Davids Road to Running with the masters

[Ben Stoeger]

. I draw on the plates, shoot 2 freestyle, transfer, 2 strong hand, transfer ,and then the final 2 weak hand. Really makes the brain work overtime. All of these need to be shot totally different for me. Blaze away for 2, snappy for 2, then totally fucus on the trigger pull for the next 2. Alot of fun, and alot learned.

We call that "Three grasp plates"

I really enjoy that drill as well.

[waxman]

Thanks Ben, never heard of it before, just sounded like a good drill for our match coming up at Holmen. I assume you will not be there, since you are instructing. Really wish I would have booked a spot in one of your classes. Sounds like I am going to need all the help I can get For September. Maybe I can squad with you at Holmen sometime. We talked about it last year, but ran out of matches. Good luck with your class.

[waxman]

Burned up another 100 Today, worked mostly on the "3 grasp drill" got it down to 6:14. Alot of just transition concentrating on frontsight focus. Something I found out accidently I was not doing 100%. Then Finished it up with 150 rnds of 22 WHO, and SHO. Amazing how well our stong hand trigger finger gets trained but the weak one is just dumb. Got alot out of this today. I am super excited about the classifiation match this weekend. I will be shooting it lim10. hoping to make A, but Suposedly the weather is going to change big time, by then. Another week of alot of shooting, and it feels really good. I am getting very familiar with the gun, and confidence is growing. The first real test will be Sunday.

[waxman]

First match after my new training regiment. Ahh. I guess I am maybe just not a cold weather shooter. I hate to say that, but I really shot poorly today in the rain and cold. i was kinda hoping I could pull it together a little more, But I did not get any A classifers like I planned I am trying to be as possitive as I can and look at the bright side here, I think everyone even the master class shooter shot poorly today. I won my divison which is not saying much considering there were only 2 of us. But at least it is something. I shot 6 small steel plates at home in 3.36, but today, it took me 5.5 seconds to hit 6 poppers at almost the same distance. Very disturbing. The conditions were about as bad as they could be though, I think, but that is no excuse. For some reason my wet cold hands were not doing what i asked of them. I am not going to let this deter me at all, and will proceed full force again this week. I am hoping that if I had not trained so much, that I would have even done worse today. Yeah, that is how I will look at it. My hit factors today were

5.45

2.23

4.53

4.43

3.27

7.55

I realize these were all short stages and classifyers, but My Hit factos are always at least in the 5 range.

I had another light primer strike today on the stage with the 4.43 hit factor, so that would have been better, had that not happened. I send the gun off with a guy to get a new mainspring put in it. To the best of my knowledge, I have about 15-20K throught the gun with that spring, so I am hoping a new one fixes that problem.

[Ben Stoeger]

First match after my new training regiment. Ahh. I guess I am maybe just not a cold weather shooter. I hate to say that, but I really shot poorly today in the rain and cold. i was kinda hoping I could pull it together a little more, But I did not get any A classifers like I planned I am trying to be as possitive as I can and look at the bright side here, I think everyone even the master class shooter shot poorly today.

What if I told you that you took HOA?

[waxman]

WOW Ben, I was laying in Bed last night just rethinking about how crappy I shot, and I decided to figure that out, just to compare shooters in those conditions. This is what I came up with too. I guess that is a way to put a positive spin on it. Thanks Hey BTW, I was standing next to Ronnie when you called, and he said, you may have hit a few more 100% Classifiers in a match? is that right? That is simply amazing if it is, especially in those conditions. Also Ronnie mentioned you were going to have another class this summer. I want to reserve my spot . Great Job in Milan, must be a awesome feeling beating A class open guys with a production gun.

[Ben Stoeger]

WOW Ben, I was laying in Bed last night just rethinking about how crappy I shot, and I decided to figure that out, just to compare shooters in those conditions. This is what I came up with too. I guess that is a way to put a positive spin on it. Thanks Hey BTW, I was standing next to Ronnie when you called, and he said, you may have hit a few more 100% Classifiers in a match? is that right? That is simply amazing if it is, especially in those conditions. Also Ronnie mentioned you were going to have another class this summer. I want to reserve my spot . Great Job in Milan, must be a awesome feeling beating A class open guys with a production gun.

