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From completely new to hopefully GM?


SlvrDragon50

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Looks like you're ready for a match!  I should be able to help you out next Tuesday 10/18 if you want to go.  There is a mandatory class you have to attend that night before you can shoot, which I believe starts at 5:30pm, but I'll look into it and double check.  It's only one stage (course of fire) but I think that's really helpful for your first time.

I think most of the outdoor shoots are winding down, but you could probably still make it to a couple before it gets too cold and shuts down until Spring.  Those are generally six stages and done on Sundays.  But I'd strongly urge you to do a Tuesday match first for the benefit of the  training class and the ability to run one stage multiple times to get used to it!

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  • 1 month later...

It's been a real long time since I've posted, but I got buried with exams and didn't go to the range for 3-4 weeks. That said, I increased by dry fire and practiced a lot more reloads and draws.

I went out to the Police Tactical Training Institute today and joined their club, and I discovered that my practice at my current indoor range really doesn't cut it for USPSA style shooting. Normally when I shoot at my indoor range, I have no problem getting touching holes, but I was allowed to shoot on the reset at the police range, and my groupings increased quite a bit. That said, I found I improved drastically from my 6th mag to my 10th mag so I think it was getting used to finding a tempo.

The other thing I noticed was that after my first shot, I found that when realigning my sights, my front sight would consistently reappear too far left. Any suggestions for why this is happening? My DA pull has definitely improved as I've learned to just pull forcefully. It seemed like the more I thought about it, the more likely I was to jerk or pull in another direction. By thinking to pull forcefully, it seems to help with pulling straight to the back.

Also, planning on going to my first USPSA meet this Tuesday! Hopefully Dlister70 can join me and show me around, but I've decided I'm going no matter what. No more delaying! I'm probably gonna score D class, but that's okay.

Edited by SlvrDragon50
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28 minutes ago, SlvrDragon50 said:

It's been a real long time since I've posted, but I got buried with exams and didn't go to the range for 3-4 weeks. That said, I increased by dry fire and practiced a lot more reloads and draws.

I went out to the Police Tactical Training Institute today and joined their club, and I discovered that my practice at my current indoor range really doesn't cut it for USPSA style shooting. Normally when I shoot at my indoor range, I have no problem getting touching holes, but I was allowed to shoot on the reset at the police range, and my groupings increased quite a bit. That said, I found I improved drastically from my 6th mag to my 10th mag so I think it was getting used to finding a tempo.

The other thing I noticed was that after my first shot, I found that when realigning my sights, my front sight would consistently reappear too far left. Any suggestions for why this is happening? My DA pull has definitely improved as I've learned to just pull forcefully. It seemed like the more I thought about it, the more likely I was to jerk or pull in another direction. By thinking to pull forcefully, it seems to help with pulling straight to the back.

Also, planning on going to my first USPSA meet this Tuesday! Hopefully Dlister70 can join me and show me around, but I've decided I'm going no matter what. No more delaying! I'm probably gonna score D class, but that's okay.

Dude, don't worry about the scores at your first match!!  Just have fun and most importantly.....don't get DQ'd

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Regarding sights returning left of center at speed, adjust grip pressure between your left and right hands.

Try crush gripping the gun with the left (weak) hand, and relaxing the strong hand slightly. You can steer how the gun tracks in recoil this way - biasing pressure between left & right hands.

Edited by MemphisMechanic
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11 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

Regarding sights returning left of center at speed, adjust grip pressure between your left and right hands.

Try crush gripping the gun with the left (weak) hand, and relaxing the strong hand slightly. You can steer how the gun tracks in recoil this way - biasing pressure between left & right hands.

And without question, you can pull the trigger faster with a relaxed hand.....

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20 hours ago, RangerTrace said:

Dude, don't worry about the scores at your first match!!  Just have fun and most importantly.....don't get DQ'd

This.  

I *walked* my first few stages slowly and just focused on trying to get good hits.  Later, you'll be trying to shave time off your draw, run faster to each spot, take shots while on the move, get faster on your mag changes, and deciding to sacrifice C hits for 0.9 second faster runs, but the first match is all about:  "Don't get kicked out."

When it comes time to make ready, do so slowly.  Re-holster slowly and carefully, being conscious of not muzzle sweeping any part of yourself.  Literally walk through your first match as though you aren't in a timed competition until you feel comfortable moving with a weapon.  A lot of us don't get to practice at ranges that allow holster play or movement with a gun, and since we just stand in a bay and shoot in a straight line, USPSA takes some getting used to.  

The worst thing you could do is try to go too fast and break the 180 and put other people in danger.  

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I actually witnessed one of my good friends, a retired Lt. Colonel get DQ'd at load and make ready.  He got a little mixed up with load and make ready and unload and show clear.  He racked his slide, pulled the trigger and got to tape targets the rest of the match.....

