How to do everything perfectly all the time

[thermobollocks]

I had an all right time at the club match in Aurora last Saturday, and that evening I got to teach some of a basic pistol class. Saturday's match, I kept finding that moons didn't shove into my cylinder cleanly on the 627. It's a steel cylinder, so I may very well grab a .38 chamfer tool and adding a little bit more. It seems like it's only chamfered on the ejector, which is a little odd. I think I was able to plan things out pretty well, except for when I missed a plate and my 8-round plan went to hell.

I'm still trying to figure out how best to use the Gopro -- one of my buddies in Open picked one up, but I don't know if he posts here. He's got a giant parasol thing on his range wagon, so he can get close to a bird's eye view of his stage runs. Me, I'm trying to figure out how best to unscrew the video coming off the camera sideways. I ran into issues last time with Youtube with trying to edit too much at once, so maybe I just need to give it a couple hours to sit and process and go do something else.

Sunday I was a little useless, but I made it to range day, so in addition to the instructors who were going one-on-one with students, they had little voiceless me pacing back and forth throwing tidbits at them.

Then on Monday I saw a doctor, found out I have an ear infection, ate some giant horse pills for it (the kind from a doctor), and barfed. So, I've been slacking on dry-fire.

[thermobollocks]

I still haven't had much time to play with Youtube, but I have gotten a bit more dry-fire in. I'm working on a lot of the things I bookmarked out of Enos' book (like not rolling my elbows in), and during my sick time I was able to get a little bit done on the Dillon.

I think I'm about ready to hang up the round guns and get ready for 3-gun season. My old standby the M&P Pro 9 has been gathering entirely too much dust, and I'm still trying to figure out whether my Sig 1911 will run worth a squirrel fart for He-Man. Oddly enough, the more I dry-fire my Sig, the more I like it. My plan to shoot the 8-shot 327 this month probably isn't going to happen because I'll need to chamfer the chambers on it. Turns out mine's only got a chamfered ejector for some reason.

The Sig is an interesting beast, but I think it will fit what I want pretty well. I slapped some of Magpul's grips on it so that my dainty little girl hands can reach the magazine release, and if they're not too difficult to replace, I may get a giant gamer one, since in the grip that I like (for now) my hands do not interfere with the controls. It took quite a bit of learning to not ride the slide with my thumb, but I think I've managed to internalize that. From there, I'm working on remembering the correct place for my support hand. The hardest part, though, seems to be tracking the Trijicon 3-dots in the daytime. The enormous green FO on my M&P has spoiled me. On top of that, even though it's much heavier, it's still roughly 180 pf ammo vs. about 126. It's not unbearable, for sure, but it is different. My recoil control has to be even better to successfully make that happen, and even though I'm used to the sheer flip of the 625, the cycling of a 1911 is a different visual and tactile experience. I'll likely bring it to a few club matches and shoot Lim10 so I can work a little more on tracking the sight and not just waiting on it during recoil.

The club match at Colorado Rifle Club got cancelled this month, so I'm hoping Pueblo this Sunday will have enough degrees that we can all stomp around in the mud for a few hours. I feel like I'm bouncing around a bit, but I think it fits trying to learn by observation instead of rote. Beyond that, I value breadth as its own goal. I suppose I could have shot my M&P all winter and gotten better with that, but then I wouldn't have learned a thing about revolvers.

[thermobollocks]

This weekend I'll be shooting my first matches with an autoloader since October. Unfortunately, the match I help run this Saturday got cancelled due to the range's swampy conditions with all the snowmelt. That did not, however, stop me from arranging my hours at work so I got the nicest afternoon of the week off.

I've been practicing dry with my He-Man 1911, and I think it's still psyching me out something awful. Something about the thumb safety hasn't quite hammered itself into my brain yet. Focusing so much on it makes me screw up my grip, and with a screwed up grip my trigger control goes away, and when I'm worrying about it all, I forget to pay attention to the 3-dot Trijicons that are tough to follow in the first place. I consider it a further learning exercise, and somewhat of a personal goal to do well with a more or less factory configuration before messing with it. However, instead of the ammo I wanted, I threw a box of crap 200gn ammo that I know doesn't feed right into my range bag, so it's like a triple psych out. At the very least, I'm getting draws down better and better with it, and working on using the thumb to hit the mag release rather than the usual middle finger for my M&P. I think once I'm able to remember that a 1911 is a gun just like anything else, I'll be able to simply do what I need to do instead of freaking out about it. My actual practice routine was just a bunch of draws onto metric targets and a bunch of KD plates, both at about 12 yards. The KD plates were all 8", and even with as shaky as I was, my transitions were in the neighborhood of .43 to .47 fairly routinely. I'm reasonably sure my 327 and M&P are a bit quicker for me, especially when I've got weekly steel challenge to keep my eyes sharp. My draws on paper I had in about the 1.5 range, which was about the same as my M&P in the retention holster.

