Rob's Shooting Log

[colt]

I tried to get you Sunday but just couldn't pull it off!!!

Thanks for being a die hard shooter to are club. See you in a couple of weeks.

Brent

[Racer377]

I tried to get you Sunday but just couldn't pull it off!!!

Thanks for being a die hard shooter to are club. See you in a couple of weeks.

Brent

That'll be hard to do with that Amish gun!

[Chris iliff]

Not that guy with an Amish gun. Heck he's beat me shooting that dang revolver before. I'm dedicated Open. It sucks to admit.

No genius here. I've been doing the same thing (training scar) and its a bitch to break.

Edited October 16, 2012 by Chris iliff

[Racer377]

A little dry-fire before heading out to the range this afternoon. (I love working from home!!)

The evil draw-2-reload-2x5 drill - new PR of 7 seconds. Hit it 2-3 times.

Can't wait for some live fire steel practice to warm up for the State match tomorrow.

[Racer377]

Live fire started pretty rough. Cold and rainy. But, if it ain't rainin' it ain't really trainin'. Chad braved the elements, so it least it was shared misery.

Did some work on the steel. Draw to the 8" round at ~11yds were in about 1.3 average. Best was a 1.18. Draws to an A zone plate at 7 were right at a second. Best was a .95. This is pretty encouraging. Sub 1.0 As at 7yds from surrender is a improvement over where I was at the beginning of the season, and a ginormous improvement where I was for the state steel match last year. I'm feeling pretty good about tomorrow.

[CB45]

Congratulations Rob on your Production win and Limited 2nd results at the IN SCSA match today. You have definitely earned it!

[Chris iliff]

Good job Rob!!!

[Racer377]

Thanks guys!

It was a relatively good shooting day. The gun ran OK. After thousands and thousands and thousands of rounds, it had 1 failure to extract on the last run of pendulum. I've never cleaned the extractor, and it finally bit me. When I got home, I pulled it out and surprise, surprise, the groove and claw were just caked with crud. The slightly lighter loading (5.0gr) of N340 seems to run quite a bit dirtier than the 5.2 loading. 5.2 is VVs starting load, so 5.0 probably isn't putting out enough pressure to get it burn clean. I wonder if that might have been part of the cause. In any case, I'm ordering a fresh set of extractor springs for both Shadows just to be on the safe side.

the fist stage was a bit rough, but I was able to get my head more or less right and force the "visual patience" people here talk about. Yet again, shooting steel reinforces that my perception of speed is all wrong, especially pendulum. It was my best stage of the day, but I felt like I was shooting at a leisurely pace. The amount I was seeing was so much, it felt like it had to be taking forever, but when the time got called, it was pretty decent.

Stages where I tried to go fast, to rush, did not go as well. Make up shots and not so good times. Smoke and hope, which in theory should suit me quite well, was probably one of my worst stages of the day.

All told, I shaved 27 or so seconds off my time from last year. That's improvement and I'll happily take it. It's nice to bring some wood home. The $150 Raven Gift cert ain't bad either!

[Chris iliff]

That's just completely COOL!!!!!

[Racer377]

Light dryfire today. Drill #15 from Refinement and Repetition draw-2-reload-2. Started at 2.5 and worked down to 2.2. Draws and reloads are coming along nicely.

At the steel match, when checking mags between strings, I noticed that the top round was getting dragged forward a bit. When I first got Shadow #1, this would lead to mags not dropping as they should. SOP has been to polish the disconnector rail and all was good. I didn't repolish the rail on Shadow #2 when it first came back from the refinisher, and mags dropped fine at Warsaw. However, to leave nothing to chance, I polished the crap out of it today. I took off the remaining bits of black topcoat they put over the NiB where it mattered. Most of it was coming off anyway. Not quite mirror polished NiB left, but close. It's slicker than snot, and the top round doesn't move in testing. It probably wasn't necessary, but I feel better.

Edited October 22, 2012 by Racer377

[Racer377]

Light dry fire with no timer tonight. I'm trying to not over-do it, keeping in mind something that Chris had told me about the basketball teams practicing before big games.

New extractor springs and pins came, so those got installed in Shadow #2.

I'm strangely tempted to switch back to SS for the match for some reason.

Setup for the match tomorrow. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do a quick test of the VV N320 loads I brewed up at some point.

[Chris iliff]

Remember, Chris doesn't know jack. Lol

Good luck this weekend. Gun up, sights. You'll be fine!!

Basketball... Teams used same practice schedule for two weeks. Then one team was not allowed to even touch a ball for two weeks while the other team continued the same training schedule. When they played after the second two weeks, the team that was not allowed to practice won.

The conclusion was basically the subconscious worked for the winning team. The team with 4 straight weeks of practice never gave their subconscious a chance. If I remember correctly, all were new to the sport.

We are not talking about highly trained athletes here.

But if I remember the context of our original conversation correctly, then I'd say "no pushing before a big match". Fundamentals, shot calling, core skills, yes. I just would caution against trying to "develop" something new in the last week or two.

Edited October 25, 2012 by Chris iliff

[Racer377]

Loooooooong day today. Shot the SS prod match.

