Scott Phillips Training Journal

Some background about me before I start this: civilian, got my first gun in July 2015 as a college graduation present, took two training sessions with Jeff Bloovman of Armed Dynamics in May 2016, started practicing regularly after that. I usually shoot 100 rounds per week (range trip every Saturday), but I haven't gone to the range in the past few weeks, so I probably won't do as well today.

I own a rifle and I'll probably shoot some rifle drills on occasion, but I can realistically only shoot my pistol or my rifle consistently; since I'm a civilian, I've chosen to shoot my pistol consistently, as it's harder to shoot than the rifle and I have a greater chance of having the pistol nearby than the rifle.

I don't have a shot timer yet; I want one, but I'm limited to indoor ranges in my area, so shot timers don't work as well. I hear Shottmax is going to release a v2 of their shot timer in October, and it's supposed to work indoors, so I'll end up getting that sometime. Until then, split times are going to be based off of cadence ("one and two" for .50 sec splits, and "one, two, three" for .25 sec splits.")

Constructive comments and suggestions are always welcome.

I'll post my first entry in this training journal when I get back from the range today.
 
Alright, so I'm back from the range. It's been 4 weeks since I've last been at the range and God knows how many weeks since I've last done dry practice, so you can probably expect how well I did. Nevertheless, the whole point of this Training Journal is to help keep me accountable, so I'll share everything I've done, with pictures.

Before I begin, because I'm sure people will ask, my carry gun is a Glock 19 with Ameriglo I-dot Pros, Gripforce Adapter, Overwatch Precision DATv2 Trigger with the Handgun Combatives Trigger Connector (basically a Ghost Rocket with the fitment already done.) Here's a pic, because why not:
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First up was firing 10 rounds at 10 yards, cold. This is something Jeff Bloovman told me he did when he starts his practice session, so I copied it in my own practice. Why 10 yards? It's the furthest distance you can go at my range, and it's the only range in Philly were you don't have to shoot slower than a tortoise walks. Anyway, here's today's result:
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I'm using a B-3 target because I wanted something with an X ring and a little more challenging than the 10-8 target I was using. (I know it's meant for 50 feet, but my range isn't that long, see previous paragraph.) Well, I got it alright, 61/100 with no rounds in the X-Ring. Basically everything went wrong here: sight alignment was bad, trigger control was bad, keeping the damn thing still was bad.

After that, I practiced shooting fast and accurately at 5 yards. As I mentioned in the first post, I don't have a shot timer that works indoors yet, so I was trying to keep a smooth cadence by counting off numbers (one and two for .5 second splits, one, two, three for .25 splits). First round was shooting with .5 second splits, 20 rounds (I shot a random string of rounds, anywhere from 3-6 rounds), incorporating the draw:
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The first cluster of 5 was good, very close together, but after that I noticed rounds walking. Probably a sight alignment issue, which definitely cropped up when I tried shooting .25 second splits:
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...Yeah. This time I definitely noticed bad sight alignment, I'd press the trigger again before I got a centered sight alignment. This right here is my failure point, if I shoot slower I can keep them inside the 6-inch circle (8 inch circles at 3-5 yards is cheating), but any attempt to go faster results in rounds walking. I also know I need to work on my grip, because I noticed more muzzle rise than when shooting earlier.

That was 50 rounds, and that's what I've usually done in the first 50 rounds of a 100 round range trip. I usually do the Dot Torture for my last 50 rounds. I usually get high 30's to low 40's at 3 yards, occasionally getting 46/50. Today... well...
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Some key points about today's Dot Torture:
1. I don't count line cuts. At 3 yards, I should be punching out the numbers, anything else is forgetting the face of my father (who oddly enough is anti-gun, so he doesn't really work in this Dark Tower analogy.)
2. I accidentally shot 6 rounds at #1 (I loaded my mag to 10 and forgot to count) so I didn't count one of them, and took off the one line cut and the one miss for a score of 3 on #1. I only shot 4 at Dot #2.
3. I suck at one-handed shooting. It's weird, I used to do really well at #5 and #8, and suck at #3, #4, #6, and #7, but then one day I started sucking at #5 and #8 and doing well with the other dots. It's rare when I can do well with the other dots.
4. I failed miserably at #9 and #10, which is especially shameful since I tend to do really well at it in Dot Torture. I haven't practiced my draw in a while outside of range trips, and I noticed today that it was especially screwed up.
So, today's score is 30/50; to give you some perspective, the last time I scored in the low 30's was when I was using XS Big Dots. (I was getting training with Jeff Bloovman and scored 32/50.)

