USPSA at Southern Chester – Stage 1

With Stage 7 (Fast as a Bunny) complete, our squad gathered up out gear and began the long walk back around to the rifle ranges. We settled down in the shade and began chatting while the squad ahead of us finished up the largest field course of he day.

After a fifteen minute break, the squad ahead of us finished and we began going over the Written Stage Briefing. It was interesting to watching other shooters create a plan of attach. Because of the layout of the stage, options were in abundance.

As I performed my walkthrough, I decided that I was going to be agressive. I would need to get a good rhythm going to carry me though a tricky part of the stage, but if performed properly I thought that I would do very well.

The Plan:

In the middle of Stage 1, there was an island made up of a low wall and three full height walls. I decided that the best plan of attack for me would be to work around the left side of the island. Upon hearing the start signal, I would turn right and engage a pair of IPSC Metric targets on the right side of the island. I would need to engage them from farther away to keep me from back-tracking around the island, but I was comfortable with the shots.

I would then move forward, lean over the low wall, and engage a series of three low targets. I would then began moving left, reloading while I moved, to engage a series of two paper targets. As I continued to round the corner, I would fire on four steel pepper poppers. The last of those poppers would activate a swinger.

As the last popper fell, and before the swinger became visible, I would need to perform a realod. If my timing was off, I would need to either chase the swinger or wait for it to appear a second time. Continuing around the island, I would engage a series of four paper targets along the back of the pistol pit. Engaging them from a distane would save me some time and I was comfortable with the shots.

I would then perform one last realod while positioning myself infront of a port. Through the port, I would engage two low paper targets to close out the stage.

After The Buzzer:

Before the stage got underway, I situated my body in an awkward sort of way. I place my heels on the X’s (where we were to start this stage) but twisted my hips to the right so that I would be better squared with the first pair of targets. I took two shots on each and made my way towards the island. I point-shot the three low targets as fast as I could pull the trigger and began moving to my left.

While moving into position, I reloaded my gun and pressed out at the next pair of paper targets. My first two shots were taken almost standing still and I took the second two shots as I moved out of position. I engaged four steel pepper poppers on the move (I’m still amazed at how easily they went down) and got into position to shoot the swinger.

Fortunately, the last piece of steel fell slowly and during the delay I remembered that a reload was necessary at this point. I put two rounds on the swinger and transitioned to the rear of the pit to engage four paper targets. I reloaded one last time as I moved to the port to engage a pair of low targets to close out the stage.

Stage 1 at the April 2012 Southern Chester USPSA Match

Results:

To me, my time of 21.12 seconds felt lightning fast. Unfortunately, it was faster than I could shoot as accurately as I would have liked. I scored 22 A’s, 9 C’s, and 1 D giving me 138 of a possible 160 points. I had a Hit Factor of 6.5341 and a point percentage of 86%. Like I said in a previous stage breakdown, a “B” in school was always good but it was no “A”. Shooting at this pace dipped below the 90%+ accuracy that I strive for and left me feeling disappointed with my performance.

Even with me be disappointed with my accuracy, my time carried me to 6th place on this stage. While this was my best stage of the day, I’m seeing that I am having trouble with shooting A’s on the move. Considering that before these last few matches I was afraid to shoot anything on the move, I am definitely improving but I need more practice.