saibot

I was reflecting a little on last night's dry fire session and something I noticed about my draw. I normally aggressively go for the pistol, then pull it and start to get it on target. I was experimenting with my draw and noticed something interesting that I'll try my best to describe. If I slowly/smoothly get my hand to the pistol, I can then "snap" the gun towards the target. It's a small thing but creates an entirely different draw/presentation. It "feels" more controlled overall and I bet I'd have less flubbed grips. I'll have to experiment with it more to see how it works out. The time doesn't seem to be any different like this. Anyone ever notice this?

Dry fire (12.26.13) I spent about 45 minutes running a couple of dry fire stages tonight. A little hit and miss at first, but pretty quick after a little warm up. Moved on to the Anderson drills for a bit until I was interrupted and had to stop. Hoping to get some live fire in tomorrow!

Dry fire (12.24.13) Morning session - I started with my "benchmark" stages and although I did them all, I had to end the movement drills there since my achilles tendon was just too unhappy to continue. I didn't want to not practice so I worked on my draw and reloads with the Stoeger A drills. Overall rating of meh. Evening session - Just staying stationary for now so I busted out my Steve Anderson book to see what kind of times I could get logged. I probably did a hundred or so draws and noticed that if I flag my thumb when establishing my grip on the pistol, I can sort of press the pistol into the proper place every time I build my grip. It seems to really help me get the perfect grip/index most of the time. I'll have to play with that a bit more tomorrow and see if it is still working for me. I worked on the first few drills and blew most of my dry fire time tonight on that. Now off to wrap presents... Merry Christmas everyone!

And in case you guys are curious about my dry fire "range," it's part of my garage which I'm almost too embarrassed to show, but what the heck. I took a panorama photo with my iPhone so it looks a little strange. I'm pretty lucky to have the distance that I do, although it's a bit narrow. At the very end of the tandem bay I have 3 full sized USPSA targets which you can kind of see plastered with no shoots. Smaller ones up close. Just a little before the end of the weight bench is 10 yards and I now have a shooting box (tape on the floor) there. I've integrated all of the crap in the way into my stages so it kind of works. Need a dumpster!

Dry fire (12.23.13) Feeling better overall so I'm back at it. As usual, started with my "benchmark" stages which were a bit too slow. It's really insane how fast these skills decay, and just taking a day off is quantifiable. Sheesh! Next I hit Ben Stoeger's book and started with Paper Steel Paper which was quite a bit of fun. You really have to get on it for the paper and hit the brakes on the steel and call your shot. I really had to squeeze the heck out of the grip to get it to level out for me at that speed and to not push it off target while breaking the shot. My reloads on the other hand were just outstanding all evening. Next it was on to the Shooting On The Move Easy drill which morphed over the next 30 minutes to six targets at various distances and to a full on stage with reloads peppered in just for fun. Ended it with my "benchmarks" and played with those for a bit to see how I could change the time with more shooting on the move and reloading in different places. No drastic improvements any certain way I shot it. I would have gone more than the hour but I strained the heck out of my achilles tendon last week and I was hurting too much to press on. Getting old...sucks.

I was just curious what the difference is between the Glock extended mag release and the Zev version for a lot more money. http://www.glockworx.com/gen4magrelease_it-788232.aspx?CAT=3692 Worth it? Why?

Dry fire (12.21.13) The good: Very little time to dry fire today. Did my "benchmark" stages for a little bit, but no other drills. I was pretty happy that cold I ran them faster than I normally do, more in line with my warm times. The bad: Felt too bad to do a lot of practice today.

Dry fire (12.19.13) I spent an hour doing my usual "benchmark" stages, then did a couple of drills from the Ben Stoeger dry fire book. Started with the Close Far Close drill and was really cooking tonight. Par time of 2.10 to draw from sides, hit the upper A zone of T1, lower A zone of T2, then upper of T3. Next I did the Far Close Far on was down to 2.5. Throwing in a reload I was just on either side of 3.3. Did a little 2 on 3, reload, 2 on 3. Then some shooting on the move, and wrapped up with my "benchmark" stages that were pretty close to the start times. I was lamenting to a friend that my warm times were getting longer and trying to figure out what I was doing and he made a good suggestion, that perhaps I was getting more precise, not slower, which after some analysis I do believe he's right. I'm really trying to be sure that I get perfect (acceptable) hits and calling/making up C's and D's (unacceptable).

