Today was the first time in over 5 weeks that I was able to live fire any of my guns. While my performance suffered from the extended break, I’m sure it would have been much worse without my daily dry fire practice (although, it probably could have been better — more on that later).
At my bullseye league tonight we continued to use the reduced targets at 50′. As I mentioned before, I find these much harder to shoot than the standard sized targets at the usual distances (25 and 50 yards). Tonight I scored a 796-13x:
- Slow Fire Match: 159
- National Match Course: 273-5x
- Timed Fire Match: 176-4x
- Rapid Fire Match: 188-4x
After bullseye, I went to the adjacent range and shot 400 rounds of 9mm through my P30. I worked mostly on slow-fire accuracy drills (3×5 cards and 2″ circles) from 3 to 25 yards and a few 10-shot bursts at an 8″ circle at 10 yards. The pistol-training.com target continues to be an excellent target for practice sessions, allowing me to work on a lot of drills with having to constantly repair or replace it.
The biggest thing I learned tonight is that I’m not getting a proper grip during my dry fire practice. The gun kept “squirting” out of my weak hand and allowed my strong-hand thumb to interfere with the slide release and prevented the slide from locking back on an empty magazine. I think I’m not getting my weak-hand far enough around and towards the backside of the grip. I’ll experiement with using different sized grip inserts and see if this is somehting that can be addressed via hardware. However, I suspect that more than anything it’s more a matter of me needing to slow down during practice and ensure that I’m properly establishing my support hand grip.
I also noticed that my WHO shooting had suffered. I had gotten to the point that I was about able to keep 90% of my WHO shots inside a 2″ circle at 7 yards. Tonight while I was able to maintain a mostly 2″ group, I was impacting the target an inch of so low and right of where I wanted to. While this is likely just do to a lack of practice, there is a possibility that my carry gun has a slightly different POA/POI relationship than my practice gun. I did notice that during 2H and SHO shooting that I was consistently a little low and to the right, but not as much as during my WHO shooting (which make me think this is more of a software problem).
I was at the range for 2 hours and 15 minutes and fired a total of 490 rounds.
I started the day with 10 minutes — 80 concealed draws — of dry fire before leaving for work this morning, and then drove down to Calibers in Albuquerque for my bullseye league this afternoon.
Sunday night I replaced the Aimpoint Micro T-1 and OEM weaver rail on my bullseye gun (a Ruger MK III Competition model) with an R-1 and an Aimpoint MK III mount kit. While the R-1 doesn’t do anything that the T-1 doesn’t, the new mount positions the sight a bit lower and allowed me to ditch the weaver rail, thereby which saving a little weight. While I was at it, I also removed the iron sights since I never use them. I’ll eventually get the rear sight dovetail and front sight mounting hole filled in.
I don’t know if the new optic hand anything to do with it, but I shot my best score in quite some time, a 834-12x!
- Slow Fire Match: 178
- National Match Course: 280-4x
- Timed Fire Match: 187-6x
- Rapid Fire Match: 189-2x
I doubt the changes to to gun had anything to do with the improved score. If anything, it’s probably due to me getting back to my regular exercise regimen. For a variety of lame reasons, I haven’t been routinely exercising for the past few months. I suspect that over the past several weeks I’ve improved my upper body strength (mostly shoulders and back) enough that I was able to achieve and sustain a steady hold.
After I finished with bullseye, the guys at Calibers let me shoot the suppressed .22 pistol they have for rent — a Ruger MK III with a Pac-Lite barrel from Tactical Solutions and a Silencerco suppressor. It’s the first time I’ve shot a suppressed .22 and it was awesome. I can definitely see myself getting a .22 can in the near future.
Total time at the range tonight was 1.5 hours and I fired a total of 130 rounds (which includes sighting in my new optic, shooting the bullseye match, and playing around with the suppressed pistol).
I did’t get home until after 23:00 so I decided not to have an evening dry fire session.
I had two 10 minute dry fire sessions again today, for a total of 20 minutes and 160 concealed draws. I’m really liking the shorter sessions and I’m going to try to continue doing 10 minutes immediately before I leave in the morning and then again as soon as I get home. Ten minutes is about as long as I can maintain 100% focus right now, so trying to dry fire for longer would not only be a waste of time, but would most likely be detrimental to my progress.
Tonight was the start of a new season in my bullseye league. I ended up with an average score of 812 — just barely expert — during the last one. This is disappointing since my average score was in the 830s during the one prior to that. It’s not surprising considering that I’ve done virtually no practice other than shooting a 900 every week or so.
For the first half the Winter/Spring season we shoot the 50′ reduced targets in preparation for the upcoming Sectional Match in Amarillo. Shooting the smaller targets at 50′ is much harder (for me anyway) than shooting at 25 or 50 yards. I typically shoot 20 to 30 points (out of 900) lower on the 50′ targets and my score tonight (775-7x) was no exception. I had a particularly bad NMC. Instead of focusing on the shot I was about to break, I kept thinking about a project I’m working on. I probably should have but the gun down and took a few minutes to clear my head, but I didn’t.
