KelsonAK
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Posts posted by KelsonAK
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Good match yesterday. Plan for the week didn't go as hoped, but still turned out well. Got about 15 minutes of dry fire in this week after the Tuesday night steel. Set up for Strong and Weak el Pres - but never actually went to practice it. Had a couple of brain farts in the match - didn't stick to the plan for a reload or two. Even so, much improved. Movement was better again - the swinger cost me dearly.
Need to work on backing up/reloading stuff. Shooting while backing smoothly... no worries. Moving quickly to the rear and reloading as I go... yea. Just haven't practiced that.
Classifier was good for 68% and change - second 'B' classifier in a row. Keep this up and I'll have a 'B' card for Christmas. The next USPSA match is the sunday after thanksgiving. Between now and then there is a steel match and a few Tuesday night practice sessions.... so, a plan.
Dot drill and whatever new steel the local target guy has dreamed up on Tuesday. He was working on an 'Alaska star' - we'll see what he brings out.
Dry fire practice - white wall and reloading on the move (forward, backward, left, right)
Sunday looks like it will be cold - possibly single digits. Maybe just run a .22 that day.
Next Tuesday - more dot drills and a faux rack - 10" plates at 10-15 yards.
21.22 Nov - nothing planned.
Following Tuesday - who the heck knows......
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Steel challenge match was fun, but was very inconsistent. Good run followed by bad run. Lacked some visual patience, and my head wasn't fully engaged.
Last night was a special shooting night however. Sure - I had some good shooting. Practiced being patient actually on wide transitions for target focus kinda stuff like smoke and hope.
It's dark here about 5:45 or 6:00 now, so shooting is under some lights. Was warmish (28 or so) and no wind. Turned the lights off after putting the steel away and looked up. The northern lights were dancing - and it was quite a show. A new shooter had come out and happened to be there - first time he saw the lights.
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I'm in. A88816, production.
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I'm digging my Center of Mass on a BOSS (for a S3 in my case...)
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First solid 'B' classifier run. Like .5% under A solid. 99-10, HF of 6.718. Went ahead and did a 'reentry' and ran if faster, but worse. A mike tends to screw up your score.
Overall - very happy with today's club match. I worked on exits and entries this past week in dry fire and live fire practice - and it showed. Spent a few hours on the range last night - worked on entries and exits with a .22 and steel plates. Then - same with the center fire. Focus was on taking the shot and moving - then getting into the box and shooting. None of this waiting around for things stuff. It still takes me a little time to get the sights on as I hit the box, but I have cut that down significantly.
A pair of long stages to start the match - first stage went 'ok' - but could have gone better if I didn't have a couple make up shots that screwed up my plan and had me at slide lock twice. Note to self. If you get into a pickle and are skinny on rounds in the magazine, better to make an extra reload to get back on plan than go to slidelock.
Second long stage was fun. Some strong hand only and retreat shooting. Lesson there - move faster between arrays. I was moving quickly, but I could have moved faster.
Two short stages and the classifier finished the match. Did well on them - but for some reason I was having trouble with the little steel activator for the swinger today. Was very annoyed...
So... what to do, what to do.
More dot drills. More dry fire with a focus on fundamentals (draws, reloads, and basic movement.) Next match is Nov 8. Plenty of time to get ready
Nov 1 will be the next Steel Challenge match. -
I like mine. Pistol brass I just use car wash/wax and a bit of lemishine. No pins. With rifle brass, I wind up going twice usually (since my rifle brass is often very cruddy...) - first time no pins, case prep happens, second time pins. Have used it for about a year, it seems to be running most weekends... need to get a timer to start it while I'm gone so it finishes up when I get home - that's a great idea.
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Yea - ok, so my off season isn't really off.
Practice session last night. Watched a video of Bob V at the Nationals yesterday. I had an 'ah ha' moment as he shot - that it isn't just the placement of the hands on the gun and the way the HANDS hold the gun, but the way the upper body is engaged in the grip. I think I've been coming to the realization that shooting well is a 'whole body' work out. Last night, set up Pendulum (since that was what sucked most on Sunday) and shot it using my normal grip/stance, etc. Times were consistent with what I've been shooting which is a 22-26 for the stage, with singe run times being fairly consistent in the 5ish range.
I engaged the upper body more rather than just the forearms, and immediately dropped times to the 16ish range for the stage, with single run times up 'n down from 4 slightly, and MUCH easier sight acquisition shot to shot. Like - a LOT easier.
Am going to do a little reinforcement with dry fire, but am likely to not hit the range with anything until next Tuesday evening's practice session. A bit excited about this - we'll see if it holds.
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Was a reasonable weekend. Steel challenge match on Sunday. A little practice on Friday evening (dots for the win...)
