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Not that I know of, but wanted to second the opinion that not being able to submit video as evidence is stupid. I'd trust video more than I trust some RO's eyes.

Sort of tangental to this--I've gotten into the habit of cleaning, reloading, and replacing my mags (back on my belt) right after I shoot; Barney rounds in my pocket, etc. It may sound obvious to some, but I used to let myself get distracted talking to people after my run, then before I knew it, I was on deck trying to rehearse my stage plan with half-empty mags.

Ah, good observation, Cha-Lee. It didn't occur to me to point it out during practice because I normally start turning my entire body towards the target as I'm approaching the position, which in turn, turns my feet. And since I was trying to explain just the entering part to him (without emphasis on facing the targets), he was only thinking about footsteps instead of body/foot direction.

I should've named this thread, "Trung & Hieu's Training Journal," because my son and I almost always live fire practice together. This past weekend, we were out practicing side-to-side movement between two arrays, specifically, entering positions from the side. For a long while, I've entered with my trailing/braking foot inside of the shooting area. For instance, if I'm moving left-to-right into a shooting area, I'll aim to plant my left foot just inside of the shooting area, drop my weight to brake heavily on it, then bring my right leg in. I tried to explain this to Hieu, but I think it just confused him and caused him to count or plan his steps the whole way there. After some funny moments of running (and jumping) into position, I just told him to "get into position" however he wanted, but do it smoothly. He naturally did it with his lead leg, and did it consistently, too. I'm not going to force him to do it my way, but for me, braking with my trailing leg is usually smoother and I feel like I can scrub off a lot of speed quickly. When I try to aggressively enter with my lead leg, I sometimes end up having to shoot on one leg (the lead one) because the momentum is still pushing me outward and I can't plant my other foot. I don't have any specific timings to compare, but they both feel about the same to me. I've done trailing-foot braking for a while so it feels more natural to me. As a side note, I really like setting up the targets as steel-paper-steel because it forces you to enter and leave on steel. I find this really emphasizes shot calling vs entering/leaving on paper, where it's easier to get a bit sloppy with where your sights are in the A zone (or just in brown). I know you'd say that I should always call my shots, whether on paper or steel, but if I always did what I should do, then I wouldn't need to practice

If you get a chance to try a 22/45 Lite, I'd definitely recommend that. I don't own a Target, but from the pictures, it seems like the grip angle is very canted, almost like a Glock.

That's going to vary, a lot. First off, welcome to competitive shooting! Secondly, as a new competitive shooter, the list of things to work on might be pretty much everything. However, start and focus on the fundamentals. That would include--safely handling your firearm, sight picture, trigger, grip, stance. When you've developed enough familiarity with the fundamentals that you can do them without much thought, I'd recommend attending a class. Having someone experienced observe you will help to quickly identify the big areas for improvement. Be sure to take detailed notes because you'll be given much more information than you can absorb during the class. Then, get into a routine of constant practice and analysis. Good luck!

Yes, that's right--I need to get in the habit of pushing more during practice. Thanks for the read.

That'd be an interesting set of experiments--to see if different head stamps produce different accuracy. But I'm too lazy to sort by head stamps. Sounds like a lot of work.

Yup. Likewise with stages that have disappearing targets that must be activated. I see shooters shoot the entire stage, then stroll over to the activator and step on it, but don't bother shooting at the DT.

