Week 146: Rangemaster Handgun Core Skills Test

[jiminycricket]

Made a special trip to the range on 1/14/16 just to shoot this drill. So, this was shot cold about a week since my last practice. I've still been too lazy to dry fire, and it shows. My shooting was inconsistent, and there's no reason why I shouldn't have shot it cleaner. I'm especially peeved about the thrown shot from string #7 that nearly landed into the -3 of the idpa target. Things to take home: sleep more than 2 hours the night before, get back into a dry fire routine, and wear a shirt that stays tucked and not blouse.

Shot with a G19 in a Bladetech Phantom under an unzipped Condor jacket at about 4:00

Btw the way, am I the only one who hates sidestepping when drawing? I never feel like I'm graceful when I do so.

1) 20pts / 1.76 / 1.16, 0.19, 0.21, 0.20

2) 25pts / 2.85 / 1.70, 0.17, 0.15, 0.51, 0.32

3) 18pts / 1.53 / 0.60, 0.22, 0.43, 0.29

4) 20pts (I flubbed and shot 4rds instead of 5) 2.15 / 0.54, 0.67, 0.53, 0.41

4) 25pts (reshoot) 2.61 / 0.48, 0.64, 0.44, 0.52, 0.53

5) 30pts / 2.63 / 1.54, 0.19, 0.17, 0.30, 0.23, 0.20

6) 30pts / 3.94 / 0.52, 0.24, 0.26, 2.55, 0.18, 0.19

7) 13pts / 2.29 / 1.66, 0.29, 0.34

8) 18pts / 2.92 / 1.72, 0.37, 0.44, 0.39

9) 13pts / 3.32 / 1.99, 0.67, 0.66

Outcome if reshoot of string #4 were allowed: 192pts / 23.85sec / 161 score

Outcome if stuck with flubbed string #4: 187pts / 23.39sec / 159 score

[Tom Givens]

Damn! You guys can shoot. It's interesting to see such high scores now after equipment and technique evolved a few more years. Five years ago a score of 150-180 was top tier performance.

A couple of quick observations.

We have so many draws from the holster because we're trying to gauge civilian or plain-clothes police ability to respond to an immediate threat. In public, you are very unlikely to be walking around with a gun at the ready. With that, I consider draw speed to be a primary skill.

We use hit factor scoring to get that balance of speed and accuracy. It was originally called Comstock Count, as it was devised by Walt Comstock in Southern California around 1970 or so. The goal was to reward shooters who shot faster while still getting their hits. Until then, most match stages involved time limits. That's fine for mass training, but not a good gauge of individual skill. If you can get the same hits as me in half the time, you're a better shot.

Glad to see you guys think the test has merit.

[miller_man]

Well, going to really strive to not just lurk around here and participate in these. That said - here comes the SUCK!! Pretty upset with myself on this one, but putting it out there will only inspire me to put in the time and work to improve.

Stock G19 - amirglo sights, concealment - two longsleeve's + shortsleeve (was cold today!) Dale Fricke Archangel.

1 - 2.88
2 - 3.89
3 - 3.88 1C
4 - 4.84
5 - 5.44 3C
6 - 7.11 2C
7 - 3.79
8 - 6.03 2C 1D
9 - 5.07 1D 1M

Total time - 42.98
Total score - 162
Final score - 75




Somehow managed to head to the range without my mag pouch, so my reload was from my back pocket . Was in the 30's and slight wind today, I'm a wuss and was kinda cold (never helps my shooting). I've really started to see that my 15-20+ yd shooting really needs work. Really fell off at 10+ today. After I shot this I spent most of my time shooting a 8" plate at 25yds and started to make some progress - got a much better feel of what a good sight picture and trigger press is for that distance. Shooting 5 rnd mags, I was getting to 3-4 hits/mag after a couple of mags. Have a long way to go.

[JAD]

I really enjoy that this particular test is based in hit factor scoring.

The combination of Comstock and the (for me and my needs) relatively perfect balance of skills is why I like to run this test every time I go to the range. It gives me a great way to very honestly track where I'm at, pick what to improve, and judge the impact of hardware changes.

[ST911]

Damn! You guys can shoot. It's interesting to see such high scores now after equipment and technique evolved a few more years. Five years ago a score of 150-180 was top tier performance.

A couple of quick observations.

We have so many draws from the holster because we're trying to gauge civilian or plain-clothes police ability to respond to an immediate threat. In public, you are very unlikely to be walking around with a gun at the ready. With that, I consider draw speed to be a primary skill.

We use hit factor scoring to get that balance of speed and accuracy. It was originally called Comstock Count, as it was devised by Walt Comstock in Southern California around 1970 or so. The goal was to reward shooters who shot faster while still getting their hits. Until then, most match stages involved time limits. That's fine for mass training, but not a good gauge of individual skill. If you can get the same hits as me in half the time, you're a better shot.

Glad to see you guys think the test has merit.

I like the test and use it a lot with me and mine. The extent to which it favors speed, and the generosity of the scoring area yield some interesting ways to game and interpret it. For example, I shot my runs at the start of my session, cold in duty gear. I typically shoot this onto an IDPA target rather than the usually bottled Q, scoring -0/5pts, -1/3pts, -3 and below/0pts. I add a smaller head box, and don't bother with a 4-ring.

