Saturday, March 24, 2012
Keep your filthy mouth shut
Not to talk myself up, I just want to make that clear before I go on. But I am elated to have the little skills/experience that I possess when it comes to the manual of arms. Not because I get called Robby Leatham, but because I get to help out other cadets. No BS, I LOVE that part the most at the range. Someone comes up to me and says , "Hey man, I'm drifting left and I don't know why..."
OK then, let's dry practice.
(They draw, point in and press)
OK. Don't move your hands, but look at your trigger. You've got too much finger on the trigger. Hook and curl, there you go, middle of the pad, good. Ok, looks good. Wait, fix your tang, good. OK, let's see how that works out for you.
They come back 10 minutes later, "Dude, I'm not drifting to the left anymore!"
Puts a smile on my face every time.
It's also a little upsetting sometimes (just a little bit, it's not like it infuriates me or anything. It's not like I wanna throw a bowling ball at a wall or anything... I see people who are shooting like absolute garbage, just junk, and then go around telling people; who are struggling themselves, and "teach" them how to shoot... Telling them, "I don't do that trigger reset bullshiz, I used to shoot great, but since they're makin' us do that crap I shootin' like crap."
Like hell you did. Trigger reset is not an absolution but it's pretty damn close. Wyatt Earp even talked about trigger reset, he didn't call it trigger reset, they didn't have that type of nomenclature back then. If you examine his notes, journals, etc on shooting you'll see exactly what he's talking about. He describes it in paragraph form instead of just spouting off two words, but you'll see that he was talking about sight alignment, hard focus, smooth pull to the rear, trap, reset, etc. THESE ARE NOT NEW CONCEPTS. They haven't been in hundreds of years! The equipment changes, and the concepts are slightly modified, and codified, renamed, and that is all.
And do me a favor and the rest of man kind and SHUT UP when you yourself can't perform to a standard where the bar is already pretty low. Keep your filthy mouth shut. If you're shooting near perfect scores, or perfect scores : ), then go ahead. If someone approaches you, help them out. Don't go around when you can barely hold your own firearm probably and tell others what to do. If you see something slight, a small hole in another person's game, be candid and just point it out to them real quick. Be polite, no one is an expert, there are just those who understand and want to continue to grow.
I LOVE CRITICISM, as long as it is constructive. IT IS HOW I GET BETTER. When I did theatre back in high school and college, the only way I got the scenes PERFECT and excelled was when the instructor tore me apart. After that I would go back to the drawing board and reinvent myself. Then I would come back and boom, and their mouths would be on the floor and their eyes wide enough to be headlights. I understand though that doesn't work for everyone, so I don't go around ripping people new one's when they're making mistakes. Anyway I had a heck of a time getting the instructors to help me because I was doing well. THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. I don't care if a student is shooting a near perfect bullseye, if they are drifting even ever so slightly to the right HELP THEM! Make everyone as great as they can be. Maximize people's potential with what little time we have. Don't just stand there and tell them,"I don't know, most people would just be happy with that."
...sneer*
Look none of us are most people, we are Cadets. We are future paper pushers, ticket writers, report takers, donut eating, coffee slurping, dip chewing, problematic-back-problem-riddled-protectors of the public. And the last thing I want on my mind is a lack of confidence in my abilities when I'm about to do a designated head shot on Mr. PCP because we've been fighting for the last 15 minutes and my arms are becoming sand bags and Mr. PCP is still going strong. I don't wanna say as I draw down and mentally think, "oh that's right I drift left, I need to watch out for that." It needs to be, "draw, point in, bang."
Good luck, and I'm not much of a religious man by any means but I drank coffee this morning and found out what a REM cycle is again so, God bless.
Night Shooting
Basic night shooting course.
We did some true night shooting (pitch black), and then did some low light night shooting.
You should go out at night, or dry practice in a dark room and try out a few different techniques. Smith, Ayoob, Harris, Barricade, FBI, etc. Try'em out and decide what type of flashlight would meet your needs.
