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HCShooter

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    Gary Nash

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Looks for Range (1/11)

  1. My practice schedule has been destroyed the past month. Eearly in Feburary my wife and I both picked up colds that we battled for 2 weeks and still have some lingering effects (stuffy/sneezy). My work life has also sucked worse than normal to the point that I just hate my job. It's really eating into me and killing my motivation. I did so well through January, then to just die off in a slow and painful way baffles me. Shot the local classifier match yesterday excepting to maintain my current Lim B card. And that's what I did...out of 6, I have 2 that will count. It was a cold miserable day with snow flying for at least 2/3rd of the time we were there. I did manage to turn it on in the 2nd half of the match. We shot El Pres and it was the absolute best run I've ever had on it, and my first Master classifier at 88% - 5.44 sec @ 8pts down (if I'm to believe classifier calc as CmCalc is down). I guess those 100's of reload drills paid off cause it was FAST! I've never stuck a reload that fast in my life. The mag was still falling from the gun when I got back with a fresh one and I actually felt like I had to wait on it to clear. I should have looked at the timer and gotten draw and reload time, but it really didn't dawn on me how fast it was till I started replaying it in my mind and working the math on my time. I'm guessing my splits/transitions to be .15-.2 so that leaves me no more than 1.3 draw/reload, but they felt way faster than that. I'm still kind of realing from that little 12 shot run. It's those stages and that feeling that keep me coming back. Time to trade off to the production rig in prep for BITB. I don't even care where I place anymore (prior years set goals to win/place in my class), I just want to shoot my game. Put all the stages together rather than letting the wheels come off on a couple, being conservative on a couple and putting a couple together...I want to put them all together as I KNOW I can.
  2. Gotta do some research on humidity's effect on powder. I'm using the same jug of titegroup that I used all last season to work up long loads for limited and to kick out enough 9mm for some practice and a match or 3. I use unique tech's mifrometer on my press, and I always write down in my loading journal the number so i can just dail back to that, throw some tests, and get to loading. I'm ending up with much more powder by weight than i was 4 months ago when I last loaded. Of course it's hard to compare when you're also changing length's, so I don't know if it's something in the micrometer/powder measurer that has changed, or the powder picking up moisture. My house isn't that much different by feel than it was months back...if anything dryer. I'll be confirming as soon as I get the chrono back out for final testing if it's powder, or measurer causing the issue. Will test with the 9mm loads that haven't changed. Local match cancelled this month for snow. haven't had any time for live fire. Rain, ice, snow, bitter cold, every day it seems. And the days that are fit...work keeps me late and I run out of day light. I gotta get some live fire in and soon. Dry fire is going great, and I'm shaving times off like crazy and really feeling good about it. But I need the live fire on these same drills. I have integrated working on cadence during dry fire. At first it was very much 1,2..1,2...1,2. Now I'm doing 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Trying to get those split/transition times closer and smoother. I don't want dry fire to end up in reall life as a 1 sight picture 2 shot kind of thing.
  3. I'm struggling a little on a couple of the drills in Steve's book. The triangle drill (one head shot as moving to next corner, 3 total targets), and the box drill (2 shots on 3 targets as moving to next corner). Shooting on the move isn't new to me, I do it about every place I can, especially if I'm quartering into/out of an array, but it's just not working for me in a dry fire drill. I find myself focusing on the corners and where I'm supposed to turn rather than anything else. I'm sure it's a foot work issue, and maybe I need to make the box smaller/bigger (currently it's going around my furnace/water heater which takes about 3 steps each direction...shooting steps, not full strides). No problems getting the shots on target in the distance, just focusing on the wrong thing I think? Other than that, things are going well. Taking .10's off some part times, even with a couple days off the dry fire. Feeling very solid on draws/reloads (just want I needed in this transition to STI gun) and am starting to spend more and more time on transitions, box drills (into/out of, etc), and shooting on the move. If the weather would cooperate (either rain, bitter cold, or ice here for what seems like a week) I'd like to get some more live fire in. I'm changing up loads since we're both now shooting guns that will take long ammo so need to chrono and start cranking a few thousand rounds out.
  4. So far I'm 4 for 4. Feeling good about dry fire, and for the first time, I feel confident about it. I think in the past, I was cheating the dry fire and not getting the benefit from it that I should have. If I'm running a drill and catch myself stroking the trigger without that solid A-zone sight picture, I'm re-running that drill until I have the determined # of rep's perfect. I can already tell my gun handling with this STI is getting better. I feel more confident with it, and things are starting to happen at the same points in the shooting cycle (draw to safety off, etc). I have found a couple things in the last 4 days. My ability to stay focused on the task at hand is making an hour solid difficult. As I run drills I'm letting myself get slopier. I'm combating this with short breaks of 1/4 mile. Basically, I'm starting every session with 1/4 mile on the eliptical (also in the basement) at a slow/steady pace. Enough that I'm in the aerobic range, but usually about 7- 8 minutes on the first go round (this is on a 10* incline with enough resistance to push my heart rate up, and with all my gear on). Every time I start to cheat the dry fire or loose focus, I'm getting back on the eliptical for another 1/4 mile, same incline, same resistance, but take a minute off the time. This of course this is adding to my dry fire time, but the focus on what I'm actually doing is going way up. With 3 to 4, 1/4 mile breaks, I'm spending about an hour and 20 mintues to 1-1/2 horus total on the program. I figure it's good for me in more ways than 1. I've also added a grip trainer to my desk at work that I pick up 10-15 times a day while on conference calls and the like. I don't know that I need more grip strength, but it never hurts right?