Run 1: 176pts, 30.29, 116 total. (28x 5pts, 12x 3pts) Run 2: 177pts, 26.93, 131 total. (30x 5pts, 9x 3pts, 1x 0pts). Adding 1 point at only 3.36 sec faster overall increased the score 15pts.

With the large size of the bottled/IALEFI Q, I can get a ragged run at 20-22 sec that looks like this: 140pts, 22sec, 10x 5pts, 30x 3pts, 127 total. Four to five seconds overall isn't much faster when spread out, but is approximately the same score as run #2, shooting like crap. With this test, the devil is very much in the details. Especially in the middle-range.

[DEG]

Shot this cold this morning (and it was cold...7 degrees when I arrived at the range!). I've never shot this drill before, and I was looking forward to it. No live fire for two weeks, so this was a good way to get back into it.

HK P30 LEM 9mm, Fricke gear IWB, winter coat, no gloves.

Run 1: 198 points, 42.51 time, 93 total
Run 2: 178 points, 29.36 time, 121 total
Run 3: 184 points, 28.50 time, 129 total*

*I made a mistake on run 3, string 2, where I shot 2 x 2 rather than 3 x 2. I added a missed body shot and an additional 0.5 seconds to calculate the score.

Observations:
Run 1 was accurate (dropped one shot) and slooooooooow. I felt a bit rusty after not shooting for a couple of weeks and just focused on making the hits. When I got to the 25 yard portion, I fell into old habits and treated it like a slow fire drill. That ruined my overall time, where it took me 9.52 seconds for 3 rounds! And, I dropped one shot anyway.

Run 2 was faster and I loosened up a bit. String 5 was the issue on this run, where I fired 6 shots as fast as I could but did not track the sights very well. Five of the six went out of the circle. My grip on the P30 still needs some work.

Run 3 brought speed and accuracy together better and felt about right. I made a mistake on string 2 and fired two shots to the 8" circle and 2 shots to the 4" circle. I tried to make up for that in the scoring by adding a body miss (I cleaned the 4" circle shots) and an additional 0.5 seconds to get my total score.

[Clobbersaurus]

I shoot this on Sunday, twice. I messed up the first test only shooting 39 rounds. Not sure where I messed it up, so I shot the test over and recorded it on the Gopro. Results of test two are below.

Beretta 92D Centurion, JMCK AIWB holster and Blackhawk mag pouches under a knit shirt.

String 1: 2.72 (You can see me short stroke the trigger on the last round)
String 2: 3.21
String 3: 2.21
String 4: 4.38 (I forgot the 5th round and then made it up, costing me huge time!)
String 5: 2.92
String 6: 3.96
String 7: 2.49
String 8: 4.97
String 9: 5.89

Total time: 32.75
Total Points: 187 (I counted 4 C's and one miss - see the end of the video, there were five shots out which I thought one counted as a miss)
Score: 114

This is a fun test, which I will perform again.

[ST911]

Ran again, 3:00 OWB open carry, gen4 G34, EGA Sword holster, IDPA w/ a mod head box. Shooting this run, I tried to push a little harder, splitting the difference needed for a certain -0 hit, and a barely-in-there -1. I think I was pretty close, based on the previous runs.

String1- 1.74
String2- 2.79
String3- 1.52
String4- 2.57
String5- 2.50
String6- 3.60
String7- 1.90
String8- 2.78
String9- 2.93
Total: 22.33
Points: 151 (20x 5pts, 17x 3pts, 3x 0pts)
Score: 135

Previous recent runs:

Run 1: 176pts, 30.29, 116 total. (28x 5pts, 12x 3pts)
Run 2: 177pts, 26.93, 131 total. (30x 5pts, 9x 3pts, 1x 0pts)

Fun test.

[Prdator]

Gen3 G34 in a Keeper concealed under a polo shirt.
Used an IDPA target and traced a ~3.5" circle in the head (the outline of my depleted roll of duct tape.)

Times
String 1 @ 3 yards: Sidestep, draw, and shoot 4 body = 1.40
String 2 @ 5 yards: Sidestep, draw, and shoot 3 body and 2 head = 2.03
String 3 @ 5 yards: Start with gun at ready in strong hand only, shoot 4 body = 1.50
String 4 @ 5 yards: Start with gun at ready in support hand only, shoot 5 body = 2.08
String 5 @ 7 yards: Draw and shoot 6 body = 2.03
String 6 @ 7 yards: Start with gun at ready loaded with exactly 3 rounds. Shoot 3 body, reload, and shoot 3 body = 3.09
String 7 @ 10 yards: Draw and shoot 3 body = 1.49
String 8 @ 15 yards: Draw and shoot 4 body = 2.15
String 9 @ 25 yards: Draw and shoot 3 body = 2.49

Total time: 18.26 seconds
Total points: 196

Final score: 214

I really enjoy that this particular test is based in hit factor scoring.

I hate you....;-)

[Mr_White]

I hate you....;-)

But I love you though Spencer!