KelsonAK
-
Posts
260 -
Joined
-
Last visited
Content Type
Forums
Profiles
Events
Store
Posts posted by KelsonAK
-
-
lets talk transitions a little bit more, because frankly, I'm undecided on things, and I'm not sure that what people think they are doing is what they actually are doing, myself included.
Essentially in this game (and life) there are three main ways of changing what we see with our eyes, or gaze control. Rapid eye movement (saccades), fixation, and pursuit. Fixation (seeing things within about 3 deg of line of site, holding for 100ms allows us to process information (ie: determine if our sights are aligned.) Pursuit tracking (what was described above with the watch the front sight) allows us to follow objects up to 'about' 270 deg/second. The advantage of pursuit tracking is that it allows fixation on an object in motion - however it makes it VERY difficult to see anything else. When the eye moves, the item it is fixated on in pursuit is clear, the remainder of the world goes blurry - smeared. In practice what this causes for me is over swing/under swing on the command to shoot. processing to muscle coordination is 'about' 180 ms.
Saccades (rapid eye movements to a target with +/- 2 deg accuracy is not without it's downsides also. First and foremost - you are physically blind before, during and after the saccade. AND - decision making based on visual input isn't actually possible during the saccade. Essentially we stop seeing about 50ms before the movement when the 'decision' to move is made. We are blind DURING the movement (~270deg/second, give or take) and the world fills in from the inside of our vision cone (3 deg) out over the course of about another 50ms. During that time - because we don't know we are blind - our mind fills in the blanks from short term visual memory, and generally incredibly accurately. So - seeing plate 3 in 5 to go before the start beep has it 'fresh' in our visual memory so we are actually 'pre-seeing' it during the transition from plate 2 to plate 3 - and we also help ourselves pre-see by using our periphrial vision as well. That means that even though you didn't see it, you may have 'seen it' enough to execute much faster than the optic processing physically allows.
Practically this means that for many transitions when we KNOW what we expect to see, where we look to where the target is and drive the gun to the target we have about .1 second where we are using our heads not our eyes. Ish. It also means that we are able to be very accurate in our targeting.
The very fastest way of seeing anything is to keep within the ~3 deg area of fixation. If you can do that, there is no eye movement to deal with - we just see. So VERY small transitions can be very fast if we keep our eye still and just see.
Add into this mix the idea of 'reactive' shooting (executing the trigger based on the conditions being correct vs. 'deciding' to pull the trigger) and at the top levels of this sport it gets a little - interesting - in trying to describe what we are doing and seeing. Add into the mix that I haven't seen any studies done of steel challenge at the highest level on what performers are actually doing with their eyes - and getting that feedback from individuals is horridly difficult because of the way short term visual memory works in filling in gaps and making us think we saw something that we didn't actually see. Or do It's a mess.
-
Yes, I use a frame mounted cmore. You can get mounts from a number of places.
-
Has anyone run into CCI clean hi vel that is actually subsonic in the Christmas packs? I picked some up advertised as 1230fps that doesn’t crack out of a silenced gun.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk -
I was working on this a little bit this morning while practicing 5 to Go with my RFPI. First shot times (I start on the 10 yard 10" on the left) for me on 5 to Go generally are in the low.6 to low .5s.
My .02
When you start pointed at P1, be sure your grip is perfect and tight the way you want it. The only thing that should shift at all is your arms as they come to low ready.
Move fast on the beep - even for 'hard' shots like on pendulum. You can move fastest by relaxing the muscles that have to do the work. For me that translates into having good supporting strength in the pecs as part of my overall grip, but consciously relaxing the shoulder muscles on the back side of the shoulders. If you are carrying tension there (some times people think they are 'winding up' like a rubber band) it WILL be slower than if you relax there.
Catch the sights with your peripheral vision as it comes up and put your focal length on it. So.... while maintaining the center of vision on the center of P1, observe the sights and bring your focal depth to the distance of the sights instead of the target.
Learn what 'acceptable' is as far as a sight picture. And then drill it and drill it so that you can become reactive to it in pulling the trigger rather than analyzing it before pulling the trigger. Sometimes this gets confused with 'over aiming' - it's not over aiming, it's not having the subconscious recognition of 'good/go.' That means we have to 'think' about it and that means a delay of about .2-.3 seconds.
Learn to prep the trigger on the way up. That way you don't have to mash it like a drunk monkey when it's up and risk mashing it low left or whatev.
Try not to 'crash' the target. By that I mean when you are bring the gun up like a dragster, let off the gas a liiiiitle bit towards the end so the gun doesn't horribly overshoot the target or come to target and wind up bouncing up and down like a whooptie van in the high school parking lot with bad shocks. (bring it in for a smooth-ish landing)
Only move what has to be moved to get the gun on target. Don't move your butt. Don't move your knees or torso. Don't move your head.
And of course - go at the start of the beep not the end.
-
Anyone know where to find one of these?
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
-
AMG Commander. Picks up the .22 just fine and bluetooth to the ipad or tablet.
-
Per appendix H7 in the rules - if that's a pistol, it meets the requirements.
-
Time to update and get back in the swing of range diary-ing.
This weekend was -17 for the steel challenge match. Had 14 guns signed up so we went with it. 4 stage match - morning flight and afternoon flight.
Managed a personal best in 5 to Go and Showdown. Which is good, because the week prior I had been working on both stages in my morning practice sessions. In practice, I had been seeing strings 'consistent' in the 2.5 range for 5 to Go with some in the 2.2 and 2.3 range. blind squirrel practice was in 2.0 range. In match, started on the slow side but landed at 2.50 for last 2 strings. There is still quite a bit of room to pull out time on this stage. Probably another 1.5 seconds in the next 2 months.
