Kit's Range Diary

[kiloindiatango]

Since this was our last A drill for Phase 2, I've also attached the summary of all my Phase 2 A stats. I really love having the "at a glance" look at six weeks' worth of shooting like this, especially since we're now scoring them in such a way that I can track hit factors (which we weren't doing at the start, as you'll see from the combined percentage accuracy scores). I shot 1,316 rounds on A drills at a cost of $144.76 for ammunition (0.11 cents per round reloaded) but definitely showed significant improvement over time - not just in scores, but also in skills and mindset.

[feederic]

That is some great progress kilo! The results across the statistics you've gathered are staggering.

[Chris Keen]

Very cool indeed.

I've always said Dry-Fire is great, but it will only get you so far. Live-fire is where you make the most improvements.

Keep up the great work. I look forward to seeing how much you improve with your current training program.

[kiloindiatango]

Thanks guys!

I've always said Dry-Fire is great, but it will only get you so far. Live-fire is where you make the most improvements.

If there's a weakness in my training right now, it's dry fire. I know it's an excuse, but I only have so many hours in the day to maintain a work-life-happyhusband balance, so I don't do nearly as much dry fire as I should. I often think how much faster I'd be progressing if I got in 5 hours a week of dry fire on top of all the live fire... but I don't want to make shooting an onerous "job" either. So I'll be content with what I'm doing and dry fire as often as I can and accept that for now. I"m sure there will come a point at which I won't see giant progress and I will have to up my game a bit, and perhaps then my prioritization methods will change.

I did get more work done on my trigger tonight, and my husband reloaded another 700 rounds for me so I'm ready to go again. Tomorrow we do the last day of the B drills for Phase 2, so there will be more Spreadsheet Madness.

[kiloindiatango]

My husband spent some more time on my trigger and I think it's where it ought to be now. I'm still getting used to it so I was a bit stilted at last night's practice but now I'm having light primer hits from the lighter striker spring. I got a LOT of malfunction clearance practice (6 rounds in ~250) and it was pretty annoying. We use Winchester primers and don't want to swap, so I guess my previous striker spring will be going back in tomorrow. I'm going to give this kit another week or so but I sure hope it smoothes out - this has had significant negative impact on my last two practice sessions and I don't like how it skews my performance.

Yesterday's practice was our last night of the six weeks of Phase 2 B drills (movement). I worked on shooting "sooner" as I came around the barricade on the Short movement drill - as opposed to "faster." Nate noticed I was coming way too far past the barricade and then settling into a position and THEN shooting. I cleaned that up. I also learned to stay in a low center of gravity stance on arrival in the shooting "box" on both short and long movement.

Previously on the short movement drill I'd come around the barricade and STAND UP and shoot, then bend my knees and move to the next position and STAND UP again.... and on the long movement, when I'd arrive at the shooting box my feet would be inches apart, which made it difficult to explode sideways to the next shooting box. Movement is a big challenge for me and something I need to spend a lot more time on in dry fire, but i"ve definitely made progress during Phase 2.

Using those techniques, the last string on short movement was the best I've done on this drill to date. In other happy news, I got a 2.10 reload during long movement! It frustrates me that I can't be more consistently like that.

I'm not happy with my hit factors from last night, but between trigger and ammo issues I'm just going to chalk it up primarily to equipment malfunction and make peace with it.

As usual, week-to-week comparison spreadsheet (sad though it is) is attached.

Edited March 2, 2012 by kiloindiatango

[kiloindiatango]

And since we're done with six weeks of Phase 2-B, here's the full spreadsheet analysis for B drills for that time frame.

[kiloindiatango]

Last night I spent about three hours knitting socks while catching up on The Walking Dead. I don't know if y'all know this, but knitting is hard work on your hands similar to gripping a gun (at least the way I do it). I came to practice today and limp-wristed my weak-hand-only stuff to the point of THREE stovepipes followed by double-feed malfunctions in only six shots. Weaksauce!!!! I buckled down on grip and still had it happen one more time during practice. Oh well. Guess I need to do more deadlifts and pullups. On the bright side I only had two light primer hits.... which is two more than I'd like, but better than the last practice. I've gotten used to this trigger and I'm even starting to like it.

