Friday Range Afternoon

So having reached and overrun my dealing with Stupid People tolerance level for the week, I left the office at noon and headed off to a lunch meeting with the guys.

We then headed to the range.  Traffic there was hellacious for some reason.

I re-zeroed my IWI Masada.  The re-zero was necessary as I had removed the RMR to change the battery and found getting it off rather more difficult than it should be.

After over 2,500 rounds, the plastic plate had the front posts that fit into the front holes on the RMR on the plate broken off sometime during shooting those rounds, transferring all the recoil energy to the screws, one of which decided to become very difficult to remove as a result.

 

As you can see, the front posts are no longer attached to the plate.

So, I changed the broken plastic plate for a CHPWS Metal plate.  An easy swap and the metal plate fits perfectly and the RMR, complete with fresh battery, was reattached and secured with blue locktite, as one does. 

Impressively, at the range it required no re-zeroing after the replacement and was right on target when shooting it, which was nice. 

I also had brought out another handgun for the first time - a mix of classic and current technology.

 

Its a Girsan MCP35 PI LW Match High Power pistol.

The LW stands for lightweight, namely an aluminum frame.  The PI is for the Argentine Detective style slide.

In short, its a handy Hi Power package suitable updated with a flat trigger, a larger beaver-tail, an optics-ready slide for direct mounting of RMSc footprint optics, an ambidextrous safety, and no magazine safety. 

The magazine is also updated to a 15-round flush-fitting magazine with 2 rounds more than the original Hi Power capacity.

 It is a Hi Power with a  Glock 19 form factor.

 

 

It feels good and fits the hand very well. The G10 grips are nice and grippy, but not obnoxiously rough. 

I added a Holosun 407K with a green dot to the top of the slide, and took it to the range.  At 10 yards, it was shooting low, hitting close to the bottom of an 8.5x11 piece of paper when aiming dead center, and it took a fair bit of vertical adjustment, but was otherwise centered horizontally.

200 rounds and zero failures using 4 15 round magazines.  Lots of fun to shoot,  The trigger is heavier than it needs to be, and could be better.  It likely needs to be broken in a bit. Still, it's fun to shoot and knocked plates down with aplomb and speed.

We'll see how it holds up but it feels nice and solid  and it runs like a top so far and is a cool mix of new technology and sizing with the classic lines and feel of the Hi Power.

Not a bad Friday afternoon,  I left the range suitably refreshed, and  I got some more work done and then called it a day.  Range Time certainly helps reset the stupidity tolerance and frustration level quite nicely.

A Good Time At The Range Today

Went to the Range with Tosh and his cousin who was in town from new York.

We let his cousin shoot stuff he can;t have in that benighted state.

Heck, he could even have normal capacity magazines for his H&K VP9 here, unlike New York where he's stuck to 10-rounders, so he enjoyed not having to reload quite as much.

I shot my AR15 which I hadn't taken to the range in awhile and the Carmel.

The Carmel continues to function perfectly, and the controls make it very easy to quickly manipulate.  Fully ambidextrous and laid out very similar to an AR15 but slightly more ergonomic, it makes some drills easier.

Speaking of drills, we did quite a few.

Mainly we did the MDFI Qualifiers for Shotgun, Carbine and Handgun.

7 yards for hadngun, 10 for shotgun, and 15 yards for the carbine.

Very straightforward, relatively basic drills that don't take a lot of rounds but get you working on your reloads - something I don't often do with the carbine on the clock.

I shot the IWI Masada for the handgun qual, and The Tavor for the shotgun quals, and shot both the AR and Carmel for the carbine quals. The Carmel seems to be ore solid for the multiple shot parts of the qual and the AR being lighter is a bit faster to move around for the reloads - but the larger magazine well of the Carmel makes the reloads a bit smoother as does the shape of the bolt release on the Carmel, making the overall time for the reloads a little bit faster.

So it was some good practice, and a very fun time at the range.

Last Range Trip of 2023

After arriving back in town on Friday night, On Saturday morning I got up nice and early and headed to the range to meet up with Tosh, Jason and Spencer.

Weather was cold but not terribly so but compared to where I had been it was kinda cold indeed.  So we got targets setup and commenced shooting.

We started off with handguns and I fired my Black Friday purchase for the first time.

A PSA Rock in 5.7 to compliment my PS90.

I had thrown on a Romeo Zero Pro (will be changing for a better optic shortly) and had it ready to go.

 First impression: Rather impressed. It came with two 23-round magazines, and was optic-ready right out of its very nice carrying case.

The firearm grip is not nearly as bulky as I thought it would be and it fits my hand well. Interestingly, the Romeo Zero Pro as installed was right on and required no adjustment to zero which was nice.

Spencer also had his new to him Smith and Wesson M&P 5.7 along for comparison.  We both found that the M&P 5.7's grip is more rectangular and feels like a 2x4 compared to the Rock's.   The M&P also carries one less round at 22 in the magazine.  The Rock's trigger was also better, and is better than a stock Glock.

