How to do everything perfectly all the time

[thermobollocks]

Having shot competitively for a couple years, having laid down goals, and having met some and not others, now seems like a good time to start writing about it.

I shot a small amount when I was a teenager, but didn't give it much thought until I got out of Kansas State. Then, the simple, utilitarian guns I had gotten as sixteenth birthday presents (an old break-top 20 gauge and a 10/22 International) came with me to Colorado Springs. In 2009, I had an epiphany...namely that I was over 21 and this is America, so a handgun of my own seemed in order. I picked up a .22, then a 92FS, and shot both for a few months before hitting an extremely comprehensive basic pistol class, where I was quickly reminded of one key educational principle: "There is always more to learn."

About a year and a half after that, I wound up shooting IDPA at monthly matches in Clear Creek, and I quickly branched out into USPSA and Steel Challenge. Last year, I wound up picking up 3-gun and practical rifle on top of that. I don't shoot much IDPA anymore, though I'm still largely attracted to "working" guns.

For now, my match schedule contains about a half dozen USPSA matches a month, including one where I'm on the Board of Directors, one where I'm the match director, and one where I'm the match director until Hoser gets back from wherever the hell Uncle Sam sent him. My goal for those is, so far, to not hork them up so badly that people spray-paint Hoser's car for leaving. I get about as much enjoyment putting on a good match as shooting a good match, but what's the point of putting me on the clock if I don't want to be at the top of the list?

On top of USPSA, once a month Pueblo runs a very challenging tactical rifle match, with a short and a long field stage involving 25 required engagements at targets between 100 and 400 yards, along with a standards stage. Pueblo also hosts Steel Challenge weekly during the spring and the summer, and there's a few clubs around here who do the full blown 8 stages every so often. For 3-gun, Byers and Weld both run "square range" type setups, and the Johnsons run absolutely excellent club matches in Raton when the weather's not terrible (and they don't have a major match in the way).

On top of all this, once or twice a month I get to help teach the very basic pistol class that got me into shooting in the first place.

Classifications

Production: B

Revolver: B

SCSA: B (done with my Prod gun)

Guns

Production: M&P 9 Pro with a .40 as a backup

Revolver: S&W 625 4" and S&W 327 5"

3-gun: Remington 1100 TAC-4, Larue 20", and M&P 9 Pro

Major match goals for 2014 (I make no promises to remember the titles)

Rocky Mountain 3-Gun and HM Nationals (staff)

Noveske Area 2 Multigun

Pike's Peak Regional Shotgun Challenge

At least one level 2 steel challenge match where I don't eat a DNF

Rocky Mountain Regional ICORE (schedule permitting)

Help run at least a level 2 match, wherever in the state it may be.

One Bite at a Time Goals for Winter

Shoot A-class with my 625

Use the 625 to refine stage breakdown skills especially as they may apply to remembering bigass RM3G stages

Reliably hit a 12" target offhand with slugs at 50 yards

Unlock the mysteries of the Larue barrel nut

Try not to forget how a semi-auto works

Start recording more of my matches so I can figure out what I'm doing

Don't forget dry fire

Longer Term Goals

Shoot A-class with my M&P

Break and maintain top 3 finishes in rifle matches and club 3-gun matches in my division

Steel Challenge A-class with Iron Sight Revo and Production

Incite holy wars on Youtube

After all that, let's get things rolling with How I Spent My Summer Vacation Last Weekend and What I Want to Do Next Weekend

Sunday was a fun match at Aurora Gun Club, lots of distance work. There was one other revo shooter (who signed up for L10 so he could use his 8-round clips), and the advantage of 8-round on field stages was obvious. I shot 93% of available points, with no penalties. My biggest takeaway was one of our M-class guys asked me why the hell I was standing still so much. That's a very good question. This weekend was one to dust off some of my spinnygun cobwebs, and I need to remember how long it takes me to reload (and how much distance I can cover in that time), and how to reload moving in different directions. Advancing is easy, but going hard right or hard left while weak-hand loading takes practice.

Monday I got to play match director. We were one body short from our normal setup crew -- poor guy had to spend his birthday with his wife. Luckily we got 4 pretty fun stages going. We still had a bit of a squad churn issue. With two indoor bays, we have to remember how to balance stages against each other, but also how to effectively convert stages from their Stage 1/Stage 2 configurations into Stage 3/Stage 4. Squad 1 got to start on a fairly quick stage, and converting it to the classifier was pretty quick. I picked a classifier without multiple strings, which probably contributed to them finishing pretty damned quick. That said, it was a good classifier and I think I shot a 77% (Melody Line). I'm still learning a ton about how to run the smoothest possible match, and I haven't had any ludicrous f*#kups yet.

