-JCN-
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Posts posted by -JCN-
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This is what it looked like before:
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All the equipment is done and gone! I think they’re all done. Looks really good.
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If Revo is out, these are some of the other divisions I have to clean up:
SSP SP01, CCP steel P01, BUG P365XL.
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Oh wait, looks like he did some extra fluffing of the berms.
Now I think we are done!
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Tada!!!!
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Subconscious competence versus subconscious excellence versus obliviousness.
Think about those terms. They are contextual and dependent on the goals and perspective of the person.
That is why objective standards are more useful to me than someone’s self-assessment of their ability, especially when ego or insecurity is involved.
If someone tells me they are pretty good at shooting, I don’t know what that means. They may think they are competent and I may think they are oblivious.
It’s a well-known phenomenon in the business world that high-performers often underrate their performance and low performers often overestimate their ability.
In my experience, the more insecure the person, the more they tend to overestimate their ability and contribution because if they would use objective performance readings, then there wouldn’t be any doubt or insecurity.
What I am striving for in my life is subconscious excellence, not just competence. That requires many levels of additional depth and mapping to achieve.
When people stop at competence and pat themselves on the back for mediocrity, they fail to investigate and understand the extra levels that go into excellence.
I love this clip from Ted Lasso
“Be curious, not judgmental.”
A lot of terminal B class people are not curious.
It’s almost impossible to become excellent at a technical sport without some level of inherent curiosity in my opinion.
This is part of the reason why I am doing this journal. V is curious and an excellent student. She has no background in shooting sports and isn’t a physical beast with built-in recoil control. Everything she achieves is because of curiosity and intelligence plus lots of hard work.
Most of the successful journals that I see on this forum are people who are curious. Most of the failed ones are people driven by ego instead of curiosity and ultimately wind up petering out or failing in their quests.
This way I can document her journey of someone who is curious and hard working with the external coaching perspective of someone who has been there.
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5 hours ago, Farmer said:
Must be something that I’m not seeing on the vids but I thought V has damn good recoil control. Plus when you get her gun tuned up she’ll kick yer butt.
She beat me on two stages at our last match… I was very proud!
As to recoil control, it all depends on the scope, context and definition.
Her recoil control is probably B+/A- level but is the aspect of her game that needs improvement if she wants to get to solid A or touch M.
2 hours ago, perttime said:Might depend on your definition of "recoil control". I'm not sure that minimizing muzzle flip is an ultimate goal, as long as the sights come back to where you need them to be.
Recoil control to me isn’t the same thing as reducing muzzle flip.
“Sights coming back to where they need to be” I feel is a surrogate for what I’m trying to learn and accomplish.
The most critical piece is the timing of the trigger press to the target.
This gets into gun tuning for me as well. A gun that closes softly and doesn’t overdrive the nose has more dwell time back on target and doesn’t dip past the target, which gives me a larger time envelope for the trigger press.
If you remember back to my initial tuning with the Alien, the stock gun with thumb rest was too flat for me, which made timing the trigger press extremely difficult at speed in order to get the accuracy that I am looking for (at speed).
So I changed the configuration of the gun to actually have more muzzle flip so I could time my normal 0.15 static splits.
But gun optimization is a hardware thing that helps me get the most out of my skill.
When I talk about “recoil control,” I’m really talking about the ability to feel with the hands and time the trigger press to a single oscillation of the slide and hands.
Vision is secondary and a way to learn the primary kinesthetic sense.
Remember this video that I used to illustrate draw index, now look at it in the context of my definition of recoil control which necessarily includes the timing of the trigger press… did I need any vision for the recoil control?
Say I have a gun that is (recoil spring) oversprung.
Like this:
If you play it at 0.25X speed, you may notice that the muzzle dips past zero and there are multiple oscillations after the second shot of the doubles. That’s oversprung for my mechanics.
If I wait till 0.25 or 0.35, the sights will return and settle to a very stable zero, but that’s not the point. The point is giving myself a longer dwell at zero so that it is easier to time it on the first oscillation with accuracy.
