Praff Range Journal

[praff]

Ok, I have been putting this off long enough. After just getting into shooting USPSA semi-seriously last summer, I am hooked. I started in late 2013 shooting a few locals here and there and progressed into attending 6 majors last year with a total of 32 matches shot in 2014 . I started as a single stack guy and have now landed in open as a B-class shooter. Shooting gains were tremendous last year thanks to a lot of practice (about 30k downrange in 2014), the help of a good practice group and listening to everything CB45 has taught me.

Goals for 2015 are:

1. Shoot as many majors as possible including 4 level III's. Hopefully I will get 10+ majors in this year.

2. Draws need to improve drastically as it is a weak point for me. 1.25 is a consistant draw at 10yards and my goal is to be under 1 sec consistantly at 10yds.

3. Reloads need to improve drastically as well. Sub 1 second reloads is my goal, with present reloads when executed properly being around 1.30sec.

4. Keep a dryfire routine in place this year. It was non-existant in 2014.

Other things I need to work on in 2015:

1. Points at matches need to get better. Just guessing, my average points shot at matches last year was less than 90%.

2. I need to get into shooting position earlier and leave shooting positions sooner. I worked on this a lot in 2014 and improved a bunch, but still can get better.

3. I need to shoot steel better/faster. While it didnt necessarily hold me back last year, I could be faster and do a better job of going 1 for 1.

4. Shooting on the move was good in 2014 and improved greatly, but now I need to move faster while shooting on the move.

5. Improve WHO and SHO shooting. I would like this to be a strength for me by the end of 2015

6. Grip strength needs to improve.

So for the first entry,

1/6/15

I worked on breaking grip after the shot to reach my mag button. I have struggled with this a little, so last night I practiced this for about 20 minutes. Very slowly and mechanical at first, then upping the pace a bit however with no timer. I still seem to be struggling to repeat this consistantly. Sometimes I dont get the the mag button completely depressed and the mag hangs up a bit. Still needs more practice.

The other thing I noticed last night while playing a bit, was that dot was moving down and left a bit during very quick trigger pulls. I have gotten sloppy a bit with trigger press since I haven't been able to shoot/practice live fire as much with winter rolling in.

tonight 1/7/15 is our local indoor match, so will report later with results.

Edited January 7, 2015 by praff

[praff]

Match last night indoors and points shot were horrible. Stage times were great but points/penalties were bad. I need to really concentrate on trigger pull and focal point when shooting indoors. It seems to be much harder for me to shoot good points. A couple mikes were from pulling off targets too early to start transitions. A couple more were not called at all. I executed my plan well on two of three stages yielding lowest stage times by 1 sec and almost 2 sec on the other, Match was shot against people that were beating my times by just as much earlier in 2014. The stage I had a bobble on, I couldnt get my mag to drop as I didn't break grip enough to get the mag button fully depressed. After watching video of a stage, I still need to work on fundamentals of body posture while shooting on the move as well as keeping some bend in my elbows. Overall, a good learning match and it seems as though I am still shooting/seeing faster.

[S8MS01904]

Pat, your going to have fun. This past year I watched you progress well. Good luck.

[praff]

video from stage 1 at parabellum 1-7-15. Re-enforces that posture and bending elbows needs to be worked on. I had 1 mike on this stage (pulled off the last target on the bottom of the first array) and then 2 needed makeups.

Edited January 10, 2015 by praff

[praff]

gun in my hand practicing breaking grip for mag changes again on monday 1/12/15 for about 20 minutes. Things feeling a little better.

Tuesday 1/13/15 dry fire without timer practicing

1. draw

2. draw - 6 -reload - 6. I used 3 1/3 scale targets about 5 yards away and looked like times were in the 3.8 sec range. Hand speed seems a little slow and mag grabs are still not second nature. I really need to focus on mechanics of grabbing mag properly.

[TrukSnave]

Dude keep it up! You have made mucho gains this year! I can hardly wait to see how much you improve this year!

Edited January 14, 2015 by TrukSnave

[praff]

Thanks buddy....couldnt have done it without help from you, chad and rob

This year's gonna be fun

[praff]

Update...

