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Stock Glock Shooter since 2010


SeaTact

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Sorting out the sight picture at 25 yards

Thinking back to the IDPA classifier, I remember that my sight picture at long distances (20+ yards) is a whole lot different than the average 7-10 in typical matches. In other words if I stay front sight focused at distance, man the targets are blurry. I also remember during the classifier that I was seeing not 1 but 2 blurry targets. Looking back at my 4/10/12 post I'm starting to think that not lining up on the correct blurry target was one of the reasons some of my shots were leftward. Note: I'm right eye dominant, a right handed shooter and I always keep both eyes open. Here's what I did today in dry fire mode:

-- I sighted on a bullseye target at 25 yards. Got my sights in alignment then focused on the targets. I then focused on my front sight. After that I focused on the notch of my rear sight. As my focal point got closer in front of me, the bullseye "blur" started to separate into two targets.

Now, at distance, when I'm front sight focused, I realize I need to stay aligned on blurred target on the right. We'll see how this plays out over time.

Edited by SeaTact
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Now, at distance, when I'm front sight focused, I realize I need to stay aligned on blurred target on the right. We'll see how this plays out over time.

I have the same issue, but eye just squint my left I some at 25 yards, which seems to work. If you don't want to do that, just shoot the blurry target on the right ;-).

Edited by Cheshire_Cat
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Nice play on words :)

I think I squint sometimes as well when I shoot right handed freestyle at 20+ yards, I just don't know if squinting or both eyes open works better for me.

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  • 1 month later...

Draw Stroke Lessons Learned

After taking an intro IDPA class, I've been working on a new (for me) way to present the gun and stage the trigger. Just want to post a link because Todd Green sums up what I've heard from multiple sources: him, my master-class instructors for IDPA, and the late Paul Gomez. Quick point is that once the gun clears the holster it goes almost vertically up to the space between your eyes and the target, before you press out the pistol. I think this will work for me.

http://pistol-training.com/archives/108

http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=657506

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Presentation and trigger prep is very important in getting your draw-to-first-shot down to a minimum. This can be drilled in dry fire very easily, and it goes hand in hand with developing the ability to present the sights into your vision reliably.

This same trigger prep can also be used during transitions, not just from the draw.

Jerry Miculek explained to me that by the time he begins a CoF, he knows when and where he is going to be pulling the trigger. He imagines that the gun is a fire hose. It WILL go off, bullets WILL go downrange. His job is to make sure they hit the targets. As he mostly shoots a revolver in handgun competitions, he has to deal with that long double-action trigger pull, so prepping the trigger during draws and transitions is double important.

As you are shooting a Glock, it is also important to take the slack out of the trigger until you hit the hard stopping point. That's one of the reasons I like a stock 5lb. trigger on my Glocks.

Andy

Edited by andrewcolglazier
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GSSF Match & IDPA Classifier

Been improving my times. I now broke 100 on my last GSSF match. However it was with my G20 with a Vanek GSSF trigger. I even had a light primer strike during the steel stages and I automatically tap-rack-banged. First time it was done in a match without thinking. 'course it's been my first malfunction since my deer in headlights match screw up. For my stock G17 -- I shot around 105.

Also classified into SSP sharpshooter, albeit on the low end of the time range. Might have grandbagged a bit because the organizers wanted us to go to full capacity with our magazines. Mainly to keep things moving as quickly as possible. I had enough mags but I didn't want to contradict the SO's...

Lessons learned

- Need to practice transitions and pieing. I really felt wobbly shooting around the barricade.

- I spend too much time shooting the poppers on the Glock M stage. I've hit them 100% of the time.

- 20 and 25 yard shots remain a challenge, and I'm still dropping too many points at that distance.

Edited by SeaTact
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  • 3 weeks later...

Can you shoot too slowly?

Shot 100 rounds at the square range. Dot torture at 3 yards (scored 44/50) and then used another 50 rounds shooting at 20 yards. Also did 2 Bill drills, which I haven't really done it a while. I flinched twice during the 5 rounds of strong hand shooting in the DT test. I think part of it was because I was waiting to break the shot for waaaaay too long-- to the point that mentally I was starting to anticipate, which led to the flinch.

Lessons learned

- Taking your time doesn't mean to artificially slow down your trigger press. I think I made it so slow that I wasn't actually increasing the pressure on my trigger, I only thought I was.

- Need to work on follow through. At 3 yards my eye wanted to focus on the bullet hole and I didn't seem to go back to the front sight after the shot broke. I need to stay focused on the front sight, especially for precision shooting like the Dot Torture.

- Shooting fast like in a Bill drill isn't as helpful if you don't see your sight return to target. At 3 yards I was spraying all over an 8 inch target, I think because I was breaking shots while trying to guess when the front sight was supposed to come back to center. It never really did.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Potpourri shooting

The open bay at the indoor range where I shoot was... open! I was shocked to learn. So I took advantage of it, blowing 150 rounds:

-- Multiple Bill drills

-- Moz drills

-- FAST drill x 4

-- GSSF "the plates", paper version x 3

-- Strong hand

-- Off hand shooting

-- Barricade shooting at 20 yards

-- Even a couple of rounds from retention. First time I've done it live.

