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Just4FunLP

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  1. Just4FunLP
    I’ve been shooting USPSA for many years and I’ve recently purchased a rifle. I may or may not actually shoot it in a match, but I’m trying to improve my skills with some dryfire before I get too carried away. My question is, when does the safety have to go on and off when running a stage in a match? I’ve never used a safety, so this is something I want to start practicing correctly as soon as possible. I searched for the word “safe” in the rule book, but about all I came up with was: “The "Stage Ready Condition" for all rifles shall be magazine and chamber loaded with the safety engaged, unless stipulated otherwise in the Written Stage Briefing.” Thanks
  2. Just4FunLP
    Our matches, like most I expect, are put together by volunteers and the email chain gets out of control pretty quick. My church uses some kind of software that allows them to builds tasks and sends out an email asking people to sign up for the different positions. This allows everyone to see who's signed up for what real-time. Has anyone used anything like this at their club? It would be cool if this was built into Practiscore... Thanks
  3. Just4FunLP
    Thanks for the reply Andreas... I have tried it both ways and it seems faster and more fluid to start with the hands and arms relaxed, but the consistency is not there yet. I'm still working through it so perhaps it will come with time. What do you think is faster and more consistent? For me to control the gun fast enough to maintain accuracy at speed I have to be shooting with intensity, meaning my hands are placed where I want them and everything is tight, grip, wrists, and elbows. If I continue down this path, I'll have to figure out a way to learn to run the first 80% of the draw stroke without tension, and then end with the the high tension locked grip, wrists and elbows. ...??? My problem is that I've done a lot of practice over the years and tried many techniques, but from what I can tell by practicing the classifiers is in order to break into master land I'm going to have to make some changes. What I've been doing isn't going to work. Right now I'll take a classifier and run it 20 times with maybe 1-4 master scores toward the end, and this is using pre-HHF adjustment scores. This has taught me I need to get faster at just about everything without reducing accuracy. I guess that's the name of the game for everyone. I think my problem has been I tend to practice too many techniques at once. This has been great for my performance on field courses, but not so good for classifiers. I want to focus on perfecting one skill at a time until I've significantly increased my HF on this simple three target drill. So with this in mind, step one is to reduce my time to first shot by 10-15% while improving accuracy of that hit, and having a really great grip for the rest of the array. When I think I have a technique that works I want to spend a great deal of time to burn it in and make it consistent before I add in the next technique. This will be followed by improving splits, transitions, and finally changing gears for distance and partials. I think I'm looking at least 3 months before I get to mag changes. My thinking is that I want to be sure I've selected and tested the best technique before I invest the time to and energy of burning it in. Please let me know if you agree or disagree with my training approach. Right now I think my goal should be to consistently run the drill above with a first shot at around 1.0s and 0.2 splits on all three targets and all As. Does this sound like a realistic goal, or should I settle for 1.1s first shot? What's your first shot at 7 yards? Thanks
  4. Just4FunLP
    Just found a YouTube video on the Dry Fire Timer app and then bought it. It’s pretty awesome. Thanks for the tip.
  5. Just4FunLP
    That “Dry Fire Timer” app looks pretty good. The “Par Timer” app doesn’t have an adjustable make ready time causing me to rush. It also doesn’t have the ability to repeat. This app appears to be much better. I’ll have to give it a try.
  6. Just4FunLP
    A long time ago I went through period of exploring grip techniques and found it was good to write notes after live fire so I'd be able to start at the same place next time. It really seemed to help. The other day I decided to do the same for the draw stroke. For what it's worth, here's what I came up with. And no, I"m not completely nuts..... Lawton's draw as of 8/1/2018... Evolving 1. During makeready position web of strong hand firmly into beaver tail, then down and back up a few times to confirm the movement. 2. Start with shoulders, arms, and hands relaxed. I used to start with tension but have proven that starting relaxed is faster and more consistent in both live and dry fire. 3. Large thumb metacarpal of strong hand touching screws on holster. The shape of the hand should be retained from step 1, but not tense. 4. Weak hand relaxed at side but with the 4 fingers cocked foreword slightly. 5. Face up and forward. 6. Leaning very slightly forward. 7. Feet and shoulders slightly clockwise. 8. Shoulders slightly elevated, but relaxed. 9. Concentrate on not moving the head and shoulders during the draw stroke. This is extremely important. 10. Again, check for relaxed arms and hands from step 2. 11. Eyes on point of target you want to hit. 12. On the beep, the strong hand comes up and the thumb never loses contact with the holster/pistol. At the same time the weak hand comes up so the pinky knuckle is touching the belly button. Still in the shape of step 4, thumb slightly forward and hand cupped a little. 4 fingers touching. 13. When the strong hand thumb detects it’s reached the top of the gun it moves in and down and the 3 fingers lock around the gun. The thumb is pointing forward but is coming down quickly. 14. When the web of the strong hand hits the beaver tail the weak hand starts to move up and forward to meet the pistol. 15. There is no delay after step 14. While bringing out the pistol very fast the thumb is pressing on the safety lever (not to disengage the safety, but for me that's the thumbs home position). This seems to help the metacarpal thumb bone sort of grip the back of the gun under the beaver tail improving stability. 16. Once the pistol clears the holster it starts moving forward. It’s going directly to the final position, not up then forward. This happens so fast that it becomes one fluid motion and the weak hand just has to be moving fast enough to land properly on the way up. The thumb slightly forward and hand slightly cupped from step 12 comes into play now, and the hand naturally falls into position and the hand should start clamping immediately. The sooner the better. All this happens extremely fast and is where I’m currently having the biggest problem with consistency. To achieve a more powerful higher weak hand grip It would be better for me to jam the index finger under the trigger guard, but it’s very painful if it hits too hard. 17. While extending I should be quickly clamping with my weak hand, and if it’s a close target I’m pulling through the double action trigger. 18. Stop short of full extension and grip should be tight with locked wrists and acceptable sight picture. Because the trigger pull started on step 17 it should break as soon as the sights come on target. For a DA one second first shot at 7 yards I have to trust the sights will be there. At longer distances and smaller targets I'll have to wait for a better sight picture before starting the trigger pull. I’ve heard Stoeger mention that he doesn’t start the DA pull until the gun is forward, and I assume the sights are settled. That may be why his dryfire training stresses practicing your draw without pulling the trigger. I’m still unsure....
  7. Just4FunLP
    It's been a while since I posted. I don't know why anyone would want to read this stuff, but here goes... I saw a video of Stoeger shooting a classifier and noticed him wiggling his fingers just before the buzzer goes off. I assume it's a way for him to mentally check to make sure he's not tense. This is opposite of my usual start position. Right or wrong, I want to move quickly and end the draw with hands, wrists and elbows tense, so I tend to start with tension. So as an experiment I ran a bunch of draws with hands "relaxed" at sides. This definitely seems to add speed and make the whole sequence run smooth. Next, as I mentioned previously I wanted to try switching from my 13lb hammer spring to my 11.5lb to see if it would improve my first shot speed and accuracy. Well it seems like the lighter spring and relaxed start made a difference. To measure my progress on the draw stroke I came up with a simple test of 3 open targets at 7yds and spaced 6ft on center. I figure it's one thing to put one thing to put a single shot in the A zone as fast as possible, but my goal is to do this and at the same time have a grip good enough to control recoil and maintain sight alignment through fast transitions. These are the results from 7/24. Compared to the 7/5 runs I trimmed about 0.15 off the first shot time and had a slight improvement on my splits and transitions as well. By averaging the best 5 out of the first 10 runs of the two practice sessions, my average HF improved from 9.3 to 10.5. That's pretty good. The bad thing is that my grip didn't seem to be aggressive enough to control recoil, and I ended up with a few splits above the A zone including two Bs and at least one high Mike. I guess now I need to figure out how to draw fast without tensing up, but end the draw with locked hands and wrists so I can control the pistol while ripping through all the targets. As a side note, I had conquered my tendonitis about a year ago, but I did about 2 hours of dryfire the other day and now I'm back on the arm band. This really sucks. I may have to lay off for a while.
  8. Just4FunLP
    I’ve been using my CED 7000 timer for dryfire for years, but I recently got a iPhone app called “Par Timer”. It’s only about $3.00 and allows me to use my Bluetooth earbuds so I don’t drive my family nuts with the relentless beeping. Also, I may try to use it to help me prep for classifiers during a match. I tend to shoot them too slow or too fast, so I’ll calculate the time I know I’ll need and go to a safe area and run it a few times to get a feel for the speed needed to reach my goal. With the earbuds I’ll be able to run the timer as many times as I want and nobody will ever hear anything. It may not be worth the trouble, but I need to try something different. The app will occasionally glitch causing the second beep to come early, but it’s not a big deal. This happens mostly on my old iPad, but my newer iPhone works much better. The earbuds are inexpensive JLab brand at Walmart. They’re great for watching YouTube videos while making practice ammo. Just thought I’d share it with my shooting buds...
