VTAC 1-5 Drill...Goal Setting

I am a big believer in setting performance goals to help push to the next level. One of my favorite drills is the VTAC 1-5 drill. If you scroll a few post down you will see this video of me shooting it.

That is at 7 yards, on a USPSA target with all hits in the A-zone. Time is 3.42 seconds with iron sights only. Not a horrible run. Then you watch this video.

That is Travis Haley shooting the same drill, or close to the same drill. The targets are different and I don't know what the distance is, but still. That is a smokin' fast run.

This weekend, I took Mike Seeklander's Defensive Handgun level 1 course, and Steve Aryan is one of his adjunct instructors. He posted this video last year.

He does a really good job of breaking it down and laying out a plan of attack to get to his goal.

My goal is to hit 2.5 with iron sights. I think it is a feasible, long term goal. The short term goal will be to break the 3 second mark. I think that will be pretty easy, getting from 3 down to 2.5 is probably going to be the hard part.

45 vs. 40

I recently had the opportunity to put some rounds through a Glock 21. I had never given much consideration to .45 ACP Glocks. I don't typically buy into the "bigger is better" line of thought when it comes to wound ballistics...and I still don't. But I do buy into the "if it shoots better, it shoots better" line of thought. I have a lot of time behind .40 S&W handguns, it has just always been what I ended up shooting. I have a marginal amount of time behind 9mm handguns, and I like them well enough but I could always source more .40 S&W than I could 9mm, so I stuck with .40. Just through happen stance I got my hands on Gen2 Glock 21. The original intent was to do a series of post on modifying the Glock, and thought the Glock 21 would make a good host. Before I did anything, I shot it, and decided I liked it. My splits on the 21 are running in the low 0.20's on a USPSA A-zone at 7 yards. Best I can usually do with a Glock 22 is mid to high 0.20's. My 9mm times run in the low 0.20's and high teens. In all honesty, it caught me completely off guard to shoot the .45 that fast. I thought it would be the opposite. But it is what it is. Might just mean the demise of my .40 cal. handguns. Plus, I can actually find .45 ammo right now.

Gripping a Handgun

A while back I was approached by someone about some basic tips for handgun shooting and wrote up a quick "how to" on gripping a handgun, or at least how I grip a handgun. Step one of building my grip is acquiring a high, master grip with the shooting hand. The web of my hand between the thumb and forefinger is pressed into the rear tang/beaver tail of the handgun. The goal here is to get my hand as high on the gun as possible to limit the amount of leverage the reciprocating slide has over my grip. For handguns with slide mounted safeties (i.e. 1911, etc.), my shooting hand thumb rest on top of the safety. This helps to properly position the hand, as well as ensures that the safety is disengaged during the draw stroke, and remains disengaged throughout the firing cycle.

When initially establishing my grip, before the support hand has come to meet the gun, my shooting hand thumb remains flagged in an up position. This allows access to where the support hand needs to go in order to maximize contact with the firearm. If the thumb is folded down, or not raised high enough, it will block access to this area, or end up under the support hand.

When bringing the support hand to the gun, I use the top of my index finger as a physical indexing point on the trigger guard. By using a physical, repeatable index it allows me to have consistency in establishing my grip and make any necessary adjustments early in the gripping process. 

Once the index is acquired and confirmed, the support had is folded into the grip. The support hand thumb points forward, along the side of the slide, and the “meat” of the support hand at the base of the thumb is pressed into the side of the grip by the clamping force of the fingers. The majority of the gripping force on the gun comes from this hand when shooting for maximum accuracy. That allows my muscles in the shooting hand to relax slightly, which permits greater motor control over the trigger finger. This especially applies to the shooting hand thumb. I have found that keeping the shooting hand thumb loose will have a direct effect on the amount of control I have with my trigger finger.

As my support hand is folded into the grip, the support hand fingers wrap around the gun under the trigger guard. This completes the grip on the handgun. To further solidify the grip, my elbows are rotated up slightly while keeping the wrist locked and applying rotational torque. This creates a lateral pressure on the grip of the handgun and further enhances my recoil control. It isn't a very noticeable change from the outside looking in, but this was one of the break through moments for my handgun control when I started doing this.

A Good Video on Cadence Drills from RB1

The Continuum of Sight Alignment

It is important as a shooter to instinctively recognize what needs what, based on target size and/or distance. In other words, understand and be able to "see what you need to see" as it is often said.

Something that probably took me way to long to learn is that sight alignment exist along a continuum. At one end I have zero use of visual reference to shoot, and at the other I have perfect sight alignment and an intense focus on the sights. In between is everything else.

Up close at or near contact distances, my need for referencing the sights, or any visual reference at all, may be zero. At 50 yards, my need for referencing the sights is pretty high, and in between is everything else. A demonstration that really drove this point home to me what a demo Mike Seeklander did on an IDPA target. He intentionally misaligned his sights to show where the round would hit. It barely hit outside the -0 zone from 7-ish yards with the front sight post nearly all the way outside the rear notch on an M&P 9. The only way to find out what your gun and sights will let you get away with is to go try it. Just remember that you still have to execute good trigger control to get good results.

When I am shooting at a closer range target, my front sight is basically never sitting still. It lifts with recoil, drops back into the rear notch, or close enough to it, just long enough for me to see it is there and then lifts again because I have fired another round. This is one of the reasons why I like the Ameriglo front sight on my chopped Glock 22 and the plain black rear, it is really to see the orange circle floating around in the rear notch.

A good example of the front sight never really sitting still is the video below. The gun is pretty much always in motion, and I am not even that good. The target is a USPSA A-zone at 7 yards.

