First Place!

Tiramisu

Win some, lose some.

I've done my share of the latter shooting against some of the best in the country. Indeed, in the beginning I would go home after the Tuesday evening match at the Phoenix Rod and Gun Club and "brag" that I came in sixth, but conveniently leave out the fact that there were only six shooters.

But an email arrived today that changed all that.

While it's true that practice makes perfect, it is usually only by a series of very small increments and improvements that can be difficult to see. But, then again, sometimes it all comes together when it counts.

As an example of the ups and downs that make the slope of the line of improvements hard to see, in the Desert Midwinter competition in Phoenix this past February I shot slightly worse than average in the hardball 900 on the first day of the competition. Then in the 22 event that followed on the next day, I shot an above average score. But the next day was below average in CF, and then on the last day I was again above average with the 45.

Back and forth. Some good targets, some not so good.

But, with all that shooting over those four days, I guess it all came together for the EIC leg match because although I didn't win any leg points -- I came in eighth while only the top three were awarded points -- I did shoot very well, exceptionally well I could say. It was decidedly my best ever ball gun score, 252-4.

I was absolutely thrilled and had to re-add the scores several times before I could believe it. (Some really good "white box" ammunition, a gift from John Zurek, played a big part, too. Thank you, John!)

I smiled for days before the thrill faded completely away.

And now, more than two months later, things have returned to normal. I've shot a couple of matches in Phoenix, another outside of Atlanta, and am looking forward to Tuesday night's league in Phoenix and seeing everyone again.

Then today, via email from the CMP, the Civilian Marksmanship Program, the icing for that semi-forgotten cake arrived.

No, they didn't recompute and award me leg points. I didn't shoot that well.

But they did calculate the "Handicap" match which basically ranks shooters on their improvement over past few EIC Leg Matches.

And, of the 30 shooters in that match in Phoenix, I took First Place; that is, I was the single most improved shooter in that competition!

Complete results of the EIC Handicap match for the Desert Midwinter event are available at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_eventAward.cgi?matchID=4425&eventID=1&awardID=3.

And the results of all EIC matches for Desert Midwinter, handicap or otherwise, are available at http://clubs.odcmp.com/cgi-bin/report_matchResult.cgi?matchID=4425.

To celebrate, and since I'm on a business trip in Cambridge MA this week, I took the MBTA (as in "Charley and the MTA") to the Haymarket station and walked into the North End, chose a restaurant at random, and treated myself to a fabulous dinner with a glass of a very nice Italian Pino Grigio, shrimp risotto with asparagus, tiramisu and, of course, a cup of wonderfully bitter espresso.

Life is good.

Ciao, baby!

River Bend Redux

River Bend Gun Club

Lamar Hunt

Art Rozier

John Hughes

Jim Good, Meet Director

Steve Dedier

This was my second visit to the River Bend Gun Club a little bit north of Atlanta.

On my first trip almost a year ago, I had been working in Atlanta and stayed through on the following weekend to shoot the club's 2700. I had a great time at the well run competition and looked forward to renewing my previous acquaintances as well as shooting the 2700.

This time my work had me in Huntsville Alabama for two consecutive weeks with a 2700 at the club on the sandwiched Sunday. Driving time from Huntsville was expected to be three to five hours depending on how much scenery I wanted to take in. I had all day Saturday to get there so I took the scenic and relaxed drive down back roads through the Great Smokey mountains. With all the trees budding their spring growth, it was spectacular.

I spent Saturday night at a Best Western in Canton GA -- and will not stay there again. It was a warm evening and the air conditioner in the room was utterly useless. There is a Hampton Inn under construction next door so, next time, I'll stay there.

First shot was scheduled for 10:00AM on Sunday. I planned to arrive at the range plenty early "just in case" and, boy, was that a good idea!

At 8:15AM, I left the hotel for what I expected to be a 45 minute drive. I punched up "River Bend" in the GPS and, to my delight, the gun club was listed. Wonderful!

Or so I thought.

Forty five minutes later I was at the end of a backwoods country road dead end. The GPS announced, "Arriving at destination," but the gun club was nowhere in sight. I'd been there a year ago but this was decidedly not the right place.

Hmmmm.

I pulled out the map from the club's website and found a nearby intersection and punched that into the GPS: Shiloh Church and Yellow Creek roads near Ophir Georgia.

The GPS said it would be a 30 minute drive.

Ouch!

I'd still be early but only by 10-15 minutes.

But I did say the countryside was pretty, didn't I? At least I got to enjoy more scenery as I followed the GPS back down the same wrong roads I'd just driven.

Arriving at the club, I found a small group at the pistol range. Jim Good was expecting me -- I had emailed him a couple of weeks earlier that I was going to be there -- and as I pulled up to the range, he smiled and waved.

I removed my travel gun box and travel ammo box from the rental car's trunk and headed up to the line.

Counting myself there would be five shooters plus the meet director. The weather was threatening rain and a thunderstorm which probably accounted for the small turnout.

But I was prepared with my plastic baggies for scoring pad and each gun. Indeed, I was looking forward to the rain as a good test of my preparations -- the only way to be sure you've got everything in hand for some contingency is to actually go through it.

The matches went relatively quick but with the 50 and 25 yard walks back and forth, we didn't finish that fast. It was a fairly normal pace. We took a typical break between 22 and Center Fire, a lunch break before 45 and then finished about 2:30PM.

Jim Good, meet director, had the scores entered, ranked and printed after each gun but with such a small group there wasn't a lot of competitiveness. Instead, everyone was just enjoying the day. And it never really rained more than a few drips -- I think we used umbrellas once but then ignored the scant drips the rest of the time. My gun and score pad baggies worked as intended so I passed my personal "rain test".

I left for the drive back to Huntsville about 3:00PM and took the quick route, up to Chattanooga and then back down into Alabama. The GPS said I'd be there in three hours.

But the GPS didn't know about the torrential rains and near tornado conditions I'd encounter on I-24 and US 72.

Fortunately, the traffic was light that Sunday evening and although an hour later than expected, I made it back to Huntsville without incident.

Work resumed the next morning.

Now that's a nice weekend.

Thanks, guys!

Potential

Tony has a provocative idea. In his Harmonic Functions on Manifolds blog, he suggests pulling out your best scores from the record book -- you all write down your scores, don't you? -- and tally them up to discover your true potential.

Well, although my official outdoor ranking is Sharpshooter, it is worth noting that I typically shoot Expert scores with the 22 and sub-Sharpshooter scores with the 45. So, on average, that results in my current ranking.

Following Tony's exercise over the last dozen matches, here are my "best" scores on those two guns.

	22	45
Best SF Match	177-3	172-5
Best NMC Match	281-8	279-9
Best TF Match	193-8	194-9
Best RF Match	193-5	189-5
Agg. of above	844-24	834-28
Percent of 900	93.7%	92.7%

Well, that's an eye-opener!

If I "fired my potential", I'd be at the mid-point of Expert class on both guns, not just the 22.

Immediately it's clear that my problem with the 45 must be consistency. Although I can (and have, as seen above) shoot Expert class scores with that gun, I have a lot of trouble performing at that level for any period of time.

And I'm going to guess that my problem with that particular firearm is fatigue. The 1911 demands a much stronger grip and the heavier trigger, only 0.5 pounds but, my, what a difference that makes.

Yes, I can shoot Expert-class scores with it but doing so consistently, well, that's the challenge.

But now that I see that I can do it, it becomes a question of re-applying myself to each shot.

One shot at a time.

Thanks, Tony!