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Micah's Range Diary


Micah

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Happy Barrel Day!!!

My barrel was waiting for me when I got home, so I grabbed my gear and went to the range.

Matt Cheely did an amazing job working on this barrel! Whereas it would only eat my Zero bullet ammo, now it eats EVERYTHING! Moly, jacketed, 147, 124, hot, soft...everything.

In my haste to head to the range, I forgot to grab my belt and chrono, so I just worked the plate rack. My DA shots were missing initially, but I eventually got into a groove with reading the sights as they pertained to the grip angle. To practice this I would lower the hammer after every shot. Approximately 150 rounds were shot DAO, and I got to the point where I could not miss.

In SA mode, the gun is like a laser beam!

I will take my new Bayou Bullet loads, as well as my Zero major match ammo to the range tomorrow along with my freaking belt and chronograph. After getting some pf data, I plan on setting up a few drills and building more familiarity with my CZ in livefire. This is a great spot to thank justmike one more time for lending me his barrel so that I could dryfire the skin off my hands while waiting for my barrel to get back to me!

And seriously, if you buy a CZ, you need to send the barrel to Matt Cheely. For a few bucks, you can significantly improve the reliability of the feeding, and diversity the loads that you can use with your gun.

I didn't take any pictures today at the range, so here is me riding a kangaroo at a crappy mall this summer during a field trip:

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Even though it is freaking cold and raining, I still went to the range for some livefire action.

The bad:

-I COULD NOT get the chrono to work :( No matter what I did, it just glared at me like I was out of control. I shot many MANY rounds through it and it didn't read a damn thing. Get this, a BUTTERFLY zipped through and the chrono finally beeped. WTH man!

The good:

-I got to work on my DA from the draw. It was kinky at first, but I was able to smooth it out. I was jerking the trigger...something that was completely in my head and not my hands as I have dryfired the bluing off this thing already, and each one of those shots are DA.

-I am reading the sights better. On my G34, the front sight likes to be just a little lower in the notch, but with the CZ, the front sight likes to be a little bit higher.

-ZERO FEEDING ISSUES! This gun is COMPLETELY reliable, and after feeding it 900 rounds in 2 days, I have proved it to myself. Massive credit again to Matt Cheely for un-funking my barrel!

The ugly:

-In dryfire, I never have to remember to lower the hammer since all shots are from DAO. In livefire, I tried to remain conscious of lowering the hammer, but would either forget completely (a few times), or place the gun in my holster, and while my hand was still on it, would remember (frequently). This is the lamest way to dq in the history of USPSA (although I just saw a video from Nats that was WAYYYYYYY more lame of a dq :surprise: )! To combat this, I have left myself a few reminders on my starter mag:

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I FINALLY got to shoot my CZ in a match today! It was not my best match, but I acheived my goal of always remembering to lower the hammer at Make Ready. My reloading certainly needs a bit of polish, and I need to be able to trust the gun a bit more (it still feels foreign). I also hosed myself on a few poppers.

With the excellent weather that we are going to have here in Dayton, I will hit the range several times this week. Those livefire sessons in conjunction with the copious amounts of dryfire that I am doing daily should get me in decent shape for the IN SS/Prod/Revo match this Saturday.

Great squad today btw :) You guys (and gal) are a fun bunch :)

http://youtu.be/HN-EH8YlqMo

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AM and PM dryfire sessions today, as well as 400rds downrange. In the dryfire I am still hammering on the fundamentals: draw, reload, short and long transitions. On the range I focused more on what I needed to see to hit an A from 5 feet to 60 feet on both paper and plates.

Not much else to report for today. The Indi match and the Milford Monster match are essentially the capstones of the 2012 regular season. I will NOT take a sabbatical like the LONG break I took last year (September to February) this time around. My head is much clearer, and I am in a much better situation than I was a year ago. Instead of packing my gear up, I plan on working my ass off through the winter and spring.

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Well, it is official: I have shot/dryfired the color off my CZ. I'll take a pic of my poor gun after the two big weekend matches.

Tons of dryfire this week, plenty of plate racks and alphas shot on the range. Tomorrow I leave for the Indiana SS/Prod/Revo match, and I can honestly say that I did everything that I could to prepare with the new gun. I have one more dryfire session before work tomorrow before I pack it all up and head out.

Reloads and first shots were the things that I struggled with the most, and now I feel that they have smoothed out significantly in the past week. It makes me wear an evil grin to think of the gains that I will achieve over the 6 months between this last major match, and my first major of 2013.

