Cody M's Range Diary

[polizei1]

Hi everyone, my name is Cody Meyer and this is my range diary!

Background:

I’m currently 22 years old, I shot a couple of times when I was younger, but really started shooting when I joined the Marine Corps in 2009 (mostly rifles). I started shooting pistols and USPSA in July/August of 2011, and have a handful of matches under my belt. By 10/23/2011, I had my first classification as “D” class (low 30’s), not what I was hoping for, but I couldn’t ask for much more.

Fast forward a bit to this season, just last month I jumped up to a C class, 53.65%. Quite an improvement early on in the season, but I’m still not happy. Up until this point, I’ve only shot local matches, however I did have an opportunity to shoot the Ohio Sectional Championship and my first level 2 match this past weekend. If my calculations are correct, it should bump me up to 59.4%, just shy of making B class. To this point, I only have 12 (including the Ohio match) classifications, and being a new shooter, I have plenty of time to improve!

Now with all that said, right now due to financial concerns, I’m not able to join a local club and practice live fire, and ammo, even though I reload, is expensive. Currently, the only practice I’m getting is shooting two local matches/month, if possible. I’ve done some dry-firing in the house, but I normally just show up and shoot.

The reason for the diary is so that I can keep a log and make myself try harder, now that I see the potential I have after shooting the Ohio Match. I’m shooting Single Stack Minor, a 9mm STI Spartan. Last month’s match at MRPC, I took 1st in Single Stack out of 10 shooters. Not the most significant goal, but it did feel good. For the Ohio Match, I placed 17/35 in Single Stack and 181/306 overall. Considering how new I am, and having essentially “no practice,” I think I held my own, even having two completely blown stages. I finally feel like I have "potential" in this sport.

At this point, I’m on the edge of making B class, and I really want to push myself to become a better and more competitive shooter, and honestly I’m not quite sure how to. I don’t have any formal training besides the military, and I don’t know any of those fancy “shoot better” books or DVD’s. Any ideas of what I can do in my house to improve my shooting?

Also, I know this is an extremely long shot, but if anyone around the Cincinnati, Ohio area needs a shooting partner, I’m certainly eager to learn. Thanks for reading my diary!

Edited May 28, 2012 by polizei1

[monicataliani]

Hi Cody! I am so glad you started a range diary so I can harass you the way you do to me...

I just wanted to say it was awesome to shoot with you at OH! And thanks for videoing me! The pics in my range diary and on my shooting fb are pulled from the videos you took! The videos were really good BTW!

It seems silly me giving you advice since you have more experience than I do, but you did ask about something I have spent a little time with- You know I am a big fan of dry fire. I have tried a LOT of different things with it but I have to say the Steve Anderson book is where it is at for me. It has three sections: Classifier Skills, Match Skills, and Steel. It is very user friendly and easy to get the point of each drill. I am inpatient and don't feel like reading a novel in order to dry fire. I liked it because I could pick it up and look at it for a few seconds and knew just what to do. He even talks about the things to focus on for each drill. He then gives you starting par time goals and then where you should end up AND tells you where he is at. It has a page for each drill to record your times. It is also easy to set up. For that book I made 3 mini sized USPSA targets and put them up (on the entertainment center if you must know) and 6 post-its (in the dining room) (the paper plate idea is cool but in my opinion they were WAY too big.) I also bought 2 10 ft sections of tiny plastic pipe (they cut it for me at Lowes) and then 8 of the 90 degree angle things and made 2 boxes. It is nice because you can take them apart and store them when they are not in use. And it was less than $5 worth of stuff. I usually do one section a day, but before a match sometimes I have certain drills from each section that I have flagged and I focus on those (like all the different draws, sho/who, and reload stuff. I carry that book everywhere with me. I LOVE it. If you want to meet up or we are going to run into each other at a match soon, I can let you take a look. There are a ton of other great books out there. I don't know that it matters so much which you go with, I think it will be good just to have a systematic practice schedule and routine.

Edited May 30, 2012 by monicataliani

[polizei1]

Awesome Monica, thanks. I'll have to take a look at it. I've done some dry firing in the past, but very seldom and never before a match, which I know is bad habit.

Money is really tight, but I've been thinking about maybe picking up a small video camera like you have (similar) and recording my matches to see where I can improve and see what I'm doing wrong.

I also think I'm going to start shooting Steel matches again at MRPC, to get more transition practice in. I figured it's pretty cheap and live-fire is practice, no matter what you're doing.

[polizei1]

Bump! Haven't updated this in a while...I shot a local match Sunday at 61.31%, which should be enough to get me a B-Class @ 61%. I took one stage (classifier) 1st place, and I placed 5/15 overall in Single Stack at this last match. For having less than a year shooting, I feel like I'm "finally" starting to get the hang of it. I just wish I could shoot with both eyes open, call my shots, and dry-fire more.

I got some help from a local shooter who was nice enough to give me some pointers during the match and helped me work on my transitions and it really helps!

[polizei1]

System updated and I made it to B-Class, not bad for just under a year of shooting USPSA.

I shot a steel match today and did pretty well, but could have been better.

[Jonathan Taliani]

Congrats Cody! You've really been progressing nicely!

You going to Miamisburg tomorrow?

[polizei1]

Well, turns out I'm not going to be able to go today. Have fun!

Edited July 15, 2012 by polizei1

[polizei1]

Ha, turns out I did go. My cousin Mark was also at the match today, it was his first USPSA match and I think he had fun! I had a good time pointing out the various aspects of the sport and helping him with stage layout and COF.

