Nimitz's Journey To Shooting Greatness

[ericjhuber]

Therefore, I've kept my original appointment for 4 Dec with the top wrist/hand surgeon in Central Fl. A second opinion of what's going on won't hurt and if surgery is indeed needed I'll want him doing it anyway ...

This is a smart move. I won't go into my extensive medical history, but you're very wise to seek out a specialist like this to get a second opinion and help you and your doctor develop an effective treatment plan.

You know, you are doing things right. Keep up the solid work and it all pays off. Very smart taking a Stoeger class. I took a Manny class and I have heard that Stoegers are very top notch. We are miles ahead taking training.

Ben did a class here in Florida recently and it might have been the one Nimitz attended. I almost signed up for it, but I don't know that I would have been accepted since I was unclassified at that point. I decided to just wait a bit and learn the game a bit better so that I could get the maximum benefit once I save my pennies up for a Ben-fu class. Based on what Nimitz is posting, you get much more than you pay for with this class. It's also likely that Ben would have questioned his career choices after dealing with me so I think waiting makes good sense. That said, I've already learned an immense amount from just reading what Ben has written and put up on his YouTube channel. The stage management skills that I've learned from him was one of the contributors to me coming in at a C in production rather than a D, I think. Learning that standing reloads were death really improved my stages and scores, for example.

Central Florida is a good place to be a rookie action shooter. I've lost count of how many Jedi and Jedi masters we have at the various clubs around here. My home club (WAC) has quite a few really exceptional shooters at the Master and Grand Master level who are very generous with their time and knowledge.

Having Universal Shooting Academy in the neighborhood almost feels like we're cheating. We get access to Jedi Council quality staff there (Frank, Manny, Smitty, etc) and we're local for all of the great matches they put on there like the Monster Match, ProAM, Steel World Shoot, IPSC nationals, etc.

My first level 2 USPSA match will be the Florida State Championship at USA in January. Fortunately, one of my shooting mentors from WAC will be on my squad (Four...in case anyone is interested in shooting on an all-day Saturday squad and wants to make sure there will be at least one shooter who is much worse than they are...me) so that will help keep me calmed down a bit.

[Nimitz]

Agree 100%. 23 yrs active duty including 13 on flying status taught me the hard way how to cope with the world of medical hobby shops ...

If you're ready to take a class in mid Dec PM me

As for Ben's class you didn't have to worry about him ... He was way too busy telling me how many problems I have ...

I shot FL State last year and it was a lot of fun but I've become a little jaded, looking for lvl 2 /3 matches that have prize tables, even better if they are random draw ones like Area 6 this year .... I like the idea of at least the chance of getting something in return for my match fees after donating all my brass .....

I'll keep your squad in mind if I decide to shoot the match, thx

[Nimitz]

Ok, today was my first live fire session since cleared to shoot again. Decided to just take it easy and shoot at about 75% and see how the wrist felt. I started out with just shooting against the berm to reacquaint myself with the proper grip and pressure to get the sights tracking straight up and down and then I ran a couple of 10 yd plate racks. Next up was a drill Ben taught me which consists of 2 three yd targets set on either side of me at the 180 with myself centered on a plate rack at 10 yds. The drill is to draw to one side target with 2 shots, then 1 plate, then the other paper target. Initial par time was set at 5 secs for the first 6 reps and set to 4.5 secs for the next set. Once I get back into full swing I expect to drop this par pretty quickly as I was making the 4.5 secs without pushing too hard. I also did a few 20 yd plate racks and as long as I used the new trigger control technique Ben showed me I hit every plate. When my conscious mind took over and I reverted back misses ensued ...

Overall my wrist felt fine which is a good sign. I may even shoot our monthly 3 gun match on Saturday as I have about 70 rds of 223 left ... also just confirmed that the Seeklander class is a go at my range for mid Dec so I should be in good shape for that as well. We'll see if my CZ shows up in time to get comfortable enough to shoot it in the class and then the next day for the match. The biggest thing will be to get proficient at manually decocking the pistol at LAMR ...

