IronEqualizer

2-6-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session A. I just wasn't hitting my draws with the amount of consistency that I would have liked this morning. While I was getting a firm grip and could shoot ok from all of them, it was not the grip that I would establish if taking all the time I needed. I want a perfect comfortable grip each and every time. I am having to really think my support hand under the gun and think it to slow down enough to get under there good. I think the support hand is just getting in there too fast on some draws and not getting settled in the perfect spot. The good thing I noticed was that if the grip was perfect or not the sights were always aligned perfectly on the A zone. Table draws went better. I do 3 versions. Hands flat on table, hands relaxed, and stepping and drawing from the table. Hands relaxed went very well, stepping draws were pretty good and I am still taking a step back to push off from and like the way it feels and the aggressiveness I have getting to the gun. Hands flat on table I made sure to get my SH on the gun first then let the support hand roll it up into my SH and my consistency was much better.

2-5-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Live fired 700 rnds. Dry fired Session B. Reloads went great this morning. I missed 3 reloads out of about 130 performed. I hit 70 in a row at speed. This was my best day ever since I started competing and practicing. Live fired Session C and Session A, as well as a little plinking. SH/WH went pretty well. 86% accuracy on the drill. I had 2 mikes on head shots that were both edge hits but just didn’t touch the perfs. The 40 yd shots in the long range challenge drill were pretty tough. I struggled a little with what was an acceptable sight picture. I had played around shooting some 50 yd mini poppers before doing this drill and knowing an acceptable sight picture was easier on the poppers than on the paper targets. While getting on paper was not an issue, taking the time to really refine a sight picture for an A hit was a little tough. With the poppers I knew when I was on and just had to have a good trigger pull and follow through. It was interesting. Off balance shooting was interesting also. I was faster (by a lot) on the left side. I really haven’t figured this one out just yet. How could I draw across and to the left faster than just drawing and leaning to the right to get around the post? I was at 97% accuracy for the drill but not sure of the time differences. The last few drills on the left side I used a stage marker and my times picked up by .2 secs. I will have to experiment with this some more. Session A was performed after session C. On all the drills my accuracy went down but hit factors went up. I did not feel tired or burned out during this session so I am not sure what caused me to speed up and not accept as much accuracy. I do know on some of the drills I really pushed. I pushed to the point of not being able to call the shots very well on some of the runs. I should have pulled back a little when I realized I was at that point.

I plugged my numbers in and this is what I came up with. I can live with it. Practice ammo: .04 cents a round total for bullets, powder, primer. (cast my own practice bullets) 1000+ an hr 250 rounds per session (average) 3 sessions per week (average) 12 months. 3000 rounds per month on average for 12 months. 36,000 rounds. Total 36,000 rounds = $1,440 Match ammo: 35 locals, 3 majors .16 cents a round for Montana Gold Bullets, powder, primer Total 8,500 rounds = $1,360 Equipment/Parts: Total about $500 2 Cases of targets + pasters + staples and misc range supplies like that Total $0 use leftovers from matches Assorted Expenses: Range memberships $0 Fuel to and from practice range ($0 each) live at the range Fuel to and from matches in the area $500 Other misc expenses (pro grip, etc) Total $800 Matches: Estimated cost for match fee, fuel, hotel, etc Alabama Section $0 (it's in the backyard) South Carolina Section $500 Gator Classic $500 Match Total: $1,000 Total Estimated 2012 Cost: $5,100

Hmmmmmm........Should I?????? Nahhhhh.....better wait on Mark. This is his call.

2-4-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session A. Worked on draws again today. Although 98% of my draws give me a good firm grip, I am looking to get that perfect grip, every time. I picked up on a few things today. Normally when drawing from wrists above shoulders I index each hand near my ears. While this allows for me to drop the strong side hand straight to the gun, the support hand has to come down, over, then back up to underneath the gun. I was having some inconsistencies in hitting a nice perfect grip this morning so I decided to move my support hand to over more in front of my face so that it has to just drop straight down then right back up to underneath the gun. I had better grips with this method and will experiment with it some more. Lastly my table draws were all good and felt really good except when I started with my hands flat on the table. Hands relaxed went well, and stepping and picking it up went well but I struggled getting a good grip starting with hands flat on table. I will have to experiment with this some more as I did not get it figured out.

2-3-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session C. I noticed this morning that my sight picture after transferring to my WH is coming to me quicker. There is still room for improvement both in technique and consistency but it is definitely better than it was. Table reloads are much better also. I hit about 20 in a row before I fumbled one. I still need to work a step back into that drill.