Picking up my M&P 5" was like a classic video game, or coming back to my own car after a couple weeks of a rental. Everything jived as it normally does. I wanted to burn up a little bit of surplus cast bullets, and some of the stuff that's gone into my pile of ammo that doesn't gauge so badly to discard, but not well enough to trust it when my ten bucks is at stake on the clock. I worked on using my retention holster for 3-gun (Blade-Tech Thumbdrive) and some strong/weak hand stuff. I've noticed I overaim quite a bit on strong-hand: I don't need to relearn trigger control as on weak-hand, only wait just a little bit longer for the big green dot to come back into place. So, I tried to keep shots on a 3x5" note card at 5y as quickly as I could. Turns out, it's not that tough. Speaking of, I really missed my fibers. It's very, very easy to track a big green dot through a USPSA course of fire compared to the flat blacks I'm used to with my 625, and the 3# Apex trigger is basically easy mode. I did not shoot it much faster, but it felt like I was expending far less effort to do so.

I also ran through 40 rounds of .308 with my FAL to nail down an accurate loading with IMR 8208 and the Hornady 150s. I'll have to load up another 50 of that charge to nail down the gas adjustment, and even more once I stick a "real" optic on it. The cool part with the FAL is that if you open the gas regulator up all the way, it becomes a single shot, so I didn't have to chase brass in the mud. With this and my inbound Supernova, I can lean more on He-Man for April and May.

I think I'm able to feel and see a lot more than last fall. I'm trying to do far less by rote and far more by seeing. Sometimes when I nail down a really quick time on some drill, I remember that I didn't really actually see a damned thing and I just kind of got lucky. Not so good. I would rather be able to know that I did well before I even unload and show clear. However, learning to see is a lot harder than learning to fan the trigger and squeeze the gun hard.

Saturday, because my usual match isn't happening, I'm going to go drop by Byers for some Steel Challenge with my M&P, in the normal Production holster and not the retention holster. I want to work on tracking my dot from plate to plate without hesitation, and of course needle the folks giving me crap for shooting the "Hillary guns" all winter. 23 rounders here I come.

[thermobollocks]

Today was very fun, and very difficult. I shot a full Steel Challenge club match (8 stages, 5 strings each) with 2 guns, my M&P 22 rifle and my M&P 9 Pro. I'm glad to be back to the 9. Though in terms of trigger control my revolvers are physically difficult, I find the 3# Apex trigger far more visually and mentally difficult. With the revolver, my eyes have time to catch up with my finger, while with the 9, my finger has to wait for my eyes. The fiber optic was a welcome change, as well, compared to the flat black or gold bead front.

I had really no aspirations to improve my classification or anything, so I considered it more of a familiarization and warm-up kind of day. I was pleased to get more practice with close-ish rifle work. My .22s both have Primary Arms Aimpoint clones on top of them. Mounting the rifle is analogous to drawing the pistol in terms of sight acquisition and body alignment, so I focused a bit on not lagging my eyeballs on the mount. Often, when I acquire a target, I'll over-aim. When my dot is on the target, there is no reason for me to think about it the way that I do. "The dot is on the plate. I wonder if I put my phone in airplane mode so it won't chew up the battery. That paint is kind of speckled. Oh! I'm at a shooting match. I should break the shot now." Useless time expended when I could instead be accomplishing what I want to accomplish.

I also got a couple of stage runs on Gopro, but since I forgot to empty out my card, I didn't get very much. I'll probably wind up posting those later, since I was dead tired from slogging through the mud while it was overcast. I also forgot to wear my mud boots instead of my summer trail runners. Oops. I also had a couple of embarrassing moments where I forgot how many rounds are in a 22 round magazine.

For the 9, I wound up burning up all of my old, unwanted ammo. I also found out how dirty an M&P has to get before it won't run. It's pretty dirty. Luckily, since I've nailed down loads I like with the plated 147s instead of the lead ones, I don't have to deal with that anymore. Plus, the plated bullets don't get mangled or leave shavings all over my dies, so more of them gauge correctly. Everyone wins. In contrast, the .22 rifle ran perfectly.

So, I was really happy with my rifle acquisitions and transitions, and I was really glad to get some trigger time on the rifle period. I think it'll help me out quite a bit on 3-gun assault-style courses. Since .22 has been such a pain to find, I have not kept up my practice over the winter like I wanted to. With any luck, I'll be able to fix that this summer.

I'm still waiting on my scores, but I'm optimistic. I'm rated about in the middle of steel B-class, so I can compare my runs to how I am when I'm far better practiced and focused.

[ZackJones]

Would you mind posting a picture of your M&P 22 rifle and red dot please. I'll be getting a 15-22 very soon for steel challenge and am looking for a red dot for it. We had a gun show here yesterday and I saw a couple of good deals on M&P's. A C.O.R.E. in .40 for $600 and Pro 5" 9mm was $550. I really want one in .40 S&W but couldn't find one . I considered the C.O.R.E. model but didn't care for the super tall 3-dot sights. I don't know if anyone makes replacement sights for it as I'd prefer to have sights like the pro with plain black in back and fiber up front. Speaking of fiber can you put a fiber front sight on your revolver? I did that with my 625.

[thermobollocks]

While the CORE's sights are super high,I don't think the dovetails are any different than a normal Pro. You should be able to throw whatever kind of Dawsons on it you prefer. If you'd like to keep the cowitness, Dawson makes that too. I've investigated the sight options for my 625, and it seems I might be somewhat limited since I think the front sight is pinned in place. I will probably have to send it to a smith to get it drilled and tapped for a set screw.

I might as well take some photos. One cool thing about the M&P 15-22 is you can shove any stock on it that will fit on a more or less standard carbine buffer tube. I like the ACS for the cheekweld, though I only 10 minutes ago remembered that I can swap them.

Here is a super gross picture of about 3/5ths of my M&P pile. The rifle still has the factory sights on it because I barely trust the Primary Arms cantilever mount. On my enormous to-do list is to get a proper mount for it that does things like "return to zero" and "not feel like a Hi Point." The factory magazines are excellent in every regard, but for giggles I also have some of the Plinker Tactical 35-rounders. One cool thing about those is you only need one for an entire five string run of a Steel Challenge stage. The less cool part is that in my magazine carrier, they stick into my armpit. Also, yes, I stick my name and the caliber on most of my stuff. During matches stuff gets dropped, and during classes stuff gets loaned out. It also helps keep me from accidentally throwing .40 mags in my bag.

Speaking of, here's my 3-gun tac division mag carrier. I don't remember if I wrote about it. It's from a custom Kydex shop out of Overland Park, KS. I wore it live for the first time yesterday, and it was tremendously helpful. Less stuff to screw with on my belt, no need to rummage in the bag.

[ZackJones]

Thanks for the pictures and the information about the Dawson sights. I may go with a C.O.R.E over a pro now. Regarding the 625 contact Warren from Protocall Design (http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=115209&p=1306887) he has pinned sights available.

I should be getting my 15-22 next month. I'm trading rifles with my bother. If possible I'll probably pull the sights off and just run a red dot. At least that's what I'm thinking about doing. We'll see after I get it and have had a chance to shoot it some.

[Steve RA]

The best way to do everything perfectly is to do nothing at all !!!

[thermobollocks]

Yeah, but that's boring.

I got one steel challenge stage somewhat fit for human consumption. There's a ton of dead time between strings and guns, so I chopped out a ton of the initial footage. It's not polished or pretty, but you can see me burn off like a billion rounds...as soon as it processes.

In the mean time, I'm tarting up some pmags with tape.

here we go Edited February 17, 2014 by thermobollocks

[thermobollocks]

I was able to make the club match at Aurora this Saturday, and managed not to embarrass myself too badly with my 1911. I was pleased that the thing was filthy, but still ate my ammo, but I was less pleased on the first stage of the day where I stuffed in the mag I know not to stuff in at slidelock. Oops. After that, I was tentative, but I think I was able to hit stuff. Sunday I helped teach a basic pistol class's range day, and in the down time I was able to empty out my reject bag of 9mm through my M&P. I gave it a 13# spring for giggles, and I'm not sure if it's helpful or not. I have 13, 15, and 17. I'll need to do some proper drills with it rather than just bust dirt clods at 7y, but at the very least I know that accuracy does not suffer.

[thermobollocks]

Weather this weekend went into the crapper, which is a pretty usual occurrence for Colorado in the winter. I nonetheless made it out to my home range to function test a couple of shotguns. I have decided that I need to not be a big weenie with the pump. The Supernova was quite pleasant with everything I threw through it, except possibly for the 3" buckshot I got for giggles. I also found out that my 1100 will malfunction if it's 19 degrees out and foggy.

It was cold enough my beard froze to my guns.

I was also able to work on a little bit of dry-fire with the pump, and while it's still a little stiff from being new, it doesn't take nearly as much effort as my old 590 did. Or, maybe I'm bulkier and more focused than I was two years ago. I'd like to put together some exercises to see what the difference is between the pump and the 1100 on some of the stage design patterns that I see. I'll probably even run it for Steel Challenge a few times in the summer. I already know that even from the factory, reloading the Benelli is going to be far easier.

Tomorrow evening, I get another club match in L10, lobbing good old American Compressed Patriotism into the backstop. I find that the more confident I am with that gun, the more I'm able to simply watch the sights and press the trigger, since I'm not worried about whether my magazines or ammo are going to barf on me. I'm not jazzed about having to function-test ammo after switching to the plated round nose ammo, but you have to do it sometime. I might make it to one or two club matches next weekend, depending on the weather. The match at Pueblo is routinely excellent, but I expect to get a ton of crap for the lack of moon clips.

