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saibot

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Posts posted by saibot

    Saibot's Performance Journal

    in Range Diary

    Posted

    Live fire (10.12.13)

    I guess today would be considered cross training. I shot a Practical Rifle match toady that was setup as a long distance PR match. Targets out to 550 yards. Very challenging with my 1-4 since I didn't know my holdovers. Still was a ton of fun and good practice for tomorrow's sniper match.

    Dry fire

    Working on refining my draw. Trying to be as efficient as possible and more importantly, more consistent. If I go crazy fast I wind up moving more than my arms and the sight bobbles around so much it takes me longer to pick up the sights. Also trying to dry higher so my eyes have a bit longer to pick up the sights. Getting better. I also did the Seeklander A drills that are focused on the draw.

    I also worked on my reloads for a bit and shot a few dry fire stages I setup. Always a favorite.

    Total dry fire, about 45 minutes.

    Saibot's Performance Journal

    in Range Diary

    Posted

    Dry fire (10.10.2013)

    After a long day of travel I decided to just get a small session in and try experimenting with my draw after reading about staying relaxed in Enos' book. I spent about 30 minutes trying to stay relaxed and not tense up to see how it effected my draw. It seemed to speed things up and seemed to mess with my index a bit so I'll have to revisit it tomorrow. I also spent a little time working on my reloads, again, trying to keep from tensing up at all and was nailing my reloads with more consistency than usual and faster than normal, too.

    I'll have to integrate that into my training next time out to get some quantitative data with the timer.

    Saibot's Performance Journal

    in Range Diary

    Posted

    No practice today (10.9.2013).

    I'm traveling for work and didn't want to try to bring a pistol just for one night of dry fire. And it's probably not a bad idea to take a break and let my forearms rest a little. I'm still trying to fight off getting tennis elbow in both arms and having to stop practicing. It does seem a little better lately. I hope my body just accepts that this is going to happen and rolls with it.

    I did grab my copy of Brian's book for the plane since it's been a couple of years since I read it last. I didn't understand a lot of what he was saying back then anyway since I was just starting out and was lucky to hit the targets at all.

    Very interesting take on the grip and keeping it neutral. It seems that the trend these days is to just crush the grip instead of just flowing with it. Not sure if that is to overcome less than perfect form or just the evolution of the technique. I'll have to experiment with it.

    G34 Mag Release

    in Glock

    Posted

    From NROI:

    An external part which extends only the length of the magazine-release button is specifically allowed in section 21.6 of the 2009 interpretation, whether the part is OEM or aftermarket. If the part provides a larger surface area (a big head, a button, a paddle, etc) or is different than the original part in any dimension other than length, the part is only permitted if it is an OEM part available on an approved model of gun.

    Note that an internal modification to a magazine-release mechanism which results in shifting the magazine-release laterally (i.e., making the part stick out further on one side of the gun) would be considered an "internal modification", and is allowed.

    Also note that parts from "custom shop" guns are only considered "OEM parts" if the "custom shop" model is on the NROI list of approved guns. If NROI has not certified the "custom shop" gun for USPSA Production Division, using a custom-shop part may be an "external modification", resulting in a "new/unapproved model" which would be illegal for USPSA Production Division. Contact NROI for an official ruling before switching to the new part.

    Vluc-

    Hmmm... So would an OEM Glock extended mag release be Production legal then? Seems like it would be.

    Thanks!

    G34 Mag Release

    in Glock

    Posted

    I was hoping that it would loosen up a bit with use, but I've hit it hundreds of times in dry fire already and it's not getting any better. I think I'll try to pull the button and see if I detect any wear areas, and if so might smooth them out or remove a little bit of material. May slightly tweak the spring and see where that gets me.

    Dryfiring last night I notice one of my mags was always causing me trouble so I took it out of circulation. I can't detect a difference visually, but to get it to drop I have to really mash the button all of the way into the gun.

    Thanks, guys!

    Transition Drill Part 1

    in Tips for Improvement

    Posted

    I got around to trying Part 2 today and was .67 faster than my fastest time of Part 1. Not bad considering I didn't really get a chance to rehearse the instructions of Part 2. I'll have to dry fire this a bit and get the technique down and try it again.

    Thanks, BE!

    G34 Mag Release

    in Glock

    Posted

    Any tips on getting the mag release on a Gen4 G34 to work better? I shoot in Production and I don't think I can add an extended mag release, but not sure about that.

