A few weeks ago I shot our North Island IPSC Champs in Classic Division. My pistol of choice is my Springfield 1911 A1 shooting a 200 gn JFP rounds with 5.8 gn Tightgroup for a 175/176 PF. Apart from 20 rounds at Easter and a monthly club shoot in August (where I ended up getting 100% against 4 other Classic shooters, two of whom shoot in much higher grades than I do) it was my first live firing since early March when my wife went into hospital for surgery.

To say it was a miserable weekend would not be far off. It rained all of the Saturday. The top 5 ranges were well drained but the bottom 7 were ankle deep in mud in places, usually around the targets. And while the firing positions were "dry" with the additions of truckloads of shellrock just getting to these dry spots was a problem. I ended up having to clean the mud off both my jeans and shoes overnight on the Saturday and both were still damp Sunday morning.

But it was my shooting that I just couldn't get my head around. Every stage involved missed targets or hits on "no shoots".

This last week I was back on the range practicing for a new 2 day comp this coming weekend, one day IPSC the second day Speed. Because the same gun and ammo must be used both days, and I feel the .45 will be a handicap for the speed day, I will be shooting my Kimber Stainless II in 9 mm, so it was the Kimber I was shooting using my competition load, a locally manufactured 124 gn 9 mm round that I can usually hit a 200 mm (8") disc with at 35 meters 2 out of 3 rapid fire shots.

At 10 meters my standard drill is to draw from the surrender position and achieve 2 A zone hits in under 3.5 seconds, followed by 4 seconds at 15 meters. Usual times are actually under 3/3.5 seconds and each "string" is repeated 5 times. I was having the odd shot dropping low into the C zone while my A zone hits were spread out a bit, so I decided to " go back to basics" and break down my draw, aiming and firing.

Slowing right down to snail pace I soon found all shots hitting the A zone, so I sped things up a bit. Same result so up another gear.

Soon I was achieving the 2 A zone hits in under 3.5 seconds but I was moving to draw, drawing, aiming and firing slower than I had been earlier.. Not by much but noticibly slower to me than I had been. My times were still under 3 seconds (around 2.88 seconds instead of the 2.5/2.6 I had been getting originally) and my hits more centred.

One of my fellow shooters is at the age where speed is just not possible for him. He strolls through a stage, moving moderately but smoothly, and he rarely misses a shot (although he does score a fair percentage outside the A zone but they are rarely D's). When compared to the "speed kings" in the squad watching him is like hitting the slow motion button on the DVD remote. And he usually features at end of match prize giving.

So this weekend instead of going as fast as I can I'll be dropping down the speed throttle a notch or two to see if I can improve my scores.