GunBugBit

Had my best official total Steel Challenge match time last Sunday. Still a ways to go to make Single Stack 'A'. So few single stackers lately. If I'm competing with other people, it's the Limited shooters since they represent the largest centerfire irons division. I do all right. It's time to push my speed in Steel Challenge. Not a little but a lot. The worst that will happen as long as I'm safe is people will point and laugh. They do that anyway so...

I have experimented with this on a Glock and found parts of my support hand interfering with the controls, dropping mags while shooting being the main issue. I don't even bother trying it with 1911s. I prefer to keep my grip the same between the two gun types so I use what most of us here would consider the classic thumbs-forward-high-hand grip. If a person can make the forefinger-on-trigger-guard technique work, that's great. It just hasn't worked for me.

Lately, just occasional halfhearted dry fire and two matches per month. That's not enough. I went from unclassified to high C in USPSA and Steel Challenge in something like a year and a half, to B in Steel Challenge in about two years. And after a stronger push in dry fire practice, B in USPSA in about three years. Getting to A and above will require a new level of training frequency, no way around it. For the last year or so I've been on a plateau and I know the remedy is more frequent training. I've been learning some finer points in Steel Challenge, some of which I can carry to USPSA and other shooting games, but those things give only fractional improvements. Right now, it's about more energy output, better consistency, and elevating my skill level through more frequent training. Some of the things I've improved through sheer reps aren't things I'm consciously aware of. Lots of draws, trigger presses and reloads in dry fire along with steady match shooting definitely improve my match performance simply because I become capable of faster and more precise gun handling, more than any mental paradigm shift or technique change.

Yes. Also, the things I expected to receive suggestions on from, say, a GM on my squad, is not usually what I expected to hear. I hear things I never thought about before. Which is good because I get new input from a good source based on watching me shoot up close. This can hardly help but make you better, if you take it in and apply it.

Very impressive photoracer! I saw a 1.77 S&H string yesterday (someone on my squad, not me), so I know how fast your warp speed looks.

You bet Steven!

Speed Option - now convinced to shoot it 4-3-1-2-S not 4-3-2-1-S. Outer Limits - Logical reason to shoot it 1-2-3-4-S: with your gun tending to bounce a bit as you settle into the middle box, the far rectangle plate is more forgiving to vertical error. And the final 4-S transition is fast. My updated sequences: 5 to Go: 1-2-3-4-S Showdown Left Box (2x): 1-2-4-3-S Showdown Right Box (3x): 2-1-4-3-S Smoke and Hope: 1-2-4-3-S Outer Limits: 1-2-3-4-S Accelerator: 1-2-4-3-S Pendulum: 1-2-3-4-S Speed Option: 4-3-1-2-S Roundabout: 4-3-1-2-S

Last Sunday's Deer Tribe Steel Challenge was really good because I shot with Joe DePetro (Open Grandmaster) and Brian Green (PCC Optics Master). Both are very nice guys and great to shoot with. Excellent shooters, too. They passed along their thoughts on plate sequences and gave some other nice tips. Speed Option - now convinced to shoot it 4-3-1-2-S not 4-3-2-1-S, even though this entails changing directions twice (something I always avoided). Brian was 0.3s to 0.4s faster with 4-3-1-2-S. He was able to execute both sequences smoothly, but the first way was clearly faster. It seems a wider lateral transition at a similar range can be faster than a narrower lateral transition but at a different range. I tried 4-3-1-2-S and I liked it. I didn't execute it great, but I see why it should be faster. Outer Limits - Finally, I heard a logical reason to shoot it 1-2-3-4-S: Joe pointed out that with your gun tending to bounce a bit as you settle into the middle box, the far rectangle plate is more forgiving to vertical error. And the final 4-S transition is fast. Accelerator - Joe confirmed 1-2-4-3-S and I do have my fastest time with this sequence. So naturally I'll stick with it.

Max knows all the tricks!

Noticeable time gets cut off of Outer Limits with just ONE thing: calling your shot on the second plate. I watched my fellow squadders at the last match and all of them were waiting to hear/see their hit, then moving. I KNOW I'm going to hit the plate before I press the trigger and I'm starting my move as I press the trigger. If I miss, I'm not going back, I'll take the miss penalty. Not that I'm phenomenal at this stage, just better than I'd be if I didn't call that shot.

