Full video links from last weekend added to those posts, here's the stage I am most proud of though:
Full video links from last weekend added to those posts, here's the stage I am most proud of though:
26th Match: 2024 GFDS and Southern Bobby-Q Maryland State USPSA Championship, September 28th , 2024
(1st Major Match!)
PCC Division, with my usual Keltec Sub2000
Placement: 2nd Place, B Class PCC
160th of 276 overall (57.5%) | 15th of 28 PCC (60%)
Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/ddbeab35-0147-48e2-9011-652373e1d413
Video: https://youtu.be/I08td7kNdnE
MD State Championship complete! As noted above, this was my first major match, and very exciting. My entry was sponsored by MD Arsenal, and ammo by Hill Top Arms, and additional support from my friends at Car Care Complete. A big thanks to them for supporting me!
I went into the match with a mixed feeling of trying to do my best because I felt I had a shot to get the B Class PCC win, but also recognizing that I should try to have fun, learn, and of course be safe and don't DQ. Since Thurmont is close to me, I took off work Friday to walk the stages and watch some of the staff shoot. It was a rainy, dreary day, but definitely worth the time to get familiar with the stages and have time to come up with a stage plan that makes sense without the stress of a 4 minute time limit, and the whole squad walking it at the same time like it is before shooting each stage day of. Alex, another regular at MD Arsenal also walked stages with me Friday, and we got some good plans which I think were especially helpful on some of the larger stages.
Saturday was the day we shot, and we got lucky on the weather. It was humid, and did drizzle a little bit, but compared to the day before or the day after, we definitely had the best weather day for the event. I got there early and walked the stages again, since I checked in the day before I was free to review the stages and then wait to get started.
This match was split into two zones, which I think worked well. In the morning, we shot Zone 1, which was stages 1-5, and we started on stage 3. I am just going to stick to the highlights, not a full stage by stage. Overall, the morning was a bit frustrating. The first two stages each had two misses, and of zone 1 I only had one stage with a hit factor above a 5. Then the 3rd stage (stage 5) I had a procedural FTSA because I stopped myself because the gun sounded weird. After being present for Bea experiencing two cracked case deals just in the last few months, I wasn't going to take chances. Fortunately, I only had one target left for the stage, so only 1 procedural, but still unfortunate. I guess since I stopped myself on a squib call that turned out to be incorrect, the scores were left as is. I didn't fight anything, and figured it was best to just play it safe and do the best I can the rest of the day. There was no squib round, and everything seemed ok. The only thing I noticed was that since I have one "primary" magazine for PCC, a 33 round Glock mag with a +10 extension, when stages often don't use the full mag, I would just reload the magazine as is. Those bottom few rounds were getting pretty dirty, so I suspect maybe something to do with that caused the weird sound.
After those stages we had a break for lunch from Southern Bobby-Q. It started out as a decent length break as we would be starting on Stage 8 after lunch, and we were done with lunch before them, so then the stage 8 ROs needed their lunch break. The break got extended further due to a medical emergency. One of the ROs there at stage 8 got stung by a bee, and to make a long story short the ambulance was called. Fortunately, he is doing ok, and was home from the hospital that night, but definitely a scary situation.
Zone 2 for the afternoon started off with stage 8, which was a fixed time stage with two strings. I was actually looking forward to this after the classifiers two weekends ago, I felt I had a good shot at a decent performance. For string 1, I did ok. String 2 was a disaster. Apparently when I made ready for string 2 before walking to the forward shooting box, I did not fully seat the magazine. So, I got one shot, then a click, then on my tap/rack/bang my angled foregrip fell off! I managed only two shots on the second string. Obviously, the mag seating issue was my fault which is frustrating. The foregrip I 3d printed a few years ago, I knew it had a crack, but I wasn't expecting that. That part was quite funny. The rest of zone 2 went pretty well and we ended on stage 7, which was by far my best stage for the day. I got 3rd PCC on stage 7, which I am pretty happy with.
Overall, when I got home and really could look at the scores, I could see that while I felt like I left some on the table, I did not do as badly as it felt in the moment. After the rest of the competitors shot on Sunday my final placement is 2nd place B class PCC. Initially there had been 11 or 12 registered, but a few dropped out leaving 8 total PCC/B competitors, so no second-place award, but that is still pretty cool.
Funnily enough, even if I had sandbagged and held myself back to C class, I still would have been 2nd place in class. Goes to show I made the right choice in not trying to game it.
All in all, it was a great time. My next level two will be the DelMarVa section championship in April, and I will be staffing the match. (RO class in January) I think the Keltec will retire from competition now, at least regularly. I think I will go back to PCC at some point, but likely with a "better" PCC. Until then, I begin to work at my Carry Optics skills now with my Canik.
MD State Video: https://youtu.be/I08td7kNdnE
In reply to slantvaliant (Forum Supporter) :
I like it! Saved it to my phone, I'll have to send it out to all the shooting buddies on Valentines day. 
27th Match: MD Arsenal USPSA Outlaw, October 7th, 2024
Carry Optics Division, Canik Rival-S, Holosun 407a, Standard mags, MAGMO EDGE grips.