  9. Just4FunLP
    I second the lights and MrBulletFeeder. The feeder was an expensive Christmas present, but’s man it really makes a huge difference. Now I prop up my IPad behind the reloader and watch/listen to shooting shows on YouTube. I can pump out a thousand rounds in a couple of hours. The lights are a big help too.
  10. Just4FunLP
    I used Talon sandpaper grip tape for many years and they work great. They would always slip a little, so I’d have to add a few drops of super glue as needed. I don’t care if the glue is unsightly. I’d beat my gun with a rock if I thought it’d make me shoot better. I ran the grip tape on my Shadow with the standard rubber grips underneath, and then did the same thing with my Shadow 2. Eventually I noticed I was having a hard time slamming in the mags and reinstalled the original aluminum grips. After this the mags slipped right in every time. I found the mags were being slowed down from the friction of the rubber on the back side of the grips. Fortunately, VZ grips is right around the corner so I purchased some of their palm swells and weened my way off the grip tape. I also like to use grip enhancer lotion to make the fingers of the weak hand stick to the fingers of the strong hand. All this together seems to make a big difference.
  11. Just4FunLP
    I’ve been using sprays to hose down my pistols for years now, and while they do work great, it’s expensive. Im thinking of buying a refillable aerosol sprayer and a gallon of CRC brake cleaner. This sprayer is $20 and the brake cleaner is $21. Anyone got a better idea?
  12. Just4FunLP
    I think I see. Is it PractiScore Competitor? I tried that app a while back and, for some reason, it wouldn’t allow me to pull up a match, but now it’s working. I assume that if you’re looking at a match with a multi-string classifier it will show you the time on each string.
  13. Just4FunLP
    Wow. That’s awesome! Which PractiScore app are you referring to, and how does it work?
  14. Just4FunLP
    Thanks rowdyb. I use Stoegers dryfire book, and I loaned out his live fire book. Ive been working through his dryfire books for years now. I did work through his first live fire book and found it to be a big help. It forces you to work on a lot of skills that aren’t very fun, like shooting difficult targets around barriers and such. Maybe I’ll try Anderson’s book. Ive tried many different grips in the past. The Vogel grip is my all time favorite. Wrists twisting upward and creating all that tension really works wonders. The same is true for tightening the heels of my hands at the back of the grip. Also, shooting with my finger on the front of the trigger guard provides amazing control under recoil. It’s almost like shooting a rifle. The only problem with these techniques is that they take more time to aquire the grip. That’s every draw, mag change and move between shooting positions. It also seems to be a little slower between targets. When I took lessons from Shannon my biggest question was if he thought it was worth investing the time to make a big change in my grip. After he watched me shoot he said my grip and accuracy were fine. I needed to speed up. He was seeing the gun just sitting out there doing nothing before I broke my first shot. A lot of this is from that DA trigger. He worked with me for a long time to get me to break the shot as soon as I extended the pistol. Of course this was on very close targets. He said I had to know in my heart that the shot was going to be in the A zone and just pull the trigger. I’m able to do this now on close shots, but ten yard targets are a little different. I digress.. Basically I’m pretty satisfied with my grip when running a stage. I’d say my favorite all purpose grip is pretty standard stuff that Max and Shannon show in their videos. One thing that may be a little different is when my weak hand first makes contact with my strong hand I like to have the four fingers of my weak hand pointing slightly up. Then as I roll my hands out and extend my arms the index finger is applying a lot of upward force to the bottom of the trigger guard. When it’s done, those four weak hand fingers are actually under tension as they’re bending upwards. At the same time I’m getting a fairly high placement on the thumb side. Just before the buzzer goes off I cock my fingers on my weak hand up slightly to remind myself to make them land in that position. This finger tension definitely requires grip enhancer, especially in the Florida heat. I can achieve this grip when drawing on a field course, when reloading and changing positions. If I get this hand position right and the strong hand is high in the beaver tail, the gun feels like it’s welded into my hands and I can run it fast with confidence. It’s making this happen consistently on very fast draws that’s causing me issues. I’ll need a lot of reps. I really like Max Michel’s videos. He discribes his techniques step by step and is right to the point. He can cover everything you need to know in about 60 seconds. If you didn’t get it the first time, just watch it over and over. All th information is there. When he draws, he brings the index finger of his weak hand up to the trigger guard and then rolls the hand onto the strong hand as the gun comes out. This works awesome in most situations, but when I draw fast I end up slamming my index finger into the trigger guard so hard it hurts. I’ve even thought of covering my index finger with something to cushion the blow. I’ve been consentrating on making the move from the holster to the sights on target position one fast smooth movement. Maybe a little slower getting my grip in the gun in the holster, but making up for it with speed into target. It seems to be helping. Today I was watch a video of Stoeger shooting a classifier and noticed him wiggling his fingers just befor the buzzer to keep his hands sand arms loose. I do the exact opposite. I tend to tense up as I prepare not go. I tried it all loosey goosey a few times and it seemed to make a big difference. Wow. We’ve just about written a book and haven’t even moved onto the second target. ?
