Merkel's tale

[Climbhard]

So I've decided after rewarding "With Winning in Mind" that I need to create a Practice Journal.   Brian Eno seems like the perfect forum for this so here it goes.

 

It's March 2017 and I'm on the plane heading back to Denver from Area 2.  We'll get into how that Mach went in a minute but first a little about me,  I'm 51 and been involved in USPSA for about 5 years now although really just the last three seriously.  I never shot a handgun in my life until about 6 years ago when I took a class from RW Swainson and got my CCW.  Thinking I might like to learn how to shoot it I went to a couple of IDPA matches and thought that was cool and then I went to a USPSA match and realized quickly how much IDPA sucked!  I was hooked.

  

I've always been a fairly active and well conditioned person.  Physically strong.  Involved in martial arts for 10-12 years although that ended in my 30s. My bench is still around 240 but my weakness is my eyesight (and attention span). I've worn glasses since about the fourth grade.  Two years ago I got my first progressive lenses and it really impacted my shooting until I arrive at a solution.  Again more on that later.

 

It started shooting in limited with a Springfield XD/M and that served me for my first year after with I moved to an STI 2011.  That gun served me well and I quickly got into B class and went to my first Handgun Nationals in 2016.  Last year I picked up a SV sight-tracker with steel grip off the forum here and the STI got redone with a CK Arms steel grip, short trigger, lighter springs (thanks Rick Hebert) and became my lady's limited gun. A lot of people have suggested that with my eyesight I should switch to open but I really like limited.  To me it's what a handgun should be and I like to master it.  I shoot single stack from time to time as well given that it is so similar but primarily I'm a Limited shooter.

Presently my classification score is about 72-73 percent and I never though it would be this hard getting out of B.  It seems like every time I get close I'll shoot a fast 58% with a Mike and that score will hold me back for a couple months.  This time I think I just need two more good classifieds 76 or better and I've probably got it.  It's so close I can taste it.  However, I'm more concerned really with improving my. Match results.

 

Two years ago I took a class locally from the "Big Panda" and that was a good experience.  There were some good take-aways from the class including the importance of making the " What I Suck At List".  Last year I took a class from Manny Bragg and that was interesting because of the different approach Manny takes to certain things given his own strengths. The big take away from that class was transitions and looking back I realize that transitions are still one of the things where I waste to much time and will go on my "What I Suck At List".   In April this year I'll be taking Ben Stoeger's class down in Dallas and I'm really looking to another perspective and plan on working hard for the next month to make the most of it.

 

It wasn't until last year that I really settled upon something that lets me see well ---enough.  I wear -8 contacts in both eyes to correct my distance vision and then a pair of Rudy Rydon glasses with +1 correction and a prism in my left (dominate) eye to let it focus on the front sight.  It also lets me see well enough to run the nook and score targets when I RO.  It's only since doing this that I've been able to see the front sight sharply.  Targets past about 7 yards start to get a little fuzzy and I can't see my 40 caliber hole past about 10 but I see well enough to shoot em,  

 

So what are my present sill you ask? The following are my smoking fast / easily repeatable times for various drills.  All are at 3 targets 10 yards because I find I really need to aim at that distance and can't get away with just throwing a shot out there before I pick up my sights. 

 

Draw fire one --- 1.0 / 1.1
Draw fire two --- 1.2/ 1.3
Draw fire one, one, one 1.6 / 1.8
Blake drill 2.3/2.5
Bill drill 2.2/ 2.4
El Presidents 5.5 / 6.0

 

In my estimation my basic gun handling skills aren't my weakness, so at this time my What I Suck At Most list looks like this:

 

1. Moving aggressively enough from position to position. It's not that I'm slow to leave or that I'm looking at targets it's just that I don't move as fast on video as I think I'm moving
2. Shooting challenging targets aggressively enough.  Being afraid of that Mike or no shoot could be costing me an extra 0.1 just because I'm confirming my sight picture.  Long shots take longer for me to break than I'd like too
3. Steel. Sometimes it humbling.  Plate racks seem to get the best of me. I'd like to run those but it seems like I always have 2-3 misses and there's big gobs of seconds
4. Transitions. I'm going to work hard on this for the next month.  I don't feel that my eyes are aggressively leading  the gun to the next target. 

So how did Area 2 go?  Well I finished 54th out of 100 or so.  4 shots (3 mikes and a NS) dropped me from 42.   I need to eliminate these but in general I need to shoot challenging shots faster.  

 

I'll update this practice sessions and matches and see where this takes me. Good luck everyone. 

 

Edited March 9, 2017 by Climbhard
Accuracy

[Broski]

I'm brand new to all of this, but from what I have seen the mikes and NS happen to everyone. Just use it as a learning experience and move on. The 3rd person videos will help tremendously. Please post how the class goes. Stoeger is coming to our area in Dec. I'm thinking about going, but it ain't cheap, so I would like to know more about what I might get out of it. Good luck on the journey.

[Climbhard]

Yesterday I had a good day at the range. I started out playing with springs. I ended up going from a 17lb to a 19 lb main spring and noticed on video that it greatly reduced my muzzle climb. Ended up pairing it with a 12 lb recoil spring. I tried 11 lb but didn't seem to bring the muzzle down enough. On bill drills I had strings with progressively higher shots whereas the 12 was a center cluster. Then I chrono'd some new loads. I noticed that I was getting slightly higher velocity than I recorded previously with known loads and higher than expected on some new ones.  Also my extreme spread and SD was better and I think the springs have a role to play in this. I had a variable 13 lb spring in previously and maybe the gun is staying locked up a fraction longer???  Anyway I like how the gun is shooting some I'm going to run with it. I also ran through the basic drills on three targets at 10 yards and then set up Quickly II.  Shot that classifier about 5 times recording my score and seemed to shoot between 72-80 percent. That seems ok to me but left me wondering what someone's weak hand shooting is like to score 100%.  Pretty crazy.  Shooting a match in Boulder on Sunday and it's the first time I've been asked to design a stage. Here is what I came up with (I had to work around an immovable plate rack).  I wanted a stage where someone could move swiftly blending the shooting positions with lots of back and forth transitions. 

25 BobsBarrels.pdf