Eric Gambill Shooting Log
- Thread starter Airic
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45recoil
likes to party
Nicely done EG
Dryfire has been a little weird lately. I'm usually very structured with dryfire drill planned in advance. Lately I've been running random drills with random target setups. I'm trying to work out a problem, Accuracy....without firing bullets.
I lose because of two things: Mental errors and Accuracy. The mental errors are just due to me not paying attention or pushing to hard in dangerous places of a stage. The accuracy problem has been there since I started. I have improved a lot, but with every improvement in my overall accuracy I move to a new level where people are doing it just as good or better.
I know what the problem is. Its been there all along. I am impatient with my sight picture. I just cant wait long enough to get the sight picture refined to the level needed every time. I do it a lot, maybe even most of the time.....but not every time. What it equates to is I'm running 15 A's and 5 C's on a stage and the other masters are shooting 18 A's and 2 C's.
So in dryfire I have been analyzing everything. How my grip effects sight picture. How movement/setup/exits effect it. How my sight picture looks when I'm transitioning to different types of targets. I'm paying attention. It feels like its paying off, guess I'll find out this weekend in live fire.
While dryfiring today I noticed something about my sights. First off, I might be using the fiber optic a little too much. Sometimes I think that orange dot is a crutch for me and allows me to shoot before I'm actually ready. Second, my rear sight notch is HUGE. I'm using warren/sevigny sights on my G34 and that rear sight notch looks close to a 1/4 wide. When I purchased the sights years ago, I really liked this feature because I felt like I could see "through" the sights and it gave me more input. Now I'm thinking I've moved past that and need a change. The notch is big enough to fit two of my front sight blades in it and that might be a little bit of my refinement problem. I'm thinking I might try Taran Tactical's new sight set, its seems like the notch is a lot thinner.
I lose because of two things: Mental errors and Accuracy. The mental errors are just due to me not paying attention or pushing to hard in dangerous places of a stage. The accuracy problem has been there since I started. I have improved a lot, but with every improvement in my overall accuracy I move to a new level where people are doing it just as good or better.
I know what the problem is. Its been there all along. I am impatient with my sight picture. I just cant wait long enough to get the sight picture refined to the level needed every time. I do it a lot, maybe even most of the time.....but not every time. What it equates to is I'm running 15 A's and 5 C's on a stage and the other masters are shooting 18 A's and 2 C's.
So in dryfire I have been analyzing everything. How my grip effects sight picture. How movement/setup/exits effect it. How my sight picture looks when I'm transitioning to different types of targets. I'm paying attention. It feels like its paying off, guess I'll find out this weekend in live fire.
While dryfiring today I noticed something about my sights. First off, I might be using the fiber optic a little too much. Sometimes I think that orange dot is a crutch for me and allows me to shoot before I'm actually ready. Second, my rear sight notch is HUGE. I'm using warren/sevigny sights on my G34 and that rear sight notch looks close to a 1/4 wide. When I purchased the sights years ago, I really liked this feature because I felt like I could see "through" the sights and it gave me more input. Now I'm thinking I've moved past that and need a change. The notch is big enough to fit two of my front sight blades in it and that might be a little bit of my refinement problem. I'm thinking I might try Taran Tactical's new sight set, its seems like the notch is a lot thinner.
Worked on some swinger drills today and a mini stage, here some vids:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8Cxp4s2_mI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8Cxp4s2_mI
I'm not gonna write a whole lot about The DoubleTap Championship. It was a tough match and I made some key mistakes. I finished 16th overall. 25% plus of the field were Master/GM shooters in Production division and I felt like this might be a nice prequel to nationals. Not real happy with my results.
So anyways now on to the good (kinda). Had a club match yesterday and shot pretty well. Shot consistant and my stage execution was good. Ended up with another 100% classifier (51pts/6.84 on 03-03 Take em Down). That should put me at 94.17% next month. Its a testament to the work I've put in on the range and in dryfire.
