[rvb]

tonight: 60 minute dry-fire w/ production gear.

focused on:

surrender draw grip and index

turn/draw movement

reloads

take aways:

I've been gripping too low on the grip when drawing from surrender. need to get the web of the hand up on that beavertail. When drawing from relaxed the hand naturally comes forward for me but from surrender it's going down and back. focused adding a "swoop" forward to mimic that part of the relaxed draw and drive the hand down/fwd into the beavertail. no noticable difference on the timer but a little "perception" gets the right motion in mind.

turn/draw: video'd a few nights ago and noticed my footwork sucks. I'm snapping my head/shoulders/hips around but the feet are staying planted several tenths after the upper body moves coiling me up. Focused on taking weight off the right leg (or turn into leg, but I only practiced clock-wise turns) and moving it at the same time I snapped my eyes. Seemed to make a big difference but felt "weird" and inconsistent. Will work on this over the next few weeks.

reloads Continuing to improve but caught myself getting a little lazy on the focus. I had been working on hitting the mag release faster and I'd be so happy w/ myself when I did it that I'd skip to getting back on target and not look the mag into the well.

I also dryfired fluffy's revenge just to re-enforce that smooth and AIMED is really fast. Was hitting good called A's at 3.00. (This is the classifier I tanked a couple weeks ago trying to burn it down)

I'm hoping to get to the range this friday and get some live fire times to compare to my dryfire pars.

-rvb

[rvb]

I haven't been good about tracking my practices so this post is mainly to keep me in the habit...

I did get dry fire in 3 nights last week. Working on real fundamentals and "cold" performance. Trying to not measure my pars after doing them many times but trying to hit my pars on the -first- run. So rather than doing a single drill 20x then on to the next I would run all the drill once, one after the other. Like a lame, boring little match, then repeat. Took longer w/ all the fartsing w/ the par times on the timer, but seemed beneficial.

No real practice this weekend since we were in OH, but took the 8" steel target to the in-laws' farm where we set up and plinked some rounds. Fun to just plink once in a while.

I got 100 rounds through my Caspian. Runs 100%, even sho, who, and w/ my father-in-law shooting it. Now that I have a couple hundred rounds through it I need to check 50yd accuracy on sandbags. We weren't painting the steel but I shot a "group" early and it looked like it was doing 2-3" at the 20-25 yds or so, not bad for standing and not being super focused, just playing. I took the S&A grip safety off the night before and fit an STI GS. I like it MUCH better but now I have to re-do all the cosmetics work to blend the GS. Going to order a S&A mag-well and then mechanically the gun will be done (unless I shoot idpa then I'll need to get the weight down a hair). Maybe in the next year or so I can finish getting it all pretty (or I won't bother and I'll just shoot the piss out of it).

No dryfire tonight... rebuilt a bathroom cabinet door, put a baby stroller together, and now the wife is sick on the couch and I'm afraid the beep/clickclickclick in the basement will keep her up.

Finally joined a club, a nice out-door range where I can set up stages and steel and shoot all I want... and it's only 30 minutes up the road (going to need to increase the ammo budget!)

-rvb

["Go To" Safe]

I bought a GunVault brand mini-safe when I bought my first pistol back in college. It's decent for the $ and the batteries last a couple years in mine even though I'm in it about 10x per week (I keep my beater dryfire/practice production gun in there). I have the model w/ the bells/whistles and will actually be getting another soon (little-one on the way, like the idea I can see if they've been trying to guess combos).

One downside:

I've reset the combo a few times in the winter after walking across carpet in my socks then touching the safe.... Not very good ESD protection, obviously.

It is what it is... not real theft protection, but keeps curious hands off and it's pretty quick to get into.

-rvb

[Rant before Road Rage takes over....]

Until you're on the shoulder helping a disabled motorist and then a lady in her SUV stops while IN THE RIGHT LANE to ask directions you haven't lived.

Hey, in MD I saw people actually go in REVERSE in the travel lanes, on the shoulders, and on exit ramps if they missed their exit or got off on the wrong exit. Saw it more than once.

All places have a-holes and idiots.... it's the per-capita of those a-holes and idiots that makes it hell!

-rvb

[Rant before Road Rage takes over....]

