johnsons1480 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Earned my D card in June of last year. Started practicing after the last match I shot in November 2014. I shot a ~45% classifier at that match. I shot a match on 2/14 and got a ~70% classifier. Dry fire daily for at least 20 minutes, live fire practice 1x per week with about 300 rounds. GM is my ultimate goal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DreGarciaTAT2 Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 Well, I have been shooting for 13 months now... I live fire practice rarely, 6 times a year maybe. I do a touch of dry fire practice (10 min) twice a week. However, I shoot 3 matches every two weeks, and I use those as practice. I'll spend a match focusing on tempo, accuracy, or movement. Then I'll put it together at a major! Currently IDPA ESP EX, and Limited/L10 B Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 On pistol, I probably had 2k rounds of practice and about 5 hours of dry fire in prior to August of last year, that over about 20 years of various pistol competition. Made A in Limited and Production that way. man do I suck .... I'm embarassed to say how much I train and am only a B class Production shooter .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 A few years back I was not practicing at all. About 3 years ago I joined a club where I could go shoot whenever I wanted. I would go every month or two and shoot some groups or maybe even shoot "fast" then leave. I would shoot a match every weekend but hardly any practice. I would dryfire some the night before matches to "warm up"...sometimes. Made M in 2013 following this "plan" but did not show any improvement after that for a long time. I started doing live fire practice twice a week this summer and made GM in what felt like fairly quickly after that .... My same comment applies here as well .... (I do like the chalkboard thing though ...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkCO Posted February 21, 2015 Share Posted February 21, 2015 On pistol, I probably had 2k rounds of practice and about 5 hours of dry fire in prior to August of last year, that over about 20 years of various pistol competition. Made A in Limited and Production that way. man do I suck .... I'm embarassed to say how much I train and am only a B class Production shooter .... I would hardly say that. I've been shooting pistol off and on for 20 years and I have spent more time on rifle practice. 2 years, B class? You are doing better than the USPSA member average, which is well above the general gun owner/plinker average. I say if you enjoy your shooting, all good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fiddler1537 Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) Very little. B OpenMe too. I know Rowdy in real life and take it from me: the guy is an animal! If you want to train, you should subscribe to his YouTube channel.What's his YouTube channel? Edited February 22, 2015 by Fiddler1537 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodyblueballs Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Budget is 20-40 bucks of AMMO a week. Membership helps with range costs. Seems like everything revolves around lack of trigger reset and muzzle rise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beastly Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 Recent B-Class, < 2 years in but effectively practicing for well less than a year. Youth is well behind me. I'm feeling you on the 'natural talent' vs. 'work my ass off' for every improvement and I solidly fit in the latter camp. Dry firing regularly. Oscillating between daily and extra-intense every other day, 1-2 hours per session. Going past a certain point seems counter-productive when training every day. 3-6 matches a month, 2+ live fire sessions if I am lucky. Hoping to increase frequency of live fire practice. Current plan is to dry and live fire as aggressively as I can in 2015 and see what happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillD Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 I have very little natural talent, so it takes me a lot of hard work all the time just to do what others seem to be able to do "off the couch" with no effort. Me too. I've seen guys start and make GM in a couple years while I stay a B in Limited and SS. When I can get to the range without snow, I shoot a couple times a week, maybe 600 rounds total. About 18-20K per year. I like to shoot. No dryfire. I gave myself tennis elbow a couple years ago dryfiring and I limit that because I have to do exercises a couple times a week to keep that elbow from giving me a lot of pain. I shoot 3 matches a month during the season and maybe 6-9 majors. But each season, I think, maybe I can make A this year... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowdyb Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) my youtube channel is really random. me mnt bikign, motorcycling, surfing, shooting matches, travel. just whatever i do in my rowdy life. i'll have gone from C to A in less than a year. next goal is M by the end of this year. here in so cal where you can't go to a gun club and just get a bay and do whatever you want is HORRIBLE for getting better. so i do a lot in my garage, indoor range and blm land. i'm to the point now of buying my own private land to build my own private practice range. access here is so crappy!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 i do have a regimented, specific way i approach training and practice. i should make a youtube channel just to this, i imagine it would see some good traffic and get people thinking. the thing is, while i may be OK, no one cares about your or feels your methods are valid unless you win something big. so for people to trust what i say and do, it has to be through their own faith and experimenting with what i have to say. nothign of which is revolutionary by any means, just tweaked a bit. also, Atlas, thank you for the compliment. i get to be an "animal" because of my unique life set up. so i feel obligated to work hard at it. i have to take advantage of what i've got. Edited February 22, 2015 by rowdyb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
