beneficial practice for plates or not?

[skargoh]

I put up a computer printout of a plates setup on my wall. I have no access to a real plate rack, and generally shoot inside an indoor range.

When I get on a plates stage, It is still so new that it feels difficult to pay attention to front sight and not look for hits.

I shoot them slowly and deliberately, but I would like to speed up.

So, I put the target picture on the wall and set a par time lower and lower. Trying to transition and get a sight picture as quick as I can. Going faster and faster.

The lowest I got was 2.5 seconds still feeling like I got a good sight picture.

Then I used my s&w jframe to dryfire at it so I could manipulate a trigger too (i shoot flocks).

I got it down around 2.8 feeling pretty steady.

Is this training style helpful or am I building in a false rhythm that won't hold up in live fire?

Is it worth it to put artificial time constraints on yourself? Or will it harm my shooting due to getting sloppy to beat the clock?

Edited May 27, 2012 by skargoh

[skargoh]

Oh yeah,forgot to say that my plate times are 4-5 seconds usually. I only shoot them a few times a year.

[Kyle O]

I own a plate rack, and must say there is no substitute! Dry fire is great practice, and don't discount that, but use live fire when possible.

[skargoh]

I understand that but the question is more about Speeding up par Times to get used to a faster pace. Almost to force yourself to get used to a faster pace.

[DoubleA]

That is good to do to a certain extent in my opinion. If you spend most of your time pushing it based on a speed focus of having to beat a par time, when you are actually live firing it is highly likely that you will shoot with that focus as well.

What you really want is to do what it takes to shoot each plate more efficiently. I would spend most of my dryfire time focusing on correct execution and then throw in some reps with the par time to A)find out the time it takes you to do a rep correctly to monitor progress, and B)push your comfort zone a little in terms of how much you can get away with not seeing and still make the shot.

Speed is the observation, not the driving force. With par times it can be easy to get sucked into just beating the time which leads to sloppy dryfire and in turn will show it's consequences in live fire.

At your live fire range you can also shoot rows of dots at shorter ranges to mimic a plate rack and get some feedback on if you have trained correctly.

[skargoh]

I made this on the computer and took it to staples. Tried it after I did the par time speed up thing. I didn't feel that good about my performance on paper. I seemed to be dipping the 2nd shot low left , and then by the 4,5,6th plates was getting back to a good hit.

That's why I wondered if I may be doing more harm by incorporating speed into the dryfire.

[Kyle O]

I made this on the computer and took it to staples. Tried it after I did the par time speed up thing. I didn't feel that good about my performance on paper. I seemed to be dipping the 2nd shot low left , and then by the 4,5,6th plates was getting back to a good hit.

That's why I wondered if I may be doing more harm by incorporating speed into the dryfire.

Yes, you can test this in live fire like this! I might would contrast the circles some to get it more realistic "sight picture wise"

It looks like a good exercise, everything really does help though, dry fire, live fire, any exercise you do, I would think will make some difference. I personally can't attest to dry fire alone improving some live fire skills, as I have never tried that.

Plate racks should be shot just like any other target though. Nothing special required. Aim, squeeze, repeat until finished. I see folks get worked up at things like texas stars, or swinging racks, but it is all the same thing. Good luck, let us know as you improve.