[jkrispies]

Here’s me checking my ego at the door. Go for it, gentlemen! http://www.youtube.c...h?v=OHZLkW4BtRo

This is my first attempt at videoing myself at all much less for outside critique, so I’m keeping it simple with a standard dry fire exercise: among other things, I know that my draw needs to be faster, and so does my reload. I invite all comments/criticisms, but that’s my focus in this activity.

Questions that I have:
1. Am I as slow responding to the buzzer as I think I am? Any suggestions on how to improve my reaction time?
2. How does the gun look presenting to the 1st target? Sometimes I find myself arcing it up slightly or searching for that front sight too much…
3. What are people seeing on the reloads? (fyi, I’m planning to purchase some Safariland 771’s pretty soon, as I think having the mags angled slightly will help with extraction)

Thanks!
J


MISCELLANEOUS INFO

Equipment: Single Stack gun and rig (all mags are fully loaded with unprimed dummies)
Array: Three IPSC cardboard targets 7 yards out and spaced 6 feet apart
Course of fire: Draw, two shots on each target, reload, two shots on each target
Par: 5 seconds (it sounds like I’m coming in slightly under… say 4.8ish)
Shot Calling: Two of the runs were straight A’s, but on one (I think the 2nd run) I fumbled the mag insertion slightly and ended up pushing a C each on T1 and T2 before regaining my wits by T3

[ihatepickles]

I don't see any reason to feel bad about posting that vid, honestly it looks pretty decent.

After your reload you're sloppy with your weak hand. Get a handle on that and be consistent with your grip. This is the biggest mistake I saw because I think consistent grip is fundamental to shooting well.

You're giving up on the reload slightly too early. It's hard to be certain from the vid, but it looked like you weren't following through 100% on sticking the mag and looking for the target just a bit too early. That could go either way, it's hard to track your eyes in that vid.

I think you're chasing the front sight with your eyes. I don't see you looking at the next target and then relying on hand-eye coordination to move the front sights in front of your eyes. It looks like you're moving the gun and try to keep your eyes on the front sight during the move rather than looking for the next target.

I don't think the type of mag holder is hurting you much, maybe move your existing set forward. SSD rules allow gear up to your hip bone and you have the mag holder behind the seam of your pants. Make sure you work on reloads from the mag pouches further back too. I'm guilty of only working on reloads from my first pouch too.

Pretty decent effort though. I wouldn't speed up a bit until everything is smooth and consistent. In fact, perhaps slow down your par time a bit and work on the consistency. Your drawing motion is a touch frantic, smooth it out if you can.

[kgunz11]

As you are hitting the release you need to have your hand almost on the replacement mag. You should be inserting the mag into the magwell before the discarded mag hits the floor.

[kgunz11]

During live fire, does the brass hit your support hand thumb when it is ejected?

[jkrispies]

kgunz11, on May 5 2009, 09:56 PM, said:

As you are hitting the release you need to have your hand almost on the replacement mag. You should be inserting the mag into the magwell before the discarded mag hits the floor.

This is actually one of the reasons my mag change is slow-- I'm a lefty. I previously was releasing the mag with my trigger finger, which worked fine until I started to get faster. My fast mag changes with the left index finger on button was causing two problems: 1) I have to really tweak the gun around in my hand to get my finger onto the mag release with enough force to drop it 100% of the time, which means that the gun has to be readjusted in my hand to a proper grip when I'm done, and that slows things down; and 2) doing all that shifting around to get on the button was causing me to rotate the gun to the point that by the time I had the button released, the mags were failing to fall free probably 15% of the time due to the grip angle, and then everything came to a grinding hault because I had to then manually pull/shake the mag out. My fix (at least on static reloads) has been to now drop the mag by pushing the button with the index finger of my support hand, which is dropping the mags free 100% of the time. The bad news, as you point out, is that it lingers my support hand longer on the gun, which keeps me from getting to the mags. On the flip side, I still do it the old way when I'm reloading on the run as the movement of the gun seems to get the magazine out okay during those times.

Do folks think it would significantly help my reload speed if I try to go back to the old way and try to make that work reliably?



NOTE: Edit for spelllllling

This post has been edited by jkrispies: 06 May 2009 - 05:20 AM

[jkrispies]

kgunz11, on May 5 2009, 09:58 PM, said:

During live fire, does the brass hit your support hand thumb when it is ejected?

I noticed that too when I was watching the video. Looks weird, huh? Nope, brass extraction is never a problem.

