Cross posted in my training journal:
So I pretty much stopped recording dry fire. Plus, the move to Florida has pretty much mirrored my move to Kentucky with trouble finding a regular range to shoot at.
That being said... I shot my first USPSA match ever today. A117824 if you're interested.
My first match was 4 classifiers and 2 field courses. I shot limited-minor from AIWB from a Keepers Concealment holster. JMCK AIWB mag pouch (for a glock). 124gr winchester white box ammo. Beretta OEM 15 round magazines.
First thing I did when I arrived to the match was seek out the match director. I introduced myself, and let him know it was my first match. I told him I wanted to touch base with him because I was shooting AIWB in Limited Minor. I told him I had shot some steel challenge club matches before, was prior service and stuff. Not new to shooting, just new to USPSA. I wanted to make sure he knew in case any ROs had questions. He was fine with it as long as I was in the right division, and just stated make sure that I don't break 180. He was pretty relaxed with it.
I paid the fee and got signed in. I wound up chit chatting with an open shooter before the match got started, and helped move a few things around (target stands). I found out why I couldn't preregister. Apparently the club doesn't use practiscore for registering and instead uses matchsignup.com or something. After the squads were read off, the open shooter I had been chit chatting with turned out to be the primary RO on our squad. That's cool.
I took some ribbing about shooting my junk off, but it was mostly in good nature. After the first stage (6 steel classifier) the junk shooting stuff had less of an edge to it. It was obvious this wasn't my first time shooting and that I'm pretty safe. During the first stage a guy approached me, taught me how to use a tablet to enter scores and walked away. He didn't realize I was a shooter. So when I was "In the hole" I gave it back. He asked if I was shooting, and I revealed the Beretta. "You're shooting from appendix concealed?!?!" and I replied with "Yes, I am." and went and made ready and shot. He talked to me about trying IDPA a lot the rest of the day. I told him I can't shoot AIWB in IDPA but he let me know he had seen it done for years. I smiled.
Stage 2 was another classifier, but this one was turn and draw with some no shoots. I tagged a no shoot twice. I was about 1/4inch low from the Alpha. Dang. That was 2 mikes and 2 no shoots. Oh well.
Stage 3 was Virginia count classifier. 5 reload transition 5. String 2 was pretty much the same. On string 1 I goofed up and shot 6 rounds (thinking of bill drills dang it).
Stage 4 was a mirror stage with reload in the middle. Nothing special on the stage or my performance. I could have tightened up on the 25yd shots. Love the fiber optics though.
Stage 5 was a field course through a shoot house. This is where I really screwed up, but its going to take some real time to improve this mistake. I wound up missing an entire target. I was s busy pasting and "getting advice" that I didn't get a good enough look at the stage and just plane missed it. With only 2 of us seemingly willing to run the tablet it kinda forced me into that role half the time. Other wise this was a decent stage.
Stage 6 was another field course. Once again missed a target. I was first up shooter so it was more a matter of trying to get my look at the stage when their were like 11 other people also trying to look. That sucked. The stage started with 3 pieces of steel, and I'm really comfortable with steel. You hit it and move on. There is no B zone, and dumb as it sounds I like that. But I really need to work on the "game" part of it just as much as my shooting. Knowing my stage plans in the future will help.
Basically I just made rookie mistakes.
After all was said and done I chit chatted guns with that open shooter, and we talked about different ranges and different guns. As I was leaving an older guy from registration asked how I liked the match. I told him I loved it, but thought some were a little put off by me shooting concealment. I was immediately informed I can't carry conceal at this club any time ever. I nodded and said "Oh I didn't know that I've never been here before" to which I got a whole bunch of "Yeah well you can't". Apparently I'm a super danger for carrying a (unloaded) gun at the gun club. Oh well. I suspect this could be trouble from them next month, but I did already get the okay from the match director. Who knows. That wasn't the warmest reception but it was at the end of my match.
I promised @Luke video of my first match a long time ago. I only remembered to ask someone to record on the first stage. Sorry. I'm happy to be able to get a classification from my first match, and look forward to seeing how I did. I had alot of low hanging fruit to fix, so I know whatever the classification is it will be easy to improve on. I'm hooked.
-Cory