Bullseye Pistol #5

Ugh. I just knew, going in, that I was going to do poorly. I mean, I hadn't had any meaningful practice all week, and hadn't even put any lead downrange in four days, and this stuff isn't like riding a bicycle: if you neglect it, you definitely lose it. You can't just wing it--well, you can, but you can't expect to do well doing that.

If they say that bullseye matches are won in the slowfire and lost in the timed- and rapid-fire, then I definitely lost it in the slow-fire. I didn't even practice any slowfire this week (my 500 rounds on Thursday were all rapid-fire). So it's no surprise, really, that my score dropped by 25 points in the slow-fire down to 141. That-right-there is the main reason my score sucked so badly.

My timed fire was OK, getting 178 points.

My rapid-fire was awful, however--I had a misfire on the first string, and I tried to salvage that misfired round by re-cocking the hammer on it (hold the trigger all the way rearward and then pull the hammer back all the way, and then release the trigger--it'll recock on the same round) since usually when that happens it was just a light rim-strike that caused the misfire. But it failed to light on the second try, and by then I had wasted too much time trying to save it, so I had to start pulling double-action shots to at least get some points out of the string. But I only had enough time to fire twice more (making for only 4 shots in that string).

My second string of rapid-fire wasn't much better--I again had a misfire, which did light on the second try (though I should've just let it go). And again, I only had time for two more shots, making for only 4 shots in that string.

My third and fourth strings, I loaded 6 rounds and fired all six for both strings to make up for the unfired shots in the first two strings, meaning that I had even less time to aim and fire the last 12 shots. While probably not allowed, there was no way I was going to have to do an alibi-string--that's the whole reason I load 6 rounds per string anyways: so that if a round fails to light, I can just keep right on shooting; with a semi-auto you don't have that luxury, since a FTFire doesn't usually allow a second go at the primer or any way to try at a fresh round without having to handle the gun with the other hand, thus negating any claim for an alibi.

Somehow I was able to pull a 175 in my rapid-fire, 3 better than last week.

All told, it was 141 + 178 + 175 = 494. Over 30 points dropped from last time, didn't even break 500.

I shouldn't even have put my guns in my car this morning.

I know, I know--I was bound to have an off-week. I can't keep improving by 35 points forever--there is an upper-limit (600 points), and without practice/training lower scores are to be expected. If this trend continues (and it looks like it will, given that I may not be able to get out to a range this weekend), I'll probably get in line with everyone else and start using my S&W 41. Which is technically a nicer gun, but I like the challenge that comes with the limitations of my hardware.

I should practice failure drills--load up 6 chambers, one of them with a spent casing, and then use a recording for a course of fire and practice getting rid of my tendency to re-try failed-to-light cartridges and learn how to just press onto the reserve round (which probably is against the rules, too).

Oh, and there was a slamfire (or an inadvertent trigger pull) today--the command to load was given, and everyone rammed a magazine home (except me, of course), and let the slides go forward and we heard a round go off (before the start-buzzer sounded) and a "woah!" shouted somewhere down the line, and then the caller announced a "stand easy". I'll bet whoever it was was embarrassed pretty good, but I was impressed with how everyone was calm while it was being investigated. No harm done, and we resumed the countdown.