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I shot in ALSPPC's USPSA match yesterday.

I shot like crap for the most part. It probably wasn't a good idea to stay up till 2 AM the night before drinking beer. Oh well.

There were some positives though.

I crushed my previous El Presidente time/points. Unfortunately, it wasn't the qualifier the club is sending to USPSA.

I finally shot a Texas Star clean with a pistol! Karl Rehn has given me some tips on this blog and in email that helped a bunch. I had a perfect sight picture on every shot, I can still remember it actually, and a nice smooth trigger press, and the plates just fell one after the other.

Generally when I wasn't doing dumb shit the shots and hits were there.

One scary thing at the match, was when an older gentleman had a heat episode. He fell out of his chair and hit the concrete slab. Hard. I thought he was dead right there. His eyes were wide open staring straight up, didn't appear to be breathing. I've seen people fall out from heat exhaustion before and usually they are like, "I don't feel so good", and then they kind of crumple. This was like someone hit the off switch. Scary. He came around after a little bit, and sat in my car with the AC on until the EMS arrived and looked after him. Hope he's ok. This heat is not something to be taken lightly.

Update: Scores

On Fluffy's Revenge I shot a "C" level performance, according to classifier calc.

On El President I shot a "B" level performance says the calc, but that was not the classifier that day. Damn.

I came in 15th out 31 overall, I was the only one shooting in Single Stack.

I did another shotgun match last weekend. I used my Mossberg 590 again.

Things I noticed / happened to me:

My reloads are slower than everyone else's. I use a bandoleer which is a lot slower than some of the other methods. I'm guessing I could speed up at least 25% with a better reload solution.

When I go too fast, I miss. Duh. I was trying to go too fast not letting the gun get stable. You do have to aim a shotgun, contrary to popular belief.

Don't leave the shotgun in the sun. I burned the **** out of my thumb and middle finger on the second stage and was having trouble keeping a good grip on the fore end after that.

1 oz. #8 loads are too light, 1 1/8 oz loads are better, but not 100%. I had a bunch of crap value pack ammo that doesn't run in my hunting shotgun very well and wanted to shoot it up.

ALSPPC had a classifier match back in May, and since I'm still pretty new to USPSA I hadn't been classified yet.

Before the match I was pretty sure I was going to get a D, but I managed to snag a C. I'm happy!

(I shoot in Single Stack, by the way.)

The class consists of a brief safety lecture, review and introduction of such techniques as shooting from unorthodox positions and cover, and culminates in some courses of fire that invoke those techniques.

The class is light on theory and lecture and heavy on doing, which I really liked. You don't get to do these kind of things at the range, and you're not going to build these skills without having a chance to do them for real. So the focus on doing is good in my opinion.

The class is not a high level operator class. It's for average folks who want to learn how to use their rifles.

I used my CMMG M4 clone for the class with an Eotech 512 sight, Magpul PMAGs, and Monarch steel cased ammo.

I had never used that ammo before, but to my amazement it shot to almost the same POI as my Zombie Load within 50 yards. At 50 yards it was probably a little over an inch high, but for this kind of training, it was fine.

I've heard a lot of horror stories about steel cased ammo in AR rifles, but I had no failures of any kind. I retrieved a couple of empty cases and I couldn't find any signs of the lacquer coming off. I will say the ammo is dirty as heck. I don't think I could have fired 500 rounds of the stuff without a cleaning in there somewhere, but for training or plinking it works fine.

One of the things I learned is that I need to change my setup. I use an Eotech and I like to get the front sight post out of the way when I am using the optic. One of the things that causes me to do is lift my head off the stock which really takes away a lot of the stability you need to shoot well. I think I am going to get a new barrel with a mid-length or rifle-length gas system, without a front sight post. I will have backup sights, but they will be of the flip up variety so that nothing is in the way of the Eotech retical.

Now I need to go clean my rifle.

I've been looking for some decent electronic muffs for a while, but the prices on Pro Ears and MSA Sordin muffs are a little steep for me.

For most trips to the range, the Peltor Bullseye 9 muffs I have are hard to beat for the price, but when you are taking a class or shooting a match with lots of talking, I sometimes have to strain a bit to hear people.

I was at Academy the other day and they had some Remington electronic muffs marked down to $20. I figured what the heck, I'll take a chance on them for only $20.

Pros
More comfortable than I expected
Excellent volume
Easy to understand people
Acceptable level of noise reduction
Not too big

Cons
The sound spectrum is skewed to high frequencies, higher pitched noises are louder than low pitches
Difficult to wear with safety glasses
Noise reduction is acceptable, but not as good as most non-electric muffs
Clipping

I think for $20 the list of cons is worth putting up with. I won't use these as my "everyday" muffs, but I think they will be very handy for classes.

Did some googling and I think I have the Remington R1500, which I think are the Radians Pro-Amp 23 repackaged by Remington. (I have some other Remington safety stuff that is made by Radians also.) Looks like the Radians retail for around $70, so not a bad deal. I think Remington has stopped selling the R1500.

Anyways, obligatory pics:

Man it was hot. I drank 2 large bottles of Gatorade and a canteen of water, and it wasn't quite enough. I always try to go overkill on the liquid refreshments, but I didn't think I would be outside for 7 hours.