Dry fire (12.18.13) Another night of dry fire! I spent 1.5 hours on it tonight starting with the "benchmark" stages which were a little slower than they should be. I seem to have become a little slower for some reason lately but I'm just moving as fast as I can call my shots. I warmed up with the Stoeger A drills and then moved on to his book where I worked on the transition drill where you start with 3 targets edge to edge and establish a par time. Then you keep moving them apart while keeping the same par time. Great drill! I did it until I had no more room to expand them which was about the time I really couldn't keep to the par time. Did a little shooting on the move which seems like it has decayed a little from where I was a couple of weeks ago. It helps to have spent a couple of days of live fire shooting and moving during OAK's class. I finished up with my "benchmark" stages and did wind up speeding them back up quite a bit. My index seems a little off and I noticed that I was looking at the top of the lower A zone and drawing to the middle of the lower A zone. I also started rotating my thumb forward a little more than I normally do on my pre-draw position which helped get my pistol out a little quicker. Hmmm.

Live fire (12.17.13) I made it out to a local indoor range today for a little live fire. We had to buy our ammo from the range so it was pretty limited and I only shot a hundred rounds, but I made the most of it and fired as tight of groups as I could and pushed the targets out as far as they would go which was about 15 yards. The lighting was terrible so it next to impossible to see the little pasters I used so I'll use that as my excuse for the groups not being all in the pasters. I used the G34 but put the factory recoil spring back in it since the range's ammo was pretty darn hot. I also used my stock G26 which is great to practice trigger control with since it doesn't have the nice light Vanek that the G34 has in it. I really have to squeeze the thing to keep it's sights coming back to a good sight picture. For 100 rounds, I really got the most out of it. Shot freestyle, stong hand only, and weak hand only. Also inhaled about a half a pound of lead fumes. Yikes.

Dry fire (12.16.13) Unfortunately I was just too tired to dry fire last night so I'm getting back to it tonight. Per my usual MO, I started out with my "benchmark" stages which were really pretty slow and just off tonight. I drilled the El Prez from Stoeger's book as well as the Close Far Close drills, which is one of my personal favorites. I really get a smooth draw without the sloppiness of moving too fast with that drill since you have to be razor sharp to make the headshot. I got it down to 2.20 with all clean, called shots, a personal best. I noticed that for me, the key to that drill is the draw. I have to pull the pistol strait up so it doesn't bind in the holster to my support and that is waiting just under my pec. If that goes well/smooth, the index is there and the drill time is nice and fast. I practiced some reloads for a while and a fair amount of shooting on the move, one of the most perishable of the pistols skills, IMO. I finished up with the warm "benchmark" stages which were just off again, even warmed up. I think my swim and just a few hours of sleep have caught up with me. So with that...off to sleep.

Just for what it's worth I recently bought a Gen 4 G34 and installed the Dawson adjustable FO rear and the .300 front sight. On Dawson's site they say either the .285 or the .300 for the front. I wasn't sure which one to get so I asked my friend has the same setup and he said he had the .300 and it wasn't really tall enough. I got the .300 and with the rear all the way down it just hits the center of the paster at 7 yards. It was a little high at 25 yards and I found myself going over the top of small plates so I went to a .315 and that is just perfect, still with the rear all the way down. It hits a little low on the 7 yard paster, but is spot on further out. My friend who I asked in the first place did wind up noticing his was high at 25 yards and went to the .325 and has a little adjustment on the rear left. So with you guys that are spot on with the .285, is that on a Gen 4? At what distance are you spot on?

Live fire and Match (12.14.13) Before the night match we headed over to a pistol bay and I tried a few of the 25 yard slow fire targets. Then we did a drill where you draw from sides and put 2 in the upper A zone, reload, then put 2 more in the upper A zone. I could clean it pretty handily in ~4.5 seconds and was hit and miss when pushing it. Best time of 3.7 seconds but found that my first shot seemed to be unreliable. The played with a new G26 for a little bit to see how it would work for a BUG match. Then we headed over to the pit for the annual Practical Rife night match. I shot a 14.5 BCM with white light which worked pretty darn well for most things. There was a big screen that we had to shoot through once we ID'd the proper targets, but your flashlight would turn the screen white so you had to figure out the right angle to see what you needed to see so the timer just ate your lunch. One stage I put a couple on a no shoot trying to get the fastest dropping target I've ever seen. I also got hosed by some bowling pins that were being used as activators that were super shot out. My 3000+ FPS FMJ's just kept going through them while the timer once again ate my lunch. Meh. The last stage would have been a lot of fun but the fog rolled in and made it impossible to see anything and they wound up shutting down that stage. No points. The night match is always a ton of fun and a great learning experience. It's really the one match I don't really care about placing well and just focus on getting the most out of it from a learning perspective. Makes me want to get to the Crimson Trace night match!

