Make Ready! | My log of learning USPSA, etc.

11th Match:  York Practical Shooters USPSA, April 21st, 2024

PCC Class, Sub2000 + Internals, Red Dot. (No changes since last match.)

Placement: 69th of 102 overall, 12th of 14 PCC entries. 

Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/b42e8861-7661-4d71-bc00-7b1fc0e6a967

My first sanctioned USPSA match, and first outdoor match! I must say, even though I knew it already, these matches are a whole other level compared to our little indoor matches at MD arsenal. At the little match I look like I'm doing good, and then I come here an got a reality check. :) Really, I did know this was the case ahead of time, but it's wild to see just how good the "good" guys are. There were some top dogs at this match, including the Area 8 champion last year was in my squad, and a world champion was in the squad ahead of us. And like most competitive shooters I've met so far, they seem pretty chill and happy to chat or give tips, etc. 

This match was 8 stages, with 7 squads. I was in squad 7, so we started on stage 7/8 which were back to back classifiers. 

Stage 8: Classifier, single target, 6 shots. Pistol, strong hand only, fortunately for me on PCC that didn't mean anything different than normal. 

Stage 7: Classifier, 3 paper, one mini-popper steel, best 2 shots on paper. 

Lucky me, our squad decided to do alphabetical by first name, so lucky me was first shooter of the day. It is what it is, with the rotation that meant the rest of the day I was towards the end, so I could watch everyone else then. I would have preferred if that wasn't the classifier first thing, but oh well, it's all part of the game. Classifier scores were not great, D class technically. Only up from there right?

The rest of the stages were a nice mix. Stage 4 was a fixed time stage with a very tight time frame, 10 targets, 2 shots each, 8 seconds with a good bit of movement. Stage 3 had two swingers, first time attempting those. I didn't catch my exact results on the swinging targets, I think 1 was good and the other had a C and a D, not bad. By the last two stages for the day I felt like I was warming up more. I'm looking forward to next time at York Practical Shooters now that I know what to expect about the environment, etc. Also, compared to the indoor match, where there can only be one shooter at a time, once the event starts, it's almost non-stop shooting till everyone is done since all 7 squads are on bays not far apart. It was pretty hard to hear conversation, even with Walker headsets, etc. 

Overall, great experience, can't wait for more!

Got a really exciting phone call last night, but I haven't officially heard the news from the source yet. Hopefully I'll have an exciting announcement coming soon!

Cool to see you taking this journey. It's a really fun sport from both a technical and physical approach.

When you're ready to go nuts I'll sell you my 38 Super open gun :) 

I loved shooting open but ultimately I think I realized I'm just more of an iron sight guy. My eyes naturally focus on sights way better than they do a dot.

But, yeah, glad you found a club that is working out for you. Good luck climbing the ladder.

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Thanks! I've definitely been enjoying it. 

All those open guns look so cool. For now I'm happy running factory ball ammo and mostly stock guns and seeing how good I can get with that. 

As for red dots, fair enough! So far I haven't shot much pistol with a dot yet, so far I think I like it better than irons, but my eyes are weird so I'll take the advantage. 

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Thanks! I've definitely been enjoying it. 

All those open guns look so cool. For now I'm happy running factory ball ammo and mostly stock guns and seeing how good I can get with that. 

As for red dots, fair enough! So far I haven't shot much pistol with a dot yet, so far I think I like it better than irons, but my eyes are weird so I'll take the advantage. 

Yeah I used to LOOOOOVE the dot. at some point my eyes changed a bit where my distance vision needed to be corrected but my near vision was perfect when uncorrected. And that's when I started losing track of the dot. With my distance glasses on the gun and the dot were fuzzy. Uncorrected I found that the transparency of the dot screen split my focus a bit.

With irons, I just find the front sight which is perfectly in my uncorrected focal range. And if it's a degree or two off, no biggie, as long as your sight picture feels pretty good, let it rip. So my Limited gun was my heaviest rotation after that.

But, yeah, Open is a hoot. So much noise and bang, but the gun actually doing very little movement. 

In reply to JG Pasterjak :

Times and bodies change, we just adapt right? 

12th Match:  MD Arsenal USPSA Outlaw Match, May 6th, 2024

PCC Class, Sub2000 + Internals, Red Dot. (No changes since last match.)

Placement: 1st of 18 overall, 1st of 6 PCC entries. 

Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/58afdd5a-ebe9-4096-8931-0e618050fee5?q_individual=0&q_division=0

Video: https://youtu.be/Xbg4Sohrhe4 (Bear with me, I am experimenting with taking video of my matches right now with an old GoPro that doesn't have the preview feature working.)