10th of 20 overall (62%) | 4th of 9 Carry Optics (64.7%)
Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/f59104da-7e74-4f4d-ae97-0cdefc720d85
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZTH1Bke3aI
It's been a busy last couple of weeks, but last Monday was the monthly outlaw match at MD Arsenal, and my first real match on pistol. Ahead of time I got my dot put back on the pistol and verified zero and adjusted my belt and mag pouches to how I wanted it for pistol. I also decided to take the mag well off, so that it fits in Carry Optics. Limited Optics brings in all the 2011's, etc, so there's no sense in going to that division yet.
Overall, the match went well, but on stages 1 & 4 I had malfunctions. Both were double feeds, with two different mags. That part was frustrating, I definitely would have been probably 2+ spots higher placement with no malfunctions, but that's all part of the game, I guess. I really can't complain too much for more or less my first time on pistol. I had run the outlaw match once before with the Canik before I had my belt setup or a red dot and was very slow. I also brought the Canik to the Hill Top event once, but that was also without the dot I believe.
I got my Taylor Freelance Mag extensions this week, so I don't know if that may or may not fix my double feeds. (Though, also on the ~100 rounds I used when I put the dot back on I had zero malfunctions...) I'm going to give it at least one more match and see how it does. I may swap springs as there are some recommended replacements for reliability improvements. The double feeds I think are more mag related though, so I may also test out using MBX mags since they are the top of the line in this game.
And just since I haven't had many pictures in this thread for a while:
28th Match: MD Arsenal USPSA Outlaw, November 4th, 2024
Carry Optics Division, Canik Rival-S, Holosun 407a, Standard mags, MAGMO EDGE grips. (+ TF +4 Basepads & Rune Followers)
6th of 19 overall (77%) | 2nd of 6 Carry Optics
Scores: https://practiscore.com/results/new/fb370245-a564-4d9f-8c91-532dded44141
After last month's frustrations with double feeds, the only thing I changed was I got my +4 basepads from Taylor Freelance. They are nice, I got the brass models, so they are hefty, and the Rune follower allows for an extra round, I believe I am getting 23 rounds most of the time now. Since the Rival-S had some manufacturing changes, I also have 1"x1/8" O rings on the mags to prevent over insertion. I was skeptical of this at first, because with the factory magwell, they kinda stuck a little bit instead of dropping free, but I decided to go the carry optics route for now and skip the magwell, and they fall free just fine this way. I figured this way if I get a polymer Rival as "backup" or similar, I can use the same mags just take off the O rings instead of getting Rival-S specific basepads.
Now, unfortunately the basepads did not solve the double feed issue. I had another double feed on the first stage, which naturally slowed me down a lot. It was about halfway through the magazine too. One of the other guys there, Alex, also got a Rival-S and had previously recommended me getting the spring kit from Rune Tactical as his has been running smoothly. He was also kind enough to let me use his slide for the rest of the night to test out. Stages 2, 3, & 4 I ran my frame and his slide, and it ran smoothly! I forgot where I planned my mag changes on stages 2 & 3 both, but overall did ok.
Stage 4 I did really well with the 2nd place score for the stage. Stage 4 was set up very closely to the 22-04 classifier, the calm before the storm, which I did with PCC back in July and completely bombed. This time I got a 6.91HF, which would have been roughly a 64% B Class run if it was officially a classifier. I am pretty happy with that as I still feel like I'm getting used to the pistol side of things. We'll see how it goes for real this weekend. Shadow Hawk has a special all classifier match this weekend that I am doing on Saturday so I can have a baseline Classification for Carry Optics.
I did order a spring kit from Rune Tactical, but will it be here before Saturday....
And just for fun, here's a picture of our musical guns fun from the evening. I kinda really like the Darkside black slide on my chrome frame.
So how did you do at the steel challenge match?
I have since done three steel challenge matches and a three gun match as well.
I tried shooting my VP9 instead of my Canik meta just to see how I would do as the VP9 is my edc and I did better. The dot on it is a green dot that is solar powered with a 2.5moa dot. Now I never liked it as much as the dot on my Meta for general range stuff but for steel challenge having a bigger and overly bright dot made transitions so much faster.
It was also fun to see people looking at my VP9 and being like there is no way you can do that with that pistol.
I am torn as to what to try next. I have both a DWX and a Czechmate. I shoot both extremely well but then I will be playing with the big boys and I am just there to have fun and try new weird stuff.
My other new experience is three gun. So much fun and generally the people seem much more relaxed. I used my meta my LMT Marz h and my Benelli M2 three gun. I put a SRO on my M2. It is the cheat code for shotgun.
I am definitly doing 3 gun again. So much fun.
In reply to dean1484 :
Steel Challenge match performance was meh. Out of 27 PCCs, I was 21st.
Being my first steel challenge, I'm not mad at that or anything, though I had hoped to be slightly better. Since that one had all 8 Steel Challenge stages, that gave me a classification, I believe I missed making B class on that by 1% or so.
If they have a similar match locally next year I might go, being a level 2 match it had some perks. I'd probable try a different division just to have fun, either pistol or rimfire. I had a good time, but it's not the type of match I plan to pursue often, I just enjoy the courses of USPSA matches more.
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