bad pistol reload at a USPSA match, DOH!

[Robb Jensen]

Pretty good photo work as well. I am curious if the photographer is allowed to run along side you during the shoot?

As long as they stay out of the 'shooting area', aka the 180 degree imaginary line that the shooter can't point his/her muzzle past (w/o being DQ'd) the photographer and other shooters are fine/safe.

[rhino]

Well I don't fee so bad about being a B class shooter in Limited and Production, I started a few years ago as a low C class shooter and now I'm 3.56% from A class !

I'm one of those "C CLASS FOREVER!" types.

I haven't shot a decent classifier in a few years. My only 60% score dropped off of my most recent eight a long, long time ago.

[Resq47]

Link to video

Here's my favorite recent mis-load. What you can't see from this angle is Steve trying to load a rifle mag into his single-stack (at the "You silly bastard" mark ). He recovered and beat the par time anyway.

I think the vid might require a yahoo login, I have a different angle somewhere else but can't find it.

[Robb Jensen]

I'm one of those "C CLASS FOREVER!" types.

I haven't shot a decent classifier in a few years. My only 60% score dropped off of my most recent eight a long, long time ago.

If you get back into it, it all comes back.

My best Limited classifier was CM 03-04 3V which I got 77%. And my best ever in Production was CM 99-8 Melody Line which I got 80% (indoor match too). I usually don't do great on classifiers and I do a little worse indoors. At matches especially large outdoor ones I typically do very well and sometimes beat A class and some Master class shooters. It's the big field stages where I make up time, shooting accurately at further targets etc. Classifiers as you know are typically low round count and usually don't require movement (there's some that are just pure speed). To me this game is going further and further towards speed. If it were up to me I would do away with the IPSC targets (with heads) that we now use and go the the Int'l targets and change the scoring so that misses and C and D zone hits hurt you worse. Accuracy should be paramount.

At SummerBlast this weekend I'll be shooting Limited, which I'm at 67% right now (middle B class) it should count as 3 classifiers, 2 are in the match and should there be enough GrandMasters in Limited then the whole match performance will also count as a classifier.

[rhino]

My primary "problem" is that I use the matches for my "practice" for other things. I'm not adequately motivated to practice (live or dry fire) other than that, or just for matches. Sometimes I break down and do it ... I actually practiced twice last week ... but it's normally less than that per year.

[Robb Jensen]

I fixed it, or 'got it right' at SummerBlast! I did my best ever El Prez, I ran it in 7.02sec even with a pretty slow draw (1.80sec) and slow reload (1.75sec). With 9 alphas and 3 charlies, so it was a hit factor of 8.1197 and was 75.1740% a low A class performance but my best ever in Limited. I placed 19th out of 83 shooters on this stage.

These are some of the GrandMasters times:
Todd Jarrett shot it in 4.70sec with 11 alphas and 1 charlie (Limited, using a Para) hit factor of 12.5532 and got 100% (GM class).
Dave Sevigny shot it in 5.52sec with 10 alphas and 2 charlies (Production, using a Glock) hit factor of 10.1449 and got 98.8672% (GM class)
David Olhasso shot it in 5.86sec with 8 alphas and 4 charlies (Production, using a SA XD) hit factor of 8.8737 and got 86.4787% (A class)

[rob_s]

I notice you look at the gun when you're reloading, is that normal for you? If you watched some of the "gun celebs" who's times you posted did you notice if they did?

The reason I ask is, I'm always working on weapon manipulation with my eyes on the target. I press check by sticking my finger in the chamber to see if there's a round there with my 1911, and I've started reaching up and feeling for the top round in the mag on the AR. I'm also still working on reloading both without taking my eyes off the target.

Any thoughts on what someone should be looking at when doing various weapon manipulations?

[Robb Jensen]

I notice you look at the gun when you're reloading, is that normal for you? If you watched some of the "gun celebs" who's times you posted did you notice if they did?