[Nimitz]

So I completed my first week of live fire training after not being able to shoot for a month. While I won't say my wrist is back to 100% normal it's certainly not stopping me from shooting. We'll se what insights the new Dr has on the 4th. I started out each session with just shooting into the berm to confirm my grip was still good and decided this would be a good warm up to do before every training session since it should act as a nice subconscious reminder for the rest of the session ... Maybe most are already doing this ....?

Since that typically only takes half a mag I decided to use the rest of the mag to do a timer beep reaction drill. I'm currently averaging around .23 with a best of .18 so I've got some work to do here ....

I'm going to start my old weekly routine next week of fundamentals (stand and shoot) one day, movement the second day and speciality skills the third day with the option to repeat any drill from the first 2 days if I felt I was struggling with something.

Since incorporating Ben's trigger control fix I'm finding I can shoot accuractly at speed much easier over a wider range of situations then before. I could always shoot accuractly but not at speed because of my trigger mechanics ....

I know this is true because I set an all-time personal best for the 10 yd plate rack as a cold run at the start of yesterday's session. Also my par time for the plate rack heads drill is now sub 3 secs and for the the distance change up drill using 2 paper targets and the plate rack I'm at 4.0 secs, dropping a full sec off the par time in just 3 training sessions ...

Still a long way to go and since I'm retooling my draw a lot of those par times are being soaked up by 1.5 sec or greater draws. The important point is that now I expect my times to continue to drop since I know I can be accurate at speed

Edited November 16, 2013 by Nimitz

[Nimitz]

This morning's session went well, dropped another .4 secs off my personal best on the 10 yd plate rack (5.48 secs), even with a draw time so pathetic I'm embarrassed to post it ... however, it seems I am still shooting faster and transitioning faster which is the real goal here. Also established a new low time for the near-far-near drill I do with 2 near paper targets and 1 plate from the plate rack at 10 yds: 2.93 secs with a 1.05 sec draw and a 2.96 sec run with a .99 sec draw, all Alphas.

Using a par time on every drill is making a big difference in my ability to shoot accurately at speed. Before working with Ben I would just record the times for drill reps and then during the next session try/hope to shoot faster. Now with setting a par time on each rep I'm learning to shoot faster during a single drill since I have a par time to push against.

Looks like my grip has returned to normal since when doing my warm-up of shooting into the beam all 5 shots had the front sight tracking straight up & down with no adjustments req'd. The reaction time drill didn't yield anything new as I was stuck on .23 secs. Need to be able to get this below .2

Wed's session I'll be doing movement drills for the first time in a while so we'll see where I am ...

[Nimitz]

With only 18 days before my 3 days with Mike Seeklander I think I'm close to being where I was prIor to my month off. Actually, since putting into practice the fixes for my trigger control I think i May be slightly ahead as i continue to make gains at each session, something which had basically stopped back in Sept.

Did some basic movement into position drills focusing on shooting as early as possible when entering a position. Also did some work on moving to a set of barrels to shoot a target behind them, them while moving sideways shoot a target and then end up at another barrel to engage a target around it. I set my shooting on the move target at 10 yds even though I haven't done any shooting while moving since Ben's class. To my surprise I had over 90% alphas with no Deltas or mikes. I attribute this to my new found trigger control mechanics which allow me to shoot while moving much more accuractly.

For today's session I did a hard cover target drill at 15 yds with 4 different hard cover targets. Also did a long range drill at 29 yds and then finished with a shot calling drill. Since incorporating the berm drill into every session I am much more aware of ensuring my sights track straight up and down. This increased awareness seemed to have made it easier to call shots as I had an 80% success rate at shot calling this morning. It's a great feeling to call a shot center high because I saw the post above the notch when the shot broke and when I check the target I find 2 shots, one in the center and the other directly above it. I've decided that I will include the shot calling drill in every Fri session since this is my "speciality drills" day. If I want to master shot calling I need to include this dill as a regular part of my weekly training and not just once in a while.

I'm still hopeful I'll get my Shadow in to for the class but we'll see. I'm just making enough rds to get through each week since I don't know if my curren load will chamber in my Shadow and I don't want to have a ton of rds I can't use ...

Edited November 22, 2013 by Nimitz

[Nimitz]

well it appears I won't be getting my Shadow in time for next week's Seeklander classes which is a bummer ... . I guess it's still possible but even if it shows up I won't be able to practice enough with it to shoot it in the match on the 14th.

Monday's session went fairly well. Decided to shoot the X drill and plate rack heads drill at slightly longer distances than normal to force working on transitions at longer targets. Also did my now weekly shot calling drill. the first few reps had some surprises where I called a center hit and it was actually left so after a couple of these I paused to try and determine why I wasn't seeing things accurately. It's kind of hard to describe how I figured out what I was doing wrong but I finally started seeing where the post was at the instance the shot broke and calling the shots correctly ....as I broke a shot I would see there was no light between the post & notch on the left side and would call that left & sure enough the bullet was center left. When I would see light clearly on both sides of the post as the sights lifted I'd call a center hit & that's where the bullet was. Not sure I'd call it an epiphany quite yet but it was really the first time doing this drill where I had complete confidence after a while that when I called a shot left it was left & when I called center it was center. In the past there was a fair amount of 'guessing'. Still a long way to go, especially at speed and under match conditions but it was a great feeling to shoot the last 3-4 reps and really know where every bullet hit without looking at the target ... and be right.

I've also modified how I execute the drill slightly for efficiency but in the process I think I may have stumbled onto something which may aid my actual shot calling ability. usually this drill is done with a target positioned behind you so as soon as you fire your shots downrange you can turnaround and mark on the target where you think your hits are. What I've done instead, originally just to save time, is to simply call out where the hits are as I fire the shots. What I found out is that by verbalizing the hits I seem to be more focused on what the front sight is doing as I break the shot since I need to provide immediate input vice waiting a few secs while I holster the gun, turn around to the target & mark it. maybe its just my imagination but we'll see over the next few sessions if my shot calling continues to improve dramatically using this method or if there is some other reason for the noticeable improvement ...

[Nimitz]

Had my long awaited appointment with the top hand specialist in central Florida this morning and it turns out I actually have a different problem than first thought. I have torn cartilage in my left wrist. Apparently a regular MRI usually never reveals this and you need to do an arthigram MRI. The good news is that he said in 70% of the cases it heals on its own within about 4-6 months. For the other 30% the worst that will ever happen is that there just will be pain in the wrist. So his recommendation was to do nothing until about March. At that point if it's still painful to the point I don't want to put up with it he said he can do a simple orthoscopic procedure and repair it. He said to continue to wear the brace when shooting if it helps and also not to restart the 2 strength training exercises I did which most likely exasperated the tear. he recommended just during simple curls with a light dumbbell with the forearm resting on a table to strengthen the wrist as the other exercises put way too much pressure and strain on the joint.

He was actually very familiar with shooting Glocks and what effect that had on wrist position so he wasn't really surprised. He thought there was at least a chance that switching to the CZ would eliminate it as well so we'll see...

[Nimitz]

Finally got to shoot my first match in 2 months this weekend, our club's monthly SC match. Having not picked up or fired a single rd through my SC gun in over 60 days I didn't have high expectation for the match. In fact my plan was to just shoot nice and steady without trying to push to hard and for the most part I accomplished that. While I didn't have any 'crash & burn' stages I did have a few good and a few not so good. Certainly no where near good enough to repeat the win I had in Sept but not too terrible. My worst stage was the second one which was Pendulum which really ate my lunch. I had a lot of trouble staying smooth and indexing from target to target with the dot moving everywhere. The good news was that I was disciplined enough not to pull the trigger without a good sight picture (I am learning), but that resulted in predictably slow times. Since being able to stock up on 22lr from Black Friday I have 6,000 rds at home I can get back to a regular SC training regiment and hopefully be competitive again in Jan.

