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Monica's Range Diary


monicataliani

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Thanks for all the help with mag changes! I tried to remember all of that when I did my practice for the night. :)

Practice for 10/4/11-

*10 minutes of dry fire focusing on mostly on transitioning from target to target/sight picture with a minor focus on stance, grip, and smooth trigger pull (I know the trigger part probably isn't too much help without doing live fire, but every bit helps.)

*10 minutes of mag changes going in slow motion trying to make sure I included all the good things mentioned from yesterday

Follow Up From Practice 10/4/11- Is there a proper hand placement when grabbing mags in your mag pouches? Add trigger control to my list of things to work on.

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List of Things to Work On (Updated 10/4/11)

1. Good Grip- from draw and from a table

2. Good Grip- post mag change

3. Mag Changes

4. Stage Breakdown

5. Moving Faster When NOT Shooting

6. Trigger Control

Never underestimate the need for learning good trigger control in dryfire. I think a lot of us have been guilty over the years of spending our whole dryfire sessions doing mag changes, draws etc. and ignoring the need to learn how to shoot precise shots, or good sight/trigger relationships and control. I probably spend half my dryfire time now on accuracy drills.

Are you following any specific schedule/plan for your drills?

Lol...planned schedules don't really work for me, but I'll try to make sure I hit certain points every session, in dryfire I make sure I do some trigger drills, some draws and some reloads but I vary it up a bit after that. I'll look at upcoming matches and decide if I need some extra practice on Strong hand/Weak hand, or table draws or other specialty techniques. In the winter since we are indoors a lot I'll practice lots of reloads with short movements and in the summer I'll practice more movement without reloads. Anything else I will look at and run in dryfire is anything I noted at a previous match as a fault or soemthing I hadn't come across before and I'll work through it dry before going to the range and trying it live.

My live fire goes pretty much the same way, I'll work on groups and SH/WH but I won't really do draws or reloads aside from what might be included in a spewcific drill I'm doing....though I do run drills the odd time like Double Draw Master if I want to focus on the draw a bit....then usually I'll either pick a drill that is something specific I want to work on or if I'm practicing with someone else I'll come up with a drill to help them with something they want to work on. Last week I helped a couple of guys work on swingers, hopefully it helps them at the Worlds!

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Practice 10/6/11-

*10 min of dry fire focusing on trigger control and sight picture (thanks Pat for mentioning that because I did a bit of research on how to help this and make more out of my practice time)

*10 min of mag changes (focusing on keeping the gun in my line of sight, hand placement on the new mag, and re-establishing my grip after the change)

Practice 10/6/11 Follow Up- I definitely think that after this week's practice I want to buy a copy of SA's book on dry fire drills. I think that having a very specific focus for each session and having a plan is going to help me really use my practice time wisely. It will also give me a lot of ideas on what to do. I am sure there are things I should be working on that I don't even know exist!

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Steve Anderson's books are a must for me. Otherwise I just practice with no structure and don't feel like I accomplished anything. Steve has started shoooting a few matches again so there is a good chance you could run into him and pick his brain.

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Steve Anderson's books are a must for me. Otherwise I just practice with no structure and don't feel like I accomplished anything. Steve has started shoooting a few matches again so there is a good chance you could run into him and pick his brain.

I feel the same way. I just feel kinda lost with out a plan. I don't know enough about shooting to be making up my own drills. I live in Dayton, Ohio, so I have been at a few matches with Steve, and been able to meet him!

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Weekends without shoots feel kind of empty... But on the bright side I am going to take Brazos to the range so I can see how it feels. I haven't shot it too much and don't want to change to limited yet, but it will still be a fun day! I am also counting down the days until the painted grip for it comes in!!!

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Weekends without shoots feel kind of empty... But on the bright side I am going to take Brazos to the range so I can see how it feels. I haven't shot it too much and don't want to change to limited yet, but it will still be a fun day! I am also counting down the days until the painted grip for it comes in!!!

There's a match in the Louisville area tomorrow, a bunch of the Cincy/Dayton folks are coming. Might be able to catch a ride...

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Weekends without shoots feel kind of empty... But on the bright side I am going to take Brazos to the range so I can see how it feels. I haven't shot it too much and don't want to change to limited yet, but it will still be a fun day! I am also counting down the days until the painted grip for it comes in!!!

