Revolver? Die on the vine?

[-JCN-]

Daughter helped me spread flower seeds. 
 

 

Then I ran the 5x5 cold, no warmup with the BUG gun and used my new target shoulder rear sight vision anchoring. 
 

I took plenty of time to get anchored for each sight picture. 
 

 

Almost made CO MA time lol.

 

16.62 seconds plus 2. 
 

Plenty of margin to make the BUG MA time of 23 seconds. 
 

 

Hit the ice cream parlor on the way home.
 

 

I’ll keep working to add more margin to my BUG performance, but I’m feeling pretty good about it. 
 

I like these challenges because I usually wind up learning something and this time was no exception. 

[-JCN-]

Visual correction 

 

Looking at the video from the BUG runs, it’s clear I was requiring quite a bit of visual correction with that gun.

 

That’s consistent with what I was noticing when I couldn’t anchor on the target well.

 

With the smaller gun, my index and mechanics aren’t as tuned as my primary competition gun.

 

If I ran it eyes closed, you’d see the spread really open up.

 

It reminds me of this chart from John Hearne / Karl Rehn:

 

 

While I think some of the details and data are likely incorrect and that some of the parameters lack a reproducibility metric (doing something 1/20 times isn’t the same as doing it 9/10 times), the gist is valid…

 

Basically the higher the performance metric, the better the kinesthetics have to be.

 

IDPA MA (to me) seems to allow quite a bit of visual correction time to the mechanics. Something that isn’t possible for even most USPSA M classifiers.

 

Of course we are just talking about MA on the simple classifier and that’s not a very robust test of skills, but it’s at least a quick and dirty ballpark test of ability.

Also note that when the chart was created, USPSA hit factors were roughly one whole class easier than they are now. 
 

 

.

Edited Monday at 11:59 PM by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

Rifle stuff

 

The LARPer in me thinks that a home defense rifle is cool and the casual 2 gunner in me thinks competing with some facsimile of my home rifle is the way to go.  Probably similar to the USPSA people who run their carry guns from concealment, I'm sure that if I got more invested emotionally in the sport I'd just go full gamer...

 

But for a casual attendee... maybe it makes sense.

 

Or maybe it's just an excuse to buy stuff....

 

 

 

I like suppressors on home defense rifles, but I'm not a fan of eye watering back pressure gasses.

 

I have a few older school suppressors, but have been looking for an excuse to try out a modern flow through design.

 

It's also fun to note that the cleaning process for this suppressor is basically what I settled on for the Alien gas pistons.

 

 

 

[-JCN-]

The historically fast efile approval times might have played a part in the purchase…

 

 

Purchasing a can to use for an upcoming match is more motivating than buying something that’ll arrive next year…

[-JCN-]

Have to get a little more disciplined with my fitness regimen. 
 

Downloaded some Pilates reformer videos to work in the morning. 

[-JCN-]

[-JCN-]

This is a great video for people who may be reluctant to consider competition shooting as an “outsider.”

 

 

[-JCN-]

Did 25 minutes of reformer Pilates this morning. 
 

Haven’t dry fired in a couple weeks trying to rest and heal up. 
 

Finding that wearing the forearm brace at work is really helping with the recovery, I was repetitive stress straining it doing my normal work things, and not realizing that was prolonging recovery.

 

I also with aging have to keep a little tighter accountability on my portions and calories. Got a little bit mushy and up a couple pounds so buckling down on lower calorie snacks and only eating when hungry.

 

[-JCN-]

I have heard some engineers talk about more data gets you closer to the truth, but they are missing the important scientific step in real life that garbage sources just dilute out the data and makes it harder to pick up subtle effects. 
 

AI and social media are suffering from the same thing. Every a_-hole has an opinion, and even if the predominant opinion is half baked, the summary does not exclude bad ideas nor give extra weight to actual experts, just volume of self proclaimed Internet experts.

 

A professor friend was commenting on this phenomenon that early in the days of some of these technologies, the sites that the intelligence was drawing from were all small volume experts, and the summary was quite good. Over time, it got dumber and polluted by the volume of the average thinker.
 

It is a double edge sword, though, as I’ve seen people cherry pick certain items from one source or another in order to support their narrative and protect their ego.

 

My opinion at work is highly valuable to the customers and reimbursed well. My opinion online is worth the same electrons as sumdood.

