Kris Chambers' Range Diary

[UTraab]

I have thought about doing this for a while now, but I’ve just never gotten around to it. I will use this range diary to document my training, matches, goals, and progress towards GM.

Currently, I am an A class Production shooter. This is the beginning of my 3rd season of USPSA. I shot the first two seasons with an M&P 9 Pro. This season, I have switched to a CZ SP-01 Shadow from CZ Custom with extra work done by Stuart.

I was stuck in C and B for quite a while until I started a dedicated dry fire routine. For the last year, I have been using Ben Stoeger’s Dry Fire book. I originally started using the drills from his website and switched to the book when it came out. I dry fired 4-5 nights/week until last summer when it became more sporadic. I have since picked the pace back up and dry fire every night for 30 minutes to an hour and use the Captains of Crush grippers 4-5 nights per week.

Live fire practice is where I have really struggled. I had unorganized practice sessions with no clear goals. I would go out once every week or two and just bang out a bunch of standard drills over and over. That will change this year since I picked up Ben’s Live Fire book. Right now I am trying to make it to the range once every week or two until the weather gets better. Come late winter/early spring I will start going at least once but hopefully twice per week during the major match season (spring and fall for me).

I plan on shooting the following major matches this year: Alabama (3/15), Area 6 (4/11), South Carolina (5/31), Area 8 (8/30), Indiana (9/13), and North Carolina (10/4). I have shot Battle in the Bluegrass, Ohio, and Georgia the past few years, but will not be able to make those matches this year.

Edited January 19, 2014 by UTraab

[UTraab]

Shot a local match today. It was unique for a few reasons. First, I was the match director since our usual MD went to SHOT. Second, it was the first match with my Shadow. Combine that with cold temperatures and it was not a great match for me. The Shadow did great and I am very pleased with it so far.

The elephant in the room during the entire time I have been shooting USPSA has been my accuracy. I drop way too many points. I will only shoot 80-85% of the points in a typical match, so that is going to be where I focus my training for a while. It is kind of odd because I don't cheat on dry fire and call lots of Alphas and in a typical practice session, I will shoot 92-95% of the points. It just seems that I want to "turn on the jets" for a match.

Three other areas of emphasis: gripping the gun harder, blinking, and the DA shot.

I really need to get a harder grip on the gun. My front sight goes crazy and doesn't come back to the same spot consistently. I really need to focus on this in dry fire and mentally check on my grip after every rep.

I also discovered during a recent practice session that I am blinking, especially on the first shot. I am constantly pulling my DA shots low, BUT I can't even call it because of the blink. I recently started double plugging, but it really doesn't seem to help. I don't have access to a .22 pistol, so it seems that the next most common advice is trigger time. My hope is that now that I know that I blink, I can work towards fixing it.

I am still working on the DA shot with the Shadow and have a long ways to go. My long term goal is to be able to hit ANY shot DA just as fast and accurately as I can SA. I think that overcoming the blinking issue will go a long ways towards helping with the DA, but I also just need to work on trigger control. I've only had the gun for a month, so I am confident that it will come around in due time.

[UTraab]

I had a pretty good week of dry fire this last week. I have been keeping it pretty simple since I got the Shadow, mainly draws, reloads, and basic gun handling skills. I still have a lot of work to do, but I am starting to get familiar with the gun.

Today was a nice day, so I made it to the range for some live fire practice. I have decided to work from the Marksmanship section of Ben's book for the next few practice sessions since that is my weakest area. I ended up shooting 25 yd. groups, 2 shots at 25 yds, Tight Shots, and The Dots.

After today, I can get the my DA pull is improving. I am still pulling a lot of the shots low, but it is not nearly as bad as in the past. Today's drills revealed that I really need to work on trigger control. I think that my blink is at least partially at fault for my bad trigger control, but I can definitely iron some of it out in dry fire.

Now that I have noticed my blink, it is already getting better. When I concentrated on keeping my eyes open, I could see my sights through the entire cycle and call my shots. My shot placement was also better with my eyes open. I think that it will take a while to completely get over it, but this is a very encouraging start.

Tight Shots ate my lunch. I had always been the type that practiced what I was good at, and I would leave practices feeling great. I left this practice feeling completely demoralized.....and it was still great and motivating! This drill really pushes you.