[thermobollocks]

I wound up doing a quick inventory on .45, and found out that I have a ton more 9mm before I get more .45 bullets in, so I wound up throwing on my M&P instead.

Last night was nice to dust the bunnies off the M&P for USPSA. As it turns out, the 13# spring felt super off, so I threw the 15# spring in after the first stage. Having a really spongy break due to striker/recoil spring interaction was no fun, and it made me shoot super sluggishly. So did the poor sleep from the night before. After the first stage, I threw in the 15#, and everything was much better from then. I think there might be something weird happening in my trigger group, since it feels really squishy. The last time I cleaned it, I decided to take a nylon brush to the exposed stuff, which may have left grunge in places I didn't intend. Tomorrow night or Thursday I'll probably detail clean the frame.

I was glad to get some practice in where I don't have to reload all the time, and I was glad to work out some of the kinks with the retention holster before a 3-gun match. My draw has to be far more deliberate, and of course I need to practice it more. It's a pain in the butt, though, so I think I might be better off just using my normal production holster unless I'm sure I need the crazy Tomb Raider puzzle holster.

I also had one of my buddies prematurely tell a shooter to make ready while I was finishing up taping targets. That's one way to wake me up, I suppose.

[thermobollocks]

Today was a club match at Pueblo, which usually has some super awesome stages. Today was no exception. I shot Limited today with my retention holster and nifty fire engine red 3-gun magazine carrier. Everything's performing as expected, however a lot of the differences really do show in USPSA.

Stage 1 was a standard exercise stage with 3 strings, 21 shots, Comstock. It was the last stage I shot, and that showed in a few ways. Drawing 3 times on the clock with the Tomb Raider holster probably took a little while, especially for the weak hand draw. The stage was 7 tough hard cover targets, and each string required 1 shot per target. The weird part was we weren't sure about stacking, so we wound up not penalizing it at all. It would've been more straightforward doing it Virginia count. I did the strong hand string first, the weak hand string second, and freestyle last. My plan, because it was Comstock, was to do freestyle last and then make up if necessary. Turns out I can't count, so I wound up putting 2 on each on the last string, when I only needed makeups on like 2 targets. Of course, if I shot them correctly, it would've taken far less time. I'm fairly sure I could've gotten 5-ish seconds per string or less, however I wound up eating 8 seconds per string. I got 97 out of 105 points on target, which is about where I like to be.

Stage 2 was a short field course with 11 paper targets, which I was able to do with just one magazine. I got it done in 14.49 seconds and got 106 points on target, which was pretty good. I wound up getting second in Limited on this one (as well as overall, since cha-lee is on vacation).

Stage 3 was a longish field course, 32 rounds, which took 2 magazines, but I somehow managed to get lost or something. It took me 28 seconds to handle but at least I got a crapload of As. The last bit was a little tight with all the walls, and a few targets that forced me to move around a bit. I got a hit factor of 5.24, when I would really have liked to have been above 7.

Stage 4 was a short field course of 24 rounds, and I shot a ton of points, which is all right, but I did it in 20 seconds, in no small part thanks to waiting for the two swingers to activate. I probably ate a few seconds there by itself. The shooting positions were a little bit tricky, because there was just enough stuff downrange to mean that you have a couple of steps of breadth to find the right place in each of them. I had to nail down my foot positions really precisely, which took a while. I don't yet stop on a dime.

5 was the classifier (Bookout's Boogie, CM 99-57, really fun!), which I puked upon badly. I ate a miss on one of them, and took 11.6 seconds to do it. Even had I not missed, it would have been C-class shooting in Limited. Production would've been low B-class. So, even absent the misses, I wasn't really all that solid. I imagine I could've been more aggressive on the steel, and also less dumb on the paper

The 6th stage was a fairly tricky stage from one of our slightly touched stage designers. He always has ways of breaking up the thought processes of people who are super good at stage breakdown, or people who are used to stages following certain design patterns. It was 28 rounds, and I wound up doing it in 20.5 seconds, which wasn't bad for how involved it was.

From here, I'll load up another 500 rounds, and go do it all again next weekend, except I'll mix it up a bit by reloading more, and hopefully shoot a Production classifier that isn't garbage.

In all, I accomplished many of the things I set out to accomplish, and driving my M&P is becoming second nature again. I'll be glad to start up steel challenge again, and bear down hard on the M&P as well as my own eyeballs.

[thermobollocks]

Today was the club match at High Plains Practical Shooters, and it was logistically challenging. We were two board members short, and because of the forecast for awful weather, we had less setup help than useful. I think we had about 24 shooters total, and during the summer, we generally get 50 to 60. Setup weather was beautiful, but things went downhill fast. It was about 40 all day, and it got overcast very shortly after the shooter's meeting. Not only did we cut the heads off everything but the classifier, but also we had to build crossbraces for all of the walls, and my stage got its single wall (a port) removed by force. We may set it up and run it as intended later on in the year. Most of the time we were shooting, we had sustained winds over 20 mph, and closer to the end of the day, it was 30. Gusts were excessive.

