Bunchies95 Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 At the beginning of the year, I decided that I should attend the major matches in my area this year. The matches I have decided to attend are Space City Challenge, Double Tap and the Area 4 Championship. Attending these matches is the perfect incentive for me to improve. I have been shooting USPSA matches for about 6 months now. Originally I just entered a local match as a means to be more comfortable with the gun that I owned. The philosophy of it being a means to pass a Saturday lasted only a few matches. After consulting some of the better local shooters, I dove head first into the sport and bought all the equipment I needed. I decided to use the Springfield XDm 5.25 9mm competition model, modified by Springer Precision, to use in Production. Right now, I am a "C" class shooter at ~42%. Up until this point, my improvement has been minimal as my practice sessions have been unorganized and sporadic at most. Realizing that without focused training, I would remain an average shooter and improve at a very minimal pace. I am working on developing a training program for myself. The past couple of nights, I have been dry firing using the drills in the first of Steve Anderson's books. I have been focusing on the "core classifier" skill drills as my gun handling needs to be the first thing to improve. Tonight was the first night that I was able to get through all 14 drills as I had no idea what my par times should be. Here are the baseline par times: 1.) Sight Picture confirmation: 1.2 sec 2.) 10-Yard Index: 1.3 sec 3.) 10-Yard Surrender Index: 1.4 sec 4.)Turn and draw: 1.6 sec 5.) Strong Hand Index: 1.7 sec 6.)Weak Hand Index: 2.0 sec 7.)Burkett Reloads: 1.3 sec 8.) 6 Reload 6: 8.3 sec 9.) Surrender 6, Reload 6: 8.5 sec 10.) El Prez: 8.5 sec 11.) 6 reload Strong: 9.2 sec 12.) 6 Reload Weak: 9.8 sec 13.) Front sight Forward: 4.0 sec 14.) Front Sight Turn: 4.3 sec There are three clubs within easy driving distance that hold monthly matches. I will post videos of the matches when I can. I will also try and work in at least one live fire session a week, but until the time changes, it may be difficult. Last Saturday, I had a training class with Kevin Gentry of the Rudy Project Team. We worked on some basic movement drills, natural point of aim, longer distance shots, and target transitions. I learned quite a bit. A few of the tips offered immediate improvement, such as a change in my grip, but most of what I learned in the class was about how to practice. All in all it was a good session and I will most likely schedule another session closer to Double Tap. In order to improve, I need to identify what areas need to be improved upon. Based what I screwed up in previous matches, here is my list: - Speed control. I have gotten into a bad habit of shooting too fast and having Mikes/No Shoots or just poor points. This is expecially true on the first shot from a draw on shorter stages. - Moving into/out of shooting positions - Moving Targets - Long Range Shots - Reloads - Wide transitions - Calling shots. I currently have to see the hole in the paper/ hear the steel to know I had a good hit. I will be updating this as often as I can and post videos when applicable. Any comments/criticism/words of wisdom the members on the forum will be greatly appreciated. Hope to meet some of you at my first major match! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted February 2, 2012 Author Share Posted February 2, 2012 (edited) Stage 1 of the match I shot two weeks ago. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9stbqtGLHA8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I shot this stage fairly well, but my hits were not what I needed them to be. 135/165 points in 30.94 seconds for a hit factor of 4.3633. High Production HF was 5.8984 Stage 4 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rKQOl7hzYPA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I had a mental lapse on this stage. It wasn't the swinging bridge that got to me, it was a 6" steel that I kept hitting the steel protecting the hinge (and missing). I ended up moving on to other targets with hard cover, blasting through them and ended up with 3 misses. 78/95 points in 31.86 sec for a HF of 1.5066. High production was 4.7592. I don't have videos of the rest of the match, but it was a roller coaster. Stage 1 was clean, I zeroed stage 2 (120 ft shots with no shoots got to me), and the classifier (Payne's Pain was the best that I have ever shot it. The final two stages went fairly smooth and I ended the match in 9th out of 18 Production shooters. Edited to add video links Edited February 2, 2012 by Bunchies95 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Moneypenny Posted February 2, 2012 Share Posted February 2, 2012 Looks like a good solid start, some day you'll look back and say "wow, i started THERE" I'll take a look at the vids when i get to a better internet connection. practice practice practice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted February 3, 2012 Author Share Posted February 3, 2012 Another night of dry fire practice. I did drills 1-15; most of my baseline par times did not improve. But then again, I am not expecting immediate improvement. I have noticed in the past few dry fire sessions, that when I bring my gun up, my left eye tries to focus on the front sight. Then my right eye goes into focus. I read somewhere on the forum to try some clear tape over the weak eye. Man, does that make a difference. My right eye stayed in focus on the front sight the entire time. It helped me notice that the gun wobbles around the "A" zone, which was previously masked by the eyes fighting for dominance. Another thing I noticed, my splits are faster in dry fire than live fire. I'm still seeing what I need to see to break the shot. I don't think that I'm blinking in live fire, just losing the sight during recoil. It is something that I have to pay attention to in my next live fire session. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E K Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 Stage 1 of the match I shot two weeks ago. <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9stbqtGLHA8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I shot this stage fairly well, but my hits were not what I needed them to be. 135/165 points in 30.94 seconds for a hit factor of 4.3633. High Production HF was 5.8984 Stage 4 <iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rKQOl7hzYPA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I had a mental lapse on this stage. It wasn't the swinging bridge that got to me, it was a 6" steel that I kept hitting the steel protecting the hinge (and missing). I ended up moving on to other targets with hard cover, blasting through them and ended up with 3 misses. 78/95 points in 31.86 sec for a HF of 1.5066. High production was 4.7592. I don't have videos of the rest of the match, but it was a roller coaster. Stage 1 was clean, I zeroed stage 2 (120 ft shots with no shoots got to me), and the classifier (Payne's Pain was the best that I have ever shot it. The final two stages went fairly smooth and I ended the match in 9th out of 18 Production shooters. Edited to add video links From a fellow 'C' shooter who still has a lot to learn and who began this sport last Spring, I think your form looks pretty good. One thing you will learn in this sport is that there are ZERO shortcuts. I spent a lot of my first year focused on that 'SP...' word. I quickly found that is the worst thing you can do. Your focus needs to be on seeing your sights. As they say, you can only shoot what you see. A lot of dry fire will go a long way towards helping with this. Best of luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E K Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 Another night of dry fire practice. I did drills 1-15; most of my baseline par times did not improve. But then again, I am not expecting immediate improvement. I have noticed in the past few dry fire sessions, that when I bring my gun up, my left eye tries to focus on the front sight. Then my right eye goes into focus. I read somewhere on the forum to try some clear tape over the weak eye. Man, does that make a difference. My right eye stayed in focus on the front sight the entire time. It helped me notice that the gun wobbles around the "A" zone, which was previously masked by the eyes fighting for dominance. Another thing I noticed, my splits are faster in dry fire than live fire. I'm still seeing what I need to see to break the shot. I don't think that I'm blinking in live fire, just losing the sight during recoil. It is something that I have to pay attention to in my next live fire session. Which eye is dominant? I'm right handed, left eye dominant. I've tried shooting with both eyes. NO CHANCE! lol. I've tried taping the weak eye. This worked fairly well at distances under 10-12 yards. If the distances were longer I would 'sling' shots 1-2 feet left of the target! In addition, the eye taping gave me tremendous head aches. I finally abandoned the idea and continued to shoot with my left eye only. I could be wrong but I think your dry fire splits will always be less than your live fire because of the lack of recoil. As far as dry fire PAR times, I think for the most part your PAR times will decrease ever so slowly. I've been dry firing 5-7 times a week since December 30th and my times for the most part are about the same. My sight acquisition has dropped from 0.8sec to 0.7 sec. I've also dropped my Burkett reloads 0.1 sec to 0.7 sec. What I HAVE noticed however is much more consistency and confidence. Shoot me a PM sometime if you want to chat. I can certainly relate to where you are! You are doing well. Don't forget to remind yourself of that all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 Which eye is dominant? I'm right handed, left eye dominant. I've tried shooting with both eyes. NO CHANCE! lol. I've tried taping the weak eye. This worked fairly well at distances under 10-12 yards. If the distances were longer I would 'sling' shots 1-2 feet left of the target! In addition, the eye taping gave me tremendous head aches. I finally abandoned the idea and continued to shoot with my left eye only. I'm right handed and right eye dominant. At least everytime I do the eye dominance test I am (make triangle out of thumbs and pointer fingers with hands, look at object on wall, then bring hands up rapidly). The only problem I have is when I try to focus in close. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted February 6, 2012 Author Share Posted February 6, 2012 (edited) Bullet-Hole-february-2012-matchbook.pdfFriday I helped set-up my local club match. That was an interesting experience. Working with the match director, I learned some of the tricks that he was using to try and make the match and stages go by fast. His intention was to have a high hit factor day, as the last match beat us up pretty good. I've atached the match book for future viewing. Bullet-Hole-february-2012-matchbook.pdf When I got home, I practiced the start for the classifier, Mini Mart (CM99-21). I cut a shoe box into the proper dimensions and placed it on my table. While it wasnt a "shelf" per say, it was at about the right hieght and was still obstructed from above. I tried a bunch of different methods, and settled on leaving the reload magazine on the shelf. This was faster and much more consistent than setting the mag on the table or holding it in my weak hand. Just as I was getting this figured out, it started pouring outside. Needless to say, the match was cancelled. I did get to shoot the stages Saturday during tear-down, but it was so muddy that it wasn't much fun or useful. Luckily, the stages will be re-used next month. Sunday, I made some shooting boxes out of PVC pipe and practiced movement drills and bill drills. Having the Super Bowl on at the same time was a little distracting, but it was the only time available for practice and I still wanted to watch the game. I think it worked out, cause the distraction resulted in some of my best draws during the bill drills. I do need to figure out a good method of doing movement drills in my apartment. It is long and narrow, so to significant movement (~15ft), I have to take close "shots". I sort of made up for this by aiming for the head shots. Edited February 6, 2012 by Bunchies95 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted February 9, 2012 Author Share Posted February 9, 2012 Finally made it through the first two sections of Steve's book in one day, just took a morning and evening session . The reloads were causing me all kinds of problems today. I'm not sure if I was just trying too hard on them or not seeing enough, but I caught the edge of the magwell about 50% of the time. I finished the session out doing multiple Bill reload drills in a row to get practice reloading from all positions on my belt. When I wasn't paying too close attention to the reloads, they went smooth. If I tried to watch the magazine go into the gun or I missed grabbing one from the belt, the reload really suffered. I also had a really hard time on the moving while shooting drills. My front sight was bouncing all over the place. It's not something I am going to try in a match anytime soon, but I plan on practicing it at least once a week. Since points are so important in production, I'm not sure if shooting on the move is worth the risk. Of the videos that I have watched, some do and some don't. Here are my par times that I used today: 1. Sight Picture Confirmation: 1.1 seconds 2. 