Day at the Range

It's been a while since I made it out to the range for a practice session. I've been to several matches recently, but besides my (almost) daily dry fire practice I haven't gotten to work on specific skills. As noted after the KGAS match, I saw a need to work on shooting after a magazine change. So that's what I decided to focus on over the weekend.

I set up two USPSA practice targets a few feet apart which were shot from the 10 yard line. The drill was to draw, make 2 shots on the first target, then move two steps over while changing mags. Then put two shots on the other target, repeating in one continuous string while moving back and forth between the two targets. The string ended after I worked through all 5 magazines on my belt. Between strings I would paste any hits that were out of the A zone. Then I'd put the dropped mags back on my belt and repeat the drill. This routine was repeated for about 150 rounds.

I started out slow, trying for smooth magazine changes and carefully aimed shots. Each time I ran the drill I tried to move a little faster, both in moving over to the next shooting position, and in getting an acceptable sight picture. If the hits started moving off the A zone, I dropped it back a bit. I concentrated on getting the gun back into position, and reestablishing my grip after inserting the new magazine. Since it was practice, and I was alone, it was a good opportunity to experiment and push things a bit.

Often when I'm shooting in a match I find myself looking for the hit. That's something to avoid, as it slows you down, and can lead to misses caused by looking over the sights in search of the hole. The proper way is to learn to "call the shot," in other words, know that it was a good hit when you shoot it. This drill was also good practice for that, as I would take twelve shots before stopping to "score" the targets. I was happy that many times I knew before looking when I had pulled a shot.

It was a fun, but short, afternoon at the range. I was very happy with the practice session and what I learned. I look forward to putting it all into action under the pressure of the timer soon.