Ironequalizer

[IronEqualizer]

3-20-07

Match Results from Sat.s IDPA

1st CDP......5 out of 6 stage wins (16 shooters)

The one stage I lost was by .19secs......Kudos to Jarod...fairly new shooter and he smoked that stage.

2nd OA.......3 out of 6 stage wins

34 shooters total

WOOHOO!!!!! I have finished 2nd Overall twice by less than 3 secs both times. I want overall. Time to go practice some more.

[IronEqualizer]

3-20-07

Dry Fired 1hr.

Worked on head shot drills. Reloads and sight pictures looked good today. Visual patience is still good and reloads were smooth today. Reloads have not been this fast in a while. They all seemed to just slide right in without effort.

Finished with about 30mins of reloads on the move. These were not as smooth and I need to work on this some more. Damn a month or two ago these were good. It's amazing how fast you lose a skill if you do not keep at it on a regular basis. The way cool thing today was leaving a position on the way to the second position the last sight picture was like it was burned into my eyes. I could clearly still see it after I took off. That was new and cool. Lots of new things have been happening the last week or so and I hope it keeps happening. These new things I am seeing and feeling are like what I have been waiting on. I do really hope I am at a breakthrough point.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with visual patience and shoot all targets zero down.

Edited March 20, 2007 by IronEqualizer

[IronEqualizer]

3-22-07

Live Fired. 200rnds

Set up a version of Smoke and Hope today. Damn that was pretty fun. It is all about speed. Official plates are 18x24 with a 12" stop plate and mine are 8x19 with a 7" stop plate. I still managed to smoke a 2.88 on one run and that had me friggin stoked. That was cool as hell. Just looking where you wanted the shot to go and it would be there. No conscious thought of how to do it....just shooting.

After the Smoke and Hope runs I worked on straight plates for another 100rnds. My first few runs I could not hit the first plate for $h!t. I realized my vision was still in the Smoke and Hope mode and I was not waiting to see the sight lift. My previous personal best which has been steadily decreasing lately was a 3.60. Today I hit a 3.42, 3.31, 3.22, 3.19 and for my new PB a 3.09. So now my new goal is to get below 3secs. Hell a couple of weeks ago I was trying to get below 5secs. Today was the same as the past week or so. Just watch the shooting. Let the gun float. That smoking azz run felt effortless. Once I saw the sights on the first plate it just floated across them and when the last one fell I felt like....damn did I do that? These new feelings are awesome. This new awareness level is awesome. The visual pictures I have been seeing are awesome. I hope I am finally starting to shoot instead of trying to shoot.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with visual patience and shoot all targets zero down.

[IronEqualizer]

3-23-07

Live Fired.

Very informal practice session today with some friends. We shot all steel today and just basically had fun. This was a nice change from just running drills over and over. Kinda reminds me of why I started all of this. Because it's just plain fun to shoot crap and shoot the crap. Oh I also shot my first open gun today. Yeah.....I got a major woody.

[IronEqualizer]

3-24-07

Dry Fired 30mins. Nothing but reloads.

Live Fired. 350rnds.

Worked on straight plates and Smoke and Hope since I still had it set up. Straight plates my best times today were around 3.50 - 3.4X. The difference I could tell from today was the awareness feeling. I could not find the feeling or mindset I needed to hit the times I had been hitting the past several days. I was trying to hard to reproduce past sessions instead of just shooting. I now realize that typing this. I was still happy with the times being what they were compared to a month ago. I now know I can still have good runs without being all the way in the zone.

Smoke and Hope is just kick azz speed. I really like driving the gun onto those targets then having to slam on the breaks for that last plate.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with visual patience and shoot all targets zero down.

[IronEqualizer]

3-25-07

USPSA Match....Cool Springs Gun Club

Not a great day but I guess not exactly terrible either. I did have some mental errors on the first stage. A lot of hidden targets with about a dozen different shooting positions. I knew where they all were and I can still picture them in my mind now, but when I missed one and made a make up shot everything went to hell. I clearly remember having conscious thoughts about that miss as I went on to the next array searching for targets.

The classifier was 11 rounds and I knew I had just enough and opted not to reload on the way to the second barricade. Of course I missed a popper and had to reload. I really smoked the reload and had several comments on how fast it was. (If it would have been a damn .50 flat reload it would still have been faster not to have to do it.)

After about the third stage I really made a difference in my game by finding my mental state I have in practice. I told my myself to just watch the sight rise and make the shots. I know it is not slower to see a good sight picture on every target. I have proved that to myself over and over.

