Rob's Shooting Log

[Racer377]

Lot of shooting this weekend!

Steel yesterday shooting the Super-Buckmark and the TRP. Managed a win in both classes. The TRP was acting up a bit. It ran, but the slide was stuttering. Got it home and figured out it was catching on the disconnector. Started playing with the sear spring to tweak it, had to stop to take care of other things. So I went back to it this morning and managed to lose the mainspring housing pin, 20 minutes before I had to leave to catch my ride to Riley. FML.

I swapped the spacers and holster back over to the CZ and ran out the door. The match went relatively well despite 3D, 2M. On all but the last stage, I was calling shots like a boss. I knew where everything hit without looking at the targets. That is a great feeling. The last stage I got into race mode and didn't call shots quite as well, and the 1 D and 1 M on that stage weren't called.

Times were good, and the classifier went well enough. El prez, 60pts in 6.51. Should be 89ish%.

Still good enough for a PRD win, 3D and 2M notwithstanding.

[Racer377]

I've been slacking on dry fire. Heck, I hadn't even cleaned the CZ after Sunday's match until today. Part of it was indecision on what to practice, SS or PRD. The other part was not having a match coming up anytime soon. Fortunately, South Central is running next weekend and the weather is tentatively looking pretty darn good. I was too lazy to switch the rig back over to SS, so PRD it will be for awhile.

I'm waiting on a few parts for the TRP anyway. The ambi safety right side is wiggling, and that annoys me, so I ordered up the EGW single sided machined wiz-bang one. Also a new bar stock disconnector. The OEM one has this huge mold seam that bugs the crap out of me. If nothing else, I've decided that my next SS is going to be a higher end custom or I'm just gonna build the thing myself the way I want it. I've put too much money into re-working the TRP. By the time I'm done, the only factory parts left will be the slide, frame, barrel, MSH and beavertail. I could've just bought a Nighthawk or Brown with the options I wanted and been done with it. Live and learn, I guess.

I did some basic drills. After reading something about .7 draws in dry fire, I decided to try it. I don't think my hands are fast enough! .7 for a real sight picture is crazy fast. In my little experiment here, the gun is still moving a bit at .7, so I'd be full of doodie if I said I really saw the sights. I had a flash of a front, maybe a rear, they were in the general ballpark of alignment, maybe. Heck if I know, because it was a just a flash. They might have been As at 3-4yds, tops. "Might" being the key word.

I worked some reloads in, along with a few SHO/WHO drills. I'll be hitting it with a little more structure tomorrow.

[Racer377]

WHO dry fire practice sucks syphilitic monkey balls.

That is all.

[Chris iliff]

Now that's funny.

[Racer377]

Now that's funny.

It would have been even funnier had you seen it!

Very productive live fire session today. Got some chrono data for the new Bullseye recipe in the TRP. 5.1gr at 1.25 is a little on the warm side, avg. 823 FPS. Single digit SD (9.85) over a 19 rd sample, it's the most consistent 45 brew I've tried to date. Not bad with mixed brass. Informal accuracy testing shows it's pretty good. I think the 16.5 variable recoil is little bit under sprung for it though. I could put the 23# main in there, which ought to slow it down quite a bite with the tiny tiny bevel on the EGW FPS.

Even as stout as they are, they're not bad. Hit a few .13s and even a .12 on some low-ready bill drills. I really, really love that 1911 trigger.

300rds of 9mm through the CZ. Plenty of WHO drills, and there were quite the eye opener. I was really surprised just how sloppy of a sight picture was good for an A at 5yds. I ended up shaving a good chunk off my draw-WHO-2-2-2 drill with that knowledge. Went from 4-4.5 to 3.5-3.7 once I figured that out.

I also tried the hyper speed draw, looking to get an A at .7 at 5yds. Got close - .79 was the best. Of course, I don't have video of that one! Handful of low .80s. The trouble here is that I dropped half of them just under the A zone. I'm not sure if it's because I'm slapping the trigger like Chris Brown slaps Rhianna, or if my finger is beating the sights. Even slowed down to 25%, I can't tell.

A few draw-1-reload-1 drills. The dryfire is paying off, and most were right around 2 seconds.

Of course, did a few Bill Drills - 1.99 clean was the best one.

[Racer377]

12.2.12

fun match today at South Central, I'm glad I made the trip down. 60 degrees in December, I'll take it.

