Chris iliff Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 (edited) Ok, plans smams! Didn't really have a plan, but knew it'd be 100 rounds. Started with plate rack dryfire at 10 yards. Relaxed and surrender. 3 plates, reload, 3 plates. Partial target at 2 yards. All that took about 20 minutes and I didn't use par times. Do them methodical and correct. Live fire: Target at 7 yards, relaxed best was 1.03, avg was 1.10 6 A's 4 C's. All C's low left in nice group, I think that's a push on trigger. Surrender 5 A's, 5 C's. Nothin stood out. Shots were everywhere. At 10 yards: relaxed 4A's, 6 C's. 1.21 best. Surrender 7 A's, 3 C's. 1.30 best. Bill Drills: 2:18, 1.30 draw, .20,.18,.16,.17,.17 Best and only keeper. SH only partial at 10 yards. Best 2 shots from holster was 2.25. WH best 2 shots from holster 2.99. I think that was a pretty good use of 100 rounds. I should have had a better plan, but it was not a hose fest and that's good. I do want to get some "one shot" stuff in each practice. Also, SH/WH draws and shots and I managed that. All in all some good stuff. Feeling just a little hohum about it. Probably take a couple days off. Had one FTE and hoping the new extractor fixes that. Still no scores, but not expecting much in that department as my performance was not up to snuff. Edited to say: scores posted. 3rd open 6th overall. It was ugly, too many penalties and a FTE that cost me 10 seconds easy. Hard to RO and shoot with a squad that big when it's that hot. Sometimes shit happens. Gotta roll with it!! Edited June 27, 2012 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted June 28, 2012 Author Share Posted June 28, 2012 I've always wanted to do the DOT DRILL as described by Pat Harrison. Some call it the Dot Torture Drill. I set it up tonight and ran it with Max. It is an eye opener. There is no way you can do this 50 shot drill and not learn something about your shooting. I'm not real happy with the outcome, but it's pointing me in the right direction. Here is a pic of my target. Don't laugh, I never claimed to be a bullseye shooter, I have a lot to work on! I'll be visiting this more!! Also did some berm shooting and some plates with a reload to 2 paper, one a partial. WH after reload. Very good practice. Very hot!! About 100 rounds well shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvb Posted June 29, 2012 Share Posted June 29, 2012 Dot Torture Drill. If its the same drill, here is a handy PDF you can print vs making your own targets. http://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture -rvb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 (edited) Spent weekend at Christian music festival. Had a blast. I didn't get to shoot, but did get to listen to some great music!! Got my load worked up for AutoComp. More testing to do on a Chrono. I took my barrel out to thoroughly clean chamber. Seems it had a serious buildup of crud. I started getting FTE's and discovered rounds were basically welding themselves to chamber. I know, I know, don't want to hear it. It took several soaks in Hoppe's and a bore brush chucked into a drill and now that chamber is clean as new!!! It's hard to described what was in there. Basically a varnish from case lube I expect. Anyways, I swabbed it out fairly regular, but apparently that was not enough. Upon close inspection the chamber looked burnished. I'm guessing when the round fired it super heated everything and basically "super glued" it in place about 1/4 of the way ejected. The extractor would just rip right off the rim. I'd have to beat it out with a squib rod, fun. Anyways, I will be doing a lot of live fire testing this week. Hope the problem is solved. It was happening once every hundred rounds or so. I'll know this week!! Also ordered 10,000 wsrp. And will need another case of MG bullets soon. I love my wife. Edited July 2, 2012 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 (edited) 108 rnds livefire. NO FTE's!!!!!! Did dot torture. I did better. 6 clean circles out of 10. SH/WH circles had 4 misses combined. Top row middle had 3 misses, all low. Middle row right had 2 misses, one very high. I like this drill. I am going to nail it too. My misses are usually all low. Some of that is the distance my dot is above the bore and the fact that my eyes are drawn to the center of the circle. Tonight I had 9 misses total, so it's better. I did T/D at 15 yards to my plate machine. Still working on my new T/D method and it's feeling better. I did pick up and load to plate machine at 15 yards. I need a flat surface or piece of carpet on top of a barrel. Last I did more WH to plate machine at 10 yards. Tonight I noticed my trigger finger is smoother. Shots are breaking and I don't feel like I'm cranking it off the stop. Good practice. Edited July 2, 2012 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 Hot!! Blue blazes hot!! I Dryfired Dot Torture inside. Its a nice little dryfire drill to do!! It's got it all in it. Once done I played around doing 2r2 between different dots. Also I did a bunch from surrender. Nothing planned for the 4th, just relaxing. Oldest daughter is home on leave. She is getting Baptized on Sunday, so I won't be shooting this weekend. I was going to do some live fire today but don't think I will. It is over 100 with a heat index of 104. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 5, 2012 Author Share Posted July 5, 2012 (edited) Hot!! Still hotter than blue blazes!! I had to shoot tonight. Went to the range and got my practice in. Dot torture: still some work to do. SH/WH circles are much better, only One miss combined. Overall my groups are tightening up and I feel I'm moving in the right direction. Bill Drills: a PB of under 2 seconds is right around the corner. I ran 4 and they hover around 2.15. I don't push this one very much. WH: did quite a bit WH tonight. My draw to WH first shot at 7 yards is killing me. I aint pulling the trigger on brown either, im getting a good A shot It is a tad above 2 seconds. I think realistically 1.50 seconds is doable, I've just neglected it too long. Once I'm on target, WH is no problem. I'm transitioning really good and breaking shots great. Taking half a second off the draw sounds like a lot, but after examining my draw and transfer I'm sure the time is there. One shot draws to 8" plate @ 10 yards. These are getting better. Consistently in the 1.20's. Sneaking down in the very low ones 1.05-1.10 on some. At this point my gun was hotter than I've ever felt. I was going to move on to some barricade work using plate machine and managed one run, 3plates reload 3plates, switching sides during reload. I do this at 17 yards or so. Anyways, the hot gun really worried me. I had a good practice and wrapped it up. Daughter is getting baptized on Sunday. I'm very proud of her. I wouldn't miss her baptism for anything. Hopefully I'll get to shoot Wildcat on Saturday. Once again, it's hotter than blue blazes out there. Edited to say: went back out, couldn't help it. Glad I did! Bill Drill: New PB of 2.03!!! 1.23 draw, .17, .15, .15, .17, & a .16. Very excited on this. I know sub 2 is right there waiting for me. Next up Draw xfer to WH. 7 yards. This went really well. If I do the xfer a little out from my body and immediately look for the dot as I'm extending I can get consistent A's between 1.66 & 1.85. I used a full metric target. Of the 30 I did I only had 5-6 outside Azone and they were all C's. I did just a couple to the A hands relaxed. 1.05 to 1.15. Little disappointed with this. I expected to go sub 1. I didn't do many reps, 4-5. My thing now is SEEING. I Could rip it at 7 yards and get the hit, but I want to SEE everything. I'm convinced SEEING is the only way forward. I frankly could give a fat baby crap about my index. If I shot a stage off my index i would have a lot of Mikes, shooting it off my vision is going to win that hands down. I ain't saying index is not important. It is. I just don't think it's the end all some make it out to be. I want a good index and I figure my VISION will get me there is all. Last thing, I have shot my last round of True Blue powder. GONE!! I got a month to get use to Autocomp. I've shot it and really like it. Now I'm gonna burn it in with rounds down range. Edited July 6, 2012 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 7, 2012 Author Share Posted July 7, 2012 Working up loads with Autocomp. Got some from 7 to 7.4 grains. All at 1.165 OAL. I have a shooting chrony chronograph. Might as well have a boat anchor. I ordered a prochrono digital. I don't want to ever go minor at a match again and I want my confidence restored in my Chrono. Can't wait to test the loads when it gets here! For now I'll keep it safe and shoot the 7 grain loads. Some guys are claiming Major at 7. That is a tenth less than what i loaded up in Florida at Dads back in February. I want a load right at 173 PF. I think that's enough over to compensate for varying Chrono's at different matches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 9, 2012 Author Share Posted July 9, 2012 (edited) 108 rounds. Did a couple Bill drills. Felt good, had several under 2 at 1.98-1.99. Target was shot to crap, but I'm sure one had a D and the other had a C, so they dont count Very excited about this as I saw everything. Next time down I'll take the paster gun and a fresh target. Hopefully get my PB. Next up was the plate machine. I ran this at 10yards. I have basically forsaken that distance and have been shooting the plates from 17. But, with a new powder, I wanted to move in and really burn some as I watched the dot. I really like the Dot with Autocomp. I had some barn burning runs under 3 seconds for six plates. Down in the 2.8's on most of them and never really tried. 