eNder's journey from D class

[ender]

I've always wanted to document the journey of competitively shooting for the first time. Finding this forum is probably an appropriate start to see how disciplined i am upkeeping something simple. The rewards of documenting is almost like gold. This concept isn't new to me being an IT professional where we're forced to document our fixes or be burdened with remembering every last detail. Some of us older folks know how hard it is to recall details. Documentation is a way to learn from your mistakes. Being Filipino I suppose i've always felt it in my blood to be competitive with a pistol or projectiles in general. Why that is so, i am uncertain. The following quote is probably best to describe my goal here:

“He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.”

― José Rizal

I might not be taking the literal meaning of Jose Rizal's quote in this aspect. As he was referring to the Filipino people remembering their history in the midst of Spanish colonization. It is still important to reflect on my training now so i can refer to it in the future to keep my true north.

Background:

Why did i start competitively shooting? I picked up my first pistol in 2008. It was working a year after my first job out of college. it was the year that Manny Pacquiao defeated Delahoya and catapulted into the historic boxer he is now. That pistol was a 9mmm sig sauer p226. I picked it because i had an airsoft pistol that was a 1 to 1 model of it. I loved how it felt in my hand, so i naturally went with it fitting like a glove to me. Over the years i've probably put atleast 3000 rounds through it. It was during a time when nobody would look sideways at you buying bulk ammo in NY state. Luck would have it that my friend had property in a remote area where we would plink away our sunday afternoons. We would have friendly competitions against each other. I suppose that's where it was born. This is where i learned that i was cross eye dominant. It took months and months of learning how to shoot with two eyes open and disregarding the ghost images of the rear sights to finally get comfortable with it. After much practice i was able to shoot spinners that were designed for 22 LR at a distance of 25 feet. With the front sight dot covering the entire spinner, it was exciting to find out that i could hit them with consistency.

2010 Top shot came out and i saw JJ Racaza aFilipino competing with the best. when i saw their challenges, i immediately told my then Girlfriend. "I can do that!". I had so much confidence in me. Little did i know the technical details those pro shooters had to master to get where they are.

Fast forward to 2012. i had my first USPSA match. I didn't know what to expect, a friend had invited me out. So i tried it out and stuck to what i knew, slow, steady trigger pulls. I learned that the DA pull was heavy but i got used to it from shooting. I was slow but i shot 90% As. At one stage that was all steel array. i came out first in the stage. I was hooked. I wanted to get better.

2 Years later. i bought a glock 34, grip tape, storm lake barrel. with a zev standard competition trigger and here at brianenos' forum. Documenting the details so when i hit a wall i can look back and figure out where i need to go.

Edited August 2, 2014 by ender

[ender]

Went to Old Bridge, NJ for a USPSA match on 7/27/2014. First time shooting the glock 34 in a match. I loved how it shot. Prior to this match i had the glock for a week. Shot 200 rounds at the range with it. Since it was so new i had been dry firing the glock so much that i think it might have driven my fiancee mad. But all the dry fire work paid off as during the match i kept hearing 2 alphas as the majority. There were 3 stages out of seven that gave me trouble.

One was a long range classifier that i didnt know how to shoot. I should have shotten it for maximum hits and not chase the par time of 7 seconds. The other stage i had to shoot with my front sight as the truglo fiber optic had fallen out in the middle of the course of fire. I made due with stages after by sticking a piece of straw in the post. It worked passingly. The third stage was when i was shooting with a straw piece as a front post.

From the scoring of the stages i noticed my shots were mostly to the left. It will be one shot alpha and the second shot would be a charlie. I need to work on my follow up shots, perhaps i should try using the famed "glock short reset" by holding the trigger down and letting the trigger creep out. I am sort of used to this with the p226 as that's how i would shoot it.

I should also note that i was shooting this match with a zev fulcrum ultimate trigger. Not production legal of course. So i was shooting the day in limited 10 minor. out of 25 people i came in 17th in limited 10. I derive joy from beating those 8 people. I might keep shooting lim 10 minor for the fun of it. But i do want to get serious in production.

I bought the standard trigger from glockworx that is legal for uspsa. It's not as nice as the fulcrum trigger. but it's still way better than the stock option. Time for the dry firing to commence.

