Richard C.

[Richc2048]

I just discovered the joy of practical shooting on May 4, 2014. Easy to remember because my first match was themed "May the 4th be with you"

I started shooting maybe 9 years ago and only got serious about a year ago. Before that I was just punching holes in paper and never seemed to ask "why my shots were doing what they were doing" or "am I getting better, worse?" I was just blasting and having a hoot. One day I woke up and decided I really wanted to see improvement. I started going to the range with a purpose of shooting bullseye shots at targets consistantly. Wow. Years of shooting and it seemed I did not have the basics down to even be consistant. Well. A year of working on the fundamentals I can now shoot "groups" and get pretty consistant with my shots if I have all dang day to aim. I need to speed up a lot. I'm not horrible by all means right now but I do need work on it.

I started in Limited Minor just because I did not have the gear to hold more than 2 magazines so I had to load them to capacity. That was a hoot. Now I am shooting production and got my first classification into production as a C shooter.

Now the introduction is done.

I have been attending about 4-6 club matches a month and meeting great people and getting a lot of help on what I need to do. I have 3 kids and an amazing wife that gives me the free time to really take this serious. Thanks honey! I now see the same shooters at the matches and for some reason they decided to help me. People from my level all the way to GM's. (Dirk, Trung, Mike, Nick, Charlie, Joey, Richard S.) I am so thankful for this. Joey has really been a great person to have telling me a lot of the tips, tricks, tactics. I seem to notice not everyone is getting the kind of treatment I have received and I am very blessed for this opportunity. That being said, I do not want to waste their breathe on me so I need to improve.

Here is where I see myself needing help right now.

1. Stage Breakdown - If I have enough time I seem to get this badass idea in my head that would work but really never gets executed like I planned. I don't know if the way I seem I should attack the course is too complex and cannot execute in stress mode or what. I know this is the biggest one I would like to see improvement on first. I am going to buy the Saul Kirsch book Thinking Practical Shooting so hopefully between this book and Charlie Perez's book I can at least get a handle on this.

2. Accuracy/Speed - I have not found a balance on this yet. Again, hopefully the class with Charlie will answer this for me.

3. Fundamentals - I know I leave plenty of room for improvement on this. Reloads, movement, when to run and gun, when to plant my feet, when my gun comes up to see targets etc. I guess those were USPSA fundamentals. I also need the basic fundamentals too. Trigger control, sight picture. I recently switched from my Ameriglo i-dots to a fiber optic front. I still cannot track my front sight during recoil. I know this is something people say they can do but I have not had that "ahaa" moment with that yet.

I created this post mainly to hold myself accountable as some of the people I receive help from are on this thread. CHA-LEE is offering a live fire class and I am going to take it as soon as I return from a vacation with my family. I have taken a few classes but none have been geared specifically towards USPSA. So when I return, the training shall start and I hope I can look back at this thread and see improvements over the years.

My Goal: I would like to be a solid B class / approaching A class by this time next year. (end of the next season) then hopefully a class up each year after that. So here goes future Richard. You have been called out! Don't let me down chump!

[CHA-LEE]

Welcome to the voyage in improving your Practical Shooting skills!!!! I look forward to seeing your skills improve with effort and dedication. If you have any questions along the way let me know.

[Richc2048]

Thanks Charlie. I really think this will help me improve. I've been lurking for a while and the members here really do help each other out. I look forward to documenting my voyage in USPSA. this was a great season for me. I at least know the questions to ask myself to improve. I've dumped around 10k rounds in the last year between practice and club matches. Right now I think I'll curb my live fire and take classes and read books. The last few times I went to the range to work on split times and bill drills I didn't see much improvement. I'll still go to the range but I think I'll concentrate on basic fundamentals until I read the books and take the classes so I can maximize the use of all those rounds I load with a turret press. (Yes a turret press and me have loaded 15k slow but steady rounds lol) I think I've gone past the casual shooter phase and need to step up to a progressive.

Joey showed my a vertical line target sheet I should practice with to determine if my sights go straight up when in recoil and if they point back to the same spot. I must admit , I cannot track my sights during recoil. They vanish into thin air then reappear after a moment. I haven't had my eyed checked since I joined the Navy in 1999. I think I'm due for it. I know they've gone down hill in 14 years.