Had one final training session yesterday before Seeklander arrives tomorrow for 4 days of training. I decided to just work on transitions and reloads since with all the down time the last 2 months those skills seem to have suffered the most. I also kept the targets at longer distances to force myself to keep on the sights. My new trigger mechanics continues to show good results when I execute correctly/ whenever I get my finger back off the trigger instead of at the first joint I get my classic jerk and center left hit ... still a ways to go before its completely subconscious ... it's so annoying to have 40,000 rds doing it one way and only 5,000 the new way as I'm not a patience person by nature ...

Still no CZ. I will give them until next week (they said 'end of Nov - mid Dec') before I contact them again ... now that I have confirmed medical reason not to be shooting a Glock I would really like to move on. Maybe I can find someone who wants to loan me their CZ Shadow with SRT mod for the next month or so ...

Edited December 10, 2013 by Nimitz

[Nimitz]

well its been a busy shooting week following last week's SC match, shot my normal training session on Monday. then 3 days shooting with Mike Seeklander and our monthly USPSA club match on Saturday. although I didn't shoot anywhere near my best time for the SC match I still managed to somehow take the overall & my division. This was actually quite a surprise as I had not picked up my SC gun in 61 days preceding the match.

As is the past is was great to get to shoot with Mike again. With Ben fixing my trigger mechanics I was free to focus on movement & stage breakdown techniques with Mike which I then got to apply to the match. One of the things I need to work on is shooting as I'm entering positions for targets that are inside of 10 yds instead of always stopping & setting up. One of the match stages gave me that opportunity and the cool part was that I was able to recognize this during my walkthrough and then make a shooting plan to take advantage of it. The stage consisted of a horizontal boardwalk with doors & windows. We call it Cowboy town because it looks like and Old West façade. For the stage the center door & far right window were open and you had to stay on the boardwalk at all times. I noticed during the walkthrough that for the far right window there was a target tucked in to the extreme right and what most shooters did was to stick their body thru the window to engage that target plus the rest of the array downrange. I noticed that as you approached the window you could see & shoot that target about 3 steps prior to reaching the window without having to lean in and around the window to get it. I was actually the only one on my squad to do that. everyone else charged into the window and bent around to shoot that target. I need to keep looking for those opportunities ...

Overall I was happy with my performance since I haven't shoot a match since Sept. I finished 4th, 21 pts from 3rd and 32 pts from 2nd. And that was with 5 Mikes, 2 of which were an FTE target. Another Mike was on a drop turner I got behind on and the last 2 were individual shots on long range targets, I also took 2nd on one stage behind the M class shooter who won every stage & the division. One of my goals for 2013 was to shoot a clan match which in this case would have easily bumped me up one place in the standings. Having addressed my trigger mechanics which should eliminate my long range issues, that only leaves movers to deal with.

The only way to address that one is to start shooting movers in training so I drew up a sketch of one from that match and a friend of mine who runs a machine shop is going to make one for me.

Having shot my last match of the year the next 2 weeks will be for reviewing how I did on my 2013 goals & setting new ones for 2014.

On the 'good news' front I got an e-mail last night from FedX saying my new CZ Shadow will arrive at my FFL tomorrow! With any luck I'll be able to have a workable load by the weekend and can start live fire training with it on Mon ... with 4 weeks of intense dry fire work I should be comfortable enough with the DA first pull & decocking at LAMR t shoot it in the first match of 2014 ...

Edited December 17, 2013 by Nimitz

[Nimitz]

Ok, time for the review of my 2013 goals to see how I did. I has 3 end goals for the year:

1. meet or exceed all planned training modules & win at least one Production Div PMRPC match

Grade: B- on the first part and a D on the 2nd part

I was very good about completing all of my live fire training, only missing 2 weeks of the year. For dry fire I was somewhat less successful, going periods where I did not execute my planned 3-4 sessions every week. In retrospect, winning a Production Div club match, given the typical shooters who attend, may have been somewhat unrealistic. My best finish was 4th.

2. Move up to A class by the end of 2013: grade - F

Again this was probably a little too aggressive and I looked at this as a stretch goal only

3. Move up to B class by the end of Jul 13, our Club annual classifier match. Grade: B+

I started the year at 47% and after the classifier match I was at 58.1%. Unfortunately I was unable to shoot any more classifiers for the rest of the year and make B class.

even though I did not accomplish my major goals for 2013 I still had a very good year considering this was only my 2nd full year of shooting & competing. I've learned a lot which should help me with my 2014 goals and accomplish a solid year of improvements.