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Just finished my first meet! I had Dlister70 record my first run ever just for fun, and I just watched it. I fumbled with my reloads because I'm not used to dropping my mags to the ground when I practice so my first reload I tried to catch the mag then remembered I was doing it for real.

I really struggled with the targets that were close together because I couldn't tell left from right targets due to my left eye. I will experiment with taping or smearing the left lens.

Supposedly I did pretty well, but I honestly have no clue. It went by so fast, and I found that everything I had practiced, I pretty much forgot during the run through. I really see the limitations of my range since I can't do holster work or rapid fire. My greatest weakness where I can improve is picking up the front sight quickly though so I'll be working on shooting from ready now rather than shooting with the gun already up.

I'm uploading the video now to Youtube if anyone wants to watch, and I believe scores will be released tonight.

 

Edited by SlvrDragon50
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Very, very solid for a first showing!

You're already seriously beginning to see how important it is to practice exactly the way you shoot. Aren't you?

Or more specifically the way you draw and reload.

Good news is speed reloads and draws can be made very fast at home (and much more quickly) in dryfire.

Dryfire is where you learn. Live fire is where you confirm you're learning right!

(Also: You get strange looks dumping mags on the ground at stand and shoot indoor ranges. But I do it anyway. Now you know why.)

Edited by MemphisMechanic
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Just found the results: https://practiscore.com/results/new/28530?q_division=5

26th out of production, 51.44%. Seems the thing that dropped my score the most was the time.

Run 1: 51.44% 31.16 seconds, 14A, 3B, 3C, 1D, 1M, 0NS

Run 2: 48.64% 30.45 seconds, 11A, 5B, 4C, 1D, 1M, 0NS

Top Score: 100%, 20.29 seconds, 17A, 3B, 2C, 0D, 0M, 0NS (heard this guy used to shoot USPSA though)

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  • 1 month later...

Finally went back to the range today after a long hiatus.

It was not good. First time shooting poppers, swinging targets, and a texas star. Also... I'm a bad person and cheated. I forgot to drop my hammer down both runs. That said... I'm pretty sure I was still last place anyways.

My first run I know I definitely rushed too much. I was shooting without having any front sight focus. And for some reason, the poppers which I thought would be hte easiest turned out to be the hardest.

The star wasn't too bad of a problem, and I think I did pretty well on it. I usually struggled on the 4th plate.

I really need to figure out how to improve my sight pick up time because I'm struggling to get quick front sight focus.

Results

89 Hua, Andrew   U P 73 30 29.89 1.4386 24.9558 24.96 %
90 Hua, Andrew   U P 82 20 43.25 1.4335 24.8673 24.87 %

Had a lot of misses. If I had to guess, from the swinger.

Edited by SlvrDragon50
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Keep with it man. It's all experience. Just for some perspective- on closer range stuff the fast guys aren't doing a front sight focus, more often than not they are looking at where they want to hit on the target, transitioning the gun to that point, while staying focused on the target they look through their rear sight and confirm the blur of a front sight and fiber optic inside the notch and pull the trigger. Alignment is probably less important than the view through the rear sight and how it is indexed on the target. Try some sight misalignment drills then do some from the holster work and try and observe how little sights you can get away with with clean hits.


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6 hours ago, ArrDave said:

Keep with it man. It's all experience. Just for some perspective- on closer range stuff the fast guys aren't doing a front sight focus, more often than not they are looking at where they want to hit on the target, transitioning the gun to that point, while staying focused on the target they look through their rear sight and confirm the blur of a front sight and fiber optic inside the notch and pull the trigger. Alignment is probably less important than the view through the rear sight and how it is indexed on the target. Try some sight misalignment drills then do some from the holster work and try and observe how little sights you can get away with with clean hits.


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I think I was trying to do that on my first run because the ranges were really quite short. I'd guess the distances were all 20' or so. I guess my problem was that I never looked through the rear sight, and I just had my front sight on the target. When I slowed down, I think I noticed that my rear sight tended to be aligned way above the front. If I had to guess, this was due to me never having to shoot down towards the ground at a popper before, and I must have overestimated the drop. I've spent so much time practicing front sight focus that I can't remember how to do target focus hah.

I'll definitely start training target focus shooting again.

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I went back and looked at the score breakdown:

                                                                                  A        B       C       D       M                                 Time           HF

Hua, Andrew   6 U P Min 13 - 2 2 3 - - - 29.89 1.4386
Hua, Andrew   5 U P Min 15 1 1 1 2 - - - 43.25 1.4335

So it looks like the misses really killed my 2nd run score. I finally got around to putting some tape over the left lens of my glasses, and  I am picking up the sight a lot faster now. I'm excited to try it out at the next meet on Tuesday. Also just got my CCW in so finally able to order ammo again so I'll be practicing a lot more too!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got some new ammo today, 9mm HP 124gr, first time shooting 124gr. I expected it to be very soft shooting, but it had more felt recoil than my 115gr ammo. That said, I was able to find my sights much faster so maybe it was softer?

