63 replies to this topic

[SeaTact]

Great forum here and now a "Beyond Fundamentals" follower. Been through the book once and am re-reading it. I hope to apply the principles as I post more.

My bio:
-- 40-something male. Right-handed. VERY near sighted but I'll wear soft lens eye contacts in competition.
-- New to pistols but not to marksmanship. I used to shoot .22 rifles on a high school team. But no firearms between then and now.
-- Just started pistol shooting Spring 2010 after I took an introductory handgun course. Demoed rental pistols from Spring 2010 to Summer 2010 before buying. Maybe about 500 rounds total.

My current gear:
-- Bought my first gun in August 2010: Glock 17, Gen 4
-- Completely stock. No mods at this time. Stock polymer sights. 5.5 lb connector
-- Well, maybe the only "mod" was a 25 cent trigger job. Polish and cloth only. No Dremel. Did that just yesterday and it did seem to help
-- Uncle Mike's instructor belt
-- CompTac Paddle holster
-- CompTac twin mag pouch x 2
-- SureFire G2X Tactical (wow, it's bright)
-- Peltor Tactical 7S electronic muffs
-- ICE Naro eye protection
-- Stack of IDPA paper targets
-- no shot timer (yet)
+-- Had a Serpa holster, but didn't like the retention tab.

My philosophy:
-- Interested in carry / personal defense, and want to shoot matches with the same gun as if I would use for defense. So, no race gun or major Glock mods at this time. But the competition bugs are biting me quite a bit now...
-- Really want to maximize my gun handling skills and marksmanship skills before I branch out to other pistols or divisions.

My training and shooting so far:
-- Will be shooting IDPA SSP for now. Will try USPSA in the summer months if time allows (maybe production division?)
-- Did lots of reading and lots of dry fire since August.
-- Took a defensive pistol class in the fall, did a classifier the same night -> NV classification. Ugh-- I think I was too tired and that was my mistake.
-- Just did a second classifier last month -> now at MM level, and a couple of seconds short of SS

Shooting/training venues:
-- Western Washington clubs for competition
-- Indoor range up to 25 yards. Allowed to draw from holster but no Bill drills allowed.
-- BUT, there's an open, no-lane training bay that I'll have limited access to. Bill drills allowed there. They even have barricades available.
-- Dryfire and other drills at home

Thanks, and looking forward to posting more.
ST

Edited by SeaTact, 16 January 2011 - 02:14 AM.

[SeaTact]

1/17/11 RANGE SESSION - IDPA target After a couple of months of shooting, I'm realizing that I should get back to working on a fundamental: making sure I am forming a consistent 2 hand grip. I'm more aware that the feel of my two-hand grip can vary-- no doubt more than it should. Today's practice was from low-ready position with a two-hand grip. I'd recently switched back to using a medium backstrap, which seems the best size to allow my support hand to have the firmest contact with the grip panel. The hand is also much more cammed down than in the past; my support thumb is now parallel to the frame. In the past, my first knuckle of the thumb was lower than the tip of my thumb.

20 yards:
30 rounds front sight focus. Focus on accuracy and not speed. Practiced trying to call the shots, which is still difficult for me at this range. 4" groups but I notice about 4 shots were -1, at 12 o'clock. My front sight bisects the center circle of the target so I'm not sure if I'm doing this correctly or if I should put my front sight at the bottom (6 o'clock) of the 0 circle.

10 yards:
about 21 rounds of Moz drills. Front sight focus so I'm pretty slow. Down 0 for all shots, which tells me I guess I can shoot a little faster.

5 yards:
Pseudo "Bill drills" x 5, 5 rounds each. Some shots were straying into the low left area of the center and 1 or 2 shots were -1. I was ensuring that I had some sort of sight picture before I broke the shot, but I can't remember if I was focusing on the target or the front sight.

Lessons learned today:
-- I think the $0.25 trigger job worked. The trigger break seems a little cleaner, maybe a little lighter. During my 20 yard shot-calling practice I was "surprised" by the trigger break for a lot of these shots, which is something I hadn't experienced in a while.
-- I'm flinching very little now, if at all. But my low-left shots tell me I still need more practice with my trigger pull.

