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Mr_White
04-10-2015, 11:02 AM
Week 107: Driving The Gun/Up Transitions

Results may be posted until May 10th, 2015.

Designed by: Gabe White
Target: Any silhouette target, including scaled targets
Range: Shooter's choice
Rounds: 0

This is one of several drills intended to work on shot calling, sight tracking, and trigger manipulation in dry fire. In this drill we're going to be working on an upward target transition, as if shifting fire from the body to the head.

At bare minimum, verify gun is unloaded, have no live ammo anywhere in the dry practice area, and keep muzzle in a safe direction. But there is more you can do to ensure safety in dry practice. Please also read Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure following the drill description.

Target considerations: Try to arrange things so the target is at least as difficult as a full-size USPSA Metric or IDPA target at 7 yards. You can use basically any silhouette target for this, but if your available dry fire distance is less than 7 yards, I'd recommend using a scaled target. But you can do this drill if you have the bare minimum of a target representing a body/high thoracic cavity and a smaller target above it representing a head/CNS.

Drill procedure: Start aimed at the body/high thoracic cavity target. Press the trigger and dry fire the gun. Now, continuing to hold the trigger to the rear, use your support hand to cycle the slide enough that the striker is reset or hammer is recocked. Resume your two-handed grip. All that was preparation for what we are actually drilling, which is the next part: simultaneously let the trigger forward allowing it to reset as you drive the front sight to the new target spot - the head/CNS target. When you see sufficient alignment in the sight picture, press the trigger well enough for the target. Repeat many times.

That's how it is going to work with striker fired, single action, and DA/SA guns (this drill addresses shots after the first one, so even a DA/SA gun is essentially going to function as SAO for purposes of the drill.) With a true DAO, you can skip the part where you break grip and cycle the slide to get the mechanism ready to reset.

You will be interrupting your grip a lot, so make sure you reacquire your real grip on the gun each time. Focus on resetting the trigger while driving the front sight into sufficient alignment with the next target and pressing the trigger carefully enough as soon as you would hit.

Do the drill for a period of time you choose, rather than for a specific number of repetitions.

Please report when you've completed the drill, what gun you used, how much time you spent on the drill, and anything you noticed.

Training with firearms is an inherently dangerous activity. Be sure to follow all safety protocols when using firearms or practicing these drills. These drills are provided for information purposes only. Use at your own risk.

Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure (the closer you follow this, the fewer opportunities you will have to ND)


Principles:

Allow no distractions – focus exclusively on the task at hand

Keep muzzle in a safe direction

Use correct trigger finger discipline

Verify no live ammo in gun, on person, or in the dry practice area

Use dedicated dry practice targets that are put away until you consciously choose to begin dry practice, and taken down when you consciously end dry practice

Use dedicated dry practice magazines and dummy rounds/inert training cartridges that stay in the dry practice area (if you use any magazine or cartridges)


Procedure:

Unload gun in a location other than the dry practice area

Leave live ammo, and magazines with live ammo, completely outside the dry practice area

Enter the dry practice area

Verify gun is unloaded, that any magazines do not contain live ammo, and that any cartridges present are inert/dummy cartridges

Consciously choose to begin dry practice

Put up dry practice targets

Do your dry practice

Take down dry practice targets and put them away

Consciously choose to end dry practice

Exit the dry practice area and do something unrelated for a few minutes

Return gun to location and condition of your choosing

Clobbersaurus
04-19-2015, 10:25 AM
I've been doing this drill as part of my daily dry fire since the drill was posted.

I used my Beretta 92g, and a 1/3 scale target. I didn't reset the gun after my initial pull. With the Beretta, you can kinda feel the SA reset point as you release the trigger. Doing it this way you don't get the full weight of the SA trigger pull, but it's close enough. I did this as a true failure to stop drill without pausing to reset the gun.

I struggle when going really fast to not let the trigger fully reset in DA mode. I am getting better overall, but I spent far too much time practicing only DA with my Beretta, which I tend to think was a good thing for my DA trigger control, and not so good for the SA part. So I'm working backwards on that one.

Leading with my eyes results in a much smoother/faster/more accurate transition. It's better to focus on moving the gun to where my eyes are than moving it because it has to move. That usually results in moving the muzzle over or under the head/CNS portion of the target. I move my eyes to the credit card and let the gun follow while simultaneously trying to refocus on the front sight. I haven't mastered being able to change my visual focus at will yet, despite lots of eye straining practice. I definitely think that would shave time off this drill.

Mastering the SA trigger on my Beretta is a focus for me in the next several months.

Jared
04-21-2015, 04:27 PM
I've been playing with this a bit here and there, and today devoted half an hour to it.

Targets were USPSA Metric targets. Did 20 yards first, then 10, then 3, then 30.