According to the Ohio classifier calc dealie... I got 4 100s , one 96.6 and, one 82.

In fairness though, we didn't get dumped on like you guys did in Wi. Sure it rained, but not all that bad for most of it. Also, I didn't run up against lazy man standards. That one is a mofo. Within the next couple weeks we will get another class scheduled.

Later,

Ben

[waxman]

Ok, I am back. The SV has new springs top to bottom, and she is better then ever. The new mainspring made the trigger a hair heavier, but I think it is alot more crisp then it has ever been. I like it. Since I had a few light primer strikes, I pulled out all the stops and even went with a Limcat xtra long firing pin. The primers dont stand a chance now. Ok, I have decided to do a few things that I have noticed other people have been doing. I am on a quest to see how many stages I can do without a miss. I only have 1 now. But that is the new mission. The league starts in 12 days so i am going to keep hitting the range and pounding on the weak points. I just got done shooting 70 rnds of just draw and plate transfer shooting. I also wanted to check the function of the new parts.

I just sat and thought about all of my weaknesses, and what I need to work on in the next 2 weeks.

1) Confidence in the draw. (always feel like if I go too fast, I may drop the gun)

2) The second shot on a paper target before I get to a hoser part of a stage.I always seem to fail to follow through with these, trying to get to the steel, or quick close targets. I am so anxious to blast, I forget the fundamentals.This leads to almost 100% of the misses I am seeing especially if there is harcover on that last paper target.

3) Long shots on paper, forgetting to really get a clear front sight. Always trying to focus on both

4) Releasing the safety before I am out of the holster. I got in this bad habbit, and it is a killer to try and break. I practice it, but under any kind of speed drill, or match/stress situation, My thumb hits it as soon as I touch the gun.

5) Not staying calm. I am trying too hard when it comes to certain drills, or matches. I really want to see improvement, so i try to muscle it to make it happen. All sorts of bad things happen then. Trigger freeze, choppy movement, fumbling, and not trusting my walktrough plan when the buzzer goes off. If I had to identify 1 main weakness, this is it. This is what is killing me on classifiers. I really dont know what to do for this weakness. I was hoping I could shoot so much, that the subconscience would just block this out, and I would go to auto pilot. So far, not happening.

I dont see much reason to lists my strengths,(it might be a short list). I know what they are, and the weaknesses are the #1 priority at this point.

I really think if I could remain calm, and shoot like I do on my home range, when I am all alone, I could be at least a A shooter. As a side note, just screwing around to function test the gun. I just ran my plate rack cold and hit a 3.73 with a miss

A couple of weeks ago, I could not do that all warmed up. I am happy about that.

I should be getting 2500 more black bullets today, so the next few weeks are going to be fun.

[waxman]

Such a nice day, and with no bullets arriving in the mail, I decided to shoot again. Glad i did. Set up a 16 rnd stage that incorporated all of my weaknesses. Gosh it was fun. I set it up so I had to start sitting, then draw on a target about 7 ' away, then immediately go to a target 25 yds away, then to 3 poppers 20 ' away. I then ran to another position making a reload on the way, and then engaged 2 easy, and 1 hard. Finally, the last position , I had 4 plates with wide transition, followed by a tight cardboard with a no shoot covering it. Just had a ton of fun, and when I started I made a goal that I could only shoot A's no matter how long it took. I could just feel the tempo change in how I engaged them. I think this helped alot. If there is one thing I see alot of new shooters do, is they shoot almost all targets at the same pace, no matter the dificulty. This can be habit forming. It took me a while now, but I am really understanding how important it is to engage targets only as fast as you see the sights, never faster, no matter how slow it feels to you while doing it. The timer does not seem to notice this pause, like you do. Great range session. 170 rnds today, I better stop at that, dont want to waste anymore prescious primers.

[waxman]

Worked at the clubs new shooters orientation today. Just for fun some of the guys decided to shoot the stages we set up for the new shooters. It was a blast. It is amazing how much better I shoot, and how much more fun it is, when you are just blasting away, with no score sheets. I was able to actually run my game full speed which is something i rarely do at any structured matches, for fear of a DQ, or a bad run. It felt good to just flow with it, and shoot as fast as i could see the sights. Had hit factors above 8 on both stages, which made my day. Get to shoot another no count match tomorrow, so hopefully I can just run with it again. After the tune up, the sv is running like a champ again. put about 150 through her today without a hitch. Looks like we are going to have alot of new shooters this year,so the competition is going to start comming on again. I love to see it.