Back to the local MD Arsenal match last night, and got my first official overall match win! This is slightly dampened by the fact I definitely would have been 2nd if not for an unfortunate DQ on the last stage, but those things happen to the best sometimes, and that resulted in my 1st place finish. 

Overall it was a fun batch of stages, Bea really does try to design them to be good practice for us. 

Stage 1: Comstock, 18 rounds, 9 targets, empty chamber start. I was kinda slow on this stage, which unfortunately seems to be a trend that I need a stage or two to warm up my speed. 

Stage 2: Comstock, 18 rounds, 9 targets, unloaded start. Warming up now, overall not a bad stage. Looking at this one my initial though was to run back to the left, and then walk it across taking targets as they presented. Fortunately, one of the more experience shooters there gave me the tip that you could hit all the targets from just two positions. Move to the first position while loading, then only one more movement. It worked pretty well. 

Stage 3: Comstock, 18 rounds, 6 targets, loaded start. Switched from 2 rounds per target to 3 this stage, I had it in my head pretty well, but in the video you can see trigger freeze on target 2 slowed me down because I caught myself. Then at the end I could tell it was messy so I took a make-up shot, only for that to be completely unnecessary. The make up shot was a Charlie, and the other 3 were Alphas. 

Stage 4: Virginia Count! 4 paper targets, 6 shots each. Two string stage, kinda weird. String 1, two shots each, mandatory reload, then 1 shot each strong hand only (yay PCC, no change). String 2, two shots each, mandatory reload, then 1 shot each weak hand only / weak shoulder. Messed up my mag changes pretty badly, but still had a decent run and scored all Alphas. 

A fun match as always, and I look forward to next month. Next match for me should be at Thurmont at the end of the month as long as I can grab a spot in the registration. 

Exciting news: I got my first sponsorship!

MD Arsenal sponsored a stage in the upcoming 2024 GFDS and Southern Bobby-Q Maryland State USPSA Championship, which gave them 2 free entries and at Bea's recommendation they chose me and Steve! Super exciting news, so my match fee I already paid for that match was refunded and now I need to get a jersey with their logo so I can rep them! 

Jersey ordered!

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

Exciting news: I got my first sponsorship!

MD Arsenal sponsored a stage in the upcoming 2024 GFDS and Southern Bobby-Q Maryland State USPSA Championship, which gave them 2 free entries and at Bea's recommendation they chose me and Steve! Super exciting news, so my match fee I already paid for that match was refunded and now I need to get a jersey with their logo so I can rep them! 

To add onto this I am proud to announce two more sponsors!

My local shop, Hill Top Arms is kind enough to be sponsoring my ammo for the match. They are some great people, and I'm glad to wear their logo. 

Also locally, my friends at Car Care Complete, are sponsoring some supplemental resources for the match. They are near and dear to me as I used to work there, and am still close with them. I am thankful for their support!

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

calteg said:

Very cool that you're competing. As a former sub2k owner, the trigger is absolute dogwater. Easily among the worst of any gun I've owned. Glad you upgraded it already but I'd honestly be looking at a different platform. 

I went down the same path as you and ended up with a Canik. Insane accuracy right out of the box, they (used to be) dirt cheap, but comments among competition shooters tended to be "this is the best pistol I've ever shot outside of a $4500 1911"

 

I'm no trigger snob myself, but I am getting more picky. The upgraded sub2000 trigger wasn't quite as amazing as I hoped, but it definitely helped. 

I will say for PCC class the sub2000 really probably is not a thought for most people, but I honestly love it. The only real downside is charging handle location, and no kickback on empty, but even still I'm getting used to it. Having the mags in the grip like a pistol is more conducive to mag changes than AR style mag location, so I do really like that. 
 

 

I am looking for a pistol for competition. The Canik Rival is definitely an amazing option for the price. I'm pretty set on holding out till I can find a Rival-S. 
 

I've looked at a few. Just held a ProdigyDS tonight, nice but not quite "it" for me. I held a StealthArms Platypus the other day and I do really like that, but I can't justify ~$1700. Looked at the Springfield Echelon as well, and the Sig mentioned above. All good options, but I think I'll hold out for the Rival-S

A friend of my who is an avid competitor bought a Canik and it fell apart at 3000 rounds.  He sent it back to factory.  He got it back and had trouble with it again so got rid of it and went back to Glocks.  