    My hands are just too small to reliably nail the mag release. Can I work on the internal mechanism to have it work a little easier? Anyone do that?

    Thanks, all.

    Dealing with grip tape?

    in Miscellaneous BEginners

    Posted

    You may want to consider switching to a stipple grip. There are some obvious drawbacks, permanence being number one, compliance for your shooting sport and class is another. I switched a few months ago and really like it for my 3 Gun pistol. Very positive - not nearly as aggressive.

    Did you do it yourself? Not sure if it's allowed in Production class though. I'd have to check. Good tip. Thanks!

    Saibot's Performance Journal

    in Range Diary

    Posted · Edited by saibot

    Live fire practice (10.8.2013)

    Ran over to the range for a quick round of drills today. I started out shooting 10 round groups to try and get a feel for the Glock trigger. The first group strong hand was about 1.5 inches, the second group was strong hand only and was pretty nasty with a group size of about 5 inches. The third group was weak hand only and was about 3 inches to the right. Ridiculous. About 5 rounds into the group I rolled my WH elbow in toward the center and drilled out the center of the paster. Amazing that little adjustment made that big of difference. The most vexing part is I can't for the life of me explain it. I'll have to revisit this.

    Next was warming up on a 6 inch steel plate at 25 yards. 7 hits out of 10 rounds. Not great, but still experimenting with grip and sight picture.

    Moved on to a half dozen of the Frank Garcia's Dots at 5 yards. Can dang close to cleaning it a couple of time and my misses were pretty close so I'm pleased with my attempts today. Already better than the last time I attempted it.

    I shot a 25 yard Slow Fire target and kept shooting off to the left, all called which was pretty cool. A couple of the 10 rounds were right in the center and the overall group size wasn't great, but slightly better than the last time I shot it. I wanted to shoot it a few more times but the rain was really kicking up at this point and I wanted to move on to some other drills and cut this one short. I really need to tighten up my long range shooting.

    Shot 6 runs of the 4 Aces drill all on the headbox at 10 yards I believe. I was hitting it pretty consistently in the 4 second range with draws in the 1.2x - 1.3x range with no misses.

    Raining like hell now. But wanted to try the Enos Transition drill part 2 and took 4 or 5 cracks at it. My last time was 6.22 clean which was the best time I've ever shot it in. My last times were:

    7.58, 7.85, 6.88, 7.91, 7.61, 6.89 so I'm happy with Brian's advice to say the least. I'll have to work on this more and refine his technique. I really didn't get a chance to really work on it but again, great to see immediate improvement.

    I had a few rounds left in a few magazines so I tried some strong hand only shooting at the 6 inch plate at 25 yards with no hits. Lots of room for improvement here!

    Around 120 rounds total for the session.

    Dry fire session.

    I spent an hour doing the Seeklander C & B drills (specialty drills and reloading drills) and some "field courses" in my garage featuring 9 USPSA targets of various sizes and distances as well as a paper plate rack. I've decided to only shoot the heads during dryfire to make things more difficult in dry fire than it may be in live fire. I have to remember to get a full grip on the magazines when pulling them from the mag pouches. I typically nail the reload if I have my index finger almost to the end of the first round. Also taking the nanosecond to decelerate just before inserting the magazine really helps nail my reloads, especially while moving.

    I really have a hard time reaching the mag release button and would occasionally not be able to get the mag to drop at all. I noticed after a while that magazine #6 seemed to always have this issue so I pulled it from use. Any tips for getting the mag release to work better for small handed people? Let me know!

    Saibot's Performance Journal

    in Range Diary

    Posted

    Dry fire practice (10.7.2013).

    Tonight I ran the A drills from the Seeklander book for an hour and a half that focuses on drawing. I ran all of the drills a few times trying to see what various grip pressures do for quick sight alignment. Did a bunch of extra reps and did some reload drills from last night. I finished up running a few dryfire stages in my garage.

    On a side note I find that I really slow down when shooting (drawing) around a barricade. I'll need to revisit this drill soon.

