As you may know, I’m on a quest to improve my skills as a shooter. Specifically, I have been working on improving my defensive pistol skills. Last month, I provided a progress report and this month I am doing the same.
On April 21, 2019, I attended a local IDPA match hosted by Texas Tactical at the Austin Rifle Club. This time around I placed 13th out of 16 in the unclassified (UN) class standard service pistol (SSP) division. My overall score was a bit worse than my prior match, but the stages were considerably more challenging. All in all, I performed better than I thought I did. I pushed myself to go a little faster and than I did before and this time it cost me in a number of procedural penalties: one for stepping out of cover and another for not engaging targets in tactical priority. I also noticed my trigger disciple was a little sloppy as a number of shots were low. I think the low shots were a result of me slapping the trigger (rather than anticipating recoil). Either way, I think I will slow down for the next match and get back to practicing some trigger discipline during my dry practice. I think my draw stroke and reaction time can be improved as well, but I want to focus on improving one thing at a time.
During this match, I had the pleasure of shooting in the same squad Mark Hergott who is on the Styer Arms shooting team. As an unexpected bonus, I got to check out his Steyr L9-A1 with TruGlo TFX Pro sights (which was pretty sweet). He did some pretty impressive shooting and ended up in first place in the sharpshooter (SS) class enhanced service pistol (ESP) division. He’s got a short video of his performance (embedded below) on his YouTube channel. I hope to record my performance in future matches as well, which I will post on my YouTube channel, but expect to see a serious difference in shooting skill.
Again, I encourage anyone who enjoys shooting a handgun to attend one of these local matches. It’s a ton of fun and it really helps you identify where one’s skill can be improved. All that is required is an entrance fee (around $25-30), 100-150 rounds, a side arm with 3 magazines (and a way to carry them), a good belt attached holster, and a cover garment.