My plan for sucking less

JTMaddox · Aug 2, 2012

So I've decided that I need to set some goals and to make myself accountable for taking the actions necessary to achieve those goals if I ever want to get better at this.

It's my intent to use this forum to document my goals and my progress towards achieving them. I plan to log each of my training activities and all of my match participation and performance.

I welcome any and all comments or suggestions from anyone who cares to offer them.

JTMaddox · Aug 2, 2012

short range goals:

develop effective training schedule
attend as many matches as possible

mid range goals:

Top 10 finish at major shotgun match in 2013
Top 5 finish at local 3-gun match in 2013

jtischauser · Aug 2, 2012

Great idea and very attainable goals!

mike cyrwus · Aug 2, 2012

Now lets see a list of the actions youll implement to achieve those goals!

by the way, Who's Les?

Wall · Aug 2, 2012

mike cyrwus said:
by the way, Who's Les?

LOL

JTMaddox · Aug 2, 2012

I figure since my fat ass is probably 30+ pounds overweight that some type of exercise program is going to be a big part of increasing my ability to run around shooting stuff. Also need to work on flexibility for getting in and out of some of the positions necessary for a lot of the stages I've been shooting. Going to start doing Crossfit again to try to help that situation.

JTMaddox · Aug 2, 2012

After work today I set up an all shotgun stage in my back yard (can only shoot shotgun at home safely) with 4 shooting positions with corresponding 5-7 target array at each position of random steel and clays. Went through 100 shells working on transitioning quickly between targets and loading while moving between shooting positions. Alternated working it right to left and then left to right.

Did 1 hour of Crossfit

Spent about an hour in the basement working on pistol dry firing and reloading, and shotgun loading while moving.

Need to find some good dry fire drills and other things I can work on in the basement.

jtischauser · Aug 2, 2012

The majority of 3 gunners are 30+ lbs over weight. Myself included!!! It's helps with endurance.

Raysracer · Aug 3, 2012

Jesse Tischauser said:
The majority of 3 gunners are 30+ lbs over weight. Myself included!!! It's helps with endurance.

I have found the extra weight helps with recoil.

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk 2

Matt1911 · Aug 3, 2012

I thought the belly kept you more aerodynamic.

JTMaddox · Aug 3, 2012

Went to the range today to work on rifle, but couldn't get on the 100 yard range (the longest they have) because the cowboys were setting up for their monthly match. I was able to get on a 25 yard range and set up 3 targets. I went through 160 rounds over 2 hours working on follow up shots and transitioning from target to target.

Then I did some pistol dry firing followed by running the dot torture drill once at 5 yds. http://pistol-training.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/dot-torture-target.pdf

This evening I did about 30 min of rifle dry firing from offhand trying out different hand positions to see what felt best and what I was able to hold the steadiest.

JTMaddox · Aug 4, 2012

Not much time today, was able to get in 1 dot torture drill with my competition gun, and 100 rounds of .22 pistol working on shooting groups. Quickly figuring out that buying ammo is going to be a huge limiter on the amount of live fire practice that I get...I've started using WPA 62 grn steel case .223 ammo ($134/500) and buying federal value pack 115 grn 9mm ($20/100) from Walmart. Was already shooting Walmart federal value pack 12 ga ($22/100). Have thought about reloading, but it seems like even after the initial investment it might be hard to reload for much cheaper? Also thought about buying from 3gunammo.com to see if someplace like that gives you better loads for the money?

jtischauser · Aug 5, 2012

JTMaddox said:
Not much time today, was able to get in 1 dot torture drill with my competition gun, and 100 rounds of .22 pistol working on shooting groups. Quickly figuring out that buying ammo is going to be a huge limiter on the amount of live fire practice that I get...I've started using WPA 62 grn steel case .223 ammo ($134/500) and buying federal value pack 115 grn 9mm ($20/100) from Walmart. Was already shooting Walmart federal value pack 12 ga ($22/100). Have thought about reloading, but it seems like even after the initial investment it might be hard to reload for much cheaper? Also thought about buying from 3gunammo.com to see if someplace like that gives you better loads for the money?

That 3gunammo.com is interesting! I've never seen anybody shoot .38 special in 3 gun. My guess is that they are simply reboxing someone's off the shelf reman ammo.

JTMaddox · Aug 5, 2012

Jesse- who has the best deal on remanufactured ammo that you have found?

JTMaddox · Aug 5, 2012

Spent today clearing out a place in the woods behind my house to shoot. It's along a creek with a 30 bluff on one side so I can now shoot pistol and rifle (with some sensitivity to the neighbors within earshot). I have 30 yards that is very useable, with maximum distance of about sixty yards if I want to hang some steel on the other side of the creek (not readily accessible for resetting targets). Now I need some more steel!!

Did 1 round of dot torture drill from 5 yards (still have fliers so haven't increased distance yet) then shot 50 rounds of shotgun working on running then reloading as I approach the targets.

Did 1 hour of pistol and rifle dry fire at scale silhouette targets stuck to my basement wall including reloading drills for pistol, rifle, and shotgun. I really need to find some good drills to do to make sure I'm getting the most out of my time.

JTMaddox · Aug 6, 2012

No live fire today. I started going through the things that I screwed up at the Nordic Shotgun Nationals in Minnesota to try to pick out the things I need to work on. The first stage I shot had you moving and loading while holding an ammo can. You could set it down to shoot, but could not move or load without having it in your hand. One of the guys on our squad was loading strong hand and just put the ammo can in his weak hand on they fore end and loaded on the run like it was cool. I was not able to use that strategy because I had no clue how to strong hand reload, so tonight I decided to try to learn strong hand reloading. I'll add a few rounds of this to my shotgun reloading practice for a while until I am more comfortable with it. I have no intention of switching from weak hand reloading, but would like to have options if a stage makes a different approach more advantageous. I finished up with rifle dry fire for about 20 min.

JTMaddox · Aug 7, 2012

meant to say "Nordic Tactical Shotgun Championship"....

JTMaddox · Aug 7, 2012

Spent 30 min dry firing pistol in the basement tonight. I scheduled some pistol instruction for Friday from Mark Owensby who ownes a local indoor range. Evidently he is a long time weapons instructor for the state police and was a big action pistol guy (won 2 man metallic world championship with Bruce Piatt in 2006) who has also competed in IPSC and IDPA? It seems like he knows his stuff, hoping it all translates across games. He's local and easy to schedule an hour of private instruction with so I figured I'd give it a try.