Notes on the Draw

[GunBugBit]

I made some notes on my “new” draw today right after my match, specifically the surrender draw.

 

My old draw consisted of decent mechanics that included not moving my head or leaning to one side.  A couple of mistakes were undue tensing of my core as I brought my hands down from wrists above shoulders, and waiting until nearly the end of punch-out to disengage the thumb safety which wasted time because by that point there was a sight picture acceptable for breaking the shot.  I was aware it was wasting time but figured it was the safest.  I had experimented with disengaging the safety at the same time as pressing the trigger, but that is problematic.

 

I wanted to be ready to fire immediately upon an acceptable sight picture and still be safe.

 

I always worked on getting the sights to appear on target almost automatically.  And I always found it takes constant high rep volume to keep this ability.

 

Anyway, for the draw makeover, I decided to disengage the safety between clearing the holster and the start of punch-out, when the gun is at about a 45-degree angle from the ground.  Pretty safe and it doesn’t take any extra time.  Of course I drilled into myself consistency in keeping the trigger finger out of the trigger guard until the gun is pointed toward the target.

 

I also worked on good hand speed when I’m dropping my hands without tensing up.  This saves energy, which allows for more practice.

 

Then it came down to feeling the arm and hand positions needed to repeatably be able to have the sights aligned almost automatically at the end of punch-out.

 

Finally, the grip needs to be firm by the time the sight picture is there, along with key fingers applying pressure in a way that will keep the gun still when I press the trigger.

 

Today’s match was the first time I was able to apply all of this with relaxed confidence in competition.

Edited August 14, 2023 by GunBugBit

[GunBugBit]

Recently found a video of Rob Leatham coaching a young guy on his draw.  A lot of the focus was on the shooting hand approaching the gun, and getting it out of the holster.

 

Ron Avery has a video called “Science of the Draw Stroke” or something like that.  So far I only watched a tiny bit of it.  He seems especially fast in the punch-out phase of his draw.

 

The fastest draw I’ve ever clocked - live fire at 7 yards with a hit in the ‘A’ zone - was 0.87.  That felt like I was trying very hard.  I’d like to do it with less “trying,” and consistently.

[RangerTrace]

0.87 is smoking fast.  Yet it really depends on if you can do it on demand, repeatedly.  I used to do a consistent 1.0 draw to first shot from a Ghost holster back when I was really trying to make Master.  Sure,, I do some under and some over depending on how well I saw my sights, but the average was around 1.0.  Now, 10 years later, I'm at 1.25 out of an IDPA legal holster.  I measure that by shooting 8" (maybe 6) plates on a plate rack at 10 yards.    

[ColoradoNick]

0.87 from surrender is flying! I need to spend some more time on that for sure. I recently spent a lot of time working on scoop draws. I’m comfortable enough to use it in a match setting but can’t run full blast “cold” yet. I hit a solid grip about 8/10 times and I’ve consistently hit .74-.76’s. I recently shot 22-06 and pulled a 1.0. That’s the fastest draw I’ve done in a match setting. 

[Dr. Phil]

I once upon a time could hit the high 8s on Roundabout and Smoke and Hope 1st target pretty reliably. Other stages not quite so fast. I shot O.R.

Interesting about where you are sweeping the safety. I do the same thing. I was once told by an RO that, "I can DQ you for disengaging that safety before you are on a target, you know?" I said, "Can you show me the rule?"  "No." I said the rule is that if I AD and it hits in 10 feet it's a DQ, right?" "Well, yeah." "Okay then, I'll be careful."

They hear everything with electronic muffs.

[GunBugBit]

37 minutes ago, Dr. Phil said:

…Interesting about where you are sweeping the safety. I do the same thing. I was once told by an RO that, "I can DQ you for disengaging that safety before you are on a target, you know?" I said, "Can you show me the rule?"  "No." I said the rule is that if I AD and it hits in 10 feet it's a DQ, right?" "Well, yeah." "Okay then, I'll be careful."

They hear everything with electronic muffs.

The one place I never plan to disengage the thumb safety is immediately out of the holster, for obvious reasons.  If the trigger finger stays out of the trigger guard until the gun is pointing at the targets, and the safety came off when the muzzle was angled well beyond a 10-foot point in the dirt, I believe we are being safe.  I said a 45-degree angle but that is very rough.  I think it’s a higher angle than that.

[GunBugBit]

On 8/29/2023 at 6:26 PM, RangerTrace said:

0.87 is smoking fast.  Yet it really depends on if you can do it on demand, repeatedly.    

I definitely can’t.  I’ve checked the draw time a few times during Steel Challenge matches and draws I thought were fast were in the 1.1 to 1.15 zone.  I’d be thrilled with consistent sub-1.0s.

[Runswithwood1]

Damn .87? Were you able to see through all that smoke from the draw?

[GunBugBit]

Live fire draws went really well today.  The sights were getting aligned right away and the numbers on the clock made me happy.

 

I feel I’ve worked out a good technique and now it’s reps, reps, reps.