[A/D question...]

That's actually two DQs - one for a discharge during UASC, and another for putting a round within 2 yards of someone's feet.

[A/D question...]

DQ, and a glorious one at that.

[Reload with Retention]

I wear jeans and stow in the front left pocket. Waistband for me sometimes, but there's a lot of competition for real estate in that area, so the pocket is more reliable for me.

Mag goes in the pocket, hand goes up and back to sweep the vest and get to the new mag, and then reload per usual.

[Club Level Rule Strictness]

I see this, "we do it so when they go to major matches they don't get burned" reasoning listed often. So then I have a question or two.

-Who would go to a major match and not read the rule book on their own ahead of time?

-What percentage of IDPA membership attends a major match? I know I see a lot of the same faces when I go to them, so it aint always new people....

Agreed, but I think the main thing that would trip someone up at a major match is cover calls, if they're not used to using it properly. There's a huge difference between knowing about cover and actually using it properly.

My local club is pretty lax about calling cover, and IMHO that's the one thing in this sport we shouldn't be cutting any slack on, even at the club level.

[Holstering Technique Safety]

Biggest thing is to look the gun into the holster. It's really surprising how few people actually do this.

+1

It really bugs when when I'm SOing and people try to holster their gun along with half of their cover garment.

I've also been swept as a spectator when someone tried to reholster, missed the opening completely, and went over and behind the top holster with their muzzle.

[Left lean shooting left?]

I am noticing at 15+ yards distance, my shoots always veer left significantly when I am shooting from behind cover from the left. This is true even when I am not shooting at speed, e.g. it happens even with 0.8 or 1 sec split. Interestingly, this does not happen when I am shooting from behind cover from the right. Right lean always right on POA.

I am right-handed. I am curious if this is common among right-handed shooters? If so, is there a way to train and correct this problem (besides trying to stay away from all left leans)?

Thanks.

Yup, same here. Right handed, right eye dominant. I tend to shoot left when leaning left, but I'm fine when leaning right. I think it has to do with my wrists sort of bending inwards when leaning left around cover.

In my dry fire routine, I've started practicing trigger break, draws, and reloads while standing straight, leaning hard left, and leaning hard right, and it has helped a lot.

I've also found that it helps to turn my head very slightly to the left, which helps line up my dominant eye with the sights.

[Dry Firing]

I thought the idea was maintaining the sight picture through trigger break. I assumed that dry fire practice actually involved trigger reset and break.

Tons of stuff can be practiced without trigger break and reset.

For example, lately I've been doing a lot of transition drills with a metronome. Even though I'm not working on trigger break, I'm still training my eyes to see faster, my mind to pull the trigger only when the sight picture is acceptable, my arms and body to quickly drive the gun from target to target, etc.

[Dry Firing]

4-5 times a week.

• 10 minutes of basic trigger technique maintenance, wall drills mostly, freestyle, SHO, and WHO, standing straight and leaning behind cover
• 30 minutes of draws and reloads (alternating draws and reloads every day). Again, standing straight and leaning behind cover.
• 30 minutes of other skills:

The "other" skills I change every few weeks and are driven by what I screw up the most in a match. Lately it's transitions, reloads with retention, and accuracy from retention (using a bore sight). I'll keep doing the same drills until I see a pretty substantial improvement in a match environment, and then I'll move on to the next weak area.

[Mag reloads on my G34 are kicking my ass]

A few thoughts:

• I need to break my grip too. My support hand helps break my grip on its way to the fresh mag.
• Look the top round into the mag well. Pause (briefly) if necessary to make sure everything's lined up right before slamming the mag home.
• Make sure you're not angling the gun too much or the mag will bind in the magwell.
• Practice reloading with a full mag (dummies). Seating a full mag is a lot harder than a mag with just one dummy round in it.

[correct sight alignment, sight picture and trigger press, but still no]

I was also shooting my M&P low left when I first got it and switched from my Beretta. I thought it was the gun. Turns out it was me.

Dry fire showed that I was pulling the sights very slightly off when the trigger broke and hit the rear stop. It wasn't a flinch. I just wasn't pulling straight back.

It took a LOT of experimenting and dry fire practice to figure out the right amount of finger to put on the trigger how to pull truly straight back.

I'd go back to basics and do a bunch of wall drills and make 100% sure you're not disturbing the sights.

Trigger break is different from gun to gun. Even different triggers in the same gun can makes a huge difference.

[should penalties have been given for the port shooting in this vid?]

Two PEs.

[First USPSA match in a few years]

I shoot IDPA 2-3 times a month, but I hadn't shot a USPSA match in a while, so I shot one on Sunday. Here are some little things I noticed (not all of them USPSA-specific):

• On a closed slide, inserting a full mag is about, oh, 1000% harder than inserting a mag with just one dummy round in it like I do in dry fire practice. I had lots of tap-rack practice this match.
• Clearing double-feeds on the clock is not fun. Looks like I should finally replace that weak recoil spring, huh?
• My muzzle awareness goes out the window when clearing malfunctions.
• Trying to match the Open guys' splits and just aiming for brown doesn't cut it.
• Using cover and slicing the pie is hard to switch off.
• I probably should have checked ahead of time that Bs are worth the same as Cs.
• High round count stages and running around is pretty fun.

