There is an IDPA match tomorrow at Atlanta Conservation Club. We’re going to be shooting the IDPA Postal Match as well as a couple of homegrown stages, so bring your heaters and some spare mags and come and shoot!
It's a bird, it's a plane
It’s Vicious Circle #17, featuring Alan, myself, and JayG! The topic being “what the hell is wrong with Massachusetts?” Adult language warning – if you don’t like bad words such as the F-word or “Ted Kennedy” then don’t listen, because we use a lot of grown-up words. But it’s fun, because we actually do delve deeply into the ridiculous bullcrap that goes on with it.
MHI Patch contest
Today is the last day to vote in the MHI Patch Contest, so haul yourself over to the link and vote for LabRat and Stingray’s contribution: Exite! Chemicus Sum!
Just type “Exite! Chemicus Sum!” in the comments at the post I linked, and you’ll have cast your vote for the Atomic Nerds. DO IT NOW, MY LEGIONS.
Training email
From time to time, people will take leave of their senses and send me emails asking for shooting/training advice. Which is cool and everything, but I’m not exactly what you’d call an expert – but hey, I do what I can. Here’s an email I got just this morning about an all around “training drill”.
Hey Caleb
I’m a new shooter to IDPA and I’m looking for a good drill to practice my fundamentals. I want something that’s simple but that will help me shoot better.
I was sitting around thinking about this, and I realized that there’s a great drill out there that will allow you to practice the three most important fundamentals of IDPA shooting: 1) the draw, 2) reloads, and 3) rapid, accurate shooting. It’s called The F.A.S.T. Drill, and it’s one of ToddG’s drills from Pistol-Training.Com.
To modify the drill for IDPA shooters, it would work like this. Start at 7 yards, gun loaded with 2 rounds and holstered. At the buzzer, draw and fire two rounds in the head box of a standard IDPA target, reload from slide lock and fire 4 rounds in the Down Zero (A zone) center mass of an IDPA target. On the “real” FAST drill, the target is a 3×5 index card and an 8 inch plate, but for the purposes of practicing for IDPA, just use a standard IDPA target.
Start slow on the drill – only A-zone hits count, so it doesn’t do you any good to run the drill in 5.34 seconds with a bunch of bullets in the -1 or -3 parts of the target. Here’s a sample “FAST Drill Practice Session”, assuming that you’ve got the time and inclination to burn about 300 rounds in a single practice session. Why 300? Because 300 rounds of practice if you shoot nothing but the FAST Drill means you’ll do 50 reps, and repetition is what builds skill.
- 10 Reps @ 7 yards: This is your warm-up. Take as long as you need on each of these reps to make sure that everything is perfect, smooth presentation, clean sight pictures, smooth reloads, etc. Keep yourself on the buzzer, but don’t worry about speed.
- 10 Reps @ 7 yards: Speed things up here. Don’t push yourself, but make a concerted effort to go faster here. Get all A zone hits.
- 5 Reps @ 7 yards: hang it all out. On the first rep, go as fast as you can. If you don’t get all A-zone hits, back off the speed until you do.
- 10 Reps @ 10 yards: move back three yards, and go back to smooth presentations. Maintain a sense of urgency on speed – but again, don’t go so fast that accuracy suffers.
- 10 Reps @ 20 yards: Accuracy is the key point of this drill, so go as fast as you feel comfortable to get your A-zone hits.
- 5 Reps @ 7 yards: to close out the session after shooting at 10 and 20 yards, go back to 7 and run your last few drills as fast as you can. You’ll be surprised how fast you can get A-zone hits at 7 yards after spending 60 rounds at the 10 and 20 yard parts.
If you want to increase the difficulty, do the entire session from the 10 and 20 yard lines. If you don’t have the time for the whole drill, cut the round count in half and do it to the tune of 150 rounds at a session. I’m a big believer in accuracy first, speed second, because if you’re smooth and accurate on every shot, speed will naturally follow. If you can get fast, accurate hits at 20 yards, you will be able to get faster hits at 7 yards. The FAST Drill adapted for IDPA shooters is a great way to get practice in almost every skill set you need to be a successful IDPA shooter. If you’re limited on practice time, this is a great way to bring your skills up.
Oh yeah, one more thing. The record for the F.A.S.T. Drill is held by Dave Sevigny, and it’s 3.56 seconds. The link goes to a Youtube video of him crushing the record. If you beat that and document it on video, I’ll buy you dinner (my choice).