-- When the trigger breaks and during recoil, I still don't feel like my front sight returns to the notch on a consistent basis. I guess I shouldn't be surprised given that I've adjusted my 2 hand grip slightly. I'll try to stick with this form for now.

Goals before the next range trip
-- Will keep working on forming a consistent grip while practicing draw strokes.
-- Awareness training. Will keep practicing forming a sight picture with eyes closed, as described in Brian's book.
-- I've been almost exclusively Type 3 and Type 5 focuses up till now. Will try focusing on targets when I dry fire at home.
-- Maybe time to get a shot timer so I can track my progress more precisely.

Edited by SeaTact, 20 January 2011 - 12:31 AM.

[SeaTact]

BETWEEN SESSIONS, and for the last 6 months I'd been listening to Bob Mayne's Handgun World show. Some of his podcasts involved discussions with one of the local USPSA master-class shooters Steve Zopfi, and I learned a LOT of stuff listening to their disucssions. More recently, Steve has a podcast/YouTube production called the PowerFactor Show, which is currently geared towards novice shooters. Great stuff.

HOME SESSION-- 30 minutes
Went back to the fundamental skill of drawing from the holster. I think I actually dry fired no more than a dozen times.

Instead I really worked on awareness and feel, at all phases of the draw up to getting on target. On the PowerFactor show, Steve talked about indexing his forearm to his pistol so that the forearm is resting against it, prior to the draw stroke. I never thought about extending the "index" conept to all positions, not just when the gun's pointed at the target. Makes a lot of sense.

Before I grip the holstered gun, I tried something new, and indexed my support hand just above my belt. While I'm forming my strong hand grip, my left hand will stay on my stomach so that the tip of my little finger touches the metal of the belt buckle. Seems like the most reproduceable place for me and maybe it'll help for consistency.

Lessons learned:
-- I still don't feel a consistent two-hand grip and don't have a sense how high to get my support hand up on the gun.
-- My shoulders seem too tense when I extend the gun to the garget. I will work on keeping them relaxed. Only drive the gun and arms forward to the target, not the shoulders or shoulder blades.
-- Any feedback or suggestions for my posts are appreciated.

Edited by SeaTact, 21 January 2011 - 12:11 PM.

[SeaTact]

NEW TRAINING TOOL: Tactical Solutions TSG-22 LR Conversion


I wanted to get more milage with trigger pulls and I figured this would be a good item. I was on the backorder list for 2 months and got it from Cabela's. Fired 200 rounds with a mix of freestyle, strong and weak hand shooting. 200 rounds later my trigger finger was a bit fatigued. I learned this after I switched back to my stock Glock slide, 9mm cartridges looked huge and I felt my accuracy was a little off. It was hard to do a focused 25 yard shot. Either that was fatigue or I had to re-adjust to the recoil.

Lesson learned:
-- I'll have to shoot at least 50 rounds of 9mm ammo after using the conversion.

[SeaTact]

PAST WEEK:

Worked on draw strokes, reloads, and malfunction clearances.I'm still slow on clearing double feeds—it's not automatic for me and I have to think it through. Also ordered a shot timer, the CED 7000. Can't wait to get it.


LESSON LEARNED:

I do a better job forming a good 2-hand grip when drawing from my conceal jacket. When I tried drawing without it, I actually had a more difficult time getting a consistent grip.

With my conceal jacket, my right hand had to sweep behind the grip to make sure my garment cleared, then the hand slid forward along the pistol grip. Rather than jamming my hand straight down(takes longer), or approaching straight from the side (required too precise positioning-- still seems to take longer), sliding the hand up the grip to the tang seemed to be best for me. I'll use the timer to see which is better overall.

IDPA indoor match tonight. I'm going to assume distances are10 yards or less so I'll use a target focus style tonight. Won't rush things,though: "See what you need to see, no matter how long it takes"

Edited by SeaTact, 05 February 2011 - 03:24 PM.

