BassCliff
Ronin
Dear friends,
I was able to scoot out to the older facility after lunch yesterday. They were having an ammo sale. Sometimes they'll offer a good price, within $20 or so, of online delivered cases. I like supporting the LGS when it's convenient.
I wasn't too thrilled with my performance during the class this past Monday so I wanted to practice more with my optic pistol. I plan to do more dry fire practice with it too, so's I can get the dot "right there" when I draw and present, without having to hunt for it. At this facility we use the "short range" when we practice drawing from holster. There are five lanes in this part of the facility, next to the "long range".
I got my favorite, lane #A, and hung the standard target for the "Fletcher Drill".
Actually, I had to take lane #A because it had been raining. When the humidity makes the wood swell, some of the benches will not release rendering them useless for holster work. Oh well. The maximum distance on this part of the ranges is 6 yards, perfect for the Fletcher Drill.
Normally the Fletcher Drill involves 2 targets but I modify it just a little and put all the hits on one target, going through all the other motion requirements. You've seen video of the drill in my other reports.
Setup: 2 magazines with 5 rounds each. This is a timed drill.
Course of action:
(At the beep)
1. Get off the X
2. Draw, fire three to the chest, two to the head
3. Get off the X while performing a slidelock reload
4. Fire three to the chest, two to the head on the second target
5. Search and assess
I practiced this drill 10 times, but I'll spare you and show you just the worst and the three best. My current goal is to run the drill in under 8 seconds and earn the "Advanced" patch. I have the "Intermediate" patch (under 10 seconds). I used my PACT timer so you will see times for the 1st shot, the last shot, and the last split.
This was my first, cold, run.
And the target.
This would've been at least a one second penalty. The scoring zones are inside the white outlines of the chest and head areas. Line breaks count as in. One second penalty if outside the silhouette, half second penalty if inside the silhouette but outside the score zones. Most of my runs were pretty average, the class standard being 13 seconds. But here are my better runs.
This was almost a second over what I'm gunning for, but it was a "clean" run, nothing outside the score zones.
After a couple of lousy runs, I really tried to buckle down and push hard. This wasn't bad.
The target came back like this.
There was just one hit outside the chest area score zone. Even with the half second penalty I would've made it under the 8 second "Advanced" criteria. What I thought would be my last run was really terrible. I just couldn't leave it at that. So I reloaded my mags and tried it one more time and had a pretty good run.
Again, almost a clean run. The target looked like this.
The arrow points out my half second penalty. But this run would've been under the 8 second goal. I'm going to do more dry fire practice and perhaps next month I will have a good run in class to earn my Advanced patch. Wish me luck.
Then I moved to the long range and got my favorite lane, #10.
I had the long range all to myself. But I decided not to run any 10-10-10 drills today.
I had about a half box of 9mm left so I sent a target out to 10 yards and tried some double taps and head shots from low ready using my optic pistol, the XD9 Mod.3.
The target came back like this. I guess I did some damage.
Then it was time to play with my new toy, the XDM Elite 10mm.
I was running out of time so I sent my favorite target out to 10 yards and pounded it with the whole box.
Yes, I was shooting fast, trying to get a feel for this beast, getting it back on target. I'm going to practice some more.
And that was it for this session. Thanks for putting up with the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm going to have to order a 10mm laser cartridge so I can use it for dry fire on my laser rage. That would be a lot cheaper than 10mm ammo. I'll also continue to work with my optic pistol using a laser cartridge. One of the students in my class told me that dry fire really helped him to earn is Fletcher Drill coin (under 7 seconds). I still haven't ingrained the muscle memory to get my dot "right there" when presenting. I'll keep working at it. Until next time, be brave, do good.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
I was able to scoot out to the older facility after lunch yesterday. They were having an ammo sale. Sometimes they'll offer a good price, within $20 or so, of online delivered cases. I like supporting the LGS when it's convenient.
I wasn't too thrilled with my performance during the class this past Monday so I wanted to practice more with my optic pistol. I plan to do more dry fire practice with it too, so's I can get the dot "right there" when I draw and present, without having to hunt for it. At this facility we use the "short range" when we practice drawing from holster. There are five lanes in this part of the facility, next to the "long range".
I got my favorite, lane #A, and hung the standard target for the "Fletcher Drill".
Actually, I had to take lane #A because it had been raining. When the humidity makes the wood swell, some of the benches will not release rendering them useless for holster work. Oh well. The maximum distance on this part of the ranges is 6 yards, perfect for the Fletcher Drill.
Normally the Fletcher Drill involves 2 targets but I modify it just a little and put all the hits on one target, going through all the other motion requirements. You've seen video of the drill in my other reports.
Setup: 2 magazines with 5 rounds each. This is a timed drill.
Course of action:
(At the beep)
1. Get off the X
2. Draw, fire three to the chest, two to the head
3. Get off the X while performing a slidelock reload
4. Fire three to the chest, two to the head on the second target
5. Search and assess
I practiced this drill 10 times, but I'll spare you and show you just the worst and the three best. My current goal is to run the drill in under 8 seconds and earn the "Advanced" patch. I have the "Intermediate" patch (under 10 seconds). I used my PACT timer so you will see times for the 1st shot, the last shot, and the last split.
This was my first, cold, run.
And the target.
This would've been at least a one second penalty. The scoring zones are inside the white outlines of the chest and head areas. Line breaks count as in. One second penalty if outside the silhouette, half second penalty if inside the silhouette but outside the score zones. Most of my runs were pretty average, the class standard being 13 seconds. But here are my better runs.
This was almost a second over what I'm gunning for, but it was a "clean" run, nothing outside the score zones.
After a couple of lousy runs, I really tried to buckle down and push hard. This wasn't bad.
The target came back like this.
There was just one hit outside the chest area score zone. Even with the half second penalty I would've made it under the 8 second "Advanced" criteria. What I thought would be my last run was really terrible. I just couldn't leave it at that. So I reloaded my mags and tried it one more time and had a pretty good run.
Again, almost a clean run. The target looked like this.
The arrow points out my half second penalty. But this run would've been under the 8 second goal. I'm going to do more dry fire practice and perhaps next month I will have a good run in class to earn my Advanced patch. Wish me luck.
Then I moved to the long range and got my favorite lane, #10.
I had the long range all to myself. But I decided not to run any 10-10-10 drills today.
I had about a half box of 9mm left so I sent a target out to 10 yards and tried some double taps and head shots from low ready using my optic pistol, the XD9 Mod.3.
The target came back like this. I guess I did some damage.
Then it was time to play with my new toy, the XDM Elite 10mm.
I was running out of time so I sent my favorite target out to 10 yards and pounded it with the whole box.
Yes, I was shooting fast, trying to get a feel for this beast, getting it back on target. I'm going to practice some more.
And that was it for this session. Thanks for putting up with the good, the bad, and the ugly. I'm going to have to order a 10mm laser cartridge so I can use it for dry fire on my laser rage. That would be a lot cheaper than 10mm ammo. I'll also continue to work with my optic pistol using a laser cartridge. One of the students in my class told me that dry fire really helped him to earn is Fletcher Drill coin (under 7 seconds). I still haven't ingrained the muscle memory to get my dot "right there" when presenting. I'll keep working at it. Until next time, be brave, do good.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
I'm still hoping to get a little better before I have to hang it up. In the meantime, I do appreciate all the help and suggestions I get from this fine community. You're a good egg. Maybe next week will be better. 
