Ricky Bobby

Hey, we have the same initials! And I've sadly had to come to the same realization that if you're not first, you're last.

The competitive field I am in is very small at the top. It's not like the NFL where there are hundreds of people getting rich and good paychecks. If you're not at the pinnacle you basically don't exist. Which is kinda me right now and it is a crushing feeling.

Last week one of the top people posted a video of him training with an agility ladder for shooting. On my own and months ago I had been doing the same thing. I posted on FB and some shooting forums about it and was basically dismissed in my opinions and training methods. But this guy does it and everyone says "oh, that's why he's the champ", "what a cool new idea", "innovator".

But until I win something on a regional or national level, no one is going to care about my opinion or methods. Which is tough when you're still working hard but just not quite there.

If you aint first, you're last.

Espana

So after going to Little S' birthday party it's back off to Spain again. This time with Super D. I'm thinking 4 days in Madrid as that's the area I know best. Then two days time each down south in Seville and time up north in Bilbao.

Just checking around it's kinda sad that leaving from the east coast doesn't make travel to Europe any easier. And it doesn't look like I'll have my global entry stuff done with DHS by that time either. Oh well, there is always the November trip to take advantage of that nicety.

Any fall or winter travel plans for my readers?

Le Sigh

I have tried a lot of positive self talk but my land ordeal, and especially now its subsequent costs, are really depressing me. I'm not interested in my hobbies. I'm not sleeping well. I have a hard time thinking about other things. I'm cranky at every little thing. I'm eating food in excess. All the classical signs of depression.

I'm aware of it, but not doing a good job of defeating it. Like they said in the movie, "Life is pain, anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you something." Thanks a lot Dread Pirate Roberts!

Sadly there is no simple way to make it go away. The county is not letting go at all. I read 68 pages of County code today related to grading and brush clearing and it looks abysmal for me as far as a what I see as a positive outcome. More so the cost of the action items they require just kills me. I spent 3 grand a few weeks ago and will have to spend twice that again still to finally be finished.

I'm unsure of what to do and how to handle it. What once seemed awesome now only bring unhappiness. The physical and emotional effects remind me of a bad break up, losing a job and similar life experiences.

Sigh.

But to be truthful this is more like what I do almost the entire time I'm at a match. 90% of the time you are just standing around waiting. It will take 6 to 8 hours out of the day for me to do 3 minutes worth of shooting.

The shootin'est, tootin'est varmit west of the Pecos!

Some pics of me working on another overall match win today. Should you be interested in this kind of practical pistol shooting you should go to www.idpa.com or www.uspsa.org and find a match near you. You don't have to take it as seriously as I do, not at all! But if you like shooting and have a free weekend day now and then it can be good fun and hopefully help you improve your shooting ability.

grrrrr

The housekeeper said today I look like a gangster or mafioso. Do you agree?


So I posted on FB a picture of my agility ladder and talked about how I use it for training for shooting. Most people kind of questioned it or dismissed it outright. Then I see a famous person posts a video of him today on FB using one and everyone thinks it's a great new idea. This actually makes me kinda angry. I don't like being dismissed or marginalized because my thoughts and ideas come from me, and not from someone "famous".

Cause you know what, he isn't any better or smarter than I am. In any way. And just like MM93 grew up to take down VR46 I'm gonna do the same to all those who are at the top right now. Everyone is gonna know it and see it. Then there will be no doubting.

What have I done for you lately? AKA Responding to a sponsorship question.

A few posts back I asked if anyone had a specific question about sponsorship in the shooting sports world, or at least my experiences with it. I got a comment asking "Funny, I was just thinking about this topic. I figure once we have all our gear, I think we only really need two things from our sponsor... help with entry fees & ammo. Would like to hear how your sponsors have helped you. Thanks."

For this shooter, it seems the first priority is gear. The physical equipment one would use in competition, based on his saying "once we have gear". These are pretty durable items and often a once a season expense. The reader then says he/she thinks their next greatest need is ammo and entry fees. If you shoot, practice or compete often then this is at least a weekly expense so let's run through some numbers.