I finished practice with The Dots and it was pretty much a waste of ammo. It was a pretty long practice session, and I was tired with during this drill. For some reason, I kept target focusing instead of concentrating on my sights and this drill will chew you up and spit you out if you do that. All in all, it was a good practice and I learned a lot.

[ZackJones]

I plan on shooting the following major matches this year: Alabama (3/15), Area 6 (4/11), South Carolina (5/31), Area 8 (8/30), Indiana (9/13), and North Carolina (10/4).

I will be working/shooting Alabama, Area 6, South Carolina and North Carolina. I'm shooting a wheel gun this year. I wanted to ask why you decided to switch from the M&P. I'm a S&W fan and have been looking at getting an M&P for my wife to shoot when we got to the range and for me to shoot production or limited 10 with at some point in the future. I'd like to know what you liked and didn't like about the M&P.

Ben's books are great and I have already seen improvements in my shooting after reading them and dry firing.

[UTraab]

I plan on shooting the following major matches this year: Alabama (3/15), Area 6 (4/11), South Carolina (5/31), Area 8 (8/30), Indiana (9/13), and North Carolina (10/4).

I will be working/shooting Alabama, Area 6, South Carolina and North Carolina. I'm shooting a wheel gun this year. I wanted to ask why you decided to switch from the M&P. I'm a S&W fan and have been looking at getting an M&P for my wife to shoot when we got to the range and for me to shoot production or limited 10 with at some point in the future. I'd like to know what you liked and didn't like about the M&P.

Ben's books are great and I have already seen improvements in my shooting after reading them and dry firing.

The two main reasons that I switch from an M&P to a Shadow are weight and accuracy. The Shadow is just flat out more accurate than the M&P. The M&P was acceptable for the majority of the distances that we shoot in USPSA, but I was not pleased with its groups beyond 20 yards.

For weight, my M&P is right at 30 oz. and the Shadow comes in at 42 oz. The additional weight and steel frame of the Shadow greatly reduce felt recoil. At first, the Shadow felt REALLY heavy to me. Now that I am used to the weight of the Shadow, the M&P feels like a toy gun. You can also get a much better trigger on the Shadow than on the M&P and the Shadow's bore axis is lower. Essentially, the Shadow is a limited gun with a DA first shot. It almost feels like cheating....almost.

I loved my M&P and would not hesitate to recommend one to anyone. I put ~35,000 rounds through mine in three years and had a total of two malfunctions. Both of the malfunctions were failures to eject, and I did not have another one after installing the Apex extractor. I suspect that if I would have cleaned the original extractor more often, I would not have had any malfunctions. I would only clean the gun every 2,000 rounds or so. An M&P is not going be the thing that holds you back from M or GM. The ergonomics are great and there are plenty of aftermarket options for people that like to tinker. I had all of the Apex goodies in mine and Dawson sights. The trigger ended up being in the 2.5-3# range. It seems like mags are hard to get for the M&P nowadays, but you can find them for a decent price if you look hard enough.

In my opinion, the M&P is the best gun out there for dry fire in terms of trigger pull. You only get one pull with Glocks unless you do the cardboard trick and with CZs you have to keep your finger on the trigger after the DA pull and just let a little slack out to simulate SA. On the M&P, the striker drops on the first pull, but the additional pulls that you get are pretty identical to the first.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions.

[ZackJones]

Thanks for the M&P feedback, Kris. I've decided I'm going to buy the M&P Pro in .40 S&W next. I can load up some light loads for my wife to shoot at the range and then loads I would want to use for production or limited/limited 10. Good luck with the Shadow and your matches this year!

[UTraab]

This past week I really worked on trigger control and grip in dryfire and I have to say that I am making some improvement.

I made it out to the range on Saturday to work on some more drills from the marksmanship block. I shot Tight Shots again with the exact same setup as last week and the results were dramatically different. I did a lot better on the drill this time with only a few mikes. A realization that I had is, at least at distance, you can still run the gun fast while maintaining a high degree of trigger control. Jerking the trigger might feel faster, but the timer shows that a nice trigger press is just as fast AND results in better points.

After Tight Shots I ran Fixed Time Standards and it ate my lunch. I obviously have a lot of work ahead of me to master this drill. It is difficult for me to get all 6 shots of each string off in 4 seconds, and I am terrible SHO and WHO. I've only dryfired SHO and WHO twice since I got the Shadow, so I'll have to work on that some more.