  15. Just4FunLP
    I think you’re right. MemphisMechanic said the same thing the other day and I tried it during dryfire and it does make a difference. I saw a post a long time ago about how to stop faster on targets during transitions. One guy said to try driving the gun primarily with the weak hand instead of equally with both hands. I tried it back then and noticed an improvement in transitions, but I never dedicated any time to train on this. The other day I noticed a similar affect when I tried increasing weak hand pressure so maybe this will be a big help overall. During the draw I think that, for me, the trick is to achieve this weak hand crush grip as early as possible in the draw stroke. I’d say the goal is to draw into the target as quickly as possible and be prepared to fire as soon as the sights land on target. But if I’m still increasing weak hand pressure at the end of the draw my sights seem to be moving around a bit and throwing off my first shot. I’d appreciate any feedback on this... I guess the reason I’m posting all this is that I learned a lot from my day and a half with Shannon Smith, and found that the small details really matter. And since I’ve decided to push for Master, I need to reconsider everything I’m doing in a classifier. The techniques I’m using work pretty well, but they’re a bit sloppy and everything needs to be refined. Shannn said I was like a bull in a china shop. When I draw, reload or move to another position I do it with a lot of effort, which is commendable, but I need to smooth out the rough spots. So, I’m starting at the beginning. Right now my goal is to retrain myself to draw on a partial target and get two accurate hits while keeping the recoil under control, and do it very very fast. If I’m able to do this, I can usually perform well on the rest of the targets. If the first target doesn’t go well it all goes downhill. Next, I will be concentrating on transitions, followed by mag changes. In the past I’ve trained on too many things at once and tried to overcome sloppiness with maximum effort. While max effort is helpful, it’s not enough to take me where I want to be. I need max effort and perfect technique.
  16. Just4FunLP
    I ran an 11lb hammer spring in my old SP01 Shadow for a couple of years but stayed with the 13lb when I got my Shadow 2. I can prep my trigger and shoot groups better with the 13lb spring. I just switched back to the 11lb spring and the DA first pull is much better. This may make more sense for shooting classifiers, because there’s not a lot of time for prepping the trigger anyway. I get about a 3lb SA pull with the 13lb spring and about 2lb with the 11lb spring. It is very light. I’ve never had a problem with keeping my finger out of the trigger between shooting positions, but every once in a while I will let one fly just before my sights land on the target. Never been DQd for it.
  17. Just4FunLP
    Yes it does make sense. It’s just like any shot, easier shots require less sight picture and difficult shots require more. I’d say my biggest problem is when I’m running a classifier where my first shot is a partial at 10 yards with the DA trigger.
  18. Just4FunLP
    We talking about a DA or SA trigger pull? I’ve got a DA first pull.
  19. Just4FunLP
    So are you consciously pulling the trigger as you extend or waiting till the gun settles, or is it just happening too fast to tell? I know it’s hard to describe his stuff unless you’re standing there with a pistol in your hand. The reason I’m asking is because I’m trying to make a final decision in the training technique. The way I’ve been doing it is to try and time the first shot to go off as the gun settles, but I may need to change my strategy to bring the gun up very fast and then pulling the trigger very quickly. MemphisMechanic seems to be timing it.
  20. Just4FunLP
    So to be clear. You’re getting a crush weak hand grip early and pressing the trigger before your sights settle...?? I emailed Stoeger about this and they discussed it on his podcast. One guy said he did start pulling the trigger during the draw, but Ben said he gets the gun out first and then pulls the trigger fast. Also in his dryfire drills for draws he tells not to pull the trigger and try for a .7 par time, so I assume he stressing to always get the gun up very fast and trigger press that’s appropriate for the distance and target size. I hear what you’re saying though, if you’ve got the crush grip the DA pull is less of an issue. My my previous Shadow had the larger safety leaver and I tried drawing cocked and locked like a 1911, and it does make a huge difference on the time to the first shot. Thanks for for the reply.
