rvb
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Posts posted by rvb
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I agree that livefire is the best way to practice transitions, but something that helped me in dryfire was to take a "shot" on a target (and call it!) and then see how fast I could focus on the next target. And I did this w/o moving a muscle (except the eyes) after the shot broke. Then as it feels more and more natural make the transition wider. Of course, once you get the transition wide enough, you'll have to start moving more than your eyes. but it'll help you figure out your fastest way to find the next target.
the hard part (for me, still!) is once I add moving the gun back into the drill, is fighting tension in my arms when snapping the gun over to the second target. Tension = wobble and overshooting. Relaxed = sights settle on the exact point my eyes are focused on.
-rvb
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This is something that the guy with the timer shouldn't be doing though (in my opinion). Let the guy with the clipboard handle it. The RO with the timer should be watching the gun, always.
Small local match, no squads just shotgun start... I may have had both timer and clipboard. And this happened before "make ready," as part of checking that the range was safe/reset before issuing "MR" command.
But I understand your point.
-rvb
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they could be used for dryfire practice in the garage without the stakes.
This is how I was thinking of using them.
For range practice, I like something that doesn't need staked as I like to set up a couple targets, do some shooting, then drag them somewhere else for a different drill, shoot, etc... ie I don't want to be messing with stakes/hammers/prybars/etc. I get very little range time these days, so setup/teardown time is precious.
The flip side is my current wood stands take up too much room, and I have to pull the 1x2s to store. I could see me getting 3-6 aluminum stands for DF. With your design I could just fold up the hinged base and store the target/sticks/stand flat against a wall, so DF setup would be faster.
Ok. I talked myself into 3 for sure.
Keep the holes in case I do decide to use them w/ stakes, I like to keep my options open. Good luck!
-rvb
ps. consider adding a small "leg" on each end so on a flat floor it wouldn't wobble?
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what about directions to a competitor who is not the current shooter?
an example... as an RO, I asked a person to move back from the 180 as a competitor was going to turn and draw in his direction. He got kinda snotty, saying that I as RO couldn't tell him what to do, that the competitor couldn't draw until he was turned, etc. He was a few steps behind the 180, and I was only asking him to take a couple steps more backwards. DQ under 10.6.1 went through my mind ("failing to comply with the reasonable directions of a Match Official"), but I decided raising my blood pressure wasn't worth it and I could get on with life now knowing what kind of attitude he had; and I didn't want to mess up the current shooter by wasting time w/ the other competitor.
Would I have been wrong? That sure seems exactly what "reasonable directions from a Match Official" were meant to handle, to me. My goal behind the directions was his safety, and that seemed reasonable. Seems some here are saying I can only say "THE" words in the book? Days like that really make me hate picking up a timer.
-rvb
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What I like the most is the stock pile of supplies you have..
Flyin
me too
-rvb
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Nice set-up. I must be nice to have things in one place.
I's scattered all over the house. A safe in my den closet with some of my gear, a safe on one side of the garage, rifle cases hanging between the 1 and 2 car doors and all the reloading gear and ammo on the opposite wall and gun parts under the workbench at the rear of the garage. I never know where to look for what I need
That's how it was in my last house... safe in one room, ammo/components in another, reloading out in the garage, mags/bags/etc elsewhere. Even after moving a couple years ago, stuff was on random shelves thoughout the basement. It was a real mess.
Now My range bag and mags are right by the safe, and my belt/holsters are right there, too. So it's one stop to grab stuff for a match. All I have to do is turn around to grab ammo, and now that's all organized, too.
where did you find the stool??? I've been looking for a stool but no one has them unless you want to pay over $100.
It's been 5 years, but I -THINK- I got it at Target. I am certain I didn't pay anywhere near $100...
I stand to reload, but the stool is nice when filling primer tubes or working on guns, etc.
-rvb
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Sony [playstation] wouldn't sponsor kids shooting at pretend people?
a majority of the kids we wouldn't want to "expose" to shooting at something vaugly human will go home and shoot people playing Call of Duty or Halo or something similar.
The olymics have degenerated into ice-capades and gymnastics. Do we really want to pander to that same PC drivel? Is it so bad to entertain our inner warrior, which is where the olympics games started? Is it really a win for the shooting sports or broader community?