13th Match:  York Practical Shooters USPSA, May 19th, 2024

PCC Class, Sub2000 + Internals, Red Dot. (No changes since last match.)

Placement: 46th of 102 overall, 5th of 12 PCC entries. 

Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/054eb06d-52ff-4d24-81ff-b5bd8b392b74?q_division=0

My original plans for last weekend got rescheduled due to rain, so I hopped on the wait list for the York Practical Shooters match and I was able to get a spot. Once I got the approval that I was off the wait list I stopped by the local range on Saturday to tweak my red dot. MD arsenal is small enough that the dot being off a little bit wasn't a big deal, but last month at York I was having some trouble on the steel at a little distance, and I was pretty sure the dot was off a bit. Turned out it was, I did some tweaks, and then Sunday when I shot this match at York it was on. I think there was only one steel popper that didn't fall first shot, and someone said they thought I at least glanced it. 

I got there early and walked through the stages. Having been there last month I was more familiar with the general environment, so that was nice. Stages all looked pretty good, we had 9 stages for the day which gave a lot of practice.

My main takeaway from the match is that my first 4 stages were pretty meh, and then the last 5 stages were better, not the best I've shot, but closer to what I know my competency is. One downside to this is, both classifiers for the match were in the first half. Shot both of them in the mid 30's%, which are D class scores, mehh. The later stages I shot obviously weren't classifiers, but if they were I was C or B class on those stages. It's like I need a couple stages to warm up, so I have to figure out how to go hard and accurate from the start. More practice I guess. 

USPSA at Thurmont next weekend!

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

Exciting news: I got my first sponsorship!

MD Arsenal sponsored a stage in the upcoming 2024 GFDS and Southern Bobby-Q Maryland State USPSA Championship, which gave them 2 free entries and at Bea's recommendation they chose me and Steve! Super exciting news, so my match fee I already paid for that match was refunded and now I need to get a jersey with their logo so I can rep them! 

To add onto this I am proud to announce two more sponsors!

My local shop, Hill Top Arms is kind enough to be sponsoring my ammo for the match. They are some great people, and I'm glad to wear their logo. 

Also locally, my friends at Car Care Complete, are sponsoring some supplemental resources for the match. They are near and dear to me as I used to work there, and am still close with them. I am thankful for their support!

This is fantastic!!!!!  I have been living vicariously through you and this thread.  I should introduce you to a friend of mine he uses a PCC, not a pistol but he is trying to get to at least one match a month here in NE.  

In reply to dean1484 :

I think after the MD State match in September I'll be scaling back a bit to just one a month probably. Till then though, I am trying to make a good effort to do well in that match. Especially since I have sponsors supporting me for it. 

14th Match:  TCSC USPSA Level 1 Match, May 26th, 2024

PCC Class, Sub2000 + Internals, Red Dot. (No changes since last match.)

Placement: 69th of 136 overall, 7th of 10 PCC entries. 

Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/5806ceb5-bbd0-472a-9272-ee65cfbbf555?q_division=0

Finally made it to my first match at Thurmont. Thurmont Sportsman's Club is where the MD state match will be hosted, so I am glad to finally get a preview of the environment. It's also pretty local to me, only about a 40 minute drive. 

I shot on Sunday, squadded with 5 of my regulars from the MD Arsenal monthly match. It was hot! Sadly, I know July and August are going to be even hotter, so that is something I'll have to keep in mind and adapt to. I attempted a base layer + jeans, but I don't think it helped, I probably would have been better off with just some cargo shorts. As it got hot I just felt sluggish, and it was hard to be motivated to move. Fans, and a personal umbrella for shade would be smart next time. (Side note: The York match location is tucked into the mountains a lot better, and has a ton of shade. Thurmont is a lot more open. Better for sound, but LOTS of sun. 

This match was 6 stages + 1 classifier, and my squad started on the classifier (Stage 6). I actually did ok on said classifier/first stage. I got a hit factor of 5.69, which for classification puts me at a 59.48%. Finally better than a D class score, and so close to B class, which starts at 60%. 

Stage 7 was decent, it was a fixed time stage. I did not get to all the targets, but my hits were pretty good and I didn't do any overtime shots. This was a good stage for me because it showed me that I can be accurate, fast. If I moved and shot at that speed the whole time, I'd be doing well. 

Stages 1 & 2 were pretty meh for me. I think the heat was starting to get to me, so I was just coasting a bit. 

Stages 3, 4, 5 were ok. About my normal level, hovering around that 5 hit factor. I need to work on my stage planning, and aggression and just attack each stage. 

