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Alaskan454's Range Diary


Alaskan454

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Shot an IDPA match last Saturday and managed third overall with my revolver.  That's a personal best for me and I was very pleased with the outcome.  After reviewing the video I still made a few preventable mistakes and they sure add up quickly.  I had a bad sight picture on four targets that cost me 6 points down (now a full second each under the new rules) and between a slightly fumbled reload and short stroking my gun I probably could have saved another 4 seconds of clock time.  It was pretty cold so my finger wasn't resetting the trigger as fast I thought.  If I keep practicing and cut down on preventable errors I might eventually get HOA with a revolver.  Here's some video:

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Just spent the last hour working on dry fire.  Finally got below the two second mark with my shot to shot reloads on a scaled 10 yard x ring.  I'm shooting another classifier match next week and would be very happy if I can edge my way towards Master.  I see a lot of dry fire happening between now and then.

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I finally made Master last night with a Revolver.  Managed to best the HHF with 105.25% on 13-08 and a got a 95.93% on 13-01.  I need to work on my consistency but I am improving a little bit each month.  If I can improve my draw, reloads, and WHO a bit more I might be able to make GM some day.  I also had my first instance of trigger freeze, it wasn't a short stroke on the Tick Tock run.  I'll need to practice my trigger control if I want to go faster.

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Ran my first Steel Challenge match over the weekend, it was pretty hectic compared to ICORE with 3x as many shooters but things went smoothly and I had fun shooting a rimfire for the first time.  Even with less sleep than I hoped for and lots of running around for match management I still managed to put up ISR scores of 82%, 84%, 85%, and 86%.  I think I could probably manage closer to 90% with a bit more practice and more than 5 hours sleep the night before.  I was very tired until about stage 3.

 

 

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After reviewing my recent videos I think it's time to revisit the plate rack drills and focus on fundamentals of trigger pull, draw, and transitions.  I've been very busy at work and haven't had a chance to do any live fire outside of matches for about a month.  I should be able to get to the range for an hour or two next week so I plan to work the plate rack starting at 10 yards and focus only on the basics.  The plan is to use my timer only for the start signal and work on shooting clean racks, I'll be running a six shooter so there are no make up shots.  The "stage" will be five strings:

 

(1) Freestyle

(2) SHO

(3) WHO 

(4) Transitioning outside in freestyle

(5) Transitioning inside out freestyle

 

I'm going to treat this like an actual stage and do my full prep as if it were shot for score in a match.  If I shoot all five strings clean I get to move back 5 yards each time.

 

 

 

 

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We had our first outdoor USPSA match of the year yesterday.  It seems I keep finding speed limits in different parts of my technique as I try to go faster.  Recently I experienced my first instance of trigger freeze by catching the sear before the gun fully reset.  I've had a few short strokes in the past but never that particular issue.  I worked on my trigger control a bit and didn't have any problems in that department yesterday.  I did however fumble three reloads by trying to close the cylinder before my moonclip was all the way in.  I need to relax just a touch during matches and make sure the empties go out smoothly and the next moonclip is fully seated before closing the cylinder.  As for speed and accuracy I was happy with my performance, I shot 94.6% of possibly points on target and should be very close to making GM when the scores go in.  One more good classifier and I might get there.  I joined USPSA in October of 15', it would be pretty cool to make GM before the 2 year mark.

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One of my goals after the IRC was to develop enough trigger discipline to put a full cylinder with the 929 on a 12" steel plate at 100 yards.  I've been working at it but have yet to accomplish the task.  Our range has conveniently mounted a permanent 10" plate at 100 yards so I decided I'm going to stop by the 100 yard bay every time I go out there and see how many I can hit cold, first 8 rounds of the day.  I think it was Ben Stoeger that said "If you can't do it twice it doesn't matter" so I like the idea of giving this a shot each time I'm there.  First attempt was 5 for 8, much better than I expected.  

 

I've also been reviewing my notes here and looking back at all of the practice footage I have.  It seems I keep coming back to the same things as far as areas that I want to improve in: WHO, SHO, reloads, movement, draw, and transitions.  I'm going to start incorporating a new drill into my practice routine that I'll call the "Plate Rack Workout" and it incorporates all of those with no set-up on our 35 yard bay.  I'm really hoping to iron out a few things before Nationals in May.

PlateRackDrill.thumb.png.6fe900ac99dfb0715da67e65dcba8424.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

USPSA revolver nationals is coming up so I went to the range this morning to chrono my loads for the S&W 929 and 625 (back-up gun if the 929 breaks).  Figured I might as well shoot some video while I was there.  


The 929 was running a 151 gr Blue Bullet over 2.9 gr of Titegroup for 865 +/- 9 fps.

The 625 was running a 230 gr Blue Bullet over 4.2 gr of Trail Boss for 648 +/- 11 fps.
 