Remove all hints of "practical" or "defensive" [idpa] and we might as well play paintball. Afer all, who needs a gun when you can use a "marker?"
Would I quit if we went all round targets? No. Would I be happy about it? Hell no.
The world is PC enough. Shooting is PC enough. If people don't like our sport or its origins it they can shoot steel or bowling pins.
-rvb
edit: ps. I like occassional use of the round targets. They are challenging w/ a smaller A zone. They psych a lot of people out. But I think they should be the exception, not the norm.
-rvb
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Does make me miss the basement!
Going through the pictures made me think of the Homes For Sale shows on TV. Could you imagine an option on Realtor.com to search only houses with Gun/Reloading rooms...
How many members on brianenos, Cause that is how many would love a realtor option with a box next to a gun/reloading room!
Very nicely done!
While it's not the same as having an check-box option, I did see a couple houses for sale here in IN back when we moved out that listed a shooting range on the realtor sheet. [unfortunately, my wife (a country girl) opted to go for the 'burbs].
-rvb
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I like all the subtle ques !!
My room is a disaster area, nothing like that, but I have all the same things on the wall and my TV is set to the same channel, imagine that ??
Love your set up !!
Thanks,
A very good buddy of mine got me the "Don't Tread on Me" flag as a house warming gift.
I got the full-size Declaration and Bill of Rights replicas from the National Archives in DC (as well as the small version of the constitution by the closet). My dad made those frames for them as a b-day gift a couple years ago.
It's hard not to feel generally inspired reading the Declaration...
-rvb
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Thanks for all the comments, folks.
I promise it won't always be that clean. That's why I decided to get the pictures taken now. Maybe I'll print a couple up and leave in the room so later I can remember what it's supposed to look like.
-rvb
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rvb
in Range Diary
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Thought I'd share the fruits of my labor for the last few months...
My wife agreed I could have a corner of the basement for a gun room. The space measures about 9x10, plus a 5x10 closet.
The rest of the basement is currently just framed in, I have lots of work to go.
I am SO sick of staining wood!!!
I hand stained the siding (walls), the louvered closet doors, the ammo cabinet, and trim.It's nice building with a purpose in mind... the walls have 5/8" fireboard under the T-111. The walls inside the closet have a double layer of fireboard (except those against the foundation). The door to the room is a steel exterior door.
This photo shows my main workspace. No, it won't always be that clean!
The florescent lights are on a separate switch from the cans so I can have extra bench light when needed.
The workbench was something I already had built. Someday I may replace it with cabinets, but budget/time dictated re-use. But it works, and is very solid.
Here's just where I keep some gun books and the small handful of trophies and mementos. [Can you spot Yosemite Sam?]
So what's in that closet?
my ammo cabinet.
while I won't say it completely meets the guidelines of the NFPA, it's close.
Most importantly, it keeps things organized...
there's almost 25 cubic feet of storage for ammo/primers/powder.
I have a lot of work to do to get things organized how I want, but it's already 1000x better than it was before. I can actually find stuff now!
Shelving setup for reloading stuff:
Thanks for letting me share!
-rvb
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I see the miss... But do I hit it again? Hell no, I ULSC like my plan said.
Ahh the old speed unload. why is ulsc part of your plan when it's off the clock?
One bad part about burning in a plan is if for some reason the COF doesn't go to plan, you have to be able to adjust on the fly.
adjust to solve the immediate problem, but then get back to the plan ASAP. A plan can still be flexible. IMO, the better it's burned in, the easier it is to get back into it at any point if I have a problem (mike, gun jam, mis-time a swinger, etc).
-rvb
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rvb
in Range Diary
started playing around with the Multi-Par function on the CED timer... kinda cool.
Un-intended side effect: I'm less tense with it. I can set reasonable pars for different sections of a drill and know that as long as I hit (or am close to) the buzzers I'm going to end up with a solid run. I'm no longer trying to "beat" the end buzzer, just go in "sync" with the multi buzzers.
example: el=prez:
par 1: 1.2 (1st shot)
par 2: 1.1 (5 shots)
par 2: 1.3 (reload)
par 4: 1.1 (5 shots)
That's a 4.7s el-prez w/ what I'm confident would have been 54 points or better each run. While I've dryfired it as much as .5 faster, it was w/ a ton of tension and lack of confidence in the shot calling. I'm hoping this new trick will let me turn down the time slowly, and where I need it most (for now, I'd like to take a tenth of the draw and reload).
bought some new cleats last night. Got rubber cleats this time so I don't have to tip-toe on wood or concrete so much (got the underarmers. Didn't have big enough nikes in stock).
