GorillaTactical
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Posts posted by GorillaTactical
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I've shot a lot of the top end triggers. Settled on JP as my go-to (full replacement, not just spring kit). Haven't had any ignition issues with wolf.
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Limited Division Local Match
After taking a weekend off, I got back out to the range and shot one of the bigger local matches in my area. I'm being fickle and division hopping right now as I wait for my open gun to get finished up by @anilson. So this match I went to Limited Division - I've only shot 4 or 5 total matches in limited, but thought it'd be a good idea to break out the Atlas Titan which has only had about 1500-2000 rounds through it since last October, the majority of which were right when I got it. I was really focusing on what was an acceptable sight picture this match - I feel that I have honed that skill on the PCC platform, but I'm lacking with respect to being able to do so with a handgun and iron sights.
Approximately 100 shooters attended the match despite it being 100+ degrees here in Houston. After a scoring correction, I ended up finishing 5th overall, 90% +/- of the high overall winner, who was an Open GM, and 95% of the Limited Master who won the division. Aside from a little bit of trouble on a few pieces of small steel, I felt strong at this match - no penalties or misses over 7 stages and I felt like I was on the gas for the duration of the match. Even had a stage get thrown out that I had absolutely shredded so it could have only been better.
What I Learned:
- I need to do a bit better on sight picture for swingers - I tend to hit A-D on swinging targets and that's likely a product of returning to the same point of aim and not adjusting for the target having moved.
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I made up a few shots I didn't need to - trust the sights and how they track - a made up 2 A zone shots
- Drawing from the DAA holster is a little different than from the Bladetech in my BOSS Hanger - I tend to overdraw just a bit out of the DAA due to muscle memory
- I need to grip a little bit harder when shooting the .40.....OR, I'm not gripping hard enough on the 9mm.
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I like not having to reload EVERY time I move positions - it allows me to demonstrate some of my movement speed that I've been working on with the PCC
What I Did Well:
- Movement and footwork felt pretty darn solid.
- Stage Planning/Execution felt on point...I took some fairly risky approaches but executed them well
- I worked in some shooting while retreating out of positions, and was actually quite successful
- I'm pretty happy with how I ended up at this match - out preformed my expectations.
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JP Rifles Summer Hose-Fest 2017
Some of the JP Sponsored shooters hosted a really fun match this past weekend - 5 stages, 50 rounds per stage. Scoring was 2 hits anywhere to neutralize or 1 A zone to neutralize. I'm not going to lie...after having shot at exclusively A zones for the last 9 months, adjusting to increase the speed to any two hits on target was quite an adjustment; I still ended up shooting mostly A zones
. As with every match I attend, I had the opportunity to learn a few important lessons, unfortunately, this time it cost me the match. None the less, a really fun event and it was pretty sweet to put the pedal to the floor a little bit and open up the speed.
What I Learned:
- Fundamentals, and executing those fundamentals well under pressure, are ALL we have as shooters. When you start to cut corners, that's when things go downhill.
- I need to pay more attention when reloading, that I'm seating my mag 100%. This was the first time I was forced to reload the PCC in each stage and with a big stick on the clock, and it ended up being an area where I had an issue - dropped the mag, the rounds twisted up within it, etc etc etc.
- Pay attention to offset when stage planning AND shooting. I had an issue where I tapped a barricade with a shot due to my neglect in considering offset. When I planned my stage, a specific wall was leaning one way, when I shot it, it was leaning the other, and that difference really made the shot I was trying to thread in between two pieces of hard cover, very difficult.
- Select a stage plan that plays to YOUR strengths. On one stage, I opted to select a stage plan that didn't play best to my skillsets as well as height, and as such, I ended up running into the issue above with the offset.
- If I intend to move back to 3 Gun, I need to re-learn how to pick up the speed a bit more...I hit approx 70% A's on a match where A's were meaningless.
What I Did Well:
- Movement and footwork felt pretty darn solid.
