Forgot to tell you!

Shooting is going a LOT a lot better. Weekend before last I finally won the E class division enough times to be promoted to the D class. And yesterday I shot well enough to win the D class. (Technically, it doesn't count as a win because it was rainy and so there was only 1 other person in the D class present, but I did beat him, along with some C class shooters too). I'm finally getting more comfortable with the gun, sure that the bullet is going where I think it should go, and I've found a position to stand in that is comfortable enough that I can stay in it the whole time without hurting my back. The real turning point for me was the Pala match, down near San Diego, when Josh didn't come along because he had work. Not having Josh there really helped because I didn't care what anyone else there thought of me and so I relaxed and did a lot better. Once I learned how to relax and enjoy myself my shooting improved drastically. Way more fun! My accuracy is better than Josh's now, but he's still faster so he still beats me ... but someday, we'll be a lot closer. I just gotta keep working on it.

It was cool. Yesterday there was a "bonus shot" in one of the matches that I didn't even try for because I didn't want to waste time shooting at something that I didn't think I could hit. It was really far away and the smallest plate that our club has. When we had all finished the match we decided to try and see if we could actually hit that plate. Josh hit it on the third try. I hit it on the first. The best shooter in our club actually came and shook my hand when he saw me make the shot. I got a kick out of that. I don't think that I would have been able to hit it during the competition though, because to be that accurate at that range I have to go really slow and gentle with the trigger and competition has a lot to do with speed.