8/1/2014

I went to the range to practice with the zev standard comeptition trigger. Pft. All my shots to the left which indicates too little trigger finger on the shot wheel. Perhaps i'm slapping the trigger. Something is up definitely for the shots to be pulling left.

I tried atlanta arms and ammo 147 grain 9mm subsonic ammo with the stock recoil spring on the glock 34. Surprisingly it cycled the glock. Most of the follow up shots with that ammo tended to be low. I'm thinking it's because the recoil spring is too heavy for that ammo. i feel as if the glock is dipping. I'm not sure if i can attribute this to a heavier recoil spring being used with the 135 PF ammo. Silly me i bought a wolff recoil spring that was for an uncaptured guide rod. Woops. Well time to buy an uncaptured guide rod then.

PMC Bronze 115 grain ammo was also tried. I like it it might be my secondary ammo next to American Eagle 124 Grain ammo. The PMC ammo i tried for the first time using the short "glock reset" trigger method where i hold the trigger back and let it creep until it resets. Surprisingly all my shots that were going left were A zone hits on follow up shots.

American Eagle 124 grain i only had 13 rounds in it. I tried using this ammo while fully getting off the trigger and trying to pull back as straight as i can. Shots are still to the left.

I tried adjusting my trigger finger on different areas of the pad with all the various types of ammo and i would still shoot a little to the left. there's something going on with my stance probably or my arms dry firing will have to cure that.

Got home from the range today to put on some goodies i had ordered. I bought the gorilla grips from CPWSA. After putting them on i must say my grip has improved from the dry fire. I also was trying to diagnose why my shots were shooting left. I noticed that my right arm was straighter than my left arm. (I am a right handed shooter and cross eye dominant. That is my left eye does all the aiming). This is probably due to me trying to bring the gun up to my left eye. When this happens (right arm straighter than my left) i noticed my hands tend to rotate a bit when dry firing moving the sight to the left for some reason. The problem goes away when i flare my elbows a tad bit and bend them. it seems this is easier to facilitate when my right foot is slightly forward instead of the left foot. I need to keep in mind my stance when at matches. The right food should be slightly forward. I'm going to blame my cross eye dominance and bringing the gun to my left eye. Dry firing doesn't show that the gun is moving left anymore, especially with the new gorilla grip in place.

I noticed that alot of movement in my hands go away with the grip tape on. I'm excited for the next trip on the range to see some tangible benefits.

[ender]

8/5/2014

Dry Fire Session

30mins

Goal: learn the intricacies of trigger pull/slap

Notes:

I've been lying to myself this whole time dry firing. Everytime i dry fire i always prep the trigger. I'm not completely off of it. Tonight i came to that realization that i should be way off the trigger when dry firing and trying to pull straight back. During this revelation i noticed how some of my shots at the range translate to high or left. Going forward i will be trying to simulate this as much as possible.

Edited August 6, 2014 by ender

[ender]

8/6/2014

Dry Fire Session

30 Mins

Goal: Experimenting with grip strength

Notes:

To my surprise if i relaxed my right hand a bit and let the left hand do most of the gripping i find that my front sight is more stable. I kept what jerry miceluk advised in speed shooting by using the weak hand more. Dry fire session turned out to be pretty eventful. Cant wait to try this at the range.

[ender]

8/23/2014

Walls of Steel 2014

All morning

Goal: To have fun and have some trigger time

Notes:

Had a surprisingly fun time with some buddies. I thought i did well out of my glock 34. my trigger pull seems to be a bit more solid. I had a reveleation where i relaxed my strong hand grip just a bit and more on my weak hand. The results were phenomonal. I saw my sights reset and was able to track them better. I was able to have faster splits than i'm normally used to and over all a bit happy. I'm going to experiment more with giving more grip strength to my weak hand. The times i did do bad during the stages i notcied that i was bad hand placement after hitting the mag release for a reload. I need to find a system or a method where i don't have to move my hand to hit the mag release. This is the folly of a short man. i have small hands and cna't help but readjusting my strong hand grip to hit the mag release.

Take aways:

Work on mag release / reloads

Work on weak hand grip strength.