The last thing I took away from the match was the need to learn my skill par times which I have yet to do. I know my pars on the crap I practice all the time but I do not know what is quicker for me far to near or near to far. Drawing to the left or right of a barricade first. Small things that really add up.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

Edited March 26, 2007 by IronEqualizer

[IronEqualizer]

3-26-07

Dry Fired. 30mins.

Today was one of those days where nothing was smooth. 15mins in I maybe should have just stopped instead of waiting till I took a chunk of skin out of a finger. I trudged on after a bandaid and some choice words. It seems I could smooth everything out when I could clear my mind and just let it happen. When there's a thousand things bouncing around in your head that is not the time to practice. I need to find a method of clearing my mind and letting the shooting happen. At least I think I did learn something from today and that is a good thing.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

[IronEqualizer]

3-27-07

Dry Fired 1hr 45mins. 1 - 1hr15min session, 1 - 30min session.

My training has lost structure. I have been bouncing around doing different drills (mostly just the ones I like) and I can tell the difference in how my performance has been. Over the next few days to a week I will develop a structured system for my practice. Instead of just telling myself I'm going to dry fire or live fire I will have a set of drills pre planned to do. This is how I started and how I improved greatly in a short time. I have now planed off and need to get serious again if I plan to improve anymore. I believe I have just been maintaining the skills I developed 6 months ago.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

[IronEqualizer]

3-28-07

Dry Fired 30mins.

Everything felt much better today than yesterday. I found myself actually waiting on some of my previous par times. Reloads were much better today. My left hand is coming up fast and I think I am beating my right hand getting the gun turned to accept the mag. Single stack and I have to shift my grip. If I slow the left hand down as I near the magwell all goes much better and times are basically the same. It seems by the time I can look at the magwell when I get it turned the new mag is already there. Maybe I need to try and hit the release earlier but shifting my grip I don't think I can speed that up. I am still working on a revised training program and dryfire daily will be part of it even if for only 15mins and even if I have live fired that day.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

[IronEqualizer]

3-29-07

Live Fired 200rnds.

Great day of practice. I just worked on straight plates and I set a new PB and reached the goal I had set last week that I thought would take me a lot longer to reach. My new PB on the plates at 10yds on 7 inch plates is 2.97. My good times today were 2.97, 2.99, 3.03, 3.16, 3.18, 3.20 2x. Most other times were around 3.4X. The difference today was total awareness and just shooting subconsciously. After the 2.97 I had some conscious thoughts enter my mind. I was trying to clear my mind as the buzzer went off several times. I missed my grip 3 times and could not hit the first plate for Sh!t. I finally told myself to not to try to beat my times just try to knock em down. My mind cleared and I had my second run below 3secs. The last run of the session was friggin awesome. I saw the bullet impact the last plate and since I was only loading 6rnds I actually saw the slide locking up. It seemed as though it all happened in slow motion. This is a new breakthrough for me. Since my vision picked up on all of that that was happening and it seemed to be in slow motion then what would appear to be fast in a total state of awareness? How fast can you go? It seems there is no limit visually. The only limit would be how fast you can put the gun on target and pull the trigger. I will have to have some alone time to really roll this one over in my head for a while. Oh and Brian Enos is.....like we didn't know.....AMAZING! This is what he has been talking about. But until you let yourself see it...it's like it doesn't exist.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

Edited March 29, 2007 by IronEqualizer

[IronEqualizer]

3-30-07

Live Fired. 150rnds.

Practiced box to box movement today. A friend whom I met at the range a few weeks ago gave me some excellent pointers that might have taken me years to figure out on my own. You can read something but having someone show you is so much better. Up until a week ago my practice sessions have been alone and my learning curve a huge one as I have had to figure out everything by first doing it the wrong the way. I will incorparate his tips into my dryfire routine and I can see how seconds can be saved once I get these techniques second nature.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

[IronEqualizer]

3-31-07

Dry Fired. 1hr 30mins. 2 - 45min sessions.

Worked on exiting and entering boxes, forward and side to side. I knew the concept of falling forward while drawing and shooting and leaning to the side and shooting as you leave a box but until someone actually showed me in live fire and explained the steps then watched me do it and made corrrections it never really came together. I can now see how much time I have been wasting by standing around with my thumb up my a$$ before I get moving. Thanks Joe I owe you and look forward to many more practice sessions together.

Live Fired 450rnds.

