Yeah... I'm a competitive shooter.

I can say this now!

I had my first USPSA/IPSC Compeition today at the Southern Chester County range in Kennet Square, PA and it was a blast!

I arrived around 8:15am and was just in time to help setup a course -- we finished with a bit of extra time for me to gear up and run through the safety check for new shooters. I was shooting my Springfield XD 9mm... we went over the rules of the competition in short and some basic safety information. After that, he had me load up a few rounds in a couple of my magazines for a quick gun handling observation. The above picture shows how my handling went -- not too shabby. He had me do two rounds, two rounds and a reload followed by two more rounds. Finally, a draw and engage the target with two rounds on the weak hand. The Charlie hit was one of the weak hand shots.

Being there to setup, I got to walk the ranges in advance and see what all was going on with the five different courses of fire. However, when I registered, being new, they put me in with 'The Setup Crew,' basically the 'A' Class shooters and 'Master' Class shooters; let me say, it made it very difficult for me to focus on keeping my speed down to focus on my accuracy, heh! While my volunteer photographer (one of the A shooters) had some issues with the first three courses and figuring out how my digital camera worked, he got it down for the fourth and fifth courses.

Here are some videos...

Here's part one of the fourth course of fire -- it's basically two rounds in each of three targets facing uprange to begin with.

The second part of this course was to do the same facing downrange in the surrender position. Notice how I fumble with the L II Retention on my Blackhawk SERPA. Meh.

For the final course, we were, fore the most part, stationary, but it was a really odd course with a lot of obstructions... I almost received a procedural penalty here with my jump on the buzzer -- if the RO had been able to stop me, it would've been 10 points of. Gotta focus more next time.

Here's me doing the course:

And here's how it's SUPPOSED to be done -- notice how his time is more than half of my time.

I apologize for the switching between Blogspot and YouTube videos -- Blogspot is misbehaving.

My First Competition Tomorrow...

So, Saturday at the Southern Chester County range, the last USPSA Competition in my area is being held and I've made arrangements to attend. Should be interesting to say the least -- I've read and watched as much research material as I've been able to over the past couple of weeks. I picked up my fourth magazine yesterday so I don't have to worry about running out of ammo with my shooting. As always, any advice is welcome -- I'm going to try to get there a bit early to help with setup and learn whatever else I can from the folks who'll be there.

Any tips?

USPSA Fun

So, I've been a gun owner, what? All of about three months now -- I've tried to make it out to the range as much as possible and I've watched and read as much as I can about everything from technique to Second Amendment law... even to the point where I'm currently taking a Constitutional Law course (in addition to my 9-5 job and teaching two computer science courses myself).

I've started saving my casings, as I'm looking to start reloading my own cartridges at some point soon and I've found that a nearby range is having their last USPSA shoot on October 20th, which I'll most likely be attending... well, competing.


I've recently changed my grip up to a type used by competition shooters -- it allows for better stabilization during recoil by basically having more skin on the weapon.

From Springer Precision, here's the first video on the grip.

Here is the second video.

In addition, I've also found a series of videos from Todd Jarret on competition shooting on the move, magazine changing and other related topics. That series can be found here.

All in all, I'm looking forward to it, I need to get out to the range at some point soon in order to practice the new grip and drawing/reloading. If anyone has shot in competition before and has any suggestions, let me know -- I think I'll be in the Production division.

Picked Up My Holster

First good news is, with 8 hours to go on My Auction, I have two gentleman in a small bidding war -- as long as I'm able to unload it for more than I listed it (which I'll be able to now), I'll be happy. It really is a stellar deal -- the Sigma 9mm, a Blackhawk SERPA, Fobus Holster and I'm even throwing in a kydex dual mag holder... all for a buy out of $325.

I hated the fact that I had basically JUST bought the SERPA -- it really is a great holster, so much so, that I went out during lunch and picked up another for the XD.

If you've never heard of the SERPA holster from Blackhawk, it's a carbon fiber holster with a paddle attachment -- the holster covers the trigger and features level two retention via the release platform that you activate with your standard draw grip.

I highly reccomend them, and the paddle attachment makes them more versatile in their use.

Finally -- Shot My XD

So, I bought my first weapon, a Smith & Wesson Sigma 9mm on July 30th. It arrived about a week later and I was further unable to shoot it for another two weeks -- an agreement with my wife that I take my safety course first. So, I've technically been shooting about 2 months or so now; I've posted my targets here before and while some were nice, they were several sporatic shots. I attributed this to the 12lbs trigger pull of the weapon, which prompted me to pick up a Springfield Armory XD 9mm after having fired my friends.