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Not to many extra shots - I kept the number of extra rounds fired pretty minimal...I wasn't making up any C's, as I'm known to do from time to time
- Strong AAR - This match really made me consider what allows an average shooter to get good, and a good shooter to get great. I'd hope that the subject of fundamentals wouldn't seem too surprising as the answer I've come up with to that question...all we collectively do, when we're operating at our highest skill level, in my best estimation, is to string together a bunch of fundamental elements and execute them in unison.
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Only thing I can think of regarding a risk may be how the retention works - insofar as cutting out the front of the pouch may reduce some of the surface area contacting the magazine...I can't imagine that'd be too much of a problem, just a point to consider.
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I'll give the answer....
It's just something I added as an after effect. It took too long to do, so I haven't done it since...
It's an image that shows up for about 3 or 4 frames right at the peak of the audio where the gun discharges.
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Dang, Scott - you've really been making some aggressive improvements based on your drill times. Well done.
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40 minutes ago, racine said:
It was a windless morning. The wind didn't pick up till after 3 pm, hours later.
I think you may have taken my post a bit too literally. My point is, you can't be sure one way or another, that the targets were 100% not set for anyone other than the shooter shooting at the time the downed targets were discovered. I don't see how you could prove that previous shooters hadn't had the targets either available to shoot, or that they hadn't shot them (depending on how the stage was laid out). In other words, at the time of penalties being assessed for targets left standing, the RO, the scorer, and the shooters should have looked over the course and counted the steel left standing at which point, the RO or scorer should have noticed the steel in question down, and determined if they had been shot or if they had not been reset. At that point a reshoot could have been issued to the shooter currently shooting the stage, or he/she would have received credit for the hits.
It's a positive learning moment to always walk an entire stage during walk-through, during the scoring procedure, and when the scorer enters the final score on the pad after you've shot to ensure you're always seeing everything and securing the appropriate and most accurate score.
That said, if the MD's decision on whether to grant the reshoot was predicated on how well the shooter did on the stage, and whether or not it would have made a difference, then that in my opinion, is incorrect. As soon as it's accepted that the stage was incorrectly setup for certains shooters, then reshoots to everyone who shot the stage incorrectly would be required.
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Playing devil's advocate...
How can you be sure that those targets were not set for when those other shooters shot? Maybe the wind just blew them over right before the shooter who got to the end...
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First Match Back on Handgun
Went out to one of the bigger local Houston matches this weekend and took out the CZ to shoot Production. This was my first time really getting back into a match environment with a handgun in about 7 months...and it unfortunately showed. I was able to start the match on two short courses and ended up shooting them quite well, winning one by about 15%. Unfortunately, things went downhill from there and I struggled with some basic things on the matches 4 field courses. Finished fourth behind an M and two A shooters at 95%.
What I Learned:
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I need to make a gear adjustment - not sure what changed, but since I last shot, it feels like the springs in my mag pouches have tightened down significantly, making it very difficult to extract a few mags (I noticed this on multiple stages and it probably cost me a few seconds over the course of the match).
- Additionally, I noticed I was having issues with some magazines not wanting to drop when empty - I'm going to polish them up a bit and make sure there are no burs inside the mag well or on the magazine release.
- I need to pay more attention to collecting points when shooting Production. I had the match in time won by almost 8 seconds over 6 stages (including a monumental collapse where I had about 6-7 extra shots on set of 3 steel targets - 01:00. So, at a minimum, I had the win in time by 10%. You can see then where the issue was. I had a Mike on one of the zebra targets, and shot a few of the distance partials D-D. Additionally, I only had about 74% Alphas. I need to look to seeing the sights just a little bit better and taking just a bit more time to ensure I collect those positive hits.
- I need to remind myself to continue to move quickly and utilize the techniques I've learned from shooting PCC with respect to aggressive movement. I find that I get too focused on reloads and lose that real aggressive motion.