Dry fire (12.13.13) Back to work! Speed mode. I started out with my usual "benchmark" stages which were a little better than typical cold. Then I spent about an hour on the Stoeger Close Target Drills. Just launching the gun at the target to try to make the intermediate times. Hat's off to anyone who can get the advanced times. Worked on the Reload Challenge a while and then shooting on the move. My sights weren't finding their place as well as they could have, but not the worse they've ever been. Finished up with the "benchmark" stages which never got much better than my cold times for some reason. I thought with all of the speed mode shooting I'd be way quicker but that wasn't the case. All day has been slower than usual today. I noticed my push-offs were not up to par this morning while swimming my laps and I guess it never got much better. Oh well. That's how it goes sometimes. I might get some pistol practice in tomorrow, but we'll see. Tomorrow night the the annual Practical Rifle night match so most of the shooting tomorrow will be with the AR.

Congratulations! Thanks, OAK! You helped me get here as well as doing very well at shooting on the move at the IDPA match.

Woohoo!! Thank you JDPhotoguy for maintaining this and moving me to the next thread. I'll see the rest of you very soon in the race to A!

Woohoo! (12.12.13) I just checked the USPSA website and see that I finally made B class!!! 60.73, so just by the skin of my teeth, but hey I'm there.

Dry fire (12.11.13) I was able to get an hour in tonight of dry fire despite having some, uh, not so receptive to the shooting sports, guests in town. Did my "benchies" for a bit and moved to the Ben Stoeger 15 minute dry fire book drills. I did the White Wall, Single target, and 25 yard drills. You really have to be cooking to get the times down to the lower levels. At this point, the beginner times are easy to surpass, but on most of the drills I am not quite hitting the intermediate times. I have some work to do. Worked on moving and reloading on the move and finished up with my "benchies." And wow, after pressing hard on the Stoeger drills I had the best times I've ever had on the "benchmark" stages. On my first drill my cold time was about 23 seconds and the second one I get done in around 14 seconds. After I was warmed up I nailed the first drill in 18 seconds a couple of time and 12 seconds a few times on the second drill. A personal best!

No dry fire today. I spent my time addressing all of the stuff I've been putting off to dry fire. Pressed out some 9mm, cleaned the sludge out of the Glock, and rebuilt all of my M&P mags. The results from my IDPA match came out today and I have to say I'm very pleased with them. I shot most accurate overall and took second in SSP. Glad to see I was able to come back from shooting the no shoot in the face on the first stage! Pretty excited to see some improvement after all of the work. I think I'll change to the Stoeger dry fire book tomorrow and do that for a while and see where that goes. After that, Anderson's book for a while. Looking forward to some new drills, not that the current ones aren't fun, but I really like to keep things fresh. I also discovered that the Burket IDPA video in my stack of DVDs. I never watched it since it was for IDPA, but since I'll probably shoot it more often so I should start working on getting better at it.

Dry fire (12.9.13) Back to it. I spent about 1.5 hours dry firing tonight starting with my "benchmark" stages. Again, the "benchmarks" are to see how I perform cold vs. after I'm warmed up from practice. A little slow tonight which is no surprise since I shot a match yesterday and didn't dry fire. And it's cold as heck in the garage right now, maybe 40 degrees? The good thing about my routine is that it's quite the workout and I'm never cold after a few minutes. Sweating in fact when I'm finished. Anyway, I did the Stoeger A and B drills, all about a billion times trying to find the key to getting the times down to the lower times. For example, in the B drills where you pick up the gun off the char I discovered that if I start moving even before I have the gun in my hand I shave off a ton of time. Little things like that make a big difference! The drill where you shoot all of the targets, reload, THEN move to the box to engage the heads, I found that if I start my movement to the box as I'm reloading I save a ton of time. Next was some movement drills and I finished up with the "benchmark" stages. As usual, my times where MUCH faster when warmed up. I have to find out how I can change that. I don't want to do poorly on the first two stages before getting dialed in.