Showdown followed a similar path - started on the slow side with 2.5 but by string 3 I was hammering out the sub 2 second run I was seeing in practice and may have had an even lower aggregate time if the dreaded 'oops, it's cold and this is a rimfire' malfunction hadn't finally caught up with me.I need to build a better warm bag for the pistol and magazines eventually. Practice typically started in the 2.3/2.4 range for the first pass, and then dropped into the 1.7-1.9 range pretty quickly, so this works for me. Need to sort out how to START with a faster time, but is ok to get a better than 100% time
There is probably another second to pull out of this stage with just a little consistency.
Other 2 stages were Smoke and Hope and Pendulum. Smoke and hope I had too many make up shots on either the stop plate or plate 2 or 3. I shoot 43125 - so a miss on 3 is a fairly fast make up, but a miss on 2 is a PITA. I just wasn't stopping the gun. When I did it right I was shooting about where I should - in the 1.6 to 1.8 range. When I did it wrong (which was most of the time on saturday) it wound up in the low 2s.
Pendulum - I don't think I had a string without a makeup shot. So instead of the 2.5s or 2.3s I shoot in practice I was launching 2.9s and 3s. Guess what I need to work on in live fire next?
Practice for this week is largely going to be in the gym doing strength training and dryfire. It's stupid cold out, so I'm going to stay inside.
On wednesday when the numbers run, I'll have my first GM. RFPI. This is significant for me because 1) I'm 51. Not 'young eyes' or any of that crap. 2) It's been something that I've wanted to achieve for a long time. 3) now the real work begins, because it's not about the next classification any more - it's about cutting .1s and .05s and just shooting...
-
I shoot a Ruger 22/45 Mk III in open and a Scorpion in RFPI. I have a ton of ruger magazines that I've tweaked for best performance in the cold and so I'm not in a rush to change much. I might get a second scorpion to run optics or just get another Volquartsen lower to give the same grip frame feel. I like how the 90 Deg mount puts the dot so nicely low that there has not been any difference in presentation for me between irons and dot. Primarily I shoot irons, so having a dot that presents the same has been useful.
The CWA wide body is very, very attractive. A friend is getting one and I am sure I'll borrow it in practice a couple of times. The magazines are excellent and the reports are extremely positive about the build quality in general.
The Buckmarks seem to either run really well or not at all.
Have only seen a couple of Victory guns, and they all went bang. Just not my cup of tea at this point.
So... no major changes for equipment this coming season, but after WSSC? Who knows....
-
Well... you going to bring it out this weekend?
-
I have noticed that a magazine that I tightened down perfectly indoors at 70 deg, behaves a bit differently outside at 10 deg. Cleaning them, appropriately tensioning them, and then loosening the bolt a little more than I would in summer seems to have helped a lot. I've also kept them warm in a cooler, etc, but biggest was just not over-tightening the bolt and pinching in the back plate.
-
Yes - the sight radius helps. I haven’t put a dot on it but may do so next spring. Working on GM in irons first
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk -
I have both. The 6” scorpion for rfpi and a Ruger 22/45 lite with vq internals. I’m reliably faster on most stages with the 6. Will make the Ruger my dot gun. On the scorpion get the single port comp. IMO it works better and is much easier to clean.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk -
If all goes well you may have two from AK next year
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk -
Are there any steel challenge matches in August in the Houston/Galveston Tx area? Nothing is popping on practiscore or on the steelchallenge website...
-
56 minutes ago, GOF said:
Kinda like being a politician? Mike Foley has grown Steel Challenge significantly... and, at my age I am primarily SC shooter. ...I have limited experience but could see some changes... doesn't get my vote. Mike Foley already has.
Slight point of order... Zack has grown Steel Challenge. I think Mike has mostly stayed out of the way and let him do it...
Now if they could update the web site...
-
As my summer training schedule ramps up...
What are people seeing for times in practice vs. times in matches?
-
Targets USA makes an inline plate rack using their Rhino plates. It's showed up at a few matches around the country so far. I have not shot one but am thinking of putting it into one of the tuesday night USPSA matches at Birchwood.
-
If it's a legal rifle, yea.
-
TargetsUSA has started making an 'inline' plate rack kit. Hit me up if you want more info.
-
Right now is a Ruger 22/45 Lite with a TK comp, Majestic magazine release, hammer and quick bolt release, and Volquartsen sear and trigger. Dawson front sight. Am considering a scorpion for spring.
Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk -
Currently looking at late July (25-28) in Anchorage area at Birchwood range. Will be a level 2. Working up stages now and plan to submit to NROI before the end of the year. I don’t Enos much these days but hit me up on Facebook at William Pearch.
PS: I’m the right dude to talk too - section coordinator hat.
PPS: there will be an outhouse stage. Just sayin.
PPPS: working on a surf and turf option with some bargains on fishing charters post match.
-
I have a bazillion (ok... only 20) large frame 9mm magazines, and CDNN or Greg Cote put them on sale all the time. Last sale was like $12 or something like that. Anyway... with my preexisting condition (large frame tanfos) a large frame is more attractive to me.... however. Meh. No big deal either way.
-
That's what I've purchased in the past when they go on sale. Screamin deal on good magazines.
There is probably another second to pull out of this stage with just a little consistency.
First shot splits from low ready
in Steel Challenge
Posted
From a low ready, on smoke and hope I typically run .45 and if I am 'on' that day I can drop that into the .3's occasionally. That is pretty much the limit of human function for me. For Roundabout I'm in the .5s (far left plate first) and the rest of the stages I pretty much run a .6ish in general. My centerfire stuff... well, I haven't shot much of it in a long time but in general for me, add .5-.8 seconds.