Lessons learned

- I have to compete more. I was nervous during my opening shots-- a cold FAST drill. Anticipated the 3x5" card shots, flinched. Terrible opening drill with 3 misses. Fortunately these went away after I warmed up. I think I said this in an earlier post: when starting cold, I have to shoot SLOWLY.

- Never leave your shot timer at home. You never know when you'll find it useful when you go shooting. duh

- Grip strength exercises have really helped. I've been using the 1 lb and 2 lb The Gripp balls. When doing some front sight focus shooting, where I focused on experiencing a pre and post shot sight picture and a "crush" grip, for the first time I felt that I was actually able to track that front sight during the whole ignition/recoil/settle into the notch. The notch was shaky when I exaggerated my grip squeeze, but even when I backed off the pressure to the point I was no longer shaking, the front sight still sprang back to the notch. cool...

- ... but I still can only call my shots a minority of the time. During barricade shooting I had a couple of down 1's....I just didn't recognize it until I finished shooting and walked to the target.

Edited by SeaTact
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  • 2 weeks later...

Back to Fundamentals...again

Followup up on my improving grip strength, I realized that perhaps I was getting lazy, and not gripping the pistol with enough force. With that in mind went back to the SIRT with a specific focus on making sure my off-hand grip was as tight as possible without introducing the shakes.

Lessons Learned

- The "sympathetic" tightening in my shooting hand manifested again, and I noticed that with a firmer grip my SIRT shots were striking low. Not to the left, just low at 6 o'clock.

- Instead of focusing on just a tight grip, I have to retrain myself to keep my shooting hand relatively relaxed and that I'm not "squeezing" the trigger with all 4 fingers. I think this work will be worth it because my recoil was much better controlled back in 8/1. We'll see what happens this weekend when I go back to the square range.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Mixed bacg of range time and dry fire with the SIRT

-While getting ready for a GSSF match, I was trying to simulate a plate rack. During that, I noticed that I can print black dots and get instant feedback whether or not I hit it. Very fun. Taking Todd Green's Dot Torture test further, I printed a 1" dot and tried to hit it at 5 yards. Pretty challenging.

-I've also been focusing on keeping a very strong grip with my support hand, and my low hits are starting to disappear.

-At the range, I did a bullseye challenge, trying to keep a tight group at 10 yards.

Lessons Learned

-- Something completely different: sometimes I shoot with my glasses, sometimes with contacts. With glasses, I notice my acuity isn't the same if I'm looking at the sights through the edge of my eyeglass lens. Need to either keep my head upright, making sure my sight is centered in my eyeglass lens. Better acuity that way. Who'd a' thunk?

-- Bullseye shooting is helping me lock in my stock Glock sight picture. We'll see what happens at the next GSSF match.

-- Had to go back to an old post about which blurry target to shoot at when I'm front sight focused and at longer distances. Good reminder to re-review old posts.

Edited by SeaTact
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Dry Fire Work

When it comes to grip, stance and trigger control, I've been using my SIRT more often than my Glock. I'll take my Glock and confirm trigger control occasionally, and definitely use it when doing holster work. I recently discovered that I can use black dot targets, and instantly tell whether or not it's a hit. Great feedback and I think this will help me with bullseye/long range shooting.

Lessons Learned:

-- I experimented with trigger finger position after reading a web post. Up until now I've been shooting with the trigger centered on my finger pad. After some quick experiments yesterday, it seemed like my aim was more steady if I have my trigger finger closer to the first crease. Maybe. That was some dozen or so dry fire cycles so that doesn't make it proven yet. I'll shoot this way through the next match and see what happens.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Strong hand shooting -- include the thumb or not?

Up until now, when I shoot one handed, be it right or left, I gripped my Glock with all of my fingers and used essentially no pressure on my thumb, similar to the thumbs forward two-hand grip. Just this week I realized that my thumb fits nicely in that "well" on the side of a Glock grip. "hmmm," I thought.

Just came back to the range and did some 7 yard shooting with my strong (right) hand. Some shots with a "crush" grip-- thumb down and squeezing the grip with my entire hand instead of just my fingers. I was really surprised-- shocked to the point that there should have been a "!" character over my head-- that the perceived recoil was really flat. Switching back to thumb forward finger-grip only, there was more recoil. This really shouldn't be too surprising but it was for me.

Going to post this question elsewhere but I'll have to search the BE forum first.

Lessons learned

-- Thumbs down, fist grip for single hand shooting will be the new norm for me. But...

-- My NPA shifted with this style. Front sight angled away slightly (to the right for my right hand, for example). I think I can adjust to this but we'll see.

