Stefano

Hi guys, sorry but in my opinion you are doing a little bit of confusion ... I've organized (and joined) a class with Eric (almost 2 years ago, level 1) and was an outstanding experience ! As said, Eric works toghether with his dad, with a class of 10 shooters max. This means that meanwhile Eric is working dry-fire with 5 shooters, GG (his dad) works live-fire in the same time with the oters 5 shooters, without waist time ! The two sub-classes on 5 shooters are always changing teacher during the day, so everyone works several times in dry-fire and live-fire with both Eric & GG. In my opinion the course is worth the money tha is costs: and you have to take in mind that Eric travels all over the world where you can put together a minimum group of students just to cover his fare: 1.100,00 Euro per day (almost 1.600,00 USD) plus travel, food & hotel costs. In other words, if you put together (in your club) a group of 30 students, you can effort a course of 1 day for 3 different classes on 10 students, or a 3-days course for the same class of 10 students. You have only to do the maths, and evaluate how much is the total costs per day for Eric, adding all the extra-costs (travel, food, hotel) and then divide it among the students ....

ABSOLUTELY ! I've done this just yesterday, during training, for the FIRST time: well ... it's SHOCKING ! Good for identifying what needs improvement .... not so good for "self-image"

My thoughts and prayers are with the Leatham's , from the deepest of my heart ! RIP Stefano

I know that drilll (I've got me too Matt's DvD ...): it's great but at my practice range I haven't so much space and it's impossible for me to have a setup with so many shooting boxes .... I think you guys are talking different drills.... Mo's talking about drills involving two boxes and one or two plate racks. Stefano, I think you're talking about the 12 box drills??? I use the 12 box, but I have a diagram in my drill box that numbers the boxes 1-15 (I added three more to the mix). Then, I can put down 2-3 boxes at yardages that match distances between 2 or 3 boxes in the diagram, and work them several different ways. In my journal, I note the draw, and movement splits, and I note the drill with the box pattern - say, 6-8-1, or something like that. I tend to just keep it well mixed up, not necessarily tracking each individual possibility intently, but I can have some things to refer back to later, if I like... Oooops, sorry: I've misunderstood Mo's post ! I was referring to Matt Burkett's 9 box drills ..... 9 or 12 boxes are too many for my practice range, but I can easily arrange for a setup with 3 boxes, with some different kind of targets (papers & steels) downrange ... Thaks for the tip !

Thanks Mo, I know that drilll (I've got me too Matt's DvD ...): it's great but at my practice range I haven't so much space and it's impossible for me to have a setup with so many shooting boxes .... It take also a lot of time to place down all the SB at the required distances, and to take note of the split-times, just to have a trace of the emprovements ..... But I'll take it in my mind, first time I'll have the opportunity to training in a bigger range

Thank you so much Brian ! I have to work a lot on this drill, because speed in transitions between position is at the moment surely my weakest point ... I am a long-limbed guy with long legs, but I am not able to use them as I should ! Stefano

Ehmm ... I forgot to say that I've previously tricked the popper, blocking it standing still ... Next time I'll bring with me a useful "not-falling-plate" that I've got last year: very useful in this kind of drills because you haven't to reset it anytime (... and because the plate forces you to a more accurate aiming, IMHO). By the way: just to share any good idea .... for this kind of drills in my opinion is VERY important to use the right shoes (footbal type, with cleats ...): so you can work "at full-power" on sprints & stops without risk of slippering

Well, yesterday I went to the range for working on Brian's drill .... Setup: 1 classic popper (in absence of plates ...) at 20 yards from two boxes, settled 5/6 yards from each-other. At the start signal, draw, one shot, move to the other box, one shot. At the beginning the average inter-time from shot to shot was 2,25 .... after some mags it becomed 1,80 I know that I've to work agaig & again on this but I feel that the drill is good for me ! Now I ask myself if the distance between the two boxes it's rilevant or not ..... I think that too short is not good, but too long perhaps it's also not good: that's why I choosed a distance of 5/6 yards between the two boxes. It's not a "cardio training" but a "quick setup" drill ... right ?

OK, thanks: I'll try ! It seems very interesting (and useful ...).

Yes, of course: it's not so common to find in course designs but - for this motive - it's important to be ready when you find yourself in such a situation .... Thanks for remind it !

Thank you SO MUCH Brian: this drill seems to me as simple as ... effective ! ! Very quick setup, nothing to patch, and the only footwork to do is all about training, learning how to move efficiently for reducing split-times between exiting and entering in the next position. .....and I just remember that last year I've built a "not-falling-plate" with a proper stand that is PERFECT for this drill ! ! .....

In the next months I would like to work a lot on transitions between positions: both forward and lateral. I need to increase my speed when "exiting" a position after firing ..... I've found very useful the live-fire drills in the second book of Steve Anderson (3 boxes, and 3 targets behind 2 visual barriers ...) but I would like to change sometimes the drills during practice, just to have something different to deal with. Do you have some drills to suggest ?

Micah, I've seen only today your thread and .... it's GREAT ! Thank you so much for sharing with us your dry-fire ideas and experiences ... I would like to have a basement or a garage like your: in my (small) home I have a lot of problems with space and I can dry-fire almost in static position and only a little bit of SOTM (... when my wife is out of home ! ). The only things that I would add in your dry-fire-room are two barricades (or visual barriers) and possilbly a swinger. Wishing to you the GM class asap .... Thanks again ! Stefano

Well, in the last 3 years I've got almost ALL the DvD's pruduction about practical shooting from different authors, and I can say that Saul's productions are (in my modest opinion) quite THE BEST ! In master class I, II & III Saul is teaching to a class of students, and in the 3 GM he's teaching directly to the spectator, repeating (and comparing) the same argument with Max Michel and Angus Hobdell: so you can have different point of wiew about the same argument .... For my, this last is the greatest ! I really hope it will be possible to havein the future 3GM II, III, IV, .....