Total live fire time tonight was 45 minutes and I shot 90 rounds.
I spent the majority of today sleeping, lying on the floor trying to forget about my aching back, or watching it snow. So far there is about a foot of accumulation with another 24 hours — and several inches — of snow in the forecast. My back doesn’t even want to think about digging out of this mess.
Given that it hurts like hell to do anything but lay on the floor, I was only able to do 5 minutes — and 40 concealed draws — of dry fire practice today.
The Shaggy AIWB holster and Basic Mag Carrier I ordered from Custom Carry Concepts back in August arrived today. I took them out of the mailbox, strapped them on, and then drove down to Albuquerque for my bullseye league. I wore the holster for about 9 hours today (4 of which were while driving) and my initial impressions are positive. The Shaggy holds my pistol about 1/4 inch higher than the Looper I’ve been using and, unlike the Looper, it allows me to easily get a full firing grip on the gun while it is still in the holster.
At bullseye tonight I shot an 822-20x. Still not a great score, but my slow fire is getting more consistent and I had a pretty decent Timed Fire Match (target shown at right).
I spent a total of 45 minutes firing at the range today and shot 90 rounds.
I shot in my bullseye league tonight. I’m still barely shooting Expert level scores, but seeing as I’m not doing any dedicated BE practice I’m not surprised.
Tonight I scored a 813-11x. I continue to struggle with slow fire, but I did manage a decent slow fire string during the National Match Course — 93-1x (shown at right). With the exception of the one 8, I just focused and made it a point to only take the good shots. It’s good to know that I’m still capable of firing a good string. Now I just need to I do it more often.
Tonight I shot in my bullseye league, my score was 812-16x. My slow fire continues to be terrible. While my timed and rapid was good, it could be better (I’m still shooting too many 8s).
- Slow Fire Match: 158-0x
- National Match Course: 272-7x
- Timed Fire Match: 192-5x
- Rapid Fire Match: 190-4x
After the match, I went to the adjacent range and worked on my SHO/WHO shooting by shooting 2″ circles at 5-7 yards.
My WHO shooting is definitely getting better. The image below shows the results of firing fourteen 15-round strings. The top row of circles were shot SHO and the bottom WHO. The first circle in each row was shot at 5 yards, the second at 6, and the remaining at 7. All strings were fired slow fire, except the last two where I shot 3-rounds bursts, breaking the next shot as soon as my sights were back on target.
I’ve always held my gun completely vertical when shooting SHO/WHO, but recently I’ve began to cant the gun slightly during my WHO dry fire practice. It seems to be helping, but it may just be the increased practice that is really providing the benefit.
I was at the range for one hour and 45 minutes tonight and I shot a total of 300 rounds.
I shot an 805-20x at my bullseye league tonight. My slow fire was terrible, but once warmed up I did OK on the timed and rapid fire. I did throw some shots on the sustained fire, scoring a 7 and a few 8s.
I forgot to take any 3×5 cards or 2″ circle targets with me tonight, so the guys at Calibers gave me some of their price tags to use. They were approximately 2.8″ x 5.5″ and worked great, but I would have preferred to have used the circles. I did a slow fire walkback drill starting at ~5 yards and shot 15 round strings. If all the rounds struck the card, I pushed the target out another yard. I kept all the shots on target until 10 yards where I was only about 85%. I noticed that all of my shots were impacting a bit to the right of where I was aiming. Since the rounds go where I intend when shooting with 2 hands or SHO, I know it’s not an issue with the gun but rather something I’m doing. I suspect as I get more accustomed to shooting with my left hand that this problem with disappear.
After shooting at 10 yards for a while, I brought the target back to 7 and 5 yards and shot a few magazines of sustained (but still relatively slow) fire. I was able to pick the pace up a bit and still keep all my shots on the cards. I noticed that my trigger manipulation seemed a lot less hesitant and consistent.
All together I shot 390 rounds tonight — 300 WHO and 90 SHO (bullseye match) — in just over 2 hours.
Tonight was bullseye night. I arrived a little early and hurriedly shot a BE1000 — I scored a disappointing 787-5x – before shooting for the league. For the 900 I started out a little slow, but shot a really good National Match Course and then sort of fell apart during the timed and rapid fire matches:
- Slow Fire Match: 172-0x
- National Match Course: 283-5x
- Timed Fire Match: 189-3x
- Rapid Fire Match: 183-2x
Not a particularly good night, but the 827-10x on the 900 was my best score in several months.
I went to the range today for three hours and shot 221 rounds working on bullseye. I began by shooting a BE1000 with my P30. I scored a 826-13x. Next, I started working through the USMC Pistol Team Workbook with my .22 bullseye gun. I completed the first two exercises (and started the third) in Chapter 1 — The .22 Caliber Pistol. Despite being relatively cold and dreary, it was a good day at the range.