Do you need momentary on? No, but it makes things a lot easier sometimes. I like flashlights with a momentary on tailcap, but also one with a on/off, momentary on, switch on the body itself so I can use my thumb on switch and just place my palm/hand firmly on the left side of the weapon and simply point at what I need to engage at. I like the momentary on tail cap so I can cigar hold the light. That usually requires a piece of material or some sort of obstruction, something for your index and middle finger to brace against so you can leave your thumb on the back and operate it with one hand.
I've been using the Olight M20S flashlight, and it's a pretty great light, but its head is too large to orient above the trigger guard. I tend to point the light too low to truly identify my target when I'm beyond 15 yards. The next time we shoot I will use my Fenix PD30, much smaller in diameter and length. Problem is, no momentary on, so we'll see how that works for me.
Low light shooting was an issue for me. For the first time, out of 600 rounds I finally missed some shots. We have some b-27 full size targets, black and white targets. Black for daytime, white for night time. During our third outing the instructors told us that only shots within the 8 ring would count from here on out. So my shots were inside the 7, but per the new rules it was a no go, so I ended up throwing 5 rounds from the 15 at night.
What I experienced during the night shoot was when I pointed in, hard focused and all I saw was a white wall, just a dull grayish white wall, no center of mass, no lines to reference myself to, nothing just a monolith of white. So the first few initial shots tend to be right where the need to be or close to, but as I recovered from recoil, I had no reference to tell me where I was, in relation to the target; center? Not centered? Don't know...
So all my shots started drifting left until I was finally outside of the 7.
I needed something to help me figure out where the middle was so I started using the target's head as a reference point.
BEEP! draw the firearm, point in, fire. Trigger reset as I simultaneously check my sight alignment, and confirm with the head of the target. Good? Good! Hard focus, BANG! Recover, trigger rest, check head/align sights, confirm, confirmed, BANG!
But with all that going on I probably shot super slow right? Nope, still the first one out of the box, and still the first one done. Also I got a 100%. 25 yards, 10 shots standing, reload, kneel, ten shots, stand, reload, done. We were doing it in 35 seconds, but we had a lot of people not being able to do it, so now we're at 45 seconds. We still have people going over time. I'll have to help out more.
I got called Robby Leatham by a Commander last night, probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. Felt kind of bad for another cadet. The same Commander that paid me the compliment has a cadet there who is being sponsored by his department, and he was not doing very well at all, he gave the cadet hell but realized that wasn't working after awhile so he came back and had a quiet word with him. Seems like that department really wants him, good for him he's one of the smartest cadets in the class.
I also found out the other day that my sights have been off this whole time. Which was good and bad. We were doing a drill and I decided that I was not going to care and was just going to check my sights. I aimed to the bottom right corner of the center of a circle and fired; dead center, fired again; dead center, again, again, again, dead center. I highly doubt that I would have that type of repeat-ability if I was heeling, or anticipating recoil, which tends to be the case for most shooters who go up and to the left. An instructor had a sight tool, so we bumped my rear sight to the right a little bit and it has most definitely helped for those 25 yard shots. So thanks for that sir!
I lost quite a few rounds because of those night shoots, so far I've lost 10 out of 750 rounds so far. There are others who have only lost about 5 at this point,.. They take their time and our developing great marksmanship skills and their groups are super impressive.
Apparently we are one of the few POST Academies in CA that throw people out for poor shooting. Most academies just make note of scores, and put a few comments in your record: So and So shows great understanding and skill in the manipulation of a handgun. OR. So and so shows very little understanding and skill in the manipulating of a handgun. Then they post your scores. We have a new director this class, and he is wanting to change the old standard a little bit, and give people more of a chance. I think it is unreasonable to kick people out on the second day of shooting. At the same time the first test was so easy whether you were a beginner or not you should be able to pass without issue. I can see both sides of the coin and neither one is 100% right, the nature of the beast I guess.
We did some true night shooting (pitch black), and then did some low light night shooting.
You should go out at night, or dry practice in a dark room and try out a few different techniques. Smith, Ayoob, Harris, Barricade, FBI, etc. Try'em out and decide what type of flashlight would meet your needs.