[SeaTact]

INDOOR IDPA MATCH

Had a great time this weekend. 3 stages, but not really any targets that would allow me to do a type 2 focus. Looking back at my shooting, I think I was front sight focused all the way, though at times my focal point may have beenbetween the target and the front sight—I remember some times when I had good sight alignment but it was still just a little out of focus. Also, I realized I haven't practiced reloads enough with my cover garment. I fumbled a little. Will post a video soon.

My "hmm, I never did this before" moments (remember I'm pretty new to this):

• El presidente to strong hand shooting
• Slide lock reload while moving. Geez, you'd think I'd have done this bynow.
• Barrel as low cover—shooting from above the barrel instead of the side. 7 yard head shots with a no-shoot covering the target.
• Lesson learned: at this distance, don't use barrel as a brace. I rested my forearms and the Glock on the barrel, thinking I'd be faster. Not the case. Recoil movement was completely different and my front sight didn't return to the rear notch on follow-up shots and transitions. Won't do that again.

Edited by SeaTact, 08 February 2011 - 06:03 PM.

[SeaTact]

Went back to the range the day after the match to re-hash some of my deficiencies:

• Bill drills x 5
• El presidente to strong hand
• FAST Drills x 3
• Bianchi barricade shooting at 20 yards
• Finished session with 50 rounds weak hand shooting 10 yardswith 22LR conversion

Lessons learned

• Trigger control is a contradiction for me when I go rapid-fire. A couple of classic Glock low-left shots in the -1 section of my Bill drills.
• Might be rushing the shot at 20yards… but maybe I'm balancing speed and accuracy enough. A couple of -1's,'bout 25% of my shots.
  
  

Edited by SeaTact, 08 February 2011 - 06:05 PM.

[SeaTact]

Thought I'd take the plunge and try some video feedback. Any comments or criticisms are appreciated. There are 24 total shots in 2 strings. My total score was 36.25 + 17 points down. This was my first stage and I was the second shooter so I was scrambling to get my mags prepared, which added an extra element of stress. A couple of things off the bat that I observed

• I need to practice reloading using my conceal garment more. I flubbed grabbing the magazine a couple of times.
• I didn't sight-in enough on the down 0 section of the target, which is one of the reasons why I lost so many points. Looking back I remember I was content with having my sights within the target-- I totally forgot there are still -1 and -3 sections in there. Duh.
• My 180 degree turn to strong hand shooting stance was off. I realize my right foot was too far back. And unfortunately I was completely aware of it while I was shooting, which also means I was less focused on my targets. Should've readjusted my stance.
• I had at least one, maybe 2 misses with the center target. I didn't spend enough time "seeing what I needed to see" and I broke the shots way too early. In fact my splits for the center target seems shorter than the other ones.
• Are my shoulders really that shrugged up? They relaxed and fell after finishing the strings.

Sorry my turns were covered up by the SO.

Edited by SeaTact, 12 February 2011 - 07:15 AM.

[SeaTact]

Dry Fire Practice x2 this past week
-- 20 minutes drawing from my cover garment. Reload with retention, reload from "slide lock".
-- Focus practice at 10 yards. Type 2 at the body then switching to more Type 3 for the head.

Lessons Learned:

-- My new shot timer can't pick up Glock dry fire clicks . Got the CED 7000. I had the maximum sensitivity dialed up and it wouldn't pick up my dry fire. With or without a snap cap. The slide has to be no more than 2-3 inches in front of the mic for it to pick up. I thought about rigging up a wristband but I still don't think that would work; the timer would have to sit on my wrist at an angle that would mess up my freestyle grip. Bummer.
-- During reloads, my right hand has to shift slightly to hit the mag release and sometimes re-welding the two hands together doesn't form the same freestyle grip. I don't think it happens all the time, though.
-- For reloads with retention, I plan to use my left hand to sweep my garment back first, THEN release my mag to remove and stow it. Seems to be cleaner and faster than releasing my mag, sweeping back the garment with mag in hand, then stowing it. I guess this is where the shot timer will help me figure out which is more efficient.

