Hope you get out to enjoy the weather this weekend!
About 3 years ago I loaded this magazine and put it in storage. I wanted to see if leaving a magazine loaded for a long period of time would cause malfunctions in my rifle. Apologies for the poor audio quality.
I spent some time at the range working on drawing from concealment today. USPSA competition season is over and I have some training scars. The big one is only shooting for 2 hits when I should be shooting until there is no threat. It's something to work on during the off season.
2019 Greater Yellowstone Section Championship
Here's my POV video from the match.
This second prototype phone holster is much more compact than the first. It's going to find a spot on my belt for testing and evaluation.
First run of the Endurance Drill. I think I may spread the drill out wider to make the shots a bit harder in the future, although the drill is plenty hard as it is.
This is a drill I wouldn't recommend you do with a competition rig or with a concealed holster. A competition rig may not have adequate retention to keep the pistol secure while moving around, and all the reholstering wouldn't be ideal with a concealed holster. I used an outside waistband holster with secondary retention.
You need to be really careful about muzzle awareness while running the drill. There are several places where you could easily break the 180 rule. You're moving, paying attention to targets, running the gun, and thinking about your next step all at once. It's a lot to do and that's intentional. You'll notice I should have reloaded before picking up the sandbag the second time and had to do the reload one-handed.
I would consider this an advanced drill. Shooting one-handed with a 60 pound sandbag on your shoulder isn't something most people have a lot of practice with. Moving quickly and shooting accurately and safely an elevated heart rate after doing burpies is hard. I'd suggest you try this drill with an unloaded pistol at least once before trying to do it with live rounds. Go slow. Be careful. Don't set this up on a range that doesn't have adequate side burms!
Second run went a bit better but the burpies look weak!
This is the Warmup drill run from concealment and with the reload loose in my pocket. Total time was 12.09 seconds. Calculated Hit Factor was only 6.29. Slower by 3 seconds and about half the hit factor I would expect when using competition gear. It's not a very cool run to post, but it does show why it's so important to practice with the gear you use. Also, if you're going to carry a reload, carrying it loose in your pocket is a terrible method.
July 14 Range Trip
Made a trip to the range with my Bump-In-The-Night belt today. Secondary retention makes draws a little tougher. I set two targets wide apart to work on transitions and reloads.
I tried to do a little more editing on my range video than normal.
Music: https://www.bensound.com
I got my new magazine pouches out to the range this morning!
I set up this simple 10 round stage with a wide transition between the last two targets
Slow is smooth. Smooth is...still very slow.
I really need to figure out a better way to make videos.
Check out that zoom and pan editing. 🔥🔥🔥 #dynamic
This scenario required me to move forward to the line, engage the target at 12:30 twice, engage the gong at 11 once, engage the targets at 10:30 and 10:00 twice each, move forward and left to the next shooting position, engage the target at 12:00 twice, and engage the full sized and half sized targets at 9:30 twice each. This was my first run of this scenario, and you can see that my plan fell apart as soon as the rifle ran dry. This is an example of how I use video from range sessions to help inform my training.
Things to notice:
You'll also notice that I hesitated badly when the rifle went dry. This was a combination of unfamiliarity with the weapon and option paralysis. I wasn't immediately sure if the gun had run dry or if it was a stoppage. I had to decide if I should reload, perform remedial action, or switch to a secondary. Sometimes when we have too many options under stress, we freeze up. This is essentially what happened to me except that I started moving. If you're standing in the open with a gun that doesn't go pew, moving is a pretty good option.
I didn't reload the rifle despite having another magazine available. With threats inside of 25 yards, it's generally a superior tactical choice to transition to a secondary weapon. In this case my issued FLC vest interfered with my belt gear, making it very difficult to draw my pistol. Moving to the secondary was probably the right choice, but I need to work on making the rifle-to-pistol transition more quickly.
My belt gear and my issued gear didn't play nicely. Raise your hand if you're surprised by military gear performing poorly. Yeah, me either. Unfortunately, the FLC vest is gear I am required to use, but I don't generally use it in combination with belt gear. I'll have to spend some time getting it adjusted better so that it isn't getting caught on things all the time.
Once I get to the first shooting position with the rifle and bring the g
