alpha-charlie

Sitting by the window waiting for the FedEx guy to deliver my new 34. I've yet to shoot it and it's coming back from the smith with a trigger job and internal magwell and sights. It should be above freezing tomorrow so I'm gonna try and make it to the range and chrono some rounds thru it. I'm going against the grain and am gonna try shooting lead through a Glock. Not poly or moly coated, just straight up lead. I've heard and read all the myths but I think if I consistently keep the barrel clean, it shouldn't be a problem. Besides, the cost savings is unbelieveable. And, I really like the father/son business that I buy from. Update: It has arrived!!! The trigger feels nice but not as nice as my gen 3. It needs to be broken in so I'm sure it'll smooth out a little bit more. I immediately put on a full wrap Tru-Grip and realized something about my weak hand grip. I have tru-grip on a couple of my guns and always noticed that the base of my weak hand pushes the tape forward. I always attributed this to gripping too tight. WRONG. I have been shooting a pistol for over 7 years being professionally trained and attaining the class of Master in Production. Turns out, I have been gripping the gun wrong this entire freaking time. I'm not actually squeezing with my weak hand. My fingers are gripping the gun but not applying much pressure. I've been applying pressure with my palm and base of my hand against the gun. This was to compensate for my strong hand grip which I know is always too tight. After dry-firing for about 30 seconds with a proper weak hand grip, my sights don't move at all. Man, I feel dumb. Just another example of telling yourself you're doing everything right, when in reality you're not. I feel dumb, but excited about solving another issue. Live fire will tell the tale completely.

+1 Recent experience: While walking towards the TSA's you stop dead in your tracks and frantically start triple checking every single pocket. Because somehow, rounds always end up in ALL of your pockets no matter what you're wearing.

Live Fire....... Back from a wedding in NYC and decided to hit the range today. I was re-reading Enos' book on the plane and decided to work on accuracy today. I shot difficult shots all day. Started out shooting groups at 25 yards. I made a 4" X 4" box in the middle of the A-zone to shoot my groups at. I was not incredibly accurate doing this. I was shooting to the left alot but later realized my weak hand grip was really terrible today. I moved it back to 40 yards and started shooting the plate racks. I mostly shot these w/h/o or s/h/o. The point of this was to really work on sight focus, staying relaxed and trigger control. It started raining so I moved back a little farther under the canopy and did some table starts. At about 45 yards, unloaded-slide forward etc., magazine on table. At the start signal, load and take one shot at a plate. It was a good learning experience in wasting no movement and getting the gun up as quickly as possible. I started off missing quite a bit. I would load quickly and get the gun up on target and rush the shot. By allowing for .20 extra to focus the front sight a little better I was hitting. My fastest time with a hit was 2.34 seconds. I was averaging about 2.75. This is where I really realized how terrible my weak hand grip was today. When I slowed down a tiny bit and tightened up my grip, I started to hit. Simple things that I know I overlook and forget to focus on during a match.

Pro Pain He got the ball rolling.

sitting on the porch at sunset, sipping whiskey and listening to songs about trains.

Or...he'd just tell everyone to screw off and do what he wants to do.

Easiest way to help Ben pick a pistol: tell him NOT to shoot a certain gun because he WON'T be able to shoot it well and will NEVER win with it. A stubborn and spiteful Ben will then master the gun and shove it back in our faces. And why would he do this?.......WINNING

Titegroup isn't temp sensitive but 3.2 grains seems pretty light.

Must be the mag pouches. Results are up. Won one of the stages and shot pretty accurate. As accurate as I was I could have easily won a few more stages if I could shave about 2 or 3 seconds off the long courses. Same old story.

