Slingin' Lead
I went to the range again this morning and shot at the USPSA practice that they hold every Saturday.
I started off by doing a few drills, mostly reloads as that's what I've been working on this week. They feel pretty good, but they aren't quite there yet. Then I went and shot the practice stage that they had set up. I stepped up to the stage and got a brief walk-through. The RO didn't give me much time to get the stage programmed, so I just had to go on instinct. It was a 24-round course of fire that everyone else was shooting left-to-right. There were a lot of different options for engaging targets. I chose the option with the least movement and was able to score one of the best times of the group. Though admittedly, the group that was there wasn't very proficient.
They changed the stage up after that, setting up a "shoot house" of sorts. The stage started on the left outside the shoot-house with a popper, two minis, and then two paper targets in an array. At that point one moved into the shoot house, engaged two more papers and then moved up to a port and engaged five more paper targets spaced out an angle from two to ten yards. I chose to sprint up to the foot-fault line, knock down the steel, double-tap the two papers and then reload. Following that, I ran into the shoot house, nailed the two papers as I saw them, reloaded, moved up to the port and then quickly blasted the remaining five papers. I learned a few things during this stage. It's hard to sprint, slide to a stop and then hit mini-poppers at about 15 yards. I ran this one several times and I always seemed to miss the steel atleast once. The rest of the stage was a hose-fest. However, I did learn that it's faster to shoot on the move than to sprint, stop, and then sprint again. Shooting on the move isn't something that I do well, and I'm not sure how to train for it given the constraints of what I can do at the ranges that I normally frequent. Ideally, it's something that I could work on a couple times a week.
There was another guy there shooting Production that won the division in the last club match. He and I shot within .1s of each other. I shot the stage in 15.16 and he shot it in 15.06. There was a class A shooter there that ran it in 11s with his open blaster. I feel pretty confident that I can be competitive at this club in Production division, and I'm starting to think that's where I'd like to stay for a while. It is appealing to me because it requires more strategy with regard to reloads as well as confidence and accuracy. I've noticed that folks that shoot Open division and start a stage with 29 rounds in the gun have more of a tendency to spray and pray.
I spent some time working on my reloads with a timer. Generally, I'm in the 1.5-1.7s range with them, though they aren't as smooth as I'd like. Someone showed me a new trick. That is, once the follow-through on the shot is complete, allow the recoil of the gun to push the mag-release into my thumb. I still need to work on my hand speed going for the new magazine and I'm having problems getting a good grip as well. If I miss the grip on the magazine that pretty much guarantees that I'll have a botched reload. I'm going to offset my mag pouches as much as is permissible to get the mags away from my torso a bit. I suspect that will improve consistency a great deal. I should be able to knock a few tenths off my reloads fairly easily. Maybe one of these days, I'll even shoot a match. There is an area championship here in July. My goal is to win the Production division.
Update
I remembered a bone-headed thing that I did today, so I felt like I had to share with the world so that I may suffer derision for my actions. There are some big baggy pockets in my range bag designed to hold a bunch of cartridges. Generally, when I go to the range, I dump a couple boxes of ammo into one of these pockets and I reload from there by grabbing a handful of ammo and stuffing it into the magazine. I keep my range bag on a table nearby and I keep the pocket open. Apparently someone dropped a 9mm round in there today. Also apparently, I loaded it into a magazine without noticing it. Oddly enough, I discovered that my Glock 35 chambered in .40S&W will also chamber and fire 9mm which was... exciting to say the least. The round fired and jammed in the chamber. It took a little effort to extract it, but everything else was fine, except my pride.
Please let me illustrate a stereotype; A later middle-aged TactiBilly that is an armchair commando, a gun enthusiast, and a shooter wanna-be. These guys inevitably come to the USPSA thing and for some reason, they bring their single-stack 1911s, either a Springfield or a Kimber, and real gun leather that may even be an IWB holster in a state with no shall-issue CCL permits. They use 7-round magazines and only bring two, or maybe three. I don't really understand these guys that well, but ok. Usually, they'll exhibit excellent form, having a great stance and grip. They all shoot like molasses and less than half of them shoot accurately. I wonder if they spend a lot of time posing in front of a mirror. If there are as many of these guys as I think there are, I suspect that the USPSA single-stack division will take off like wildfire and that IDPA may suffer as a result.
I had a conversation with one of them the other day. The guy works at a range and carries open on a daily basis. He had actually seen the (Glock) light and had started to carry one on a fairly regular basis. He expressed some concern about carrying either a G19 or a G26 for fear of limited stopping power. What ensued was a conversation about how one can buy 9mm +P ammo from CorBon that delivers more energy than some, but not all of their .45ACP +P ammo. That intrigued and pleased him. I think he was looking forward to carrying a much lighter gun more regularly. He was a perfectly rational guy, which made it a pleasure to talk to him. There are some others that aren't quite so pleasing to talk to. I'd really rather not have a conversation about tactics, thanks and no, I don't care how you would handle the situation if you ever came face-to-face with Osama.