IDPA Match (12.8.13) I braved the elements today and shot the local IDPA match. I didn't make it out early enough to help setup in the 15 degree weather so I brought out a dozen doughnuts as my penitence. Anyway, this was my third IDPA match and it was by far my best. My shooting on the move was really good, (thanks to Gabe White's excellent class!). Accuracy was good, too. I called almost every shot and stuck to my plans and made very few mistakes, at least with "normal" shooting. I still managed to rack up some penalties because of my inexperience with IDPA rules and cover. Meh. But in the end, it was shooting and competition so that's never bad! I may not have won the match by any stretch of the imagination but I did have my own little victories along the way. It makes all of the dry fire and practice worth it.

I mainly shoot IDPA and am relatively new so my best times are not great. I actually like a lot of IDPA restrictions you do not have in USPSA. I can understand how you hate drawing from concealment. I took some bad online advice and was dry fire training without concealment (told it makes little difference when you go to a match). BTW I really do not like dry fire. After reading Seeklander and B. Enos I decided to train with and without concealment and to embrace what I hate (turn it into a positive). When I started I was drawing with an IDPA rig without concealment (classifier in IDPA is without concealment). I then added concealment (standard IDPA vest) and my times jumped 30 to 50%. I was all upset until I dry fired some more and the times dropped about 15%. I also gave my self an attitude adjustment, yes it is harder with concealment what else is old! BTW my best level in a IDPA holster so far without concealment is 2 sec. I have been told for IDPA to get under 2 is good. So I then tried practicing dry fire with my typical carry concealment, IWB holester under a sweat shirt. Yes I was terrible at first but with some more practice my times dropped again. It was a very useful drill. Its all good. I think its about awareness and good pistol handling. For fun I think I'm going to do a local IDPA match with my 3.5 inch barrel carry gun, IWB holester, with street clothes and a sweatshirt for concealment. Maybe I'll add a bow tie to fool the bad guys. Ya, you're right. If I spent some time dry firing IDPA specific IDPA things I'm sure I'd figure it out, but I am a little concerned that it would adversely affect my USPSA game. I do think all of the cover shooting will help with shooting around walls and barricades in USPSA. We'll see. There are more opportunities to shoot IDPA here now so I might get out more often.

Dry fire (12.6.13) I spent about half an hour learning to draw and reload with a borrowed IDPA rig. Kudos to those people who can draw and reload from concealment quickly. I really freaking hate it. I don't normally shoot IDPA but I'm dying for some competition and this is the only game in town for a while so I'm going to shoot a match on Sunday. We'll see how it goes. I shot it a couple of months ago and racked up a ton of penalties for things like reloading on the move (not from cover) and not shooting from cover. Old dog...new tricks.

Thanks, Quag! Ya, it's hard to fit it all in but I've carved a little spot in my schedule out to get my dry fire in. And now that I really enjoy it coupled with my desire to get to and exceed B class I look forward to it. It keeps me from having that glass of wine with dinner but I'd rather be dry firing. And I have to say, having this range diary has helped keep me accountable for my practice. I really don't want to miss out when I see how much I've learned since I started. That's great to hear how fast you've progressed with just a little bit of dry fire! Man, if I had numbers like that you'd never get me out of the garage.

Dry fire (12.5.13) I spent another perfectly good hour dry firing tonight. "Benchmark" stages, Stoeger A and B drills, shooting on the move, then "benchies" again. I was almost a full 4 seconds faster warmed up than I was cold which is not optimal. I really want to perform my best anytime I step to the line. A few observations; I need to keep the gun up just a little higher. If I'm going for the head for example I seem to index on the neck and have to correct. If I need to draw while taking a step it's best to take a big initial step rather than try to be smooth from the start. I get less sight bobble when I come up on target and I move further. Win win! Starting and staying low helps keep the sights steady(er) when moving into a position so I can break the shots off the instant I arrive. My static reloads are super fast, but I seem to miss them a lot while moving, so I walked fast down toward a target 10 yards away and reload, bang, reload, bang, reload, bang. I missed EVERY reload the first time and realized that I don't get a good high grip on the magazine. Next run I made sure to grab the dang mag like I should and boom! Greased them all in. I'll have to keep working on that.