Revolver? Die on the vine?

[-JCN-]

I can consider myself a strong M and V can consider herself a strong B.

 

There's a lot of overlap in regions and club cultures.

 

Sure, we "could" game to GM and A at this point by shooting more classifiers and hero/zero things to make a classification... but that's not what we are going for.

 

We just need more work on our skills in order to confidently BE the classification we want to attain.

 

That was a good thing that came out of the match. It established where our skill baseline is at and where we need to focus our work for the next phase.

 

The way my current classifiers shake out, I am using one of my drops so if my next classifier Is 95% then I "make" GM in LO. But I don't feel like my field course skills are where I would feel comfortable "advertising" as GM at a match.

 

 

I'd kind of like to put classifiers on pause until next Spring to get more work in on our skills, but that's subject to change.

 

V and I were talking on the ride back. She was disappointed at her performance, but she hadn't been able to practice much with the injury. Plus I reminded her of the 5% practice to match classifier performance drop... tension, pressure, nerves, hesitation, different terrain, different lighting, etc... it all adds variables that sap performance.

 

In addition, she's new to shooting and the sport. She has made rapid gains this year, but the slog from B to A to M is the longest and most painful. It takes orders of magnitude more skill and work to get each tenth of speed and each centimeter of wobble down. 

 

Figuring out how fast is too fast and how slow is too slow... it's very difficult as you're improving because fast and slow changes as your ability changes.

 

I think our end of 2025 goal is M for her and GM for me.

 

But I think an interim goal for her would help the task be less arduous.

 

We talked about perhaps setting an 80% classifier performance goal for her in practice. That gives some margin and flexibility. It also gives us a testable metric for speed and accuracy.

 

 

 

[-JCN-]

@shred I took some boroscope videos of the Alien gas chamber and from the barrel chamber. It looks like the gas port is right where the rifling starts. 

 

 

I’ll try and recover some bullets when I get a chance. I’m leaning towards priming compound aluminum? 
 

When I dental pick off the chunks they seems brittle like aluminum rather than soft like I would imagine lead to be… but I’m not sure what alloyed and complexed metal might feel like. 

 

If the lands and grooves were cutting through the polymer to expose lead, I would expect some red shards too. 
 

When I shot some exposed base traditionally primed ammo in an Alien, the lead and carbon there was more dull looking like what you would see on a compensator. 

[-JCN-]

I cut two more pistons today. 
 

Will cut two more when I get home from work. 
 

It seems very, very promising for the ability to maintain reliability with the kind of ammo and spring that I want to use through a full match without cleaning. 
 

It is really useful to have myself as an internal control for V in terms of what’s realistic and what’s unrealistic. It scales. 
 

Because it’s damaging to set unrealistic time and hit goals, but you don’t know what you don’t know at B and A level. 
 

I have the benefit of perspective at this point. 

[-JCN-]

Did a quick range session of 50 rounds during my daughter’s tumbling class. 
 

Really trying to force kinesthetics with minimal correction. 
 

Doing most of my bread and butter at reduced size A zones at 10 yards for feedback. 
 

I’m 11/10 motivated right now. V is 8.5/10 motivated. Maybe my motivation can help pull her along to return the favor. 
 

Shooting the classifier match at match pace means the low M scores still count to the average. 
 

Which means I need to BE better if I want to clear a 95% on the next classifier (if that winds up being a goal) with enough margin that I don’t have to stress about it. 
 

So I’m motivated to BE better.
 

I didn’t feel like I shot that well at the match.  I hadn’t been dry firing and I felt a little sloppier than usual. 
 

Which is really contributing to me wanting to tighten things up. 
 

We also saw shattered white barrels at the range we went to, just like @Farmer said. So I ordered some cheap spray paint and some pink nitrile gloves and my daughter is going to help paint barrels while I build more walls. 
 

I also finished modifying the last piston in my pile. 
 

So 6 double baffle reduced pistons, two stock pistons and one pentuple baffle reduced one.
 