Do you need momentary on? No, but it makes things a lot easier sometimes. I like flashlights with a momentary on tailcap, but also one with a on/off, momentary on, switch on the body itself so I can use my thumb on switch and just place my palm/hand firmly on the left side of the weapon and simply point at what I need to engage at. I like the momentary on tail cap so I can cigar hold the light. That usually requires a piece of material or some sort of obstruction, something for your index and middle finger to brace against so you can leave your thumb on the back and operate it with one hand.
I've been using the Olight M20S flashlight, and it's a pretty great light, but its head is too large to orient above the trigger guard. I tend to point the light too low to truly identify my target when I'm beyond 15 yards. The next time we shoot I will use my Fenix PD30, much smaller in diameter and length. Problem is, no momentary on, so we'll see how that works for me.
Low light shooting was an issue for me. For the first time, out of 600 rounds I finally missed some shots. We have some b-27 full size targets, black and white targets. Black for daytime, white for night time. During our third outing the instructors told us that only shots within the 8 ring would count from here on out. So my shots were inside the 7, but per the new rules it was a no go, so I ended up throwing 5 rounds from the 15 at night.
What I experienced during the night shoot was when I pointed in, hard focused and all I saw was a white wall, just a dull grayish white wall, no center of mass, no lines to reference myself to, nothing just a monolith of white. So the first few initial shots tend to be right where the need to be or close to, but as I recovered from recoil, I had no reference to tell me where I was, in relation to the target; center? Not centered? Don't know...
So all my shots started drifting left until I was finally outside of the 7.
I needed something to help me figure out where the middle was so I started using the target's head as a reference point.
BEEP! draw the firearm, point in, fire. Trigger reset as I simultaneously check my sight alignment, and confirm with the head of the target. Good? Good! Hard focus, BANG! Recover, trigger rest, check head/align sights, confirm, confirmed, BANG!
But with all that going on I probably shot super slow right? Nope, still the first one out of the box, and still the first one done. Also I got a 100%. 25 yards, 10 shots standing, reload, kneel, ten shots, stand, reload, done. We were doing it in 35 seconds, but we had a lot of people not being able to do it, so now we're at 45 seconds. We still have people going over time. I'll have to help out more.
I got called Robby Leatham by a Commander last night, probably one of the nicest things anyone has ever said to me. Felt kind of bad for another cadet. The same Commander that paid me the compliment has a cadet there who is being sponsored by his department, and he was not doing very well at all, he gave the cadet hell but realized that wasn't working after awhile so he came back and had a quiet word with him. Seems like that department really wants him, good for him he's one of the smartest cadets in the class.
I also found out the other day that my sights have been off this whole time. Which was good and bad. We were doing a drill and I decided that I was not going to care and was just going to check my sights. I aimed to the bottom right corner of the center of a circle and fired; dead center, fired again; dead center, again, again, again, dead center. I highly doubt that I would have that type of repeat-ability if I was heeling, or anticipating recoil, which tends to be the case for most shooters who go up and to the left. An instructor had a sight tool, so we bumped my rear sight to the right a little bit and it has most definitely helped for those 25 yard shots. So thanks for that sir!
I lost quite a few rounds because of those night shoots, so far I've lost 10 out of 750 rounds so far. There are others who have only lost about 5 at this point,.. They take their time and our developing great marksmanship skills and their groups are super impressive.
Apparently we are one of the few POST Academies in CA that throw people out for poor shooting. Most academies just make note of scores, and put a few comments in your record: So and So shows great understanding and skill in the manipulation of a handgun. OR. So and so shows very little understanding and skill in the manipulating of a handgun. Then they post your scores. We have a new director this class, and he is wanting to change the old standard a little bit, and give people more of a chance. I think it is unreasonable to kick people out on the second day of shooting. At the same time the first test was so easy whether you were a beginner or not you should be able to pass without issue. I can see both sides of the coin and neither one is 100% right, the nature of the beast I guess.
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