Are your shooting open sights? Any history shooting this target at this distance with this set up? Discriminating blue from a little lesser blue might be a challenge at that distance. Ran the drill a couple of times with the Beretta and S&W this morning. Thought I’d do better, I could blame it on the Kremlin and crappy Browm Bear ammo but I think it might be due to over caffeination. That dot was bouncing.Originally Posted by Cory
It's iron sights. Glock metal night sights specifically. I have no experience shooting this combination at this target, however seeing the center most color portion, or distinguishing the zones of the target has not been a problem for me.
I went out and shot 25yds with my G17 for practice. The primary things that were different with my G17 practice were:
1: Complete target focus.
2: Trijicon HD sights allowing greater awareness of sights without specifically looking at them.
3: Consistent speed of trigger pull.
4: Caliber.
My thoughts are...
1. Looking at the target as opposed to my sights, and truly dedicating my eyes to the target and not bouncing back and forth helps keep my brain less busy, and allows more for the next thing...
2. See through my sights, not looking at them. "Converging" on the sights is easier to stop doing with bright HD sights. The G22 night sights will require more work to do that, but I believe it will help to stop shifting my focus back and forth. This kind of goes hand in hand with number 1.
3. I specifically worked on a constant speed trigger pull like Ben Stoeger talks about in Breakthrough Marksmanship. The way they are teaching trigger control with stage, break, pin, reset simply doesn't yield good results for me. I feel like I begin to look for the perfect sight picture and abruptly break the shot when I see it. This leads to less than ideal trigger input. I did try both methods with my G17, and while I was able to do better with the G17 than the G22 I chalk it up to sight preference making it easier. The stage vs constant groups showcased that constant trigger speed was the winner.
4. Caliber. I found this to be completely irrelevant. I didn't notice a subjective difference in the way the guns felt as they went off (a day apart). It is a difference, but not one that I think really matters. I'm not having flinching issues or anticipating issues so the caliber didn't seem to change anything. I'll watch for those issues down the road (I've had them creep in occasionally after long breaks from live fire) but at the moment seems a nothing burger.
I'll do my best to really stay target focused, and work the trigger in the manner I'm used to next time I hit the 25yd line with a G22. Of course, I'll still take any advice anyone has.
This may not be material feedback and/or something you've already considered, but getting an extremely repeatable POA is key for me in shooting for accuracy at distance. A less-well known trainer I've worked with uses a camo. target that obscures any scoring zones and ups the difficulty factor somewhat.
The blue man target you have there, like with the camo. one, getting a repeatable POA would be key for me.
With iron sights, my best results have been w/a 6 o'clock hold against a small target that minimizes sight alignment errors...and a narrower front sight than the typical .125" that comes stock on most guns. But with sights, it's a very personal thing.
I'm assuming that the G22 is an academy gun, so "altering" the sights won't be an option. What you can do is take a black Sharpie to the dots on the rear sight. This will effectively black them out, leaving the front dot with more contrast. The Sharpie ink can be cleaned off, so no permanent alteration. I also agree with constant trigger stroke vs. the pin and reset stuff.
"It's surprising how often you start wondering just how featureless a desert some people's inner landscapes must be."
-Maple Syrup Actual
S&W 43c 22LR with CCI Velocitors and using the laser grip to sight. 8 shots at 25 yards. I was shooting a Taurus 856 ULCH and just drew the 43c out of my pocket and fired with what was in the gun. I didn't even blow dust bunnies off first. I worked the other day on getting the laser to hit where it was aimed at distance.
That's some good shooting with a snubby. Impressive.
Finally got my milled STI to the range. Its wearing a 509T X2 on a CHPWS plate. I saved up the cash for an Acro P2 and then lost my patience. I will say I was half expecting it to fly off that first round, but it stayed put. After every string I checked the witness marks...
First - It was kinda demoralizing. No shit, I figured my first 10 rounds at 25 yards was going to be a 100. Drop the mic. Nope-ski.
Second - I am pissed that I suck and can't blame my eyes anymore. I want to shoot at least 100 one damn time. And then work on 50 yards.
This is 96-4X with Sig 124gr FMJ ammo. I think its my best 25y effort to date but the tiny dot really shows how much movement I have.
I wanted to function check a new Springfield Prodigy 17rd mag. I loaded up 17 rounds of WWB and did this at 7 yards at a medium pace.
