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Johnbu's range diary


johnbu

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Buddy wanted to go shooting.... he has a rock 1911 with maybe 100 down range. Brought a tanfo stack 2, xdm40 and 454 casul revolver.  worked on his grip, trigger and aiming....and my own. VERY limited options at the indoor range. Buddy settled down. The casul erased his fear of recoil with all the other guns, then he started just shooting and made nice progress.  I did some decent groupings and actually shot the xdm better than ever. Guess I'm making progress. Shot 16 rounds at the upper A zone at 30'. 3B, the rest A.  Did some quicker strings .3s splits at 10 and 15 yds. A few snuck off to the right C zone, but most were decent A zone hits.  Did a couple 10 rnd mags at 25yds and was pleased they were all A - shot slow 1s splits.  Did a few mags at 7 and 10 yds shooting quickly 2 lower A, one upper A and repeat to slidelock. Starting to SEE the sights better.

Also, continuing dry fire repetitions of reloads. 4 targets, draw, df twice, reload, next target repeat. Not timing, just trying to go quickly and not CLASH the mag. Precision of the mag grasp continues to elude me.  Grrrr.  Oh well, slow proper practice is better than fast but wrong.

 

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Scored some prop materials for the home range.  Got 4 free standing office divider panels that are 5' tall by 6'wide. Will be able to set up some mini-stages with more realistic movement to places where the targets are visible. Price was right...free.  Sadly, we are in the midst of the frozen season and won't be able to fo anything till spring.  Except dryfire. I've turned over a new leaf and will only DF gripping the gun as hard as possible.  I'd have said that's what I was doing... BUT now my weak side forearm is burning in short order. Obviously, I'm now gripping harder and have had to cut DF time and have breaks to stretch to avoid flaring tendinitis.   Also, decided to swap back to "bullets foreward" to see if reloads can be smoother. They seem to be, but needs more repetitions.

 

 

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Santa brought a vortex viper red dot. Set up a gun for carry optics. That dot sure shows all sorts of quivering, jerks, flinches and things. Trigger control should improve with the constant visual feedback. Still keeping to the hard hard hard grip. Zeroed the red dot and had a few fliers...instantly realized I'd backed off on grip strength.  Hoping it becomes reflexive to only grip hard by spring when the snow melts and the range reopens !

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  • 3 weeks later...

My plan of only gripping the gun with maximum pressure are paying dividends in accuracy. But ... my left elbow is trashed. Loads of pain on the outside moving up the arm.

 

Starting the weight lifting routine with dumbells.

 

The game of hide and seek with the dot is getting easier. But still have it come up missing on occasion.

It does make accuracy easier, but slows me down as i over aim.

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8 hours ago, johnbu said:

My plan of only gripping the gun with maximum pressure are paying dividends in accuracy. But ... my left elbow is trashed. Loads of pain on the outside moving up the arm.

 

Starting the weight lifting routine with dumbells.

 

The game of hide and seek with the dot is getting easier. But still have it come up missing on occasion.

It does make accuracy easier, but slows me down as i over aim.

You the elbow AIDS.  Better cut back a little before it turns chronic.  Tennis elbow is nasty.  

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@badchad's physical therapy regimen really does work. Do them daily and it takes 1.5-3 weeks usually before the pain fades completely.

Just remember that tendons take forever to strengthen, so be sure to keep lifting a day or three per week long, long after the pain is gone.

You think making yourself dry fire is hard? Try physical therapy for pain you no longer have! ;)

I've learned the "keep lifting a couple days a week or the pain will be back" lesson three times now.

Edited by MemphisMechanic
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  • 2 weeks later...

Much as it pains me, a "radical" change is needed to improve trigger control.  to that end, I swapped out light, stack free hammer springs from Patriot Defense and put in coil springs from a 3/4 ton truck.  ok, that "might be" an exaggeration.  But going from 5#0oz stack free DA to 8# 8oz stacky sure feels like it. Now to dry fire the snot out of it and figure out how to stay on target! The goal is to run like this until correct action is correct.

 

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With the change in CO capacity, i swapped the optic from a 40 to a 9mm. The lighter 40 barrel allowed using henning's grips and base pads and still make weight and 40 minor can be loaded stupid soft.

 

Change to extended basepads and it was just over weight. :( So had to lose the henning's grips.  and the 40 would only load 18 in the mag.  the siren song of more more more had me changing to 9mm and the 23 rounds in the mag.

 

Now... off to pop a few rounds and zero the new setup.

 

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Loaded up the 3 new extended 9mm mags and zeroed starting from 10yds and going back to 22.  had a few off, but it zeroed pretty easily concidering it was swapped from one gun to another.

 

Shooting and zeroing only had one C.  shooting at the upper A zone at 22yds all were kept A, B with the 2 C.  i was aiming below the A zone.

 

While I'm not a gun shy type, i shoot 9mm minor better than 40, so the swap was worth the time  (to me).

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  • 1 month later...

So....

 

Been pounding away in the basement determining the mistakes i do so well.

 

Reloading.  I'm finding as the grab hand speeds up out of "turtle" and towards rabbit, the mag winds up held differently.  the side to side angle is pretty random meaning crash bang into the magwell.  finding if i curl the pinky and ring finger the mag rests against them and comes to the magwell straighter.  

Also finding if the magwell is in front of my left shirt pocket the angle is more conducive to actually inserting the magazine.

 

CO dot index. This one is still a bother. I'm seeing weird stuff.  if i close my eyes and draw to a target, it's nearly always there. When i do the same thing eyes open... not consistently there. Frequently dot over the upper A.

 

Did some rare live fire (im poor) and found I'm preferentially picking up the front sight dot. Removed it.  now working to groove the index on the dot.

