Mitch Gibson - Learning to be a shooter

[drmitchgibson]

Weakhand loading is sooooo last week. All the top shooters are going to the quad system. It is never too early to change.

You know, it just looks like the new system is working really well. I'm not ready to give it a try yet, though. There are other 3-Gunnish things to invest in first, like moving from a carbine barrel to a rifle-length barrel and adjustable gas system.

"My thumb comes out of the loading port and off of the lifter a few times in that video. That is a no no. "

Even so, the help from this video is great. And this quote makes it that much better.

 

[Julie Sanford]

If you get a bad grip coming out of the holster, take the time to fix it, it takes just a second.

This is the bane of my existence...thank you, Josh, for speaking it...it is now committed to memory...more dry fire/draws needed!

 

[jtischauser]

You know, it just looks like the new system is working really well. I'm not ready to give it a try yet, though. There are other 3-Gunnish things to invest in first, like moving from a carbine barrel to a rifle-length barrel and adjustable gas system.

"My thumb comes out of the loading port and off of the lifter a few times in that video. That is a no no. "

Even so, the help from this video is great. And this quote makes it that much better.

If you have small hands which causes troubles grabbing four shells at a time on the weak hand load or if you just can't break that 8 second par time weak hand loading I would suggest getting a pair of the TACCOM two up shell caddies and give it a shot. 8 seconds is fairly easy right out of the gate.

 

[KurtM]

I was making a little joke guys. The load two system is great, the Neth slide is great, the strong hand method works great, the Cooley twist works great.....all of them work great....as long as you PRACTICE!!!

 

[jtischauser]

.....all of them work great....as long as you PRACTICE!!!

This is the part nobody likes but Kurt is right. None of the methods work as easy as changing a magazine unless you make them work thru hard work.

 

[Wall]

While it may not be the easiest to master, weakhand loading is the most versatile.
Try loading 3 shells while prone from a load 2 vest.

Each method is a tool & has its place. It's definately worthwhile to have options in your skillset

 

[drmitchgibson]

I shot some groups with my pistol the other day at H&H, and shot my best ever so far at 30 yards. I was able to keep the best groups about 4" wide by 8" tall. I definitely had a lot better success keeping things centered left/right versus up/down, but that seems normal.

 

[jtischauser]

I shot some groups with my pistol the other day at H&H, and shot my best ever so far at 30 yards. I was able to keep the best groups about 4" wide by 8" tall. I definitely had a lot better success keeping things centered left/right versus up/down, but that seems normal.

That's great considering it almost impossible to see your sight at H&H.

 

[drmitchgibson]

That's great considering it almost impossible to see your sight at H&H.

It really is, but when you gotta kill two hours you gotta kill two hours.

At High Plains my shooting was too slow. That wasn't anything to do with how I planned my stages, it was partially because I had ~15 jams, but in retrospect I can remember seeing my sight for DAYS and then pulling the trigger. There's really no reason for me not to be running a shotgun as fast as I can run my pistol, except for lack of experience. The same will be true for running the rifle, so now the next time I get to the gun club I'm going to make up some stages and run them all as fast as I can and see where things go from there.

 

[drmitchgibson]

Shot some at OKCGC on the Fourth of July, patterned the shotgun with buckshot and tested the feeding, and some other stuff. I shot some with my rifle to see how fast I could transition and make good shots, and where holdover needed to be on tight shots at 25 yards on 1X. What was interesting is that sometimes I feel like I'm flinching and closing my eyes when the rifle goes off, but it turns out that my sight picture is just getting flooded with gas spewing from the compensator. The fountain of gas through the top ports briefly eliminates my view through scope, while my peripheral vision is simultaneously blurred by the gas from the side ports. The pistol shooting was OK, very accurate when I wasn't trying shooting faster than my ability. Some very lengthy days of practicing target transitions are in order, and running from array to array to practice getting the gun on target while slowing down.

