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Thread: In search of sub-second reloads from slide lock

  1. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by GJM View Post
    Shoot some Steel Challenge, and it will fix that in no time!
    I'm just starting to shoot USPSA at our club - before this year our club didn't run matches. I'm going to continue to compete in that and also continue in my primary competitive endeavor which is NRA Action Pistol - until it goes away.

    The aspects of USPSA, steel challenge, and GSSF that I'm least enthusiastic about is the fact that each round doesn't count. Oh, I know if you are going to be competitive in these events you aren't going to be shooting much more than the minimum shots per stage, but the pressure for a first round hit isn't the same as it is when you only have 6 rounds to take down 6 plates at 25yards.

    That is the aspect I was commenting on.

  2. #32
    Site Supporter Clobbersaurus's Avatar
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    Sub 1 second slide lock reloads are not that difficult to achieve in dry fire. It just takes time and work. But realistically they are more of an Instagram party trick than something I would expect to do in a match. I preload the slide release and work on timing the activation of the lever as the mag seats. I don't practice them in repetition very often but I complete a slide lock reload every single day when I load my pistol with snap caps for dry fire. I've made it a habit to do so.

    At my last match, on the final stage, I screwed up with too many misses on challenging B-Zone and plate rack steel and ran dry. I completed a standing slide lock reload (UGH) and it went okay. It wasn't sub second but it was smooth and trouble free due to the daily practice I do with it. I was happy with it going well under match pressure and during a major screw up. Realistically, that's probably about as fast as I can expect to go in a match. Video below at 4:17 or so.

    "Next time somebody says USPSA or IPSC is all hosing, junk punch them." - Les Pepperoni
    --

  3. #33
    Thanks for posting! Had to go back and look for it a second time as I missed it the first time even though I was looking for it after the 4:00 mark.



    Coming back from a frustrating live fire session trying my hand mostly at 20-25 yards today I re-read this thread and I've got to admit I alternate between being impressed and downright demoralized by the vids in this thread. Some really impressive shooters casually blasting out performances I never even thought to strive for on a 5 year timeline.

    Going to put in another 100 slide lock reloads in dryfire today. Since I started this thread I haven't cut any meaningful time off my "fastest (for me)" dryfire reload times yet. But as of yesterday (100 dryfire slide lock reloads), on any given group of 10 reloads, more of them are skewed towards my faster times so my average reload time (dryfire) is dropping by about 0.2 so far (more 1.5 and 1.6 times in dryfire and fewer flubs slowing it to 1.9)

    Thanks again for everyone who took time out of their days to chime in to a new guy's search for improvement!

  4. #34
    Site Supporter Clobbersaurus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NoTacTravis View Post
    Thanks for posting! Had to go back and look for it a second time as I missed it the first time even though I was looking for it after the 4:00 mark.



    Coming back from a frustrating live fire session trying my hand mostly at 20-25 yards today I re-read this thread and I've got to admit I alternate between being impressed and downright demoralized by the vids in this thread. Some really impressive shooters casually blasting out performances I never even thought to strive for on a 5 year timeline.

    Going to put in another 100 slide lock reloads in dryfire today. Since I started this thread I haven't cut any meaningful time off my "fastest (for me)" dryfire reload times yet. But as of yesterday (100 dryfire slide lock reloads), on any given group of 10 reloads, more of them are skewed towards my faster times so my average reload time (dryfire) is dropping by about 0.2 so far (more 1.5 and 1.6 times in dryfire and fewer flubs slowing it to 1.9)

    Thanks again for everyone who took time out of their days to chime in to a new guy's search for improvement!
    If you could post a video the membership here could get you sorted out pretty quickly I am sure. You are putting in the work, so I'm confident you can get there.
    "Next time somebody says USPSA or IPSC is all hosing, junk punch them." - Les Pepperoni
    --

  5. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by NoTacTravis View Post
    Thanks for posting! Had to go back and look for it a second time as I missed it the first time even though I was looking for it after the 4:00 mark.



    Coming back from a frustrating live fire session trying my hand mostly at 20-25 yards today I re-read this thread and I've got to admit I alternate between being impressed and downright demoralized by the vids in this thread. Some really impressive shooters casually blasting out performances I never even thought to strive for on a 5 year timeline.

    Going to put in another 100 slide lock reloads in dryfire today. Since I started this thread I haven't cut any meaningful time off my "fastest (for me)" dryfire reload times yet. But as of yesterday (100 dryfire slide lock reloads), on any given group of 10 reloads, more of them are skewed towards my faster times so my average reload time (dryfire) is dropping by about 0.2 so far (more 1.5 and 1.6 times in dryfire and fewer flubs slowing it to 1.9)

    Thanks again for everyone who took time out of their days to chime in to a new guy's search for improvement!
    You're looking at videos from some really good shooters who have put in the time. If I'm not wrong Gio is a USPSA GM who has regularly placed in the top 20 at Nationals. For a guy who works really hard, I think getting to that level in 3-4 years is a reasonable timeline (from what I'm seeing from other shooters in my area). Not sure what classification GJM has or even how it works in Canada in Clobb's case, but you have a lot of time you have to put in, so it's important to have realistic expectations about the pace of improvement you'll see in your shooting.