2011 Schultz/NISA Bragging Rights Match Only final results were posted by the time I left so I know that I finished 2nd behind Alex. He smoked my times on most of the stages but I shot pretty accurate. On one of the 30 round field courses I shot 29 A's and 1 B in a pretty respectable time. 2 mikes for day on close up easy targets. Reloads were better with only a couple noticeable flubs. For the most part my reloads were finished before I was coming into the next position. Besides for moving a little better I seem to still waste a ton of time getting the first shot off once I get into position. Didn't get the first stage on video, it had a pretty cool Texas Star on it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DuoJTnd2go&feature=youtu.be

Wow. Eliminate the drama, alliances and childlike arguments and now you have a show purely about shooting, composed of people who actually represent the greatest people in the world: shooters. This was probably the most enjoyable episode I've ever seen on Top Shot, a group of shooters going out and shooting. And when one of them did poorly, they didn't blame someone else or blame the equipment. They knew that if they wanted to do better, it was on them to do it. I wish T.S. was like this all the time. (But of course, fights and drama is what gets millions of people to watch....Unfortunately) Outstanding elimination challenge Zombie Mike. Go Dustin!!!! I'm all for backing my fellow USPSA shooter, but if someone can teach themself to shoot that well then I gotta back him!!

Thanks, it was quite the whirlwind of a year. Uhh...and after your performance at the Indiana Section with a borrowed Limited gun, I think we all know you're at least A class right now.

How about quit sandbagging in B class!!!

I've had this same problem of the mags dropping free during practice and then hanging up at matches. I too thought it was a mechanical problem but it wasn't. I'd get so amped up during a match that I'd hit the mag release as I would turn the magwell in for the next magazine. I was turning the gun too much before pressing the mag release. The mag would drop out about half way and hang up. Poor execution of the fundamentals on my part. Solution for my problem, practice perfect reloads more.

Back to the range.....Live Fire (Loooooonnnnnggggg post, I learned alot today) Got back out on the range today for about 2.5 hrs and burned through about 400 rounds. Ran a few simple drills. Started out and ended with the Dot drill, shot it.......poorly, would be a nice way to say it. I was initially told to do the next drill at 25 yards but did it at 40 yards instead. Why? Why not. Full target off to my left at about 5 yards and the plate rack 40 yds down range. From the draw, 2 shots to the paper and then transition to the plate rack for one shot. Purpose was to learn how to go from 0 to 100 to 50. I did this drill 3 ways: Freestyle, strong hand only, and weak hand only. Shooting plates at 40 yds, w.h.o. is pretty cool. Major focus on the sights and trigger press is key to this one. Next was a short 12 round minimum c.o.f. I stood about 20 yards from the plate rack. On the start signal I would draw, run 10 yards to the fault line and then engage the plate rack (6) while moving directly to the right. Ten feet from the rack was the next target. A planned reload after the plate rack and then used a target with the A zone cut out as a port to engage a partial target at 10 yards. Ten feet to the right of this was a Bianchi barricade with 2 targets at 7 yards. These 2 targets were next to each other and only available for head shots. I also positioned them so that an extremely tough lean was needed to engage them from around the barricade. Set a fault line up so that I could work on getting into the proper position the first time and to ensure that a hard lean position had to happen. Par time on this started at 15 seconds and the first few runs were well over. I set this drill up to work on getting into position quickly, having the gun up and ready, going one for one on shots, quick reloads, and staying calm and relaxed (hence, the running up before shooting). After actually thinking about all of those things, I stopped thinking about the speed of my movement and focused on technique. I was barreling into the first shooting position and slamming on the brakes, shooting 3-4 extra shots, flubbing the reload, and then over-running the fault line at the barricade. This is how I normally shoot stages and why I waste so much time like a doucher. So, I stopped worrying about the speed as I was moving and focused on the shooting. I mean, that's what really puts points on the board right? While moving I stopped thinking, "hurry up and get to the next spot." I actually was completely focused on the next target and what I had to do as I approached the next shooting position. This of course all is happening in a matter of seconds. When I started the stage again, instead of thinking hurry up and get to the first fault line I looked at the first plate the whole time and about 3/4 of the way there i brought the gun up with both hands and simultaneously slowed down. By the time I got to the fault line I was shooting. I slowly moved to the right and went one for one on the plate rack. Stuffed a mag and as I was getting my grip back and the gun up I was coming into view of the next target through the port. (I also told myself to get moving as soon as the 2nd shot broke, since I found myself sitting on my heels in a previous run staring the target) Set-up on the hard lean and tightened up the grip and took an extra couple 100th's of a second to really make the head shots count. I was 2 seconds under my par time (about 4 seconds faster than my initial runs)with all Alphas. Smooth is fast for sure. I ran this drill about 10 times and stepped it up a little bit. I added an extra reload between the port and the barricade just because it was a short distance which meant a fast reload was necessary and it gave me one more thing to think about. This run was the fastest of my runs on this drill. This is exactly the type of practice I need to keep doing so that I am confident that just because it doesn't feel like I'm moving fast, I really am. **Focus on the fundamentals, technique, and accurate shooting; and not on the foot race between positions.** Final note: These drills may or may not have been "borrowed" from a shooter from Wisconsin who shoots a Beretta. I think his name is Ken Stoger or something.