Goals for the rest of the week are to focus on shooting on the move and reloading in the first step out of a position.
-rvb
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The hard ones are the ones where you cannot see everything and where you can see the same target from several places.
On stages like that, I get the target/round count from the WSB, and then go walk around the targets. Once I have found them all, then from the target's persepective, you can see all the places in the free fire zone where the target will be available. Then when I go to the start point I have an idea which targets are available and where. This helps avoids the problem of getting to the end of your first walk through thinking "wait, Is that the same target I shot over there?" It gives me more time to plan.
Just a method I came up with after a string of matches with missed targets on stages like that...
-rvb
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that's what kills me, I KNEW where they all were, even walked to my starting point reminding myself to be sure to turn around and pick up that last target, then BEEP...
visualize over and over and over. Telling/reminding yourself doesnt' really engrain it in your subconscious. But repitition through visualizing it does. When you can execute the stage in your mind w/o pausing to think about what targets come next, you're ready to shoot...
while I'm not at all one to dance, or really know anything about dancing, I think of learning a stage like learning dance steps. If you have to think about what steps come next, you're gonna be behind the beat....
-rvb
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rvb
in Range Diary
shot production at FWAPS today.
It was basically 4 standards (incl 99-42) and a 32-round field course.
I shot 2 of the stds really well, and 2 pretty poorly. Draws felt much more confident and smooth. Screwed up transitioning off the steel again. That killed 99-42 for me. I shot 52 points (4Cs, 1 ea paper) and probably would have had a 90+%... instead, I transitioned off the far left steel, shifted the gun in my grip to hit the mag release and started the left hand moving to the reload, and then realized I missed the steel and had to get back on the gun. Time ended up at 7.8x. Looks like it'll only be ~ 70%. Mistake 1, I pushed it knowing it was a classifier. Mistake 2, I didn't call that shot on the steel.
I used to trust my speed, now that I made M I no longer do... I feel I need to be faster. Have to get that out of my head. I think it's a pure confidence thing. I'm just not getting enough practice time.
The field course I also royally screwed up. the stage had black plastic for soft cover on 4 targets, w/ the head and a bit of shoulders visible. For some reason I was aiming REALLY low, like D zone low. I realized it as I was shooting, but then that became where I focused and I couldn't convince myself to look up to where I needed to be aiming... kinda like a motorcycle rider focusing on the guard rail while he knows he needs to be looking through the turn to avoid crashing...
Earlier in the stage I called and made up a mike on a target w/ complete hardcover painted on except the A zone (shot was about 1" out of the A). I had 10 rounds planned before the reload, so that caused me to use all 11. I rode the slide lock, got a click on an empty chamber, had to get the gun running, and that messed up my momentum since it all happened in the middle of a shooting on the move. What should have been a 17 or 18 second stage took 22.
Spent some time learning EZWinScore before the match. I'm now the score keeper for Angola.
-rvb
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rvb
in Range Diary
I was fortunate to get to spend another 2.5 hours practicing on friday. 525 rounds. production gear.
No matter what I do w/ this beretta, I cannot drop the hammer and keep the sights perfectly still w/o dragging the frame on the left side w/ my trigger finger.. Too many people at the range to practice 50-75 yd shooting, but just 10 yd groups shows I need to keep the trigger in the joint.
Tried out the double draw master drill. 15 yds, once relaxed and once from surrender. I, uh, have some work to do.
relaxed I shot 51 points, 6A/7C.
surrender I shot 37 points, 4A/5C/2D. could have gotten in another shot but the gun ran empty.
Next I ran some timing drills. Saw some big improvements over last week in sight tracking and alignment.
I then set up 99-23, Front Sight. Biggest lesson learned: POINTS!!!