  6. #36
    @Eyesquared -that makes sense. I definitely try to keep in mind that leveling up in BJJ (previous hobby) came from putting in a couple of consecutive thousand hour years after already having a base of a few years with a few hundred of hours of practice per year. I'm generally kind of a slow learner/developer in physical skills as it is and compensate by trying to put in double the time. I'm very aware that I'm still at the stage where my shooting is not instinctual enough to venture towards the USPSA arena of adding a stage plan to the mix in the next year at least. My game plan has been to train up a bit till post covid, then ease into things through IDPA for year with 3-4 local matches to get my feet wet. Even watching "B" Class USPSA guys on youtube has me going "nope, not yet, not even close".

    @Clobbersaurus -I took your advice and took a couple of minute to 2 minute videos practicing reloads yesterday. I'll look to post them to the thread over the weekend in all their slow, unedited, repetitive glory. They should provide a solid window into how I've been training my reloads. So any input of "is that really how you have been training reps?" needed to straighten out my training process or reload mechanics would definitely be appreciated.

    Watching myself on video, I definitely noticed I have a tendency to lean away from the mag pouch to avoid grabbing a piece of shirt or get a better angle on the fixed cant pouch. I'm fighting wanting to try to fix the extraneous motion by purchasing new pouches that sit further off my body which if I've been reading the right stuff is the classic new guy desire to think that the fix is always gear related instead of an issue with my own mechanics. Mostly I've noticed that what feels "fast" to me is much slower handed when watching on video. And that what feels like an instant reaction to the beep for me is a glacially slow pause before I get moving when I watch it on video.

    I'll look to post for better trained eyes than mine over the weekend.
    Last edited by NoTacTravis; 07-11-2020 at 02:39 AM.

  7. #37
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    Quote Originally Posted by NoTacTravis View Post
    @Eyesquared I'm very aware that I'm still at the stage where my shooting is not instinctual enough to venture towards the USPSA arena of adding a stage plan to the mix in the next year at least. My game plan has been to train up a bit till post covid, then ease into things through IDPA for year with 3-4 local matches to get my feet wet.
    If you plan to shoot USPSA then shoot it. There is absolutely no reason to wait and start with IDPA. Nobody expects a noob to come in shooting at A class levels and there will probably be more C class guys than anything else at a local match, and also some U’s and D’s. By avoiding it you’re just prolonging the learning curve. You can do the whole crawl, walk, run within the sport and nobody looks down on that.
    im strong, i can run faster than train

  8. #38
    Deadeye Dick Clusterfrack's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by NoTacTravis View Post
    @Eyesquared -that makes sense. I definitely try to keep in mind that leveling up in BJJ (previous hobby) came from putting in a couple of consecutive thousand hour years after already having a base of a few years with a few hundred of hours of practice per year. I'm generally kind of a slow learner/developer in physical skills as it is and compensate by trying to put in double the time. I'm very aware that I'm still at the stage where my shooting is not instinctual enough to venture towards the USPSA arena of adding a stage plan to the mix in the next year at least. My game plan has been to train up a bit till post covid, then ease into things through IDPA for year with 3-4 local matches to get my feet wet. Even watching "B" Class USPSA guys on youtube has me going "nope, not yet, not even close".
    Quote Originally Posted by Caballoflaco View Post
    If you plan to shoot USPSA then shoot it. There is absolutely no reason to wait and start with IDPA. Nobody expects a noob to come in shooting at A class levels and there will probably be more C class guys than anything else at a local match, and also some U’s and D’s. By avoiding it you’re just prolonging the learning curve. You can do the whole crawl, walk, run within the sport and nobody looks down on that.
    @Caballoflaco is spot on. B class in USPSA is a blue belt in BJJ. B class is really good, and you can't get there without a lot of hard work. It takes even more work to get out of B class. But, as with BJJ you have to set your ego aside.

    If you are safe, and you can run your gun, you are ready. You will be about as competitive as a new white belt is on the mat. The difference is that everyone will be nice, helpful, and supportive.

    If you want to shoot IDPA because it interests you, I won't try to talk you out of it. But IDPA is not a steppingstone to USPSA, and you will make much faster progress if you just jump into USPSA like countless other people do. And you can stop worrying about getting your reload under 1 sec because there are so many other more important things to work on.
    "You can never have too many knives." --Joe Ambercrombie
    Shabbat shalom, motherf***ers! --Mordechai Jefferson Carver

  9. #39
    I will also add that classifications can be deceiving, and looking at people on YouTube and seeing their classifications may not be strictly representative of the norm. Last year a "B class" guy became infamous for placing 4th at CO Nationals. It's an extreme example but I have noticed a trend in my area for shooters being under-classified. The club nearest to me doesn't shoot classifiers except in classifier-only matches that seem happen 2x per year, so a lot of people shoot 6 classifiers, get into C or B class, and then when we hold a major match they place in the middle of the class above them.

