Rob's Shooting Log

[Racer377]

Well, match results from 7.22 up.

2nd Overall, top B (the latter I think is just about meaningless)

Missed the win by 4.5%. The extra shots, and not cleaning that steel more efficiently are indeed what cost me the win.

The stage in the video was a 2nd place by a mere 1.5 second, which was a surprise.

[Chris iliff]

Hey, it looked good to me. I had my gun at the Smiths and couldn't shoot, so at least you got to shoot right!! Got the gun back tonight and Chrono'd and sighted in. I'm stoked.

No shoots this weekend, 5th Sunday and all, bummer! If you want you could come up and shoot at my house on Sunday. Maybe do some stages. I got a plate machine, it's a nice little set up. Targets and pasters are no problem, got em.

PM me if your interested, I'm south of Peru about 7 miles.

[Racer377]

7.25.12

Dry fire - El Prez

Par 7.0 5/5 Way too easy, good warmup though

6.0 4/5 flubbed reload screwed me up

5.8 5/5

5.5 4/5

5.0 6/10

reloads were better today. I think yesterday's reload tai-chi may have been a good reset.

[Racer377]

7.27.12

Bit of live fire with the new SS gun. About 200rds total, all factory stuff.

A few low ready bill drills (no holster yet) show promise for pure trigger speed. Even with the 5.5lb stock trigger, I had a few .12 and .13 splits. I also had a fair amount of trigger freeze, the reset on this is quite different than on the Shadow. I've also come to realize how spoiled the CZ has made me. I've actually got to grip this thing to keep it tamed. Not so much with the CZ. I guess that's the difference between 140PF and 190ish PF.

I also did a bunch of 23-25yd group shooting.

Best group of the day (aka, the blind squirrel finding a nut)

I think I'll need a bigger mag button, just a few hundreths longer and maybe an extended slide stop.

Once I got it home, I gave the insides a once over with the dremel and some polish. No stoning or messing with the sear spring yet. Got it down to an avg. of 4.25lbs. 2.5 is where I'd like it to be. I've got some wolff ILS reduced power springs ordered up, so hopefully that'll get me there without having to get a new non-ILS magwell and MS housing.

I'm looking forward to major scoring!

[Racer377]

7.29.12

A little under 300 rds live fire with Chris and Chad. I'm jealous as heck of Chris's setup, and it was great to get some practice in with 2 good shooters helping to point out where I suck.

We did Dot Torture to start the day. My first time doing this drill, boy did I suck. WHO kills me.

El prez- runs were 6.5-7. Best was a 70%. Chris pointed out a that my arms are extending too early and I'm getting a big wobble into the 1st target, which explains why my first shot wasn't coming until 2sec in. If I fix that, I think I can expect to get above 85%

Near to far drill. I like this drill. Being able to "switch gears" is a bit of an opportunity for improvement for me, this drill really helps with that.

Movement drill. box to fault line, 2 plates, move ~5yds to opposite fault line, 2 plates, forward around barrel to opposite side box, 2 plates. I think I might be losing a few ticks coming out of the 1st box, and I'm definitely losing time to make-up shots.

Bill Drills. I learned I've been doing them wrong all this time! I always thought they were a hands at sides start, but Chris and Chad pointed out that it was surrender start. Nothing blazing fast, I think best was a 2.06 with 2 Cs.

Two reload WH to plate machine. This was a fun drill, mixing my love for shooting the plate rack with my hate for shooting WH only. First run was awful, awful, awful. Chad soundly trounced me and I got a bit competitive, which usually forces me to focus. 2nd run was much better, and I was better able to wait for a good sight alignment on the plate rack WHO.