Next weekend, Saturday will be at Byers, which is a bit of a trek for me. Aurora may also be running an NRA Action Pistol match, which could be a ton of fun or way over my head, one way or another. I don't know of anyone else who does that around here, so maybe it'll be a nice way to remember my accuracy skills. Sunday is one of my favorite matches, down at Pueblo. They set up excellent stages, often very mobile, and always creative.

[kneelingatlas]

I like it

You've inspired me to set some goals for myself this winter.

[thermobollocks]

One little goal at a time!

I got enough crap together to make some recordings (and, coincidentally, chrono stuff without a shooting bench). I may even have an earpro mount going for this Gopro. The tripod addition to my dry-fire practice is new for me, and at the very least now I know how to operate the camera before trying to go live on match day. So, in all its dimly lit glory, I present to you an expressionless man in a 6 year old polo shirt:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HhhgRbQL-4

Every dry-fire session reminds me exactly how precise I need to be to do what I want to do. Not too long ago, I thought my draw stroke was pretty slick -- 1.7 seconds with a Production holster down to 1.5 seconds with the Racemaster. But, then I started paying attention to the times some of the speedy bastards at Steel Challenge were pulling (regularly!), and also to a video from Ron Avery that shows even with a high rise concealment holster and some analysis/coaching, sub-second draws are a realistic goal. So, there comes a new par time, and a new goal for my most basic of drills.

[thermobollocks]

The Gopro and its mount have exceeded my expectations. The field of view on "medium" is good enough to catch my reloads and place the gun perfectly in the camera's view. I was able to do the writeup and processing pretty much immediately since I wasn't completely burnt out. The weather was perfect and we got done a little quicker than normal.

They're all in a playlist, and there's information in the annotations. Let me know if the Youtube logistics could be better. Part of the purpose is that I can retain these as a concise record of my performance and thoughts at a point in time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppkQfyNL-N8&list=PL-7gW2Qw5nd_38IKb2bIbkQHnaXBJF-K0

Stage 1: Corner Peek. 28 rounds, no target more than 5 yards out, many at around 2. This was a lot of footwork, avoiding trigger freeze, and as always reloading. I remembered to put my feet where I wanted them at the start, but on the second reload I didn't tune my foot speed correctly, so I wound up stopping suddenly to not overrun T7. T8, I forgot to get fired back up again. Overall, it went pretty well. I could've completely screwed myself if I followed through with that ill-timed reload. Every time I go into a big swing with some footsteps, I have to push myself not to reload. Really, I should have to push myself to reload, instead of just getting falling into the motions. It needs the same attention that I give any of my other shooting tasks.

In total, I executed the plan I wanted in mostly the way I wanted to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIEx-v9YStQ&list=PL-7gW2Qw5nd_38IKb2bIbkQHnaXBJF-K0

Stage 2: Happy Thanksgiving. 21 rounds, about 4-8 yards for range. There were two separate shooting boxes, which was a little awkward to remember. On top of that, I forgot to unlatch my holster, which ate a good couple of seconds. Since I knew I'd have to reload before engaging target #4, there was no real point to getting up and then firing, since I can reload while standing up. A few people took it seated, but most stood. Were I shooting production, I don't know if I'd do it differently. Being seated seemed to slow me down, even though there's no mechanical reason for that to be. I could absolutely have cranked up the speed for those easy shots.

The only tough part of my plan was backing into the second shooting box while reloading, which turned out to be not advantageous. It would've been better to hit T2-T4, get up and reload, hit T8, T7, and then T1 just so I'd be tracking in the same direction, and controlling muzzle direction more easily. But, I did what I wanted to do, even if I didn't do it as well as I'd like. This was the last stage of the day for us.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt9EM2v7KTc&list=PL-7gW2Qw5nd_38IKb2bIbkQHnaXBJF-K0

