One of those thrilling moments for a bullseye shooter is when you shoot your first 100 target. I only started shooting bullseye this year, and I hadn't yet shot a 100, either in practice or in competition, until this past weekend. I was practicing timed fire Saturday afternoon when I shot my first 100 target. I'd shot quite a few 99's and 98's, but no 100's. I was pretty excited. I'm holding on to that target until I shoot my first 100 in competition.
What's even more exciting, though, is that I shot two more 100's Sunday morning while practicing rapid fire. It's nice to see that I'm improving.
Monday, August 30, 2010
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
2400
I shot another 2700 this past weekend, this time down at Central Jersey. I shot another personal best grand aggregate and managed to break 2400 with a, well, um, 2400. (The results are posted here.)
I decided to shoot in the Sharpshooter class this time. I'm still classified as a Marksman, and I would have won the grand aggregate had I shot in that class. I wanted to go ahead and move up, though. Even though winning is fun, I'm mostly interested in improving, and I wanted to be challenged. (Well, okay, the challenge was purely internal, and I'm not sure that I shot any differently, but I wanted to do it, anyway.)
Now my goal will be to get that extra thirty points so I can move up into Expert. It's certainly feasible, although given that I have two more outdoor matches this year, I probably won't make that move this year. But the fall and winter will give me plenty of time to practice.
Speaking of improvement, I only started shooting bullseye this year. In my first 2700, I managed to break 1600 (with three guns, I should probably point out.) I'm now shooting in the mid-2300's. If this trend continues, I expect to break 3000 sometime early next year.[1]
[1] This was a poor attempt at a joke. They call it a 2700 because that's the maximum possible number of points you can score.
I decided to shoot in the Sharpshooter class this time. I'm still classified as a Marksman, and I would have won the grand aggregate had I shot in that class. I wanted to go ahead and move up, though. Even though winning is fun, I'm mostly interested in improving, and I wanted to be challenged. (Well, okay, the challenge was purely internal, and I'm not sure that I shot any differently, but I wanted to do it, anyway.)
Now my goal will be to get that extra thirty points so I can move up into Expert. It's certainly feasible, although given that I have two more outdoor matches this year, I probably won't make that move this year. But the fall and winter will give me plenty of time to practice.
Speaking of improvement, I only started shooting bullseye this year. In my first 2700, I managed to break 1600 (with three guns, I should probably point out.) I'm now shooting in the mid-2300's. If this trend continues, I expect to break 3000 sometime early next year.[1]
[1] This was a poor attempt at a joke. They call it a 2700 because that's the maximum possible number of points you can score.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Match results -- almost a clean sweep
The match results (with details in PDF) are out for the 2700 I shot this past weekend. I almost managed a clean sweep in Marksman. I won every match but the center-fire rapid fire match, which I lost by either 1 point and 4 X's or two points.
Something else interesting to note from the match is that both the top Expert and the top Sharpshooter out-shot the top Master in the grand aggregate.
Something else interesting to note from the match is that both the top Expert and the top Sharpshooter out-shot the top Master in the grand aggregate.
Monday, August 9, 2010
Good match/bad match
It was the best of matches, it was the worst of matches.
I shot the 2700 at my club this weekend. It was a good match in that I had personal bests in .22 National Match Course, timed fire, rapid fire, and aggregate; .45 slow fire; and the grand aggregate. OTOH, during the match, I felt like my shooting was absolute crap. Hell, I had a miss on one of the .45 slow fire stages (just outside the 5 ring at 12:00.)
But I think my perception was tainted by expectations. After shooting an 821 .22 aggregate, I thought to myself, "Hey, today might be the day I break 2400." I'd already shot an 800 .45 aggregate, so it wasn't unreasonable to think that. But my performance didn't match my expectations, thus the disappointment.
I haven't gotten the official results yet. It'll be interesting to see how I performed overall.
I shot the 2700 at my club this weekend. It was a good match in that I had personal bests in .22 National Match Course, timed fire, rapid fire, and aggregate; .45 slow fire; and the grand aggregate. OTOH, during the match, I felt like my shooting was absolute crap. Hell, I had a miss on one of the .45 slow fire stages (just outside the 5 ring at 12:00.)
But I think my perception was tainted by expectations. After shooting an 821 .22 aggregate, I thought to myself, "Hey, today might be the day I break 2400." I'd already shot an 800 .45 aggregate, so it wasn't unreasonable to think that. But my performance didn't match my expectations, thus the disappointment.
I haven't gotten the official results yet. It'll be interesting to see how I performed overall.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Good Bullseye match
I shot the bullseye match today at Central Jersey. It was a hot day, although we were fortunate to have a light breeze from time to time. The match finished pretty early, too. We were done shooting by 2:00 or so. We were pretty lucky -- we had all of one alibi.
After one of my slow-fire strings, John Gemmill, who was running the match (and who's one of the people responsible for reviving bullseye shooting in New Jersey), gave me some unsolicited advice. He'd noticed my pistol trembling a bit, and he advised me to try relaxing my grip on the pistol. I gave that a try on the next few strings, and, although I wasn't immediately successful at shooting better, I managed to shoot a 96 slow-fire stage on the .45 National Match course. To put this into perspective, the High Masters have been shooting 94-95 on average for .45 slow-fire stages for the past few months at Central Jersey. And to give some more perspective, my other .45 slow-fire stages were pretty pitiful, including a 66. It may have been a fluke, but I'm at least on track to improving my slow-fire scores.
The other remarkable event from the match (at least for me) was my slider. For timed- and rapid-fire stages, we use turning targets. If you manage to get a shot off while the target is turning, you'll get a hole that's stretched out a bit. In my case, the hole started about 11:00 in the 9 ring and stretched to the edge of the cardboard. The aforementioned John Gemmill commented on the target and told me that it showed good control, that I hadn't panicked when the targets started turning but had gotten the shot off calmly.
My grand aggregate for the match was 2329, which gives me my second consecutive Sharpshooter score. So, depending on how long it takes the NRA to process things and update my status, I've got a few weeks to be a sandbagger and win some Marksman matches (or get ahead of myself and start shooting poorly.) At least I've met one of my goals for the year, to make it up into Sharpshooter.
After one of my slow-fire strings, John Gemmill, who was running the match (and who's one of the people responsible for reviving bullseye shooting in New Jersey), gave me some unsolicited advice. He'd noticed my pistol trembling a bit, and he advised me to try relaxing my grip on the pistol. I gave that a try on the next few strings, and, although I wasn't immediately successful at shooting better, I managed to shoot a 96 slow-fire stage on the .45 National Match course. To put this into perspective, the High Masters have been shooting 94-95 on average for .45 slow-fire stages for the past few months at Central Jersey. And to give some more perspective, my other .45 slow-fire stages were pretty pitiful, including a 66. It may have been a fluke, but I'm at least on track to improving my slow-fire scores.
The other remarkable event from the match (at least for me) was my slider. For timed- and rapid-fire stages, we use turning targets. If you manage to get a shot off while the target is turning, you'll get a hole that's stretched out a bit. In my case, the hole started about 11:00 in the 9 ring and stretched to the edge of the cardboard. The aforementioned John Gemmill commented on the target and told me that it showed good control, that I hadn't panicked when the targets started turning but had gotten the shot off calmly.
My grand aggregate for the match was 2329, which gives me my second consecutive Sharpshooter score. So, depending on how long it takes the NRA to process things and update my status, I've got a few weeks to be a sandbagger and win some Marksman matches (or get ahead of myself and start shooting poorly.) At least I've met one of my goals for the year, to make it up into Sharpshooter.
Friday, July 9, 2010
Les Baer wadcutter
Back in February, I ordered a Les Baer wadcutter for bullseye shooting, and it came in Tuesday. I managed to get caught by the bathtub curve -- someone else at the club ordered one about two weeks before I did and had it in 12 weeks. My order took 18 weeks, so I got mine a full two months after he did. I guess they're doing a pretty good business right now.
The one add-on I ordered with the gun was their one-and-a-half inch guarantee (1.5" at 50 yards.) What this means is that the gun is really tight. I took the gun out of the box and tried to rack the slide -- no go, even after cocking the hammer. Doing it from the rear is a bit complicated by the scope mount, so I tried to push it back using the serrations on the front of the slide. It still took a bit just to get it out of battery, but once it was out of battery, it slid pretty well.
I took it to the range Wednesday night before our monthly meeting. The first thing to do was zero it. I put up a 25-yard slowfire target and fired from a sandbag. Okay, up and to the right. I fire another round to see how the accuracy is and look through the scope. Hmm, I only see one hole -- oh, wait, that's two holes. The third hole was definitely distinct, but still close enough to make me happy. (And given that I wasn't using a vice, that very well could have been shooter error.)
I put about 100 rounds through it between zeroing it and shooting a practice 900. I shot an 800 with it, which is certainly not the best I've shot in practice, but for one, I need to get used to the trigger, and for two, I wasn't expecting this gun to make me a master-class shooter. There's a lot of work that needs to happen behind the trigger. And with this gun, it will be painfully obvious where the fault for any failure lies.
One of the things I like about this gun so far is the scope mount. The loaner gun I've been shooting so far has a barrel-mounted red-dot. Because the scope is mounted forward of my wrist, I noticed a lot of wobble. This mount gets the scope a lot farther back, so it's closer to that pivot point. I'm noticing a lot less wobble with this one.
The one add-on I ordered with the gun was their one-and-a-half inch guarantee (1.5" at 50 yards.) What this means is that the gun is really tight. I took the gun out of the box and tried to rack the slide -- no go, even after cocking the hammer. Doing it from the rear is a bit complicated by the scope mount, so I tried to push it back using the serrations on the front of the slide. It still took a bit just to get it out of battery, but once it was out of battery, it slid pretty well.
I took it to the range Wednesday night before our monthly meeting. The first thing to do was zero it. I put up a 25-yard slowfire target and fired from a sandbag. Okay, up and to the right. I fire another round to see how the accuracy is and look through the scope. Hmm, I only see one hole -- oh, wait, that's two holes. The third hole was definitely distinct, but still close enough to make me happy. (And given that I wasn't using a vice, that very well could have been shooter error.)
I put about 100 rounds through it between zeroing it and shooting a practice 900. I shot an 800 with it, which is certainly not the best I've shot in practice, but for one, I need to get used to the trigger, and for two, I wasn't expecting this gun to make me a master-class shooter. There's a lot of work that needs to happen behind the trigger. And with this gun, it will be painfully obvious where the fault for any failure lies.
One of the things I like about this gun so far is the scope mount. The loaner gun I've been shooting so far has a barrel-mounted red-dot. Because the scope is mounted forward of my wrist, I noticed a lot of wobble. This mount gets the scope a lot farther back, so it's closer to that pivot point. I'm noticing a lot less wobble with this one.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Clean sweep!
Well, okay, not really a clean sweep, but I managed to win the marksman class (grand aggregate) this past weekend. I'd been hoping that I would but I was waiting for the match results to see how things fell out. I'd also been wondering if I'd have a clean sweep (winning every match and aggregate.) I certainly wasn't expecting it, but man, would that have made my day. I did manage a clean sweep on center-fire, though, and I won both the CF and .45 aggregates and a smattering of other first and second place scores.
While its nice to win, though, I'm mostly focused on improvement. I'm currently in marksman class, and I want to make it up into sharpshooter. This was a sharpshooter score (2360, with a 2295 cutoff), and if I shoot as well in my next match, I'll be there.
While its nice to win, though, I'm mostly focused on improvement. I'm currently in marksman class, and I want to make it up into sharpshooter. This was a sharpshooter score (2360, with a 2295 cutoff), and if I shoot as well in my next match, I'll be there.
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