Shot 20rds at 12yd plate at 50yds. I didn't count, I should have. I think it was maybe 15-16 of 20 hits. Most appeared to be in a nice group in the center top 1/3 of the plate, right where I was lining up the sights. I cannot complain one bit about the accuracy of the CZ. It's a good feeling being able to connect at that range.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Racer377

[Chris iliff]

Yep, that gun is awesome! Why did I ever dick around with Glocks, I'll never know!! You were blazing that 12" plate at 50 yards!! I knew you only dropped a few, I think your estimate is on, maybe 5 misses at most. I couldn't believe how fast you were triggering those shots!!

Thanks for coming today. It was a good practice!!

[Racer377]

Yep, that gun is awesome! Why did I ever dick around with Glocks, I'll never know!! You were blazing that 12" plate at 50 yards!! I knew you only dropped a few, I think your estimate is on, maybe 5 misses at most. I couldn't believe how fast you were triggering those shots!!

Thanks for coming today. It was a good practice!!

Thanks for the invite! It was indeed a good practice.

Now that I think about it, maybe holding center on that 50yd plate would've been better. I might have over-estimated drop at that range. That's almost 2x as far as I've ever shot with it, so it was a bit of an unknown quantity.

[Racer377]

I've been dry-firing a bit every day, except yesterday, just too lazy to update this. Almost all basic draw n' reload drills.

Today, I've started incorporating movement. No timer, just draw to a light switch while advancing at various angles, 2, reload, another light switch, 2 reload, another light switch, all while moving. I did a few dozen reps of that for a light practice before the match tomorrow.

I'm really looking forward to Oxford tomorrow, and the IN state match next weekend. I bought a cheap little Kodak playsport camcorder to record my match performance, since the iphone camera is somewhat lacking. It won't get here in time for Oxford, but I'll have it for state. Hopefully I can cajole one of my squadmates into recording for me.

I'm even more excited about switching to single stack after state. I've got almost everything I need to convert the rig over; holsters and mag pouch spacers, and new 45 dies/shellplate/casefeeder thingy for the press. Just waiting on powder, primers and brass.

The SS gun is almost all set. The extended mag release is in, and I dremeled out a nice thumb notch in the left grip, so mag changes are almost as easy as on the Shadow. I'm contemplating getting a sear jig to tweak the trigger a bit, and I'm still undecided whether I want to change the sights from the awful 3 dot trijicons. Or maybe i should just leave the thing alone and learn to shoot it as is.

Edited August 4, 2012 by Racer377

[Racer377]

8.5.12

Oxford match today. I decided I was going to push the pace, and try to shoot faster than I have the last 2 matches. 4 mikes and 2 no-shoots, but only 2 were the result of trying to go too fast. The rest were just stupid mistakes.

In the video, 1st stage was clean, but I lost maybe 2 seconds to the reload fumble at the beginning. That was the closest thing to a good stage I had all day.

2nd was 2 NS (called one and made it up, 2nd one just barely broke perf) and then the mike at the end. Running down to the end, I hit the mag and knocked the top round out, and was already at slide lock, so the last target only got 1, thus a mike there. That's why the RO laughed.

3rd stage in the video was a Charlie foxtrot. Having just seen an Open GM destroy the stage in 15 seconds, and it being the last stage of the day with a storm about to pour down on us, I decided I wanted to really swing for the fences. 1 mike on the first array, just trying to go too fast and transitioned off before breaking the shot. On the rightmost array, I managed a procedural for not being the box yet. What it doesn't show was the OH CRAP moment where I realized I forget a target at the end, and 3-4 seconds after the last shot shown, and after I had dropped the mag, I noticed it and put the one in the pipe into to it to avoid the FTE.

It wasn't all bad. Classifier was 03-07. It has SHO and WHO only strings, which usually kill me. I only dropped 4 of 100 points, and Cmcalc says that's worth 74.9%. If my spreadsheet is right, that takes me to ~76.97 average, and into the A ranks. Maybe that isn't good, because I'm not sure I have any business being in A.....

I also had a crapton of fun, and I can think of far worse ways to spend a Sunday than shooting (even if poorly) with good people.

