Week 94: The F.A.S.T.

[ToddG]

My challenge is the reload. Unless I do a reload with retention half the time my mag ends up in front of the table, where I can't retrieve it. And my reload with retention is dog slow and it doesn't feel productive to be working on that for speed. Any suggestions?

HopetonBrown's suggestion is what I use at the NRA Range. Other solutions I've used in the past:

• If I'm using a large range bag, I position it in front of the spot where magazines usually land and the bag stops them from going forward of the line.
• If the range provides cardboard backers for the target hangs, find a shot up backer and wedge it along the front of your booth so it stops anything from going forward of the line.

If you go to that range often enough and are really adventurous, you could cut a 2x4 about half an inch wider than the range booth's width and wedge it in there gently to catch mags from sliding forward. But seriously, HopetonBrown's solution is probably by far the easiest unless you're going to be doing a lot of reloads.

[luckyman]

Thanks everyone. I tried just the broom solution before, but I had mags bounce off the table in front of me and bounce down the lane :-). The separators between lanes aren't very deep so they like you to be up close to the table.
I think I will try it again , and in any case one of these solutions will definitely work .

[JAD]

Lightweight Commander .45, milt sparks EX-RSO, sweater.
11.37, 9.37 with a head miss. Bungled reload.
8.40 clean. Also bungled.
6.96 clean. Not bungled.
26.73, mostly bungled.

Springfield RO 9x19, JRC SSA, sweater
7.29 clean
6.64 clean
6.40 clean
20.33

[luckyman]

Glock 19, jmck aiwb

7.01 + 2 misses = 9.01
6.9 clean
6.46 clean
Total 22.37

[gringop]

G19, Sparks Exec Companion at 7 o'clock, concealed.

6.40, clean
6.26, clean
6.54 1 B miss, 7.54

Aggregate 20.2.

I've been shooting this cold to start every practice for over a year and this is one of the first times I have shot clean heads on all 3 strings. This is the best FAST that I have run in a year.

In years past I was able to shoot this clean with times between 5 and 6 seconds but I don't practice twice a week anymore and don't dry fire at all now. I guess that I am shooting in somewhat more relaxed state and am not rushing to try and match my old draw speeds.

Gringop

[taadski]

Hah! I'm still enough of a rookie I didn't even know that was a real thing (anything that timed / stressed fast reloads with retention). The training classes and little local informal competitions I've been to never did that.

I know you were just kidding, but maybe the best thing would be to go ahead and just do this using a reload with retention? And assume that dry practice will keep me away from the nasty habit of retaining my empty mag in the middle of an ugly situation ?

I was mostly just joshing, but there WAS a time where one could gain quite a bit of an advantage on certain IDPA stages by having particularly quick RWRs. I practiced them for the expressed purpose of those occasions and can say I've put them to good effect. :-)

My recommendation for the FAST, as these astute gentlemen have already suggested, would be to just do the reload. Perhaps a puffy jacket or blanket or something at your feet might keep the mag from bouncing so far? That's what I use dry practicing at home to keep from dinging my wood floors and it does an alright job of keeping the mag put. (Shrug). Just an idea.


t

[luckyman]

Yep, in SoCal so used a sweatshirt instead of puffy down jacket; but that is what I did and it worked fine.

[HopetonBrown]

I was able to shoot a single FAST Test on Saturday.

Glock 19, Ameriglo Hack sights, Cold Bore Custom stipple job, Vickers Tango Down controls, Taran Tactical Innovations spring & connector kit. Kydex Werks appendix rig, zero cant, Off The Grid double mag pouch, Aegis belt by Ares gear under a fleece vest.

5.80 which is extremely good for me.

[ASH556]

I went into the range after work Friday evening and ran this. I brought six targets and my intent was to run it 3X from OWB concealment with an unzipped jacket and then 3X from IWB concealment under a polo shirt. I don't have a real timer and my app was malfunctioning for the first set of three so I don't have any good numbers from those runs, but I did manage to get a buddy to take a video of one of the runs. Hopefully this will help identify areas of improvement.

The second run of three was also shot from OWB under a jacket and my times were all in the 5.6 sec range, but none were clean. Again, my timer had issues picking up things like the gun clearing the holster, the mag insertion, etc as shots, so the splits aren't reliable, but the overall time is. I dropped one or two shots on every run. I think I need to slow down just enough to reliably focus on my sights and then try to build speed again once I'm getting all of my hits.

Gear: Gen 4 Glock 17, TCAP front sight, Defoor rear, factory minus connector and extended slide stop. Surefire X300/DG-11. Raven OWB, Comp-tac mag carrier. Jones Tactical belt.

Typical target:


Video:


Just to make myself feel a little better, I shot these 10 at 25yds in about 30 seconds. I think I'm to the point where I need to stop practicing shooting bulls @ 25 for awhile and start running some more speed drills:

[ASH556]

Oops, meant to include this. This is the target from the video run above: