Live fire practice at Elite Shooting Sports (5/22)
Started off with dot torture at 5 yards. All the "draws" were shot DA from low ready, and all of the shots on #1 and #2 were DA. Wow! After nearly shooting a perfect run last week at 3 yds, surprised at how much more difficult an additional 6 feet made:
05222016_dot_9mm by
baldrage, on Flickr
Definitely room for improvement, and no point in moving it back any further for now.
Next up, 5X5 drill at 5 yards, from low ready, first shot DA, 3.5 second facing time. Did OK, it's obvious I have some type of issue shooting at targets to my left, as evidenced by target on lower left. Maybe I need to rotate my whole upper body, rather than just my arms?
05222016_5X5 by
baldrage, on Flickr
Around-the-clock drill, 7 yards, from low ready, first shot DA, 7.5 second facing time. This was so bad, I had second thoughts about posting it. Just all over the paper, and at least one round almost off the paper completely. This is the shooting equivalent of air-balling a free throw ...
05222016_clock_9mm by
baldrage, on Flickr
Did some dry fire, focusing on grip and sight focus to try and shake off that crap-tastic drill. Finished up 9mm with mozambique drill, 7 yards, from low ready, first shot DA, 4 second facing time. Pretty poor, but did better than the last drill. Shot high on all of the head shots, and again, almost missed the paper.
05222016_mozambique by
baldrage, on Flickr
After stinking things up so bad with 9mm, I switched over to Kadet kit, and happy to say my previous technical problems were fixed and the Kadet ran fine, aside from the usual handful of light strikes with Federal bulk ammo.
Started with another dot torture at 5 yards, again all "draws" shot from low ready with DA. Results were much better than first run with 9mm. Weak-hand only was pretty bad, but I nearly cleaned all of the two-handed stations:
05222016_dot_22 by
baldrage, on Flickr
Wrapped up with another run on the around-the-clock drill, 7 yards, from low ready, first shot DA, 7.5 second facing time. Used CCI Standard Velocity ammo on this one, to minimize light strikes while racing the timer. Results were MUCH better, although I still have problems transitioning to targets on lower left. Obviously I have something off in my sight alignment consistently when turning slightly left to shoot, but no clue how to correct it. Tips/suggestions?
05222016_clock_22 by
baldrage, on Flickr
Overall, shameful performance with 9mm, pretty good with .22, and just glad to have my Kadet kit up and running again.
Take-aways:
1) Still struggling with first DA shot from low ready, although I thought a lot of dry-fire this week had helped, it obviously didn't. Seems like it takes an eternity to get a sight picture in live fire, and then I am still inaccurate (usually high) once I fire. Thinking I need to practice dry-fire with a smaller target to simulate shooting at 7 yards, as I don't actually have that much room in my basement.
2) Still need lots of dry-fire practice shooting one-handed. Really felt wobbly when shooting at the range, but again, I wonder if this because at home, I am practicing from about 3 yards, and shooting at 5 yards at the range. Wouldn't think a mere six feet would make a big difference, but I will try a smaller target (maybe 2X2 sticky rather than the 3X5 I had been using) and a little farther distance in dry fire this week.