I thought it was the Ohio drivers that parked in the left lane.

Spent the first 22 yrs of my life in OH and the last 8 in MD.

OH is a WONDERFUL place to drive compared to MD.

Since moving to IN 10 weeks ago, I've told my wife I think the move added 10 yrs to my life span. Haven't road raged since I've been here. In MD I felt the twice a day at least. MD/NoVA drivers go out of their way to either piss you off or kill you.

-rvb

[Beretta 96 Combat Combo]

I shoot Beretta in Production and when I decided I wanted to play in Open and started looking at options, I considered building one of my 92s up to make an open gun.

To do it so it turned out less than half-assed (hard fit a good jarvis or barsto barrel (preferably w/ a bushing), an optic, comp, I'd have spent nearly as much as a stock STI or decent used 2011 (if you include the cost of the 92). What I'd have ended up with would have been, well, an open gun w/ a trigger that will never compete w/ a 1911 trigger, limited mag capacity w/o some cutting/welding, and a gun that would probably require new locking blocks every six months to handle major-9 (esp w/ a comp hanging off the end of the barrel).

Top that off with very poor selection of -good- holsters. The only options are to use a jpoint dot on the slide w/ a bucket holster or to start cutting-up/shaping a kydex around a scope mount.... and the idea that the aluminum frame which is known to not handle a major-pf well could last at all when drilled/tapped scared me away. Something to tinker w/ if I had disposable cash and didn't shoot a ton of rounds/yr? hmmm.. maybe not even then.

I personally wouldn't trust a major-pf Beretta to have the necessary durability (frame or locking block).

I bought a Trubor and haven't looked back. Biggest cost discrepancy was the mags and ghost holster. It runs like the energizer bunny and there's a wealth of after-market support and knowledge out there.

The 92s make good minor-pf production guns if you aren't scared off by the DA/SA trigger (which can be tuned quite nicely), but I personally don't see them as a good platform for open.

-rvb

[tonneau covers]

Do not get an "Advanced Cover" with the folding panels. Seemed like a good idea and I loved it at first. Only 2 years later the seals on the hinges came loose and it leakes water like crazy now, and the lift tabs (plastic) broke off when cold. I see Xtang has a similar concept now which might be nice.

Soft covers are good cheap mult-purpose covers, but they can be hell to re-snap when cold and if you use it a lot the snaps will tear out in a couple years. (now that I have a garage I might re-consider a soft cover). Good bang for the buck though.

Hard one-piece covers suck IMO as they render the bed useless unless you just want a big trunk.

I like the roll-up concept but people I've known with them quickly complained about them leaking or sticking and being a pain.

I'm thinking my next truck will just get a cap. The only downside is you can't just have a frontloader dump a load of mulch or stone or whatever but I only need my bed piled high with "stuff" once or twice a yr.

-rvb

[WV State IDPA match! History in the making]

a new upstart IDPA shooter James Meyers took the SSP division now the scarry and possibly historical fact He shot the match CLEAN! 0 down for the entire match, Which included many hard cover targets and one mover that was quick! Besting the largest field of masters in the match including myself (2nd place) and Aaron Roberst ( of team blackwater) third. To top all of this off James was too nice of a guy to even hate... guess i'll have to work on my accuracy 26 points down ( which included a miss on the swinger and one into hard cover)

-0 Congrats!

James pushed me to "1st loser" at this years MD State match. Unfortunately due to time crunch and being in the middle of moving I had to shoot w/ the staff and did not get to meet James (I was supposed to work that match, too, but couldn't). IIRC he shot very few points down there, too.

[i made a LOT of mistakes at that match, had been travelling until late the night before. Almost didn't even go... regardless had I not made the goofs I had, James still would have bested me. I think he was 10 seconds or so faster in the final score! Gave me a good schooling in the importance of points, though! ]

-rvb

[rvb]

Sunday, Production at Angola (IN17).

Shot so/so. Dropped too many points. I only shot ~83% of the available points. Too Many Cs/Ds. My only M was a M/NS on a drop turner where the NS moved w/ the target. Got 2 A, but one was through the D-zone of the NS. Was actually pretty happy w/ that stage. The only thing I'd like to have done differently was I hesitated coming off the activator steel before moving to the target I was going to shoot while waiting on the drop-turner. That's what caused me to be a hair to late getting that second shot into the turner.