Recoil on both was pretty much negligible, and the lack of recoil was made up for with rather loud and enthusiastic muzzle blast from each pistol.  Didn't time it, but Bill Drills were ridiculously fast as the guns simply didn't shift in recoil and stayed right in the A-zone the whole time while firing.

I'd say PSA got the Rock right and its one very attractive package both cost and functionally speaking for people looking to pickup a 5.7 pistol.

Fired 250 rounds through it with zero failures and big smiles from all four of us.

I then pulled out the PS90 and those 50-round mags got fired quickly and accurately by all, again with some big smiles.  Too much fun.

I also shot my IWI Masada, as I hadn't taken it to the range in a while, and it performed perfectly as expected.

We shot quite a few more handguns including Jason's new Beretta 80x and his new Stoeger STR9-F that he got for a steal of a price with its rebate. The Stoeger STR9-F feels kinda like a reshaped Gen 3 Glock, and at the price he got it for, it is one amazing value.   It was a nice shooter and had zero issues.

Since Spencer and Jason were going deer hunting after the range trip, they brought along their 450 Bushmaster rifles for us to try.

Spencer had a Savage in 450 and Jason had a Ruger American Ranch in 450. 

The 450 has lots more recoil than the 5.7, to say the least, but both were perfectly good shooting rifles with very smooth bolt actions.  Lots of fun was had by all hammering steel plates at a distance with them.

I then pulled out the Tavor and Jason and Tosh their AR-15s and we did some magazine changing drills on the clock.  Need more practice with that, but lots of fun.

It was a great way to close out the 2023 Shooting Year.

Memorial Day Range Trip

So for the morning of Memorial Day I headed to the range.

Met up with Tosh and his buddy Timo.  A good time was then had by all.

Had the Turknelli out and it ran like a top - even ran the lower powered 7.5 birdshot and the Federal Flite Control 8 pellet 00 Buck that it had choked on during its first time out.

 

In short no failures, fed everything it was given and seems good to go, and cleaning the pistons fixed the issue nicely.  

When I got it home, I took it down to clean it and  there was some solid carbon buildup on the pistons yet again, but not nearly as much this time, so hopefully the gunk is working itself out. Will need to keep an eye on it and I expect to make it a regular bit of maintenance to clean the pistons after each use.

Shot the Tavor as well out to 100 yards (longest range they've got at the range sadly)  and no issues. Did decided to give it a cleaning as it had not been cleaned in quite some time, and I think it appreciated it. Got a lot of build up out of it and it is nice and clean now.

Also shot my Glock and IWI Masada.  Definitely need to practice more as my draw is pretty slow and could use some work.  Accuracy with both is good and I'm hitting an A Zone at 7 yards on Bill Drills pretty consistently, but need to speed it up, especially the draw.

This means some regular dry fire practice which I keep telling myself I'm going to do, so might as well do it.  From now on it's 15 minutes of leg stretches for the hip rehab followed by 15 minutes of dry-fire a day.  Let's see if I can stick to this.

Range Report: Upgrades Were Successful

Met up with Tosh and took the Glock 19 Gen 5 out to the range that is close to my work.   

The Glock 19 worked as expected with no failures and is rather nice and smooth with the trigger upgrades.

I did discover that one of my much older Glock 19 magazine demonstrated an inability to properly feed the last round in both my and Tosh's Glocks.  Very weird and 100% repeatable failure to feed the last round.  Said magazine is no longer in service.

The 509T on the Glock 19 was dialed in and zeroed.  It was pretty darn close to being zeroed as as it came back from ATEI, and this session just got it perfectly zeroed for me.

I also purchased some stainless steel guide-rods for the Masada pistols and tried one out at the range today.

I bought them from Manticore Arms and was very happy with the service from them. They inadvertently only shipped one to me, and the packing slip said two which I had paid for. I contacted them, and they immediately sent the missing second one out immediately, no fuss, no muss which is indeed great customer service.

The guide rod with its 18 lb spring makes the firearm feel quite a bit more solid when shooting it, and it may even have tightened up the grouping just a tad. I will need to shoot it more to see for sure, but it ran perfectly. 

After some B8 shooting for zeros and groups, we then turned to A-Zones at 7 yards. I shot the A Zones with the new Glock 19.

After three months of not shooting, the rust and lack of practice really shows.  

My average time from the beep to drawing form concealment to hitting the A-Zone was in the 2.20 second range with some lower than that, but some higher.  None were what I would call an acceptable time. Really lost some ground there.  On the upside, of the 15 rounds shot, 14 were hits with one just, just, outside the A Zone. 

Well, the cure for bad performance due to a lack of practice is to do more practice, and to recommence dry-fire practice too.

A good, if short, range trip.  Then back to the office.

Today's Range Trip - A Great Range Outing With Friends

A bunch of friends decided to meet up at the range today.  Four of them were rolling buddies from jiu-jitsu - it seems there's a large cross-over between the jiu-jitsu community and the firearms community. 

Tosh had also brought Scott along, one of his co-workers that had recently escaped from California and is now enjoying standard capacity magazines and the many other benefits being relocated from CA can provide.