Stage 3: Armored Car Robbery. 26 rounds. The distance on this one was a bit longer than the others, and the field was littered with no shoots. Those ports were a pain in the shoulders. I don't do as much port work with pistol as I do with rifle. One of my logistical goals has been to build a VTAC wall for rifle stuff, and it seems like that'd be a good idea with pistol, too. I was really happy with my reloads on this one, and I definitely took my time in getting those difficult shots on the left. The right was a different story. The far right port made for some easy shots, but I got a little excited and dropped two bullets right onto the farthest target's shoulders, right on the perf. The last port, kneeling seemed like the way to go, but I'm usually more stable on both knees, so that's something to remember. If I had to get up, it'd be a different story. Most people crouched for most of it. The hits were great, but I got that one target by the skin of my teeth. This was the first stage of the day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqadDImJiM0&list=PL-7gW2Qw5nd_38IKb2bIbkQHnaXBJF-K0

Stage 4: CM99-13 Quicky II. I haven't practiced SHO/WHO in too long, and I short chucked it on the WHO string. Eeeehhhh. After last Monday's classifier I should've been paying more attention. The Superman-style start threw off a lot of people's draws. To hit A-class on this type of classifier, I really need to be Robocop with one-handed work. That should be doable, since I've got a bunch of blue clothes and I'm really good with deadpan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcI43u3Uewk&list=PL-7gW2Qw5nd_38IKb2bIbkQHnaXBJF-K0

Stage 5: Pick the Apples. I received no apples. 28 rounds. This one may have been comparatively my best performance. My feet went exactly where I needed them to go, and the hard shots didn't screw with me too much. The only thing I'd change is make two shots count on the 4 farthest targets instead of automatically giving them 3 because I had the ammo for it. My shots were placed very tightly together, so I didn't really need them.

This weekend had lots of odd start positions, which I don't think messed with me, but I still feel like I'm knocking the dust bunnies off a lot of my revo fundamentals. I look forward to kicking the Pueblo stages' asses tomorrow -- there's usually a ton of long field stages that are exactly what I want to practice doing.

[thermobollocks]

Sunday's match was basically a disaster physically and mentally. Mentally, I was completely unprepared to execute the basic things I knew how to execute. I took videos of the 4 out of 5 stages, but it may be a little bit before I post them, especially the ones that aren't so fun to watch. I ate a bag of suck on the classifier (Alpha, Mike, No-Shoot) after a first stage with two paper misses and an enormous pile of makeups on steel. I can even see it in the dry-fire on the other stages -- I am nowhere near rock steady on empty gun trigger presses. Bad, bad news.

This coming weekend I get to own a stage for the club at my home range, and I get to wear my MD hat for the Monday night indoor match. Those folks deserve my full attention, so I'm going to try not to be a brooding whiner about it.

[thermobollocks]

Whew, I shot (and helped to run) a club match today, and got some neat video despite the extreme wind.

First, the good: Today's match (all camera footage here in one giant playlist). The first stage I shot ("A Frame") was the one that I designed and got out of bed early to hammer together. It was a retreat stage, but luckily no one on my squad screwed it up too badly. Planning it for a revolver was fairly straightforward -- at the forward positions, there were 2 mirrored arrays of 2 paper/1 KD fairly distant, and a third array of 3 paper around the wall that you could take from either side. My shooting cadence seemed appropriate to the distance involved, and the hits were excellent (21A/7C). The biggest thing I learned is that if it's a cold day and I'm not hitting my reloads, then my feet need to adjust for that. I normally plan to have about three seconds of moving time, whether that motion is a walk, a strut, or a jog. Yes, revo guys strut. My plan had minor hiccups because of that, but I wound up being able to take care of things.

The classifier (which I didn't tape) was mediocre for me, but it was a nice stage, and it was one of the new CM 13 series. I wound up driving very hard with less than excellent recoil control, which made me drop a ton of points. On a 12 shot stage, those deltas add up. I didn't splatter any of the no-shoots this time!

My squad's third stage was a fairly straightforward advancing stage. It was very amenable to single stack (lots of division by 4) but it took some thinking to break it down by 3 instead. I horked up the unloaded start, and I still have no idea why. I think having to unload and retain my ammo got me thinking about strong hand loading, which isn't what I normally do. I was so distracted about that that I wound up trying to take 8 shots instead of 6 (two clean dry fires). Go team! I dropped a delta on the swinger at the end, too, but that's not so bad. I still stuck to my plan, and my hands were still warming up to the reloads. I wound up needing no makeup shots, which makes things much easier on a 24 round stages.

