B585

Why did I wait so long to make the switch? I had to retrain myself not to go for a reload everytime I moved. And shot faster, you don’t need as many Alphas (assuming you are switching to major).

I really hadn’t heard that before, but that is a great way of putting itI really hadn’t heard that before, but that is a great way of putting it

I believe those were for aspiring GMs. As said, just keep at it. Film yourself and watch for inefficient movements. You eventually get to a point where you can no longer move the body any faster , but you can be more efficient. For example, My draws were terribly slow although my hands were moving super fast. It wasn’t until I figured out that I was doing a lot of extra movements did I reduce my times. Especially on moderate transitions (not this drill), did I figure out jerking my body to the next target wasn’t the most efficient way to do a transition.

The civilian laser is not strong enough to do damage during any confrontation because of eye movements and the lack of intensity of the laser. You would have to make the person stare at the light for a period of time to cause damage. Also keep in mind that there are different wavelengths of light and your eye has different sensitivity to different wavelengths which is why a light you perceive as “bright” might not pose any threat to your vision, yet a “light” you can barely see could result in permanent vision loss. The moral of the story is that if you want to temporarily blind the bad guy, use a high intensity weapon light, not your laser.

Looks good for your first outdoor match. I am no expert and can’t say I am getting this from watching your video, but this is what I wish I knew when I started. Make CALLING YOUR SHOTS your number 1 priority!!! I heard it was important in the beginning, but really didn’t grasp how important. As far as this match goes, work on getting your grip tension consistent. If you watch your video closely, sometimes the gun was really flopping around and other times you had good recoil control. It’s hard to be consistently fast if you recall arc is changing.

I have XL hands and have always preferred large grips. Even with LOK custom grips, I could not make the SP-01 it work for me. I presume due to shortness of the frame. I will say LOK was awesome with working to try to find a combo that worked for me. I don't like the angle at the top of the Shadow II. I ended up with a Stock II and adding silicon carbide to aftermarket grips. Finally, I have found something works well for me. Obviously, YMMV

I am really impressed with your post. In my unimportant opinion, everyone who didn’t flat out cheat and made GM, deserves respect. I can’t imagine anyone has made that classification without putting in a lot of hard work. You must also possess a very high level of basic skill (draws, transitions, reloads,etc.) to make GM and that should never be disregarded. I believe it takes a lot of character to acknowledge that even with that level of skill, our classification system doesn’t completely reflect what skills are necessary for match performance.

The first choice. With practice you will eventually find the gun will naturally go to where you are looking. After that starts to happen, work on seeing the sight on target sooner....don’t spend an entire second confirming your sight picture is acceptable.

During dry fire you will like the 3 better, but outdoors that might not be the case, even with astigmatism. If you were going to buy it local, why don’t you see if you can take it outside to look through it. When I am in doors with my 6 MOA, I can see the tail from astigmatism, but once I am outdoors, it looks like a perfect circle.

What he said. It the beginning I spent way too much time trying to perfect my grip and not enough time on other important skills. I still am working on my grip, but I do practice many other skills too.

So far about 3-4K rounds and no issues with the Venom. I haven’t played with a lot of red dots on pistols, but I am very happy with the Venom and have no plans to switch. I am not sure why they don’t get more love on here. Please note that all of those rounds on the Venom was not with the X5. 1k through a M&P and the rest with a Tanfo Stock II. I purchased an X5 for Carry Optics, but found the grip too small for hands so I ultimately traded my X5 for the Tanfo.

Yes, if I recall correctly, I used a Springer plate with the Venom on my X5

I don’t have experience with bears larger than black bears so take this for what it’s worth. A lot of people don’t like the Sepre holster cause of the risk of ADs, but with a semi auto, they can be fast with good retention. I would have think with a pistol and a charging bear, you pretty much have to go for the head. I would want to verify that a .44 would penetrate their skull if the hit wasn’t directly perpendicular to the bone, before I made that a strategy though. As you alluded to, even a vital organ won’t drop them immediately so a neurological structure would most likely be a must if it were dead set on you being it’s next meal. With respect to competition, that would definitely help. Under stress, you will revert to your training and competition forces you to learn to index the gun from strange angles. Additionally, you won’t have a front sight focus if the bear is at close range so a good index and instinctual aiming will serve you well. Take that for what it’s worth since I don’t spend time in big bear country.

Agreed, but at least so far, this discussion appears to be fair and without agendas.

Thanks for the video. I thought it was really good.