mjoy64

Personally I prefer a plain black front sight over a FO. The FO in the Pro is huge and many prefer smaller. I also prefer adjustable rear sights over fixed. I put Dawson sights in the front and the rear. I've had 3 guns worked over by Dan Burwell and 1 by Mike Cywrus. Once you've felt a trigger done by a competent smith, you'll know the difference. It's huge. That said, I don't have any experience with the new-ish Apex sears so you may be able to get close to the same experience with a drop in part now.

I know what you mean about burning out. You'll get there! I'm looking forward to this year and getting better as well.

I think so. The weather was less than ideal but the first match is the hump she needed to get over. Done deal now. Hopefully up from here!

Especially when it is my 14 year old daughter. She shot her first IDPA match today! I'm especially grateful to all of the guys at the match who made her feel welcome. I'm also thankful for Steve J's patient job SOing her today. Mike

At least you didn't shoot the actual chrono like someone else we know (who shall go nameless)!

Glocks have never come close to 1/5th (20%) of Limited...not sure where you got that number. The highest has been 7% and the lowest under 2% (think it was 1.7). Those are numbers from Nationals as nobody else seems to keep track. 2004 there were 3 Glock shooters in Limited, 7 in 2005, etc...the hightest I saw was 15 shooters. That's in a field of 200-250 shooters. Sorry, I just don't see 10 or 15 out of 250 as a sizeable anything. And while I'm not picking on you, and I may be mistaken, but it doesn't sound like you've been shooting USPSA all that long. I'm far from the best travelled shooter, but in the last couple of years I've shot matches in 12 different states and no less than 17 different clubs that I can recall. That's not a huge number, but it's a pretty decent spread across the country. In all those different places there's normally one or two guys (often none at all) shooting a Glock in Limited....that's it. If it's one or two guys/gals here or there, it's not really a sizeable group. So, we might see one or two folks at matches now shooting an M&P in Limited, which is cool, but still isn't a big number any way you slice it....heck, there aren't even that many shooting them in Production yet (although the trend is up). I'm going to order one as soon as I can, but it's going to be another Production gun, and one that I can use my allotment of training ammo in. I guess it could be a backup to my Limited gun, but I couldn't substitute it in a match because it's of a different type, and that's not allowed. R, All of that sounds right. I would think that there would be a few more around the local matches than at the larger ones though. So... the number is probably a bit larger overall for the sport. For me the appeal is that I shoot USPSA and IDPA. I'd like to occasionally run my same (basic) platform in Limited w/o the drawback of minor PF scoring. As far as production setups... I've been seeing almost as many M&Ps as Glocks at the local matches I shoot. Of course I'm adding to that number!

09/19/09 USPSA Match in Waco Kind of a meh performance. I came away with four thoughts: a) The night before and the morning of can have an impact on your performance. I had some difficulty with a longish standards stage (25 yards) where I had 3 Mikes and just felt well... not sharp. 6 of the 25 yard shots were strong hand only and my hand was shaking so bad I had to just try to time the shot break. My take away was... cut out the beers the night before the match (even if you finish early). Start your day like you start your normal week. I normally drink a couple of cups of coffee in the morning during the work week, but not normally on the weekends. I think if you drink caffeinated beverages regularly, it is probably best to do so on match day as well. I also think it is probably a good idea to bring some type of healthy snack to the match. We shot the CM 03-03 "Take Em Down" classifier. I shoot production and had my plan. 11 shots no reload between positions. Apparently the force of reloading between positions/arrays is so strong that my muscle memory took over and as soon as I left the first barricade I pulled that mag and on the way to the second barricade I went "oh crap, I didn't want to reload" and got my brain stuck in between. I shot the remaining three poppers strong hand and of course had one miss. Dang, now I had to reload. Mental note... when you have a plan that deviates from your norm, you really need to mentally sear it into your brain beforehand. c) Position to position shooting is still my comfort zone. I need to work more on shooting with more flow in a USPSA COF. My confidence lacks for partials when moving. I must get more practice in this area to better understand my current capabilities and work towards enhancing them. d) USPSA matches are helping me build more mental muscle (like a different exercise might stress a muscle differently) because I have 3 to 4 reloads to manage as I break down the COF for a plan and then during execution of that plan. 09/20/09 IDPA Match in Temple Really, really good stages in our local match. Our club has done a fantastic job over the last year in improving the quality of the match with more props, interesting course designs, and dedicated effort by the MD and local shooters. We are attracting a lot of new shooters and our club is growing. I followed my lessons learned the prior day and had myself better prepared. I am doing much better about taking the "try" out of my execution of a COF and just shooting what I see as fast as I see it w/o forcing it. It's a weird sensation because it feels slow (like I need to speed up) and then the results show differently. I'm determined to try and remember this lesson at the IDPA Nationals in Tulsa this weekend and forget about trying to achieve some specIfic result. I'm just going to shoot the front sight and let the results fall where they may.