Our fourth stage was a deceptively simple 8 round stage, with 6 paper in the middle available from basically anywhere in the shooting area, and 2 poppers that were hidden so you had to go both hard left or hard right. My plan was to take the easy paper target (just one) in the middle, and have ammunition left to kick the poppers' butts. I think that worked out pretty well, Another plan I could've done is to crank out the 6 paper first thing, reload into the hard left or right positions, then haul really hard into the opposite corner. But I like to try to multitask: if I'm moving I want to be either shooting or reloading. I don't like reloading while standing still and most of the time running while not reloading doesn't work out so hot. This is one stage (out of like a dozen) where it could've gone either way, honestly. 10.5 seconds wasn't that great of a time, and I don't know if changing my plan would've improved that or if executing my plan better would've done that. I still have to eat 3 seconds every time I need to feed the gun anyway.

Our fifth stage (stage #2 as the match briefing goes) was called Scrambler, from our MD who very clearly shoots Limited (but it was still a good stage.) Only the first loading device got to be in the gun, and all the others had to go on a barrel squished between two walls. It was very tough. Production and Single Stack could choose to move in a way that they could pick each reload off the barrel, or stuff their belt and run. I chose the stuff and run option, and I think it worked out. It ate about 5 seconds to load my belt up, and I think how clean it made the 5 (!) reloads I had to do during the stage was worth it. If I'm moving in a way that I'm unfamiliar with (as to get to a barrel with my ammo on it) it can nearly double my reload times, which sucks when each one takes 3 seconds. It still took me like 40 seconds to do the stage, but I think I did it as efficiently as possible. I also had to warn the RO well in advance of what crazy scheme I was going to try to accomplish. There were a lot of tough shots wedged downrange, too, but they were in a position where makeup shots were possible, which was nice. It made me hesitate in one place where I had thought about reloading, though, which is not productive. We also had a really, really bad muzzle violation from a shooter who basically about faced with a live gun. I've had that happen once before, and it's never fun. People ran, and naughty words occurred.

The last stage, where the weather started getting _nasty_, was a nice combination of long shots and extreme chainsawing that I think went really well. It was a very choicey stage no matter what you shot, and I didn't wind up taking any makeup shots in the tough spots. It was difficult to remember, but I think I'm getting a lot better at memory and stage breakdown. It was a 30 round stage, but not only is having a makeup on the poppers available nice, but also the poppers were arranged so that you couldn't shoot them both from the same position, so there really wasn't any way to avoid it. As a bonus, after my one awkward reload at the very end I got to hose a lay-down strong hand only, which is always fun.

For the bad, here's what I wound up doing at Pueblo last weekend, in playlist form. It was a very poor day -- after my third stage, walking all the way uphill with a can of Monster in my bag, it cracked and then tore open, so about a dozen stray rounds of ammo got soaked and my entire range bag and the backs of my legs got cranberry on them. I'm surprised no one showed up with a trauma kit. I cleaned my crap off and let it dry, then performed modestly on the one stage that I didn't tape. I tried very hard to put my bushido hat on and get through it, but I know I didn't do so hot.

The very first stage I ate a ton of makeups on steel (like 3) and had a couple of misses on paper as well. They weren't even hard cover, just I sucked at pressing the trigger. You can even see it in the dry fire if you watch closely.

The classifier I punched a no-shoot in the armpit.

The third stage, I wound up deciding I was just going to go balls out and focus on hauling ass, and with how close the targets were, that worked out. It was kind of an on the spot confidence booster. It was also a tough stage to plan out, especially where my reloads are. There was a lot of ducking and weaving into tight ports (albeit for close shots). That was the "Totally Turtles" stage, which is at least fun to look at.

After I got my sea legs, our fifth stage was a retreat stage. I wound up taking some long shots while walking backwards, which seemed to result in hits that weren't so hot. But, they were hits so that was better than what I was doing. Breaking it down into a 6 shot plan was also fairly simple, which helped me out a lot.

Our last stage was interesting: there was a box a few yards off from a very tight shooting area made of walls. I ate a few seconds from a misfire (I think it was a high primer) but other than that it went pretty well. I wasn't as aggressive moving in such tight confines, which is something to work on.

It was very much a learning day last weekend, and a ton of fun today. On Monday I get to put on my MD hat and see if we can get some heat in the indoor range.

[thermobollocks]

Last night was rough. I shot most of the stages the way I wanted, but I was running the trigger so aggressively on the close-range stuff to get a ton of short strokes. On top of that, I learned the hard way that I need a replacement screw kit for my Racemaster. Luckily, I can fall back on my Blade-Tech.