10-Yard Index: 1.3 seconds 3. 10-Yard Surrender Index: 1.3 seconds 4. Turn and Draw: 1.5 seconds 5. Strong Hand Index: 1.7 seconds 6. Weak Hand Index: 1.9 seconds 7. Burkett Reloads: 1.1 seconds 8. 6 Reload 6: 7.9 seconds 9. Surrender 6, Reload 6: 7.9 seconds 10. El Prez: 8.0 seconds 11. 6 reload Strong: 8.8 seconds 12. 6 Reload Weak: 9.8 seconds 13. Front Sight Forward: 3.8 seconds 14. Front Sight Turn: 4.1 seconds 15. 2 Reload 2: 3.8 seconds 16. Bill Reload Drill: 5.5 seconds 17. Head Shot Sight Picture: 1.4 seconds 18. Table Draws: 1.7 seconds 19. 1 X 6: 6.7 seconds 20. 3 on 3: 6.8 seconds 21. Box to Box on the Side: 5.2 seconds 22. Box to Box Forward: 4.5 seconds 23. Enter the Box: 1.6 seconds 24. Upper 6 on the Move: 6.0 seconds (movement focused) 25. Forward 6 on 3, 3 on 3: 10 seconds (movement focused) I did the walking the square drill but didn't have the timer on. I just wanted to really focus on how to shoot while moving in all directions. Hopefully I get out of work early enough to get some range time in tomorrow. Right now, I am planning on one day a week of live fire practice. I'd like to do more, and I plan on buying a press this month to facilitate more shooting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted February 12, 2012 Author Share Posted February 12, 2012 Went to the range on Thursday and did Brian's Tranitions drill to get my base line time. The drill was 3 ISPC targets at 10 yards spaced about 1 yard apart. On start signal, engage targets in following order T1-T2-T3-T1-T2-T3-T1-T2-T3, with one shot each. For every non-Alpha, 0.5 seconds was added to your total time. My baseline average of 8 runs was 8.845 seconds. I had 2 clean runs, 4 with 1C, 1 w/ 2 C and a meltdown run of 4 charlies (but it was fast.... :blink:oops ). I know have the second part of the drill and will be working on that this week. Also went to an AASA match this morning. It was kind of strange, as you had to shoot a certain color target a certain number of times. That system bit me in one stage as I shot a set of targets with 1 hit too many. The thing I liked most about this match was that that stages were all steel, except one. When I got into the one shot one hit mantra, I did well,, but it took most of the morning to figure it out. I'm working on a detailed plan for training and will post that in the next day or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted February 17, 2012 Author Share Posted February 17, 2012 I've been dry firing almost every day this week and have noticed a few things: Draw - If I try and make the draw as fast as I can, the front sight bounces around when I am extending my arms out. I decided to try exploding out of the holster, but start slowing down from the high ready position. Not only was I able to pick up the front sight sooner, but it wasn't bouncing around nearly as much. It is also slightly faster. I need to practice this method more to make it more consistent. Mindset - I did a few days of dry fire without a timer, just focusing on the visual aspect. When I wasn't worried about the time, things seemed to flow along nicely. I wasn't missing reloads, and I was able to call my "shots". When I went back to using the timer, the flow was gone. Things seemed rushed and choppy. When I was able to clear my mind and use the timer only as a start feature, I got the flow back. Once again I was able to complete the drills faster and more consistent. I've had this feeling where things seems to flow along nicely before. It was when I was racing karts on a regular basis. With that though, I didn't get into the mindset right away. It was usually after the first couple of corners. I would only have to get into that frame of mind a couple times a day, but would need to hold it for an hour at a time. Now that I have had this feeling shooting, I have to work to making that frame of mind on demand. Went to the range for live fire practice as well today. I had the session all planned out: what drills I wanted to run and how many times. After I got set-up a few of the other club members showed up and informed me that the club has use of only one bay during that time frame and that we would have to share. Not only did I not get everything accomplished that I wanted to do, but ended up doing a few things that I wasn't planning on. This is something that I am going to have to figure out the best way for me to handle. I had set up a few targets that I could work on the basic fundamentals with. These targets got swallowed up into a larger course of fire that could be shot as well. Here is what I learned from today's practice session: Accuracy really needs to be the number one thing I work on in every session. I did some group shooting at 23 yards, and while I never missed that target, I couldn't consistently hit the A zone. I even had a few D's. My draw to first shot has improved. At 7 yds, I could consistently hit the A zone in 1.3 seconds. if I pushed it to 1 second, it was more a matter of luck if I hit the A zone. Even at the 1.3 seconds point, I wasn't clearly seeing the front sight. I just knew that I was aligned enough to get the shot I wanted. I did a few baseline El Prez drills. They ranged anywhere from 8-8.5 seconds with 1-3 C hits. The C hits came off of the draw, last shot before reload or the first shot after. these are the areas I will need to concentrate more on in the future. The B-Enos tansition drill has improved