Cut 4 seconds off my aggregate steel challenge time. Mostly in Accelerator and a little bit in smoke 'n hope. The other two stages.... bleh. Consistency. Bleh.
After - the spouse wanted to practice a bit. Group shooting... a frustrating time... she has trouble focusing on the front sight - needs something different with her glasses.
Will probably take the next week or two off. That will be the off season for me...
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Starting to get hugely annoyed at myself. My trigger control is really letting me down... and when I 'think' I'm seeing my sights... it seems I'm not really getting a good sight alignment. Close up stuff - yea no worries. But there is no excuse for missing a 6 inch plate at 10 yards - repeatedly. Good shot... bad shot bad shot good shot...
Time to stop screwing around with steel challenge stuff and put up some dot drills for live fire training. Yep - that's going to be the next range session. USPSA next Saturday (local indoor match) that I may or may not be able to get too - and Steel match on Sunday - again, may or may not. We'll see. Goal for the steel match is to dink about 2.5 seconds off my aggregate time to have a 'b' class rating. We'll see - winter is coming and I may have chores...
Other than that - Am now an NRA RSO. Filled out the online bit this morning. Yea baby. And - I got 1100 rounds of .223 loaded up for 3 gun matches this winter. Only another 900 to go and I change the press back over to 9mm...
3Gun went ok. Had some issues with the AR on close targets (stationary midi clays) at about 12 yards from 'poor' shooting positions. Missed the first one twice and started doubting the sights. always a bad sign - and my fault since I was shooting ammo that I had not fully checked out. Good news is that with one exception I ran the pump gun well - not bad for the second time out with the Nova. Had one short stroke trying to 'go fast' - stage was a simple one, forward fall popper, stationary clay, forward fall popper, two aerials triggered by the poppers - missed the second aerial futzing with the pump.
Need more time at the range and dry fire - less time at work, taking care of the dogs, and personal relationships.... Hmmm. yea probably not going to go that way.
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I'm a vortex fan boy - so I say get the Vortex.
But.... they will all work.
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Scores from the last steel challenge match got posted and now all 8 stages show a time. 2.5 seconds-ish off B classification. So... in two weeks - need to figure out how to drop 2 seconds from my aggregate. That would actually be pretty easy.... don't miss the damned plates
It's good to see that the steel challenge classification system (the current one) and the other uspsa classification system are pretty close. I'm typically a high C shooter on classifiers trending upward. And... in both cases it is consistency that keeps me down.
Weekend club match.
Started the match out well, declined over time. I didn't do any dry fire last week, and I think that showed. It led to a lack of consistency in my grip and my trigger press. Stage plans were fine. Did a reload where I was going right to left instead of left to right - right handed idiot here - that in hind sight I think may have been a bit better the other way. Good points overall - but a lot of 'low in the a zone' hits - and the same thing on the plate rack and poppers meant a couple of make up shots that forced standing reloads.
Classifier - again - low to where I 'intended' to aim. Really crumbled that one up - putting 2 into hard cover on a Virginia count kind of screws things up there....
Plan for this week? load ammo.
Load development underway for TAC and 55gr Z-Max bullets to use in 3gun, and have been working through a couple 5 gallon buckets of brass for sorting and cleaning. Got the 22 conversion unit for the AR worked out so will be running it in Steel challenge in a couple weeks. Set up 5 to go at the range Tuesday and was able to consistently turn in 2.2-2.4 runs and when I turned up the heat I could make a 1.8ish about half the time.
NRA RSO class this weekend - so that will take up the lion's share of my time.
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Yea - that pretty much sums it up. Has there been forward motion on the new classification system?
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Pat, please do not motor boat your scope. Or if you do, please do not take pictures of you motor boating your scope.
Wait... did I misread something?
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for pistol - I don't deprime prior to wet tumble. I don't use pins either. Just try to have enough brass so that it can dry out a good long time or use the oven at low heat to force the issue.
For rifle - first go round is with primer in prior to lube/size. Because there is some salt on the ground half the year, I tend to wash the brass promptly upon getting it back to the house. No pins the first time - just a good washing. Post lube/size/trim it will go back in for a tumble WITH pins - and then I dry them on a towel at very low heat or set them in front of the fireplace for a while.
And... have enough so that the brass can dry out a good long time prior to use.
I have had some wet primer pockets if I rush things - have caught it before I loaded, but enough of a heads up that I just let things sit a while and really dry out before use.
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Steel challenge club match on sunday went well. ish.
Dropped 3 1/2 seconds off the outer limits, and 2 seconds off showdown. Unfortunately I found them added into my 'speed option'
It took 4 runs through to get things sorted. First run was an absolute disaster - I was channeling the 'angry beaver' on the 2x4 posts. I blame the poor performance on 2 things....First - I was shooting like crap. Only way to explain it really - sights, trigger... wood? Really? Grip was good, sight picture was right - that leaves trigger.
