The first one I found is one that I knew immediately I should have linked to long ago: Matt Burkett's "Shooting Thoughts". I've corrected my lapse and it now has been included on my sidebar under "Gun Bloggers Outside the PNW" (Pacific North Wet).
On top of the blog today is an extended article Matt wrote about the "JP Rocky Mountain 3 gun World Championship". After describing the match, Burkett goes on to give "tips from the match for multi-gun shooting".
Actually, I never understood the difference between "3-gun" and "multi-gun" competition until I read an article in the current Front Sight Magazine this week. In his "From The Editor" column (Page 5, November-December 2005), Dave Thomas describes it:
The difference between "3-Gun" and "Multi-Gun" is that a 3-Gun match is comprised of specific stages for specific firearms while multi-gun blends at least some stages together. In 3-Gun an aggregate championship in each recognized division is awarded as well as individual firearm championships (handgun, shotgun, and rifle) for each division. A Multi-Gun match recognizes only the aggregate championships by division.If I understand this correctly, 3-gun matches have rifle stages, shotgun stages, and pistol stages. You shoot only one kind of firearm on each stage. At the end you have rifle winners, shotgun winners, and handgun winners (plus division awards, etc.) In Multi-Gun competition there are no Rifle, Shotgun or Handgun winners because they are used in combination in each stage, making it impossible to determine which part of a stage score was earned using which firearm.
Personally, the "Multi-Gun" competition sounds a lot more interesting to me. But I'm just a Geek, so what do I know? However, I HAVE competed in "Practical Shotgun Only" matches, and they were a kick. Literally.
Another blog I reviewed was Nebraska Views, hosted by "CMZNEB". In the four months he has been online, he has posted only three articles but they're worth reading. I wish he would post more, he has some interesting things to say.
First he wrote "Why I don't belong to the NRA anymore . . .", and I half-agree with most of his reasons.
Then he wrote "Why do NE Police Chiefs oppose CCS?". Apparently, he actually attempted to contact a half-dozen police chiefs and/or sheriffs with the question. Most of them didn't reply, but those who DID reply had some interesting things to say.
Finally, last month, he wrote "Gun Shows . . . Worth A Visit? Here he had two eminently quotable quotes: "I have yet to find a great deal at a gun show..." and "One thing you can count on for sure is seeing an interesting crowd of people at gun shows."
Maybe if I send him the link to this article, he will be encouraged to continue writing.
Next up is McGinnis, who describes himself as a " gun toting liberal. There are more of us than you think, but election day is never easy." He has two blogs.
First is (not surprising) the Gun Toting Liberal blog. It's an interesting concept, and I wish he had explored it. He had one blog article, in which he said
The Gun Toting Liberals now have a blog. We are so hip.
Unfortunately, he never posted to that blog again. I'm sure the gun toting liberals of the world have a lot to say, but not here.The other blog was a lot more productive. Here he describes his Journey to USPSA B-Class. It's a worthy goal, and if he has continued to put as much into practice as he details here, he has made it by now. In August and September, 2004, he developed a plan and then described what he did to follow the plan. He documented his draw-times in practice, and evaluated his progress (but not WHY he progressed.) After a few weeks, he was distracted by his thesis and by the realization that it requires sacrifice and priority to get live-fire range time. By June of 2005, he had allowed his USPSA membership to lapse but stated that he was "...one 60+ classifier away from B-class in production".
Nothing from him since then. Where-ever you are, McGinnis, I hope you made your goal. You showed a very personal side of yourself, and I'm grateful for your contribution. Maybe it IS easier to make B-class in Limited 10 than in Production, but unless you resume blogging we'll just never know.
Not-so-interesting IPSC-related blogsites:
Shooting with Woody.
First . . . and last . . . blog:
I guess it was. He hasn't posted again in the past year. This only goes to show that it ain't easy to run an IPSC blog, folks.First time
Starting this seems pointless.
This is about the point when I realized that "continuing this seems pointless". There are tens of thousands of bloggers registered with Blogger, twelve of them list IPSC as an interest, and six of them (many duplicates) list USPSA as an interest. Most of them don't blog at all, some only a few times, and most of the blogs don't have much (or any) IPSC/USPSA related material.
Most important, and the point of this article, is that you have to keep shooting to maintain an interest in The Game. I haven't blogged for two weeks, nor have I shot a match for two weeks. I think there's a correlation there.
Sunday I went to the range and did some practice. I had some new Winchester brass I wanted to load and shoot before I reloaded it for match use, so I burned some of it up working on draw-and-first-shot times. I found a lot of things I was doing wrong, including not getting the dot on the target when I mounted the gun, and rushing the first shot. There's not a whole lot of difference in time between a 1.48 second C-hit and a 1.55 second A-hit, but when you allow yourself to become speed-oriented you lose track of your own personal limitations. That explains why I had so much trouble getting first-shot hits on steel at my last match.
And that link explains why it's important to keep to a regular regimen of writing. You can build on your earlier work, and use it to demonstrate points which occur to you later.
I'm so bored. I can't wait until the ARPC match next Saturday. I may even clean the pistol.
It could happen.
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