Ben Stoeger

[chefcs5]

Isn't Sherwyn still doing that great plains sectional? I heard that is a really good match. Thought it was at eastern nebraska practical shooters.

Rob

Yes he is and it is a great match but Iowa needs its own match also!

[Ben Stoeger]

Ben,

What day you shooting the OH section? We should squad up.

Havent sent in yet or even looked at the options.. but I would think a Sunday would be fine.

[alpha-charlie]

See ya there dude!!

[Ben Stoeger]

What have I been up to?

Well... I am obviously doing my dry fire.

I have been loading steadily.. and am getting a pretty good stockpile built up.

I am about done with the winter. I am going to go camp out on a range as soon as it warms up. Who wants to come play?

[kv501]

Isn't Sherwyn still doing that great plains sectional? I heard that is a really good match. Thought it was at eastern nebraska practical shooters.

Rob

Yes he is and it is a great match but Iowa needs its own match also!

The Great Plains Sectional is at ENPS. It was at the Sioux Falls, SD club in 2009 due to the Area 3 match being in Omaha (ENPS) and was run by Sherwyn then. Maybe you are thinking of The Area 3 match?

[JThompson]

What have I been up to?

Well... I am obviously doing my dry fire.

I have been loading steadily.. and am getting a pretty good stockpile built up.

I am about done with the winter. I am going to go camp out on a range as soon as it warms up. Who wants to come play?

I'll come up and shoot with you for a week Ben... I sure could use the practice. Hardly shot in 6 months and no dry fire.

[Ben Stoeger]

Isn't Sherwyn still doing that great plains sectional? I heard that is a really good match. Thought it was at eastern nebraska practical shooters.

Rob

Yes he is and it is a great match but Iowa needs its own match also!

The Great Plains Sectional is at ENPS. It was at the Sioux Falls, SD club in 2009 due to the Area 3 match being in Omaha (ENPS) and was run by Sherwyn then. Maybe you are thinking of The Area 3 match?

I am thinking of the old Iowa Sectional when it was in Iowa.. it was a few years back but I did enjoy it.

[Ben Stoeger]

What have I been up to?

Well... I am obviously doing my dry fire.

I have been loading steadily.. and am getting a pretty good stockpile built up.

I am about done with the winter. I am going to go camp out on a range as soon as it warms up. Who wants to come play?

I'll come up and shoot with you for a week Ben... I sure could use the practice. Hardly shot in 6 months and no dry fire.

Why no dry fire stud? Gotta get crackin!

[JThompson]

What have I been up to?

Well... I am obviously doing my dry fire.

I have been loading steadily.. and am getting a pretty good stockpile built up.

I am about done with the winter. I am going to go camp out on a range as soon as it warms up. Who wants to come play?

I'll come up and shoot with you for a week Ben... I sure could use the practice. Hardly shot in 6 months and no dry fire.

Why no dry fire stud? Gotta get crackin!

We just elected a new board for PTPC and I was tasked with the website.... that and my real job have been kicking my butt. Why don't you come up here for a weekend and we can shoot on a warm range for a few days? If you are interested hit me with a PM.

Best,

JT

[Ben Stoeger]

OK.... First big update in awhile.

I have of course been doing my dryfire and such. Due to a long winter... Not a whole lot of live fire up until now. As a result I have a big lead on my reloading for the year. I should be able to literally shoot to my hearts content and not run out of ammo for the entire year. Considering this is a world shoot year I think that is a good thing.

I spent 5 days living at the shooting range this past weekend. I brought along quite a bit of ammo. The only real bummer was that I had to spend 2 of my days teaching a class. Teaching days typically last 12 hours, so no shooting really gets done on those days.

In any event, on Friday I arrived and got all set up. I did some 50 yard partial target stuff and then some speed steel. Since I don't have access to a plate rack on my normal range, I hardly get to shoot them. I don't think I even shot at a plate rack last year at all. In any event I was able to set a personal best of 1.94 at 10 yards. I think there is quite a bit more speed to be had on those but that was all I could do. To be honest I thought the 50 yard shooting was much more productive. I shot about 1000 rounds that day.

Saturday and Sunday got eaten up with teaching... no practice those days.

Monday I shot about 1200 rounds... most of it on stages I left set up from the class. I felt pretty good about my shooting that day. I felt like I was able to do things I have never done before, in terms of shooting very difficult targets while moving and such.

