Rob D

I drove down to the Oklahoma City Gun club and shot their club match yesterday. The stages were a little tricky this week, and my performance wasn't without screw-ups, but I did pretty well overall. All the movement drills I've been doing are paying off. My times were noticeably faster than they usually are. Focusing on where I plant my right foot when I set up on targets made it a lot easier to note positions in the walk through, then get into them while running the stage. I've always had to do a lot of foot shuffling in the past, and I think I'm really improving on this. I'm also working on stomping the gas/brakes when moving between positions. There were several low ports on yesterday's stages and I did a lot better on them then I have in the past. I think the barricade dryfire drills are making me more stable in awkward shooting positions where I would have been trembling or wobbling a month ago. So that's what I did right yesterday. I also had 2 mikes and a no shooter >_<. The mikes were both total surprises and were both on the last target for the stage. I think I might be getting excited and not following through on my last shot? I have no idea on this one. I'll just have to make sure I see the sights lift on every shot including the last one. The no-shoot was on the Classifier "Cash and Carry." I pulled the shot about an inch to the left of the A zone that was lined up between two NS targets. So I'm speeding up, which is awesome, but my accuracy declined a little bit. That's not a huge surprise since I haven't been getting out to the range as much as I usually do lately because of cold weather/holidays/etc. I did go to my grandparents for Christmas a week ago. They live on 40 acres and I got a couple hundred rounds of 9mm white box for Christmas, so I got in a pretty good practice session that day, but there was only a place to put up a single target, so I didn't get to practice transitions at all. I'll be shooting another match next sunday, and I'm really going to focus on dry fire all week. Like I said in my last post, I really want to get my B card by march and I don't think that's unattainable since I'm sitting at about 56% right now. My dad got some video of my yesterday, I'll post it for critique as soon as I can get my hands on it. Other than that, I'm going to keep practicing the hell out of my weaknesses. They seem to multiply as I learn more about the sport, but more stuff to improve on means more improvement can take place right? Edit: Here's the video. The Youtube caption says I won the stage, but I didn't. My dad just got this stage mixed up with the one that I did win.

One of the targets I use for dry-fire has the A Zone outlined. I just used Painters tape to go all the way around the border. I cut the tape so that it fits INSIDE the A zone and not around the A zone. I first did this because I was unfamiliar with the IPSC target and wanted to get a feel for where the A zone actually was.

23...which is the actual age of my brain.

Sounds like I should probably try both options and see how each fits. I bet I can talk a few local guys into letting try their guns if I beg on the local forums. I'm also not ruling out a good deal on a used 2011 setup, I just know I don't have the 3K+ to get into a new one.

I'm planning on building an open glock sometime in the next year. I want to shoot the whole 2009 season in production and get my A card, then switch to open because those lightsabers look like a ton of fun. I'm hoping to start getting the gun piece by piece as I can afford it(hopefully so I can get a few things secondhand to save money). Here's the plan: Glock 17 KKM Fitted barrel with threads for comp SJC Major Comp Dawson Ice Magwell Home Stippling Job Home trigger job using Joe D's thread. I'm hoping this will be enough to be competitive. I'm just wondering if there is a disadvantage to mounting a fastfire/jpoint on the slide rather than using a frame mounting system with a C-more or something similar. Is it harder to track a dot that's rocking with the slide? I know there are a lot of guys on the forum that have glocks with slide-ride optics. How do you guys like them? Do you feel like you're giving anything up to the guys with the frame mounts? Thanks in advance.

Does anybody know anything about what kind of skills they're teaching or the quality of instruction?

That thread is awesome. I also tend to blow stages when my plan gets interrupted. Last month at a match I missed a piece of steal that caused me to have to reload where I had not planned to which threw me off completely and although the stage felt pretty good, the RO shrugged when I finished and said the dreaded, "Two mikes, one FTE" Doh! I'm definitely going to work on learning to respond.

I agree. Also, somebody is deifinitely going to get DQ'd for picking their gun up from the wrong side of the barrel. Not saying the stage should be DQ proof, but to do this one safely, you'd have to knock down the NS, then run around the barrel so you could pick up your gun while facing downrange, then run to the shooting area.

Wow those turns are fast. I kept thinking he'd take out a spectator.

I sometimes wonder if that's why my Dad brings me to matches. That's awesome Seth! Now you've got me thinking about having kids.

Does IDPA not allow the tape? I was thinking about trying to get a classification before state rolls around. Do I need to make some frosted glasses? I started using it at the end of august and was instantly amazed. Both eyes open, only one target and one set of sights. That was a huge improvement from having to squint or close my left eye at every shooting position. Just being able to use my left eye for peripheral vision in transitions helps a ton. This thread completely fixed my vision issues with shooting. Now if I could just learn to see more.

In my small amount of experience, using loads close to the 125PF floor require a lighter spring to feed consistently. I run the 14lb.