So a big part of recoil control is the mechanics of managing the recoil, but for me inherent in the purpose of the sport is the timing of the trigger press on the first oscillation, IMO.
The second target on this array, I split at 0.16 seconds and hit two alpha at 7 yards on a partial target with 6 inches of available A zone.
That’s the type of recoil control (plus trigger timing) that I’m talking about. It is past the vision correction standpoint and firmly into the kinesthetic.
In order to get to M/GM level of recoil control (plus trigger timing), the kinesthetic sense has to be highly developed. We use vision for feedback to develop it, but the ultimate goal is to develop the kinesthetic accuracy.
So that is the context for V. She continues to improve and right now she is at an A minus level on her recoil control (plus trigger timing).
What that looks like objectively is something that can be tested by breaking down classifiers.
Right now from a static standing position, she can keep an 0.18 split in an 8 inch circle at 7 yards.
The goal by the end of the year might be 0.17 split in a 6 inch circle at 7.
It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it takes a ton of work to get that kinesthetic improvement.
There are some people who cannot split 0.17-0.18 on demand because their mechanics and lack of recoil control don’t even let them get to the trigger press in time. In my opinion, they will have a hard time getting out of B class unless they get single shot transition classifiers or long distance classifiers that don’t test the bread and butter recoil control of normal action pistol.
That is a long-winded definition of what I am referring to under the term “recoil control.” It’s not about reducing muzzle flip, it’s about the timing of the single oscillation to trigger press accurately and reproducibly. At the 0.16–0.18 speeds that I am talking about, it is mainly kinesthetic with a little bit of visual confirmation but not much time for correction.
If someone has poor recoil control, then they don’t have time to even get the trigger press off much less back on target in the <0.18s time parameter.So when I talk about recoil control at this level, I’m really talking about accurate trigger timing on the background of recoil control.
In my opinion, the way to continue improving on this is to continue to ask more and more of yourself.
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V was having FTE at a match so I checked the extractor afterwards and the claw looked fractured.
She’s currently using a slide and gun that took me from A to GM in 2019-2021 when CO HHFs were easier than they are now.
The slide has 50k+ rounds on it and this is the first thing that has broken.
I mounted the OR plate with Loctite and E6000 and it’s never come loose in that time.
The SRO never moved from the initial screw witness marks from 2019.
I broke the tip off a cheapo Torx T10 trying to get it off so I figured I should use some heat before boogering up the head.
Heating optic screws with the optic in place is always a little bit tricky. I had heard the recommendation of using a soldering iron but when I tried that in the past, it never worked that well.
So I thought I would do an upgraded version of that using my Stippletec iron with a flat, broad head.
It is perfectly sized to the head of the screw for even heating.
Worked like a charm!
Five-year-old E6000 pulls loose easily with the heat from the iron on the screws.
Confirmed that the original extractor on the right was chipped and fractured.
I’m thinking of swapping the barrel to a newer one as I think the accuracy is starting to drop on the old barrel.
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Modifications
Made a deeper U notch to see the whole front fiber at dwell.
My speed loader grip cut.
Knocked down a sharp corner that was poking my thumb.
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Sometimes I have bad ideas.
Shot a suppressed 22 rifle today that I put together for trigger press training… that f*#ker was so gassy that my eyes watered almost immediately.
Took 10 shots and put it away because it sucked so badly.
Also thought I would get some baseline data on the revolver for speed loader reloading…
The grip needs some hot spots knocked down and the Hi-Viz front fiber is taller than the factory rear notch.
Fail.
Speed loader reloading also was a fail…
Time to massage the gun and also put it away.
I think I should stick with my primary gun and not get distracted with side projects.
Worked with V a little today over lunch. Little bit of gun spring and magazine tuning.
Ongoing work on her recoil control.
Did three small single target circles and a larger rectangle to simulate three poppers and an open paper.
Recoil control at speed is so critical IMO. It’s the building block for so much of what we do in this sport.
My approach for her has been build strong fundamentals and refine and contextualize for sport.
There are equally valid alternative ways to design a curriculum, but this way avoids some of the pitfalls that some people fall into.
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I’m down to one and a half AMG timers…
I cracked one face dropping on a rock (I use screen protectors now) and I lost one.