considerably. I consistently ran it in 7.5 seconds with all Alphas, just by focusing on the visual aspect. This is over a full second faster than the baseline and a heck of a lot cleaner. I also tried slide glide for the first time. I am not completely sold on it as I did not shoot my gun as I normally have it lubed in the same session. It did stick exactly where I put it as it is supposed to do. I just need to try it both ways in the same session to see if felt recoil is reduced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 Took an RO course this weekend. It is something I highly recommend to anyone who shoots this sport. Even if you never plan on being an RO at a major match, the indepth discussions of the rules was well worth the class time. I have a better understanding of the rules in one day than in the couple of times I read the rule book. I attribute this to the instructor posing real life scenarios and what the ultimate ruling was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted February 27, 2012 Author Share Posted February 27, 2012 (edited) Today was the River City Shooters monthly match at Blackhawk Shooting Range. This past week at work was very busy, so I didn’t get to dry-fire much. That being said, I think this was one of the best matches I have ever shot. River City is known for having challenging stages and today was no exception. There was a good mixture between run and gun, accuracy and even a memory stage. My goal for this match was to shoot 90% of the points available. There were six stages but I only got 4 on video. Stage 2 The first stage of the day has given me butterflies in the past. Today, I got to the range early and did some dry fire in the safe area. I think this helped me get over some of the pre-match jitters. The stage was an upside-down T. I started on the left to make the reload to the next position easier, as I wouldn’t be thinking about the 180. One of my shooting buddies shot it the other way. I think that way was a little better as it offered a better angle of entry into the third position. I chose to shoot the last position strong hand as it was quite a lean around the barricade. Time: 32.51 30 Alpha 2 Charlie Stage 3 This stage was in effect a memory stage. The barrels were placed so that the targets were in view in one specific position. It was easy to forget what target had been shot. It was also an unloaded start with all ammo for the stage on the barrels or table. I have never seen this in a match before, but I handled it pretty well. Time: 29.37 28 Alpha 2 Charlie Stage 4 This stage had a caveat: only one scoring hit per target. I managed to keep my wits about me and only shot the targets once, except for a few makeup shots. Everything went according to my plan, just a little slower. Looking back now, I shouldn’t have planned to reload into the final position. It probably didn’t cost me any time, but it wasn’t necessary. Time: 36.22 15 Alpha 2 Charlie 4 Steel Stage 5 This stage was the classifier: CM 99-28 Hillibilton Drill. This stage was a lot of fun. As the poppers were forward falling, I shot the front four, left to right, then transitioned to the two outside poppers. This should be my first B class score . The RO gave me a little grief for calling for an overlay on my Charlie. It was a close call that I thought I probably wouldn’t win, but I had nothing to lose and he was a little too quick to call it in my opinion. Time: 9.94 5 Alpha 1 Charlie 6 Steel Stage 6 This was a pretty simple stage. Two paper targets on a half V shape at about 15 and 20 yds, with a mini popper. There was a barricade that had a mirror image of the above targets. One parper target was set in line with the barricade with a no shoot covering, which could be taken from either side of the barricade. I had a mental lapse on this stage. I shot it too fast and do not remember even seeing my front sight. I need to remember that these low point stages are survival stages. There is nothing to be gained here but a lot to lose. Time: 13.63 2 Alpha 8 Charlie 2 Steel 1 No-Shoot Stage 1 Basic run and gun stage. Most people chose to shoot this on the move. I figured I could get better hits without the risk of penalties by shooting in place. This was because the distance between shooting positions was about where I could get my reloads done in. If I had been shooting limited or open, shooting on the move would have been a must. I took a few minutes to recollect my thoughts before this stage and it worked very well. Everything went according to plan and my hits were good. Time: 24.91 31 Alpha 1 Charlie Match Review Looking at the videos, I didn’t have any major problems. There are a few things that I need to tweak: closer targets could be shot faster, need to move out of shooting position faster and I need to practice unloaded starts. While I didn’t meet my goal of getting 90% points, I think this match was a great result for me. With a little more practice, I should be B class in no time. Edit: After doing the math, I got 94% of match points. I have proven that I can do it, now I need to do it on every stage. Edited February 27, 2012 by Bunchies95 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted March 2, 2012 Author Share Posted March 2, 2012 Went to the range again last night. This time I actually accomplished what I set out to do. The amount of repitions was still a little ambitious, but I think I am still going to plan for ~250 rounds. After a little bit of warm-up, I started with group shooting at 25 yards. The goal for me is to do this enough times, that the distance doesn't bother me in a match. Eventually I would like to get out to 40-50 yards. Right now, I am having difficulty getting a consistent sight picture to get any decent groupings. The few that I measured were about 8-10" freestyle. I am thinking that next time I will work off a bench to see exactly what my sight picture needs to look like every time. The main focus on this session was moving into and out of shooting positions. I did "Mike's Movement drill" off of Ben Stoegers website. The targets were set at 10 yards with about 10 yards between shooting positions. The shooting positions were a bit difficult to set up into, as the targets were 90 degrees from movement. I really need to do more movement type drills in dry-fire and focus on keeping my upper body from jolting around too much. I am thinking that I am remaining too upright and need to get lower. Next session, I will really work on that. I finished up the session with a few bill drills, El Presidente, and BEnos Transition Drill. I am trying to build up a data base of my current shooting abilities. The bill drills went very well. I averaged 3.6 seconds with 0.4 second splits. By the time I got to the El Presidente and BEnos transitions drills, I was starting to get tired and hungry. That showed up in my shooting. Neither drill was shot to my abilities. Some of the things that I noticed this session: Movement needs to become smoother. Especially the upper body My recoil control is getting much better. I have noticed that I am getting a more consistent grip on the gun. Bring food to the range, even for a practice session. Take some time working on the drills without a timer, before and after I run the drills. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Babaganoosh Posted March 2, 2012 Share Posted March 2, 2012 Saving for later Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LINC Posted March 3, 2012 Share Posted March 3, 2012 Wow man, from the vids you made a lot of improvement in a months time. Looks like your practice is paying off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted March 4, 2012 Author Share Posted March 4, 2012 Wow man, from the vids you made a lot of improvement in a months time. Looks like your practice is paying off. Thanks a lot. I have been finding that a majority of my improvements has been with the low hanging fruit. Reducing the amount of major mistakes, getting more comfortable in a match setting and getting more familiar with my gun have helped a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 Yesterday was the monthly match at the BulletHole Shooting Range. This is my local club, so I helped set up the match on Friday night. Even though I wasn't working on a game plan too much during set-up, I became intimately familiar with the courses of fire. Come Saturday morning, all I needed to do was work on a game plan when the targets were put up. This match was a definate learning experience. Stage 1 This was a standards stage with two arrays of targets, (~7yds and 10-12 yds) shot over two strings. You had the option of shooting either the front or back arrays freestyle, make a mandatory reload, then shoot the other array strong hand. The second string was the same only weakhand. I chose to shoot the far array freestyle for both strings as they were the tougher shots. For the strong hand string, I shot Right to Left and Left to right on the weakhand string. I did this because I have been practicing re-engagine the first target again after a reload. The freestyle array I shot very well, dropping only a few points. I do need to work on my wide transitions some more. I found myself tracking the sight on more than one occasion instead of snapping my eyes to the next target. The strong/weak arrays showed an interesting result. I shot all alphas weak hand, but had a mostly charlies and deltas stonghand. I think this was because I know my weak hand shooting is not a strong point so I focused on seeing my sights every time. Stage 2 The was the classifier Mini-Mart. I practiced the draw and reload a lot in the days leading up to the match. This is my best classifier to date, shooting aroung 69%. I shot it aroung=d 7 seconds and only dropped a few points. I actually clipped a no-shoot, but it was determined not to have touched the scoring line. I don't know if I am lucky or just owe the RO a beer, cause it was dang close with the overlay. After I was done shooting, I noticed antoher shooter put his gun in the drawer in a different arrangement than everyone else I saw. I had put the un in the right side with the magazine on the left. He did the opposite. After thinking about it for a while, he has easier acess to the magazine during the reload, and the gun was just as accessible. When the match was over, I shot the stage again for no score to try out that method and to see what would happen if I really let it hang out. I was able to shoot the stage a full two seconds faster but my points showed it. I called two mikes on the far target, but they actually caught the the edge of the D and B zones. Even with those bad hits, the HF was still higher than what I shot it for score. I don't think I can repeat that performance every time just yet, so it was a good bet to shoot it the way I did for score. Stage 3 A very interesting stage that has showed me a lot. No matter how I looked at the target engagment, I couldn't get rid of two standing reloads, unless I wanted to move back and forth across the stage. I think my plan was very good, but things didnt quite go as I wanted. The plate racks were laughing at me. i had to throw in two extra reloads to stay on plan, and I even changed it by one target engagement. I kept my cool when things were going wrong and managed to finish very well on the stage. In one of my practice sessions in the next week or two, I am going to solely practice going 1for1 on the palte rack. Most shooters shot the targets behind them on the start signal and opted to shoot the four targets on the far left and right from the center. I figured I could save time by engaging one of the far right targets off of the draw, by not having to turn around. Since the stage was essentially a mirror image of itself L/R, I kept that plan for how I was going to approach the other half of the stage. Stage 4 The match director really wanted to screw with us on this one. The first set of targets had to be engaged with one shot, the second with two, third with three and final target with four. He also set the texas star up so that when a popper fell, the port that it could be shot through opened, and the star started spinning. This was achieved by leaving on plate off and putting a 5lb weight on one arm. After seeing the star activate a few times, I decided to activate it early and by the time I got there, it would be slowed down. I activated it off of my third shot and then shot the mmini popper in front of the activating popper. I called the hit on the mini popper and moved on. After I was finished, it was pointed out to me that it was still standing. I saw that I hit it a little lower than the calibration zone, but decided to ask for a calibration