1st run strings were 2.23 and 1.95. 4A/6C/2D. HF = 9.57
2nd run strings were 2.43 and 2.32. 7A/3C/2D. HF = 9.68
3rd run strings were 2.19 and 2.31. 7A/4C/1D. HF = 10.67
I shot some other stuff then came back for more:
4th run strings were 2.15 and 2.20. 6A/5C/1D. HF = 10.575
5th run strings were 2.17 and 2.19. 6A/6C/0D. HF = 11.01
I found it noteworthy that on my final run my goal was to clean up the hits and not get any Ds... and I didn't take any more time. My best run was still only ~86.6% nationally.
I also shot the ElPrez.
First run was 4.67 with 6A/1B/4C/1D, HF = 9.85
Second run was 4.80 with 9A/3C, HF = 11.25.
Again, focusing on points added very little time.
Did some Bill drills... on the 7 yd drills I was getting relaxed starts of low .8s, and surrender starts of .9s. Practice is really paying off on the draws (but the double draw master shows I have work to do). 7d drills were averaging about 1.7x, and 10 yd drills about 1.9x.
reloads: Did some 7yd 2-R-2 drills. I was running them in about 2.6x pretty consistently, with a couple as low as 2.4x. I have to admit I was basically whacking the trigger when the sights were on brown. Draws were ~0.9 and reloads around 1.2 (with one as low as 1.08!). Definitely an improvement on reload times. On elprez I was seeing reloads around 1.3. And I don't recall missing a reload all day.
Hoping to get in another big practice session or two before A5...
-rvb
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I want to go all out for speed to see if I can expose any unseen issues. I see a lot of positive reinforcement for the "run til the wheels fall off" method
I'm personally not a fan of pushing beyond my limits in a match. I do it often in practice, where I can do the same drill or stage over and over and really earn something new... but a match, even a local, is not a place for learning technique, imo. It's a place for practicing the mental management you'll need at the larger matches, and for identifying weakness in technique. But that's just my opinion. there are probably many who view it differently.
-rvb
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dryfire. work on reloads and movement (ie situations you should have your finger out of the guard). video it. anything else we want to ingrain we learn through repetition. this is no different. put your focus during your practices on your finger. you have to overcome years of bad habit. it can be done, and you'll be a better shooter for it. when I get video of myself at matches, that's one thing I always watch for, to make sure I am doing it right.
-rvb
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That's 106 walls over that last week or two.
Thanks to Dave Sharp for helping me out on the walls... also, thanks to Darla for the use of her barn.
Wow.
Really looking forward to this one.
A big sincere THANK YOU to you and your crew for all that effort... and that's a LOT of effort!
-rvb
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Chris,
Way to Go! That's seriously cool!
-rvb
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Just don't put the die head pin in
On my 550 I just don't use the rear pin when using the trimmer.
I made a special tool head pin out of a nail.
thanks for the responses. I was wondering about not using the pin, but didn't want to have alignment problems.
The thought of using a roofing nail had already crossed my mind.
seems like we have a consensus.
-rvb
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I'm setting up the RT 1200 trimmer for .223 on a 550. I have the die set so it sizes correctly. I have a size die in station #1 and the trim/size die in #3. Both are set so they size the same.
I am having trouble seeing the right way to set up the vac assembly so that it fits well. The die sits so low, the locator pins for the tool head are in the way.
I even [gasp] read the manual and it says it should surround the chip exhaust port on the trim die. But I cannot get the assembly that low.
Are you all modifying the vac assembly? I could drill a hole or something for clearance for the pin.
Thanks!
-rvb
picture:
Keep the holes in case I do decide to use them w/ stakes, I like to keep my options open. 
I hand stained the siding (walls), the louvered closet doors, the ammo cabinet, and trim.
Classifier Times for Master
in IDPA Shooting
Posted
I looked it up in my notes.... haven't shot the classifier in about 3 years, since just before the '07 idpa Nats.
but last time was 87.0x. Made ESP MA w/ my SSP rig.
Had two minor jams on the slide-lock reloads (didn't go completely to battery, so had to hit the back of the slide).
Was down 26 points. realized shortly after my FS had drifted in the dovetail.
Been thinking about going to a classifier this summer or fall to see if I could now get near 70.
-rvb