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Draw stroke revisited

Finally can get some competition shooting in soon-- I think. I the meantime it's been a while since I'd practiced drawing from my IDPA concealment, reloads, and reloads with retention. I focused a lot of time on making sure I established a proper grip.

Lessons learned:

-- Found a good index for getting a proper grip. Seems like indexing my middle finger to the trigger guard worked for me. During all the times when I knew I got a good grip, it seemed like my middle finger was the first point of contact on the gun. That finger then gets wedged under the guard while the rest of my hand wraps around firmly and properly on the grip. Will keep working on that.

-- On reloads with retention, I have to sweep my cover garment first, before stowing it in my pants pocket. Duh.

-- One of my older posts talks about visually confirming the position of my magazine and my index finger to the magwell before inserting. There's probably a very shot and imperceptible pause, but it really minimizes bobbling the reload and catching an edge while inserting. Mind you, I don't have an extended magwell or a plug.

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  • 10 months later...

Still going...

Been a little while, yes. But I still shoot when I can, and still dry fire. Some updates since it's almost been 4 years so far. I took my original post dated Jan-2011, and updated it for 2013...

My bio:
-- 40-something male. Still old. Right-handed. VERY near sighted but I'll wear soft lens eye contacts in competition.
-- New to pistols but not to marksmanship. Not new but still learning! Always will be a student of the gun.

My current gear:
-- Bought my first gun in August 2010: Glock 17, Gen 4
-- Completely stock. No mods at this time. Stock polymer sights. 5.5 lb connector
-- Well, maybe the only "mod" was a 25 cent trigger job. Polish and cloth only. No Dremel. Did that just yesterday and it did seem to help
Still shoot stock Glocks, making the switch to a Gen4 G34 with Sevigny sights and green fiber optic front.
-- Uncle Mike's instructor belt. Ares gear ranger belt
-- CompTac Paddle holster
-- CompTac twin mag pouch x 2
-- SureFire G2X Tactical (wow, it's bright)
-- Peltor Tactical 7S electronic muffs
-- ICE Naro eye protection
-- Stack of IDPA paper targets
-- no shot timer (yet) CED 7000 Shot timer
+-- Had a Serpa holster, but didn't like the retention tab.

Still shooting IDPA, now SSP Sharpshooter. My slow progression is based on infrequent competitions and weekly dry fire on average. Just time constraints on my part. I've only been to 3 IDPA competitions this past calendar year-- 2 club matches and the state match most recently, where I placed solidly in the middle of the SS group.

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  • 3 weeks later...

IDPA State Match

2013 WA state match was a lot of fun. A lot of moving & disappearing targets. This'll be my last match with the G17, though.

Lessons Learned

-- I'm OK with <10 yard targets. I seem to go into automatic mode and groups are good. BUT....

-- I revert back to old, bad habits when under time pressures of the disappearing or moving targets. Don't see the sights, trigger jerk, yadda yadda. Going to have to go to the square range and do some bill drills at longer ranges-- been doing them almost exclusively at 7 yards.

-- Same thing goes for anticipating the shot during time-pressured precision shots. On FAST drills even at 7 yards, I always shoot low when I push the speed on the 3x5" card. Not low-left or low-right. Just low.

-- Going to do some dot torture drills with a time component. No idea what my par time is for the full 50 round drill. We'll see...

"New" Gear, Same Philosophy

Multigun competitions seems like a lot of fun, but that's going to be years down the road if I ever get into that. Despite that, was looking into buying my first long gun. At the LGS, I instead discovered a used G34 for $430. Looked brand new to me, internals were great, and the copper lube was still in place. So now I have it. Wasn't planning to get one, but couldn't pass it up. The G17 is now going to back as a primarily home defense gun-- I replaced the internals with new stock parts.

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  • 3 years later...

6 years and counting...updating this journal(!). If you started out as a brand new pistol shooter like I did in 2010, let's compare notes.

- I have kids, which changes everything for me.

What I'm Still Doing

- I still shoot twice a month but no longer compete. So why post here? Enos forums are the best for people who really want to refine their shooting technique, no matter what their goals are. I'll never stop learning here.

- Stock Glock shooter. There have been some amazing striker pistols out there now. I probably would've been a Walther PPQ user if it'd been out in 2010. 

What I've Recently Learned

- I'm refining my bill drills and during dry fire I'm realizing I need to focus on working on my trigger release. For 6 years I've been focused on the press and paid almost no attention to the release part. More to come...

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  • 9 months later...

stale answer is "not yet".

 

Adding some diary notes. Did some precision shooting at 20 yards with my G17 RMR and G34 with Sevigny sights. Factory ammo and sight picture notes:

 

147 gr Atlanta Arms reman groups 2-3" above my current POI sight picture.

 

115gr new ammo from Freedom Munitions seems spot on. Groups are still tighter with AA. 

 

15 yd 8" steel plates-- POI works best if I focus on the top 1/3 of the plate. 

 

Have to see where Speer Lawman ammo groups...

Edited by SeaTact
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