The elbow in really helped me work on getting a basic reload drill down. It felt good and I'll really have to work on going from slide release back to a firm grip. I might need to see if I can hire the Beard for some one on one training to just look at my basic shooting stuff.

I did about 30 minutes of dry fire last night, including almost 10 minutes of practice for classifier CM 99-13 (Quicky II). It involves freestyle, strong hand and weak hand shooting, and transitioning between them after a reload. My reload to weak hand transition is a little iffy. I've got to work on it a lot more before I feel comfortable with it.

I also slightly re-adjusted my magazine pouches on my belt, to keep the 1st and 2nd magazine from touching. I've got a few parts that should be here this evening, so I'll be installing them and heading back to the range either this evening or tomorrow after work.

The other stage designs for this weekend's match look pretty straight forward, but include a lot of movement and it looks like strategic positioning will be critical. Here are the stage designs, if anyone is curious: https://smsps.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/bpsa_aug2015.pdf

rememeber...there is no "weak hand!" BOTH hands are strong, baby! The key to shooting with your support hand, is body positioning. For me, during the reload and swithing to my left hand, I'll pull my right foot back. This puts my shoulders almost 90 degrees to the targets. Left shoulder pointed down range. This puts the gun farther out in front of you than your normal two-handed hold. The increase in length for me help me aim better. Plus, all recoil goes through the gun, into my STRAIGHT left arm, then through my upper body and into my right shoulder. Keeps the gun bouncing to a minimum. The other method that's popular is to stand like you normally would only pull your right hand into the center of your chest and make a fist with it. I don't prefer this method as recoil moves the gun dramatically to the up and right. Think of a triangle where your arms are the front two sides with the point facing the targets and the base would be your shoulder line perpendicular to the targets. Take one side away (your "strong" hand) and that triangle is now an upside down 7. When the gun fires, recoil wants to push the gun back. With your left arm at an angle, the path of least resistance is up and to the right. If you turn your shoulders towards the targets, your whole upper body can absorb the recoil. Try both methods. I've said it many times, practice shooting with both hands while your at the range. It's awkward at first and feels like crap! But stick with it until it feels normal. Us old paintballers shoot both left and right. You learn that real quick in tournaments.

jogan said:

rememeber...there is no "weak hand!" BOTH hands are strong, baby! The key to shooting with your support hand, is body positioning. For me, during the reload and swithing to my left hand, I'll pull my right foot back. This puts my shoulders almost 90 degrees to the targets. Left shoulder pointed down range. This puts the gun farther out in front of you than your normal two-handed hold. The increase in length for me help me aim better. Plus, all recoil goes through the gun, into my STRAIGHT left arm, then through my upper body and into my right shoulder. Keeps the gun bouncing to a minimum. The other method that's popular is to stand like you normally would only pull your right hand into the center of your chest and make a fist with it. I don't prefer this method as recoil moves the gun dramatically to the up and right. Think of a triangle where your arms are the front two sides with the point facing the targets and the base would be your shoulder line perpendicular to the targets. Take one side away (your "strong" hand) and that triangle is now an upside down 7. When the gun fires, recoil wants to push the gun back. With your left arm at an angle, the path of least resistance is up and to the right. If you turn your shoulders towards the targets, your whole upper body can absorb the recoil. Try both methods. I've said it many times, practice shooting with both hands while your at the range. It's awkward at first and feels like crap! But stick with it until it feels normal. Us old paintballers shoot both left and right. You learn that real quick in tournaments.

Click to expand...

Yep, that's exactly what I've been practicing. I'm mainly concerned about quickly moving the gun from my strong hand to weak hand. I need to practice at about half or quarter speed until I can figure out exactly the best way to transition without dropping the gun or having an AD.

Yesterday afternoon, I swapped in some new parts in my SV, did a few minutes of dry fire, then took it to the range for more function testing than live fire training.