  5. Dry fire area is set up. Pretty standard stuff, and I hope to expand it as I progress. Right now I can run about 30 different drills with what I've set up, I'll change those up with no-shoots and hard cover as well as set up a couple target stands in the coming months. Picked up some snap together exercise mat's this morning so drills with mag changes don't result in repeated impact on the concrete. I'm really looking forward to starting practice today.
  6. Well, 2012 is gone, and as you can see I didn't even take the time to keep this updated since July of last year. To say the least, 2012 was a year of distraction for me...worked extensively on getting our new place up to par (lots of clean up, gardening, making things the way we wanted). Also got married to my shooting partner and generally took a lot of time off from matches and especially practice. I don't think I've actually spent any quality time on the practice range since about August. I've also changed guns, picked up a 5" STI built by Freedom gun works and started the transition to it from a Glock. It actually hasn't seemed that difficult. I've shot it about 3 matches now, with no practice at all, and am still shooing middle of the pack in Limited for the local stuff. I have found that I shoot it high under speed, which is new for me...I usually pull low under speed with my Glock. In summary 2012, from a shooting perspective was a bust, I didn't place in a single major match all year as was my goal. It's OK, plenty of other good things happened to me in 2012 so now it's time to focus on the 2013 season. I've already stocked up on supplies for the 2013 year and have enough stuff to carry me most of the year. I'll need to get a few more bullets and some primers when they're available, but I should be pretty solid. I without a doubt, will make A this year in Limited, with a high goal of making Master. I know, sounds crazy since I couldn't hit A in a full year, and actually went down in % of B class, but revised focus and desire will carry me a long way. With that goal in mind, I'm starting a training schedule utilizing the space I now have available. My entire basement is going to get set up for dry fire and I'll be basing a lot of my routine on Steve Anderson's books I got for Christmas. 4 days dry fire, 1 hour a day, 1 live fire practice of about 150 rounds on the STI and at least that many more with a .22 working on front sight focus and transition speed only, and at least 2 local matches a month is the plan. At least 1 tune up class for the year, and I'll be building at least 1 swinger for our home range in the very near future. We (wife and I) are undecided on major matches this year. We're for sure shooting BITB, either OH or IN sectionals (or both) and potentially the ProAm down in FL in place of OH or IN. Depending on how our personal lives are going (how busy) we might throw in TN or IN SS/Prod/Revo match as well. Since I'm focusing on Limited this year, I'm not going to make the switch to production early this year. Prior years I've put at least 3 months on the production gun, this year, I'm going to change up a month early and continue the steady practice sessions. If I stick to the training, this should be more than plenty. So there we have it, my plan for the year. I'm going to get the dry fire area set up today, and the routine will start tomorrow. The only decission I need to make is if there's benefit to building a set of start boxes for the dry fire area, or just tape them on the floor. For now, I'm going to tape them, and add boxes later if I feel like I'm cheating the box.
  7. I'm not in front of my load book right now, but I was running either Solo1000 or Titegroup, about 3.5 - 4gr under a zero 180gr, 1.130". Never had the desire to keep a 2nd bullet weight on hand so never tried a light bullet in .40. Tried 147's in 9mm in my wife's gun, ran it that way for about 4k rounds..then moved to 125's and she liked it much better due to cycle speed. Of course by that time she had started shooting limited as well and wanted to speed up the production load for all the reason's listed in my previous post.
  8. I have no idea about the physic's related to muzzle blast, but I would say it has some difference, although I would bet it minor. Think about shooting through a barrel/pipe, muzzle blast doesn't effect limited/production guns as much (or even noticable) as compared to an open gun which will dance around like a hula girl. Main reason, driection of gas flow. Limited/Production guns is more like a spray of water from a garden hose, tight and uniform as it exits the nozzle, starts to seperate into a cone shape as it gets further and further away from nozzle. An open gun is like a nozzle with holes in it, gas goes in every direction and can ultimately impact the gun/shooter which causes the gun to recoil unpredictablly. At least that's how I would think of it. I will say this, when I first started shooting I had 1 set up, a G35 in .40 that I shot mainly in Limited. I pulled the magwell and get back to production legal and shot several matches to get classified in production and even a few state level matches with it. I thought .40 minor was the bomb... feather soft shooting, flatter, you name it I liked it. However, as I became a better and better shooter the timing of the gun killed me switching between major/minor, even with spring changes the gun just felt sluggish at around 140-145PF. I picked up a G34 in 9mm and loaded it up to about 143 PF (same load in my wifes M&P 4.25" is 135PF and the load was for her gun), 125gn bullet so fairly fast for 9mm. Suddenly everything fell into place for me, timing was so close to my .40 major, recoil impulse was the same, everything about it felt as if I was shooting .40 major, which made the transition between Limited/Production that much easier, and since I was only doing that 3-4 matches a year and not spending much practice time with the production set up, it just made more sense to me.
