Smoke and Hopeless

[ErikW]

Set up the Steel Challenge stage "Smoke and Hope." (Big targets at 7 and 9 yards, and a plate at 15 that must be shot last.)  After you've peaked out on it, back up to 35 or 40 yards and shoot it again for S&G. (I did this with iron sights; go back farther if you have a dot!)

Very interesting. How well can you change gears? Stuck in hose mode? Does hose mode actually work this far back? I was suprised to see my index times on the big targets hardly increased, while the index time to the stop plate increased modestly. My draw time got ugly, though.

[38supPat]

How ugly did your draw get? the reason I ask is that I have noticed that many, many shooters slow down the whole draw process when faced with a longer range or difficult target.

If you do BE's LSOTD (last shot of the day drill) you will find out how fast you can mount the gun. This is at a close distance, at longer distances the time is EXACTLY the same. The difference is the amount of time required to firm up the sights. Your draw time is your draw time, everything else is sighting. Draw and mount the gun the same speed each time, if you can fire a shot at 7 yds in under one second (for example) your draw time is likely around .90 with the extra .10 for confirming the sight. At 50 yds your draw time is still .90 but you may now need an extra 1/2 sec to confirm so your shot breaks at 1.40s.

See if you are slowing down your draw on the longer targets, or if it merely the time required to confirm alignment of the sights and their location on the target.

Pat

[ErikW]

Oh I know my shitty draw is really an average speed draw-from-the-holster and a slow speed sight acquisition and alignment. I can fairly reliably draw in under a second at point-shooting range with a full target. When the range increases and the target gets smaller, start stacking tenths on to my draw time.

On my practice Smoke and Hope I was consistently hitting the first shot at 1.15-1.25. Many yards farther uprange it went to 1.5 or 1.6 (which happens to be my average draw to a plate at 10 yards).