Ammunition. I make my own 9mm for 13 cents a round using high end components. You can make it for 9 cents if you're thrifty. When I was receiving bullets for free I could make 9mm rounds for about 5-6 cents a piece. If you're buying ammo off the shelf you'll be happy to pay 20 cents a round and it won't nearly be the quality of what one can make for themselves. A match is about 150 rounds and you'll easily shoot 300 rounds a week in practice, so let's say you are not doing much and shoot 500 rounds a week for 2 thousand a month. (I often shoot one thousand a week and rarely less than 500). Make it yourself and pay $260 a month for ammo or buy it and pay at a minimum $400 if not $500 most likely. (Atlanta Arms, Automatic Accuracy, Freedom Munitions, LAX and so on)

Match Fees. I live in California so I'm sure they are higher but a local match here is $25 to enter. Shoot 4 a month and that's $100.

So your costs to be an active competitive shooter run about $350 to $600 a month for match fees and all your ammo. Month after month, year after year. This doesn't count travel, food, training, range fees, all the high costs of going to major matches out of state and so on. It is very easy to spend $20,000 in a year if you have to fly out of state once a month to shoot a match and do all of the local stuff as well.

Ok, so his/her real question was how have my sponsors helped me? Well first, every single one of them has made me sign a Non Disclosure Agreement stating I would not reveal the exact nature of our deal. But what I can do is talk to you about generalities and what I've seen and went through myself.

One, find a sponsor who will pay you cash if you can. That is extremely hard to do as the level of accountability is pretty high. They want a sure return on their investment. If you can find a way to do this, then do it! I do have cash payments each month but to earn them I have to do very specific things in regards to media, photos, reporting and so on. It can be done but it seems to be rare. Where I've seen people be surprisingly successful in this is finding a benefactor. Essentially a person who cares enough about you and/or the sport to help pay your match fees. These are often the friends you make at the range, in your squad or wherever you are frequently at and have an honest and true friendship with someone. The number one rule I've heard from people I've approached over and over again is no one cares if you're the best shooter in the state if you're a jerk.

Ammo. Many ammo or bullet companies have contingency programs. This is the best place to get help with ammo in my opinion. You have to look hard and do some good Google work but they are out there. I participated in one from The Blue Bullets that was an excellent program that even gave you credit for local match wins. If you're a local hot shot it was easy to get about $100 worth of free bullets a month. But you have to win! The next best thing I've found for people who want help with ammo is to befriend one of the shooters who has primary sponsorship from an ammo or bullet company. Buy some of the product at retail. Shoot it. Talk with their sponsored shooter about it and your experiences. Build this relationship, help sell their product, represent it in a good light. When you do these things I've been asked if I want to by product from them at a greatly reduced price, or given a special discount code, or given 500 rounds to sample.

Currently I get free brass and that is the extent of my ammo support. But that is by choice and I haven't approached anyone about this matter. I do have access to ammo at half price should I choose to, but I prefer to make my own as right now I am choosing to shoot a jacketed bullet over a coated one.

Not exactly the answer to your question, but yes I get some cash from some sponsors that pays match fees or a hotel or whatever. And as far as ammo I just get all the free brass I can handle. (Though I have had other offers I did not accept.

Personal relationships will go farther than anything else in the beginning. Who you know and how well you know them will open more doors than winning. Winning is awesome and that opens doors as well, for sure. But to start the people you're around and who know about you will be your best bet. Now if you want strategies on how to maximize these relationships that is a different post! hahahaha.

Does it really make a difference?

As I sat in traffic near Mission Valley mall yesterday I saw people begging at the intersections, like normal. With the mild weather I think SD is a popular place to be homeless or transient. In this case it was an obviously pregnant, disheveled woman doing the begging. Or should I say pleading?

In my mind my first thought was, I wonder if that is padding or is she in someway faking being pregnant to get more money? Closer visual inspection and she looked legit. And as I sat there averting my gaze after previously staring, the thought came strongly to my mind, "Can I see another's lack and I not care? Have you fed the hungry? Clothed the naked?", all of these New Testament style Christian thoughts.

