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BoreBrush

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  • Birthday 07/26/1983

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  1. 2 December 2013 Over the holiday I managed to squirrel away a few minutes here and there to cement the little trends I established earlier last week. Nothing I would call deliberate practice, but valuable nonetheless. Unfortunately, yesterday started a terrible head cold that's sidelined my dry fire progress, and more importantly my physical training. I suppose that's nature's way of telling me to read the new Brian Enos books that arrived in the mail last night. So far I've made it through the introduction and paged through the chapter heading. My initial sense is that I got a lot for my money. The Fastest I'll Ever Be I started thinking about my draw time. Pulling 1.5 seconds in dry fire is possible, but uncomfortable right now. I've noticed on the boards that 1.2 isn't considered shabby at all. How fast is fast? I haven't timed any of this live, so right now I'm really just blowing smoke but nearest I can figure, it goes something like this: Reaction Time (RT) is a complex issue psychologists and neuroscientists have been dealing with for over a hundred years. One way to test simple RT is to put someone in a dark room and have them click a key every time they see a light, randomly triggered, turn on. I don't think it's a giant leap to analogize this simple test to a shooter, armed with a "perfect" trigger, against a stationary target requiring no skill or conscious thought to hit. I don't know what the biologically fastest RT is under either condition, but in 1921 Babe Ruth tested out at approximately 160 milliseconds. I'm not Babe Ruth. Fastest I can manage on my unscientific, internet based test is an average time of 254 milliseconds. This is probably strongly influenced by genetics. My fastest splits then will never be faster then 254 milliseconds (.254 seconds), under virtually impractical conditions. This is highly reductionist, obviously. Almost to the point of uselessness, actually. it's probably way more instructive, and sound, to not recreate the wheel, and instead look at some other sports. Baseball and tennis have done tons of research on reaction time to compound stimuli or "Choice Reaction Time" (CRT). It would make sense to skip ahead and think from their models, after all things get more complex when we add in variables like no-shoots, partials, etc.. etc.. As it turns out, being "fast" is less about genetic capacity or a high reaction speed then I thought, although in the case of Babe Ruth it's certainly helps. Babe Ruth, and other great batters like him, literally perceived the ball at the instant it left the pitcher's hand, and ran their decision loop based off the trajectory and speed they learned through experience. Tennis players show similar results. They're not just watching the ball. They're watching dozens, perhaps hundreds of cues before, during, and after the ball leaves their opponent. One study in 2005 shows experienced tennis players consistently react faster to a human opponent's serves then a ball machine firing at identical speed. So, it turns out it's more about how I assimilate the cues before me (target, no shoots, barrier, swinger, plate), parse the relevant cues from the irrelevant ones, make a decision, and then add the relatively fixed RT it takes my body to respond on the front and back end of the entire process. The good news is that everything that comes before the signal from my brain to my hand, can be sped up and adjusted through training. I can learn to "see" things faster. I can learn what they mean, and respond faster. That's pretty cool. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Fullerton/ http://www.blueprinttennis.com/featured/limitless/ http://www.brianmac.co.uk/reaction.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_time --------- Tar, Thanks! I spend a lot more time writing then I do shooting. The results are as one would expect. -BB
  2. Concentration, focus, and lots of other mental skills can be trained. Every day science is expanding the assessment of things we understand can be "learned". Mr. BE's drill he's linked to is famous. I've seen it lots of places, probably the first time was in Shunryu Suzuki's excellent book on Shoshin. Most recently, in an abbreviated format, recommend by Dave Grossman LTC, Ret. as "Combat Breathing". For what it's worth, it's worked for me. Mindfulness is a complex subject to the outsider looking in, but breathing is as good a place to start as anywhere, I suppose. Elephants are consumed one bite, or breath, at a time. Jon Kabat-Zin's work is also quite "reachable" by a general audience - and a lot more fun when applied to bullet-based pursuits.