The one negative in today's practice was that I had a flare-up in my plantar fasciitis after Thursday's movement drill practice (three hours sprinting on concrete = not always a good thing) so I shot through some serious pain today. But even with that clouding my brain I maintained pretty steadily compared to last week's stats.

Today's practice was our last C drill of Phase 2. I surprised myself with a 2.05 reload on my El Pres today (and I'm back to shooting that one in low B-class) and had better accuracy across almost every drill. That Long Range Challenge is killer - we only have 18 yards at the indoor range so we do it with head shots only and wow. It will humble you fast. The other positive in today's practice was in my Multi-Position drill - I am pretty spry at dropping to a kneel and popping back up, and I focused on improving my splits on the body shots (since I was getting all As and could afford to speed it up) and saw some nice improvement.

Week to week spreadsheet is attached:

Also at practice today - I got sick of my recently-trimmed bangs getting in my eyes so I used target pasting tape to hold them back (worked GREAT by the way). My teammates made fun of me, then joined in on my signature look. We also dubbed ourselves "Team Invisible Doubles." Hah!

Edited March 4, 2012 by kiloindiatango

[kiloindiatango]

Today's practice also wraps up the entirety of Phase 2! Here's all my C drill stats in one place. I'll do some analysis on my phase 2 stats later this weekeend and see what I've learned over the past 6 weeks. But for now, Mass Effect 2 awaits.

[kiloindiatango]

I state for the record: the interim-phase skills test is exhausting. Or maybe I needed more coffee!

My stats today were very interesting when compared to my skills test six weeks ago. I thought for sure I'd have gains in the draw and reload, and I did... but they were pretty marginal. Where I am ACTUALLY picking up a lot of time is on my splits and target acquisitions, especially at longer distances. According to my skills test, after the four weeks of Phase 1 and six weeks of Phase 2, I've gone from a 37% D class shooter to a 62% low B class shooter. I wonder where I'll be after I finish the next six weeks? I'm pretty confident I'll hit my goal this year, at least!

For Phase 3, it's time to Get Serious and stop slacking off on my dry fire. I'm going to commit to three days a week of dry fire with no skipping! When I watch my practice videos I can see my movement it just too slow. I am 37 and very physically fit - I should not be moving slower than my shooting partners who are 7 years older than me. Ridiculous!

I did have numerous headaches with my ammo again, and when I got home I immediately swapped out the lighter striker spring for my stock one. It's just too much of a pain to switch primers to accomodate the lighter one. I'm still not convinced that I love this trigger, either.

Skills test numbers attached:

[Chris Keen]

Time mends all wounds (getting used to your new trigger) ..... but while you are waiting, you waste time that could be spent in more productive means! Go with what works, and get back to work!

[kiloindiatango]

Yesterday was my first time running the A drills on Phase 3 (numbers attached). Talk about brutal. Let's take all the hardest drills and then push them back another two yards why don't we! In a way it's nice because it forced me to focus more and make certain I'm solidly on that front sight.

I'm getting more consistently aggressive on my draw, which was an especially good thing considering most of these drills are draws to head shots at 12 yards. During my initial zeroing groups I finally realized I was shooting a good 5" above where I was holding, so I adjusted my sights. As a result I had far better accuracy on all my X-drills in general, and all my "misses" for the day were just shots that went low into the body because I had subconsciously begun holding lower before.

The multi-distance drill showed me I really need to work some Bill Drills even though I hate expending that much ammo. I got trigger freeze EVERY time on the 3 yard target. I'm still consistently getting B-class scores on my El Pres even though I had a mediocre 2.42 reload this time. Dry fire should smooth that out and make it more consistent (and I am meeting my dry fire goals still!)

I was actually pleased to get through this practice day. I work in law enforcement and had a particularly emotional rollercoaster of a 10-hour shift before this practice... and because it was our first time doing these drills there was more of a learning curve and I ended up on the range for four hours (with two shooting partners). My mind was not in the game for the first few hours, and by the time I regained focus, I was so tired I was getting clumsy. On the Multi-Distance drill I flubbed *all four* reloads. On the first one I smashed my pinky finger between the base pad and the mag well (oww), and on the other three I dropped my first mag and had to go to my second. (Also oww.) But I also look at it as a form of stress innoculation.... this is just a game, but it has applications for me in real life. I need to know what it feels like to be mentally and physically exhausted and yet know I can still perform complex shooting tasks with speed and accuracy.

