J's Practice Journal and Findings

Bangout

Amateur
03/1/2017

Equipment
Glock 17 with grip modifications.
Factory trigger that is terrible for some reason. Way worse than my 19 and other issues 22s.
Overwatch trigger coming in tomorrow
250 rounds

I moved my grip slightly further around to the right giving myself more trigger finger. I also began squeezing harder with my strong hand ring and pinky finger.

Started with slow fire B-8 at the 30 yard line. First target the group wasn't bad but it was too the left. Same thing with my next 10 shot group. I moved my sights one click over to the right. Shot a 94 with no particular grouping to one side or the other.

Worked on bill drills with cadence. The front sight really came back into place when squeezing with my bottom fingers more. A-zone bill drill with .35second splits from the 10 yard line consistently. I ran a few with .25 splits and kept them all in the A-zone but the group opened up. Moved to 18 yard bill drill. .75 second splits where consistent. I sped it up and started anticipating recoil.

Set up A zone targets at the 1 at the 10, 2 at the 20 and 1 at the 30. Worked on transitions in different orders. Splits were around .85 - 1.

Still not comfortable with the draw after changing my grip.
Still have to get used to squeezing with my bottom fingers.
Need to work on drawing the gun to my face without moving my head.
 

Bangout

Amateur
3-3-17
Glock 17 W/ OP TAC Trigger
Trigger is much smoother than my factory trigger, but it isn't a hell of a lot different pull wise than my 19 trigger. It may be the flat face but it when I dry fire the sight does not move at all.

Didn't have much time, but had to get out and try the new trigger.

Slow fire started off sucky. There was not a real distinct trigger wall like I'm used to. It is more of a smooth pull and it goes off. I like it, but I have to get used to it. I ended up moving my grip back to the way it way it was and it seemed steadier. I think I'm going to be good with my regular grip with the flat trigger.

I shot a few slower bill drills probably .75 at 12 yards. Kept all rounds but 2 in a 3 inch circle. Trigger really felt good on those.
 

Bangout

Amateur
At this time I've shot 2 USPSA matches in limited with my glock 17. I ended up ahead of a few B guys and I think all the C's. Probably a high C right now. My times are slow but I've had good hits except for a couple times I freaked out on the beep. Came in 23 out of 61. One stage I hit 3 no shoots that didn't help. I have shot 1 steel challenge. I seem to be a little better at steel than I am at USPSA. Steel match came in 8th out of probably 50 people.


3-3-17
Glock 17 W/ OP TAC Trigger

Back at home later on that night.
I worked on my draw some more bringing the gun to my eye instead of moving my head like I used to.
Put up 3 1/10 size USPSA targets and worked on transitions with a cadence.
 

Bangout

Amateur
I've been playing with a grip a lot to improve recoil and it has kind of fucked me up on my accuracy. I was consistently getting low 90's on B-8 at 25 but now its gotten much worse. I put the OP Tac Trigger with the NP3 connector. I am not a fan of the flat trigger. It cause me to pull a lot of shots to the right, which has never been a problem. I put my stock trigger back in with the NP3 connector. Much smoother than before. I will probably get the Falix Trigger when its back in stock.

3-9-17
Put old trigger back in and shot slow fire. I also put a taller front sight to try to make it completely point of aim point of impact. That seemed to help where I was shooting about 2 or 3 inches high. Didn't shoot any noticeably to the right.
I had 3 A-zone targets at the 25. I worked on moving my focus from the sight to the next target and back to the sight on transitions. This was a lot faster then watching the sight and moving the sight while trying to focus on the sight.

Broke my draw into stages and worked .3 seconds from hands above shoulders to getting a grip. Then .7 seconds from gripping the gun to pointing at the target. did this about 25 times each. Then did the whole draw working at 1.20 to 1.10. I have to get faster. Not sure if the ALS system is slowing me down but the 1.10's were about as fast as I can go. A few years ago I was able to make hits on 8 inch steel at 7 yards in under 1.10 consistently but now it seems to be more in the 1.30's.

Steel challenge coming up on the 11th
 

Bangout

Amateur
3-12-17 Steel Challenge
Shot the local steel challenge match. ended up 12 out of about 35. I was 8th out of 40+ in the last match. I did improve on my times on a few stages, but absolutely blew 2 runs on one stage that cost me 8th place again. I was anticipating recoil and missed a several shots. Right or wrong, I loosened my strong hand grip and held tighter with my weak hand. That helped with the anticipation at the time. I will say this, my transitions were better than last time. I shot mid B and high C times. Need to work on my draw some more. Since competitive shooting is starting to be something I'm really into, I'm getting a Glock 34. I already ordered a blade tech holster. Hopefully this will knock off a 10th or 2 10th's of a second on my draw. Currently using safariland ALS. Draws in practice are about 1.3 - 1.5. Not sure what they are in actual competition. Ready to get back to practicing.
 

Bangout

Amateur
3-19-17
Equipment:
Seekins Lower W/A5 stock and Geissele G2 trigger
SOLGW 12.5 Upper
Aimpoint H-1

There is a 2 gun match on the 26th that I'm shooting in with one of my friends. He is new to shooting and recently bought a SOLGW 16 inch rifle with Sig 1-6 optic.
Worked on stance a proper positioning while coming up on target from low ready and making A zone hits and using the safety properly. We moved on to bill drills and driving the rifle back to the center of the target. Then worked on target transitions by shooting box drills. Finally ran figure 8 drills at the 25, 15 and 7. Training went pretty well.

3-20-17
Equipment Glock 17

Started with 25 yard slow fire on B-8. Scored a 94 with 2X I had one shot low in the 8 ring that I called. Finally feel like I have my shit together again. I have been struggling while trying to change my grip. I got away from torqueing in at the top of the gun and focused on gripping harder with my weak hand. When I did that everything kind of went to shit. I now squeeze really hard with my weak hand while torqueing in and that seems to help.
I moved on to firing rounds when the buzzer went off. I started off ok but then started dumping round. I then would dry fire 5 times and shoot 1 live round. That seemed to help. I need to spend more time dry firing that drill.
Ran the figure 8 drill several times using 5, 10, 15, and 25 yard lines.
Finished with Fast Drill a few times. My reloads and draw were sucking. I ran it clean just under 6 second on my 3rd try. Had a miss on the head shot the first 2 times.
 

Bangout

Amateur
04/08/17
Steel Challenge
Glock 34
Dawson Precision fixed sights. Black rear fiber optic front

I have been to the range at 4 or 5 times since I last posted. I moved my strong hand back to the original spot which is with a lot of my had behind the gun and the tip of my finger on the trigger. I seem to be able to pull the trigger faster without the sight really moving this way. Steel challenge match I was working off of 3.5 hours of sleep due to working the night before. Felt like crap but was fueled by coffee. I started off extremely sucky on the first 2 stages. The forth stage I slowed down and worked on making hits. Finally the fifth stage I had a few good runs. All times averaged to be B class. I had a few A individual times and maybe 1 C. I did much better than I thought wit transitioning. Apparently I'm improving.
 

Bangout

Amateur
What I have learned. I think. So I found the grip that allows me to pull the trigger fast when not at the trigger wall and still not really move my sights. This grip is not far off of how I was holding it. Might even be the same with more pressure added from my left hand. I have been practicing pulling the trigger with a longer trigger pull instead of coming to the trigger wall. I practice my trigger pull on the buzzer from various positions. This has seemed to help me with my flinch. I have been able to draw and fire 2 rounds and do bill drills at 25 yards while keeping everything in the A-zone most of the time. The bill drills splits were about .80. I have also run the accelerator a few times and keeping everything in the A or within a couple inches of the A zone unless I screwed my grip up on the mag change. I have probably shot 5 or 6 times since my last post.

Last night worked on reloads with a SERT gun magazine. Well under 2 seconds. Probably 1.5 - 1.75 consistently. Didn't really have any problems with reloads however when I shoot drills I usually have a 2.00 - 2.25 reload.
 

Bangout

Amateur
4-23-17
Glock 34
USPSA Match

Initial impressions where that I shot pretty good. This was my first production match. I was not used to having to reload so much and had to run stages a little different but running out of ammo never happened. The first stage I kind of freaked out and went shot head shots at a target 3 yards away. I got 1 A and 1 B. That was a waste of an A. On the last stage I had 1 A and 1 miss. I don't I must have pulled off the target of something. I ended up 29 out of 68 overall and 9th out of 20 in production. I shot 97 A's 3 B's, 3 C's and 1 miss. However on practiscore I was given 2 misses on one stage. Shooting overall has improved. I need to shoot faster and move faster. I had the most A hits in the match. I've got to get used to running stages. Probably need to shoot a lot of matches one month to get used to it.
 

Bangout

Amateur
I have shot several more times since the last post

5/13/17 Steel Challenge
Came in 2nd in production and 6th overall. I shot pretty good but usually had a miss or 2 that cost me. Most of my times were 65% so right in the middle of B class.
I've been working on my draw some but not enough. I think thats going to be a big part of the steel challenge. I probably have a 1.25 - 1.65 draw depending on what target I'm shooting at.

This week I worked on moving into position and taking shots and moving out of position and taking shots. I seem to be better moving out of position, basically walking backwards and shooting. I think this will really help me in USPSA. My accuracy has been good, but time sucks. I've also been shooting the choas drill some. I believe its a VTAC drill. Seems very good for transitions.

One of the biggest things I've learned that I try to explain to other people is don't necessarily slow down but see what you need to see to make the shot. If slowing down may be a byproduct of seeing what you need to see, but the idea of just going slower doesn't seem right. When I find interesting is when I ask people what they see they usually don't know. These are far from high level shooters, but as far as cops go they are OK shooters.
 
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