So anyways now on to the good (kinda). Had a club match yesterday and shot pretty well. Shot consistant and my stage execution was good. Ended up with another 100% classifier (51pts/6.84 on 03-03 Take em Down). That should put me at 94.17% next month. Its a testament to the work I've put in on the range and in dryfire.
Training has been plugging along still. I havent really been pushing for any gains, been more in "maintain" mode. I think it kinda showed in my match performance this weekend. I was just hosing, not really paying attention to anything and my reloads sucked. I was surprised that I didnt get any penalties and came out with 89% of the points.
I need to ramp it up, only 2 weeks until area 3.
Videos for Double Tap and this weekends club match are on my youtube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjRIo1mEUZo-IZE1EscMsdQ
I need to ramp it up, only 2 weeks until area 3.
Videos for Double Tap and this weekends club match are on my youtube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjRIo1mEUZo-IZE1EscMsdQ
Heading out to Area 3 tomorrow. Looks like its gonna be a fun and challenging match. Shot my last live fire today, just a light 100 round practice that included group shooting and the Stoeger test.
Shot a personal best on the Stoeger and rested and offhand groups on my first try. Of course it wasn't anything special but it's my best so far:
Shot a personal best on the Stoeger and rested and offhand groups on my first try. Of course it wasn't anything special but it's my best so far:
Area 3 was a great match. The stages were wide open but had some tough positions. The prize table was huge and there was a free beer pavillion open every day after shooting.
My match went decent. I had way to many misses on steel. All the steel they used up there was painted a brownish color and it really blended well with the dirt in the background. Took me a couple stages to figure out I needed to aim a little better on those steel. Had 4 mikes over the match and between those, the 17 deltas and the extra shots on steel....I ended up at 10th overall. Those mistakes cost me enough match points to take away 2nd Master and 7th Overall.
Heres the match vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX5nZDZXZWM&feature=share&list=UUjRIo1mEUZo-IZE1EscMsdQ
My match went decent. I had way to many misses on steel. All the steel they used up there was painted a brownish color and it really blended well with the dirt in the background. Took me a couple stages to figure out I needed to aim a little better on those steel. Had 4 mikes over the match and between those, the 17 deltas and the extra shots on steel....I ended up at 10th overall. Those mistakes cost me enough match points to take away 2nd Master and 7th Overall.
Heres the match vid:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sX5nZDZXZWM&feature=share&list=UUjRIo1mEUZo-IZE1EscMsdQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmg3WPtys-U
Had our monthly USPSA match this weekend. I really wanted to focus on points for this match, regardless of speed. Came out clean with 94% of the available points. I did have 3 deltas on the match which I didnt like. The biggest thing about this match for me was the mental game. I tend to not take the mental game very serious at club matches. Its the most important thing to me at majors but at club matches I usually throw together a plan while im on deck. At this match I could really see where it hurt me. I was spending so much time RO/Scoring and talking that I made little time eating mistakes on every stage. I really need to remember this stuff so I'm gonna break it down stage by stage as its shown in my vid:
Stage 1 - 24A, 3C, 1D in 24.47s...This stage had target spread out all over the bay with 6 over 20 yds. My stage plan went to elephant dung when I transitioned to the first set of long targets instead of going to a side target that I had planned. Cost me about 2 seconds. I also had a delta on one of the long targets. I also noticed I was just kinda jogging around on the stage instead of moving with a purpose, that cost time.
Stage 2 - 06-03 Can you Count in 7.36s - 20Alpha....Ran ok on this classifier, times were a little slower than I liked. I ended up with like a 3.60 and 3.70 second strings. The draw on the second string was .76 and reload was 1.12. I tend to hover right around 1.1 second standing reloads in a match. On the first string I had a sticky mag that cost me a little time and then a little trigger freeze on the second string.