 

Target focus vs sight focus.  i KNOW it should be target focus....but nobody sent the memo to the eyes! I find them hard to the dot on transitions. Makes it slow AND inaccurate.  double whammy. Working to fix that by staring at the targets harder... but it's a hard habit to break.

 

Trigger control. Installed a high force factory hammer spring.  using that to learn holding the gun steady.  ran few mags to verify the extended mag / grams works finding da still goes astray at speed. Also found nose diving 2nd, 3rd and etc rounds.

 

Swapped in a PD 15.5 hammer spring, dropped DA from 9# down to 5.5#. And tightened grouping up from 40%A to 90%. Took out the grams (remembered they are 40 followers pushing 9mm), replaced with factory. Reduced capacity  from 23 to 22. Also reduced OAL some to keep the truncated cones from hitting. Also increased the breech bottom chamfer to minimize bottom round dragging. Polished the plastic followers, eased the edges of them and the Taylor Freelance extensions.  Now i can load all 22 by hand easily and they feed reliably.  ordered the correct 9mm followers too. FYI - Was going to run CO with 40 before the capacity rule change.

 

All this to get ready for the seasons first match.

Edited by johnbu
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First match is in the books.

 

Day started overcast,  driving 90 miles to the range it went from mist to sprinkle to rain and back to sprinkle.  at least it was 33F and not 31!

 

Ground in some bays was bestdescribed as mud wallow.  hard to have explosive motion when trying to stay upright.

 

I shot pretty good. Had the 3rd quickest total time and 5th place overall. Was 1st in CO ! Yea.  but the only other CO was a super senior.  lol.

 

Accuracy was disappointing. Too many C and D hits. Not many mikes. But threw away decent run times with low points!  grrr.  the classifier was a perfect example 99-12.  5A 7C.

 

 

Video of the last stage doing the penguin walk to  stay upright.

 

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Rough day.

 

Early steel challenge practice match.  cold damp and breezy.  muscles tightened up and pulled the pinched nerve in my neck.  couldn't really feel the bad grip on a draw, a bit of tingling numbness and a twitch of pain from the neck and the gun wound up on the gravel. And i got Dairy Queen. 

 

Aside from a deflated ego and a half way decent stage killed, no harm done.

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Thursday's our club puts on a steel challenge practice match. Three or four stages, depending on light.

 

This year... I'm trying a new mindset for practices. The goal is 5 shots for 5 hits. In the past,  trying to "shoot fast" has led to shooting wild and a lot...and NOT  fast.

 

Duh.

 

 

Our club also started using practiscore, so it's easier to see ifi went 5/5 by looking at penalties.  lol.  maybe not the best way, but the "punishment" will hopefully remind that slowing down and getting the hit IS FASTER.

 

But... i sure don't like leaving misses!

 

Tomorrow driving to a 6 classifier match. Hopefully,  the lesson on getting the hits will keep me in match mode. Because Virginia scoring and wild/fast do not mix well!

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Thanks. It was warm...and dry.

 

Overcast and blowing like a banshee too.

 

Lots of people. 101 shooters. Normally just 25-30.

 

Easy classifiers.  shooting was ....ok.  mental game was off, way off.  incredible, bone-headed mistakes abounded.

 

Alas,  not a day for improving.

 

Need more work on turning draws. 

 

Stupid move reductions needed too.

 

1) turn on the dot.... it might help accuracy.

 

2) push the reloaded mag in ALL the way.

 

3) find the dot BEFORE shooting.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

On Thursday's our club has steel challenge practice. We shoot 3 stages for 5 bucks. In the past i just tried to shoot good times.  no real plan. Since it's "practice", I've decided to practice.

1) no more relying on make up shots. Goal of 5/5. Suffer the penalty to get "negative feedback" if there is a miss.

 

2) only fire when an acceptable sight picture is there (supports #1)

 

3) ensure the gun stays aimed until AFTER it fires. (Duh)  sounds stupidly obvious, but i get anxious and start transitioning during the trigger stroke.

 

4) shoot with solid tactics. First string ensure all hits (70% speed)... get the wobbles out and settle down. Next 3 strings 85% - quick but still 95% certain of good hits. Last string either 70% or 95%. Depending on the prior strings.

 

Yesterday i really tried to do this. Shot 3 stages in 77 rounds.  Was one of my better days actually.

 

Did some live fire today.  working Bill drills to try and determine why shots are going off.  interestingly,  the da shot was usually A. Following shots were low, low-left and a few high-right. I think I'm firing while bringing the muzzle up after recoil.  As in either the sequence of actions gets out of time or the act of bringing the gun up is causing it to fire.

 

I also still need work on the draw index. First shots at 7-8 yds were taking 1.25-ish but splits were decent 0.18-0.20.  a few fast in the .14-.15 range, but more C/D hits. 2.08 was the fastest with most in the 2.2x range. Draw speed and finding the dot is the holdup!

 

Worked on draw, two hits on two targets at 20 yds. Hard to get 4A.  time up around  3.1 - 3.3. 

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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Grip and Elbows....

 

This has been (and still is) a focus point.  Far (FAR) from being an expert, but I have learned a bit trying to emulate the things explained here (on BE).  The most impactual has been a slight change in elbow position.  Hand grip is the standard thumbs forward, high hand position.  After getting that and extending arms to the target,  I found that rolling the elbows outward (slightly) allows for a LOT MORE inward palm to palm pressure on the gun. 

 

The impact has been a reduction in split times on Bill Drill.  I ran 4 of them and was consistently in the range of 0.15 to 0.18 at 5 yards (none in the 0.2).  The (CO) dot moves less and lands back on target quicker more consistently.  I still need loads more improvement as the gun still isn't being "driven" forward hard enough as shown by a tendency to vertically string.  But overall, it seems to be helping.

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