2007 posted a 3.56 with a 1.34 draw as a C. Might visit this some more and see. About time to post a new PB on it. I was visited with an FTE! Thought I had this whipped. I got the 1/4 ejected round out and really inspected it. It has a pretty good bulge on side. I'm thinking bad brass, weak at the base. Probably shot through a Glock. At this point, I'm just not sure what to think about the FTE's, other than Suckola!!!!! All said it was a decent practice, a little rushed. Edited July 9, 2012 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 10, 2012 Author Share Posted July 10, 2012 Shot 132 rounds. Chad came over and we ran some box to box drills. I didn't push too much. Just concentrated on A' s. We also did some transition type drills between 2 targets and concentrated on executing the transitions. It went pretty good. Did some gun pickups to our box drill and a couple Bill Drills. I'm sooo close on the Bill Drill. I did a couple tonight tight at 2 seconds. My last one was below 2 by a tenth or 2 and had a D. I'm there at my goal, just refining my sight picture is all I need to do. We ran the plate rack a couple times and I was very low 3's clean. I also did some one shot draws at 10 and 7 yards to an 8" plate. Nothing extensive. My only try at seven was a 1.07. I feel that's fairly indicative of my skill at this point. Also did a 7 yard shot to a paster. I think I recorded an even second, missing paster by 2". I liked what we did and the movement drills felt a little rusty. I'll visit more movement drills in the next couple practices. I did not have an FTE tonight. Chad and I studied several pcs of my brass and they ALL have a bulge. This is once fired brass all Winchester that has been run through an automatic sizer, cleaned, polished and then it gets run through my sizing die on my dillon. It is either glocked brass that is weak and bulging or my chamber is jacked. I've got brand new starline cases and I'm gonna load up 50 and shoot them checking for any case deformities. I find it hard to believe I've wallered out a chamber? I'm gonna find out!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 11, 2012 Author Share Posted July 11, 2012 (edited) Got my case of MG. got a new Prochrono digital chronograph and I got my new Dawson Ice Magwell. Love the Magwell. Chrono'd my new loads. 7.3gr gave me right about 173pf. They feel real good to shoot and the dot tracks great. I like it better than True Blue already. Gonna load up brand new starline brass and see if that solves my occasional FTE problem. Shot 144 rounds with no problems using the Winchester brass. Gonna track it and see how many before the next one happens. Edited to add: ain't this sweet!!!! Edited July 12, 2012 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Racer377 Posted July 12, 2012 Share Posted July 12, 2012 Were you using mostly range pickup brass? At our matches, it seems like the brass is the same stuff being used over and over and over. I bet if I marked a few pieces, I'd get those same piece back 6 months and half a dozen firings later. I pretty regularly get pieces that have no neck tension left in them, and cracked cases are surprisingly common too. The way my press is set up, these usually don't make it past the powder station. My last batch, I had a few that wouldn't even hold a primer. I'm almost ready to start buying virgin brass for matches! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 12, 2012 Author Share Posted July 12, 2012 (edited) I get all my Brass from one guy. It is all Winchester. Of course it's suppose to be "once fired", but we all know that isn't a guarantee. It is very clean and shiny inside and out, plus he runs it through a push through sizer (no bulges). I don't pick it up ever, once I shoot it it's someone else's. The quality is just so nice it's hard to really determine if it's the brass. I've got some brand new starline I'm going to run and see if it works. I guess it's possible that some of it is more than once fired, maybe through Glocks, then it's weak at the base and I'm pushing it at 1400fps. I can see that as my problem. Edited July 12, 2012 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 13, 2012 Author Share Posted July 13, 2012 Loaded up brand new Starline brass and shot it OUCH!! Not good. Each one is bulged. I called Gan's and he had me do some measurements and it's not good. I'm torqued!! We talked about how it could happen and I learn that round count on barrels is a myth. Some can and do go 200,000 plus! Some 15,000. Some, somewhere in between Could even be the same manufacturer. Apparently there are numerous factors involved, to many to quantify. I know this barrel has a minimum of 40,000. I've shot over 7,000 just this season. Probably a high estimate would be 60,000. I guess I should keep better records of rounds shot. I've bought a new barrel and will be sending it off to Gan's soon. Until then, I'll deal with it. $350 and counting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 15, 2012 Author Share Posted July 15, 2012 (edited) Shot Riley today, very hot!! Fun match and completely undisciplined performance for me. I went balls to the wall on most stages. Lots of makeup shots ( at least I'm calling them) on paper and steel. Completely trashed 2 stages, but the times were quick. I doubt they were quick enough to make up for the Mikes, 2 on one, one on another. Completely jacked the classifier, way too deliberate and a good second to a second and a half off what I could have done. All A's one Charlie though, just deliberate. I suffered a humdrum draw. Thought about reshooting it with Jeff at the end, but I was wiped out at this point. Great squad of shooters to spend the day with IMO. Jeff and Mike McCaully (sp) are great to shoot with and run good squads. I had a good day and went for speed. I did this on purpose. Sometimes we gotta let it hang out!! I knew it would result in shots that were bad, but 2 of the Mikes I did call. I was just trucking to fast