Stage 3 - 18A, 1C in 11.88s - This stage ran pretty good other than one stage planning error. I had planned to go to 11 rounds in the first two shooting positions and reload of the barrel and finish out. For some reason I dropped the mag when my feet got moving and I ended up doing an extra reload...probably cost me 1-1.5 seconds
Stage 4 - 12A, 3C, 1D in 10.40s - This is where I had my biggest mental error. I was ROing up until right before I shot and I didnt check my mags. Walked up there with a partial. I was running good then my gun ran dry, I estimate it took me 4 seconds to get the gun running again. My delta came from being impatient while transitioning.
Stage 5 - 23A, 3C, 1D in 18.66s - This stage went pretty smooth other than just a cple small hangups that cost me time. On the third array of targets I came in on the easy close target and started leaving on the harder no shoot covered target. My body was already on its way out of the box while I was shooting a 12 yard penalty target. Cost some time and 3 charlies there. I came into the last position and missed the first big steel, ran the rest pretty fast. The last steel was an activator for a swinger I really expected that swinger to get out there quicker, cost me a couple seconds there.
Overall I shot decent. I noticed that it didnt seem like I was shooting all that much slower even though I was focused on points so much. Seth shot an outstanding match using his Springfield XD for the first time. He came within 4 points of beating me and shot 93% of the points. You can see his match video on his youtube page here: http://www.youtube.com/user/nitramseth
Had our monthly USPSA match this weekend. I really wanted to focus on points for this match, regardless of speed. Came out clean with 94% of the available points. I did have 3 deltas on the match which I didnt like. The biggest thing about this match for me was the mental game. I tend to not take the mental game very serious at club matches. Its the most important thing to me at majors but at club matches I usually throw together a plan while im on deck. At this match I could really see where it hurt me. I was spending so much time RO/Scoring and talking that I made little time eating mistakes on every stage. I really need to remember this stuff so I'm gonna break it down stage by stage as its shown in my vid:
Stage 1 - 24A, 3C, 1D in 24.47s...This stage had target spread out all over the bay with 6 over 20 yds. My stage plan went to elephant dung when I transitioned to the first set of long targets instead of going to a side target that I had planned. Cost me about 2 seconds. I also had a delta on one of the long targets. I also noticed I was just kinda jogging around on the stage instead of moving with a purpose, that cost time.
Stage 2 - 06-03 Can you Count in 7.36s - 20Alpha....Ran ok on this classifier, times were a little slower than I liked. I ended up with like a 3.60 and 3.70 second strings. The draw on the second string was .76 and reload was 1.12. I tend to hover right around 1.1 second standing reloads in a match. On the first string I had a sticky mag that cost me a little time and then a little trigger freeze on the second string.
Stage 3 - 18A, 1C in 11.88s - This stage ran pretty good other than one stage planning error. I had planned to go to 11 rounds in the first two shooting positions and reload of the barrel and finish out. For some reason I dropped the mag when my feet got moving and I ended up doing an extra reload...probably cost me 1-1.5 seconds
Stage 4 - 12A, 3C, 1D in 10.40s - This is where I had my biggest mental error. I was ROing up until right before I shot and I didnt check my mags. Walked up there with a partial. I was running good then my gun ran dry, I estimate it took me 4 seconds to get the gun running again. My delta came from being impatient while transitioning.
Stage 5 - 23A, 3C, 1D in 18.66s - This stage went pretty smooth other than just a cple small hangups that cost me time. On the third array of targets I came in on the easy close target and started leaving on the harder no shoot covered target. My body was already on its way out of the box while I was shooting a 12 yard penalty target. Cost some time and 3 charlies there. I came into the last position and missed the first big steel, ran the rest pretty fast. The last steel was an activator for a swinger I really expected that swinger to get out there quicker, cost me a couple seconds there.
