Handgun skill, practice, drills, and evaluations posts

[43.6N]

Just getting into shooting pistol drills. Any recs on a good timer that isn’t crazy expensive?

Pretty much every timer worth anything is $125 and up.
You can see most of the timers that are worth looking at here: https://benstoegerproshop.com/accessories/shot-timers/

Cheaper are phone based apps.
A couple of apps work so-so at picking up shots.
Where they really shine is as par timers. Meaning you set a time standard that you try to beat. This is the one I used before getting my shot timer: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6451364120
I believe the SG app (another good one) lets you video yourself, and does pretty well at picking up shots. The video part is nice because it helps you figure out mistakes that you would otherwise not be aware of.

If spending the money on a standalone timer doesn’t feel right, then my advice would be to get a par timer app, and go to town with it. You’ll improve by leaps and bounds. And if down the road you decide you want an actual shot timer, it will be a well informed decision. Meaning you will know exactly what added features you are wanting to get out of the new device.

 

[43.6N]

More figure 5 drill, using the 3x5 notecard standard. Goal is sub 25 seconds.

I’ve been dry firing, working on low center of gravity movements, and 3 step entries at home. Took what I learned to the range today with some 124gr reloads to test out.

Going for speed today during live fire. I was able to get into the 25’s, but not clean.
Here’s my target after 5 or 6 attempts. Posting in order to keep a record of progress. I definitely think sub 25s clean is doable with a bit more focused practice.

 

[ckt3]

Pretty much every timer worth anything is $125 and up.
You can see most of the timers that are worth looking at here: https://benstoegerproshop.com/accessories/shot-timers/

Cheaper are phone based apps.
A couple of apps work so-so at picking up shots.
Where they really shine is as par timers. Meaning you set a time standard that you try to beat. This is the one I used before getting my shot timer: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6451364120
I believe the SG app (another good one) lets you video yourself, and does pretty well at picking up shots. The video part is nice because it helps you figure out mistakes that you would otherwise not be aware of.

If spending the money on a standalone timer doesn’t feel right, then my advice would be to get a par timer app, and go to town with it. You’ll improve by leaps and bounds. And if down the road you decide you want an actual shot timer, it will be a well informed decision. Meaning you will know exactly what added features you are wanting to get out of the new device.

Thanks for the recs! Been messing around with that app. Will prob pick up a real timer and just make it a buy once cry once type deal. Should be pretty useful for a lot of things

 

[43.6N]

It doesn’t look like much, but made some progress today towards cleaning up the 3x5 drill.

Seeing the pattern from my misses was very helpful. I really started keying into the center about halfway through.

About 150 rounds total today.

 

[Hypernatremia]

More rain today.
You already know what that means… Yep. We’re shooting.

VZ Simonich grips and Herrett’s wood stocks came this morning. So naturally I put those on.

They were perfect.
Just positive traction and control.

Ended by posting the FBI instructor course of fire with the iron sight colt .45.
New high score for me. 281pts if I counted correctly.

Considering that 4 months ago I was having trouble breaking 200pts for this test, I’m beyond happy.
View attachment 1052826View attachment 1052827View attachment 1052829

How do the Herrett's feel?

 

[43.6N]

How do the Herrett's feel?

They’re great.
Plenty of grip. Seem to be holding up well with daily appendix carry.

They feel about as sharp as you would reasonably want for a concealed carry piece. Any more aggressive, and I would want to carry owb.

 

[RockAndSage]

Seeing the pattern from my misses was very helpful.

What was it that you picked up on, that allowed you to tighten things up?

 

[43.6N]

What was it that you picked up on, that allowed you to tighten things up?

It’s pretty cliche, but it was just being mindful of where my hips were pointed. I tried to enter each position with the purposeful intention of having my hips aligned with the center of the target.

 

[43.6N]

Still working on my goal of a clean figure 5 drill on a 3x5 card under 25 seconds.

Good training has consequences and feedback. So I’ve gotten into the habit of taping my misses as a way to give feedback after each run. This was one of many gems in one of Ben Stoeger’s books that I’ve been trying to apply.

So for today, I am on the cusp of a clean run inside my time standard. Always just one or two misses short. I can feel myself inching closer to my goal.

For everybody out there working on your own goals, keep at it!

 

[RockAndSage]

Still working on my goal of a clean figure 5 drill on a 3x5 card under 25 seconds.

Good training has consequences and feedback. So I’ve gotten into the habit of taping my misses as a way to give feedback after each run. This was one of many gems in one of Ben Stoeger’s books that I’ve been trying to apply.

So for today, I am on the cusp of a clean run inside my time standard. Always just one or two misses short. I can feel myself inching closer to my goal.
View attachment 1072179
For everybody out there working in your own goals, keep at it!

That's bad-ass performance already, that first clean run will be a heck of a victory.

 

[Sponge]

My JD Custom Kydex Wing Claw 2.0 came in a few days ago, been practicing AIWB (new for me) draws and dry fire at home. Figured I'd nerd out on this ad track progress over time.

The chart represents three cold sessions (one per day) with 10 draws per session. Draw time (time to draw and break a clean aimed dry fire) on the y-axis, draw number of the session on the x-axis.
I'm tracking a few other things (clothing especially) that aren't plotted but may be useful in a future look.




Goal is to get draws down to around 1.0-1.3 seconds consistently across the session, especially the first draw. Right now my first draw trends slower (two shirt snags) and then it settles down at 1.4-1.8 with a few close to 1.0.

 

[RockAndSage]

My JD Custom Kydex Wing Claw 2.0 came in a few days ago, been practicing AIWB (new for me) draws and dry fire at home. Figured I'd nerd out on this ad track progress over time.

The chart represents three cold sessions (one per day) with 10 draws per session. Draw time (time to draw and break a clean aimed dry fire) on the y-axis, draw number of the session on the x-axis.
I'm tracking a few other things (clothing especially) that aren't plotted but may be useful in a future look.


View attachment 1072518

Goal is to get draws down to around 1.0-1.3 seconds consistently across the session, especially the first draw. Right now my first draw trends slower (two shirt snags) and then it settles down at 1.4-1.8 with a few close to 1.0.

That tracking will be super interesting and useful over time. Are you just logging these manually, or is this something automated by an app or something?

If improving is important enough for you to do this, you might appreciate a tip I figured out over the years: Doing a dry-fire/draw session just before going to bed seems to set the learning faster - the brain and body seem to wire it in quicker through sleep. That was the best time of day I figured out for max learning efficiency. Then I got an extra improvement boost by doing the same thing right after rolling out of bed in the morning. The two combined were definitely a bit synergistic, much more effective than 1+1 in doing either one alone, or at different times of the day. Biggest boost took these bedtime/wakeup light touches and added a more intense mid-day session. Works the same with foreign-language learning too, BTW.

 

[Sponge]

Are you just logging these manually

Yeah, notepad then excel. May do some more robust analysis in the future, easy to record it now. Edit - added belt to this after the screenshot

If improving is important enough for you to do this, you might appreciate a tip I figured out over the years: Doing a dry-fire/draw session just before going to bed seems to set the learning faster - the brain and body seem to wire it in quicker through sleep. That was the best time of day I figured out for max learning efficiency. Then I got an extra improvement boost by doing the same thing right after rolling out of bed in the morning. The two combined were definitely a bit synergistic, much more effective than 1+1 in doing either one alone, or at different times of the day. Biggest boost took these bedtime/wakeup light touches and added a more intense mid-day session.

Solid tip, thanks.

Works the same with foreign-language learning too, BTW.

Hah! That is currently my other skill based struggle.