The big field course I shot well. Some good shot calling. I called a M on a ~20 yd target and made it up w/ the same splits as my first two shots and went on like nothing happened. Good shot calling on 25-yd mini poppers, too... Made the good call, THEN started hauling to the 2nd position. Happy w. that stage except I rushed the steel a little from the second position and had to make 3 shots on another 25yd mini.

Classifier was Riverdale Standards, 03-07. 15 A, 5 C, 14.82s, 90 pts, HF = 6.0729 for ~ 82.64%. Should pull my ave over %80 for the first time.

Shot it ok except I almost forgot to reload during string 1. Took my 4 shots then stood there like an idiot for what felt like forever (0.5-1.0 second?) then went "oh shit!," reloaded, and took my next 4 shots.

Sooo.... the big lesson.... I need to work on better visualization of the entire stage, not just sections of the stages. I need to ingrain continuity. I'm pretty sure my couple of "hesitations" were places where I visualized intently up to and after those portions of the stages, but that they were convenient places to "pause" my mental practice which led to a pause in my shooting. For example, during my walk through on 03-07 I pictured my draw, and the first shots, then rather than vividly picturing hitting the reload, just said "then reload," then pictured the rest. mental lazyness. That kind of lazyness kept me from putting up a solid M percentage. Good lesson learned the tough way.

Note to self.... replace fiber in front sight more often. This weekend was the first time EVER (in 2 yrs of shooting that gun) I had put new fiber in. Damn it was bright.

-rvb

[rvb]

Shorter sessions the last two nights. about 20 minutes w/ production gear.

Some of my confidence is starting to come back after my many weeks away during the move.

Really slowed things up, broke drills down into their components and built on sequential steps.

Practiced 2-R-2s, el-prezs, and added reloading while changing sides of a barricade.

Last night I also spent quite a bit of time on trigger control and type 4/5 focus while watching the boob tube.

Draws are more confident, quicker, and I'm finding that FS and getting much more solid As on my "shots" at 10 yds. My par for 1st shot, 10 yds, w/ the DA Beretta is 1.0 s right now both relaxed and surrender. 7 yd index is 0.7.

I really focused on snapping my eyes and finding my point of aim on transitions tonight. Made a BIG difference. After breaking down the components of the el-prez and then putting them all back together I was consistently calling >50 points in <5 s. Would love to get to a range where I could try it cold and see what I'd do live fire.

Going to hit the indoor range tomorrow for a couple of hours. Taking a brick of .22 with me and a little match ammo for the production gun.

[Practical Shooting as an Olympic Sport?]

Funny how in the original Greek olympics the sports were based on warrior skills, now they have almost nothing to do those skills.

You mean you can't see the connection between synchronized swimming and civil defense?

[me neither!]

rvb

[USPSA All-Classifier Match and Re-shoots]

How many do-overs do you get on match day? (barring range equip failure)

rvb

[rvb]

Tonight was a night for RE-learning.

I dryfired for 1 hr w/ production gear, but at a more leisurely pace than usual. I took a couple days off after my last match as I thought a couple days away might help me get away from the speed focus I experienced at the last match. I set my par times SLOW and made it my goal to hit the par, not my pace...... VERY eye opening. damn. I thought I had completely forgotten how to draw, reload, trigger control, etc. After a very frustrating initial 15 minutes I accepted that that is how I had been shooting this month, fast but barely in control and not seeing what needed seeing. The only difference is that I allowed myself to be aware of it tonight.

Some things I RE-learned tonight.....

-- It takes no longer to get a GOOD grip on the pistol before starting out of the holster than it does to get a crappy grip and struggle finding the sights on the first shot (or getting the finger in the right position).

-- TENSION KILLS. (ie. "trying" to be fast)

-- solid reloads for me center around 3 things.... 1) getting the left hand to the new mag and back as smoothly and quickly as possible [in that order of priority], 2) getting to the mag release as quickly as possible and 3) LOOKING THE DAMN MAG INTO THE WELL. Yea, I -knew- that, but I wasn't -doing- that lately. Reloads where those things happened were lightening quick... As in finish the drill and wait for 0.5s for the par beep. My draw-2-R-2 drills were solid at 2.5 by the end of the practice and I didn't feel I was hurrying nearly as much as the last couple weeks on that same par.

