Training journal

[38supPat]

Just ordered food, sorry Flex, BQ is broken so no steak and the beer fridge is empty, so I'll keep it short.

I'm going back to the range tomorrow for some practice and we'll see how it goes.

I got the idea for this forum after last weeks practice, since some stuff that I noticed may not be an epiphany but might be worth mentioning anyways. I'll write that up later.

A range diary is always a good idea, but most don't have or use one. It just needs to be some general note, what practiced, how far, times, points, lessons learned, things noticed. Did you spend too much time on one drill, is there something else you probably shold practice.

It helps keep track of progress, and through reviewing patterns will probably appear, for example, if you have trouble with weak hand strings at a match and you review and find you haven't been practicing weak hand, well it's time to sort that out.

And of course constructive criticism can be helpful too, think of it as having a training partner(s) that just happen to be somewhere else

And a list of stupid things that you should pay attention to or not forget before or during a match.

1) make sure gun is sighted in at a proper distance

2) bring all your gear

3) make sure you have enough mag pouches

4) Dryfire any major changes thoroughly

5) make sure gun is ready, extractor is set, batteries are full power, gun is clean and lubed

[38supPat]

Last weekend, 9Dec06

Group shooting at 45m.

Cold, 0 degrees celcius, strong wind

Haven't shot the gun in alomst a year.

Gun was printing on paper at 45m (woohoo) but high and right, right about n the upper right corner of the A zone (metric target)

Adjusted elevation and fired anouther group

Remembered that C-Mores make big changes with small adjustments and readjusted elevation back up. (shots would have altered the gender of the target)

Got it close with another group, then final adjustment and group got it right on for elevation

Realized I didn't have an Allen key for the windage adjustment (why aren't they the same)

Decided to go ahead with group shooting and I'd adjust it later.

Fired a coulple more rested groups, then a couple of freestyle groups.

Realized few things, A) my freestyle groups were not hitting the same point of impact as the rested groups (low) Slide glide doesn't like the cold and C) I really need to finish sighting in, shooting groups whose point of impact is off is irritating

Find out the adjustment screw will turn enough even without backing allen screw out (it's a bit loose already)

Rezeroed gun.

Fired a couple of more groups, point of impact for freestytle is still a bit low.

Fired one group with a real intense focus on the dot, looking the shot off. Group was not great because my focus on the dot was so intense, I was focusing on keeping it still and releasing the shot, but not on where the dot was on the paper or on the trigger, just the sight and its movement.

Went back to firing groups normally, more of a type 5 focus, groups were smaller and freestyle was more or less at the same impact point. Wind is making it difficult freestyle.

Packed up and left, overall a good session, played with focus types and got gun sighted.

Need to work on trigger press and relation to sights.

[L9X25]

Pat,

TJ recommends that you never loosen the windage locking screw to adjust the windage. It can cause inconsistencies in the adjustment and is a primary cause of cracks in that area of the scope (by overtightening). Since I started following his recommendation, adjusting the windage is much more repeatable and consistent.

Leo

Edited December 16, 2006 by L9X25

[38supPat]

Lol...good news, thanks!

[38supPat]

Practice Sat 16 Dec 06

warm, no wind

Practiced a small speed shoot Mike Auger set up. Mike, Doni, Alex and I were practicing on it.

5 targets spread across the range at 15m, 18m, 25m, 26m and 15m., IPSC Classic targets.

Draws running around 1:05 to 1:10, splits on closer targets .25 to .30, farther targets .35 to .40

Spent most of the practice just watching how the gun moved, where extra motion on the draw was, sight movement, target to target movement. Just basically observing what was happening.

[BigDave]

Pat,

I'm happy to read that you're behind the sights and piping up here once again.

Best of luck,

DP

[38supPat]

Thanks BDave. Yup, rusty but working on it

[38supPat]

This year I will learn about pulling the trigger

[XRe]

Thanks BDave. Yup, rusty but working on it

It'll come back quick, if'n you let it

[38supPat]

Lol.next week is classifier week, I'll be shooting 6 USPSA classifiers and 6 IPSC classifiers. All are variations on a theme. Almost all are standing with a mandatory reload. Stuff like El prez.

the classifiers are USPSA; CM99-11, CM06-03, CM-99-10, CM99-33, CM99-55 and CM99-58.

For IPSC there is; CLM-62, CLM-14, CLM-44, CLM-42, CLM-60, CLM-68

[38supPat]

Shot 3 USPSA classifiers today

CM99-10 'Times Two' 6.91 Seconds 54 points (got a D)

HF 7.814

http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-10.pdf

CM99-11 'EL Presidente' 5.19 - 44 points (procedural for extra shot fired)

HF 8.478

http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-11.pdf

CM06-03 'Can You Count' 7.74 - 98 points

HF 12.661

http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/06-03.pdf

Notes to follow.

[38supPat]

Most of the lost time on stages CM-99-11 and CM06-03 were on the reloads, they weren't bobbled, just not nearly as smooth as they shold have been. Draw on 99-11 was a bit slow at 1.25. Overall a bit glitchy, a lot of tension felt in my shoulders and hands during strings, led to erratic splits on easy targets (06-03) and a couple of pulled shots. Last shot on first string of El prez got pulled high and right off the target so I fired a make up.