Wednesday night match again shot horrible points (multiple mikes and no-shoots) on 2 of 3 stages. Deliberately shot points on one stage and time was impacted for sure. Weak hand grip is definitely a contributing factor. When I have live fired recently, if I concentrate on strengthening my weak hand grip, second shots are greatly improved. Goal this week is going to be to shoot a clean match.

Livefire practice on Saturday around 300rnds. Accelerator was the drill I practiced along with some very close (approx 5yds) draws. Draw to near target on accelerator was consistently in the 1.1 sec range with a few around .90. Draw is getting better. Draw to far target (about 18yds) was anywhere from 1.2-1.4. This could definitely improve. Draw and 1 A zone hit to close target started out a little slow....a few over 1 sec then had consistent .85 and a couple under .7.

Need to work on stronger weak hand grip for better second shot points and splits.

[praff]

Wed 1/21/15 Parabellum indoor match was better, but still not good. All metric targets with a few no shoot stacked and targets in the 7-17yd range. First stage threw one mike that I called late and a second that I didn't on the last target of the stage. It was a close 4-target array with targets about 3 yards apart. I had good hits on every target but the last and thought I had both hits, not sure what happened. Second stage was a repeat of the first with a different start position. One more mike was taken on this stage on the last target of the first array (must have pulled off, but didn't call it). Third stage was a speedshoot (8 freestyle, reload, 8 stronghand only....10yds). i shot this one clean with good points and an average time (8.29). Overall, not a horrible match, but still not shooting the points that I want. Managed a second open finish and second overall, but casually scanning results, it didn't look like anyone shot very well.

Pulling off last targets in an array seems to be an issue at times as I remember this in a couple other matches last fall.

[praff]

Good practice session saturday 1/24 (about 250rnds). In the spirit of trying to get ready for florida open, we practiced with a long range 40yds array with 3 metric targets (Open - 20% top partial - open). Tough shooting those on the timer. Draw times were in the 1.5 sec range with total time of array in the 3.8sec. Hits however were horrible. I would run it 3 or 4 times then walk down and score. A couple mikes on first target, a few on the middle and a couple on the last was pretty normal. One thing I never realized was how important a good, strong, consistent grip is at this distance. I ran the drill a couple times from the low ready position and splits were much better and I actually had most of my hits. I need to work on getting a better, more consistent grip at draw. I'm beginning to realize that I have lost sight of some very fundamental things while progressing over this last year.

In the spirit of getting a more consistent grip, I modded my racemaster holster a bit and made my gun position a bit more neutral. Previously it was grip canted back a bit more. The holster mod was to grind down the outer portion of the holster and block near the trigger guard. I removed approximately 3/16" from the outside trigger guard portion in order to get my hand directly on the trigger guard at draw. This is something that my buddy truk suggested after we practiced and he did quite a long time ago. I never really thought it would make much difference, but then i dryfired some and it made a huge difference for me.

Dryfire sunday night was draw and trigger pull to 1/3 scale metric at 5yds. Consistently was beating a 1 sec par time to A zone with trigger pull. Consistency was much better as well after modding the racemaster. Draw has improved a lot over the last few weeks, now I just need to work on consistency.

[TrukSnave]

SHHHHHHH THANKS FOR GIVING AWAY ALL MY SECRETS!

[praff]

Sorry Truk......u won't need any secrets this year!!!!!

Dryfire this week has been encouraging. Draw times to a trigger pull in A zone at 5yards on a 1/3 scale classic target have been getting better. I am consistently beating a .9 sec par time. Definitely getting mechanics down and gun is presented with much less wasted movement.

Attended the NROI class/seminar this past weekend in Ohio. Learned a lot about the rules that i didn't know and just sent in my exam. Hopefully it will come back as passing and I will have my certification.

Looking forward to Florida Open next week and definitely need to get in some live fire before then.