Sights Poll: IDPA/USPSA shooters
I tend to vacillate on this issue myself, as my XD I have set up with black rear posts and big white front dot, which is the same set up I have on my Para Tac-5. On the other hand, my Para 16-40 has black on black BoMars, and the Gun Blog 9mm has FauxMar rears and a fiber optic front. Rounding out the different sight configurations on guns I’ve owned is my 625 which has black rear posts and a big ol’ HiViz fiber front.
I do know that for accuracy games like Bianchi Cup, I definitely prefer a “black rear posts, black front post” sight arrangement. I feel that it gives finer accuracy control, which is the heart and soul of Bianchi Cup.
8 Days
Until the 2009 IDPA Tri-State Regional match. Even though I’ve been practicing, I honestly don’t feel prepared for this match. I’ve got a club level match this weekend and that will probably help me get a handle on how prepared or not I actually am. I am excited about this match, as it’s my last major warm-up before the Indiana State Steel Challenge Championship and the Indiana State IDPA Championship in October. I have a title to defend in October at our State IDPA match, and I’d like to be able to pick up a trophy or two from the Tri-State match next weekend.
Hopefully they’ll have decent 3G or WiFi down there so I can keep you guys updated on the shooting.
Mako 1911 Grips
I’d buy these, actually. A lot of times you see products come out that are dubious in their utility for defensive or practical shooters, like the forward handgrip/magwell cover thingy I talked about a week ago. However, a product recently announced by the Mako Group is something I’d buy: a set of 1911 grips with an integrated polymer magwell.
The neat thing about this grip is that it’s not a wrap-around grip, so it doesn’t add any extra girth to the front of your pistol’s grip. My big complaint about 1911s has always been the ability to reload them in a hurry, as the single stack magwell doesn’t present quite the target that the magwell on a Glock or XD presents. This accessory from Mako solves that problem without you spending $130 on a set of alumagrips and the magwell that goes with those.
I would wonder about the durability of the parts, however for an MSRP of $27.20, you can afford to buy two and swap it out if it starts to take excessive damage or show wear and tear. That being said, I doubt that the average shooter is going to be able to wear one of these out.
Indy Area gun stuff
Most of my Indy/Metro area readers are probably aware that in addition to the various local gun shops and stuff, we have not one but two different El Monte de Ganso stores, one on the north side of Indy at 82nd Street in the Castleton area, and the other on the south side in Greenwood off of Emerson and County Line Rd. Since I live on the North side and am often on the south side for work, I’ve had ample opportunity to compare the two stores. You’d think that being big box stores in the same chain that they’d be essentially the same, right? You’d be wrong.
Gander Mountain South is newer than the North store, and as such is generally “newer” on the inside. It feels “cleaner”, as newer locations often do. The South store also seems to have better ammo selection – during the worst of the drought, I could still find 9mm at Gander Mtn South even when the Northside store was completely sold out. Now that ammo is coming back, the South store still generally has better selection on both ammo and guns than the North side store.
In terms of access, both stores are not actually that easy to get to, although I might give a slight edge to the North store, as it’s adjacent to the Castleton Square Mall.
Of course, the biggest disadvantage to Gander Mountain (all of them) is their pricing. Often, ammo there is more expensive than it is at local gun shops, but on the flip side they usually have a better selection that most local shops. And don’t think that buying online is a surefire way to get your bbs cheaper – A box of ammo that costs $13.99 but incurs a $3 in shipping fees isn’t as good of a bargain as it may seem on the surface over a box that costs $18.99 but has no shipping fees.
I will say this though – if you’re in need of a diverse selection of ammo and don’t mind the drive to the South side of town, you might want to check out the Gander Mountain down here. No, it’s not the cheapest store in town, but they have Black Hills 124gr FMJ (my favorite!) in stock!
Bianchi picture from Yamil Sued
I’ve had this picture sitting around for a while, and I’ve been meaning to post it. It’s taken by Yamil Sued, following the “Industry/Media/Celebrity” Speed Event Shootoff. From left to right:
Dave Sevigny, Annette Aysen, Scott Carnahan, Max Michel, a couple of celebrities, me, Steven King from Target Talk Radio, Bruce Piatt, and finally one other guy whose name escapes me at the moment.
This picture is my desktop background at the office.
