IronEqualizer

1-17-12 Live fired 250 rnds. Session B. I have made some slight improvements over the first accuracy and HFs from the previous weeks sessions. I think I have learned a little more patience with the sights. I have shot quite a bit of head shots lately in the drills and I think it has helped me. Since I do not chamber check any practice ammo I occasionally have a jam from bad ammo. I need to redo the drill when this happens to maintain an accurate record of my performance.

1-16-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Live fired 350 rnds. Results of Sunday’s match. 42 competitors. I finished 4th overall. 2nd Limited 6% behind a Master. Front 2 were Open shooters, a GM and M. I had 2 great stage finishes of 3rd each, behind the 2 top Open guys. Zeroing the classifier and the NS/M on the standards killed me. Dry fired Session A. Dry fire today was the best session I can remember having in a long time. All draws in each drill were fast and smooth. The sights came onto target so precisely and quickly for each drill. I had a few stumbles on the pivoting and stepping draws, and was slower than I would have liked drawing to the left side of a barricade, but overall it was a very good session. Table draws went very well too. I would focus on the backstrap, but need to see the spot where the slide stop protrudes in my peripheral vision, as that is where I index my trigger finger that helps the pick up from the table land solidly in my hand. Live fired session C. Live fire went pretty well. I need to spend more time on the sights on the movement drills. I was shooting more at the target rather than the A zone while moving. I had 6 Mikes of the 120 rnds fired. The shots were just all over the targets. The multi port drill went better and I really focused more on the front sight than I did the last time I ran that drill.

1-15-12 Live fired 150 rnds. EAGC USPSA match. My stage performances are still up and down. I feel I did as well as I could on some and not so good on others. I had trouble with plates today and on the standards stage I tagged a no shoot for a M/NS penalty. I also zeroed the classifier for the second straight month. I re-shot it after the match not for score and was faster than in the match with only 2 down. It is just a mind thing I know. When I made A and started shooting classifiers better I had just stopped caring. Now I want to do better and am tanking them. I have no great expectations for when the results are posted.

1-14-12 Live fired 150 rnds. EAGC IDPA match. 35 shooters. I feel like I did not shoot very well today. I had 3 Mikes today and struggled with steel on 1 stage. I managed to win HOA by about 1.5 secs over another Master but I don't feel like it was a great win. He tanked one stage that opened the door. It is about consistency but I feel I should not have had those Mikes. I wasn't calling shots at all today. I also failed to run my mental routine before each stage. I visualized the stages but did not go through my performance statement. I have been doing this in practice, live and dry fire but failed to do it before any stage. Still a work in progress.

Thank you. I am hoping it all pays off. Either way, win or lose, I know I put the effort in.

1-13-12 Dry fired 15 mins. Live fired 250 rnds. Dry fired Session C. Live fired Session B. Live fire went pretty well. My accuracy and speed have increased on the drills. I was able to transfer some lessons learned in dry fire over to the live fire drills. That was cool. Live fired with the new ESP load. It is very soft shooting and functions the gun well. My timing is way off with this load but I hope to just shoot what the sights tell me and flow with it.

1-12-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session A and partial session B. Worked with my IDPA gear tonight. Everything went pretty well. I still need to remember to work the slight pause back in doing reloads with this gear. I did learn a couple of things that could save me little time. When drawing while stepping directly to 6 o'clock I should always start with stepping with my weak side foot. Stepping with my strong side foot causes my draw side hip to move first and I miss my grip. I have never been conscious of this but will make sure to always step with my weak side foot first when retreating. I also changed the positioning of how I place my gun on a table on table draws/pick ups. I seem to be more consistent placing the gun with the muzzle straight away from me. I had normally placed it with the muzzle angled to the right. I think I can be more consistent and quicker making both of these changes.

