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Reloads , Your thoughts ?\


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Recently I have decided to venture into USPSA and IDPA after 20 years of trap shooting . I was wondering if you all could take just a few moments of your time and watch my short reload video and give me an honest straight forward critique .

I have pretty broad shoulders and have no issues with accepting feedback whether it be positive or negative as I see that as a learning platform either way . So if you all wouldn't mind giving it a gander that would be awesome !

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Recently I have decided to venture into USPSA and IDPA after 20 years of trap shooting . I was wondering if you all could take just a few moments of your time and watch my short reload video and give me an honest straight forward critique .

I have pretty broad shoulders and have no issues with accepting feedback whether it be positive or negative as I see that as a learning platform either way . So if you all wouldn't mind giving it a gander that would be awesome !

Edited by AdamMP9
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so i am new to USPSA but have a descent ammount of experience in LE type shooting with the military, your reloads are actually fairly smooth, it looks like you have been practicing a bit. One of the first things i would say is that you are dropping your gun low on the reloads which is causing you to look down and away from the target. Try keeping the gun higher, so you are staying focused on your target and have the front site still in your view i roll the grip almost 90* inward while bringing the barrel up about 45* or so so that i can stay focused on the target, i can see out of my peripheral what is going on if it doesnt go perfect, and can get back on taget quick. It is a little hard to tell what is up with your hands just cause the lighting but make sure you are indexing your left pointer finger along the front edge of the magazine so when you go to insert it into the gun you are basically pointing where you want it to go, although try getting to where you can do it with out looking as much. Also a big thing in this is trying to do your reloads while moving instead of stationary when you should be shooting, you will be dropping mags with a round or two left in them so you can get a full mag in while moving to the next station. In order to maximize your practice time and help get the muscle memory right dont worry about reseting the trigger right now, come up on target, think about pressing the trigger, drop the mag WHILE rotating the gun and reaching for a new mag, get it back in, come back on target then right away drop the mag/rotate again and keep going, getting a ton of reps in a short time helps get that muscle memory down, dont worry about the draw from surender position then one shot reload right now. when doing reload drills I just work reloads while on target as much as possible. A great drill for this with live fire is 4 mags, loaded with 1, 2, 3, 4 rounds each randomly mixed on your belt so you dont know what is coming next, run through all four as quckly as you can accuratly engage, dont reholster every mag, lastly if you havent already try practicing with a mag FULL of dummy rounds so you are trying to jam a FULL mag into the gun with one chambered, it takes extra force to keep it from falling back out

Edited by evilbeef54
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Two things I'll say. One, keep the gun at or near eye level, instead of bringing the gun lower. It'll keep you on target better after the reload.

Second, no matter how you look at home, when out there with the timer running, you'll do things different. So have someone video you running a stage, then look at what you're doing right or wrong.

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Agree with Postal Bob. Bringing the gun way too low, body mechanics are a little off due to this, regrip is a little out of place but ok. Have you seen this video below from Travis Tomasie? This video made me realize how fast and smooth a reload can be and I suck at them. Watch his mechanics and try to replicate this...

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Same critique here. I was told the same thing. Keep your gun eye level. One you will be able to still see you next target you will also have a good look at the Magwell and watch that mag seat.

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I can only say the same things that everyone else is saying.

-Keep the gun higher, closer to eye level. Makes for faster transitions.

-Practice with loaded magazines (dummy rounds).

I just heard to practice with loaded mags myself. I was quick with my reloads during practice (using empty mags), but at a match I always fumbled the reloads. I am now practicing with loaded mags. They will feel different and will seat harder.

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reload looks ok. bit of a pause as you bring it up into the grip. have you timed it? if you can do a reload and fire a shot less than 1.5 seconds from the last shot (and do this repeatedly under match conditions then your reload is not going to be the thing holding you back).

my main take away from the vid? why are you bouncing around on the start? need to stop that. get planted. relaxed.

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so how often do you plan on doing standing reloads? Hopefully your answer is 'never', unless its a classifier. Now i get it that you are new to all this but I see plenty of people just practice standing reloads when in relatity you need to be able to do it while moving 98% of the time. Mike Seeklander has great drills in his book to work on moving reloads ... don't neglect that now that you have the basics down .... yes, you have some things to fix with your technique but that will be the same when moving ...