+1 Why add more rules to an already restrictive division? Nobody is going to want to enforce them, and the process for doing so would discourage people from shooting production. Who wants to spend extra time going through Chrono and waiting for someone to detail strip your gun and examine each part. Further, who wants to strip and examine them? As PB said, you don't NEED the mods to be competitve(Dave Sevigny, Rob Vogel). I'm all for letting guys who want to toy with their guns do so. I'll keep mine mostly stock and will almost never have to clear a jam. Also, those who chose to do a lot of modification will be at a disadvantage when having to shoot any match under IPSC rules. Lets let everyone play and leave the little decisions up to the shooters. It's not like we're seeing 1# triggers on productions guns. A little less overtravel isn't going to hurt anyone.

Ha ha, yeah. There are definitely benefits to it.

Barricades have been eating my lunch at matches for the last several months. I had the day off yesterday and decided to do something about it. Here's the view from my living room: I spent about 30 minutes working on barricade drills last night. I'm doing El prez, but shooting from one side of the barricade, then reloading and shooting from the other. I think making myself put the gun on all three targets from each side is really pushing my flexibility. The cause for my barricade troubles was pretty apparent this morning when I woke up with both my sides aching. Apparently those muscles haven't been up to snuff. I'm hoping that strengthening them will give me a much more stable shooting platform when leaning to either side. Aside from the barricade, I'm working on compartmentalizing my reloads. I was reading the singlestack reload thread, and read about the technique that involves bringing the magwell to the place where you front sight was immediately before the reload so that you can use almost a clapping motion to bring the gun down onto the mag as you set your weak-hand grip. I realized that all I've ever heard about how to reload only involved getting the mag up to the magwell quickly. Besides that thread, I've never heard or read anything about how to insert the mag and get the gun back on target as much as possible. I think this technique will make my reloads a lot quicker. They're not THAT slow when I'm standing still but the motions get all fuddled when I try to move and I often end up trotting around the stage wasting time. I got to the part in Brian's book where he talks about getting the reload done by the 1st or 2nd step so that you can focus on running when reloading between positions. This will probably help me a great deal too, as my thought on this topic before was "well as long as the mag is in the gun by the time I get to the position I'm not wasting any time." I'm going to work some reload-movement drills into my live fire routine to practice this. I'm also really trying to work on becoming aware of any tension in my body before the buzzer goes off. I'm trying to completely relax and be totally at ease at the buzzer. I think focusing on my breathing is helping. Just having a consistent breathing pattern at the start has made me a lot more comfortable with the buzzer. I've taken the advice of some others on the board and started a slow steady inhale at "stand by." I then continue inhaling after the buzzer until my gun is on target then I stop breathing until I've finished shooting the position. Tons of work to do, but I have plenty time. I wanted to go out and shoot today, but the weather here is pretty nasty so I'm going to save my ammo for a nicer day.

Let me first say THANKYOU, THANKYOU, THANKYOU to Brian and everybody else on the forums. I'm a total beginner and these forums have been such a huge source of help for me. You guys are awesome and I sincerely appreciate your willingness to stop and answer my questions and lend advice. Thankyou Brian for hosting this amazing site. The first 3 or 4 months I spent practicing were largely unproductive because I didn't really know what to practice or even how to go about making progress as a shooter. I have a long way to go, but now I know where to find the answers when I do hit a road block. You guys rock. I shot my first club match back in April, and have since fallen in love with this sport. I've been shooting as many matches as I can afford, and doing as much live fire practice as I can afford paired with daily dry fire practice. I just got my initial classification last month after switching divisions a few times(thanks to a SS with some feeding issues). Right now, I'm a C class Production shooter at about 55%. My Goal right now is to have my B card by March '09 and then continue on toward A in the 09 season. I also want to shoot at least 3 major matches this year to get a feel for the pressure of performing at a big match. I'm shooting production because it's what I can afford right now, but I want to move up to limited once I get my A card in production. Those open guns look like a blast, but I don't see that kind of spare change anywhere in my near future. Definitely down the road though. Here's my training program right now: Dryfire 30-60 minutes of dryfire AT LEAST 5 days a week. I'm using Repitition and Refinement for this, but I haven't been able to practice any of the movement drills because I haven't had the space for it. I plan to start doing box drills in my yard, holding a bottle of water or something similar to simulate holding my gun without scaring the piss out of the neighbors. Here's an example of what I'll do for a dry fire workout: 50 Sight Picture Confirmations at 5 yard (starting .2 above par and moving back down) 50 Burkett Reloads 30ish Sight Picture Confirmations at 10 yards 30ish SPC from Surrender 30ish SPC from turn and draw 30 6 reload 6's 30 El Prez's That's about the right amount of work, but the drills vary daily. Live Fire I try to go out at least once a week, but my finances are tight and I don't always have the cash for ammo. I'm 23 and working a counter job to save up the cash to finish up my degree right now, so spare money is rare, but shooting is my main priority right now with the exception of paying off the bursar, so I try to do as much as I can afford. I hit the range at least 4 times a month, but some weeks I end up shooting matches instead of practicing. Here's an example of what I do during live fire practice. I usually go through 200 rounds in a practice session. Start with some draw and fire without the timer to get warmed up 5-6 Bill Drills 40-50 rounds practicing transitions(set up two targets and do A-B-A under the timer) 40-50 rounds doing box to box drills(I shoot 1 shot, run, shoot another, run, etc. try to use as little ammo for as much running as possible) Once I start getting towards the end of my ammo I use my last 3 or 4 mags to shoot five shot groups at increasing distances, starting at 10 yards and moving out to about 40. I don't worry about time on these, just practicing to keep up my accuracy. Reading I'm currently about 2/3 of the way through Brian's book and about half way through Robin Taylor's The Glock in Competition (I shoot a 34). I also soak up as much information as I can through these forums. Matches I shoot at least 2 club matches a month, sometimes 3 if I can get the days off work. I shot the OK Sectional in september, that was the closest thing to a Major I've ever shot, but like I said, I want to shoot 3 major matches in 2009. I'm starting off with the Double Tap Championship, and I definitely want to shoot nationals(I went to watch this year, which was a blast, but I didn't feel ready to shoot), so that leaves me one more major match. I'm also going to try picking up a second job or doing some contract work in my free time to fund more matches and practice sessions. So there you have it. I'm hoping to expand my live-fire practice once I get the funding, and I'm going to start doing movement drills at home this week as I am realizing I can shave several seconds off of every stage with more than 1 position just by learning to stomp the gas and the brakes instead of trotting from one position to the next.