anyways. This is one of those golden moment where you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. After jokingly volunteering to do the calibration myself, my shooting buddy performed the honors. Now I knew that the popper would fall when hit, so I was hoping he would hit it high. No such luck, score stood as shot. No big deal. I am not counting that as a miss, because I would have done the exact same thing if I saw that it didn't fall. Besides the miss penalty, I really wanted the reshoot because I did not insert the magazine correctly on my first reload. Looking at the video, this cost me around seven seconds to remedy this issue. My first reacttion was to rack the slide, as I have ridden the slide lock before. I will be working on tapping the magazine first in dry fire for a while now. The good thing was, I didn't let it effect me at all and continued shooting well. Stage 5 Your basic run and gun course. I have never tried shooting on the move in a match before, but I figured that this was just as good of time as any. I just focused on smooth movement while advancing the stage. I shot very well doing this, getting mostly Alphas and even hitting a popper on the move. I had an uninteded reload when I went to slide lock on the last target of an array, but kept on moving. I thought that I had somehow put a third shot into a target. Watching the video, I realized my plan of shooting the popper when I did, doomed me to have this happen. The first set of targets was an 11 shot array, which brought me to slide lock. The next array I had planned on was 11 as well. From now on I will remember that I can only have one 11 shot plan at anytime in a stage. While an 11 shot plan with steel is usually not the best plan, I felt it was worth the risk as they were relatively easy shots. Match Review The things that I learned during this match: ALWAYS ask for a popper calibration, you have nothing to lose. You can only have one 11 shot plan in a stage at anytime Prepare for the event of a gun malfunction Set a stage plan for steel with more than one extra shot Another thing I noticed when looking at the results, is that the balance of speed/accuracy exists even with production. It is still in favor of production, but if a stage can be shot several seconds faster with A/C hits, the HF can still be higher. I have been focusing so much on gettin Alphas, that this math hasn't really entered into the equation yet. On a few stages, I got beat by shooters with less points, but significantly faster times. I know I can shoot as fast as some of them with similar points, but my focus is on getting maximum points. I think that I will continue this focuse however, not matter the stage design. At least for a while. Until I can reliably hit an Alpha on almost any target, I really have nothing to trade off with for speed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 Movement. That was the main focus of last night's dry fire session. I practiced moving from L-R and R-L across my apartment, trying to have the gun aimed at the target as I was aiming into my shooting position. I started slow, making sure I was seeing exactly what I needed to see, then sped it up a little at a time. When I missed seeing my sights or my footwork wasn't right, I slowed down a few times before starting to speed up again. I thought doing Crossfit was tough, but after an hour straigh of this, I was covered in sweat. I also threw in some reloads from time to time as I was moving positions. This really slowed my movement down, as I was focusing on the magwell. I also caught myself breaking the 180 on a few RtoL reloads when I was really trying to push the speed. This is fine in dry fire as long as I recognize that I broke the 180. I would stop myself, and go through the unload and show clear procedure. To finish out the session, I did some palte rack transition drills. Also, I set up some improperly seated magazines and practiced clearing this in the propper manner. I still caught myself from time to time racking the slide first before checking the magazine seating. Doing malfunction clearing drills for a few days in a row should ingrain tap rack and roll into my subconsious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiloindiatango Posted March 8, 2012 Share Posted March 8, 2012 Movement. That was the main focus of last night's dry fire session. I practiced moving from L-R and R-L across my apartment, trying to have the gun aimed at the target as I was aiming into my shooting position. I started slow, making sure I was seeing exactly what I needed to see, then sped it up a little at a time. When I missed seeing my sights or my footwork wasn't right, I slowed down a few times before starting to speed up again. I thought doing Crossfit was tough, but after an hour straigh of this, I was covered in sweat. I know what you mean - I have been practicing dry fire where I'm training myself to break and run to the next shooting box as soon as I fire the last shot, and those short sprints can take a lot out of you! There's a xfit box called Hammer Crossfit that actually does "Sheepdog" WODs where it's a WOD *plus* shooting. I love that idea! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 I know what you mean - I have been practicing dry fire where I'm training myself to break and run to the next shooting box as soon as I fire the last shot, and those short sprints can take a lot out of you! There's a xfit box called Hammer Crossfit that actually does "Sheepdog" WODs where it's a WOD *plus* shooting. I love that idea! I couldn't even imagine trying to shoot after or during some of those workouts. There have been times that I have to wait 10 minutes for my hands to stop shaking just so I could write the workout down in my log book. I worked with an instructor that made me run if I shot a Delta or Mike. It only took a few times running before I slowed down enough to get the shots I needed. He did figure out that running doesn't bother me too much, so he said next time it is push-ups . That will just end up being a downward spiral I think. Have a bad shot, do some push ups, no I can't hold the gun steady, do more push ups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 Last night I went to the range without a plan, so I just set up a box to box movement drill. I basically tried to replicate what I was doing in