Range/Bullseye Report

Maybe it isn't such a good idea to practice so hard on League Night--I tire out my arm and my eyes by, essentially, shooting the equivalent of 7 relays before the official one. It's like playing seven scrimmage soccer games right before the real game on the same day--not a good idea. Maybe next time (i.e. next-next Monday--no MPL for Memorial Day) I'll just get to the range only an hour to half-an-hour early to warm up and nothing else...a couple rounds of rapid-fire, a round or two of slow-fire, nothing more.

Oh well.

Before MPL even started I put nearly 500 rounds downrange with my two revolvers. Decided I was doing better with my newly-acquired 17-8, so I chose that one to shoot tonight.

Slow-fire was...well, maybe a little disappointing. I still shot a 165, my second-best score, but I would've liked to have done better. I used my usual 3-shot strings--since I'm using open-sights, I'm not as concerned with being exactly the same between every shot...it gets tiring, and I don't feel comfortable setting up, shooting, and breaking down after every shot. My muscles seem happier to set up, shoot, shoot, shoot, break-down. 3 shots is about the maximum I can do before fatigue really sets in, but for those three shots it's easier to just keep the muscles going like they were instead of having to set-up every time.

Anyways. Timed-fire was even more disappointing, with at 179. A respectable score, sure, but 9-points below what I scored last week, and I put let far too many shots hit outside of the black--somewhat surprising, since in practice I was getting only about 3 or 4 outside of the black. Perhaps it had something to do with my tiring myself out before the match tonight.

Rapid-fire was OK today--176, 1 better than last week but still 10 points behind my best (186).

Overall, I secured 520 out of 600 points tonight, a 20-point gain (all due to a much better slow-fire) over last week, which earned me a 286 handicap score. Not bad...not top-4, but not bad. Next time (June 2nd) we're against the Navy Team, which should be easy, what with the Navy Team's personnel problems and lower-general scorers (last week they got a 1133, the week before they did a 1130-something, and the week before that they did 1140-something; my team regularly and easily scores in the mid 1150's)

My 3-week average dropped, however, to 256. Which means that next match, if I continue to do this well, I should have a much better handicap score.

Well, first things first. Next weekend there's no MPL match due to Memorial Day, and the weekend after that I'll be doing the Tahoe thing, so we'll see how this goes...

Range Report

this box of ammo is proving somewhat unreliable...a couple FTFires that would fire on the second try, a couple that wouldn't fire at all...not good for the timed- and rapid-fire, where I won't have time to "try it again". Tomorrow, I'll burn off this box and hopefully the next one will be better.

Couldn't rein in my hands today--rapid fire, I was still putting a few outside the black, some wildly-so. Still on-paper, but just barely.

I'll fix it tomorrow. Hopefully.

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On a side note, I'm getting all of these automated "happy birthday" messages from the various gun-forums I frequent. Must be my...oh wait, it is.

I'm 25 today.

Range Report

"That's a short night for you..." the Range Officer said as I was heading out. Indeed it was, as I needed to get home to prep my bike and stuff for tomorrow's ride.

But I still found 50 minutes to put 220 rounds downrange--100 rapid-fire through my 617, 100 rapid-fire through the 17, and 20 slow-fire through the 617. I actually did have one rapid-fire target with all 20 in the black, for a score of 195. And the one slow-fire target I shot had 18 on-target. Nice.

I should use rapid-fire as a warm-up from now on...just start off with it, to get my mind and body settled in. It's the more "frantic" of the disciplines, anyways, so it doesn't require me to be as steady as slow-fire, and timed-fire is basically sustained slow-fire.

Range Report

Started off with my 617 at 75 feet, aiming at the large target...when I wasn't getting good groups, I switched to the smaller target and my groups improved. 200 rounds thusly. Then I switched to my 17-8, 100 rounds of rapid-fire. Then back to the 617 (which is definitely heavier, because of the all stainless steel cylinder, versus the 17-8's aluminum cylinder) for 100 more rapid-fire rounds. Then to the 17-8 for 100 rounds slow-fire (having been sufficiently warmed up with rapid-fire), and then the 617 for 100 rounds slowfire. Finished up with the 17-8 with 100 rounds, rapid-fire. All told, 700 rounds, and I'd been on the range for about two and a half hours. It felt good.