Lessons Learned:
1. #DontSkipRangeDay
2. I need to stop making excuses and do dry practice, no matter how exhausted from work I am. Now that summer's ending, it should be easier to do.
3. I'm going to get back to using my grip training stuff (the Expand-Your-Hand Bands and the Captains of Crush Trainer) and I'm going to get back to working out regularly so that I'm not fat and weak. Maybe then I can apply the proper grip for any duration of time and keep the pistol still for distance shooting.
 
Well then! This was...nostalgic. I've certainly come a long way, and yet I still have much to learn.

A quick recap of the past nearly five years in my shooting career: no additional classes unfortunately, life kinda got in the way with that. I have, however, separated the wheat from the chaff in terms of internet sources of information and began following more quality sources, like Practically Tactical, P&S, Lucky Gunner, etc., and that's really helped me improve my shooting. I changed home ranges twice (one of which more recently) and now I'm able to shoot quickly and at distance (the previous range allowed distance shooting but not "rapid fire.") Also I have a shot timer now, the Shotmaxx V2, and I've got it mostly working for indoor use (sometimes it'll still pick up a nearby shot that wasn't mine anyway.)

I cleared Dot Torture at 3 yards in I believe 2017, maybe 2018, and now I shoot it at 5 yards. I only shoot it occasionally now though, because I fell into the trap of shooting it for the sake of scoring better at Dot Torture, instead of using it as a diagnostic. Eventually I realized this didn't make sense, so now I shoot it on occasion to see what I need to work on.

At the previous range I shot a lot of distance shooting (including 25 yards) and while I wasn't good at it, I believe it did help me do better with sight alignment and trigger control, which helped my accuracy at closer range. Unfortunately I kinda forgot how to grip the gun properly, so this year that was one of the things I had to relearn.

Anyway! Enough talk, I'm going to show off some targets from my last range session. But first, I do want to show of the new pistol that I've been shooting for most of this year, the Staccato C2 DPO! I heard a lot of great things about this gun from internet friends and from ModCast, and after a brutal 2020 for me, I decided to treat myself and get this pistol. I also attached a Holosun 509T to it via the CHPWS plate.

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And now, onto the targets. Last Saturday, 6/26/21, I tried out the Super Test for the first time. Didn't pass, but thanks to the RDS I know what my errors were and what I need to do to fix them.


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I also worked cadenced shooting (.5 splits and .25 splits) and dominant/support hand only shooting. I need to do better at this (especially at support hand only) but I picked up a few tips from Tim Heron's channel that I'm excited to try out tomorrow.

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And finally, I rounded off the session with a few B8's at 25 yards. Ever since I got the Staccato and put the red dot on it, I've been getting better and better at shooting at that distance; I have consistently broken record after record with this gun. Now I can consistently shoot in the 60's and 70's, but sometimes I do far better. And this time...

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That's right. On that day, I scored my first ever 90+ B8 at 25 yards! It was a goal I've been chasing for years, and one I'd never thought I'd be able to accomplish without taking multiple pistol classes. I felt pretty damn good walking out of the range that day.

I'm going to be back tomorrow to shoot. I'm going to run one of my Glock 19's (with fibers), the Staccato, and a RDS Glock 19 that I'll rent from my range and shoot them side by side, just to get a more accurate idea of whether I've been shooting better recently because of the Staccato, or whether it's because I have a red dot on my gun. I'm looking forward to finding out.
 
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