Eric Gambill Shooting Log

[mike cyrwus]

So its been a good start to 2015 so far. Took HOA at the ITPSC USPSA and DoubleTap IDPA.

I'm not really doing any live fire practice right now but it was such a nice day that I decided to go to the range. Specifically I wanted to test the CZ. Seems like everyone online says that a CZ shoots more accurate with 124gr range bullets than the bigger bullets like 147gr or 165gr.

I wanted to go test it myself. I also wanted to see what the relative accuracy difference between the CZ 75 and my G34 with a stock barrel.

At 25yds, my regular 130pf X-Treme 165gr Production load was way more accurate than the 135pf 124gr load I put together today. It wasnt even close. So that question is answered.

I then shot the G34 against the CZ75 at dots, 5 yards. The red dot is my point of aim. Heres the results:

Accuracy difference?

next time, just for kicks, shoot those groups far enough away so you cant see the bullet holes while youre shooing them

 

[Airic]

next time, just for kicks, shoot those groups far enough away so you cant see the bullet holes while youre shooing them

I have and they show the same trend out to 25yards. The groups are just a little bigger of course..lol

 

[Airic]

Strong/Weak hand shooting:

I've been playing with different techniques for this for a long time. I think I have finally settled. Consistency is super important to me so I have decided to stick with the same stance as if I was going to shoot free style. I see a lot of guys, even top shooters step forward or favor the side they are about to shoot from. I just feel more comfortable staying in my normal stance. The draws and reloads are just more consistent.

I understand the reasoning in stepping forward or favoring the strong/weak side....its for recoil control and sight tracking. I just don't seem to have a major problem with that in my normal squared off stance. I am ambidextrous though so that might be a factor.

I crush the grip when I'm shooting one handed. I think thats what is helping me with recoil and sight tracking.

 

[Airic]

Made GM in Production.....

 

[foghorn918]

Congratulations Eric! Your hard work and training shows.
I wish i had your focus and dedication.

 

[Airic]

Congratulations Eric! Your hard work and training shows.
I wish i had your focus and dedication.

Thank you.

 

[Airic]

Shot two matches last weekend, the IDPA state match in Tulsa and then drove down and shot the Old Fort Shootout on Sunday. This was a huge test of my mental focus considering I found out my Dad had passed away suddenly just a couple days prior. I basically shot the matches while I was on my way to Colorado to handle his affairs. I decided to go ahead and shoot because I know thats what he would have wanted me to do. Thanks go out to the OKC crew that put up with my bumbling around and gave me a place to stay.

I didnt really perform all that well at the IDPA match. I was really uncomfortable for the first half of the match because I havent shot a IDPA major since 2007. The results showed that when it came back with me 4th overall out of 7 in SSP Master. I did bring home the trophies for High LEO and High Mil Vet though.

Sunday was a different story. I shot the STI for the first time outside of Duke and I felt like I was on fire. I've been telling people that I really wanted to see how I performed in a major match setting with the gun. Old Fort set some really good major match style stages to test me. I have not practiced with this gun at all and I was very pleased that I ran it so well. Ended up HOA in limited division and shot 95.5% of the available points after the one miss I had. I just had a couple make up shots on steel. I cant ask for a better performance than that. It makes me excited to see what I can do if I dedicate myself to practicing with this gun.

I want to continue competing in IDPA for now. I need to find a classifier match because I think I wanna hang out in the new CCP divison. The gun i carry on/off duty everyday is the FNH FNS 40 that I won at USPSA Nationals a couple years back. I'll have to check it in the new box dimensions but I'm pretty sure it fits the bill. I kept the gun because I was so impressed with its stock sights and nice trigger pull out of the box.

 

[Airic]

Ok I'm getting tired of looking these up and trying to remember so Im gonna post these out for easy reference:

2015 Majors:
Italics are if possible

Silver Dollar IDPA Championship (Wichita Falls) 03-28
Cowtown Classic (Cresson) 05-02
Republic of Texas IDPA Championship (Cresson) 05-24
OK Limited, Open and Revo Sectional (OKC) 08-29
High Desert Classic (Albq, NM) 10-10/11
OK Production and SS Sectional (Tulsa) 10-25

 

[Rockon71385]

Sunday was a different story. I shot the STI for the first time outside of Duke and I felt like I was on fire. I've been telling people that I really wanted to see how I performed in a major match setting with the gun. Old Fort set some really good major match style stages to test me. I have not practiced with this gun at all and I was very pleased that I ran it so well. Ended up HOA in limited division and shot 95.5% of the available points after the one miss I had. I just had a couple make up shots on steel. I cant ask for a better performance than that. It makes me excited to see what I can do if I dedicate myself to practicing with this gun.

I feel even better about getting 2nd knowing you had an awesome match. Great shooting man! What were you shooting before you got the STI? I shot a Glock for years and got an Edge pretty recently. The difference it made in terms of being able to shoot pinpoint accuracy on command was huge. Only downside I've found is that the amazing trigger makes it WAY more tempting to slap the trigger instead of prepping it and breaking shots carefully.

 

[Airic]

I feel even better about getting 2nd knowing you had an awesome match. Great shooting man! What were you shooting before you got the STI? I shot a Glock for years and got an Edge pretty recently. The difference it made in terms of being able to shoot pinpoint accuracy on command was huge. Only downside I've found is that the amazing trigger makes it WAY more tempting to slap the trigger instead of prepping it and breaking shots carefully.

I shot a Glock forever, tried it in every division (mostly production) even had a glock open gun once. I then switched to a CZ75 last season.