So, with that here are my major goals for 2014:

1. make B class prior to the Jul club classifier match. This should be easily attainable as I only need to shoot my next classifier at 60.0% or higher to make it.

2. I will meet or exceed all my live fire and dry fire training modules for the year. This should be attainable, particularly with a renewed focus on dry fire.

3. Make A class by the end of the year. I will consider this a stretch goal but still attainable if I work hard throughout the year.

Minor goals:

1. At least one stage win at a level 1 match

2. One class win at a level 1 match

As for performance goals they will be the same as in 2013:

shoot 90% or higher of available pts at matches

zero penalties at matches (in particular no mikes)

shoot 90% Alphas at matches

With these goals in mind and the switch to the CZ Shadow I'm looking forward to another great shooting year ...

(... BTW, I pick up my new Shadow in about an hour ... let the games begin ...)

[Kali]

I'd like to offer some advice if you will hear it. Having a range log and taking classes and stuff can be beneficial, but it can also be a detriment. I have a friend who is VERY analytical. A competent shooter, Master in IDPA and I think A in Production. He likes to think about everything. How much pressure is in his grip, how much weight distribution in his stance, technical aspects of his draw, who he's competing against, on and on and on. One day we were practicing and he was having a problem with some distance steel about 30 yards out. I could see the gears turning while he was shooting, probably thinking for technical solutions to a non-technical problem. He went though an entire magazine before asking me what he was doing wrong. I told him, "you already know how to shoot, so just shoot the damn plate." He loaded up and hit it on his first shot. Moral of the story, (and I've been here myself) sometimes we think so much about what we want to become and how we want to get there, that we don't focus on what we are doing at the moment we are doing it. To use an analogy, rushing through the forest to get to the other side and not realizing all the things you missed along the way. Its good to plan and have goals, but at some point you have to let all that crap go, trust yourself and just shoot the damn targets without any hope or expectation. In short, focus less on planning and more on the "doing" and what it takes to get into that state of mind (which is totally opposite of the planning state of mind). Don't think, feel.

Also, it may help to focus on non-numeric goals, instead focus on feelings or emotions. Like what did you feel when you performed in a positive way. Were you relaxed, in control, confident, etc? We all know what those means by definition, but to be aware of the feelings as they are happening is empowering. Then make it a goal to try to feel that way again at the next match. These types of keys are more likely to trigger the positive emotional response that is required to get into your zone. Skill is only half the answer. Every time you compete, one of your goals should be to maximize the skill you currently have at that moment. Allow yourself to deliver your peak performance. You may get beat by others, but at least won't beat yourself. The most unsatisfying feeling for me is loosing a match that I know I could have won had I allowed myself to just shoot. I'm fine with someone beating me when I'm shooting my best, because its an honest assessment of where I am.

Edited December 18, 2013 by Kali

[Nimitz]

Kali: I appreciate your thoughts am always open to hear others opinions. One thing I will say is that I am a lot less analytical than I appear ... Given my background it's hard not to look at problems analytically, espicaly complex ones. While it's certainly true during my first year and through most of this year I may have been over analysising things, after working with Ben Stoeger I've changed my training approach because He showed me that the main reason I'm not improving faster is that I've been training incorrectly. That being said, I'm still a firm believer that setting goals are important in order to focus correctly and as a validation that I am improving.

When I first started I would record everything during training and now the only numerical things I record are when I achieve a personal best and the par time I started on and ended on. One of the things Ben taught me was that is was critically important to set a par time for every drill to continue to push yourself to get faster. I used to just record the faster time and then hope I would shoot faster next time, which simply doesn't work. Since using this method I've seen rapid improvement on drills.