It was sunny out, but the temperature had plummeted 30 degrees from yesterday. Standing in the sun, it wasn't bad - but get under some shade and 30 degrees feels cold pretty quickly.

We started out with rifles/arm-braced pistols and I shot my new build for the first time:

 

It's a 10.5 inch AR on a stripped Spike's lower.  Lower and Upper all pit together from parts. I had a stripped upper lying around for awhile now, and I decided to get it built up, and now seemed to be the time to do it.  I decided to put some decent parts into it, including a flat Geissele trigger which is awesome, a Midwest industries rail and some other decent parts.

It ran flawlessly on this it's first time out, which was nice. Got the scope dialed in as well. It's a Vortex Strike Eagle 1-8 and it is very decent glass.  Very fast at the low magnifications and sharp at the high end.

I also installed the AAC 7.62SDN suppressor onto it and it ran like a champ, but a quieter champ.

Then on to the Tavor, complete with silencer attached as I had installed an AAC flashider on it as well.

It ran like a top with the suppressor attached, and with the suppressor it was still shorter overall than the 10.5 was bare, complete with the Tavor's 13" barrel.  I do think its my favorite rifle at this point.

Interestingly, it appears that 5.56 makes the suppressor a lot hotter, longer,  than the 300 Blackout for some reason. 

Scott had a blast and enjoyed shooting the suppressed rifles, and everyone else's rifle there too.  We're friendly like that.

Then on to pistols.

I had a great set at shooting at a steel A zone at 25 yards.  

On timer, from draw to hit my best time today was 1.4 seconds, with other runs at the 1.67-1.70 second range.  Quite happy-making.

The 3x2 drill was in the 3 econd range so it still needs some work.

Scott and others liked the Masada quite a bit.  A solid 150 rounds through it with zero issues.

Scott also enjoyed shooting my suppressed M&P Compact 22 - so quiet you don't need ear pro, and the sound of the bullet hitting the steel is louder than the shot.  Much fun.

He now wants to buy a suppressor, because he can now.  And another angel gets its wings.

We also helped Jason out quite a bit with appendix carry.  Jason has a lot of reserve muscle mass you might say, so he's shied away from appendix carry as a result.  

He recently got a Shadow Systems MR918 and its a great pistol and he's running an RMR on it with good results.  

With a borrowed PHLster Floodlight holster  and a Surefire attached to his pistol we got him trying appendix carry out. First with just a bluegun, then the real gun and active shooting.

Having him try appendix as compared to his usual IWB hip position, his draws were measurably faster on the timer - At least a second or more faster - and that's trying appendix for the first time after carrying hip side for years.   Pretty impressive improvement just from changing the carry location.

Lots of fun shooting and a great bunch of guys.

Sunday USPSA Match Day

The last regular match of the season was held today.

I RO'd for my squad which was quit a bit of brain-sweat but I'm getting better at it.

Certainly many of the weird shooting events that could happen in the course of a match pretty much did including the ever awesome question of scoring when someone hits a no shoot touching the perf but also hits the scoring target its attached to - much fun ensued.

Also we had at least two master class shooters in my squad and some other serious competitors and they had no problem telling me how they wanted me to RO.  Yay.  Some were rather prima donas -  Give a make ready command and a few minutes pass as they air-gun the stage form the start position, then load, then air gun again and finally get ready for me to say are you ready.  They get pissed if you ask them the next command "Are you ready?"  if they haven't completed their ritual and it can be hard to tell when in fact they are actually ready to be asked if they are ready.  

For one of them I waited quite awhile and he wanted to know why I hasn't asked "Are you ready?"  and I simply said it didn't look like he had settled down enough for me to ask that yet.  He got better on the next and subsequent stages as a result.

Even had one call for an overlay, which led to a delay scoring to get one, when it was pretty clear from plain observation it was a C hit and not an A hit, and yes, I was right that it was a C hit.

On the Classifier stage 09-03, there was a technical problem - the stage description and the stage diagram instructions did not agree with each other.  If you want to read the two docs for yourself and see if you can figure out what the problem is, the COF and description is here.

They really need to fix that at USPSA HQ.  In short we had to call the match director and verify what we were doing matched what everyone else was doing and then we could shoot it.  In short the stage diagram description wins.

On the upside, I did decently, getting a high C class score on it and getting closer to a B score, but well, not quite.

I did as I normally do during a match or slightly better, a solid C class, nothing special unfortunately.  I need to move faster and increase my transition speed I think.

My last stage was rather good and enjoyable though as pretty much everything went according to plan, I actually had a decent plan, and moved right along through it pretty efficiently, and I got good hits and got a decent-for-me hit factor out of it, which was nice.

A nice match to close out the season and here's to looking for more ammo.

155 more rounds through the Masada with zero failures which was great.

Sunday Match Day

Shot another USPSA Match today.  It was a beautiful fall day - not to hot nor too cold, but just right to get out to the range.

Also got to be the RO for the squad.  No pressure there.  

Ok, actually a lot of pressure. 