    Saibot's Performance Journal

    in Range Diary

    Posted

    Dry fire practice (10.6.2013)

    Tonight I ran the Seeklander Your Competition Handgun Training Program B drills which focuses on reloads. I really like the new Glock magazines over the S&W magazines when it comes to reloading. The stubby base plates make it easier to alight the magazine properly. I really like the movement drills and the swinging reloads drill was great. I was just on tonight and nailing my reloads in record time for me. I did a lot more reps than outlined in the program and ended with running my dry fire stage the lives in my garage. All in all I dryfired for around 1.5 hours

    Saibot's Performance Journal

    in Range Diary

    Posted · Edited by saibot

    First Practice Session With The Glock (10.5.2013)

    Anxious as could be about getting a chance to actually shoot my new Glock Gen4 G34, I headed over to the range this morning for my first live fire session on the new platform. I’ve spent about an hour a night over the last week dry firing the Glock trying to get used to the new pistol, holster, and magazine pouches with mixed results. I really don’t like to dry fire that much without getting in some live fire to validate my form is correct, but schedules being what they are, I just haven’t been able to get out until today.

    I arrived with all of my training planned out and immediately got to work hanging steel and setting targets. I started out just shooting groups to verify that my sights were dialed in and get a chance to get a feel for my Vanek Custom trigger. I shot groups freestyle, strong hand, and weak hand and was still shooting about 3 inches to the right when shooting weak hand, an issue that just came on and I can’t seem to shake. I tried a few different grips and angle to no avail, and then tried bringing my elbow closer to center and that for some strange reason brought my weak hand groups back on to the paster. Strange, but glad I now know how to get my hits weak hand.

    Now that I verified my zero and sights were hitting in the right place I moved back to 25 yards and started shooting a 6″ steel plate with mixed results. I setup a 25 yard Slow Fire target and tried shooting that and noticed that I was hitting off to the left. Looking back at my 7 yard groups showed a slight left side grouping that I hadn’t noticed since I was so close, but amplified to 25 yards it was enough to push me off of the 6″ steel plate. A couple of adjustments over a couple more 25 yard Slow Fire targets and it was hitting spot on and was getting about a 70% hit rate on the 25 yard 6″ steel plate. Not great, but I’m still trying to figure out my grip to get the sights to return to center from recoil. I then backed up to 40 yards and spent a couple of magazines on the 6″ steel plate at that distance to figure out where my sights needed to be to hit it.

    My training partner and I have been wanting to take a crack at the Frank Garcia Dot drill from Ben Stoeger’s book where you have to hit a 2″ dot six times in 5 seconds without going outside of the dot from 7 yards. It really is demoralizing to shoot this drill. We moved up to 5 yard to have any hope of acing it and it really didn’t make too much difference. I was able to get 4 inside the dot before the par time, but never all 6. Brutal.

    While we had the two USPSA targets up and shot to pieces we decided to shoot the Four Aces drill, another from Ben’s book, but instead of using the lower A zone, we substituted it with the head. The drill has you draw and put two shots into the A zone, then reload and put two more shots into the A zone. The Glock just devoured this drill and just kept putting rounds into the A box of the head, consistently in the 4 second range.

    Borrowing yet another drill from Ben’s book, we setup the Accelerator, a drill that has you setup a USPSA target at 7 yards, 15 yards, and 25 yards, all in a line. You draw, in our case, to the 7 yard target, and put two hits on it then move to the 15 yard target for two hits, two more hits on the 25 yard target, then perform a reload and put two more hits on each target. The goal of this drill is to force you into a different sight picture and shooting speed for every target which doesn’t seem like a big deal, but to pull this drill off quickly with all A zone hits is darn tough.

    After we shot the Accelerator for a while we taped up the targets and ran a few Bill drills on them, all at 7 yards to see how fast you can put six rounds in the A zone of a target. The Bill drill is a classic drill for a reason. It let’s you know how fast you can run the gun and track the sights. It also points out any imperfections in your grip since your sights will not return strait back down and your hits will be slow and all over the place. I took a few cracks at it and couldn’t get under 2.40 which is about what I used to run with my M&P. The funny thing is that I could get .14 splits with the M&P all day long and can’t touch that with the Glock. Even with the Vanek trigger I rarely get under .20 splits so I’m really making up the time on the draw with the Glock. The grip is the reason I moved from the M&P to the Glock in the first place and it’s already paying dividends. My draw is nowhere near where I want it but already faster than it was with the M&P since I almost always nail the grip and in turn, pick up the sights sooner. So even with the slow splits I’m getting to work on the targets faster which is ultimately more important in my opinion.

