RangeJunkies Practice Log

[RangeJunkie]

Keep going, your improving. The lighting at Parabellum's is something to get use to. It has made me slow down (even slower than I normally am). Much like you, my grip sucks. So that is my focus this year.

P.S., stay away from Production or Single Stack.

Yeah I understand what you're saying. It is odd lighting in there.

I definitely won't entertain Single Stack. And if I'm going to spend a couple thousand on a Limited Gun I might as well buy another Open gun (which at this point is no way close to happening). I had to many headaches in open.

In Production, it's easier to focus on me sucking, and not worry about my gun running all the time.

Edited January 17, 2015 by RangeJunkie

[RangeJunkie]

Practiced at ACC today after working this morning.

I was fortunate enough to not only shoot a Tanfo Lim Pro in 9mm, but also got to shoot N320 through it..yes many unicorns and rainbows were spotted. Thanks Racer377!

I shot it back to back with my Glock and titegroup, and to be honest I'm perplexed.

I'm so use to my G34, I think it has "ruined" me. The DA/SA was nice. I definitely like the crisp SA on the Tanfo. But my grip has been trained for the Glock platform.

CB45 believes I should switch anyway, and he knows best so we will see honestly.

I don't plan on being top 20 in the nation, with that being said I don't feel that it's "necessary" to have one I suppose. Time will only tell.

Back to shooting, my transitions are dirt slow, splits are decent as well as my reloads.

I also need to work on my stance during dry fire as well as my grip.

I'll post back with some updates as I feel and learn more.

Good day, I'm ready to improve.

Edited January 18, 2015 by RangeJunkie

[RangeJunkie]

Shot an Indoor match at Parabellum last night.

Pro's:

Called shots on almost every target, except the ones that were nearly within reach which I kinda just indexed..probably should slow down a little on those.

Grip strength is getting better and better.

Due to my grip increasing my gun is staying more flat. Im now waiting on my second shot to go off bc my sights are returning faster than I'm use to. I'll need to work on this in live fire for sure.

Bad:

Still need to work on recovering after mistakes in my run.

Work on shooting on the move. I need to find out what my limits are currently. I want more live fire practice to find this out though rather than do this in a match. Run my hit factor on both standing and shooting on the move in different scenarios to find out how they compare currently.

Lastly, the positive would be that I placed second overall in Production. Highest "U", but that should change after the February update when the classifier Match hits!

Then I'll be ready to travel to bigger matches!

[RangeJunkie]

About 100 rounds down range today. Transitions were the focus, steel was the target of choice.

Mainly, I focused on helping the girlfriend Aly get ready for her first competition coming up in a couple weeks. She is doing well, and will do fine no doubt.

For fun at the end of the session I convinced her to step back to about 125 yards to shoot a Steel "A Zone" target I've got.

She hit it a couple times out of 8 shots. I told her where her misses were, and she corrected them and got a couple hits afterwards. She was ecstatic and it was great seeing her enjoy the hobby as I do.

Sometimes it's nice to go out to shoot with nothing really planned, and have fun.

The instant I stop having fun I'll never show up on a range again.. I learned that a long time ago!

[RangeJunkie]

Quick recap for the past week.

Signed up for two majors, Indiana Production match in a couple months and also the Indiana State match in September.

Shot 300 rounds over the weekend with the girlfriend, which was good.

Got a day to myself when she had to work, letting me really work on turn and draw, strong hand, as well as some transition setups.

Slowly getting better. Really trying to get my body to do what I want when I actually shoot. Swear I could be a Master Class Dryfire Division shooter.

Shot a USPSA match at Parabellum tonight, fell on the concrete in the middle of the stage. Kept the gun safe and away from myself, and picked myself up and kept going. I was mentally frazzled and tossed the stage away.

Learning slowly, I'll keep trying.

[CB45]

Keep at it. Spring is almost here!!!

