I had a great dry fire session last night. I got out in my backyard and put up 2 targets on my fence, on either side of the shed. I used the shed as a vision barrier and practiced reloading on the move between the two positions (or more accurately, getting the reload done in the first step or two, then moving my ass to the next position). Not only was it a good dry fire drill, it was also some good cardio. I filmed the session and I saw some things I want to change before next time.

My reloads feel a lot more solid now that I put a paddle on the mag release. I found myself having a hard time reaching the button with my thumb during the Gator, especially when it was still cold. The paddle mounted to a non-extended mag release seems to be the ticket. I've got it angled just right and it doesn't protrude far enough out from the frame for me to bump it with my weak hand.

Had a great 3 live fire sessions between Friday and Sunday. I worked through about 1400 rounds.

Since I'm not able to set up targets at different distances at the FOP range, I put some index cards in the middle, with two open USPSA targets on both sides. I did a lot of drawing to one of the open targets, then transitioned to one of the index cards, then to the other open target. This gave the illusion of distance, since I had to be more deliberate to put two hits on the index card.

I haven't done any dry fire in almost a week. I tweaked my back somehow on Friday afternoon and spent most of the day Saturday laying on the couch with a heating pad on my back. I felt better on Sunday morning, so I went out to the range for a few hours, but my back was hurting again by the time I left. Quick, jerky movements weren't in the cards the last few days, so I spent that time increasing my ammo supply. I'm feeling better today and I'm anxious to get back into dry fire, so hopefully I'll be able to get some work done this afternoon. If it feels iffy, I'm going to hold off, since I want to be able to shoot the Endless Summer Blast this weekend.

Been sore as hell myself over this last week, the Sunday after playing football I was dead. Went and played disc golf on Sunday and couldn't throw at all.
Lots of icy hot, peppermint and lavender oil helps with the pain.

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I shot the Endless Summer Blast USPSA match this past weekend. I’d call it a level 1.5 match, because there were 85 competitors, 10 stages, food, and lots of prizes.

I feel like I did a lot of things better than I did at the Gator Classic a few weeks ago.* My transitions look faster, my reloads were mostly done within the first step or two of leaving a position, I started shooting sooner while coming into a position, and I’m feeling much more comfortable with the gun itself.* I noticed from the 3rd person video that I’m still really choppy with my movement and I don’t stay low like I should.* This will be a point of emphasis during live and dry fire practice moving forward.* The three mikes I got (other than the two for the FTE target) were on longish (20yds) targets where I wasn’t patient enough in letting the dot settle for an accurate shot.* Two of those had hits outside the perf. *I need to work visual patience for long targets.

I had more magazine/gun problems during this match than I have had the entire time I’ve owned the gun.* One of my 170mm magazines fell out of the gun twice in the first two stages.* I used a different one the rest of the match and didn’t have that problem again, although I did have a couple of feeding issues throughout the day.* I’m going to put some new springs in my mags and check the body of the problematic 170mm to see if something is going on there.* I put an STI mag release paddle on my gun after the Gator, since I had some trouble reaching the mag release.* I haven’t had any problems with it in practice or in the stages after I ditched that one mag, but I’m going to analyze my grip and make sure that doesn’t become an issue in the future.* I may pick up an EGW style mag paddle because it’s not quite as big as the STI.

The last stage of the day (Stage 6 – Boxed In) was a complete disaster.* I had a round go nose-up after the last shot before the reload, I fumbled the reload, tried to put another mag in the gun, but it didn’t seat because of the nose-up round and fell out of the gun, then I finally got a fresh mag in the gun and promptly forgot a target.* I realized it at the end of the COF, but it would have taken a lot of time to go back to it.* That stage cost me at least 2 places in the match, possibly 3 or 4.

Overall, I feel better about this match performance than any of my other open matches so far.* I need to improve a few things (as always) and minimize some mistakes, but I’m encouraged by the improvements I’ve made in the last 3-4 weeks.

3rd person video:




POV video:

Time for an update!

Since my last post, I managed to win my first USPSA match. Videos first:





Much like the Endless Summer Blast, I felt like I did a lot of things right, but I still need to speed up my transitions and stay low while shooting. I also need to work on consistency and make sure I stick with my stage plan when things go wrong.

Stage 1, for example: I almost dropped the gun thanks to a really bad draw and I hit the mag release with my weak hand while trying to adjust my grip. I recovered (eventually), but then I didn't quite stick to my stage plan. Luckily, it only cost me an additional second or two, but those kind of things have been bothering me lately.

I shot a solid A classifier (81.6% according to classifiercalc), which should drop off at least one bad initial classifier (if the Gator Classic fee ever gets paid).

This past Saturday, I got out to the range early and had the place to myself. I setup my steel target and worked on Steve Anderson's "Call it and leave it" drill for almost an hour. I should have taken a camera and filmed it, but I really just wanted to practice efficiently, for once. Given that I didn't have to work around anyone else, I accomplished that goal. I shot 200-250 rounds in just under an hour and I exhausted myself in the process.

I'm getting ready for the MPSA match this Saturday and the Swamp Challenge in Gainesville the following Sunday. The Swamp Challenge stages are posted here: http://swampchallengematch.com/wp-content/uploads/SwampChallengeStages.pdf Looks like a lot of fun, but I need to keep working on my weak hand and unloaded starts. I'm really hoping these stages are as stretched out and technical as they look.

Since I was stuck in bed last week and wasn't actually able to DO anything, I pondered my next year in shooting. I decided that my first goal for next year is to make A class in Open before the AL Sectional in March. That means I need at least 4 more A classifiers between now and then. The goal is definitely achievable, but it will require some work on my part and leaves little, if any, room for error.

