Ironequalizer

[IronEqualizer]

3-19-12

Dry fired 15 mins.

Live fired 250rnds.

Dry fired. Session A. Draws were really off today. Just struggled getting a perfect grip.

Live fired session A. Phase III started. I was still missing grips just like in dry fire. I think the further distance of phase III will help me learn some patience with reading the sights at times.

I have been having some chronic practice ammo problems with the new gun. The chamber must be tighter than my other limited gun. This one just will not go into battery at times with the lead bullets that I cast. I think I can cure the problem by actually sizing the cast bullets before loading rather than loading them as cast. There must be a cavity in one of the molds I use that is just a little bit bigger than the rest.

[SoonerPast]

Back at it so soon?

AL Sectional at EAGC is a tradition now. You know, it's as good an event as there is in the USPSA.

Mike S.

[IronEqualizer]

Back at it so soon?

AL Sectional at EAGC is a tradition now. You know, it's as good an event as there is in the USPSA.

Mike S.

Thank you for the compliment Mike. Remember guys like you are the reason it is a good match. Thank you for the help.

[IronEqualizer]

3-20-12

Dry fired 30 mins.

Live fired 300 rnds.

Dry fired session A again working on a perfect draw and presentation. Meeting my hands closer in seems to help with consistency. When I do miss my grip it is usually not a grip that I cannot shoot from but it just doesn't feel as solid as the "perfect" grip.

Live fired. I finished session A and went through session B. It felt like a great practice today. I really learned at what speed I can engage targets on an aggressive entry into position. Just haul ass then take whatever time needs to be taken to make the shots. I was pleased with the amount of patience I used when shooting the targets although I was in a hurry. Also doing figure 8 drills in and out barrels at 15 yds was tough at first but after a few runs I was shooting 90% A's on them while moving. It is all about patience with the sights. When the drill or stage is over the time is still fast although it feels so so slow. I finished with moving reload drills transitioning to the upper A after the reload. No mikes for the entire drill. The head shots seemed easy today. I felt like I was back in the zone I was in about 3 weeks ago. Now to stay there.

[Hamm]

Let's see 6 GM's in limited and u finished 9th overall. SWEET .

You have worked hard to be were you are . Congrats

That makes you the A class Alabama State Champ

[IronEqualizer]

3-21-12

Dry fired 30 mins.

Live fired 250 rnds.

Dry fired session B working on reloads. Pretty good but not my best day. Key points are a good grab on the mag and visually looking it into the gun. When I do this right it seems I am looking at the magwell forever before the mag gets there but it is actually under a second for this to happen. Just shows how fast you can see when you leard to process and comprehend what you are seeing.

Live fired session C. SH/WH drills, multiple port drills and 50 yard targets today. SH/WH wasn't bad just a little slow but the hits were there. It will take some time to get better at reading the sights and getting used to the different recoil feel shooting one handed but I don't totally suck at it.

Multiple port drill I did well on. Shooting almost all A's. I think the next session of this I will back up to 15 yds as getting all A's at 10 yds proved to not be that difficult.

50 yd shots are pretty tough. The sights looks as big as the targets. A steady easy trigger pull and perfectly centered sights is what is needed.

[IronEqualizer]

3-23-12

Dry fired 30 mins.

Dry fired session C. I think I like not canting the gun when going SH/WH. I seem to pick up the sights a little easier. I will continue to experiment with this. Table loads went well. 0430 in the morning still sucks.

[IronEqualizer]

3-24-12

Dry fired 30 mins.

Dry fired session A. Draws were much better today. I hit the perfect grip for a better part of today's session. When I do miss my grip it is 98% of the time with the support hand. I have to think a little delay in getting the support hand on the gun to make it a perfect grip. Drawing from wrists above shoulders I am much more consistent on the perfect grip. Why? I don't know. Stepping and pivoting draws were all pretty good today and table draws were spot on with a perfect sight picture after the pick up. The perfect draw or rather the perfect grip, is what I am actually working on. It lies somewhere in meeting my hands sooner and closer to my body and giving the support hand time to get in behind the gun good before the presentation.

Oh, and 0430 really sucks on a Saturday morning.

[IronEqualizer]

3-26-12

Live Fired 300 rnds.

Live fired session A. All the drills went really well today with the exception of the barricade drill. Shooting from behind a barricade or wall with tough angles seems to be single biggest weakness. I need some extreme practice, focus, something on this. I will film my next session of this to try and see exactly what my problem is. I was only 66% accurate on this drill compared to 85% and above on the rest. I checked some of my reload times to a 10 yd target during one of the drills and from shot, reload, to next shot my best was a 1.49 with an average of about 1.65. I can live with that. I also checked the times on some turning draws to a head shot at 10yds and was averaging around 1.70 on this.

