WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN A STAGE DOESN'T GO YOUR WAY?

So what do you do when a stage doesn’t go your way?

The stage pictured below was one of two I didn’t shoot very well this past Saturday. In my head when I was done prepping for my turn I was confident I could shoot it clean.

The stage proved me wrong! I ended with 6/10 and had run my positions and plan flawlessly but was missing the far targets low and I couldn’t convince myself to correct accordingly.

The next stage only got worse and I actually hit in front of the base of the target stand on the farthest target from a prone position. Something that takes a large mistake to accomplish!

So what did I do?

I was frustrated when I came off the line, knowing I had taken myself out of any decent finish. I was puzzled with my rifle and myself because I couldn’t see any glaring reason why I hit so low on this stage and the previous stage.

I regrouped and headed straight to the zero range to check the rifle and optic to make sure everything was working correctly.

I learned.

The next targets that were beyond 150 yards I accounted for the troubles I had experienced and made the corrections needed and shot well the rest of the way out. 8 stages shot well and 2 not so well.

I started my first 4 stages strong, shot two poorly and then ran the next 4 strong.

Mental fatigue in the middle of the day could have been the culprit, most likely it was something I did or didn’t do while I was on the clock, a mistake reading the DOPE off my ballistics program or simply an error I didn’t realize I made moving my turret.

I could have easily let my 2 bad stages ruin my day ( and I have!! ) but the biggest piece of advice I’ve gotten and I can give is, you need to move on and get over your last stage quickly without letting emotions get in the way. GOOD scores or BAD scores…….it applies to both!

I was happy with my end result for the day although like anyone that competes in anything I would have liked to get those two stages back after figuring out what was going on with me or my setup.