[thermobollocks]

The weekend before class I got to teach a basic pistol class, which is always fun. It's very different to change gears from USPSA to "no you don't have to cycle the slide with your hand every single time." On our range day I got to run a few rounds through an M&P Shield, and I found that I'm terrible at slow-fire without even a self-imposed element of time. It was very odd.

Saturday I took a day off to wreck some bowling pins I got off Craigslist, and after trying out Buffalo Bore's bear destroyer .45 ACP, my normal 230gn felt like a total kitten. After shooting revo so much, my Sig 1911 was basically a pellet gun. I can't imagine what it's going to be like going back to Production this spring. But, I've got plenty more time with the 625 before I get to slack off again.

I had a club match on Sunday up at Aurora, and I got to see some of my regular buddies, one of whom's a really solid 3-gunner. I had a number of really stupid screwups, myself, which made no sense. I have an awful habit of trying to reload sometimes whenever I get into a "big swing" or take more than a couple of steps with my gun, largely because not many of my plans require me to do that. I usually break things into groups of 3 targets, and each shooting position (or area) I consider, when I leave it I get to reloading. The good news is my reloads were solid. We had someone learning on the Nooks with Practiscore, and after we thought scoring was complete, it turned out we missed a target, so I got a re-shoot. I did much worse on the re-shoot because of the aforementioned brain fart. The stages were excellent, though, and they gave me plenty of ideas for the club match in January whose stage I have yet to draft, and especially the indoor match in a couple of weeks.

Tonight I have a 4-stage indoor club match, and our regular MD is back, so I only get to be setup staff this time around. I'm going to try to focus on remembering what I'm doing. Unfortunately, this weekend the Gopro's battery died and I am too lazy to recharge it.

[ZackJones]

Just found your diary and will be watching your progress. I, too, have a 625 and that's going to be my primary focus for 2014.

[thermobollocks]

Thanks! The 625 JM will treat you well.

Last night I got to shoot the indoor match, which was pretty challenging. We got to try out CM13-04 "The Roscoe Rattle," which is basically a series of Bill drills starting facing uprange. It was a super fun classifier. The field courses (<24 rounds) were all fairly straightforward with some tight shots, which I managed to make. We actually had 4 revolver shooters, which is I think a record. I managed to squeak out with 100% of match points, only 6% on top of our resident revo high master. To be fair, he did just get back from a deployment -- I expect that next match he'll be back to mopping the floor with me.

The first stage (of my own design) was a prop/weak hand stage. 10 targets and 3 shooting boxes at varying distances, and the fun part that was at box C (with the closest targets) the shooter must grasp an empty 5 gallon bucket with the strong hand and shoot weak hand only. What threw off a ton of shooters was the fact that the bucket starts at the starting box (box A). So, one guy told me the stage was illegal because I was making them switch strong and weak hand (I wasn't), and others thought it meant that they must hold the bucket the entire time (they don't). I wound up eating several seconds because I tried to hook the bucket on my belt for the middle box. It made me waddle around like I had a hemorroid -- bad plan. What some of the folks with better hand-eye coordination than me did was (1) throw the bucket at box C, or (2) hook the bucket in their strong arm on the way to box B after taking a standing reload at box A (after shooting 4 or 5 targets). That part made a ton of sense for basically everyone but me, since I'd have to take a reload between box B and C and switch hands.

The second stage was a really basic 3-box stage with a ton of really tight shots involving no-shoots. I didn't hit any of them, which was nice. I was able to maintain a comfortable pace, and knowing where my bullets will go as long as my sights are more or less together helped me out. 9 targets, 86 points earned in 19 seconds. HF 4.5, which is a nice place to be.

Stage 3 was the classifier, CM13-04 "The Roscoe Rattle." I really like Bill drills, so I did pretty well. It's got 2 strings and 3 targets; T2 has its D zone covered by two no-shoots on the left and right. Start position is facing uprange loaded & holstered, hands touching head above the ears. String 1, crank out 6 on T2. String 2, crank out 6 on T1, mandatory reload, 6 on T3. I got a 7.62 HF, time 10.88 for both strings. If I remember correctly I got in the neighborhood of 3.2 seconds on the first string, which is just turning and ripping out 6 shots. That's better than I usually do -- I practiced turning around without flailing like an idiot a few times. I think I was able to settle my brain into a useful state beforehand -- I know how to turn, and I know how to dump a cylinder into the C zone at 27 feet, so I have absolutely nothing to be afraid of. The second string was a hair slower than I would've liked thanks to a little trigger freeze on T3. But, there's something to be said for hitting a 7.62

Stage 4 was the same as stage 2, but with one array of targets deleted and the lights turned way down. It was only 7 targets, but I hit all A's in 14 seconds. This was pretty damned slow for me. Our revo master hit it in 10.5 seconds, but he dropped a miss. A stage this quick I should be able to break 5.5 HF. Maybe flat black sights don't work well in the dark. I honestly don't remember what I was thinking during this stage, other than a massive "ffffaaarrrttt."