[Chris iliff]

Amen brother, good day!!

[Racer377]

Results from Oxford were somewhat better than I'd expected. 86% of the winner (a GM, yay me!) and 2 stage wins; the classifier and the stage with the drop turner, trap, and SHO and WHO only strings. So there's some good points to be taken.

Since then, I've been doing a little bit of dry fire, no timer, just focusing on fundamentals and being smooth.

I switched the grips on Shadow #1 back to the tactical diamonds, which are much less aggressive. They seem to encourage me to grip the gun more than the VERY aggressive diamondbacks, which let me get away with just holding if rather than gripping it.

I cleaned all my mags inside and out for the IN state match. Shadow #1 is spotless, as is Shadow #2 which is waiting on a new trigger return spring. I think I'll swap out the TRS on Shadow #1 as well, just as a precautionary measure. Between live fire and dry-fire, it has to have well over 20,000 pulls on it. I'm a little worried about it, just because the TRS's I have on the way are the CGW ones, which is going to take the SA pull of Shadow #1 under 2lbs.

Hopefully I can get out Saturday to get acclimated to the trigger, and make sure Shadow #2 runs after the refinish. I probably should make sure the adjustable sight is dialed in too.

[Racer377]

So I've been rather remiss about updating this....

State went relatively well. The morning session was clean and somewhat fast, the afternoon session not so much. Speed focus took over, started rushing, and as a result, started doing dumb stuff. 3D, and 3 Mikes, and way too many charlies. I think I may have been playing to conservative around the no-shoots, shooting the brown area 6" away from the white instead of focusing on the A zone and trusting may ability to hit it.

The takeaways are that when I shoot my plan without rushing, like I did in stage 1, I can do pretty well. When I try to push myself, I don't. Shoot my plan, shoot the As, and let the time be what it is. If I do that, the points end up better and the time ends up faster.

The TRS didn't come in time, but the Shadow held up, so I love it even more. That TRS was due to break a long time ago.

I had a kinda/sorta practice session with the SS gun yesterday. I forgot my belt. Fortunately, CB45 had a carry type holster so it wasn't all lost. I've decided I HATE 3-dot night sights with the white circle. HATE them. Between the holster and searching for that sight, most draws were well over 2 seconds.

A few T1-2-3-1-2-3 transition drills, and then moving out to 25yds for accuracy work. The SS gun is pretty accurate, and had no problem popping 12ga. hulls off the barrels or steel stands, at least not when I could find my darn sight.

25yd. Bill Drills on a steel A-zone. These are freakin' hard!

The real epiphany of the day came when I pulled out the suppressed Buckmark Open steel gun just for some playtime. CB45 shot it, and mentioned offhand that the way the dot moved diagonally indicated that he didn't have enough weakhand pressure. When I shot it, sure enough, the dot was moving diagonally, at about a 45 angle. Having 0 experience with open guns, and never really looking into how the dot was supposed to track, I thought that was all well and good.

I gripped the crap out of it with the weak hand, and the dot started tracking almost perfectly vertically.

I went back to the SS and did the same, and immediately found it easier to repeatedly ding the 8" plate at 25yds, with the sight going straight up and down into the notch.

The shadow barely moved in recoil, so I was able to get away with a bad grip. The SS gun isn't so forgiving with 180+PF ammo, but I doubt I would have ever noticed the less than optimal tracking if it wasn't for that open gun with the dot. All hail the dot.

Chuck had pointed out that my weak hand grip might need some more pressure before, and he was of course right. It just took that very visual demonstration to make it really click just how right he was.

[Chris iliff]

Yes yes, all hail the dot!!!

[Racer377]

8.18.12

First match with the SS gun went rather poorly. It was a steel match, and I'm sure I finished quite a bit slower than I would have with the CZ. My excuse/explanation is the sights. I felt like my transitions were down .1.2 on every darn target looking for the front. Chuck and Chad think it's recoil of the 185PF ammo, but I'm not so sure.

