SweetToof's road to ruin

[SweetToof]

So I figured I should start this as a replacement to my scattered notes on shooting, this way they are in one place. Maybe others can help or my experience can help someone else out. I will try my best to organize posts for my own and other's sake. 

 

It may very well turn into an actual diary since shooting sports have quickly become a true passion of mine. 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2018 by SweetToof

[SweetToof]

So to begin, I am 28 years old, rural SE Pennsylvania resident. Was not raised with guns though I shot some friends' guns a little. I specifically remember shooting an old CZ 75 variant with a buddy and neither could even hit the target. A spark of interest in something difficult began there about 10 years ago. Didn't shoot another pistol until I bought my first gun, a Glock 41 in .45 ACP in March 2016. Had fun with it, shot probably 4k rounds and really got the bug with that gun. Since that one I've bought a G26 gen 4, G19 Gen 4, S&W 1911TA, Savage .308 hunting rifle, Mossberg 930 JM pro, and built a pretty killer AR with a BCM upper.

 

In March 2017 I had heart surgery to have a valve replaced. It was planned years in advance and everything went great, no limitations or differences in my day-to-day life. While recovering, I was out of work for 10 weeks, unable to lift anything over 10lbs, and spent a lot of time on the old internets. Stumbled upon a local club (30 minutes drive) that hosted monthly Steel Challenge and USPSA matches. Come to find out later, they host Area 8 championships and a bunch of other matches as well. Turns out I am actually in a real hotspot for shooting sports. 5 clubs within an hour drive that host Steel matches, USPSA, PRS, GSSF, Shotgun matches and IDPA.
 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2018 by SweetToof

[SweetToof]

So I bought a G19 and shot my first match in June 2017. Steel Challenge at Ontelaunee Rod and Gun, every month they host a really well run match with all 8 official stages, and submit times to HQ for classifier updates.

 

Shot a 174 that day, and have gotten to almost all the monthly matches they host April-October, results of those chronologically until now. 

 

6/10/2017    174.84

7/10/2017    162.67

8/11/2017    153.3

9/24/2017    148.06

10/14/2017  140.87

5/12/2018    147.46

6/9/2018       132.71

8/11/2018    132.98

9/20/2018    121.17  (made Master!)

 

 

[SweetToof]

My training up until now has been focused on speed shooting. Dry fire has been mostly focusing on draw and transitions, and live fire has consisted of setting up my 5 plates and hammering them off the draw as fast as possible, starting slowly and gradually increasing to as fast as I can go. Now that I have read some other people's training methods, I have realized I have not been making the best of my time spent practicing. 

 

Dry Fire

I only just started dry firing on actually targets. Until the end of September '18 I had been dry firing at a closet door, and transitioning to the other door, stuff on the walls, items in the room etc. Obviously not target shaped objects, not to scale for the distance of targets I shoot in matches, and at different transition angles than what's in a match. I have had a few of these revelations throughout shooting that have made me feel like a real caveman. A real "aha!" moment that once I realized it, thought I was a real idiot for not having thought of it sooner. 

 

So now I have some Steel Shoot Banners and dryfire exclusively on those when practicing for steel. What a difference. I was practicing my draw well, but the eye/gun transition speed is going to be helped a lot with these banners. 

 

Live Fire

So I recently picked up from Stick here no enos forums the Pyramid drill. Recently heard Max Michel does a similar thing.

 

Basically you draw and shoot target 1, then 1-2, then 1-3, 1-4, 1-5. The other part is to dry fire through the rest of the targets, giving you a gradual build up. Setting par times as you go is a big one to, set a par for each step of the pyramid, this way you can push every transition and work on them individually. 

Edited October 11, 2018 by SweetToof

[SweetToof]

Went to the range with 300 rounds to get some USPSA training in. I have been really busy and in turn lazy about dry fire the last week, but I thought it would still be a good idea to get some baseline times with some standard drills. I bought Stoeger's Skills and Drills book and focused today on Accelerator. It's also one listed on his site. https://www.benstoeger.com/livefire-drill-the-accelerator

 

Accelerator

 

Here is also a link to a video I took of my self of my very first 2 attempts at the drill. I shot maybe 30 rounds warm up before running the drill. Super slo mo included to be able to really single out all the parts of the drill and how to improve them. First run was a 7.94, second was a 8.72. I think 3-4 C's on both runs if I can recall. 