I need to be more diligent at videoing these things -- having done it a couple times, it turns out being so tremendously useful for me. At the indoor matches in particular, I'd like to throw up a tripod with my camera on it. Call it MD's privilege.

[thermobollocks]

It's been nearly 10 days since I've shot a gun. It feels weird. With any luck I won't be completely terrible come Monday. Last weekend we had an instructor class -- teaching the people who want to be instructors how to teach. Sunday we get to shoot, but I don't know if I'll make that or the Weld County USPSA match. It all depends on how cold it is.

[thermobollocks]

I wound up helping a bunch of aspiring basic pistol instructors on Sunday, and work (for once) got in the way of helping run Monday night's match. I've been reading through Brian's book, but so far I've only been able to put a few things into practice dry. Some of it certainly applies to work...we concentrate on what's not important and fail to see what is.

Instructor class was interesting -- there's only so many ways I can tell people to let the gun do what it will without interference. One guy decided to try to qualify with his brand new, unfired Rock Island 10mm. His flinch was bad enough to produce 6-ish inch groups at 15 yards...from sandbags.

Aside from that, I got some MSA Sordins on government clearance, and they seem to be quite a quality of range-life improvement over the Howard Leights I usually use. Foremost, I can use them with a long gun, which is nice. Second, turning them off and on makes me feel like a robot from the future, which is also nice.

I need to load up some more .45 for this Saturday's club match, and with any luck remember what it's like to shoot with a timer as opposed to without.

[thermobollocks]

I shot the HPPS club match on the 15th, and then some kind of holiday thing happened. No matter, I get some practice on Wednesday and Saturday, and a club match on Sunday.

For some reason I am ignoring the mantra of "buy more ammo not guns" and trying to get gear together to shoot He-Man as a proper He-Man. So, my Christmas present to myself involves small base .308 dies and a couple of trimmers. It's getting to be the time of year where I need to do brass prep.

[thermobollocks]

Good news: I function tested a new-to-me FAL that seems to hit minute-of-plate with decent commercial ammo.

Bad news: I put my car in a ditch against a barbed wire fence. Insurance covers some of it, and some comes out of the fun fund. Happy new year!

[thermobollocks]

I made it to the indoor match Monday night, and after all the excitement over New Years, I hadn't the first idea what I was going to do. I wasn't in elevated heartrate full face-busting mode like I prefer, but I remembered to do what I wanted when I wanted to. I'm glad I made it because I had 3 other revo-havers on my squad to keep me company, both of them exceptionally talented. I've also been plowing through Enos' book, and learning to think is definitely difficult and helpful.

I don't remember too many specifics from each stage, unfortunately. Best to write about it immediately after, right?

The first was the one I made, an 18 shot field course with 3 boxes and a table start. I had a cylinder of 10 yard shots, then a cylinder of 7 yard shots, then the last cylinder at 3-4 yards. I only shot it at 83% of the division cool guy, 16.9 seconds as opposed to 13.3 seconds. I think I lost a lot of time in my fundamentals. I was executing very sluggishly, and another tenth of a second on each of those shots adds up pretty quick. I shot it clean, though, which was different from last time.

The second stage I got in 22.5 seconds instead of the division winner's 17 seconds, and we both shot it filthy. He actually got a couple of misses, but the 17 seconds was still so much better than my 22 that after math, it was better. Clean, it would've been all right, but that doesn't really matter. It simply is.

Stage 3 was the classifier, CM99-24: Front Sight 2. According to the Internets, my 7.12 HF is about a 65% nationally, which tells me a few things, namely that even when my fundamentals are crap, I'm still doing better than just a few months ago. Maybe my definition of "crap" has changed. No mandatory reloads, so my 7.7 seconds was nothing but drawing and shooting two strings of 6 each.

Stage 4 was a standard exercise, 12 rounds, and 6 targets at about 6-8 yards. No tricky shots, just shoot, reload, shoot. That took me 7.5 seconds, so I evidently picked it up compared to stage 3. In this one, I got 84% of the stage cool guy.