I’m seeing how long I can go before the double baffle chokes without cleaning. So far so good.  

 

.

Edited July 22 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

This is my assessment of skill building in action pistol:

 

 

I feel like a lot of people who aren’t heavily into shooting sports don’t really understand what additional levels of complexity and complementary skills and training are required. 
 

The better the fundamentals, the more reliably you can learn the dynamic part of the mechanics (recoil-trigger timing and movement), but a lot of the training is non-gun and non-shooting. 
 

Some people never train the non-shooting part and then they can’t perform when dynamic aspects are required. 
 

There are other people who only train the non-shooting parts thinking that they’re “good enough” at the shooting… they wind up doing reasonably well at field courses but their weakness in recoil-trigger timing / etc comes out when you strip away the non-shooting parts (a la stand and shoot classifiers). 
 

IMO, you have to keep training each of the separate blocks in order to elevate the higher synthesis circles. 

[-JCN-]

I think I have a plan. 
 

Gamer gonna game and I think I have a pathway to GM. 
 

I want to work on my skills in general, but this is a goal within a goal. 
 

I noticed that this year in 2024, that a lot of clubs ran the 2023 classifiers. 
 

They are quite a bit easier than some of the older ones, but probably on par with how the older ones were scored when they first came out. 
 

So for my strategy to make GM, I’m looking for a 24 series classifier that leverages my strengths, is reproducible and is likely to be run in 2025. 
 

Can You Count is one of my core classifier benchmarks. 
 

It tests kinesthetics of draw, doubles and transitions with good reloads. 
 

I’m going to get some data on 24-01… Can You Strong and Weak Hand…

 

 

 

[-JCN-]

It’s feasible

 

I mocked up the drill and did some calculations of the numbers needed for the hit factor needed…

 

I initially calculated for just 4 hits per target instead of 6 so the time was insanely fast and I was depressed, haha. 
 

When I figured out my error it made a lot more sense. 

 

 

Just went proof of concept knowing that the transition distance isn’t accurate. 
 

 

 

 

Typically my outdoor draw would be 0.70 or so to a close open target, but reduced size and indoors with other gunshots in the background, I typically lose a clean reaction time. 
 

Of course in real life there are wider transitions so it’ll just have to be run in live. 
 

But proof of concept is promising. My time was fast enough that it allows some Charlies. 
 

 

[-JCN-]

In discussion with V, this is a very good drill for her as well. It works a number of things that she could use working on. 
 

It also depends on less vision and better kinesthetics to make the time. 

[-JCN-]

Daughter for her gymnastics prize picked cheap Chinese lego knock offs that are tiny and with terrible directions. 
 

So I’m helping with them. 
 

 

My wife thought I was enjoying myself….

 

I can think of 10000000 things I’d rather do. 
 

But I love my daughter. 

.

Edited July 25 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

 

Finally effing done. lol. 
 

 

[Farmer]

4 hours ago, -JCN- said:

 

Finally effing done. lol. 
 

 

Your a great dad!!

[-JCN-]

Different ways to make GM.

 

I've done it a few different ways in the past.

 

I started shooting handguns in December 2015 and didn't really start in USPSA until 2019.

 

I didn't know if I would like the sport so just had a classification goal.

 

Tried to prove something to myself and others by making GM in CO as quickly as I could.

 

It was also a set of objective goals and benchmarks for performance as I'm largely self-taught (plus YouTube videos).

 

I made GM 2 years from starting in the sport... but it was a particularly gamey approach to achieving that classification.

 

I went to classifier matches. Double entered when I could. Heroed or zeroed and tried to luck into good scores.

 

My classification performance reflects that.

 

 

Many classifiers shot in order to get one to stick.

 

I was an A+/M- shooter who got lucky into GM in 2021 (when classification was easier as well). Not surprisingly, I could not back up my classification at matches.

 

 

So I dabbled in other stuff and in Winter of 2023 I decided to make a push for PCC GM in order to develop some long gun skills.

 

I got pretty decent with pretty good reproducibility but it was still a little hero or zero.