I shot the match clean, but 4 deltas dragged me down to just a hair under the 90% mark. 3 of those deltas were on the damn classifier. 1 was on a swinger.

No video, but some observations -

reloads on the 1st 2 stages were pretty awful, but they smoothed out afterward. They could've been better though, and I need to get integrate more moving reloads into my dry fire routine.

the extra shot bug came back pretty hard on the 2nd to last stage. 3 or 4 makes ups that weren't even close to needed. 3 alpha. D'OH! They were 12-13yd targets, my shot calling at that range could be better. I saw the sights rise on all of them, but the front sight focus on targets at that range made it tricky to call whether they were in the A zone or just barely out into C(rappy) zone.

Classifier sucked as bad as it could possibly suck and still be counted, CMcalc shows it being 70.02, and it'll be bumping off an 85. Ugh.

I had some good moments - the section with 1 activator, 2 paper, than hit the swinger worked out well even though it was fairly aggressive to go for both paper. I got asked about the full auto switch on my CZ after that run

Having a few extra mags on the belt helped on that stage. There was a longish sprint from the first position, and I lost 1 or 2 mags out the belt on the way. (need to tighten those pouches a bit!) but still had enough to finish without skipping a beat.

Times were decent overall I think. Tough to say until scores come out though. 4 of 6 stages at 92% or better of the points. I saw my sights and called my shots most of the time.

Edited December 3, 2012 by Racer377

[Racer377]

Results up, and I got a win, taking all but 1 stage.

3rd in the combined results behind 2 open shooters. 92% of HOA. A quick perusal shows that I may have been the only one who shot it clean.

My times were about 1.5-2 sec a stage behind the PRD M (open GM) that took 2nd, but I got him on points. Matter of fact, I didn't have the fastest time on any stage except the classifier. Who says this sport is all about speed? It seems like I've done better since disabusing myself of that notion. Most of the Field CoF were such that the open guys didn't have to reload at all, and I kept it within 3 second of the fastest. Not bad, but I can do better.

I think I can make up that 1.5 by fixing the less than stellar moving reloads, and by getting better at calling shots at distance, i.e. not making up alphas with alphas.

I may be able to push the splits and transitions just a little bit faster without sacrificing any points. On a few sections, I had the feeling that I was "seeing more than I needed to see" to make the alpha. I wish I took some video to gauge just how fast I was going, because the time sensor in my brain wasn't working all that well. I didn't really notice the passing of time while shooting, if that makes any sense. That's probably a good thing, because I never felt rushed as a result.

I'm really looking forward to taking Steve Anderson's class next weekend. I probably won't touch the gun in the interim. A little break to ensure that I'm fresh and motivated should be good for me.

Edited December 4, 2012 by Racer377

[Racer377]

Just got home from Lvl 1 and 2 dry fire tune-up with Steve Anderson. A more detailed review to follow, but long story short, fawking awesome. It ain't live fire and I get that, but by the end of the session, I ran a 3.8 el prez with a tick or 2 to spare. I'd never broken 4 before. I'm not even sure I've done 4.5 before.

[Racer377]

I've been hitting the dry-fire program pretty hard. My shoulders are actually the tiniest bit sore from repping it out the last week.

I switched over to the SS rig on Monday. I'm noticing I'm just a hair slower reloading the skinny gun, but that has been getting better. I want to stick with the SS over the winter. I looked at the major match schedule for next season. Battle in the Bluegrass and the IN SS/PRD match will be before SS Nats. The tentative plan is to shoot SS for all of those, then switch back to PRD for awhile.

I've also acquired some more pouches and a belt is on the way, so each division will have a dedicated rig. No more switching spacers and holsters over!

The practice is paying off. surrender draw to 10yds-1-reload-1 is down to 2sec with the TRP. That's big improvement. Drill 9: Surrender-6-reload-6 was easily under 4 most of the time in this morning's session.

I'm hoping to sneak out for a little live fire practice tomorrow. I'm kinda tempted to try the ICORE match at ACC, they allow "bottom feeders" loaded to 6 in outlaw.

[Racer377]

Productive live fire session with Chad today. 200 rds each out of the SS and the CZ.