It was an eventful day aside from all that. On our 3rd stage I think it was, one friend lost their belt, then was having trouble making hits. After the fact he found that one of the screws for his pistol optic sheared off, so it was bouncing around and ended his day early. Then the next stage a PCC friend had a casing malfunction that blew a bunch of junk back on their arm/face. Fortunately they were ok, and once we got them cleaned up they were fine, that was a scary moment though. Glad they're ok! 

For July I have the monthly MD Arsenal match on the 3rd. Unsure what other matches I'll make it to, depends on a lot of life things.

I also just got the proof back for my Jersey last night, it'll be a few weeks still until it is complete and shipped, but it looks awesome!

Thurmont last weekend gave me my 4th Classifier stage, which was a decent run, almost B class. The system processed it today and I am officially Classified! C class because even though my first few were in the D range, my last one brought the average up. That was a nice surprise as I was anticipating starting out in D class, so C is a great start. Long way to go from here!

15th Match:  USPSA Outlaw @ MD Arsenal, June 3rd, 2024

PCC Class, Sub2000 + Internals, Red Dot. (No changes since last match.)

Placement: 2nd of 21 overall, 1st of 5 PCC entries. 

Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/6bd7bb78-f5d1-4251-a738-d1fbc46274fb?q_division=0

I was back to my monthly match at MD Arsenal on Monday, a fun time as always, and I brought a friend! He came to watch one other time, and decided to come try it out. I think he's hooked. Mwahahaha. 

Stage 1 & 2: Both fairly solid runs. A little slow, but good accuracy, only 2 C's each. That was great because I almost took a make up shot on one, but it was good. Sometimes I need to trust that I am accurate and keep moving. 

Stage 3: This one caught a few people because it was 3 shots per target instead of the more common 2 per. Fortunately I didn't have an issue with that. Unfortunately, I had a miss. The target dead center was a top half target, and I got 2/3 on target but a missed the 3rd completely. I went faster on that target because the ones to each side were tuxedo's which take a bit more precision, so that one being open I could go faster. A little too fast I guess. The kicker is, I had the fastest time for the stage, and ALL my other shots were A's. If that miss had been an A, that would've been awesome. 

Stage 4: Fixed Time (Virginia Count), 5 targets, 2 shots each, 4.3 second par time. Time was not an issue, but on the very last target I took 3 shots instead of 2. This is somewhat frustrating, but also somewhat amazing. It was the very last target, and it happened so fast, when I get around to getting the video together you'll see. Somehow my brain registered a miss and took the extra shot that fast, I couldn't have stopped it if I tried. My eyes and brain just did the thing they knew it needed, unfortunately virginia count made that not the right choice... All the other shots were A's, so if I had all A's and 1 M, I would have had 45 points, instead I had all A's and 1 procedural (-10pts), so 40 points. Live and learn, but like I said I can't be too mad at myself because on a Comstock stage, that would've been perfect. 

I got some video, but haven't had time so far this week to mess with it. 

15th Match:  York Practical Shooters USPSA, June 17th, 2024

PCC Class, Sub2000 + Internals, Red Dot. (No changes since last match.)

Placement: 33rd of 96 overall, 4th of 12 PCC. 

Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/556a94db-b331-455f-9882-10cfcab1ef2f

Went out to York Practical Shooters yesterday, and the short version is, it was my best match to date. You can see placement in the notes above, additionally I only had 1 D for the match, no misses, and no penalties. Just need to get faster....

I went into it knowing that the last few times it seems like it has taken me a stage or three to "warm up", so I had the attitude that I was going to be more aggressive and attack the stages from the start. In general that seemed to work. I was in squad 4, so we started on stage 4 and went up from there. Stage 4 I was 25th of 96 overall, so I'd say I was running at my "normal" level from the start. I know I can do better, but I know that level of performance is kind of my baseline that I know for sure I can do. 

Stages 7 (23-02) & 8 (20-02) were the classifiers. In some ways kind of similar to each other. 23-02 I got at 6.9892HF, which is a 65.4% score (B class). 20-02 I got a 7.4866HF which is a 62.2% score (B class). Not quite high enough to bring my overall classification up to B class yet. One more decent B class run should have me there. Very happy with this. I think A class is a realistic goal. Maybe not before MD state match in September, but soon enough.

