How do you practice?

[Jesse Tischauser]

Practice Schmaktus... Shoot as many events as you can.

That's what I say/do.

Except for that second part.

I'm pretty sure the AMU never practices either

[EaZeNuTZ33]

Practice Schmaktus... Shoot as many events as you can.

That's what I say/do.

Except for that second part.

I'm pretty sure the AMU never practices either

Thats what I heard.....Horner gets up every morning and swallows a teaspoon of gunpowder and calls it good for the day.

I think I need to move to Oklahoma! Here in KC, there don't seem to be as many matches as other areas of the country. My teammates near St. Louis, even the ones in Illinois, seem to have mid week indoor 3-gun and uspsa matches with matches on the weekends. I'm jealous!

[Jesse Tischauser]

Practice Schmaktus... Shoot as many events as you can.

That's what I say/do.

Except for that second part.

I'm pretty sure the AMU never practices either

Thats what I heard.....Horner gets up every morning and swallows a teaspoon of gunpowder and calls it good for the day.

I think I need to move to Oklahoma! Here in KC, there don't seem to be as many matches as other areas of the country. My teammates near St. Louis, even the ones in Illinois, seem to have mid week indoor 3-gun and uspsa matches with matches on the weekends. I'm jealous!

My buddy shoots mostly club matches with 1-2 majors that are close to OKC. He will rack up over 50 matches shot this year.

If you want to shoot a lot move to Pheonix. Matt Burkett told me he shot over 100 matches in a few months back when he was starting out! Or something ridiculous like that. I might have been drinking when he told me that.

Edited August 9, 2013 by Jesse Tischauser

[EaZeNuTZ33]

Practice Schmaktus... Shoot as many events as you can.

That's what I say/do.

Except for that second part.

I'm pretty sure the AMU never practices either

Thats what I heard.....Horner gets up every morning and swallows a teaspoon of gunpowder and calls it good for the day.

I think I need to move to Oklahoma! Here in KC, there don't seem to be as many matches as other areas of the country. My teammates near St. Louis, even the ones in Illinois, seem to have mid week indoor 3-gun and uspsa matches with matches on the weekends. I'm jealous!

My buddy shoots mostly club matches with 1-2 majors that are close to OKC. He will rack up over 50 matches shot this year.

If you want to shoot a lot move to Pheonix. Matt Burkett told me he shot over 100 matches in a few months back when he was starting out! Or something ridiculous like that. I might have been drinking when he told me that.

I've shot the Noveske match in Colorado and MW3G so far this year, plus 5 monthly matches, the Gateway shotgun match, and a (my first USPSA) match so far this year. I have 5 major matches left, possibly 6 if I go to the Arkansas Sectional Multigun, and maybe 2 more monthly matches left this year. All but MAYBE one monthly match are a 3-9 hours away. I'm envious of 50 matches per year.....I wouldnt know what to do with myself if I had 100 matches per year available, or where I would get enough ammo.

[ben b.]

Practice for me is a match about every weekend, USPSA, steel, IDPA, 3-gun. Any free range time I get during the work week is usually chrono or sighting-in time.

I should be doing dry fire drills, but I usually load ammo instead.

[co-exprs]

When you're at the top of your game (like Pat Kelley) you can go to matches every weekend and maintain where you are at. When you are trying to claw your way out of being mediocre then you need to practice like a fiend! I am at the range 2-4 times per week. Some trips to the range are formal practice and some are matches. I practice pistols on Wed nights and shoot steel challenge on Fri nights. About every other week, I get out on Thur evening for rifle practice and then I shoot a weekend match about 3 times per month. I consider local matches practice for big matches.<br /><br />I have always had one burning theme when it comes to competitive shooting. You win the match at practice. When you show up for the match, you either have the skills to win or you don't. I spent too many years trying to win at the match and then really down on myself for not. Not any more. Now I kick the livin crap out of myself at practice and then simply focus on shooting my best and having fun at the match. I like winning, but I don't get my shorts in a twist over it any more. Instead, I consider the gaps in my game and then practice practice practice, till I shore up the gaps. 2012 I had three big gaps in my game. Slugs, offhand rifle and consistency. I practiced slugs and offhand rifles at range practice and consistency at the local matches, while doing just enough to maintain my pistol and shotgun skills. It paid off this year with significant improvements to my standings. Tough part is finding enough time to practice everything. Keeping up with reloading, gear and gun maintenance, family stuff, mountain bike rides and repairs, boyscouts, church, teaching, buddies who need my help and... oh yeah... gotta work too, there is little time left for dry fire practice. Dry fire practice with pistol and shotgun reloading tends to get pushed out for other activities and I do more of that in the winter while there is less going on.<br /><br />Pat may not practice much these days, but I promise you... there was a time when he was the first one on the range and the last one off, he was working so hard.<br />

[JPeel]

......... The whole is always the sum of its parts, and the more that someone can isolate and learn from any shooting sport, can be effectively applied to any other shooting sport, just make sure you are playing by the right rules mentally!

Very well stated. I'm posting this on the door to my gun room.

[lc2hl]

Thank you.

[P.E. Kelley]

Not to self aggrandize, but at my zenith (1998) as a USPSA pistol shooter (GM with six 100% classifiers) I shot a TOTAL of 6,800 rounds in that year. That is the most I had ever shot in any one year.

You don't HAVE to burn Tens of thousands of rounds to learn how to shoot well. To shoot well you must simply master the fundamentals.

Edited August 24, 2013 by P.E. Kelley

[aquaticvisions]

Practice Schmaktus... Shoot as many events as you can. Not just 3 gun events.

Load your shotgun.

Lots of 22 rifle and pistol shooting at speed.

I would like to practice schmaktus as much as I can, but my mom told I'll go blind if I do it too much.

[latech15]

I used to dryfire a lot, now I just shoot matches.

[kurtm]

Practice?? Well first I put on nice romantic music, maybe a little wine and then I get my wife a little drunk and then......Oh you mean practice shooting firearms!!! Well I do shoot a bunch!

[Dannybot]

I shoot steels matches with M&P 15-22 at least once a month. It's nice as you get to immediately repeat your strings on the clock so I can figure out what's working and what's not. Our match director usually puts in a stage or two that resembles practical shooting, requiring shooting through ports or requiring position change during the string.

[GreenDragon64]

Are there any drills out there to help guide practices? Do you treat rifle practice the same as pistol practice by working on transitions and decreasing the time it takes to put the first shot on target after a transition? I know with shotgun figuring out where your slugs will hit and reloading are two big components along with making sure you have good hits/knock down steel on first shot. And with pistol working with draws and transitions plus mag changes.

I'm probably missing out on some things, I just don't know what I don't know.

Edited November 9, 2014 by GreenDragon64

[Les Snyder]

the drill that helped me the most with barricade transitions was the Highsmith Rifle drill by Kyle Lamb (Viking Tactics)... video is on youtube...note the change of hand position from grip to mag well, and application of safety