WYgunner's Shooting Log

[WYgunner]

I shot a match yesterday at PPPS and took 2nd in limited. I ended up finishing roughly 88% of the winner who is a legitimate GM. My percentage of points shot including penalties was approximately 94%. Overall, the match went pretty well and I felt like I was accurately calling shots although I made up a couple of shots that didn't need to be. This was one of the first matches where my brain was in third person processing my shooting and I was able to focus on shooting A's rather than just going blank and shooting at targets. The amount of effort required to shoot A's, especially on closer targets, is minimal in comparison to willy-nilly blasting. The only difference is it requires a little more awareness. I picked up some misses on steel as a result of using a vague focus and not defining my front sight. The majority of my reloads felt like a hindrance to my stage performance as I was waiting a few times to commence blasting. In contrast, there was once stage that required one-handed blasting and I wasn't concerned with it at all as I have been practicing one-handed shooting on a regular basis. Shooting at least one magazine strong and weak hand has gradually increased my confidence when required to shoot one-handed in matches.

We had a particularly awesome squad with a lot of experienced shooters, so that resulted in a fairly quick tempo and good conversation. It is always nice to have people to bounce ideas off of and get input in regards to various strategies. It also creates an atmosphere were you expect to perform well. I have found that it is highly beneficial for me to squad with higher class shooters as I tend to shoot at the level of my competition.

It has become readily apparent that I need to resolve my reloading issues. I think this is a combination of the pouches I am using, their position on my body and my posture. My goal is to become a reloading boss as I find the act of reloading quickly to be particularly fun. More to come on the solution...

[WYgunner]

Did some quick dry-fire tonight. Worked on reloads while moving forward; I noticed that I am trying to smash the magazine in the magwell rather than guiding it in. I few times I found myself with my hand on the bottom of the mag and the mag at a non-loadable angle in the magwell. Staring at the magwell and keeping my upper body still seems to help mitigate missed loads while moving. It is going to take a while getting used to staring into the magwell while moving and loading. I am focusing on going more half-speed until I can expedite this motion while staying under control.

[CHA-LEE]

The sooner the load is done, the sooner you can start hauling ass............. If a Big Panda can do it then you can do it

[WYgunner]

Practiced yesterday: Set up a drill with two different ports. One port had a double stack target with a no-shoot and another port had a long piece of steel. I practiced drawing to the low port, shooting two shots and reloading to the other port. The best time I could accomplish was around 3.5 secs. It was very apparent that looking into the magwell is essential to a proper reload while moving. I experienced my common reload error where my hand is on the bottom of the mag and the angle is completely wrong in relation to the gun. If I delayed the insertion of the magazine just a fraction, this problem went away. I did fairly well keeping the gun high.

I also worked on this drill from right to left doing a backwards/left reload. Surprisingly, these loads felt smoothly then my left to right reloads. Unfortunately, I can't remember my time.

I finished by shooting strong and weak handed.

[WYgunner]

The sooner the load is done, the sooner you can start hauling ass............. If a Big Panda can do it then you can do it

I wish; no one can keep up with the great white ninja.

[WYgunner]

Practiced tonight; I set up three targets in a diamond pattern. If you imagine a baseball diamond, the targets were at 1st, 2nd and 3rd. I stood on what would be the pitcher's mound and practiced transitions from target to target. I forgot my timer at home, so actual times were not obtainable. My intent was to speed up my transitions between targets. I noticed that it was very difficult to not over-swing targets and the quickest transitions (at least they felt the fastest/smoothest) were achieved by anchoring my inside foot and using my outside foot to swing. I tried using my inside foot to transition (reverse pivot) and it was considerable less stable and slower. I utilized no-shoots on the 1st and 3rd base targets and I noticed that my groups were much tighter than those on the open target at the 2nd base position. I think this comes down to refining my aiming point and picking a specific spot on the target rather than just aiming at brown. I integrated reloads into the drill and focused on keeping the gun high and staring into the magwell. Keeping the gun high made a big difference on follow-up shots. There was much less movement of the gun and post load shots seemed to be faster. One thing I noticed is that I need to work on re-forming my grip after reloads. It seems somewhat slow and post-load shots can be difficult to keep on target at times; the sight tends to disappear. Finally, I worked on relaxing my face when I draw as it was pointed out that I have an immense amount of tension. This was very difficult and something that needs to be worked on. Keeping my face relaxed allowed for much smoother draws and less effort to get the gun on target.