my dry fire drills earlier this week. I did a few runs with my previous method just to see what the time would be. Then for the rest of the session, I focused on slowing down before getting to the next position and having my gun up a ready. By doing this, I was able to shave round 2-3 seconds off of my time. My front sight needs to be acquired earlier, but it is a work in progress. I shot that drill until a friend showed up with his chrono. I had been buying my ammo from a company called "The Bullet Works". Everything made the power factor minimum, but some were dangerously close. Then I shot a few of my new reloads, and they came in exactly where I wanted them to be (130 PF). Thats pretty good, considering that I loaded up a handful of rounds just to do a function check with them, realized that the recoil was too much and dropped a few tenths of a grain off of the powder charge. Too bad that isn't what I will be loading in the future, but it helped me get my new press set up. A storm blew in while the chrono was being put away, but it never rained. We just moved over to the steel bay and worked on the plate rack until it got dark. As there were three plate racks set up, we had head to head to head competitions. I went one-for one a couple of runs, but on those runs, the plate did not fall. They were off center hits, but in a match, that would have been a reshoot. The biggest thing I learned wasn't while I was shooting. While picking up brass, I was picking up the brain of the range instructer and master class shooter. The biggest topic of discussion was on trying to get group sizes smaller. He said that most people focus on the sight picture when trying to shoot groups. 90% of my focus should be on the fundamentals of pulling the trigger. The reason that my group size at 25 yrds is huge, is because my group size at 7 yrds is big. It is the same angle over a larger distance. From my math oriented background, this made perfect sense. I think this weekend I will forgo shooting a match and spend my time just working on this aspect. I think it will be better quality rounds, not shooting for shooting sake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted March 14, 2012 Author Share Posted March 14, 2012 Went to the eye doctor last week as I have been having difficulty seeing my front sight clearly. Doctor laughed when I told him the reason I came in, and then spent the next hour talking to him about the competitions. After he found the correct perscription for me, he flipped between that and noting. I was suprised at how bad my eyes really are. Maybe being able to have 20/20 vision will help improve my shooting. Also got notice that I passed my RO exam, so I should get my certification sometime this week. On the actual practice front, I did some dry fire this weekend, but nothing significant. Just some reload practice, I am working on putting a pause in the motion so I can make sure that I hit the reload every time. I can get rid of it when need be. Today I went to the range to sight in my gun after installing a new Dawson Precision front sight. Then I focused on group shooting. Taking the advice of a local master class shoter, I put about 90% of my focus on trigger pull and the rest on sight alignment and picture. Before this, I was only able to hit something the size of the C zone at 25 yards. Here are the results from today: 6 Shot groups Freestyle 7 yards, 2.05" Freestyle 10 yards, 3.3" Freestyle 10 yards, 2.03" (Even more trigger focus) Freestyle 15 yards, 7" (4.6" w/o flier) Benched 15 yards, 6.8" (4" w/o flier) Benched 15 yards, 4.7" Freestyle 25 yards, 8" (5.7" w/o flier) Benched 25 yards, 6.2" (3.7" w/o flier) This is a significant improvement over the last time I tried group shooting, even with the fliers. Practice on this will continue, I want to get my freestyle 25 yard groups down below 4 inches without fliers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted March 15, 2012 Author Share Posted March 15, 2012 Stages were posted for the Double Tap Championship. They look pretty fun with some challenges. A macro level breakdown of the match: - 8/12 Stages have steel + All Poppers or mini Poppers + No more than 6 to a stage - Good mix of start positions + Holding object + Hands on marks on wall + Surrender + Unloaded (X2) + Sitting in boat + Hands relaxed - Very few no-shoots near targets + Most are to prevent shooting barricade - Moving targets (~10% of match points) + 2 Swingers + 2 dissapearing drop-turners + 2 Bear Traps + 2 Pop ups + 1 Rocking array of 3 targets - 2 Possible memory type stages - Lots of ports Preparation for the match will be fairly straightforward. I need to practice the unloaded starts, relaxed and surrender draws. The starts with objects are just a midpoint between the two norms. Moving targets need a little work, but I am not worried about anything specific. The theory is the same, just the direction of movement. Practice on swingers and bear traps. A mojority of the practice needs to be on movement. Not shooting on the move, just between positions. If I shoot majority of the points, this is where the the majority of my score will come from. Lots of shooting positions, as most arrays are about 6 shots. Reloads will be very important, it looks like some stages may take me to the fifth or sixth mag. I haven't made any plans for the stages yet. Some seem very straight forward, but others I will need to see it in person. Overall, it looks to be a high hit factor match with a mix of close and far targets in the same stage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunchies95 Posted March 21, 2012 Author Share Posted March 21, 2012 This past week a lot of things have occured. I have been pretty busy writing a proposal at work and creating a data processing program for a project. Went to the range on last week and had a terrible day. I couldn't seem to get the hits for the life of me. My mind was still in work mode, and all I could think about was programming my LabView Code; i could see that code better than I could see the front sight that was in front of me. That day ended up being a major brass pickup day. I would pick up a couple hundred rounds, then shoot a couple strings of a drill. When I started doing that, my hits got better. Had a bad string..pick up some brass. Rinse and repeat. I also got contacts in over the