I stayed for 200rds of practice after the match.

Bill drills (w/surrender start) - best was a 2.01 30pts. Not bad, but I couldn't replicate it. Most were 2.1x and down a point or 2. Finding the front was a PITA on the first shot, and I lost it more times than not mid-drill.

Draw 2-reload-2 - best was 2.74. Worst was 3.55.

25yd bill drill - Only 2 reps, 5.60, -6 (2D) and 5.64, -5 (2C,1D) Again the damn sights.

It's a bit of a kick in the nuts not instantly being as good with this as the CZ, but it'll come.

On the plus side, the gun ran perfect with my ammo all day. It didn't like Chad's ammo for some reason.

I think I might switch to N340...I'm not all that impressed with N320 so far. The recoil impulse is nice for as high a PF as it is, but it's not as clean as I'd have expected, and the jury is still out on accuracy.

[Racer377]

8.25.12

Went to help setup for the match and get some practice. Good session.

I tested the new load for accuracy, and I'm quite please with it. 5.1gr VV N320 1.250, 230 gr Zero FMJ, crimp .469. They were pretty much one on top of the other at 20yds standing freestyle. The recoil impulse is nicer than the 40 lite loads I shout out of an STI Edge today, despite the fact that they chrono at 795 fps/182PF. They're a little smokey, and not as clean as I had expected, but they work well. This is going to be my SS load for awhile.

Ran a field course a few times, all turtle targets. no misses, and very few points dropped. Reloads on the move need alot of work. I think I might want to get the longer basepads for the wilson mags, had one flub in which the mag didn't seat.

The first run I had an extra shot, sending me to slide lock. No more extra shots in the 2 runs after that, so the habit is on its way to being broken.

Did some close wide transition drills on poppers. 2 poppers about 3ft apart, same on other side, 10yds away, separated by about 100 degrees. Good drill for small transitions and wide. Best was a 2.70. Most were Low 3s. I LOVE the way these big pills drop poppers like nobody's business.

Finished off the day with some hands at sides bill drills on turtle targets. The draw is getting better, had quite a few under 1 sec. I beat my previous PR, 1.87 which was set with the CZ on metrics. I had a 1.84 followed directly by a 1.86, clean. I'm a pretty happy camper with those runs.

New sights are on the way, along with a Ed Brown hardcore hammer. Hopefully those will help with the sight acquisition speed, and give me a nice clean 3lb break.

Edited August 25, 2012 by Racer377

[Racer377]

8.26.12

First USPSA Match with the SS.

Stage 1- went just about perfect, except for one makeup shot on steel, and one delta. Time was pretty good, I think I was only about 1.5-2 behind the fast limited guys on a 30rd field course.

Stage 2 - 2 paper and 3 small poppers, spread out pretty far. 1-for-1 on the small steel and all alphas on the paper. About .5 behind the fast limited guys. I probably could have been a little more aggressive on the draw shot and the splits on paper.

Stage 3 99-56 Classifier - clusterf*#k. Had trigger-freeze or a brain fart (not sure) on the last shot before moving out of the box, and ended up having to step back into the box to finish it. It did feel good to just hose the last 3, since I knew I blew it already. It sounds faster than it did at the time. (in video)

Stage 4 - This one went well. 1 extra shot on a longish target. Everything else was fairly good. (in video)

Stage 5 - clusterf*#k. going 1 for 1 on steel was crucial here, and on the 2nd array, I missed one. Went to slide lock, but needed 9 for the last section. There was time to work in another reload, but I didn't. I should have and it would have salvaged a decent run out of it. I ended up at slide lock with a popper standing, got flustered, flubbed the reload, and decided not to go for another mag. 1 mike, 1 FTE. at the time, I thought it would just be the mike, but after the FTE got called, wanted to kick myself. Bad decisions, Lesson learned.

Stage 6 - another cluster. For some reason, I forgot how to seat a magazine properly. Pure awful.