[WYgunner]

I shot a match yesterday at AGC; ended up taking first in limited and 2nd overall. My stage plans felt pretty solid and I ended up finding a different path on a particular stage which saved a considerable amount of time. My reloads are going better and I felt like they weren't a hindrance with the exception of one stage where I had to shake the mag out of the magwell. I am starting to realize that the timing on my gun is a little odd and I may need to take video footage of the gun in recoil as it seems like I am waiting for it to return on occasion. This may be a result of springs, 200gr bullets, or both. Steel shooting went particularly well and I ended up firing 9 shots on a total of 8 pieces of steel throughout the match. I felt like I was much more patient and it ended up paying off in terms of time. I shot the match clean and ended up with no mikes and zero no-shoots. Overall everything felt pretty solid although I could work on shooting more aggressively through splits and transitions.

I can't post links yet, but the videos can be found on my YouTube page, WYgunner.

[WYgunner]

I shot an indoor match at CGC tonight. As with the prior indoor match, things went pretty rough. Before the match I realized that my front sight was loose. My sight is pinned into place, but it developed a reasonable amount of movement. I started the match on the classifier and struggled to find any type of sight picture as a result of the low lighting conditions. I decided to push through the blindness and ended up with 3+ mikes (scores are not posted yet). As far as I could see, my sight picture looked adequate for the shots required. The following stage was a close blaster stage and it went fairly well although I pretty much point shooted (shot?) the whole stage.

After the quick stage, I shot a stage that I designed. It consisted of triangular shooting area with a lot of tight shots/no-shoots. I ended up with a mike and two no-shoots. Once again, I felt like I called my shots adequately, only to be surprised with penalties. The final stage had a plate rack and then a series of angled targets through multiple ports. Since the match was a wash, I decided to experiment with my front sight by removing the fiber tube all together. This was a terrible idea when it came to shooting plates because the sight almost completely disappeared. For paper, the idea partially worked as the ambient light shined through the front of the fiber hole. Overall, I still think the green fiber tube is the least worst for low light.

I have realized that my indoor vision has deteriorated. I think this is a result of practicing outside. I shot indoor frequently over the winter and I was able to train my eyes to work in the low lighting conditions. Now I feel like I am completely blind when shooting. Bottom line, I think I am going to take a break from indoor shooting over the summer. I like the option of shooting indoor during the winter, but there isn't much incentive to struggle through the low lighting conditions when I can regularly shoot outdoors.

[CHA-LEE]

Quitter........

[WYgunner]

Quitter........

I learned from the best!

[Glock26Toter]

Dude. Your timing issue is exactly what I experienced and moving from 124 grain bullets to 115 grains is what helped me. The recoil was just too up and down to get a split faster than .20 and routinely I was at .24. Once I started shooting the 115 bullets it seemed that the recoil was more "jerky" and way less "up and down." The dot looks like static to me now, but I find it way easier to keep the static on the target during engagement and my splits are routinely .17 now.

I had tried 115's in the past but saw no benefit to the difference I felt. Basically I think I just wasn't ready for those faster split times yet, and when I did become ready the bullet change was the correct recipe for improvement.

p.s. I don't think you have lost your low light vision. I think you are seeing faster and therefore, you expect to pick that front sight up much faster now. Which you can't do in low light. I THINK, the low light "troubles" and "timing" issues are related. Soon you'll make Master.

[WYgunner]

Dude. Your timing issue is exactly what I experienced and moving from 124 grain bullets to 115 grains is what helped me. The recoil was just too up and down to get a split faster than .20 and routinely I was at .24. Once I started shooting the 115 bullets it seemed that the recoil was more "jerky" and way less "up and down." The dot looks like static to me now, but I find it way easier to keep the static on the target during engagement and my splits are routinely .17 now.