The good news is I finally got fiber fronts. I went with the Warren tactical ones. I had tritium I-dots because that was my carry setup. Wow those suckers pop! The thinner blade really helps too. I'm a lot better at 25yards with those. Wish I had them on the 20 yard steel that was in front of a wall of no shoots at the match. I shot 6 victims but I won the war against that sucker eventually.

[Richc2048]

I started reading Saul Kirsch's book "Thinking Practical Shooting".

I believe this book is going to teach me a lot of things in the "mental department". I've only in the second chapter and gained a lot on how to look at a score based on hit factors. I am bringing this book with me on vacation.

I forgot to mention. Please feel free to add comments. I will take any and all advice and feedback. Be harsh if you think that's what I need.

[Richc2048]

Saul Kirsch's book. Thinking practical shooting is awesome. Halfway through it from my plane ride. Definitely a good book prior to my training with Charlie next week.

[Richc2048]

I returned from my vacation and immediately took Charlie's live fire training. It was amazing. I was able to boost my confidence on many things I could not do well. The stage breakdown was the most benificial for me. The way he set up a course and incorporated many situations you would run into was very well designed. The best immediate positive benefit I got from the course was hitting swingers. His method really made the swinger feel like it slowed down and I was able to shoot it consistantly. I think this would be a practice I really need to practice a lot especially if the target was a zebra target. By the end I was mostly able to hit the swinger in the alpha or just below it. But with the method learned I think this can be acheivable in short order. My confidence in swinger targets was non existant before this course. It was just a luck of the draw for me on whether there would be holes in it or not.

Movement was something I was also eager to get into. I know I could practice a lot of target practice on a static range but understanding foot-movement was very interesting for me. He gave me a lot of tools and skills to practice.

Stage breakdown has been plaguing me recently. I am still not sure why this just started apprearing when I ran stages but it was getting very frustrating and demoralizing. I really just had a negative attitude over my performance over the last month Thor so and this class is just what I needed to change my self image again into the positive. My "bank of information" has increased.

I am by no means a top shooter but I aspire to be and I am in the learing process of how to achieve this goal. The only advice I would feel comfortable giving right now is that if you feel your training is at a platue or you feel like you are seeing more negative than positive in you shooting I highly recommend taking a class to help. If you are in the Colorado area I highly recommend taking Charlie's class. There are many great shooters but not many are great shooters that can also teach what they do. This is another skill that very few people have.

I just got back from vacation so I will call out "future Richard" to go more in depth with what I learned in Charlie's class and Saul Kirsch's book Thinking Practical Shooting. Future Richard will list the skills and record where I feel I am at right now, set a goal of something I want to work with and set a date of when I need to feel comfortable in doing a skill that I am low on.

Thank you all that are reading. I hope to hear your feedback and tips. I will always take any information someone is willing to give and try it out. Thank you!

[Richc2048]

I've been down in the dumps the last month or so seeing my scores get worse. I could not figure it out but then it hit me at the last match when I was trying to hit a pretty easy shot on a steel plate. I kept missing the plates and was getting frustrated. I calmed down took my time and shot. Still missed! I figured it out. A few months ago I was happy with my hits getting roughly 90% alphas (production class) and decided to build speed. I realized that in my quest for speed my trigger press went to absolute slop. I did not notice it until that piece of steel. I was slapping the trigger baaaad! Somehow I had built it into my muscle memory and only found out about it after trying to do a deliberate technical shot.

So I guess it's back to the drawing board for me. I tried to train for speed and obviously trained wrong and trained a lot. Jeez. I doubled my practice amount of ammo to about 1000 a month during this "speed quest" and totally did the wrong thing. At least I think I know what is wrong and I can't wait to go to the range and start with the basics again. I'm not mad about it but disappointed that I wasted so much ammo and time trying something new.

Lesson learned! I will make sure the fundamentals are ALWAYS in place when I try to build speed or anything that I try. I feel so stupid for not realizing this for over a month but I am relieved that I "think" I may have figured out why my scores went down. By the way, my times did not go up much either so I was really sucking!

I started doing a lot of dry firing in my garage and I think I further ingrained that nasty habit by just slapping the hell out of a trigger that is not reset and not practicing at the speed I know I would be shooting it realistically. I was just jumping from one target to another jerking that trigger finger twice per target and not training at the speed I usually shoot it.

"Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect" I read this in Saul Kirsch's book. Another great piece of knowledge I read but still learned the hard way.

[ToddKS]

As long as you are faster now than you were before, I would not describe the effort as wasted. I have found that I have to feel what it is like to go faster and then figure out how much faster I can go and still control it.

You have identified trigger control as an item to work on. Based on you post you might also ask yourself if you are shooting with a target focus on shots where you may need more front sight focus. This was a habit I picked up in dry fire pushing for speed. It is faster but is degraded my accuracy considerably which would also align with some of the issues you describe.

Good to meet a fellow high volume turret press loader. I thought I was the only person out there silly enough to load than many rounds and not buy a progressive press.

[Richc2048]

Thanks Todd from Kansas. I think you may be right about looking at the targets more than my front sight. I stopped my dry fire practice for the last few days. I definitely want to make sure I am practicing correctly so I am evaluating what I am doing. I think for now I am just going to work on my draw, reloads, and pushing the gun from target to target on wide swings.

People have made fun of me about my turret press loading but I explained it as making match grade bullets at the highest speed possible.

[Richc2048]

My log of Where I think I am at with my skills

I thinks this is going to be the master list from which I look at and see what I need to work on. I will update this once a month. I truly feel that when I get ALL of these to a 9/10 or better is when I will be achieving the GM Classification. As you can see I have everything to work on and I don't feel anything is mastered or even at a place where I can say I can execute it to the fullest potential even 95 out of a 100 times I do it. That is when I will give myself the 9/10 rating. Please Feel free to let me know if I need to add anything to this list that I may have forgotten. Don't worry, it wont be like this every month. I will just post the Techniques, where I was last month on the scale and where it is now. Any and all input would be greatly appreciated for my quest to be a proficient shooter.

Safety 8/10 - My safety is at the top but I feel that I may be playing it too safe and am losing time due to this. I know my safety is there so I would like to make my movement smoother. I think I could be closer to the razor's edge while still being 100% safe. So I guess my safety is always going to be 10/10 but I am losing time not being confident while developing speed. I hope that makes sense. I have yet to be DQ'd (knock on wood)

Overall Shooting Ability 5yrds to 25yrds 8/10 - I just would like to build speed into various distance shots. A lot of this can be worked on with grip, stance etc… Being able to press the trigger as soon as the sights align and knowing what is an acceptable sight picture for certain distances will help with this.

Grip 6/10 - I have been working on grip strength but I know it could be better. I don't think I am griping as much as I should be on the stage. My goal is to make sure I am gripping a lot in dry fire to make sure it is built in muscle memory. I still have to mentally tell myself to grip when I am on the line.

Trigger Press (At Speed) 7/10 - My trigger press is great when I am on a static range and ample time to shoot a shot. I would like to work speed into this now.

Draw 6/10 - My draw is not the fastest but I think I will put this off for now as working on movement speed will give me the biggest return right now.

Sight Picture From Draw 6/10 - I will consistently work on this during my dry fire practice to solidify my muscle memory. I learned a lot from Charlie Perez's class about my stance and my head not needing to move.

Trigger Reset Press 4/10 - I believe I ruined this during my dry fire. I was just squeezing the trigger as hard as I could during dry fire and need to re-work my trigger press at speed.

Split Time 4/10 - My split time will be worked on by working on other things. Sight picture, grip, stance. This can only speed up in relation to when I acquire a good sight picture.

Slide Lock Reload 8/10 - I worked on this a lot because of IDPA so I believe this to be pretty good.

Standing Reload 8/10 - I Would like for this to be 10/10 very soon as I work on this during dry fire. I would like for this to be done without any though. I will work on finding my parking zone and aggressively going for the magazine.

Movement Reload (left) 7/10 - I'm a leftie so this is easier for me. Again, this is something I would like to make solid as soon as possible.

Movement Reload (right) 6/10 - I will have to work on this to have speed and still be safe as I am a leftie so I need to feel confident with this and not break the 180

Calling Shot 2/10 - I need this to be the biggest thing to watch for when I do live fire. I only know when it is absolute crap and I know missed the target my a mile that it was a bad shot.