But, if I wanted easy, I'd be playing video games.

I got the Gopro out for each stage this time, and I have all of them in playlist form.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZqnFqyH1IY&list=PL-7gW2Qw5nd9PC2W-AqNe1EPSmVDsa_lS

Edited because the playlist didn't work

My squad started on stage 2, which was a fun 16 round field course with a center port and left/right target arrays. The tricky part was that you had to start facing uprange inside the shooting area, and your empty gun started on one barrel, and all loading devices on another. While I wasn't hauling ass, I think I was able to hit what I wanted efficiently and deliberately. We didn't even run into any safety problems from people grabbing their guns while still facing uprange. I wanted to maintain an order of engagement that allowed me to move continuously from the left to the right, and even though I didn't accomplish that part, it wasn't so bad.

Stage 3 was another field course, 24 rounds, but with 2 steel KD plates that turned out quite tough. I was able to keep in motion over the course of the shooting area, and I think I got reasonable enough hits doing it. I made the mistake of not examining the course closely enough, and as it turns out I took the KD plates from a much farther position than I needed to. I needed a makeup on both of them. However, despite the sluggish movement and a couple of stilted transitions, I did what I wanted to do.

Stage 4 was my course, a speed shoot. On the left was an array of paper, and the right, 6 steel (a mix of Pepper Poppers and USPs). The shooter could engage arrays in either order, but had to perform one mandatory reload upon changing arrays. This stage was interesting to come up with the WSB -- CHA-LEE is very thorough about game-proofing instructions, and we had a long conversation about language that would meet my intent of "I want them to have to reload once, but after that I don't care." I still had a shooter tell me that "Upon start signal, from within Box A, engage one array of targets (either all paper or all steel), perform a mandatory reload, then engage the remaining array of targets." means that after the mandatory reload they don't have to be within the box. This isn't the Clinton impeachment trial here -- you know what the stage designer means and what every RO on the planet's going to call.

The poppers were evenly spaced from 7 yards to 20-ish yards, which made things pretty difficult. My original intention was to use a port to make people scoot around a bit, but to be fair with shots that long, it was still quite a challenge. I required makeups on two of the poppers and one of the paper targets. This is one of those stages where it's really little advantage to be shooting Limited or Production (or even round gun) provided you know how to put your bullets where you want them.

Stage 5 was a 26 round field course that also had to be modified due to the weather. It wound up being an arrow-shaped shooting area with walls at the front forming a narrow port. 4 targets were available from the left rear, 4 from the right rear, and 5 through the far center port. I was really happy with this one, until I saw that I dropped a shot into the hard cover. I didn't feel it, and I'm not sure why. I was happy with my transitions on the "straightforward" arrays, but after hauling into the port and reloading, I didn't transition as smoothly as I'd like.

Stage 1 was the classifier, and the last stage of the day for me. It was "Lightning and Thunder," a pretty tough fixed time stage. I didn't do as well as I would have liked -- I know I can nail six 25 yard shots in 5 seconds, but I only got in 5. The middle string was very odd -- at my skill level, do I burn hard on the first three shots to get something, anything, in after the reload, or just take 3 shots and forget the reload? I wound up doing the latter, since I haven't really practiced speed reloads on this 3-gun carrier anyway. Each string, the retention holster for my M&P was definitely a factor. That's okay, though. I need to know that it works before I start using it for 3-gun, and now that I do, I can put it away and go back to my normal Production gear.

I get to spend tomorrow either at the Weld USPSA match, which is a long away away, or doing some exercises with my FAL, AR, and 1911 for 3-gun season. Every time I change _anything_ for the 1911, I have to check something like 100 rounds of the stuff to make sure it's going to run all right.

Edited March 15, 2014 by thermobollocks

[thermobollocks]

I wound up using Sunday as a fun/range chore day, which was really productive. I learned a few things:

4.0 grains of N310 with an Xtreme plated 230gn RN seated to 1.260" cycles my Sig 1911.

4.1 grains of Clays with the same bullet seated to the same OAL cycles my Sig 1911 as well, and it's punchier.

4.1 grains of Clays with these nasty-ass Alox-coated lead truncated cone bullets does not even chamber right.

I should avoid seating primers backward.

Shoot houses are hard with a 20" Larue with a 3" brake, but fun.

Shoot houses are REALLY fun with a 16" M&P 15-22 rifle and unmagnified red dot.

The aforementioned .22 rifle can hit a full USPSA Metric target at 130y, and I can do that standing about 90% of the time.

My FAL's muzzle device kicks up about the same amount of dirt as a meteor impact when fired prone.