I'm having second thoughts about the Swamp Challenge this weekend. My back is feeling better, but it's still tight and I'm still walking gingerly without doing any twisting. I certainly don't want to risk sending my back into spasm again and it will definitely hurt my goal of making A class if I go down there and don't score very well.

I think I'll make my decision on Friday. If I can get out in the backyard and twist, turn, run, stop, jump, etc without any pain or stiffness, then I'll go. If not, I'll skip the match and hit the dry fire hard.

This is definitely you when you are shooting.

Stagman said:

This is definitely you when you are shooting.

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No kidding. I've had to bleep some of my videos before. Jogan always laughs in the background when he hears me talking to myself.

Do you still shoot CZ's or are you only shooting 2011's? If you made the switch why? From my perspective the SAO trigger on the 2011 is easier to shoot, I struggle badly with DA/SA triggers, DAO or SAO triggers only for me.

Stagman said:

Do you still shoot CZ's or are you only shooting 2011's? If you made the switch why? From my perspective the SAO trigger on the 2011 is easier to shoot, I struggle badly with DA/SA triggers, DAO or SAO triggers only for me.

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To put it simply, my gun choices have been dictated by the division in which I'm shooting.

USPSA Production rules don't allow any SAO firearms, only DA/SA, DAO, or striker fired. I mainly shoot a CZ in Production, but occasionally shoot a Glock. Limited and Open divisions allow for SAO, so there's no reason to shoot a DA/SA gun. CZ and Tanfoglio both make nice Open guns, but 2011's are extremely modular and have much more aftermarket support, which is why I chose to go the 2011 route.

I still have my CZ, but I've been concentrating on Open division lately. Although I may dig the CZ out of the safe and shoot IDPA with it next weekend.

You need to try my CZ. It's not a typical DA/SA gun. 5.5lb DA/2.25lb SA and smooth as butter. A handful of dry fire sessions and I was completely used to it.

BTW, when are you going to come out to a match?

I will be shooting a match soon, probably after hunting season. I will let you know when I go, hopefully you will be there also.

Stagman said:

I will be shooting a match soon, probably after hunting season. I will let you know when I go, hopefully you will be there also.

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Definitely. We'll be in touch, especially if you want to practice together beforehand.

I made it out to the range on Monday for some much needed live fire practice. My back is still bothering me, so I wasn't able to do as much as I would have liked. Still, I was able to accomplish a few things. WHO and SHO shooting were two of the major skills I worked on. I always seem to forget to practice them in live fire, so this was a great opportunity. Finding the dot after the transition to WHO is still a little iffy, but it'll come naturally with more practice.

I also did some dry fire yesterday, even though my back protested. I kept with the theme of no big transitions or twisting movements and warmed up with some draw to sight picture, then spent about 15 minutes on WHO.

I finally got the bump to B class today, thanks to an old 20% classifier finally dropping off. The Gator score still isn't in, but it won't change my classification and won't help me get into A.

On that note, I'm facing a conundrum about which match to shoot this weekend. MPSA is having a 200-250 round match and a lot of good open shooters are going to be there. On the other hand, ECPS is going to have a classifier match, which could really help me move towards A class. I think I'm going to wait until Friday and let my back decide for me. If it feels good, I'll shoot the big MPSA match. If it's still bothering me, I'll shoot the classifiers because they shouldn't require much movement.

I got an idea yesterday while listening to Ben Stoeger's interview on the Shooters Summit. He mentioned that a lot of folks don't practice/train for consistency. Consistency is something I continue to struggle with and I started thinking about how to best practice for it. The obvious answer is that you need to practice each skill enough to be consistent at it. Anyone who has followed this thread knows that I tend to jump around a lot as far as working on different skills. Many of my training decisions stem from inconsistencies I noticed in the previous match. While I'm sure this will eventually lead to getting better overall, I'm wondering if there is a more efficient way to become more consistent.

I think I may perform an experiment in the next month or so. Since I'm finally going to be joining the MPSA range in January, where I'm allowed to set up full stages, I've got an idea of how to develop a list of skills on which I should spend a lot of time and effort. My thought is to set up a simple stage that incorporates a lot of what we see in matches on a regular basis: big movement, wide transition, distance change-up, hard lean, opportunity to shoot on the move, tight target, etc. I'll then run the stage 5 or 10 times (maybe do another drill in between runs to break it up), film every run (from multiple angles), write down every split from the timer, then go back and watch the film, analyze the timer data, and develop a list of skills or areas where I'm the most inconsistent and stick with that list for an extended period of time.

Thoughts on this idea?

Did some more dry fire last night. Still spend most of my time focusing on transitioning to WHO (which also incorporates a draw and reload), but this time I ended the session with 5 minutes of match mode dry fire. I try to do this every time, but sometimes I forget.

When I got done and was putting my gun away, I noticed this:



This magwell was brand new about 6 weeks ago, and I've been splitting my practice time between this and my other open gun.

That's what a magwell should look like...
As far as your stage time study, numbers and good data never lie. Looks like it's a well thought out process, running the same process many times over will certainly show inconsistencies. Although it might show your doing some things right to begin with.

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JWlineman said:

That's what a magwell should look like...
As far as your stage time study, numbers and good data never lie. Looks like it's a well thought out process, running the same process many times over will certainly show inconsistencies. Although it might show your doing some things right to begin with.

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Click to expand...

The only thing I'm worried about is that I'm over-thinking or over-complicating it.

Nah, if you're trying to fine tune your stage approach/strategy, maybe run the same stage with minor changes. Like shooting an array in a different order or starting from a different position. In all reality it is a numbers game.

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