Pardon my ignorance, but what is a Steel Challenge?Originally Posted by Caballoflaco
Pardon my ignorance, but what is a Steel Challenge?
@Bio - Steel Challenge is a fun competition in which you shoot several strings of fire at multiple steel plates. More info here:
https://scsa.org/
And a video introduction:
https://youtu.be/K_d4Nx_mzDo
It's very enjoyable! I've shot a couple matches locally and for some reason, the ping! of the steel when you hit it is very satisfying.
RJ gave you a great answer above me.
I would also recommend checking out our very own @P.E. Kelley ‘s box to match content for some more video of steel matches.
https://m.youtube.com/playlist?list=...ByZXRu5qEPVsfl
ETA: and welcome to the forum Bio
im strong, i can run faster than train
@Bio,
Don’t get too worried about the various competitions and all that just yet. I love me some gaming, but you’re just starting out. Concentrate on safety first, then some marksmanship fundamentals.
I live a couple of hours from St. Louis. PM me if you think I may be able to help you.
Steel challenge is very relaxing unless you go nuts with something that looks like a ray gun with the Hubble mounted on it.
I shoot it (when I could) with a Browning BuckMark and a fiber optic front sight. Good for learning how to use sights, trigger control and moving quickly between targets.
For a beginner, the goal of competition is to compete against yourself to show improvement in technique and performance.
It was like weight lifting, I never could 'beat' my good friend But I could progress from thinking two 25 lb weights on a bar were heavy to reps with 200 lbs. Not now, though - old fart sensibility rules!! The groceries are heavy lifting!
Well,
I've been dry firing in my basement 1-3 times a week since I first asked these questions. I experimented with different grasps and trigger presses to see what seemed to keep sights most stable. Trying to stick to a "walk before you run" strategy, and having not fired a gun since about 2015, I signed up for a basic pistol class at a local range. Most of the material they covered was not for nerds who over-prepare and do a lot of background research, so it repeated much of what I'd read so far, but it was good to have and to be able to ask questions when they arose, have some formal training, and I liked the instructors. It was basically a gun handling safety and familiarization course, not focused a lot on marksmanship, but the instructors were helpful when asked. The class came with 50 rounds of .22 LR, so I shot those first with the provided training gun (Smiths and Wesson semi auto, M&P series, I believe) before shooting 50 rounds of 9mm ball I brought myself. The range itself had good air movement, but was hot, as it was an August afternoon in the midwest. The following results are less to elicit any kind of response from readers (I suspect identifying deficiencies with shooting mechanics is not reasonable online), and more just to document my progress and thought process. If there are any obvious errors, however, correction is certainly appreciated.
They started us at 15 feet for a few series of shots just to check how everybody was doing. They had us go through about half the box of .22 ammo at 15 feet to get everybody familiar before opening up other distances. All of my series of shots were with 2-3 breaths between each shot, with the handgun (either the M&P or later my Glock 34) held on target between all shots in a series. Each target had an overall diameter of about 7". I progressively moved the target back after a while, not because I felt especially confident at short distances, more because I was curious about what longer distance shots were like.
.22 shots at 15 feet (5 series)
At this point, I progressively moved the target back, not because I felt especially confident at short distances, more because I was curious about what longer distance shots were like.
.22 shots at 20 feet (1 series)
This was the end of the included ammo, so I transitioned to 9mm and my Glock 34, stick at 20 ft. At this point I seem to be to the right of bullseye overall, but I don't spend too much time thinking about it, because these weren't with my pistol, so I don't want to make adjustments that don't work with my pistol.
9mm shots at 20 ft (2 series). The second in this series is mislabeled at 25 ft, it was also at 20 ft.
The last of that first series was way low (the arrow off-screen). The instructor saw it, and thought I did a pre-shot push, anticipating recoil. Seems likely. The second, if you count, only has 9 holes. Being at the center of the page, I hope I didn't push one of those shots entirely off the page, but I can't say it's impossible. How commonly do rounds go through the exact same spot?
9mm shots at 30 ft (2 series).
The first series in this set saw the heat getting to me. I was less patient on shots, and if you can count you'll notice that my 10 shot series has an embarrassingly low number of holes (7). I don't know why I wrote six on the sheet. I'm guessing I had a similar problem as before, with some pre-ignition push, but since this target was lower, the shots just went straight off the page. The second series, I decided to slow down and not do that again, and got all 10 shots at least on the target.
9mm shots at 50 ft (1 series).
The final series was just to see what would happen. My hands are pretty sweaty at this point, and the gun feels less secure than it did earlier in the day. That being said, I seem to be way off compared to other distances, and not in the same direction. I didn't so much open up my grouping as compared to other distances, mostly I moved the group up. I suspect it had something to do with vision. The difference between 30 ft and 50 ft, for me, was significant in that at 30 ft, I could reasonably see the target behind the front sight, and at 50 ft, I was making an educated guess.
Thus ends my first outing to the range. I hope to be back in a few weeks and give it another go.
@Bio Awesome for you to get some training. You did great!
A few encouraging observations:
- I don't recall two rounds going through the same hole, ever.I am however very familiar with yanking shots completely off the paper.
I find a consistent Dry Practice regimen helps enormously in that regard.
- Regarding shooting pace, I'm not sure I completely get the context of two of three breaths between shots. A thing I have to work on all the time is successive shots under time pressure; if I see the front sights, that is my "go" signal to break the shot. I try things like Controlled pairs, as well as a useful metric I shoot a lot called "The Test" (10 shots, at 10 yards, in 10 seconds, scored on an NRA B-8 target.)
- In so far as shooting at various distances, I try not to change anything, at all, except perhaps taking more care in the sight picture. Tom Givens in his class says to "shoot close targets quickly, medium targets carefully, and far targets precisely." I think that's a good way to sum up. Here's a good video on this:
Good job!
Very cool thread. Thanks for coming back to post your updates. Keep 'em coming.
The only context is that I wanted to have some space between shots, and was too impatient to take longer. A few breaths seemed like a "reset", but not overly long.
"Perfect doubles" where both rounds pass through the same hole, perfectly centered, are pretty rare. In my experience, in cases where 2 rounds go through the same hole, even a tiny misalignment will result in an oblong hole that is easy to spot as 2 hits rather than 1.
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