What I did Well:
- Realistically, I did better than I ultimately expected. I had one stage where it was evident that I really wasn't paying attention to my sights well enough, but others where I shot fairly calm, collected, and didn't have misses on steel - remembering that a makeup shot is almost never as fast as hitting the target on your first shot is something I need to build into my practice and ultimately, what I carry with me to matches.
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I need to make a gear adjustment - not sure what changed, but since I last shot, it feels like the springs in my mag pouches have tightened down significantly, making it very difficult to extract a few mags (I noticed this on multiple stages and it probably cost me a few seconds over the course of the match).
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Welcome from another lad in Houston. Hope to bump into you at some matches.
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1 minute ago, B_RAD said:
Yeah but why couldn't I just shoot it once and have the scores count for both? I'd have to pay for both.
Ahhhhhhh, maybe you can??? Any time I've ever seen anyone do something like this before (shoot the same classifier for multiple divisions) they have always shot it a second time, including using the same gun, but I'm just reading through the rule book on it, and not sure that it makes that distinction.
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36 minutes ago, B_RAD said:
I've been wanting to try Limited division but haven't got my gun/gear set up yet. I found out that the club I'm going to shoot at this Saturday is doing all classifiers. So, my question is if I shoot my production set up could my scores also count for limited? I'd be getting scored minor so that's not optimal and could make my percentage for Limited lower but why couldn't that be counted?
I could get there earlier and shoot the stages twice but I'd still have to shoot the same gear since I don't have a Limited set up. I'm an M in Production so the worst would be an A classification in Limited. Plus, I kinda want to try and get an M or better with production gear/minor scoring.
As you say, you'd need to enter twice, once in production and once in limited, and shoot each stage twice for two unique scores. Production guns and gear fall within the rule-sets for limited, so there's nothing that says you can't to the best of my knowledge.
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Haven't shot the SV, so please read the remainder of my commentary with that in mind. Additionally, I'll only speak with respect to my experiences.
I do own a Titan in .40, and this is what I can say about the Atlas:
- It works - and it shoots the standard length loads just as well if not better than the "special" longer oal loads.
- Gun feels extremely solid. The weight feels like it's in the right places too.
- If you don't like aggressive texturing, the grip Adam uses is not something you will enjoy. That said, if you like an aggressive grip, it's one of the best out there.
- I've got about 2,000 rounds down the pipe of mine at this point, and it basically feels like the day it arrived.
- With respect to "flatness", it destroys any sort of polymer gun with respect to recoil impulse and sight return...again, haven't put it up against an SV so hard to say how it compares, but I'm certainly happy with it.
- Any time I've spoke with Adam, he's been top-notch, respectful, and given me more time on the line than I likely deserved, entertaining various questions.
- I had one of the set screws come loose from my grip after a practice session (and I lost it) - Adam and Gina overnighted me a new set. I know it's a part that probably only costs .25$, but it's the principal.
I've ordered a Chaos from Adam to try out Open, and if it shoots on par with the Titan, I won't regret it in the slightest.
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21 minutes ago, djj1234 said:
whats crazy is that the morning before one of the range officers got dqed for the exact same thing as what I did.
I believe the RO on the stage told me that it was 3-4 people total who DQed on the stage over the course of the match (RO Match Included).
I appreciate that this was one of your first matches, so it sucks that you didn't get a chance to shoot it all the way through. As you continue on in competitive shooting, you'll find that there is a limitless set of circumstances that can and will go wrong while you're on the clock...from arguably the worst possible outcome short of someone actually getting injured (receiving a DQ) up to a primer falling out of a round and seizing a trigger (ask me how I know that one), to a magazine falling out in the middle of an array, we've all experienced at least something that hasn't gone our way; unfortunately the $h*t always seems to happen more frequently at larger matches or on the big stage. So much of shooting becomes mental with respect to what you do with those mistakes or freak occurrences and how you use them to grow (which you mentioned you are doing well with).