This is an example of when a more precise and more refined sight alignment is needed, along with very careful manipulation of the trigger so as not to disturb the sights.

Chopped G22 Completed

I finally finished all the work my chopped G22 (aka G27 SL). I am pleased with how it turned out. Stay tuned for a post on how I got it there.

Look vs. No Look Part II

My last blog post about reloads garnered a little discussion on Facebook, and I think a little clarification may be in order on what I think has to happen on reloads. The ideal, is to not look the reload in. Where that becomes problematic, is learning to do it. There is a term that floats around called "muscle memory", the scientific version is called myelination (stolen from Mike Seeklander's Your Defensive Handgun Training Program) and is the process of strengthening a neural pathway so that it becomes "second nature" for you body to execute an action. Like a reload.

The problem is, if you do not execute an action correctly, the myelination process can become corrupted and fail. So we have to find a way to execute the action correctly in order to "write" the program correctly before letting the program run on itself. I think there are some key components to doing this. First is having a consistent and repeatable positioning of the firearm in space. With a handgun I pin the inside of my upper arm against my torso. This gives me consistency and stability so that the gun isn't "floating" and hard to hit with the reload. Second is being sure to execute the action (the reload in this case) as perfectly as possible many, many, many times in a row. This may mean moving at a slower than 100% pace initially, and may also mean looking the reload in until the program is successfully written. Once I can hit the reload consistently, on demand (the sign that the program has been successfully written), then I start increasing speed and start reprogramming my eye's to look elsewhere. But, in order to reach the highest performance level, for the initial learning process I need to look the reload in, then progress towards not looking it in.

Look vs. No Look Reloads

One of the things that seems to come up every so often is the issue of whether or not to look a reload in, or not look a reload in. Honestly, I don't have a dog in the fight so I don't really care what people do because I think that in general, they both will work. I am just going to relay some of my experiences, what I do, and some of the things I have heard so people can make their own decisions.

So why look the reload in? Those that take the "look the reload in" stance typically do so because they say it ensures a more consistent, positive and fumble free reload. Pretty simple argument, and makes some sense. But has its own set of problems. People are task oriented, and there is a way to look the reload in, and there is way not to look the reload in. It can be a really fine line, that I don't think occurs naturally. I often times see shooters who are "decent" and who look the reload in looking down at the gun that is located somewhere around their waste during the reload. In my mind, this slows the process down by creating more distance to be covered and requiring a more difficult reacquisition of the sights. Not saying a waste level reload can't be done fast, because it can. I have seen it done fast, but that vast majority of the times I have seen it done, it isn't fast. So the hazard of looking it in is task fixation and poor positioning.

So why NOT look the reload in? Those that take the opposite view aren't quite as united in why they take that view. Some will say that if you visually look at the reload, it will actually slow you down because you are consciously trying to process the action and your subconscious mind is much faster than your conscious mind. So in theory, you should be able to go faster.

Others will say that in a defensive application, you will/should maintain a focus on the threat because that is what is endangering your life, not the reload. One example I have heard (although I think a poor one) is that it is like driving a car. If I see something in front of me and I need to emergency brake, I don't look at my foot to make sure it hits the brake pedal, I just do it. That is true, but am I braking, or driving the car? I would argue that I am driving the car, and braking is just part of that. I cannot brake and not drive the car (well I could but...). In a fight, I can stop fighting to accomplish a reload. A more accurate relationship to shooting would be pressing the trigger. I don't watch my finger press the trigger while I am shooting, and I can't shoot without pressing the trigger, just like I don't watch my foot hit the brake pedal (or gas pedal) while I am driving. If I were going to compare a reload to something driving related, I would compare it to inserting and turning the key to start the car, because that is essentially what I am doing with the magazine. I am inserting it and restarting the gun.

The hazard of not looking the reload in is a higher probability of fumbling it, maybe.

So those are the typical arguments, and I am sure I have missed something somewhere but you get the gist. Personally, I try not to look reloads into the gun, but sometimes I do anyway (goes back to that task oriented thing). I see no real change from one to the next. In a perfect world, I would never look because if I don't need to look, then why look? I can use that vision to do something else. What I think contributes most to a consistent reload is a consistent and stable positioning of the gun. If you watch some of the videos on this blog, you will probably notice my reloads have changed a little since I first started writing. The reason it has changed, is because I wanted a more stable and consistent placement of the gun to accept the magazine. At the same time, I also wanted to keep my front sight in my line of sight to minimize the amount of time needed after the reload is completed to put rounds back on target. Essentially for every manipulation I do to my gun (reload or malfunction clearance) I try to keep it up to speed recovery. This is what my reload looks like now.

So look or don't look, you pick, and then find a way to test your choice.

A New Muse

I now have access to an AR-15, standby for some thoughts on it specifically and how I like to run it.

Mike Seeklander - Your Defensive Handgun Training Program

If you have followed this blog for a while, you will know that I have mentioned Mike Seeklander in the past. I was fortunate to get in on a class he taught at USSA in the fall of 2010, and it is really the class that kicked off a season of more serious pursuit of shooting skill for me. I was amazed by what I saw, and decided I wanted to get there. That is one of the great things about instructors who can demo at a high skill level. Sometimes, students just don't know what is possible. If you don't know, then how can you possibly want to get there?

Mike has recently published a new book, called Your Defensive Handgun Training Program, and is putting the finishing touches on an accompany DVD. On his Facebook page, he has posted several snippets from the DVD, they are worth watching.

FYI, Mike is teaching a class in White Hall, AR on April 13 and 14 of 2013. To register go to www.shooting-performance.com.