The reason I ask is, I'm always working on weapon manipulation with my eyes on the target. I press check by sticking my finger in the chamber to see if there's a round there with my 1911, and I've started reaching up and feeling for the top round in the mag on the AR. I'm also still working on reloading both without taking my eyes off the target.

Any thoughts on what someone should be looking at when doing various weapon manipulations?

Yes I do look at the gun during the reload. I was taught to 'look the mag into the well' by GrandMaster Phil Strader. I worked for him at Shooters Paradise for 6 months or so and he gave me tons of tips. The few times I shot with Todd Jarrett he's given me some tips too. If you don't look at it it'll be very easy to mess it up. Getting the mag into the well is pretty precise and needs good attention. It takes about .25sec to look back at the target, if you fumble the reload it'll cost you 1-2 seconds. (your eyes are much faster than you think) Racking the slide is a pretty gross skill and can be done without looking.

Once it's in and seated then drive the gun back to the target and reacquire the front sight. I also shoot the targets (in this case) left to right, because thats the way the guns going to go anyway. Then on the reload force the pistol back to the leftmost target and shoot the three again, left to right. You can see Todd 'looking the mag into the well' in the first stage of this video. http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...27521175518091. It's very quick and you can almost miss it, it's just a quick glance as he's fast as hell.

I typically hold the gun too low for my reloads (one of my weaknesses), if you watch Todd it's pretty high, about nose level so he doesn't have to move his head much at all.

He's a video oh Phil starting a stage where he has to load the pistol. He 'looks the mag into the well' and once in he looks ahead and then racks the slide without looking. http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...arch&plindex=7

Same here, when he's just messing around.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...28505509098589

Here's a video of Travis Tomasie doing a reload with an Open gun. Watch his eyes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2OKF8y2wkY

[rhino]

I fixed it, or 'got it right' at SummerBlast! I did my best ever El Prez, I ran it in 7.02sec even with a pretty slow draw (1.80sec) and slow reload (1.75sec). With 9 alphas and 3 charlies, so it was a hit factor of 8.1197 and was 75.1740% a low A class performance but my best ever in Limited. I placed 19th out of 83 shooters on this stage.

Well done!

My best was 51 points (I was shooting minor ... 9mm 1911 in Lim10) in 7.92 seconds. HF = 6.439, which was just under 60% in Lim10.

I doubt if I've ever done a reload in under two seconds, and my time to turn around and draw was close to two. I think my transititions and splits were pretty good.

The weird thing is, my goal for that day was to go under 10 seconds with good hits. I did a little better than I expected.


Speaking of reloads . . . I was cheat . . . er . . . shooting in a practice match last night, and I chose to shoot my Para .45 instead of a single stack gun for the first time in a long time. I forgot how much easier it is to reload a wide body gun!

On the down side, I broke the barrel link on the second stage.

[Robb Jensen]

Well done!

My best was 51 points (I was shooting minor ... 9mm 1911 in Lim10) in 7.92 seconds. HF = 6.439, which was just under 60% in Lim10.

I doubt if I've ever done a reload in under two seconds, and my time to turn around and draw was close to two. I think my transititions and splits were pretty good.

The weird thing is, my goal for that day was to go under 10 seconds with good hits. I did a little better than I expected.


Speaking of reloads . . . I was cheat . . . er . . . shooting in a practice match last night, and I chose to shoot my Para .45 instead of a single stack gun for the first time in a long time. I forgot how much easier it is to reload a wide body gun!

On the down side, I broke the barrel link on the second stage.

Thanks. Mine was 57 points. Yeah going from shooting a M&P9 and Glock 17 for almost a year and back into the STI for me it way easier to reload, even easier since I just went from a STI magwell to a Dawson ICE. The RO gave me some of my split times, some were in the .11sec range and one target transition was in the .18sec range. If I can get my lazy ass to practice drawing, drawing and turning and reloads more I should make A class and Master class pretty quickly as once I'm actually shooting I'm doing it as fast and accurately as most Master class shooters.