 

Thankfully, my opinion to V in person is worth a lot as she was floundering a little bit without direction in her training before we met. It became very clear early on to her the potential benefit and she jumped on the opportunity.
 

It has also been fun at local matches because her clear and rapid improvement has led some of the terminal B class people to take note and entertain the thought that they might be doing it wrong since she has clearly eclipsed them (through smart and efficient preparation).

 

I’ve noticed a shift in some of them who previously would just not shut the f*#k up blabbering on about what they’d do… to mentally acknowledging that maybe they don’t have all the answers and watching and listening to what she and I were talking about. 
 

It’s also given us credibility to tell them that we are going to focus and can’t engage their random chatter while we are on deck or burning in a stage plan as something for them to consider if they want to improve rather than watching memes on their phone and telling unfunny jokes and expecting on point performance.

 

This is the reason why I chose to do an online journal rather than trying to educate people in a general forum. It is about helping myself and V improve, and any casual readers might pick up a tip or trick from us along the way. But I’m not out to convince other people that my opinions are worthwhile or valuable. I have better things to do with my time. I’m happy to explain my thoughts and process, but I’m not going to try to convince other people.

[-JCN-]

 

Audiobook in the background while doing work. 

[-JCN-]

Maintenance 

 

Getting to the age where discipline and maintenance is going to be key for ongoing quality of life. 
 

In my job, I get to see first hand what happens when people let things go for too long. There’s a certain point where lack of self-care becomes irreparable. 
 

I’m within 7 pounds of my college weight thirty years ago, but a lot mushier with less muscle mass. 
 

I don’t let it get above 10 pounds and prefer it to be <5 pounds. 
 

It’s quite common for people to let it drift 3-5 pounds per year. Ten years go by and they’re surprised that they’re 30 pounds up. By then their backs and knees are trashed and it’s very hard to come back from that without a miserable level of calorie restriction.

 

My analogy is that it’s like balancing a checkbook and financial discipline. Can you afford that cookie/brownie/potato chip? Or are you paying with a credit card essentially and going to pay more for it later?

 

The most durable method of calorie cutting I’ve found is eating slower and really enjoying and savoring each mouthful rather than gulping down the calories.
 

That also allows me to reduce the portions: I don’t have to eat the whole cookie or use the whole peanut butter packet. In that way, I can eat one cookie slower with smaller bites instead of mindlessly pounding two cookies and only getting the same amount of enjoyment.

 

If the food doesn’t stay in the mouth and on the tongue, I’m really not getting the enjoyment for my calories. All the deliciousness that just goes straight down the pipe doesn’t contribute to the enjoyment of the meal.
 

The same thing goes for Pilates and stretching. The Reformer Pilates  machine that we bought during Covid really helped my wife’s back pain from childbirth injury. When we were doing Pilates as part of a studio, it helped my back immensely. I got out of practice during Covid but now now it’s time to up the maintenance and discipline.
 

Have only been back at the Pilates for a few days, but I’m starting to already see improvement in my sciatic pain. 

[-JCN-]

Shop Vac

 

Could use a shop vac for the trailer / range. 
 

I have a lot of snowblower 40V batteries that don’t get used in the summer…

 

 

I could have done the Makita one, but I tend to use those batteries for other things and so far I have no other tools on the Ryobi 40v battery ecosystem. 

[-JCN-]

Glocks are good guns. 
 

Lots of aftermarket support for gadgets and stuff. 
 

This is basically the mild lockbox version. Won’t stop anyone determined from accessing. But prevents casual discharge. 
 

 

I think the company is going out of business. 
 

 

 

Prevents a_-hole cats from shooting you with your gun…

 

Also loved this video that just came out. 
 

 

Even though it’s not his usual jam, he still has appropriate humility and takes the task on professionally. I love it. 

 

[-JCN-]

Put grass and flower seeds down on Sunday after many days of rain. Today is day five and a nice rain overnight.  
 

I think the timing is good for germination soon. 
 

The berm closest to the trailer was plowed under grass that’s coming to the surface. 
 

 

I’m off next week so looking to get some good work done on the range. 
 

I’ve been in physical therapy and rest mode for the past couple weeks since all the matches have been rained out and it seems I’m on target for my current goals. Haven’t been dry firing much but my mind’s eye is pretty matched to my mechanics and my Alien setup is the way I want it.