ArrDave

I am well pleased with Prima V Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My strong hand thumb presses into the frame behind the knuckle, but the tip does nothing, would rest on the safety if I didn't have thin safeties. My support hand thumb basically lightly rests on the slide stop where it enters the frame. if I roll my support hand forward any more I get into the safeties on my match gun (which has shadow safeties)

get the support hand on the gun sooner. As soon as you can. thi shas helped me draw to a point more consistently - still working on it.

So a couple practice sessions under my belt and I noticed something - I will put a good bit of strength in on the bottom of the grip but after the first shot I ease off then the gun starts flopping around. When I consciously gripped the gun correctly throughout the string - things went better (surprise surprise)

I've been shooting the dots, i've gotten pretty consistent at 15' so to stretch myself i've moved it out to 21'. I'm shooting 3 per dot at present and I'm kind of stalling. I've been and I can call my misses and generally attribute it to 1 of 3 things and it's usually very obvious (other than sight alignent/sight picture, that's obvious when that happens and that's visual patience.) - My thumb is not engaging consistently on the left side of the pistol, this nets hits left and sometimes low on a rushed trigger press. - bad trigger press, usually goes left. - Breaking wrists up if I over extend The bottom 2 happen rarely and are obvious when they do, the first seems to be my #1 reason for missing a shot. I'm trying to train through it. i suspect dryfire is the ticket, but my question of other than from the holster to a white wall - are there any drills you've had good success with training this away to make your grip more consistent. When my grip is correct the gun cycles quicker and returns dead nuts to where it went off - to the point at 21 I can stack them in the same hole - or very near to it (provided I have 2 good trigger presses in a row). Any tips for taking your grip to the next level is appreciated it. If I get this sorted I'm certain it will pay speed dividends on medium to long range shots.

My ghost belt has compared favorably to DAA belts, I don't have both, but compared to 2-3 at the range and it seems easily as rigid.

Is SV faster or slower than V?

Do the heavy plating xtremes group pretty well? I suspect they're a good bit more affordable than jacketed, does the accuracy hold up ?

Stay low. You're standing up pretty tall. You don't seem to be in a particular hurry between positions/targets - drive the gun in transition. For someone so new you're looking pretty good in all honesty. Just practice more and it will come with time.

I've never been able to score any E3, but Prima V I find to be a great analog for TG - but more accurate, fills the case better, less observable smoke (maybe a different color?) and if you catch brass in your shirt/ behind your shooting glass it doesn't fill you with the desire to dance quite as much. TG meters a little bit better, definitely load up a hopper and let it sit for a few hours before loading to get accurate throws from the start.

Yeah that's right. Sorry.

Start with hammer back, gun pointed at corner of the room, finger on trigger / trigger prepped. Transition eyes then gun onto target and pull trigger as soon as you register a good sight picture. This is a great mini drill.

I added emphasis to what you're saying because I think you're thinking about it wrong. Shooting is vision. If you don't do a walk through and define on every single target what acceptable sights/trigger are going to be to engage that target for AA or AC you're hurting your performance. Everything else needs to be done as quickly as you can do it correctly in a match - the running, reloading, swinging the gun in transition. In theory you've practiced that stuff so you don't have to think about it either. The sprinting from spot to spot is something I'd recommend practicing too. The shooting is confirming you are seeing what you need to see for that target. Don't sweep the shooting into everything else or as you've observed, it goes poorly.

Update - the 11.0682 hit factor on 13-04 nets a score of 95.0012% - so now I have to appeal the classifier to get it to count. As it sits I'm officially an A class now. For bassham's sake I should probably revise the title of this.

I'm no GM but I like analyzing match vids. I'm a high B but will be a middle A tomorrow so take it for what it's worth. Stage 1 - Not a lot to comment on. - I would have drawn to the left array since you would be doing 2 things at once rather than draw to the array right in front of you, you'd be taking a step off the clock on your draw vs. standing idle while drawing. - you seem to leisurely rebuild your grip - dry fire some one step reloads - paper were partials but were very low risk partials at a close distance, could have been a touch more aggressive on teh splits/transitions Classifier - turn toward your gun, it's faster - put it on the clock and prove it to yourself, do 5 the way you turned and 5 turning toward your other side and see which way is quicker, I'm betting you're a tenth to a few tenths faster toward the gun. Sounds like you did it in 3.96 with all the points thats nearly an A class run, high hit factor appears to be about 2.94s - that's a 1.5s draw, (2) .22 splits (as fast as you can pull the trigger) with three .5s transitions. All in all it wasn't bad but you turn the other way you probably would have been a middle A classifier That ones really going to come down to your confidence on a turning draw and shooting steel.

