Jump to content
Brian Enos's Forums... Maku mozo!

Scott's Road to USPSA Success


SCTaylor

Recommended Posts

Maybe it is the new drills or excitement about the Gator next weekend, but things are coming together!  Ran the first 7 drills in Anderson's Refinement & Repetition over the last few days with great success.  Guess I'm faster than I gave myself credit for, been hitting the "suggested" par times on demand!  It would be great to work on movement over the next week but will hold off introducing new techniques until November.

Goals for next week:

Dry Fire:

M-W - 30 minutes a day - Run first 12 drills for 2 minutes each (speed mode), 2 minutes dry firing the El Prez array (match mode), 2 minutes firing array while moving (L, R, F, B ) (match mode) and "Call it and Leave it" for 2 minutes (match mode).

Th & F - 15 minutes a day - Drill draws, turn & draw, reloads, and 6R6 - Other 15 minutes, load some ammo

Live Fire

M & W - Indoor range for groups & confirm both eyes open sight alignment 5-15 yards. 100-150 round sessions

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 137
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

4 Days until Gator. Match stages have been posted, seems pretty straight forward - http://www.lagator.org/LAGC.html  Almost bummed there are no table, unloaded or goofy starts. Call me weird; I like a red M&M's but want a green one now & then!

 

Burned down about 35 minutes of dry fire this morning, feeling good! Really happy about the 7/10ths increase on El Prez and all it took was mentally letting go, allowing myself to just blaze a couple reps to see how fast I could do it. No, not all of the shots were on target but I felt the speed - big breakthrough.  I was previously at 4.9 in speed mode and 5.1 in match, got down to 4.2 in speed and 4.4 in match.

Here is a video of this drills this morning:

 

 

Edited by SCTaylor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 minutes ago, SCTaylor said:

4 Days until Gator. Match stages have been posted, seems pretty straight forward - http://www.lagator.org/LAGC.html  Almost bummed there are no table, unloaded or goofy starts. Call me weird; I like a red M&M's but want a green one now & then!

I'm bummed that all of the stages are long.  The shortest one is 26 rounds.   I wish there were more short courses thrown in.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah they are all long, missed that at first. Hopefully the match is well run, the stages are challenging and not hoser-ish. Either way I'll have fun and evaluate if it makes the calendar for next year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

30 Minutes a day, day #2 in the books. Took more video this morning with a new camera, Ion Air Pro 3 which has much wider field of view. Seems to be some glitching in the video but that's not overly important. The important part is diagnosing issues that can't be seen while training alone!

 

Training focus for the next 3 days

- Focus/Watch/See the magwell when reloading - 100% smooth insertion while focused

- Call my shots - shoot my speed

- Grip hard enough to squash the steel - in theory that is

 

Heading to the indoor range today to verify zero and shoot groups.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well my second major is in the books! 37 of 52 in Production. The match was run well, staff was awesome, met some new people and shot with some old friends. Looking forward to going back next year.

 

Evaluating the match, I didn't hit my placement goal, however, met several of my other goals.

 

Stage 1 - No Video - 25 A - 1 B - 6 C - Ran the paper well but let the plate rack eat me up; went 4 for 4 then dumped 6 more shots for the last 2 steel. Started thinking and not watching my sights. Stage Finish 36

Stage 2 - First Clip - 24 A - 2 C - Overall good stage, 1 for 1 on steel, watched sights and called shots. Stage Finish 31

Stage 3 - Second Clip - 21 A - 3 C - Another good stage - Overall called shots well - Smoked the swinger, a previous nemesis, and good movement. Stage Finish 21

Stage 4 - Third Clip - 25 A - 7 C - Yet Another good stage - Called shots, good reloads, decent movement - Stage Finish 23

Stage 5 - Fourth Clip - 22 A - 2 B - 4 C - 1 M - No such a good stage - Positives abound though, called most shots, 1 for 1 on steel. Lesson learned - CZ75 mags DO NOT work in a large frame Stock 2, at all.  In the 2nd position the CZ mag stayed for 1 shot then dropped.  This was the first stage Saturday morning, 42*, that is damn cold to a South Texas boy. Stage Finish 40

