Critique My Reloads

[DKorn]

I’m currently C class in Single Stack and U in Production. I’m making the switch to Production this year. 

 

Anyway, I was initially struggling with not having a Dawson magwell but have smoothed things out some. Now I’m working on improving speed and consistency of my reloads. Here’s a video of some reloads from today’s dry fire practice:

 

 

If anyone can chime in with tips to help speed up my reloads I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Edited January 26, 2018 by DKorn
Spelling error

[B585]

No expert here, but look at how much you rotate your upper body, especially at level of your shoulders.  To be efficient on anything (draws, reloads, etc.), the less movement, the better.  It Appears as if you’re grabbing the mags from the back coming forward if that makes sense which is why you have to rotate so far.

Edited January 27, 2018 by B585

[HoMiE]

Looks like your reloading too far out front. Have you tried bringing in the gun in a bit. I try to have the position where my support hand meet the same as where it is in draw so the presentation to target is the same motion and consistent grip. Work it slow without a par time first then work the par times down. 

[stick]

Again, no expert here, but it also looks like you are dropping the gun down after you drop the mag.  This makes you have to look down to load the gun.  I was always taught to rotate you hand and bend your elbow bringing the gun in on your eye level.  A trick i was taught by a GM was to put a paster or small white dot on the inside of your magwell.  when you reload, look for the dot it should be at eye level.  Don't lower the gun to reload it.  bring it in, then punch it back out.  

Does that make sense?

[MemphisMechanic]

I’d agree that you could actually pick up speed by bringing the gun back closer to your chest. A huge additional benefit is that you’ll nearly always be moving while loading, and the form yourcteaching yourself will fall apart rather quickly in that situation. The closer you load to your body the more frequently you’ll hit the magwell, and the less arms bounce while running.

 

Focus entirely on developing the fastest possible magazine draw, too. How fast you draw a mag and scream toward the magwell is the limiting factor in your reload speed. (Then it’s simply a matter of pause/align/insert,re-grip)

[DKorn]

I’m going to focus hard on reloads in dry fire for a few days and post again to see how I’ve improved. 

 

I’m going to work on:

-moving the gun closer without dropping it low. Basically bringing it in front of my face. 

-speeding up the weak hand

-consistency in how my week hand grabs the magazine, especially out of the last few pouches 

 

I’ll also work some movement in to make sure that my technique is compatible with moving in any direction (except maybe straight back. I tend to do that a little differently). 

[StuckinMS]

Travis Tomasie has one of the smoothest reloads and plenty of you tube videos to watch.  From what I see other than what has already been pointed out, you are not using your fingers correctly to grab the mag.  Your index finger should be the only finger leading the front of the mag.  It looked as though you were sometimes letting your first 2 fingers lead but both were not pointed in the same direction.  Practice, practice, practice.

[DKorn]

59 minutes ago, StuckinMS said:

Travis Tomasie has one of the smoothest reloads and plenty of you tube videos to watch.  From what I see other than what has already been pointed out, you are not using your fingers correctly to grab the mag.  Your index finger should be the only finger leading the front of the mag.  It looked as though you were sometimes letting your first 2 fingers lead but both were not pointed in the same direction.  Practice, practice, practice.

 

I’m definitely not grabbing it consistently. When I get my index finger high and straight along the front of the mag, it goes well 90% of the time. When I don’t, it usually goes poorly. 

[StuckinMS]

4 hours ago, DKorn said:

 

I’m definitely not grabbing it consistently. When I get my index finger high and straight along the front of the mag, it goes well 90% of the time. When I don’t, it usually goes poorly. 

I used to drive my wife crazy, by watching TV and sitting next to her doing reload after reload lol. It will come and you will see great benefits. You can shave lots of time off the clock without shooting faster.  Max Michele has a you tube video where he discusses that very point.  It's a game of efficiency.   Those stages that require reloads from a standing still position will be where you will gain the most, but if you are really good at reloading, the faster you can make your transition from one position to the next.  Faster draws are also high priority.  I have a good friend that shoots open division and I can smoke him on those two things and on those stages that have mandatory reloads I can almost always come out the winner shooting single stack. Keep up the hard work and it will pay off, but remember to have fun first and foremost.  God Bless!

[stick]

4 hours ago, DKorn said:

 

I’m definitely not grabbing it consistently. When I get my index finger high and straight along the front of the mag, it goes well 90% of the time. When I don’t, it usually goes poorly. 

You might want to practice Burkett Reloads

Here's an excerpt from Dry Fire Trainer

Drill: Burkett Reloads

Start Position: Pointed at target.  

