ErikW Posted October 18, 2003 Share Posted October 18, 2003 Long ago I resigned myself to the fact I'd never do a sub-second reload. I have to shift the gun to reach the button and I'm really slow in reacquiring the sights. Before the nationals, I set my best at 1.24. Before the Infinity Open, it was 1.19. Wednesday it was 1.09, picking up a Limited gun the first time since the nationals. Today I hit 1.04. I figured maybe I'd actually get under the impossible one-second benchmark next month. Then I executed the smoothest, slickest, reload I've ever felt. I felt like I was doing it in slow motion, yet at the same time faster than fast. .98! Don't ask me what I'm doing different; I don't know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted October 18, 2003 Share Posted October 18, 2003 Welcome to the club Relax and see the only way to do it ~ S Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Schwab Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 Way to go Erik! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sam Posted October 19, 2003 Share Posted October 19, 2003 Erik, that's excellent! 25% or so, improvement on an already fast re-load. Please tell us you practiced your butt off! "Don't ask me what I'm doing different, I don't know" Maybe you just kept on doing it right until it became 2nd nature. BTW, How big a role did perseverance play in your accomplishment? Anyway you did it, it's teriffic! Congratualtions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted October 20, 2003 Author Share Posted October 20, 2003 Don't get too excited; it doesn't mean much if you can't do it on demand. And I was close. I fumbled a whole bunch of reloads that day. I tend to fumble a lot every day, not getting the index finger on the front of the mag. I generally do a reload every 6-8 rounds in practice, except for field courses and the plate rack. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 Erik, Don't discount doing it once, you broke through a mental barrier. It will now be easier to repeat. At the SV Open, my roomate told me I couldn't do the mag catch thing when we were in our room. About 10 trys later I did it, then I did it about 5 out of 8 tries after that. Once the brain acceptes something it is much easier to duplicate. If you want to stop fumbling the mag grab, look at it, it doesn't take anymore time and if you see it, it greatly reduces poor grasps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ErikW Posted October 20, 2003 Author Share Posted October 20, 2003 That makes a lot of sense. I'm going to watch it into the mag well anyway. One thing I should note is I don't use a lay-down mag pouch in front. My first one is near vertical, right at my hip in--or nearly so--a Production legal location. The angle slows my reload more than the position. But when I tried to move the mag pouch up front, I always just passed it by and grabbed from the next pouch. How many thousand reloads would I have to practice to "learn" the new mag position? Something I might be doing different, now that I think about it, is being more aggressive getting that mag in hand. I read here about Travis slapping his mag hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 Erik, I got new pouches a couple months ago and it took me about 20 reloads to get it down. I think a key is to glance at the mag you want to grab and you shouldn't miss it. If you don't look it could be thousands Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 But when I tried to move the mag pouch up front, I always just passed it by and grabbed from the next pouch. How many thousand reloads would I have to practice to "learn" the new mag position? Erik, I did the same for a while. It's just take some dry-fire to learn to go to the new position automatically. Go for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
uscbigdawg Posted October 20, 2003 Share Posted October 20, 2003 Hi Erik, Congrats bud, that's awesome!!!! I think your assesment is dead on. The trick seems to be, more often than not, to just go faster. When training with my Army recruiter, I hit a wall at 15:30 for my 2-mile run. So we were running one day, and started just telling ourselves to run faster! Sure enough, a week later, we're running at 14:45-15:00 consistently. One more minute to go and I'll be happy. Kyle. I don't like looking at the mag on my belt. It's kind of looking at your gun on the draw. You either know where it is or you don't. If you don't, keep practicing 'til you do. Like BE says about getting iron sights to line up on the draw, do it a couple thousand times, and you'll start to get it right (or something like...paraphrasing from a video). Definitely spotting the mag going into the well, is huge. Pausing a tick just before the mag enters the well, helps out a lot. Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ORCA Posted October 21, 2003 Share Posted October 21, 2003 Way to go Erik !!! I finally just started breaking the one second barrier myself, but I had to do tons of dry fire practice for months and just kept hammering at it. I just kept at it until I figured out a lot of the little nuances of it. I did notice my progress was little bit steady progress and some jumps as I figured out some of the technique. FWIW I did have a mental block after I had the technique, I had the block for awhile but I broke through it one evening in one of the jumps. Enjoy the little victory!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted October 21, 2003 Share Posted October 21, 2003 Erik, As regards the belly pouch --- as long as you have enough mags, just add it. If you wind up grabbing the second mag at your side for a reload while you're getting used to it, just stuff it in the gun and move on. Eventually you'll always draw from the first pouch and can drop the last one of your belt, or use it to hold your stoker mag.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted October 21, 2003 Share Posted October 21, 2003 Kyle. I don't like looking at the mag on my belt. Me neither. And, ditto on Nik's post. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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