Movement Speed 2/10 - I need to lose weight. End of story……

Economy of Movement 1/10 - I learned a lot in Charile's class and I think I need to think about this more and do many things slowly in dry fire and increase it in the same session to see where I can lose wasted movement with my body.

Stopping for Movement 4/10 - Charlie taught me a lot of tips and tricks I am going to need to practice. My knees were really hurting after his class so I know that I need to work on this to help build any muscles in my legs I need to do this.

Movement While Shooting 3/10 - I tried this on a few matches but I think I need to go back to dry fire practice. It is not at a point where I can execute this well. For now it is faster for me to plant myself. I will continue to work on this by working my grip and making sure my upper body is stiff and moving with my lower half.

Getting Into a Stance From a Run 7/10 - Again, I must lose weight. My knees are the biggest factor in this. It's like stopping a freight train with the brakes of a Geo Metro.

Getting Sight Picture After Movement 6/10 - I need to get my upper body to be stiff and use more of my lower body to control my movement so my sights are not bouncing as much.

Point Heavy vs. Time Critical 6/10 - I need to make sure I think about this things when I am building my strategy in running this course.

Memory Stages 5/10 - I still struggle with this. I think I just need to build my confidence in this. I run the stage in my head but it falls apart on the line. This week I did have very memory intensive stage and I had one FTE but I knew it as soon as I did it. I just moved on anyway though. I could not make the decision to stay. It was weird.

Self Image 5/10 - I think that by making this list and seeing where I think I am at with my skill level will help. I hope to move this up during the next few matches.

Shaking off good/bad stages 6/10 - It's been more bad than good lately but the only attitude I can get to try and shake this off is walking off the stage and saying "whatever, this sucks" and get excited about the next stage thinking "this is going to be the one"

Confidence 6/10 - I am only a C class shooter but I know that I do so much better in practice that what is seen on my stage results. I am trying to be more positive and I have made an effort to not be "that guy" who just bitches on every stage saying I'm better than that. I keep the negativity to myself and just say " I wish I would have done better but Oh well, I'll just have to work on it more in practice" I definitely don't have the attitude that I am better than what my performance shows. I feel that I am shooting at the place I am and just need to work on things to get better.

Making this list really helped. I think I want to work on more of the fundamentals on live fire and build the speed in reloads and movement in dry-fire. I know there is so much to work on but I feel I need to work on these first to get substantial gains in my scores to help that confidence level of mine.

Please feel free to comment on these. If you know me and disagree with any of these ranking let me know too. I definitely need to know if I am over rating something so I can work on it more.

[Richc2048]

I just came back from the range and it feel a lot better. This was a good training. I mainly worked on my trigger finger and increasing the speed and distance while not losing my groups.

A little dry fire working on mag changes really showed out there. I need to keep a steady regiment on that.

My confidence in my ability to shoot was boosted today. I now know I can shoot and need to make sure I bring that to the range.

I REALLY need to make sure I get the best stance I can get during the matches. Use my lower body more. My knees ached a little the next day from Charlie's class and I think that was a good thing.

Speaking of pain focusing on that front sight properly for two hours tonight shooting have my eyes a strain. I haven't got my eyes examined since I was in the Navy so it's long over due.

That's it for now. Just worked on the fundamentals and learned that dry fire is important.

[Richc2048]

There was a practice match tonight at CGC. I was allowed to design the stages tonight and I think it went well.

We had two stages run 2 different ways and it was fun.

Joey told me to really push the shooting on my last stage and I really stepped on the gas. I shaved 6 seconds of my time, threw one delta and got over a point rewarded in my hit factor. I found out tonight that I need to get out my comfort zone and push it. My accuracy has returned so its time to train in speed. I was shocked I was able to make the hits. When I pushed myself the sights returned faster, or maybe I noticed them faster? I don't know but it worked.

There is a match this Saturday (weather permitting) so I'm stoked to see I'm out of my slump (mentally anyway)

FUTURE RICHARD; Take advantage of this little boost I got tonight and make it stick!

[Richc2048]

I have decided I'm going to try calling my sights (properly)

I never thought it as possible but Cha-Lee told me many shooters have a tendency to blink when the shoot. I did not think I did but the more I thought of it and tried at a range... I think I do. I don't want to, but I am.

I've searched to forum and learned that double plugging ears is a good start.