This kind of vest is very-common here, in north Italy. During winter, on the ranges you can see almost all the shooter wearing it .... A friend of my (also club-mate and Open shooter) is producing not only the "vest" but also a very useful "cover-vest" that you can wear between one stage and the next, during waiting times ... The cover vest is long enought to cover the sleeves, the torso, and ALL the equipment (gun, holster & mags) and it makes the difference under the rain and/or in case of wind (to protect the gun and the mags from the range-dust ...). Take a look:

I truly believe that in our sport (such as in golf, tennis, and a few others ...) the performance is strictly connected to the power of our eyes (in other words, at what speed we can see ....). First time I was face-to-face with Eric Grauffel, I was caught by his eyes: like two big "lasers-finders" always wide-opened IMHO, his outstanding shooting is (in great part) related also to his outstanding vision ....

Yeah, totally agree with this ! I've felt me too exactly this kind of feeling ! ! My only "fear" about shooting open is to get the habit to the red dot, loosing that one to the iron sights ....

Yeah, it's EXACTLY a matter about FOCUS ! Thanks for help me to identify this (sorry for my bad english, but sometimes it's difficult for me to express in the correct way my feelings ... ).

I woul like to ask this question to the better experienced shooters ... During off-season, just to have a "break" and a little more fun before the re-start of the next season, it could be a good thing (or not) to switch for a while to another division ? As example, an Open shooter that shoots for 2/3 months in Production and vice-versa ? It's critical to mantain the same kind of sights (iron vs/ red dot) or it could be interesting to make a change ?? My (very-short) experience: I am a Production shooter and last sunday I've tried for the first time in my life an Open gun (shooting with is for the whole day): great experience, good feeling and a lot of fun ! At the end of the day, just before leaving the range, I've re-holstered my usual production gun and I've fired 2/3 mags with it: well, the feeling was something of strange (and nice to have ...) and difficult to explain ..... I felt like I was much more confident with my usual gun, and I felt more feeling with it as usual ! It seems that the temporary (little) switch I've done was almost positive for my shooting ! Has anybody ever experienced something like this ?

I've got an SP-01 last year, fired almost 5K rounds with it, and then I decided to sell it ... Well, I can't say that it isn't a good gun, nor I want to discourage nobody that owns it but .... I suffered a series of little problems with it (not impossible things to solve, but I've had to fight against them for several weeks ...) During this experience, the MAIN problem for me was the impossibility to get spare parts in normal times from the local official importer & reseller .... As an example I waited 3 MONTHS to have only an extractor ! Due to this absurd situation I was thinking to get a complete kit of spare parts oversea, but after I decided to sell the gun and to get another one from a local brand, who is famous not only in Italy but all over the world for his excellent customer care. In other world, for me it isn't only the gun, but also the customer care that it MUST be behind it ! Particularly for IPSC shooting, when the stress for the gun is bigger than anything else ! IMHO

Well. just an update .... I've received an answer from Randall Power: they say that the series 2 fixture it's the right choice for quite the most of the semi-automatic pistols on the market today (including my guns ).

Recently I've bought at Brownells a Power Custom series II fixture for working on Tanfoglio's P9 series hammers and sears .... After receiving the parcel and reading the user's instructions I've had a doubt : is it the right fixture for me, or I need the series I ?? As showed in the instructions I see that the series II is mainly for pistols mounting sears like Beretta's ones, with inner angles that must worked only with LATERAL movements of the polishing stone (as the series II enables to do ...) Anybody knows if this fixture works as well also on the other most common sears, like Tanfoglio's P9 ones ? Thanks P.S. I've asked this by e-mail to Power Custom but I have not jet received an answer ...

Thanks guys ! I'll refer to my friend .... This his his FIRST open/gun and red-dot experience, and he's a little bit worried ..... Yesterday ... 1 full-hour of working (plus almost 70+ round fired) for undertanding "how-to-do" with the zeroing of the C-more ... But at the end we have done the job, and his blaster is now ready ! I ask myself if it's the same with the new Aimpoint: all these devides looks very sexy (and costs a LOT) but they aren't so simple to use .... Ehehehe .... that's why - for the moment - I shooot in Production Less time to spend with equipment = more time (and fun) for shooting Apart this, at the end I've tried the gun (nwe Tanfoglio Gold Custom Eric "short"): well ... it's GREAT ! Thanks again to everybody ! Stefano

Today at the range I've seen a friend of my that has damaged the lense of his C-more after shooted only 1 mag without the blast-shield ... He's very worried because it's his FIRTS C-more ... The lense seems to be "burnt" and there's no way to clean it with towel and/or traditional manners .... Any trick to suggest ? I remenber I've heard (but not sure about this... ) that is possible to try with tooth-paste .... Is possible to replace the damaged lense with another ? Thanks

Sorry folks, I did not want to be offensive ..... It's only a spot of "italian sense of humour" ... In my opinion the problem is simpler than how it seems: problably the shooters take a bit of adjustment with his feet between one shot and another, standing still with his upper-body & grip. IMHO