Brazos SC Shooter

[Brazos SC Shooter]

The results from the IDPA match are in. Woo Hoo.

Nice Job!!

Thanks you Sunuva...

4/18/07

1 hr dry fire session - sight picture was really good today. It was probably one of my more consistent days. I have been repeating to myself, "It is like me to shoot all A's" and "It is like me to be smooth". I repeated that before the buzzer went off on all of my drills today. It really seemed to help. Thanks Lanny.

[markwilliston]

I'm still scared of the concept of having kids, but your little guy is AWESOME!

Any light at the tunnel for getting your Kimber back from NY? How are you finding your new toy?

Mark

[Brazos SC Shooter]

I'm still scared of the concept of having kids, but your little guy is AWESOME!

Any light at the tunnel for getting your Kimber back from NY? How are you finding your new toy?

Mark

I too was nervous about having kids, but it is the most amazing thing ever. It is tough in the beginning but so worth it.

There have been no new developments on the NY situation at this time. My lawyer finished up a trial last week and is just now getting to my case. He is still confident that I can get the charges dismissed but not so much on getting the gun back. Part of the reason is that as soon as they release it to me, I am again in violation of the law. I am going to fight like hell to get it back though.

As for the new Trojan, it runs like a sewing machine, unless I am messing with it.

The Brazos is about a week out.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/20/07

This was one of the only days I have missed doing any practice in a while. It felt really odd to not do anything at all. Unfortunately I had a very early meeting and then immediately after work I had to attend a licensing class from 6-10.

I did read more of Lanny's book and reviewed some of my match videos during conference calls.

I'll make it up on Sat & Sun.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/21/07

30 min dry fire - this was a really rough session. I practiced with my CDP rig but no concealment vest. I had trouble seeing my sights and I struggled beating any of my par times. I had more time to practice but I decided to take a break.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/23/07

1 hr Dry fire - I did an hour focusing just on table draws and variations on that theme. Table Draw 6 reload 6, Table Draw Bill Drills, etc.

I have really been struggling with my motivation the last few days. I am currently considering a career change and have been taking some positive steps to make that happen. I am not sure I want to continue working in the same capacity I have been. On the bright side, my career change would allow for more flexibility in my schedule which would facilitate more shooting and practicing, in addition to a better home/life balance.

Edited April 24, 2007 by Texas HK shooter

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/24/07

30 min on Elliptical

30 min dry fire

It felt good to get up and go through my morning routine. I haven't been paying close attention to my par times on my drills. I will decrease the times only if I notice I am getting a consistent sight picture with only A's and I am beating the buzzer on all reps for that drill. I was looking at my draw times (regular and surrender) this morning and I have been able to reduce them by 25%. I have only missed 4-5 days since I began this journey, so this progress has come in roughly 33 days. That makes me very happy.

This morning I also had a shift in my mind set when thinking about Nationals. Prior to now I was imagining how great it would be to go to Nationals and win my classification within Limited. I had never given real consideration to winning Limited given the number of amazing shooters there are and since I am barely a B shooter as it is. In reading Lanny's book I realized that if I can't picture it, how can I ever make it happen.

I have since revised my mantra to include a much larger picture for myself.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/25/07

1 hr dry fire - checked the par times on some additional drills and I am seeing small improvements in each. Every .10 counts.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/26/07

30 min Elliptical

30 min of dry fire

My shot calling is making improvements that I hadn't even realized.

I have made a modification to the way I do the Burkett reloads drill. I have my timer set up on repetitive mode with 2 seconds in between reps. During this time I am dry firing on 4 poppers, 6 plates and 3 metric targets. (1 shot on all steel and 2 on paper). I try to shoot as many targets as I can in that 2 seconds and then do the reload drill when the buzzer goes off.

There were several times today I took a shots at the poppers and with out thinking about it I took a make up shot because I "knew" I missed the first one. It was an incredible feeling. I didn't have to think, "I missed, now you have to take a second shot." My brain saw the clear and told my finger to shot again, before it ever registered in my conscious mind.

135 days until Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/27/07

1 hr dry fire - nothing really to note from this session. Reloading was smooth and I continue to see improvements in par times on my drills.

134 days until Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/28/07

I received my copy of Steve's new book yesterday. Have read most of the non-drill section. There is some really good information so far. The information is great. I like the fact that he has taken some wonderful words of wisdom and summarized them in to their most saliant pieces.

I haven't gotten to dry fire due to my crazy "new career" preparation. I am doing some mental rehearsing.