Yesterday night, my sluggish performance bothered me enough to remember to do some dry-fire. I put together my Racemaster since I managed to lose the belt shim for my Blade-Tech. I honestly don't like the Blade-Tech as much as the Racemaster, but if I use the Racemaster as intended (don't torque the gun like a monkey on the draw), it's faster. I focused very much on my draw, and kind of hammered at it until I got it reliably to 1.1 seconds to get a dry fire onto my standard exercise light switch cover in my living room.

I also practiced my reloads, but by that time my hands were pretty wobbly. I played a bit with right hand vs. left hand reloads. I've done both before, and I'm still waffling on how they'll work out. I kind of feel like I hit a brick wall on my weak hand loads, simply because my poor left hand has to do all the work. Multitasking seems to work better with the right hand load. Comparing the two, I usually:

Left hand load

1: Right thumb pushes cylinder latch

2: Left middle finger pokes out cylinder while right thumb tilts muzzle up

3. Palm floats forward and nudges down ejector rod. Here I must wait for the empty moon to fall free, before

4: Right hand dips muzzle down while left hand finds another moon

5: Right hand pauses with cylinder, left hand indexes with a finger between cartridges.

6: Left hand picks up moon and attempts to bring indexing finger to the smooth part of the cylinder This aligns the cartridges with the chambers. Right hand chills out.

7: Left hand pushes moon into cylinder, and rests thumb on the side of the cylinder. Right hand starts to go horizontal when the moon's in.

8. Left thumb pushes cylinder back in and rotates to click while right hand starts to bring the sights back to eye level.

9. Left hand re-mounts.

It's a very sequential operation, but I top out at about 2.5 seconds on a good day. Note the lack of the word "while" and the waiting at step 3.

RIght hand load

1. Left thumb indexes at front of ejector rod at the dismount while right thumb pushes the cylinder latch

2. Left middle finger pokes out cylinder while the left thumb catches ejector rod on the way out. Left hand catches the frame.

3. Left thumb waggles the ejector rod while left hand tilts the gun up, and right hand starts to go for a moon.

4. Left hand flips the gun muzzle down while right hand indexes on and lifts a moon same as before

5. Left hand holds cylinder still and right hand finds the right destination index point.

6. Right hand re-obtains grip while left thumb closes cylinder

7. Left hand re-mounts while right hand brings the sights back to eye level.

There may be better ways to economize each of these, and I didn't experiment with too many of them in terms of which individual steps I could improve. I largely wanted to work on using my thumb with the ejector rod in the right hand load. A 2.5 second load on the right hand technique felt really sluggish, while on a left hand load I could only pull that off if I nailed everything correctly as efficiently as I can.

So, that's kind of what I've been leaning on toward handgun specific stuff. I also practiced some dry Bill drills on my standard exercise switchplate, and I should get some practice time in on Saturday to un-hork myself. A buddy of mine also suggested that I should get some time in with my Ruger MkII on some official bullseye targets. It's been a very long time since I've done that, but when I'm really into a slowfire groove, I can feel the cycling of the action very acutely. So, I think that would help me out.

[ZackJones]

Even though I've done thousands of magazine reloads with bottom feeders using my left hand I just can't seem to get the hang of weak handed reloading for the revolver. I should video my reload to verify but what I think I'm doing is:

1 - Right thumb pushes cylinder release

2 - Left index finger pushes cylinder open while rotating barrel upwards

3 - Left thumb pushes ejection rod and once moon clip clears barrel is rotated downwards

4 - Right hand finds moon clip from carrier (need to work on this)

5 - Right hand inserts moon clip

6 - Left hand closes cylinder and indexes it to that cartridge is lined up properly

7 - Grip and rip

I sent my cylinder off to have it chamfered and polished and it's due back today. I'm hoping it will make reloading faster. We'll see.

[thermobollocks]

The chamfer made a pretty big difference to me. What it seems to do is let a taper crimped case mouth slide over the chamfered surface and into the chamber, instead of getting stuck against a 90 degree surface. I have to try really hard to get a sticky moon on the LRNs that I like.

I think your step 3->5 are where multitasking would help. If you can work the ejector rod with your right hand completely off the gun and on its way to doing something else, that can help. What kind of moon carrier are you using? I find it gets tougher for me to reliably find my moons later on in big field courses when I've already yanked them from the preferred spot on my 7-post GSI rack.