I also had an ammo malfunction during this drill. Obviously, my Shadow has a tighter chamber than the M&P. I would case gauge match ammo for the M&P, but never practice ammo. It would easily shoot rounds that wouldn't case gauge. The Shadow has issues with ammo that will not case gauge. Usually this happens on LAMR and the gun will not go into battery if the first round in the magazine is a "bad round". I can move this round on down in the magazine and the gun will run it fine. In the middle of a string, the gun LOCKED UP and would not go into battery. The slide wouldn't budge, so I had to field strip the gun and use a squib rod to get the round out.

First thing is that I have to start case gauging all of my ammo. I cannot have something like this happen in a match. To make the process less painful, I'm going to pick up a Hundo Case Gauge from Ben's pro shop. Second this is that I have to figure out when some rounds won't case gauge. I would estimate that this is 3-5% of my ammo. I have the Dillon size die and it is adjusted properly, so maybe I should pick up a U-Die.

After the malfunction, I ran a couple of 7 yd. Bill Drills with my best run being 2.16. I could consistently hit 1.95-1.98 with the M&P, so I still have a gap to overcome. The timer shows that this gap is in my draw, so I should be back under 2 seconds in no time.

The last drill of the day was 25 yd. Bill Drills. My best run was 4.81 with 4A, 2C. My fastest time was 4.28, but I had bad points on that run. I obviously have a lot of time to gain on this drill, especially on the draw which averaged 2 seconds. I would like to get the draw down to the 1.5 range and the overall time to 4 with all As.

[UTraab]

The last couple of weeks have been filled with dryfire and grip strength training. Unfortunately, no live fire practice for two weeks because of the weather. The dryfire routine that I have found myself in has been to start off with some fundamentals for a good 20 minutes. This includes hands relaxed at sides draws, wrists above shoulders draws, facing up range draws, SHO, WHO, reloads, etc. I work at various distances and sometimes combine (eg. wrists above shoulders, reload, SHO). I then move on to 1-2 drills from Ben's dryfire book.

I had a local match on Saturday at ORSA. I went into the match with accuracy and no penalties as my goals. I definitely met one of those goals as I had no penalties for the match (only my second ever). My accuracy was better, but I still dropped too many points. I also had lots of makeup shots on steel. Overall, I can see lots of improvement. I ended up with a win in Production by 20% and took 5th overall. I still need to work on accuracy at speed, gripping the gun hard, and going one-for-one on steel.

It looks like this will be a nice week, so I should get a nice live fire practice in on Wednesday and maybe one on Friday. In the next couple of weeks, I will hopefully start live fire twice/week. We have a classifier match at ORSA this Saturday, so I'm going to try to make Master which is my main goal for this year.

In order to work on accuracy, I am not going to use par times in dryfire for a while. I will use par times periodically to keep myself honest and make sure that I am not getting slower, but for the most part my timer will just be used for the start signal.

[UTraab]

Well, the good news is that I haven't updated in a while because I have been to busy with training. Since my last update, I've had a couple of good live fire sessions and a classifier match. I also bought and watched Ben Stoeger's DVD "Training to Win" and would recommend it to anyone that wants to improve. It does a nice job of wrapping all of his books into a training package.

It seems like I am hitting a new personal best with every live fire session. I know that it will eventually plateau, but it is very encouraging right now. Just yesterday, I got a 2.58 on Four Aces which included a 1.07 draw and 1.19 reload. I was consistently in the low 2.6s and my reload speed is obviously what is killing me as it averages 1.25 or so.

The classifier match was decent. According to how the scores are entered in and processed by USPSA, I could have made Master. I have a few good classifiers the rolled off in the "middle" of the match, so we'll see. Either way, I just want a classification that accurately represents my shooting skill and I'm sure that's how it will end up.

Dryfire has been going well. I am not using the par time function about half the time and am using it the other half. It seems to be working out as I am having lots of gains in live fire. The weather is starting to get nice here, so I should really be ramping up live fire to definitely once per week for now and then twice per week after time changes.

After having the Shadow for a couple of months now, I am going to make some changes to my setup. I have some of the thick aluminum grips coming in today. The VZs are awesome grips, but are too small. I handled a Shadow with the aluminum grips last weekend and they fit my hands a lot better. I have had trouble with some of my mags not dropping free during live fire reloads, so I am getting some +10% springs and a stainless mag brake in also. I might have narrowed it down to one certain mag, but these upgrades won't hurt nonetheless.