Tuesday I shot at 50 yards some more.. maybe 250 rounds. Another very productive session I thought. Distance shooting at speed is the fastest way to hop on the learning curve in my opinion.

The bummer was that I had to bail on on practice early and head back home. I had to qualify with my carry pistol. After the days of shooting I had, I thought it was pretty easy.

I got some footage of a couple runs

Mostly, my big theme was trying to see as much as I can at speed. I am working on tracking that front sight and being as accurate as possible while shooting like a lunatic.

[Thomas H]

The Great Plains Sectional is at ENPS. It was at the Sioux Falls, SD club in 2009 due to the Area 3 match being in Omaha (ENPS) and was run by Sherwyn then. Maybe you are thinking of The Area 3 match?

I am thinking of the old Iowa Sectional when it was in Iowa.. it was a few years back but I did enjoy it.

Yep, we have the Great Plains Sectional back at ENGC this year. Ben, you should come down to make sure that neither Matt nor I win Production division this year.

Hm. Better yet, stay away.

[Shawn Knight]

The Great Plains Sectional is at ENPS. It was at the Sioux Falls, SD club in 2009 due to the Area 3 match being in Omaha (ENPS) and was run by Sherwyn then. Maybe you are thinking of The Area 3 match?

I am thinking of the old Iowa Sectional when it was in Iowa.. it was a few years back but I did enjoy it.

Yep, we have the Great Plains Sectional back at ENGC this year. Ben, you should come down to make sure that neither Matt nor I win Production division this year.

Hm. Better yet, stay away.

Come on Tom, you know you wanna get beat by the best!

[CHA-LEE]

Ben> After watching many of your videos I see a common theme in your shooting and movement speed. I think that your gun handling and manipulation speed is spot on, but you have an opportunity to improve upon your shooting or movement speed.

There are usually two styles of shooting that the top flight GM’s take. The first is slower more deliberate shooting but rocket fast and highly optimized body movement through a stage. Shooters like Manny Bragg, Todd Jarrett, and Dave Sevigny are very good examples of the shoot deliberate but haul ass style. Then there is the other side of the spectrum where you have fast shooting but less than optimal or less technical movement through the stage. Shooters like Max Michelle, Taran Butler and Rob Leatham are very good examples of the shoot fast but slower or less technical movement through the stage.

Based on your shooting videos I think that your performance falls in the shoot deliberate bucket, but then your movement through the stage falls in the slower movement bucket as well. So you kind of have this deliberate + deliberate approach that overall ends up being slower than it should be.

I think that if you want to take your performance to the next level you need to explore either shooting faster but retaining the same movement speed through the stage. Or shooting at the same speed but moving faster through the stage.

Granted, its best to optimize both sides of the street (Shoot and Move fast) but I think we are all biased one way or the other and just end up with a somewhat lopsided skill set. I know for myself that I am shoot fast move slow biased so I usually focus on trying to move more aggressively and more efficiently when I practice because that is my weak spot. But I don’t think that I will ever be able to move through a stage with the same speed and fluidity as the Manny’s, Todd’s, and Dave’s. I am just not built that way.

In all of the videos that I have seen be best shooters that can both shoot and move fast on a consistent basis are Eric Grauffel and Nils Jonasson. Since they are able to maximize both of these skills its no surprise that the usually murder everyone from a stage time and hits on target perspective.

I hope this helps get the creative juices flowing so you can try some stuff outside your current comfort zone. You are already an awesome shooter that has proven his skills on a national level. But if you want to take your performance to the next level you need to make some kind of change in your shooting or moving to speed things up.

[Ben Stoeger]

I think that if you want to take your performance to the next level you need to explore either shooting faster but retaining the same movement speed through the stage. Or shooting at the same speed but moving faster through the stage.

I hope this helps get the creative juices flowing so you can try some stuff outside your current comfort zone. You are already an awesome shooter that has proven his skills on a national level. But if you want to take your performance to the next level you need to make some kind of change in your shooting or moving to speed things up.

So you think I should shoot faster or move faster in order to get a better stage time? I hadn't thought of that... I will try that out next time I practice.

[Dan Hefta]

Ben, You crack me up!!

