Rob D

I actually find long sessions to be helpful too. When I'm REALLY trying to improve, I'll dry fire for 1-2 hours a couple nights a week and then short workouts on the other nights. Your hands get tired, and your muscles fatigue, but that helps to build hand strength and both physical and mental endurance. I don't know that it's always practical to train for that long, but it does yield massive gains if you can stay focused. If I remember correctly, Hwansik Kim did something like 2 hours of dry fire a day during the two years where he went from newbie to world class.

Buy either "Repetition and Refinement" by Steve Anderson or "Dry-Fire Training:Reloaded" by Ben Stoeger. Both are great books and having both isn't a bad idea. The key to dry fire is to do it deliberately and systematically. Pick skills to work on, track your performance, and pay attention to those 0.1 second differences in each drill time as you improve. If you stick with it, you will see dramatic improvement. Also, IMO dry fire is most effective when you do it nearly every day. I think you get more benefit from doing 15 minutes a day instead of doing 2 hours once a week.

Not surprising. Since you're not using the sights in CO, the sight radius isn't a factor.

Get the longest sight radius you are allowed to have for the division you want to shoot. 17L>34>17>19>26

Yes, you could add a tiny bit of weight to the front of the gun by doing this and be legal for limited only. That said, there are lots of cheaper, and more effective ways of adding weight to the gun that are already legal for limited division. I can 100% promise you that spending the same money on ammo and/or training will benefit your shooting more than a threaded barrel.

I appreciate all the suggestions. I will definitely look into all of them. I'm not sure where to get an alumni list, but I'll ask around and see what's available. We have quite a bit of free labor with all these college kids. We just need the material to build stuff. I'm considering asking local businesses for donations and giving them an OSU shooting team t-shirt with a 2016 sponsor list on the back.

***Mods - accidentally posted this in Rules forum instead of USPSA shooting forum. Please move. Thanks!*** I've been shooting USPSA matches since 2008 and have a fair amount of experience as a competitor. I recently decided to go back to college for a second degree and found out that my school(Oklahoma State University) has started a practical shooting team. They have 10-12 kids that show up regularly. Until I joined they were just going to the local range, blasting away with whatever rounds they brought, then going home. Now we have a scheduled weekly practice session in which I'm doing my best to teach them good technique and match skills, and we compete in 1-2 local matches per month. We plan on applying for USPSA membership as a club once our range is suitable to host a match, but in the mean time, I'm looking for some advice on the following: 1: How to raise funds - The club has a few target stands and a few pieces of steel, but that's it. No walls, no shooting boxes, no boundaries to construct shooting areas, nothing. Last week I tried to teach them how to enter/exit positions, but without shooting boxes or visual barriers, the kids were just running back and forth across a couple of target sticks. We would also like to purchase some belt/holster rigs for the club that could be loaned out to students who want to participate. Does anybody have experience with trying to fund a club like this? We're applying for an NRA grant and a NSSF grant, but in the mean time we are thinking of soliciting local businesses or possibly trying some other kind of fundraiser. 2: How to find sponsors - we could use all the support we can get. The team doesn't have any great shooters at this point, but would it be productive to look for sponsors that might like the idea of promoting the shooting sports with younger generations? We need range equipment, gear, and especially training. Anything we could get donated or through sponsorship would be a huge help to the team 3: How to(affordably) acquire range equipment - We would like to host our own match eventually, but for now we just need enough to allow for effective training stages. What are the most practical ways of building and storing walls, target stands, etc. Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I've got a friend with a similar problem and I'm trying to help him out. When these guns "lock up" due to long ammo, are they seizing while almost into battery, or does the round fail to move past the feed ramp and go into the chamber? He's having the latter problem. Just trying to decide whether I should look to this thread for a solution, or keep searching. Thanks

About 6 weeks ago I found a little house that will fit my needs well so I made an offer on it. After having the home inspected we found the roof would need to be replaced. We were in a bit of a tight spot because they seller has no money to fix the roof, and I don't want to pay for the repair because if there is any problems with closing I'll essentially be purchasing him a new roof. After tons of back and forth we worked out a deal for him to have the roof repaired with a roofing company that was willing to be paid on the closing date, this way I can add the repair cost into the offer and the roof can still be fixed before closing. Fast forward to today - the Bank's appraisal report came back and they gave me a list of 10 items that need to be repaired before I can close including replacing all of the flooring in the house. The crazy part is that the appraised value is exactly what I offered for the house - $72K. I understand that they don't want to get stuck with a junky old house, but I'm putting 20% down and all of the items on the list were things I was going to repair ONCE I OWNED THE HOUSE. The seller has no money to fix anything, and this may cause the deal to fall through which means I'm out the $450 mortgage application fee and the $300 I spent on the home inspection. Unbelievable. At this point I'd rather be kicked square in the junk than ever have to deal with another bank on a mortgage. The term "necessary evil" comes to mind.

Thanks guys. Oklahoma State University is just down the street and I have several customers that work at the physical plant. I'll check that route, and then pursue Craigslist as a backup.

I'd like to buy about 8 plastic 55 gallon barrels to use as props for training at my home range. I've looking online and even the used ones seem to be going for about $45 each. Does anyone have a good source for these or some advice on where to look? I run an auto shop and I'm up to my eyeballs in steel 55 gallon drums, but the thought of lugging them around the range, or worse, stacking them, doesn't sound like fun. I practice on a private range, but I have to set up and tear down any props/targets I want to use which makes long practice sessions even longer. I'm hoping somebody associated with a club knows where to buy plastic drums or what kind of businesses might have them laying around the way I have steel drums. Thanks in advance.