Confession. I'm going to stray and shoot an IDPA match tomorrow. I have the day off, a bunch of ammo loaded and there's no local USPSA matches going on. I know I have to wear some type of cover garment but there's no way I'm wearing a fishing vest. Edit** Cold and rainy this morning when I woke up. For USPSA I would have definitely toughed it out but not for a match that I was gonna go to just so that I could shoot something. Dry fire and loaded up another 600 rounds instead. Planning on hitting the range 3 or 4 days during the week before the Bragging Rights match on Sunday. (Wisconsin vs. Illinois) Watch out Cheeseheads, here come the FIP's!!!

I will. I know that to be a fact. Besides, I really don't like the idea of getting hit with a timer if I don't.

Live Fire...... Made it to the range today to work on some things, mainly accuracy. I feel that I'm pretty accurate but I get too amped up and concerned about speed which makes me forget alot of my fundamentals when running through a stage. I started today with the Dot Drill/Dot Torture. I didn't do any dry fire or warm up shooting before this. I've shot this drill once before and it was alot harder than I thought. It really makes you focus on the front sight and trigger control. I shot o.k. but not 50/50. I put that aside and worked on a few different things; mainly shooting in tight areas and having to reload for another shooting position that's only a few steps away. I cut the A-zone out of a target and used that as a port to work on keeping the gun up before getting to a new position. I did some barricade work also. Moved some targets around to create some really hard leaning shots on both sides. Turned it up a little bit and started shooting these same tight shots weak hand only and strong hand only. That was interesting, but a great challenge. Finished up by shooting the dot drill again, 46/50. Dropped a couple on weak hand only, one on strong hand only and one on the last transition drill. Just have to keep at it. Also, it's official..I made Master in production. Never thought I'd see the day.

Thanks everyone, it still hasn't quite sunk in yet. Looks like there's quite a few right on the brink to making M also. Keep it up guys and we can start a race to GM !!!!!

I'm guessing you're a right handed shooter. Shooting to the left is probably due to trigger control.

Sorry, couldn't resist.

Was picking up my new Gen4 34 the other day when the phone rang at the gun shop. I couldn't hear the caller but only the responses from the guy who answered the phone. It went like this: (caution: this is a little scary) Clerk: Hello, ------ Gun Shop Caller: ------ Clerk: No sir, we do not carry any fully automatic weapons. Caller: ----- Clerk: No sir, you cannot get them anywhere else. You cannot legally get them anywhere else in the United States without a Class 3 license. Caller:----- Clerk: Yes sir, we do sell rifles. Caller: -------- Clerk: Well, we sell rifles from as small as .22 all the way up to 50 BMG. Caller: -------- Clerk: No sir, they are all semi-automatic Caller: ------ Clerk: That means you pull the trigger one time and one bullet comes out. Caller: ------- Clerk: Well, an AK will be anywhere $500-$1,000 and a 50 BMG can be anywhere from $4,000 - $10,000. Caller: ---------- Clerk: No sir, we cannot hold any guns until you get here.

I should be making Master at the update this month.

+1 Once I found the bullet, powder and OAL that made pf +5 and had me poa/poi at 25 yds, I've stuck with it ever since. I shoot the same load every time I shoot, whether it's practice, local or major match. I even showed up to a Level II with some ammo that I loaded over the winter and they threw in the "unadvertised" chrono stage. I still made pf no problem while a bunch of shooters were sweating it out. Just find a load that you're confident in and shoot it all the time.

Related to that one....Whenever you reach into your strong side pocket, your weak hand automatically moves across your belly as if to draw.