Surrender Draw

[HSMITH]

I shot a local steel match over the weekend and my surrender draw averaged 1.30 for the match. I need to get it better than that, and I would like your help. The match winner averaged about .9, had I shot the same draw time as he did with the exact same strings I actually shot I would have gone from 11th or 12th overall to top 5. There were only about 65 shooters there but top 5 would have made my day!! I think the surrender draw is something I can make good gains on with dryfire and I intend to put the work in. I saw one big waste of time and motion once I had the video, but I would like any and all input. Thank you!

I shot the video with the par timer set at 1.1, about what I shoot on a 7 yard 12" plate under match conditions.

Click here to watch draw--side

Click here to watch draw--front

[Flyin40]

Couple quick things

First your whole upper body is moving, your shoulders, head etc, you can see it on the forward facing draw. It should be just your arms at the joints, your shoulder shouldn't drop or your head shouldn't move. You bring the gun to your head.

Second, you don't have to start with your hands so high. You can drop your hands down about 4 or 6 inches to your shoulders, its wrist above shoulders. Your wrist is at ear height. Were talking tenths now so a little bit means alot.

I didn't study it but after looking at it your fast enough so the question comes down to live fire. When are you pulling the trigger?????? You can bring the gun up quick enough but if your taking .30 to line up the sights then thats the difference between a 1 sec draw and a 1.30 sec draw.

How good are you good at indexing????? Can your bring your gun up and the sights are right on the target and you just pull the trigger as soon as the guns is up or are you searching???? If your searching for the sights then you have some dryfire ahead of you.

When I practice the draw I want to pull the trigger as soon as the gun is up. This means tons of dryfire to get my index down.

Flyin40

[Loves2Shoot]

When watching yourself you might try asking, "Does it look smooth?"

Smooth/efficient is fast and reliable.

I think you should worry less about beating the timer and more on technique that is efficient.

[HSMITH]

That is the beauty of video, as harsh as it can be it just doesn't lie. I had NO IDEA that I was moving that much. It felt solid and smooth LOL.

LOTS of stuff is moving when it shouldn't, the part that bothers me the most is the right leg bending and lots of hip rotation, the gun isn't even where I left it building the position when my hand gets on it to draw!!! I am pretty sure if I had video from the match it would have been even worse with the adrenaline.

Flyin, my index isn't as solid as it should be. About half the time I can shoot as soon as the gun comes up, about half the time it takes a tenth or so to finish the sight picture. I have a pretty solid handle on it with hands relaxed, so I need to see where the difference is, the way I see it once my hand touches the gun the two draws should be identical.

10-4 on the hands lower, I didn't realize they had gotten that high.

L2S, 10-4 on smooth=fast. LOTS of dry fire to come on this. I really wasn't trying to beat the timer, that really isn't a problem until I get a couple tenths lower. What I take to a match is a different story...

Thanks for the help guys, I appreciate it.

[Bigbadaboom]

It looks to me like you have practiced getting your hands from surrender to target acquisition as fast as possible. Try breaking the draw down. Practice only getting from hands above shoulders to the gun as economically as possible. Don't practice speed. Only practice getting on the gun with as little movement (I mean complete body movement, not just arms and shoulders movement) as possible.

Watch the "side" facing video. Watch your knees, they shouldn't bend when you reach for the gun. Now watch the "front" facing video. You're dropping your hips and pivoting them, pulling the gun down away from your right hand as you reach for it. After you get the gun in your hand your hips pivot back in place. You have way too much lower body movement going on.

After your hand gets on the gun the only things I see are your hips setting back in place and I think you could get the weak hand on the gun a little sooner giving you more time to gain your grip and allowing you to index quicker and get the shot off sooner. I don't see your head dropping like others have mentioned and I don't see excessive shoulder movement.

EDIT: HSMITH, you posted while I was responding and reviewing the videos. You noticed most of what I did. It will help you greatly to practice economy of motion in lieu of speed.

Edited May 23, 2006 by Bigbadaboom