GunBugBit

How would a child RO deal with a belligerent competitor? A grownup would have to swoop in.

I just started reading Brian's Practical Shooting, Beyond Fundamentals and am finding to be a different kind of book. In a good way. I think the audience is the well developed competitive shooter who has developed the fundamentals of shooting quite fully, but is looking to improve his state of mind to really SHOOT dynamically and creatively, without mental constraints. You could buy it now and probably appreciate it more and more as you go through phases of development as a competitor.

The existence of Doogie Howser the teenage doctor proves that a 10 year old RO is OK.

I'm not an accomplished shooter yet, as many of you are. However in the two realms where I'm considered "good", I know I'm at my best when I neither care nor try try to not-care, I just do. My whole existence during my moments of doing the things is only for those things. In common language, it's "focus" or "concentration" but I'm un-self-conscious and not even thinking of ideas like "focusing" or "trying" or "caring". I hope to transfer this state of mind to shooting, but I have fundamentals to build first.

Well get this one. An AZ state trooper and a woman show up for lunch at a restaurant where my boss, another coworker, and I were eating. The trooper grabbed her butt a couple of times as they were in line waiting to order. She ran her hands up and down his arm. OK, I thought, whatever. I assumed those two were married. My boss whispered to us, "I know her, she works in our building, she's my neighbor, she's married, and NOT TO THAT GUY." I thought, "Wow", then a few seconds later, she saw my boss, obviously recognized him, and turned bright pink. She and her trooper man-toy could not get out of there fast enough after they got their food.

Yes, the 3-way leaf spring (I remember it as the SDG (Sear/Disconnector/Grip Safety) spring) is the single part you would be changing out to switch up trigger pull weight.

I hear Usain Bolt has trouble running fast because of his long legs. Not the same thing at all. I am 6'6" and if you take someone shorter who has the same exact reaction time as me he will get the shot off quicker due to the difference in distance our arms travel. I've got further to go to get to my gun, further to bring it up, and further out to push it when I extend my arms. That all takes more time. It's not a matter of opinion, it's fact. I was being facetious. The distance differences that have to be traveled aren't miles, yards, or feet. They're inches. There is nothing saying you can't be as quick as a shorter person, or at least very nearly as quick. Does the shorter person have potential, due to physical laws, of being quicker on the draw than you? I will concede 'yes'. An MLB pitcher's hand might reach 95 mph as he delivers a fastball. This is an extreme example; a person's hand will not reach that kind of speed in drawing a gun. Let's crank it way down and work with an assumed 20 mph hand speed throughout the draw motion. This could be fast or slow, but it's just a number to plug into the arithmetic. For the total distance the hand has to move during a draw (both vertical and horizontal motion), let's assume 4 feet for the tall man, and 3.5 feet for the shorter man. These numbers could also be a little off but let's just plug them in and see what we come up with. 20 miles = 105,600 feet = 1,267,200 inches 1 hour = 3,600 seconds So, 20 mph = 1,267,200 inches / 3,600 seconds, equating to 48 inches in 0.1364 seconds for the taller man's draw. Average human reaction time is 0.2 to 0.25 seconds, for a total draw time of 0.336 to 0.386 seconds (dropping the ten thousandth of a second digit). We came up with a very fast draw time, so the assumed 20 mph average hand speed throughout the draw motion is probably high. No matter, let's apply the same approach to the shorter man who has 6 fewer inches to move his hand. For the shorter man, we have: 42 inches of hand travel in 0.1193 seconds. Figuring in a reaction time of 0.2 to 0.25 seconds, the shorter man's total draw time is 0.319 to 0.369 seconds (dropping the ten thousandth of a second digit). The difference comes out to less than 2 hundredths of a second, based on an example where one man's height causes him to have 6 more inches to move his hands than another man, but their hand speed is the same. The percentage difference in speed is around 5%. If the shorter man has a hand speed of 20 mph, maybe you can develop a hand speed of 21 mph (5% faster), and/or maybe somehow make your draw motion more efficient, allowing you to equal his draw time.

I hear Usain Bolt has trouble running fast because of his long legs.

Army had us use Breakfree CLP. I still use that stuff once in a while. I like its cleaning properties best. ATF is my favorite CLP and I use it primarily for cleaning, but I don't hesitate to leave a light coating of it on parts. My AR bolt carrier group parts always get some synthetic motor oil because of its superior lube properties.

I spoke with a feller running a CZ 75 who says he shoots about 1,500 rounds per week. He said he sprays Breakfree CLP on/in his field stripped gun parts, lets all it sit for a few minutes while he does something else, then takes his air compressor hose and squirts the parts while holding them in a garbage-bag-lined barrel. Wipes up excess oil with a microfiber towel and he's done. For fast good cleaning I think that MPro7 stuff is very good. I used up my bottle a while ago. I use ATF for cleaning and synthetic motor oil for lube of all my firearms. Sometimes just the motor oil if the cleaning job is light.

I liked the first one, Identity, the best.

It doesn't work for my wife.

Sighting in is about the only use I have for a traditional range. I know there are other things I could work on there, but the overall atmosphere and the restrictions are distasteful.