-- I need to practice with my MATCH gun before matches, not that junker I usually practice with. I pulled the match gun out at the end of the practice and started beating the evenings pars by at least a couple tenths. The sights are easier to pick up, mag release easier to hit, etc.

For grins I dryfired 06-04 Fluffy's Revenge 1 on 1/4-sized targets. Last match I shot this in 3.64s w/ one C and one Mike! Took 3 shots to hit the second steel. (I'm not sure it was scored correctly, I thought I had a NS?). Pure speed focus and the result sucked. In dryfire tonight I was focused on calling all As and came in easily under 3.3s every time.

rvb

[Enhanced Vision Through Practice ?]

I wish I had enhanced vision .... your avatar is just too small!

haha

rvb

[Toddlers and guns...]

You might want to read Massad Ayoob's book "Gunproofing Your Child".

Guy

Any sources for this book? Amazon lists 4 retailers starting at $99.00 each.

Local Library system does not have this book.

thanks, I have a little-one on the way...

rvb

Edit: Found it on www.ayoob.com for $4.95. That's more realistic. Will order this evening (and maybe will get a couple of his other books while I'm at it).

[rvb]

Sunday 7/20. Shot for the first time at IN05, Ft Wayne. I shot production.

For such a small match (22 shooters) they know how to create good shooting challenges such as mini poppers in front of noshoots at 20 yds, plates partly hidden behind poppers at 20 yds, varying distances, etc. My actual trigger work was pretty good, good accuracy... when I wasn't too hurried. I was entirely too speed oriented. I felt like I was moving in slow motion and kept "trying to go faster." I was transitioning my eyes to the next target before I had truly called the shots. Bit me a couple times w/ tight hard cover. Classifier was fluffy's revenge 1, 06-04. I tanked it. Pure speed focus.... what front sight?? M/NS and 3 shots on the right steel. 3.64 sec. So at least I balanced my poor aim with a slow time.

rvb

[rvb]

Wow, almost 2 months since posting in the range diary.

Shot my first match today after the move to Ft. Wayne at Angola Conservation Club, IN17. It's been over 2 months since pulling a trigger on a live round... and it showed. First stage went well (stage 4), only 3 C's on a 36-round cof. decent time although I felt overly cautious. 06-02 Big Barricade II was my second stage. Shot decent at 5.812 hf (81.74%), but not great (6 Cs wont get you to master on this stage). The transition from one side of the barricade to the other was too slow and I hesitated before hitting the reload. The good thing was I did it in 16 shots, no make-up on steel. It will improve my classification average but not much. Not bad for my first weekend out in months. The match went down hill from there... Stupid mistakes. no-shoots forced head shots on stage 2 and I had a M/NS. Then stage 1 required 6 shots per target and I decided to get tricky and reload in the middle of the 6-shot string on a target to save a reload and forgot two shots. doh.

The shot calling, recoil control, and -confidence- was coming back to me by the end of the match.

I did some dryfire the last two weeks, about 3 nights/week, 45 min each night. I have my old par times back on the basics (draws, 2R2s, bill-R-bills, el-prez, etc). I'm even noticing improvement on the el-prez and modified el-prezs.

Having a basement now gives me space to set up an actual ipsc target at 10 yds which I'm hoping will pay off.

I asked about joining IN17 and it's cheap and close and they let you practice ipsc shit, so I may join there soon.

Master in '08... the move set me back on that goal but maybe I can still do it.....

-rvb

[Move to Indiana ?]

Hi, all!

Well, I've made it. Next Friday I hope to get to the BMV and make my residency in IN official. We've been here almost a month and we're slowly getting settled in.

I hope to get to a couple matches in July in the Ft Wayne area to check things out. I haven't dryfired in almost 10 weeks or pulled a trigger in about 8. It's nice being closer to family, but they want to do stuff... don't they understand what the lack of trigger time will do to a man?!? I have my production gear in town so I hope to start dryfiring again this week. This weekend I'll be moving the rest of my guns to town (except the NFA stuff, waiting on "approval" ). Anyone want to help me get my Fort Knox into the basement?!

