csmkersh said:
Did you promise to cut their face if they told how bad???
How much worse could it be than what I gave up myself, Sam?!?
Well, I guess it could've been a "
DQw/SPI!"
I'm serious, though… I went with the specific intention of treating it as a $10 lab in which I could test my daily kit and to determine if, and how badly, my personal skills might have declined.
Three of our crew shot from concealment… Matt with an over- shirt, POJD and myself with vests. The other two who'd been there before,
Fratelli Vanmen, shot from open carry, and Charlie the Younger just wrote me:
When I examined my scores to see how to score better, I realized that the 1 second misses are scored as .5 second penalties and the 3 second penalties are scored as 1.5 seconds. For what it is worth; they put too much emphasis on speed and not enough on hits. If the scores were totaled as per the scoring rings on the targets, I would have finished ahead of all 3 shooters that scored better than me. I guess that if I want to finish higher that I will need to put more emphasis on speed.
Charlie's an active MOS, a former FTU armorer/instructor who, like his partner POJD, was a major burr under the brass saddle because they were too vigorous in their attempts to model their department's section as an actual Firearms
Training Unit rather than a Firearms
Qualification Unit.
Any future such excursions by me will be with the same mindset… and wherever I place, I will return home with a pretty clear idea of which areas I need to work on. Right now, my focus is on:
- The application of a dab of Leather Lightning in a couple of strategic spots on RTWP;
[/*:m:26uupbu8]
- Paying closer attention to "visual clues" like the slash of pink fingernail polish I long ago put on the back of an seemingly perfect blue McCormick eight-rounder… that was my signal that it was suitable only for range or charging duty [D'OH!]
[/*:m:26uupbu8]
- Don't change horses in mid-stream… I learned this during match competition 20-odd years ago, and now I have reinforcement: if you plan to shoot a stage a certain way, stick with that plan unless something compelling occurs in mid-string which dictates varying from that original plan. The Bruce Lee "Be like water" fluidity philosophy is fine, but don't switch just because something suddenly seems like a better idea! [/*:m:26uupbu8]
I know/knew all these things… I just needed a reminder, I guess.
Plus, this type of shooting is what is known as a "perishable skill." This Brasshopper needs to stay in better tune!