Idaho Shooter Range Diary

[IdahoShooter]

I've been rediscovering this forum the last month, just stumbled across this section, so I thought I would try it out. I'll start my posts from a few weeks back from my range notes and practice's, and post a few of my videos... I am always looking for good critque so jump in anytime you want.

First off, I'm a IDPA shooter, I've tried USPSA and it's fun and all, but my schedule precludes shooting on sunday about 95% of the time, which is when all the USPSA matches are, IDPA shoots on Saturdays, so that works for me.

I've been Classified Expert in CDP for the last 3 years... shot the classifier as a Marksman in 07, bumped in the fall to Expert at the State Match in 07. Been hanging there ever since with my goal to make Master. Purchased Anderson's book a couple years ago and it has been good for me and my shooting is improving, but just broke through to Master last saturday at the annual Classifier match.

I shoot about 2x a month sometime 3, 2 IDPA matchs and a steel fun shoot. Usually go out on Wed nights and practice, weather permitting with a .22 conversion for my Kimber... burn lot's of .22 that way.

I've recently been working on shooting 25yard groups to start my practice sessions... take my time and put 50 to 100 rounds into a small a group as I can standing freestyle... can keep it all on a 6" plate at that distance, from sand bags, gun will shoot 1 to 2" groups... so I concentrate on feeling the trigger break, watching the sight lift and return, and just watching what the gun/body does.

Then I move to times 25 yard draws... single shot on 6" paper plate, I've got my times down to about 2 seconds at 25 yards from draw to hit on plate...

Then I move up to 15 yards and repeat... draw to hit is around 1.5s

Then repeat and move up to 10 yards... draw to hit is about 1.3s

Then to 7 yards... draw to hit is around 1.1s

I've noticed that I have a fast draw, but I then spend too much time focusing on the sight for a hit, so I'm trying to the the trigger pull down as the gun comes up in front of me, looking to break the shot as I see the target...

This has been a good drill with the .22, and when I shoot with the .45 my times are consistently the same... draw to first shot doesn't seem to matter for caliber.

Then I start working on transitions... at 10 yards, spread 2 targets about 10 yards apart, draw shoot one, then the other... I've just started doing this and can't remember my times right now, I'll have to post them on Wed after practice so I can remember them.

I also practice surrender draws, turn and draws, and of course, draw from concealment, which slows me down by about .2 of a second.

Last weekend we shot the IDPA Classifier, and I finally broke through to Master, but by only .4 of a second... it kinda feels like a let down... to acheive the Master Rank is fine... but I wanted to do it with a 80sec run or better, so there is still a long ways to go. Here is the video of me shooting it, Stage 1 I reshot, it was so cold that I droped ton of points on the 7 yard targets... shooting it again after shooting all the stages, I was able to improve the times just a bit, but cut the Points down to 3 from 15, which is what got me under the time requirement. Stage 2 felt good and fast, the best I have ever shot it, but still too many PD. Stage 3 was a wreck, I broke every speed record I had ever had on Stage 3 but at a cost of 30 points down. Ouch... The crazy part is in the end Stage 3 was slower than my previous attempts because my accuaracy was far better, but at the cost of speed.

In the end, I am now CDP Master... but I'm not pleased with my performance... lots of room for improvement.

Brian

[IdahoShooter]

Working up new load for different brand of bullet. Powerbond, local company so I don't have pay any shipping.

Loading 230gr RN, similar to the Berry's I had been loading.

Went out to and put 30 rounds over the chrono and shot some 25yd groups at the same time. 3 groups of 10, all averaged around 700fps, not enough for major so I need to drop another grain or two in case. These are a little slower than the Berry's, don't know why, but we'll take it up to 4.4gr of titegroup from 4.2. should put me around 750fps, and around 172 for a PF, safe enough for IPDA, little close for USPSA, but I only shoot club level matches there, so no big deal.

The wind was really blowing, my groups were around 4"-5" off hand shooting over the chrono, I didn't measure them but I was shooting at a 6" plate and they were all inside it. The group was also lower than my previous load, considering it's slower, that makes sense.

So back to the bench to load up some higher PF loads and back to the chrono to test them... 3 gun this weekend, coming up, need to get the shotgun out and practice the reloads...

[IdahoShooter]

Spent tonight getting ready for the mini-3 gun match, supposedly we will shoot one of the stages from the IronMan that is coming up. The MD is also one of the guys running the Iron Man so it should be a good one.