I'm now using half of a large safety pin. It's working better than the piece of paper clip I had going, which had binding issues. The UniqueTek spent primer catcher with the tube is also pretty nifty.

L10 - 7/1/2018 Percent: 71.5009 Hit Factor: 11.8906 Draw was not super fast, reloads were smooth but not super fast, splits were fast. String 1 and String 2 were 1/100th of a second different so I guess you could say I was consistent. Shot this stage third overall in an all-classifier match from a year ago.

Looking at your targets, if that's your biggest accuracy issue, you're in good shape.

When I'm not being surgical and doing what most would call the "double tap," I know where the first shot went. The second shot, I feel where it probably went more than I see it, though I'm watching the sights throughout the bang-bang. This usually works, 10 yards and closer. I think most of us can feel when the gun returns to where it was before the last shot, especially when very familiar with the timing of the gun.

We all bring our own personality into our shooting and everything else we do.

They're very different books. Both very well worth reading and putting yourself through the drills. Use the ideas of the authors and build your own routine. If you're more comfortable doing the books' drills to the letter, then do that. Use matches to test the effectiveness of your routine. Turn weaknesses into strengths.

As one person mentioned, you can do 400 per hour on a 550. As recently as yesterday upon my first squib (after about 30,000 rounds), I was told by a fellow competitor that I need a 650. No I don't. The squib was on me. The powder system's plastic spacer retaining plug broke during a reloading session and caused me to lose track of where I was in the midst of cleaning up and resuming the session. Not blaming the breakage, I just didn't manage everything right and ended up with that squib. No harm done, no round fired after the squib, got the bullet out with no drama. The 550 is a champ. As long as I keep it clean and properly lubricated, it runs smoothly and cranks out consistently good ammo. Even with a 550 I can easily keep up with six matches per month, about 1,000 rounds per month. There might come a day when I shoot more than that but I don't foresee it until I'm retired. I love the versatile, simple, robust 550.

Thanks Steven, hope to see you there!

Also wanted to mention the big difference between my last two Steel Challenge matches. July 14 2019, I shot with the smaller club and had a bad match. Part of it was the brutal Phoenix heat. July 21 2019, I shot my regular sanctioned match and did much better (17 seconds better than the prior Sunday, even though this day's Smoke and Hope was worse). I was able to rattle off a few good strings on most of the stages, more like my better shooting from 2016. Accelerator was an all-time personal best regardless of division, and Roundabout was a new all-time personal best in Single Stack (did a little better in Limited). The weather wasn't as brutal and I had put in over an hour of dry fire work the day prior. I stayed well hydrated and nourished and took a couple of breaks by necessity since the squad in front of us was taking more time to get through their stages. All of this helped with my ability to focus. Had a squib, though, imagine that (first one in about 30,000 rounds of reloading). Having the second PM9 handy was great.

Finally breached the 140-second barrier in my Steel Challenge aggregate time. Another nice thing: now I can shoot two SCSA-sanctioned matches every month at my home range - the smaller club finally got their match sanctioned and got on board with Practiscore.

We have a shooter at our club that has had pretty much every brand of optic crap out on him.

I case gage and have more rejects with 9mm than I did with .45. Now I have a nice amount of practice ammo.

Yep, allowed weight of the gun is a biggie. If you are one of those shooting a 1911 very flat (whether it's you or your load or your spring or a combo) then there is less advantage for the Limited guy. Holster position, probably just a little. A lot of guys draw very fast out of a non-race single stack legal holster.

At the Dillon store they handed me about 10 of these for nothing, no questions asked. I'd have been happy to pay but I'm not in the habit of turning down free stuff.

I know this occurs to most of you and you probably do it, but after scores would appear in Practiscore I recall spending some time looking at the raw times and hit distribution of people who beat me, and those who didn't, versus my own data. It's pretty interesting and can even take me back through each stage like watching a movie in my mind. But the reason I do it is to try gaining an understanding of where I went too much for precision and when I should have been a bit more patient.