Overall I shot decent. I noticed that it didnt seem like I was shooting all that much slower even though I was focused on points so much. Seth shot an outstanding match using his Springfield XD for the first time. He came within 4 points of beating me and shot 93% of the points. You can see his match video on his youtube page here: http://www.youtube.com/user/nitramseth
Had a really great live fire practice this weekend. I went to the range with the intention of shooting about 400-500 rounds and ended up only shooting 125rds. When your running 4-6 and 12 round drills you get a lot of reps out of your ammo.
I started out running the Accelerator drill with targets at 25, 35 and 45 yards (2each, reload, 2 each). my average run was just under 12seconds with more alphas than charlies and no misses. I had one run with 10 alpha and 2 charlies that was 16 seconds reflecting just how long I was on the sights to shoot that many alphas. I then stepped up 15 yards and that left the targets at 10, 20 and 30 yards. These runs averaged in the 8 second range with good accuracy. I really felt like I was a lot more accurate on the long targets when I cranked down on the grip pressure.
Moved on to the 4Aces drill at 7 yards. The A zone looked as big as a house after shooting the longer range targets. I was running around 2.75s average on this drill with all alphas. I feel like I could really bring the time on this one down some more with improvements in my draw and reload consistency.
Next drill was the Distance Changeup. I ran this one with the 2 outside targets at 25 yards and the middle headshot target at 35yards. I had been shooting so well that I thought it was time to push my limits and make some mistakes. I finally had my first misses of the session on that 35yard headshot target. It just seemed like I couldnt get the second shot in there. My average run on this one was 6.2 seconds with 3-5 alphas, rest were charlies and a mike on the headshot. I did pull one run out of no where that was a 5.96s with 3A, 2C and a delta. I stepped up 10 yards for the next set which left me at 15yd outside targets and 25 yard headshots. Just ran it twice and both were 4.70s with 4A, 2C.
I really felt like I got better during this practice. It really was a confidence booster to call shots on a 45 yard target and walk down to see them there. I have one more live fire session this weekend before Area 4. I'm going to work mainly on short movement reloads and small stages in dryfire this week and then bring it together for the live fire this weekend.
I started out running the Accelerator drill with targets at 25, 35 and 45 yards (2each, reload, 2 each). my average run was just under 12seconds with more alphas than charlies and no misses. I had one run with 10 alpha and 2 charlies that was 16 seconds reflecting just how long I was on the sights to shoot that many alphas. I then stepped up 15 yards and that left the targets at 10, 20 and 30 yards. These runs averaged in the 8 second range with good accuracy. I really felt like I was a lot more accurate on the long targets when I cranked down on the grip pressure.
Moved on to the 4Aces drill at 7 yards. The A zone looked as big as a house after shooting the longer range targets. I was running around 2.75s average on this drill with all alphas. I feel like I could really bring the time on this one down some more with improvements in my draw and reload consistency.
Next drill was the Distance Changeup. I ran this one with the 2 outside targets at 25 yards and the middle headshot target at 35yards. I had been shooting so well that I thought it was time to push my limits and make some mistakes. I finally had my first misses of the session on that 35yard headshot target. It just seemed like I couldnt get the second shot in there. My average run on this one was 6.2 seconds with 3-5 alphas, rest were charlies and a mike on the headshot. I did pull one run out of no where that was a 5.96s with 3A, 2C and a delta. I stepped up 10 yards for the next set which left me at 15yd outside targets and 25 yard headshots. Just ran it twice and both were 4.70s with 4A, 2C.
I really felt like I got better during this practice. It really was a confidence booster to call shots on a 45 yard target and walk down to see them there. I have one more live fire session this weekend before Area 4. I'm going to work mainly on short movement reloads and small stages in dryfire this week and then bring it together for the live fire this weekend.