[waxman]

Shot a little 7 stage match this weekend nothing too serious, just a chance to work on a few problem areas. Not many in my division, so little to compare too. I ended up HOA, but I am not as happy about that, as I am concearned about a few new weak areas. There was a stage that required a few long technical shot from a barrel. I made all of the shots ok, with no mikes or no shoots, but I took way too much time. I think I ran it in 10.16, and the best run of the day was a 6.80. That lead to a 3.97 HF for him, and a 3.24 for me. When I looked at the stage, i figured it was more of a accuracy stage, then a speed stage. I guess it was both. Other then that I had a retard moment and didnt even look at, or shoot another target on a stage. I guess I am not to torn up about that, since I have not done that, in over 2 years. Just plain did not see it. On a positive note, my shot calling is alot better then it has been, probably beter then it ever has been actually. I used to second guess myself and double check my hits on no shoot targets. I do not do that anymore, and it helps alot with confidence and speed. Probably could have shot most of the stages faster, but I was just kind of treating it like a large practice session , and focussing on differnt parts as I shot. Oh I found another weakness, that needs work, Disappearing targets. I am not felling good about them, and definetly not calling these shots. How can I practice these? Overall, I am improving, I am better then I ever have been, and my confidence and motivation are high. I actually look forward to practacing now, and working on weaknesses. Hit factors were,

5.99------happy, missed steel , which made me have to do a reload,

7.77------happy, would not change much on this one, had 1 mike on a dis targ

6.75------ happy, could have ran a little faster to second position

4.85------ shot from 1 too many positions, not what i did in my walk through

3.73------ failure to engage just did not see the target while shooting daaa

6.39------ happy, with performance, missed 1 star plate, but not bad

3.24----- barrel stage, need more speed on technical shots

weakness --- disapperaing targets

--- speed on technical targets

on my stages in a row without a mike or no shoot, I am up to 4. Had one in the middle of the match, so it wrecked my total. Well 4 it is.

[waxman]

While trying to find a way to make a disappearing target, I went out and decided to just shoot some plates at about 20- 25 yds. Just draw and shoot 1 as fast as I could. Didn't see much improvement but worked on it anyway. I realize alot of this is just trigger control, but if I try to rush it at all, I just end up being too jerky on the trigger and get a miss. I can consistantly get them in 2- 2.20, but rarely faster. Then worked on scattered plates and refocusing from target to clear sight as fast as I could. I started to notice though, while not as accurate, but I am definetly faster, if I have the gun closer to my face, bending both elbows a little. I see alot of great shooters doing it, but it never really felt stable to me. I may work on that more,especially on close stuff.

[waxman]

No more training yet, cant spare the ammo, until my bullets get here. Just did a little chrono work this morning, and I am writting down the results, so i dont lose them.

Practice and club match load

180 grn moly (black bullet, or bear creek)

4.5 grns solo 1000

win sp primers

mixed brass

1.180 oal

ave - 953.2 fps

171.6 pf

60 degrees

Nationals, and big match load

180 grn zero HP

4.8 grns titegroup

Win sp primers

Win once fired brass

1.180 oal

ave 964.7 fps

173.65 pf

60 degrees

According to area 5's Chrono, mine reads about 1 to 2 pf higher, so that is why I am going with a safe pf on these loads.

While the Solo load feels a hair softer, it seems alot slower as far as recoil recovery. The titegroup is snappy, but quick.

