Airic

[Catfish]

You should be getting some feedback from your dry fire - I originally was just snapping the gun out on target and then snapping it back for the next repetition without seeing the sights at all.

I started calling every shot in dry fire and can tell you where the round "would" have gone if I had a live one ready to go. There are times that I'm on target and times I'm off - and that feedback is what I'm using to get my focus back on the task at hand.

Also, I've found either you're motivated to practice or you aren't. You can't make yourself do it and lack of motivation could be your mind's way of telling you it's time for a quick break.

[Airic]

I think my lack of motivation really is b/c I want to shoot so bad. My dang schedule is always changing and I work weekends....

momentary lack of faith, its fixed now.

[Airic]

Worked on plate drills today. Purposely took a short practice session so I could work a little harder on a couple key drills.

My dryfire plates are very small, it gives me the opportunity to refine my draw and transitions a little. Mistakes come out quickly on such small targets. I felt very relaxed today, calling good shots and smooth relaxed reloads. Some of the reloads felt effortless.

Good practice today. I felt good when I quit.

[Catfish]

You gonna be able to shoot with us Sunday?

[Airic]

I wish.....work work work. I may be getting a detective position soon, 8-5 monday through friday.

BTW, the open gun is finished....got the word today.

[Airic]

More fundamental work this morning. Trying to smooth out that draw and the transitions for the dot gun. I worked in extra slow motion this morning. I was focusing on keeping my fundamentals perfect and my vision where it needed to be.

I had a realization this week. I figured something out. Sometimes the key is so simple, that you dont want to believe it. Just remember.....pay attention.

Open gun should be shipping monday or tuesday....

[Airic]

I did about the same thing this morning as I did yesterday, but at a little higher speed. I worked the speed up a little bit on some sets today to get some feed back. I have been having problems with the sound on my computer, so I havent been working with the buzzer for a while. I got that fixed last nite, so I did some buzzer reaction work today also.

I set a par time to test how much my reloads have improved. I topped out at .5 secs for a full reload (lock the mag into the gun). Considering Im working with no magwell right now, I cant wait to see what the SJC magwell does for me.

[Catfish]

hey, .5 seconds is HUGE!!

Keep it up.

[Airic]

hey, .5 seconds is HUGE!!

Keep it up.

Thx! I'm thinking that big magwell is just going to add major consitancy.

[Airic]

Well, been a little while since I posted, heres an update:

1. My home computer crashed.

2. My open gun got here last monday.

#1 has made it impossible to post after my dryfire practices in the morning, and I have not had time to do it at work. #2 makes it impossible for me to get any work done to fix the home computer....I cant concentrate on it.

As soon as I get a chance, I'll post more and pics.

[Catfish]

This thread is useless without pics!!!

[Airic]

Dryfire #1

Got up early to do some dryfire and reloading this morning. I am very impressed with this SJC gun. I feels really balanced, even with my fully loaded 29 round big stick in it. (yes, I said 29, with a TF basepad.) I checked my partimes against my old limited par times, even with only two dryfire sessions under my belt all my times improved greatly. I was hovering around 4.2 secs for the 6reload6 drill, my first time to try it full speed with the open gun was well under 4 seconds. My transitions and reloads feel really smooth and quick.

Loaded up 300 rnds of match ammo for the OK open this morning also. After testing on thursday, I ended up with this load for my gun:

125 grn HP

Speer once fired brass

WSR primers

8.1 gr of HS-6

This is giving me about a 173 power factor.

[Catfish]

I was planning on going up there with ya'll to shoot the open; was just going to shoot my limited gun in open class and see how the chips fell... but that's a no-go now so I won't be going with ya'll!

Have a great match and enjoy your new blaster!

[Airic]

Buffet practice today. I picked the drills I wanted to work on. Worked mostly draw/reload/transitions with some target arrays thrown in. Everything felt really smooth, a nice relaxed open gun is a fast open gun.

Loaded up my last bit of match ammo this morning also, with some extra practice ammo. Think I'm gonna go live fire practice thursday just to check and make sure everything is working ok still.

[Airic]

Another buffet practice today. I started out working on my usual draws/reloads/transitions...in an effort to get more familiar with the gun. I then moved to full target arrays and movement drills. I may try to focus more on movement drills the next couple of days before the OK open match, since movement is something I havent done with an open gun yet.

I feel that I already have a good grasp on this open gun thing. As long as I stay relaxed during my practice, the dot is always where it needs to be. I love how precise the 6moa dot is, its really impressive. My reloads are improving a lot, the big magwell is really nice.

Cant wait till this weekend, its always nice to break a new gun in at a state level match.

[Airic]

Cant wait till this weekend, its always nice to break a new gun in at a state level match.

