5 Year Plan

So it's been 5 years since I last updated this blog - I'm not even sure what I used this blog for anymore...probably something to do with guns.

Anyways.

Let's see...what have I done in those five years...

I managed to make NRA Conventional Pistol "Master" in both Indoor and Outdoor Bullseye. I've even made "High Master" for Indoor. I've embraced semi-automatic pistols: I've known for a long time that I shoot far better with bottom-feeders than with wheelguns, but my goal was to make Master with wheelguns -- and I did that in 2011 - first with Indoor by completing the 2010-2011 MPL season with an overall 95%+, and then in outdoor by shooting a Master-level 2700 score, and then shooting a barely-Master-level .22 aggregate and cutting my losses and retiring after the .22 aggregate. By then, most of the shooting goals I had set out for myself had been achieved: make Master, earn the Distinguished Revolver badge, earn the Distinguished Pistol Shot badge (my last "hard leg" was at the New Jersey State Pistol Championships, which I attended for the sole purpose of shooting the EIC match -- my 2700 score was terrible, and my DR score was lackluster, but I rocked it in the EIC match, taking highest non-Distinguished and second overall), and I even won a match outright (Mid-Atlantic Revolver Regional Championship at AAF&G - a match I wasn't even planning on shooting, but attended because Brent O. wanted to borrow my .22 revolver). I did also win the Capital 1800 match at HH&A that Fall (and that's a story by itself).

After that, I figured I was "done" and was transitioning to bicycle racing. Indeed, in 2012, I shot very little at all, only participating in the Metro Pistol League out of habit, and shooting the later matches in the year since there were no bike races then - the Walt Wise Memorial Police-L match at HH&A in September, which I won, and the Capital 1800 match again at HH&A, which I also won (again).

In 2013, I figured it was going to be another 'blah' year for me and Bullseye - I had a new goal, not at all related to shooting: earn enough upgrade points to upgrade from USACycling Cat 4 to USAC Cat 3. Doing this meant I'd have to do consistently well in races to earn points, and to do that I needed to be pretty fit (and also race savvy). To do that, I basically had to ride all the time - my singular focus was on bicycling, and so shooting fell by the wayside. I did actually attend a 2700 match during the Summer, but only because there weren't any races scheduled that day. I did find the time to practice-up for the match, and I was able to take 2nd overall and 1st Master, and I did it with my new-to-me 1911 wadgun (yes, I finally jumped on the bandwagon).

But again there was not much shooting for me during the Spring and Summer. I branched out and attended a handful of run'n'gun matches - the Kinda Sorta Tactical Game, some USPSA-rules matches, and even a couple NRA Action Pistol matches. I still use revolvers for those (even though I've jumped on the autoloader bandwagon in Bullseye), and I'm currently seeing the fruits of my labor, having shot Bullseye for years and years and having excellent accuracy and competition mentality because of it.

In the Fall of 2013, I again competed in the Walt Wise match (again winning), and also the Capital 1800 (3rd win in a row). I also started to get interested in International-style shooting (after being told in 2012 and again in 2013 after winning the Walt Wise matches that I should be competing in those disciplines while I still can) - I attended my fourth and fifth ever International Air Pistol matches in October and November, and even shot a Free Pistol match in October.

So now I have some new goals: to improve in air pistol and free pistol shooting, to compete in International pistol shooting, and to one day represent the United States in a shooting match.