I started off by doing a few drills, mostly reloads as that's what I've been working on this week. They feel pretty good, but they aren't quite there yet. Then I went and shot the practice stage that they had set up. I stepped up to the stage and got a brief walk-through. The RO didn't give me much time to get the stage programmed, so I just had to go on instinct. It was a 24-round course of fire that everyone else was shooting left-to-right. There were a lot of different options for engaging targets. I chose the option with the least movement and was able to score one of the best times of the group. Though admittedly, the group that was there wasn't very proficient.
They changed the stage up after that, setting up a "shoot house" of sorts. The stage started on the left outside the shoot-house with a popper, two minis, and then two paper targets in an array. At that point one moved into the shoot house, engaged two more papers and then moved up to a port and engaged five more paper targets spaced out an angle from two to ten yards. I chose to sprint up to the foot-fault line, knock down the steel, double-tap the two papers and then reload. Following that, I ran into the shoot house, nailed the two papers as I saw them, reloaded, moved up to the port and then quickly blasted the remaining five papers. I learned a few things during this stage. It's hard to sprint, slide to a stop and then hit mini-poppers at about 15 yards. I ran this one several times and I always seemed to miss the steel atleast once. The rest of the stage was a hose-fest. However, I did learn that it's faster to shoot on the move than to sprint, stop, and then sprint again. Shooting on the move isn't something that I do well, and I'm not sure how to train for it given the constraints of what I can do at the ranges that I normally frequent. Ideally, it's something that I could work on a couple times a week.
There was another guy there shooting Production that won the division in the last club match. He and I shot within .1s of each other. I shot the stage in 15.16 and he shot it in 15.06. There was a class A shooter there that ran it in 11s with his open blaster. I feel pretty confident that I can be competitive at this club in Production division, and I'm starting to think that's where I'd like to stay for a while. It is appealing to me because it requires more strategy with regard to reloads as well as confidence and accuracy. I've noticed that folks that shoot Open division and start a stage with 29 rounds in the gun have more of a tendency to spray and pray.
I spent some time working on my reloads with a timer. Generally, I'm in the 1.5-1.7s range with them, though they aren't as smooth as I'd like. Someone showed me a new trick. That is, once the follow-through on the shot is complete, allow the recoil of the gun to push the mag-release into my thumb. I still need to work on my hand speed going for the new magazine and I'm having problems getting a good grip as well. If I miss the grip on the magazine that pretty much guarantees that I'll have a botched reload. I'm going to offset my mag pouches as much as is permissible to get the mags away from my torso a bit. I suspect that will improve consistency a great deal. I should be able to knock a few tenths off my reloads fairly easily. Maybe one of these days, I'll even shoot a match. There is an area championship here in July. My goal is to win the Production division.
Update
I remembered a bone-headed thing that I did today, so I felt like I had to share with the world so that I may suffer derision for my actions. There are some big baggy pockets in my range bag designed to hold a bunch of cartridges. Generally, when I go to the range, I dump a couple boxes of ammo into one of these pockets and I reload from there by grabbing a handful of ammo and stuffing it into the magazine. I keep my range bag on a table nearby and I keep the pocket open. Apparently someone dropped a 9mm round in there today. Also apparently, I loaded it into a magazine without noticing it. Oddly enough, I discovered that my Glock 35 chambered in .40S&W will also chamber and fire 9mm which was... exciting to say the least. The round fired and jammed in the chamber. It took a little effort to extract it, but everything else was fine, except my pride.
Please let me illustrate a stereotype; A later middle-aged TactiBilly that is an armchair commando, a gun enthusiast, and a shooter wanna-be. These guys inevitably come to the USPSA thing and for some reason, they bring their single-stack 1911s, either a Springfield or a Kimber, and real gun leather that may even be an IWB holster in a state with no shall-issue CCL permits. They use 7-round magazines and only bring two, or maybe three. I don't really understand these guys that well, but ok. Usually, they'll exhibit excellent form, having a great stance and grip. They all shoot like molasses and less than half of them shoot accurately. I wonder if they spend a lot of time posing in front of a mirror. If there are as many of these guys as I think there are, I suspect that the USPSA single-stack division will take off like wildfire and that IDPA may suffer as a result.
I had a conversation with one of them the other day. The guy works at a range and carries open on a daily basis. He had actually seen the (Glock) light and had started to carry one on a fairly regular basis. He expressed some concern about carrying either a G19 or a G26 for fear of limited stopping power. What ensued was a conversation about how one can buy 9mm +P ammo from CorBon that delivers more energy than some, but not all of their .45ACP +P ammo. That intrigued and pleased him. I think he was looking forward to carrying a much lighter gun more regularly. He was a perfectly rational guy, which made it a pleasure to talk to him. There are some others that aren't quite so pleasing to talk to. I'd really rather not have a conversation about tactics, thanks and no, I don't care how you would handle the situation if you ever came face-to-face with Osama.