 

 

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This was one long weekend, I ran an ICORE match at our local club on Saturday and then shot the Indiana SS/PRO/REV State Match on Sunday.  I was pleasantly surprised to get first place in revolver, that was a big deal for me since this was my first Level II USPSA match and also the first one outside of my local club.  I'll need to review the footage and figure out how to best spend my practice sessions from now until revolver nationals.  One thing I definitely struggled with was being too nervous and getting a little trigger happy, I had several mikes on steel that shouldn't have happened.  Here's video from both matches:  

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

My 625 had some serious issues with short stroking during a match last weekend.  I put a fresh rebound spring in and that seems to have fixed it, good thing I noticed this before Revolver Nationals as it's my backup gun.  I might put a fresh one in my 929 just to be safe.

 

 

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I just attended my first USPSA Nationals, it was incredibly difficult compared to the club matches I normally shoot so I'm glad I was able to shoot the IN SS/PROD/REV match before going.  I had a lot of fun and met some great people.  I learned several lessons on how I can improve and hope to work on that throughout the year.  

 

On the 50 yd standards stage I planned to get 6 solid hits without attempting the SHO portion for string 2.  I changed my mind last minute and lost a good chunk of points because of that.  Stick to your plan...it's not like I practiced that and decided it was a terrible idea to get all 12 shots off in 8 seconds.

 

On the steel stage I left a popper standing and for some unknown reason closed my clinder and knocked it down several seconds after I was originally finished.  I knew better but my instincts got the best if me.  The RO had moved far enough away that the timer didn't get my final shot.  Mandatory reshoot.  I was the last shooter and everyone had to wait on me to get my stuff together, I was flustered and shot the second round very poorly.  If you already showed clear, DON'T put ammo back in your gun and shoot a single round.  I lost a bunch of points for that avoidable mistake.

 

In general my accuracy was good and I had plenty of room for error to go a touch faster.  I am losing most of my time in movement and transitions compared to the GM shooters.  I also caught myself looking at hits a couple of times after I shot a target.  I need to trust myself and keep moving.  There was only one instance where I didn't get the hit I called.  I left a steel up and hit the hard cover in front of it.

 

All in all I ended up 15th and was very happy with that outcome.  I really appreciate the revolver shooters in my area and from across the country that have helped me improve over the last two years.  Here's the video:

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Had a nice time at our monthly USPSA match, pushed my pace a little bit to see what might happen.  Ended up doing quite well but dropped a mike on 13-02, could have shot it a full second slower and still hit the 100% mark if I had 8 A instead of 7 A & 1 M.  It's a learning experience at every match.  My stage execution was pretty good aside from one mental error, prematurely reloading on the move cost me an additional standing reload, about 2 seconds of clock time on a speed shoot stage.  All in all I was pleased with my performance, just need to work on solid stage planning and execution, I'll keep pushing my speed a little bit each match and see what I can do.  I would have been pretty close to my 95% points goal without that Mike, need to respect the close up targets a touch more.  Also, dry fire has been helping a lot with my first few stages on match day.  Doing some basic drills for 15 minutes a day leading up to a match really pays dividends.  Here's some video:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

One reason I love the shooting sports is all of the great people I've met.  I shot my first cowboy match of 2017 over the weekend and one of the screws on my 73' rifle sheared letting a part run loose in the action.  Couldn't fix it on the range so one of my pards loaned me his rifle to finish the match.  I like to shoot cowboy because you get four guns and it begs you to shoot fast but has stiff penalties for a miss.  I went with the shoot clean and don't worry so much about time approach this match, got my butt kicked by gentlemen four decades my senior but still finished 3rd overall.  I can tell that I'm out of practice with my lever action and hammered shotgun.  Forgot to eject an empty shell on one stage and forgot to cock the hammers on another.  Also ran the 73' rifle way slower than I'm capable of, just wasn't very comfortable with the gun until right when it broke on me.  Dry fire with some snap caps would have been a good thing to do the night before.  Either way, had a great time and hope to shoot more Cowboy this year.  I've got ICORE coming up this Saturday and will be running classic for the first time ever.  Only 38 bullets I had on hand were 125 gr so I'll be running Clays well into magnum territory to make PF out of the 3" barrel.  Should be a blast!

 

 

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It was my first time shooting classic in an ICORE match yesterday.  Challenging but also a lot of fun, I think I'll shoot the same gun next time.  I still need to work on the same things with my shooting.  Caught myself looking at targets once or twice and didn't have as much confidence using a less familiar gun.  I should have trusted my shots and kept going, only one wasn't called correctly for the whole match.  The popper I left standing in the moving target stage.  Could have sworn I hit it but didn't.  Anyway, I know what to practice over the next few weeks.

 

 

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I've still been keeping track of the goals I set for standard drills and tonight was a big milestone for the 10 yard plate rack.  Last Fall I couldn't go faster than 2.7 seconds with my optical revolver at 10 yards from the holster.  Last three runs tonight were all between 2.67-2.70 seconds with my iron sight revolver.  Great way to celebrate Wheelgun Wednesday.  I was going a touch faster than I could confidently call shots but the sight picture was acceptable for an open paper target or large popper at full throttle.  I pushed myself a bit and got a few runs in the 2.5 sec range with one mike.  I think with some additional work I might be able to hit the elusive 2.5 second goal I set for myself last year.  I clipped one run at 2.53 and nicked the 6th plate, it did't fall but I know it's possible with additional work.  I'm going to focus on Steel Challenge shooting for the next month and try to push myself way outside of my comfort zone.  Sometimes the only way to succeed is to fail miserably and learn from the experience. 