I had tried 115's in the past but saw no benefit to the difference I felt. Basically I think I just wasn't ready for those faster split times yet, and when I did become ready the bullet change was the correct recipe for improvement.

p.s. I don't think you have lost your low light vision. I think you are seeing faster and therefore, you expect to pick that front sight up much faster now. Which you can't do in low light. I THINK, the low light "troubles" and "timing" issues are related. Soon you'll make Master.

We will see if the 180s solve the timing issue...

[WYgunner]

A few things; I shot a steel match today. As typical steel matches go, some stages went well and some went bad. It's very hard to get over the idea that going fast will equal a good performance. I am still waiting for the final scores, but I had some fairly solid runs on outer limits, smoke and hope, speed option and accelerator. On the other four stages, I picked up a lot of misses, especially on pendulum. The small target, second from the right, particularly gave me some problems. I ended up with a miss on almost every string. The funny thing about steel is that everyone thinks that pure speed wins. This couldn't be further from the truth; Of course you have to strive to shoot quickly, but the most accurate shooter almost always wins. At my current level, I know that if I can shoot a clean match, I am very difficult to beat. I always get caught up with going fast, but at the end of the day, clean runs equal fast times. Many shooters are capable of putting up fast times on one or two strings, but very few can put up solid times on all five strings. While steel can be monotonous at times, I think it helps develop accuracy and it really forces me to focus on my front sight.

In other news, I bought a new limited gun. I ended up getting the highly demanded DVC Limited. I had one on back order with Brazos and was told that the wait could be up to a year. Just when I was about to give up on the DVC and get another Edge, a buddy of mine called and told me that he received one in his shop unexpectedly. I bought it and am now in the process of changing everything to my specifications. First, the trigger is better than a stock Edge trigger, but it still needs work. I am planning on replacing the hammer and sear with EGW components and having a trigger job done. Second, the grip will be replaced with a standard STI grip and I will put in the tried and true Dawson magazine release. The DVC features a reduced/textured grip, but it isn't quite what I'm looking for. Overall, I really like the milling on the gun and I think it will be a very suitable blaster when it has been fully modified.

My current limited gun is experiencing some major accuracy issues. It all started when I discovered that my front sight was loose. I had another set up sights, so I replaced the front sight and put on a fixed rear that my buddy sold me. With the deeper/wider rear sight and a .180 tall by .100 wide Dawson front sight, I thought I would be good to go. To my surprise, I found that I was hitting about 4 inches left and 4 inches low at 10 yards. I proceeded to drift the rear sight and it was extremely far right before I could get the windage on point. As for the elevation, I still wasn't close. In order to get the gun to hit at point of aim, I would have to just about cut the front sight in half. This got me thinking; I am starting to think that the low left issues are related to trigger pull. First, my slide release is completely destroyed; The over-travel screw has dug a significant hole in it. This is causing a very strange trigger break when the screw slips into the hole. Second, I think the long flat trigger may be a mistake. When I put the joint of my finger on the trigger, my groups somewhat improve which doesn't make a whole lot of sense according to normal triggering conventions. Before I change the trigger, I am going to see if a new magazine button, with a properly adjusted over-travel screw, will solve the problem. I was hoping to wait until my new Dawson magazine release arrived, but I am going to pull the release out of my 9mm in the meantime.

Unfortunately, I think the tendonitis in my wrist has returned. I battled with this last year and it had pretty much disappeared over the winter. I get pain on the tendon right below my thumb on my left wrist. I am pretty sure the pain is coming from overuse of the tendon as a result of canting my wrist for recoil control. I started noticing the problem a few days ago, but after today it feels like it is fully inflamed. I haven't been exercising a whole lot lately and I think this has contributed to this issue. My plan is to get back into exercising regularly in hopes that strengthening my arms with help with problem. Between my limited gun issues and the tendonitis, I think I am going to have to miss tomorrow's USPSA match at AGC...

