What I Learned at the Carbine Match

Gear Used:

• Weapons
  • Custom Built AR
    • Spikes Tactical Lower
    • Ares Bolt Carrier Group
    • Mag Pull MOE Fixed Stock
    • LBE Barrel
    • Diamond Head Tactical Handguard
    • Noveske Pig Flash Hider
    • Burris Scout Scope
  • M&P 9
• Gear
  • Safari Land ALS Holster
  • Tactical Tailor Battle Belt
  • Blue Force Ten-Speed Dump Pouch
  • Blackhawk AR Mag Pouches on Blackhawk Sub Load
  • Blade-Tech AR Mag Pouch on Belt
  • Tactical Tailor Pistol Mag Pouches

Stage 1

I did pretty well.  I’d like how I set that second position through the window, but it wasn’t bad.  The only thing I really messed up was my offset.  Offset is the difference in the sight height in your optic and the barrel.  It’s about two inches on most AR systems.  My scope is zeroed at 100 yards.  With the last close target, I was supposed to put three in the head.  All three were a nice group at about the chin level.  I forgot to aim high at that distance.

Stage 2

I leaned out to my support side to start the stage.  I know better than that.  I suck at leaning to the support side.  I should have bumped the stock to my left shoulder or switched hands and run the first couple targets left handed.  You can see it takes me forever to get into the right position.

Then my gear fails me at this point.  I have to do a tactical reload and can’t get the mag to fall into my dump pouch.  Those pouches are really nice as a backup on things, but hard to use quickly.  I’ll be going to something different to shoot the next comp.

Stage 3

This stage was all about a bad magazine.  I used a cheap plastic mag (don’t even know the company but bought them for 3 for $10).  I knew something was wrong when I was loading the mag and the feed lips where moving, but I’d used these mags before and wasn’t worried about it.  Then it failed.  I should have gone to another mag right away, but kept with it until the mandatory mag change.

You can see at the end of this stage, competition is all about setting your positions correctly and quickly.

Stage 4

My shirt got in the way of holstering my pistol.  I need to just wear the belt over my shirt, or tuck it in.  And if I could remember the stage I would have been a second faster.

Overall

Overall, I took 6^th place.  Not bad, but could have done a lot better with the improvements I mentioned.

You should be shooting competitions to test yourself and your gear.  If you can, have someone else video them so you can look at the video later and evaluate yourself.  What did you do well, and what could you have done better. Don’t forget the well part.  I’m hyper critical of myself and my shooting, but do pretty well.  This day my shooting cadence was pretty fast and my hits were good.

Stay Safe,

Ben