No local matches again huh?? That could really add to the cost if you shoot a local a few times a month.

2-2-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session B. Reloads went well this morning. Table loads are getting better. Stepping loads have also improved. Stepping to 6 o'clock still gets me though. I need to work on that one more. I also have practiced no IDPA loads. I will try to get some dry fire in with that gear this weekend.

That is gunnerd to you Ellefire. Hey, can you guess what I did this morning? It wasn't the dishes. I dry fired.

2-1-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session A. Moved my feet a little on the barricade draws after watching Mike's dvds. Why I haven't already been setting myself up for the side I am going to I don't know. Still working on consistency. I also added a step this morning on the table draws for half of the reps. I would take a step forward and grab the gun off the table. I have naturally started taking a step back with the foot I am pushing off with and it feels faster and more aggressive. I will continue to experiment with this way of getting off the line and getting moving.

1-31-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Live fired 200 rnds. Dry fired Session B. Reloads continue to improve but I am still trying to increase the percentage of perfect ones. Did a quick cleaning on the gun before this session. Live fired Session B. Session B is all movement drills. I have some work to do shooting on the move but all in all I was not dissapointed with todays performance. I had 93% and up accuracy on all the drills and had no Mikes for the 200 rnds. Moving reloads were spot on and they were done moving forward, backward, and to the side. I think I can also pick it up a little getting in and out shooting boxes. When I started with toes touching the fault line I was naturally stepping back with my strong side foot to get some explosive speed at the buzzer. The only thing I am dissapointed with is the fact that I did not video todays session. I have not used the camera lately since I really had no movement to capture. I will make it point to do some video for review in future sessions.

Anyone know how to go about getting PDF versions of the drills from Mike? I had the DVDs playing while in my shop today and heard him reference getting the PDF versions to print on your own but I didn't hear the specifics of how to go about getting them. I have the book, logbook and just got the videos. Having the drills for each session in a separate folder to take to the range would be helpful. Thanks for any help.

1-30-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Live fired 300 rnds. Results of 1-28-12 EAGC steel match. 1st place rimfire pistol/1st place centerfire pistol. I felt I had a great day shooting at this match. Everything seemed very precise and I had few misses. There were 70 registered guns at the match and 1 of the centerfire shooters was a local USPSA M shooter on the verge of GM who has been shooting very well lately. I was very pleased to see that I won over him. Dry fired Session A. Draws are still getting more consistent but not perfect. I want perfection every time my hand touches the gun. Live fired Session A, PHASE II. First day of phase II. In the beginning the drills were a pain in the ass. The target engagement sequence was like an IDPA stage from Hell. Once I did some visualization and got the sequence programmed I could continue with the session. I was very pleased with my shooting today. Head shots are becoming easier and easier. I had 97% accuracy on 20yd targets at speed as well as not a single miss on 20yd plates. The last drill of 4 targets with hard cover on each at 12 yds I had 92.5% accuracy. The hard cover targets just seemed easy. I guess all the head shot drills have paid off because the sights fell into the available A zone on each target and the hard cover did not bother me. I dropped 5 points total on the drill with 1 penalty. I dropped 1 shot out of 40 into hard cover. I felt I shot better than I ever had today.

1-29-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session c. I feel my gun handling skills SH/WH have improved over the past month. I still need some focus in live fire but am not totally unhappy with that. I am looking forward to starting PHASE II tomorrow.

1-28-12 Live fired 300 rnds. 150 rnds of .22/150 rnds of .45 minor Steel Match at EAGC.

Glad you got to shoot with us today. See you in March.

1-27-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session A. Dry fired session A. Draws seem to be getting more consistent and firmer. Barricade draws have definitely shown improvement and table draws are more consistent. I have noticed that on the clock drills I can get a sight picture quicker when drawing and stepping to the left vs to the right. Not sure why I am getting more bounce in the sight picture that way. More experimentation is due.

1-26-12 Live fired 100 rnds. Session C. Shot the first drill of session C in the rain. It started coming down harder after the first drill and was pretty miserable. I gave up on the rest of the session. I will try to get in a make up session. I start phase 2 of training next week and am looking forward to some new drills.