Had a few higher level shooters in the squad, so I got a lot of constructive feedback and helpful corrections on ROing.

I faced interesting problems I've never seen before including a cool one where a shooter figured out a loophole in one of the course of fire descriptions that was actually rather brilliant.  Once I was told it was in fact legal to do it, pretty much everyone then did it.  In short, if you don't want stacking in a course of fire, your description better specify no stacking.  I also went forth and stackednon that course of fire. That was a fun problem and a fun stage as a result.

Then a dispute about whether a shooter engaged a target or not arose.  I saw him shoot at it, another more senior person said he hadn't, I stuck to my position and so he got a miss but not a failure to engage procedural.  - It turns out I was right and it was even on video that another shooter took of him (But there is no such thing as a video replay in USPSA scoring). Yay me, I guess.

A couple other weird scoring things occurred and it all kept me on my toes.

It was a fun match with some challenging stages.

Had two shooters disqualified in the squad - one of them was a much higher level shooter than I am.   

The problem for him was the course of fire had you start well downrange in the center of the range, and you then had to move up range to engage targets at the sides and in turning to engage targets to his right he busted the 180.

Second shooter was pretty much a novice, and had an AD on a speed shooting stage where after shooting T1-T3 you do a mandatory reload and shift to your offhand and then again engage T1-T3. While transferring the firearm, he had an AD, and then started turning back up-range going right past the 180.  That got everyone's attention very quickly. Resolved, and he was DQ'd.  I wasn't RO'ing at the time as I was on deck to shoot.  Nice bit of an uproar before my turn, it was.  Two out of three DQs during the match were on my squad, and the first time I've ever been on a squad with someone who was Dq'd.

I did ok shooting, no setting the world on fire but decent accuracy. But, I still need to figure out how to shoot the courses of fire faster.  On the upside my Hit Factor is inching up and I had a 4.193 hit factor on one stage which was rather nice and I'd like to get all the stages up to that level or better.

A fun time, no failures of any kind out of the Masada, and another 165 rounds fired.

Sunday Match Day

This morning was a USPSA match at Wayne County Racoon  Hunters Club. I met up with Tosh and we headed to the match,

It's a very nice club, good bunch of people  and they put on quite a challenging match with a lot of distance targets. 

Overall not my best match ever.  Had a few moments that were good. but pretty average otherwise and one major flub during a stage where I completely  missed a hidden popper that could only be seen at just the right angle and the drop-turner it controlled.  Would have been a great stage, had I not blasted right by it would have been a great stage, but I did so it was not so good.

Overall I'm in the 3s hit-factor wise and need to get that up if I'm going to improve.  Accuracy is good, but I really need to get the speed up to snuff.

On the last stage of the match,  I had a failure to feed while doing a reload, likely I messed it up somehow but it does count as a failure, I cleared it and went on but it slowed me down a tad. Would have made it into the 4s but for the failure but ended up in the 3s yet again.

Lots more to practice in order to improve.

195 Rounds through the Masada and 1 failure.

Gun Skool - Training With The Jedi

This weekend, I along with my buddy Tosh,  was in Holland, Michigan for a 3-day class  The Path To Performance with The Modern Samurai Project - Scott Jedlinski, aka Jedi.

Scott Jedlinski is one of the, if not the, foremost instructors on the use of the red dot sighted pistol and appendix carry.

The class was like drinking from a fire-hose.

Scott began by stating that what he was teaching was not the only way, and that unless your instructor was an actual Mandalorian, any instructor who pronounces their class to be The Way is an instructor that one should be wary of as it is only A Way.  

He encouraged us from the start to question all of the technique and to take from the class what worked for us, and to only adopt what we had thoroughly tested and found to work.

Thorough testing there was.

The class began the first day with appendix carry and why he posits the method of carry is superior to strong side carry in terms of ergonomics and efficiency.  Scott is fully focused on being efficient via technique.

First we discussed body mechanics and why appendix carry makes the most sense in terms of efficiency.

Then on to body positioning.  Scott is critical of the isosceles stance both in terms of foot positioning hampering movement and forward and rearward stability, and how with locked out elbows recoil management suffers.  

Let's put it this way, my default stance prior to this class was indeed the isosceles.  Not anymore. 

Based on actually comparing the isosceles to the stance setup by Scott which is somewhat of an improved weaver type stance (support foot forward a step,  not over-bending the knees, arms bent at elbows, extended forward equally) in the drills we performed, it is very clear that there is significant improvement in recoil control, mobility, and efficiency by dumping the isosceles.  It is now so dumped by me.  Learning occurred.

Then on to the grip.  I have a trash panda grip  (an old style crush grip) that I must continue to work on changing as it is the main thing holding back my performance. Scott promotes a very high grip, with the strong hand only holding the pistol loosely with the support hand, and thumbs high up on the slide.  With the support hand,  especially the pinky of that hand, strongly gripping the gun for recoil control and dot management - with his technique, the dot on the draw drops perfectly from 12 o clock to the center of the sight -- every damn time.  Life changing. This was a revelation.