Edited May 5, 2009 by waxman

[waxman]

Trying to be frugal with the ammo, while still training, I shot a little, from the holster bullseye today. Only 40 rnds, but Felt like it really helped with trigger control. Started freestyle, then SHO, then WHO. Had some 22 practice targets laying around with about 12-15 little 1.5" bulls on them. I shot these from about 15 yds. Not very far, but these buggers are tiny. Without trying for any kind of speed, I could pretty much hit them consistantly with all but the WHO. Found the hardest part of that, is just holding the gun steady enough. Hopefully the bullets will be here soon. Cant drop the ball now.Worked on a little dryfire too, but wow that gets old fast

[waxman]

Another small practice session today, about 45 rnds. Just practiced 3 plates with wide transitions. Draw on middle one, then right, then all the way back left. 8" plates at about 15-18 yrds. Best time was 3.67, mostly right around 3.9. Had 6 left in the gun, so I ran the plate rack 1 time with a 3.64. Down to my last box of loaded ammo, Hoping for my bullets tomorrow.

[waxman]

Shot a points match yesterday. Found a bunch of stuff i need to work on. Mostly , movement. I have never shot a match with so much movement. I would say, each stage required a average of 5-6 different shooting positions. I never saw this as a weakness before, when you can shoot all targets on a stage from 2 maybe 3 spots. I ended up 5th out of 19 in limited. I shot the match way to conservatively. I ended up with 73 A's 9 C's and 3 D's and one really odd mike. It was on a wide open target only about 15 feet away. I would not have called it a double either, but it was strange to have missed such a easy target. I lost the match by 10.81 seconds. That is huge. It is ironic that the stand and shoot stage, I got 2nd place on, and only by a few hundreths. I guess my stand and shoot is where i want it, but the movement is now top priority. I just got 2500 bullets yesterday, so I am dedicating them all to movement. I orderd another 2500, which should be here soon, so there is going to be lots of practice comming up. Does not have much to do with shooting, but I got the call yesterday, I am officially employed again. This may take a bite out of practice time, but at least I can afford to do it now.

The second thing I want to talk about I want to seperate, so I remember it for future matches. I got up pretty early yesterday, about 6 or so, drove 3 hrs to the match and then proceded to shoot the match with no breaks. So total time of almost 19 hrs since supper the previous day, with no food

I finally ate around 3pm on my way home. About 15 mins later I felt 100% better, way more aggresive and wanted to reshoot the match. Could lack of food really affect match performance that much? I found while shooting I was hesitant, and really didnt care. I think I learned a valuable lesson here. I already put a couple candy bars in my range bag, so this dont happen again.

After mothersday dinnner I am comming home, and hitting the range hard and shooting from a lot of positions. This will never be a a weakness again.

[waxman]

Had a good range session. Worked alot on movement and shooting at the same time. Set it up, so I had to shoot a hard shot out of the holster, then break from there, run to a position while making a mag change. I then had to hit cardboard, from there. I backed up , shot another cardboard, moving, and then steel, as i was moving right. Did this for about 70 rounds. while I am not great at this, I did alot better then I expected. I was amazed at how close the 2 rounds impacted, while moving. Good day. I am going to work on this more tomorrow.

[waxman]

Shot another 100 today, mostly just working on creating chaos. I was trying to simulate match conditions in limited. Did alot of running with the pistol, and 2 quick A's on the move type stuff. Shot the plates a few times hit a new PB of 3.34, only a tenth better, but it is better. Hit a shoot reload shoot, 2 A's in 2.45, pretty sure that is a PB as well. Decided to go back to hitting the mag release with my strong hand thumb. The other way is just too slow.

I was just noticing that over 1500 people have looked at this diary and only a select few comment. I could sure use some training advice, or even encouragement, hey you dumbass, whatever, something to let me know what you are thinking.

Is anyone out there??

Edited May 11, 2009 by waxman

[Ridgerunnr]

hey ya dumbass...lol love it..just takin it all in..your doing well it appears! I havent picked up the gun in almost 3 weeks..too many family interruptions...arrgg..excuses i know. See ya Wed!

[waxman]

Hope i can be there Phil. I am officially a slave laborer now. I swear this new company is trying to Kill me. Thanks for the responce Nice to hear there is someone out there.

[waxman]

Finally have a second to post on here again. Work has been brutal. 11 hrs of overtime in 3 days. No time for shooting which sucks, but A job is a must. Did get to shoot our local league Wed night, which went ok. I Shot very accurate again only shot 10 c's all night. I think it was 91 rounds total. No mikes or no shoots, so I am up to 8 stages clean now. The shot calling is really good now, and i honestly dont even have to walk the targets after I shoot, because I know all are where I want them. This makes me happy I won limited, but ended up 4th overall .