Second - did a heavy day weight lifting session that morning. Arms are still feeling it today - and... maybe that wasn't a great idea before going out to shoot. Both speed option and 5 to go were late in the day - and both were not my best performances - so in addition to screwing up the trigger - I think I was just wore out.
So... Showdown and Outer Limits are both showing a 25%ish improvement over baseline (June) - will be another day before I see that improvement on Speed option.
But the good news is... this will put all the stages in the bank for classification and ranking - and should have me within 2 seconds of 'B' class. And THAT is pretty cool. On par with my last USPSA classifier - within spitting distance of B.
This week? Dry fire practice will be reloads and table starts. USPSA match on Sunday. Live fire will be setting up Speed option, since that is the stage that sucked the most on Sunday - and a Dot drill or two.
Next three gun is the end of the month - good thing. It gives me time to get some ammo loaded
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Range diary catch up.
Saturday - Good Steel challenge sesh. Dropped 4 seconds off my aggregate on the 4 stages run. Biggest drop was on Accelerator, and almost no change on Pendulum. Dropping my scores into my tracking spreadsheet - Since June 1 when I started tracking these things I've dropped about 15% off my times give or take. Yippee... pat on the back.
Big news for me was that I was calling my shots much better - and perhaps more importantly, calling a halt to my finger if my sights weren't aligned right. Recognizing that the front sight was off to the left during shot recovery and NOT shooting until I had an acceptable sight picture was the score for me. About 2/3s of the way through the day I started seeing THAT part of things.
Also have managed to scrounge up enough 22lr to make that worthwhile - and shot rimfire pistol for the first time in a match. The ruger 'V' rear blade sucks. THat's all I'll say about that.
USPSA Match on Sunday. 09-02 was the classifier. Shot about a 55% according to ClassifierCalc. That's an overall improvement as well - going from mid/low C's to high C's in production will work for me... Again - the 'what did you learn Timmy' was seeing the sights BEFORE you pull the trigger. Was overall happy and see an improvement from past performances - I just have to not be trigger happy and have some visual patience.
The other thing I need to spend some time on is getting a sight picture after movement. Video review was a bit painful there - and it is the same thing in Outer Limits - that I'm taking FOREVER to shoot after some movement. Not fluid at all.
Tuesday night steel practice was a bit of fun. A 12" and 10" round at 10 yards on the right, a B/C and a 12" on the left at 15 yards, and a B/C at 20-25 yards down the middle as the stop. The way I wanted to shoot it was Far right, right, far left, left center. The way I was tank turretting though I kept pausing before I'd get far left. I'm not leading with my eyes, bring the gun to the target. Ah, well that is what practice is for, eh?
Dry fire for this week is move into the box and dry fire, focusing on getting on target faster. Will break it down in to pieces and practice my scales.
In other news... replaced the hammer spring with the factory spring and the light strikes went away... maybe I'll play around with things this winter, but for now it works and I'll leave it as is.
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Well - that was fun...
Did some work on the Stock 3. Springs and replaced the firing pin with one of those fancy pants units from Henning. A bit of polishing here and there. Double action pull was reduced to about 8.5lbs - and it doesn't set off the S&B primers all the time. About one out of 10 ish. Ah well.... will put the factory spring back in I suppose.
Set up a steel stage with a C zone at 10 yards off to the left, a C zone at 25 yards off to the right, and a diagonal string of 12 inch rounds going far to close 16, 13 and 10 yards) centered on the box. Something that would force a wide transition, and mix up folks 'tempo.' That was fun. My focus for the session was to work on my stance. I seem to stand upright like I have a freakin rod shoved up my backbone - if I put some more bend in the knees and have a bit more forward approach the whole thing just works better. faster transitions, faster sight recovery, and better trigger control. and yea - it helped. Even with the .22 - standing 'forward' without hunch backing was just faster. It was a bit more physical - I was noticing my core by the end of the evening - just a little - but enough to know that I was actually changing something.
Also spent a little time strong hand only. Next week - same thing with weak hand....
And then.... the practice crew kinda devolved into 'hey, lets see who can do a sub 1.0 draw to the C zone at 10 yards' - which was a fun and light hearted way to finish the evening.
This weekend there is a steel match on Saturday and a club USPSA match on Sunday. The steel match will finish up the 8 stages needed for 'classification and ranking' on the steel challenge site - the USPSA match may wind up getting switched out for a 3 gun match depending on State Fair traffic.
Net net? I'm feeling pretty positive about my progress. Need to get more dry fire in - but the limited dry fire and the regular practice is definitely having an effect.
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We just fired up the affiliation here and started submitting scores. They've been running the matches for a long time - it just needed a volunteer to take on the scoring challenge. Heck - we may actually have a State Championship match next year....