  10. #40
    @Caballoflaco and @Clusterfrack It seems I gave the wrong in impression by reducing my thoughts to just a few sentences. I assumed no one wants to hear about the 5 year plans and "just wait till 2021 and I'll get out there" musings of a new guy that hasn't even been shooting for a year. Much less my personal philosophy of carry, training and competition. So, fair warning if I drone trying to clarify a bit.


    I came to shooting last summer with a "buy a gun and learn to shoot it" type attitude. That meant renting and hiring instruction first to "do it right" and be safe. I did a ton of reading and was super sure I wanted a Gen5 G26. Then I rented a G26 and hired an instructor. The instructor (one of the range owners) also brought in a G19 for us to compare it to. My wife and I both shot the G26 noticeably worse than the G19. I returned to the range every two weeks, (or got together with gun owning friends) and rented or borrowed a half dozen or other 9mm offerings. At the time, I shot the Glock 19 the same as a Glock 17, liked the 19 a little better, and everything else worse. All of my gun owning friends suggested a Glock 19 as a first gun. Finger grooved Glocks squirmed around noticeably less in my sweaty hands than the Gen5 for me at the time as a brand new shooter. At that point I figured I'd buy a Gen4 Glock 19 and commit to pursuing that model and platform for two years consistently before letting myself start to gun hop. I started shooting 50 rounds every two weeks and learning about dry firing.

    Carrying daily (I practiced for a few weeks with a blue gun, a few weeks with an empty gun, and so on) and on 5-10 mile hikes, it's a good chunk of gun for someone with no firearms experience who does a lot of hiking. i'm fine with that as if I found I am even less effective with a G43. So, for me the size/weight of a Glock 19 is just "what a gun weighs" in my mind at this point in my development and I'd like to attain a more acceptable standard before splitting my time into learning a smaller carry gun. Once I put this much time and effort into something I better be "good" in my mind. I think most here understand the rabbit hole of the evolving notion of "good" once you start devoting any meaningful time to anything.

    At the time that meant I wanted to find some body of marksmanship ranking that could in some way provide an objective evaluation of firearms skill and marksmanship so as not to just be another guy blasting away every once in a while and calling it good. From what I was reading at the time, IDPA, competing with carry gear, and chasing an Expert classification seemed like a good goal to establish an objective evaluation of skill. I figured I can train up and practice the 5x5 classifier to see what progress I am making towards the basic skills there and then start shooting the matches this year once I could make the hits at 10 yards without a time limit.

    I'm well aware that a majority of new hobbyists plan on competing later later later. Personality wise though, my issue is generally reigning it in. The BJJ analogy someone mentioned here about jumping in to comps... I similarly dragged my feet back as a white belt until I felt "ready". Ended up competing in a 4 states over the next 9 years. Where the BJJ bug intersects the USPSA pursuit for me is this... There are a lot of orgs in grappling. But Gi BJJ through the IBJJ and Pans is how you really prove yourself. it's where the "heat" is in that sport (ADCC and other niches have their own parallels to shooting as well). Back in BJJ, if you went to NABJJ nats and didn't do IBJJF events it's generally because you were trying to chase a medal and not really competing against the best of your division. USPSA has that feel of "the org where those of the greatest skill in action pistol compete" that mirrors the BJJ competition circuit to me.

    So, I want to follow though and complete my initial goal, chase an IDPA expert of master classification, and stick with see through a full 2 years with the Glock 19. However, I'm a big believer in combat sports, and testing skill in a combat sport through competition. And then seeking out where the most "legit" competition orgs in said combat sport are. Watching Master Class USPSA guys as opposed to what seems to be a more attainable Master classification in IDPA reminds me too much of Judo black belts being the equivalent of BJJ blue belts to not see competing in USPSA in my future. I'm sure that after a few IDPA matches at the local club that also puts on USPSA someone will suggest I jump over and I'll find a weekend that fits my schedule.

    I'm also trying to stick to a annual and 5 year budgets, and going too far down the competition rabbit hole too soon for me is a real risk. A strict $2K budget becomes $3k in a heartbeat. I'd planned on buying a Glock a year in order to have a "pair and a spare" to compete with and $5K rounds of ammo. Focusing on jumping into USPSA too soon now will have me pushing for a double belt rig and Glock 34's with spare mags after 4 USPSA matches if I know myself at all. If I limit myself to 3-4 matches per year for the first two years, I might be able to pull that off. Historically, for me once I'm bitten by a combat sport bug I'm normally in for at least a decade of hard training so I personally feel very comfortable operating on 5 year plans.

    Unfortunately, as a new guy, its sounds pretty douchey to lay it all out so far in advance. So apologies to anyone that had to read all the above. If it's too much thread drift please feel free to delete or bump my drift.

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