1-11-12 Dry fired 45 mins. Session B. I repeated session B since I had such a poor performance yesterday. I felt a lot better physically and mentally going into this session. I stayed focused on the dot inside my magwell during the mag changes and things went a lot better. My mind was more into it today. Stepping reloads went much better and table loads have drastically improved. I changed the way I position my mag on the table and the loads go much better now. I finished with 15 mins of IDPA reloads with IDPA gear. The magwell looks so small after 30 mins of loading into an ICE. I really have to slow down just outside the magwell to hit these. I did TAC loads and speed reloads, as well as stepping loads. I need some more work on all of these. I also developed a load for IDPA ESP division today. I have been shooting ESP for a while but still using major PF ammo. I worked up a load at 135000 PF with a 200 gr plated SWC. It feels really soft. The bullet is only traveling at 650 fps. I can’t wait to do some drills with this load to really see how it feels.

1-10-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session B. Stepping reloads sucked. Just could not get it this morning. Stationary loads and loading to a different target went fine. Table loads sucked for the most part too. I worked last night and was pretty tired this morning. I think it was more a lack of focus than be physically tired. Push on.

1-9-12 Dry fired 1 hr. Live fired 200 rnds. Dry fired session C and session A. I really needed to practice my transfer to my weak hand technique and this is forcing me to do that. I also like the pick up and load drill as you see this often in matches but not something I practice often. Lastly the draw to an alternate position, I chose to practice kneeling, I found I went a lot more aggressively using knee pads. This is a no brainer but I quit carrying knee pads a long time ago in my bag. I will start using them again when called for. I caught myself jumping the timer and stopping the drill a few times and then re-starting the drill. I need to make it a habit to keep going even if I jump the timer. I do not want to get in the habit of stopping myself, which I think I am, and the RO not stopping me. If the RO doesn't see me jump and I stop myself I have screwed myself. I need to train to just go with it if I jump the timer. Live fired session A. Live fire felt pretty good. No complaints with my accuracy. I still tend to miss my grip more often than I should. I can still get shots off without a perfect grip but follow up shots are slower and less accurate. I was calling shots with more regularity and this is something that seems to just come with time and awareness. I have been shot calling for a long time but I am really noticing it more lately. I will have to pick up the last drill in session A next time as my barrel is getting leaded pretty bad and I chose to stop shooting and will clean it before any more live fire. I checked it a few days ago and saw some leading but it wasn't bad. Today there was more and I will clean it before pressures increase. I have shot 1600 rnds through it so I guess it's time. 90% has been lead bullets. I will plan on cleaning around every 1000 rounds or before every match whichever comes first.

I ordered it last night. The old fashioned version with a hard cover.

1-7-12 Dry Fired 15 mins. Live fired 200 rnds. Dry fired a mini stage. I just worked on some movement stuff so that I do not forget some of the things I have picked up over the past few weeks. Session C. I finished the last drill on session C today. I actually did the drill 2X. Multi Port Drill. In the beginning I struggled with keeping things in the A zone. Shots were pretty scattered. I had applied pro grip a the beginning of the drill but something still did not feel right. I found a new bottle of pro grip and used it then finished the last 4 drills. I could immediately tell the difference in how the gun felt and recoiled in my hands. It tracked so much better and felt really solid in my hands. The times stayed the same but my accuracy increased by 7%. I went from 85% to 92% accuracy. This is the second time that just being able to hold the gun better has made a big difference. On the long range drills it helped my times get faster and on this drill it increased my accuracy. The first bottle I used to apply the pro grip was old bottle I found laying around. I could tell the difference in the new bottle by how it smelled also. The old one just did not have the pro grip smell anymore. I guess it goes bad after a while. Lessons learned today.

1-6-12 Live fired 250 rnds. Session C. I was a drill behind so I caught up on the last drill of session B. Shooting Moving Forward And Backward. I liked this drill. It was difficult shooting while moving at some of the extreme angles. I did ok on the SH/WH (Strong And Support Hand Transfer) but at this point it is only at 7 yds. I had 1 D and 1 Mike for the 60 rnd drill. Same thing with the Draw, Reload and Transfer drill, 1 D and 1 Mike for the 60 rnd drill. I did not finish the last drill on Session C today.

