Looking at old scores...

[fieldgrade]

I woke up way too early this morning and decided to wade through some old scores from when I started shooting pistol matches several years ago. I don't think I looked at my scores the first six months I shot. I just didn't want to know at the time. I was always happy just to finish a match and not get DQ'ed.

I am just seeing those first scores for the first time.
The horror.

If you've never looked at your old scores, my advice is, "Don't".

 

[Amp Mangum]

On the other hand, look at how far you've come and how much your shooting skills have improved.

 

[dmarbell]

You mean like my first full match at Buccaneer, when I shot for a full 2.5 minutes after the leader had finished, was 36 points down and 23 seconds penalty time? This was at the time when each point down was only 1/2 second penalty.

 

[dmarbell]

On the other hand, look at how far you've come and how much your shooting skills have improved.

He really has improved, while I still languish near the bottom. Responsibilities of life have held me back this year, but I hope to rectify that shortly.

It is fun to watch someone you know put their efforts together and improve like @fieldgrade has. I keep hoping he'll drag me along with him.

 

[fieldgrade]

Our matches must have been harder a few years ago. I see where the leaders were shooting 20 some odd points down, which would be 40 today with a full second for every point down, and I shot so many points down back then I don't know if Dean and Eddie could count that high now when they tally the score sheets.

By the way, my co-SO Brian Edwards shot a clean match yesterday. He said first time in 20 years of shooting IDPA and I thought we had some challenging stages judging from some of the scores.

 

[fieldgrade]

You mean like my first full match at Buccaneer, when I shot for a full 2.5 minutes after the leader had finished, was 36 points down and 23 seconds penalty time? This was at the time when each point down was only 1/2 second penalty.

My personal favorite was shooting out of the back of the van that match when you just stopped shooting, and the SO said you still had more targets to shoot. I think your words were, "I'm tired of shooting".

 

[dmarbell]

My personal favorite was shooting out of the back of the van that match when you just stopped shooting, and the SO said you still had more targets to shoot. I think your words were, "I'm tired of shooting".

I believe that SO was @Amp Mangum. From my recollection, we had the pistol in an IDPA box, mags loaded but no round in the chamber and we had to roll over, load the chamber, and shoot prone at 18 single targets about 10 yards or more away. It was my first ever-stage shooting a full-size gun, I had not practiced racking the slide on my P226, had never shot prone, and I couldn't tell which targets I had hit and which ones I had not. (Those targets might have been 15 yards.) That was stage 5.

From there, we went to stage 1 which included one-handed shooting with weak-hand only, then strong-hand only, then free-style. Guess which two of those three styles were new to me? The one-hand targets were pretty close, so they were relatively easy.

The next stage or the one after that, there were steel plates mounted on a rack. When I hit one to the left of the one I aimed at, I quickly developed a plan, and made it through pretty good except for the one on the far right, where I had nothing to it's right to aim at! .

@fieldgrade might be right, those were challenging stages. Maybe it's always like that at Buccaneer, or maybe they were just amped up for that match.

 

[dave33]

I don’t know if I would say the matches used to be harder back then but I do think they may have been slightly more elaborate. We used to have a stage set up on the moving target range or the multi use range usually as I remember having to walk all the way there for the one stage. Now the fifth stage is on the 1st “bay” and is something short and close in since that’s not really a complete bay.

Also when idpa went to 1 full second penalties I think folks may take that little extra time to get their hits, I know I do. You can definitely help yourself making up a shot at a full second penalty where a half second may not matter as much.

 

[Sleipnir]

I have some old scores to settle.

 

[NKD]

I have video of my first match.
I pass it out to friends when their dogs die to cheer them up a bit.