Stage 1 was semi-eventful, and goes to show that good fundamentals are so important. I linked a picture of the stage mock-up. From the start position I took out the 2 on the left and 1 on the right that were visible, then moved forward to the stomper area to get the section of targets there. Then I ran forward left to get the left most targets, and on the way up I slipped in the loose gravel and wiped out. Fortunately my fundamentals kicked in, and I got my finger away from the trigger, and kept the muzzle down range, got up and kept going, and still scored right in the middle of the pack. 

My first "battle scars" from competitive shooting:

Thurmont would be next weekend, but I am taking a break for a little bit. It's been a busy month, and I've been taking a lot of weekends for shooting. I did just order some more ammo to replenish my stock, so I'll be ready for more next month. I know the indoor MD Arsenal match is at the start of the month, I'd like to do York again because it's a fun match, and I'll probably try to fit one more in somewhere. 

AWSX1686 (Forum Supporter) said:

15th Match:  USPSA Outlaw @ MD Arsenal, June 3rd, 2024

PCC Class, Sub2000 + Internals, Red Dot. (No changes since last match.)

Placement: 2nd of 21 overall, 1st of 5 PCC entries. 

Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/6bd7bb78-f5d1-4251-a738-d1fbc46274fb?q_division=0

 

I was back to my monthly match at MD Arsenal on Monday, a fun time as always, and I brought a friend! He came to watch one other time, and decided to come try it out. I think he's hooked. Mwahahaha. 

 

Stage 1 & 2: Both fairly solid runs. A little slow, but good accuracy, only 2 C's each. That was great because I almost took a make up shot on one, but it was good. Sometimes I need to trust that I am accurate and keep moving. 

Stage 3: This one caught a few people because it was 3 shots per target instead of the more common 2 per. Fortunately I didn't have an issue with that. Unfortunately, I had a miss. The target dead center was a top half target, and I got 2/3 on target but a missed the 3rd completely. I went faster on that target because the ones to each side were tuxedo's which take a bit more precision, so that one being open I could go faster. A little too fast I guess. The kicker is, I had the fastest time for the stage, and ALL my other shots were A's. If that miss had been an A, that would've been awesome. 

Stage 4: Fixed Time (Virginia Count), 5 targets, 2 shots each, 4.3 second par time. Time was not an issue, but on the very last target I took 3 shots instead of 2. This is somewhat frustrating, but also somewhat amazing. It was the very last target, and it happened so fast, when I get around to getting the video together you'll see. Somehow my brain registered a miss and took the extra shot that fast, I couldn't have stopped it if I tried. My eyes and brain just did the thing they knew it needed, unfortunately virginia count made that not the right choice... All the other shots were A's, so if I had all A's and 1 M, I would have had 45 points, instead I had all A's and 1 procedural (-10pts), so 40 points. Live and learn, but like I said I can't be too mad at myself because on a Comstock stage, that would've been perfect. 

 

I got some video, but haven't had time so far this week to mess with it. 

Finally took a little bit of time to clip my video together. 

https://youtu.be/6_3KCXcljGo

Jersey came in yesterday!

16th Match:  MD Arsenal USPSA Outlaw, July 1st, 2024

PCC Class, Sub2000 + Internals, Red Dot. (No changes since last match.)

Placement: 1st of 24 overall, 1st of 5 PCC. 

Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/3d5e2a43-4c5c-4721-acc7-9e1615d493e2?q_division=0

EDIT: Video: https://youtu.be/gHsbcUD2sfo

Great match Monday night. It was a bit packed, this match has gotten quite popular over the summer. Always people on the wait list, and a full roster, but all good fun. Got to wear my jersey and rep MD Arsenal, and snag the win while I was at it. This was really cool to me because last time I got the overall win, Andy wasn't there and I've been trying get good enough to beat him for a while. One miss for the match, I believe that was on the first stage. That was the only stage that didn't feel great. Something was just a little off. Otherwise I had a solid match, did what I needed to do. Definitely a lot of room for improvement still though! I had a few people tell me I should stick with my current C classification ahead of the MD state match so I could sandbag and have a pretty good chance of winning my class, but I don't think I can bring myself to do that. I'm going to keep going to matches, and I'm not holding back on classifiers, or any stage for that matter. If I get bumped up to B class before MD state, so be it, I'll play in that class. 

Got some video from this match, we'll see when I have some time to put that together. 

Video from last week's match uploaded! 

https://youtu.be/gHsbcUD2sfo

Yes I have been following along!!  Congrats on the good showing!!!  

In reply to dean1484 :

Thanks!

This thread I think naturally isn't as "exciting" or conversation provoking as some build threads, but I still like having a place to document my progress. Today is actually 1 year since my first match, going to do a little write up about that today I think.