What A Ride

As far as I know, I’m the only person crazy enough to try it. A handful of years ago, after hitting Grand Master in PCC, I thought it would be fun to try for everything—a Grand Master title in all 21 divisions. The resulting journey was fun, but there was also a ton of dry and live fire practice, broken parts on both guns and me, and way too much ammo sent downrange.

Why Do It?

I have always enjoyed building skills in the process of lifelong goals, whether that has been martial arts and the belt systems or shooting and classifications in divisions. Something about having discreet goals helps me focus on building toward an eventual end outcome.

But getting there would take a lot of time and energy. Major match season runs from January through April, and then August through October. For reference, Texas' major match season happens in spring and fall with a break during the summer for heat and holiday season for hunting. My typical practice schedule during those times is at least 15 minutes of dry fire per day per gun per week, but sometimes up to an hour a day if I’m fixing something. I’ll also include intense physical training—four sessions a week between 60 and 90 minutes each. On top of that I have two to three live-fire sessions a week, with a local match serving as one of those sessions.

That left me with May through July to divert focus from something rigorous and serious (e.g. PCC Nationals) to something more whimsical. I had no intention of even shooting Single Stack or Revolver Nationals, for example, though I might try SS at WSSC. But trying to hit Grand Master was something different to distract my mind from serious competition while staying active shooting.

That turned into starting up weekly summer matches at my home club, the Brazosland Pistoleros, as well as attending my friend Karl Rehn's weeknight matches at his range and training facility. Having a weekly match to dry fire, practice and work toward helped keep me motivated, especially trying to hit the crazy times in Limited in SCSA week after week.

What Did I Learn?

Picking up each different gun and starting over all the time taught be one important lesson: Fundamentals are the key to shooting. Relearning and rebuilding the basics of grip, trigger control, index and recoil control for so many guns, especially something completely foreign to me like a revolver, was a lesson I'll stress above everything else. Shooting is shooting, and if you focus on improving the fundamentals, you can accomplish cool things.

I’ve said it before, but without both dry and live fire you will not improve at nearly the same rate as with both. Dry fire simply allows more reps under calm settings. Without all the distraction of the bang, you can see more feedback to improve or keep hammering. That said, live fire is the only way to accurately test dry-fire improvements. Get that timer out and keep pushing—shooting is the only way to get better at shooting.

Was It Fun?

Yes. Shooting is always fun, but working toward a goal was the real enjoyable part for me. I see trophies as reminders of what it took to achieve, not necessarily what was achieved in the end. I was genuinely surprised some divisions like Single Stack were as enjoyable as they were. Heck, I might go back to Single Stack for Nationals one day for fun. Others, well, if you ever see me shooting a revolver again, run because there's a bear nearby.

Yes, the ammo was absolutely necessary to get this done. I’d have wrecked my elbows even worse than they are already trying to reload enough to do this. I’ll never be able to thank Federal enough.

I cannot wait for the next crazy goal, even more time in practice and that feeling of accomplishment again. I’ve spent enough time now savoring this. Time to start the next adventure!