In music practice, using a metronome, I find I can't move on to a new level of speed until I've mastered a speed that's within my current ability, and that speed is defined by my ability to play it accurately/cleanly, and do so consistently. Then, I can creep the metronome to faster speeds in small increments, or bigger ones if I want. At the moment I'm thinking maybe I'd practice shooting tasks at a certain tempo after I've picked up the tempo from the metronome, but leave the metronome off as I shoot. I wouldn't want to come to depend on it. Music is much more deterministic. The other players in a group aren't going to keep switching up a tempo to throw a soloist off. But in shooting matches, things aren't arranged to accomodate a click-click-click pacing. Fluidity and adaptability are more important.

I think it can be argued there are a lot of similarities between music and shooting (Just don't tell my hippie music teacher). Make your gun sing! As a competitive shooter facing varying stages, there is an analogy to improvising, as in jazz. A good jazz soloist flies not just by the seat of his pants, but understands the chord progressions and timeflow as the rest of the band plays, and knows how to cleverly and creatively play in synch. A shooter looks at a stage and figures out an optimal way to get through it. When the buzzer goes off, it's solo time.

The idea of using a metronome for shooting training occurred to me recently, mainly because I'm gearing up for the upcoming jazz ensemble fall rehearsal schedule. I spend more time improving speed and precision on my horn than speed at shooting tasks, but that could change! Downsides - what Steve said, plus the steady beat of the metronome lets you anticipate when to start your draws or mag changes, so you might not be as fast as you think you are. Upsides - you can know the pace at which you are able to execute certain things and train yourself to do certain things at a set pace. Looks like some of you have thought of smart ways to employ it.

Great advice. I'll add that skipping white potatoes, wheat and corn are very, very helpful. ESPECIALLY skip them at night time. Calories from those foods, if not burned, become fat on the body. Definitely dispose of dairy altogether if you want to drop fat pounds. Avoid fruit juice!!! If you stick with lean proteins (fish, chicken, leaner cuts of beef, egg whites, whey) and green/orange/yellow/red veggies, you can eat all of this stuff you want and you will drop body fat. However, you might be lacking in energy. Some oatmeal in the morning and maybe a yam for lunch will help give you energy from healthier carb sources. Train your mind to think less about what tastes good and what makes you feel good temporarily, and more about what will make you feel great long-term. I've seen people exercise like crazy but not change their eating and get extremely frustrated (including me). They increase their endurance, strength and flexibility, but still carry unwanted fat. My go-to "extreme" diet to lean down a bit over a weekend is black coffee, water, whey protein shakes and celery. AND THAT'S ALL, but maybe some raw broccoli and green/orange/yellow/red peppers. Initially, it sucks, but at the end of the weekend, I feel very, very good. Eating that way still gives me enough energy to go shooting and/or do yard work and do a little strength training. Something like a 25-50 mile bike ride, forget it. Not enough fuel in the tank. Then on Monday I got back to eating more balanced, but still avoid dairy, any sugar drinks (including fruit juice), grains, white potatoes. If I cheat with some chocolate or some other thing that I loooooove, then I have ways to drop fat that aren't too painful. Cardio exercise is fantastic and should be embraced, but most people can't drop the pounds from this alone. I hope this helps.

For a very good overall forearm workout, I like combining wrist curls with grippers.

The more I thought about the idea of an AR-pattern rifle in .308, the more I had to have one. So I picked up a DPMS Oracle (bare bones) and put on a Midwest Industries quad rail, a Troy folding BUIS set, a sling, a Hogue grip, and a Grip-Pod. The rifle itself was under $1K but a few hundred over after the add-ons. No one calls DPMS "high end", but I don't care. The rifle runs 100% and I can use it for lots of things.

I train 3 times a week with CoC grippers, plus with another grip device with parallel handles that my dad bought me in 1980. The CoCs build you some nice calluses.

I didn't know steel could be made that hard. I'm no metallurgist or materials specialist, just curious about this.

Thanks Skydiver, I look forward to reading how it goes for you.

With the Caspian, it looks like the internal locking is done via a pin that replaces the hammer pin. Is that correct? Seems like a strong solution as long as the fitting is done right.

Just bought a Dan Wesson Valor and it's a fantastic pistol. I have heard that the forgings aren't done in the USA but everything else is.

My TRP is still new-ish (about 400 rounds through it) and the only thing I find a little more difficult than my other SA 1911s is that the hammer is still difficult to cock with one thumb, not that I ever need to do that. The slide/frame fit is tight but the slide is not unduly tough to rack. The thing just feels correctly fit for good accuracy and my groups reflect that. It has MIM parts but I don't care. If they break like so many insist they will, I'll change them out. But I have a Mil Spec and a Loaded with plenty of MIM and they keep going strong (about 10k rounds between the two of them). I changed to a GI rod and plug for easy field stripping, and fit an STI single-sided thumb safety. I have an extra SA adjustable rear sight and might put that on to use this gun for USPSA. I think it would serve me well in that capacity. There are many good things about the TRP so I hope you can enjoy yours as much as I do mine.