KelsonAK
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Posts posted by KelsonAK
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I have the .120 and I am thinking I need to get a taller one. Mostly because I seem to be doing it wrong.... I shoot right on the money when I go slow, and my group drops about 4-6 inches when I go fast - and it seems it is because I'm bringing the front sight down far enough that I no longer see the silver of the slide instead of getting the equal height thing going. I did get the .120 so that the rear sight would be as low as possible - and buddy it does that....
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Had a good week and a great weekend. Got some dryfire in - a good practice session on Tuesday (25 yard B/C zone steel - working on draw, reloads, and some Bill drills) - shot the 'adult league' on Friday (smoke and hope both 'normal' and with 2 shots per target) and then worked (and shot) a vets charity shoot on Saturday. Had fun, won a prize for some outstanding rifle work...
Sunday - steel challenge match. Shot my best times for 5 to Go, Accelerator and smoke and hope. Dropped 2 seconds off my Smoke and Hope time - shot my first sub 3 second Smoke and Hope. That puts me about half way to 'A' - which is about right compared to my USPSA classifier scores lately. Kinda sucked on Pendulum - but not terribly bad. Just not good.
Shot rimfire as well - but the Ruger seems to have trouble when the ammo is at or below freezing. I put the magazines in my pocket between stages and it started to behave. I do kinda hate the factory sights on the 22/45 lite. Kinda sucks when your centerfire time is faster than your rimfire times....
This week? Continue to work fundamentals. Dry fire is reloads and transitions. Live fire will likely be move - shoot - move - shoot.
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It took me about 2 months to make the change. More dry fire could have made that smoother. I went from a m&p to a stock 3. My accuracy went up big time immediately - my speed is what took a dive.
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Let me see if I understand this... when the trigger was forward (not pinned) you are feeling a significant 'bump' in the slide as it goes forward into battery about the time the hammer is transitioning from the bottom of the slide to the firing pin stop?
If you were to pin the trigger (pull it back like firing and hold it back) - did you feel the same bump in the same place?
In both my tanfos, the FP stop does not extend completely to the bottom of the slide - there is a little bit of a step between the rounded FP stop bottom and the bottom of the slide. There is a noticeable difference in the slide going forward with a trigger pulled to the rear vs. a no finger on the trigger. I had some stoppages on one of my guns as it was going into battery when it was new but those worked out as the gun was broken in a bit.
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She reminded me that this was the first match where I designed/set up all the stages. The guy that usually comes up with the stages for the match wasn't able to make it, so I volunteered last moment to come up with a couple. We usually do 3 or 4 and a classifier - depending on time. Went with 3 and a classifier Sunday. A short, medium and long course. I really like stages where the stage briefing is - start here like X - shoot em as you see em - and there are options right off the bat.
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Need to catch up.
Two club matches since last update. 'Meh' overall performances (by my judgment) - really, I didn't do bad, just didn't do some things to my expectation. Both matches I shot the classifier reasonably well - and both (per classifier calc) look to be 67% runs. That makes 4 of the last 5 classifier runs a 67 or 68%. I got video of this match that I'll be analyzing - but the obvious was the inconsistent accuracy.
Shot a steel challenge match this weekend also - used the Stock II. So far - I like it but I don't. It 'feels' faster - but I don't shoot it as well. Still getting it sorted out - had a few light strikes - and I'm not sure I'm happy with the short dawson front sight compared to the Henning on the Stock III. I have a tendency to shoot low with it - like really low - and I'm not sure if it's just yanking or if it is a combination of yanking AND taking a funky sight picture where I'm getting the whole front sight post in the slot. With equal height - I can see the whole front sight and a window of color on all sides - I can see part of the slide in the sight picture when the top of the post is even across the top. In a few cases at practice on Tuesday I saw my sight buried and taking the shot put it low.
Signed the spouse up for the NSSF camp before they ran out of space - she's very excited to go!
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Tore apart the top end today - was going to replace the firing pin with an EG Extreme. Upon looking at the things - they appear to be the same. Pulled out the measury tool... and they measure the same. Only difference seems to be the EG is all shiny and the stock unit is blued.
Wolff 13 hammer, a bit more polish, and 3 out of 150 S&B primers failed to go 'bang.' They were early in the session - the last 100 rounds went with no complaints.
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I use a COM with my S3. I had a local guy make a holster for my new S2 so it could go out and play this week - I may have COM do me up a rig for the S2 because I like it that much...
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Partial polish and a hammer spring change took the DA to about 9lbs and single action is at 3 1/4lbs. Ish. May have to spring for a titan hammer and one piece sear. I think I'll shoot the shit outa it and see how it breaks in
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Picked up a Stock II in 9mm - already had a Stock III, so it seemed like a good idea.... Brand new from Buds.
Large frame. Of course - it's new and I'm in America.
Out of the case without any cleaning, double action was well over 12lbs. SA was 5lbs. Everything felt 'gritty.' The slide, the trigger... everything.