Mike, If IDPA ever changes their mind please let me know. We won't use as many of them as we do USPSA targets but the business will be yours. Thanks for your support as always.

+1

I have used Shooter's Connection pasters since the beginning of East Alabama Gun Club, 4 yrs ago. I leave them stored in a metal building all summer and winter and have never had them fail to stick, even in wet weather. They were used in the Alabama Sectional in 2011. The color does vary slightly sometimes but I think they are the best out there for all around quality. This past year I have started using their targets also and will continue to use them including for the Alabama Sectional this year. I just wish they would make IDPA targets also so I could get everything in one place. Great service as always and EAGC will continue to support Shooter's Connection.

1-5-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Session B. The drills are still going better than the initial session. Some are still giving me a little trouble in the beginning but I get grooved in pretty good on them after a few runs. I hope it is because I am learning how to perform them properly. A reload while facing 3 o'clock to 9 o'clock and from 9 to 3 was a bit challenging for a few times then I just did what needed to be done to get it done properly. I still need work on the end of the drills getting the gun back on target without having to do those minute adjustments of sight alignment. I also learned to really be more visual when doing table loads. I have to see the mag clearly and pick it up then clearly see the dot on my magwell. I can't just reach and grab and expect the magwell to suck it in. I felt I had a decent practice today and have really learned several things over the past few sessions.

1-4-12 Dry fired 15 mins. Live fired 250 rnds. Dry fired session A. Things went better today. I still have a lot of refinement I can do that will minimize some of the small movements. Drawing around a barricade went exceptionally better. I also found if I changed my focus to the beavertail area on a table pick up that I seem to get a firmer more consistent grip on the gun. Live fired session B. I used pro grip from the warm up group today and kept re-appyling for other drills. I was performing one of the drills and noticed the gun moving around in my hands. I applied the pro grip and my average per drill dropped by .92 secs. My average on the first 6 was 5.71 and then 4.79 on the last 4. That is a huge difference just because I wasn't holding onto the gun. This was a 2-2-2 drill fired at 30yds. I got 80% of the available points. I had 3 mikes and 8 Ds that cost me out of the 60 rnds fired. I also need to clean up some of my upper A zone shooting. This was the only other place I had some mikes. I just need a little more patience at times but I was not too dissapointed with my performance on this. I had 5 mikes out of 48 upper a zone shots on the drills. I also had an interesting fortune cookie tonight....."All it takes is effort."

1-3-12 Dry fired 30 mins. Live fired 250 rnds. Dry fired session B. These drills are harder to me than I thought they would be when I first read them. The standard standing reload was not a problem but I did struggle a little from my second pouch. I never practice from any but the first one and will probably still not go past the second one, but I definitely need some improvement here. I think it is mostly my grab on the magazine that screws me up. I will try to focus more on the exact issue the next time I do session B. I may even end up changing the pouch position. I struggled with a lot of the stepping reloads for some reason. Maybe I was thinking my way through the drills too much and just not doing them. Live fired session A. I have no real complaints about my performance on the live fire drills. They weren't particulary difficult from the beginners distance but I will continue to follow the program and advance the distance in 4 weeks. I did learn a few things and even at the closer distance I can see areas to focus on for some improvement. I found out when group shooting at a faster pace my group drops about 5 inches at 12 or 13 yds. Left and right it was still good but I guess I really snatch the trigger here. Also swinging from target to target I feel like I was less accurate swinging back to the left vs the right swing. Good practice day and I hope the beginning of many to come.

1-2-12 Dry fired 45 mins. I went through dry fire session A in Mike Seeklander's book. The session took me longer than anticipated but I think that will speed up as I become familiar with the drills. The drills actually proved to more challenging than I had originally thought. These were all just drawing drills but on all the stepping drills and the barricade drill I can see where real time can be saved by cleaning these up. The sights do not go straight to the A zone and there is some sight alignment that must be done after I get the gun extended. I will really focus on improving on this.