2/11/2016 So coming into this match, if I had to lay out a list of my weaknesses, it’d look something like this – - Memory Stages - Steel - Low Ports - Support hand shooting So yesterday’s match had 3 memory stages, one where all 3 were shot through low ports. There also was a falling steel stage with 3 positions, 2 of which were low ports. The other two stages were classifier stage and a hose fest field course. So for the past month, I was training pretty much exclusively fundamentals, thinking that my trigger press needed some refinement, and then “stand and deliver” classifier type shooting and not field courses, which I was training previously in dryfire. The squad yesterday that showed up was shooting in production was 3 M’s (Tyler, Andreas, Micah), 3A’s and 2 B’s (myself and another guy who is usually 5% off me). Plus 3 production ballers shooting PCC (2 G’s and 1 M). It was a stout squad. Getting started on Stage 2 - the one field course/speed shoot I was fairly high up in the order. There were two ways you could attack the stage. The back grouping of targets, and the middle grouping of targets and the front grouping of targets. The front grouping you could absolutely take from the middle, but you would be shooting 6 targets at 8-12 yards where you had the chance to engage them a maximum of 8 if you ran forward 3-4 yards into the last position, but it forced 2 positions of easy targets and an additional reload. In my head it seemed a no brainer to engage everything from the middle and not advance. I ended up executing the plan poorly in 20 seconds. If I shot with authority and moved with authority I could have maybe done 18.5 on it. Stage win was Tyler, who shot the 3 target grouping plan. He only dropped 3 C’s to my 9 C’s – so he was faster and more accurate. This seemed an instance where more aiming and less running would work in production, but I’m finding more often than not less aiming and more running is better for points per second, which is obviously the name of the game. I dropped too many points. Stage 3 – the swinger stage. So I got talked out of what I thought was a valid plan which would have worked better for me which was to activate the swinger on the way to another position. I think for the guys who talked me out of it, that was a good plan. I miked the swinger because I never get a chance to practice on them. In my last position I ended up miking 2 more targets, but what’s worse is I didn’t see the mikes as the gun fired. Lame. Time was OK – .75 off Tyler but 3 mikes, so theres that. I need to practice entering and leaving low ports, for sure. A guy who is normally a production A was shooting with me and observed I was too erect – and I can see that. I missed the last position because I managed to film the inside of my pocket for a half hour. So there’s that. (lol) Stage 4 – So I did a great job programming this stage – but I programmed in the wrong target from the final position – so I re-engaged a target I had already shot as opposed to the target next to it. There were 4 A’s on it. So that’s a 2 mike FTE. So playing the “what if I had shot the right target game, I would have shot 82% of the stage winner and would have been in second place. So that would have pulled me up to 78% in production but not enough to advance me a place in the rankings. The guy I’m going to be chasing at Area 6 would have still beaten me at 82%. This stage was interesting. You could shoot it from 2 positions with a standing reload or 3 while reloading on the move. We talked ourselves into doing a standing reload because the spot you had to hit in the middle was illusive and more likely to make you re-engage already shot targets or go hunting for which one you needed to be aimed at. The fast and lowest risk plan was to stand there with a standing reload. That’s 2 months in a row where that is the case. Accuracy was really really good on this stage for me, the shots were not easy but I was crushing it. The furthest target was a no shoot stack, leaving probably the top 60% of the A zone on a classic target and I 2A’d it. One thing important on this is that Micah was willing to accept sights on these targets that would net A/C or even D hits (but not mikes) given his split times. Tyler, to a lesser extent, did the same. I think this is a situation where I could have traded 2 more A’s for C’s and been better off on time. Another win on this stage was I processed my first target I grazed the barrel on the first shot, watch the video I transition back onto the first target with my 5th shot very smoothly and land a hit. You had about half the A zone split along the Y axis to aim at, I was A close C on that target. The A was the first shot, hit the barrel on the