Thanks Steve. That was my most consistent match in a while. No big mistakes though several small ones. Safe travel for you!

"remember to go to fun club matches and clear your mind of all expectations" Amen to that. This is slowly sinking in for me. I'm heading towards losing the "try" (as in trying to go fast) when running a COF. Trying seems to jumble my mind up. Just shooting the front sight as fast as you see that "A" hit is really liberating from a mental standpoint. fyi... I appreciate the encouragement and all of the suggestions from everyone.

Doh!

Too bad you don't own gun that can take advantage of this!

09/16/09 1.5 hours live fire practice session. We kind of winged it by setting up 3 different IDPAish stages. Practiced barricade shooting and a little shooting on the move. No video for this session. The one cool thing about this practice session is it was the first session where we had range time dedicated for practice in the bays. Tue/Thur 5 - 7 are now designated by our range as practice time in the bays. I didn't get to shoot last weekend due to a death in the family so it was good to get out with my shooting buds and scrape off the rust. 09/17/09 45 minutes of dry fire. Just working on draws from holster, reloads, and some transition work. I pulled up the web page below and used the timer with par times for the draw practice. Very cool. I don't know who Paul is but I appreciate Matt Burkett putting it up on his web site. Neat tool. Dry fire RO List of Other Tools 09/18/09 2 hours of live fire practice. I was off, off, off. Everything felt awkward and forced. Frustrating but I suppose some days are going to be like that. I couldn't find the bottom of the magwell to save my life during this session. I do feel that getting my support hand aggressively moving to the center at the beep has helped shave some time off my draw. Note to self: How do you push for speed in practice and NOT introduce tension into your arms?? 3 reps on the 7 of Diamonds "Up and Down the Ladder". All runs in the mid 8's. This drill worked my brain over a little because there is a different round count on each target. More difficult than I thought it would be. Came home and worked another 30 minutes of dry fire working draws and reloads. IDPA Nationals are a week away. This will be my first "National" match and my forth big match (regional or bigger).

09/09/09 Worked a little dry fire working on my draw from holster. I noticed when I looked at my video that the support hand just kind of laid around until the strong hand got to the gun. I worked on getting that support hand to the centerline more immediately. I'm not sure if it makes a difference on my index but my shoulders look more in balance at that moment in the draw. It seems so basic and elemental but that's where I'm having to start. 50 draws from holster Example of what I saw vs. what I was trying to do tonight.

09/02/09 Practice Session Short and sweet. I forgot my video camera. 6 of Spades – “Half Pres” (5 reps – 30 rounds) 4.66 – 4A 1C 1D 4.59 – 3A 3C 4.81 – 3A 2C 1D 5.48 – 5A 1C 4.01 – 2A 3C 1D 4 of Hearts – “Draw Test Uprange” (10 reps – 10 rounds) 1.80 1.69 1.78 1.55 1.58 1.59 1.40 1.28 (the Mike) 1.61 1.34 (best A) Jack of Hearts – “Mozambique” (10 reps – 30 rounds) 2.13 2.21 2.03 2.16 2.36 09/04/09 Practice Session Jack of Spades – “Triple Moz” (1 rep – 36 rounds) 6 of Clubs – “Moving Bills” (2 reps – 36 rounds) 25 Yard Standards (2 reps – 24 rounds) We also ran a half a dozen 10 yard plate racks. Things I noticed: - I need to move my support hand earlier and more aggressively to my mid-section on the draw. - Trying to go fast on the plate rack proved ugly in the results. - It is difficult to shoot quickly (and find the front sight) at long distances if your feet are shifting around. Things I was trying to work on: - Getting more bend in my knees and more forward with my shoulders in my initial stance. - Relaxing my abdomen before the draw. An interesting test at 7 yards: - 5 shot group with perfect site picture at center of target. - 1 shot with top of sight completely up out of the notch. - 1 shot with top of sight at the bottom of the notch. - 1 shot with sight shoved to the left of the notch (just a sliver of sight visible). - 1 shot with sight shoved to the right of the notch (just a sliver of sight visible). All 4 shots with barely any sight picture were Cs. You’ve got to have nada for a sight picture to throw a Mike at that distance. Same test at 15 yards yielded Ds but still on the paper. Another interesting test was to shoot 2 five shot groups. 1st group with perfect front sight focus. 2nd group with focus on target. The shot group results were similar. My New Office/Dry Fire Practice Room I only dry fired once last week for about 15 minutes.