Aside from the shitty stages, I'm relatively happy with how I actually shot. The mental mistakes are easily fixable. Few deltas, and the only mike wasn't due to poor shooting, just poor decision making.

[Racer377]

8.27.12

Draw and reload tai chi dry fire. Based on some tips received on another forum, I'm really concentrating on eliminating all the extra jiggling I do during the draw. Movement from the arm only. I'm hoping it'll clean up my drawstroke and save me a tenth or 2. .8 to a 7yd Alpha would be badass.

Scores up from yesterday's match. I just barely managed the SS win.

On stage 1, I managed a 10/73 finish in the combined results, which ain't too shabby considering the whole 8 rd mag thing. My movement on that stage was pretty good, and cleaning the 6 popper array 1 for 1 and at a good pace is what did it.

Stage 2, the speed shoot, was a 9/73 finish.

Stage 4 was a 12/73 finish on a 28rd field course. Good movement here too, but gave up 8 pts and was a little slow on the first reload.

Stage 5 - not as bad as I thought. Could have been much better though.

Stage 6, while it was a terrible finish HF-wise because I lost 10+ seconds to tap rack bang because I couldn't seat the mag multiple times, I only dropped 3 pts. So there's at least that.

Looking at my times for the stages, I'm not too far off the M class production guys that showed up. Plenty of good stuff to take away from this match.

I put the new hammer and strut in. Saved a whopping 8 grains. The lock time is going to be SO MUCH FASTER! /sarcasm The trigger is a little crisper, but right at 3.5lbs. I'm leaving it there. I don't think it's slowing my hosing speed down much.

The sights came, and I tried unsuccessfully to use the aluminum punch dawson sends to get the old one out. Damn rear would not budge. Didn't even try the front. I've done some pretty tough sights with the punch method, but these take the cake. Looks like I'm going to need to buy a sight pusher. *sigh* I'm half tempted just to leave these awful 3-dots in there.

[Racer377]

9.2.12

Looked at the radar and decided to skip oxford today. I did manage a 300rd practice session at ACC before the rain hit here though. It was humid as heck, and I wonder if that was why the ammo seemed smokier than usual.

Did some distance group shooting. A few Bill drills and some draw-1-reload-1 drills.

Best surrender bill drill was a 1.98, 28pts. Both were less than an inch out.

My surrender draws still suck. Best was a 1.03, most were like 1.2-1.3 at 7yds. The 1.03 is a PR, so that's good I guess.

Best hands at sides was a .93 to a 7yd A, which ties the PR with the CZ.

Reloads are coming along, but still not as fast as the CZ. Averaging 1.4-1.5 shot to shot. I'll have to do more reload drills in dry-fire practice, I guess.

I've got a sight pusher on the way to lose these dreadful 3 dots, and some CMC PowerMag+s, which I keep reading tend to seat easier than the 47Ds. Buy the points you can buy, practice for the rest. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the sights swapped and dialed in before the classifier match at Warsaw next weekend.

Edited September 2, 2012 by Racer377

[Racer377]

9.7.12

I've been doing light dry fire over the past week. Today, a bunch of goodies came in and the TRP got a bit of an overhaul.

Dawson Fiber front and adjustable rear are finally installed. The sightpusher.com sight pusher worked great. I would love to know why SA can't use a normal novak cut on the rear. It took about 20 minutes of filing to get it to even start. The blade doesn't flip up when the sight is in place, so I couldn't tighten the set screws. The red loctite and a snug press fit should keep it in place though. I really like picture of the .125" notch with the .100" fiber front. Looks just like my CZs now.

The OEM trigger had an annoying wobble, so I replaced it with a Ed Brown model. The EB is about 20 grains heavier and had a fair amount of drag, so the first test slide drop the sear bounced. I polished the crap out of the bow, and it's a mirror finish now. Reprofiled the sear engagement angle with a slightly more conservative cut. No sear bounce now. No trigger wobble, no drag, just smooth operation.