Stage 6 - No Video - 26 A - 3 C - 3 Mike & 1 FTE - Great stage until the last array - CZ Mag strikes again! I knocked out an extra mag on my belt during a reload then before grabbing the last mag - CZ - at the last array, I was out of bullets, took 3 mikes and 1 FTE. Got back to the cart to clean & reload when I noticed the little bugger. Stage Finish 51

Stage 7 - Fifth Clip - 23 A - 8 C - 1 Mike - Good stage, called my shots - mostly. Probably could have ran the stage a little more efficient, however, I executed my plan well. Stage Finish 26

Stage 8 - Sixth Clip - 11 A - 1 B - 10 C - 2 D - 2 M - Decent stage but pushed for speed over accuracy. Stage Finish 47

Stage 9 - Seventh Clip - 22 A - 1 B - 8 C - 1 M - Another good stage - Good movement, good reloads, executed the plan. I didn't call the Mike, rushed to move too quickly. BEST Stage Finish 17 

Stage 10 - No Video - 29 A - 1 C - 1 D - Stage felt good, called my shots, good reloads. Not sure other than time how I lacked behind the others. Stage Finish 35

 

I am very happy with my performance. Right off hand the two critical items to work on are moving faster and shooting sooner. I think my splits are good right now, it is the "non-shooting" time that is the droopy fruit. I'll take some more time to review the video and refine my practice goals.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I took last week off from dry fire to load ammo and spend a little more family time before work. Got back on track today.

As I noted above and others mentioned in the Video Techniques section, the predominate non-shooting items to work during practice are a - movement, b - sooner first shots, and c - reloading on the move.  This morning focused on:

Draw to first shot - 5 yards - got to about 1 second draw to first shot. It feels like I am acquiring an acceptable sight picture but live fire will prove that.

Draw fire 2 - move 6' around vision barrier - fire 2 | 4 yards - Didn't run for time, worked on sooner first shot and footwork to second position. It is a bit of a challenge to move quickly while getting the footwork correct. Felt good, worked in accuracy mode.

Call it & Leave it - 8 yards simulated - Wow, this is tough! Just realizing I was putting 2 shots on target instead of 1. Again in accuracy mode, working achieving acceptable sight picture, calling my shot, and moving sooner.

 

Last match of the season is November 12, the Area 59 / CK Arms Championship, 10 stages in one day.  The club does a very good job with challenging stages, I am looking forward to this one! After that, it's time to load ammo for 2017, tweak my gear, and rest up.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

So I slacked a little on dry fire leading up to last weekends match, shame on me. However, I finished in 8th place out of 32 shooters and for that I'm very happy! Overall  aggressiveness has improved on position entry, quicker first shots on arrival, and generally moving with a purpose.  Still some low fruit is reloading on the move and calling shots,  both of which are easy enough to work at home.

One thing I cannot figure out, is how the match winner is 50 seconds ahead of me. A few circus props could have a 10-15 second impact but still. Time to book a class with a GM for this spring.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Working on some dry fire and live fire although this is my "off" season, here in the South we can shoot year round.

Spent 15 minutes after lunch on the Hopkins transition drill from low ready. Beating par times for drill 1 & 2 and right on for drills 3 & 4. I have the pins setup in my office so it's easy to knock out 10-15 minutes of this drill. I need to find a second holster and single mag pouch to keep at the office.

 

Put some Speed Shooters scales on the Tanfo last night, not sure how I like them yet.  The profile is about perfect for my hands but still not giving  much bite to the heal of my left palm. Maybe I need to grip harder thereby pushing my left palm into the grip? Dunno, gotta keep experimenting.  With the new grips on, did 10 minutes of draw to site picture. I have to say my issue of searching for the front sight is pretty much gone.  The stock grips were just a tad too large which gave me fits on hitting a repeatable grip and index.  Also did 10 minutes of Burkett reloads while moving foward, back, left and right.  When I move there is a tendency to drop the gun lower & bring it in closer that throws off reloading.  I'm concentrating on keeping the gun on the same x/y/z axis (as allowed by the 180) when moving to keep consistency of movement.