Ultimately, no one got hurt, you realized even in the moment what you were doing wasn't good, and you are using the event to grow in the sport. On more than one occurrence, I've seen the top shooter/s at a match...and some cases even in the country get DQed...it can happen to anyone...hope to meet you out at the Space City and/or Area 59 matches later this year.
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I actually have video of the stage in question (please don't judge the shooting on the first few targets...it didn't go very well for me
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Stage Video (stage starts at 2:33)
The two leaning paper were visible from the windows, but only because you started down-range of the ports...if you turned and looked back into the ports, then you could see them up-range from you...if you started up-range and moved into the ports, it'd be clear they were beyond the 180...none the less, I found myself doing the exact same thing that the OP did during my walk through...certainly a tendency to shoot the target as soon as you see it.
With respect to the general rule of putting targets at 89 degrees, I think it's cool in the context of a stage like a shoot-house where you turn a corner and there's a target at the end of a hallway, but I'm not a big fan of just setting up bunch of 180 traps for shooters.
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25 minutes ago, wgj3 said:
If you make G in PCC, wouldnt/wont you automatically be an M in everything else?
That's how the system works. I understand it for purposes of handgun only classification, but I'm admittedly a better rifle shooter than pistol shooter. So, despite being very close to M organically with handguns, I'm really going to need to up my training on handgun in order to properly represent my class once I get updated.
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Reintroducing Handgun
Well, I've done a little dry fire, shot a local match and a few classifier stages with handguns over the last 2-3 weeks, after having not touched a handgun in about 5-6 months. Unfortunately, the lost time is apparent. I'm consistently 5-10% slower...so, instead of going to a match today, I decided to go to the indoor range and work some basic skills. Draws, reloads, accurate fire, splits, etc. Took out 200 rounds of ammo.
- Started off by pushing the target to the max distance of 15 yards (normally I'd like to do this at 25) and shooting a 10 shot group, no time limit. Because I've been shooting rifle, I noticed that my accuracy with the handgun had suffered, namely because I wasn't paying attention to my front sight nearly enough. I used this drill as a forced reminder that the sight exists for a reason.
- Next I worked around 30 rounds of just draw to first shot. At 5 yards I was consistently hitting a 1.0 draw to A zone, with my fastest being around a .80 and my slowest being around a 1.1. My last 5 reps of draws, I pushed the target back to 15 and worked my time from a 2.0 on the first rep, down to a 1.5 by the time I got the 5th rep. It was noticeably difficult to pick up my front sight in the indoor lighting, but I think I'm also still fighting the urge to just stare at the target and wait for a red dot to float in front of my eye.
- The range began to get busy at this point, so it was more difficult to use the timer. I ran some 4 Aces drills; was able to hit around 3 seconds repeatably, but my reloads SUCKED. I probably ran the drill about 10 times and only had 2-3 really clean reloads. If I remember, top GMs are shooting this repeatably at close to 2.0 seconds, Draw and reload are definitively the places that I'm losing the most time - my splits feel like they're OK and not the lowest hanging fruit.
- Also shot a few FAST drills (2 headshot A's, 4 body A's). Was hitting 4-4.5 seconds on this drill. Admittedly pushing my speed on the head shots. I believe the top GMs are shooting this in like 3.0-3.25...accuracy on the A zone headshots was pretty tough for me, losing lots of time there, and then again, draws and reloads.
I'm absolutely not shooting at the level I was prior to moving to PCC, (which was right on the edge of A and M)...I'm hopeful that by reintegrating daily dry fire, I'll get back into a position to complete the push into Master Class by classifier percentage and not just do to the artificial bump I should end up receiving due to my PCC classification once the system runs next week.
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12 hours ago, bcp said:
Congrats on your GM. How long did it take?
Shot a PCC for the first time at the beginning of December 2016, but I used to shoot 3 gun and rifle matches a few years ago, so I was able to wake those old muscles up fairly quickly.