What I do spend time writing dwn on a drill now is qualitative things like "having trouble getting a consistent grip", or "jerking the trigger", etc so I focus on problems I'm having and what I should be working on in dry fire to fix them. In the past I didn't connect my dry and live fire sessions and so problems that would appear in live fire would continue since I never tried to fix them in dry fire. That has started to change. For instance, prior to working with Ben al my shots on a target were either center A or center left C which I attributed to grip issues but that wasn't the problem. Now during a drill if I see shots going center left I. Immediately stop and refocus on my trigger mechanics since that's the problem. I do a lot of alanysis during training, just not with numbers per say ...

As Ben told me when we first met, Given the resources and time i'm dedicating to training there is no reason for me to be 58% shooter. I have dedicated 2014 to proving him right ....

Edited December 19, 2013 by Nimitz

[Nimitz]

Got my Shadow today! Hopefully by this weekend I'll have come up with a working load so I can start live fire with it on Mon. I plan to clean my G34 for the last time and then it goes up for sale ...

I can't believe how comfortable the gun feels in my hand compared to the Glock ...

Edited December 20, 2013 by Nimitz

[Nimitz]

Got a nice surprise this weekend when I went to work up a new load. Dropped a few of my current rds into my new Shadow barrel and they fit without issue. They easily rotated without contacting the rifling and feel out when I turned he barrel over so it looks like I may be good to go. I also got a box of 147g bullets from Extreme and have decided to redo the 147 vs 124 test to see if I can notice any real difference in recoil. I'll need to be making my annual bullet buy in Feb so now's the time to see if I want to change bullets.

So tomorrow I'll just be bringing my chrono to the range and check my 124 and 147 loads to get them both to the same PF and make sure the rds really work in my gun. Once I have them both at the same PF I'll then load up a couple hundred of each and then load them up randomly in some mags and shoot them to see if I can tell any difference.

Once I select which bullet I'll then spend a little time checking and tweaking the load for accuracy and I should be good to go for the year.

I've also been looking at tweaking my equipment as well. First up was my mag pouches: had to add some rubber washers but got my CR Speed mags to work just fine. I've decided to try angling the mag pouches back at a 45 deg angle to make it easier to grab the mags. My initial reps seems to work out so I'll be interested to see what happens during some dry fire sessions.

The other thing was my holster. When I ordered the Black Ice holster I decided to get the dropped and offset version which I've never used. Unfortunately when I tried it I found that my thumb kept hitting the offset plate before the rest of my hand made it around the beaver tail making for a very awkward draw stroke. I removed the offset plate and it felt smooth and clean like before so I think the DOH plate will be heading to the classified section.

Lastly is the finalization of my training plan for 2014. Ben sent me a copy of his new book Skills and Drills for the Practical Pistol Shooter and it didn't take many pages of reading for me to realize this is what I've been looking for. I've already ndertaken his dry fire program and now I have a complimentary live fire program. His program is broken out into Fundamental Marksmenship Skills (for practical shooting), Core USPSA Skills, Field Course Skills, Shot Course Skills and how to design your own training program.

My plan will be as follows: Jan-Mar I'll be alternating training sessions between Marksmenship and Core USPSA skills with the occasional field course session thrown in. April I!'ll be focusing more on field course drills as I prep for Area 6. From May - Mid Jul I'll be focusing on core skills as I prep for our club's annual classifier match in Jul. From Aug - Oct I'll be prepping for shooting the Production Nationals in Oct. Nov-Dec will be for reflection and review of the year.

Edited December 23, 2013 by Nimitz

[RaylanGivens]

I got my CZ about a week ago and have been shooting 160gr RN bullets at 1.155 OAL (originally loaded for my Glock 34) in it. They work fine, but I am developing a 135gr RN load to use long term.

Curious to see how your 124 vs 147 test turns out...

[Nimitz]

My initial chrono results for Mon showed that my 147 loads were at 131.2 PF and my 124 loads were at 128.7 so it's probably close enough although I may just load the powder charges by hand for the rds I plan to test to ensure they are as close to the same as possible -- we'll see. In either case it looks like I'm ready to load some of each and see what I can tell. I'm pretty sure I will see a difference since in the 147s I shot yesterday I did notice the 147 was a little less snappy or smoother than the 124s and the front sight did not rise out of the notch as much.