Conference call ran long, so I showed up at the first stage just in time to load up and shoot. First 5 stages seemed to go OK. 5th maybe not so much. the 1st 4 I had done quite well at just shooting and not rushing. Points were good at 92, 97, 96 and 93% with what I think will be OK times.

5th stage I got into a bit of a race mindset, dropped 3 deltas and 7 char lies for only 83%

Was discipline for most of 6, but had miscalculated a swinger. Doubled the popper to drive it down faster, thinking it was pretty slow, hit 2 on static, and went to th swinger to find it was already swinging back behind barrels. Unleashed burst fire and only connected with stupid delta. the mike hurt, only 78% of the points.

7 was the train wreck. Having not eaten all day, I think my blood sugar was low or some other lame excuse. Only had 8-9 in my make ready mag, and the first section I'd planned was 10rds. Imagine my surprise when the slide locked back. Dropped 2 into the white for 20 penalty points. 78% and dogshit slow.

8,9,10 were the speed shoots. 8 sucked, bad plan with a double activating drop-turner and max trap. 9 and 10 I think went OK. 100% on both, but times that were mediocre at best.

Good points -

kept extra shots down. Still had a few lapses of discipline, but getting better.

When I shot disciplined, without thinking of speed, the hits were good and the times ended up what I think are respectable. I did well not to get into race mode.

I think I reloaded well. First stage was a little rough, but not horrible.

I'm hoping to get a chance to review the video of the stages that were filmed to see if my impressions match the tale of the tape.

[Racer377]

Only got about half the stages in video.

2nd A, 8th production, 12 in the combined.

I'm a bit disappointed. The huge mental error on 7 was worse than I thought. Probably 50 stage points lost there , and the A win with them.

Lesson learned though. Eat something and learn to count.

79% of a very good GM tells me that maybe myA card wasn't a total fluke, so that's good.

Edited because posting on an iPhone make me sound like jarjar binks

Edited October 29, 2012 by Racer377

[Racer377]

Back to the practice grind! I switched the rig back over to SS. If the weather holds, I'm hoping to head out to Oxford or maybe South Central this weekend. I'm not quite ready to call it quits for the season yet.

I really need to move somewhere warm. Ughh.

Dry fire with the SS gun has gone pretty well the last 2 days. I'm not sure what happened, but I think I'm getting the hang of reloading these skinny mags. I'm still not quite as consistent as with the CZ, but when I'm on, it's just as fast.

I'll have plenty of time to refine over the winter. I need to set up some sort of structured dry fire program to get me where I want to be when next spring rolls around. I want to shoot more majors, maybe even SS Nats, and I want to do well at them.

[Jonathan Taliani]

Overall you shot a solid match at Indiana Rob. Second A is nothing to scoff at. I know we all have things we would like to go differently in the match (I'm right there with you).

Hopefully the weather will hold out and I'll see you at Oxford on Sunday.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Jonathan Taliani

[Racer377]

Overall you shot a solid match at Indiana Rob. Second A is nothing to scoff at. I know we all have things we would like to go differently in the match (I'm right there with you).

Hopefully the weather will hold out and I'll see you at Oxford on Sunday.

Thanks Jonathan! You're right. In a field with 3 GMs, 3 Ms, good As and some very good Sandbaggin' Bs (*AHEM* ), 8th overall isn't horrible. It's huge improvement over last year,

Congrats on the B win, BTW!

[Jonathan Taliani]

Overall you shot a solid match at Indiana Rob. Second A is nothing to scoff at. I know we all have things we would like to go differently in the match (I'm right there with you).

Hopefully the weather will hold out and I'll see you at Oxford on Sunday.

Thanks Jonathan! You're right. In a field with 3 GMs, 3 Ms, good As and some very good Sandbaggin' Bs (*AHEM* ), 8th overall isn't horrible. It's huge improvement over last year,

Congrats on the B win, BTW!

LOL! I wish that was the case. Everybody has a lucky day! Hopefully someday there will be a little bit of skill mixed in with my blind luck.

Thanks!!! All in all, it was a great way to close out my first season.

Edited October 31, 2012 by Jonathan Taliani

[Racer377]

Since I have this wonderful dry fire book (Thank you Steve!), I might as well use it, right?

Drills

2. 10yd Index: Par 1 sec (used a turtle target printed on an 8x11 normal paper. Approx. 3/8 size at 15 ft)

3. Surrender 10yd index: "

4. turn and draw: " (kinda surprised I was hitting 1 sec here)

5. Strong hand index: Par 1.3. Lot of work that needs to be done here.

7 Burkett reloads: started at 1. Super easy. 0.7 is where I started to miss. This needs to be a regular drill.

8. 6 reload 6: Par 5. (used a single paster on the wall at 12 ft) It's all about the reload. If I hit it, I have time to spare at par 5.

10. El Prez: Same as above.

I like the index drills as a warmup and they seem to be useful in reinforcing that vision need to dictate the shot, not rhythm, as I occasionally do in the draw dry fire drills with a trigger pull.