....and at least we made a fun barricade.

[kiloindiatango]

I haven't slacked off on practicing, I've just slacked off on getting my post-practice stats and analysis done so I can write about it! I've now made it through all three Phase 3 sessions.

Session B includes a lot of movement, which is still a weak area for me, although I've seen plenty of improvement since December. Shooting and Moving Multidirectional is the same thing we've been doing, but now at 15 yards instead of 10. I got pretty good hits despite the increased distance, which is a sign this training is working. Shooting and Moving Aggressive Entry is a new drill, and helps me work on stepping into and out of a shooting position.... sort of a "move fast - then slow - then fast" scenario. I had very few misses (three total) on my B session practice and FINALLY conquered the one-handed shooting benchmarks. I also had a 2.40 reload to a head shot, which is pretty great for my skill level!

There was a match three hours' drive west of here but I decided I needed practice more than I needed to shoot the match. I did Session C today.... and let's just say that the Strong Hand/Weak Hand X-Drill at 10 yards is the stuff of nightmares. It took five strings for me to find the "sweet spot" of timing and sight picture where I would no longer drop my head shots an inch below the head (turning them into misses). The Glock just doesn't fit my hand well for one-handed shots (I'm a miniature human) so I have to try to grip like crazy to pull them off. I find that if I can concentrate on keeping the gun perfectly vertically level, I do much better on these one-handers. It's just so tempting to allow it to cant a bit for comfort!

I did very well on my Long Range Challenge (still doing head shots at 18 yards due to range limitations). This is drill that has slowly been teaching me patience and trigger control. My multi-port drill (now at 15 yards) went well, and my Target Acquisition drill went even better. It wasn't until I got sloppy on the last run of the latter than I dropped deltas and spoiled a really nice high hit factor streak. My magazine got stuck on my El Pres today but sometimes these things happen. Overall it was a good practice.

I do think Session A is so difficult with the high round count that I'm shifting my practice schedule around so I can hit that one on the weekends instead of at the end of a ten hour shift. I'm also going to remove the timer from my dry fire sessions for a bit so I can focus more on perfect repetitions. I've found I start chasing the clock and get sloppy and I don't want to train into that.

In other news, I finally moved to my own domain name! So you can find all my range diary entries and videos at kitlear.com. Numbers for sessions B and C are on the site this time since they exceed my quota here.

[Chris Keen]

In other news, I finally moved to my own domain name! So you can find all my range diary entries and videos at kitlear.com. Numbers for sessions B and C are on the site this time since they exceed my quota here.

WOW!!! I am so jealous ....... I mean I LOVE that you got your own domain name, but I HATE that some weirdo from Canada owns the domain I want at www.ChrisKeen.com ..... :( I keep waiting for Canada to freeze over so I can snag it, but so far this Global Warming crap (which I love!) isn't letting me have my wish!!!

[kiloindiatango]

WOW!!! I am so jealous ....... I mean I LOVE that you got your own domain name, but I HATE that some weirdo from Canada owns the domain I want at www.ChrisKeen.com ..... :( I keep waiting for Canada to freeze over so I can snag it, but so far this Global Warming crap (which I love!) isn't letting me have my wish!!!

For a long time I was at kiloindiatango.com, but when I stopped blogging for awhile some other guys picked it up and they're still renewing. So you could always do a variation, or use your middle name... or give yourself a new nickname. Or just offer them lots and lots of cash.....

I like leanmeankeenmachine.com personally.

[Chris Keen]

So you could always do a variation, or use your middle name... or give yourself a new nickname. Or just offer them lots and lots of cash.....

I like leanmeankeenmachine.com personally.

LMAO!! I agree for the most part, but I'm half-way embarrassed that someone might actually try to look up the domain ChrisKeen.com and see that hideous picture, and think I'm somehow connected with it! I guess that's not really within my control, so I wont worry about it. Haha

[feederic]

SO I looked up my name, and I too have been preempted by a Canadian also! It's not as bad as Chris Keen though Funny, it's my identical name, and even the work history and interest match mine.

