Old Dawg, New Tricks.

[Ron Ankeny]

Woo hoo, my open blaster showed up yesterday so I set up my belt rig, adjusted my new holster and positioned the mag pouches before work this morning. While I was at it, I did some dry firing. My digital video camera was only a couple of feet away so I filmed my reload. Here it is:

Side View

The mag release is stiff as a board and I have to do some shifting and fidgeting. The mags had one dummy round in them so I had to kind of give the gun a little sideways shake to get them to drop quickly. But the main point is I made a consious effort to keep the gun in front of my face, but I still see a lot of movement going on. What I thought I was doing and what the video shows are two different things. Who woulda thunk it? The timer was set at 1.1 seconds for a frame of reference.

Edited March 2, 2006 by Ron Ankeny

[Jake Di Vita]

Ron,

Looks pretty good!

I only have two suggestions. First is bring the gun closer to you by a good 8 inches. You have long arms so it would be better if you didn't have to move the mag as well. Second, try and get the gun just a bit higher. Make an imaginary line from your eyes straight out and the magwell should intersect with it.

Nicely done!

[Matthew_Mink]

Ron, thats nice and smooth. I think us guys with real long arms have to do this different than most everyone else. I tend to bring the gun in closer a lot more than others and even bring it down. But there is a magic intersection in there somewhere where the mag just jumps in the gun. If I bring it farther out, it doesn't work as well. Same with higher.

[Ron Ankeny]

While doing the video I honestly thought I was simply turning the pistol sideways. I would have sworn I was leaving the gun at eye level and at full arm's length. I would have bet on it. Instead I see I am doing that little flick to the side and still dropping my arm. On the bright side, it looks I get my support hand back into a good solid grip rather quickly withoiut feeling rushed.

I think you guys are right on track. The sweet spot is probably 8 inches or so closer to my body but a lot higher than I have been reloading my single stack. I'll have to tinker some with the elevation. One thing is certain, I'll definately be using the camera because it doesn't lie.

[BSeevers]

I am not Jake but I would also work on moving to the fresh mag faster, I think with that and previous help you could par livefire at 1.0 which is fast as you will ever need to be to win Open. Actually its faster.

[caspian38]

your blinking a lot ... I have a weird problem with blinking during parts of my practice reloads...looks like you are doing a little of the same thing ...I think it might make the reload feel faster or something if you figure it out let me know. I don't know if it carry's over to a match or not (hope not ) but just something to keep an eye on .

looks plenty fast ... do you shoot standing that straight ? hard to tell since we can't see you lower body but using the window behind you it looks like you are perfectly straight up and down...maybe have some one push on your hands and see if it moves you back(simulated recoil ...M.B. trick )

I'm going to go practice.

C-38