I just found the reduced size targets here, so that'll be helpful going forward.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=73666&hl=scaled+targets

[Racer377]

45 minutes of the D-2-R-2x5 drill. What a kick in the nuts. I had a helluva time getting under 8 seconds on this. Getting 5 good reloads in a row was a real challenge this evening.

In other news, I fitted the EGW firing pin stop to the TRP. Stocker measured .4682" across, EGW with a nice fit measures .4780" I was surprised at the difference. Ejection with hand cycling seems more consistent with the extractor pretty much locked in place.

Loaded up 200rds of a new recipe 4.8gr WST, 230gr Zero FMJ, 1.26", .4695 crimp.

Hoping to get out tomorrow and test it all out.

[Racer377]

No live fire yesterday, which sucks.

I decided to attempt to open up the magwell just a bit and make things easier on myself. I don't want one of those giant techwells, as a I carry this gun on occasion. Using the fine sanding drum on the dremel, I opened it up some and blended out the sharp lines. I really need a 1-piece MSH-magwell so I can go further back. Any further on this piece, and I'm grinding the screw.

I'm too much of a chicken to touch the frame. I'm not sure how much benefit there even is to blending into the frame. As it stands, If I hit the opening, I'm in. It seems I can make the opening bigger without having to do anything to the frame.

I gained myself a few tenths in opening size side to side, maybe 1/10 on the back, and it's almost mirror smooth. You can sort of see my reflection in the pic. Well at least until a few thousand thwacks with a stainless steel magazine ding it up again. After a few test reps, the cold blue is starting to look a bit rough. Once I decide on a magwell solution, it'll be going off for Cerakote or maybe NiBx anyway, so I'm not too worried about it. The test reps seemed like it was worthwhile. mags glide in nice and smooth with polished flats and the formerly sharp corners radiused out. I'm kinda surprised how just a few tenths bigger opening can make a noticeable difference. I've still got some room on the sides to go a little further, I think.

ETA: Did about 20 minutes of the dreaded Draw-2-(reload-2)x5 drill. Once warmed up, breaking 8 was fairly easy, and had quite a few under 7.5. This makes me happy!

Forecast is looking good enough for Oxford tomorrow.

Edited November 3, 2012 by Racer377

[Racer377]

Overslept and missed Oxford.

I did get a decent practice session with the SS gun. More like a data gathering session. I had a few recipes I wanted to try. WST might be a contender, but is a little underpowered. At max 4.8, I'm only getting 765 avg.

N340 was a huge disappointment. 6.3gr should've got me well over 850, but only gave me 787 with huge SD and ES. Maybe it needs more crimp? In any case, N340 is ruled out as a 45 powder. I did sorta like the push rather than the snap though.

N320 was still smokey at 5.2 and with less crimp. A few FPS slower than 5.1. Could be the fact that it's 40 degrees cooler, or could be the lighter crimp. I also tried the same load at 1.230 instead of 1.250. SDs tightened up and gave me the avg. 800fps I wanted, but accuracy didn't seem all that great compared to the 1.250 load.

All of the loads seem to have benefited from the EGW stop. The gun has a really nice straight back recoil pulse now. Noticeably less flip.

I also ran 100 4.2 N320 loads through the CZ. I think I'm in love. 135PF and so SOFT. No smoke, clean. and a 5.4 SD and 17fps ES over a 17rd sample. It's far and away the most consistent load I've ever tested. Accuracy seemed a little off from N340, but it was freehand shooting, not rested, and it was freakin' cold. Not much, and more than accurate enough to ding the A zone plate at 25yds every time.

I'm torn between trying bullseye for the 45, which saves me $9/1000 over 320 and will get me the velocity I want, or just saying F it and use 320 for both.

Did some d1-r1 drills at 8ish yds. Best was a 2.16 (1.06 draw/1.10 reload), most were in the 2.3 ballpark. Reloads are coming along nicely with the SS.

Did a few bill drills on the A zone plate. Best was a 1.86. My surrender draws are a tick slower with the SS, since I'm paying more attention to getting my grip right and not having a repeat of the chewed up, slide bitten hand.

Apparently, the beating of the 45 was too much for the bracket for my steel plate. The welds gave out and the bracket is done.

[Racer377]

I decided to open up the SS megwell just a little more and blend it to frame better. It turned out really well, I think. Running my finger over the seam, I can't even tell it's there. She heads out for some fresh cerakote tomorrow.

Good timing, I suppose, since the drive hub on my press broke. The subplate screws are REALLY tight, and I broke an allen socket trying to get them off. I may have to send the whole damn press back if I can't break 'em loose. Ugh.

[Racer377]

This is what it looked like before

[Racer377]

I ended up deciding to hold off on the refinish. Weather looks halfway decent and I've got the match jones for Riley this coming weekend...

Dryfire tonight with the draw-2-reload-2x5 drill. Finally broke 7 seconds with the SS gun. I did it once, and decided to record a few runs, broke it again on the 1st attempt. I'm pretty happy about that. Especially for not having touched the gun for almost a week.

I'm signed up for the Anderson dry fire clinic next month along with Chad and Chris. I'm looking forward to upping my game. I want to OWN SS (or production) next season.