Is the range surface still dirt? I haven't shot there in several years, but a wet match at the Double Tap Ranch used to mean cars stuck in the parking lot and 10 lbs of clay stuck to the bottom of each shoe. **** My question was answered on another forum. I'm told Robert put down some kind of gravel on the bays and that it's a huge improvement over the old range surface. Thanks to Robert Porter!

Reloads are costing you a lot of time. Practice getting your reloads done in one step. A great drill for this is to put a piece of tape on the floor, and then arrange smaller pieces around it, sort of like a clock. Start standing on the middle piece of tape with your sights on target and trigger prepped. When the buzzer goes off, drop your mag and perform a reload while stepping to the 1 o'clock position. Do a few reps at 1 o'clock, then move to 2 o'clock and so forth. This way you're working toward the ability to get a reload done while taking a single step in any direction. When you're moving between positions, this will allow you to get the reload done and then RUN to the next position instead of doing the classic "reload hobble" from position to position.

I'm really sorry to hear about your dog. It hurts like nothing I've ever felt before, but like you said, it's worth it. I wouldn't trade the time I got to spend with Charlie for anything in the world. I hope your decision brings you and your family peace, even if it's painful.

Thanks to everyone for your support and kind words. I'm feeling better today than I was Saturday, but I think it's going to take a while before I stop expecting to see him when I get home from work on wake up in the morning.

My dog, Charlie, started having trouble breathing two nights ago. I noticed he was taking quick short breaths and seemed to be exhausted easily. Luckily, my home town is also home to a Vet school with a teaching hospital. I took Charlie in to the ER and they confirmed he was out of breath and put him on oxygen. His x-rays showed some kind of cloudiness in his lungs. The doctors weren't sure whether it was cancer or some kind of infection. Early this morning the vet called to let me know that Charlie was getting tired from having to struggle for every breath. The vet was worried he would stop breathing before the end of the night and asked if I wanted to have him put on a ventilator. He explained that most pets who are put on ventilators don't recover and are very prone to infections. I turned down the ventilator and went up to the vet hospital to check on Charlie myself. He was struggling to breath but was still happy to see me. The vet said if he could make it through the next day it might give the meds a chance to work so his lungs could improve. At about 5AM they called me to let me know he was losing consciousness. His heart stopped about two minutes before I arrived. My dad helped me dig him a grave under a big pecan tree in my parents' back yard. I know losing pets is part of owning pets, but Charlie was my first pet of any kind and I didn't get him until I was 22. He was my best friend and constant companion for almost 8 years. He was a great dog, and I'll miss him.

When I'm driving my car and want to go faster, I just press on the *thumb rest [generic]*. Interesting. I'm guessing a certain manufacturer of thumb rests got upset with everyone using his product name to describe thumb rests in general and threw a fit about it. Seems counter-productive. (Sorry for the thread drift, had to test it.)

I live fire practice once a week, usually with 200-300 rds working on specific skills. I dry fire practice for 15-90 minutes every single night, even after matches or live-fire practice. I try to shoot at least 3 matches a month. I'm currently A class, but will hopefully be moving up to M as soon as they update the database. I just started this practice regimen about 2 months ago after a 3 year break from shooting. Before that, I dry-fired for 15-20 minutes 3-4 times a week and practiced live-fire a couple of times a month.

Agreed. I've always heard that referred to as "riding the sights." It's definitely slow.

They're not stuck behind the gun riding the sights from target to target, but every time they shoot their head and shoulders are in the same position behind the gun. If you imagine an isosceles triangle with the sides being your arms and the base representing your shoulders and head position, the triangle should(ideally) be exactly the same every time you shoot. In a transition, your head is going to swivel to the next target first, then the rest of the triangle should follow, driven by your legs and hips. We may be debating semantics.

Maybe for targets very close together, but for the most part, this isn't correct. I disagree. Keeping the geometry of your eyes, shoulders, and gun uniform throughout an array will make your shooting platform much more stable and will allow you to drive transitions from your legs, which is infinitely faster than trying to turn with your shoulders or arms. Aside from that, it makes you much more consistent and makes it easier to acquire the front sight. Stage designers will put targets in places that MAKE you shoot from uncomfortable positions, but you'll be faster and more consistent if your upper body positioning stays the same for every target. Do a youtube search on vogel, sevigny, Nils, Leatham, or strader. All of them treat their upper body like it's a turret and use their lower body to turn the gun towards the targets.

Gives me flashbacks to the year I spent in Wisconsin. I found out quickly that I prefer Oklahoma snow, which melts after 2-3 days, not months.

Not acceptable. It's one thing if they want to hang back and get the best look they can at the stage from behind the firing line, but they need to stay off the stage. I do think it's acceptable for the on deck shooter AND the "in the hole" shooter(shooter after next) to walk the stage during pasting. The on deck shooter should always get preference, but if I'm about to be on deck, I'll wait until the on-deck shooter is out of a position before I start trying to air gun and from that spot. On-deck always has preference, but i don't mind if the guy behind me is walking the stage too as long as he stays out of my way.

Good luck their. As far as I know the last pistol controller was the old NES Zapper. They still work great, but you have to find an old tube TV because they won't work on an LCD. Duck hunt is more of a tactical training tool anyway.

+1. Do some reverse draws. Without the timer running, start with your sights on target and then smoothly and efficiently perform your draw backwards, bringing the gun to your chest, then the holster, and then dropping your left hand. Do it exactly like you do in a draw, just in reverse. This helps me establish NPOA.