Really liked the drill, and really enjoyed working the different distances. Basically, in a nutshell, I set up the session so that the transition gradually got larger and larger and the trigger control got easier and easier. At the end, there was a jarring demand to tighten up trigger control as I went from doing the 3 yard target to the 30. I felt like it was a good use of my time, and it's a practice session that I will likely repeat. Next time I might work it as 20 then 3, then 10, then 30 to kind of get a back and forth thing going on the transition/trigger control ratio.

Mr_White
04-27-2015, 12:31 PM
Used the Gen3 G34, and three different scaled USPSA Metric targets - 10 yd, 20 yd, and 30 yd versions. Spent around an hour on this over the last couple of weeks, incorporating it into numerous sessions for a few minutes at a time.

This is another of my primary trigger control/shot calling drills for dry practice. The up transition is one that I think is less prevalent in competitive shooting, but has great relevance to defensive shooting since it specifically addresses the body-to-head transition on a single target. I like how you can achieve the same effect of leveling out splits/transitions with this, as you can with the Blake drill working on lateral transitions. It's not terribly difficult to make the transition to the head take basically no more time than another split to the body.

Eyesquared
04-27-2015, 04:47 PM
Did this for about 25 minutes with my SIRT. I first did some with the laser on, but that proved too distracting, so I taped the muzzle. I was shooting a 1/4th scale USPSA metric target at simulated 10yds. I seem to be leading my gun with my eyes pretty naturally, but sometimes at speed I barely even see the sights and I suspect I was shooting with a mild target focus or a very soft front sight focus on those strings.

Also, Mr. White, are you shooting at the whole head or the A box in the head?

Mr_White
04-27-2015, 05:09 PM
I work both the whole head and the upper A-zone. I definitely spend plenty of time on both really tight shots to the upper A where I stop the gun and press very carefully, and easier shots where I am driving the gun hard and working the trigger as the gun is stopping.

98z28
04-29-2015, 10:56 AM
Tuesday, April 28

30 minutes dry fire

Gun/gear: Glock 17 gen4, Safariland 578 GLS open-top holster with 1.5" drop UBL on nylon duty belt

Target(s): 3x5 index card, horizontal and 4x6 index card, vertical at ~6 yards

DOW Week 107 was one of three drills (https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?2753-Steven-s-Training-Journal&p=316694#post316694). Drew to the vertical 4x6 card and transitioned to the horizontal 3x5 card. Not sue how many reps. Worked this one for about fifteen minutes.

Notes: Driving the gun up is much easier for me than driving the gun laterally. I didn't have the same tendency to overshoot the target as I did with DOW 109 lateral transitions.

Range1
04-30-2015, 07:31 PM
Have used this at times during my regular dry fire routine. Today I completed this for a 15 minute run on 3 USPSA targets at 5, 7 and 10 yards. I switched to a Gen 4 Glock 23 with Trijicon HD sights. Faster I tried to go the sloppier I got. Must concentrate on applying all fundamentals without thinking about it. Also I think my strong hand grip has not been nearly strong enough. Gripping harder seemed to help sights stay steadier on trigger press.

MD7305
04-30-2015, 09:36 PM
Wednesday 04/29/2015

30 Minutes
Gun: Glock 22/G4 w/TLR-1 from Safariland 6360
Target: P-T (old style) Target

I began gun on target as instructed. I intentionally made my first transitions super slow, concentrating on not passing the 3x5 zone in the head. After approximately 10 minutes I began to speed up a bit to the point I felt the gun was bouncing as I started to make the head 3x5 shot, so then I back off just a smidge. For the last 5 minutes I worked in a draw from the holster, slow and methodical press out, body shot and transition. I've felt very rusty lately on my duty holster and even though this was not part of the original drill I think it helped me smooth my roughness out a little. This article (http://modernserviceweapons.com/?p=14945#more-14945) by Tim Lau has helped my small brain work the hood like butter and I've tried to incorporate his suggestions.

I will continue to perform this drill periodically.

EricM
05-08-2015, 11:00 PM
Been working on this for the past few weeks, though I'll admit I haven't focused on these as much as the lateral transitions. Used a mix of G34 and SIRT with a USPSA target. The smaller distance involved with these vertical transitions comes more naturally to me, but I still really have to work on snapping the gun up crisply. Related to this I've started doing some more dry fire work from the low ready, something I've never timed before, and I'm pretty slow at it...usually about 1 second for an A zone hit at 7 yards. From what I understand it ought to be about half that. Shows how much room there is to improve even on the "easy" stuff.

Corey
05-10-2015, 11:35 PM
I worked on this drill using a reduced IDPA target and mixed it up between a SIRT pistol and my M&P9. I worked on it about 20 minutes in the morning and about 20 minutes in the evening for a week. It seemed to help me drive the gun harder to the head box while still making certain to fully stop the gun before taking the shot.

2alpha-down0
05-11-2015, 01:59 PM
"Shot" with my M&P9 on an NDM-1 at 5 yards for 30 minutes.

I experimented a little by mixing together this drill and Week 109, occasionally snapping my eyes to the head target ahead of the front sight. It gave me a good idea of how quickly and consistently I can shift my focal point back and forth.