Dryfire Practice...

Lately I've been working on making sure that I dryfire consistently. I haven't been managing every night, but I have been doing at least 5 days every week.

Most of the time, I have worked on concealment draw to low percentage targets, and also slidelock reloads---practicing elements of the FAST drill, since the class is coming up next month. However, while part of that is due to wanting to achieve my goal of a FAST coin, the other part is that those particular skills are actually quite important.

Well, at least the concealment draw-to-low-percentage shot is important. (Slidelock reload, in my opinion, not as much, though it is a handy skill to have, and the new method I'm working for dropping the slide still needs practice, though my reload has speeded up nicely. That should help my USPSA scores, too, since every once in awhile I get stuck with a slidelock reload.)

The concealment draw-to-low-percentage shot combination really works getting eyes on the sights immediately, having a good grip, and working the trigger effectively---all things that I need to work on. My trigger control in particular has been very bad lately, plus I tend to "use the Force" on closer shots when it really wouldn't slow me down to use the sights IF I were to actually practice with them. So it is a good drill.

In the last classifier I shot (03-11 Strong and Weak El Pres) I also noticed that my SHO and WHO trigger control needed work. (This was not a surprise.) As such, lately I have also worked in some SHO and WHO practice on 2" and 3" dots from varying distances. The target I'm using (the P-T.com target) has a set of 6 dots on the lower half, so I'm working getting solid controlled clicks on each both SHO and WHO, then stepping back once, and doing it again, and so on. I'm starting around 3 yards, and working back to about 6 yards currently, which isn't that far---but since I'm going through each twice, it means I'm getting about 48-50 reps with each hand, and that seems good work to me right now. I'm not working on speed, but I'm not practicing bullseye shooting, either. (And I don't back up until I get 6 in a row without a called miss, after the first six. So, minimum of 12 reps per hand per distance, and perhaps more in sets of 6.)

Unsurprisingly, my WHO trigger control is better than my SHO---I still yank the trigger periodically, and it is annoying. So, this work should help my shooting overall, because that lack of trigger control is really hurting me everywhere.

In other good news, I think I know (and have fixed) what the problem was with the various stoppages in my last match. At least, I hope so, because this coming Sunday is a Steel Challenge match, and I certainly can't afford a 3 second pause during every string!

We'll see how it goes.

I'm hoping to get to the range on Friday or so to work the same drills live fire, along with benching my gun at 25 yards again, to see if my rear sight alignment has been fixed. Saturday I'm teaching a CQT class, and Sunday is the Steel Challenge match. So, lots of shooting stuff coming up.

And more dryfire every day, if I can.