[praff]

Dryfire the week of the 2nd went ok. I didn't have a lot of time to get much in, but started doing some reload drills a couple evenings. On a positive note, I was able to live fire 4 days in a row. Thats not something that happens very often for me in February. Saturday was a 30rnd practice session with long targets in a close array with turtles. 40yd partial a-zone with a no-shoot is a tough shot even without a timer. Really struggled with getting all my hits on this array. Shot it without the timer a few times and still had a mike a on a couple strings. Grip pressure and trigger pull are very important for me to concentrate on at this distance. Sunday was another 300rnd practice session with longish targets 25yds and very wide transitions. The middle target was a partial/no-shoot at apoprox 15yds. I had a really good practice session and things felt pretty good. A lot of A's, very few mikes and good transitions at speed.

I had been tinkering with trigger and had two occasions of my hammer falling to half cock when the trigger was pulled. I massaged the sear spring legs a little and thought i had it worked out. Well....at the indoor match on monday i realized that wasnt the case. First stage, got a good draw and first target was a double. Gun continued to hammer follow and double on the stage, so stopped myself. I went to the safe table and re-adjusted the sear spring. Next stage was a little better, but hammer followed a few times but no doubles. I increased the sear spring tension even more on the middle and left leg and finally, gun ran fine. Trigger pull is a bit heavy (3lbs) but is reliable. I went to an indoor range on tuesday and ran another 300rnds through it without a malfunction, so I will leave it where its at since Im leaving for florida open today. I will get it tuned back in after the major. Feeling good about this tournament and hope to have a good performance.

[praff]

Ok, Florida Open kicked my arse. I didn't execute very well or shoot very well. It was definitely a humbling experience and the hardest match I have shot to date. It makes me think I need to go back and re-learn how to pull the trigger again. A lot of missed targets, steel makeups, and going back to a position or two, made for a poor finish. Now I will know what to expect at Area 6 in April. Here is a little video from the match....stage 8.

[CB45]

I have no doubt you'll see big gains once you can get back on a regular practice schedule.

Off season is hard on us Northern folks!

Edited February 25, 2015 by CB45

[praff]

We shot a fun little match in Rockford Illinois this past weekend called the WIIT at Pine Tree Pistol Club. Very unique for an indoor match. Shooting is starting to get a little better for me. Even though a lot of shots at this match were relatively easy, I shot well on all but one stage. That tanking of a stage (3 no shoots) probably cost me a B win. Finished 3rd B open and 24th overall out of some pretty good shooters. Only mike was the first stage i shot and then did the same thing last night at an indoor match (first target of the night). Seems to be a pattern of screwing up my first stage.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204387772706842&l=3479201516776329751

[praff]

wow hard to believe its been over a year since I posted in this.....

Last year's progress was a little disappointing to say the least. Felt like my shooting had gotten better, but match performance was equal or maybe even a little below what it had been earlier in the year.

Fast forward to 2016.....things are getting better for sure.

I have been able to lose a little weight (actually lost 100lbs) and it has impacted my shooting tremendously. Everything is easier, especially shooting on the move. I have really been working on fundamentals lately (shooting stance, position, grip) as losing the weight has changed everything. Holster and mags are in an entirely different spot, reaching for a mag is completely different, its almost like learning draw and reloads all over again (albeit much faster to get comfortable).

I have shot some of the best local matches lately that I have ever shot. At the last two locals I have managed to shoot 92% and 95% of a couple solid GM's that i have shot many majors with. Classifier scores are starting to come up without even pushing.

O ya and the new gat doesnt hurt either!!!!

Gonna be a fun year

[praff]

Nice little port intensive stage we set up for practice earlier this week. Really wide transition at the end with mini poppers on both sides. Actually turned out to be about the same time no matter how you shot it.

1. Set up with a single position on the left mini and shot everything (set up was really slow)

2. Shot paper on the way in and worked into right mini then made wide transition to left mini

3. Shot one paper on the way in setting up on the mini on left

Video is option 2

[praff]

Indiana section is over and shot with staff on Friday so I could run a stage all weekend. I finished 78% but didnt shoot very well. I left at least 10% on table in really stupid mistakes (didnt turn dot on for table start so shot first 8 targets with no dot...clean tho!!!!) Video of a little speed shoot.

https://www.facebook.com/1040440945991033/videos/1066374136731047/