Worked on my weak hand reloads off the belt for the shot gun. I have an X2 and come Center of Mass belt holders. They each hold 8 rounds. Took me a while to figure out the best was to grab shells out these. They hold 4 high and 2 deep, they look awkward, but once on, they feel fine.

I have discovered through trial and error that grabbing the top four with the middle and ring finger and scooping them up into the palm and grabbing with the thumb puts them in a good position to start stuffing them in the tube. Like with pistol reloading, I need to see the opening to hit it everytime, so drop the gun to the waist while grabbing the first 4 and turning it slightly so I can see the tube, and feed away. I can do the first 4 in about 5 seconds, then grab the next 4 and stuff away again, my reload are taking about 10 sec for 8 rounds... slow, but I've only been shooting shotgun since January, so we go slow to start.

Did about 15-20 repetitions that were smooth and relaxed, when I picked up the speed I started tensing up and missign and dropping rounds, so at least for this next match, we are going to go slow enough that I hit all the reloads without dropping shells.

Prepped all the equipment for the match, busy tomorrow night, so it's just going to be grab the range box and go on Saturday morning.

[IdahoShooter]

Yesterday was a local 3 gun match, lot of fun and learned some good lessons about equipment, stage planning, etc...

There were 4 stages 180sec par time and every stage.

Stage 4 - Shotgun/Pistol/Rifle

Started on 8 Steel Poppers and 5 clays, 4 of the poppers had clays on them that were thrown when knocked down. Shotgun started loaded with 9. and you had to be careful not to just mow down the steel and leave the gun empty with clays in the air. I did ok on with the this. Down the 5 clays and first four poppers, reload... then polish off the popper/flyers

Run over to table, ground shotgun and goto pistol, loaded and in holster. Engage plate rack, then Texas Star, then back to plate rack. I was shooting my 9mm XDm, I only use this gun for 3 gun and plinking, so it took me a few shots to get the feel of it and figure out where it was hitting, and got through this section ok.

Set gun down on table and pickup rifle... 8 paper targets up close with barrels creating some cover, they get 2 each, no problem, scope was set on 1x and they were fine. Then throw the MGM Switchview lever and up to 4x power for the 100yard steel. 3 man size targets, 2 each, and 2 small steel targets... the large targets were easy and using the table as a support those went quick, the 2 small poppers proved to be a bit more difficult... gun is sighted at 200yds so 100 needed a bit of correction and it took some hits to get the small targets... I was first up for the day, and not thinking I was using the mag on the AR15 as a monopod on the table, everyone else just put the whole upper on the table, much more stable. I need to think that through in the future.

Good warm up on to Stage 1.

Stage 1 - Long range rifle

4 different man size steel plates at 100yards... had to shot each one once from standing, kneeling and then prone... not a problem and 2 of the targets had a 6" circle in the middle that opened a flag for 5sec of bonus points. I hit those 4x, then onto the 200yard dualing tree. Yeah, that was a monster... 200yard 4" plate prone and trying to flip a dualing tree 4 high over and back... hit 3 plates and gave up, tried a coupel of shots at the 400yard bonus target, it was worth 30 sec, so I through 4 rounds at it, close but wind kept me from hitting it.

This stage kicked my but... I really need to shoot my AR at 200/300 and 400 yards and get a feel for the sights and do some precision shooting with it. This is the 2nd 3 gun that we've done a long range field course and they have both kicked my butt...

Lunch in the club house, get some fuel in the body and back to Stage 2

Stage 2 - Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun

This was fun, 3 pits that you ran between with your gun in each pit with targets, video below...

Start with plate rack and 2 US poppers with the pistol... little rough but ok, if I'm going to shoot the XDm, I need to do more work with it, used to my 1911 .45, but I want the capacity in this game so I switch pistols...

Run over to rifle (9 paper targets)- first big mistake... sun came out, I switch from my prescription glass to shooting sun glasses... didn't adjust my diopter on the scope, when I pulled the scope up, the targets were a blurr. Arrgghhh. The targets that had no hard cover were fine, but 1 of the targets was a head only shot, the other two had zebra stripes on them and I didn't get 2 hits on a coupel of those targets... 10sec penalty. Transitions between targets felt good and snappy, but seeing that the gun really doesn't recoil, I need to shorten up my time between shots, since I only need 2 hits on paper, anywhere, I should be able to just double tap them at this range and be good, I want to experiment with that. Oh yeah, I need to practice picking up the rifle and stuffing a mag in it, what looked right was not, and I need to figure out the fastest best way to pickup, stuff/charge and get on target... I took too long.

