566/600 -- Tied for 1st place at the 2009 BC Handgun Championships

What a great weekend! I'm sitting outside at the Campbell River airport enjoying the sun and fresh air.

I only shot in the Olympic 10M Pistol event this weekend and enjoyed watching the other events at the 2009 BC Handgun Championships. 566/600. That score is only a couple points lower than my personal best and several points higher than the Olympic Minimum Qualification Score. At Nationals this summer I'll need to be shooting at this level or higher so I can make the National Team. A 566 is likely enough to make the National Development Team.

I was tied for 1st place but in order to break the tie, the officials work backwards seeing who had the better last 10 shots. Edmond Lee's last string of 10 shots was just a bit better than mine so he's the official winner. Nice work Edmond! In 3rd place with a 562 was Tyler Johnson.

i wasn't in campbell river long enough to do much exploring...
but here's a photo of a shot up van near the shooting range ;)

Less than 10 weeks until Nationals... I need to get in some Olympic 50M Pistol training before then. It will be great to be shooting a 2nd event!

2009 BC Provincial Handgun Championships starts tomorrow!

I'll be travelling to Campbell River, BC tomorrow morning to shoot at the 2009 BC Handgun Championships. My first competition back since recovering from a shoulder injury nearly a year ago!

Mobile device usage temporarily affecting eye sharpness

I'm a huge fan of mobile devices... I've got a Sony PSP, Apple iTouch, and Nintendo DS which were gifts from previous employers and currently use a BlackBerry Bold and an HTC Google G1 phone which I unlocked to use here in Canada. The great thing about devices with built in wireless Internet is how connected you always are to things.

The other night after a busy work day I was at practice, and like many others I'm usually never really disconnected from the office. I was busy reading and writing emails on my phone and noticed when I got back to the line to practice my eye's weren't focusing on the front sights as easily. I didn't think much of it at the time... heck... the same thing can happen from eating really spicy food. Hah.

rest your eyes while shooting... turn the mobile devices off

What I found is that it's not actually the mobile device that causes any blurriness, it's that I'm targetting visual focus to such a small area for prolonged amounts of time. Eyes get tired. So the combination of practice and focusing on a small area (front sight), coming off the line to rest and picking up a phone to focus on a small area puts a huge strain on one's eyes. The actual difference in sharpness is minimal and not quite on par with Guitar Hero vision, but it's enough that it can make it difficult to focus; especially when trying to hit an area smaller than a dime at 30'.

What I have started to do with more discipline while I'm at the range is to turn the phone off. Disconnect. I'm there to shoot 10s not extend my office hours any longer than I need to. I'll need to find someone to send out Tweets during Finals at Nationals on my behalf. ;)

2 weeks until the 2009 BC Handgun Provincials in Campbell River, BC!