I have my practice ammo problem cured. I sized all the cast bullets before loading this time and had no issues. It sure does speed things up without having a stoppage and having to start a drill over because of it.

[IronEqualizer]

3-27-12

Dry fired 30 mins.

Live fired 250 rnds.

Dry fired session B. Reloads kinda sucked this morning. I wasn't really missing reloads they were just not smooth. The insertion was hard on many of them. Not sure what was going on.

Live fired session B. Aggressive entry was really good today. I cut a second off all my times from a week ago and only gave up 3% on accuracy. HF was way up too. The second drill I struggled with reloads a little again. I am not sure what is going on today but I will dry fire session B again in the morning to try to work things out. During live fire I missed a load at one point and went to another mag. I checked the time on this and although I did not hesitate going for the second mag it still cost me about 2 seconds. I was running around 1.69 for reloads and the missed load my time was at 3.65.

[IronEqualizer]

3-28-12

Dry fired 30 mins.

Dry fired session B. Consistency is still good with reloads but the smoothness is still not back. I am really utilizing the magwell and it seems that the loads bounce all around in the magwell before going in. 2 days like this. Maybe I will give it a break and work this session again later in the week. Table loads for both days have went very well and the reloads happen nice and smooth barely touching the magwell. Table loads used to be my weakest type of reloads but I am happy to see the big improvement.

[IronEqualizer]

3-30-12

Dry fired 30 mins.

1/2 session A, 1/2 session B. Blah, blah, blah. I like that the drills have improved me on many areas and keep me sharp, but after several months I am becoming bored with them. I don't feel like I am learning anything anymore I am just keeping the skills that I have learned. I am going to consider going back to some of Anderson's dry fire drills to change it up. I like the clock dry fire drills of my current set of drills but the others are just becoming boring.

Walked the stages of the SC sectional earlier and will be starting on stage 1 in the morning. I just want to stay in control, be smooth, and shoot what the sights tell me.

[IronEqualizer]

3-31-12

Live fired 250 rnds.

SC sectional. Started out in the rain and had two mikes on my first stage. I would have been fine with the one on the swinger but the static target at 10 yds was unacceptable. Next stage was a standards Virginia count stage and I threw a mike on that stage too. I seemed to continue that pace with good movement but sloppy hits all day. I finished 2nd A class limited by 34 points. I gave up 75 points throughout the day with 5 mikes. I think I started out pushing instead of just shooting at a strong pace and letting my momentum build stage after stage. Lesson learned.

[IronEqualizer]

4-1-12

Live fired 200 rnds.

CAGC USPSA match. I feel like I shot pretty well at this match. I did bobble a couple of reloads but don't think that cost me much. One was a reload during a dead run. I had one other mistake of pulling off of a target at like 5 yds before I could break the 2nd shot. This caused me to have to lean back into position to make up the shot. Other than that I felt like I had pretty strong day. Starting out on the first stage I tried not to push just shoot at a good enough pace to have a decent run but not trying to win the stage. It felt like my momentum grew from there. Still waiting on results so I will see how it comes out.

[IronEqualizer]

4-3-12

Dry fired 30 mins.

Dry fired session A.

Results of Sundays match. 2nd Limited. .12% behind 1st place.

[IronEqualizer]

4-6-12

Dry fired 30 mins. IDPA Gear.

Session B. Trying to get tuned up a little for the upcoming state IDPA match in a few weeks. Reloads went better than expected but not nearly as well as needed. I will continue to focus dry fire on IDPA skills for the next few weeks.

[IronEqualizer]

4-7-12

Dry fired 30 mins. IDPA Gear.

Session A and part of session B. Draws do not seem to be a problem even adding the extra movement of sweeping the concealement garment out of the way. I think it actually gives me time to prepare to get a better grip on the gun as the support hands waits in position longer. Reloads were a little better but not at the percentage of perfect ones that I want. It seems I have longer to prepare the gun for the magazine insertion as I am sweeping the garment out of the way. The grab on the mag is crucial and I still have to at least think a pause of the new mag right outside the magwell even if I don't actually slow it down before inserting it. Weird but it is working. Maybe it just allows me to be more aware and see all the things I need to see to complete the mag change.

[IronEqualizer]

4-9-12

Live fired 250 rnds.