Ok, enough of the sugar coating. Here is the bad. I keep having this problem that pops up every once and a while, and it is beginning to give me a complex. Ater shooting my XD for over a year, I would always prep the trigger while I am indexing. Well now when I am super focussed on details of a stage, I find myself doing that subconsciensly. 4 times now during matches, I have almost had a AD. There simply is no trigger prep on the SV. Wed I had a round go off just as I was entering a port. It scares the crap out of me. I am not sure how to overcome this, but It is contantly on my mind, and is a serious hinderance to my speed.I thought that I am going to dedicate my next training session to just working on getting my trigger out of the well, until I see my sight. I really hope this is something I can overcome, before I end up with a DQ. Especially at the big show in Sep.

Does not have much to do with my shooting, but still USPSA related. I had to DQ a guy Wed, it was my first. I went to check the stage for people behind walls, and when I came back, he already had his Pistol and mag on the table where the stage started. I felt bad, since he was a newer shooter, but rules are rules. I saw this happen at area 3 last year, so I knew there was no way I could just council him.

Sounds like I may be limited to my matches this summer, with this crazy this work schedule, but I will have to work on my issues when I can.

[waxman]

Loaded 500 yesterday and decided to try and shoot a bunch of them today, since it is so beautiful out. I incorporated a wall into my range today, and set up a stage around it. trying about 10 different ways of shooting it, and with practice I took almost 8 seconds off the stage. It was a small round count stage, only 15, but I had it set up, so i had to move 4 times, and all of the targets were far, or obscured, mostly plates.

I am going to go out this afternoon again, since the neightbors are starting to trickle back outside again, lol, gosh they hate me.Trying to pay alot of attention to my trigger finger when I depart a shooting position, hopefully I can eliminate this problem.

[waxman]

Made it out again today, live fire twice in one day, just cant beat it. Nothing too exciting, just alot of gun handling. Trying to unlearn the stronghand mag change. Got down to a 1.31 fire change mags fire at a 7 yd target. Feels much better then the old way. The weird thing is, if I just watch the magwell, watch the sights, and keep the gun high, it is faster then just running spaz speed throught the whole process, which feels faster. I am learing somthin here eyy!!. Ahh worked the wall again, and found I am consistantly about .3 to .50 slower going to the right before the left. Nice info to know. Shot the plates again and hit a 3.39 with my first run, with a 1.4 first shot. Just for the heck of it, i just tried a draw and let her fly on the 7 yrd target, hit a c, but did it in .88, which was way cool. A great day overall, and I hope I can shoot Wed to see if it payed off.

[waxman]

Wow what a week!. Got off a little early today and hit the range, as soon as I got home. I practiced multiple hard shots from a distance, Using plates. I then set up a draw shoot, move reload shoot drill. Ran this for about 50 rnds, Really improved by the end of the drill. All told about 70 more rounds.

Got to shoot on Wed, and squeaked out another limited win.Which is the only good thing I am going to say about my match. The fist stage was a total disaster. I shot 2 hardcover mikes. I was in total disbelief. I called the shots as A's and both were hardcover mikes about 1/8 to 1/4 " into the black. It was SHO, which I have worked so hard on. So there goes my perfect stage count. I am back to 3 again. The rest of the match I shot accurately, but slow. The final stage, I said screw this, I am going to just let it all hang out, and see what happens. I ended up with a 11.25 Hit factor. I missed the overall stage win by 15 hundreths to a open shooter. I really wish I could shoot every stage with that kind of confidence , and aggressiveness. Have another match Sunday, so I am going with a aggressive attitude and see how it plays out

[waxman]

I guess I did not run very aggresively at the latest match. Won Limited but loast HOA by 22.22 seconds. This just blows my mind. How can i possibly gain that kind of time?

I am up to 9 clean stages again. I am feeling very good about my shooting this year I know I am better then last year. I really only have one Huge weak area, and I mean huge. I need to shoot, and move faster. I will be going out today to work on that, again. I think I am going to probably have to take some kind of class to gain this knowledge, or at least how to practice it. I shot 546 of the 575 points, so I think that is good for limited,but again I need SPEED. I think I am going to go chase a chicken