 

[Donovan]

This was a good read ....... thanks OP

 

[drmitchgibson]

I have been avoiding the heat. Last practice, I found myself shooting better when in a less natural-feeling stance. I like to stand with my right foot positioned about a foot behind my left foot. When shooting across a wide-spread array, I noticed my shooting was considerably better when I engaged the array from right-to-left. The difference is that when I was starting from right-to-left, my right foot was about a foot AHEAD of my left foot. So I think I've found my natural-point-of-aim body position. I made the switch and shot left-to-right, and shot just as well both ways with my right foot forward. Or maybe this is just a rabbit's foot. Time will tell.

On Sunday I spent time practicing the draw (dry-fire), and so consistently and handily beat a one-second par time that I felt I should start practicing something else. Transitions. My index at the end of my transitions has been very inconsistent when I'm shooting cold, and I'm going to start practicing them exclusively for a while.

I also hand-fit a front sight to my carry gun, and that, I must say, wasn't worth doing. It seems like Dawson is the only sight maker that offers the Rock Island front sight dovetail shape on their products. But I had a Brownell's gift certificate, which I spent on an EGW sight with a Novak shape. I had to remove many tens of thousandths of material from a couple of surfaces with a needle file. Does it look good? It looks great. Was it worth my time? F*ck no, it wasn't. Next time I'll spend $40 and keep the two hours of my own time and effort.

 

[drmitchgibson]

Transitions today were great. I observed that while I am getting a good sight picture before I break the shot, I'm still very often not following through on the shot, and getting really crappy hits and some misses when that happens. I think the whole "seeing faster" thing is beyond my current ability to edit such a large amount of information in such a short time. By that I mean I'm not focusing enough on my front sight and am still trying to see through the whole sight picture during the duration of the process. The biggest negative (other than mediocre hits) is that after a fair amount of not following through, I'll briefly begin second-guessing my gun, thinking that maybe it's not zeroed. Front sight, front sight, front sight, front sight...

 

[drmitchgibson]

I had to kill some time this morning while waiting on a holster deal with J.T., and so I shot at the three steel plates at the 100-yard berm with my pistol, thinking that it was only 50 yards. I made about 45% of my hits on-target, and noticed that every single missed shot was me rushing the shot. Just not focusing on my front sight and pressing the trigger in a hurry.

I bought a used 2011 Triple Crown holster, intending to use it for 3-Gun so I can leave my USPSA setup undisturbed on the CR Speed rig. It fit my Wilderness belt great, and I was surprised at how well it holds the gun vertically: I expected the weight of the gun to pull it into an offset orientation, but it was perfect. Otherwise it holds the gun quite a bit higher on my body (I've been using a Blade-Tech dropped as low as possible on a Tek-Lok mount), but I found this negligible in terms of affecting my performance. A somewhat slower pistol draw is the last thing that is holding me back while 3-Gunning. It also grips the gun tightly, but it was probably made for a slimmer 2011 than what I use. I'm pretty sure that replacing the hardware will help that, but even if not, it's not a bad thing, since I MUST have the gun very secure when I'm running around as fast as I safely can.

 

[drmitchgibson]

This morning I practiced keeping a good shotgun-shooting stance while engaging a plate rack, like in Pat Kelley's video. It was much nicer to shoot and not have my body pivoting like a lever. I also tried out the Fiocchi reduced-recoil slugs at 100 yards. Shooting them was nice, aiming them was lame. I had to hold my sight over the entire target to ensure a hit, because of the bullet drop. With full-power slugs I can hold a little high but with plenty of target in view. I'll stick with full-power or high-velocity for now. I also shot the plate rack with my pistol. One of the plates had been shot off since last time, but that wasn't surprising: it looks like it was welded by a one-armed 10-year-old.

I also had a chance to shoot my little pistol, and that was great! I got some 1911 tools and a thumb safety for my birthday, so I did a trigger job and replaced the thumb safety. Interesting learning experience: the frame had a burr on the inside of the safety cut-out that prevented the safety from moving all the way up. Took a quite a while to figure out what the hang-up was, but it turned out well. Next time I'll make sure that it moves all the way up with an empty frame before I start fitting it to the sear tail.

