Best practice equipment questions

[HS101]

I am going to try to work on / refine my practice routine for 2012. Right now I shoot roughly 2 USPSA pistol matches a month, and occasional Steel Challenge match, and 2 GSSF matches per year. I also work in 3-5 multi gun matches, and 2-3 shotgun only matches.

My practice equipment includes:

Steel from MGM an GT Targets: a mini popper, a colt speed plate, 2 10" circle plates and a 1/2 IPSC target.

IPSC metric cardboard targets

Clay birds (mostly used for shotgun practice, but occasionally as tough pistol/rifle targets)

miscellaneous sized paper plates and note cards ( to simulate steel knock over targets, plate racks, etc...

I am thinking about adding a MGM spinner to the mix as well. It is a prop I have only run into at 1 match, but I think it is by far the most challenging. A limiting factor is the gun club I belong to does not allow steel targets on the rifle range, so more mini poppers or flasher style targets are out...

So, now for the question: What targets, steel or otherwise, would I be getting the biggest return with for my investment into my shooting? Is the spinner a good idea, or some other combo of targets?

Thank you

[beltjones]

Man, in terms of bang for the buck I don't think you can beat some simulated cardboard dryfire targets set up in your house.

Otherwise it sounds like you have much better resources than most. I would stick with what you have and spend any additional money on ammo and / or a class from a good instructor.

[Steve Anderson]

A C class shooter needs to be dry firing classifier/gunhandling skills and then training accuracy and movement in live fire.

It is less important what drills you do and more important that you track your progress on the drills you do.

With all the stuff you have, you could setup a low round, high movement field course and then track your time to each position.

[Paul Burtchell]

A C class shooter needs to be dry firing classifier/gunhandling skills and then training accuracy and movement in live fire.

It is less important what drills you do and more important that you track your progress on the drills you do.

With all the stuff you have, you could setup a low round, high movement field course and then track your time to each position.

Great Info!!

[HS101]

Thank you for the replies... I do need to refine my classifiers / standards style shooting... On field courses, I can routinely beat A and B class shooters, but the weakness in my "game" show up on standards, classifiers, etc... The basics are not my friend

Deep down, I know I need to practice what I am not good at, as opposed to practicing what I am good at.

Sometimes it is good to hear it from other people...

[Bigpops]

My wife and I are fortunate to have our own home range. Over the past 3 years we have purchased quite a bit of steel. Recently, after attending a class with TJ, we discovered how much can be accomplished with 3 targets. Don’t get me wrong plate racks, Texas Stars, dueling trees etc are a blast…but not required.

We purchased the portable systems made by NEVCO. (these targets incorporate a base, 2x4, hanger and mini IPSC target) The mobility of these targets allows us to move them around for various drills such as transition drills, accuracy, setups etc. Throw in a few simple 1x1 shooting boxes and we get some very good practice.

We use to set up “mini stages” and shoot them. Though it is fun and keeps things from getting stale, we found we only became good at shooting the made up stage. Plus we discovered that we were not tracking our results by doing so. Why would we? We were not going to shoot the same stage the next session.

Having a plan, timer and notebook are essential. Steve Andersons book, Dave Re’s card deck and Mike Seeklanders training guide have unlimited ideas and we use them. We even use the range and setups for dry fire, especially when working on a new technique or for really trying to hone something in. Better to drill it over and over then blast away!

We also use paper targets….often. I feel the steel can make us a little lazy sometimes as the mind gets use to hearing the “ting” instead of getting the good hits. Paper brings us back in with our accuracy and we seldom shoot a full target. No shoots, barrels, soft cover etc keeps us honest.

I hope this helps!

Steve

[Ben-Sons]

Thanks for some great tips!

[dravz]

Deep down, I know I need to practice what I am not good at, as opposed to practicing what I am good at.

Old rule of thumb I live by: Practice what you hate.

More than likely you hate it because you aren't good at it.

If I ever catch myself saying, "Oh man I hate doing [this drill]," I automatically double the reps. Keeps your attitude positive too after long enough.

(And this pre-dates gun stuff, it applies to any sport/practice.)

[ozdogg5]

Deep down, I know I need to practice what I am not good at, as opposed to practicing what I am good at.

Old rule of thumb I live by: Practice what you hate.

I can definitely agree to that. I used to hate steel (and any stage that involved them) and would should them horribly just because I had it in my mind that I was already going do fail. After practicing steel, my game improved overall simply because I was more optimistic.