All turtle targets. Started with some draws. Hands at sides is coming along well. under 1 sec to pretty much guaranteed alpha at 7yds is getting easy. Reaction time seems to be the only other place to find time. Best of the day was a .60 to a 7yd alpha, but that was more luck than anything. If I get on it without wasting any time at the beep, I can hit .7s and keep it on paper. Good stuff!

The new hand fit bushing and snugger slide stop seem to have tightened up the grouping potential, but lowered POI a smidge. I <3 adjustable sights!

reloads on the SS are still an opportunity for improvement. Tomorrow, I'll be hitting the Burkett and Tomasie reload drills hard in dryfire.

Ran a few "speed mode" El Presidente Tortuga drills with the production gun, not judging accuracy, just try to burn it down as fast as possible. 3.98 (with 2 mikes) was the PR. I need to burn in the new turn n' draw method better. 1.1 was the fastest first shot, and I know it can be faster (at least for pure speed mode). Same for the reload at 1.15.

Keeping them all on paper at 4.5-5 wasn't too hard after that. It seems like there's a velocitation effect. After trying to hit sub 4, dialing it back to be "only" sub 5 makes it feel like you have so much more time. And aiming for sub-6s? SO SLOWWWWWW.

Next live fire session is going to be accuracy mode.

[Racer377]

Productive dry fire session tonight!

Drill1-10 and 13, doubled up on burkett reloads, 6R6 and el prez.

I had a really interesting realization....when I just call the dry fire shots, and not think about the reload (or anything else), it ends up being magically awesome. I see sights, I see the old mag drop, I see the magwell with the new mag going in, all with perfect clarity. Pretty freakin' cool. Getting better with the skinny gun.

I've got tentative spot for SS Nats (Thank you Jake!). I'm REALLY looking forward to playing with the big dogs.

[Racer377]

Dry-fired like a maniac today. The grip tape on the bottom of my mags is wearing a hole in the palm of my left hand from reloading.

Mostly moving drills. 2-reload-2 moving, front, back, side to side. 2-reload-sprint across house-2. I like that latter drill. It forces me to keep the attention on the reload and THEN switch attention to the next target/position.

Ordered more 45 bullets from the good folks at Shootersconnection. I'm hoping for another nice day for some more live fire practice.

[Racer377]

Yesterday, along with the bullets, I finally bought a belt clip for my CED7000 after the stupid neck lanyard broke. It came today (gotta love the next day thing with Shootersconnection!) It's such a simple thing, but its so much easier to get more reps in with it. No more flying timer on turn and draw, no more time spinning around causing me hitting the wrong button and wait around like an idiot for a beep that isn't coming.

Went for a run with the doggie, and was feeling a little drained, so dryfire was focused on some core drills. Broke new ground on 2-reload-2 with a few runs under the 2 second mark.

Running sucks, but I probably ought to do more of it.

ETA:

Did another session of moving drills. No part time, but intensity provided by Five Finger Death Punch. It was an awesome, awesome session.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqUCgD0FhLg

Edited December 21, 2012 by Racer377

[Racer377]

Officially in for Thursday for Single Stack Nationals!

Time to step it up another notch in practice.

[Racer377]

Yesterday was good session! Lots of sub 4 El Prez runs with the single stack on partial turtles. Did about 40 minutes of the Moving Reloads drill from Ben's book. moving left needs some work. All other directions the reload was getting done in 1.5-2 steps. Moving left was more like 3-4, keeping the 180 in mind makes it just a bit more awkward.

[Ben Stoeger]

Yesterday was good session! Lots of sub 4 El Prez runs with the single stack on partial turtles.

Uhhh.. Livefire?

[Racer377]

f*#k, I wish. Dryfire.

I'm too much of a vag to go live fire practice in 20 degrees and a foot of snow.

[Racer377]

About an hour or so of SS dryfire. (normal day) I strapped on the PRD rig now that I have my mags back. A little rusty, but it appears the reload speed/consistency gap between the SS and the CZ is almost gone.

The CZ grip feels too small now, as well. I can't get quite as much weak hand on there as the 1911.

Looking forward to some live fire practice on Saturday. I'm hoping the rain will keep some of the crowd away.

[Racer377]

400rds of live fire today, felt great.

It was a mildly ADD session, lots of different drills and not too many reps of each.