Procedure: Do a reload but do not introduce the mag into the firearm.  Simply present it at the mag opening on the pistol.  

Distance:  The distance to the target can vary since what I'm looking for is to perform the reload.  Make it two yards or 10yards.

[DKorn]

20 minutes ago, stick said:

You might want to practice Burkett Reloads

Here's an excerpt from Dry Fire Trainer

Drill: Burkett Reloads

Start Position: Pointed at target.  

Procedure: Do a reload but do not introduce the mag into the firearm.  Simply present it at the mag opening on the pistol.  

Distance:  The distance to the target can vary since what I'm looking for is to perform the reload.  Make it two yards or 10yards.

 

I’ve been doing a mix of this, Pause and Effect (from Get to Work), regular reloads, and other drills including reloads like El Prez, 4 Aces, etc. 

[StratRider]

23 hours ago, DKorn said:

I’m going to focus hard on reloads in dry fire for a few days and post again to see how I’ve improved.

Ummm, for a few days ?

I'll assume that you won't expect miracles and will only be looking to add any of these commentaries to your training.

A few days ago I was watching a GrandMaster (Tim Herron) video doing dryfire reloads and there was still a lot of screwing up.

He shoots single stack and like Production - no mag wells allowed.

[DKorn]

3 minutes ago, StratRider said:

Ummm, for a few days ?

I'll assume that you won't expect miracles and will only be looking to add any of these commentaries to your training.

A few days ago I was watching a GrandMaster (Tim Herron) video doing dryfire reloads and there was still a lot of screwing up.

He shoots single stack and like Production - no mag wells allowed.

 

To clarify - I’m going to focus more on reloads than I normally would in dry fire for a few days, or really probably more like a couple of weeks, and then reasses to see where to go from there. I’ll look to see if anything has changed, what needs to be improved, and if I need to switch to focusing on a different part of my game. 

[motosapiens]

10 hours ago, StratRider said:

A few days ago I was watching a GrandMaster (Tim Herron) video doing dryfire reloads and there was still a lot of screwing up.

He shoots single stack and like Production - no mag wells allowed.

 

Single-stack allows giant-ass magwells, as long as they fit in the box. But tim is pretty amazing with his reloads anyway.

[StuckinMS]

12 hours ago, StratRider said:

Ummm, for a few days ?

I'll assume that you won't expect miracles and will only be looking to add any of these commentaries to your training.

A few days ago I was watching a GrandMaster (Tim Herron) video doing dryfire reloads and there was still a lot of screwing up.

He shoots single stack and like Production - no mag wells allowed.

My single stack came with a factory installed Dawson Ice magwell. They are legal in single stack.  Tim is very good and his new Atlas has a magwell too.

[Jake Di Vita]

12 hours ago, StratRider said:

A few days ago I was watching a GrandMaster (Tim Herron) video doing dryfire reloads and there was still a lot of screwing up.

 

That's going to be true of anyone who is trying to improve. I screw up all the time and I've been a GM for over 10 years. If you aren't making mistakes in practice you aren't challenging yourself. If you don't challenge yourself you don't get better.

 

12 hours ago, DKorn said:

 

To clarify - I’m going to focus more on reloads than I normally would in dry fire for a few days, or really probably more like a couple of weeks, and then reasses to see where to go from there. I’ll look to see if anything has changed, what needs to be improved, and if I need to switch to focusing on a different part of my game. 

 

Reloading has always been a large part of my dry fire even when shooting open because I think general gun handling skills are so critical and it's one of the fundamental things you do with a gun. I can't think of any conditions that would have me as a coach say "ok your reloads are good enough, focus on something else." I think the fundamental actions of shooting must always be a focus of practice. There are very few dryfire drills I do that don't have a draw and reload in them. It's something I have to work on every single day.

[DKorn]

5 minutes ago, Jake Di Vita said:

 

That's going to be true of anyone who is trying to improve. I screw up all the time and I've been a GM for over 10 years. If you aren't making mistakes in practice you aren't challenging yourself. If you don't challenge yourself you don't get better.

 

 

Reloading has always been a large part of my dry fire even when shooting open because I think general gun handling skills are so critical and it's one of the fundamental things you do with a gun. I can't think of any conditions that would have me as a coach say "ok your reloads are good enough, focus on something else." I think the fundamental actions of shooting must always be a focus of practice. There are very few dryfire drills I do that don't have a draw and reload in them. It's something I have to work on every single day.

 

My normal dry fire routine is basically built around the first 12 drills from Refinement and Repetition. For at least a few weeks, I’m adding in additional work on reloads. Next, I’ll probably be working on movement since I rarely if ever do any shooting into or out of position.