digby7's range diary

[digby7]

thought i'd finally start one of these.

Background:

Ive been shooting off and on since i was a kid, last july I got more serious about it and started going to the range regularly. After shooting 5k rounds through a kimber 1911 at 7 yards, I gave uspsa a try last july. 2 matches and a few practices a month and 18 months later i'm bumping up against A class (74.2%) and doing well in my class when I can get through a entire match without a brain fart or screw up of some kind.

In that time, Ive gone through a Kimber 1911 -> a Wilson classic -> a Wilson CQB + a marvel unit 1 top end -> a STI steelmaster -> a SVI limited gun and somewhere around 43,000 rounds. Probably around 13k I realized .45 was way too expensive to shoot without reloading so I switched over to 9mm and shooting minor in every division - reloading isnt likely to happen any time soon.

Now i'm shooting Limited and Singlestack and got wife approval to shoot nationals this year so this should be a interesting year.

[digby7]

the range I go to has match practice every saturday from 9:30am to 1:30pm - theres a static firing line where you can shoot a plate rack and a lot of ipsc targets at 12 yards. Theres also a practice stage that you can run through as many times as you want. Lately ive been arriving at 9, getting setup and running through the practice stage on the dot at 9:30 to squeeze out as much practice as I can. I think my max so far is 18 runs on the practice stage. A few of the guys I shoot with tell me theres not much benefit to going through the same course over and over but each run gives me a chance to try different things out, work on movement, work on my shots and get more time behind the trigger.

This weekend there was a GM and master level shooting shooting production/limited so that I could compare time/hits and see what it is they do differently on stage than I do. I noticed that on steel(or in this case, a bowling pin), they go almost 1 for 1 every time and that c's are infrequent and d's very rare. Also they can turn it on, on command. My first run was 27 seconds, after 5 runs i was down in the 17/18 second range. Their first run was a mid/high 17 and best run was a 16.9.

I shot limited and open and stayed about 1.5 seconds behind them for a 17 second course with equivalent points. That day was my last day shooting open as I had lined up a buyer to meet with afterwards and it was intersting to see that I can shoot iron sights just as fast as I can a dot/compensator with the same points. Open has been pissing me off the times I shoot it since the dot does get away from me from time to time and I have to hunt for it, it is awesome though for those long tough shots.

Some of the feedback I got for my runs was to stay lower when I was moving.

This run was one of the few that was almost all Alphas. I think maybe 1 charle and a nicked no shoot but it didnt hit the perf

Edited January 11, 2012 by digby7

[digby7]

improvement is going to be more than just shooting - also getting in shape.

Went to the gym yesterday and did alot of plyometric related stuff - I seem to have a problem moving quickly from array to array and though it feels fast, the timer doesnt lie.

Jumped rope for 10 minutes, shuttle runs, box jumps and then lots of core work.

[digby7]

dry fire really got away from me today. I work from home a good deal so I sometime take breaks to dry fire when ive finished whatever it is i'm working on. Did some for 20 minutes in the morning and then another 40 minutes in the late afternoon.

Worked on draws, sight acquisition, reloads. Ive noticed that my reaction times are pretty slow - watching a video of myself in slow motion, my hand usually starts moving after the buzzer has finished its beep netting a 1 second draw. At times when i'm relaxed this can drop down to a .8 to hit a 6 inch plate at 10 yards but its pretty rare. Did a whole bunch of grabs just reacting to the timer itself.

stuck some new grip tape on the limited gun today, went with the 60grit aggressive and used wayyyy too much super glue. Had rubber bands on to keep it tight and some of them ended up sticking, cleaned it up the best I could but i think i'm going to just try and wear the rest off through dry-fire and practice. Already doing a good job wearing the blueing off on the this thing and its only a month old.

[digby7]

getting ready for practice tomorrow - going to do singlestack and limited. Not sure which i'm going to start with.

Got my singlestack back from the shop today - had a new extractor installed under warranty since the hook ripped off the last one. Havent touched this thing in about 5 months, been shooting just limited and open and was slightly concerned that reloading would be a huge challgenge now after getting used to the black hole that is a 2011 magwell - especially with a dawson ice. Turns out to not be a issue. reloads go in smooth - must have been all that practice. The only thing i notice is that i have some issues grabbing the mags correctly from the mag holder. SS mags feel tiny in comparison with a 2011 mag.

I'm liking this bag more and more every day. Turns out a whole belt will fit in the upper compartment.

600 rounds of 9mm in the bottom and room for 2 guns.

Its going to be a good saturday - unless i give myself a hernia or throw my back out carrying this bag to the range.

Edited January 13, 2012 by digby7

[digby7]

great practice today. Got in 22 runs on a 26 round stage.

Shot a few at match pace (13-14 seconds mostly alphas)

Shot a few for accuracy ( headshots only, mostly alphas, a few bakers and the occasional mike 20 seconds)

Shot a few at full tilt to see what I could do ( 11.7 seconds - 2 mikes )

Then I switched from limited to singlestack and shocked myself to find that the times are almost the same. Plenty of space to reload on the practice stage though. Fastest SS time with 2 mikes was 11.95, within a hair of the limited time. match pace time was maybe 1/2 second slower but much, much closer than I thought it would be. I was going to have been happy with a 2 second slower time.

Limited gun has a 1.75 pound trigger and the single stack has a 2.5 # that feels nowhere as good - surprisingly had a few trigger freezes initially after switching to singlestack.

Worked on doing the foot shuffle to exit from a hard lean and I really like it. much faster than my old way of just leaning in the direction i wanted to go.

came in hot on almost every lap to the far right array with the port and I think its because i'm staring at the target i'm going to shoot through the orange netting instead of staring at the port.