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  23. Just4FunLP
    I shoot a CZ Accu Shadow 2, which is a super nice pistol. The only issue I’m having with it is the double action pull on the first shot. To get A zone hits at 10 yards it takes me between 1.30-1.35 seconds, and I'm not very consistent. That’s 1.35 draw with a 22-23 split. I run about .20 splits on the rest of the targets. Because I'm having to pull the long DA trigger just as my sights are settling on target I'm seeing a lot of movement and often land my first shot on a hard cover or no-shoot in. It's pretty easy to draw and pull off one shot A zone hits at 7 yards in under a second, but at that speed my grip isn’t good enough to handle the fast splits and transitions needed for a Master score. Currently, I'm only doing about three, one-hour dryfire sessions a week. I go to the gym twice a week, and do one long 500 round live of fire practice on the weekend. As I mentioned above, I've been practicing classifiers. I'll do 15-20 runs on one stage recording all the data as I go. I live in the panhandle of Florida and it's really hot and humid with almost no breeze, and it definitely affects my performance as the practice session goes on. As you can imagine, it takes a while to get warmed up, but after a while I usually start hitting master scores about half way through. I can’t do it consistently, but it does help me experience what it takes to lay down a good run. From this I’ve concluded that I’ve got to draw fast, with a perfect grip, and if I’m shooting with intensity and controlling the gun on the first target (seeing my sights all the way through the cycle) I stand a chance of running the gun well through the rest of the targets and coming up with a good score. I’ll often screw up a transition or mag change, but I’ve found that if my grip is screwy, or I’m not controlling recoil on the first target, I’ll always fall short. So, at this point I’ve decided to focus the majority of my dryfire practice to learning how to consistently perform fast draws and clamping down with my weak hand earlier in the cycle. I think that clamping my weak hand and pulling the trigger while the sights settle is really too much happening at the same time to pull off a good fast first shot. I’m not satisfied with transitions or mag changes, but I’ll post about that later. This is enough for now. I’ve also included notes from a couple of sessions. My chicken scratch is kind of embarrassing, but what the heck… The lines without scores are runs I blew with a no-shoot or a mike. It’s funny. These were before the HHF update. CM 99-24 really kicked my but and I actually ran it two different days and only got one master run. Since then the HF required for master changed from 9.70 to 9.37 which increased my success rate quite a bit. But on CM 06-04 master HF changed from 10.79 to 12.35 and I never got close to this. I did some calculations, and depending on how you look at it, it looks like it dropped my classifiers by an average of 5%. This kind of stinks for me, but on the two classifiers below it looks like they raised the required HF on the one that was too easy and lowered the HF on the one that was too difficult. So I guess overall it's pretty fair. RIght now I'm wandering how other CZ productions shooters handle their DA first shot, and what kind of times they're getting. Thanks
  24. Just4FunLP
    I started this sport a little late in life at 49, and now 5 years into it, I can see why they set the age for senior at 55. I can definitely feel old age starting to creep up… Honestly, I always thought it would be great to make Master I but never really thought it would be possible. Last year I made production A class and spent a day and a half with Shannon Smith, and I think reaching Master just may be possible. Although, the recent updates to the classifier high hit factors really hurts… I know it’s generally not recommended, but I’ve started shooting classifiers a lot in practice. Since Master is my goal, it seems to make sense to use classifiers as a benchmark to test myself against and learn from. Not to mention I really stink at classifiers in general… My early live fire training was focused on a lot of field course work. This was really helpful with transitioning from running/moving to accurate shooting modes and seemed to make me fairly successful in matches overall, but I perform poorly in classifiers. Long story short… I need help. I’ve really put a lot of work into getting where I’m at today and improvements seem to be harder to come by. I’ve currently got several issues I’m dealing that I’ll detail in my next post. It really boils down to pride. B class was good, and I’m was super happy when I made A class, but “Master” really sound nice. Master.. master.. maaaasteerr Yea… You guys have been an extremely valuable resource over the years, and I know I’ll benefit greatly from your feedback. I know we all love talking about the sport we love, but detailed replies take a lot of time, so let me go ahead and say how much I appreciate all the help.
  25. Just4FunLP
    I figured it would be good to run my own numbers so, for what it's worth, here it is... I basically took my original HF and used the calculator on the USPSA website to come up with my new percent, then I simply subtracted the pre-update percentages from the post update changes. I'm not a mathematician, so there's probably a better way of doing this. When I saw this a couple of days ago I looked at about 3 of my previous scores and it looked like I'd get a 9% hit, but maybe it's not quite as bad as I first thought. My goal is to make Production Master. Paulie. How did you come up with your numbers? If this data is too out of whack I'll delete it. Classifier Percentages before and after June 2018 HHF update.pdf
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