My first ever Match...

[islandermyk]

.. and talk about getting out of your comfort zone

I'm so used to shooting in open land. Take my sweet ass time pulling the trigger... of course, after adjusting, watching your the cant, adjust again, breath, adjust to breathing, look at the cant again after adjusting, load the bipod and adjust again, and take one last breathe before adjusting again and finally pulling the trigger... well sh*t maybe not in that order and I may have missed something while I'm typing all this down, but you guys know what I'm talking about.

So I got to the Match almost 2 hours early... just to watch and get a feel for what's going on which was cool. Got to hang with "TheBelly" (which was awesome!) while the AM Match was still going on. So I got comfy, and felt "awright this looks like fun". Lazed the target furthest was at 427 yards or something, took some notes on yardage with the 10 targets out there and I'm like "cool... I think I can do this" and "You've trained for this day all your life!" and ... So here we go. I had a couple of plans in mind like use the DOPE on the rifle as reference and just hold over and under, how to stay/get ready for the next target, etc..... just getting my mind ready for this... all good.. all good. I took a spot laid my sh*t on the ground and what do you know?! Hoser picks the spot right beside me, oh shit Okay.. okay.... I'm cool.. Big Dawg gonna show me how it's done and watch me perform No pressure.. no pressure. After my first miss out to 427 (or something) I couldn't recover/come up with a back up plan on hitting steel. Suddenly, things felt like "Aw phuck! I don't have time to make adjustments" and can't remember where I was holding and where the round went, and now I gotta get ready for the next one, sh*t! Well, needless to say.... all that planning and sh*t went out the window
The worse part is I was probably repeating the same mistakes on the same damn targets I missed, and probably made it worse. I caught myself not loading the bipod, pulling the trigger right when I'm inhaling/exhaling, not getting a good cheek weld trying to write sh*t down for record, etc... etc.. I could list a sh*t load of things I didn't do right. Knowing it's my turn on the same targets I keep missing really puts the pressure on, and to feel that lil tap on the foot and hearing that "Beep" Aaaghhh hooooly hell! Be one with the rifle... for the love of God.. hit... nope

Out of 40 shots. I think I only hit 17 (being my score 170). Will I do this again? Hell to the yea! Would I recommend this to anyone? You bet your ass! I really did have a good time... every miss I made I was laughing like "aw sh*t! That didn't work... wait, I think I just did it again... didn't I, wtf?!"Good times for sure.
It was really cool! A lot of friendly faces.. weird thing is some of'em from this site... yes, you too Hoser

I feel like that kid that buys a pair of'em Reebok pumps/fancy basketball shoes thinking it'll make me jump higher.... Man, did that match just tear my soul apart... so this is what the darkside feels like... I need to do this more

[Great-Kazoo]

Yep EVERYTHING YOU KNOW Plan, remember to execute, goes down the shitter like evidence during a No knock. You could say the wind put hair in you eyes.

[SA Friday]

170 isn't that bad for your first match. That shit is hard. Makes you want to practice more. I was going to go out tomorrow or Monday, but the wind is going to be uber-shitty. Damn you wind.... Damn you to hell!!!!

[ColoWyo]

Not to mention you even got crap about the fried chicken picture.

Nice meeting you today Mike.

Brian.

[islandermyk]

Not to mention you even got crap about the fried chicken picture.

Nice meeting you today Mike.

Brian.

That's what I probably needed today...

very cool meeting you too Bro and nice shooting!

[islandermyk]

Yep EVERYTHING YOU KNOW Plan, remember to execute, goes down the shitter like evidence during a No knock. You could say the wind put hair in you eyes.

Freshly washed too... so the long hair was flowing, but to no good... I couldn't even get any good wind calls from it

170 isn't that bad for your first match. That shit is hard. Makes you want to practice more. I was going to go out tomorrow or Monday, but the wind is going to be uber-shitty. Damn you wind.... Damn you to hell!!!!

I need to grow a beard and be like that Tod fella from Magpul's Precision shooting vid

[TheBelly]

It was great to meet you today, Mike! You got a better score than I did. I have the results, so if you PM me your email address, I'll forward them over to you.

I had ONE goal today, and that was to hit one of the 400+ targets. Success. I fluffed everything else, but I got a 400+.....

SAFriday, I'm trying to practice a bit for this by making my own stupid little 3"x6" targets drawn on a piece of paper and staple them out there. It started to work until Mike showed up with his gun that's MUCH cooler than mine. All I thought was, "ohhh, shiny!" and then my practice was done, really.

I had problems getting a good consistent load on my bipod today. I ended up just extending the legs out farther than I thought and planting them in the dirt in front of my little cheapo mil-spec PT/sleeping mat (yep, one of the old green ones)... problem with this ended up being the guy next to me was shooting with a muzzle brake. It made it real loud into my left ear.

I like these competitions because it gets me out of my comfort zone and I get better sooo much faster as a result.

It was good to chat a little bit with Brian after the match, as well. I don't know who the guy and girl were that we were talking with, but it was just fun to listen mostly.

[Kraven251]

problem with this ended up being the guy next to me was shooting with a muzzle brake. It made it real loud into my left ear.

I need to come to a match, though I don't think the battle comp will be appreciated, it beats the hell out of the folks on either side of me.

[TheBelly]

I need to come to a match, though I don't think the battle comp will be appreciated, it beats the hell out of the folks on either side of me.

Just put yourself on the end (of the row of shooters)....

I shot today with a BE Meyers vortex, and that's pretty loud I think. (I know that certain comps/brakes are LOUD!!!!)

[brutal]

400M and how big are the targets?

Inquiring minds want to know.