  9. I've recently made the switch from a G35 limted set up to a 2011 rig. It's a lightened slide, bull barrel, short dust cover gun. But I also occassionaly shoot my wifes stock Edge. I do notice with her gun that I overswing if I don't have a solid head snap. If I snap my eyes/head to the target first, it doesn't seem to matter what gun I'm shooting, it just stops right where I'm looking. If I get lazy on the head snap, I over swing every time. Haven't shot my new lightened gun enough yet to know how focused I need to be with it, but with the Edge, I have to pay attention. I suggest working on making sure you get a good eye, head, gun transition. Almost over execute the head snap at first until it's in your head then it's back to auto pilot.
  10. well crap...note to the new guy, don't listen to anything I have to say I apparently haven't been shooting enough matches this year to keep it all straight.
  11. Welcome. Look forward to seeing you back at Wilmore. Keep in mind, there are a lot of local matches and you can shoot nearly every weekend, and sometimes twice a weekend if you're up to it. Silver Creek Conservation Club- Sellersburg IN - USPSA 2nd Sunday Miami Rifle & Pistol - Batavia OH - USPSA 3rd Sunday BGSL - Wilmore KY - USPSA 1st sunday Rockcastle Shooting Center - Park City KY - 3rd Saturday Owensboro Rifle & Pistol Club - Lewisport/Owensboro/Hansan (I can get there ) KY - 3rd Sunday I think I have those right. Then of course steel at BGSL and Silver Creek..
  12. Shot the BGSL/local match on Sunday. match went pretty good overall. Didn't finish like I wanted, I seem to have a problem with being patient on head shots and racked up a few Mikes due to it. I gotta get my butt back on the practice range. That's going to happen this week for sure. I'm getting quicker on my 10-12 yard shots due to trusting my front sight more and more, rushing steel a little and last shots before reloading/moving. Follow through seems to be the issue there. Practice Practice Practice
  13. Shot a few matches since the Ohio Sectional, one at my home club which came off so/so, about 85% of the points available, but competative in that I finished in the upper 1/3rd of the local limited guys. Owensboro, at which I flubbed a few things and just couldn't seem to move like I wanted. I've found the match there to be short movements and tighter shots for the most part. Always fun and challenging, but I tend to do worse on those types of stages, I think I posted a mike on every stage about 82% of the points if I remember right (wait, this was before the OH sectional..anyway), and the Rockcastle match is past weekend. 92% of the points on that match, and finally had a bobble free run on Can you Count (after shooting it now 3 times). Went 4.09 and 4.10 on the 2 runs, 1 pt down in total. 72'ish percent on the classifier. I finished mid-upper of the limited pack, nothing stellar, but pretty solid I felt. I haven't been dry firing or getting any live fire practice in. Work life and home life are so busy it's difficult to find the energy/motivation to do anything other than what I have to. I gotta get out of this rut and back to the practice sessions if I'm going to make A before spring. I've flubbed a few classifiers and it's pushing my overall % down so definately not gaining any ground doing what I'm doing. I have felt more comfortable and relaxed the last several matches. Even at OH I never really felt wound up/tense which is new for me this season. I've held good focus on my front sight, but while I'm seeing it, I'm still struggling to call my shots consistently and often if I call a make up shot, I'm making up an Alpha with another Alpha or a Charlie with another Charlie. I need to just set up some drills and run them to help me with this. I think I'm going to set up a something like smoke 'n' hope to help me with this. I havne't shot a steel match in about 8 months and I miss it, but with the distance we now travel to a match, it's eiher get in a USPSA match, or steel match, not both like we used to. I am feeling much more positive about my shooting these last couple months, just need to take taht positive and kick it up a notch. My wife did pick up her C card in Limited on the last update, so very happy about that.
  14. Hopefully Chad or the MD (Chad might be the MD I don't know) will find the contact info for him and get it to me. Want to see this go back to the right person.
  15. I found a mag on stage 6 Saturday. We were the last squad through that stage, it was laying in the parking area. If you lost a mag at the Rockcastle match on Saturday, please send me a PM with a description of the mag and contents including: what gun it fits (type/brand), capacity, load length, and because the particular person who lost the mag is detailed, the type/brand of brass used.
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