Last edited by rayrevolver; 09-30-2022 at 12:35 PM.
Hopfully you guys will forgive me a more "training journal" type and length of post here.
Last Friday I shot 100 rounds through my primary carry gun, a RMR'd G19.5 to knock the rust off. This was my first pistol shooting range trip since late May or early June, when I found out I drew a limited entry elk tag, and put all of my time/focus/money into filling it, which I was successful in doing a couple weeks ago. Needless to say, my expectations were not very high going into this range trip. I went with a plan to shoot some specific drills/tests to see where I stood. I shot "The Test" first, and failed, missing time by one shot just a fraction of a second too late, and also dropping a shot out of the black. I shot some slow fire 25 yard groups, and then managed this on my first run of the Defoor Hat Qual:
Fail, but not too bad for only burning 16 of 20 seconds, and being rusty as hell. Obviously some work to be done. Next up I shot two runs of 5rds, 5 second par, at 5 yards, from low ready:
Both runs were ~.5 sec under par. That's a bit better. Mostly I just wanted to mix in some fast shooting/dot tracking to gauge where I was at. I ended my session with a few more unremarkable 25 yard attempts, managing to keep about 75% of my shots in the black. Before I stopped shooting pistols at the beginning of summer, I had been trying to hit 10/10 in the black of a B8 at 25 for a few months, managing a lot of 8/10 and 9/10 runs, but 10/10 had eluded and frustrated me.
Fast forward to today. Another Friday range trip. I started out with my long neglected J-frame, and 25 rounds of HBC handloads, using the 5-5-5 standards from above, from the low ready, using target focus and the laser more than the irons.
After that, I shot 10 rounds of my carry load RA9T from my RMR'd 19.5 at 25 yards, slow fire.
I shot a few more strings at 25 yards, that were 7/10, 6/10, and 8/10 in the black. After that, fatigue in my arms and shoulders set in, and the wheels sorta fell off, and I started really shanking things all over. I stopped, put up a fresh target at 10 yards, and ran 20 live rounds worth of ball and dummy drills using my J-frame, loading 1 or 2 live rounds, and the rest empties, at random, using irons only and not the laser. When I felt like I had worked out some of the anticipation I was getting, I put up the J-frame, and got the Glock back out. And proceeded to print this at 25 yards, slow fire:
95-1X, I finally achieved that goal.
Next goal is to get back into the swing of things, and make that happen on a more consistent basis. I believe I will incorporate some more ball and dummy into future sessions to help with the snatchies, and start really keeping track of my grip, as I think I was trying way too hard to muscle the gun with both hands, instead of letting my gun hand work the trigger and my other strong hand work the grip. When I focused on letting my gun hand relax a bit, and gripping more with my support hand, much of the dot movement calmed down.
Was able to get a quick range trip after work today. Only brought 100 rounds and primarily focused on pure accuracy shooting B8's at 25 yards. Finished with a bit of speed work in closer. Ammo was my carry load, 147gr Gold Dots.
Shot 2 strings with my small gun, a P365 with a 507K. Shot a 92-2X and a 95-2X
Switched to my primary carry gun, a Gen5 G19 with a 509T and TLR-7A. Was pleased with the 96-2X.
Pasted and went back for another string. 99-2X. 99, damn flyer! All 10 shots felt good, I didn't call any bad shots, I knew they were all in the black. But that 9 hurt lol.
Switched over to a backup Gen5 G19 with a 508T and TLR-7A. I really wanted to give myself a 100 for this one, but that round didn't catch the line. 99-4X.
I picked up a P365X Macro lower of Gunbroker since I didn't want the Spectre slide. Pulled the slide of off my P365XL with an EPS carry and put it on the Macro lower, assuming the zero would be pretty close but maybe not perfect since it was zeroed with a different FCU. If I was keeping it on the Macro I'd tweak it a touch right. But I'm more than pleased with the 98-4X.
Mind you these were all shot slow fire, not at a hat test speed. Shooting at that rate I can expect 5-7 pounts lower. But aside from the KD4 class in June, I haven't done much live fire this year. Having two kids under 5 doesn't leave a lot of time for the range. Mostly just nightly dry fire. Pretty happy with the performance of these guns though.
Shot a 92 with a tape covered dot. Clearly still not quite used to the dot yet.
Instagram: sometimesishootCs
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