[RangeJunkie]

Keep at it. Spring is almost here!!!

Thank goodness. I'm getting cabin fever on multiple fronts!

Have fun at the Florida Open this weekend!

[RangeJunkie]

Well I suppose I'll drop in for a quick update.

Been a bit since I've posted, but I've been shooting every match in USPSA, or doing FNS when available locally.

I've noticed it's slowly starting to come together. Draws are getting smoother, transitions are getting faster..it's not close to what I want but I'm going to keep working.

For what it's worth, I won my first overall in production on March 3rd at Parabellum for their USPSA march. I won Production overall today at the classifier match today as well, as if that means something as I'm sure some people just go for broke.

I shot today just like a regular match, and it went fairly well. Pretty sure I bumped into high B if the update happens as I see it should.

Shot my first A classifier, an 82% on Diamond Cutter. Not saying that's much, but it's a little progress.

Ready for this warmer weather to come this week!

[RangeJunkie]

Shot at Riley's opening match for the outdoor season last weekend.

5 stages including classfier. Bang and clang was bad, 2 make up shots plus a big transition lost going back to steel after paper.

3 of the field courses went pretty well. My times are consistently 3 or so seconds slower than Id like them to be with my hits. Good news is my points are pretty good. Only had one or two deltas on the day, combined with a few Charlie's.

Last but not least the last field course stage. Shit show. Opened a port with my glock, jumped out of battery. Completely my fault. Followed by a gun malfunction that I thought was a squib (was not) that cost me probably 5 seconds on top of everything else. That stage killed me but I learned what not to do..

Finished 2nd overall in Production, Highest in my class. There were over 20 entries so for the first match I was happy!

Ready to keep on moving forward!

[RangeJunkie]

Quick update..season is building some steam..made a purchase I'm looking forward to in a couple weeks..anyways...getting ready for the production match coming up.

Shot at Parabellum, took the class win, and overall win with my G34. Felt good. Some of the major players were not in attendance in other divisions and mine, but hey I'll start somewhere with this.

Getting pumped for the season, ready to put my head down and make some progress this year!

Edit, tonight at Parabellum I really push my speed, transitions and settling into positions. I noticed my second shoots are a little worse when I push the pace.

Seeing lower times was really nice though. As I'm usually a couple seconds slower withreally good points.

Now to get good hits at that pace..

https://practiscore.com/results.php?uuid=b350e39b-b57e-428b-99b5-41f8273a4855&page=overall-combined

Edited April 9, 2015 by RangeJunkie

[RangeJunkie]

Shot at ACC on Sunday. Had one mike, but it was on a dissapearing target. And I felt like I earned it as the shot broke.

Overall, had a pretty good day. Things are starting to come together, stages were baller. Rob is running an awesome match up there for sure, and getting ready for the state production match helped too.

Was able to get the Production division win, which was great. Even though it's just a club match it's helping me build confidence in my shooting as I'm trying to get better.

https://practiscore.com/results.php?uuid=bc9be779-2b38-4567-a4f1-46676efd21cd

In other news, my new Accu Shadow arrived yesterday from Matt Mink. I'm pumped.

Threw about 600 rounds through it in the past two days.

WOW! Last night was tough getting use to the DA/SA pull but today was much better after dryfiring a bunch.

After putting 300 downrange tonight, spent about 30-40 minutes on exiting into a reload and re-entering. Working on getting use to the new index of the gun and reload angle.

Changed to ghost 360 mag pouches with bullets out.

Changed a lot in my game in a week as far as gear goes, but I like what I feel so far.

I'm super pumped to keep practicing this year and see where I go with it!

Practice Saturday hopefully and shoot at Riley on Sunday!

Edited April 15, 2015 by RangeJunkie

[RangeJunkie]

About 1400 through the new gun and I'm still not 100% comfortable with it. Grip is different, sight picture seems different..suck..suck..suck.

