vtbandit's range diary

[vtbandit]

I purchased my first gun started shooting this September and am hooked.

I am currently shooting in Production using a M&P (full size, not the Pro) and love it. It works well for me and is an excellent tool for learning. My USPSA number arrived last week, and I already have one classifier in the books. I live two miles from the Wyoming Antelope Club (WAC) in Florida and have gone to several of the Tuesday and Friday night fun matches. There are good number of excellent shooters who participate and several of whom are on this forum.

I’m hoping to use this diary as I work on improving my skills. I videotape my matches when I can and have been working on a dry fire setup in my small apartment for practice.

-Tim

[vtbandit]

I shot my first USPSA match on Sunday. 5 stages plus one classifier. I bombed 4 our of the 6 stages luckily did well on the classifier. My nerves got the best of me as I was very tense and tight during the match. Stage #3 (the classifier) and stage #5 were my best overall. I don't have any diagrams of the COF but am always open to critiques.

Edited November 8, 2011 by vtbandit

[vtbandit]

I tried to post a link to my youtube video but it said I didn't have enough posts. How many do I need?

[vtbandit]

Two stages from last Tuesday's fun match at the WAC.

A couple things I noticed.

1. I need to learn to call my shots or zero my sights. Several times I took a shot and started moving to the next target (both steel) and I didn't hit it.

2. Don't stick your gun in a port. Its wasted motion and time.

Edited November 8, 2011 by vtbandit

[joedodge]

Knowing the zero of your gun is very important, it will give you the confidence and ability to call the shots for sure. Your right about the port also your videos look good your fast on your feet Brians book is a great read especialy for the mental aspect of our game.

[vtbandit]

Live fire practice:

Last Friday I went to the local indoor range to verify my sights are where they should be and to see what kind of groupings I was capable of shooting. The good news is that the sights appear to be where they need to be. The bad news is that I'm not. Here are my groupings:

10 yards = 2.5 - 3.5 inches (3 times of 8 shots each)

15 yards = 7.25 inches (3 times of 8 shots each)

On a positive note, I did have a couple of hand loads that joedodge let me try and I was able to group them to 1 inch at 10 yards. They should be around 130 PF in my gun while mine are around 145 PF. I may look further at trying different loads.

[vtbandit]

Tuesday Night Fun Match:

I shot at the WAC Tuesday night fun match. My goal is to get to the level where I can consistently shoot ~90% of the total points, but averaged only 72% due to 3 mikes on long shots and C's on close targets that should have been A's. I'm going to do some dry fire drills from Ben Stoeger's website tonight and focus on seeing the sites. Plus I installed the Apex Competition AEK with the hope that the lower trigger pull will bring my groups in.

Apart from accuracy, I was happy with my performance. I've been practicing my movements and am reducing my time by taking smart steps. When I first started I took a lot of small steps as I moved from one array to the next. It looked slow on video, so I've been practicing committing to longer and fewer steps... definitely saves time. I also need to practice keeping my gun and chin up when I reload. I keep it up during practice but always drop it down to my stomach during a match.

Video will hopefully be posted tonight.