Live fire was not that great today. I could not get in the zone for some reason. I practiced on the plates for quite a while and had some decent runs but nothing spectacular. I switched to just drawing and shooting 1 - reload - 1 -reload 1. I had some good reloads for me which was in the 1.50 range. I think I can get around 1.30 on a full size target. This is something I have not clocked much but really need to keep track of.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

[IronEqualizer]

4-1-07

USPSA Match - Central Alabama Gun Club

Definitely not one of the best matches I have ever had but a good learning experience. I will take something away from it. Never go to a match without clean equipment. Don't wait to till the last minute (midnight) loading your match ammo. I had a really bad stage where I thought a prop had failed (and in my opinion and several other squad members it did) that cost me about 20 seconds. I guess I better start working out so that I am strong enough to set off props from now on. I opened a door till it stopped about two feet open and was standing there looking at a turning target that was not turning to face me. I eventually had to kick the door open completely to set the thing off. Sure didn't work that way or take that much effort during the walk through. The thing that really pissed me off was our RO warning the next squad to make sure they completely opened the door to set the turner off. Wow if you felt the need to warn the next squad why didn't you allow a reshoot for me? Oh well I did what I had to do to get over it and that was good experience in letting a bad stage go. Next few stages went ok then I had at least 2 light primer strikes and 1 double feed. Just not my day I guess.

Edited April 2, 2007 by IronEqualizer

[IronEqualizer]

4-1-07

Cool Springs Results

3rd L10

13th overall - 52 shooters

[IronEqualizer]

4-2-07

Dry fired 1hr 30mins. 1 - 1hr session 1 - 30min session

Worked on SA's head shot drills 1hr. Smooth today. Reloads went really well. Last session worked 15mins on box to box forward then 15mins on box to box side to side. I can tell the difference in just the short amount of time I have spent on this drill. I am now breaking the shots as I am falling out of the box and on one foot as I am entering a box. Side to side sight pictures I need to refine and have more visual patience on. I will keep working these drills.

Live Fired 250rnds.

I cleaned my gun and fired the 150rnds I had left from the batch I loaded for yesterdays match. The gun ran fine and no problems at all. Guess it was just dirty and that really bit me in the a$$ and was a valuable lesson. It will not happen again. I shot plates today at 15yds instead of 10 and I did not have many clean runs. The best runs were a 3.63 and a 4.01. I think I will keep shooting at 15yds for a while to help me with visual patience.

Lastly I worked on the larger plates doing box drills. DO NOT wear tennis shoes on wet grass doing box drills. I contemplated that statement for about 5 mins while I was lying on my back looking at the sky. I wonder if I would have got a re-shoot since my ears came off when I hit the ground. Yeah, I hit that hard. I did manage to keep my weapon safely pointed downrange.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

[IronEqualizer]

4-3-07

Dry Fired 2hrs. 2 - 1hr sessions.

Worked on shooting on the move and SA's plate drills.

Live Fired 250rnds.

Worked on shooting from around walls, port shooting and entering boxes. I was using my large plates on this drill to speed things up. Going aound the left of the wall to a far right target it may be necessary to break the wrists around the wall. Knowing the exact place to put your feet, the exact placement of the targets and heights will all save time. I am trying to work on no hesitation when I look around a barricade, vision barrier, wall etc. I will try to visualize the targets as if the wall doesn't exist just fault lines. This will take a lot of time and a lot of rounds I'm sure.

Port shooting I was working on staying away from the port. A friend pointed out to me the last match that I was getting really close to the port. I know better than that and I am sure it is a habit or subconscious reason that I will break.

Entering boxes I still have a low hit percentage going side to side. Forward I am ok but I need to work on my sight picture refinement before I get moving out of a box side to side.

The only other thing I took away from todays session was not to try to work to many different drills in one session. I get more out of it with just one or two drills to run. Makes sense now that I am writing this but last night planning what to work on today it sounded good running more drills.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

Damn I forgot to work on RWR's today using my concealment garment. Tommorrow.

[IronEqualizer]

4-4-07

Dry Fired 1hr. 1 - 1hr session

Worked on SA's drills 2 - 7 from behind a barricade. I tried staring at the target and then when I would get behind the barricade for a few seconds you can still see the image of the target burned on your retina as if the barricade is not even there. Reloads are definitely faster right to left. Left to right you chase the gun all the way across the barricade. Also I will always draw to the right if given the choice. No need to draw and transition across the barricade for the first shot.