Anyway, the match itself was 6 classifiers and 2 "regular" stages. It seemed like a lot of really good shooters were drawn out for the chance to increase their classification.

I was pretty happy with how things were going until we got to the last two bays. I was starting to cook at that point, and didn't shoot as well I could have. (I kind of wish I'd ended up on one of the "regular" stages as my last stage.)

So, I'm plugging in my hit factors and I might snag a 'C' classification. That would rock! I was fully expecting a 'D'. It depends on how good ClassiferCalc is as an estimator.

Melody Line:
Based on HF entered, we calculate your "National Percentage" will be: 45.5624% (C)

Nuevo El Presidente
Based on HF entered, we calculate your "National Percentage" will be: 29.2200% (ouch)

Works For Me
Based on HF entered, we calculate your "National Percentage" will be: 31.5145% (meh)

Fast'n Furious
Based on HF entered, we calculate your "National Percentage" will be: 40.8193% (C)

Six Chickens
Based on HF entered, we calculate your "National Percentage" will be: 51.3977% (C)

Mini-Mart
Based on HF entered, we calculate your "National Percentage" will be: 54.5868% (C)

I had a miss on Nuevo El Presidente and Works For Me, which tanked those. Fast'n Furious is kind of borderline, so I might still get a 'D'.

I fumbled the mag change on Mini-Mart. I need a magwell.

Six Chickens and Mini-Mart were the first two classifiers I shot when I was still feeling pretty fresh. You can tell my scores kind of go to pot after that.

In an article about bringing legal open carry to Texas, there is a quote from the North Texas Brady Bunch president:

If you see someone with a holster on, are you just to assume this is a law-abiding person? Are you to assume this person is safe to be around your family?

Now there's a pro-gun rights blogger meme out there where you change a couple of words around and the statement becomes racist, sexist, homophobic, or what have you. I'll do something similar but more milquetoast:

If you see someone, are you just to assume this is a law-abiding person? Are you to assume this person is safe to be around your family?

The short answer is, no.

You shouldn't assume anything, and it applies just as much to people who aren't openly carrying guns as it does to people who are.

The truth is you can't know what anyone is going to do. The best you can do is pay attention to how they act, and have some sort of a defensive tool, like a gun, if they do act to cause harm.

I personally think open carry would be a great thing to have, but not something I would do very much in town.

My neighbor's brother just graduated from Texas A&M and is leaving for the Marine's OCS soon. He was in town over the weekend, so I couldn't resist asking him if he'd like to go shoot while he was here. Of course he said yes. Hooorah!

So, on Sunday we went over to the rifle club and slayed some paper targets.

I hopefully imparted a little useful knowledge to him, but mostly it was just shooting.

I did spend a lot of time with his sister, going over stance, grip, etc. She's completely hooked, and confiscated her husband's Ruger SR9C for herself. (Don't feel too bad for him though, as he has his eye on a Springfield Armory 1911 in Stainless.) Later that day she talked about getting all the neighborhood ladies together for a range day.

Everybody had a fun and safe day, and I was able to do something for someone who is about to serve our country which made it even better for me.

This is not a review, that will come later after I get a chance to use it.

I shoot rifles and shotguns left handed and while the B.A.D. is more oriented to right hand use, it is useful in two ways I have found so far.

First, locking the bolt back is super easy now. Pull the charging handle, push the B.A.D. inwards with your trigger finger and you are done. Your dominant hand (although I'm really right handed) never has to leave the grip. (For righties the drill is basically the same except your trigger finger pushes up on the B.A.D.)

Second, releasing the bolt is also very fast now. Basically with your right hand thumb, push the B.A.D down. If you run with your right hand around the magwell you will be very happy with the B.A.D., as all you really have to do is seat the mag and push the end of the lever down with your thumb while getting your grip on the magwell. If you shoot with your right hand on the handguard, you just need to remember to seat the mag, and push the B.A.D. down before resuming that grip. (For righties, you get to use your trigger finger again, just push down.)

I'm taking a class with it in June, so I'll post a more thorough review after the class, but I think the B.A.D. offers left handed AR shooters some useful features.

I shot the ALSPPC USPSA pistol match today.

Like a dumbass I forgot my hearing protection, but luckily I was able to bum some ear plugs.

Things went pretty well overall. I continue to make stupid mistakes on complex stages. It seems like they just love to put walls everywhere that hide targets. Lesson learned, walk the stage until you're sick of it, then walk it some more.

I still get target fixated at times. My problem is that I'll get away with it a couple of times and then seem to forget there are sights on my gun.

I was happy with my performance on 3 of the stages, one was ok except for a fumbled mag change, and then the complex stage that I borked. One of these days I'll get a match in where I actually do my best on every stage.

One area where I did pretty well, compared to what I saw in my squad was the classifier stage. The stage was: 15 yards, draw put 2 rounds each on 3 targets, reaload put 2 rounds each on 3 targets using strong hand only. Then basically the same thing at 10 yards, except weak hand only. The classes I have taken from KR Training and Rangemaster really stressed one handed shooting, both strong and weak hands, and I have continued to practice those drills. From what I can tell, most competitors, even Master class, don't practice one handed and weak handed shooting that much if at all. (I am right handed, but I do a lot of things left handed due to my vision, so that might have something to do with it too.)