"When I was younger I used to lay in my twin-sized bed and wonder where my brother was."

-Mitch Hedberg

Kit, I hear you about becoming lax on documenting progress sometimes. It does take extra energy on top of already long days I bet but it's the only way to truly track your progress in a definitive manner and goes a long way towards future planning. Your range journal is definitely motivating me to get the correct tool to track my progress.

[kiloindiatango]

Kit, I hear you about becoming lax on documenting progress sometimes. It does take extra energy on top of already long days I bet but it's the only way to truly track your progress in a definitive manner and goes a long way towards future planning. Your range journal is definitely motivating me to get the correct tool to track my progress.

This week was hard because it was our first time doing the Phase 3 drills, so set up took longer as well as the discussion about proper techniques. I worked from 7am to 5pm, then shot from 5pm to 9pm. And I go to bed at 10pm, so the chances of me leaving the range to sit in front of a spreadsheet were pretty much nil! But I knew I'd catch up over the weekend. I do find it very useful to look at the numbers as soon as possible after a practice. For some reason typing them into the sheet and comparing them to previous numbers is a lot more helpful to me than just writing down my metrics while I'm at the range. I begin actively thinking about what actions led to which numbers and how I can improve things next time.

In part I'm also doing this to justify to myself that this system works. At the end of the four months (now only 5 weeks away) I should be able to show obvious skill gains and relate that to the time and money I spent getting there in a meaningful way. I'm still classified D-class as of today, but I expect to hit C on the next re-calculation this week, and if I'm REALLY diligent maybe I can hit B by the end of this cycle instead of the next. It would be nice to have to revise my goal upward!

Our local match season starts this coming weekend,and I'm excited about that too!

[kiloindiatango]

With today's uspsa.org classifier update, I am now officially C class in Production! Go me!!!! Now the race to B class is on!

[Nate]

As a reminder, production scoring sucks. Shoot "A's". WPA

[kiloindiatango]

Once again, I'm not slacking on practice, just on posting stats - I'm three days behind on putting my numbers into spreadsheets! Got too many spring cleaning projects around the house to feel like typing in Excel. But here's a match report.

Today was the season opener USPSA match at my home range. There's a new competitor clinic today, so while the new folks are in the classroom, the rest of us got to go out and shoot a three-stage mini-match. Incidentally, our new competitor clinic was so popular it not only filled up well in advance, but the club is hosting a second one to deal with the overflow people - should be a busy season! It rained and snowed off and on all day yesterday …and started snowing right as the match began. *sigh*

My first stage was Opener. The first target was a diagonal hardcover partial and I sent one shot about two inches over the hardcover line in the A zone. If not for that I'd have shot this match clean! On this stage I scored 75/80 points with the 10pt penalty in 12.64. My reload was sluggish due to cold hands. And I had to shoot the big steel three times to get it to fall. Other folks shooting 9mm had the same problem. We probably should have calibrated it, but everyone just drilled it until it fell, so I did the same thing.

Next I shot an El Presidente with 44/60 points in 8.60. That's HF 5.116 which is a C-class 49.8609%.  My technique looked pretty good on video, but I sadly put two deltas on the first target, dropping this into C-class territory. I'll never understand how I can shoot it at a B level 8 days in a row in practice and then come out and shoot a C!  Except that it was pretty cold out. Every reload I did on every stage felt like I was moving through molasses to get to the mag release because my hands were so cold. After reviewing my vids a few more times I remembered how I got those two deltas - I got an imperfect (low) left hand grip coming out of the holster on the draw and didn't correct it right away. I need to spend a lot more time in dry fire on the draw. Nate noticed this week that I need a shim on my holster to keep it from shifting up and down on my belt, which is why that's happening. Pretty soon I'll have fixed all my equipment issues and won't have excuses anymore!