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31 minutes ago, wtturn said:
Just out of curiosity, what are your pistol divisions classifications?
I'm teetering between A and M, with lots of room for improvement
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Only classified in production presently: 83%
Got an 85% on file for the one limited classifier I've shot to date. We'll see after this weekend (I actually have some of this info in my range diary).
The inbound bump coming from moving up in PCC should hopefully only artificially improve my true handgun classification by 2% or so.
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2 minutes ago, mosher said:
Yep, I missed that. Congrats on the GM!
PHEW! Ok good lol. Just wanted to make sure...and thanks very much.
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3 minutes ago, mosher said:
93.932
Y-100
Y-95.3842
Y-87.5808
F-80.0775
F-81.1165
Y-91.9326
Y-100
Y-88.6944Shouldn't the 91.93 become a D and leave the 99 in?
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So, there's a big local classifier match this weekend coming up, and I want to shoot my Limited Gun in it...but I also want to ensure that I'm appropriately reviewing and analyzing my classifiers which are yet to be counted for PCC, before I move back to shooting handgun. I thought I did this right, but someone locally mentioned that they thought I hadn't appropriately accounted for which scores would drop...and as such, I request the assistance of the forum.
Attached is a snapshot of my current classification as it stands today...once the 3 unpaid classifiers run, I'm getting 95.14%... (100, 95.38, 87.58, 100, 88.69, 99.19)
Is this what everyone else is seeing?
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14 minutes ago, B_RAD said:
How can a M get a match bump by placing 5% better than their classification? Seems like you'd have to win. I guess that rule really only works for A class and lower?
That's how I read this. M has to shoot 100% in order to get a bump via match result alone.
37 minutes ago, JusticeOfToren said:This is probably very bad news for the M shooters trying to make GM.
If this is how it ultimately shakes out, that HHFs actually go up opposed to go down or stay the same as an average, then it's not just "bad news" for M's trying to up their classification...what we're basically saying is that the skill threshold is being lifted for all shooters. I'd be shocked though, if the shift in HHF is as severe as going from 10 to say 12. A 15-20% shift in the skill ceiling on a classifier is bonkers...that would be a complete rework of the system and what each classification represents IMHO. I don't know that that is necessarily a bad thing...just an observation. -
11 hours ago, motosapiens said:
this is only true if the field course is tilted towards pcc with lots of long shots, and minimal leans, ports, or tight quarters maneuvering. Typical uspsa field courses still give the advantage to open imho.
Very well said.
Over a major match, I've noticed that the number of stages that weigh heavily towards PCC strengths versus weighing heavily toward handgun strengths usually balance out, or fall in the handgun shooter's favor, ultimately. Again, not that it matters due to divisions being unique.
11 hours ago, motosapiens said:For folks that don't suck with a pistol (i.e. good uspsa shooters), it's a little less clear-cut.
Another spot on point. I'm a better rifle shooter than handgun shooter, admittedly, but there are still stages where I've shot both a PCC and handgun just for kicks, and came out close to even just based on the nature of the stage layout.
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Stuff the pro's say
in Little things I've Noticed
Posted · Edited by GorillaTactical
I like the collection of sayin's you put together @B_RAD - also agree with the concept of the constantly evolving meaning of these concepts as we grow as shooters.
Regarding the point on gear mattering or not...I think that this is a comment, in its current form, best directed at the average individual getting into competition/ the mid level shooter who sees the pros/skilled shooters out rocking the fancy stuff...the number one mistake I have seen (and was guilty of) is to then go out and spend thousands on gear that, maybe takes someone from shooting 60% of their local match winner, to 62% of their local match winner. What I tell people on my youtube channel videos where I talk about gear and product, is that gear is never a substitute for fundamentals and training, but the correct gear for you can enhance your ability slightly, and make executing some of those fundamentals just a little bit easier. I've heard it more than once though..."If I just had X gear, I could be just about as fast as that guy"...and it makes me cry a little each time