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so how often do you plan on doing standing reloads? Hopefully your answer is 'never', unless its a classifier. Now i get it that you are new to all this but I see plenty of people just practice standing reloads when in relatity you need to be able to do it while moving 98% of the time. Mike Seeklander has great drills in his book to work on moving reloads ... don't neglect that now that you have the basics down .... yes, you have some things to fix with your technique but that will be the same when moving .

Sure, but if you're executing it well, the reload is completed in the first step of your movement anyway.

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Since the OP does NOT have a huge magwell on his gun, I will go against the grain and recommend he keep his gun lower on the reload, ala Ben Stoeger. Keeping the gun lower, around chest level, will make the reload more consistent. Also, when I'm doing a reload on the move, it seems I will naturally bring the gun lower.

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First, I would get a really good sight picture on several targets before you go for the reload. It seems you aren't really getting your visual "hits" before you are going for the reload. You need to be honest and get good sight pictures so that your brain gets used to making that mental process subconsciously and effortless.

You are going to find that there is a sweet spot for each gun you are using. My old TS I could keep the gun way up high, my Glocks, not so much. Run it both ways, high and low and you will find that spot that works best for you. You will rarely though go from the gun just getting a sight picture to a reload so fast. The clock, and your ability to hit that reload with consistency will tell you your sweet spot.

Also, change the placement of your magazine in every pouch so that there is as little difference to your times or comfort from the front pouch to the rear. I remember that one from Stoeger years ago and have made it a regular part of my dryfire.

Finally, rushing your dry fire will make you sloppy. being smooth and deliberate will build speed.It takes time. 15 minutes a day or 30 will add up over time and you will realize it in your comfort with the platform. Being in tune with the way things feel as you do them makes the building up of speed possible for me, and may help you too. Remembering how it feels when you do it right, and wrong also, went a long way in making my reloads smoother/faster.

Good luck, and have fun.

JZ

Edited by JimmyZip
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It's not really possible to get fast by practicing slow.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But it is possible to get slow by going to fast...

Slow and intentional builds the base for speed. As soon as I screw up a reload in dry fire I slow everything down to where I know I can do it perfectly and work to rebuild muscle memory at a slower speed. Execute the reloads perfectly at a slower speed and then gradually build back up again until I screw up again.

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  • keep the gun on eye level

look into (!) the grip when inserting the mag - tilt it!

your left hand index finger shall point into the grip when inserting

try to: fast (release mag, grasp to the new mag and bring it towards gun) and slow (insert it) - else you run the risk of twiddling around in the match and waste time

train also different mag positions from your belt

dry fire before reloading so you have to move your trigger finger to the gun's frame (at least we do it here for safety) AND release mag at the same time

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It's not really possible to get fast by practicing slow.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

But it is possible to get slow by going to fast...

Slow and intentional builds the base for speed. As soon as I screw up a reload in dry fire I slow everything down to where I know I can do it perfectly and work to rebuild muscle memory at a slower speed. Execute the reloads perfectly at a slower speed and then gradually build back up again until I screw up again.

I'm not talking about wildly flinging your magazine at the gun. Yeah, of course you need the basic movement pattern down, but threshold training is going to give you the best of both worlds.

The idea behind threshold training is that you perform the reload at the speed you can do it perfectly for maybe 5 reps. Then you go a little faster every 5 reloads until you start to mess them up. Most people as you stated would slow down here, the key is to be able to know what the problem is and to continue doing it at the same speed forcing yourself to fix the error at speed. If I can compare it with typing, I want you to type fast enough that you miss some of the keys, then I want you to stop missing the keys.

At least, that's what has worked well for me.

Edited by Jake Di Vita
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Agree with Postal Bob. Bringing the gun way too low, body mechanics are a little off due to this, regrip is a little out of place but ok. Have you seen this video below from Travis Tomasie? This video made me realize how fast and smooth a reload can be and I suck at them. Watch his mechanics and try to replicate this...

Isn't Travis using an Open gun with a magwell that lends itself very well to fast reloads like that?

I'm looking at Brian Enos' book (Practical Shooting Beyond Fundamentals) and it clearly shows him lowering the gun to about sternum level. I'm also pretty sure I've read somewhere by one of the USPSA GMs (maybe it was Stoeger or Hopkins) that you should reload around sternum level because you have a higher level of coordination at that spot in your body - don't ask me where I read it but I've been working a lot on my reloads and researching everything I can find about it and I found that my reloads became more consistent when I reload around sternum level when I'm pushing the envelope for my skill/speed level.

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