[Glock26Toter]

Acupuncture dude! Call me and I'll give my dudes number. It's not like, stick it with a needle and you are instantly good to go, but it sure helps speed up the healing process. Also, I know you are desk jockey so make sure your ergonomics are good at work. I know how aggravating long time joint issues are. They suck! Take care of it bro.

[WYgunner]

Thanks buddy, I am going to take a look at work ergos. I could definitely make some changes to assist with the issue. Also, I think I am going to stick with physical therapy before I try acupuncture. If I get to that point, I will let you know and go to your dude. Hopefully it isn't Trung?

[wmetzler01]

When I got my new Apeiro I was shooting it low left vs. my Edge ( both 40 s&w). After farting around with sights, I decided I'd get a few lessions with the GM that owns the range would help me sort out some issues. After working with him I found:

1. I was speeding through my trigger pull - my Edge has a fully worked trigger vs. the stocker on the Apeiro

2. The Apeiro required a more precise grip - the Edge doesn't have the island barrel and is more tolerant of a grip issues

3. I was looking over the sights more than I was with my Edge

Working with the GM we found these subtle differences when I shot my Edge vs. the Apeiro. I never thought switching equipment would impact my ability to execute fundamentals; I guess the weight differences, the way the weight is distributed, and different trigger pull were enough to change my shooting.

For the record, I'm am currently an unrated shooter but that will change very soon.

Will

[obsessiveshooter]

I didn't get to shoot the RM300 this year, but I just looked at the match results out of curiosity. Dude, you won stage 5 beating 5 GM's! You won't be sitting at A much longer.

[frunkenstein]

He is a sandbagger

[WYgunner]

When I got my new Apeiro I was shooting it low left vs. my Edge ( both 40 s&w). After farting around with sights, I decided I'd get a few lessions with the GM that owns the range would help me sort out some issues. After working with him I found:

1. I was speeding through my trigger pull - my Edge has a fully worked trigger vs. the stocker on the Apeiro

2. The Apeiro required a more precise grip - the Edge doesn't have the island barrel and is more tolerant of a grip issues

3. I was looking over the sights more than I was with my Edge

Working with the GM we found these subtle differences when I shot my Edge vs. the Apeiro. I never thought switching equipment would impact my ability to execute fundamentals; I guess the weight differences, the way the weight is distributed, and different trigger pull were enough to change my shooting.

For the record, I'm am currently an unrated shooter but that will change very soon.

Will

Will,

The gun and how it is set up can definitely make a difference. I have noticed that with a super tuned trigger, I can get a way with poor trigger fundamentals that would cause a problem with a stock trigger. The equipment can definitely be a crutch if you haven't taken time to develop the basics. Occasionally I will shoot a bone stock Glock to work on trigger presses. Believe it or not, I think I can actually shoot better groups with guns that have long trigger pulls because it allows my mind to focus on the complete travel rather than just a quick break. Even so, at high speeds, my race guns always prevail for accuracy as I can get away with a lot more.

In my current situation, I ended up getting a new limited gun and it confirmed my suspicion that something is wrong with my Edge. The rear sight on my edge is completely jacked over to the right whereas on my new gun, the rear sight just has a slight right bias.

[WYgunner]

I didn't get to shoot the RM300 this year, but I just looked at the match results out of curiosity. Dude, you won stage 5 beating 5 GM's! You won't be sitting at A much longer.

He is a sandbagger

Sometimes a blind pig finds an acorn...