 

My classifier performance reflects that.

 

 

More frequent GM scores per attempts, but still hero or zero. Made PCC GM in Spring of 2023.

 

Did IDPA and Steel Challenge most of 2023 because of injury and thoracic outlet nerve compression.

 

Then met V in Fall of 2023 and we started working together.

 

Decided to tune the Alien starting Feb 2024 and haven't been grinding really hard, just enjoying the process and coming up with drills to help V improve. But then I also have to be able to do them in order to know what I'm talking about and to help her break through.

 

But I think I'm on a higher level now because of it. Actually, I know I am. I'm more consistent and my match pace and field course abilities have improved.

 

I'm shooting classifiers at match+ pace and the consistency has really improved.

 

 

There's not much "luck" involved right now. 

 

I'm more proud of my consistency and ability rather than my classification. What M and GM represent to me now is very different than what it meant to me in 2021 and 2023. Those were different performance goals even though the letter beside my name will be the same. The thing that chasing classifiers doesn't account for is the consistency requirement. It's something that I coach V on regarding her training and I have to walk the walk as well.

 

I feel great. I have a GM classification ready to go whenever I see 24-01 at a match. I can stay M for as long as I want and keep practicing 24-01 in the meantime. It's pretty much inevitable at this point that I'll make LO GM and to do it with performance consistency is really, really satisfying.

 

 

 

[-JCN-]

Breaking it down to component parts:

 

 

 

Just did two wing targets without centers for efficiency and more faithful transition distance. 
 

 

I’m itching to run it live. 
 

It seems like something well in my wheelhouse. 

[-JCN-]

Advancing daughter’s interest and training…

 

 

We are still on the red dot nerf revolver but I added in some reactive targets for fun and motion tracking. 
 

Was impressed. 
 

I have a lot of Airsoft reactive targets from a company that’s now out of business. 
 

It was always to goal to train my daughter sometime. 
 

We are inching closer to it. 
 

I will set up the Airsoft G42 with the DPP micro sometime for her. 
 

I can have her have her practice on my range sometime. 

[-JCN-]

The problem with being a hoarder…

 

Is when it pays off.

 

There are some small business products that are likely going to die out when the current people retire. 
 

I feel that way about some of the niche products, like the rimfire magazine reloaders and the revolver moon equipment. 
 

It turns out the Airsoft target company Tactrainers also went the way of the Dodo. 
 

I’m not sure if VR wound up supplanting it, but the company is gone. 
 

I have a lot of their targets that I haven’t used since 2016. They’ve just been sitting in the basement. 
 

At this stage of my development, I find dry fire with my competition gun is more beneficial than a blue gun or an airsoft gun or virtual reality gun. I would rather have no recoil in practice than unfaithful recoil.

 

BUT…

 

Airsoft does have a role I think in training, gun, safety, and basic gun manipulation with less risk of injury.

 

I started my nephew, wife, and father on Airsoft Glocks before taking them out to live fire. 
 

I anticipate doing years of Airsoft with my daughter before ever moving her to a real gun.

 

I don’t think that training recoil control is useful until they have more body mass and larger hands.

 

What it could be useful for is gun safety, red dot vision and dot stability with trigger pull. 

 

To that end, I ordered a metal airsoft version of a Ruger pistol so that at some point if we do steel challenge, it’s a seamless transition. It also has a Picatinny rail that I can mount a red dot on which is important to me for her training.

 

Later on, if we go to a real Ruger, I might consider doing a suppressor or fake suppressor in order to lengthen the barrel to reduce risk of self muzzling. 

 

I also decided to order a stomp pad for the range.

 

 

[-JCN-]

I appreciate the data driven database. 
 

Some people want the classification system to be “perfect” but it’ll never be perfect. 

 

If Christian Sailer or Eric Grauffel didn’t run the classifier 15 times, do we really have an accurate HHF?
 

It really only has to be reasonable and a general representation of what good, modern USPSA shooters are doing in 2024. 
 

My opinion only. 
 