  3. 27 November 2013 1) Revisiting the "press out" and Natural Point of Aim - reps 1 -25 were a nightmare. Fatigue has definitely altered my sensory feel. A hard day in the gym, and what my body thinks is "right" is all wonky. - reps 26 - 55: The "wonkiness" settled out. My shoulders loosened up. I remembered it wasn't about my shoulders or about my anterior chain. It was about my fingers, hands, and eyes. 2) Establishing the grip in the holster. - Well now, how do we do this? Lets not over-think this, right? Lets get a perfect presentation. Grip feels rock solid. Front sight is steady. Off-hand fingers at 45 deg. Now put it in the holster. - My trigger finger wound upon a mould line, that's worth remembering I guess. Put my heel on the… um… part of the grip… that technical… main spring, plunger dowel, camel uhm… lumpy part. I put the heel of my hand on the lumpy part. Every time. And I learn where it is without looking at it. Also, I noted where I put my elbow. The general angle and area more then a "buy the numbers thing." I can imagine scenarios where that elbow angle isn't obtainable. But if I can put my hands on the gun, I can remember the landmarks. The mould line, and the lumpy part. - Rep 1 - 20: Slow. I focused on minimizing movements that aren't part of getting to the gun. - 21 - 50: Turn up the speed. I went as fast as I could and stayed "loose" Towards the end iI noticed I was hunching my shoulders and flexing my abdominals. I don't know how to feel about that? Stepped away at 50 reps. Way less work then I set out to do at the beginning, but fatigue was starting to stack up and hurt my focus. I'd rather rest and take a break from training, then train poorly and possibly cement bad habits, especially at this early stage.
  4. 26 November 2013 "When I reached thirty I looked back on my past. The previous victories were not due to my having mastered strategy. Perhaps it was natural ability, or the order of heaven, or that other schools' strategy was inferior." Man, that quote seemed a lot further away before I was 30. Harumph. I'm still awaiting my copy of "Practical Shooting: Beyond the Fundamentals" and "Refinement and Repetition: Dry-fire Drills for Dramatic Improvement" What I did tonight: Finding my natural point of aim. I presented the weapon along a good, level "press out". I took pains to figure out the series of motions that put the front sight (FS) where it's supposed to be. Then I did it 10 times. I found where the front sight starts to enter my peripheral vision. Then I did it with my eyes closed. Slowly. I did it until the I was confident the FS was where it was supposed to be . Is the front sight where it's supposed to be? Yes? Good. That's rep #1. Only perfect reps count. By rep #50 I could feel the details start to sink in. The weapon needs to come out of the holster in line with my forearm (like Mr. Jarrett says), which puts it almost 45 deg to my horizontal axis. This seemed strange at first, but if the weapon's "straight" my FS is going to be buried behind my L or R rear sight (RS) by the time I roll over my support hand into my grip. The movement in subtle, but it's the difference of at least one FS-blade-width. My support hand needs to move to the gun quickly, but if it slaps it, chances are I'm going to mess something up. By rep #60 I could feel the where the pressure in the heel of my primary hand from the support hand "driving the gun back" (like Shannon Smith says) was supposed to be. If my dominant wrist is locked, and I've got pressure in the bottom of my heel, 90% chance I'm where I'm supposed to be. Rep #75: Fatigue setting in. I'm not raising the hands high enough. Rep #80: Introducing R/L foot forward stances don't change anything. Good. Rep #90: Reps are starting to get faster Rep #100: Spread the fingers of my dominant hand to cover as much of the grip as possible. Also keeps my skin from stacking up and chafing / blistering. Rep #125: Do 25 sitting. Lower body shouldn't matter. This is about my eyes, shoulder's, hands, and fingers right? The urge is to present it WAY WAY high. Fixed that. Interesting, the index finger on my support hand determines the vertical adjustment of the FS? When I "miss" with it, i.e. mash it against the bottom of the trigger guard the gun presents way too high. When I "miss it low", and it comes into the notch between my ring and middle finger, the gun presents low. Cool. Does it count as "Dry-fire" if I never touch the trigger? -BB