No time better than the present to start my training journal. I've been shooting USPSA for about six years, and a casual shooter before that for just a couple more. While you would think that I should be further along in my shooting, I think the first four years were sporadic involvement. I started out strong, going to range days, dry fire, talking to shooters, watching videos, etc., but that lasted just a few months before I settled into a routine of about one or two matches a month, and hardly any practice. It's only been in the last couple of years that I've really been motivated to get serious about improvement, much more so this past year. I've taken a quite a few classes, and all have influenced me in my shooting one way or another. The first one that I ever took was from Cha-Lee here in Colorado. I didn't know what to expect leading up to it, but as is Cha-Lee's routine, he communicated a lot prior to the class (have you seen his diary??) on what to bring and expect of the class. The main emphasis was that we weren't going to retain everything he was going to teach that same day--it's important to take copious notes! After that, I attended both of Manny Bragg's intro and advanced classes, Bob Vogel, Paul Clark Jr, and JJ Racaza classes. Throughout all of them, Cha-Lee's advice to take detailed notes stayed with me, and I still go back and review them today. This past year, I've been steadily shooting at least one local match a week, all of the major Colorado matches (about 2-3), and about 3-4 out-of-state majors. I haven't attended Nationals yet, but maybe in 2018. For the better part of last year, I was practicing more than I was attending matches, which was helpful in that I was able to work on fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals. But I think I also lost the urgency in my shooting because my practice sessions were too laid-back. It's easy to fall into a relaxed routine when you're practicing by yourself. BTW, I find it strange that there's shooters (some of them VERY good) who say that they don't practice at all--they just shoot a lot of matches, and still do quite well. So speaking of practice, a couple of years ago, I finally got my membership into a local gun club that's close to my house. The club doesn't allow shooting into side berms and steel is very restricted, but it's a huge step up from, well, no shooting. When I went to practice (once every couple of weeks), I'd bring as much ammo as I could and blast until I got bored. It wasn't very focused training, for sure. In retrospect, I wasted a lot of ammo and gained very little. This past year, I took Manny Bragg's advice and started bringing only 100 rounds at a time. With a limited amount of ammo, the importance of every shot placement goes way up. Where I had been throwing out targets after a single session because of holes all over them, now I reuse the same targets for weeks even when the A zone is completely shot out (BTW, I've also got a set of Action Target Evil Roy steel targets, which are one of the best shooting-related purchases I've ever made). My practice sessions are a bit more organized this year than in the past. I have a list of about two dozen different types of drills for various skills, and I'll pick one (sometimes two) of them to practice that day. I sometimes take notes as I'm doing the drills, but it's pretty sparse. I don't really review them that much, which is part of the reason why I'm starting this journal. For most of the drills, I know my par time to run them cleanly, so I figure if by the end of the session I've improved upon that time, then I've made some progress. The problem is, I don't always improve on the times, or I can't do it consistently. I just figure that if I run the drill enough times, I'll get better at it, which is true to an extent, but it could also be true that all I'm doing is consistently practicing bad habits. The other realization I've recently had about my practice is that I've been lacking a critical element--doing things just beyond my level of competence. As I said, I only bring 100 rounds of ammo, and I try to put every one of them into the A zone. When I miss [the A zone], I'll try and assess why, and then usually slow down a bit to ensure I don't miss again. Of course, if I can properly diagnose what really caused the miss, I'll try to fix that, but slowing down is inherently part of the reaction, too. My mindset going into it is, "How much can I push before I start to miss?" Instead, I want to start asking, "How much can I push to make me start missing?" It's a subtlety that boils down to this--I've flip-flopped my match/practice mindset. I push beyond my abilities during matches and shoot within them during practice. Oh, and dry-fire. I usually dry-fire about 30 minutes for 3-4 times a week. It's repetitive, mundane, and more of an afterthought than purposeful (much like this postscript).

It might be jerking as @SlvrDragon50 said. One thing to try is have him shoot strong hand. You can better see what he’s doing to the gun without the support hand holding it.

I used to run 11lbs but it wasn’t reliably chambering the round so I switched back to 13lbs. I put in a heavier striker spring because I was getting light primer hits.

IMO PCC might be good for recoil control, but the rifle is much too heavy for most younger shooters to handle. It’s also a bit harder to run with and keep the muzzle down range than a pistol. My 7-yo is starting in 22 pistol, then moving to CO for USPSA.

You’ll have to take it out. If you’re unsure how to disassemble, there’s lots of YouTube videos for 2011. If you have an Aftec, it will have a “hood” that will be loaded with two tiny springs. Regular ones will be one-piece.

I’ve always heard you shouldn’t shoot to a cadence—you should shoot to your sights (or how quickly your eyes can pickup the sights). Ive found this drill very useful It’s got two parts, so I won’t spoil what the second part is. My son and I did this and both of us shaved a tenth off our transition times.

What sort of extractor? If Aftec or spring loaded, change springs. If regular, try bending it inward to increase tension.