I ran 24-01 before work this morning. But I didn’t bring target stands for the wing targets. 
 

It meaningfully changed the difficulty of the drill for me. 
 

Instead of drawing to a largely kinesthetic target at 6 feet, it took some visual correction to get to the back wall 11 feet away. 
 

Instead of a 0.6-7 draw it was 0.8-1.0. 
 

The hits on those targets also suffered some off the reloads too. 
 

 

 

 

It’s not quite what I need but I know that it took more vision on the draw than typical. 
 

I’m glad that it wasn’t a slam dunk though. It means to me that the difficulty of the classifier as specified is just about right. 
 

Also, got to the end of the modified piston reliability after about 400 rounds without a malfunction and without cleaning. 
 

I could feel it dragging in the 20 rounds before it choked. 
 

 

The very promising thing is that the piston fouling is much more evenly distributed the entire length of the piston which delays the choking. 
 

I’m happy with the baffle trimming as a low hassle solution to my particular ammo issue. 

[-JCN-]

Got a message that this was back in stock…

 

 

It’s one of the only SBR rounds that reliably expands even at distance. 

[-JCN-]

Shot a larger match with V and had one poor stage when I didn't program the stage in properly, I failed my usual "counting targets" double check and realized this right before I had to go up and got caught in between two stage plans.

 

Overall, I didn't feel that strong today and shot a little "safe." 

 

I really need some skills lab time. 

 

V had a lot of malfunctions today, we are thinking it's weak magazine springs plus flat nose Syntech. But it's probably a combination of factors. Might have to go up on recoil spring weight. Will test.

 

My gun ran well without any chamber mopping or special considerations. I checked the piston after the match and looks like it's in good shape. Much better fouling pattern distributed across the piston. I think the shaving baffles solved my issues (that are likely specific to my ammunition). I should be able to do a full 10 stage match without any maintenance concerns.

 

Today also helped reinforce that I don't really want to be GM right now... I'm okay as an M until I get better.

[-JCN-]

From V after the match today

 

 

That about sums it up. 

It takes a s#!t ton of work to get competent at this game. 
 

I’m frustrated at my slow progress at course execution. The planning is starting to improve. I think getting some more experience with the Alien will help. 
 

Skills lab will help me figure out how fast I can go and get more component repertoire. 

I’m going to build a few more 8 foot walls tomorrow and work on some steel timing. 

[-JCN-]

A hypothesis from an observation

 

Most of the people who have been improving and executing stages have been… doing a lot of stages. Whether in 2 gun or in multiple league matches even in off season… they’re getting a lot of repertoire down.

 

But when it comes to basic shooting skills like classifiers, they consistently don’t do as well (as me).

 

In observing what happened this weekend at the match… I’m starting to think that a big part of my mental issue at matches is not feeling free to miss and using too much vision.

 

And then mentally processing too much for shots that don’t need to be processed.

 

The solution to this might be along the lines of the Jay Beal training where he didn’t have as much access to matches so he made his own skills lab.

 

So my assessment:

1. My shooting skills aren’t holding me back at matches (although we can always improve them). Both basic classifiers and field course classifiers, I can do “well” on.

 

2. Now my gun is reliable with the piston baffle modification so I can stop thinking about that.

 

3. I have to stick with my course planning routine, but as far as reasonable plans… I think I’m okay… but…

 

4. The part of course planning and execution that’s killing me is my reality not matching up with my vision and then second guessing that eats up processing time.

 

It’s hard to be confident when you don’t know what it’s going to be.

 

So like if I’m going for a tux on the move and then I’m not sure the hits are there… I’m thinking about whether I should make it up… and then I’m late for the next step of my stage plan.

 

How should I try and improve it?

 

Going to many matches is the mainstay of learning. But schedule doesn’t allow that much. I still think it’s important to see new design language and encounter problems not of my own choosing.

 

I think that working on movement arrays might be a good, realistic intermediate step.

 

The hypothesis being that if I know my limits in components then my complex planning will be more faithful and less mentally taxing.