The guys beside me in lane 2 were practicing their IDPA draws and such (getting sub 1-second-draw-and-fire-once drills in--wow!), and they looked over and saw my targets and said "man, that's f*cking scary!". Hopefully that meant that they were impressed by my ability to score good hits on a target 50 yards away with a revolver and open sights. =)

Today felt good because all I brought was the 17 and the 617, and so that's all I needed to focus on. No other guns in my bag with their associated magazines and stuff. Just bring what I'll shoot, shoot what I bring, and leave the rest at home. Shoot those another day. Maybe. Maybe after Tahoe and after this Bullseye thing lets up.

Plus, I want to experiment with the ammo to see what will give better grouping, to see just how much the "shotgun patterns" on my targets are me, and how much is the gun+ammo. Right off the bat, I know that having that cylinder-barrel gap and cheap bulk-ammo probably means that I'm losing velocity as the bullet jumps the gap, and that the powder charge/bullet weight may not be consistent, and Bullseye is all about being consistent (and consistenly good).

Bullseye...or not

my downward-slide continues, but mainly in the slowfire--137 today, my worst ever.

I made up for it somewhat with my timed-fire, only letting two shots out of the black for a 188 (second best), and a decent rapid-fire at 175 for a face-saving 500, but if I don't do something about it...

I need to go back to where this was new and wonderful and exciting, that feeling I get when I'm flying down a mountain on a bike or a snowboard. Just the exhilaration of movement, of excellence. It was definitely lacking while I was shooting today's slowfire. Oh, I can list a bunch of 'reasons' why I'm not doing so well--lack of meaningful practice, aging eyeglass prescription, my equipment wearing down--but in the end it all boils down to me. Bullseye is an internal sport, it's all mental. After the external factors have been accounted for (sights adjusted, bullet-weight taken into consideration, foot placement OK, etc.), the only variable thing left, the only thing uncontrollable, is the internal state.

Somehow I need to master that...

Clip vs. Magazine

"Clip" vs "Magazine". Not that anyone's going to get it right anyways...

Stand Your Ground

This was today:

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Eric F.: dude someone pulled a knife on me today
me: seriously? when? where?
Eric F.: almost got himself shot
me: holy shit!
Eric F.: at the metro bus stop
Eric F.: I was alone in one of the covers
Eric F.: some kid rides up in a bike pills out a knife and opens it up
Eric F.: 6-8 inch
Eric F.: I didn't hear what he said because I was too busy watching the knife
Eric F.: but I stod up and told him "that is a bad idea"
me: you didn't draw on him, did you?
Eric F.: nope
me: move your hand near your sidearm?
Eric F.: he ran off
me: "make for your weapon"
me: whew
Eric F.: hehe
Eric F.: there were people around
me: the main part, probably, was that you stood your ground and were prepared to fight back
Eric F.: well I was to focused on the knife/scared shitless to hear what he said
Eric F.: probably though he would pull a knife a I would give him money
Eric F.: before people saw
me: good thing you didn't have to draw...
me: and I'm glad you're alright =)
Eric F.: hehe
Eric F.: so I called the police
Eric F.: they kept asking "what did he say?"
Eric F.: I am like he had a knife I don't care what he was saying
Eric F.: I don't know if they found him
Eric F.: probably didn't look
me: at least they know there's a guy going around with a knife
me: won't help much, though
Eric F.: yea
me: because they definitely know there's a guy going around with a gun--you.
me: heh
Eric F.: hehe
Eric F.: true true
me: wow, man, just...wow
me: one of those "never thought it would happen" sorta stories...
Eric F.: well I got 2 now
me: stories
Eric F.: house robbed
Eric F.: and knife
me: yeah
me: yay Alexandria...
Eric F.: heheh
Eric F.: I think the kid was just looking for an easy target
me: I'm quite happy that Invertix has moved out of Annandale...
me: probably
me: aren't they all?
Eric F.: yea
Eric F.: probably came from DC on the metro
me: they wouldn't do it if we were all hard targets...
Eric F.: true