Today, I was able to hit the range for the first time -- I picked up 300 rounds of ammo (figured it'd be a nice break-in) and hit the range. I went with the intent of doing the NRA Handgun Qualification course of fire -- a self-paced method that the NRA came up with that entails a series of progressively difficult courses of fire. The first was to aquire five rounds in ten eight inch targets (or within an inch of the border of a 9" paper plate) at 15 feet in benchrest position. While I didn't keep all of my plates (went through a lot of targets with 300 rounds), I'll post the first eight.

These were my very first shots with my XD -- I got excited and lost count, but still a nice grouping of six shots there.


Probably the best five shots of my life on plate number two -- I'm thrilled with that grouping.

Here's where my magazine ran out. Still not too shabby.

Still not too shabby.

Looks like with these last two, I'm starting to pull at the trigger a bit.

Maybe trying to go too fast? I get... cocky? when I'm doing well.

I recoup a bit here, but...

The second trigger pull gets away from me, but I recover.

All in all, I love my new weapon -- I'm realizing that I enjoy paper plates as targets more than anything else... Aim small, miss small, ya know? I did most of my other work in my standard stance and did just as well as benchrest; a HUGE departure from my Sigma. The RO even asked if I was looking into IPSC... when I told him I'd only been shooting a month or so, he grunted and shook his head.

After a while, I pushed the target back to 30 feet and did so-so. I did some one handed work and actually did better with that than I did two hands. Granted at this point I was feeling the fatigue and I was getting a little sore on my trigger finger, but I made sure to collect my brass as, at the rate I'm going (maybe 1000+ rounds now in a month), it'd definitely be cheaper for me to reload my own ammo.

XD Pictures

So, I 'crayoned' the slide of my new XD -- letting the white wax fill in the engraving in the slide... Just wanted to post a few pictures:

Training and My Springfield XD...

So, I finished up the last half of my personal defense training required for my carry concealed license -- I called up the local paper to have them print the legal notice, and I'm now in the process of collecting the five affidavits attesting to my good moral character. All that's left is to submit the application and get fingerprinted for my background check... and wait. A long. Long. Time.

*sigh*

All in all, the defense course was OK -- we did some holster work. Now, I'm rather speedy on the draw and my technique was pretty nice, but my accuracy was pretty crappy today. When I draw I have a five-step method:

1. Strong hand moves to weapon and weak hand balls into a fist and placed over your heart. This tenses a few muscle groups and helps keep you rigid while you draw -- it also puts a bit more mass between your heart and anything that might be shot at it.


2. Draw straight up to clear the holster.


3. Point the barrel forward.


4. Bring the weapon to the ready position -- both hands on the weapon at about heart level, pointing straight.


5. Push out while acquiring a sight picture.

We did some strong hand firing and weak hand firing and, for a bit of fun, we did a draw and shoot down the five bowling pins, which was a really fun exercise. Took me a minimum of seven rounds and a maximum of eleven at 30 feet. All in all, I was disapointed with my performance.

I'm starting to place the blame on my firearm -- yes, I know I hold it, I aim it and I squeeze the trigger; however, that trigger is a 12 pound trigger and, when you're attemping to shoot for speed, trying to put together all of those things you've learned separately: breath control, grip, sight alignment and trigger control, it really kills your aim.

Which is why I'm happy to say that I've put my gun up for auction on gunbroker.com -- I'm including with it a Fobus HK-1 friction holster and a Blackhawk SERPA Level 2 retention holster. So, if you're interested in a Sigma 9mm (sw9ve), Black on Black, two 16rnd clips, tactical light and holsters... the bidding starts at $260. :)

"My god -- what will you do for a weapon?!" you might ask... Fear not, last week I won an auction for a brand-spankin' new Springfield Armory XD 9mm Service Pistol -- 4" barrel, 16+1, two magazines and the gear kit (holster, dual mag pouch and loader). This is the weapon I mentioned in a previous post... about a 5-6 pound pull and, when I'd shot my friends, my first four shots were in the dead center of a bullseye at 15 feet. I'm hoping my service model behaves similarly!

I got an email today from my FFL -- he's going to call me on his way to his shop today to do the transfer.

The only thing that's left is to get myself a SERPA for my XD and sort out this licensing crap. Anyone else ever applied for a Delaware CCDW?

Update: Just picked it up -- here it is....