I also played around with a SC load since I have a bunch of 124 plated HPs I don't plan to use for USPSA. Those chronoed at 121 and I could definitely feel the difference, quite soft. I might take it down another .1 or .2 and see where that ends up ...

Friday I plan to take a friend to the range who is interested in my G34 so I may do the 124 vs 147 test then. The last thing I need to decide is RN vs FP and what the difference between the shapes really means.

[Nimitz]

Yesterday's range session went well. My buddy decided to buy my G34 and since he's not a competition shooter I returned the gun back to mostly stock. That means I have some Glock competition stuff for sale ... Already sold the 6 factory mags but the Glockworx custom deluxe drop in trigger, skeltonized striker and competition spring grab bag are all still available in the Classified sub forum ...

Also, it looks like I'll be switching to 147g bullets when I put in my yearly bullet order next month. I could actually tell the difference when I did the random blind test. I confirmed this by firing some rds under a chrono and predicting before the speed registered if the rds were in the 800 fps or 1000 fps range ....

I also managed to complete a nice 115 PF Steel Challenge load as well since starting next month I'll be shooting in both the rimfire open and Production divs for SC matches.

Mon will be the start of my new 2014 training program. What I've done is select one fundamental marksmanship drill and 2 USPSA core skill drills from Ben's book for each live fire session. I plan todo this for one month. This will enable me to shoot all the fundamental marksmen ship drills through the month and the first set of core skill drills. At that point I'll assess where I am and make adjustments by either changing to the next set of core skill drills or just repeating the ones I did if I'm still not getting it. I will continue this approach for the first few months of 2014 and see where I am, hopfully adding the field course drills before to long. I'll also be throwing in the occasional field course work just to change things up and not get too stale ....

Edited December 28, 2013 by Nimitz

[Nimitz]

Well if my first training session for the new year is any indication, it's going to be a fun year ... for the first time in a long while I really had a lot of fun while training. I'm sure some of it can be attributed to shooting the new gun but most of it was simply because I was shooting really well. First up was 25 yd grp shooing where I managed a best of 3"x 4" group with 1 C center low. Were it not for that 1 c the grp would have been inside 3"x3". Next was the 2@25 drill which is to shoot 2 As from the draw at 25 yds in 2secs. As Ben says, to do this with any consistency is GM shooting for sure. He recommends starting at 15 yds & working up which is what I did. although on my 3rd rep I did manage a 1.97 with a 1.47 draw, for the 9 reps I did make 2 As my time was between a high of 2.8 & and a low of 2.07 with most around 2.3. I had about 6-7 reps with 1 A & 1 C so I didn't record those times. For the entire drill I had only 1 D so from approx. 30 rds I had about 24 As 5Cs & 1 D. The last drill of the session was called Doubles where you simply draw & shoot 2 As at different distances, starting with 3yds & then moving to 5, 7, 10, 15 20 & 25 with goal times at each distance. My best at 3yds was 1.15 with a .91 draw & .24 split. 5 yds was a 1.48 with 1.26 draw n& .22 split and I finished with 10 yds with a 1.65 with 1.39 draw & .26 split. Still got plenty of room to get to his goal times but I had not really been close to those times in the past so it appears things are starting to click.

Since I as shooting well I decided to see what I could do for a 10 yd plate rack run with my best being 5.87. First run was a 4.8 and that was with a 1.88 sec DA 1st shot from the draw. Actually had to look at the time a second time to make sure I was reading it right ... now I realize this still isn't exactly a blistering run but in the past my times have been so slow I was embarrassed to mention them. At least now I don't mind posting them .... I then decided to move to the 15yd line & see what I could do. First run, with a make-up shot on the 2nd plate was 7.05. I don't think I ever remember anything lower than around 9.5 secs at this distance & usually I would not even time myself, just being happy to clear the rack 1 for 1, well, not any more. As I mentioned earlier, from now on every rep has a timer or usually a PAR time associated with it so I'm constantly pushing the speed.