My primary one is getting used at matches and higher risk of getting lost or damaged.
V’s order for one is 7 months old… so maybe another 4 months to go.
I ordered three more this Spring which probably won’t be made until next year….
Saw on their website something new…
https://www.amg-lab.com/products/sidekick
No Bluetooth, but if it has the same sensitivity it’ll work in a pinch. And cheap.
So I ordered three and got a shipping email already. I think a good back up option and dry fire option in case something happens to my primary timer.
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Looking to be done tomorrow. Weather slowed things down today.
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One of the nice things about the AMG timers is that it shows the times and splits down at the bottom right above the hit factor.
0.94 draw to a 7 yard target, 0.16-18 splits and 0.21 transitions. Then on final array, 0.19 split on setup target and 0.16-17 splits on the final two with slower transitions of 0.25-0.26 because movement and settling into position.
One of the things that I work on is having accurate enough recoil control at 7 to 10 yards (at a 0.16-0.18 pace) that I can just ignore the no shoots and partials because my wobble is within a 4 inch circle.
Basically, I don’t have to treat them differently than a wide-open target. That’s the thought, anyway.
This is one of the remaining weaker spots in V’s development. Necessarily because it is a live fire skill and can’t purely be practiced in dry without the context of live in the mind’s eye.
She can do 0.17-0.18 splits, but in order to do that while moving or leaning, the static recoil control has to be better than that. The difference between a 0.15 and a 0.19 split is only 0.04 seconds but mechanically, it is a world of difference.
People who can’t do that… don’t understand that. It is true that you can waste a lot more time in poor transitions and poor entries, but at and past a certain level of performance you need the recoil control to get further in the game, IMO.
I try to get a fairly accurate assessment of my weaknesses so I can work on them. Classifiers really help me crystallize the skill in a context of data and a database. I love that it is a data driven metric and not an arbitrary rating.
It’s not perfect, but it is really quite robust.
From practice and data, my assessment is that my recoil control is pretty good. It’s not just about fast splits, it’s about reducing the wobble at speed.
I like Blake drills and accurate transitions in practice, so I know my transitions are pretty decent as well.
My index is now fairly tuned up with this gun so I expect an accurate sub-second draw at 7 yards from a straight on static draw. I took a little bit of extra time to stabilize on the upper A zone of the first target so I could accurately transition to the partial straight across.
So I expect to do pretty well on classifiers like 23-02. I also have put a Production Hundo on Hi-Jinx which is a similar engagement, just with a different entry and exit.
The 23 series classifiers are still pretty soft. 100% calculates out to 10.23 and I was at 10.37.
I attribute the extra margin to the good traction, helping me cut movement time off. The only way it could be faster is if there were a clean indoor range surface.
I’m not sure what type of gravel is being laid down at my range, but it looks and will likely be similar to what we see at our local ranges. The surface is varied here from sand to grass depending on the range and the bay. I think having a lower grip surface is probably good training.
Judging by the progress, I would expect it to be finished either today or tomorrow!
Thanks to V and our friendship, I think I’m probably shooting pistol better than I ever have. My trigger presses and my stage execution are still my weak points but I’m on the task.
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5 hours ago, perttime said:
he gave us some pointers, including: if it doesn't work, ask yourself: "did I go through it 15 times, at least in my head? If 15 isn't enough, try 20."
We are planning to go and do the same stage today, and I'll try to ask him: "where are you going to reload?"
I feel like that’s overly simplistic for where I’m at. That’s IMO like saying “if you can’t sub second draw, practice more until you can.”
But the difference is: HOW do you improve efficiency and effectiveness of the reps and process without adding meaningless repetitions.
We’ve all seen the hacker golfer that hits tons of balls but still sucks. Because he has no insight or problem solving ability.
We’ve all seen people who “have been doing this” for many years in shooting sports and still suck… because they have no insight and just burn bad reps in.
So “going through it” more times isn’t the answer (for me) is what I’ve found. Because if the model and programming is incomplete or flawed… there’s still going to be an error in execution.