motosapiens Posted February 22, 2015 Share Posted February 22, 2015 (edited) On pistol, I probably had 2k rounds of practice and about 5 hours of dry fire in prior to August of last year, that over about 20 years of various pistol competition. Made A in Limited and Production that way. man do I suck .... I'm embarassed to say how much I train and am only a B class Production shooter .... Lol, I resemble that remark. In your case, I wonder if the attention you spend on steel challenge isn't taking something away from USPSA. I shoot (and MD) steel every week for half of the year, but I do it with my USPSA rig, and it's definitely less important to me than USPSA. It sounds like your practice has been getting better and better tho, so I wouldn't be surprised for you to really break through this year. I'm hoping I do too. For sure my classifier scores are lagging a little behind my field stages and my practice times, but that's sort of no surprise shooting classifiers in 25 degrees with snow on the ground wearing 4 layers of clothing. I think occasionally shooting classifiers in practice (especially shooting them cold at the start of the session) can help reinforce the fact that you *are* actually improving, even if your match classifier scores aren't going up as fast as some peoples'. Edited February 23, 2015 by motosapiens Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nickb45 Posted February 23, 2015 Share Posted February 23, 2015 I just started shooting matches in April, my initial classification was a C. I was shooting a lot but not "training". I got Bens live fire and dry fire books for Christmas and have been trying to squeeze in dry fire at night. I still try to make it to at least 1 USPSA match a month and live fire once a week, but now my live fire I'm actually working on drills, instead of just shooting a plate rack or a steel challenge stage. I'm currently still in C for lim10 but my goal for the year is to earn an A class card. One thing that I think will help for the year is I will switch to a 5" 1911 with a magwell instead of my Carry pistol (4.25" barrel 1911 with a bobtail frame so no magwell). While doing dry fire lately I've noticed I was having a hard time getting a good consistent grab on my mags, so I finally broke down and ordered a belt and some CR speed mag pouches. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shel6977 Posted February 24, 2015 Share Posted February 24, 2015 I started shooting USPSA last April and am classified C in production. Last year, I didn't really shoot outside of weekly matches. Late last fall I bought one of Ben Stoegers dry fire books and used it off and on until the weather turned cold here in Iowa and really haven't live fired to see if there are improvements. Since about Christmas I have stuck to 6 or 7 days a week 15-20 minutes a day dry fire but with out the live fire, don't know if I have gained anything yet. I plan on shooting both single stack and production this year and am hoping to at least get to B in production if not both classes. I don't know if this is realistic or not yet but those are my goals for the year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gooldylocks Posted February 25, 2015 Share Posted February 25, 2015 I shot my first USPSA match in November of 13. I joined USPSA in February of 14 and bought a Glock 35 in March. I got my initial classification as a B Limited. I hardly ever live fire (once a month ish) and when I do its for 50-100 rounds or so. I currently shoot about 2 matches (and 1 steel match) a month, and try to dry fire every week, though I don't use my Anderson book like I really should. I would have made A last month, if the stupid classification system hadn't of dropped a 76 for a 63. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
magpulled Posted March 4, 2015 Share Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) I dry fire 2-3 times a week for 15-30 minutes and been doing it for 4 months. I'm B class production but hope to be A by the end of summer. Just shot a classifier match last week and think I'll be about 72% when its updsted. I had been @ 64%. I've also been shooting Uspsa regularly for a little over a year. I shoot one match per month and live fire twice a month. Edited March 4, 2015 by magpulled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sciolist Posted March 22, 2015 Share Posted March 22, 2015 I dry fire every day for 45 minutes or so. I've been shooting live twice a week for a couple years, including 2 or 3 matches a month. I've been experimenting with live firing 3 times a week lately, but I'm not sure if it's worthwhile. Production M. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 On pistol, I probably had 2k rounds of practice and about 5 hours of dry fire in prior to August of last year, that over about 20 years of various pistol competition. Made A in Limited and Production that way. man do I suck .... I'm embarassed to say how much I train and am only a B class Production shooter .... Lol, I resemble that remark. In your case, I wonder if the attention you spend on steel challenge isn't taking something away from USPSA. I shoot (and MD) steel every week for half of the year, but I do it with my USPSA rig, and it's definitely less important to me than USPSA.It sounds like your practice has been getting better and better tho, so I wouldn't be surprised for you to really break through this year. I'm hoping I do too. For sure my classifier scores are lagging a little behind my field stages and my practice times, but that's sort of no surprise shooting classifiers in 25 degrees with snow on the ground wearing 4 layers of clothing. I think occasionally shooting classifiers in practice (especially shooting them cold at the start of the session) can help reinforce the fact that you *are* actually improving, even if your match classifier scores aren't going up as fast as some peoples'. i'm sure it does but with far less total time training then USPSA I'm much farther ahead. Using the new rimfire classification for next year I'm sitting at 92.5% and in open centerfire having only started in Dec I made B as my first official clasification 2 weeks ago and am only 5 secs from making A class. The interesting question is why? Is it the open vs the iron sight thing? It can't be stand & shoot vice moving since both USPSA clasifiers and SC are stand and shoot ....? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkCO Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 I get beat in RFC and SC by 10-20 seconds by people that I beat by 10-30% in 3Gun and USPSA. It is a different skillset and one I have never had the time, extra ammo or desire to work on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mach1soldier Posted March 24, 2015 Share Posted March 24, 2015 (edited) Dry fire 5 times a week, shoot 4 matches a month. Made C class in Single stack at month two. Switched to limited and made A class by month 4. Switched back to single stack and made A by month 5. Not bad for 5 months of competitive shooting. I did grow up shooting for fun though. So the fundamentals were not as hard for me to learn. I was live firing 3-5 times a month beyond matches. My goal now is just to be competitive in A class. Making the class was great, but I want to be middle to top of the pack consistently. I'm really digging that chalkboard! Edited March 24, 2015 by mach1soldier Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeb10 Posted April 13, 2015 Share Posted April 13, 2015 I am a firm believer that the vast majority of shooting skills can be developed with dry fire, with live fire used to only validate the muscle memory and visual acuity developed. Dry fire allows one to be more cognizance of the minute changes in grip, sight picture, trigger press, etc that are often lost with the sound, blast, and recoil of live fire training. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyGlock Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 I started pistol shooting training and competition at 43 and non before that. Im 54 now. In ten yrs of serious training I only reached A in IPSC Standard and Open mainly due to ever recurring tennis elbow on both arms due to dry fire. Im very motivated but my elbows wont let me train as much as I want to. I can only dry fire an hour 3x a week and live fire 1 once a wk now. If I train more than that my tendinitis recurs. With age comes other factors to consider. Its not just an empty number of yrs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nimitz Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 i know most top instructors say that frequency is more important than duration .... have you tried trading duration for increased frequency or does it not matter WRT your elbows? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BoyGlock Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 I cannot reduce my one hr dfire anymore as there are a lot of skills that I think needed to practice. My regimen has a 2 week cycle to accomodate all the skills I need to maintain or improve on. The skills I practice this day will be revisited again next next week that sometimes I feel as if Im starting over again. My usual reps per skill is 15-20x and an hour of dfire is composed of gunhandling, core ipsc skills and field course skills. Each day covers different skill sets of these caregories. And it takes me 6 1-hr sessions spread in 2 weeks to cover all the skills in my list. Im now going 4 months into this. Maybe this will strengthen my tendons later and be good for daily dfire but at my age it will not be as soon as I wanted to. Meantime I can be deteriorating faster than I can improve Thanks for your input Nimitz, Im assuming your post above was directed to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b1gcountry Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 If your body is telling you that 1 hour df sessions are too much, then you can either scale back the time, or you can hurt yourself, then scale back the time. I personally think 1hr is a long time. If you are only doing it 3x a week you should be able to cut things back to 30min 5x week and not lose much, or not lose anything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeb10 Posted April 15, 2015 Share Posted April 15, 2015 Around an hr every day of gun handling time, with maybe 1-2 hrs of dedicated dry fire practice per week. I am unclassified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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