JimmyZip

[JimmyZip]

Today was the first time this year that I have been out to practice at the range. I just got the key on the 16th and since I have some post-op days left the rest of the week I thought that I would get out and get cooking.

I geared up and did thirty minutes of dry fire drill. Half on presentation, drawing slow and deliberate and building speed as the fifteen minutes came to a close. Draw, sight picture, squeeze, reholster, repeat.

The second half on reloads in front of the plate rack, sight and squeeze on three, reload, sight and squeeze on three.

Then grouping and testing my new loads. They are snappy and I really like them.

I just worked the plate rack today and kept to bay 5 like a hermit. I did all sorts of drills starting each slow and building my speed as it came naturally. I'm still a little funky in the head after surgery and my face is still tender, so I was just letting it flow at a natural and not rushed pace.

I paid careful attention to track my sights. I finally can see where they go up and slightly left. It is wierd because I can see them fall back into the notch and they come right back to almost dead center.

The more I watched it and focused on the front sight and timed my shots in a calm way, it felt good. When I wanted to speed up, I would break the shot in cunjunction to when the front sight was just almost perfect. It didn't have to really stop dead because it seems to come back to the same place and I trusted it to just be there. The visual inputs seem to tell me when I am off and I now know how it is that you just "know" when you have missed.

So I loaded six in my mags each and would work the plate rack from 10, 15, 20, and 25 yards until I was consistently hitting a straight string from each distance.

Then I went back to 15 and practiced three, reload three until I wasn't missing, then at 20, then at 25. Was getting close to time to leave so I finished the last 50 rounds or so with grouping on the back of an IPSC target oldschool three shot groups marking with a pen, and was getting a 3 1/2 to 4" group size average. I don't know if I will tighten that up until I get off the Powerful Antibiotics I'm on. They make me a little shakey and do affect my acuuracy a little. We'll see next week. Heck I cold come out early Thursday and work in the house for fun, yeah might try that we'll just have to see whatever happens.

Time to bring out my poppers and just keep them and my steel in the truck and catch the range after work on Thursdays or Tuesdays.

[tightloop]

Sounds like you have a good plan..stick to it..

[JimmyZip]

Got ot the range early today. Once again I set up in bay 5 This bay is about 60 yds long and twenty wide, my little hovel.

I started with presentatios and reloads for fifteen minutes each. I breath and just do this to relax. I woiuld sure like to do this before I compete as it does something to me. As I start slow and build up speed gradually, it seems to turn on my shooting part of my brain.

Plate rack today but only from distances greater than 25 yds. I really like this because it was teaching me to consistently squeeeze the trigger. I think that I could slow it down some the next match and just work on smooth and easy. Right now I want to be accurate. I know that may not get me advanced bu, as I'm not even classed as of yet, it might be good to be on target as high a percantage of the time as possible. I have won small steel matches being far from the fastest, but just the most accurate that day.

My reloads are getting better. I need a par timer and a better belt so that my draws will get smoother. Right now I am having trouble with my belt and that is going to become a limiting factor.(I guess it already is if I'm having problems)

No grouping as I had to leave early. I don't think I'll shoot these loads in matches. Need to burn up this lead and buy some jacketed, but for practice, hey they'regreat.

I think that I will start doing my dryfire at the range with targets and poppers that are life size. and real distances. I also like to dry fire as I live fire. I think that it works well to prevent flinching and promotes fluidity. So now I'll just do them like that as to recreate the same experience one way or the other.

Funny thing is I didn't feel great today, but after shooting, things were good.

[JimmyZip]

Daughter was sick today, so I bundled her up and brought her along to reset the platerack.

Bay four this time as the platerack on five has a habit of dropping the third plate from the left on its own.

Presentations and reloads once again. This time time was a factor and so I split 15 minutes in half, presentations and reloads, then 10, 15, 25 on the rack until I was relatively fluid. when I felt good at that I made a drill that was fun and difficult.

Starting at 25, draw, engage two, move to 15 reloading on move, engage two, reload on move and engage last two at 10. Did this the remainder of practice. Was able to improve by the eleventh drill by hitting all plates on the first shot and reload smoothly without hiccups.

I am really seeing that you can feel it when you call your shots. There are finite clues in you sight picture that tell you almost intuitively that that shot is a flier. I hate that feeling and I love it. Hate to feel it , love that it helps me make a shot up quickly before relying on sound or target movement.