Over the past weekend, my 7-year-old son shot his first USPSA course using a 22LR pistol: He's been going to the range with me off-and-on for about two years, but more consistently this last year. I've pretty much just had him follow my training schedule, which is 1x live fire (per week), 2-3x dry fire, and a few sessions with AirSoft. During the sessions, we use the range commands and practice the safety aspects so that he only knows the one way to handle his firearm--safely. We also only work on the basics, and only one/two techniques at a time. I'll sometimes bring him along to the matches, but since he's not shooting, there's not much to keep his interest. Our gun club had a single-stage steel match that was the perfect format for him--not too many competitors to be intimidating, only one stage so he didn't have to think too much, he got to shoot the same stage over and over during the two hour match, and he got accustomed to the range commands during a quasi-match environment. Some things that I think are going well: He's very conscious of his muzzle and finger at all times. His recoil control is coming along (he can now shoot 9mm--slowly). He's still very excited about the next practice session. I'm very happy with his awareness to safety, though it's still nerve-wracking having him run a full course while others are watching. Some things that are continually challenging: He's interested in dry fire for the first five minutes. He'd much rather "rapid fire" his gun than shoot deliberately. He still anticipates and flinches for the first few shots. His hands still aren't big enough to wrap comfortably around a full-sized gun. Most of the attention deficit issues are just because, well, he's 7. I try to vary up the sessions by making games out of the drills, like beating the par time for first shot as we move further from the target, fewest shots to get n-number of hits on steel, etc. Live fire usually isn't an issue, but dry fire might as well be doing math homework. For the anticipation/flinching issue, I've been having him shoot with his eyes closed (into the berm) and double-plugged to reduce the stimuli causing him to flinch, and it's helped some, but it's still noticeably there. He hardly flinches with Airsoft, but sometimes shows with the 22 pistol, and always there when he shoots 9mm. One recent improvement is that after getting to shoot a 9mm for the first time, he anticipates less when shooting 22. He's obviously still growing and his hands will eventually be big enough to grip a full-sized frame, but in the meantime, we do pull-ups and other grip exercises to build up strength. What recommendations or experiences do you all have?

I had (actually, still have) the same problem with my 7-yo son shooting 9mm. I lightened the recoil spring all the way down to 11lbs, but it still stovepipes every now and then. And 11lbs is barely enough to strip off a round from the mag and chamber it. Not much more to do but wait for him to get bigger. Oh, and pull-ups.

+1 yup. Best deal.

I shot my first CO with a friend’s XDm OSP with Leupold DeltaPoint, and thought it was fantastic. I only had about 5 minutes to try out the gun before the match, but I had very few problems finding the dot after the first couple of draws. I can’t compare against the 5.25, but the gun feels well balanced.

I used to set the target runner to go all the way back, press “Go,” then draw as it was moving away. It let me work on shooting as the sights settled on different distances.

+1 to what everyone else had said. With the cold season coming and fewer matches, I’m going to be training pretty much exclusively with my CO.

I don’t think that that’s a bad idea, especially if you’re considering CO at some point. As for the height difference, it’s negligable between the CORE and Pro, in terms of any difference it’ll make in your shooting. If you’re concerned about it tho, since you’re planning to replace the CORE sights with black/FO, you could get a set that are standard (Pro) height instead. You’d lose he co-witness, but that’s your choice.

I've heard from quite a few GMs who have the opposite opinion--cost not being a factor, Open is a better division from which to start. Here's some dude named Max talking about it. FF to about 6:00 to get to the relevant part of this thread.

I've been playing with where I direct my attention right before the buzzer goes off. I started off, like most people, staring at the first target that I'd engage, but then I started to wonder if that was what was making me not have a clear sight picture when my gun came into view (changing focal planes). So now I stare at the ground, about 5 feet in front of me, at nothing in particular. What I'm waiting for is my gun to come into view so that I can follow the sights up to the target. But lately, I've been shooting Steel Challenge and wonder if not looking at the target is slowing down my first shot times. I seem to be going back and forth on this, maybe because I don't have any real empirical data to back it up. Anyone done any testing with this?