I only mention the new gun parts in thie training journal because these new parts help the gun fit me better. I added a Nitro Fin thumb rest/slide stop (that doesn't actually work as a slide stop, but replaces the factory one), a mag release paddle, a larger magwell, and a flat trigger. The thumb rest should help me control the recoil better and allow faster follow-up shots. The mag release paddle allows me to drop the mag without moving my strong hand around on the gun. The larger magwell can provide marginally faster reloads, but I mainly bought it because it sits higher on the grip then the factory magwell. The new magwell pushes up into my strong hand slightly, providing a more consistent grip at the draw. The flat trigger is to hopefully reduce the torque I put on the gun, through the trigger, while firing.



I did a few draw and reload drills during the function testing, and overall I wasn't happy with my speed and pointing the gun at the draw. I'm going to need to spend a lot more time dry firing to get the gun to point naturally out of the holster. I started out at 7yds, shooting at an 8" paper plate. At first, I was around 1.30 to 1.35s draw, with all the shots being near the center of the plate. I tried to "sort-of point shoot/sort-of see the sights", and got it down to 1.13-1.15s, with all hits on the plate but more spread out than before. My goal is to get my draw down to 1.1s in the "A" zone of a USPSA target at 7yds. I'll start tracking my progress soon.

After I got back from the range, I practiced transitioning from reload to weak hand a few more times. The thumb rest kinda sorta gets in the way, but not bad enough to remove it. I'm still nowhere near comfortable with the transition, so I'm going to practice a little more tonight, before packing up all my gear for the match tomorrow.

Shot the Biloxi match yesterday. Not bad overall, but I had a few hiccups. I also discovered several things to add to my "to work on" list.

Here are the videos:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orZVrqvkjH4&spfreload=10


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXRlFGDYIjk&spfreload=10

I was happy with my reloads, but apparently I need to work on seating the mags. I might have his the mag release with my weak hand on the classifier stage. Otherwise, I'm not sure why it would stay in for 2 shots instead of dropping out at the first shot. On Stage 3, I didn't seat the mag at the start, and I didn't seat the mag on the second reload, either. I'm not sure what the problem was. That was the last stage of the day and I hadn't had that problem at any other time.

So yet again, I can't seem to shoot a decent classifier. I'll be lucky to make D class with the way the last few have gone. I'm guessing I limp-wristed the first shot WHO, which caused the malfunction. I didn't have any other problems with the gun.

My accuracy overall wasn't great and it was especially horrendous while shooting on the move. The 3 mikes on Stage 4 (the stage we started on) really hurt. They were all on the targets I shot while moving. My speed is getting better, but my trigger control at speed is still lacking. That might be at least part of the cause of the poor accuracy.

As far as the gun, I really like it. The thumb rest fits my hand, but doesn't help recoil control very much. I handled someone else's gun with a GoGun Gas Pedal and it REALLY locks your hands in. The Gas Pedal is cheap, but requires you to drill the frame. I didn't want to do that, but I'm considering it after handling one.

That's all, for now. I'll add more as I think of it.

Nicely done TJ! Thanks for sharing

Not sure if you've figured out your mag seating issue, but I saw foresaw potential seating problems in my own mag changing practice when I stuffed them to 20. While still technically "reloadable" I knew I would have to REALLY slam them home, so I download the mags on my belt to 19 just to reduce the seating effort (and user error). That extra round SHOULDN'T be needed unless the other 40 are spent going to war on steel :dizzy:

Hopefully your fix is as simple as that??

coolpapabell15 said:

Not sure if you've figured out your mag seating issue, but I saw foresaw potential seating problems in my own mag changing practice when I stuffed them to 20. While still technically "reloadable" I knew I would have to REALLY slam them home, so I download the mags on my belt to 19 just to reduce the seating effort (and user error). That extra round SHOULDN'T be needed unless the other 40 are spent going to war on steel :dizzy:

Hopefully your fix is as simple as that??

Click to expand...

I believe downloading the mags to 19 would definitely fix the issue. These MBX mags will almost hold 21, therefore, 20 should be easily reloadable. However, there is absolutely no excuse for me to not seat the first mag. That was just an oversight on my part, especially after having one drop out on the classifier. I will probably start loading them to 19 just to play it safe.