Now I need to weld up some target stands for cardboard targets. I think seven will be good as I can set them up in the house and with the poppers I have, I can practice more intricately.

It was fun to have my girl there. She was my starter and target resetter. The cable to reset the plate rack is 30 yds. long and she was able to stay out of danger, but still be part of the fun. When I told her it was time to leave, she wasn't too happy. I need to get the rear sights on her 10/22 fixed so that we can get her some trigger time.

All in all, a good range day. Need to dryfire and livefire more. Loads are good, and I am happy with them.

[JimmyZip]

Back to competition, first time in a looong time. Today was the USPSA match at Palm Springs Gun Club.I was squaded with the match directors and several great guys. I wish that IPSC had been this way back in the day. I am all for high round count run and gun. This has bitten me hard. If you ever get discouraged about dryfire and practice, you need to go shoot a match.

That was just about the most fun I've had ever. I did well for a newbie until I got to the classifier where I promptly choked! I failed to seat the magazine on LMR and drew and fired on an empty chamber. This threw a 48" wrench into my game plan and I proceeded to get a procedural, two or three mikes and several other things that I've forgotten or chose to forget selectively. Needless to say, if I had shot the rest of the match as poorly as the classifier, I may have had a worse time. But being a newbie to this angle on practical shooting I feel that my feloads and draws were good and that I was able to move and shoot well for my level of proficiency.

I just want to thank Chris and Hartman for putting on a good match and for being such good hosts. They are great people and I will be back next month.

Shooting steel is fun, SC is cool, Stock Gun and Speeding Zone also, but the IPSC match at PSGC ROCKS!

Now, planning on practicing strong-hand and weak-hand only on Thursday. The qualifier has shown me my major weakness and I want to push to plug up that hole in my game.

To all of you who have given me humble and sage advice, I want to say thank you and thanks for giving me a place to inquire about this sport without fear of ridicule.

Like Merlin Orr has said, "I love you guys."

[JimmyZip]

Bay 4 again with the plate rack. This time I e-mailed a fellow shooter who I really think has a good attitude and he showed up. This was to say the least the best practice I have had yet.

I practiced for a half an hour before he arrived on draws, first shots, reloads, and weak hand. I seem to be improving with the first three, but not doing the greatest with the last. So I shot sveral hundred as a southpaw until my hand was dead tired.

When shooter #2 showed up with his timer, we did Virginia count timed drills from the 10, 15, 20, and 25 until it was getting dark

Drill #1 was clear the rack at the starting signal. Two strings one left to right, the other plates 1, 6, 2, 5, 3, 4.

Drill#2 was draw and fire once at the signal. Do that six times from each distance.

Drill #3 was Draw and fire from about 35 yards. This was showing me that I need to re-sight my pistol for about 25yd.

Did I do good? Well let me just say that I need to spend more time dryfiring and more time livefiring. Still, it was fun and educational.

Thanks Dennis for showing up and being a pusher when I needed it. Chris, I hope you get out there next Thursday and we can put up some different things to really tune it up for this months match.

JZ

[JimmyZip]

It's been a month since I last posted here, many things have changed.

I've been riding to get back in shape. I ride 22.6mi every evening except Thursday. That averages out to about 135mi a week. It has helped me sleep better and is helping me get the belly down.

Just got my own timer and have been practicing my dryfire three times a week using Stve Andersons first book. Well, I can now say that I am really doing it now FINALLY! And WOW! After 40 to 45 minutes I am shaky. Is this the norm for you others out there? I will get more info like times and such when I take the time to copy them from the logs.

What I will say is that I never really devoted time like this to dryfire where I was consistent. It does take energy, but it sure feels good to feel the familiarity beginning to build in how I look at the sights. It also has helped me see things you people talk about all the time like snapping your eyes to the next target first. It is beginning to fell very natural to look down the sights. Funny how awkward it felt last year when I look at it in hindsight, I thought that it felt natural, but it was nothing compared to now.

[JimmyZip]

Had a long and fun range session today.

Bay 5, platerack. Draws, first shot, transitions, strong-hand only, weakhand only, reloads, and finally groups.

At 25 yds, my groups are right in the 3" range. I can probably get them down but I am hitting in practice so I'm not exactly unhappy about it.