There's a match in the Louisville area tomorrow, a bunch of the Cincy/Dayton folks are coming. Might be able to catch a ride...

Thanks for the heads up! Family thought there was no shoot (since there was nothing immediately local) so planned a visit.

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Welcome to the addiction :ph34r:

Seriously though, if you really want to get better fast find a local GM or M class shooter that is willing to mentor you. Its usually best if this person attends most of the same local matches you do and also allows you to go practice with them as well. Having a mentor who is truly driven to help you get better is priceless. They can give you the pointers you need when you need it. It is easy to get flooded with too much information when you first get into this sport and not know how to prioritize what is best to work on first or last. An effective mentor will be able to point out the low hanging fruit you need to work on at the given moment in your learning process without flooding you with too much information.

I would be shocked if you asked some of the local big dogs if they could help mentor you and they turn you down. The vast majority of the people in this sport are willing to help other shooters out with anything. All you need to do is ask. Good luck and have fun shooting and getting better :cheers:

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Welcome to the addiction :ph34r:

Seriously though, if you really want to get better fast find a local GM or M class shooter that is willing to mentor you. Its usually best if this person attends most of the same local matches you do and also allows you to go practice with them as well. Having a mentor who is truly driven to help you get better is priceless. They can give you the pointers you need when you need it. It is easy to get flooded with too much information when you first get into this sport and not know how to prioritize what is best to work on first or last. An effective mentor will be able to point out the low hanging fruit you need to work on at the given moment in your learning process without flooding you with too much information.

I would be shocked if you asked some of the local big dogs if they could help mentor you and they turn you down. The vast majority of the people in this sport are willing to help other shooters out with anything. All you need to do is ask. Good luck and have fun shooting and getting better :cheers:

Thanks! This is great advice. I am so lucky that we have a great group of shooters that circulate to all the local matches and they have all been helping me out a ton! It is like I have a whole squad of mentors!!! :D

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You can learn a lot from watching other people shoot. But sometimes you can learn the wrong stuff too; Women and Men shoot differently, different stances etc..

If there are few women shooters at the matches you attend then try to find some video of other women shooting the same division as you, you can learn a lot from how they stand for different positions/shots.

There's some video at my web-site (www.britinusa.net) showing some of the top women shooters and that may help a little.

Running around with a gun is no different from driving a car, the first few times you got behind the wheel you were probably terrified of hitting something, all this information coming in, turn signals, changing gear, checking mirrors was overwhelming... The good news is that you learnt how to drive and now you don't give a second thought to this stuff, shooting is easier.

If you can drive a car, you can drive a gun.

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Practice 10/3/11 Follow Up- When doing mag changes, should you look at the gun or keep your eyes on the targets? I noticed I don't lose my grip as much if I do not tilt the gun sideways while putting the new mag in. What is best practice? Keeping the gun straight up and down or tilting it sideways?

Howdy Monica

Before i can tell you how to do a good mag change i need to tell you how to do a good draw. i teach a point draw and it goes something like this. 1: find the gun. get a good grip on the gun. 2: clear leather pull the gun straight up so that it clears the holster, meanwhile your weak hand should be moving towards your centre chest. 3: Bring your hands together centre of chest. 4: look at the target and punch the gun out towards the target. you front sight should come up to your eye and if you are looking at the target, on target. 5: Shift your eyes to the front site and squeeze the trigger. your finger should go onto the trigger once you see the front site and only the tip of your finger should be on the trigger.

Now onto the mag change. as you release the mag from your gun you should be pulling the gun back into position 3as your weak hand drops towards your new mag. as a side not here if you cannot reach the mag release button with your strong hand, hit it with your weak hand as you drop it off of the gun. you do not want to change your strong hand grip. once the mag has cleared the gun roll the gun to your strong side and lift it high enough so you see the mag well. Manny Bragg teaches to put a dot inside on the edge of your magwell that you want to see. your weak hand should have the mag in it with the index finger along the front (pointy end) of the mag. you want to aim four finger into the magwell moving it just before you get the mag there. once you have the mag seated roll the gun back into position three and do 4 and 5 from the draw. you can practise this dry in your basement with a timer.

I hope this helps.