Tonight I get to help set up the bi-monthly indoor match in town, which is fun. I get to come up with a stage or two, then try not to embarrass myself shooting Production.

[thermobollocks]

Yesterday I shot a club 3-gun match at the Whittington Center in Raton, NM. Benelli Chick and RiggerJJ put on a challenging match as always, and given today's cancellation of my favorite rifle match in Pueblo, I wish I were there for a second day of all field courses today.

The match was a sort of skills and drills format, with about 50% short/medium field stages, and the other 50% standards. It was broken into 16 stages, but they were more like 4 strings on each of 4 bays. It was like running 4 super long classifier stages.

I was also able to get 15 out of 16 stages on video -- I skipped the classic El Pres.

In order of when we shot, first was the shotgun bays. The video has detailed scoring stuff in it, and I also figured out how to add buttons to skip the chatter. You'll probably need to switch over to HD to see everything.

The first exercise of the day was to start with 4 slugs in the gun, and 5 slug targets (3 steel, 2 paper). Enthusiasts of second grade math will note that this means we had to feed at least one slug into the gun on the clock. I figured on needing a makeup, so I stuffed two into the gun outright, then engaged the targets. My first attempt was a miss, but then I got 3 hits on steel in a row. I think that might have made me cocky on the paper, because I pulled one of them. Pulling one off the paper got me a 10 second penalty, without which I would've won the stage. The miss brought me down to 50%.

The second exercise was to start with a dead empty gun, and on the clock, stuff 8 into the gun and then engage a rack of 6 plates. Since I haven't used my reloading devices all winter, I was slow as hell. I also had to take a makeup on a plate, which kind of sucks.

The third exercise, still on the plate rack, we started with exactly 2 in the gun, then had to shoot, reload, shoot, reload, shoot, reload, then shoot. So, 4 boxes, 3 reloads, with the stipulation that we had to stuff 12 rounds into the gun. Since we shot 6, the idea was to leave us with a full tube at the end of it. I still sucked at reloading.

The last exercise was a short field course of 9 required shots across 2 bays. Each bay had a popper, an aerial, and a few KD plates, and the basic idea was that everyone but Open has to reload in between. It worked out pretty well for me, I think, though I did not place myself in advantageous places to engage all of the steel coming into the second bay. The last shot on either bays were barely enough to drop the plates. My gamer #6 shot would've been fine, as would have been hauling into the center of the bay.

Next was the all-rifle part, and this had some fun times for me, since I had to remember holds at 1x and 4x. The close range gongs I was not as careful as I should have been on 1x. On 4x, if the center dot of my reticle is on the gong, it's game on. On 1x, I have to actually center the dot around the plate and not spam it with bullets.

The first rifle stage had 6 close-range targets (one dude with a FAL did them Taran-style from the hip), followed by a 75y and a 100y gong. I ate about 9 seconds going to war on the 100y gong (go me).

The second stage was a half of a bump drill, namely, engage the 75y and 100y gongs from the standing, not-prone, then prone positions. It had 6 required shots, and I found a rock with my junk on the ground. It made me shoot better, though.

The third stage was "medium range," requiring us to use both sides of a wooden barricade to engage 75, 100, and 200 yard targets, and proning out was forbidden. It had 6 required shots. Most people (including me) took more. I wound up going to war again because I forgot to crank my reticle to 4x where I remember how to use the subtensions.

The last stage was "long range," requiring us to do the same thing as the above, except with a 200y, 250y, and 330y plate. Prone was permitted, but since my brake rains dirt upon me when I'm prone, on medium range targets I'm more apt to use a barricade. Transitioning is also a little easier for me on reverse kneeling than on my stomach. I actually won this stage, and I was super excited about that. The rest of the time I was somewhere around 50% of the division winner (when I screwed up badly) and somewhere around 70% when I was performing to my expectations. This stage was 100%.

The next area we shot was a bay with all 3 guns, which was basically a split up "proper" 3-gun course, with each gun timed differently rather than requiring abandonment or retrieval on the clock.

The first stage (technically #9 by my count) was close-range rifle: clays and paper between 25 and 35 yards. I had some ammo failures -- turns out the 62 grain Armscors will sometimes not return to battery. Either that or I need to hose the crud out of my buffer tube. I also forgot where I need to hold on small, close targets.

#10 was short-medium rifle, 75+ yard gongs from each of 2 ladders (6 shots required). I wound up doing it standing because it was what all the cool kids were doing, and after working the 100y gong like a fire hose on the rifle range, I wanted to fix my problem.

#11 was a shotgun stage, and though I did what I wanted to do, I was still pretty slow. I got my hits, though, and at this point in the day that was all I wanted. I never really did find my shotgun groove yesterday, and we all know what the solution to that is. I hit both aerials, but the people quicker than me were able to drop a KD plate while they were waiting for the popper that activated throwers. I was still tremendously happy to bust both aerials.