[CHA-LEE]

If you need help, or just a fresh look at some road blocks, let me know. The Big Panda is willing to help a brother out!!!

[a matt]

The big panda = Po ? from Kung fu panda fame.

[ZackJones]

I think your step 3->5 are where multitasking would help. If you can work the ejector rod with your right hand completely off the gun and on its way to doing something else, that can help. What kind of moon carrier are you using? I find it gets tougher for me to reliably find my moons later on in big field courses when I've already yanked them from the preferred spot on my 7-post GSI rack.

I shot some video of me reloading, or should I say trying to reload, tonight. I set a par time of 3 seconds thinking that was slow. Not for me it isn't . I think I may have completed the reload once in that timeframe. I noticed several things I'm doing wrong such as not taking advantage of gravity! I am not rotating the barrel up enough nor am I rotating it downwards enough. I'm going to put the timer away for now and go through the process step by step and make sure I have the individual steps down before worrying about trying to do it quickly. I did see that I am multitasking though so that's one positive.

EDIT: I forgot to answer your question about the moon clip carrier. I use a 4 post North Mountain and I'll be adding a single post as well soon.

Edited January 10, 2014 by ZackJones

[thermobollocks]

If you need help, or just a fresh look at some road blocks, let me know. The Big Panda is willing to help a brother out!!!

I definitely appreciate it. Getting my mind squared away helps more than anything else by a long shot, and after my last practice session at BLGC resulting in a trip to the body shop, my brain was very unfamiliar with the concept of "doing things for fun."

[thermobollocks]

I had another productive dry-fire session -- I was able to solidify my right-hand loading, and it still goes by a lot quicker when I'm able to waggle loose the moon with my right hand completely free. My next step in Pueblo is to put it together with movement. I've right-hand loaded before but it's been a while, and part of the reason I switched to left-hand is for easier movement. I'll see if the improved raw speed is worth anything when I have to move anywhere but forward. 2.5 second reloads are far more doable here.

The other thing I seem to have re-taught myself (in that I found myself noticing again) is that stuffing my hand into the prawl the way I do on my M&P isn't the best way to take care of an N-frame. With the M&P, the tang will stop my hand's upward movement, but with the N-frame I'm far more conservative. I need to stuff the webbing of my thumb high up on that prawl, to the point where the hammer pokes me when I shoot. That gets me far more leverage on the trigger, which is nice. It's also a lot more natural to point, getting the bore axis closer to my forearm.

Edited January 10, 2014 by thermobollocks

[thermobollocks]

I had two club matches this weekend with an interesting mix of good and bad. I got video from both, but I'm fairly sure I tried screwing with too many things at once: a new Gopro mount that messed with my head (side vs. top), trying to use a different hand to reload, and remembering to grip high on the gun sometimes succeeded, and sometimes not. I was able to review some of the video, but I have to edit it beforehand to get it properly oriented because of the side mount.

CRC was a long, difficult day, including setup. We had a fairly solid squad, and the folks who showed were definitely there because they wanted to be. I shot L10 because I didn't want to have that particular classifier (8 shots, no mandatory reload) go in under Revo when the rules change takes effect. There's more than one revo guy here rolling with 8 shots already, so I may just do that this weekend. I'll have a more detailed breakdown of stuff when I can get back to the videos. I did find out how to use Youtube to edit fart noises into my videos, so that kept me busy Saturday night.

Pueblo was kind of interesting -- I did well considering I was dealing with major recoil and 6-shot course breakdowns, but I had a holster fart + a no shoot on the classifier, which I found supremely irritating. In the end, I placed at 94% of our resident revo master, but he was having a sluggish day, too. I need to loctite the hell out of the set screws so they don't wander. I'm finding out that the Racemaster is very, VERY unforgiving. Torquing it on the draw is huge negative juju.

Edited January 13, 2014 by thermobollocks

[CHA-LEE]

Ditch the "Race" holster and use a standard Kydex one.

[thermobollocks]

Believe it or not, the race holster was my backup. I've found the Kydex holster for my 625 way more pleasant to deal with, but it ate a shim at some point so I get to cannibalize some crap from my holster drawer and order parts. On top of that, my 8-shot has a funky barrel shroud, so I get to go into Blade-Tech's queue again. Seems worth it though since like every other week I have to screw with the bikini holster. Maybe the Loctite will help in that regard, or maybe it'll wind up going up in the classifieds.

Edited January 14, 2014 by thermobollocks