Finally got a decent cadence going on one array

now its going to be tough to decide whether to shoot limited or singlestack when i gear up for a match.

feel much better about movement after todays practice.

I think next practice I may work on shot calling and try to shoot all alphas and make up the shot if i dont.

[digby7]

thought of a even better way to make next practices shot calling to stick. 10 pushups for every non-alpha, 50 situps for every mike. with 15-20 runs for a practice day, this will get ugly fast if I try and haul too much ass. goal is to shoot it at match pace and call the shots well enough so that I can make up anything outside.

[digby7]

going to a classifier match on sunday so I spent some time doing draws from surrender - maybe a hour and a half over the last 2 days.

at first i was getting horrible grips every single time and even nailing the beavertail with the web of my hand. Focused on eliminating all extra movement, getting a grip and rotating my arm up from the shoulder and then drawing from that position. much better after all that time. now it feels very comfortable to me.

Also worked on shifting my grip to drop the magazine. I have short thumbs so i usually run buttons on my mag releases but even with the button sometimes I cant seem to hit it. Last match:

28 seconds in

had a horrible classifier since it was cold(for california) and my hands were frozen. spent probably 2 seconds total during the classifier trying to drop the mag. still ended up getting a solid B-score out of it but it could have been better.

now when i get a horrible grip on a draw i practice shifting my grip to hit the mag release every single time. now again, it feels more natural. felt very weird at first just mainting contact with the gun with my pinky, thumb and part of my hand - was worried that it would almost come around and point back at me but it seems to be fine.

Edited January 19, 2012 by digby7

[digby7]

another bad day at the range but got a good learning experience out of it.

shot the special classifier match in the rain/wind so my hands didnt work right again. had issues getting consistent grips and dropping the mags just because the fingers had a little bit less dexterity. Got some packets of the handwarmers but didnt know they take 2 hours or so to heat up. next time i'll break open the package when i leave the house, not when the match starts.

Had issues calling my shots on steel - all hits on paper were generally good but for the steel i was trying to mow it down and probably went faster than it was a good idea. Did 4 classifiers 2-3x each and in almost all cases did better on the first run. Still ended up going from unclassified to a solid B in limited. I really wonder what i could have done had it not been raining and my hands a little warmer. Guess I'll have to see in march/april.

Also someone noticed that my slide seems to cycle slowly. much slower than his open gun. my slide is lightened with a 9# recoil spring and a bushing barrel so I would think it would cycle a little quicker just from lack of mass, but it looks like my thumb is riding the slide. The blueing is starting to wear off on that section of the slide and i had thought maybe it was from all the dry fire and dropping the safety in dry fire. looks like i need to figure out how to ease my thumb off a bit or go with a thumb shield. I think the thumb rubbing has slowed it down enough a few times for it to not return to battery. probably around 6-10 times in 4k rounds.

lots of stuff to work on.

[digby7]

shot singlestack and limited at practice today

Need to work on the plate rack, shooting it from a angle seems to not work so well for me. Also think i need to zero my gun as some of the shots I called on steel went over it.

The shot calling exercise was interesting, for some shots that were done on the move I knew that the sights were off and I engaged the next target anyways, some of them i was able to accurately call and make up. Spent alot more time focusing on the front sight today but I think i still have a bad habit picked up from shooting open - target focus.

I think at matches I just need to get my ass to position as fast as possible and then take my time shooting instead of rushing the shots.

master level limited guy came and shot it in 17 seconds, did not see his points but i'm going to assume he had maybe 1 or 2 charlies.

best run with the limited gun was in the 18 second range with 4 charlies on a 30/32 round count course.

I lost track of non-alpha count as well as mike count - though there were way more than I should have had for this exercise - some buddies came to the range with me that i hadnt seen in a long time so 1/2 the day was shot calling and 1/2 was screwing around and having fun at practice. I'll call it a even 400 situps/pushups that i have to make up this week for the non-alphas and 2 no-shoots i hit.

[digby7]

so i seem to either have:
- ok times with great points and choppy movement
- ridiculous times with mikes/deltas and awesome movement

need to keep practicing so I can combine the best parts of each of these.

Did 4 runs with mostly a/b and the occasional charlie at 13/14 seconds, 2 hoser runs getting down to 10.9 seconds
switched over to singlestack for another 4 runs more having fun than actually practicing anything - I may be selling it soon to fund a ridiculous limcat or svi singelstack so i may shoot it at tomorrows match without caring to just shoot it possibly a last time at a match. Edited February 5, 2012 by digby7

[digby7]

Interesting match on sunday - could not shoot the whole thing, had to leave after 4/5 stages to go pick up the wife and go to open houses. not sure if my concentration is off on these days as days where i can relax and take my time and not stare at my watch the whole time I seem to shoot much better.

shot singlestack at a match for the first time in probably 5 months. Ive been running practices with it but apparently a match is a little different. Shot with the local super squad and it was interesting to see how some of the guys walk the stage and then shot it. Right now, I think i'm better off shooting my own game on a different squad. I'm not at the point yet where I can really benifit a huge amount from watching them walk/shoot the stage and i'm a bit calmer when shooting on a more normal squad it seems.

flubbed the first 2 stages of the day fairly badly. hit a no-shoot on the first stage, got a reshoot for a stage malfunction and put another hole in the no-shoot. 2nd stage I stepped on a activator that was out of the shooting box and kept my foot on it for a good 2 shots.

3rd stage is the stage with the barrel on the floor for the last array and I feel I shot it well, probably could have hit the 2 steel a little faster, probably shouldnt have gotten hung up racking the slide on a empty chamber but that one had good points/time and I ended up 9th overall out of 81 shooters.

Classifier was weird - in dry fire practice i never ever flip the gun to the left side to try to get the mag out faster - for some reason in a match it happens all the time. need to look into that a little closer.