to make them up. One mike was marginally called. I honestly thought I got the D and knew it was gonna be a squeaker, not my luck!! It doesn't take much to get the hits. Les than a second or two of time to my match and I'm shooting clean with very few D's. Today I had fun and pushed the envelope. Edited to say: 4th overall, 3rd Open. Pushing the envelope was fun and a must every once in a while. But, not using my vision 100% cost me several places. Vision wins every time!! Edited July 16, 2012 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 19, 2012 Author Share Posted July 19, 2012 Gun and new barrel off to GANs. Practiced a little with the .22 racegun tonight. Not much, some group shooting and some barricade work with the plate machine. Did 3 reload 3 on plate machine. Funny how a speed focus can be so ingrained. Took me several runs to get out of it. This, after just one match of balls to the wall for fun at Riley. Excited about my gun. GANs is quick, but tomorrow wouldn't be soon enough. I can't wait to get it back. I haven't even adjusted to the new Magwell yet. When it comes back it'll have the holes also. I'm gonna shoot the piss out of it. Tonight is Batman!! My brother and his boys make a habit of seeing movies on opening night and I enjoy it. Work the next day really sucks, so I got tomorrow off!!! Yippee for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Batman was good. Not as good as the last one, but it wrapped the trilogy up nicely. Mailed gun last night, FEDEX, $43 Gan's signed for gun this morning at 10:35am, priceless. 1:37pm Gan's sends me an email, he'll be working on my gun shortly. Thought I'd document my experience. I find wait times and prices at other Smiths to be restraining. I can't say enough good about Gary Natale of Gan's Guns. Good article by Duane Thomas in the Blue Press on NPA. Discussion with other forum members leads me to re read p. 46-48 of Brian's book. Post by Flex leads me to more words of wisdom from our host. Probably going to re read Brian's book again, 3rd or 4th time. So much stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvb Posted July 20, 2012 Share Posted July 20, 2012 My thing now is SEEING. I Could rip it at 7 yards and get the hit, but I want to SEE everything. I'm convinced SEEING is the only way forward. RIP IT! See what you see... speed up your "seeing." That's what practice is for. 2c. You might learn something about your shooting. What's the worse that happens? Miss a shot completely? Why? Maybe you learn something about your turn technique or grip or focus. I wouldn't count a lucky RIP IT run in you PB times, but may be a good exercise... -rvb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 20, 2012 Author Share Posted July 20, 2012 Thanks brother! That's basically what I'm doing. Now when I rip it I ask what'd I SEE. You know, I'm focusing and trying to be aware of my vision at all times. I slip back at times( last classifier at Riley), too much conscious thought. I'd been really letting go and speed focusing on all stages just to push the envelope. Classifier was last stage and I consciously took control and reigned it in so I wouldn't blow it. Too much control and thought. Being aware is where I should have been. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 21, 2012 Author Share Posted July 21, 2012 (edited) 4:24pm today receive email from Gan's. Gun is done. $135- fit barrel 50- chamber 20- set comp gap 30- machine sides of comp to match slide 30- machine top round of comp to match slide 30- flat top comp with border 90- 2 barrel ports 25- machine slot in slide for ports 20- fit oversize firing pin stop $430 pending- FedEx Priority and insurance Tell me, just name a smith with a turn around like this. Unbelievable!! Can't wait to get it back. Edited July 22, 2012 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 22, 2012 Author Share Posted July 22, 2012 Paid Gan's using Paypal at 1:40pm today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colt Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 You should have got a gun from your Dad and shoot today. What a great match to warm up to the state. Brent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 22, 2012 Author Share Posted July 22, 2012 You should have got a gun from your Dad and shoot today. What a great match to warm up to the state. Brent I almost did that. I did have a great day today. Went to church with the wife and just generally relaxed. Very nice. Got my gun paid for and Gan's should be shipping it right away. I expect to have it before the weeks out. I'll be good to go next weekend, unfortunately there are no 5th Sunday shoots. Lol. I'll have to wait for Porter I guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colt Posted July 22, 2012 Share Posted July 22, 2012 I'll have to wait for Porter I guess. No porter for me. Someone has to set a State match up!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted July 22, 2012 Author Share Posted July 22, 2012 I'll have to wait for Porter I guess. No porter for me. Someone has to set a State match up!!! That is much appreciated too!!! Warsaw rocks!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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