Hi Anthony
Ive been reading this post and IM going to try to offer you some explanation and perhaps can offer some help.
I was looking at your set. I didn't look at your level points to see where you are.
The Raptors are a great club for the pro's. There are some problems with them once you move back to the Master tee's.
Nivloc wrote a beautiful explaination about how v.e.m. works. You should search for it.
In a nutshell, lets take the starter clubs with low precision and use 5 irons from that set, your Raptures, and the Master g-10 irons that I love.
The precision of the starter set is very poor. This explanation isn't accurate, just trying to give you a rough idea how things work. With this club the ball could end up anywhere in a 20 yard circle even on a perfect hit. The starters again have the highest % of deviation possible. Do to the lowest precision possible, V.E.M. deviations will come up more often than with a more precise club. The forgiveness basically gives you more room for error on the snap.
Lets move on now to the Raptures, (the good ones.) This 20 yard circle now becomes 16 yards. You now have alittle more precision, (V.E.M. variables are reduced) occasionally you may miss-hit a shot and V.E.M. could actually give you a better shot than you deserved. Your snap now is alittle narrower. Trajectory is also better giving you better stopping power and control.
Moving on to the G-10's. The circle of deviation now reduces to around 12 yards. You have a noticeable improvement in the amount of V.E.M. deviations, distance, trajectory, and more V.E.M. results that make some bad shots better, and have a great deal better stopping power. Of course you have to deal with a faster meter and less room for error.
The longer you hold your back-swing with any club the narrower you room for error around the snap becomes.
IM by far just the avg. Tour Master. Someday I will make Legend and will have done it by alot of playing. Ive been at this for nearly 2 years. One thing I know is that with alittle thought, Ive found that I deserve most of my bad shots and can still achieve good scores by improving my short game for those days I just cant get my eyes working with the meter.
As far as meter stumble problems. Different browsers have been discussed. There are many programs that keep your computer clean and running error free (very important).
And having minimum computer stats that exceed WGT's minimum standards really make an enormous difference.
There has been a ton written about V.E.M. and its pretty much split in the community. IMHO, It helps keep the scores alittle more accurate to what pga tour pro's shoot. Not for our very best players, but for us avg. joe's.
Anthony, I hope this feeble attempt help's you understand the game alittle better.
Have fun, your game will improve as well as your enjoyment of it, if you can understand everything and accept the good with the bad. Be the leaf in the river grasshopper.