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justinwb

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Posts posted by justinwb

    Adventures With My New Dillon 550

    in General Reloading

    Posted

    After much debate and number crunching, I finally took the plunge and purchased a Dillon 550 from BE. Although I currently shoot only 9mm (Production) my goal was to make my own better, cleaner, and cheaper ammo. While waiting for my press to arrive in the mail, I acquired an old metal desk from work.

    Well, after bolting the Dillon to the desk and doing several celebratory jumping jacks, I began to set up the dies. While putting the final calibrations on my seating die, it became apparent why there was such a variance in my OAL...the desk was bowing in the middle with every crank of the lever.

    So I went (back) to Lowes and purchased a workbench. After setting that up, I noticed that it was wobbling quite a bit, so after a third trip to Lowes, I was all set to anchor the bench to the wall.

    OK, the anchors didn't expand, so on the 4th trip, I bought 4 different kinds. One of them finally DID work. More variances in my OAL and a swift observation of my wife directed me to the fact that bench+carpet=wobble :o

    So on trip #5, I picked up a 4X4 piece of thick plywood to place under the bench. After re-anchoring, I believe that I will be ready to rock. Unfortunately, I'm trapped at work for another 15 hours.

    Long story short (too late!) make sure that you have a sturdy bench and solid floor before getting too exited about reloading. Chris Keen, as well as many other sources on the forum state this necessity, and believe me, it applies to everyone! Just for s's and g's I'll post updates on this thread all the way up to cronoing my newly minted, bound for Master class ammo :D

    Hahaha that is great, lowes is a great place unlike home depot.

    Preferred/favorite Primers

    in General Reloading

    Posted

    A few years ago I switched from Winchester, which I had used for years, to Federal. They work much better than anything else in a revolver, and I have had no problems in my Glocks. And having one brand of primer makes things much easier. I would think that shelf life would be about the same in all of the major brands of primers.

    I have winchesters :)

    Training Schedules

    in Training Techniques

    Posted

    In my prime I would practice every weekday (200rds minimum usually somewhere between 3,000 and 7,000 rds per month), and compete Saturdays and Sundays.

    Summer: Get off work, go straight to range, practice. Go home, clean and inspect gun, brass to tumbler, load brass from previous day, get ready for next day.

    Winter: Range bag to work with me in the morning, go to range at noon and get ready for next day in the evening (brass to tumbler, clean and inspect gun, reload, etc.)

    When I wasn't practicing at the range, I was pretty much practicing in my head 24/7.

    I always felt it was best for me to actually shoot rather than dry fire practice. If I didn't have access to a close range or the ability to get to the range, I could see the need for dry fire practice, but it was never my thing.

    I am hoping I can get a schedule together, I want to get pretty serious and see what I can really do and if my skills are good enough to hang at the top.

    Early Morning Chrono

    in What I Hate

    Posted

    There..I changed it for you Kurt to be more accurate. :P

    It was factory ammo that previously PF'd between 128-129 on two other occasions.

    It was supposed to be loaded with N320, but I'm not positive.

    Erik

    Oh I heard about that, I think I saw you. You were wearing a USSA shirt right? Anyways I hope they have nationals there again the facility was awesome.

    Do You "push" The Gun When Shooting Smaller And Far Targets?

    in Miscellaneous BEginners

    Posted

    Make sure youre weak hand is cammed in as much as you can get it. Do the Burkett timing drills. They will teach you how to shoot fast, how to time the gun, and hit what you want to hit faster than you think you can hit things.

    I recently saw video of myself shooting for the first time and my gun stays pretty flat. I have no sensation of pushing, I do have the sensation of the gun 'hitting' my hand on each shot. I top out at about .18-.20 splits, and even at that pace I don't feel any push of the gun. In doing the Burkett timing drills I found that if I just hold the gun and watch what it is doing that it will lift the front sight and return it right back where I started a LOT faster than I can muscle it back into place. Combine that with a good prep of the trigger and two shots will land very close to each other at a respectable speed.

    Those drills are good, I just found them yesterday and I know what I will be doing when I practice.

    Toby Ericksen

    in Introduce Yourself

    Posted

    My name is Toby Ericksen and I'm a past Oregon and Washington competitor in Practical Pistol and Speed Steel competitions. I've won limited class at a few Oregon State Man of Steel championships, won the Al Mar Memorial match (once or twice), and was the Oregon State U.S.P.S.A. limited points race and limited state championship winner in 1996. I'm a die-hard single stack fanatic who pretty much disappeared from the scene due to life!

    Over the past 10 years I've been busy raising a wonderful family. I've been involved in the local law enforcement reserve program, aquired an instructors degree in Kajukenbo Tum-Pai, and have gotten back into my childhood past-time of riding dirtbikes.

    I have made a few appearances at Tri-County Gun club and the Albany Rifle and Pistol club when life has shown me the kindness of a few extra hours of free time, and once again I'm in a position to maybe, just maybe get out and burn some practice powder.