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Light range day - Tuesday night steel practice went well and is growing quickly. Had 12 shooters show up for the practice session including a new to shooting shooter that seems to have fallen in love with the pow/ding steel game. She told her husband that he needed to bring more ammo next time.
Set up smoke and hope for folks - modified slightly in that we use 'B/C zones' instead of the rectangles. A little smaller - makes smoke and hope look a bit different when you are in the box. There is actually space between the targets...
Settled in and had a couple of 3.7ish runs in a row - consistency is improving and I didn't even think about the double action first shot at all. Most of the evening was spent running the timer for folks and doing some 'coaching.' Times aren't setting the world on fire, but is a big improvement from where I was 4 months ago.
Being used to excelling at everything you take on and seeing the improvement come so 'slowly' here sometimes is a bummer.
Had a few instances of the front sight winding up way left in the notch after a shot - did not 'naturally' return to center. Self diagnosis is that my grip sucked
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Wife got one - and after I swapped out the trigger bits - it shoots great. Only problem we have is with magazine insertion. I 'think' I need to take a little off the magazine latch to make it easier to seat the magazine with the bolt forward. Seating with the bolt locked back is no problem - but bolt forward and we have the 'shoot one and out it falls' syndrome. Burnt bronze looking.... very attractive.
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Actually - yea, I did it to save money. And for a little while, I did. Used bullet casting equipment from a garage sale, lee single stage press.
I think I started with an almost immediate return on investment.
And... it's gone.
Well, not really - but it isn't what it was.
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Sunday morning range - er... rant? - report: I am amazed at how bad a shot so many folks are, and how folks will put absolutely crappy optics on very fine rifles. Went to the range to help a friend sight in their rifle for moose season. Get there and he's brought 5 or 6 rifles out - seems I'm helping the extended family as well. Ok - I set him up on a bag and put my Sinclair F class bipod on another rifle for him. 6 shots later - at 50 yards - a shot gun group from a stainless Winchester 30-06. Ask him if I can have a go - clover leaf about 6 inches high, a little left. Ok - no problem. clickie clickie clickie. Group doesn't move for the next two shots. Scope has no makers mark on it that I can find - ask him where he got it - dunno, my brother brought it home. Tap the turrets - click beyond and back. tap again. Group moves 2 feet. Finally get it on the X by click'n and tap'n.
Next up? Same rifle in 30-06 - again, he shoots a pattern, not a group - and I'm back at it. At least this one had a decent scope. After I get 5 of the 6 (and all were 30-06 or 'above') sighted in at 50 we move the targets to 100. One had a scope that the cross hairs fell apart on the first shot. Anyway - at 100... He misses the backer. From a bag, with the stock supported. Really. At that point I pulled out my F T/R rifle and set it up and spent about an hour coaching him. By the time we were done - he was at least getting things into a 5" group at 100..... sigh.
Wound up helping a couple other folks get sighted in - what's an extra .338 or two among friends....
And the best part?
He has a nice little buckmark - put a red dot on it so he could hunt spruce hens and rabbits with it. Can't understand what happened to the battery because he can't see the red dot..... it is on backwards. Ok - no big deal... but to check? of course - turn the gun around so that you can look through the scope 'right way' to check the dot. Perfect.
So - what did I learn or have reinforced? #1: There are places to save money. Scopes aren't one of them. You don't have to spend a LOT - but don't scrape the bottom of the barrel. Better to buy a 'cheap' rifle than a cheap scope. #2: Safety can not be assumed to be a shared value. He saw nothing wrong with pointing a gun at his nose to look through the red dot - and was offended when I just about came out of my shoes to get the damned thing on the deck. He wanted to handle his firearms while the range was cold and people were down range. And it goes on. I don't think I'll be shooting with this guy again any time soon.
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I use my steel challenge static steel for a lot of my pistol practice. For shotgun - lengths of steel pipe work well, are cheap, and easy to set up. Next spend will be on the cute little auto poppers 3 or 4 of them - then a spinner - then a plate rack. Then a big freaking trailer to haul it all with....
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Life fire practice last night. Set up 5 to Go in anticipation of that being one of the stages at the next local match - wife wanted to practice it. Wound up with 9 folks showing up - which is almost as many as we have for the regular match. Lost 2 2x4s to angry beavers - but to be fair, it has been a few weeks since we lost a post.
Kept to the plan when I was shooting - worked on keeping the gun up during the reload - but spent most of my time helping out a new 12 year old shooter and running the timer for other folks. Next live fire will likely be in a week - which isn't bad exactly, since I need to catch up on loading 9mm.
Shot a glock for the first time in about 8 years also. Weee. Still don't want to buy one.
Production gun for Wife?
in Miscellaneous BEginners
Posted
HK VP9 is what my wife wound up with and it seems to work for her smaller hands.