I was able to get in a little dry-fire last night, but I switched things up a bit. The next match I'm going to shoot is IDPA, so I practiced a little with my new CZ 75 Compact and Glock 17 RTF2. If the 75 Compact functions well at the range, I'll probably shoot it at the next match. I also got out my gamer Woolrich vest and practiced draws and reloads from concealment, since it has been a while since I've shot IDPA.

Things felt out of sorts for the first couple minutes of practice, but I got into a rhythm and everything got noticeably faster and smoother by the end of the segment. The biggest issue I had was really looking the mag into the gun since I don't have a huge magwell to suck it in. Once I realized what I needed to do and addressed the deficiencies, everything went well.

I've got a lot of things planned for the weekend, but I'm hoping to sneak out to the range for at least a few minutes to test a few of my new guns. It will probably be more function testing than practice, but at least I'll be shooting!

No practicing on the week of the IDPA match - that is wrong and unfair. Hope to see you Sunday.

Jeb21 said:

No practicing on the week of the IDPA match - that is wrong and unfair. Hope to see you Sunday.

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I'm not practicing the week of an IDPA match.... I won't be there Sunday.

And the only reason it might be unfair is if you're not practicing as well, which is not my problem. :fish2:

IDPA = I Don't Practice Anymore.

Sorry you will not be there Sunday. I guess I win our contest then by your forfeit. eace:

I dry-fired until my fingers bled last night.....ok, so that might be technically true, but it's not as bad (or as good) as it seems. I did a couple draws and reloads and ended up cracking open the scab that was just starting to form on last weekend's cast net injury to my finger. Seeing as I don't want to get blood all over my guns, I decided to end the informal dry fire session at that point.

If the weather cooperates, I'll be stopping by the range this afternoon to function check a few guns to see if they work so I can shoot them in this weekend's IDPA match.

Thanks taking the time to share such a detailed video on dry firing.

Just a quick question. When I am trying to do a fast dry with my shot timer in dry fire, I frequently grip to low on the gun. It seems that my hand has a 1/4 to a 1/2 of space below where it should be. Any suggestions on how to make sure I am getting a good grip?

Practice on just gripping the gun at the buzzer. Don't need to draw it out. Just get your hand to the gun. Establish that proper grip FIRST. Keep doing that until you can find the back of the gun. Once you can repeatedly attain the proper grip, continue on with the draw stroke.

RussSurfs said:

Just a quick question. When I am trying to do a fast dry with my shot timer in dry fire, I frequently grip to low on the gun. It seems that my hand has a 1/4 to a 1/2 of space below where it should be. Any suggestions on how to make sure I am getting a good grip?

Click to expand...

I have 2 ideas that might help. For one, set you phone timer for 5 minutes and go half- to 3/4-speed and focus on your grip. By the end of 5 minutes, you should have no problems getting a good grip on the gun. Another trick I use to help index the gun at the draw is the following: when I relax my hands at my sides, I rest my forearm against the grip of my gun, so I know where my hand should go at the buzzer.

Try both of those and see what happens.

jogan said:

Practice on just gripping the gun at the buzzer. Don't need to draw it out. Just get your hand to the gun. Establish that proper grip FIRST. Keep doing that until you can find the back of the gun. Once you can repeatedly attain the proper grip, continue on with the draw stroke.

Click to expand...

Great suggestion!

I hadn't done any dry fire since I shot the IPDA match on Sept 26th, but I finally got back into it last night. I spent about 30 minutes with my USPSA rig just getting back familiar with it and practicing transitioning to my weak hand after a reload because this coming Saturday will have ANOTHER WHO string after a reload in a classifier. Hopefully this time I'll remember to grip the hell out of the gun so I don't limp wrist it on the WHO string.

I also worked a lot on my trigger control keep the muzzle from moving at the break. I noticed that my weak hand grip had a lot to do with which direction the muzzle moved, if at all. If I get a good, strong weak hand grip, then my sights don't move at the trigger break. I need to work on being more consistent with this.