SteVD90.png

Major string differences at 10 yards. I was able to get a really good grouping at the X when I shot at a nice steady rhythm. I slowed down and took more time to aim at the head, and my grouping went to crap! I took this advice from one of the video analysis threads here where someone said shooting should be bang.. bang... bang... bang.. rather than bang.. bang.............bang..bang..... which I was a little confused since all you would need to do is drop two shots on each target anyways. I think I do see how I need to adjust my practice now, but my indoor range with firing rate limits just won't do.

My plan is to try Travis Haley's 50 round drill the next time I head out to the outdoor police range where I can shoot freely.

Also, a little unsure on whether or not I want to pay extra for HPs. I was under the impression that they leave slightly larger holes, but I'm not seeing it. The holes are definitely a lot cleaner so it's a little tough to measure. Definitely need to shoot more to see if I like the 124gr anyways.

Edited by SlvrDragon50
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Look at the velocity for the ammo. You want weight in grains times FPS to be close to 130k. If it's defensive or NATO spec and is humming along at 1150 FPS which I expect it is you have some 142k ammo there. JHPs are more accurate usually which is why it is prized and they cut cleaner holes, not really any bigger, just neater and easier to score


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  • 2 weeks later...

Just went to another USPSA shoot today. Did much better without the Texas Star. Had another Swinger, but I did much better with it and got some hits. I'm not getting the two hits on the swinger which is really adding a lot of time waiting for it to swing back out a second time. My second run wasn't as good, but I was really pushing myself which resulted in a lot of missed shots. I finally hit the swinger, but I missed two stationary targets unfortunately. I had a feeling I missed them, but I didn't shoot again. I also threw a mag.

 

15 Hua, Andrew   U P 83 10 29.32 2.4898 45.0129 45.01 %
18 Hua, Andrew   U P 80 20 29.61 2.0263 36.6333 36.63 %

 

https://practiscore.com/results/html/fbbf5fe8-5b02-4626-a519-2d785309b69b?page=stage0-production

 

I got some GoPro footage. It's uploading now. Looking at other scores, it looks like everyone is finishing significantly faster with a lot more B/C hits.

Kosack, Rob TY53381 7 A P Min 10 4 4 2 - - - - 13.74 5.5313
Kosack, Rob TY53381 8 A P Min 9 3 6 2 - - - - 14.95 4.9498
Davidson, Josiah A99923 3 U P Min 16 - 4 - - - - - 16.78 5.4827
Davidson, Josiah A99923 4 U P Min 15 - 4 - 1 - - - 15.33 5.0228
Davidson, Josiah A99923 5 U P Min 13 - 5 1 1 - - - 15.24 4.6588
Davidson, Josiah A99923 6 U P Min 10 - 7 1 2 - - - 18.05 2.8809
Mandros, David ty-98887 3 B P Min 13 4 3 - - 1 - - 16.14 4.7088
Mandros, David ty-98887 6 B P Min 10 5 2 2 1 - - - 16.40 3.8415
Mandros, David ty-98887 4 B P Min 7 - 11 1 1 - - - 16.66 3.5414
Ripper, Joel A40542 5 B P Min 13 2 4 1 - - - - 15.23 5.5154
Ripper, Joel A40542 4 B P Min 13 2 3 2 - - - - 15.57 5.2665
Ripper, Joel A40542 3 B P Min 14 - 6 - - - - - 18.25 4.8219

 

 

 

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Ha!  I just read through most of this thread before I realized you are shooting in Bloomington!  Just wait until it warms up around here! 

 

1st weekend: Loami USPSA

2nd weekend: Havana USPSA

3rd weekend: Bowling Pin then Steel Match in Chillicothe

4th weekend: Chillicothe USPSA

5th Sunday: Chillicothe 3 gun (when applicable)

 

If you're over at U of I, it will be a bit of a drive for you.  But we have a lot of shooting going on in the area! 

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2 hours ago, Edmooberry said:

Ha!  I just read through most of this thread before I realized you are shooting in Bloomington!  Just wait until it warms up around here! 

 

1st weekend: Loami USPSA

2nd weekend: Havana USPSA

3rd weekend: Bowling Pin then Steel Match in Chillicothe

4th weekend: Chillicothe USPSA

5th Sunday: Chillicothe 3 gun (when applicable)

 

If you're over at U of I, it will be a bit of a drive for you.  But we have a lot of shooting going on in the area! 

Yea, I don't really want to do those larger matches at my current skill level since it seems like a waste for me. The CISS matches are really nice since I run the stage over again and can experiment with speed vs accuracy and other things. It allows me to really work on fundamentals rather than having to worry about strategy and planning. I was told that there is an outlaw 3 Gun match over in Danville as well which I'm interested in, but I'd have to borrow equipment since I don't have anything other than my CZ.

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