First match of the new year! It was a blast! I was a little uncertain going into it as it had been just about two months since the last match I participated in. Last time I took a break, I didn’t do so hot. Take that and couple it with the lack of confidence provided by a new gun and holster set up and that yielded a hesitant start, but it turned out to be a good match.
| Date | January 25, 2020 |
| Match Type | Local IDPA Match |
| Class / Division | Standard Service Pistol (SSP) / Unclassified (UN) |
| Range | Austin Rifle Club |
| Host | Texas Tactical |
| Gun / Holster | Heckler & Koch VP9-LE / Concealment Solutions Racer |
| Ammo | 9mm 115 Grain FMJ Federal American Eagle |
| Score | 154.14 |
| Standing | Overall: 28 out of 46 Division: 14 out of 23 Division & Class: 4 out of 9 |
Before diving into the retrospective analysis of my performance, let me just share that one of the things that made this match just a hair more enjoyable was that I was able to talk a guy I met at the last training course I attended into joining me for his first match. It was really cool to hear him echo some of the same reasons I hesitated on participating on the same match and seeing him get bit the bug. He will be back. By the way he did much better than I did during my first match, but don’t tell him I said that I don’t want to inflate his ego too much.
Back to how I did. As I mentioned I was a little hesitant going into this match. Given what I learned about fitting a gun to the hand during the last training course I attended and learning that the P229 didn’t fit my hand, I’ve spent the last two months working with the VP9. Most of that work has been dry practice (more on this on a future post) and this was the first test of that effort. So yeah, I was hesitant.
The squad I was on started on stage 4. As soon as I finished my turn at it, I noticed that I had a slower draw that I would like and I wasn’t as fast as I could have been. Shooting the stage clean with a time of 28.02 confirmed my suspicion. Given the new gun and holster, I knew there was very little I could do about the draw throughout the rest of the match. After all, I’d rather have a slower draw with a good grip than a faster draw with a bad grip. But, I knew I could push myself to transition faster between targets, hustle more between shooting positions, and increase my shooting cadence.
However, I didn’t make any of those changes on the second stage (stage 5). Instead I hesitated again. Felt the same way about my performance which was confirmed again by a clean run with a time of 29.09.
That’s when things changed. The third stage was awesome. I pushed the transitions, the hustle between positions, and the cadence. Still had a slow draw but pushing myself a bit more I ended that stage with a score of 20.8 which included the 3 point deductions for B-zone hits.
I pushed a little harder on the last two stages and things went down hill. The raw times on the last two stages were similar to my first two but point deductions went up (due to a miss) and some bad trigger presses snuck into the mix which resulted in hitting a non-threat. During these last two stages I noticed my grip was a little off with my dominant hand and my support hand was more relaxed that it should have been.
Even with the initial hesitation and some less than optimal shooting on the last two stages, the final score (and ranking) in this match puts this match in one my top three matches so far. This is very encouraging. I’ve got to put some effort into getting familiar with this new setup so I can make sure I can consistently grip the VP9 out of the holster and work its trigger well. And that’s what I’m going to do between now and the next match.