2021 has been… wow. Quite a year. The pandemic let up briefly for a couple months in the summer with the vaccines being nearly 100% effective, and then it was back to living with Delta (and now, Omicron, I guess). But I still accomplished a lot this year, so I feel good looking back – and forward.

I took 8 classes this year. I enjoyed all of them:

• Green Ops Practical Red Dot Pistol Skills
• TOC Vehicle Ambush Tactics – Pistol
• SpartanCore Charon (Vehicle-Borne Tactics)
• Sentinel Concepts Practical Shotgun
• Green Ops Defensive Kalashnikov
• TOC Active Threat Response
• Green Ops Defensive Carbine II
• Green Ops Introduction to Shotgun

All together, that was about 50 hours of classes. Less than in previous years, but I was deliberately more choosy about classes this year (and will be next year as well). Learning new things is good, and I’m going to continue doing that, but my performance really needs to be increased via dry-fire and live-fire practice.

I shot 8 matches of varying sorts in 2021, at least according to Practiscore. The first half of the year was kind of dead for me – classes intersecting Sunday match dates – but things ramped up fast in the second half. I am trying to do more matches in 2021, especially now that NRA range is doing them on Tuesdays again.

I also listed off a number of goals last year:

Goal #1: spend the time getting better/faster at 100-300 yards unsupported with a carbine. Maybe somewhat. I find myself getting bit on weird positional shooting more these days.

Goal #2: increase the blog’s visibility. Total 2021 traffic is up over 2020, so that’s a win. More reviews incoming!

Goal #3: Make the switch to Sig P320s for competition. Done. I’m using the Sig P320 X5 Legion exclusively for Carry Optics, and have matching setups for Production. I also switched over to MPXs for PCC.

Goal #4: Clear dot torture at least once. Didn’t get to it. Maybe 2022?

Goal #5: Dry-fire more. Yes, sort of. Still using that SIRT pistol, but I’m picking it up more every day.

Goal #6: Be able to reload all of my competition and class 223. Absolutely accomplished. Got the case prep toolhead set up, and have a Primer Xpress. I can load until my supplies give out. In fact, I’m not far off from being able to do this with 300AAC, too.

Didn’t do bad on the goals! I also got my Stop the Bleed certification, which was a big deal for me.

2022 training planning is already starting. My goal is to take less classes and shoot more matches, as well as being a bit more of a steady participant at the Thursday night action shooting practices in the summer.

Just because it’s fun to reflect, I’m also going to go over firearms purchases and sales in 2021:

SOLD: two Glock 34s. These weren’t bad guns, but once I had my P320s, I didn’t really see much use for them anymore.

BOUGHT: two Sig MPXs. My lefty son was having a lot of trouble operating the safeties on my Glock PCC, so I bought a pair of new MPXs – a new gen3 and a used gen2. Both of them got upgraded to the latest and greatest, and I must say… they are smoking PCCs. Another season with them and I suspect my Glock PCC will be getting sold (or perhaps disassembled and sold as parts).

BOUGHT: backup Ruger 10/22. This was a consignment find, and it was in slightly rough shape. Replacing the sights, stock, and trigger brought it to competition readiness. Just need an optic with low QD mount.

BOUGHT: Ruger MkIII 22/45. This was another cheap consignment find ($225!). Worked fine out of the box, but turned into a fantastic shooter after I replaced the sights and internals with VQ parts.

BOUGHT: SDS S4 shotgun. I wanted a Benelli M4, but didn’t want to spend Benelli M4 money. I spent $400, and got like 95% of a Benelli M4. That’s not so bad in my book. A couple upgrades (extractor/spring and stock) and it’s a pretty rocking shotgun.

BOUGHT: S&W 625JM. IDPA revolver. I load a lot of 45 (for better or worse), so it did make sense.

BOUGHT: S&W M&P R8. This will become my Steel Challenge optics revolver. I have the equipment (and brass) to load a bunch of 38 Special and 357 Magnum if I choose to.

BOUGHT: Ruger Super GP100 9mm with competition mods. Stumbled into a sale on this. It’s not on the MD roster, so I will not be taking possession until 2022. The 9mm version was apparently made in ultra low numbers, so it’ll most likely be a collectable in a few years unless that changes. Going to use this as a USPSA revolver. We will see if I land on using 9mm vs 38/357/38SC in the long run…

BOUGHT: SAR USA K2. These are neat little CZ-97 clone-alikes that take P14-45 magazines, so they have a stupidly high capacity for a 45 (14rds, or 16rds with the Galloway plates). Will be using this as my heavy metal optics 3gun pistol for those rare matches where heavy metal is a thing, and for classes and practices where I want to slow my burn rate of 9mm (which is getting insane now that my son is shooting PCC).

BOUGHT: S&W 929. It was a good price.

Now, what are my goals?

Goal #1: get my competition rifles 100%. I feel like I am constantly getting burned by problems with my competition rifles, and it’s time to put that to bed.

Goal #2: shoot at least 12 matches. Should be easily attainable if I cut back on classes. Will be even easier now that my son has enough skills to shoot outlaw steel and even (maybe) IDPA PCC.

Goal #3: shoot a clean bill drill under 2.5 seconds. I’ve been living in denial about my recoil management due to the amount of steel shooting I do, and it’s time to tackle that problem head on.

Goal #4: Clear dot torture at least once. Should have done this last year. It’s still on the list.

Goal #5: Dry-fire every day in a structured fashion. Maybe it’s time to really use that Steve Anderson book.

Goal #6: Shoot revolver in a match at least once. I bought a few revolvers at the end of the year, mostly because it’s a novelty I’ve never played with. I’d like to shoot at least one match with one, be it USPSA, Steel Challenge, or IDPA.