133 days till Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/29/07

1hr 15min of Dry Fire - pretty casual session. I was catching up on Soprano episodes this evening and doing basic sight picture, table draws and reloads.

132 days till Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

4/30/07

30 min on elliptical

30 min dry fire

I have done a ton of dry fire this month but I have not been able to shoot as many competitions or live fire as much as I had hoped. I am really looking forward to shooting this weekend so that I can see how the dry fire practicing is helping.

131 days until Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

5/1/07

The long wait is over. I picked up my new Brazos today. Unfortunately I did not have time to shoot it today, but I will tomorrow at lunch.

1 hr dry fire - tonight's session was spent making the transition to the new position of my equipment. There is plenty to do between now and Saturday to get into the Limited mindset. The first thing I noticed was the difference in weight from my HK with 10 rounds and this one with 20. I will be focusing a good amount of time on my reloads. Apparently I was not seating the magazine hard enough and it fell out on me many times during my session tonight.

I promised I would not Dremel, polish or sand anything on this gun and I will continue to keep that promise. I did work on some "cosmetics". I took out the sodering iron and went to work on the grip to rough it up. It feels great.

I would post pictures but my youngest decided to see if Daddy's camera could bounce with the lens out. Sure enough, it doesn't.

130 days until nationals

Edited May 2, 2007 by Texas HK shooter

[Brazos SC Shooter]

5/2/07

30 min - elliptical - cranked it up to 11 and my legs are feeling it. I was not getting the kind of cardio I was looking for and it was clear I wasn't pushing hard enough.

30 min - dry fire - this went much better than last night. I think it is just a bumpy transition from production rig and equipment position to Limited. I went from a DOH to a Ghost holster and am very pleased so far.

2 hrs - live fire - I spent most of the time working on sight picture with a single shot freestyle, weak and strong hand. I did draw 2 reload 2 just trying to get it all smooth. I am really looking forward to this weekends match.

I will update this link later with my range report of the in Limited blaster.

Range Report

129 days until nationals

Edited May 3, 2007 by Texas HK shooter

[Brazos SC Shooter]

5/3/07

45 min - dry fire

Still working on adjusting to the new equipment and the location of my magazines. I have spent a lot of time with my production set up so it is going to take sometime to retrain my muscle memory. The key will be to see what happens on Saturday while on the clock. I think this will be better than my transition challenges a couple of month's ago at Rayners. I have made much more progress both physically and mentally with my shooting since then so I don't think it will be an issue.

128 days until Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

5/4/07

30 min - elliptical

1hr 15 min - dry fire

Reloads are the name of the game right now. I am having periodic problems getting the mag to seat all the way. It takes a little more effort with 20 rounds than it did in my HK with 10. Needless to say I am trying to avoid an embarassing moment at tomorrow's match. On the bright side I am able to catch the magazine as it falls out doing anything unsafe.

127 days until Nationals

Edited May 4, 2007 by Texas HK shooter

[Mick]

How many dry fires in 1 hour , 15 minutes?

I went and shot plates today for an hour and a half...

Shot 500 rounds....

Dry fire only goes so far!

[Brazos SC Shooter]

How many dry fires in 1 hour , 15 minutes?

I went and shot plates today for an hour and a half...

Shot 500 rounds....

Dry fire only goes so far!

I certainly appreciate that live fire is required. It isn't always available. My dry fire practice in 1 hr 15 min results in about 300 repetitions. As a subset of that there are roughly 160 reloads.

I have basics I am still trying to engrain and this works for me.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

5/5/07

15 min Dry Fire

Circleville Match - I had a great match today. I didn't shoot a clean match but I felt really good about the following;

1. My mental state was probably the best to date. One thing that jumped out as really obvious was how I stayed positive the whole match. There were a couple of stages were I had to take several extra shots to hit some steel plates. In the past I would curse while still shooting or say something negative during or after the stage. I didn't do that today. It wasn't how I planned to shoot the stage but I didn't let it affect me.

2. Awareness - In the past once the buzzer went off there wasn't much going on mentally. I wasn't present enough to recognize where I have taken extra shots an then how it was going to affect where I would reload to stay on my plan. This is something I have to pay closer attention to since my new Brazos has the slide stop disabled. On one stage my gun doubled on the second shot on a target, I was supposed to reload after the target AFTER this one. However, I recognized the extra shot and knew that would put with an empty gun and the slide forward if I engaged the next target. There was a transition across a hall between these two and I performed my reload during that transition.