One down note, I talked with the folks doing the C-more & grips on my rimfire open gun and it looks like It will not be ready in time for my monthly SC match this Saturday ...bummer

[Nimitz]

Headed to the range today admist some light rain, almost reminded me of Area 6 last year ... today was 25 yd Bill Drills, the Dot drill & the Blake drill

In 7 reps I had only 1 D & no Ms. 25 As & 16 Cs. First 4 reps were 4 As/2 Cs with times from 4.69 to 5.62 secs and draws around 1.8 & splits in the .6 sec range. With the exception of 1 run where I had 5 Cs & 1 A my runs were pretty consistent, that run was also my fastest at 4.43 but I needed to back off just a bit. A lot of my Cs were ctr high & ctr low which is a timing issue. My par time for this drill was 5 secs. One thing Ben talks about is that for most people their Bill Drill time is roughly double their draw which is a useful way to analyze what's going on. For me, my draws were only in the 40% range of the total time which means my splits were slower than they should be. I'll have to focus on that next time ...

The Dot drill was inconsistent with some dots easily having all 6 inside the circle within 5 secs & some having only 2 or 3 inside. This is a tough drill & I need to keep at it.

Lastly was the Blake drill which I ran at 3/5/7 yds. My best time at 3 yds was 2.47, 2.57 for 5 yds & 2.75 at 7 yds. Lots of room for improvement here as well to get to the goal times - mostly my draw is currently the biggest time sink. Also my transitions were roughly double my splits which means I'm hesitating too much as I index the next target before pulling the trigger. No reason my transitions and splits can't be roughly the same. Also need to work on really snapping my head/eyes to the next target ahead of the gun ...I think that's my biggest technique issue with lowering my transitions on target arrays ...

I did end on a high note as I went to the plate rack for 1 run and shot another personal best of 4.58 secs with a 1.72 sec draw. Given what I'm seeing I expect to be under 4 secs before to long ...

Friday I'm going to shoot my first Steel Challenge practice session in 9mm. Since I can't shoot my open rimfire gun for Sat's match I think I'll attend the USPSA group practice session that our MD holds on the 1st Sat of every month instead ...that will makeup for not shooting my normal training session on Fri

Edited January 1, 2014 by Nimitz

[Ben Stoeger]

I did end on a high note as I went to the plate rack for 1 run and shot another personal best of 4.58 secs with a 1.72 sec draw. Given what I'm seeing I expect to be under 4 secs before to long ...

This is a huge improvement from the 9 second runs you were laying down in October.

[Nimitz]

Thx, man! Most of it is due to how you taught me to train differently then I was & a consistent dry fire program. I definitely know I'm shooting better even without looking at times ... during the Bill Drills & Blake Drills I was calling shots fairly well, I'd do a rep and say to myself "that one was high & that one was right" and when I went to score the target that's exactly were they were ... it's really a confidence booster to know where your bullets are actually going. I'm still having a little difficulty taking the makeup shot for some reason after I call a bad shot, particularly in a match. Not sure what is going on there but I need to figure that out or shot calling ain't gonna do me any good ...

Signed up for Area 6 yesterday and am on Squad 2 which currently has 3 production GMs including Frank Garcia. Don't know if they will all stay there but we'll see. Frank has already paid his match fees so if he was going to move I figure he would have already done it. Squad 1 has Manny Bragg & Dave Sevigny so if they stay put I should get to see them shoot some as well. Too bad it moved from St Augustine to GA since. that is only 2 hrs from my house but it should only be about a 7-8 hr drive

[theKenny]

Nimitz,

Was it the Indian, The Arrow or The MFCEO?

I'm going to have to head up to Malabar Next Saturday and see this for myself!

Congrats.

[Nimitz]

Ok, I'll show my ignorance ... what exactly is the MFCEO? And it's definitely the Indian. It's ok to have nice arrows but in the end that's not enough. Things are just starting to click and fall into place. maybe at some point my rapid gains will start to slow down but for right now I'm just continuing to push as hard as I can ...

[theKenny]

MFCEO is Ben.

Don't you remember the hat he was wearing?

Sounds like you have a plan, you're sticking to it and it's paying off. That's great.