I was getting tired and decided to put the new rifle through some 250 yd practice. Ran shot-shot-reload-shot shot to get used to the magazines. What a blast! The thing that amazed me is that for such a short weapon, the SOCOM has good pointability and returns to target fairly quick.

After about 100 rds of that it was time to go home. Boy do rifles get hot! That thing was still hot when I got home 45 minutes later.

One good thing about todays session is that I can now regularly track my sights as I shoot. It doesn't matter what load I am using, I can consistently track them. They go up and to the right just slightly. If I am shooting fast (for me that is) it helps to time shots as I can take the next shot as soon as the front sight hits level. Feels cool when I am clearing the plate rack. I can do it strong hand only also but not weak hand.

My weak hand SUCKS! If any of you know of some good drills for the weak hand let me know. I think that I will begin to train weakhand from the beginning like I learned to shoot strong hand. I'm going to bring a 38 revolver to the range and shoot weak-hand DA only for a hundred rounds a session. Does dry fire hurt revolvers?

I also re-sighted my pistol in today. I found that it was hitting high at 25 yds. I put it on at 30 yds and found its track up to 10 yds. That seemed to help my accuracy and made the sight picture that I use almost as on as I've ever been. It felt good today to seem to be getting back together with my pistol like an old friend. But my pistol was telling me things that I need to work on.

WEAK HAND! RELOADS!

That's all for now, thanks, JZ

[JimmyZip]

Reloads!

Again and again and I'm finally getting better. What I've noticed is that if I cant the gun a little bit more toward the center as the new mag is coming up, I miss the reload alot less! I'm not consistent but I am improving. I am just really getting to where I can feel how a good one is supposed to feel. It is only after you do anything well alot of times that you can tell what is right and what is wrong using more than visual inputs.

I found that I need to practice with pulling the fresh mag from each position on my belt. I was getting good with it from the first, but found that I was horrible from any other. More practice and it is getting better.

I found that I liked the grip I had after hitting a reload better than my draw. Found the way it felt in my head. Practiced drawing to that "feel" and found my sight picture was coming up better. This may sound funny but I can't remember feeling this close to a firearm in years. It's like I'm getting to know this little thing quite well. My hands are getting more and more comfortable just handling and pointing.

Someone here has a tagline "Smooth is fast." That is definitely true for me. I find that my best times on both is when I run at what I feel is about 80% of max, and really try and let it flow.

One bright thing is I found that I reload better on the move. Is that weird? Somehow if I'm moving I flub the reload less often.

Anyway, it seems like I got worse at first. When I was just shooting and not thinking, I was able to hit better, but not move well. Then I started to pay attention to other things and my accuracy started to wane.

I shot alot of groups, dryfired more regularly, and am seeing more improvement. I am eager to shoot this months match and see where I stand. It would seem that as I get comfortable again, I will find my rythm and see gains.

Thanks,JZ

[JimmyZip]

Back to the grind!

I have been studying for my contractors liscense and my guns were at Barsto, so it's been awhile since I did regular practice. Ive been dryifiring three times a week going into my third week straight. Working on changing my grip and stance has been a challenge to say the least. I am glad though that trigger control seems to be a non-issue at this point.

Going to Iso from Weaver is what opened up the can of worms as far as grip is concerned. If you think about it it really makes sense as the whole push-pull thing really centers around grip. Imprinting the "feel" of the 70%-30% grip has improved sight tracking. They no longer move to the right, but rather straight up and down.

For some reason, this has changed everything! Now my reloads are going to need work too as they seem to have been affected also. Looking the mag into the gun and turning the wagwell 45degrees in front of my face has made this transition bearable. The hardest thing for me at this moment is slowing down to speed up. If I try roo hard, I actually slow down. So I do alot of this practice in slow motion, and then slowly speed it up. This seems to be helping.

Once I can get my presentations, grip, stance, reloads, transitions smooth in dryfire, I'll feel better.

When I live-fire I have been "Running the X". this consists of scratching an X (actually an hourglass) onto the ground of the plate bay. On the start signal, I draw and move along the legs of the X clearing the plate rack halfway, reloading and finishing the rack. Then, I reset the rack and repeat for another of the legs, the top, and bottom legs too. When I have done that a few times, I go to the center of the X and shoot weakhand. This is my current drill du jour. It covers everything that I feel weakest on and is fun to boot. When this gets easy, and I mean EASY, I think I will move on to entry/exit, prone, ports, and more.