Today is the day that I commit to formalizing some goals for my shooting. Some of my shooting background - In May of 2007 I purchased my first handgun ever. I had never even fired a handgun. 1 week later I was enticed by a good friend to shoot a local IDPA match and I was hooked. It's 2 1/2 years later and I still just love to shoot. If it is a game that has something that goes bang... I'm in. I started with IDPA and have added Action Pistol, USPSA, all steel (with par times), and even my first 3 gun match 3 weeks ago. I have shot more IDPA matches than the others, but due to scheduling changes for some of the local matches I will now have a pretty even distribution between IDPA and USPSA matches. I am hoping to blend the skills from both games into an all-around set of solid shooting skills. I have much work to do. The Current State of Affairs I recently shot the IDPA classifier and moved up to SSP Expert. I only have about a half a dozen USPSA classifiers (most of them shot over a year ago) and have Production C card. I fully expect to move to B in the very near future. I am carrying around way to many pounds and need to improve immensely in this area. I am also feeling that, without a higher level of dedication, that I will hit the ceiling with my current progress. I have improved my shooting a lot over the last 4-5 months by actually GASP practicing! In comparing my last two IDPA classifiers I went from 62 points down to 27. I am pleased with my improvement... yet not content. I have a great group of compadres that I shoot with that have been pushing me to keep up. I plan to push them too! My Goals for the Next 6 Months IDPA - SSP Master USPSA - Production A Card Physical - Lose 30 lbs of bad weight My Plan Dry fire practice - Minimum 15 minutes a day for at least 5 days out of the week. I am setting up a wall in my office dedicated for dry fire! Live fire practice - Twice a week. I will be using the DR Performance Practice Deck 1.0 to provide a lot of the drills. Matches - 5 to 6 local matches a month with at least 2 of them IDPA (Temple and Copperas Cove) and 2 of them USPSA (Austin and Waco) matches. Video - I just purchased a Flip Ultra HD. Wow... video doesn't lie and is unforgiving in showing your shortcomings. I plan to learn everything I can from it and allow others to critique me and offer suggestions. This will be tough because this is such a skilled and knowledgeable crowd! Training - I am going to take a class with Dave Re before the year is out. My friend Paul had a good (if tiring) experience. Paul has already shared a lot of little things he learned. Very cool. Physical - 3 days weights. 3 days cardio. Start slow.... build up. Write out weekly plan for meals and stick to it. 1 free day. Must... cut... down... on... beer! What We're Working With Here Here's a couple of vids of some drills we ran a few days ago. I know there is much to improve. TIA for all of the Other Shooting Diaries I just wanted to thank all of the shooters who actively post in this forum. It is inspiring to see each and every one of you lay it out there for all to see and critique. I look forward to using this forum to account for my own journey. Mike Joy

"At the beginning of my class with Dave I was averaging in the 1.50 to 1.7 range" - That was just a plain draw from holster, one shot, at 7 yards if I understand correctly. As it happens... I have his times from our practice session tonight. 4 of Hearts (facing up range, wrists above shoulders, turn, draw, one shot from 10 yards) - 6A 3C 1M 1.81 1.64 1.69 1.52 1.29 (dat was the Mike) 1.86 1.65 1.57 1.64 1.56 Paul... I'll e-mail you the other times. Mike

Gracias Paul!

I'm looking forward to hearing how it goes!

For maximum quick find effect it needs to involve a recoil master... lol!

That's awesome Ryan! I'm working on my youngest daughter to draw her into our games. I have a little something for her that is coming in next week and it looks like...

Doug, I keep meaning to get together for some practice. Everything I've been doing the last several weeks has been impromptu last minute stuff. Mike

Thanks all! It helps to have a great group of guys pushing you to get better.

I honestly don't know the answer to your question. Maybe it's because the COF descriptions at our matches include "steel must be neutralized in tactical priority" (borrowed from a previous post). I don't know that for fact, just that is the way we score the miss on steel when slicing the pie. I'm not trying to assert any particular right answer... just the way we tend to score it at our local matches.

That's the way we've always scored it at our matches... unless the COF states otherwise. Engaging the next target (from a slicing the pie perspective) w/o knocking the steel down dings you with a procedural for exposing yourself to an target that hasn't been neutralized. I don't know if it necessarily makes sense... we've just always scored it that way.