1-25-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Lived fired 250 rnds. Dry fired session B. Repeated session B trying to be more consistent on the grip after the reload and also lower the amount of missed reloads per session. My goal is to have zero missed reloads. Nothing else will suffice. I may to start with a goal of zero missed reloads on one drill at a time but my goal will be zero for the session. Live fired session B. My times, accuracy and overall HF on pivoting draws, and moving draws remained close to the same as the last session. Overall there has been an improvement on all the drills. Shooting moving forward and backward has also improved. Accuracy has increased by 6% on that drill. Phase one is almost complete and I am pleased to see some actual positive results.

1-24-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Dry fired session B. Struggled a little at first this morning, but once I cleared my mind, everything went well. I was really tired this morning and did not want to be up practicing. Once I struggled through that first drill everything smoothed out and I was pleased with my performance. I want to up my percentage of establishing a perfect grip after the reload and will continue to focus on that.

1-23-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session A. My focus was on my support hand and getting more consistent with a good solid grip. I feel my percentage of establishing a perfect grip on the draw is not high enough. If I do slightly miss my grip I want to make sure to take the time to adjust it BEFORE cranking off any shots. I want to add this focus into session B where not only am I trying to be more visual and get my percentage of perfect reloads higher, I want to also make sure to establish the good solid grip after the reload. I also changed the positioning of the gun on table draws again. I went from a muzzle angled right orientation to muzzle straight away orientation, to now having the muzzle angle slightly left. This seems to allow the SH a better angle on the reach and also presents more of the gun to the support hand for the lift that helps roll the gun into the SH. I will continue to experiment and see what gives me more consistency.

1-21-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Dry fired session A. I tried to concentrate mainly on the positioning of my support hand on the gun. Just making sure that I present with a good SOLID grip on the gun. I really believe that the better the grip on the presentation to the first target dictates how the stage will go. If I draw with a sloppy grip and rip those first few shots off and realize I shot with a bad grip and didn't really see the sights well, I feel behind, or anxious and hurried and it is hard for me to just relax, re-adjust my grip and go. I have also been dry firing using pro grip so the feeling is the same in dry fire and live fire. I will continue to focus on the support hand during future session A practices. Rainy day today so I got up this morning and cast 4,000 practice bullets. It took me roughly 4 hrs but that should be a good months worth of practice bullets, and keep my supply I had built of from dwindling so fast.

1-20-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Live fired 250 rnds. Dry fired session C. Dry fire went well. Reloads were much better. Not too many reloads in this session but I hit 30 in row before I just stopped and moved on. The wide transition drill I feel like I am not getting my eyes on target quick enough. I feel like I need to find the spot on the target quicker. The gun is getting there the same time as my eyes on some runs. When I really beat the gun everything seems to land and stop a lot more precise. Table loads went well. It's all about being smooth. If your smooth, you're fast. Just like they say. Live fired session C. All of my live fire drills have shown improvement. Accuracy and speed have increased. I think accuracy more than speed. On the multi port drill, my first times on it I had 85% accuracy. Today I was at 95% accuracy and a little faster. My SH/WH drills have went from 88% to 93%, and from 91% to 96%. All HFs have gone up also. There have been rough days but I am glad to be seeing some improvement. Documentation is really helping me. I am going to have to start using lotion on my hands or something. All the gun handling has them dry and cracking. I bleed and it feels like needles in my fingertips on some of the drills. When I look back at the notepad with drill times written down and see a little blood, I know that that day I did all I could. If it get beaten it will not be because I didn't try. I also thought back to last Sunday's match and after some discussion about it, I should have been given a re-shoot on the plate rack I challenged according to the rulebook. I am going to work on getting more familiar with the rules. I do not read the book near enough and I should know when I am warranted something I deserve.

1-19-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session B. I repeated session B as I was disspointed with my performance yesterday. Today was much better. I took more time looking the mag into the gun, or rather I payed more attention and was more visually focused on the magwell during the mag changes. I think the speed if any was lost was minimal and not something I will worry about. Consistency is much more important to me. I averaged missing about 1 out of 20 this morning. The session included about 150 loads. I still need some continued work with the IDPA gear. I really have to work a pause in to hit those loads after using and ICE.

1-18-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session B. Back on day shift and getting up at 0430 to have time to dry fire sucks. I struggled a little with reloads. I still get into a habit of not seeing the mag into the gun. I know that 10th or less that it actually takes me to see the magwell and watch the mag into the gun is not going to lose a match for me. Missing a load will. I really need to focus on this and get more consistent on hitting them. I do not struggle in matches with loads but it has bitten me before.