Ben Stoeger gave out a good tip after the Nationals about practicing grabbing your mags in the back too when practicing reloads. Thanks Ben as this has made reloading more interesting. I carry four and one in the gun. I grab them in order and this has helped with the fumbling of that fourth mag. The angle is different, maybe I need to move them forward a bit. Just a thought. Well I"m rambling now, gonna go workout, thanks.

Jimmy

[JimmyZip]

Today I concentrated on one thing. My grip. Now I was PRACTICING many things. But my focus was on one thing, my grip. In that way I was able to clear a platerack in 4.5 seconds. That is not fast for some, but for me that is as fast as I can see the sights right now. (that is if I don't concentrate on the sights, but just see them)

This is the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. This is the most addictive thing I have ever done in my life. Right now I am kind of buzzing on this. I just burned about 500 rounds, called my pusher ( private component guy down the street) and asked for another 1000 'cause I got an all classifier to shoot on the 14th, and I need some more. Just praying the Yellowmart (local gun/shooter/hunter-friendly sporting goods store) has them so I can get there first thing in the morning and get some powder and primers. And I'm gonna clean the kitchen super clean tonight after I put the kide to bed, so I can go out and dry-fire without any disturbances.

What have I become?

Back to the shooting. My weakhand is improving, but needs improvement. I think that Monday I will devote a whole 3/4 of my range time to my weakhand. That might give me a look into what I can do to improve it. Sometimes, although dryfire has it's place, putting lead through paper or on steel tells you things about your shooting that , to me anyway, dryfire can't totally do.

Gotta run and put the kids to bed, clean that kitchen and get to dryfiring.

P.S. LE Agencncy was out at the range yesterday, MP5s left the bay covered in 9mm brass. I walked out of that session up 1000 pcs at least. I love those guys. they have really helped me out this year. I think that I have enough brass to last even next year. that and all those guys that just leave their brass. I guess some days it actually pays to shoot!

[JimmyZip]

Another day of dryfiring. Getting ready for the 14th and the 28th.

Some things I tried today, drawing to a far target. No kids home today and none in the house behind us. (Teen aged kids behind us, don't need them to see I have guns. They are trouble.) So I put a target, ine 8" disc, one IPSC metric.

I drew, two and two, reload, two and two, reload, until all my mags were through the gun.

Remounting to Iso is just starting to get natural. It feels normal now, and if I get Weaver, I feel icky like I just can't beleive it. Even my Iso, as it gets sloppy as I tire, is feeling better than my Weaver.

Another thing was transitioning to targets of varying distances. I could feel my eyes getting tired. I don't even have eye problems, but after what must have been fifteen minutes of that I felt like I'd been driving for hours.

I was kind of tired with that, so I just worked reloads for another ten minutes. I will go out tonight and reload for tomorrow. Burn the last of my 231 and 125s at practice tomorrow. Make some new loads and take them with me for tomorrows practice and find what works. Wed. I will load for the match, and dryfire, Thursday I will do my last Pre-Match practice. Friday I will Dryfire, and Saturday I will take it easy and rest up. I'm getting butterflies. I will do my best.

I am getting low on funds. I might have to take it easy on shooting until I get through with getting my license and start up more when I get a few jobs in the books. Wont quit though. This thing is getting serious.

[JimmyZip]

Welll I did my last dryfore before tomorrow. I will leave early and get to the range to look over the stages. Looks like a good match. They published the calssifiers and I tried to touch on the essentials that seemed to be covered without actually using the stage layout. This way, I will be testing myself on my abilities, and not just those particular stages.

I will report tomorrow before I go to bed. I am tired and I will sleep like a rock tonight.

[JKSNIPER]

Good luck Jimmy.

JK

[JimmyZip]

Well'

I was too beat to post before bed Sunday, but here goes.

They took out the "Lefty's Revenge" stage that I was looking forward to and the results were mixed. I think I will start out as a low C class this year when all is said and done. I took the four highest scores and averaged them and that gave me 50.66. Am I right? That being the case, I look forward in 09 to making B.

This stuff is hard when you get down to it. It takes time and money, and while I can usually find a buck or two for ammo, and range fees, time seems to be the most rare of commodities. That being the case, I dryfire about three times a week in the garage at 4AM. So while some are sleeping, I am trying to improve.