follow up, then the make up was aimed at the A/C line. Stage 5 – Classifier CM13-04 The Roscoe Rattle. Those not familiar it’s the 2 string turn and draw from surrender at 7 or 8 yards. First string is bill drill on a single target with 2 no shoots on the outer C/D line. String 2 is Bill drill on one target, wide transition with mandatory reload and bill drill on second target. High hit factor in production is like 11.65 or something. I did the math, it’s basically like a 7.7 combined time with perfect hits. I shoot and think I threw a mike, but I didn’t call a mike (and I usually can, especially squared up to the target). Sure enough, I shot a near perfect double. A casual glance made it look like a single hole, but when you looked at for more than a half second it was obviously a double. We overlaid it with the by the book CRO in our squad and he was totally convinced. I shot 11.0682 hit factor – that’s either going to be a 94.99% or pretty much a 95% dead – a “this” close GM score, or a GM score. That’s a pretty big win. My time was 7.77 and I was 16A and 2C. Shot pattern was all pretty much your hand with fingers outstretched – not bad. Feeling good, best score of 2 of 3 of the masters so real pleased with that, then Tyler shot. Same points in 7.07s for a HF of 12.2x – well over 100% by all reckoning. I need to throw it in shot coach and see where I’m losing that 7 tenths – my guess is a tenth on the draw and reload, or half that and maybe better splits from him. Stage 6 – falling steel stage. Reasonably pleased on how this went, I hung with one of the masters on this (he had a rough go of it admittedly) and not far off the other. Then came Tyler. Tyler crushed it. Our squad was shooting 25-27s for A/M times. Then along came Tyler at 21s. Next closest was just under 24 seconds. I shot first on this stage. In the initial walk through, all of the closest popper arrays were forward falling. I did not catch that they were not forward falling anymore. The first popper was forward falling, but the rear 2 were rear falling. So I sat and watched the things fall – costing me time, rather than driving the 2nd popper down to get at the 3rd with a immediate second shot. In the high port position I did end up dropping a second shot on the popper which was actually trying to get on the 3rd popper as soon as I could see the top of it, but I dropped the shot just barely onto the head of the second popper. I could have probably done a mid 24 up to low 25 time on this. In the last array of the stage, you’ll notice my cadence picks up on the mini poppers, I had a bit of a breakthrough. Watching Tyler and Micah shoot – it’s obvious that the transition and the trigger pull are distinctly different operations. The transitions are very crisp and rapid regardless of target difficulty. I find myself more gingerly easing into position on the transition so I don’t have to clean up my hold/sight picture as much, and that’s costing me time on sights. The trigger pull is based on the presentation difficulty, not the speed at which the gun approaches the target (either in transition or from the draw.) Last stage was the easiest memory stage. 3 positions. Slightly off center to the right, right and left. I did an excellent job programming this stage. I executed it well. I even saw where I duffed a shot into the barricade obstructing one of the targets… that I didn’t make up. I saw it happen, processed that it had probably happened. Did not make it up. So I’m halfway there, the call was good, the response to it was no good. I was .9 seconds off new nemesis [Rob, not Tyler, Rob is also an A and I’ll be running against him at area 6] (who won the stage), my points were similar to his, barring the mike. I’m not super upset about this stage, because I saw the mike, I just didn’t make it up. All in all this match showed me my fundamentals have room for improvement, but there are more points on the table from performing well on field courses. I need to put a priority on practicing entering/exiting positions and usually choose plans that are aggressive (in a movement sense, not a “shoot 5 targets then swing onto that mini popper with 1 round in the gun” aggressive). I’m going to practice wide-ish transitions on 25-30 YD targets but mostly entering and exiting different arrays, and probably building something to use as a low port to dryfire through. That match usually forces 1h shooting, and I even did some practicing with that this week. I can walk away with my head pretty high on this one because despite my weaknesses the end result was OK. I won B, would have been 2nd A. I finished at 72% in PRD – which is rough. Tyler admittedly had a good match, even still I’d like to be at 85-90% of him.

