[mike1956]

I've been spending a lot of time and effort improving my speed and accuracy from concealment recently. Lots of dry fire and self-evaluation daily, and about 2,500 rounds fired, mostly onesies at seven yards at the A-zone in the past two-plus months, including the Modern Samurai Project eighteen-hour class I attended.

Ingraining the several index points into reflex and muscle memory is critical for consistency and improvement. It's coming along satisfactorily and honestly, if I don't get any better than I am right now, I'll be satisfied with the return on effort.

It's all sighted fire, in that I'm using the red dot in conjunction with the threat-focused techniques that you advocate and teach. Slower than point-shooting methods we use at closer ranges, for sure. The dot will not be replacing half or 3/4 hip at those distances.

 

[mike1956]

My physique mandates that I carry centerline if I want to carry IWB, and I do want to carry IWB. I always have, seldom working from an open carry holster.

The first critical part of my draw involves clearing the cover garment BEFORE my firing hand reaches the gun. No great mystery there, for sure. That said, when someone really muffs a draw, it is most often because a shirt got between the draw hand and the grip of the gun. I practice clearing the cover garment countless times throughout the day. If I want fast every time, there is no room for muffs.

 

[mike1956]

The beep of a shot timer lasts for point three seconds. In order for me to be on pace for a sub-one-second shot, my firing hand thumb needs to be on the inner corner of the slide, fingers curled beneath the front strap of the gun as in the scoop draw.

As soon as the thumb and fingers arrive on station, the gun gets snatched upward to the point in front of the sternum where it will marry up with the support hand. Any firing hand grip issues are resolved on the trip up.

 

[mike1956]

Apparently, the topic of action beats reaction and tactical decisions [ where SD is concerned against weapons ] isn't of much interest to the majority of members.

Most people simply aren't interested in drilling that deep. I say that after years of including an action vs reaction exercise in classes I put on. Even though the results are for the most part conclusive, people seem generally unmoved by it.

 

[mike1956]

Overload?

Knowing that none of us can meet your standards?

I've trained under Brownie a couple times, and have maintained a friendship with him since then. We talk about shooting quite a bit. At no time, ever, has he done anything to indicate to me that I have failed to meet his standards. Quite the opposite, actually. He has always been pleased when I've taken the skills he's taught me and I've been able to expand on them.

edit: I forgot you have me blocked, but my message still applies to everyone else reading this post.

 

[mike1956]

On the fly mental acuity to solve a problem that arises AND hasn't been trained for is more prevalent in those who have a lot of skills in their possibles bag to begin with.

Better to have the possibilities figured out beforehand. Something about people defaulting to the lowest level of their training when scenarios arise.

 

[mike1956]

I'd guess the lowest level of training is actually practice on a static range. And at the practice is slow aimed fire trying to drill tiny little groups.

About 1% of gun owners ever seek training at some level.

That all gels nicely with what I've experienced. Even for those who do seek training, how many actually take the imparted skills home with them, improving on them to make them their own?

For several years, I attended classes at one particular shooting school. I soon noticed the some of the same people at all the classes. It turned out that there are people who attend training more as a recreational activity than a learning experience. They usually showed little if any improvement from class to class, yet there they were...

 

[mike1956]

I hope you keep posting things like this as it it very much appreciated. I have read this several times as I try to time my reaction times. Mine are bad is all I will say. Working on dry fire drills now. Thanks so much.

I've lost .01 on my audio reaction time in the past six years. When I attended Brownie's class, I was at .13 consistently. Now, I'm .14. It's great to be able to quantify such details.

Dry fire with effective technique should more than make up for loss of reaction speed. At least it has for me.

I cut a 1.42 from concealment today on a 25-yard A-zone shot, and was consistently 1.5-1.6 on a full mag through the Glock 17. Two months ago, when I became serious about it, low twos were as good as I could muster. Dry fire every day, live fire every day or two, and here I am, nearly where I want to be with it.

Brownie has been one of my inspirations in my pursuit of better. He gave me great tools to start out with.