The CMC powermag+s came and they do in fact seat easier. The mag spring is also stronger, apparently, as the mags shoot out when I hit the release. Nice.

I steepened the mag catch angle and polished it to make seating even easier. Mags slide in with almost no effort now.

swapped the ILS mainspring and cap for an EGW Ti cap and 19lb main. The hammer is easier to cock, but I hope it doesn't screw up the timing. Tomorrow is live fire testing, so I'll find out. I'll get the sights zeroed and make sure the TRP likes the CMC mags.

New VZ operator 2 grips, just because they're the hotness. I like the magwell cut better.

[Racer377]

9.8.12

300 round live fire session. I shoot like ass when I'm hungover.

The sights were spot on, didn't need a single click of adjustment.

Today's focus was surrender draws, turn surrender draws and reloads. 1.3 was average surrender to 7yd A, I was at 1.62 on damn near every turn surrender to 7yd A (best was a 1.43) Reloads were all kinds of suck. 1.5-1.7 to a 8"round plate at 10yds.

The gun ran fine, and the CMC Powermag+ had no trouble locking back the slide on empty (one of the only complaints I read about them)

I'm looking forward to the match at Warsaw tomorrow.

[Racer377]

9.9.12

Shot the classifier match at Warsaw. I did fairly well, I think. According to CMCalc, I might just have an A card for SS.

99-62 Bang and Clang 30 2.96 10.13513514 83.08%

99-08 Melody Line 56 7.56 7.407407407 79.65%

06-05 Fluffy's Revenge 2 40 4.09 9.7799511 76.04%

03-05 Paper Poppers 48 6.81 7.04845815 71.05%

99-10 Time Two 45 6.85 6.569343066 69.15%

It's initial, so best 4 averages out to 77.45%. I sure hope CMcalc is right.

Paper poppers kinda sucked, I had 2 makeups on steel. Without those, it would been in the 5s. Times two was a tough one. I slipped in the mud taking off out of box A, and threw 4 Deltas trying to go fast.

Bang and clang felt like a stellar run, I'm little disappointed to see it was only 83%. Same thing with Melody line. A full second faster than what I did in PROD that netted me an 85% there only got 79% here. Fluffy's revenge was another good run in which I'm not sure how I could have gone any faster.

I ran through them a 2nd time for fun, with a pure hero or zero mentality. saved .30 on paper poppers, but all the rest ended up slower. This seems like an important mindset lesson. Even though I was less nervous because it was a fun run, the trying to swing for the fences screwed me up. Trying means rushing, rushing means mistakes. It seems like the right attitude is not to fight the nervousness, but know that the time will be what it is. These things are a test, and like any academic test, you know it or you don't. Trying is counterproductive. The time to try and push is practice. On classifiers and matches, I simply need to shoot the course of fire. I won't make my draw, reloads or transitions any faster on game day, and trying to do it is only going to lead to bad outcomes.

Don't try. Just shoot.

I think I really need to get some good instruction and find some more speed.

[Racer377]

9.12.12

Dry fire, no timer.

surrender draws and reloads. Went well. I'm doing better at moving the arm only on the draw. I've also found I'm getting a little lazy getting the mag and getting the index finger up toward the top. Made a point of concentrating on it, and reloads got more consistent. Good practice.

[CB45]

Congrats to you as well. You made A in SS. Practice is paying off!

[Chris iliff]

Yes yes great job!!

[Racer377]

Thanks guys!

9.14.12

some light dry fire, experimenting with a slightly different reload position, in a little closer, gun less angled away from target. Seems to help align it with where my weak naturally wants to be, making it easier to match the mag angle to the grip/well angle.

Steel tomorrow. I bought a bunch of ammo for the super-buckmark. I think I'll shoot it along with the SS. With as much money as I put into it, I might as well get some use out of the thing.