  5. 24 November, 2013 New range diary, eh? Posting your personal struggles with bad shooting for the world to see, eh? I'm skeptical of this endeavor in the extreme; mostly because I don't think anything I'd have to say is particularly insightful. I'm fairly sure this board is full of people just like me trying to get better, and the last thing it needs is me pouring out my mediocrity by the bucketful through the written word. But… Someone I trust once said: "… without the assistance of a teacher many roads become open to a practitioner, some on the correct path and some on the incorrect path." This is a self serving effort to capitalize on the experience of a community full of people that know way more then I do about a subject I'm coming to rather late. Perhaps I can whittle down the number of "incorrect paths". Here goes nothing… ----- The Wake-Up Call: About a million years ago, I reloaded around 500 rounds of .40 too short. They fed alright in my Sig 229, but the OAL created 3-point jams in my M&P. Before you ask, the pressure was fine, they weren't an insane charge, they were just a few, seemingly critical, thousandths short. Anyway, at the time I was just coming off an overseas trip, and decided for several reasons DA/SA guns were no longer for me. Out went the 229, (which is a fine gun by any measure and currently serving nightstand duty for a trusted coworker) and I resigned myself to having 250-some rounds of .40 under my bench I'd never touch. Fast forward to the 24th. I figured it's been a real long time since I was at the range. I had some spare targets. I had some spare time. Lets shoot some bullets. The only ones I had on-hand were the defective "shorts". Hm. I know! I'll load one-at-a-time, and simulate a draw stroke to see if I can fine tune the "details". Target at 10y. Load one into the chamber, start with the gun unholstered in the strong hand with my weak hand at my side. Bring the hands together, lock in the grip, catch the sights, press the trigger. Lather, rinse repeat for as long as I can stand the monotony of being awesome. Simple, right? It went something like this. (round counts approximate) Rnds 1 - 50 " Wow… holy crap it's been awhile. It looks like someone took a shotgun to the A-ish zone. Way, way too many of those breaking the line. I'm not even going half speed, what the hell? " Rnds 51 - 75 "Wait, am I breaking the shot before I see the sights? What are my sights even DOING between the instant I get my support hand on the gun and the instant I break the trigger. And after that where are they GOING? Am I flinching?" Ball and Dummy Drill: "Oh yeah. I'm flinching." Rnds 76 - 105: "Okay, okay okay. I'm not flinching anymore so bad, and the groups have tightened up a little, but where are my sights GOING? Why is the last thing I'm seeing my front sight picking up-and-to-the-right?" (I'm right handed) Rnds 106 - 120: "Let off some rounds into the back-stop, with no target, and just track the sights. I'm losing the sight in some recoil induced bobble up-and-to-the-right before they come back down. There definitely a blind spot there. Follow through is nonexistent" 120 - 150: "Headshots. Slow way, way down and get the A. That one was an A right? Holy crap, I have no idea where my rounds are going." Lessons Learned: - My grip is backwards. I'm crushing the gun with my firing hand (right) and the support's along for the ride. My wrists aren't locked in, and my hand placement's a mess. - My "press out" is inconsistent. I tried to change it a while back and fell off the path of righteousness something serious. I pick up the sight late, sometimes barely at all, and Back to my old method, immediately. - I had/have/will have again a noticeable pre-ignition flinch. - If I'm blinking immediate after the shot it explains my inability to follow through and my loss of the sight in the recoil phase. Solutions: 1. Change the Grip. Find something that works. Try this; (link removed b/c I'm new) 2. Focus on keeping the gun level during the press out. 3. Blinking, Many Remedies (link removed b/c I'm new) 4. Flinch: Dry fire. Dry fire at the range while others are shooting. Ball and dummy drill as a final tool, if needed and as a double check.
  6. I'm not. I've seen some of their threads, though. I've used one of their guides on zero'ing AR-series rifles for years, but I've never opened an account. I'll poke around and see if there's any matches near me. Nothing teaches like "doing", right?
  7. Yup! I'm really excited about it. I'd followed Ben Stoeger's 15 minute dry fire routine for awhile, but never regularly, and never as part of a larger program. I'd warm up with it fifteen minutes before a range session three or four times a year. I hear nothing but great reviews of the book. It should be an important reference. What did you like most about it?
