Chris iliff Posted March 1, 2013 Author Share Posted March 1, 2013 (edited) CRO class was great. Carl was a good instructor and I learned a lot. Haven't started my final yet, but have been thinking about my design. I'm going to do a classifier, 12 rounds, 4 paper, 4 poppers, 1 reload. I want it as freestyle as the rules allow. I think I have a do-able idea. I'll post when I pass the exam. Been exercising. Treadmill, push-ups, sit-ups. Also only water to drink or milk. Got to have me milk, how else to eat cookies? Anyways, 2 weeks into that regimen and I'm sleeping better, but I've been mildly sore somewhere everyday for 2 weeks. Edited March 1, 2013 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CB45 Posted March 1, 2013 Share Posted March 1, 2013 Awesomeness! Glad to hear you exercising a little. Way to go! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 11, 2013 Author Share Posted March 11, 2013 Got my CRO exam done. I'm sure it's not perfect. I have to wait for my grade from Carl and then do any revisions. It's going to be interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monicataliani Posted March 11, 2013 Share Posted March 11, 2013 Congrats! I am sure you did great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 14, 2013 Author Share Posted March 14, 2013 Don't want to talk about my lackluster sit ups and push ups, but I did run a mile straight on the treadmill tonight. I've been on a semi sorta fitness routine and after a little over two weeks it's going good. I have to constantly remind myself that I'm not going to get it back quickly and to just plod along and do it and be happy for the small gains. I was never a fitness nut, but I did what some would say was a lot of running through my 20's and into my late 30's. Lots of 5k type races over the summers. For the last 6 years I haven't done squat and my stamina has suffered. So it's sit ups, push ups and running. Nothing killer, just the basics. On a positive note I'm down a couple pounds and seem to be sleeping better. Not that sleeping was hard before, but now it just feels better. Also only water or milk to drink for the last 3 weeks. Mostly water. Sometimes I do miss me Coke!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted March 14, 2013 Share Posted March 14, 2013 (edited) Atta boy Chris, keep up the good work! . Edited March 14, 2013 by Chris Keen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 15, 2013 Author Share Posted March 15, 2013 Just finished my work out routine. Ahg! Did my push ups and set ups then I plodded along for a mile on the treadmill, nothing fancy, just a nice 5mph pace. It kicked my ass! Whew, I never thought I'd get my a$$ kicked by a mile, but tonight I did. Wednesday's mile run was cotton candy compared to tonight. First match of the season for me this weekend at WVPPS in Terre Haute. I'm looking forward to this and seeing people. Hope the weather is nice, I'd take anything above 40 and no rain. I probably just jinxed it though. Looks like the season is here! OH yeah!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 17, 2013 Author Share Posted March 17, 2013 Dang, match got cancelled. Season not here yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 18, 2013 Author Share Posted March 18, 2013 Got my CRO back from Carl. Ahhg! Stupid bone headed mistakes, some things he clearly taught us and I just didn't do. I hate when I do that kind of stuff. I'll get on it this week and resubmit. Hopefully, my head will be out of my a$$ and I'll pay more attention to the details. Been doing a little dry fire tuning up for the season. Gun feels a little different, kinda the same, just grooving everything in. You know what I mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 19, 2013 Author Share Posted March 19, 2013 My mile felt good tonight, so I turned it into a mile and a quarter. Far cry from Friday night! I was so upset about that crappy run on Friday I held off until today to run again. On a better note, Shooters Connection rocks. Got some goodies! Season is starting to get dialed in. I also ordered 4,000 bullets from Precision Delta. 18 weeks on that order is what they say. That puts me at July 22. Hmmm. .22 is gonna get abused this summer. I need more .22's too. It never ends. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 21, 2013 Author Share Posted March 21, 2013 Did another mile and a quarter tonight, felt good. I hate treadmills, but in some ways I like them. On a treadmill you have control. You can set it for a speed and plug along. Also, it is easy to remember distances, and in turn, bump them a little at a time. So, these positives allow me to regulate my gains and track them easily. Next up, ...... Mile and a half! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 23, 2013 Author Share Posted March 23, 2013 Seen Olypus Has Fallen. Thought it was good. I'll buy the DVD when it comes out. Got Matt Burkett's volume 4, How to Shoot Faster. There are no secrets is my main take a way. Very professionally done. It is 10 years old, wow! Although it's 10 years old, I wouldn't say it's dated, on the contrary, I found it very informative and fresh. Nothing beats rounds down range shot correctly. This summer, I plan on that exclusively. I recently read something Ben Stoeger wrote and he's dead nuts right. It's the shooting more than anything. Yes, movement gets you gains, maybe some big gains depending on where you're at, but the shooting is the key. I guess the Burkett DVD helped drive that home for me. I gotta get some bullets!! This waiting is killing me. I got me some plans! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 26, 2013 Author Share Posted March 26, 2013 Bumped the run to a mile and a half. It felt decent. Can't say I struggled too much. Happy to be where I'm at. It's a far cry from where I was 4 weeks ago and not able to do half a lap. Slow and steady progress is the mantra. I ordered 16 pounds of my powder from Powder Valley. Powder is not an issue, but I'm re thinking my supplies and have no one to blame but myself. I took care of primers when it all went haywire a few years ago. I just didn't think this time around it would include every single component. If I dig out of this hole (bullet supply critically low) I'll stock up on bullets too, like I did primers. This just sucks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 27, 2013 Author Share Posted March 27, 2013 Montan Gold was up and running. I ordered a case of bullets from them. Not my usual 124gr CMJ's. I had to order 121 grain IFP's. I doubt it changes any feel, only 3gr lighter. I'm excited about it. All told, I've got 16 lbs of powder coming. Almost 8,000 bullets from 2 different suppliers and I've got the primers for awhile. I'll be good when these goodies start rolling to my door. Hmmm,.......now how can I train a nutless dog and 4 cats to run a 650 Dillon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 28, 2013 Author Share Posted March 28, 2013 Montana Gold has pinged my credit card! Sweet sigh of relief, can't wait to start shooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Keen Posted March 28, 2013 Share Posted March 28, 2013 Hey Chris, did you call, email, or what? I notice their web page is totally down right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 29, 2013 Author Share Posted March 29, 2013 Yep, MG is down again. I got an order in when there page was up and it was only up for little bit before it crashed again or they took it off line. Luck was with me as, on an off chance, I called them. I was told not to fax, the page would be up that day. They also said they were very close to being caught up. So, CB45 and I checked it all day and when it popped up we both got orders in. CB45 was order 20 I think and I was order 70. All this within 30 minutes, so they were getting hammered. Anyway, no sooner than I got my order complete, it went down again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted March 29, 2013 Author Share Posted March 29, 2013 (edited) Before last scare I bought primers 5,000 at a time, never had more than 5,000 never had less than a 1,000. I changed that following the madness and now I operate from a 20,000 primer ceiling, with a floor of 15,000. Key is to always order at the floor! During this current madness, I learned I should have been doing that with my powder and bullets also. In the future, I will have a 24lbs ceiling of powder at all times, with a floor of 16lbs. For bullets, I'll set my ceiling at 15,000 (4 cases) and floor at 11,250 (3 cases). With Indiana's 7 month season, give or take depending on the weather and the ability to shoot 4 matches a month, that's 800 rounds a month using 200 rounds a match. So, that's 5,600 rounds for local matches for 1 season. Of course local matches are not 200 rounds, they are 120-150, but the bump more than makes up for the occasional MAJOR match I might shoot. Sooooo..... assuming 4 matches a month I now know....... without any practice, a shooter in Indiana, can get by on a case and a half of bullets, a sleeve of primers and if they are shooting Autocomp at major about 5lbs of powder. No way in H,E, double toothpicks is that gonna get me out of A class! I got to live fire my way to M. Edited to say: just got email ship notice from Montana Gold!! Edited March 29, 2013 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted April 1, 2013 Author Share Posted April 1, 2013 Darn no bullets today, I really wanted them! I put the cmore back on my .22 race gun and sighted that in tonight. Then I did 30 T/D's to an 8" plate, next 30 surrender to the same plate, all at 10 yards. Felt good. T/D's felt pretty decent, nothing spectacular. Wasn't pushing just trying to groove it in. An 8" plate really changes things, it is definitely not like a big standard target at 10 yards. Plan to shoot Oxford this weekend. This will be my first match in a long time, October I think. Going to try to focus on a few key things I've been thinking about. Should be fun! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted April 2, 2013 Author Share Posted April 2, 2013 (edited) No bullets today, dang me............ Did get 3,000 once fired 9mm cases sized and ready for my case feeder. Slowly but surely my components are rolling in.... Kinda like Jones in that silly song. Anyone get that reference? Or the song reference in the first line? That's two song references, winner gets a chicken dinner. Did a little DRYFIRE tonight, about 30 minutes worth. T/D, 2 R 2 WH, 2 R 2 SH, 2 R 2, and some normal draws and some surrender. Interesting note, I know that the last little bit of the draw we are basically easing into the shot. I seen this drill where you stand ready to fire (your natural shooting posture) with the muzzle just touching a target. I think this is from Burkett. Anyway, now draw the gun and get it there about an inch from the target then ease it in the last bit until it touches the target. Basically, you better have that sight in your vision that last inch or so. I think it teaches you where to get on the sight and deaccelerate your push out for that refined shot. I discovered that my last inch or so is horribly out of alignment, my muzzle is actually to the left. So much that the dot is not even in the optic. This really bugged me, I stepped