I tried to consciously tell myself not to at my last range trip but I think I am. I still don't see my sights going up then down. It's just an explosion, then all of a sudden I see the sight again. I know it's a small fraction of a second but I think it would be nice to get this technique down.

Anyone have any advice on what helped them not blink?

Edited November 25, 2014 by Richc2048

[Richc2048]

I have been reading a lot of range diaries lately and found something interesting. Maybe I'm wrong but all of your feedback would be appreciated.

It seems that a lot of the GM's on here started shooting and was rewarded with B or A classifications early and then worked hard to get to M and GM.

I started in D class and worked hard up to a Decent C class. My classifications are generally in the High C's. I haven't had one in the B class range but I'm working on it.

So I guess my question is - Is GM really attainable if you start at D and had to work into C? Or is it you start shooting, find yourself as a B or A class shooter then work hard to GM? I just really can't see myself shooting that drastically better no matter how much I work. Self Image problem? Is me getting into B class the same as a naturally gifted shooter starting at B or A then making M or GM? I fear making B or even A class for me is the holy grail and GM is just not in the cards for me.

I practice and I really want it but dang, you guys make it look so easy. Is hard work only good enough to bump a person 2-3 classifications realistically?

[BritinUSA]

From what I understand the classification system is based on the average of the top ten High Hit Factors. Some people practice classifiers extensively to improve their ranking which has the effect of perhaps raising the HHF higher than would normally be expected under actual match conditions. Also the skill levels of competitors today are higher than in the past.

Essentially it is harder now to get to M and GM than it was a few years ago, it is attainable by just about anyone with practice, when you start out at the sport even the smallest change can have a large impact in your scores. Use video to record yourself and those at a higher level shooting the same stages and you can soon see where small savings can be made, add those up and the difference in scores can be startling.

[CHA-LEE]

If a shooter does not have a significant physical or mental limitation, which you do not, then making GM is totally obtainable regardless of where your classification starts. Going from C to GM may seem unobtainable right now, but it really isn't. If you focus on fixing and improving your practical shooting skills one at a time and are not afraid to relearn skills from the ground up, then the sky is the limit. Most shooters who don't progress past B or A class simply settle for the skills they already have and don't want to venture out from that comfort zone. If you let yourself slip into that "sticking to your comfort zone" security blanket then your skills improvement will stagnate.

[drewbeck]

Richard you've taken a class with Cha-Lee and likely heard about developing your "suck" list. If you develop the list of things you need to get better at to get you to an "A" shooter you can work through it and you'll find yourself there if you continue to work. Most people practice what they are good at and occasionally work on stuff they aren't.

If you were to see a GM's suck list it would likely have a lot of similar skills on it, the difference is they continue to review and evaluate every skill they have and are continually improving skills that at one time they considered "good enough"

I think you are thinking and focusing too much on the difference and gap in "skills" between D,C,B,A and GM's. From my limited experience the biggest difference and distinguishing characteristic of the majority of GM's is not their natural ability, or physical traits but it's their personal drive, mentality and internal demons. Being mediocre is not acceptable to them not only in shooting but in most aspects of their lives. A lot of GM's have a prior history of competition in something else at a very high level that is totally unrelated to shooting. The point is skills can usually be developed, being able to continually evaluate and challenge yourself and not get complacent or accept your progress as "good enough" is the real challenge.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Richc2048]

Thanks Drew. I did make a Suck list and rated all the skills I thought I use during a match. Needless to say I feel they are low. I am making sure every live fire session is with purpose and my dry fire consists mainly working on reloads "correctly and consistent"

I could not fix my blinking in one session but I think I can do that and start getting better, consistent shots. I'll keep working on this as this will help me on the steel targets the most.

I'm trying to push it on time because I was consistently about 15%-20% slower than the ones winning. My scores went down a little but still doing better than scoring a few points more but losing the HF.

thanks for the good news and I'll keep at it. I've never settled for good enough all my life but I'm also realistic so I just wanted to Make sure it's probable and possible.

[Richc2048]

I had a chance to do some practice today at a range with access to props so we set up a stage and ran it a few times. Wow. That is an awesome way to practice! I normally can only do static training and I make the best of it but there is no thing like the real deal. I was able to shave 7 seconds off my first run the second time around. I was the "lowest shooter" there today so it was awesome chatting with everyone and hearing their comments. This sport has the best people around. Waaaay less jerks per capita than anything I've ever been involved in.