    The one thing that sticks in my memory, never seems to fade, will always be a part of who I am, and every once in a while has me strapping on the leather is the respect, fond memories, and admiration that I have for the people who tutored me up through the ranks during my time competing. They are some of the best "friends" that I will never forget.

    Hey there! I hope to see you at a match sometime, you should come to Dundee next weekend ;)

    Watching The Sights Rise

    in Tips for Improvement

    Posted

    I need some tips on being able to watch my sights rise. Am I supposed to watch the front sight the entire time? Seems like when I fire, the sights rise but I keep looking straight ahead. Then when it falls back into place I reacquire the sight, adjust the picture and then fire the next shot.

    Any tips. Best way to practice?

    Thanks

    Troy

    I need help with it to, that is my biggest area I need to focus on.

    Burn Out

    in Mental Conditioning

    Posted

    I will offer a little insight on what burnout does to a person.

    I am quite competitve by nature always have been.

    As most of you know I have shot the Revolver exclusively for the last 2 years partly because of the challenge it represents and because somehow it seems pretty natural to me.

    I started in 2004 shooting the wheel gun, was a B class Limited shooter.

    Every one knows that Jerry Miculek is the Barrometer in Revolver shooting, I first got to shoot with him at A-3 in 2004 and go to meet the nicest two people you could ever want to know(Kay and Jerry). I also managed to end up 60% of him for the match, with 2 stage wins.

    So I saw what I needed to work on to improve for Nationals, worked on it and made a goal of 70% and hopefully the shootoffs.

    Nationals came, missed the shootoffs by 2 spots but did make the 70% and was quite satisfied.

    Now is where it changes.

    I usually take a break during the winter months but that winter 04-05 I kept at it, not much dry fire as I preferr the information feedback provided by bullet holes.

    Scheduled major matches(13) into the mix to keep pushing the BIG MATCH atmosphere to help get the anxiety issue that we all get when going to a big match.

    Starting in March I would hit the range Saturday or Sunday and go through a pretty strict practice regimine that required 4 hours Min and 1000 rounds min, then on the other day I'd try to hit a local match, with the goal of 60% of the overall match winner(usually an Open or Ltd M or GM)

    Work took an unexpected downturn and in April I took a voluteer lay-off to get more range time, which I took advantage of.

    Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays were spent with 6 hrs at the range working on what I thought I needed to work on. I was doing this all by myself, no one else to practice with, and no one to offer advice.

    Tuesdays and Thursdays were 4 hrs of shooting stages or other scenarios.

    This went on from mid April to June when I was satisfied with the results and started to really concentrate on not trying to speed up things but to eleminate mistakes.

    Nationals was in July and after the last 3 months I set a personal goal of 80% or better of Jerry and wanted top 3.

    The two weeks before Nationals I worked on mainly steel trying to get my eyes to catch up to my hands, seems to have worked as I could run a 3 second run on a TX star and sub 3s of the plate rack at 15 yds.

    Time came for Nationals, chose to shoot with my friends in a squad full of Master class Limited shooters....good bunch of guys and glad I did.

    Was having what I thought was a decent match with a few little uh-ohs but nothing serious I think 2 misses for 12 stages and one No-shoot. On the last day I put 4 stages back to back together that I thought were pretty good and came up on a stage that I thought would be the "make it or break it" stage.

    I saw it as two ways to shoot it. Agressive and put the nail in the coffin or safely and hope it turned out good. I chose the first way and managed to really screw it up with 2 noshoots and 4 mikes(2 caused by the no-shoots) and ZEROED the stage. My choice I'll live with it and don't regret it.

    Finished up the the match and ended up 78% of Jerry with a 90 point stage zeroed.....pretty good in most folks eyes, even managed to win 2 stages one of them the hardest stage of the match.

    But after the one stage I was not even satisfied with 78% even though I had made the goal of 80% and after the months of working on shooting I felt pretty disgusted with myslef.

    Now the time for Sections come up, still shooting the wheelgun but not as hard and often but still more than in 2004. Have only 4 total shooters for the two section matches I atttend and that is the straw that broke the camels back. After the Mississippi Classic I put away the wheelgun and have not shot it more than 24 rounds since. :(

    In that time I went through 60,000+ rounds of Major .45 and by then don't really care if I ever shoot another again and even contemplated quitting and selling some of my gear to recoup the time off and cost of the year. :angry:

    The only thing that saved me takeing a leave of abscence is the Limited gun Benny Hill built for me, I started shooting it a little and did not have any preconcieved ideas of that I should do good no great no matter what. It put the fun back into what I started as a fun hobby.

    So in a nutshell, please don't take it too seriously........As I did or it will drive you away as it almost did me. Plus, I'm not a quitter and don't plan on becoming one ;)

    KEEP it FUN!

    Hopalong

    Oh yeah, for the what ifs.....

    If I had shot the stage with the same 78% as the rest of the match........

    2nd or 3rd and 85% of Jerry....

    But I didn't and it doesn't matter any more.

    Jerry is a class act, probably one of the nicest people I met at nationals. His wife is awesome to. Good people restore my faith in humanity I guess

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