Does long distance driving affect

Your match quality? Looking at trends over the years, I notice that when I have to drive to a match, and many are 3 hours away,  that my performance is reduced…especially vision, trigger and hold quality. When I’m staying over anywhere I see significantly better performance. Thinking in terms of shots in the white vs all in the black.

I’m thinking that road wear for lack of a better term, doesn’t clear up for a while.

What’s your thoughts?

If I had to drive 3 hours I’d be tempted to stay in a cheap accommodation so I’d drive the day before.  Still upsetting, but better than your sleep patter disruption, which may actually be the culprit rather than the drive per se.

I find that with arthritic back, neck and hand issues if I drive longer than 2 hours - I hurt and am stiff when getting out. So now we try and maintain the 2 hour limit and get out for at least stretch breaks and probably refreshments.  Walking helps the body and blood flow.  Gripping the steering wheel even affects my shooting. I have a hand exercising ring on my dash to try and break up the prolonged gripping position on the steering wheel.

Ah, so that's why I suck so bad at Perry! Thanks, Bruce, now I have a perfectly legitimate excuse! It takes me two and a half days to get there from Phoenix, so obviously I need at least two and a half weeks to recover before I can shoot high master scores, Oh, wait...those are not high master scores...anyway, you know what I'm saying

I decided once that it would be a good idea to drive all night through appalachia to shoot the Navy fleet match at quantico. White knuckle driving on horrible windy roads all night tanked my slowfire scores by 15-20 points. Would not recommend. Strangely, my PB NMC score with a 45 hardball gun, 286 followed by a 281… was shot after working night shift. So i think driving is more to blame rather than losing sleep.

The only way to really tell is to document it. You do keep a shooting journal, right? On the one hand it could help with match nerves. On the other hand, it might have deleterious effects on your physical abilities. It would also depend upon how long the drive was and the driving circumstances.

Honestly it is somewhat irrelevant. Most of the time if I want to shoot a match it is a 2-3hr drive. The drive back after the 2700 is way worse than the drive there. I do find it is best to allow 15-20 min before the start of match to be able to wind down from the drive and finish warming up.

Bruce- you and like most of us, would probably benefit from an autonomous vehicle!

On occasion I've started driving at 4am to get to a match by 8am. It isn't great fun but you can shoot ok. Usually I'm hugely relived to find I made it there in time. Later when everyone else is in their late morning breakfast-lunch gap jitters,  my internal circadian clock reads mid afternoon calm, that or I'm too tired to be nervous.

jwax wrote:Bruce- you and like most of us, would probably benefit from an autonomous vehicle!

Aaaaand Id bet that you have built one!

Bruce- Working on it!

When I travel anywhere overnight, my first night is always horrible with sleep.  2 of the 3 locations I normally shoot at are slightly more than 2 hours and the 3rd is about 3 hours (depends of the traffic through St Louis).  The early wake up is much better for me than trying to overnight.  My single biggest problem is trying to maintain my blood sugar levels as I am type 2 diabetic.

My closest match is a little over 2 hours and I set my maximum morning "Match" drive time at 5 hours.  With the right tunes and a hot cuppa, I don't mind the 4-5 hours drive. (Yes, I do stop for a stretch)

There are the times when I am working in the area the day before the match and will spring for a room after work.  On those occasions, I find I don't shoot as well, but still have a great time. I would consider that a good score of another type.