weekend, I am amazed at how clearly I can see the front sight now . My eyes musta been really bad. Now I just need to get used to them, which is the entire reason I didn't shoot a match on Saturday. I still went, but I was a dedicated RO/scorekeeper. Sunday was the Alpha Mike USPSA match. Like that past matches I have attended at that club, the day started an hour late, some of the stages were not legal, and there were no shoots every where. I was also an RO for the majority of the match. For the entire squad, there were only three people willing to step up to be score keeper and RO. We kept our entire squad running smoothly. Granted, there were a lot of new shooters on the squad, but some could have taken up the palm and did scoring. During the match I thought that I was shooting very poorly, but looking at the results, I finished as I normally do. I amassed quite a few no-shoot and mike penalties. I guess everyone had a tough day though since I finished fourth in Production. Match Analysis as I shot it: Stage 4 Simple stage shooting through three slots. Going into the first slot, I started shooting before I was really into position and had to make up a few bad shots. Did really well in the middle slot then moved to the third shot. Here there were two mini poppers and two paper. I hit the paper first, then the steel. I did not call a miss on the steel but thought I heard a hit. Saw a hit dead center of the scoring zone and decided to leave it stand, and make up a few shots on the paper that were bad. Even though I saw someone go out and paint steel before my run, they missed that set of poppers. Asked for calibration but it failed as I only had an edge hit. Stage 5 Weird stage. The WSB had you engage the steel from a particular shooting box, but engage the paper anywhere. This stage clearly was using the level 1 stage exemption rule. My plan on this stage was great. The first three shooting positions were 25-30 yard shots. The target arrays were three papper with a popper below the and a no shoot behind the popper. The first and third poppers were mini poppers. I decided to shot the first popper off the draw then move to the next shooting position. This removed a R-L reload which slows me down. Then I took the second array as intended, but didn't get settled into position before shooting the steel resulting in a no shoot. Probably should have shot the paper first, but that steel was very slow to fall and I saw more than one shooter have low hits. They wasted a lot of time starting to move then having to get back into the box again. The biggest reason I ignored the paper in the first shooting position was that the final array was a texas star @ 15 yds and then two head shots. There was the option of moving to 7 yards for the final shooting position. I took the headshots from the final position and this put me much closer on the initial three paper as well. That also provided me with a planned buffer on the star. If I would have taken the star and head shots from the same position, I could only make up two shots. Now if only I shot the paper as well as I shot the steel. Except for the second popper, I went one for one on the steel. That was my first time getting the star down in five shots! On the paper, I just outshot my front sight. My plan was good enough that it caused more than one shooter to change their plan last minute. Their performance just reinforced to me that I should never change my plan unless I have enough time to rehearse it multiple times. One shooter stood in the first box for about a second and a half before moving because his min was telling him to shoot the paper as rehearsed, but he wanted to move on like I did. Stage 1 By far my best stage of the day. I gamed the hell out of it as well. There was a swinger, that if taken at the end, could be shot static. About 25% of the lower A zone was visible as well as the entire head. I also noticed if I took a set of poppers a little earlier in the stage, there was no chance of hitting the no shoot behind them. Some of the closer targets, I need to learn to shoot faster though. Stage 2 - Triple Choice Classifier Did not do well on this classifier. I knew that it was going to be accuracy intensive, and had planned to shoot it in a certain time to get my hits. Right before the make ready command, the RO tells me that there hasn't been a HF above 1 so far due to people missing. I should have never loaded my gun, cause all I could think about now was not to hit the hard cover. First four shots were great hits, but the fifth I froze and broke the shot too late. About a foot low left into the hard cover. I had to really shake that off as I knew it was a bad shot right when I pulled the trigger and prayed that the bullet would fly back into my gun. The strong hand/weak hand strings went pretty good, as I was able to forget about the miss. I ended up shooting the stage a full four seconds faster than I had planned with two misses. Not sure what string the second miss was, as it wasn't even a full bullets width low. Stage 3 Pretty good stage overall. Biggest issue was I went into a position too hot and ran into the wall. Looks awsome on video though. Hits were really good on this stage and I think my plan was good as well. No matter how I figured it, I couldn't get rid of a standing reload without doubling back somewhere. After reviewing the video, I noticed that I went to close to the first array. If I would have taken it further back like planned, I would have had a better angle on the third target. I also got to close to the second port, which put me into a bad angle for the final port. Watching a master class shooter shoot the stage, I saw that he did not run directly to the ports, but angled into them so he could see the first target sooner. Good idea, need to practice that. I also dropped a magazine in the final reload, but recovered very well. I think the wall shook me up pretty good. Overall impressions This was the best I did on steel to date Take further, easier shots rather than closer tight shots Try not to let anyone get into your head Give up being an RO a few shooters before your turn. I think this was a big issue as I didn't visualize the stages as much as normal Forget about a bad stage and move on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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