Well I won ESP-EX and finished 3rd overall at the TX State match on saturday and got my bump to Master. I have been working on getting my ESP bump in a match for a while now so it felt pretty good to earn it. I had a few matches where I was close, some that I won that when there was a shooter or 2 short of the number needed to get bumped but this weekend there was 14 experts so I knew if I had a good match I would get it. I had a real solid shoot, no procedurals, no no-shoots, no failures, no misses, and only one 3 out of the 12 stages and 200+ rounds. I was about 15 seconds better than 2nd place and missed ESP division champion by 5 seconds. I made a few mental bobbles that cost me a few seconds but I would have had to been really on my game to get that last 5 seconds.
The match itself was a lot of fun. The CCIDPA guys put together 12 fun stages that challenged the shooter to make good shots with out building in a lot of traps or gimmicks to try and trick shooters. It was a match where you had to get in the right spot, use cover correctly and make your hits. If you did so you scored well.
As far as how I shot I was really happy. I was making my hits and getting from target to target pretty quick. I did have some mental bobbles like I said, in 2 stages I got lost on the rounds and started to bring the gun back for a reload to early so that cost time and in one of the stages I almost shot an array out of order around a barricade. I caught myself but transitioning back and forth cost me a big chunk. I knew it was going to be an OK day since on the first stage I shot, stage 7, I put down a pretty good time and was clean and there was 3 small steels that I was able to hit quick without throwing a miss. Hitting those smaller steels quickly on the first stage got me in the right frame of mind for the rest of the match.
So I have pretty much achieved what I wanted to this year. I have made Master (in 2 classes now) and have really improved my shooting. I wanted to get to the point that I could show up to a local match and be competitive for the win and I have mangaged to win about 4 or 5 in the last few months. The next goal will be a little harder I think, that will be getting to the level that I can be beating some of the top Masters. I have come real close so far and beat one or 2 of them when they have had gun problems but I need to get to the place where I can run with them consistently. That just means more practice and even more practice on top of that.
Then there is the goal of getting to the Master level in USPSA...............