Last live fire practice today before I leave out for Area 4 in the morning. I'm feeling very confident with my accuracy and execution. I ran a simple 14 round short movement stage today over and over and over. Did everything I could think of on it. Ended up shooting about 300 rounds before the heat was just too much for me (I went straight to the range after working a night shift). The shortest target on my stage was 15 yards with all the others around 25-35yds and one at 45yds. All the targets were common hardcover targets you see in matches. I was trying to make it hard. Todays practice was about getting into and out of a position and shooting as soon as I thought I could.
Little thing I noticed today...I avoid hardcover on a target like crazy. I dropped a good amount of charlies just because I was giving the hardcover a crapload of respect. I feel like I have the accuracy to just aim at the "A" in the A zone and put two there but I don't tend to do that. That's a shot calling issue and a confidence issue. When I started aiming closer to the hardcover I started really tagging the alphas...I only put like two in the hardcover today and I made both of them up. I only had 2 mikes on the day and both of them were because I decided to push my splits on the 45yd targets just to see what I could do.
I'm really excited for Seth. He's been on fire since he switched to his Dawson XDm. I look forward to seeing where we end up.
Little thing I noticed today...I avoid hardcover on a target like crazy. I dropped a good amount of charlies just because I was giving the hardcover a crapload of respect. I feel like I have the accuracy to just aim at the "A" in the A zone and put two there but I don't tend to do that. That's a shot calling issue and a confidence issue. When I started aiming closer to the hardcover I started really tagging the alphas...I only put like two in the hardcover today and I made both of them up. I only had 2 mikes on the day and both of them were because I decided to push my splits on the 45yd targets just to see what I could do.
I'm really excited for Seth. He's been on fire since he switched to his Dawson XDm. I look forward to seeing where we end up.
mike cyrwus
.223
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2010
- Messages
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good shootin
Area 4 was a really cool match. The stages were really fast but the target presentations had a good mix of penalty targets that tested your shot calling ability. I really felt like I was shooting a lot of points but I ended up with 87% of the available points. Had 2 mikes and 6 deltas...what really killed me was bravos! I stated above that I was giving penalty targets way to much respect and that continued at this match. I was tagging the bottom of the head box a lot on those targets with the no shoot on them. Pretty sure 17 bravos is a record for me. I know what I'm doing next practice.
Didn't fumble any reloads. Transitions were quick and crisp mostly. Overall I felt good about my performance. I have a good idea on what I need to work on for nationals.
Didn't fumble any reloads. Transitions were quick and crisp mostly. Overall I felt good about my performance. I have a good idea on what I need to work on for nationals.
mike cyrwus
.223
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2010
- Messages
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There were more than a few paper with a no shoot covering 2/3 of the body A zone. I think some of the B's I got were kind of neck shots. One thing I took away was that I need to aim at partial body A's more. As well as aim for head A zones when the distances are reasonable. My only mike was a piece of steel I called, hit, but didnt go down. It was an edge hit. Deltas, I had 4. I shot about 12-15 extra rounds over the whole course. If you want to figure out that each extra hit was probably on steel, you can estimate that each one of those pulls was an extra second. Take 15 seconds off the overall match and it would probably add 5-8% to overall.
Thats something else for you to gauge; extra shots. Thats a big thing when youre doing an after-match review that you cant take from the scores.. fyi..
Thats something else for you to gauge; extra shots. Thats a big thing when youre doing an after-match review that you cant take from the scores.. fyi..
That's exactly what Seth and I were talking about on the way home. How the extra shots figure into that 10% that I have been behind the top GMs. Most of my shots on those 3/4 no shoots were Charlie's just above the alpha line and bravos necks just above the Charlie line. I took the head shots on a coupe but that was just to be safe because I had planned to start/stop movement on that target.
At this point I no longer care about where I'm placing in M class. These top 10 finishes at area matches are giving me a look at what it takes to compete with people like Mink, May and Garretson. I want to close that gap.
At this point I no longer care about where I'm placing in M class. These top 10 finishes at area matches are giving me a look at what it takes to compete with people like Mink, May and Garretson. I want to close that gap.