Jim Parma, if you're out there, I'm aiming to be competetive with you! You're a good shooter and I want to achieve that level at least! (Jim is an instructor with the Pheonix P.D. and a hoot to shoot with.)

So weaknesses?

1. EVERYTHING! First shot percentages, first shot after transitions, going sight blind in the middle of a stage, forgetting the sequence of procedures, WEAK HAND ANYTHING, the list can go on.

Strengths?

1. My reloads, thank practice are around 1-1.5 and usually smooth.

That's it. I see work to be done, and will get my ass out there to improve. I hope to see some of you in the coming year if possible. Take care and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Jimmy

[JimmyZip]

I have been dryfiring regularly lately. I put some fast and strong sounds on my iPod shuffle and just let her rip. I found that my reloads are getting so much smoother and my entrance and exits are taking less time. I have a garage door with lots of squares on it. I practice going in and out with reloads on the move and static. I can even do reloads by feel only without looking the mag into the gun. (Is this a good idea if I can do it consistantly?)

I really like to dryfire. I like to do it until I am getting burn in my shoulders and forearms from so many reps. My draw and index are just now getting to places I feel happy with. Content? No, but getting respectable. What I am finding is that this is seriously helping out in the weak-hand departmant. I am still slow there, but improving solidly and steadily because when you work those muscles and coordinate hand/eye movement, they are just bound to get better and better.

Great sounds for dryfire are Van Halen, and AC/DC. Definitely anything with explosive guitar parts, even Motley Crue's Jumpstart My Heart is a good one.

My timer took a dive and so far I haven't really missed it. I have been enjoying just paying attention to visual accuity and feeling smooth in trasitions/reloads/draws/strong-hand to weak-hand transfers.

Another funny thing is that I usually dryfire in the garage where the lighting is less than optimal. Now when I go to the range, my all black sights are so clear. I can see clearly the serrations and everything.

The even cooler thing is the amount of confidence you get with practice. I am no longer intimidated by this thing, but rather challenged and curious. I get that question in my head when I see a really good shooter doing something that I cannot do yet. Instead of saying whoa how will I ever be able to do that, I find myself thinking if I practiced that more, i should be able to do that. That has been a big shift for me.

Now though, with all the dryfire, I am starting to get really bummed waiting for the next local shoot. With all that we are doing around here it is near impossible to shoot more than the monthly match. So by the time the end of the month comes, I am so ready to just shoot the thing.

Well, with all that is happening with the economy and all, I have stocked and am stocking up on as many components as I can in order to shoot through the tough times if possible. That is another thing that can bum me out if I let it. It would be sad if it got to where I couldn't shoot anymore. I hope things get better

One last thing. The more you get used to seeing your sights on targets at different ranges, the less guess work and more "feel" it seems to place into your head when you are aiming. I am getting good at just "knowing" what they are supposed to look like at varous ranges. It is a good thing for sure.

Just another step. Wanna get C, then B, then A, then M, then GM.

[JimmyZip]

Reading that last post boy, things have changed.

I just got a new pistol. (New to me) and I have been just dryfiring with it for the last few days.

I am just getting comfortable with the controls. Of the pistols that I wanted to try, it had the best controls to me. ( Closest to my HiPower, just bigger.) It is a Tactical Sports model in .40. It feels different.

The good things are that it is easily pointable. After only about 20 minutes, it felt like the sights were just there.

The grips are going to be touch and go for a while. The HiPower is a small pistol, I have small hands for a 6'4" person. While I can reach the controls easily, the roomy feel of the grips is weird after a reload. I find it but it's still burning in.

What I did notice is that I am kind of going back a bit. I am doing pesentations and ElPrez slowly, building slowly. I am trying to get that smoothness factor down. It feels strange to relearn something you were just getting down in the first place. Better now than two years from now.

I asked my wife to try the HiPower. She said okay, so I hope it's small enough for her. Then I wont have to buy her a pistol should she decide she likes it.

Let's see where we are in a month and I have some reloads out the barrel, and I can shoot this thing in a match.

ETA: One thing I think maybe some people might find enlightning (or maybe not) if they are newbies is the difference between major and minor.

There is the scoring aspect, then there is the weight issue.