    There is a Transition Drill in the Enos forums that I’ve been wanting to try where Brian has you put three USPSA targets 1 yard apart with you starting 10 yards away. When the timer sounds you draw and from left to right put 1 round on each target 3 times for a total of 9 rounds, being sure to get A zone hits. You take your time and add a half of a second for every shot outside of the A zone to calculate your total time for the drill. You are supposed to run the drill 6 – 10 times and get your average time, then PM Brian with the time and he will ask you to try something different the next time to run it that will improve your times. Reading through the posts it seem like whatever Brian is telling people to do is showing real improvement for people that rerun the drill, so PM sent! I’m looking forward to the information he gives out to improve transitions since that is a real weak point for me. My training partner on the other hand has transitions that are commonly the same times as his splits which is a goal of mine and really fun to see him perform. Instead of the “bang, bang, pause, bang, bang” you normally hear it’s just “bang, bang, bang, bang” and done.

    We finished up by going back to the 25 yard 6″ plates to gauge how we were doing after being warmed up and dialed in, again, looking for a percentage by noting how many misses from a 10 round attempt. I missed two for a total of 80%. The interesting thing was I missed shot 2 and 3, adjusted my grip pressure by squeezing tighter and made every shot after that. I know there is a lot of back and forth about grip pressure vs. accuracy but it really does seem they are not diametrically opposed, rather increasing one means increasing the other, at least for me. The only real drawback for me is that I can only apply that kind of pressure for so long before the fatigue kicks in. And trying to be consistent in dry fire by giving the same grip pressure is probably going to result in some kind of overuse issue in my wrists and elbows. That is one thing that I have a love/hate relationship with in this sport. You really never stop learning. You never can tick the box on a certain skill and move on. You’re always learning and hopefully improving.

    With that, we decided we’d had enough and pulled targets and policed our brass. It was a half day of pretty intense training and our attention spans were pretty much cooked at that point. All in all, I had put 400 rounds downrange and felt like I was already starting to meld with the Glock. It was great to see our groups tighten up throughout the day and now it was off to start thinking about everything we discovered throughout the day’s drills. I was also deeply pleased with how well the new Glock ran. 400 flawless rounds right off the bat is a great way to start the relationship! So no regrets from moving off of the M&P so far. I hope with a little more practice I can get my splits back down to the .14 range, but even if the platform just won’t allow that, it really makes up for that in ergonomics. I’m already looking forward to the next practice session with it!

    Saibot's Performance Journal

    in Range Diary

    Posted · Edited by saibot

    And so it begins...

    I've been keeping a bit of a range journal on my shooting blog but it's really not been the best place for a training journal because it's geared more for reviews and match coverage than personal training posts. And since it's a blog it's more of a broadcast than a discussion and I really prefer two way feedback to a monologue, so this forum seems like it's the best place to interact with other serious competitors (read goal oriented) and share thoughts, ideas, and discoveries along the way.

    First, a little background. I never really did much shooting until a few years ago a coworker showed me a video of him competing and I thought I had to try it out. I was hooked instantly. I started to practice a little just to feel more comfortable with my gun handling skills and not so much to start winning anything. I found these forums and before long I had Steve Anderson's dryfire book and started practicing the basics, draws and reloads and called it a day. I classified in C class in Production and have languished there every since. There has been a pretty dramatic wax and wane since then due to having offspring, and a couple of major back surgeries, so even though I've been shooting the sport for a few years now, I'm nowhere near most people that have been shooting as long as I have. And to top things off, I thought I was going to make B class a few months ago and actually dropped down a couple of points. Shocked with my new standing I decided to finally devote the resources it takes to improve and leave C class as far away as I can.

    I'm pretty big on goals and no training program would be complete without setting some goals, so here are my immediate training goals.

    Get the heck out of C class! I want to make B soon and I'm close, but there aren't many opportunities for me to shoot classifiers. Once a month and I have a few lousy classifiers that are bringing down my average that I'll need to make up for. Because of that, it's really hard to set a timeline for reclassifying. I guess it'll make more sense to set a goal of shooting classifiers at 62% or better for the next few months. That should give me the bump I need to move up.

    I want to train as much as resources allow. Time, money, ammo, etc. are at a premium so I really have to make the most out of the time I do have. Live fire may only happen 3 or 4 times a month which is going to make it tough. But I do plan on dryfiring as much as my limbs will permit me to. For the last couple of months I've been dryfiring 5+ days a week for up to 1.5 hours and I'm making strides in my training. I will try for live fire as much as I can, but I'm pretty constrained in time available to make it all the way out to my club.