 

Planned live fire practice this coming Saturday. Goals are: Set benchmarks on Blake and El Prez, Work on Moving Sooner / Shooting Sooner.  

The drills I've picked thus far are: Stoeger Dots, Blake Drill, El Prez, Bill Drill @ 7yrd & 25yd Call it & Leave It, Easy Entry & Exit, Stoeger Dots.  If you have any input or suggestions, I'm all ears.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I'm not sure how the live fire training will go this weekend. Last night went out for a nice 3 mile run and re-aggravated a calf injury.  Felt it tighten and then a crackle pop, can't fully roll heal to toe without major discomfort. Odd part is I can still move laterally pretty well. With that, physical training will focus on weights and low/no impact cardio until the new year.

 

Spent some time looking at major match schedules for next year. My goal is to attend four, for sure I'm going to Double Tap in Wichita Falls (June)  Area 4 (September) in Tulsa and Gator in Bossier (October). Still waiting to see when Production Nationals will be held this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Putzing about with Shot Coach and some side-by-side video this morning was interesting.  Below is a comparison of myself with an "A" class shooter at the Gator Classic, revealing much of what I already knew, movement is a big time waster for me right now. Was interesting to see our times were comparative; my lost time was coming back for a make-up shot (2 seconds), flubbing a reload (.75 seconds), and a make up shot nearly 1.4 second later which added to the overall time.

 

Video quality is crap, not sure what happened there.

 

 

Edited by SCTaylor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

Well off-season is over, winter is seemingly gone in southeast Texas as it was 70* on New Year’s Day, and it is time to get back to work.

Got out a little early on the 30th for a little live fire practice before the first heat wave of 2017.  The results were a little disappointing at first but I had not shot a gun in 6 weeks nor had I done any dry fire. So, all in all it was a successful day.

 

Started out with some accuracy then went to speed, everything at 7 yards.

1.     Stoeger’s Dot Drill – not a clean dot but did find the cadence to shoot within the 5 second time limit.

2.     Bill Drills – Avg. 2.45 seconds dropped 2 C’s out of 6 reps. Draws are slow at 1.36 average.

3.     Blake Drill – Avg. 3.11 seconds. Draws are slow at 1.4, transitions at .5 but splits running .22.

4.     4 Aces – Avg. 3.65 seconds.  Again, draws at 1.42 but reloads were brutal at 1.81 average.

5.     El Prez – Avg. 6.65 seconds. Slower draw to 1.58 and reloads at 1.78, transitions at .53. Average hit factor of 6.42 which nets a 62% classifier from ClassifierCalc.com, putting me into B class which feels right.

 

I’m very happy with accuracy and splits, and overall time.  I am focusing in dry fire on draw and reload speed; with that I can drop .5 – 1 second off my times in a hurry.

 

Dry fire started again on Sunday morning and again yesterday, missed this morning due to a bit of laziness and my son waking up at 4am. 

Spent Sunday and Monday morning working on gun handling skills with Anderson’s 30-Minutes a Day drill set from Refinement & Repetition.  Driving the par times down on draws & reloads is my focus right now, along with cleaning up the basics of gun handling.

As of now Burkett reloads are sitting at .8 and draws to 5 yards at .7 and simulated 10 yards at .9. One big portion I’ve added now is using Pro Grip during dry fire to simulate matches. It really does make a difference in how easily one can adjust the grip during draws and reloads.

I’m ready for this year, have my training plan in place, and will be high B if no A by the end of 2017.