Accelerator baseline

 

Ran that drill for another 200 rounds and was able to get it down to a best time of the day at 6.39 with 5 C's. 6 seconds is my goal to be consistently repeatable with 3 C's or less being acceptable. 

 

Most of my time lost/gained between my recorded runs and my Day's Best, was draw speed and reload time. That 2nd run 8.72 was a 1.4 draw. slooow.

 

Reloads were dragging badly, dryfire has been slacking. When I did get them warmed up I had them down to about 1.6-1.8

 

The point of this drill is not draws and reloads though, but to drill your ability to increase/decrease split and transition times based on target distance. What I found was that I Shot the first target at my fastest split times (usually .15-.20) but my targets at 15 and 25 yds had the same split times until I focused on them. Accuracy was good at the farthest one, so that told me I could speed up my 15yd target a bit. An important thing to pay attention to is seeing how fast your sights return to the target. Once I remembered that, I realized I was waiting way too long to shoot after already being on target. 

 

Noticed upon reviewing the slomo video how long it took me to acquire my sights once the gun was "up." After the draw and after the reload I am pausing for probably .1-.2 seconds with the gun up and on target before I break the shot.

 

Also noticed that I am getting 3 sight pictures on most targets. You can watch the slide make it into battery after the 2nd shot, and THEN I move the gun to the next target. Need to work on reacting to the 2nd shot quicker and transitioning immediately once shot goes. I do react well to the final shot before the reload though.

 

Also need to get more consistent mag drops. Using base pads that should be doing the trick and the stock G34 mag release but there are times where I am not quite hitting the button fully. More dryfire.

 

Bill Drill 

 

Draw, 6 shots into a zone at max hose speed. Goal is 2 seconds. 

First run 2.49 forgot to record or write down my best time of the day. 7 yards

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2018 by SweetToof

[Hi-Power Jack]

What distance on the Bill Drill ?

[SweetToof]

17 minutes ago, Hi-Power Jack said:

What distance on the Bill Drill ?

7 yards

 

think I ran it 3 or 4 times at the end just to get an idea of how it goes for me. didn't get much better than my 1st attempt from what I recall

[SweetToof]

So this weekend 10/28/2018 I'll be shooting the annual Monster Hosefest at Ontelaunee Rod and Gun. 350-400 rounds total, usually 40+ per stage.

 

What's note worthy is that this match last year was my first USPSA match ever. Finished 17/22 in production. 17 total shooting production as of now for this year's match. Not many of the same shooters so not much in the way of comparison there.

 

Also noteworthy is that the drills I posted about yesterday, were the very first drills I've ever run on cardboard, and the first USPSA oriented drills I've ever ran since getting into competitive shooting last year. I've been focusing heavily on Steel Challenge as there are a few matches around me that run all 8 stages, have a cash payout, and are well run and have a lot of people attend. The scheduling for the USPSA locals often overlapped this year, and I shot in a SC-esque league that had 14 matches. So I did a lot of shooting and competing, but I only was live firing with my 5 steel plates all year long. I did work on moving and shooting quite a bit for Outer Limits, but almost all live firing was on SC stages. 

 

Where I have definitely been improving for USPSA is in my dryfire. Practicing lots of reloading, reloading on the move, entering and exiting positions, and transitioning targets. So despite having just started actually training for USPSA in live fire, my shooting as a whole as improved greatly since this match last year. This time last year I was B Class steel challenge, currently M, so it will be interesting to see how training for SC overlaps to USPSA.

 

Something I did notice when first running the Accelerator drill was further importance of grip. It's very important for SC, but one big difference between them is the split times and the grip requirements to achieve them. Splits at 7 yards and in can be done in .2 and lower, where's as splits in SC are generally longer, although a couple stages can get splits down to .2 when you start to get good. Having that death grip on the pistol is really critical for accurate and fast splits is USPSA, where as the grip requirements for SC may become a bit relaxed by comparison. I do think that SC shooting would benefit from that same master death grip, but until comparing the two and noticing the difference, I have been slacking.

 

 

Edited October 24, 2018 by SweetToof