[WYgunner]

A lot has happened in the last month and I haven't had much time to post. I ended up getting a new job and it has been hectic figuring out all the logistics. I shot two fairly large matches and had some pretty good finishes. At the end of May, I shot in the 2015 Area 2 Steel Challenge Championship at Pueblo West. I ended up finishing 1st in limited and 2nd in limited rim fire. Overall, I had quite a few misses in limited and my time really wasn't all that fast (123.80 secs total), but it was good enough to get the job done. The year before at the Colorado State Steel Championship I put up a 115.55. In limited rim fire, I had some significant malfunctions which are rare for my Ruger MKIII. I think it was related to the rain and/or dirty mags. These malfunctions counted for score and occurred on showdown and outer limits. All in all they cost me about 8 seconds; coincidentally, I ended up taking second by around 9 secs. Even so, the match was a good time and I fully realized that all I have to do with my current transition speed is reduce misses. My draw could be faster, but as with most shooters, the majority of my time is attributed to misses.

The following weekend I shot in the Rocky Mountain 300. This match is always fun and challenging as the round counts per stage are insane (60+). I felt a little rusty at this match and I decided to break in my new STI DVC limited gun. Overall the gun performed well, but I had one malfunction (failure to go into battery). I think the gun needed a little bit of a break in and it has been running pretty well since that match. I did notice that there is a slight milling imperfection on the breach face which may be the cause of the malfunction. I haven't decided what to do with this issue as I don't really want to send the gun back and wait. More to come

The following are my stages:

Stage 1

On the first stage, I feel like I executed my stage plan fairly well. I could have ran a little bit faster, but overall I shot in control. Watching the video, I notice that I could grip the gun harder, but I think a lot of this is because I don't have much leverage on the bottom of the gun with my support hand. I am working on some different magwell options to close the space between the trigger guard and the top of the magwell. I am hoping this will give me more of a mechanical advantage when shooting. I found out very quickly that if I don't grip my new gun hard enough, it will bump fire.

Stage 2

On the second stage, I picked up a mike and shot the stage very hesitantly. Watching some of the GM's shoot, I realize that my split times/transitions could be much faster. I went and practiced a couple of days ago and tried to shoot as fast as possible. I found that I am capable to shoot much faster and still get my hits. As a result of shooting my Edge with accuracy problems, I feel like I have become somewhat hesitant in regards to calling my shots. I need to learn to trust my sights again and move on.

Stage 3

On the third stage, I was shooting fairly well until I got to the door. In the door, I tried to chainsaw and ended up bump firing my gun again. I think this is related to my grip, but I may need to make some adjustments as it seems to be happening fairly often. After the bump fire, I got a little discombobulated and when I performed a mag change, I dropped the mag. I ended up catching it mid-air and recovering, but I continued to have mag change issues through the rest of the course of fire. Even so, I kept my composure and finished out the stage. Steel shooting went well and I was mostly one for one. I ended up with one mike on a long no-shoot target with a limited scoring area. I held high on the target to avoid the no-shoot and ended up shooting over the top of the head.

Stage 4

When our squad arrived at the fourth stage, we encountered an absolute down-pour. I had to shoot the stage after it rained and I was very hesitant as I didn't want to slip. This is evident when I entered the second shooting position. I had an issue on my first mag change and I ended up shaking the mag out of the gun. I need to focus on pressing the button sooner when the gun is still vertical, but I also need to do some magwell contouring on my new gun. I shot the rest of the stage fairly well, but struggled with the last popper on the far left side. I picked a GM plan and it didn't coincide with my leaning ability. In hindsight, I should have just shot the poppers from the top of the stairs; lesson learned. If the position is barely attainable during my stage walk-through, I need to recognize that it has a low probability of being executed correctly during the COF. The good part of this stage is that I shot the majority of the steel one for one.

Stage 5

Stage 5 was the best stage of the match and it ended up being my saving grace. Overall, I had roughly 10 misses, but I kept a good pace and followed my sight through the whole stage. My movement could have been faster, but I felt pretty good about my stage performance.

[Glock26Toter]

You are shooting well these days. I think your equipment issues are and indicator of some needed fine tuning and becoming one with your gun. I've had these "when my gun runs I run" moments.

Once you get your gun running 100% I think you will start find acorns more often. Soon the acorn will move on you and you'll be an M looking for a GM acorn!

Keep up the good work.