I still need to work on my draw and grip though until this change is ingrained. I keep reverting and even worse seem to bang my support hand into the gun, stopping it for a moment on the draw which is damn weird to watch on video.  Scott is very big on having you video your practice so you can see what you're doing well or not, and it helps.

Scott first demos each exercise, often several times based on what he is trying to convey, then has the students do it as he watches each student perform the drill, and he gives you immediate personal feedback.   This leads to a lot of reps as he walks the line working with each and every student.  This is not a go off and do drills class while he watches in the distance. He is hands on with each and every student diagnosing issues and helping students get better.   The class then discussed after each exercise if the technique worked for them, what they saw/felt during the technique and what they felt they did right or need to work on.

A few students then tried his Black Belt Standards Test.  There were some amazing shooters there, and while they got close, no one cleared it.  The test as you can see is kinda spicy.

After the first day of class, a bunch of the students and Scott headed into Holland for some food together and we ate some wings, had beer, and chatted.

The next day we met at the range and got on to focus on red dot shooting - everything from 3 yards to 25 yards.  Zeroing was discussed and he put forth his reasons why a 10 yard zero makes the most sense in terms of time and efficiency over a 25 yard zero and he had very cogent points for saying so.  Again he stated you can choose as you like and decide for yourself after trying both and xo long as you know the reasons why for both.

We did the 3x5 drill, and single shot drills at 7, 10, and 25 yards along with multiple other exercises.

Then 11 students in the class decided to try the Black Belt Test -Tosh and I among them.  None of us made it. I wasn't even close, and that's ok.

In the 3x5 my time was 2.51 but had misses, so no good.

At 7 yards I had a 1.12 time with a hit.  Which was pretty darn good for me, but it may have been luck and not skill.

On the Bill Drill I did a 2.48 but with half missing the A Zone.

And the one shot at 25 yards I had a 1.69 and a hit on the A Zone.

Saturday night quite a few of us met at the class host's house for a cookout and a BYOB party.  This was fun and lots of great conversation with some seriously interesting people. 

Since Tosh and I both do Jiu-Jitsu and Jedi is an accomplished practitioner as a 4-stripe purple belt, the talk turned to jitsu and some techniques, and then he offered to show us some pointers.

Yes, I got to learn some jitsu from the Jedi.   Way cool.

We headed to some mats the host had in the basement, and I got some great pointers on technique and really changed my mindset - as a result in rolls yesterday I was a lot more active, dynamic, and controlling in the rolls and won more than I lost, and had much better movement.  Simply amazing.

Sunday was about 25-yard distance shooting, Bill Drills, shooting on the move, and other activities. Lots of shooting and multiple exercise, all useful and learned a lot. 

We shot B8 targets at 25 yards, and I tended to hit in the high 80s, low 90s - it needs some work and it's the grip that is the culprit.

Then on to Bill Drills. I shot a clean Bill Drill in 3.0 seconds exactly during the testing phase of the drill, which was nice.  

Then the class ended with another Black Belt test.  Again, no one cleared it but a few came darn close (no, I wasn't one of them) and my scores were:

3x5 my time was 2.53 clean - while not close, this was still happy making for me as it was a solid clean run.

At 7 yards I had a 1.11 time with a hit. 

On the Bill Drill I did a 2.41 but with misses out of the A Zone.

And on the one shot at 25 yards I had a 1.66 and a hit to the C Zone so it doesn't count. Drat, but at least I hit the target.

The test is humbling and an excellent corrective should you ever think you're too good to get out and practice.  I need more practice and more practice will occur.  

In other news, that was 845 rounds through the IWI Masada with zero malfunctions this weekend, which is nice.

Then the class picture and the class ended with us each receiving a  class patch and everyone gave their thoughts as to how the class went and what was learned.  Yes the class mascot was a well trained K9 Dutch Shepard named Rip, brought to the class by a dog trainer that was attending the course - he's an amazing fur missile.

In short, I cannot recommend this class highly enough.  

As a red dot class, it blew Sentinel Concepts Red Dot class away in terms of content, technique, methodology, and instruction.  

The Class is simply fantastic and well worth the cost. If you want to learn a way to be better with your red dot and appendix carry, Jedi would be highly recommended as an excellent way to learn both red dot and appendix carry.

Range Trip - Some Drill Improvements Noted

So Today I met up with Tosh and his friend Duffy at the range for some more focused practice.

Tosh had ordered and on Friday received a steel A-Zone target, so this was going to be fun. It made scoring the targets much easier and the ping was the thing - if you didn't hear it you missed.  No need to recover the A zone or wonder if you hit it at 25 yards.

We first did 3x2 Drills on paper targets at 3 yards. Typically I was shooting them pretty clean in about 3.5 seconds but was having trouble getting faster than that today.

For the 7 yard 1 shot from concealment, my best time today was down to 1.1 seconds which was happy-making, considering last time I was doing my best at 1.5 seconds so that was a nice improvement. 1.0 is the goal there, and I'm getting close.

Then for the Bill Drills, but the best time I think I had today shooting it clean was 3.71 so I still need to work on that. 