Starting with hands on barricade I found I need to work my holster around on my belt to get a slight muzzle forward cant to get a really good draw. Something about the different angle I was going for the gun made this really work for me. Hands above shoulders I need the gun straight up and down and from hands relaxed a slight muzzle rear cant.

Worked RWRs for a while and not practicing them the last few weeks has taken the edge off of where I had gotten with them.

Live Fired. 250rnds.

Worked Saul Kirsch's drill #39 shooting the plate rack transitioning back and forth across the barricade. Plates at 15yds. This is harder than I thought it would be. I had to keep telling myself to watch the sight rise off the plate in order to have the proper follow through before I tried to transition to the other side. I did not have many clean runs on this and my best was 8.68 (clean). Transitions were roughly 1.50secs across the barricade witch seems painfully slow but is the best I could do. It is a challenge and anything that is not easy needs work.

All in all today I know I am better than when I woke up this morning. I did learn several things today that will be stored in my bank of information and shooting experience.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

Edited April 5, 2007 by IronEqualizer

[IronEqualizer]

4-4-07

I have been thinking about today's practice and I very clearly remember when transitioning across the barricade my gun would be at a slight angle as I leaned out from the barricade. I would then straighten the gun up on the plate and fire the shot. I either need to fire the shot with the gun at an angle or transition with the gun level. I will have to try and figure this one out. Either way would be faster than how I was doing it. I will try to watch my Burkett videos and see if he specifically covers this. I know there are several parts he does barricade shooting and I need to review them. Any help from the forum is welcomed.

Edited April 5, 2007 by IronEqualizer

[IronEqualizer]

4-5-07

Dry Fired 1hr. 1 - 1hr session.

I first set up my cardboard barricade and my plates to try and figure out what I was doing wrong in live fire yesterday. It didn't take long. I was not keeping my same shooting platform as I leaned out from the barricade. I now realize I was straightening up my head which in turn made me have to straighten the gun up. I also need to keep more weight on the foot of the side I am going to and squat and keep my position forward and not lean back. I can't wait to run that drill in live fire again to see if there is any improvement.

Worked Anderson drills 8 -13 with a barricade; excluding the turning draws. Today was absolutley smoking. I wish today would have been match day. I was meeting, or beating in most cases, all of my par times from drills without the barricade, from behind the barricade. Staring at that first target and letting it burn on your retina and then transferring that to behind the barricade and keeping that image in your mind as if the barricade was not there, works. It works so well I can't believe the difference it can make in getting to that first target. I knew exactly where that target was every time and the gun would appear in the center draw after draw. (Of course I knew exactly where the target was I could actually still see it perfectly in my mind from behind the barricade.)

Reloads were great today and I missed fewer reloads and draws today than any other practice session I have ever had. I have been doing these drills pretty regular since last August. 4 or 5 reloads I knocked the falling mag back in the gun or hit it as it was falling out. And no I was not slow on the button. That felt good and I hope soon I will have to actually work on getting on the button faster.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target. I am a better shooter now than when I awoke this morning.

[IronEqualizer]

4-6-07

Dry Fired 1hr. 1 15min session 1 - 45min session.

Worked on nothing but reloads. Reloads, RWRs, Reloads from concealment vest. The past 2 days I have missed fewer and fewer reloads than ever before. I feel like the difference is in my visual awareness of the magwell. The past few days I have been REALLY seeing it clearly. Sometimes it's almost as if the reload is in slow motion as I can really pick out the details of the magwell. I can see all the scars on the magwell and I can see the round count holes on the mag as it starts to go in. I don't really think I am going any faster than before but the consistancy is coming from the visual inputs I am getting. I am now seeing what I have always been looking at, if that makes sense. I am looking forward to some live fire tomorrow. Hopefully lots of it.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target. I am a better shooter now than when I awoke this morning.

[IronEqualizer]

4-7-07

Dry Fired 1hr 15min. 1 - 1hr session, 1 - 15min session.

Continued working through Anderson's drills from behind a barricade. 2nd session (15mins) was nothing but reloads. Reloads continue to get smoother and smoother with less misses.

Live Fired 500rnds. 2 - 250rnd sessions.

Worked Saul's drill #39. This continues to be a tough drill for me to shoot clean. My times have decreased though which does show improvement. I have managed to cut 2 tenths off of each of my original transition times across the barricade. I think I was waiting on the plate to fall before moving to the other side. I have improved on being able to maintain my shooting platform when leaning out from the barricade, and feel more comfortable shooting with everything leaned over, gun, body.