Groud rifle and run to shot gun. Shot gun started great... it was empty on table. I grabbed 2 shells, jammed one in, hit the button and stuffed one more... shot the activator and the popper with no clay, then loaded up 8 more... 20 secs to load the gun, missed with one shells, grabbing 2 at a time instead of 4 off the belt, very sloppy reload, that gets more dry fire attention. Once gun was loaded, shot the 2 poppers, they both tossed 2 clays each and then shot the 2 clays on the swinger, which wasn't swining by this time. The first half felt good, and the last half felt good, but the 20 sec reload hurt big time.

Stage 3 - Shotgun field course Min 24 rounds...

Here the video

I had high hopes for this stage, planned it all out in my head, has 16 rounds on the belt and 9 in the gun, with 2 extra shot on the one side of the gun, and if heaven forbid 8 rounds of buck on the side saddle.

I can't believe that one can miss at the range we were at! Had to make up a couple of shots on the texas star then start moving through the pit... I did a single reload, shoot, single reload shoot to pickup the two I should have got, that felt fine. but then I got running, I should have been reloading first... loaded up 6 to shoot at the stupid little MGM 4" plates and missed one, had to stuff some more and pick it up, I took off running again and I managed to get the gun reloaded, my plan was to put one on the swinger, hit a popper or two, and come back to the swinger and hit it again... plan started off well enought, but then the gun jammed, and I had to cycle 2 shells out (first time it's done that) by that time the swinger had stopped and I had to start all over again... and if your counting shots, I'm running out of ammo! Magically 3 more shells appear plus the 2 in my bolt side that gave me 5 and I decided to shooting the poppers with those rounds, knowing I had buck on the side saddle and that the swinger was going over with buck. From there on out we finished the stage fine... but that was a slow run... Travis from MGM cleared that stage in like 50 seconds, and I was 110, love to be able to do it at his pace.

I finsihed in the middle of the pack 12 out of 25 shooters, had a good run on 3 but could have been faster. I felt good overall 3 gun is fun but not a sport I focus on like IDPA, Shotgun I can shoot, but reloads are the ticket with the blunderbuss, got work on getting that down, rifle is ok up close but long range with the AR needs work... Fun sport, look forward to the next one in 3 months, I'll work on staging my guns, reloads with the shotgun, and try and get the AR out to the range to dial in my 200/300 and 400 yards shooting.

I amy even have to shoot the XDm at a few IDPA matches to get a better feel for it, we'll see.

Edited May 31, 2010 by IdahoShooter

[IdahoShooter]

Dryfire practice last night.

Been a few days and it's amazing how rusty the draw can feel when you don't do it for a few days.

Spent a good 10 minutes just doing slow draws to sight picture at 12 yards (farthest I can get in the house)

Turned on the timer and sped it up to real time, probably did another 5 minutes of draws with the timer, no par time, just concentrating on reacting to the buzzer and getting the gun up with no wasted motion.

Added the trigger squeeze at this point as well, watching that I'm not dipping the gun as I squeeze the trigger. There is so much you can do dryfireing... feeling the gun comeout of the holster, the saftey coming off, then the sights coming into your eye's, and the pressure being applied to the trigger, ready to finish the squeeze when everything clicks into place on the target.

Spent about 5 minutes with some bill drill reloads, working on working the trigger, more slapping the riding the trigger, as my trigger finger has been 'freezing' some lately. First 10 were rough, finally found my groove and then felt good. Working on keeping the gun up in front of me as I reload and not dropping it down.

Finished up the last 5 minutes on trasitions, placed a 3 targets as far apart as I could, then draw on one, snap the eyes over and then snap the gun over. Draw, snap eyes, snap gun. THis is also where I work on keeping both eyes open... I want to just goto one eye because that's what I'm used too, but the last month is getting better on leaving both eyes open.

Felt like I had a good workout when it was over, try to get in another 10 or 15 minutes tonight and hopefully no rain on Saturday for the Steel Fun Match in town. Looking forward to see how my draw to first shot and transitions are coming along and the steel is a great place to see that.

[IdahoShooter]

Last night was dry fire in the house again, weather was ok, but this morning it's pouring rain. I hope tomorrow the sun comes out, steel fun match that I'd really like to shoot.

Warmed up again with Anderson's Drill 1, love that book. (Refinement and repetition)

Only took about 2 minutes for the feel to come to me, two days in a row makes a difference after a few days off. (Mental note, I should at least pickup the gun every day for a few minutes)

Spent about 5 minutes doing draws at 12yds, using the timer but no par time, just going for the relaxed and fast as I can feel.