I asked for a mosquito for christmas back in september, my dad bought it and thought that it looked so cool that he bought himself one. We went out and shot his and couldn't make it run at all. Jams every 5-6 rounds with federal bulk packs from walmart. My dad went out the next day with some more expensive CCI ammo and said it ran a little better, but still jammed. The only thing that attracted me to the mosquito was the fact that I could actually watch the sights rock between shots, just like my competition gun. that being said, the one they got me for christmas is now listed for sale on a local forum. I haven't even looked at it yet, but after shooting the one my Dad picked up, I'm sticking with my MKII and I'm going to spend my christmas money on a glock replica airsoft setup for indoor practice.

That would definitely be ideal, but I don't have the dough for a second gun at the moment, and at this point in my progression, that money would probably be better spent on ammo anyway. I've already got extra springs from switching to competition weights. I think I'll just order an extractor and trigger pin set and I'll be fine. Thanks for putting these together Flex. Don't know why I didn't find the G22 thread in my search.

What do you experienced Glock shooters keep in your range bag for spare parts? I haven't been worrying about it since my gun was pretty much new when I bought it, but I'm putting a lot of rounds through it with practice and matches. What do you guys keep in your bags, and about how many rounds should I expect to put through it before something breaks. So far it's run flawlessly with the exception of a few problems I caused by screwing with it. It's just my only pistol at this point so I don't want to have leave a match that I had to drive an hour or two to get to just because something broke and I don't have a spare.

Thanks. That's the first thing I noticed too. I've improved a little on my movement since this video was shot, but I have plenty to learn. It's been a several years since I competed in anything physical so I think I can pick up a lot of speed just getting into better shape and practice sprint drills like suicides. I also have about 30lbs (40 in the video) to lose, but I'm working on that right now. I think I'll try that. I've been reading Brian's book, and practicing with Steve Anderson's but being able to watch someone actually perform the movements would help a lot. I have been shooting regularly since then and can definitely see a lot of bad habits that I'm already addressing. The few times I've been able to get video of my shooting it has been tremendously helpful. I tend to feel like I'm moving really fast when I'm shooting, then when I watch it I'm thinking, "Wow, that looks slow." Thanks to everyone and keep it coming! If anyone was wondering, this is what the nationals stages looked like 2 weeks after nationals (note the dried up mud pits).

One of the guys in my squad filmed me on a couple stages at the Oklahoma LPR sectional back in september. Here are the videos: The camera angle isn't ideal, but I could really use some constructive criticism. One of the first and most obvious things I noticed was how slowly I moved between positions. I'm going to start doing some box to box drills with my dryfire routine to help with this. I just started competitive shooting in april, so I'm just now learning all the basics and I have plenty to work on. Please point out any areas for improvement that you notice. Also, the huge hesitation in the second video at the first position was because I noticed a bullet hole right in the head of the no-shoot and decided to take the make-up shot. Thanks in advance.

The new polymer frame is on the cover of the LWD mailer I just got. Says they'll be available February '09. Has a rounded trigger guard, round magazine release, extended beavertail, optional integrated laser and two backstrap sizes. Looks pretty cool. Couldn't find anything on their website about it.

I upgraded to vista last year and wish I could go back to xp. The first thing I did after installing it was to change all the visual effects settings to make it look and run just like XP. Once you do that, the memory issues are pretty much gone. Then all you have left to deal with is a mountain of compatability issues. When I switched to vista, I had to swap out my sound card, TV tuner card, and mp3 player because none of them would run with vista. +1 to building the PC yourself. Newegg.com if you're going windows based. Macs are great if you want to spend the money and aren't interested in computer games.

Put in the vacation request for work today. This will be my first major. I'm psyched.

I had a MKII for several years and loved it. I've got a Mosquito on my christmas list. I'll let everybody know how it does later this month. I like the idea of practicing with a gun that has sights that rock when it cycles.