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This has jack and squat to do with shooting, but I started a fundraiser for a center where I work that provides health services without cost to those in need. I'm not posting this to get donations here from the forums: rather to explain my bearded demeanor if you catch me at a match in the next month.

noshave.jpg

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What a fun match in Indiana today! Big props to all the staff, especially our traveling crew, that made this match rock :cheers:

I shot exceptionally controlled today as an experiment with my new gun. I had two penalties out of ten stages...not acceptable but livable. The Saturday results came out and the data proves:

(superconservative)(results)=notgood2

To further test this I will shoot tomorrow's match like a banshee.

One factor that enabled itself to the conservative shooting is my lack of familiarity with the gun. I had already accepted that I would not win this match shooting a new gun, but I was willing to take the hit to get the experience points before there were no more majors this season for me. The data and input collected was invaluable to forming my "off season" training. I did get some video and will get to trimming it up and posting it in a little while.

My main takeaways:

-Always remembered to lower the hammer at MR

-Shooting too conservatively is a losing strategy

-I need MUCH more trigger time with the CZ to build familiarity with the platform

Good luck to everyone shooting tomorrow!

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I forgot my headcam for the match today, but that is fine. These past two matches were simply a function of breeding more familiarity with the new gun, so showcasing film is extemporaneous.

Depending on the weather this next weekend, I may or may not have two club matches in my future. With the exception of an itch to play with my southern brothers, my season is effectively over, but my training has just begun. There is a mountain of knowledge that I have to gain in 5.5 months, even after shooting for ten years now.

As SA would say, it's time to get to work :)

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I forgot my headcam for the match today, but that is fine. These past two matches were simply a function of breeding more familiarity with the new gun, so showcasing film is extemporaneous.

Depending on the weather this next weekend, I may or may not have two club matches in my future. With the exception of an itch to play with my southern brothers, my season is effectively over, but my training has just begun. There is a mountain of knowledge that I have to gain in 5.5 months, even after shooting for ten years now.

As SA would say, it's time to get to work :)

Come getcha some!! cheers.gif

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A mod here, a mod there...I added the 85 Combat trigger and VZ grips to my CZ....the only problem is that now my trigger will not reset reliably. I am finished messing with it tonight (it is WAYYYYYYYYY past my bedtime). Hopefully someone on the forums will leave me with some wisdom (I think I installed the trigger spring incorrectly) and I can fit it tomorrow morning.

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In the mean time, I am bringing back hard core par times that they are going out of style! I realized that without them, I just kinda bebop along without any real emphasis on speed...which got me slammed at the IN match.

Also, I will stick with two dryfire sessions per day for now: before work I will focus on fine fundamentals such as draws and static reloads, shooting arrays with my feet planted, weak/strong hand stuff. In the afternoon it is all about movement...running and zigzagging all around the house, and all to par times. I'd post pix but my sleeping meds are calling me away........

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Once again, the forum delivers! After struggling with the trigger spring, several friends here steered me in the right direction:

LINKY

Fixing the problem ate away at my AM cardio time, but I still have time for yoga and some dryfire before work. I'll update with my thoughts on the new trigger and VZ grips. Thanks again for the assistance gents :cheers:

2012-11-01_05-11-25_928.jpg

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Just kidding. The problem came back. I tried the old trigger and had the same issue. J-tron looked at my cz and agreed that there is something binding in trigger area. Tonight I will scrub my gun clean and hope that fixes the issue.

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EK, I get up at 3:40 every morning. There is simply too much to get accomplished before I go to work! I usually go to bed before 9am but these past few days of working on my gun have kept me up wayyyyyyyyy later than I prefer.

Speaking of that, J-Tron called Stuart (yes, THE Stewart) and we tried some different things. After those, and giving the gun a complete tear-down and scrubbing, I believe that I have found the problem: The spring that lifts up on the trigger bar (the lt side to be more specific) is dragging and catching on the trigger bar. I am too tired to do anything about it tonight, but first thing tomorrow (at 3:50am EK!) I will smooth it out. If that doesn't work, then I may need a new spring and trigger bar.

Big thanks to J-Tron and BIG Stew for the information, time, and assistance :)

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Why didn't I spend every moment after work fixing my gun you ask? I had to travel to another city 45 minutes away to look at engagement pictures. I was not thrilled to leave my poor CZ incomplete, but once I got to the studio, I was instantly impressed:

Eng-25.jpg

Eng-39.jpg

Eng-42.jpg

Eng-58.jpg

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