The guy shooting minor has an advantage in the wieght of his gun/mags /ammo. Lighter is easier to manipulate. (I think anyway) I found it amazing the difference between my HP mags over the TS mags. Holy moley! I crashed and burned so many reloads when I loaded them up with dummy rounds. I will never dryfire with an empty reload mag again! My belt feels heavier. At least this year I have a little less belly to hang over it!

Gotta get more bullets!

Edited April 25, 2009 by JimmyZip

[JimmyZip]

Since i got this pistol I have been dryfiring alot. Every night for at least an hour. I have been striving to find the comfort with the new platform and it is finally showing up. This is really satisfying as I was beginning to have doubts.

Doubts are for pu$$*#!

The things that seems to make things work better, and I know it will sound funny to some, is the words GRIP and BUTTON.

When I want to see my front sight clearly and shoot like I want to , I think about grip. I just say the word GRIP in my head and I find the draw smoother and the sights come up and are just where I want them.

When I reaload, I think BUTTON and I do not fail to either eject the magazine nor seat the new one fully.

If I become distracted and lose these words in my head and start to think about what I am doing, I start to flounder.

GRIP, BUTTON.

I really need to replace my timer. I will do my best to find one this next month as I have blown the wad on primers and bullets.

I will be setting up the press for 40 this weekend. (tonight) I hope to shoot next weekend and the following weekend. I want to put in some decent classifiers and move up by January.

We shall see.

[JimmyZip]

Went to the range to try out this pistol.

I really like this pistol. It shoots better than I do for sure. The trigger is definitely sweet, and I just smiled as I shot the plates over and over again. Sweet!

This pistol fits my week hand better. I had the best time ever shooting weekhand today. So much so that I said the next range session I have, I will be shooting alot of weekhand. The ergonomics of the design just allow me to aim better with the weakhand than my HiPowers do.

Practicing stronghand was great too. I think all the dryfire is helping with just getting the sights on the target without effort.

If you practice something to where it becomes natural and smooth, it is at this point you can really start to push. I am at that point where I am starting to get that excitement again. I am getting confident with the pistol, it feels really cool.

Thanks Jeff on a sweet deal on this great pistol.

Jimmy

[JimmyZip]

Wow!

This was a terrible day at the range today. I shot the PID and I think I missed more, and shot the worst I have EVER!

I was not tracking the sights with any regularity.

Memory stages? What memory?

I was not planning my stages worth a damn.

I was having ammo problems.

I was having issues with my magazines.

I drove home in silence for an hour and a half trying to figure out what the hell I have been doing thes past 12 months and questioning my abilities.

Then, as I got near home, I realized my home range was right on the way home. I rolled into the range about 45 minutes before sun down. THE WHOLE RANGE WAS SET UP FOR TOMORROWS STEEL MATCH! I was totally jazzed and set about turning one bay into my personal shooting gallery.

I was tracking my sights with ease and clarity.

I was hitting very well moving forward and backwards, left to right.

I was reloading with ease and smoothly.

This put the wind in my sails once again, and helped me figure some things out.

I need to adjust my OAL.

I need to lube that damn gun when I clean and use it.

I need to practice more.

I need to learn to walk and jog before I run.

Just because you used to do something with ease does not mean you can now.

I need to practice more.

I am hoping that by practicing more, I will "become one with the gun."

So all in all a learning experience. I will sleep well.

Jimmy

[JimmyZip]

Since my last entry, I have got my pistol and ammo and mags going strong. I can practice and not think about anything other than shooting.

Went to the range today. I had the best time practicing that I ever have. I finally built some target stands and bought a box of targets and tape from MGM. I must say that this has been the best investment in my shooting besides my pistol, and timer.

I set up targets in ports and practiced far targets (A-zone sized steel @ 41 yds) and sets of three partials inside two ports on the opposite side of the bay. I ran it with unloaded start from a table, hit exposed steel, run to wide open target on right, then move left engaging as I see them. (That would be the two ports with three partials each) with reload between ports.

I then set up the same scenario, but exchanged the wide open on right with one of the partials from the ports.

I found that going into a port, I was pulling or pushing the fist shot on the first target to the outside. If I was running to the left, I was breaking the shot too early, If it was from the right, it was too early. This is something I need to work on. Patience without being too cautious.

it was getting better as the practice wore on. By the end I was getting all my hits.