12-26-11 Live fired 250 rnds. Just getting a feel for the new blaster. I ran a short 14 round stage on some static steel just basically learning the gun. I feel my timing was there after this practice session. I still had to use pro grip to keep my weak hand on the gun in a proper grip. I stippled the underside of the trigger guard and this helped but it is my palm that is losing my grip on the left side. It still just scoots forward. I may have to go with a more aggressive grip texture. I am in the process of reading Mike Seeklander's book that I received for Christmas and plan on starting his training routine in the coming weeks.

12-23-11 Live fired 400 rnds. Mostly just plinking on steel and doing a bunch of bill drills testing out the new FGW gun and new ammo. Everything runs great. I had to tweak the load on the Montana Golds. I wasn't getting enough crimp. After that everything was flawless. Jacketed hollow points, cast bullets, it ate everything. The .40 is a strange new creature for me. The recoil actually feels greater to me than my .45s. I actually had a difficult time holding on to it. I had to use pro grip in order to maintain my proper grip on the gun and I never use pro grip except in wet conditions. I guess the impulse is just sharper than I am used to. Firing slow fire, the gun would break my weak hand grip on the gun. Every shot it was like the gun scooted out of my hand a bit. I think maybe stipling the underside of the trigger guard slightly may help prevent some of this. I was still hammering out some .14s and .16 splits. My timing was a little off but I think that will come quickly. There is definitely some difference in tracking the sights between the .40 and .45. Overall I am pleased and ready to begin this next phase in my shooting journey.

12-18-11 Live fired EAGC USPSA match. I do not feel like I had a very good day of shooting. I had a couple of jams, one on stage 2 at the end, and 1 on stage 3. I think they were both mag related. Stage 4 I could not stay on this damn 4x4 board we had to shoot on and stepped off 3 times and had to catch myself on a wall once. I feel I shot the stage ok but the monkey business screwed me. I totally blew the classifier and have no idea why. Obviously I never had a good sight picture and just blasted. I remember calling very few shots on it. How else could I center punch a no shoot and not know it until I was done? I did feel more aggressive on some stages when it came to running. I also feel that I was unable to pull back on the aggressiveness when it came to shooting steel at medium distance. I had way too many make up shots on steel today. Overall I felt my trigger speed and accuracy was good for the most part except the classifier. Movement I think has improved but I am still making mistakes and can't seem to get it all to gell.

12-17-11 Dry fired 30 mins. Everything went really well this morning. Worked the same 29 rnd stage as the last several days. From the first run I was meeting and beating my 13.5 sec par time. I had very few blown runs where I missed a reload or something. Maybe I just got better at this particular drill. Either way it feels like a nice improvement. I will change it up when I have time so I have a new mini stage to work on. I did notice today that on a reload I missed it was after a port and I had gotten to far into the port so I had to pull the gun back out a little and I think this may have put my gun in a different or awkward position for the reload. I still should have taken the time to look the mag into the gun. Most of the reloads I can still clearly see. They were fast but I remember seeing the details of the magwell like it was in slow motion. I guess I was just being a little more visual and aware this morning. It was a good feeling. I feel like I am moving more aggressively and have been working on timing coming into a position, but I cannot be sure of any improvements or know that it will transfer to matches or live fire as I have not had live fire practice in 3 weeks. I can't wait for my work schedule to change so I can burn some powder.

12-16-11 Dry fired 15 mins. I worked the same 29 rnd stage as a few days ago. No problems this time. The first run was on par with most of the others. I tanked a couple and had a couple that were better than most. My focus is still on agressiveness in movement. I am really looking forward to getting back to some live fire practice. With the time change and my work schedule it has been non existant for the last 4 weeks. My schedule will change again soon and the holidays will be winding up so I should be able to get back to quite a bit of live fire. I am looking forward to running the new gun. I won't be able to shoot it in the match this weekend as I will not have time to work up any sort of load for it and churn out some ammo. I guess it will make it's debut in 2012. I am ok with that.