Seems like I'm now having the most problems on the multiple shot drills.  So, more stuff to practice.

For the single shot at 25 yards from concealment my best time was 1.58 seconds which was must better than my best time of 1.98 the last go-round:

 

That felt pretty good, and if I can shave off .08, I can meet my goal on that drill at least. 

A very good time was had by all and we all saw some improvement in our shooting by practicing these drills. A lot of dryfire practice also seems to be paying off as well.

 That's another 350 rounds through the Masada with no issues.  Now, I need to find more ammo.

The Annual Birthday Post - Now With USPSA, Steak, And Premium Ice Cream!

So today I turned 48.

The traditional birthday cherry cheesecake was served to me in bed along with coffee, which was a great start to the day.

Presents included an ESS Crossbow shooting Glasses kit, and a set of SureFire EP4 Sonic Defenders. This was a very timely gift as I was signed up for a local USPSA match today.  A great replacement for my current eye pro, and the Surefires are a nice supplement for wearing under the ear pro.

In short, the ESS Crossbow is amazing - much more clear than any other eyepro I've had - better by far than the Sawfly Revisions I've been using, and the clarity offered by the copper lenses is pretty darn amazing and not appreciated until you try it.  

The copper lens color also worked just fine with the red dot.  The frame is also a lot more comfortable under the ear muffs than any other that Ive tried, and I had them on all day at the match and they were great.  Highly recommend these.

The Surefire ear pro are kinda neat.  They are a pain to get to fit into the ear, but once there really cut down on the noise.  With the plugs they have open you can hear normal conversation no problem but the gunfire is attenuated.   I wore them  under the ear pro all day and could still hear the beep, but there was much less noise otherwise and makes it more pleasant to shoot and be around shooting going on all day.

I had a good match, the classifier I ended up doing a respectable performance and shooting into the middle/high C class which was good with no misses or mess-ups, which was nice.  A very fun match with a pretty high round count of 230 through the Masada with zero issues at all.

After the match I showered and changed (as it was a hot day out) and rested a bit and then we headed out to Fogo De Chao - a Brazilian Steakhouse. It was a proper birthday dinner with meat delivered to your table on skewers and cut to your liking in front of you.  I then got to eat meat until the meat sweats occurred and then ate some more and it was all fantastic  - a carnivore and paleo diet dream.

Thence off to some matcha ice cream at Premium Matcha Cafe Maiko and it was fantastic.  Not paleo, but hey, Birthday.

I split a green tea and Vanilla Matcha ice cream with Abby as Tash and Leah shared a Hoji-cha ice cream. 

For my birthday we added the edible gold leaf option:

Yum!

It was a great birthday.

Morning At The Range: Drills and More Drills

Tosh and I met up at the range this morning to get in a couple hours of focused practice.

First, we started at 3 yards with the 3x2 drill - 3 to the A Zone and 2 to a 3x5 card in the head box.

Drawing from concealment, after practice we were getting it down regularly to under three seconds, but want to get it down to two seconds, which is going to take a heckuva lot more practice.

Second, we did a single shot drill at 7 yards to the A zone.  Again from concealment we were able to get it under 1.5 seconds, but again to improve it is going to take a heckuva lot more practice.

Third we did a Bill Drill at 7 yards.   Again from concealment draw and 6 shots to the A Zone. At times we could get it under 2.5 seconds but not always consistently. Again, to improve it is going to take a heckuva lot more practice.

Finally we did a single shot drill at 25 yards.  Accuracy s generally sucked so lots of hits outside the A zone which didn't count for the purposes of the drill, but we were able to get it on occasion down to 1.98 with a hit on the A box. Again to improve it is going to take a heckuva lot more practice.

So yep, if you haven't guessed, the takeaway from this morning's endeavors was that to improve it is going to take a heckuva lot more practice. 

We've tentatively scheduled another range trip for an early morning next week assuming more ammo arrives in time.

Then, off to get some actual work done.  A range trip was not a bad way to start the day.

That's another 250 rounds through the Masada, and some good practice in before the next USPSA match that is set for this Sunday.

Yesterday Quick Range Trip

Got a call from a couple of friends of mine wanting to go to the range.

Got my work done and we met up at the range.

For handguns we worked on shooting the plate rack with a timer, which they had not done before. I shot my Masada from a holster, and shot my IMI Jericho, and they shot their firearms from low ready.

Lots of fun. I got to try out a H&K Elite 9mm which has just an awesome trigger and overall feel as its a big hand cannon with negligible recoil as a result. I also got to shoot his Beretta 92X again, his Sig 365XL, and Canik TP9SFx. Yes he has some nice handguns.

The Sig 365 is impressive. A very thin grip for 12 rounds that almost feels like a single stack. Very nice and thin, but still able to knock the set of plates down in under 6 seconds with it when shooting it for the first time. First time I shot a Sig 365 and I may have to look into one of those.

The Canik TP9SFx was a definite sleeper hit - the trigger on it is out of this world good, its essentially their version of the Walther Q4 and the trigger was simply awesome right out of the box. He had an RMR mounted on it making knocking down plates a piece of cake.

