USPSA Shooting: HK VP9 on CM99-41 Works for Me

Raw points: 52
Time: 6.79
HF: 7.6583
National %: 74.6882

I ran the VP9 in Limited scoring minor; using the Shot Coach I can break down my shooting performance a little bit more. My draw was glacial; 1.78 seconds from the buzzer to the first shot. Splits are all pretty reasonable, fastest split on the stage was a 0.19, slowest was a 0.24. My reload was a 1.54, nothing special there. Hits were a little rough – I dropped 8 points off a cold max. Since I was scoring minor with the 9mm VP9, those 4 Charlie hits cost me pretty dearly. Scoring minor, you can’t afford to shoot 33% of your shots on a stage into the “C”, it just adds up too quickly to recover.

This does provide an interesting vehicle to compare Major/Minor; if I’d shot the time and hits but scored major, I’d have picked up four extra points, bringing my raw points to 56. Those four points would have changed my National Percent from 74 to over 80. Similarly interesting, if I’d used the VP9 in Production (technically illegal, since it’s not on The List) I’d have ended up with a 78.6193%.

What this video (and the Shot Coach app) really shows me is that over the last couple of years, my shooting really hasn’t gotten any better. It’s not gotten worse, but it’s stayed pretty consistent with where I was in late 2011-2012. My last couple of years of Bianchi Cup scores have confirmed that as well; everything’s hovering around the high 1600s low 1700s at the Cup.

To talk about the gun for a minute: the HK VP9 is really easy to shoot, I changed the sights for some excellent 10-8 Performance sights instead of the factory HK sights and it got easy to shoot fast. I’m not saying that I’d dump all my centerfire autos and just shoot this once it’s on the Production list…but I might.

9 Comments

  1. So, with this idea that you have plateaued in your performances, is there where you hire a coach to break everything down for you and start all over (much like a golf swing), and in the process, create an extended series of articles? #1 Unlearning hurts, #2 creating new muscle memory, #3 not going back to old habits when everything goes pear shaped. #4 After XXXX rounds and XXXX hours of dry fire the results are in…..

    1. Honestly, a big part of it is that in 2011-2012, I had a lot more free time to shoot and the ammo to do that. Over that period, I burned up probably 40,000 rounds of ammo, and went from a low C-class shooter to where I am now, which isn’t a bad performance gain.

      Since about 2013, my real focus has been on the business side of running the company, so my time and energy hasn’t been directed at “getting better” at shooting. When I do get to the range it’s usually to either test guns or to just make sure I don’t get worse from rust.

  2. As far as your draw being slow, you drew to the left side of the barricade being a RH’der. Usual assumption is it’s better to start on the offside if there’s a mandatory reload and won’t be as fast anyway on the offside from “cold”, etc. Most of the Masters here think it’s better for the reload hand to “follow the gun” for smoother, quicker (?) mag insert.

    Any thoughts on start side &/or reload efficiency ?

  3. Actually yeah; the way the classifier was set up I had a lot clearly angle around the left side than I did the right side. I would have had a much more gangster lean and a harder time cleaning out the first 8 shots around the right.

    But I’d like to try it again again around the other side and see.

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