Let's cut the shit already and admit that it's time to get serious and get down to business. Dave and I got together today for our live fire work, and we both confessed that we've had a thought or two that it was almost time to start buying the 4,000 bullets that we are going to owe Les if we don't hit our mark. I know I've had some bravado, and confidence, but with each up and down performance I was feeling like Charlie Brown. Lucy puts that football down, and each time he believes he's going to kick it, and that little witch pulls it out every single time. Screw you Lucy.
Today was my first day in the plan with the CZ, and here I am five hours later with an ear to ear stupid grin on my face. I had more fun shooting today, in practice than any day I've ever had shooting, ever. Big statement there. Today the target and I tangled, and I kicked it's butt. Everyone says that it's the person shooting the gun, not the gun, and I buy that. I won't however discount that the CZ is infinitely easier to shoot, and for me to focus on just one thing, my front sights. This was hands down one of my best practice performances ever.
The CZ partnered with my loads shoots softly, no muzzle flip, very little recoil, the gun just cycles backward and forward, and I can keep my eyes on the front sight the whole time. With the PPQ, I was fighting to control the gun, with the CZ, I hold it, no fight. This is worlds easier than what I am used to. I know it hides some flaws that I have, like not getting a better handle on the gun and getting my left elbow up higher, but I don't need to have that perfect hold to get my hits. So is it a good thing that it masks flaws? Some might argue its not, and I see that point, because I don't just want to earn my B card, I want to compete in the B Class, and I want to go beyond that. However, for right now, it let's me focus on my sights.
Les felt Dave and I had a tendency to shoot past a target on a transition, and not drive the gun towards it, (me more than Dave) and he wanted us to focus on driving the gun. The beauty of the CZ for me, is that it's so heavy, I can't just drag it across targets, I need to drive it to get it there, so the weight forces me in the right direction.
Today our mission was to start with a couple of El Presidente's as slow as we needed to get all alpha hits. New gun, new pull, I was a little slow, but I got good hits at 8.60 seconds. I had two exceptional runs as I started to get dialed in, I ran one at 7.59 (I need 8.45 for a 60% run with 90% of points possible) with 12 Alpha's, that's a perfect run! My draw to first shot was 2.34 on that run, about .6 seconds slower than with the PPQ. I ran another at 7.37 with 10 Alpha and 2 Charlie, and a 2.29 second draw. According to Classifiercalc, that first run had a Hit Factor of 7.91 which is 77.1%, that's not a B run, that's a low A run! My second run would have been a 7.598 Hit Factor for a 74.0% run, that's the tip top of B (75.01 is A).
That's good shooting, with accurate hits. With the PPQ I had inconsistent runs between 6.30 and 7.05 most of the time, the hits were touch and go, and I dropped points, so, not only did I slow down, I massively increased my accuracy, but I did not go too slow. Now, the even better news, the biggest difference in speed was not my actual shooting (I got my splits and transitions down to near PPQ territory, .20-.22 splits, and .38 transitions, faster with the PPQ, but there I shot thru the target, never driving the gun to it to get hits. ), but the difference was an incredibly slow draw. That 1.8 second draw we started with? I'm slower, and I got the PPQ down with practice, the CZ is a little different because of the long first pull, but with practice, I'm going to get that down. I'm not putting a time frame on it, but I'd bet in a week of dryfire, I'll be used to the gun enough that I'll be at 1.80, and again starting a push to get the draw down to the 1.3 or 1.4 mark. That's almost a full second that I can trim from my time and still keep good hits!
Want some more good news? My reloads during the El Presidente runs were between 2.00, and 2.2, again, between .5 to .7 slower than I was reloading with the PPQ. By the end of the day, and we drilled reloads, I had my reload into the 1.80 area, and as soon as I stop going for the release on the trigger guard like the PPQ, and remember it's a button, I'm going to get even better.
So, all this good news? I'm excited as hell! The things I'm talking about are things that I can improve in dry fire, and I already proved to myself that I can do exactly that. I'm not talking a three month ramp up, I'm not talking wildly inconsistent, I'm talking a few weeks to get myself to a better position. The most basic fundamental of all, seeing that front sight, and hitting the target is finally, not something I'm over thinking, I'm able to just focus on the sight and shoot.
Want another small piece of good news? I experienced something Terry did at the match. my trigger finger does not realize how short the single action pull is, I was leaving the trigger and moving my finger forward and then coming back to hit the trigger. Some work there, and my splits will improve, something I laughed about it felt so good, was it took me longer to pull the trigger something that it took me to see the sights.
I can't express how amazing an experience today's practice was. I was not fighting my gun, everything came easy, the light went on. I believe in my SP-01, I don't have to be perfect, it makes my job easy. It is an amazing feeling. I want to guard against getting over confident, but for the first time, I've got a deep confidence in my gun, and a realization, that my fate, this B card, and my improvement is all about what I'm doing. Sure, it's always been that way, but right now? I believe it. I have faith, something I lacked before. This CZ eliminates all the little things I was thinking about, elbow up? Sights perfect? Grip Tight? I don't think about those now, I just see the front sight and shoot.
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| I have faith that with this, my goals will be a reality |
I say I don't want to be over confident, and I don't want to jinx myself, but I honestly believe that I could run off a series of B classifiers now, and I'll be able to do it that much easier with more dry fire work. So, mark it down, my contribution to all this, is a skill set that Les taught me. He taught me what I need to do, at the most basic and fundamental level, he gave me the skills that I need to apply, and today at least, it all came together. I know there are up's and downs ahead, I'm not getting too high, or too low, but I'll be damned if don't just believe that I'm on the way.
Thanks bro!
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