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I had another practice session last night to work on some fundamentals.  I've been limiting my sessions to 240 rounds and treating each run or drill like it was shot for score including the Make Ready and sight picture steps. This has improved consistency from my first run to the last, the fastest plate rack at 10 yards was my second string of the night.  I've also been switching up drills in both distance and type to avoid practicing the same thing over and over.  This has helped with confident shot placement by regularly switching between 10 and 25 yards and SHO/WHO/Freestyle.  I still have a long way to go but I'm getting a little better each week.  Taking video helps to show me where I need to focus my time.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Shot a steel match over the weekend with my Ruger MKII in RFPO and my 929 in ISR and LTD.  I never shoot quite as well as I want to in the matches I run and for whatever reason I never get much sleep the night before those either.  That said I was pleasantly surprised to keep my ISR scores in the 85% range and I think I should make A class in RFPO.  I've been running experiments this year by shooting the same gun in ISR and LTD back to back and it seems like my USPSA load (151 gr at 131 PF) is just a touch slower than a dedicated steel load (118 gr at 105 PF).  The difference is small but appears to be real so I'll keep loading lighter bullets for the steel matches I plan to shoot.  

 

For this match I decided to shoot my 105 PF load in both divisions and see what happens.  Times were quite consistent with no real advantage based upon shooting order as I shot ISR then LTD on each stage.   The difference in total match time came down to one poorly executed stage in LTD.  I tried to push my speed too much on the first Pendulum run and didn't get a solid sight picture on the first plate.  I ended up with three makeup shots in total and that messed with my head quite a bit on the next four runs resulting in a whopping 5.02 seconds between ISR and LTD on that stage.  Even with that mental blowout the overall match times were only 4.55 seconds apart which is 0.47 seconds between the other four stages.  

 

I think shooting three guns at the steel matches has been very beneficial to my consistency and endurance.  It's 375 rounds minimum and I shoot all three divisions back to back so you've got to maintain a steady pace and remain focused for 75+ rounds.  Over the winter I'd like to build a 617 to shoot in RFPO and have the option to run strictly revolvers moving forward.  Eventually I'll also add another 929 to the mix so I can shoot RFPO, ISR, and OSR.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Unless the HHF on 06-03 has recently changed I think I made GM over the weekend, a 98.42% on that classifier would bring my current average to 95.65%.  I haven't had much time to practice lately so I could have done a few things better during the match but was still pleased with my performance.  My accuracy was where I wanted to be earning 96.8% of possible points on target with minor scoring.  That worked out to 141 Alphas, 2 Bravos, 10 Charlies and no penalties.  The biggest area for improvement right now is probably my footwork and speed moving in and out of position.  I'll think up some drills to help me out in that department. 

 

In January of this year I said that I would wait until I made Master to take off the iron sights.  Since I've met that goal I'll be putting my C-More back on the gun and focusing on ICORE Open and OSR in Steel Challenge for the rest of the year.  I still have my 625 set-up and running so I can use that in USPSA if I want to shoot an iron sight gun for the next few months.  Also, I ordered a 12 MOA module for the C-More and will be looking forward to giving that a try.  The dot doesn't look too obnoxious but is noticeably larger than the 6 MOA unit I was using before.  I have almost two months to practice before our next Steel Challenge match and my plan is to shoot the 929 in OSR and the 625 in ISR.  With any luck I'll be able to make Master in both divisions.

 

This year has gone by very fast and I've been happy with my progress so far.  The two things that have likely helped me the most are dry fire for 5-15 minutes a few days a week and treating live fire practice just like a match.  My overall skills have improved along with my consistency from first run to the last.   As an example, I recently had to reshoot two stages and the scores were virtually identical between them.  I've also noticed the same in my Steel Challenge scores when running the same gun and load in two different divisions.  The one goal I'd really like to achieve next is getting HOA at our club level IDPA match with my 625.  I know it's possible if I shoot to my full potential and don't have gun problems.  We'll see how it goes.

 

Here's some video from the USPSA match: 

 

 

 

 

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Well, it looks like the HHF has not changed and I finally made GM in USPSA.  Moving forward I only have one goal for myself, I'd like to place within my classification at Nationals next year and earn a match percentage of 90% or greater.  I've always been better at the stand and deliver speed shoots than large field courses so that's where I need to make improvements.  One thing that should help considerably is shedding some weight, I think dropping about 20 pounds will need to be part of the process.  In 2017 my match percentage was 81.078% so I think it's very doable if I keep working to improve. 

 

GM.png.041506980b1e4e1815ab2e9d329ed11a.png

 

Here's the stage that put me over the 95% mark:

 

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