Spent another 5 minutes doing my transition drill. Gun on target, timer goes off, snap eyes to next target, then drive gun to target. Not going for any specific time, more of a motor skills re/learning drill to get it right.

Spent 5 minutes or so doing some 1 reload 1 drills, I use a partially loaded mag on the drop mag, and a full mag on the reload. (All dummy rounds, but wieghted) So I can feel the wieght of the gun change, and make sure I'm seating the mag hard enough before driving it back on target.

Did a couple of runs up and down the hallway, this is where I draw, and squeeze the trigger as fast and as many times as I can while walking down my hallway focusing on the sight picture on target. Hall is 7 yards or so, and I can get about 15 on target squeezes right now.

Gun felt good in the hand, arms were relaxed. Good feeling from start to finish.

Now rain go away, time for some sunshine and shooting!

[IdahoShooter]

Game Day - Steel Fun shoot

5 stages of steel, great weather, took my 13 year old son with me to shoot as well.

Stage 4 - Star and plate rack -

String 1 - From table engage star or plate rack freestyle, then grab briefcase with strong had, advance to box, engage plate rack while WHO while holding briefcase.

String 2 - Same but SHO with briefcase

Sting 3 - Same as String 2.

Great stage shoot right out of the box in the morning. took 8 shots to get the star, jam a reload grab briefcase and try and shoot the plate rack. Got it with 9 rounds, but man only 10 yards away and I swear I was seeing the shot, but obviously not. Sring 2/3 when better, but still struggle with the star, SHO on the plate rack was ok, defiantly and place I need to work on.

Stage 5 - 10 Poppers, 5 large/5 small. 2 Strings, shoot large poppers, reload, shoot small poppers.

Got some video of this one, this felt ok, still getting warmed up, I would like to figure out how to come out of the gate feeling ready for the day. Took a coupel of extra shots, the reload felt good, but the transitions were a little slow, still working on snapping the eyes then the gun.

String 1 Video:

String 2 Video:

Stage 1 - Field course, lots of running and 9 poppers

This had us engagine a 25yd popper thru a port running up to another port for 4 more popper, then zipping down a wall to 4 more poppers around the wall.

This stage just felt like I was taking forever finding the sights to engage the steel, my hits were good, threw a few but I've need to do some work on the longer steel. I also need to work on not sticking my gun thru the port, as that just slows me down when I have to move, need to give it some space.

Here is one string of the course.

Stage 2 - 5 poppers, 2 flop bonus targets. Start from chair, engage popper that activate two paper floppers 1 hit on each for 2sec bonus on each paper, run to box on left, engage 2 steel, run to box on right engage 2 steel.

This one felt good, got the bonus time and each run was faster, my gun was finally feeling at home that the sight was settling down.

Stage 3 - Gun on table. 3 large poppers, run up and shoot 3 small poppers.

Straight up steel stage, this one felt the best all day. I ran all three in within a .50 second of each other, consistent, no misses, and the gun felt like it was just floating out there as I was driving it around.

Summary of today's match: Rouch start, didnt' feel comfortabel for the first 3 stage, by the last 2 it was coming to me, so I'd like to see how I can get the feel sooner in the morning and not have to wait for it.

[IdahoShooter]

Shotgun side match! on the steel match

This was a blast, I think because the shotgun is just shot for fun, and I really have no expectations for myself, that I get all the hits.

My reloads suck, I know that going in, and it's a little frustrating, but it something I haven't done a whole lot of work on.

It was fun and this was my favorite shotgun stage, the gun just went where I was pointing it and I like the speed that I had... just slow on the reload.

[IdahoShooter]

Scores came out for yesterday's match. It really is true, it's not about shooting a perfect match, it's about who makes the least mistakes for the day.

The Steel fun matches are scored heads up, no divisions. I was 5th of 16, but 1st of the single stack shooters... I managed to be in the top 2 on a couple of stages, that as I wrote felt the best. The top 2 were shooting open class guns, so to hang with them was good. I had one stage, the texas star/plate rack that was my downfall for the day. I should have only been about 2 to 3 seconds slower than the limited guys with having to throw a reload in before grabbing the briefcase and running, but I was 14 seconds off, so the WHO and SHO shooting is a good place for improvement.

The long range steel also needs some work, and the scores reflected that.

Shotgun was fun, 2nd out of 5... it would appear that I'm the not the only one struggling with reloads...

[IdahoShooter]

Few days off but back at the dry firing. Doing an expeirement. Another club is running the IDPA classifier this weekend, since I Classified Master in CDP, and I have a XDm I thought I'd give the ESP a whack. I ran one back in January with it, shooting side by side with my 1911, that was wierd and I think it thew me off and both guns.

