Ups And Downs

There’s a famous wedding toast which goes, “May all your ups and downs be between the sheets.” Alas, that was not the sort of ups and downs I experienced at this month’s USPSA match at Miami Rifle & Pistol Club.

It wasn’t my worst performance this season, but as a night shift worker, my norm when shooting a match after working all night has been that I start strong and fade as fatigue set in. This match was no exception. You'll notice on Stage 2 a makeup shot on steel in the third position put me off my round count, resulting in a standing reload and some lost time...although I do think I adapted and handled it OK.

Here’s where I got in trouble on Stage 2.

Then another similar situation on Stage 3, where my round count got out of whack and I needed a standing reload for the last steel in the last position...kind of annoying, but what are you going to do? You deal with it and fight through, that's what.

A makeup shot to finish this long steel put me off my round count on Stage 3.

Then there was a range equipment failure on my last stage, requiring a re-shoot, but that really didn't faze me. I think it fazed my squad mates, though, as I was the last shooter of the day and they were ready to tear down and go home!

There’s your problem right there. Nothing like a re-shoot for the last shooter on the last stage of the day!

It wasn’t all “downs,” though. I did shoot a pretty good classifier and beat the other two Single Stack shooters. On top of that, I got to spend the day shooting and having fun with a bunch of good people, and that has to count that as an “up”!