The STI trigger can do very well at hiding trigger control issues. Slapping the trigger isnt bad, its a technique. Go look up Rob Leatham's thoughts on that. Every target you engage takes a certain type of trigger control. You can slap the trigger on open targets out to 15yds if you have the skill. What gets people in trouble is slapping the trigger on 5yd targets covered with a no shoot. Live fire practice teaches you what type of trigger control you need to use on different target presentations.

 

[mikey80]

You always have a place to stay man. We all heard its "not that hard".

 

[Airic]

You always have a place to stay man. We all heard its "not that hard".

Well if she would have stopped poking me with her pre-death Michael Jackson nose.....

 

[mikey80]

Baaahahahaa!!!

 

[Airic]

Good God its been a crappy week. The closest thing I have gotten to practice is cleaning my gun. Sometimes, life just gets in the way.

I have the Silver Dollar Championship at DTC Saturday. I'm getting a last minute range session tomm so that I at least have some live fire practice prior to going. Mainly I'm going to work on strong and weak side cover leans because Im pretty sure I lost a lot of time there. Footwork in IDPA seems to be super important, hitting the right spot allows you to take a couple targets from cover then take a small step to take the deepest target. Off balance shooting seems to be a basic skill in this sport.

Once this match is over it looks like I am going to start focusing on USPSA open. I have waited a long time to make this move and I'm ready to jump in for all the marbles. I believe my discipline level is there to be able to compete in open. My short stint shooting the STI in limited just made my hunger for open worse. This decision is pending me getting the powder I need to shoot in open but I think I can make it happen now.

 

[luke.reninger]

I got powder for you brother. At least enough to help you get started. Looking forward to seeing you rock in open.

 

[Rockon71385]

The STI trigger can do very well at hiding trigger control issues. Slapping the trigger isnt bad, its a technique. Go look up Rob Leatham's thoughts on that. Every target you engage takes a certain type of trigger control. You can slap the trigger on open targets out to 15yds if you have the skill. What gets people in trouble is slapping the trigger on 5yd targets covered with a no shoot. Live fire practice teaches you what type of trigger control you need to use on different target presentations.

That's a good point. I think I get into the habit of slapping the trigger on easy targets and then it's hard for me to take up the pre-travel and prep the trigger without immediately breaking the shot on harder targets. I tried some blake drills yesterday after talking to Micah about them, and I was amazed that I could actually get hits at close to bill-drill speed. Next I left the first two targets for the blake drill up, and replaced the third with a plate at 20 yards. Kept trying to shoot the first two targets full speed, and then reel it in and prep the trigger for the plate. It wasn't pretty. Definitely something I need to spend more time on.

Good luck with open, man! That looks like a blast. It's something I definitely want to try once I accomplish what I want to accomplish in Limited. Who doesn't want to drive a race car?

 

[Airic]

That's a good point. I think I get into the habit of slapping the trigger on easy targets and then it's hard for me to take up the pre-travel and prep the trigger without immediately breaking the shot on harder targets. I tried some blake drills yesterday after talking to Micah about them, and I was amazed that I could actually get hits at close to bill-drill speed. Next I left the first two targets for the blake drill up, and replaced the third with a plate at 20 yards. Kept trying to shoot the first two targets full speed, and then reel it in and prep the trigger for the plate. It wasn't pretty. Definitely something I need to spend more time on.

Good luck with open, man! That looks like a blast. It's something I definitely want to try once I accomplish what I want to accomplish in Limited. Who doesn't want to drive a race car?

Thats basically the "Distance Changeup" drill. Two open targets on the outside at 5yds and a headshot at 15 in the middle.

 

[Airic]

So training plan one month out from Cowtown. Going from Stoeger's red dryfire book I made up a plan that I think best works on skills that will be tested at Cowtown. I'll work from two sections, Core USPSA skills and Field Course Skills.

Page # in ()

Core USPSA:

(39) Bill Drill
(41) Reloads
(47) Plate Racks ***One stage is completely single shots and lots of steel
(49) Distance Changeup
(53) 90 Transistions Hard
(55) 180 Transitions Hard
(59) Widening Transitions


Field Course Skills:

(65) Shoot on the Move
(67) Shoot on the Move Hard
(71) Position Entry Hard
(75) Position Exit Hard
(77) Quick Step
(80) Port Entry **You can modify this to make it a Entry/Exit drill

4 Dry fire session per week using 2 drills per session. I set a timer for 15mins for each drill:

I'll do a Core session (2 drills from core) then a Field session the next day (2 drills from Field), repeat, repeat. Match on the weekend or if no match I'll setup a mini stage and work on stage plan execution. When I'm working on this, I'll set a stage and treat it like a major match. Develop a stage plan, spend a couple mins standing there and mentally rehearsing....then run it ONCE. The point of this isnt to get reps and work on shooting skills, its to perform your best on the one shot you get. Being able to execute your plan with minimal mistakes the first time. I'll then change the stage up and do it again.

 

[Airic]

Finally picked up the open gun today. I have one working 140mm mag. Spent the day developing a load and I got one set. Ended up here:

115gr Xtreme bullet
1.160 OAL
7.7gr Autocomp
Win SPP Primer

This got me to slightly over 1500fps, 172-173pf. No pressure signs at all. The load feels amazing. I dont lose sight of the dot at all.

I spent the rest of my day with a Dawson mag tuning kit and a bunch of STI tubes. I felt like a blacksmith at my vise hammering and measuring to get the mags in spec with the video. I'm lacking a big stick right now. I wanna just go ahead and buy an STI 170 but I also need 9mm brass and some more Autocomp...

For the first time in years....I'm actually excited. I have been waiting for open for a long time. I'm pretty sure I'm going to practice harder in the next 3 weeks than I ever have

 

[Airic]

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