Then off to the rifle range.

I shot my 6.5 Creeedmoor and the 3.5lb trigger proved a worthy improvement.

I then got to shoot his Begara bolt-action rifle in 6.5 which offered some very impressive accuracy and had a bolt like butter. Very impressed with that rifle - it's a .4 MOA rifle which is pretty darn nice.

I also shot his FN SCAR 20. With a good scope, I was regularly shooting groups at 100 yards with the bullet holes touching each other, not a fluke but repeatable, which is kinda crazy. He had some 155 grain hand-loads for it and they simply shot amazingly well. The harmonics coming off the SCAR are interesting - it's quite the ringing sound after each and every shot. That's an amazing and accurate rifle.

He also had a AR15 he had built up as a DMR rifle and tested some loads he made with it - consistently under .5 MOA with 77gr Berger bullets he loaded which was not bad at all. Yep, he's got some nice stuff.

That's another 100 trouble-free rounds through the Masada and 50 through the Jericho. A good time with friends for a short range trip.

Match Day - The Classifier Special

Today I went to the Wayne County Racoon Hunter's USPSA match. This is always a good time as they always run a good match.

It was a special classifier match. A normal match has one classifier. This one had six so you could get immediately classified in your division.

This meant relatively short courses of fire, and two other stages that were not classifiers but had small round counts as well. However, with 94 shooters it took awhile to get everyone through. Did I mention it was a hot day in the sun all day? I drank a tin of water over the course of the match and needed every drop.

Shooting the Masada with the optic, I ended up having an off day. Quite a few issues and while I shot a few C-level classifiers, I was also much of the time just missing the C classifier cut-off score by fractions of a point and ending up in the D category due to mistakes or lack of speed. Checking into it I hit 3 solid C classifiers and 3 Ds. Drat. Just not fast enough, and I need to pickup the pace. I was also tending to drop my second shot on a target a bit low which was annoying. Of course, on one classifier dropping a shot low and having it hit a no-shoot with that same shot really didn't help any.

We'll call that an off day, and a reason to get out and practice more. I can certainly make C-class and will just have to practice and shot some more matches to get my average up accordingly.

On the upside, the Masada was absolutely flawless for all 106 rounds fired.

This was also Tosh's first time at a USPSA match, and he had a good time trying it out, which is good. Now I have a match buddy for matches, which makes them more enjoyable.

Even an off day shooting is still a good day.

Great Range Trip Today

So I headed to the range and met up with Jason, Tosh, and Tosh's friend Anthony. It was going to be a nice hot day.

We started out shooting some pistol as Tosh wanted to try and run his ETS HK magazines through my P30s to see if they would work as they did not work in his P2000SK.

Interestingly enough, while they would lock into the gun if the slide was back, they would not do so with the slide forward when the mags were fully loaded. They had issues including not dropping free when hitting the paddle release and not holding the last shot open. Other than that, they did feed ok. They did run fine and functioned perfectly in Jason's VP9, including dropping free when the release was hit on the VP9. This was weird as the VP9 and the P30 use the same exact magazine. So, the ETS mags were good in a VP9, not so good in the P30 or P2000.

I hadn't shot the P30s in awhile, but they cleared plate racks with no issues.

We then switched to rifles, and I shot my IWI Tavor SBR and my M1A which was a lot of fun hitting the steel targets Tosh had brought hat were rifle rated. The M1A seriously made the steel targets and stands rock back when hit.

Then back to pistol and I switched to the Masada.

Anthony had brought a Sig P320 compact and we all got a chance to shoot it, it was good to finally try one of those out. Quite a nice and reliable firearm.

Battle Dots shooting competitions were had and we all had a good time.

Then under the timer. Twice the pressure of both the clock and having your friends watch you mess up.

5-4-3-2-1 drills (5 circles on an 8x11 paper decreasing in size down to 1". You shoot 5 at the largest circle, 4 at the next, and so on), it was a lot of fun.

Then we ran some FAST Drills.

Then we did the 3 yard portion of the Sentinel Concepts Warm-up Drill. Draw from concealment and hit the box with all three shots under 2 seconds. More challenging and frustrating than it sounds.

I managed the best time of 1.76 clean - but only after quite a few rounds of practice and then managed to get it under 2 seconds pretty regularly, which was a lot of progress compared to my prior range sessions where I wasn't getting near to that time. Good progress that.

We then switched to dot torture and I got a 49 because one was just outside the dot - drat, so close to a perfect run. The second and last Dot Torture I got sloppy and did 47/50.

It was an excellent range time. Another 350 trouble-free rounds through the Masada, and 50 each through both the P30 and P30Sk, and 120 rounds through the Tavor.

A great time with some good people.

Quick Range Trip Today

I had a doctors appointment today, and since the doctor's office was about halfway to the range, I figured why not hit the range and then head back to work after that?

Basically the day was much frustration, so getting some group therapy in was certainly called for.

I shot sets of plate racks with a most satisfying clang as each one went down in sequence.