Two weeks until the Alabama Sectional!

Edited February 27, 2014 by UTraab

[ZackJones]

I bought the DVD download and you're right it seems to wrap everything up very well. BTW I'll be picking up my M&P Pro in .40 this coming Saturday.

[UTraab]

I've had some great dryfire and practice sessions the last couple of weeks. I am making some strides and can see improvement with each live fire session. My concentration has been on shooting more points while not giving up any speed, and I have been successful so far.

I've watched Training to Win a few more times and have realized that I need to tie my live fire and dryfire together more closely. Up till now, it was almost as if they were two seperate programs. It is kind of overwhelming when you know that you have lots of room for improvement in a whole bunch of areas and you end up just working on each one a little bit in live fire and dryfire. Starting next week, I'm going to concentrate on transitions and reloads for a little while.

Turns out that I didn't make Master at the Classifier match. That is still my main goal for this year and I am confident that I will get there if I maintain my current level of practice and focus. I picked up 4 cases of 147 gr. BBIs at the match, so I should be good for the rest of this year.

The gun issues have been solved. The new DAA thick aluminum grips are great. I changed all of my mags to the +10% springs and put the stainless mag brake in my gun and the mag dropping issue seems to have stopped. My Shadow is at 2,175 rounds so far and has ran like a top. I can't say enough about the quality of work that comes from Stuart's bench.

Leaving for Phenix City tomorrow to shoot the AL Sectional this weekend, then it's only 4 weeks until Area 6.

Edited March 14, 2014 by UTraab

[ZackJones]

Hope you had a great match at the AL Sectional. I shot it as well. Which day did you shoot?

[UTraab]

Hope you had a great match at the AL Sectional. I shot it as well. Which day did you shoot?

Thanks! It was a great match, but my shooting was very average. I shot today.

[UTraab]

2014 Alabama Sectional

The Good:

• My best major so far. Finished 13th overall and 6th A class in Production
• Movement is getting better
• Shot better points....but these were really easy targets
• Shooting on the move is improving
• I feel like I'm getting more efficient

The Bad:

• Slow reloads
• Slow draws
• Slow transitions
• Messed up a few stage plans/didn't have the stage plan "drilled in"

The Absolutely Unacceptable:

• 8 makeup shots on steel
• 2 mikes (one was a failed popper calibration)
• 7 Deltas

Getting back into my dryfire dojo on Monday. Weather is great around here now so live fire practice is in full swing too. I can tell that I am getting better and better each day, but I still have a LONG way to go.

[ZackJones]

Congrats! For me the good was I didn't get DQ'd and I didn't shoot myself . My wife filmed me and man what an eye opener that was. In my mind I'm burning up the stage but on film I look like a turtle crawling through the stages. I was 68th out of 70 in production. I did manage to beat two junior female shooters . It was a very valuable learning experience though.

[TrukSnave]

Good Job man. You owe me a Red Bull! Nice meeting you

[UTraab]

Good Job man. You owe me a Red Bull! Nice meeting you

Thanks for the Red Bull again, I came in second on that stage! It was a pleasure to shoot with y'all. Best squad I have ever shot with, lots of good shooters.

[TrukSnave]

Red Bull told me they don't sponsor "violent" sports. I should probably stop drinking their shit!

Yeah It was a great squad! I had a blast!

[Ewilson224]

I think I filmed a few of those for you. Will catch you at the next match.

[UTraab]

I think I filmed a few of those for you. Will catch you at the next match.

You did! Thanks again. It was a pleasure to shoot with y'all.

[UTraab]

I've been doing lots a dryfire and live fire to get ready for Area 6. Hit a few personal bests recently, including a 3.86 second 25 yard Bill Drill with 4 Alphas and 2 close Cs. Average time was 4.1 seconds.

Looking at my training log over the last few months, I am constantly improving and inching closer to the GM goal times in Skill & Drills.

After having the Shadow for three months, I am nearing 3k rounds through it and it is running like a top. Zero malfunctions so far.

I ordered Ben's new dryfire book and the BOSS hanger attachment today, so hopefully they will be in before the end of the week. I am also down to my last 1k rounds of ammo, so I'll have to fire the 650 back up soon to replenish the stock.

1.5 weeks until Area 6!

Edited April 1, 2014 by UTraab

[ZackJones]

I'll be working Stage 6 on Saturday and Sunday say Hi when you pass through.