Gave it good wipe down, grease and oil where appropriate. Gritty is still there but reduced somewhat. Single action trigger pull reduced to 4 1/2lbs - double action still in the damn this is a lot range. My scale only goes up to 12....
Internals - 2 piece sear, same as came on my S3 from last June.
I'll warm it up some this evening, and then plan on tearing it down, polishing things up, re-springing and I'm sure it will be just as lovely as the S3 is now.
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Range time was good - although I did a lot less shooting and a lot more watching. I have put together a 6 week training plan and there are 6 or 7 folks playing along. Last night was the first live fire exercise for the group, and.. I learned a lot about other people learning. Two of the shooters at the start of the evening simply couldn't slow fire into a 2" dot at 5 yards. Describing 'surprise break' and 'slowly increase pressure on the trigger' didn't help.
It wasn't until one of them said 'I know this is supposed to work, but I don't feel like I have any control over things'
AH.... light bulb.
Accept the wobble.
Once they understood that they needed to accept the wobble - both of them went from low lefties to drilling the snot out of the dot. Slowly.
Then one of them giggled.
Set up 5 to go for fun. After the dots - the 10 inch plates looked HUGE. The two shooters that started out not able to hold a 2" group had shot the stage before and when they shot it 'accepting the wobble' they went from 12 second stage times to 8's. No improvement in draw, transitions or any of that 'fancy stuff.' Just accept the wobble and release the shot.
That was fun.
Oh, and I signed up for the NSSF fantasy camp in Vegas this morning.
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Range Diary -
My shooting was pretty minimal this week. I pulled the .40 M&P out of mothballs to see if I remembered how operate it. Evidently - I don't. Dot drills were consistently low. Most of the time was spent working with the wife and another shooter - did a basic skills assessment and have everyone on a dry fire/live fire training program for the next 6 weeks.
I really like the feel of the Tanfo better.
So - when Bud's had a Stock 2 come on sale for a bit under $900 - I ordered it.
In a week or two I'll be able to give my side by side comparison between the Stock 2 and the Stock 3. -
Range diary for the past weekend....
Attended the USPSA RO class. Dang - if you can make it happen, it is worth it and I'm pretty confident it will improve your performance in the game.
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And... we're back.
Steel challenge match yesterday and a USPSA match today. Steel challenge sucked because it was single digits with a breeze - freakin cold. That said -- had some of my best smoke and hope runs to date and really had a blast with a 22 conversion kit in the AR. Will continue to work the 22 LR in prep for some spring time 3 Gun fun. It was just fun to get out and shoot again after taking a month off.
Todays USPSA match I went in with the focus on 'Go Fast.' For the most part - that worked. My hits suffered from that strategy on the classifier - but the longer field courses worked out very well. It isn't a big pool of shooters - and I was the only production shooter - so I measure by how close I am to a couple of guys that always do X well... and even with taking a month off I shot better than I had against those guys previously. A good sign and I'm quite pleased. In raw times - I'm hanging or beating the limited shooters even with additional reloads (what I wanted to do this week...) Just need to continue to work on trigger control and I'll get where I want to go.
Also renewed my USPSA membership this month. That's right - one year anniversary...
Had a mental issue with the first stage - started moving from one array to the next where I was NOT going to reload and executed a reload anyway. Didn't let it throw me and got back 'on plan' and did what I wanted to do. Which was shoot stuff and move my butt when I wasn't shooting stuff.
Classifier blown however. Just couldn't seem to keep it in the A zone. Ah well... it did highlight the PLAN for the next 6 weeks.
White wall dry fire, single target dry fire, draws and reloads for 2 weeks. Dots for live fire practice. Then some transition practice (dry fire and live fire) and so on... Put together a training program for my wife (who wants to get to B class this year... C class by July) and will follow along since it's all fundamentals baby. And I need to keep working on my fundamentals.
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Did a happy dance this morning... 'B' by a hair!
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The Saturday match went well, for the most part. In general, very happy with how things went. Will review the video later today. Had a magazine fall out after 3 shots (no freakin idea there...) on a 10 round stage/table start. Classifier - took a conservative approach and if classifier calc is to be believed, I have now 'ascended' to B. That was the goal for year 1 in USPSA. Goal for next year is A. I did the math in my head - and then did a re-entry to see what would happen if I just went stupid. Classifier was 08-03 'Six' - and stupid was a time of 2.97, 2 steel, 2 C, 1D... and a mike in hard cover off the A.
Will be taking a break until January - maybe mid January - and then pick up with the fundamentals again. Groups, dot drill, simple dry fire, and steel challenge stuff. And will take the RO class
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... that it is possible.
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That is a significant part of it - and when I get my reloads 'right' it is because I'm thinking about my left hand getting to the magazine and back up again vs. keep the gun up. Or perhaps... in addition to 'hey, lets start a reload here, keep the gun up while I do important stuff.' I think that part of the issue is that I'm lowering my head and the gun follows - perhaps in anticipation of looking the magazine into the well. In any case - the 'plan' is to break down the complex action into little bits, and piece them back together into a single complex action. And not just 'stand and do x' - but move left and do x, move right and do x, move forward and do x... etc. I know - damned reformed musicians and their 'practice theory.'