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Practice 10/10/11-

*10 min of dry fire focusing on trigger control and sight picture, the objective being bringing up solid sight picture while being able to pull the trigger and the sight picture not moving while doing so, then going faster each time

*10 min of mag changes (focusing on keeping the gun in my line of sight, hand placement on the new mag, and re-establishing my grip after the change)followed by pulling up sight picture

Practice 10/10/11 Follow Up- I feel like it has been the best idea for me to keep repeating this set of drills for now because I have definitely noticed a tiny bit of improvement. It at least feels more natural. At one point, I didn't rack the slide when I thought I did, and I did not lose my sight picture or move the gun at all when I went to pull the trigger and nothing happened!!!

Edited by monicataliani
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Practice 10/15/11- I went to the range to do a bit of live fire. I don't remember exactly how many rounds I shot but just really focused on the same objectives as my dry fire practices. I was pleasantly surprised to see that my groups were much tighter than they usually are. Another thing that was a nice change was that post-shot, my sights were right where I had them prior to pulling the trigger. Although I do have to say Chris was right- my first few shots surprised me that the gun actually went off after all the dry fire I had been doing. I also did a tiny bit with mag changes but was pretty limited because I didn't take my rig with me. I also got to try an open gun. I think I am in love!!! :wub: I still am standing by the idea that I am so new that I need to just really worry about my shooting, not the gun. I am planning on sticking to production until after the end of next season.

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Match Reflections from 10/16/11 shoot at Miamisburg-

I got to start the match with the classifier. It was one that for the first string required shooting from prone. I have never shot a handgun prone before! It was really fun. I will have to post the video because I did not have my legs or my arms on the ground. I was basically superman-ing (or a lot of people said swimming) while firing. It gave everyone on the squad a good laugh and I especially didn't mind because I got my shots! The second string was on knees, the third was strong hand, and the fourth weak hand. I was surprised that it was pretty easy to pull up on the target with my sights lined up AND they returned to where I had them before I shot for the most part. (I know for you veteran shooters that this is a given, but for me, this is something I didn't even know was possible until, literally, yesterday!)

The next stage was one with 2 strings. They were pretty similar except the start position and there were a few targets that were removed for the second string. The first string for me was pretty slow. There was a huge possibility for breaking 180 because there was a need to go backwards in one or both strings depending on how you broke it down. I broke it down to need the backwards because I didn't want to take a chance hitting no-shoots. The second string was pretty good. I actually RAN for this one. I had already run through the course for the first string so felt a bit more comfortable. My time wasn't with the big boys yet, but it wasn't too bad. And, I got all my hits.

The last stage was one with 2 strings. It had a lot of clustered targets with no shoots and some walls. I ran the first sting but was pretty slow on the second because the fault line was back farther and there was a few walls and ports, so the shots were much more difficult and there were a lot of targets that were hidden except for in one position. I noticed everyone's times went up for that sting as well, so I felt a bit better about it.

After all of this I have a few things I definitely noticed. First, thanks Kevin! :cheers: That skateboard tape helped soooo much! I still need to work on grip post mag change, but it helped me get a firm hold for my draw and hold on while shooting. Second, I need to work on weak hand only because I couldn't keep my sight picture while doing it and my transition from draw to weak hand was pitifully slow (on purpose though because I thought that the extra time to get a good grip was worth it.) I also had shot, changed mags and then ran. I need to work on mag changes on the move. I had been doing them on the move (very slow move) before all this mag change work, but today I had not felt confident to change them the new way and run at the same time. Especially since my goal this match was to try to actually run. Running was pretty fun, for the record! B) Overall, I had a great day out there, and feel like tiny bit by tiny bit things are starting to tighten up.

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I have never shot a handgun prone before!

The first time I shot prone was at a USPSA match and I was wearing my usual ballcap. When I went prone and looked for my sights all I could see was the brim of my cap. :sick:

Learned that lesson the hard way.

That skateboard tape helped soooo much!

I'm addicted to griptape and ProGrip, it's good stuff.

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Monica, Three things regarding that video.

1. You have come a long way in a few months, great job.

2. Don't look down to your mags. Practice this in dry fire. Muscle memory, etc..

3. Never ever post a video with Larry ROing you. You look like you are only 3 feet tall!roflol.gifgoof.gif Just kidding ya'. We all know you are really just over 4 feet.laugh.gif

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