back to about 3 yards and drew normal, there's my dot hmmmmmmmm. Stepped back up to the target and no dot an inch out. I'm thinking that inch is important, I'm thinking I'm getting the alignment probably at the very end of my push out, which sometimes leads to a hesitation as the acquisition of the shot happens. I'm thinking that getting it a smidgin sooner would be beneficial and actually speed things a little with practice. Am I thinking too much? Edited April 2, 2013 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvb Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 Am I thinking too much? what are your typical live-fire draw times? How much do you need to speed them up? Remember, typically they're only 10-12 starts in any given major match. Couple that with non-holstered starts and stages requiring movement before the first shot and it really doesn't matter. Now SC, where you draw every 5 shots, that's a little different. I've been doing a lot of draw practice lately, but mainly as an index builder. Can you draw eyes-closed and open your eyes and have the dot be on target and centered in the scope? that's the most important end-result of the draw, IMO. -rvb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) First let me say........ 3,800 more at me door. Yippee! Second, I was hoping rvb would see my above post. Yes, I thought of all that and understand over an entire match it matters little. So why was I harping? Well, I was looking for those nuggets that I feel I don't possess. As we get up in class, I'm at %83.51, I know the last bit is a refining process. It will be countless little things that will build up, when mastered, to get me to the next two levels. I know it seems small, I just don't know if it is important. Are GMs doing this? What did Burkett get out of the drill? I watched Cheely go from dead cold, gun up, and hit a small popper at 7 yards in .68. He repeated it several times. He thought it was slow??? Got it down to low .60's. Why can't I do this? Is it the slight wobble at the end of my push out? If I grab the dot quicker and ease in to it, wil that help? It's the small things the Masters and GM's have refined that got me thinking on this. Again,......hmmmmmmmm Edited April 3, 2013 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvb Posted April 3, 2013 Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) That's why I asked what your times are now. If you can do a 1.00s +/- .05 into a 10-yd A, and you are looking to move from A to M, then cutting 0.2 from your draw probably won't be what gets you there. I'm not saying you shouldn't try to improve your draw and get to that same performance that the top GMs are at eventually, but keep emphasis on the skillsets proportional to their needs.... On the otherhand, if you are at 1.5s draws, then yes, you probably need to step up your draw, and cut a few tenths off. If you aren't on target 1" from your full shooting extension, I have to wonder if you aren't doing more "sweeping up" rather than "pressing out." Also, where do you wear your gun? More 1:30, or 3:00? I kept my open gun in the same position as my prod gun not just for consistency, but because I found the more fwd I had it I had to twist the gun and that just added that many more variables to my draw. Coming from 3:00 the gun was already pointing at the target and just needed lifted up. Now I'm not saying a fwd belt position is wrong if that's what you do, many folks love it, but it's something to consider in how it affects your presentation and what you have to do to get that muzzle pointing fwd. As for whether you are overthinking things... well, I'm definately one to analyze things to death. Sometimes it's good to look at small parts of technique w/ a critical eye. But becareful of over-analyzing... I fall into that trap sometimes. but hey, I'm just an over-classified A-class guy myself who needs to put in some practice time! -rvb Edited April 3, 2013 by rvb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris iliff Posted April 3, 2013 Author Share Posted April 3, 2013 (edited) Good stuff, my gun is about 3 o'clock. No, I don't sweep that I know of. My goals this summer all involve TRANSITIONS, dot acquisition, better movement, and and and, stand and shoots. I have never really practiced too much just standing and shooting arrays. Luckily for me I have a plate machine and I know my draw times, while not stellar, they ain't too shabby. I want my draw at 8-10 yards on an 8" plate to be like a true GM's. I'm guessing these guys can go down in the .6-.7 range almost right out of the holster, no warm ups. I can't do this, I can't even get to the .7's warmed up unless I get lucky. Edited April 3, 2013 by Chris iliff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rvb Posted April 5, 2013 Share Posted April 5, 2013 Good stuff, my gun is about 3 o'clock. No, I don't sweep that I know of. My goals this summer all involve TRANSITIONS, dot acquisition, better movement, and and and, stand and shoots. I have never really practiced too much just standing and shooting arrays. Luckily for me I have a plate machine and I know my draw times, while not stellar, they ain't too shabby. I want my draw at 8-10 yards on an 8" plate to be like a true GM's. I'm guessing these guys can go down in the .6-.7 range almost right out of the holster, no warm ups. I can't do this, I can't even get to the .7's warmed up unless I get lucky. <-- jealous. I've not had much opportunity to practice on a plate rack. when can I come down and play on your range?! -rvb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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