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Had a fun match this weekend. Did well - classifier was 03-08 Madness - was able to turn a reasonable score there (68ish% per classifier calc) which should have me within about 1/2 percent of B overall.
Video review showed a few things: My transitions are slow, regardless of the distance between targets. I'm bringing the gun down to far during reloads, and they just aren't 'fast.' And... I'm not moving quickly enough during the important 'not shooting now' parts. Now, in all of these areas there has been a significant improvement over where I was with this during the summer - but I could probably drop my times by 25% by just improving on those areas. Goal is to make B by the end of my first year shooting USPSA - I'm sooooo close.
First time I have ever shot prone with a pistol! I should probably practice that someday. No rush - once in a year doesn't seem like it's all that important just yet.
So - what to work on next? Well, from the statistics from my review of the video, movement is the 'duh' area of improvement. However, it's freakin winter out there - and running inside the house at 5:30 am is frowned on by the missus. And the dogs. So - focus on basics with dry fire. Draw to first shot - stationary and on the move. Reloading during small movements (left/right.) And live fire? If it isn't stupid cold, dots and a V drill. If it is stupid cold, I'll practice my hot tub sitting....
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Range notes:
-5 sucks. Makes it a 'lost brass' practice session to be sure.
Shooting with gloves sucks. I can wear one on my weak hand, but on my strong hand it's a looser. Maybe a fingerless glove would work - but bleh.
So... just shot groups. Was good to see where I'm at with group shooting compared to where I was a year ago. When it was warmer. When I started getting 'serious' about pistol shooting, I had trouble keeping 5 shots in a 2" at 7 yards at any speed. Now, inside 1" at 7 yards is easy peasy. At 15 yards... things were starting to fall apart. In part - cold. Feeling your finger is not as important as you might first think, and in fact I learned a bit about 'surprise break' when there was no feeling in my finger... However. It is important. In part - lights and my eyes. And cold. It's hard enough to see the damned sights clearly under the lights on the range - but when your eyes start to have issues because of cold/dry where it feels like they may be freezing partially open.... yea. In part - well, I just need more practice. At 15 yards I found myself starting to fight the wobble zone or to try to force the shot in the middle of the wobble. Guess what. That doesn't work.
Also did some SHO work. Compared to a year ago, all I can say is 'damn I've improved.' Not ready to jump into playing bullseye but I really sucked at it a year ago. Now I only kinda suck. Net net is that although my speed in SHO is certainly lower than two hands - my accuracy isn't that far off.
All in all - was a good practice session. But -5 sucks.
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It's a 1911 thing I think. If you don't hold the trigger all the way to the rear on a 1911 you 'may' damage the fit between the sear and hammer is what I've read. Evidently that is even in the Kimber owners manual...
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I spent a little time looking at footage similar for myself - and I notice the same thing on yours that I did on mine.... the gun is backing up.
I've started taking a bit more aggressive stance and that has helped that a bit. -
Local range DQ's folks that sweep themselves or others. The thumb break holsters usually meet mr benchmade on the range.
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Classification system would be nice. Division definitions - or reference the appropriate USPSA rule set sections (my preference.)
Clarification on angle of steel (parallel to 180 vs flat to shooter perpective) - I don't have a preference, and have generally set up parallel to the 180.
Finger location for rimfire starts - I would like to see finger out of trigger guard there.
Specifics on aiming point for rimfire/pcc. My preference would be a point on the ground - but I'm flexible there. As long as it is consistent.
KelsonAK
in Range Diary
Posted
Little catch up:
When the temperature drops below 20 (plus wind chill,) my times in Steel Challenge starts to go up....
A bit light on the dry fire practice over the past few weeks. My day job has been a bit busier than usual. Things are starting to settle down a touch, and am starting back on a regular dry fire schedule - right before I do my morning yoga.
Live fire practice on Tuesday night (was up to about 50 degrees) - set up some dots (because cha...) and 5 to Go. Have done a bit of work on the Stock 2, including a taller front sight and some more trigger work. Still getting occasional light strikes on S&B primers, but much reduced. I am starting to suspect the issue may be the firing pin block.
Did some 'go so fast you break it' work on the steel. What is it like to shoot 5 to go in 3.5ish regardless of if I hit a damned thing? Then back off to actually hit things every time it goes bang. Learned 2 things: #1) I thought I was gripping the gun hard. Nope. Harder. I got the feel for what 'hard' really is on my hands though - and am working on that in dry fire. Gripping the gun hard like that is actually exhausting...
#2) I have a pinky finger. I need to use it in my grip. It was kind of just 'there' and not being used as part of the grip. The combination of gripping the gun hard enough and using my pinky finger is a big deal and has a noticeable difference on the repeatability of recovery from recoil. Again - this week's dry fire work is almost entirely grip related.