I had a awesome time at the OK Open/Production match. The stages were really straight-forward and there wasnt anything really tricky. Just shooting. Learned about some flaws in my new open gun, one of those flaws put me out of the match.....but I got them fixed and I had a great time. This gun is a absolute blast to shoot. I think I was smiling on every stage. I didnt do too well, between almost zeroing a stage because of that gun malfunction and a combonation of misses and make-up shots....my scores were not up to par.

I have set new goals for myself with this new gun. One is to get comfertable with the new gun and the new type of sight picture. The other two are personal goals that I will keep in the back of my mind until accomplished.

A lot of work ahead of me....soon as my new laptop gets in I'll start back with the regular updates to this log.

Heres some pics of the new blaster....

**notice how far the trigger is set back....thats fully cocked. Thanks to Charlie Vanek

[Catfish]

cool!

[Airic]

Established new baseline par times today for all my drills. In most I can see a improvement over my limited par times. The thing I am struggling with the most right now is keeping that dang dot still. I need to smooth my presentation out some more and really relax everything or that dot is all over the place. I've also noticed that my old grip doesnt work to well on the new gun. Using my old grip...everytime I come up out of the holster the dot is on the left side of the glass. I guess I didnt have that much of a neutral grip after all

I worked on the grip a little bit, changing it so that most of the pressure is on the heels of my hands that butt together. Seems to give me a more even pressure on the gun.

Picked up my stock glock 22 today after practice....wow....what a different world.

[Airic]

Found a nice new range just a couple mile north of my home town when I went home this weekend. Its so nice to be on the range, by yourself, with no restrictions or people watching over you. I got to shoot 300 rounds at some target arrays and a plate rack. Live fire practice always teaches me something. I really worked on "calling shots" and paying attention to whats going on when I'm shooting. It was a great learning experience.

I told the range owner I would be out at his range every time I go back home.

[Airic]

Good dryfire sessions the last two days. I'm really focused on calling shots and shooting A's. I actually spent a long time today just drawing to a target and calling my first shot. I really stared at the spot where the dot was when I broke the shot.

Relaxation and visualization are coming along nicely. I think I have actually gotten to the point where I look at the magwell everytime on reloads instead of having to remind myself to do it before a string.

Cant wait till my next match...

[Airic]

Wanted to work on movement drills yesterday, so that was a good motivator to clean up my office a little bit. (There was crap all over the ground) Movement is feeling a lot smoother, I feel that I am really starteing to get in tune with the new gun. The "dot wiggle" is closing up well, especially after I tried tightening up my weak hand grip (check out Anderson's post on this). I'm not really an advocate of tightening up anything, but a little more firm pressure on the weak hand side seems to help a little.

Worked my standard #1 dryfire today. I didnt work too hard, just did 5 or so reps of everything, trying to stay smooth and call my shots.

I think it's about time to axe my winter dryfire routine. It focused more on keeping my skills up since a lot of the matches around here were being canceled due to weather. With the weather getting warmer, and the ability to shoot "some" type of match every weekend....I believe I am going to rebuild my dryfire to work on problem areas. I would love to devote one or two dryfire sessions to strong/weak hand shooting in an effort fo inprove that part of my game.

**Still working on a computer w/ a broken monitor. My LCD screen backlight is out, so I cant really see what I'm typing too well. Might be some spelling errors in there I'm missing.

[Airic]

Expanded my dryfire prop inventory today. Was looking for a way to build a full size barricade that was easy to take down and move out of my office into the garage. Found a door to one of out rooms that I had taken off when we moved in. Leaned the door up against my office computer chair.....worked perfectly.

Worked draws and reloads to both side of the barricade. Draws were normal to my strong side, but a little slower to get settled on target to the weak side. Reloads were smoking and consistent moving from one side to the other. Great confidence builder.

I also worked some anderson drills on targets that had no-shoots and hard cover, in an effort to train my eyes to focus on the A zone more.

[Airic]

Got some good opportunities to dryfire the last couple days over my "weekend". I am seeing some really good improvement on calling shots with the smaller targets I have been using. Worked some movement drills in, paper and simulated steel shots on the move w/ reloads.

I was struggling for a little while with the new dot gun. My sight pictures were not always there when I came up from the holster. I would have to move the dot to the target when I first came up on the sight picture. Did a little grip work, and worked my draws and I think its all smoothed out.

Feel like I am gonna put in a good performance at the next match sunday.

[Catfish]

can't wait to see the new blaster in person on Sunday!

[Airic]

Missed the match sunday because of work...again. Its disapointing to work hard in dryfire getting ready for a match, only to have the day off pulled from me the night before.

I am still in the process of reworking my dryfire schedule from my "winter" workout. The last two dryfire sessions have been short, focusing on a couple of places where I believe I am losing time during stages.