See ya on the range!

-rvb

[rvb]

5/13/08: 60 minutes of dry fire w/ production gear and three 1/4 size targets. Basic dryfire routine going through first half of anderson's drills.

In the middle of moving and packing, so less lights in the living room. Hard to see the FS.

Been 10 days since touching a gun.

Basic drills went well. I was sure to start 0.2 to 0.5 above my baseline (depending on drill) due to the time away from the gun. Index, draws, draw-to-SHO/WHO all went well. Even w/ production gear I was hitting my open time baselines. I felt very relaxed. Burket reloads were good but I guess I'm still getting used to how high the new CR mag pouches hold the mags (seems I have to draw them up higher to clear the pouches) as I fumbled getting the mags out of the pouches some. I got the burket loads down to 0.8 but when I went to 222R222 I got tense "trying" to go fast [ack!] and kept getting hung up on the reload. Only able to consistantly get to 4.5. I stayed relaxed better doing 2R2's and got those in the 2.4 range. Bill-R-Bill drill was pathetic. For a drill designed to teach relaxation I was pure tension.

Spent some time on pure trigger control, especially the DA shot and transition.

-rvb

[Let's see some pics of AR's in action]

Always thought this was a cool picture of me behind the AR.....

-rvb

[trophies...]

The way I see it, the DC should be the 1st MA. It should go DC, 2nd MA, 3rd MA, ect, 1st EX, 2nd EX, ect ect ect

If it was an expert who wins DC, oh well, he is now a MA anyway, give him DC and the fastest MA gets the 2nd place award.

+1

As for the second part, I wouldn't even care if the first MA got the 1st MA trophy as the 1st EX -and- DC shot the match as an EX therefore wouldn't be MA until after the match, but that's splitting hairs.

eta: but I see how what you say would make it easier when pre-purchasing trophies, and I like that the DC would only get 1 trophy (my main point wasn't that the DC should get two trophies, just that 2nd place shouldn't get a 1st place trophy). so ++1 to everything you said.

-rvb

[trophies...]

- 1 to six trophies for one person... come on.

OK, I'll repeat my question: Why would those trophies go to anyone else?

I'll even add a question: Who should they go to if not the person who earned them (in this case the old female veteran cop)?

-rvb

[trophies...]

Worse than promoting a second place winner is some of the clubs out there who award many multiples.

In a state just South of here... I saw a guy take home the DC, First Place and High Senior in that division... all at one match.

That sounds to me exactly how I'd like to see it done.

If he 1) was the fastest in his division, he should get DC

If he 2) was the fastest in his class (typically MA, sometimes EX), he should get "1st" in class

If he 3) was the fastest senior, he should get high senior.

If he 4) had been a 'she' and the fastest female, she should get high lady.

If he 5) had been the fastest vet, he should get high vet.

if he 6) was the fastest law enforcement, he should get high LEO.

If ONE person earned and received 6 trophies...... COOL!

Why would those trophies go to anyone else?

-rvb

[trophies...]

Let me shed a little light on why I brought this up; I've always thought it weird but this put it back in the front of my mind and made me wonder what others thought of the prize policy....

This weekend I shot a match on the first day of shooting. A couple days later a buddy calls me after the awards and tells me I took 1st. I was very happy, especially given all my blunders at that match, until a few hours later when I was looking over the scores and realized I was 2nd. How can an organization expect to appear professional when there is confusion about what order people finish in?

If it causes you angst, you might consider not displaying them as a means of avoiding the discussion.

I wouldn't say there's any "angst" here, just annoyance at a weird prize policy.

Funny and true story: The only time it's really come up personally was after Nats last year... A couple family members who knew I went wanted to see my trophy and were completely confused why my trophy didn't match where I told them I finished. My mother even made a comment about how the liberal feel-good movement has invaded the gun culture.... How does one proudly display a trophy after hearing that from your mother!

[trophies...]

They are certainly earned because the competitor performed at some level that others did not.

When you come in 2nd in your division and you get a first place trophy, how is that "earned?"

-rvb