    Accuracy. I need to keep it in the headbox at 25 yards consistently and quickly. I'm just not there yet and certainly can't do quickly.

    Movement. Watching the pros shoot is amazing. They never stop moving (earning points) and they start breaking shots the instant they arrive at a position. It's hard to quantify this into a goal, but will be something I spend a lot of time improving.

    I also just switched from a M&P Pro to a Glock G34 last week and I feel like I hit the rest button on my pistol handling skills, but the Glock's grip and ergonomics just flat out fit me better so it's back to square one.

    With that, I'll start this thing out with a post I put on my blog about my first live fire session with the Glock, then catch it up with the dryfire sessons I've had since then. I think this should inspire me to keep up the training and keep me accountable.

    Game on.

    Dealing with grip tape?

    in Miscellaneous BEginners

    Posted

    Take a break on training for a couple days. When you go back to training start for shorter periods (train for perfection for less time). You hands will become tougher and the grip tape will wear down... One draw back, your wife may not want to hold your hand anymore or she might need gloves ;)

    Hahah. Ya, already there on that one. Hands like a loofah, she says. (ya, I didn't know what that was either).

    /google

    Parts That Break - What to have in your rangebag?

    in Glock

    Posted

    Great list of stuff! I never would have guessed the pins might break but it seems several of you have had it happen so I'm getting some spares. I placed an order for these parts:

    DISASSEMBLY TOOL
    FIRING PIN SPACER SLEEVE
    SLIDE COVER PLATE
    MAG CATCH SPRING
    TRIGGER PIN
    TRIG HOUSING PIN
    MAG SPRING G17 - STD 10 COIL
    EXTRACTOR 9MM W/LOADED CHAMBER
    MAGAZINE FLOOR PLATE 9,40,357
    LOCKING BLOCK PIN
    SLIDE LOCK SPRG 17,20,22 & GN4

    In addition to that I have all of the factory parts I replaced that I'll add to the kit. Next to having a second gun, this should fix most anything that could go south on me.

    Thanks for the help!

    Parts That Break - What to have in your rangebag?

    in Glock

    Posted

    Hey Glock experts (Glexperts?), I just switched to a Glock for shooting USPSA Production which also happens to be my first Glock. Just to ensure that it keeps running I thought I'd get an order of spare parts together for my range bag, but didn't know what to even order. So what spare parts should I have with me during a match? And at what intervals should I proactively replace things?

    And just FYI, it is a Gen4 G34 with the Vanek Classic trigger kit with the Jager lightened striker, and a Jager/ISMI 13# recoil spring. I through all of the parts I replaced into a Ziplock and put them in my range bag for now. Anything else?

    Thanks, all!

    Dealing with grip tape?

    in Miscellaneous BEginners

    Posted

    Great info, guys!

    The problem I have with gloves is that I lose the tactile feel of everything and start performing much slower than normal. The other thing I have to look out for is that I can barely reach the mag release as it is and adding extra material on the grip or my hands makes it even harder. I think adding some blue masking tape is a great idea since it's so thin to begin with.

    I've been dryfiring about 1 - 1.5 hours a day lately and several times I'll have a bloody grip when I'm finished and have to tape up my fingers to continue. Probably should have thought about putting the tape on the grip!

    But the more I think about it, the AGrip sounds like something I'm going to try ASAP since it solves several issues for me; improved grip, no added size from gloves or even the grip tape, won't destroy my hands.

    Great tips. Thank you!

    Ultimate Production G34

    in Glock

    Posted

    I wanted to circle back and report a few things with the new Glock you guys might find interesting. I finally had a chance to get to the range and start practicing with the new Glock yesterday (link to my training entry if anyone cares: http://www.recoilsports.com/2013/10/first-practice-session-with-the-glock/ ).

    400 perfect rounds from a new pistol is very encouraging! But the funny thing is that the sights were spot on. If you recall from my earlier post where I took it out just to sight it in, I had cranked down the rear sight as far as it would go and it was still hitting a few inches high. Yesterday, it was spot on, all day. My training partner has an almost identical pistol and sights and his I found has the rear sight cranked all the way down as well. So it seems two takeaways to note here:

    First, when buying the adjustable Dawson sights for the G34 you might want to get the next step taller (than the .300) front sight so you can adjust your POI a little lower if desired.

    Second, the "Sight Adjustment Gnome" may also FIX sight alignment issues, depending on his mood. He's a complex fellow and it's best to not speak ill of him as he may return, most likely before a big match.

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