 

Other big plus, I’ve found a club less than an hour from home with proper bays, props, target stand etc. that I will be joining soon in order to live fire more often!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Dry fire, dry fire, dry fire! Pushing Burkett reloads down to .6, El Prez in 4.4 and draws to .7 @ 5 yards. Making my goal of 3 days a week easily, got in 5 days of dryfire last week and already 2 in the books this week.

Using Anderson's 30 minutes a day along with documenting in the daily log is addicting! Looking forward to the match this weekend, weather reports of 80* with a slight chance of rain. Not to mention the classifier match on 1/29, finally get my initial classification after 8 months!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've shot in about 7 matches now. However, my local club does not put a classifier stage up at their monthlies. There are a few clubs around that do have monthly classifier stages, but the level of competition is much lower. If it were not for this special classifier match, I would be shooting at other clubs this year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, SCTaylor said:

I should, based on my live fire and dry fire times. Last weekend I shot El Prez with an average HF of 6.42 and hitting 4.5 seconds in dry fire yesterday. But I won't know until the end of the month.

Yeah.  I can pretty consistently shoot A class HF's for El Prez in practice, once warmed up.  Then I shot it in a match, on a cold day, for the first run of the day:  49%.  I stunk up the joint on that one.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Shot my first match of 2017 last weekend, overall went okay. I'm not happy with my performance but shooting a new gun for the first time will do that.  Yeah I switched again, bought a Sig P320 RX to shoot carry optics, always had an interest in red dots, however, that it is scratched.

1st of 4 in Carry Optics over septuagenarians and retards. 21st of 67 overall, stats show I would have placed 3rd of 20 in production. Pretty damn happy as I beat a lot of B & C class shooters across the divisions.

Movement into and out of position was better, made progress with shooting on the move as well.  You'll notice a few instances of fishing for that stupid dot which cost me a good bit of time.  Stage planning was overall pretty good though interesting to see how I gave up ~5 seconds on stage 2 by choosing a super conservative strategy.

 

I'm back on the Stock 2 to rock out Production division.  Time to keep on dry firing, focusing on fundamentals about 1/3 of my practice time and finish the sessions with match mode.

 

 

 

 

Edited by SCTaylor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Been dry firing like a mad man, averaging 5 days per week or about 2-1/2 hours.  Hands are beaten up, fingers sore, and elbows a bit achy. But hot damn it's been worth it!  Working on a modified El Prez or Blake Drill, 3 targets @ 7 yards setup El Prez style, facing the targets - draw - engage each target with 2 rounds, reload & repeat.  I was able to hit 4 seconds with a 40% success* rate last night. After running that drill went to full El Prez, running 60% success* at 4.2 seconds. **Defining success as calling shots, visualizing sights in the A zone with enough clarity to hit an A.

 

I've given myself the goal to make A class by the close of 2017, but with the constant hard work in dry fire & live fire that may be a little less than I need to strive for. So what that said, my goal is to make Master by February 1, 2018. It's gonna happen!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As a new shooter to pistols and action shooting (first contest was in August), I find in myself a lot of the same areas as you where I can use the most improvement.  Due to the winter, half the ranges in my area are closed and with limited daylight hours combined with work and family, almost all of my practice over the last 1.5 months has been dry fire.  I am making a sincere effort to not "cheat" on dry fire, but I haven't been able to verify that I am being "honest" on my dry fire drills.  Are the times you listed in dry fire or live fire?  How much difference do you see in dry vs. live fire? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I only get about 1 live fire session and one match per month due to time constraints. I'm finding that live fire was about 1 second slower than dry fire at my last practice, but I had not touched a gun in 6 weeks prior to that one. As of right now, I can't answer that question with much accuracy.

 

The times I'm posting here are dry fire, unless otherwise noted. The next live fire session will be mid February, it'll be much better to correlate the numbers after that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For a little more global training and historical record, I've started a blog https://sctaylor869.wixsite.com/mysite .  This is mainly for me to pontificate on live and dry training, mental management, equipment issues, and general ideas.  I'll still keep this going for the technical aspect but will be updating the blog as well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now



×
×
  • Create New...