Defensive Pistol Match (9/9/23)

[Jim Watson]

We have another guy who carries an aluminum lawn chair w/ him. Not sure what his ailment is but he sits in that chair except for the walk through and his shooting time.

That might be me. Standing for any greater length of time is a cacophony of back and leg pain.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Having a folding chair in your cart is not unknown here for the old geezer set. I have a stool that I carry. I did leave a stool at Given's conference when it was in Tulsa though, LOL. I was reading in the Enos forum about a debate on how much track meet and aerobatics to have in a match and had to laugh. I'm in the walk to each position crowd. I care about my hits and the total time is meaningless, it's a club match so it's gun handling/shooting practice and fun.

I take a penalty if need be but our guys are pretty good on not designing impossible club matches for the soon to be zombie set. At one match though, some young guy I never saw before had a fit that some of us were taking a penalty to avoid kneeling behind barrels. UnFAIR! Shut up - never saw him again.

Anyway, started with a personal trainer today to try to recover some stuff. My balance is crappy. Worked on knee and legs. Her suggestions for biceps and triceps exercises were trivial weights - no effort needed - some remnants of past heavy weights, I suppose. Nice trainer, is a martial artist too. Since I didn't eat before the early morning session, I stopped at a local joint for a bagel, lox and coffee. Good morning start.

[Blades]

Now some fun news: my 74 year old mother accompanied me and watched the match. I told her she could shoot a match, she has a Glock 19, we just need to get her a holster. She kept saying she couldn't see herself running the stages and I'd tell her that's fine, you just walk them. So maybe I'll be able to get my mother out there in the next few months.

Photo update of my quest to have my mother start shooting in the Defensive Pistol Matches. I bought her a gun belt and cheap nylon holster and tonight we did some dry fire training with a flashlight first, then her husband's Glock 30.


She had trouble racking the slide on the G30 but she'll be shooting her G19.5. I told her the G19 should be easier to rack, but I'm looking at rack assist devices. I need to find a double magazine carrier, do more dry fire training, and hopefully she'll be ready by July 13.

[Hambo]

I told her the G19 should be easier to rack, but I'm looking at rack assist devices.

Have you had her try your pistol using the optic?

[Blades]

Have you had her try your pistol using the optic?

No, but that's a good idea. She was improving with the G30 after a few minutes but it was hard for her to hold it open for me to check the chamber. She "thinks" she can't do it, instead of thinking she "can do it". I've tried to explain she is sabotaging her brain by thinking she can't. I've sent her some Jim Kwik podcast in the past about positive thinking. She knows she should think positive, but forgets to do it. Parents are hard to train.

[Blades]

I didn't write up last month's match(7/13/24) but I can tell you it was hot and humid. My safety glasses stayed fogged up. Last month I realized the circle/dot was too busy on my SCS. I turned the circle off after the match and am just using the dot.

Yesterday's match was also hot and humid. My glasses didn't seem to fog up as much so maybe it was less humid. It didn't seem like it.

Stage 1

Start on the right barricade, SHO, and you must shoot the targets through 3 different openings in the barricade. Then move to the left barricade, WHO, and do the same. Once done, move to the white box and knock down the steel plate in the middle of the "no shoot" target. Easy, unless you forget to move from one opening to the next opening a few times. I added 50 seconds to my time.

Stage 2

The Spinner! I can't shoot the spinner so I took the penalty. A few people were successful in making it spin, a lot used time and ammunition but did not make it do a complete spin. At this stage, you could start with your pistol uncovered if you wanted, but I started from concealed.

Stage 3

Stage 3 I did better than stages 1 and 2, but it helps when the targets are closer.


I'm slowly improving. I think I watched all of the Jerry Micukek tip videos. I realized I was bringing my head down to my gun when I should be bringing my gun up to my line of sight. My trigger control still needs work, especially if I am going to increase my speed and accuracy. I did order some snap caps for my S&W 686 to practice dry firing with it also. My acquisition of the dot is still slow, and I'm considering removing the front sight on my G26. Decades of iron sights is a hard habit to break. I also need to practice reloading from AWIB. I switched to carrying my reload at the 11 o'clock position instead of 8 o'clock. During the match I reached for my reload behind my hip instead of its new position. I'm carrying it on my Phlster Engima instead of my belt.