Practice Night
Last night Dave and I made it up to Alpha to get our live
fire practice for the week, to validate our week of dry fire work at home. We
hit the range at around 7ish, and worked for an hour and a half and shot 150
odd rounds of .22, maybe a hair more, but we definitely got to see what dry
fire is doing for us.
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| El Pres |
We started out at about 10 yards, 3 plates down range set up
to simulate an El Presidente drill, with the plate being the “A” zone. We’d
been working this at home, with the 2.80 second par time, and that’s where we
started out. I was a little rough getting started; I was coming in between 2.78
and 2.90 seconds, with transitions around .61 and follow-up’s in the
neighborhood of .40. I felt sluggish, but I was getting all my hits, and was
very consistent with that. We each
loaded up 3 mags, and repeated the drill 3 runs, meaning we each shot 9
magazines.
For part two of the drill, we moved up to 7 yards, bumped the
par time down to 2.5 seconds, and got busy. All of a sudden, things came to
life for me, and I started running times out between 1.86 seconds to 1.98
seconds. My transitions were between .36 and .41, and my follow up shots were
consistently about .21. This is exactly what I was looking for. I was staging
the trigger as soon as I heard the beep, and as soon as I saw the target in
front of the front sight, the shot was breaking. Following my second shot I was
staging the trigger again while transitioning, and the shot would break just as
I got my front sight to the second target. I had a couple of runs with a miss,
but most we ran this 3 times, so again 9 magazines, and 6-7 runs were clean,
all hits, and fast times.
To close out the night, we moved back to about 15 yards, and
left the 2.5 second par time. I had to slow down my transitions a bit, but I
kept most runs between 2.42 and 2.55 seconds, meaning I’m about where I want to
be. My fundamentals of sight picture, and trigger manipulation were right on
the money. One week of consistent dry fire showed me that I can definitely
improve these fundamentals, and build some confidence. Practice session was a
definite win.
Today I outfitted my M&P 22 with Dawson Precision rear
sights, and I’m thrilled with the way they look, essentially replicating my
rear sight for the PPQ. After some testing Les and I found that at 10 yards,
with a 6 o’clock hold I’m about an inch high. This is the bad news, because I
am not used to a 6 o’clock hold, so in reality, I’m going to be nearly an inch
and a half high compared to my PPQ. Dawson
is closed today, so I’m going to have to call on Monday, and find out what
taller sight options I have. Our next live fire session is Tuesday night, and
Les made the comment I need to get this fixed, because he does not want me to
practice aiming low. Good point…..
In addition, today was my NRA Basic Pistol class. We spent 8
hours learning about what a bullet is, how a gun functions, and how to grip a
gun. Pretty basic and fundamental stuff aimed at people who have never touched
a gun, and for people who are going to do a lot of shooting on an NRA range. It
was worthwhile, but I suspect taking the class before I started shooting would
have been better. Four Leaf Training however is absolutely top notch, and
despite the dryness of the subject, kept it lively and entertaining throughout.
This completes the first 8 hours of training I need for my Illinois Conceal Carry
Permit, and prepares me for the 2nd 8 hours of training covering
range time, and IL law.
That’s all for today folks!
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