Session A. Accuracy basically sucked ass today. I just could not make myself slow down to make the head shots on any consistent basis. I had edge hits coming into a head shot on a target like 4 times in a row. I am wondering if shooting my limited gun without the full length dust cover and aluminum grips has my timing off just a bit. It does feel like I have to fight recoil a bit more and like I can't really drive this gun as hard. My front sight broke on my other gun on the last stage at the SC sectional. I can't wait to get it back up and running.

[IronEqualizer]

4-10-12

Dry fired 30 mins. IDPA Gear.

Live fired 150 rnds.

Session B. Still not as good as I would like to be with reloads but am getting there.

Live fired session A. Finished session A. I still struggle with barricade drills. I have trouble with this in matches also and know it is a weak area of mine. I really should break my training routine and focus on this for an entire session. I need to film it and see if I can tell exactly what I am doing wrong.

The other drill doing multi distance targets with a reload went well. I had no problems on the 18yd target and was hammering out 2 on the close 3 yd target with .13 splits. Not as fast as with my full length dust cover gun but not terrible. This gun just does not settle and shoot as flat as my other gun. No doubt I am faster with the other gun.

[IronEqualizer]

4-11-12

Live fired 150 rnds.

Live fired agressive entry drill and barricade x drill. On both of these drills today I had moments that seemed to tell me that shooting fast and accurately is more just a state of mind and awareness than anything else. I had a few wild shots on a couple of runs on the aggressive entry drill so I made myself slow down during the shot process or so I thought. The times were basically the same but I saw more and because of it had better hits. I just thought about slowing down but once the timer went off I did not actually slow down I just focused more. I think. On the last run of this I told myself to drive and move as aggressive as I could. I pushed as hard as I could but still slowed down mentally for the shots and cut a half second off of all the previous runs and had better points. I was moving really aggressively before I had the thought of moving as aggressive as possible. Again this leads me to believe thoughts, state of mind, and awareness are more of a major part of the shooting process than I know.

I ran the barricade x drill again because I sucked so bad on it yesterday. My first run I really took my time and I had told myself to just get my hits no matter how long it took. State of mind. I got all my hits, had good points, and when I compared the time to the previous days runs it was faster than most of them. So I did not shoot any slower although it felt really slow, I was just focused more on where I needed to be. The rest of the runs were pretty much the same. I felt like the runs were taking forever waiting on the sights to really settle on the head shots but once the runs were over the times were still really good.

[IronEqualizer]

4-12-12

Dry fired 30 mins. IDPA Gear.

Session B. Things are looking better with the IDPA gear. I do the clock drill first doing a regular reload, then doing a RWR. 1 more week until the AL state match.

[IronEqualizer]

4-13-12

Live fired 100 rnds. IDPA Gun.

Set up a multi distance drill to get a feel for the gun at various distances. I am so out of time for this gun. My 10 yd splits and my 3 yd splits are the F'n same. I could not get the timing down on how this thing was recoiling. With a 200gr bullet making minor PF it barely moves and it is really screwing with me. It was like I needed a heavier recoil impulse to shoot fast. I have about a week and minimal practice rounds to try and get timed to this thing or the state match may be ugly.

[IronEqualizer]

4-14-12

Live fired 100rnds.

EAGC IDPA Match.

Finished 2nd overall. I am really not doing well with IDPA right now. I racked up a procedural today, missed a couple of reloads, had two malfunctions that I think was caused from me riding the slide, and generally felt like I just sucked. I don't think my head was in it today. I am gonna have to clean things up if I plan on doing well next week at the state match.

[IronEqualizer]

4-15-12

Live fired 200 rnds.

EAGC USPSA Match.

I had a decent day of shooting today. I felt like I may have shot a little conservatively at times but am pretty happy overall with my performance. I had a few errors but nothing disastrous. I shot with some really good shooters today and I learned a few things on stage breakdown that I hope I do not forget. I shot conservatively on the classifier and it looks like it will come in around a 74%. I guess the only way I will get a higher classifier is just really push on it, but it would be outside of my control zone. I will have to wait to see what the outcome is.

[IronEqualizer]

4-16-12

Dry fired 15 mins. IDPA Gear.

Dry fired session B. Dry fire went pretty well. Reloads were pretty good but I still had some missed ones in the match Saturday that really cost me. I need to make sure I do deliberate reloads in the state match and get a really good grab on the fresh mag.

Results of Sunday's USPSA match. 1st Limited, 2nd overall for the match. 40 shooters. I was pleased with that especially knowing I had a few minor mistakes that I can correct.