For me, it’s adding more detail to the visualization and making the plans more robust. Every step, every lean, every shoulder drop, every head turn. Not just “go here then go there.”
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I’m starting to come up with a routine for stage planning and execution.
If I don’t do a lot of visualization, it doesn’t get locked in.
If I don’t have a very robust script going on in my head, my nonverbal mechanical brain tends to fill in the gap. Like today again I initiated a reload in a blank space because I didn’t have enough script to occupy my subconscious shooting brain. I have to remember to say “GRIP” or other cue to not initiate a reload in a dead space.
If I don’t do the make ready final visualization, I also can lose my mind and skip steps. I need a more robust back-and-forth of anchoring in sequence.
I had a couple of good stages today. I think one of the other improvements is being more realistic with my visualization cadence on walk through.
I feel like that is allowing me to have more respect in the execution.
Also was able to capitalize on good grass grip on the easy 23–02 classifier. I shot this one before when the gun was in not a good configuration and I could not split to save my life.Now with the tuning that I did with the gun, I am able to split comfortably at my normal pace.
First Hundo with the Alien so that was rewarding. I also shot it at match pace, which also made me happy. I was in control and no luck involved. I did benefit from the good traction.
I also put a little bit of Scotchgard spray in a bag that I tumbled the factory ammo in to lube the cases a little bit more. It helped with the ejection and I think I’ll continue to do that for matches.
I also need to be extremely cautious when I am the first shooter on a stage to spend extra time really locking in the plan.
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I like looking at the build process, it helps me learn what goes into it (without pestering the builder).
It will also help me troubleshoot and maintain later.
Looks like the whole 25x50 yard bay will have fabric under gravel. I wasn’t sure if it was just going to be the 25x25 berm area.
I was joking to a buddy that the whole entire land purchase plus the range construction… is still less than the cost of a remodeled bathroom in our house.
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Having an SAO trigger on the Alien has hurt my trigger presses. When I used the S2 I would do a lot of DA presses in dry. These days I don’t and it’s starting to show.
So I had some motivation to dust off the revolver and work on trigger presses and some speed loader ergos. Indexing the reloading thumb to 6 o’clock seems to work well.
I also think I might practice some PCCO and RFRO for Steel Challenge before my good scores expire.
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1 hour ago, Farmer said:
Just wait 15 more years when you can predict the weather.
I told my daughter that my financial support and time spent on her is a loan, not a gift…
I remind her daily that she’s responsible for changing my diapers when I’m older.
Range continues to come along…
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Man, getting old isn’t for the faint of heart.
I got lazy with my forearm PT and really paid the price in soreness and tendinitis.
Really have to do it every day. At this stage in my life it’s more important than dry fire because I really can’t do any live fire or matches if the tendinitis gets bad.
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17 minutes ago, perttime said:
"hit the release"?
I didn't realize there's some other release but the thing in the middle that hits the back of the cylinder.
I’m new to speed loaders so I had assumed that I had to hit this button on the back of the loader to release the cartridges, but that’s not the case as I’m learning.
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So I was playing with speed loader reloads and was having an issue with cross angle binding due to grip interference.
That’s a no go for good ergos.
Clearanced the grip with a Dremel.
I was amazed at how much better the loading was. I didn’t realize that if you have good seating you don’t have to hit the release. It’s pretty fast.
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Access road is graveled up. Only fabric and gravel to be laid down on the range.
Daughter wants to plant wildflower seeds on the sides of the berm which will be beautiful.
V is a gardener so she’s going to help with that.
I shot a match with V and I didn’t respect the process that I had carved out in Colorado so no surprise that I didn’t execute the way I wanted to.
I had a couple decent stages but some semi-dumpster fires.
One of my proud moments was a stomp pad reload.
V had a very good match on stages that required more deliberate engagement pace. She’s still pulling off on some of the moving doubles but the recoil control is improving.
She beat a lot of people on this stage, myself included. Very good entry index and good trigger presses which is a strength of hers.
I remind her daily that she’s responsible for changing my diapers when I’m older. 
Drop/Offset Hanger that Pivots?
in Gear & Accessories
Posted
My training partner uses one and she likes it