  8. Hi all! I've lurked on here for years, but never been an active voice in the community. I'm an experienced shooter, and always been a "good shot" since I was a young man growing up in the MD/PA area. I've just starting out viewing shooting less as "something fun", and more as "something to build skill at" by actively focusing on my technique. I'm finding out I'm no where as good as I want to be, and I"m looking forward to getting better. I'm a two-tour Army veteran, and currently in the National Guard, so I've got a professional interest in getting better. I reload 9mm, 40, and 45, when I have the time (and can find the components) and live-fire around twice a month. Everyone loves talking about gear, and over the years I've deployed with, or shot considerable rounds through: M9's, M11's, all manner of M16-series weapons, Glock 17/19's, my customized 1911 and S&W M&P40. They've all got their perks, and drawbacks. Some I kept. Some I had to turn back into the arms room. I'm a little constricted on range facilities, my LGS/indoor range doesn't allow holster draw, movement, or run targets beyond 75'. So I do a lot of dry fire, and I've got some books on the way to help spice up my routine. Hopefully, by participating in this forum (and maybe some day competition) and taking a more deliberate, mindful approach to training, I can sharpen my learning curve. I look forward to soaking up everything I can everything I can! Step 1: Slow Down. -BB
  9. I've found that there's a interesting amount of specificity in my body responses to both maximal strength effort, and high stress situations. Conventional wisdom: 180+ Bps heart beat must equal tunnel vision and loss of fine motor control. My observation: 180+ BPS does sometimes enduce tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, and other interesting psychomotor effects, but not consistantly. Futhermore, loss of fine muscle control is largely independent, at least for me. If we lost fine motor control, under extreme duress, how do fighter pilots, neurosurgeons, and others achieve such amazing feats? I know a guy who can excise highly specific portions of the human brain under frightening clinical conditions - heck, all I want to do is hit a single-stack reload consistantly. Conventional wisdom: "Over-gripping" leads to a loss of accuracy. My observation: Pretty much the same as yours. Some degredation, but certainly not as much as we're led to believe or expect. What would be interesting is to see if you can "over-grip" one hand whilst retaining your normal, "proper" grip with another. Easy enough to set up. Get a moderately hard crush gripper-training, close it on a penny, draw and fire your string. If I had to venture a hypothsis, I'd bet your gun-hand follows the grip in your test hand due to reflex. This has implications for downed buddy drags, or anyone who wants to shoot while peeling a soft boiled egg.
  10. I also have the SDB, and have spent literally YEARS chasing issues I can recount in detail. I had OAL problems for probably the first year I owned the machine. I'll skip to the end and just say the following: It's really, really important to set the SDB and use it as per the directions. Factors that directly or indirectly messed with my OAL measurement: Mounting the press. It needs to be VERY firmly mounted to the bench. My bench was a piece of crap. Now, almost a decade later, it's a piece of crap with a significant amount of reinforcing and butressing. Movement in the machine will translate to variations in the spec's of the finished product, as well as give you nightmares in the priming system. Ensure you're using the right bullet-profile steating die. It comes with (in many cases) two different seating dies. Judge the one you want with the die outside of the machine, with a bullet and the die in your hand. Then REMEMBER which one is which when you put them back in the machine. Yup. Screwed THAT one up a couple of times. As others have posted, carbide dies or not, lube your cases. It makes the overall operation smoother, as well, and that helps. Operate the machine as smoothly as possible. I don't even attempt to replicate Dilion's per-hour production numbers. 200 GOOD rounds an hour beat spilt powder, crazy OAL's, backwards primers, crazy machine malfunctions, and a quiet internal meltdown when you've got to pull out those little brass tabs to repair a mistake or dump the entire shell-plate and go back to the beginning. Go slow. Before you blame the different manfacturers headstamps, measure the cases as they come out of the resizing die. I've always found that when my first station die is set up correctly, the resized cases are remarkably consistant. Glad to hear it's looking up. Once I really learned the machine, and made all the mistakes possible, it has actually turned into a great little reloader that has saved me money and loaded many thousands of rounds flawlessly.
  11. I mis-spoke. I've been chasing this jam for the entire morning, and it's been a frustrating experience. What I'm experiencing is a failure-to-feed, it picks the round up, sometimes, but jams it against the barrel hood. I've hear it referred to as a "three-point jam" at times. I used to have a visual reference guide to pistol jams, but I've lost the link. I stepped away from the situation for a second. Took a minute, got a cup of coffee. Settled myself. I've been shortening my OAL in an attempt to fix the issue - I just loaded three rounds with no powder long - 1.135.... this SEEMS to fix the issue. They don't hang up when I send the slide forward by sling-shot or by side release. There's none of the tactile resistance I felt with the others, the best way to describe it would by a little shudder while the slide went forward. I think the next step is to load 50 rounds at the longer length, and if they work at the range, save the shorter rounds for my Sig. It seems to feed and fire the shorts just fine. Thanks for letting me vent!
  12. Hey all, long time follower, first time poster. I'm having recurring issues with my M&P40. I love the gun, but my lead reloads won't cycle reliably. I'm loading 180gr LFP to 1.110 - 1.120 OAL, with a substantial crimp. I have unpredictable double feeds. Sometimes it's the shorter shells, sometimes it's the longer ones. The problem doesn't seem magazine related. Factory, FMJ, and JHP rounds all feed flawlessly. What am I doing wrong? Could it be something with the extractor? Is there a know issue here, and my search-fu failed me? Thanks!
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