I'm definitely hooked and will be shooting at least one USPSA match a month.

[The Slower I Go, the Faster I Shoot]

Lately, I've been reminding myself before every match that I need to just call my shots and trust my current speed and ability (and haul ass when I'm not shooting). That's the best I can do on match day. It may not be enough to win the match, but at least I will be shooting at the peak of my abilities. Which is a pretty good win in and of itself.

[Don't Take Advice From Just Anyone]

I knew that was coming, just not the usual suspect

I'm numb to it anymore I guess. I got an email from a new shooter this weekend wanting advise on coming to a first match.

What did you advice him to do to orientate himself at his first match?

ARGHH>>>> That's another one that always got under my skin in the Army. Orientate to the North, Orientate your weapon that way! Thanks for the memories!

So annoying when someone says that while conversating with me.

[#1 Go To Drill To Improve Accuracy]

I always tell people that I never REALLY knew how to shoot (pistol or anything else) until I took an Appleseed class.

Before then, I was just mashing the trigger and hoping for the best.

[Anyone else blinks?]

Lots of dry fire helped me with this. Trigger pulls against a blank wall.

Before, even when dry firing, I'd notice my vision jar out of focus when the trigger broke. Not quite a blink, but enough to where I probably wasn't able to call my shots very well. This went away with enough practice.

[Favorite Podcasts]

I just started listening to Steve Anderson's podcast.

It is eerily similar to Bill Burr's Monday Morning Podcast. This is a compliment.

[Cleats?]

Fingernails used to test cleat hardness must be stock. Any external modifications (polish, stippling, etc.) will bump the shooter to ESP.

[IDPA match critique?]

Did the rules change recently? I see 3 mag pouches and 3 mags on your belt for Stage 6. I thought it was 2, and only 2 mag pouches on your belt.

Thanks for the feedback.

Technically, you can carry a third mag carrier for holding your first magazine for LAMR, but it needs to be empty by the time you're given the "Stand By" command.

On Stage 6, I was carrying enough ammo on me at the time to shoot that stage and the next one in the same bay... I forgot to move the magazine from that third pouch to my rear pocket to use on the next stage.

[IDPA match critique?]

Hi guys,

I posted this in the Video Training Tips, but I thought I'd also post it in the IDPA forum. Apologies if cross-posting is not kosher... If it is, could the mods please delete the thread in the Video Training Tips section?

I'd appreciate any feedback you guys have on my latest IDPA match:

One thing I noticed in this match is that muscle memory kind of bit me in the ass when it came to reloads (reaching for empty mag pouches when the mag is on the floor or in another pouch, going for a slide lock reload instead of a reload with retention, etc.) Any tips on how to train out of this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[IDPA match critique]

Shooting looked good - Just seemed like mental errors . Keep up the good work. +1 on 45 Raven - Looks nice to be shooting in short sleeves our last match it 18 degrees. hahahah

I'll trade you California weather for standard capacity magazines

[IDPA match critique]

Hi guys,

It's that time again. I'd appreciate any feedback you guys have on my latest IDPA match:

One thing I noticed in this match is that muscle memory kind of bit me in the ass when it came to reloads (reaching for empty mag pouches when the mag is on the floor or in another pouch, going for a slide lock reload instead of a reload with retention, etc.) Any tips on how to train out of this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[YouTube vids - No scoring shown]

I just stumbled on this one: pretty cool way to do it, you should contact Kevin Liang to see if he has a shortcut to do it or he just loves video editing and has nothing but time

OK, now that is awesome.

[YouTube vids - No scoring shown]

When I first started putting my IDPA videos on YouTube, I'd put the time and points down for each stage in the bottom left corner for a few seconds. Nice and unobtrusive.

Recently, I've gotten lazy and/or too impatient to wait for the scores to come out before making the video, so I've just been putting a link to the match results in the description.

What really bugs me about shooting videos is when there's 10 seconds of filler for every 1 second of actual shooting. Do people really need to see someone load and make ready 8 times in one video?

[Now I have a flinch?]

Agreed. It is the difference in the way the triggers break. I recently switched to a 2011 from a glock. My accuracy and speed is slowly coming back after a lot of dry and live fire. Slow fire with the 2011 trigger is easy. Its a tack driver. Accuracy at speed is the kicker.

Agreed.

Even different triggers in the same pistol makes a difference. I shoot an M&P with a stock trigger relatively flinch-free. When I tried my brother's M&P with the new flat-faced trigger, I pulled the sights out of alignment very noticeably whenever the trigger broke.