The last stage was A Little Thing (58/70 pts, 22.03).  I loaded out of my first mag pouch (rookie mistake!) which meant I had to go to my second pouch for the reload.  And again I had a tough time moving my frozen thumb to the mag release.  Otherwise it wasn't too shabby. I could do a better job of driving to the next target more crisply, but I didn't follow the gun and I stuck to my shooting plan.

But here was the best part - this was my first time officially ROing!!!! (Which is probably how my hands stayed so cold).  I warned my squad ahead of time that I was noob and they promised to correct my mistakes and be forgiving.  It was challenging, too - one shooter got an extra shot and extra hit on a virginia count stage so I had to work out those penalties, and another shooter failed to engage a target.  Other than that I felt like it went pretty well and I appreciated my squad being patient with me.  I love yelling out "two alpha!" when I'm scoring targets.   I will be ROing at Area 1 next month so I'm trying to get as much practice as possible.

Here I am ROing in my bright blue hat (I am very proud of that hat):

I got some custom-molded hearing protection recently and it works GREAT.  It's especially nice because I could wear my hat down over my ears to keep them toasty, plus my ears don't hurt from having the muffs squish them against the frames of my glasses.

Even though I felt a little down about that hardcover mike and my slow reloads, this was still a great little practice match.  Next week we have a Special Classifier match so I hope we get warmer weather for that!

My videos are on my blog post here: Frosted Mini-Match.

[Nate]

Kit, as a reminder about how important shooting A's is, Scott won the match by about 3 points. I shot one "D". If I trade it for one A I'm set.

[kiloindiatango]

Been shooting so much I haven't had time to post (I know, this is getting old)! I practiced all night Friday, then shot a match Saturday, then shot *another* match today!

Fortunately I already typed up my self-critique and posted videos on my blog here for today's match. In summary, I shot five classifiers, three of which should theoretically inch me up through C class. I'm currently a smidge under 45%, and those three were 50%, 48%, and 61%. I don't want to talk about the other two. Blech!

I also placed 3rd overall among 29 shooters in Production, AND had a stage win! I was pretty excited about that.

I'll recap the Saturday match after I've had some sleep!

[feederic]

Been shooting so much I haven't had time to post (I know, this is getting old)! I practiced all night Friday, then shot a match Saturday, then shot *another* match today!

Fortunately I already typed up my self-critique and posted videos on my blog here for today's match. In summary, I shot five classifiers, three of which should theoretically inch me up through C class. I'm currently a smidge under 45%, and those three were 50%, 48%, and 61%. I don't want to talk about the other two. Blech!

I also placed 3rd overall among 29 shooters in Production, AND had a stage win! I was pretty excited about that.

I'll recap the Saturday match after I've had some sleep!

Your drive is very motivational. I need to get myself out and shoot some actual matches instead of training all the time.

How often do those classifier matches come around for you?

[seancswife]

Hi Kit, So awesome to read your progress! I think I want to be like you I read your 1st post and had to laugh, because I just started Cross fit and competitive shooting last year. I volunteered a ton at matches so this year I want to actually get better at shooting. I don't have anyone to practice with, but I think i will try the system you are doing, sounds great. I shoot USPSA and IDPA, just barely a marksman in IDPA and D in USPSA. So for this year, even if I just become a better D and marksman I will be happy. Always happy to see other ladies on the range!

Just ordered Mike Seeklander's book, Your Competition Handgun Training Program. It's gonna be a long 4 or 5 days to delivery.

Edited March 29, 2012 by seancswife

[kiloindiatango]

Your drive is very motivational. I need to get myself out and shoot some actual matches instead of training all the time.

How often do those classifier matches come around for you?

Thanks feed! I am finding having shooting partners REALLY helps with accountability. There are days when I really don't want to go shooting, but I know I HAVE to because I have a training date set up! And I'm sure the guys feel the same way sometimes. I still haven't missed a single practice since mid-December when we started. My goal this weekend is to FINALLY get caught up on typing in my stats. Had a fantastic shooting practice tonight, for example!

It seeems like clubs do a classifier in the early spring and one in mid-summer around here. I know Spokane had a classifier match in mid-February, I think Bozeman had one in early March... then Big Fork had one last Saturday and Missoula on Sunday. Missoula will then have another around August or so. It's almost like they time it before Area and then before Nationals.