As for me...not a good day to say the least. I was consistently the fastest shooter in my squad, even ahead of the open guys, but as a result, my hits were lacking. Most were A/C, but I had a couple of misses and a couple of no-shoots. Those cost me the stages by a significant amount. I'm pretty disappointed, but for Miami next Sunday I'll slow down a bit and focus on my front sight.

Edited July 16, 2012 by polizei1

[polizei1]

Well, I decided I'm going to start recording my matches and publicly humiliate myself!

Shot Miami yesterday and man, it was a terrible match for me. I'm blaming it on the ammo, as I was using WWB because my bullet order from Precision Delta isn't in yet. I'm used to my softer reloads and the 124gr bullets. Regardless, some of the stages weren't too bad, but I was having a terrible time with the steel. Stage 2 was a complete bust, I thought I was hitting high when I was actually hitting low, so that was all sorts of bad.

The classifier was El Pres, I didn't think I did too bad on that one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otH6eOMxDSs

Edited July 23, 2012 by polizei1

[Chris Keen]

Well, I decided I'm going to start recording my matches and publicly humiliate myself!

LOL It's fun to watch past match videos, but it's also good to help you learn and progress!

Precision Delta seems to take FOREVER to ship. I switched the first time they delayed my order.

[Chris Keen]

As far as your video ...... GET A BETTER CAMERA! I don't know why it cuts off sooo much of the frame (left & right) but that's a negative in my book, since that area could be useable for learning/training purposes. Another good tip is to tell whoever is videoing you to make sure they get your feet in the frame, so you can learn / watch your footwork.

And lastly try not to lower your gun so much when you reload. It appears that you are dropping it to just above waist-high ...... ideally you want to keep it at eye-level, or just below eye-level during a reload, so it only takes a split second to get your sights back on target.

[polizei1]

Thanks Chris. The video was shot with an iPhone, I'll have to remember to turn it and record horizontal instead of vertical for next time. I didn't know it would do that!

The reloads are something I need to work on. For the most part, I think they're fast/efficient enough, but I would certainly like to keep it as high as I can. I do it in dry-fire practice, but during a match I don't seem to do it. I haven't lost the bad habit yet. The major reason I wanted to start recording myself is exactly for that reason, to find out what I'm doing wrong and how to improve upon it. Example, in two of the stages, my right foot was tippie-toe'd, and I have NO idea why I did that, and that's a terrible stance for both stability and exit speed. Again, I had no idea I did this, so I'm looking forward to improving.

As for the match...it obviously didn't go very well this time! Last month was better but the Ohio match was simply phenomenal, I really felt like I was making a lot of progress.

If I could afford it, I would also get another magazine and pouch. Sometimes I get screwed only having 4 mags, like on stage 4, I had no choice but to shoot to slide-lock and do standing reloads. Oh well! I'm still happy that I was able to manage B-class with just under a year of shooting. It would certainly also help if I could get a major gun!

Edited July 23, 2012 by polizei1

[polizei1]

Well, shot some Saturday Steel yesterday and did well. I took 1st place in Stock Auto out of 67 shooters and won my first cash prize of $10! I concentrated on watching my front sight and on one stage in particular, was actually able to see the front sight "bounce" up and come back down. I had one fastest stage and the rest were VERY close. Great feeling, now I just have to try and figure out how to do it all the time!

I believe shooting steel is helping me with my transitions, which will help in USPSA as well. Well, lets hope so anyway! I also shot the side match yesterday, didn't do very well but I got to shoot my first Texas Star and both stages I wiped it clean.

Edited August 12, 2012 by polizei1

[polizei1]

I shot Miamisburg today. Not sure how well I did, but I felt pretty sluggish. I had a couple D's, couple of misses and a no-shoot. The classifier was weak/strong El Pres, so I can forget about that one.

Also felt like I wasn't watching my front sight enough, which is obviously where the misses and such came into play.

Next week is MRPC!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oj4FDq5PT3s&feature=plcp

Edit* Added video and I took 2nd place out of 5 people, and won a stage or two. I got a 35% on the classifier that I forgot to record.

Edited August 21, 2012 by polizei1

[polizei1]

Well, I shot MRPC on Sunday and ended up taking 2nd place out of 10 shooters with 92% of the stage points. I had a couple of misses and D's, and a few no shoots so it definitely could have been better.

Overall I've been working on slowing down a little bit while actually shooting and speeding up my movements, and it seems to be paying off. By slowing down on the shooting, my hits are getting better, and by increasing the movement speed, it helps compensate for the slower shooting. I'm comfortable in this "balance" that I've found, and I'm still pushing myself as well. I really wish I had the time and money to devote to training, but right now I just don't. Even though I'm just barely a B-class, I feel that I could potentially be A/M material eventually. Considering I've only been competing and really shooting for a year, I think I've done a good job so far!

I haven't dry fired in a while and I still need to work on my reloads. Eventually I'll make it happen.

FYI* I'm going to be posting my new updated videos here and on youtube.

Here is the Saturday Steel:

and here is the past Sunday's USPSA match:

[polizei1]

Here's my latest video from this past weekend at MRPC. Great turnout and Kevin is doing an awesome job as MD. There are now 6-stages to a match and everything is well run.

For whatever reason, I did a really good job shooting the texas star, but failed miserably on stage 2. I goofed the classifier too, oh well. I ended up taking 2nd place out of 8 people with 95% of the overall points. I had:

Alpha - 104

Bravo - 6

Charlie - 17

Delta - 1

Mike - 4

NS - 2

Obviously could have done a bit better!

I would also like to thank my new sponsor, Rudy Project! I'll be starting the 2013 season by looking good and representing with fellow team members.

Edited September 26, 2012 by polizei1

[monicataliani]

Where have you been Cody??????

[45dotACP]

That's some good shooting Dude you crushed that Texas Star!