Well, first 2-gun match in over 2 1/2 years so it felt a bit like starting over.
The Guns: Springfield Armory Saint Victor 5.56, all stock except for a Schmid 2-stage match trigger with JP springs and a DIY cheek riser on the BCM stock. I was using a Vortex PST II 1-6 with a piggybacked Sig Romeo5. My pistol was a Glock 34 with fiber optic irons, a Magpul magwell, Timney trigger, and a Brownells Glock barrel.
What went not so good:
- Making a stage plan and sticking with the stage plan.
- Using good economy of motion with minimal wasted movements.
- When they say "Is the shooter ready?", actually meaning it and not simply I want to hear the beep now.
- Pistol mags not falling free
- My pistol marksmanship
What went good:
- I didn't run out of ammo
- I didn't time out
- I didn't get DQ'd
- The more I work with a piggyback red dot the more I like it.
- I remembered the dope for my rifle without having to look at a cheat sheet.
- Had fun.
What needs to improve:
- I need to work on my pistol marksmanship. It got better as the day went on but by then it was too little too late. Small errors early on equated to large penalties that simply couldn't be made up for. One two stages, steel plates were set in front of white no shoot targets and if a bullet hit the no shoot it was a 60 second penalty. I wasn't the only one to shoot the no shoots on those stages but the goal is to be better than that.
- Sticking to my stage plan and maximize economy of motion to complete the stage. Honestly I think this one is just going to take time as I get back into the swing of things but there were instances where I got "lost" in the stage and it cost me time and points. The first stage this happened required some complex movements but the long and short of it is that I had to be in a certain position to engage two rifle targets and I failed to do so, realizing too late I'd skipped past them. The gentleman that finished first for the match, watching him shoot that stage was like a master class in no wasted movements or efforts and that'll be my goal.
- I'm going to start getting in the habit of doing last minute go checks before I start a stage both when I'm on deck and when I'm at the fault line. Last stage of the day was a burner stage consisting of close range pistol steel, run down a trail to engage three close paper targets, and then four steel rifle targets at just over 100 yards from standing. I cleared the pistol stage faster than I'd done all day it felt like, charge the rifle, bring it up to use the piggyback red dot, and nothing...no dot..oh shit. Because of the mix of close rifle paper and ~100 yard steel I had the optic set to 4X which the cardboard IPSC's were filling the FOV of and shot placement was less than ideal on those, costing me points on that stage. Initial thoughts were that the battery died or that the dot was busted but as near as I can tell somehow it got switched off on the ride from the stage before and as such the shake awake feature was inoperative. Got home, held down the button and the dot came right on, which would've been easy to remedy doing a pre-stage check before going to the line.
This time I finished 15th out of 56, so despite my mistakes I don't feel that's too bad. There's another match next month that I'm going to register for and look to improve on that score next time.
The Guns: Springfield Armory Saint Victor 5.56, all stock except for a Schmid 2-stage match trigger with JP springs and a DIY cheek riser on the BCM stock. I was using a Vortex PST II 1-6 with a piggybacked Sig Romeo5. My pistol was a Glock 34 with fiber optic irons, a Magpul magwell, Timney trigger, and a Brownells Glock barrel.
What went not so good:
- Making a stage plan and sticking with the stage plan.
- Using good economy of motion with minimal wasted movements.
- When they say "Is the shooter ready?", actually meaning it and not simply I want to hear the beep now.
- Pistol mags not falling free
- My pistol marksmanship
What went good:
- I didn't run out of ammo
- I didn't time out
- I didn't get DQ'd
- The more I work with a piggyback red dot the more I like it.
- I remembered the dope for my rifle without having to look at a cheat sheet.
- Had fun.
What needs to improve:
- I need to work on my pistol marksmanship. It got better as the day went on but by then it was too little too late. Small errors early on equated to large penalties that simply couldn't be made up for. One two stages, steel plates were set in front of white no shoot targets and if a bullet hit the no shoot it was a 60 second penalty. I wasn't the only one to shoot the no shoots on those stages but the goal is to be better than that.
- Sticking to my stage plan and maximize economy of motion to complete the stage. Honestly I think this one is just going to take time as I get back into the swing of things but there were instances where I got "lost" in the stage and it cost me time and points. The first stage this happened required some complex movements but the long and short of it is that I had to be in a certain position to engage two rifle targets and I failed to do so, realizing too late I'd skipped past them. The gentleman that finished first for the match, watching him shoot that stage was like a master class in no wasted movements or efforts and that'll be my goal.
- I'm going to start getting in the habit of doing last minute go checks before I start a stage both when I'm on deck and when I'm at the fault line. Last stage of the day was a burner stage consisting of close range pistol steel, run down a trail to engage three close paper targets, and then four steel rifle targets at just over 100 yards from standing. I cleared the pistol stage faster than I'd done all day it felt like, charge the rifle, bring it up to use the piggyback red dot, and nothing...no dot..oh shit. Because of the mix of close rifle paper and ~100 yard steel I had the optic set to 4X which the cardboard IPSC's were filling the FOV of and shot placement was less than ideal on those, costing me points on that stage. Initial thoughts were that the battery died or that the dot was busted but as near as I can tell somehow it got switched off on the ride from the stage before and as such the shake awake feature was inoperative. Got home, held down the button and the dot came right on, which would've been easy to remedy doing a pre-stage check before going to the line.
This time I finished 15th out of 56, so despite my mistakes I don't feel that's too bad. There's another match next month that I'm going to register for and look to improve on that score next time.