3. Game Plan - Before all stage but one I had burned my game plan into my mind and as a result all stages went as expected. Even on those stages where extra shots were needed I was able to keep things moving.

I also want to thank Flyin40 for his help in laying out stage plans. His is great about finding those small time wasting areas and offering suggestions to eliminate them.

4. Draws & Reloads - I have felt like I have made a lot of progress on this with my Dry Fire practice. They were both smooth and clean all day. We had two stages with table draws and the practice on this skill make this a non issue on match day.

Areas to improve

visual patience / calling my shots - I am still shooting as soon as I see paper and it is not always in the A zone. I notice I focus on the front site in practice but my focus moves out to the targets more so in matches. I know the only way to make to M or GM is with this skill. I have moments when I do this but it is not 100% of the time.

Lastly, the Brazos SC ran like a champ. I can't tell you how nice it was to shoot with this gun. I had no jams, FTF or FTE. I love this gun and would recommend this gun to anyone who is considering buying a limited gun.

126 days until Nationals

Edited May 6, 2007 by Texas HK shooter

[Mo Hepworth]

aside from the weight differences, do you find you can really get a wicked reload with the Brazos custom.........i find I don't have to be as precise with my mag changes in my Edge. Just basically throw it in. Unless you really need 20 rds, (Everything in Canada is L10 ), I would try taking out one round. Unless you really need the extra round, it would make the reload not as hard to push in to engage the mag catch. (ie: 24rd stage is going to require a mag change somewhere, if you time the mag change correct, don't need more than 18-19rds for mag used for the reload)

[Brazos SC Shooter]

aside from the weight differences, do you find you can really get a wicked reload with the Brazos custom.........i find I don't have to be as precise with my mag changes in my Edge. Just basically throw it in. Unless you really need 20 rds, (Everything in Canada is L10 ), I would try taking out one round. Unless you really need the extra round, it would make the reload not as hard to push in to engage the mag catch. (ie: 24rd stage is going to require a mag change somewhere, if you time the mag change correct, don't need more than 18-19rds for mag used for the reload)

Yes, my reloads are definately faster and for the same reasons you mentioned. In production there is just no room for error, you either hit it or you don't. I shot Bob an email asking him about the break in period and he suggested the same thing. In yesterday's match I would load a round with the barney mag, then put in a magazine with 20 since I could make sure it was seated before I began. I then had all other magazines loaded with 19. I didn't have a single missed reload all day.

I certainly appreciate all of the helpful tips from everyone as I learn how to operate my new equipment.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

5/6/07

1 hr dry fire - Today's session was great. It was a beautiful day here in Central Ohio, so I broke out the hammer and saw and built two 3 x 3 boxes and practiced shooting on the move outdoors. I was combining my dry fire with my cardio and had the boxes 10 yrds out from the targets and 8 yrds apart and ran between them like wind sprints. It is one thing to wind it up for a run in a match and totally different to do it 15-20 times in a row for practice. I need more cardio work.

The match results are in from yesterday. I am very pleased with the results. Check it. Second in Limited and 1st for the B shooters is my best finish in USPSA to date. I had two stage wins and I am very happy about that too. Hunter beat me by 45 points. He is a very good shooter and this was our first time to be in the same division. We have shot against each other in IDPA before but not in this game. I would love to blame it on my four misses and one NS but we had the same amount.

All in all I can't complain. My state of mind was much better than any previous match, my stage plans went almost exactly as I had visualized before stepping to the line, and my over all finish was my best to date. I am clearly making progress and that makes me even more motivated to practice. It might not be happening as fast as I would like but it is happening.

125 days until Nationals.

Edited May 7, 2007 by Texas HK shooter

[Brazos SC Shooter]

5/7/07

1 hr Dry Fire - I had hoped to do my morning workout outdoors but it is still too dark at 5:30am to move outside just yet. I will try to squeeze some additional time outside in the evenings. If the soreness in my legs is any indication, the sprinting from box to box is going to be helpful.

124 days until Nationals.

[Brazos SC Shooter]

5/8/07

1 hr dry fire - I continue to work on making my reloads solid. I am still adjusting to the new equipment. These were perfect in my match this last weekend. I think that it shows up in practice since I am probably pushing my limits. Tonight I spend some time on 2 reload 2. Over the course of 20 minutes I was able to push myself and I decreased my time by nearly a full second. Of course this is not likely the time I would pull cold but it was fun pushing the envelope.

123 days until Nationals.