2nd session I experienced several failures to extract. That is actually what I had been waiting on. 1000rnds since the last cleaning and 0 malfunctions. Now I know the absolute limit. I brushed off the extractor, oiled the rails and it ran fine the rest of the session. It will be clean before the next session. I will also work all of my ammo for the state match through the gun while I have it clean just for added insurance. I have dropped each round in a chamber guage, wiped each with a silicon rag and now will load each of my mags to be used at the match, and work all of the rounds through the gun for the final test. Overkill??? At least I will have zero doubts about my ammo.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target. I am a better shooter now than when I awoke this morning.

[IronEqualizer]

4-8-07

Live Fired. 250rnds.

Worked Saul's drill #44 today, (speed transitions). 250rnds and not one clean run. That friggin drill is hard. I have a new challenge and this drill is it. This type of drill is excellent for visual patience. Sure proved to me I don't have enough. If the shots at 18yds were on paper I would have been alright because I was calling my shots all around the steel. I did find out that my draw to a 5yd target is under a second. I really have never practiced with full size targets that close. I always practice at 10yds and out so I really had no bank of information on targets at 5yds. Draws .96 - 1.03 consistantly. Splits .15 - .20. The .15 splits were basically pointing and hammering the shots. .20 I see the sights for both shots. I did experience trigger freeze when I first started running this drill and have no idea why. It seemed to straighten out though and I will do a search on here and do a little research. It was a good practice even though I did not have a clean run. I still learned today and that is what it was all about.

(positive thought) I am a Master class shooter, I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target. I am a better shooter now than when I awoke this morning.

[IronEqualizer]

4-9-07

Dry fired. 1hr. 1 - 1hr session.

Continued Anderson's drills 19 - 22 from behind barricade except moving drills. Worked about half the drills wearing my concealment vest. One thing I noticed today was that I never really thought about the different movements I was having to do to get to my mags while wearing the vest. The thought never entered my mind until the last 5 mins of the session when I thought about sweeping the vest out of the way. Subconsciuosly I was just doing what needed to be done to get to the shooting. Leaning out from the barricade and maintaining my shooting platform continues to improve. I will next start working through the plate drills from the barricade my next dryfire session.

I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

[IronEqualizer]

4-10-07

Dry Fired 1hr 30mins. 1 - 1hr session, 1 - 30min session.

Went through all of Anderson's plate drills today from behind a barricade where applicable. Reloads continue to go well and the past several days have felt really good. Most of the drills today I was beating my par times set in January. One I know I was beating by 1/2 a sec cause I kept bumping the par down just to see. Another I was beating by .3 tenths. I don't know where the time went but I am glad it's gone. I practiced RWRs while wearing my concealment vest for about 30mins. Those are coming back to me and a few more sessions I should have my confidence back to execute them in a match again.

Live Fired 250rnds.

Still working Saul's drill #44. I really HATE this drill, but I love knowing that when I get better at it the knowledge and skill learned from it will be invaluable. I went through another 200rnds before I finally had a couple of clean runs. By the end of the session I think it was starting to come to me. I finally got it through my head to see what I needed to see to make the shot. Draws to a 5yd target still 1sec and under with the best today a .92. I am getting a good sight picture at that speed which was really surprising to me.

I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.

[IronEqualizer]

4-11-07

Dry Fired 1hr 15mins. 1 - 1hr session, 1 - 15min session.

Worked on specific match skills today. The stages for the Alabama IDPA state match are out and I practiced some basic skills I might encounter. All drills today were while wearing my concealment vest. I practiced RWRs on the move. I practiced reloading from a knee (right & left), a few going prone drills (it's been a few months since I have done them and will probably be a few more before I do them again). You just have to really commit for going prone.

Live fired 500rnds. 2 - 250rnd sessions.

I shot an insane amount of ammo today and plan to do it again tomorrow. I worked on nothing but strong/weak hand shooting. I had told myself awhile back that I was going to devote 50rnds each practice session to strong/weak hand shooting. I have failed to keep that commitment for even 1 session and now I am paying the price. This is a skill I need and I have failed to practice it enough. (OK enough self pity) By the end of the second session I was showing a lot of improvement. The thought visual patience, trigger control, nothing was working to slow me down enough until I told myself to be deliberate. That word deliberate worked for me and I had quite a few runs zero down. I will continue to practice this tomorrow and hopefully I will learn from this experience.

I am smooth, I always shoot with awareness, visual patience, and see my sight rise from every target.