Let me inerrupt this by saying I have ZERO white guilt, zero guilt about being a 3%er. I am nice to people in the service industry but I have no problem watching TV while the housekeeper cleans the house. I don't fly across an ocean unless it is in first class. You get the picture I hope. I'm hopefully not a bore to people I know in real life, but I'm also not afraid to use money to my advantage.

So I opened the change tray in my truck and in it was a $20 bill. I thought what the heck, I didn't even know I had a twenty in there and so why not. Let's give here some money like she is asking for. As other people are fond of saying, who am I to judge?

Roll down the window, whistle to get her attention and palm her the bill. She says a quiet thank you and walks back to doing her "work". I drive off and go eat some pizza. The end.

Nope. Later on in the afternoon I was lounging in a friends swimming pool and thought to myself about this whole occurrence. Giving money to beggars is rare for me. Like once every two years. I had a strong feeling inside to give her some money, so I listened to that feeling. Gotta trust those kinds of inputs into your life or things are just random and wild, driven by whims with no foundation.

But what did $20 really do for her? It didn't get a room for the night. Pre natal vitamins? I't didn't get her new clothes or shoes to make living outside or in her car more comfortable. It didn't cover a copay for a doctor visit. It didn't mean the difference between paying her mortgage or car payment? Did it? So what was it worth? Two or three meals? Food for a day? Some weed or beer? I don't know.....

I'm sure it helped with some sort of immediate need but I felt kinda sad that it did nothing for her long term. Which got me to thinking what does help people long term? And help from what? This lead to some heavy thinking and pondering. And no answers.....

Sponsorship

I get a lot of people asking me about sponsorship and shooting and how it worked for me and my experiences. If ANYONE is actually interested in this topic, leave a comment and I'll write up a thorough entry about it. Otherwise, I wont bore you.

Bueller? Bueller?

Worry

I wish I didn't worry so........ I have some things on my mind that I can't seem to shake off and let go of completely. First and foremost is getting the work done to tear down my private shooting range and get that land sold. I want that off my conscious sooo badly. All that property does now is cause me to feel anxious and worried. The exact opposite of its intended purpose. I am in the process of fixing all this, but I guess I won't feel really at peace about it until the range is completely torn down and the County no longer has an open case against me.

Secondly I think about the little things around the house I want fixed before selling it. Time and money and scheduling. Seems to be the core component to all of these things. Oh and maybe "ownership" as well. The shower and wall in the master bathroom need fixing and replacing of fixtures. The kitchen sink and fixtures need replacing. The AC unit outside needs looking at and disconnected from the PGE control program we're enrolled in. I'd like a security screen door for the front of the house. There is a soft spot on one of the balconies. The whole house needs pressure washed and cleaned.The passage door between the garage and the house needs a new lockset. And all the tore up screen doors from the cat need replacing. Man that seems like sooooo much.

Travel. Travel should be fun and magical, and it is, but you have to frontload a lot of the work. I've got Illinois already done, but still have to do Oklahoma, Spain, New Jersey and one other. And expedite my passport renewal as well.

Killer. Killer needs to get his final dental work done well. He needs to move to his new place and he needs to start college. I won't stop thinking about this until he gets the process going and successfully!

I guess this wouldn't be soo bad but for the facts that they all require 1. a metric tonne of cash to accomplish. 2. depending on someone else to actually perform the labor or actions. 3. will take months to accomplish.

Following my own dictum that "action is the best response to misfortune" only kind of works in this instance. These are really bad things that have happened to me so much as they are items that need attention or correction and if left alone will all have negative consequences. None of these things can be ignored. But let's work on them anyways!

Highest priority is getting the range done and sold. I'll sleep much better when this is done.
Next is getting my passport and travel arranged. Super D and I need to do this together soon. And budget for it.
Third should be prioritizing the house upgrades and then figuring who should do each section. I have a list, it's just picking times and people I guess to accomplish them and do it around possibly selling the house.
Fourth will be dealing with K. This one should require the least outside assistance and is also the simplest in my opinion.

Not sure if I feel better now that I've gotten this all out there, but I did. Next few steps are on me!