IDPA match this weekend. Looking forward to it.

[Jman]

Some observations if I may...

1. Work on your grip strength (higher grip) and an aggressive stance. Take the air out of the knees and bend them slightly. Weight up on the balls of your feet.
Push your butt out a little (you need to feel the 'push out' in your lower back) To much muzzle flip happening.

2. Hold the gun higher and closer to your face during reloads and watch your mag enter the magwell.

3. Same foot forward, shooting single handed (right hand-right foot forward and visa-versa, feet about shouldesr width apart).
Shooting single hand cant the gun slightly. Example: shooting RH going right to left a 11 o'clock cant. LH going left to right a 1 o'clock cant.
You'll see your sights track better.

4. The timers we use in the game (and dryfire) are not used to pick up dryfire clicks. The Par-time feature is what we use for dry-fire.
Use it to develop a true 'base time' for say, your draw and first shot. Example: set your first beep on random start between 2-4 seconds
and your second (partime) to beep say at 2 seconds. Then over time you reduce your par time (second beep) a 1/10 of a second faster.
Make sense?
Good luck and great shooting!

Jim M

[SeaTact]

Some observations if I may...

Jim-- Thanks so much for the suggestions.

1) Yeah, I have flimsy forearms. I'm working with grip strength exercises.
I've been working on my draw stroke so much that I haven't worked on my stance-- which broke down when I start facing up range. Will work on that more.

2) Will do

3) Same issue as #1, my stance degraded after I turned 180 degrees to face uprange. Hadn't thought about that until now. I've been told about the cant for one-hand shooting, I'll experiment with that some more.

4) I realized my expectations for the shot timer were probably unrealistic but I was hopeful 'cause I read some other people being saying their timer picked up their clicks. Maybe the shot timer can pick up fry fire from hammers, but not my Glock. s'ok. I'll use the par timer from now on.

[Jman]

You're very welcome.

A tip for #3...

Instead of several small steps while you turn, push off on one foot and pivot (spin) on the other heel. Much less busy. Also start with your head already turned in the direction you are going. You will steady up on your target much faster.

Jim

[SeaTact]

IDPA Match
7 stages. Record number of shooters, about 128. My goal was to be accurate-- someone here said that the total time deduction should be no more than 10% of the raw score-- I like that goal and met it today, but only because of malfunctions

Things I was aware of:
--My cadence has improved. I was aware that my splits sped up when I engaged a near target, and slowed down as I sighted in distant targets.
--I was shooting fine until my last 2 stages- my gun malfunctioned twice which of course put me at the bottom of the list for total score. Actually, the shooter malfunctioned, not the gun. Details are in this post: http://www.brianenos...howtopic=123568
-- I was reminded of "cover" a couple of times and I remember doing some weird jig-hop-shuffle to get into better position. Moving up and down to get to the side seems less efficient than just side-stepping.

Despite that, I still placed in the top 15 for "most accurate".

Lessons to learn
-- Make sure it's your own ammo that you pick up after you Unload and Show Clear.
-- Need to practice shuffling around low cover. If you're kneeling, one stage forced you to move around the barrel to engage all the targets. Some got around this by lying on their side. Nice.
-- Need to practice malfunction clearing. When my gun first jammed I just stared at it like a deer in headlights. TAP-RACK-BANG.

Edited by SeaTact, 21 February 2011 - 07:54 AM.

[SeaTact]

Dry Fire Drills - 20 minutes

• Used par timer -- draw time (solid grip to a reliable trigger press) was 2.0 seconds. Any faster and I found I was jerking the trigger-- my front sight did the well-known low-and-left movement. I had a cold weather jacket for concealment so that added some time...
• Eyes-closed awareness drills as written in BE's book. This includes focusing a little more on my stance so I'm bending a little more at the knees and at the waist.

Lessons learned

• During draw strokes I still have a lot of subtle variations in how my support hand welds to my strong hand.
• I think I still have more force in my shooting hand than my support hand. Trying to get more to the 60/40 -- and put more force in my support hand
• Seems more important to take the time and get that good, reproducible firm grip as well as a smooth trigger press. I'm hoping for more accuracy at the next match (last time, placed 14th out of 128 shooters for accuracy).