#12 was a long range pistol stage, with 3 ABC steel at maybe 35-40 yards with 2 required positions (6 shots). I got a 96% on this stage, largely because I know all I have to do is make the damned shot.

The last bay of the day was pistol-only, and it had 2 20 round field stages and 2 standard exercises.

The long-range stage was very similar to #12, except you had to do a mandatory reload while hauling from one bay to the other. I got 81% of my division winner, probably owing to a few makeup shots I had to take.

The second stage in this bay was a field course advancing quite a ways. Specifically, you could only engage two targets without advancing. I did it by advancing slowly the entire time, but when I do that it slows down my shooting by a ton. It may have been faster to shoot standing then run a few steps, then repeat, or just learn to shoot better while moving. I needed something like 3 makeups.

The third stage was to shoot the same course, except start in the front and retreat. This one I took 4 seconds longer to do, and I still required some makeup shots. I'm curious how I would have done backing up continuously.

The last stage of the day wasn't on video. It was the classic El Pres, with paper targets at about 10 yards, but with a 1 second penalty for each C-zone hit, and a 2 second penalty for each D-zone hit. I got 100% of my division on this stage. I did it in 11.13 seconds, which is an unimpressive 5.33 HF in USPSA (even in revo division, that's low C-class). However, I got no penalty seconds.

So, in all, they combined each bay of times into an aggregate per-gun, and I got 94% rifle, 86% pistol, 64% shotgun, and 72% 3-gun. That turned into 4th out of 20 competitors in limited-scoped division, which is one of the better finishes I've pulled off at this club match. I think my distance rifle and distance pistol skills floated my overall scores, and I'm honestly surprised to have done as well as I did feeding the shotgun.

[thermobollocks]

I was able to do some shotgun dry-fire last night. I was mostly concerned about reloading and operation of the Supernova pump. I found out it is far easier to reload than I expected, even without beveling the loading port at all. The 3.5" carrier is basically a giant "SHOVE SHELL HERE" sign, and with a few practice attempts I was able to drop quads weakhand without getting hung up.

Loading 2 at a time seems a bit more reliable though once I get the Carbon Arms FSL into the mix. It takes an exacting amount of precision for my hands to get around all 4 shells and get them out of the carrier without them being staggered. Doubles are far more reliable. I was able to get my load-8 time to under 8 seconds, provided I don't fumble anything.

I also wanted to see just how fast I could physically run the pump, so I set my par timer to 3 seconds, and I could get about 7 or 8 dummies cycled through in that time (by firing, not holding the pump release...), so that was neat. co-exprs made the offhand remark that he'd probably use his Supernova before he'd use my 1100, and that's probably a fair assessment, at least until I throw an ezloader onto the 1100 (or get an SLP/Versamax/930JM, which isn't happening this year).

[tacticalCOWBOY]

I stumbled across this post and saw that you shot in aurora Colorado. I'm a new shooter to 3 gun and was wondering where you shoot at in aurora? I live in aurora that is the only reason I ask. thanks for the info.

[thermobollocks]

Aurora Gun Club hosts twice monthly USPSA handgun-only matches -- the closest 3-gun is going to be in Byers, CO, which isn't too far. The match director is MarkCO on these forums. There's also Weld County Fish and Wildlife, with quite a few people who shoot both venues.

ar-15.co (NOT ar-15.com) has more local event postings, and it's a good way to locate a staff member from one of those matches to get you spun up with a new shooter briefing. Doesn't mean that you're new to guns, just that they want to run you through for about an hour or two on stuff like the 180 degree rule, not shooting steel targets with rifles or slugs, and how to safely abandon/retrieve guns.

Those particular 3-gun videos are out of Raton, New Mexico, which is about 2.5 hours from me, and probably more like 3-3.5 hours from you. That's typically a physically taxing match, with 4 long field stages instead of a ton of exercises and short field stages. I almost always recommend that people have a little bit of USPSA, IDPA, Bianchi, or some think-move-shoot handgun sport under their belt, and beyond that the Weld and Byers matches are far less intimidating. But, if you show up and remember the 4 rules (at all times!) you'll have fun.

[tacticalCOWBOY]

Thank you very much for the info. I have a friend that shoots out in lake George. Do you have any experience with them? I'm in the army and just got back from the regional national guard marksmanship comp in AZ. So I do have the shoot move and communicate part down. And the rules in the army are very strict. Thank you again for you time and info, and hope to meet you soon.

[thermobollocks]

I've never been to that range, unfortunately. I know it attracts plenty of folks though. https://www.ar-15.co/threads/21039-Lake-George-3-gun/page18 should have more information -- that thread's been going on since they've started I think.

[thermobollocks]

I was able to head out to my buddies' range in Bennett this weekend, then get some time in on the rifle range today (though less than I would have liked for a few reasons).

