I did 11 minutes, 110 reps (42 2H, 34 SHO, 34 WHO), of the Wall Drill this morning.
This evening was the 3rd Friday IDPA match at LASC. I arrived a bit early and shot a Dot Torture at 7 yards using the pistol-training.com target. The lack of live fire practice was apparent. I went from consistently scoring 49 at 7 yards to a 40 tonight. I do find the gray circles on the PTC target a little harder to see on my poorly lit indoor range than the thick black outlines on the dedicated DT target, but they are not that much harder to see.
My POI does seem to be different with this gun. While it’s not enough to be a problem for defensive shooting, it is an issue when shooting 2″ circles at 7 yards. Having said that, there is still a very good possibility that it is me. I won’t know for sure until I get my practice gun fixed and I can shoot them side-by-side.
Only 6 people showed up and we decided to shoot drills instead of running a match. We mostly focused on accuracy related drills. It seemed that was where most of the guys present could use the work since only a couple of us could keep all our shots (2H, SHO and WHO) on a 3×5 card at 3 yards.
I was at the range for 3 hours and shot a total of 250 rounds.
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 a meeting in Albuquerque today, so before I left the house I did 10 minutes — 80 concealed draws/press-outs — of dry fire practice.
After a very productive meeting, I went to Calibers for some live fire practice. I started with some 2-handed, SHO & WHO precision work (1″ squares at 3 yards and 2″ circles at 7 yards) and then moved on to press-outs at 7 yards using 2″ circles. Next I worked on 2-shot draws to a 3×5 card at 7 yards, Circle Drills, and a walkback drill from 7 to 25 yards. I finished my session with some more 2-shots draws to a 3×5 card, and some press-outs (2H, SHO, and WHO) at 2″ circles. I fired a total of 650 rounds in 90 minutes.
This was my first time using the pistol-training.com targets during a practice session and it went really well. These are excellent practice targets. Due to the multiple scoring/target areas I was able to use a single target for many drills and not waste time changing targets. In fact, I only used 2 targets today. The main reason I was able to fire as many rounds today in as short a period of time as I did, while not feeling rushed, was because I didn’t have to spend time fiddling with my target. It was a real time saver. On Tuesday I took some of these targets to the staff at Calibers and I hope that they will start carrying them as one of their standard targets.
After returning home this evening, I did another 10 mintues and 80 concealed draws of dry practice.
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 awoke this morning headache free and feeling great. While my back is still pretty tender (and likely will be for another week or so), I’m able to manage the pain with periodic stretching and physical therapy exercises.
I started out the day by doing 20 minutes of dry fire practice — 160 concealed draws. Perhaps it due to the really light practice schedule over the past several days, but I was barely able to maintain focus for the entire 20 minutes. The 20 minute upper limit on dry fire is certainly the way to go.
Later in the day, I drove down to Albuquerque to run some errands, and before heading home I stopped by Calibers for some live fire practice. I don’t particularly like people and I seldom, if ever, like “gun store people”. However, I must admit that the staff down at Calibers is outstanding. They are knowledgeable, friendly, and just all around good guys.
This was the first time in 13 days that I’ve fired my P30 and it showed. My biggest problem was that I’d softened up my grip and I was back to having the gun “squirt” out of my weak hand when firing with two hands.
As for drills, I shot some B-8s at 25 yards, 2″ circles at 7 yards, draws/press-out on 2″ circles at 4-6 yards, and draws/press-outs on 3×5 cards at 7 yards. I finished up with the Circle Drill and despite my earlier grip issues, I did really well. I was at the range for 2.5 hours and shot a total of 450 rounds.
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 did 10 minutes of dry fire this morning — 75 concealed draws.
In the afternoon I swung by Calibers for a bit of live fire practice. I brought a friend who is a novice shooter, so this wasn’t a very serious training session for me. I started by shooting at 2″ circles at 7 yards (2 hands, SHO and WHO) and finished with some Circle Drills at 15, 10, and 7 yards. Total time at the range was 2 hours and I fired 250 rounds.
Tonight was the monthly ‘Third Friday” IDPA match at LASC. The Friday night matches usually draw very few people, especially in the winter, and tonight was no exception. Only four shooters showed up and instead of running a “match” we decided to just shoot drills instead.
We warmed up by shooting 3×5 cards (2 handed, SHO and WHO) at 3 yards. I would have rather shot them from 7 or 10 yards, but the other shooters had difficulty keeping them on the card at 3 so it was probably best that we didn’t. Next we worked on reloads, SOM, barricades, multiple targets, and some longer range shots (20 yards). We finished up by shooting a walkback drill using 3×5 cards and then back to the 3 yard line to end with a nice tight slow fire group so that everyone would leave on a high note.
Total time at the range was 3 hours and I shot 250 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.