400 rounds today with Chad, Pat, Kurt, etc at ACC.

Really showed how bad I suck. I mean I get that two of them are GMs..but dang.

Regardless, Chad said there isn't a secret to getting better other than putting the time in.

Well, I'll wade through the sh*t until I get some improvement.

Riley got cancelled for tomorrow, meaning I'll be shooting the Accu in it's first match at the Production State Match. Wonderful!...

Btw, bumped to B, almost straight to A. Not that it means anything just a post in here to keep a track of a timeline of things.

[Glock26Toter]

Dude. Not so rough on yourself. You sound like you are getting way past glass half empty thinking... like into like the glass is around 3/4 empty mode.

You must be doing pretty darn good to get into B class and you mention it at the end like it's nothing. Something had to go right for you to nail a few classifiers and head well into B territory.

Look at your shooting with those guys as a "here's what I learned" or even a "here are two (or whatever) areas of improvement" that were pointed out by your time with them instead of just an overall "I suck" lesson.

Just trying to bring you back around buddy. This is a sport of personal improvement and not personal berating.

btw, congrats on the B class achievement.

[RangeJunkie]

Hey I appreciate the kind words.

Not really beating myself up mentally about it, I just have a very clear idea of where I need to improve.

It's great having those guys to shoot with on a fairly regular basis! Even though I see the times of them with their open gun and see my productions times and go wth!

Definitely learned a few things, need to work on more efficient entry and exit, especially in low ports.

Snapping eyes and knees to target on large transitions among other things.

32 yard mini poppers are some things I need to work on..but I think that was just salt in the wounds at the end of the practice day! Haha

Just like any other sport I've tried, having good help to direct you is everything if progressing up in the leaderboard is what your after.

In conclusion, it did come out like a "I suck" post, but in reality it just made me aware of some large points I can work on to improve.

Thanks for the compliment on bumping up though! At this point in the game my classification isn't important to me, I just want sound skills!

[Chris iliff]

Glad you are back!

I've shot 3 matches this year and that's about half of what I got to do last year. I will be shooting more and more,.....can't wait to squad!

I have said this to others, but I'll repeat it here. You have no limits in this sport except the limits you impose on yourself. Years ago when you were dabbling in Open I use to think, "Holy shit this kid is gonna be good!"

Things happened and you had to take a break, but now you are back and I am excited to see you excel.

See you on the range.

Edited to add: I made Master with your old Open gun. Also, in your absence a few other damn kids started practicing and shooting. They are actually pretty good now, lol. Very good really. Maybe you can shoot with them, Hahahaha.

Edited April 19, 2015 by Chris iliff

[RangeJunkie]

Glad you are back!

I've shot 3 matches this year and that's about half of what I got to do last year. I will be shooting more and more,.....can't wait to squad!

I have said this to others, but I'll repeat it here. You have no limits in this sport except the limits you impose on yourself. Years ago when you were dabbling in Open I use to think, "Holy shit this kid is gonna be good!"

Things happened and you had to take a break, but now you are back and I am excited to see you excel.

See you on the range.

Edited to add: I made Master with your old Open gun. Also, in your absence a few other damn kids started practicing and shooting. They are actually pretty good now, lol. Very good really. Maybe you can shoot with them, Hahahaha.

For sure! It'll be great to shoot together again!

That's awesome you made master with it! I could barely get it to run and look what you did!

I would agree with you completely, you get out what you put in with this sport. Like Chad said, there is no secret, just time spent practicing etc.

Yes..they have gotten very good! Which is great! Indiana has "stepped" up quite a bit since 2012 when I was involved before. The shooting competition is very stout! That's a great thing though, it will push newer shooters and force others to step their game up if they want to be competitive.

The "distractions" are out of th way, sold the motorcycle, the RC stuff, I only have my gun stuff now!

I just gotta train the best way I can as often as I can!

With the knowledge base here, If I don't improve it will only be my fault!