SoCal Practical Shooting Level II

[Rez805]

This one popped up on my radar and I signed up about a week or two ago. It happened to be during my regular USPSA local, but I think it was worth it. I'm prepping for the Roadrunner Shootout in 2 weeks, so it was good to put myself in a "two day" match mentality.

My goal (based on my perception of the Carry Optics landscape) was 95-100%. I've been a die-hard Production guy, but the reality is that most of the Production field has shifted over to Carry Optics. So, I committed to CO for this year.



Feel free to leave any comments, questions, etc.

[anonymouscuban]

REELECT SHERIFF VILLANUEVA

[Rez805]

REELECT SHERIFF VILLANUEVA

LOL hell yeah! It was good running into you again and thank you for the Tagalog instructions regarding the restrooms.

[ysr_racer]

Nice video, where was the match at?

[Rez805]

Nice video, where was the match at?

Thank you! It was at Piru.

[anonymouscuban]

[Rez805]

Overall, I had a great time. The price for 16 stages and close to 400 rounds (eventually 14 since two stages were tossed) was excellent.

A couple of things that came up:
The fine dust that covers the range (and eventually everything you're wearing) makes tape falling off of the target a big possibility since a lot of us end up putting strips on our pants.
Perhaps they can buy the pasters (e.g., shooter's connection) that come on a roll since that never leaves the roll until it's used.

There were a couple of times that my squad was backed-up and had to wait a bit. Sometimes it was due to a reshoot (e.g. Stage 7 that was tossed due to the activator setup, and Stage 2--totally NOT the RO's fault--due to the Texas Star sometimes dropping a plate early).

I also heard something about an entire squad showing up an hour late on Sunday--which may explain why there was that one squad still on Stage 9 (or was it 10?). Again, that was just a rumor.

No cell service, but that's pretty understandable given the terrain. By the way, it's been a while since I've been down to Piru and it was absolutely gorgeous out there at this time of the year. The lack of cell service was only a downside for the "tracker" types (e.g., people who check Practiscore Competitor relentlessly). On the note of "terrain": for people who don't go there often, it may be helpful to place signs along the dirt road since there are couple spots where someone might take a wrong turn (at least I almost did LOL).

The stages themselves leaned more towards the "hoser" side of the spectrum. I hesitate to say this, but there weren't very many "options" (which is a tough concept to define, but many of the people I shoot with would have labeled the stages a bit 1-dimensional . . . I guess that's something they go over in CRO class ). Perhaps another way to look at it: the stage plans didn't really differ from shooter to shooter on my squad and when we were watching the squads adjacent to us (even when the start position was "anywhere inside/outside the shooting area") and the majority had a very distinct "flow".

There was a major DQ trap on Stage 6 that the RO pointed out--easy fix: add a wall to obscure the 3 paper targets. I also wasn't a fan of where the RO was positioned (it almost looked like he was in front of me )

There was a shoot-through possibility on Stage 4 (the target set against the back berm).
shoot_through_stage_4.jpg

It was a bummer that 2 stages were tossed. I definitely felt bad for the RO's on Stage 7 since that one had quite a few reshoots and then it got tossed out.

While I only had to wait in line once or twice, it might have been helpful to have additional port-a-potties.

And we all still want to know more about Erotic Plumbing Supply

That's all I can think of at the moment. Again, overall I thought it was very good--especially for the new club's first attempt.

[waygeekierthanu]

We were super happy to be an official sponsor and to represent Atlas Gunworks out there last weekend!! Hope you got to say hi to Alan!

Sent from my SM-G781U1 using Tapatalk

[Rez805]

Yes, I did get to demo some of the Atlas lineup! Thank you for sponsoring the match!

[anonymouscuban]

Overall, I had a great time. The price for 16 stages and close to 400 rounds (eventually 14 since two stages were tossed) was excellent.

A couple of things that came up:
The fine dust that covers the range (and eventually everything you're wearing) makes tape falling off of the target a big possibility since a lot of us end up putting strips on our pants.
Perhaps they can buy the pasters (e.g., shooter's connection) that come on a roll since that never leaves the roll until it's used.

There were a couple of times that my squad was backed-up and had to wait a bit. Sometimes it was due to a reshoot (e.g. Stage 7 that was tossed due to the activator setup, and Stage 2--totally NOT the RO's fault--due to the Texas Star sometimes dropping a plate early).

I also heard something about an entire squad showing up an hour late on Sunday--which may explain why there was that one squad still on Stage 9 (or was it 10?). Again, that was just a rumor.

No cell service, but that's pretty understandable given the terrain. By the way, it's been a while since I've been down to Piru and it was absolutely gorgeous out there at this time of the year. The lack of cell service was only a downside for the "tracker" types (e.g., people who check Practiscore Competitor relentlessly). On the note of "terrain": for people who don't go there often, it may be helpful to place signs along the dirt road since there are couple spots where someone might take a wrong turn (at least I almost did LOL).

The stages themselves leaned more towards the "hoser" side of the spectrum. I hesitate to say this, but there weren't very many "options" (which is a tough concept to define, but many of the people I shoot with would have labeled the stages a bit 1-dimensional . . . I guess that's something they go over in CRO class ). Perhaps another way to look at it: the stage plans didn't really differ from shooter to shooter on my squad and when we were watching the squads adjacent to us (even when the start position was "anywhere inside/outside the shooting area") and the majority had a very distinct "flow".

There was a major DQ trap on Stage 6 that the RO pointed out--easy fix: add a wall to obscure the 3 paper targets. I also wasn't a fan of where the RO was positioned (it almost looked like he was in front of me )

There was a shoot-through possibility on Stage 4 (the target set against the back berm).
[ATTACH]1075024[/ATTACH]

It was a bummer that 2 stages were tossed. I definitely felt bad for the RO's on Stage 7 since that one had quite a few reshoots and then it got tossed out.

While I only had to wait in line once or twice, it might have been helpful to have additional port-a-potties.

And we all still want to know more about Erotic Plumbing Supply

That's all I can think of at the moment. Again, overall I thought it was very good--especially for the new club's first attempt.

REELECT SHERIFF VILLANUEVA

[ysr_racer]

Whoever invented the Texas Star should be tied to one, and tossed in the ocean

[anonymouscuban]

Whoever invented the Texas Star should be tied to one, and tossed in the ocean

REELECT SHERIFF VILLANUEVA

[ysr_racer]

I don't like Texas stars because they take a long time to shoot, and a long time to reset.

[Rez805]

Yeah, I definitely went to war with the star.

Anonymous Cuban did request that multiple people work on resetting the star and they had a designated plate that went at the 12 o'clock position to ensure ease of balancing. I think that helped a lot and thank goodness the springs were fresh.

[balmo]

Me, my bro-in-law, and my nephew did the darnest thing, we shot all 16 stages in one day on Friday. Whew talk about battle of attrition. I was dead tired about last 4 stages, but our skeleton squad of 7 was a real trooper and finished all stages by 4:30.

Actually we shot 15 stages only. Stage 1 was already an option on Friday and will be thrown out. Reason being, the winds were so strong on Friday the clothesline targets were not consistent, even going back up! Although the actual match was not as technical as on the matchbook, we still had lots of fun.

How was parking on the weekends? We were thinking its going to be tough during main match. What time did the awarding start? Part of our SoCal trip was Disneyland: our wives were getting irritated because we kept on refreshing Practiscore on our phones, =). We didn't see the results I think until 9pm or so.