Then a dot torture with a bleh score of 47/50. Put a nice group of three just right under one dot. Needs more work.

Back to cleaning some plate racks at speed and then done.

Clean up the area and back in the car in under 45 minutes.

That's another 100 trouble-free rounds through the Masada and just a fun quick little range trip.

First USPSA Match Of The Season

Finally USPSA matches have resumed in Michigan. We didn't even have to call the assemblage of shooters a protest to do so.

A good first match and my first time shooting concealed carry optic.

Only one classifier stage was held, so my getting classified in CCO will take a while. It was CM 13-04 The Roscoe Rattle.

Fun, but I hadn't practice the turn 'n' draw recently, and it showed. The draws were decent thanks to my dry fire practice, now I need to get faster transitioning between targets, acquiring targets hidden in various locations, and moving around the stage.

On the very plus side, I did not fail to engage all targets and didn't miss any which happens as most were cleverly angled so they could be seen only from one position and then only if you really looked around. I'm still on the slow side compared to other shooters, but my accuracy is pretty darn good.

6 fun stages in addition to the classifier, and it was a darn good time with a good bunch of people.

I shot the match with the IWI Masada and Trijicon SRO, and both functioned flawlessly for another 168 rounds through the gun. I'm looking forward to the next match.

Range Trip: Focused Practice With The IWI Masada

Aside from the fun of shooting the Romanian Tokarev, I wanted to get some more practice in with the Masada.

First, I started with some 5x5 drills as I wanted to get my time down.

After a warm up of twenty rounds at the A box of a USPSA target, I started with a few 5x5 drills, setting the timer to random start with a par time of 5 seconds.

Drawing from concealment at the 5x5 targets 5 yards away, I managed to keep the hits in the circle with the following times:

First set of Five 5x5 Targets:
4.09
4.08
4.41
4.02
4.09

Second set of Five 5x5 Targets:
4.00
4.07
3.81
3.91
4.10

Much, much, better than the 4.71 when I first tried the drill, and I was deliberately trying to push it faster, not to mention less self-imposed stress as no one was watching to see if I messed up.

Now to see if I can keep it that low or better with friends watching. I'm getting better on the draw which is what is taking the most time - get the shirt out of the way, a good grip on the gun and getting the dot onto the target, the rest is easy(-ish). Still, with more practice I figure I can get faster while maintaining hits.

Then on to timed single shot draws from concealment.

I did 25 single round shots timed with the timer going off randomly onto a USPSA target, trying to keep it to A zone hits only. Times varied from a low of 1.23 with a C-zone hit and a qualifying low of 1.24 with an acceptable A-zone hit, up to 1.64 with an A zone hit for a high time on the drill. Average time for all 25 was 1.37. I'm going to do some regular dryfire practice to see if I can get better at this.

Then on to the 15 round Sentinel Concepts "Warm-Up Drill".

For a warm-up it's a tad challenging and a good drill to shoot.

No problem with getting good hits at 25, 15 and 10 yards on time as specified. Lots of problems at 7 yards in getting 3 rounds from the holster from concealment into the target box in 3 seconds. Typically just over the limit of 3 seconds and just couldn't seem to get the time down. I certainly need more practice. The three yard drills were fine typically, but I could tell I was getting tired and slowing down as the session wore on and started getting slower with the draw from concealment.

Overall, it was a good practice session and pointed out areas I need to work on. Mainly it's the draw and on occasionally finding the dot. I think a lot more dry fire and then repetitions of the drill is in store to fix that.

That's 200 more rounds through the Masada with zero failures.

Memorial Day Monday Range Trip

This morning I got up early and joined Tosh and Jason at the range.

A fun time was had by all. We shot the Tavor, Galil, FAL, and their AR15s.

The Tavor is nicely dialed in for a 100 yard zero, so that the 4 line in the scope is dead on at 25 yards

Tosh had brought some rifle-rated steel to the range so shooting the rifles and ringing the steel was fun.

They really liked shooting the FAL.

We also did a lot of pistol practice - battle dots, dot torture, and 5x5 drills.

Running a timer on the 5x5 drill adds to the pressure, along with not wanting to mess up in front of your friends.  Add a friend videotaping your performance and it gets even more of a "please don't let me goof this up" pressure.

The 5x5 drill is 5 shots in the circle , at 5 yards,  in under 5 seconds par time from concealment.

I shot it clean and within the time at 4.71, which was nice.  Now to work on getting that time down.

That's 350 more rounds through the Masada with zero failures, and some 50 through my Glock shooting  and 100 rounds through the P99, shooting with zero failures as well.

It was a great morning out with some great people.

Now I'm home for a cleaning and prep of the house.  We have a few friends coming over for Memorial Day now that Gov Haf-Whit has graciously and arbitrarily allowed gatherings of up to 10 people.  So time to make the place spic and span.

I had the smoker going all yesterday, smoking some goodness, and it was in the oven all night stalled out and now getting to its final temp before pulling and serving.  Should be tasty and smells great already.

I hope you all have a great Memorial Day, no matter how locked down you may be out there.