eric nielsen

I pick the furthest dry-fire target I can place in my house, then focus back onto the front sight, then make mental note of the apparent distance between the double-vision image(s) of that target. Then I holster the gun. Then I force the same amount of double vision. Then I draw to the split target on the right. Sights come up under my right eye on the draw. Since starting this I'm seeing the serrations in the top of my CZ Shadow slide distinctly as the sights are moving into position. Before a week ago I never noticed that at all. Also the front sight is in focus very noticeable sooner than before. That's even carrying over to target transitions.

I got my loading process down to where I wouldn't fling any powder, even with 3n38 up to within about 1/8" of the case rim. You have to put a fingertip on a case or on the shellplate to act as a friction brake rather than just letting the press pop your shellplate into the detent. After that, I still had to measure each & every round for OAL (usually in front of the TV). The time it takes to do that versus the time to mark 38 Super cases at home and gather them up at a match is basically a wash. Depending on the day and the squad I might have 3-4 guys hand me my striped brass, or no one. Lately there's been more help so it seems the days of "move along - brass is cheap" are just about over and a return to 1990's match civility might be here. Best balance, if you already have the right mags (SV, Caspian, Glock, or STI w/spacers) is to load HS6 w/CCI rifle primers and not worry about OAL once you've checked the first few round plus a sample here & there. As mentioned in many threads, the 9x19 is tapered and back-heavy and has more tendency to spin a 180 or 360 right in the vicinity of your ejection port, something to watch out for. I would not use pick-up brass from anywhere (except your own practice area, if you're SURE it's your brass) - buy from known once-fired sources only. I have nickel cop-fired Federal brass from their practice range and it was good for at least 3 or 4 loadings.

The constant radius (side-side) on the bottom of the CZ Shadow trigger guard is very comfortable (compared to a Glock or stock STI) - I wish I had seen that before hacking on the underside of my Glocks (all are sold to other people now). Think of the radius on the top of a 1911 slide and flip that upside-down, that rounding plus a 2nd pass to break the edge is what's on a CZ, ask someone to show you at a match. I'm going to do the same thing on my Open & Limited STI's with a strip of Emory cloth and the frame upside-down in a vise. [Anything you do to a frame with abrasives knocks that frame out of Production division forever]

Glocks have both a steep grip angle and a nice flat surface on top of each side of the grip. Dave and Bob both mention that they like those features, I do too, they can help some shooters for several reasons. But, if you put the big flat grip-tops and the steeper angle (with MS housings or grip inserts) onto other gun platforms (with a shorter, straighter trigger press) you may have a gun that's even more competitive. $0.02.

Sounds like for that model gun, the ISMI 15-lb is not enough. I used the ISMI 15-lb on a tungsten rod in my Open Glock project and it was no problem at all.

This thread has helped me, not just in getting on the sights. Found that alternating ~3 reps eyes-open with ~3 reps eyes-closed (many times) tends to let the body settle into movements that are "natural" for your arms' range of motion. Rather than commanding the arms/hands/gun to look a certain way and evaluating the "feel" of making that enforced motion (what we do with all-eyes-open training), with the eyes-shut reps we let the body use its own way of swiveling the shoulder, elbow, and wrist joints to reach the objective. Then the eyes-open reps get you accustomed to seeing this motion and being visually comfortable with it. The eyes tell you when you're getting too out of line (inefficient) and the no-eyes tells you when you're making things too complicated. Helped a lot with a change in my surrender draw - went from wrists barely above shoulders (most efficient) to hands touching ears/earmuffs (most consistent); also helps a ton with the Production mag change (which is worth a whole other thread).

Are you using an extra-power striker spring? The compression force of a very heavy striker spring might overcome even a 15 lb recoil spring. If the slide just hunches down (toward the bottom of the magazine) without actually sliding back, that's normal.

Only been loading since 1990 so possibly I'm wrong, but in general a powder that doesn't fill most of the space behind the bullet will produce larger groups (poorer accuracy) compared to powder that does use just about all the space not used by your bullet. Even compressed loads (if their OAL mics out consistently) can be very accurate. There are some exceptions, with accurate dense powders and inaccurate bulky powders. For me the least accurate powder hands down was Hodgdon Clays in both 40 cal Major and 9x19 minor. In the late 90's several top Ltd guys discovered that their pet Clays load might not make Major without first tipping the muzzle up to get some powder up over the flash hole.

Get yourself a 2nd mag brush (Arredondo is a good one) and keep it at home just for cleaning out your kydex holster in a sink w/soap and water. And clean off the outside of your gun after matches and practice shooting. That will minimize how much dirt & burnt powder can get in between gun & holster to scratch up your finish. The holster itself doesn't hurt bluing very much.

The big aluminum sideways mounts are heavier, almost as heavy as a tube sight. But the sideways C-More gets completely out of the way of your ejecting brass which with 9x19 Major is a good thing. Comparing friends' sideways mounts with mine, their mount obstructs the view a little more than the Aimpoint but both obstruct 10x more than a vertical C-More. You have to decide if hundreds of hours of dryfire devoted just to finding and keeping the dot in view is worth it to get the last 5% or so of speed advantage with the vertical C-More. After 5 years of shooting one on my Caspian I decided, No. After just a short time shooting a slide-mounted dot I found that it was adding to the workload of shooting a stage, compared to a frame mounted optic. Depends completely on the shooter if that would happen to you. If you're used to tracking iron sights between shots on a Ltd or Prod gun, you may find your eye is trying to track the slide-mounted optic and maybe you're not keeping a target focus; in Open division that is all bad. When the first photos of a sideways C-More (a Berry mount) showed up on the forums years ago, a few of us said "that's very cool" while at least 3/4 said "that's stupid". Times change.