[ncboiler]

On the turn and draw, make sure you turn into your gun. In other words, your gun is on your right hip, turn to your right. Otherwise if you turn to your left and get the gun out of the holster too fast you'll break the 180. Turning to your right you only have to go a short distance to pass the 180 and you're good .

[SeaTact]

Range Session -- finally!

Since it's been nearly a month, I was excited to get some shooting in, plus use my new timer, plus use my 22LR conversion. So:

50 Rounds -- all at 7 yards
2 FAST drills
Several Bill drills

Lessons Learned
- My front sight drops down below the slide between shots. Either that or I'm flinching. And it's likely both
- Baseline split times with a good sight picture and not points down is 0.4 sec. Two "down 1's" took place (low-placement) when I pushed my splits to 0.3. Bear with me here since I'm now and have a stock Glock.
- FAST drill times were pretty consistent-- about 7.5 seconds

50 Rounds -- 15 yards
- Shot calling practice
- Barricade practice - tried angling my upper torso vs. staying vertical (body plus gun)

Lessons Learned
- Yes, I flinch after a month from the range. Sucks.
- I still can't call shots for my life. 3 or 4 "down 1's" and I didn't recognize it. Sucks.

150 Rounds with my Tactical Solutions 22 LR kit
- 30 rounds with 2 hand grip
- 60 rounds right hand
- 60 rounds left hand

Lessons Learned
- 250 trigger pulls in a 90 minute session wears out the muscles in my index finger. i was a little sore
- The trigger pull with the kit in place is a little lighter than my stock Glock trigger, but I'm starting to learn my NPA with either my left or right

running total of shots since I bought my Glock in 2010:
2600 + 300 with conversion kit

Edited by SeaTact, 17 March 2011 - 07:58 PM.

[SeaTact]

Lessons learned from: Dry Fire Session (20 min) + Book Session


Practiced a new way of doing turning draws -- push off with my left foot and practically pirouette on the ball of my right foot. Feels much faster than shuffling around. Will keep trying this technique.

Spent more dry fire time doing awareness exercises from pg. 170 & 171 from BE's book.

I'm going through BE's book for the second time and finished chapter 3. Amazing what you can re-learn when you re-read.
I realize I haven't been aware if I've been blinking or not during ignition. Maybe that's why I'm still having a hard time calling shots. From his book: "If you're seeing the front sight come up in the rear notch silhouetted against orange, then you're not blinking".

I think I remember seeing that only once or twice. Ever.

[SeaTact]

Range Session (100 rounds + 50 conversion kit)

Holster draw strokes -- some with focus on mechanics, and some at speed
Bill drills from 7 yards
Calling shots at 15, 20 & 25 yards -- focused on making sure my eyes stayed open and my facial muscles stay relaxed
Left hand & right hand shooting

Lessons Learned
-- I'm more aware of a cadence that goes with the holster draw, and maybe thats good. Slow-fast-slow-fast. Slow to get the hand on the grip, fast to pull it up and out, slow to get the support hand index finger under the trigger guard, fast to extend the arms. Getting more consistent over time.
-- I'm more aware of the sight at the point of ignition. I'm starting to see some muzzle flash along with the sight. Face and eyes are relaxed and I'll keep working on that awareness
--I'll have to take more time on "cold starts" or on my first stage. My first two bill drills had a couple of -1's and groups that were leftward. My accuracy definitely increased and the "left-leaning" groups became fully centered as I kept shooting through the range session.
-- Better to start with the stock slide, then switch to the 22LR to finish the session. There's no longer that "hand cannon" sensation that happens when I shoot the other way around. Seems like when I start a session with the 9mm, I default to feeling comfortable with it.

running count 2700 + 350 with conversion kit

[SeaTact]

On the turn and draw, make sure you turn into your gun. In other words, your gun is on your right hip, turn to your right. Otherwise if you turn to your left and get the gun out of the holster too fast you'll break the 180. Turning to your right you only have to go a short distance to pass the 180 and you're good .

