First time at Perry - Wow

Camp Perry was a great experience and I look forward to doing it again, only next time I hope I shoot a hell of a lot better. Everyone was great, as we already know, bullseye shooters are the nicest people on planet earth and certainly the best people to compete against. I didn't know the shooters I shot next to, but as you would expect, they were a good, fun bunch of shooters. Even during the "tough to decide" scoring situations, it was all handled with the greatest of respect for each other.

Bumping into the many friends is always fun. Each of us sharing our stories of success and failures. Getting the support of fellow shooters always helps to take the sting out of bad performance and my circle of friends certainly did a great job of supporting me and taking away a lot of stings. Making new friends is also a great aspect of a match of this size.

The ranges did have enough malfunctions that it was very concerning. With many equipment failures on range 3, so many, that at one point they decided to use range two (practice range) for a match. Range one also had problems. While no one likes to experience range problems like that, it was interesting to see it there. I don't recall having anywhere near the amount of range problems at the local matches which I think says a lot for the guys (and clubs) running the local matches - they do a great job!

Commercial row was busy and selling lots of stuff but the prices were not all that much better, however, you do save on shipping. From what I was told by everyone, the weather was the best ever in recent years. While it was a bit hot for me, it certainly could have been a LOT worse (like the week before with temps in the 100s).

As for the shooting, it was a great learning experience about myself. In practice (all indoors), I am a very consistent 95.5% shooter, at local outdoor matches I usually drop a percent or two. However, at Perry, I dropped 6%. Normally I don't consider myself as having problems competing and have stepped up to the plate many times. But Perry got in my head and I crumbled under the pressure. Two physical things I could tell right away was my area of hold was about twice its normal size and my trigger control didn't exist at all. To verify that it was me caving under pressure, I shot a practice match on the practice range and shot much better - about 25 points higher than I was shooting in the matches.

With the new found knowledge about my "performance anxiety", I need to work on controlling that so next year I can compete like I should have. Not sure how I will do it, but I know I will figure something out during the next year.

In the end, it was an experience I will remember for many years and am very glad I did it and look forward to doing it again next year.

Chris

Perry will surely bring you back to reality in a hurry and let you know how babied we are at some of our local ranges

My scores also went down at Perry. All except for the .45 phase. I bought a set of RoCo grips and had Travis at FCW smooth out my trigger. Beat my personal best by 62 points.

One thing I think drops my scores at Perry is that it is wide open. The other ranges I have shot at are in wooded areas or with high embankments on the sides. The wind seemed to be more of a factor for me.
I was on Range 1 (FP176) and did not see any problems. Other than my new lawn chair with attached umbrella could not be used because it blocked the towers view of the shooters

It was nice to meet you this year! (I was FP 174)

It was good meeting you too Rob. I felt bad about all the problems you had during the .22 competition. Hope you got it all straightened out.