[jkrispies]

ihatepickles, on May 5 2009, 09:54 PM, said:

SSD rules allow gear up to your hip bone and you have the mag holder behind the seam of your pants. Make sure you work on reloads from the mag pouches further back too. I'm guilty of only working on reloads from my first pouch too.

Thanks for the comments, especially with the eyes. That's one of those things where I know that I need to do it, but then when the buzzer goes off I don't pull it off 100% of the time.

Do you think I'd still be legal with one mag forward of the belt loop? If so, I'll gladly do that! In fact, I was thinking of the 771's more for the rear pouches since I have to twist a bit to get to the rearmost two right now.

[bkeeler]

Your weekhand grip has a big gap in it between the hands meeting together.

You are currently working on speed with an incorrect technique in my opinion.

Before you do any more dry fire practice this way I would suggest you get your grip technique worked out.

I would not be concerned about anything else at this point.

I would start doing dry draws in slow motion(with out a timer or start buzzer) to get this issue worked out. Forget about reloads transitions ect......

One step at a time. Once you have your grip technique worked out in slow mo look at your grip at the end of the draw make sure you have the hands in the correct positions. (this may or may not take a while)

It took me manyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy slow mo draws to get where I am now at with my draw and presentation to the target and the front sight is there when the gun comes up. Another trick is draw in slow mo with your eyes closed then open your eyes the sights should be on target.

I still do slow mo draws just not as much as I did.

Edit to add: Once you feel you have your grip correct and the draw down do the reloads in slow mo also just the reloads no transitions no draws.... once you have the techniques down then you can speed it up a little but continue the slow mo it works.

Keep it up you will see big improvements.

Just my .02




BK

This post has been edited by bkeeler: 06 May 2009 - 06:47 AM

[ihatepickles]

jkrispies, on May 6 2009, 08:26 AM, said:

ihatepickles, on May 5 2009, 09:54 PM, said:

SSD rules allow gear up to your hip bone and you have the mag holder behind the seam of your pants. Make sure you work on reloads from the mag pouches further back too. I'm guilty of only working on reloads from my first pouch too.

Thanks for the comments, especially with the eyes. That's one of those things where I know that I need to do it, but then when the buzzer goes off I don't pull it off 100% of the time.

Do you think I'd still be legal with one mag forward of the belt loop? If so, I'll gladly do that! In fact, I was thinking of the 771's more for the rear pouches since I have to twist a bit to get to the rearmost two right now.

Well with the double mag pouch, I think you'd still be SSD legal with the pouch in front of the belt loops. Check out Appendix E3 in the 2008 Rule Book for a diagram. Figure out where the frontmost limit of your hip bone is and get your gear behind it. You should be able to feel the hip bone pretty easily.

The 771's pivot but only in one direction. As they sit on your right hip they can be rotated rearward but not forward which I think is your impression. If you got a 771 for the left hip but wore it on the right hip, it would rotate forward but then you might find that the reverse holders interfered with other magazine access. I wear my rear mag pouches vertical for what it's worth.

I like the 773's better but that's a matter of taste. The 771 have the front cutout so your index finger can index the mag, but when you're wearing 4+ holders in such a tight space this advantage isn't usable. If you line up several 771's on the belt you'll see what I mean easier than I can describe it. The 773's aren't as wide or tall so with 4 on my belt I'm not having to reach for my spine to access the 4th. That difference let's me get the 4th mag 3 inches further forward.

But anyway... I've been trying not to be so much of a gear-geek lately. It's distracting to think "I'm not sure this is the best gear for what I'm doing" when in reality if I bust my butt and practice more I'll save 4 seconds across the course vs. the half-second that improving my gear might yield. Work on your grip first would be my advice, especially after the reloads - the before and after picture looks like 2 different people shooting.

This post has been edited by ihatepickles: 06 May 2009 - 08:12 AM

[jkrispies]

Quote

The 771's pivot but only in one direction. As they sit on your right hip they can be rotated rearward but not forward which I think is your impression. I like the 773's better but that's a matter of taste. The 771 have the front cutout so your index finger can index the mag, but when you're wearing 4+ holders in such a tight space this advantage isn't usable. If you line up several 771's on the belt you'll see what I mean easier than I can describe it.

Right, I thought they rotated both directions. Are the 773's able to rotate forward?

Also, I'm really interested to look at the video (I'm at work and can't access youtube from here) to look at that grip, and especially to compare it before and after the reload.

This post has been edited by jkrispies: 06 May 2009 - 08:20 AM

[ihatepickles]

jkrispies, on May 6 2009, 11:17 AM, said:

Quote

The 771's pivot but only in one direction. As they sit on your right hip they can be rotated rearward but not forward which I think is your impression.