Despite 106 degrees and high humidity, this was my best practice ever. I just ran it slowly till I felt comfortable. I took my time taping between every string to think about what I saw, and what I needed to see the next time to get better hits. It worked well. I had decent hits and speed going into the practice, and I had a little better speed and alot better hits at the end.

Seeing what you need to see is really a precise concept. At 41 yds, you need to see it all, you can't rush it. At 7 yds, you can get away with more. You still can't rush, but it is alot easier for me to get those As at 7 than at 41.

I am comfortable with my reloads, they work, not blazing, but I didn't miss one at all. I did miss a load at the start though because I put my mag on the table backwards. Yeah, that didn't work.

So I'm gonna keep up the schedule I have of three nights a week dryfire, and once a week livefire,and see where that gets me this season with the classifiers. I hope I don't get too excited and blow them. We'll see.

JimmyZip

[Jadeslade]

I just read this whole diary. Keeps me inspired to keep working. I keep my steel and stuff in the truck, too. Keep it going.

[JimmyZip]

Feel ready to go today. Loaded up the truck with all my gear, new timer, targets, paint, stapler, water, shade hat, mucho ammo. I got this day off, three hours to rip it up. I will report back when I am finished.

[JimmyZip]

So,

This new timer is great! It is a pocket Pro. It is easy to use, and I can work with it and not futz around trying to find things. It is easy and just plain works.

Like last practice, I worked on movement in and out of ports with tight no-shoots and nothing static. I made mandatory reloads between ports, and interspersed my own practice poppers. (These are 6" and I put them out at 25yds.)

The Start was hands at sides, and a partila with three poppers. the partial is at 10yds, the poppers are at 15, 20 and 25yds, one of which you had to shift a foot left to see. Then you moved right to left past two ports with two standards covered tight with NS. The you ended with a close partial at the end of the building with a popper at 25 yds to its right. This is a total of 16 rounds moving 17-20 yds right to left.

My first run was 29.25 with several misses on the steel to knock down the first two, and all As on paper.

After seven runs, I was 19.35 with all As and one miss on the first target to knock it down. All As on paper.

this took me a while as I taped after each run, and set up steel and reloaded mags.

I ran Bill Drills for the last five minutes of practice. Very enlightening. You can really see what you can get away with and what you can't when you are shooting so much in such a short perid of time. I noticed that if I really tried to push at 15 yds, I would have some of my shots on the perf on the left hand side of the A zone.

What a great way to spend the day off. Unfotrunately, my middle child is sick as I write this, so I'm glad I got over to the range to practice before I went to pick her up. Otherwise I would have had to deal with her being sick ,a nd missed out on practice.

thanks OpenShooterGirl for the timer. Good equipment!

Jimmy

Oh, one thing I noticed is that I'm more relaxed behind the gun lately. don't know why, but it just feels good there. Think Ihave finally gotten used to the CZ in the way I was with the BHP. Really feels like an old shoe.

[JimmyZip]

Still loving this timer.

I like that watching the videos of others on this forum really gets me itching for dryfire. It just gets in my blood and I can't sleep unless I get in about a half hour at least, if not an hour. After that, I gotta get to bed, that is where I'm headed after this.

Tonight I was back to draws on a 7yd target. I then went to sight picture and reload on the beep. I'm back in the groove where my reloads feel right. Now they are improving and I can mess with the speed. I finally got my grip after the reload back where it was before I changed from the BHP. In fact, I was going to shoot the Hipower the other day after losing my firing pin, and I just couldn't do it. I really like this pistol. It fits my hand better than the Hipower. I think in a cople of seasons if my job is doing better, or contracting is going well, I'll get another. They are good pistols. I think I will stick with this platform in L-10 for the froseeable future.

I finished with movement drills. Nice to have your own target stands and to set them up and do movement with a timer in your driveway. Neighbors don't mind at all, and it is behind a 6' fence anyway. You'd have to be 9' tall to see what I'm up to from the street.

It just feels great to be getting where you have muscle memory where these things are concerned. This leaves me time to practice the things that I need to when I live fire, because I have worked out the normal stuff in dryfire.

Think I will have some time this week to livefire on Thursday and Friday. If any of the guys from PSGC read this, you have my number, give me a call and we'll meet up and burn through some ammo and get our guns dirty.

Jimmy.