[CHA-LEE]

Just trying to give some advice. Sorry if its not helpful

Edited April 15, 2011 by CHA-LEE

[Ben Stoeger]

Just trying to give some advice. Sorry if its not helpful

I would love to shoot faster and I am working on figuring out how. Right now, I am thinking front sight focus and tracking during medium and high difficulty shots. I will let you know how that works out.

[Ben Stoeger]

I went to the Holmen Match today.. but instead of shooting the scored match I just dicked off on the stages. I ran each stage to my hearts content and shot about 500 rounds in the process. I changed up stage plans to see the effect on stage times and did have a couple surprises.

Here is the video:

The first run on the video is one that has gone badly wrong. In a 10 factor stage I had to make up a miss, and I also had to post up to take shots over a no shoot because I had over ran my position. Those mistakes cost about a second and a half. The second run the video is that same stage done properly.

Overall I felt good about my shooting. I had fun and I am coming along nicely.

[92fs]

Just trying to give some advice. Sorry if its not helpful

I would love to shoot faster and I am working on figuring out how. Right now, I am thinking front sight focus and tracking during medium and high difficulty shots. I will let you know how that works out.

Ben, I hope one day I can learn to shoot and move as slow as you. When I get some money together, maybe I can get to Wisconsin so you can teach me.

[Ben Stoeger]

I am back into live fire pretty steadily now. My focus hasn't been so much on speed stuff.. mostly i am just working on making very difficult shots in a field course setting.

I am having a hard time on partial targets (classic targets, not metric) that are set up so that the no shoot is underneath the shoot and I have very little brown to aim at. Most every other partial target is relatively easy, but for some reason I am having a hard time seeing a good sight alignment on the targets with very little brown. In slow fire I group pretty well on them.

My one handed only shooting is pretty rusty and needs some dry fire to get me back up to speed. =(

All the live fire abuse has been hard on my practice gun. The front sight post broke in half and the extractor has had it. I need to fix that thing so I can continue to beat the hell out of it.

I will say this... my dryfire on exclusively partial targets and difficult shooting for the whole winter paid off. I am feeling good with my shooting.

One other note.. due to the shutdown of google video I have to overhaul my website. Some things may not work properly for awhile. Sorry about that.

[Flashooter]

One other note.. due to the shutdown of google video I have to overhaul my website. Some things may not work properly for awhile. Sorry about that.

Ben--

I'm a relative newbie, and your website has been very helpful to me. It's one of the best free resources available. Your written material combined with demo videos is easy to understand. I just watched your 'Dynamic Exit/Entry' video and a light bulb finally came on! For some reason the importance of shooting as you exit a position and how to do it never fully registered until now; but your video and demo did it.

Thanx for so graciously sharing your knowledge with the shooting community!!!

[Ben Stoeger]

Ok.. turns out Ohio Section wont work with my schedule.. bummer. On the flipside I think I am going to do a different section match instead. We will see.

[Shawn Knight]

...anxiously awaiting!!!

[Ben Stoeger]

Ok.... A couple things rattling around in my brain lately.

First, I have long subscribed to the idea that practice should be frequent, but short in duration. After spending so much time on a shooting range lately, but in big chunks I am starting to change my thoughts on this.

I see people make big strides in a day of instruction.. I feel myself learning more if I spend more time on the range... But the smaller practice sessions don't feel as helpful these days. I have recently put together a list of things to work on in dryfire, but it takes more than an hour of hard practice to hit all the topics... that is kind of a long time for dryfire.

Any thoughts on length of practice or whatever?

The second thing I have rattling around is a 50 round skill assessment for USPSA shooters. Its kind of like the IDPA classifier, but it only requires one target. Good idea to track shooting ability? I will post it if anyone is interested.

[alpha-charlie]

For me, when I do my live fire practice I'm usually shooting for about 3 hours. I go through anywhere from 300-500 rounds depending on what I'm practicing. I don't mindlessly blast away but I try to work on one particular problem for a long time. I usually dissect every aspect of what I'm doing and why I'm having problems with it. That's what usually takes me so long. I go through a lot of ammo and spend a lot of time on little details but so far this year I haven't walked off the range until it's sorted out. If I were to be out there for a shorter period of time I don't think I'd solve anything. And, again this is just me, if I'm not at the range to work on a particular problem area and fully focus on the solution, then that's just mindlessly blasting away. I think this goes along with how you see people make big strides in a full day of instruction. 50 round skill assessment sounds good. Something to start a practice session with to see how well you can shoot "cold," like at a big match.