So, I'll just dry fire the XDm till Saturday and see if we can get up into at least the Expert Class in ESP.

Took me about 50 draws to get the feel of the gun, it is so much different than the 1911, weight, balance. The sights are different too, but that doesn't bother near as much as not knowing where my bullet is going to hit... need to run out to see where this thing is shooting for POA/POI.

Reloads are also different, the wide body mags are easier to grab, but the big hole doesn't have a magwell bevel like my 1911 so hitting it takes a little more concentration.

The trigger is ok, still stock I haven't done anything with it. I think I'm going to see how far I can take this gun stock.

Spent about 20 minutes getting use to the gun, draw, balance, doing do reloads... more tomorrow and Friday and we'll see how Saturday goes.

[IdahoShooter]

Spent last night dry firing the XDm... still takes me 20 to 30 draws to get the feel of the gun over the 1911.

Reload seem to start faster, but there's no mag well funnel on the gun, so I really have to look the mag in to the gun.

I also discovered that not all my mags trip the slide lock, I thought it was my grip, but it turns out it may be the mag not putting enough pressure on the slide stop as well.

Goal is to shave 10 to 15 seconds off the classifier, dry fire tonight and then warm up in the morning for at least 50 draws and give it a go.

[IdahoShooter]

Great weather today, nicest day we've had all year so far.

Got up a little early this morning and did some draws with the XDm to get a feel for it, and once at the range, I had a chance after setup to do some more warm up with the gun. I didn't get to shoot it, but at least it was feeling good in the hand.

The classifier was shot as part of the match, no reshoots. In camparing my Jan times with today's times I was able to pickup just over 10 seconds overall and bump up to Expert classification on the ESP gun.

Stage 2 - felt good, right up to the El Prez, I missed the button on the mag release, and I had to wait to to dump the empty mag before inserting the new one, and my grip is still such that I have to rack the slide on this gun so I lost a lot of time, probably a good 2 seconds. Accuracy was bad, down 16 overall on this stage.

Stage 1 - Felt decent, got all the head shots speed was ok again slow on the 3 reload 3 string 6, because the slide doesn't lock back, but I got the mag out and reload in in good time.my SHO and WHO strings were a bit slow as well... strange, that I can shoot a .45 SHO and WHO faster than a 9mm... Down 7 total.

Stage 3 - String 1 felt good, I knew my accuarcy would be off, as I have not spent the time to confirm my POI/POA, it's close, but I am not sure where. String 2 was a little slow and string 3 was good. But I was down 29...

Since this is the 3rd classifier I have run this year (Only need one per year for IDPA) I figured I should try the ESP gun, and I'm glad I did, bumped to Expert with a total of 107.38 and I reach my goal of shaving 10 seconds off my previous classifier with this gun. Not sure I want to spend the time with this gun anymore this year as this is not the gun I want to run at the State match, but I feel good about shooting it except the slide not locking back.

The other 3 stages were IDPA stages, good first stage, ok 2nd stage, and 3rd stage sucked... brain fart on the reload.

Great day, good shooting, but back to the 1911.

[IdahoShooter]

Been too long... travel out of town...

Still out of town, but I drove this time, so i brought the blaster and rig... I've been dry firing in the hotel room here for about an hour... getting a good feel of the gun.

No timer, but using the TV to draw on a new head before they disappear, mag changes over the bed...

Been going on and off for the last hour, gun feels good in hand... love the 1911.

I'm here for 3 days, I'm hoping I'll get 3 good days of dry fire here, and prep for the weekend match.

[IdahoShooter]

Missed yesterday... too long of a day to pick up the gun.

But got done a little early tonight, and have spent the last 45 minutes going through my dryfire drills...

Slow draw and focused aim at 1/3rd size printed targets... need to remember tape next time I travel.

worked up to speed on draw and fire.

Then worked on transitions...

Spent some time over the bed reloading, getting the gun up in my face and reloading instead of dropping it down to by belly...

back to turn and draws, and 2 on each...

Room is big enough I can draw and advance and retreat while working the trigger.

did some kneel/draw drills and some seated at desk draw drills... taking advantage of the furniture in the room to work on strange start positions.

Talked on the phone for a while with the wife while working on strong hand and weak hand drills...

gun feels good in the hand and on the hip... back in the suitcase for the drive home and maybe run out to the range tomorrow night in preparation for Sat's match.

Time for some water and off to bed...