I also did some experimenting with different bullets and found that I" think"did better with the snappier 115gr than the softer 124gr. I say "I think" because I cannot explain why. My scores and time were better with it. I'll have to explore this more. I was given advice that I should try a 124 with a higher HF. I'm definitely gonna try that because of his experience and everything he's told me so far has been very helpful.

I also had an experience of being told I was very close to the 180 when I reloaded from left running right. (I'm a leftie). I think judging by the conversation I did break it they were telling me the nicest way possible So I gotta be super mindful of that. I've never been DQ'd before but I've never tried to be this aggressive before so.....yikes!

I started this sport in May so this was this was my first experience in cold weather. I could not hit my mag release reliable. That's gonna be something I've got to do better.

Overall I think my confidence may be holding me back some. I did the performance today just shooting very aggressive and taking chances and I had some of my best scores yet. 29 alphas and 3 Charlie. With a good time to boot!

I'm going to area 2 in March so I've got to push it and be mindful to be ultra safe as well. This was the best training before a local match so I'll be very curious about my score tomorrow.

Any and all tips/advice/comments will be welcomed.

[drewbeck]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatal

Edited December 7, 2014 by drewbeck

[CHA-LEE]

It was fun shooting with you today. Your reloads on the move to the right need to be more biased down range. This is where stage breakdown strategy is important. The stage we shot was a mirror setup on both sides so your stage plan should have promoted movement to the left during your reloads. I am not sure why you decided to move through the stage the opposite direction. Swimming with the current is always easier than against it.

[Richc2048]

Thanks Charlie. Yes. That was awesome. The rest of the times we ran it I started on the right and went left. For some reason it felt natural to run forward then left so I was reloading awkwardly the rest of the way.

I tried doing it engaging the left targets for kicks thinking starting on the open target at the draw would be better then the zebras.

Lesson learned. Safety above all. I clearly wasn't comfortable enough or ready to do it the other way efficiently and safely. I'll definitely do a lot of that in dry fire before I try it without thinking of it. Haha

I'll see you tomorrow.

[drewbeck]

It seemed like it was close because your hands were low near waist level and your body was getting ahead of the gun and it was just kind of along for the ride. If you keep it up in front of your face and you are looking down range it will allow you to move and see. Your points were solid just working on your movement will payoff huge for you

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[Richc2048]

^^exactly. I don't know how many times people have said that to me. I do it in dry fire but I resort to comfort/habit at the range. It screw up even when I practice live fire.

This is such a bad habit for me and I know that getting the gun up and stiffening upper body will fix so many things for me (transitions, reloads, movement) . I just haven't cemented it YET. My day will come I guess. I just have to keep practicing it and remind myself this at every stage.

[Richc2048]

I had my first good match in a long while. I didn't forget any targets, didn't shoot any white ones and I had one mike but I knew the shot was gonna be bad at best.

I did probably give up about 4-5 seconds total in the match doing things super safe. I took the route of walking backwards in one stage and executing a standing reload vs reloading while moving backwards but I'll happily give those up to be safe above all. I did see one seasoned person get DQ'd so I'm glad to give up those times to know I'd finish the match.

I did have a "gamer moment" on a stage I was glad I did. There was a mini popper at about 20-25 yards that I saw a bunch of shooters were missing and going to war with. Usually ending with hitting a few no shoots that was close to it. I decided to give it two shots and move if I didn't hit it. I ended up taking one really good sight picture and missed. I just moved on. Based on the fh I knew even if I tried with a second or third shot and hit it, it would be a wash if I were to just move on. It helped me stay with my round count plan this way as well. I was very proud to have seen that. I shot dfl and I was the only one that did this and many said they would have done better if they did that. Many that went to war on that steel incurred at least a no shoot and about 4-7 seconds on it.

I'm anxious to see the results as I haven't shot this clean in a while. My points were high and my time was on par or slightly slower than the great shooters.

I did still see many flaws in my runs so I know there's there's things that will improve my time so at least I know I'm not in a slump or peaked in what I feel comfortable with. I know that with good dry fire B class is attainable and foreseeable.

I'm still disappointed that my reloads in practice are not showing up in the real world.