Since it's the first set of stages I've shot in a year, and the second match since 2004 it went fairly well, giving me a pretty good guage of where I'm at and what I need to work on.

[38supPat]

Added the hit factors from today

[38supPat]

Shot another 3 classifiers today, I'll post them when I get the results.

Much better overall, stuck all the reloads, good pace on targets, lots of 1+1 type shooting and lots of reloads again. I got some extra practice in since my IMM has a habit of breaking light bulbs if they happen to be right ove the shooting box. I got 3 reshoots due to this...I think I cost the club more in lights than it'll bring in in match fees

[38supPat]

OK, got USPSA classifier points and times for 4 of the classifiers

El Prez..slow and penalties 44 points, 5.19 sec.

http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-11.pdf

Raw deal...57 points, 5.58 sec.

http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-33.pdf

Peek-a-boo no-shoots...56 points, 6.56 sec.

http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-55.pdf

Body guard 1...44 points, 6.85 sec.

http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-58.pdf

I won two stages handily in the match (raw deal and peek-a-boo, by 9% and 16% respectively. and on body gaurd 1 I was 2 sec faster than the next closest Open Master)

The penalty points dropped on El prez was from a shot fired as my arms started to break back for the reload too early, and on body guard a bad trigger press pushed the shot to hard cover low and left on T1. In both cases, I had only dropped one point other than the miss.

[38supPat]

Good match today, nice simple stages, some close hosing and some longer shots, all full targets (classic)

Gotta work on movement in and out of positions and shooting on the move, a bit off, not as smooth as I would have liked, but the reloads all went well, and i was ready to shoot as I entered so not too bad.

Points were not as good as I would have liked on the first stage, but I was a bit shaky and still a bit rusty. Working on dryfiring just trigger press has helped a lot, no misses today, and generally good points, just a couple more D's on the first stage than I would have liked.

It was good getting to shoot with Joe Robinson, Mike Auger, Josko and everyone else.

[38supPat]

Got some practice in today.

I haven't dry fired in awhile but went ahead and did some simple draw and fire stuff. @ 12 yds I started around 1:25 draws and worked down to 1:03/1:04 and @ 25 yds started at 1:35 and worked down to 1:18/1:19.

Shot some groups and rezeroed my gun.

Moved to the 100yd rifle range and shot 10 rounds of Winchester 168 gr match for cold shot and groups. Cold shot was 1.5" left (last time I shot there was a right to left wind) adjusted and shot 2 groups. Both were around 1" which is a bit disappointing as the last batch (old) of Winchester match i shot through the gun hovered around .5" This batch just doesn't seem capable of less than an inch.

[38supPat]

Dryfiring pretty steadily now, working on grip mostly.

Doing some dryfiring, picking up on errors that have always sort of plagued me. Mostly what I pay attention to while reloading or presenting the gun. Really gotta make sure that mag is gripped right before removing it from carrier, and LOOK at the mag well. There's also a bit of a bobble as the sight comes to the first target when presenting it. Thought it was my hands coming together too late, but turn out it's not the case. Just seem to bobble it as the dot comes up on target, not a smooth track for first shot.

[yoshidaex]

i thought you primarily played with fast cars and guns secondary?

[38supPat]

Next year looks like it will be different, guns may take the lead roll....might have a big sponsor

[yoshidaex]

cool. good for you. you still gonna head on down to next years Toronto GP?

[38supPat]

Hell ya, probably drive the pace car again

Hopefully it doesn't fall on any important match dates, it was the same weekend as the Ontario Provincials this year...

[38supPat]

Interesting session today. Started with my old gun, Millenium built STI, SVI Comp. worked on some basic drills but it was having trouble extracting the .38 Armscor brass I was using, but got some good data anyways. After a few simple drills, while I was tring to tweak the extractor and doing some function tests into the backstop I could feel where tension was building in my shoulders, triceps, and next. Relaxed once I realized it and was ripping off some .72-.74 draws with .12 to .14 splits into the back stop. Then ran some three target drills. I decided to put away the old gun and work the same drills (three targets @ 14m, 25 m and 12m) with the IMM. Mostly the times were pretty close between the two guns. however the hits on the long targets were better with the (long heavy) older gun. I started doing drills from the end of the range so that the farthest target would be close to 50m. Hits were terrible, I checked zero, shot some groups (not great) and repeated the drill a few times. Tried just presenting to first target (40m) not great hits on first shot, tried some more groups, and bill drills....finally said to myself "you are not shooting this bad. Picked up the old gun again, ran a bill drill @ 50m...nice little cluster in the A zone about the size of my hand. Ran the drill again a couple of times....hung all the shots on the target, couple points down...4.28 average time. think I might shoot the old gun next season...

[38supPat]

Also did some data gathering...for a potential sponsor

Took temps at the barrel cone, the outside of chamber from the ejection port and the slide rails.

Cold the temps were 74F, 75F, 75F

after 40 rounds of group shooting: 109F, 106F, 93F

After 30 rounds of Bill Drills: 120F, 118F, 103F

After 50 rounds of draw fire 1 or pairs: 125F, 120F, 98F

Obviously there is a cumulitive effect. After this I did some three target drills and the temps went down due to longer periods between strings.

[38supPat]

REmember to site gun in PROPERLY