B585

You are a better shooter than me so take this for what it is worth. As you said, mistakes/execution were your biggest problems. If you are a believer in Steve Anderson (and I am), your mental game was your problem. As you said, your goal was to see if you are as fast as the other guys. I would bet that lead to you rushing many times throughout the match and having your conscience mind thinking about something other than hitting the targets/calling your shots. If you would make the latter your goals, maybe you would place even higher?

Glad to hear it’s working out for you.

I am still pretty green and by no means an expert, but I have made numerous mistakes but learned from them so this what I wished I knew in the beginning. My answer to your question is it depends on what your strengths and weaknesses are as well as how often you can live fire. If you are super accurate but slow then I would push the speed more. If accuracy is a significant issue for you (having multiple mystery Mikes at every match), then I would go at slower speeds and really work on the fundamentals. You have to be able to have a Match Mode (Steve Anderson’s definition) as well as good grip and trigger press or you will never be able to excel in this sport. I would try to do whatever possible to live fire at least once a week. That will allow you to ensure you are not training in bad habits. This is especially important in the beginning. The live fire doesn’t have to be a lot of rounds, just enough to verify your dry fire routine is going to be feasible for you.

Not an expert by any means, but guess is has to do with alignment and trigger mechanism itself. Eric G and Robert Vogel have both talked finger placement in various podcasts I have listened to and they use what works for them...neither is completely conventional. I would do some dry fire and figure out what works best for you. As noted, an aftermarket trigger might help a lot.

That was a very insightful post. I appreciate your taking the time to describe in detail of what your thought/subconscious process is.

Very nice job.

Ben Steve Firearm's Nation Shannon

OP, Why is it slow? Is it an inability to manipulate the trigger, the gun is not on the target soon enough, or do you seem to have a set cadence when shooting in live fire/matches?

I definitely can’t shoot a 1” group at 25 yards consistently unless you are talking about a group of 1 bullet. I am not sure what thread people were making that claim, but highly doubt there are many USPSA shooters who can. Even if the shooter was capable of it, it would take a very good semiautomatic pistol and ammo to pull that off. I have shot with many highly skilled shooters and I have never seen one I think could do that with any degree of consistency. Most of what I have read say you need to be able to do 1” at 10 yards or 4” at 25 yards for USPSA.

Thanks for the tip.

Thanks for the feedback. The weight is less of a concern for me, but the size is very important. With the standard X 5 grip, I can’t fit my support hand on the grip very well. With those dimensions, I think I would be good to go. Thanks again for taking those.

If you are familiar with Steve Anderson, try to get into Match Mode (not Speed Mode) at least 4 days prior to the match. As Ben (and many others) elude to, make sure you aren’t cheating during dry fire....correct grip, correct pressure, adequate sight picture, correct size of targets, minimal to no movement of sights during the trigger press. Everything I have said in both posts are coming from my own mistakes and experiences.

The white wall drill like Ben (and others) discuss can be helpful for the basics. My problem was I had a pretty good trigger press as long as I wasn’t on the clock....then it went to h#ll....so I did the same thing you are doing. I found that during dry fire making sure pretty much 100% of your concentration goes on into watching your sights/calling your shots helps a lot.

Any chance you could post a pic of the grip with a mic on it or just measure the length and width with a mic?

Awesome job!!