 

[drmitchgibson]

So, using the good shotgun stance paid off on Saturday, but other problems kept things from being great overall. On certain stages, maybe 40% of my pistol shots I was pulling the trigger with misaligned sights, sometimes not even aiming (I didn't aim at all on one entire array), and that was kind of a nightmare to watch. I did it some with the shotgun, too, but not nearly so much. It's really time to force an end to that habit. It seems like doing some drills with a par time may help me get a sense of how much time is really elapsing after the beep, and help to quash the feeling that results in rushed shots. I only had one noteworthy fumble when loading the shotgun, and have decided to download my PMAG-type AR mags by one or two rounds to ensure an easy seat.

On the long stage, I totally failed to make even one hit at 300 yards, no matter the magnification. I hit AROUND the target, but not ON the target. All the hits at 200 yards and closer I made very quickly. Trying to hit at 300 using 30 rounds or so ate up tons of seconds on the clock, and by the time I quit and started burning off the pistol steel, I was almost totally out of time, and ended up timing out at 180 seconds with over half the steel still standing. I would qualify this as a complete lack of preparation in knowing exactly where my rifle shoots at 300 yards.

The Triple Crown holster worked very well, and is a keeper.

 

[drmitchgibson]

Kind of a disturbing experience today: I put some new sights on a friend's M&P 9 Pro, and had an unpleasant time pulling the trigger while sighting it in. It would seem my triggering is rapidly being spoiled by Dawson's trigger work on my 2011. I may have to get a plastic gun just to keep in practice with the long sear engagement.

 

[brandt9913]

Kind of a disturbing experience today: I put some new sights on a friend's M&P 9 Pro, and had an unpleasant time pulling the trigger while sighting it in. It would seem my triggering is rapidly being spoiled by Dawson's trigger work on my 2011. I may have to get a plastic gun just to keep in practice with the long sear engagement.

I shot steel challenge with my xd a couple months ago after shooting my AI 2011 for a few months. I had a complete WTF moment on the first string when I figured out how different the triggers are.

 

[drmitchgibson]

Last week I used a vacation day to shoot at the benchrest range and see what I can do with my rifle and how it actually groups. In what has been true to form for me and my post-scope rifle shooting, my scope still needed dialing in. I had zeroed it at 50 yards, and never confirmed placement at any other distances. So it was shooting 3" high and 1-1/2" left at 200 yards, and much further off at 300. I ended up choosing a 200 yard zero since I'm still using a shitty mil-spec trigger. Once I modify it or replace it, I'll probably switch to a 300 yard zero.

Yesterday's match was more an exercise in executing a stage plan than anything. I'm not sure, really, what clicked, but I was able to formulate the best plan to shoot each stage very quickly each time, using the minimum number of shooting positions and movements. My follow-through was there maybe 50% of the time, except for the Death Star. For that I used my sights all the way through each shot for the first four shots, and then got sloppy and used five shots for the last plate. It was really the only array where I was truly focused on aiming. For the fall and winter, my training will probably be all about shooting on the clock, weak-hand loading, and hopefully shooting airborne targets with the shotgun.

 

[drmitchgibson]

I was on vacation last week, and spent it on some trigger time, and worked on reloading as well. I shot 720 rounds over two days of practice at the gun club, mainly doing transitional drills as fast as possible, but also shooting groups. During a few drills, I didn't fire my gun on certain shots, and initially thought maybe I was outrunning the trigger, but that seems preposterous since my fastest splits were 0.17 seconds. Much more likely that I wasn't slacking out enough for the trigger to reset. The practice paid off very well during the 3-Gun match yesterday, when I aimed nearly all my shots.

Which leads me to... modifying shotshells. Before High Plains, I bought some Winchester slugs that didn't fit my shell caddies, being about 1/16" to 3/32" too long. So I sanded the end down, and used them just well, and had several left over. Fast forward to yesterday, starting off a stage shooting slugs out to 50 and 100 yards. Using the rest of these slugs, my second slug fell apart right as it was entering the chamber mouth, and I spent what felt like five minutes trying to dig the slug and part of the shell out of the chamber while holding the bolt back. I won't be modifying any ammo destined for competition again. Also, the last slug I had loaded to fire at that array was a high velocity slug (1600fps), which I totally forgot about during the rush to clear the one that fell apart. I wasn't prepared to shoot the high velocity slug, and now my shoulder is sore. I suppose that lesson leads to using consistent ammo, which I haven't held to with the shotgun.