in quite a while. But this strategy still works best for me.
Glock the Plates
Strategy: Treat each plate as a separate target, and use the recoil energy to move me to the next target. If I miss, I come back to the standing targets once I am done with all 6.
Why: What can I say? There are maybe a hundred YouTube videos on how to shoot plates. My favorite is by Rob Leatham. The last half is a commercial for his plate rack, but the strategy is good:
So, in summary, be strategic, be committed, and be safe.
Fill Yer Hands 