[joecichlid]

This is a video of me shooting USPSA Classifier CM 99-13 with The Bullet Hole Practical Shooting Club of Kansas City. I really need to work on my mag changes and weak hand shooting. As you can see my weak hand part of the strings had some issues with the grip safety, it has not been deactivated and won't be. I just need to get used to the weakhand side of shooting. I shot the stage two times.

I give you exibit "A"

Opinions, comments or suggestions?

Joe W.

[fourtrax]

I'm just a "B" open, so grain of salt this. I thought that your reload could be a little higher. I think your off hand is perfect when shooting with just one hand. I spent hours getting down my transfer to weak hand and sometimes it is still goofy. Just means I need to spend more hours doing it. Overall I think you looked good. Hopefully some will come along and give you better feedback.

[boz1911]

Aside from the weakhand issues, 2 things pop out at me, one of which I'm working on also. On the draw your arms should drop at a blurred pace. Also on the reloads you appear to tap the mag to make sure it's seated. Something tells me that's a habit that you don't need. Oh' I almost forgot with the lighting I can't tell if you have your Mongoose face on. That's required for sure.

[bwit]

You looked good. You looked like most of the rest of us. That's a compliment ! I have trouble with the grip safety sometimes too, strong or weak hand. I adjusted all mine so they have a minimum amount of movement required to deactivate it [see Bob Londrigan?? article on this in Frontsite or on his website- Brazos]. It helped a lot. I feel like you do in that I don't want to deactivate the grip safety but I have often still thought I wish I knew a way to pad it out a bit as it still gets me occasionally - - - any ideas anybody ?????????????????????????

[waktasz]

I think it's easier to go left to right when shooting left handed. Also, if you have a problem seating mags when they are stuffed full, and you're shooting a classifier with only 6 shots, no need to load the mag to full capacity.

[joecichlid]

fourtrax, I plan on working on my dry firing more this week. Lots of draws and mag changes as well, I noticed I tend to drop my head down to the sights after the draw.

boz1911, yeah on the first string I did double tap the mag as it didn't feel it seated fully. Second draw I had a bad grip on the magazine off the belt and wasn't 100% sure it seated. I think I will be adjusting my mag pouches on my belt to ensure I get a good grip from the start as it looked like I gripped them a little high. Third mag change (first string of second run) looked pretty good on the mag change but I am sure I could make it smoother with time. Lately I have been dearly lacking in time for my dry firing. Fourth mag change didn't look too bad either but dang that switching to weak hand KILLED me not to mention the grip safety issue. I had my "I may be a B class open shooter but I know I can shoot better than this, balls to the wall angry go faster" face on. lol

bwit, I plan on working on the grip safety a bit so that it will deactivate a little sooner/with less preasure.

waktasz, the mags were downloaded by about three rounds each to be sure the mags would seat fully if I did my part. I did leave the extra rounds in there to insure that the mag would fall free of the gun on the mag changes. I have a bad habit (that I am working on correcting) of canting the gun slightly as I hit the mag release and sometimes an empty mag won't fall free so I needed that extra weight just to be sure.

Thanks to everyone for the advice.

Joe W.

[fourtrax]

I'm no gunsmith so I tape my grip safety with that black stretchy electrical tape. Perfectly legal in USPSA no matter what some gun Nazi's try to tell you. Someday I'll deactivate it completely. I would never do this to any other gun I own, but the racegun is a sole purpose kinda thing. Got tired of the Range Nazi's and wrote Amidon for the skinny and now I carry that answer in my bag for the occassional Nazi. I press it in and wrap the tape completely around the grip up high. Don't even know its there.

Edited to say: Left to right with the Left hand only and right to left with the Right hand only is very good advice. It has to due with the muscles being stronger working from the outside to in and your vision doesn't get blocked by arms/guns.

This post has been edited by fourtrax: 22 February 2009 - 04:13 PM

[CHA-LEE]

Shooting one handed is a lot easier and faster if you move the gun in the direction the recoil is promoting. In your video you can see that your gun wants to recoil up and to the right. After every shot you are forcing it back to the left then have to swing excessively to the left after the second shot on the same target. If you shot the one handed strings from left to right the guns recoil would promote the movement to the next target for you with minimal need to drive it there. Everyone is different though. In general I prefer to shoot strings from right to left freestyle and strong hand. But I will always shoot from left to right when shooting weak hand because the recoil helps so much with moving to the next target. Canting the gun at a 45deg angle will also help with keeping the gun recoiling straight up and down. When your wrist is canted at a 45deg angle it’s a more natural wrist/forearm position as well and controlling/moving the gun gets easier as well.

The only other thing I can see that no one has mentioned is that you are not changing your stance when switching to one handed shooting. If you bias the leg/side you are shooting from forward that will give you a more solid foundation to shoot from. For example, my normal freestyle stance has my right foot back and left foot forward. I am right handed, and when I switch to shooting strong hand only I will reverse my stance having my right foot forward and left foot back. This switching up of the stance can happen at the same time you are performing the reload so no time is really lost.

[joecichlid]

I felt OK with the Freestyle part of the strings as well as the Strong Hand part. The Weak hand part of the strings I should have shot left to right as stated above, to allow the recoil to help me.

Joe W.