I started off testing the new load for accuracy and POI from a rest at 17yds. It was a few clicks off, but once dialed in, 3 rounds went through the same hole. I'm still figuring out how to shoot from a rest like that, but I'm quite settled on the 5gr of Bullseye load. It may be a little on the hot side at 184PF, but I think I prefer it that way. Never have to worry about PF, poppers are my bitch, and the gun seems to like it.

Draws at 7yd, need some work there. .90s were relatively easy, but pushing for .7 and low .8s had me missing more than hitting.

Reloads are getting better, had quite a few 1.1x at 10ds.

Few El prez runs, First run was a 4.7 with few mikes, 2nd was 6.63 and 60pts, 3rd was the best at 5.54, 54pts. 90% roughly. Both the draw and reload came in at 1.3x, so there's time to be had there.

We setup a movement drill: start position, run 8-9yds to barrel (simulating wall), then T1-T3 on the move. T1 had a no-shoot covering about 1/3of the A zone, so ti really forced me to hit the brakes entering into the shooting area and get on the front sight.

2-reload-2 on the upper A-zone at 17ish yards might be my new favorite live fire drill.

Bill drill at 17yd - one run at 4.35 all A. I need to do more of these. Did a few at 7yds from surrender. Best was a clean 1.90, fastest was a 1.80, down 1.

Front sight forward, 2.05 clean was the best.

[Racer377]

Steel match and a half-ass practice session with the SS rig, I shot limited.

Match went well enough. Not many make up shots and I'm sure it was my most consistent steel match ever. Just about all my times were within a few tenths of one another. First to runs on the plate rack were both 3.42. Best was a 3.17, I think. Felt slow though. Nothing in the 2s on smoke and hope or the plate rack. Draw seemed like it was not quite as fast as it ought to have been.

I'm fairly sure Chuck will end up with a few seconds on me, and maybe Chad did too. Meh.

Timer was dead, so the after-match practice session I had planned wasn't especially useful. Shot about 100rds of 2-reload-2 on a 1/3 USPSA steel target at 20yds (simulating 60yd shots) No timer, but I just pretended there was.

I also put about 75rds through the new M2. I <3 shotguns. I can't wait until the goodies for it come (thank you Shooters Connection!!)

[Racer377]

Steel scores came out, 2nd place in LTD behind Chuck by 3 seconds. It was better than a I thought. I was thinking about this the last few days and it still strikes me how my perception of speed is so......useless. I managed to beat him on 3 stages, and on all of those stages, I felt kinda slow un-rushed. I was seeing clear sight pictures on clear targets. The was no hurrying, no rushing. Yet the times came out pretty decent. I should have asked about the time to first shot, to confirm or disprove my feeling of a slow draw.

Again, I'm struck by the way my brain confuses the feeling of "fast" with "rushed." These thing are not the same. I have this intuitive feel of how ego and expectation and the number of things I'm consciously doing mess up the perception of time and speed. I'll have to noodle on it awhile before I can figure out how to put it into words, I suppose.

Dryfire has been going well. Took some video this evening. Comparing it to older videos, I'm clearly getting better (and probably fatter). Less extraneous movement on the draw is translating into faster times. Eyes snapping to the magwell leading to better consistency. Hands getting to the mag and back to gun fairly quick (the blooper is my hand with the new mag smacking the old one on the way out)

[Ben Stoeger]

Try:

Gun lower and closer to your body during reload.

Eliminating the "flip" to clear the mag. (May not work on your gun)

[Racer377]

Dry fire with the new gun. The magwell is not nearly as generous as I've become accustomed to.

It started off EXTREMELY frustrating. After about 30 minutes of lousy 2-reload-2, I went to Burkett reloads for about 20 minutes. then back to 2-reload-2. HUGE improvement. That led to a bunch of sub 2 runs in a row. Until I get completely used to this magwell (or get it opened up), I think Burkett reloads need to be a staple.

Extended mag button comes tomorrow. That might help some as well.

[Chris iliff]

Can you open that magwell? The Dremel is your friend!!!!

[Racer377]

Can you open that magwell? The Dremel is your friend!!!!

I did it on the TRP. But it was a PITA, and I'm not enthused about taking a dremel to what is otherwise a really, really, really nice 1911. I'd rather have it done right, but with the season fast approaching and most smith's lead times being forever, I'm thinking I ought to just suck it up and get better at putting the mag where it belongs.

Edited February 6, 2013 by Racer377