[WYgunner]

I spent the last four days working and shooting the Mile High Showdown and it was awesome. I helped set-up the match on Thursday, shot 12 stages on Friday and RO'ed competitors on Saturday and Sunday. It was great getting to see all of my close friends and fellow competitors. The weather was in the high 80's all weekend and it proved to be a real endurance test. Overall, I thought the match was very technical with many stages that required some intense stage planning. A few of the stages featured strange round counts per target and the overall match required a high level of mental focus. One of the stages was down-right evil and I witnessed multiple competitors have complete meltdowns. I think the most difficult part of the match was that the 12 stages were based off of 6 general designs (each stage was modified slightly and ran two different ways). Once you got locked into a plan, your mind would sometimes try and execute the plan for the opposite plan.

For this match, I had to develop stage plans completely on my own and it was a much needed experience. As with many lower class shooters, I think I tend to rely on top shooters for stage plan validation. I have been fortunate to be able to shoot with some amazing shooters in my local area, but I think I have become too reliant upon having stage plans fed to me before matches. All in all, I think most of my plans were reasonable and I executed them fairly well with the exception of one stage in which I made the ultimate boo-boo and forgot a double-stack target. This resulted in two mikes and two FTE's. My only saving grace was that the stage required one shot per target. I came up with a plan that let me skip two shooting positions, but I ended up crowding myself in a corner which placed a double-stack target directly behind a barrel stack. After finishing the stage, I knew something was not right and sure enough, it wasn't. At this point, I was thoroughly pissed off, but I took some time to regain my composure and I consciously decided to give the rest of the match my best, even though I was sure I was out of the running for anything.

Long story short, I am glad I made the decision I made because I managed to retain fourth overall in limited and win "A" class by a slim margin. This was a significant event as it reminded me that no matter how bad a stage goes, you can't give up. I think we can all admit that some matches can't be recovered, but I think all too often competitors bomb a stage and then just throw in the towel. It is sad to see others make one mistake and let it pollute the rest of their performance.

Besides the shooting, I learned a tremendous amount from RO'ing the match. I ran into some unique scoring situations and I had a chance to run competitors with a wide variety of shooting styles. I found it to be quite challenging running shooters that I have never shot with before. A lot of people did things and went places that I would have never expected. I think overall, the experience has made me much more aware of my movement and gun handling.

Overall, the weekend was awesome and I want to say thanks to the match sponsors: RH Firearms, Double Zero, Advocare and Rampart Tactical.

[WYgunner]

This last month has been pretty crazy. I had a lack-luster performance at the Great Plains sectional. The temperature was insane at about 97 degrees and 100% humidity. I found it difficult to get into a rhythm and my gun malfunctioned on three different occasions. Overall, I think the hosting club put on a great match, it was just not my day to shine. After working with one of my shooting cohorts, I think we got my gun 100%. He ended up rounding the transition from the feed ramp to the chamber and fixing a little firing pin boo boo (don't ask). The gun has been 100% since the Great Plains match.

In other news, I bumped up into Master, so I am feeling pretty good about that. I think my new gun has been beneficial and my redesigned magwell has been a contributing factor to my success. I shot a match this weekend up in Idaho Springs and I had a pretty solid finish. I managed to stay within 5% of Ron Avery, which I think is a pretty respectable finish. Most of the stages were hozer festivals, but all in all, the match was a good time. For the most part, I shot steel really well and went one for one on every popper with the exception of one. This match made it apparent that I need to focus on shooting more A's instead of brown. On most of the stages, Ron beat me by accuracy and not time.

I am headed to Area 3 this coming weekend, so I am preparing myself for the sauna. On the bright side, it will be in the sub 90's, so that is better than the high of 97 I experienced at the Great Plains match.

Things I need to work on:

1) Once again, I am back to reassessing my draw as it seems to have become pretty rough when drawing out of my blade-tech set-up. The bottom line is that I need to get back into dry firing again. I went through some life transitions recently, but things are starting return to normal, so I should be able to get back into it.

2) I need to work on shooting at farther distances. My long distance accuracy has been lacking lately, so my goal is to spend some time shooting groups at 25yds.