Attila's Range Diary

[Attila]

Currently my classification is SS C (45.02), Prod B (63.83), Open C (42.97), Ltd C (47.76)

I am starting to practice. Now I need to continue it. I have been competing in local matches (and a few majors) for all most 8 years. In that time I have practiced very little. That goes for both live fire and dry fire. I joked that my only practice was the previous stage. In reality, it was the truth.

The biggest improvement I had come between October 2011-April 2013. That October I took a month long business trip during which I took my gear. I actually dryfired most days on that trip. Shooting somewhat regular until April helped. Since then it has been downhill. Time to start practicing.

I have mostly shot production, but have dabbled in Single Stack, Limited and even Open. Although it has been mostly production, my heart is with Single Stack. I just got two new 1911s, a Cheely Custom 40 and STI USPSA 9mm. I have a club slot to Single Stack Nats, so that is another reason to start practicing.

I bought the STI USPSA 9 for my daughter to learn with, but I may be using myself. This is due to two reasons.

1. My first press is on backorder and must rely on factory ammo. Right now, that is hard to get. I have enough 40 for Nats and maybe one or two other big matches before hand. I have lots of 9. Therefore I will use the 9 for practice.
   
2. I really need to work on fundementals. I may be wrong, but I believe this will be easier to learn with the 9.
   

The first things I am going to work on is some of the basics. Trigger management, Grip, Draw, Gun Handling and Reloads.

The first one is the most important to me right now. When I try to shoot quickly, I flinch. When I take my time and shoot at a slow fire pace (free style, one shot, take my time, fire, relay, repeat) I can drill a paster at 12 yards. When I try to shoot at a match pace, the shots go low. Probably 50-60% would be in the lower A zone, the rest will be C and occasionally D zone shots. I need to figure how to do the same thing I am doing in slow fire, but speed it up.

Grip and Gun handling need to be worked on since I am going from several years using a G34 in Production to single stack. Note to self: "Remember to take the safety off!"

Finally, the biggest thing I can do to improve is loose weight. I am morbidly obeses and usually(but not always) the biggest guy at the range. I was not always like this. When I was young, I was in great shape and a member of a Ranger Batt. Now, people probably don't believe me when I tell them that. At a match I figure my weight costs me several seconds on a course with a little movement. For course with really long movement, I pay for it. The improvement that I mentioned above also coincided with a period in which my weight was going down quite a bit. Since then, It is back to where it was before the loss. I need to get committed to weight loss. For me, my family and lastly, to improve my match scores.

I hope to update this with progress. Let's see how this goes. See you at SS Nats.

Todd Reich

L2721

[Attila]

Shot saturday in Sparta. Not the best day shooting. Temp was about 50° when I got there. It dropped more than 10° during the match and the wind picked up significantly. My gun had problems on three of the stages.

The classifier was "Six". I had no gun issues and did well. 29 pts, 4.82 sec. According to the classifier calc, it should be around 62%.

I had one other stage with no gun issues and did OK.

On three stages I had problems with the first round not feeding. The gun is a single stack 40. I have tried Wilson mags and Tripp mags. With both, it won't feed the first round. Usually the slide can be pushed forward and round will chamber. Once in a while it won't. On two of the stages, I got it to chamber by pushing the slide forward, but when I started the course, the pistol would not fire on the first round. I cycled the slide and the next round fired.

On one stage, I shot 'til slidelock, reloaded, and then everything stopped. The slide would not move forward or rearward. The round had moved forward until the ramp and stopped. The mag would not drop as the rear of the round was still under the feed lips. I eventually got the slide to lock back with considerable effort. After that I was able to drop that mag, put in a fresh one and force the slide forward. It cost me 50-60 seconds.

I need to figure out what is happening and fix it. Set up is a 1911 Caspian custom in 40.

Ammo is Atlanta Arms and Ammo 40 major loaded at 1.18". I can not load ammo to 1.2" until my press and components arrive.

Mags used for this was Wilson Combat 45 ETM. I have tried Tripp "Corey" mags and they were worse.

I have tried an EGW high mag catch. No difference.

I will try several other types of mags and also try to metal followers in the Trip mags.