Thanks, nc. I'm going to make the turn in that direction in the future. I used to turn to the left-- safely-- because it seemed more "tactically" correct.

[SeaTact]

Dry Fire -- 1 hour

Going to try and do another IDPA classifier this month so I spent most of the time doing drills without a cover garment:
-- Reload with retention
-- Slide lock reloads
-- Going prone (ouch. need a *lot* of practice)
-- Shooting on the move
-- Awareness drills

Lessons learned
-- My double mag pouch was actually too far forward and not IDPA compliant. I had to have it straddle a different belt loop so this will be the new norm. Fortunately I figured this out early in the hour. Unfortunately my pouches slide backwards slightly whenever I grab a mag, which means I'll have to push the pouches back forward to make sure they stay in the same place on my waist. Bummer.
-- Kydex mag pouches and nylon instructor belts are a slippery combination.
-- For only milliseconds, at the precise moment the trigger breaks, the front sight of my Glock tends to wiggle. This gets worse the more I try to rush the shot, which tells me I'm not really pulling the trigger straight back, or my 2-hand grip needs readjustment. I'm not squeezing too tight though-- the sight doesn't shake at all if I'm pretending to do a type 5 focus and the shot breaks clean. Maybe I have more time for awareness and getting the feel of my hands/arms/shoulders just right.

Edited by SeaTact, 03 April 2011 - 12:25 AM.

[SeaTact]

How to load your Glock magazines for an IDPA classification match

Just got back from a classifier match yesterday and wanted to write this down while it's still fresh in my mind. I only had three magazines and had to top them off between strings. That put more pressure on myself than necessary-- I should've asked a buddy to top them off. Honestly, I like just reaching for a pre-loaded magazine. I'm putting this in my diary for future reference.

For SSP or ESP, have at least 5 magazines with at least a 10 round capacity. 9 round mags or less won't work for this system. For a given stage, 1 magazine should have 11 rounds -- as the "load and make ready" mag. Each stage: 1 mag in pants pocket, 2 mags in belt pouches.

Stage One - 7 yards
- 4 magazines to division capacity-- at least.
- 1 magazine with 2 rounds (1 round should already by chambered after finishing string 5). This mag is for string 6-- reload from slide lock after 3 shots

Stage Two - 10 yards
- 4 magazines to division capacity.
- 1 magazine with 5 rounds (1 round should already be chambered after finishing string 2). This mag is for string 3, which requires a slide lock reload after 6 shots

Stage Three
- 5 magazines to division capacity.

A couple of points if you're going to try this system. Some of the strings will have you start with less than division capacity (Stage one, string 7 for example will have you start with only 7 rounds for a 6 round stage) so it's a little gamble if you have a malfunction-- but we all know Glocks don't do that, right?

Edited by SeaTact, 10 April 2011 - 09:33 AM.

[98006]

Have you tried shooting a different gun. I went MP from Glocks and my shooting went up. Its something with the Glock trigger that messes me up.

You shooting on Renton on Sat ?

Edited by 98006, 13 April 2011 - 03:59 PM.

[SeaTact]

I do like the other polymer guns-- definitely the M&P and the XD's. I won't make a switch until I've given myself at least a year or two with my current gun. The Glock trigger is definitely a challenge, especially stock. I guess I'm a masochist

Won't be able to make Renton tomorrow-- are you going?

[SeaTact]

IDPA Classifier last week

Overall, I'm not too pleased with my score. It's essentially unchanged compared the classifier I did in November. At least I have a rank in both ESP and SSP. MM level.

Total Stage I Stage II Stage III
164.54 (63) 46.02 (11) 42.63 (18) 75.89 (34)

Lesson learned
I forgot to follow BE's advice and I *already* mentioned this before. Sheesh:

"See what you need to see, no matter how long it takes."

Edited by SeaTact, 18 April 2011 - 08:09 PM.

[98006]

the classifier is usually won or lost on stage 3. the long shots are hard and easy to get a lot of PD.

Where was classifier this weekend?