 

It’s something I can’t work specifically in dry very well, I think. Because it’s recoil dependent and it’s hard to call shots accurately when it’s on the border and with movement.

 

So that’s what I’m going to try working.

 

I’m going to make a spreadsheet of component skills and drills to work on and update it as I encounter things that caused me issues at matches.

 

 

[-JCN-]

From the match:

 

 

 

And today I went to skills lab a little to do some stuff. 
 

 

Painted some white barrels blue. 
 

Built another 8 foot wall. 
 

Did some work finding my limits. 
 

Was useful to know how much stability I need and where my wobble is. 
 

It’s such a fine balance between over confirming and over optimistic. 
 

I’m glad to have some steel to work on for single shot transitions and feedback. Something that gets lost in doubles. 
 

 

.

Edited July 28 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

Trying to help V with her recoil timing and made this video. She was having Shadow 2 malfunctions that I think are mag spring and follower related. So I tuned up the gun and mags and took it to the range. 
 

IMO. 
 

You don’t need a death grip to split fast. 
 

The extra fingers give more stability and control, but it’s not an active process. 
 

Active hands are too slow and too complicated for the timing. 
 

The trigger timing and active hands are what’s keeping her from consistent A class. 

[-JCN-]

Maybe I’ll become a weak handed classifier ninja…

 

So it occurred to me that I should continue to see classification GM as a separate sport than field courses. 
 

It has overlapping skill sets but not with the same weight. 
 

Reloads for hi cap divisions are obviously overrepresented in classifiers. 
 

So what if I went the extra mile to be a weak hand index and double expert?

 

It could be beneficial because I’m limited in my round counts strong hand and freestyle due to injury… so doing more weak hand stuff can help make practice sessions more fruitful. 
 

 

[-JCN-]

..

Edited July 30 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

Super interesting day today. 
 

I helped V with her recoil control learning. 
 

I have a general rule that I don’t touch women who aren’t my wife. No hugs, no high fives, no shoulder touches. It’s just not necessary and I’d rather be the Keanu. 
 

Today, I discussed with V about breaking that rule and having her shoot with my hand overlying her grip. 
 

It let me FEEL what was going on in the recoil impulse and then understand the error and come up with a drill to train the error out. 
 

After working a little so she could feel the difference with appropriate feedback…
 

She did a couple of 0.14 splits and a personal best 0.13 split on target!

 

It was a mini breakthrough for her. 
 

She looked good at the league match too but still having a magazine issue that after reviewing video is her old issue of hitting the mag release with her weak palm and partially unseating the mag leading to a jam. 
 

We will try putting back the factory strength mag catch spring back into the gun. It’s going to make reloads harder but we haven’t been successful in training that part out when stress happens, she squeezes with her hands and the mag release can get tripped. 
 

I worked on weak hand classifier ninja stuff. 
 

1.10-1.12 draw and transfer to first shot WHO. 
 

Training WHO kinesthetics. 
 

Like my revolver reloads, just worked component parts of reload to WHO. 

 

 

Finally some WHO doubles at 0.21-0.22s. 
 

At league, the stages were really complicated and very technical. It was great practice. I didn’t feel like I did all that well, but I still won a couple of the stages.

 

I feel like our stage planning and execution has improved. One thing mentally that helped me out was to think of the match like practice and just focus on learning and improving. I took each stage separately in my mind so that I wasn’t concerned with a poor performance on a different stage or feeling like I was working out of a hole.

 

it allowed me to stay more in the present and enjoy myself more, the overall results turned out pretty well.

 

Before league, I went to my range and listened to audiobook autobiographies while I cleaned out the trailer. 
 

 

 

In terms of helping V split like a monster… I was very happy. 
 

I wanted to help her get it, but people can want a lot of things…. 
 

Ultimately, what you want doesn’t matter much if you don’t have the ability to figure out creative solutions to problems. 
 

I really enjoy this process of coaching V. She’s a great student and I’m spoiled in working with her. 
 

 

.

Edited July 31 by -JCN-