Right, I thought they rotated both directions. Are the 773's able to rotate forward?

Nope, sorry, the 773's are built like the 771's. Take heart though, with 4+ magazines on your belt I think you'll find there's not enough real estate available to rotate the mag pouches very much anyway. I like the Safariland mag pouches regardless though, they're one of the classic pieces of gear that work as well now as they did 15 years ago. Take note of the height of the 773's vs 771's also if you haven't already, I can grab a lot more of the mag while it's still in the pouch with the 773's.

CR Speed pouches can be setup for 1911 and they'd give you the forward rotation you'd like. There's others out there too. I never like the CR Speed much, aside from their awesome belts.

This post has been edited by ihatepickles: 06 May 2009 - 08:30 AM

[bkeeler]

jkrispies, on May 6 2009, 08:17 AM, said:

Also, I'm really interested to look at the video (I'm at work and can't access youtube from here) to look at that grip, and especially to compare it before and after the reload.

The before and after grip look the same big gap between the hands looks like your weakhand thumb is pointing in the air.

BK

[kgunz11]

bkeeler, on May 6 2009, 11:30 AM, said:

jkrispies, on May 6 2009, 08:17 AM, said:

Also, I'm really interested to look at the video (I'm at work and can't access youtube from here) to look at that grip, and especially to compare it before and after the reload.

The before and after grip look the same big gap between the hands looks like your weakhand thumb is pointing in the air.

BK

I saw that as well. Get that support hand wrist canted forward to manage that recoil and it might eliminate some of those gap issues. It has been said that it takes 1000 repetitions for something to become repeatable and 3500 for it to become natural instinct. 30 minutes of 50% speed in dry fire draws a day for a few weeks will get you there before you know it.

[bkeeler]

kgunz11, on May 6 2009, 09:51 AM, said:

bkeeler, on May 6 2009, 11:30 AM, said:

jkrispies, on May 6 2009, 08:17 AM, said:

Also, I'm really interested to look at the video (I'm at work and can't access youtube from here) to look at that grip, and especially to compare it before and after the reload.

The before and after grip look the same big gap between the hands looks like your weakhand thumb is pointing in the air.

BK

I saw that as well. Get that support hand wrist canted forward to manage that recoil and it might eliminate some of those gap issues. It has been said that it takes 1000 repetitions for something to become repeatable and 3500 for it to become natural instinct. 30 minutes of 50% speed in dry fire draws a day for a few weeks will get you there before you know it.

With no timer. While working on technique the timer is not needed at all.

BK

[jkrispies]

Okay-- I snuck a peak on my boss' computer. I see exactly what you guys are talking about. This is a perfect example of how the video helps out, because I know exactly how I'm supposed to grip the gun and even show new shooters how to do it properly, but when I'm rushing on the draw and reload it all goes to poop. Now that I see what I'm doing and have you guys to point it out, I know what to work on!

[bkeeler]

jkrispies, on May 6 2009, 12:49 PM, said:

Okay-- I snuck a peak on my boss' computer. I see exactly what you guys are talking about. This is a perfect example of how the video helps out, because I know exactly how I'm supposed to grip the gun and even show new shooters how to do it properly, but when I'm rushing on the draw and reload it all goes to poop. Now that I see what I'm doing and have you guys to point it out, I know what to work on!

This is exactly what happens if you use a timer in dry fire you tend to rush things. I use dry fire to polish my technique and live fire to push myself.

BK

[jkrispies]

bkeeler, on May 6 2009, 12:55 PM, said:

jkrispies, on May 6 2009, 12:49 PM, said:

Okay-- I snuck a peak on my boss' computer. I see exactly what you guys are talking about. This is a perfect example of how the video helps out, because I know exactly how I'm supposed to grip the gun and even show new shooters how to do it properly, but when I'm rushing on the draw and reload it all goes to poop. Now that I see what I'm doing and have you guys to point it out, I know what to work on!

This is exactly what happens if you use a timer in dry fire you tend to rush things. I use dry fire to polish my technique and live fire to push myself.

BK

Actually, I don't usually use the timer-- I just busted it out for the video as a point of reference for the viewers. I only time myself about once every 2-3 weeks to guage improvements. My problem is that I don't have anybody around to practice with to say, "Hey, dummy-- your hand's in the wrong spot and you know better!!!" I'm definitely going to work on this and maybe post some more videos in the future. This is an invaluable resource.