Saturday I got some intense time in with the Supernova, and the Nordic clamp (as expected) ran fantastically. I think I got the spring length exactly where I want it to feed while not being a pain to load. I burned about 100 rounds of birdshot (25 in the 1100, 75 in the Supernova), then about 40 slugs through the Supernova. One cool thing is that through the Supernova, the S&B slugs perform rather well. In the 1100, they don't so much. Another cool thing is that with the slugs that I tested, at about 75 yards, the point of impact is right at the tip of the bead, as opposed to having to aim high with the 1100.

I also got a tip for how to ride the pump back in recoil -- it doesn't work in dry fire, but it works live. Unfortunately I am an idiot and forgot my timer, so I couldn't get a time for the dueling tree runs and the like. My shoulder isn't even too messed up from it. I even shot a box of 1-1/4 oz 1500 FPS bear destroyer slugs -- they feel like a 3". Definitely not a candidate for 3-gun use.

Loading the Supernova, too, is far, far easier than on the 1100. Loading 2 works far more easily, and quad loading is even doable provided that I get a proper grip on the shells in the first place. I might play with the FSL a little to see if there's anything to gain from it.

Today was a different story. I went to the range around 1 to chrono some rifle ammo (150 and 155 grain FAL chow, 55 grain Larue food), and on the very first shot, I shot my chrono. Luckily the other guy on the rifle pit didn't give me a hard time for it. I shot some groups anyway (and checked for pressure signs), and it looks like I have 150, 155, and 55 grain loadings for .308 and .223 using IMR 8208, which seems to be my go-to powder this summer.

I had planned to do some position and transition drills with my M&P15-22 and a little bit of pistol work, but with my unexpected kinetic chrono failure and the increasing wind, I decided to call it a day. If it gets too windy, I have to chase down my paper, sticks, and target stands.

So, for now, I have a case of Nosler 155s to use for He-Man this May, and I've got my MTAC sighted in on them.

Edited March 31, 2014 by thermobollocks

[thermobollocks]

Well, this was...a weekend. Saturday was 3-gun at CRC. Fun, but I had a crap night before thanks to dumb landlord things. I found out the hard way that tightening down a screw on an optics mount will completely bone your zero, and I consequently did very badly on the distance stage. I also decided to risk some awfully long shots on pistol instead of sprint 20 yards and make them easier. The stages were rather confusing, and not in a good way. Instead of simply designating paper as rifle or pistol optional, and steel as pistol or shotgun optional, stages had separate 1 gun or 2 gun instructions. It was odd. The good news is I shot my Supernova acceptably enough, and my 1911 did not malfunction on me even though it was filthy. However, my squad had one 180 violation and one dropped, loaded gun. Boy howdy I do sure love seeing the front of those.

Today I helped teach an NRA Personal Protection in the Home course's range component. It's basically an introduction to acceptable accuracy at speed, and at the end we do a small 4-position IDPA-type stage at the end. It's a pain in the ass (sorry if any of the people I teach with are reading this) because none of the people who were there compete regularly. Some it's "anymore" because of time constraints, and some it's "not ever." The entire class got waved badly when someone decided to turn around with a loaded gun, which is, believe it or not, the same thing that happened with another person last time. People get confused, then they get sloppy. My scorekeeper tried to yell at the guy to do a mandatory reload, which I think messed with him and helped him get stupid. We had a long talk about that afterward. I also had a few conversations about it later with some other instructors ("When I'm watching him, I am not going to yell at him for the stage procedure, and neither are you." "Yes, I am watching his gun and not just running the timer. Yes, I can do both. No, two people aren't going to help him not to screw up."). I do not teach the entire class, however if I do show up to the next one, we're going to spend a good half hour or more on "how to move with a gun without potentially killing your classmates."

[thermobollocks]

I went to Raton for 3-gun. Instead I got a flat tire. Yaaaaay

[thermobollocks]

After having a mega godawful time last weekend, I was able to actually be useful at the weekly Steel Challenge practice match last night. I shot my Supernova, and on the 4 stages we did (Showdown, Outer Limits, and 2 unofficial arrangements), across a total of 8 strings for record (12 strings total, worst 3 thrown out) I got an aggregate time of 37.4. Oddly enough that was the best time across all centerfire divisions. It felt a bit slower than I normally am in ISR and ISP, but not having to draw probably helped a little. By the last stage of the day, I was hitting 5 plates in 3.5 seconds, and I was pretty happy with that. The pump is very unforgiving from shot to shot, but if I remember what I'm doing, I think I'll be all right.

Tomorrow I have the day off, so I am going to get some practice time in before Saturday's match. Saturday I will be working setup, so it generally helps me out to be mentally and technically squared away beforehand.

My agenda for tomorrow is to confirm dope on my rifle with the MTAC, do some positional drills with my .22 rifle, do some shotgun drills and a practice stage, and then do some 2-gun and 3-gun practice stages. I've got a series set up on basically the same bay, and I don't think it's untenable to do it in a full day.