2/10/17 Pre Match wrap up. So I exceeded all of my practice goals, I think i've made a breakthrough in vision for shot calling so I'm optimistic that will net better splits/transitions Saturday. My group sizes are shrinking. Reloads are pretty tidy in practice these days - having issues getting it down below 1 second. They're hovering around 1.25s +/- on a 5 yard target in live fire. Weather is forecasted to be warmer than usual (49-60 degrees) and my squad is very deep with talent. Nearly entirely production, with 4M's, 4A's 3 B's and a couple unclassifieds. I'm one of the B's because my activity fee is still showing on the site as being unpaid for the classifier that should put me up over the edge into A class. The outside chance does exist that I shoot less than a 69 but higher than a 60 then I may not bump to A for a while longer... I've already emailed about the activity fee, the MD assures me it's been paid... we'll see I guess. At this point it won't break my heart if it doesn't go through, I'll be a B class for area 6 and would have a strong chance finishing well there and there is a cash payout. Who knows.

Rowdy - which base pad design do you prefer between the SP and the TTI? CZC is out of stock. Thinking about snagging a couple of these to eventually build up to a CO rig and screw around in Limited Minor.

how many rounds can you get in a 140MM magazine with CZC or SP base plates?

Yeah just use a medium or medium slow powder. WSF, Power Pistol, etc.

I gotcha. Yes, I can clean a plate rack at 25 yards, I just wish I got to practice on them more. I imagine pushing speed on a platerack in live fire would actually be a good test bed. I'm always going to be constrained somewhat on my shot calling in dry fire since you can kid yourself that the pic & press was "good enough" . I think all my shooting for the foreseeable future is going to be pushing speed at 25 yards.

That's what I used to do, but my shot calling was trash back then. My trigger control wasn't what it needed to be for a difficult shot and the sight picture wouldn't quite be there. I mean, I get speed mode, I get accuracy mode, I get match mode. if anything, this drill is more like a match mode kind of thing but the skill I'm speaking to is maintaing precision on a difficult target more rapidly. I'm not sure that speed mode applies and that's my real question is how do you train this to go faster? I can drill transitions faster, as my draw continues to tidy up I can pick up some more time to aim, maybe I refine my trigger pull and immediacy of the pull when registering a good sight picture.... but there's not like a thing to isolate and drill since the drill does require all of the things.

So I've taken about 6 months off the Hopkins drill, but this week I've reintroduced it to my dry fire. As I've gotten better at calling shots and identifying what I need to see to make a certain shot, I've noticed I cannot hit the par times at all. I'm doing the 5 second variant shot in the 162534 sequence (and the reverse) and at best I can get 5 honest shots in where I would have hit the little 1x1 dot at approx 5 yards. Can you HONESTLY dryfire the Hopkins above in the 5 second par time recommended? How do you push speed on honest accuracy for tight shots like that? I've been dryfiring partials at a simulated 25 yards all week and that's been great for my vision, but I find I'm having difficulty pushing speed with honest hits. Typical stand and deliver at 10 yard drills seem less applicable for something like this... help me think of drills to be doing to speed up my accurate transitions/sights settling.

1/26/17 - Shot a classifier match. So recognizing the first of my goals for the year was in jeopardy of having the clock run out (make A class in first quarter)- I decided to go shoot an indoor match. My match for februrary already is going to be at the club that picks freaking terrible classifiers (Partial People Eaters, Quad Standards) so the likelihood of shooting decent classifiers there was slim to none. I needed a 66% to walk away an A. I ended up shooting like a 73.50% Tick Tock - speed was lame - bobbled the load, reload and mentally was just too cautious and left a lot on the table in terms of speed. Ended up dropping 3 C's. I'll take it - I did what I needed to do. So I'm A class now. Hooray (once the USPSA website updates that the activity fee is paid which the MD assures me it has been paid!) They then set up a field course and I ended up finishing a second behind the other Production A who won it. I was about a second off his pace and it's because I was fast and loose in the last position. The 20 yard shots in the first array went well, dropped a close delta on my double action, which I called, but didn't think it was bad enough to make up...Reloaded into the next position which was tidy. I ended up indexing on the middle target in the second position just to the right of the A zone and was rewarded with 2 C hits about a paster width apart - silly. Dwelled too long on sights for the 12 yard target (2A'd, tho), then moved and reloaded like a champ into the 3rd position where I was more interested in shooting than actually aiming - so I ended up dropping a charlie apiece on each target in the last position and actually needed the make up shots to tidy up deltas/mikes. Should have settled down and seen my sights rather than rushing. So a little points, a little time left on the table. This weekend is my february match. I have exceeded my dryfire schedule. I have met my live fire schedule. I just need to stay the course through the weekend and put together a good match. My squad this weekend is comprised of pretty much entirely A and M class production shooters. It will be a good test and great prep for Area 6. Next goal is to shoot 80% of the production winner at A6. Which means with this crowd I'll need to shoot 85% or better from either of the two M's who tend to win the club matches. I have done this and can do this. Just need to go do it.

If you are serious about case gauging, get a Hundo. Far and away some of the best reloading money you can spend Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk