Rec League USPSA Match (5/21/13): Lessons learned

[mwlabel]

1. Tons of dry fire does NOTHING to help you, unless you follow it up with proper live fire practice.
I have done nothing but dry fire the past ~6 months, almost exclusively. The few live fire days I had were not even close to real training. This KILLED me today. Strings of fire, changing gears, and target transitions were just awful. Definitely buying a SIRT soon if I can't find a quality range near the Twin Cities.

2. Perhaps the only good thing of today: I'm getting better at calling shots.
There were no surprise Deltas or Mikes. I look forward to being able to call Alphas and Charlies.

3. Video is a great training tool.
The Contour wasn't quite ready to go. But even looking at my junky handheld video, I can pick apart a lot of things I want to work on.

4. Borrowed gear and unfamiliar territory SUCK.
While it was 99.99999% operator error, having gear that was not mine made things slightly more difficult. Additionally, I was given bad information about the league which completely wrecked one of my stages (Could have loaded my mags to capacity, in stead of 10 rounds. A reload when nobody else has to really poops on your time).

Videos from two of the stages. While I want to destroy all evidence of today (it's the worst I've shot in a longggg time), it may be helpful to others.
[video=youtube;TfXNglsdubI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfXNglsdubI[/video]
[video=youtube;1o2IXeE6T_A]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o2IXeE6T_A[/video]


Unrelated points:

--> The above is what I learned about me. There's a lot I learn from watching other shooters. But today's outing would be mostly talking shit about other shooters and their habits. I feel that is less helpful, so I haven't included it. Yet.


--> I have never been a fan of Raven Concealment Systems, but I gave them another chance. Nope. Will never buy from them again, and I encourage people to look elsewhere for holsters and mag carriers.

 

[Mickeymorris626]

Thanks for the write up. It's not easy posting your less than flattering moments. Im sorry if our willy nilly shooting day did anything to hinder you from success. At the very least, I'm sure it didn't help any.

Any reason you decided to borrow a raven? Was it purely to give it another shot, or did you see a compelling argument for them?

 

[Alwayslit]

Cool, really enjoyed the video.

 

[YodisMatt]

Even if this isn't your best you get to look back on this and laugh later when you become much better and see your progression.

Side note, I have finally been thinking of buying my first firearm.

 

[mwlabel]

Thanks for the write up. It's not easy posting your less than flattering moments. Im sorry if our willy nilly shooting day did anything to hinder you from success. At the very least, I'm sure it didn't help any.

Any reason you decided to borrow a raven? Was it purely to give it another shot, or did you see a compelling argument for them?

I didn't actually use the Raven during the match. The holster that I bought was so ill-fitting that you could literally not draw the gun. It required two hands prying it out.

Even if this isn't your best you get to look back on this and laugh later when you become much better and see your progression.

Side note, I have finally been thinking of buying my first firearm.

I, obviously, encourage you to do so.

 

[abomb60]

Weird I've owned a few raven holsters and all have been excellent. The wait times suck so maybe QC is suffering?

 

[Angry Bill]

I know when I used to shoot in the 3 gun matches, nothing helped more than live fire training. Great write up

 

[mdwest]

Bad range days are sometimes the best training motivators..

There's always value in even the worst shooting strings.. as long as youre willing to break down what happened, figure out what went wrong, and then start trying to figure out a way to solve the problem (sounds like you are already doing this).. negative lessons learned are just as valuable as positive lessons learned..

Watching this reminds me that I really need to get back out to the pistol range and get some work in.. Ive been focused on too many other things lately...

Quick question... I cant tell for certain from the video.. but in the first one it looks like you are carrying your mag pouches on the left hip.. whats your reasoning for that choice as opposed to carrying them closer to your center line? (not saying it is wrong at all... just wondering if you wouldnt be a little faster on the reload if they were sitting at about 11 o clock..)... second video (assuming they didnt move) shows them on the hip as well..

 

[mwlabel]

Weird I've owned a few raven holsters and all have been excellent. The wait times suck so maybe QC is suffering?

There's a few contributing factors. I won't go into it. However, their newest launch of the VG2 has been problematic.

Quick question... I cant tell for certain from the video.. but in the first one it looks like you are carrying your mag pouches on the left hip.. whats your reasoning for that choice as opposed to carrying them closer to your center line? (not saying it is wrong at all... just wondering if you wouldnt be a little faster on the reload if they were sitting at about 11 o clock..)... second video (assuming they didnt move) shows them on the hip as well..

That is both a gear limitation (of yesterday) and preference.

Those crappy mag pouches don't rotate, so left hip is actually faster in that orientation than centerline.

Secondly, that's their home for what I typically do. I don't shoot Limited or Open, so they are required to be behind the hip for Production and Single Stack. That is also where my carry magazine rides... After experimenting with a couple of angled magazines, I found the negatives actually outweighed the positives for my methods.