The right-side safety was bashing my SH top knuckle pretty bad with the thin aluminum CZ grips. Switched just the right side to an aftermarket grip that covers the back corner. This keeps the safety off my knuckle and increases the gun's trigger reach just a little, which for me is good. All the CZ aluminum grips leave that corner uncovered; if you have small hands or reaching the DA trigger is a stretch, you probably want the aluminum. Either way I'd say get a grip that's flat on top for the support hand side. VZ grips are flat AND cover the back corner.

Have you watched 3-Gun Nation on TV? Most of the FN sponsored shooters in most episodes are shooting a 2011 pistol. The advantage of a CZ gun (pick a model, as long as it has a standard thumb safety) over FN is the TRIGGER.

Your go-no-lower weight for recoil spring should be set for reliability shooting weak-hand-only. The thumb rest doesn't change that factor at all, you can't use it w/weak hand shooting.

Thanks, great information. Just wish I could buy any of Donnie's bullets, this year.

Stuart please let us know when the HAJO sight is available again, thanks.

I was mistaken - locking the slide back (or holding it back with cardboard behind the chamber) results in pulling against the trigger return spring only on a CZ pattern gun. By comparison on a 1911/2011 holding the slide back, your finger is working first the return portion and then the sear portion of the leaf spring, giving a 2-stage feel but without the break. Another realistic dry-fire trigger is pulling through on a Springfield XDm trigger after the striker has dropped - again a 2-stage feel but without the break.

I'll put up pictures when it's done. 7" from barrel hood to muzzle.

Good looking gun Al - when my Limited gun is done I'll have even more sight radius but similar idea. Gunsmith is giving me a thinking-outside-the-box discount.

Agree that keeping finger on the trigger anywhere that you wouldn't in a match is not a great training plan. Alternatives, if you feel you must have a simulated SA pull, are: 1. Lock the slide back. You're pulling against the sear spring and maybe the return spring (I think, don't quote me). Not as realistic as locking back the slide on a 1911/2011 but good for movement/reloading drills. Changes the sight picture a little bit as it's closer to your eye, however it's a great way to clean up the quality of your hold and press with one-hand shooting. 2. Hammer back, leave thumb safety on. This works better with the traditional Shadow SA pull; with my Custom Shop gun with SRTS, the pull is almost nothing, not a good SA simulator. (Not sure of the stress this puts on your parts.) What I do a lot of neither of the above, just use the real DA or SA pull with a rubber O-ring under the hammer. It tucks into the slide and under the rear sight and cuts the noise by about 2/3 (happy wife, happy life) and also makes thumb-cocking to SA a lot easier. HTH

When you first start out you might separate your dry-fire into 1. Double-action from the holster 2. Single action for everything else (movement, reloads, etc) Once you've shot it a while the shorter lighter trigger for "everything else" won't surprise you in matches any more. I'd put yourself on a par-timer pretty early in your DA draw-and-shoot dry-fire. You don't want to get bogged down in setting things up and being perfect, the draw time can really suffer. Your hands can really contribute to your progress. Get a Captains of Crush #1 and work it every 2nd or 3rd day (like any resistance training), then in your shooting practice focus on gripping as much with your pinky fingers as you can while easing up some on your strong hand's 1st/2nd fingers. I'm also bearing down on the thumb safety a lot, so much that I have to get it right at the start of the draw and right after releasing a mag during reloads. Then my support hand thumb and palm squeeze into the space that's left over.

Shot both. The open glock was better on drills (draws, reloads, Triple Six) but not as good in matches. It's a jumpy, twitchy gun. For Steel Challenge with many draws, minor ammo, no shooting on the move, and single shots per target the open glock is great, the rolling trigger is fine for that too. But for uspsa stages, the Glock trigger will (for average mortal shooters) drop your hit factor because you can't slap the trigger on close targets fast/accurate enough to keep up with a wide-body 1911 like the STI or Caspian frame. Major ammo will kick you around more as well, so to get the same quality of follow-up shot, you have accomplish more work with the glock. My $0.02

Jorge Ballesteros did something like that but with a 4.5" slide, looks like this: From his blog - if you view in Chrome it will offer to translate to English: http://jorgeballesterosblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/08/infinityied40custo/

Found this on vacation in Colorado a few years ago, best thing I've tried, like it better than Pro Grip and Prince Grip: http://www.amazon.co...s/dp/B000212TGA Keep them in ziplock freezer bags, one stays in the range bag and one stays at home. After a while you get a knack for using just enough so that your hands lock together. You just squeeze on it and boom - dry hands.

Learn to safely decock the gun as smoothly and quickly as possible with one continuous motion that ends with the gun in the holster. This leaves no time for the confusion and questions to present themselves from RO's (most of whom don't know the rules which are: standard safety off, hammer all the way down - OR - decocker model, use the decocker, hammer 80% of the way down). I use my left hand to decock, right hand just pulls the trigger. Left thumb and middle finger pinch the sides of the hammer, right index finger acts as a temporary hammer block until the hammer is most of the way down. With my Shadow Target, have to get the index finger out of there a little bit earlier than w/my standard Shadow, because the Target rear sight hangs further back. I turn the gun away from the RO slightly as this gives better body mechanics on the decocking motion AND gives RO less to observe & then say something which breaks up your pre-buzzer routine.

Most really low shots are not from the trigger, they happen when you anticipate the recoil just a little bit early. Your forearms, hands, and the entire gun jump down before the gun's gone Bang and before the bullet leaves the barrel. Happens to all of us. I've shot forever but always with a nice single-action trigger. Recently had to learn the DA trigger on my CZ production gun and my timing was off frequently, some of those shots were horribly off. Took a new level of determination to watch and press and not budge off of the sight picture. Now everything's fine. Stay with it and you'll be there too.