Or more appropriately titled “D” classy, as I’m certain that’s where I will end up after shooting today’s all classifier USPSA match this morning at Phoenix Rod and Gun club.  I was starting to think that I had a chance at C, but the red mist descended quite heavily over me this morning, and ended all hopes of ranking at or above 40 percent of all USPSA shooters.

While the Gods of weather were extremely kind this morning (sub 90 and heavy cloud cover), the Gods of shooting were not so kind to me, or my shooty buddies C. Pig and ExKev.  We all had some malfunctions of the operator error variety and shot the first run through, well, let’s just say, not up to expectations.  Kevin stood tough and gave it another go, while I went home, tail tucked and a little frustrated about my performance (or lack thereof).

In order to get a classification with USPSA, you have to shoot four stages that are specifically designed for qualifying.  You score times plus hits on the paper, subtract your misses, add penalties, then do a couple of hocus pocus calculations, and eventually you get your “percentage”.

The match today consisted of the following stages:

It’s Not Brain Surgery – I might have fared better trying my hand at surgery this morning

Pucker Factor – Factor at 11

Oh, No – Oh, S***, was that another no shoot I just hit?

Table Stakes – I rocked this one.  4 A’s, 2 each on the paper targets and no misses on the poppers.  If I did the calculations correctly, I shot this at a (very) low B percentage.  Would have shot it faster too, if it wasn’t for that darn popper that wasn’t falling the first time for anyone shooting smaller than .45 caliber.

Observations and Notes to Self:

Practice is for thinking, shooting is for doing.  When I wasn’t thinking, just trying to stay slow and steady, I rocked it.  Unfortunately, I only did that on one out of the four stages today.  I’m getting to the point where I shoot better when I’m not thinking of the bajillion things I’m supposed to be doing.  At least I think I am.  Hmmm, I’ll have to think about that.

Perhaps I should have gotten my feet wet by shooting at least one regular USPSA match (or at least a practice) before getting classified.  Shooting steel and shooting paper are two different things, especially when most of the paper targets are covered up and your misses and no shoots cost you a fortune in points.

Sleep is good.  A good night’s sleep is better.  I felt alright after about 5 hours of sleep (NOT a morning person), but the brain was definitely not firing on all cylinders.