BassCliff
Hellcat
Hello dear friends,
It's hard to believe that the last time I was on the range was over two weeks ago. Between travel and illness, I haven't been able to practice and even had to reschedule a training class. But not to worry, my mediocrity outdid itself.
I made the short drive to the older facility and found my favorite lane was taken, so I got my other favorite lane.
This is the fourth time in a row these two have followed me to the range, XD9 Mod.3 and Echelon 4.5F Comp. The latest news, in case you missed it, is the Echelon is now sporting the same optic as the Mod.3. I removed the Hex Wasp and installed a Holosun 507C-X2 green circle-dot. I like having the same sight picture on both pistols.
Today I used mostly S&B 124 grain but I also had a box of PPU with me. Everything worked beautifully today, 100 round through each.
I had done a rough zero with the new optic on the Echelon, just using the iron sights as co-witness. I started off using my range pack as a rest, shooting at 10 yards for the whole session today. Here are the first five hits.
Hey, you know what? That's not too bad for a rough zero. But I'm going to see if I can't center them up a little more. Let's see if I remember which way to click this optic. Here's the next five hits.
Nope. I wanted to move to the right a smidge. Seems it went left a smidge. I'm going to stick on a reactive circle and try again. Five more hits.
OK, a couple more clicks. Here's five more hits to see if I'm close.
OK. I don't think I can get much better than that, especially considering who's doing the shooting.
Now let's try a few targets freestanding, without the backpack as a rest. Here's a 10 shot string on target #2.
Yes! There's the mediocrity you've all come to know and love! Still, if I can pay better attention to fundamentals, I think this will work. Here's target #3.
I'm not sure what's going on here. There's a nice tight group of eight hits but are low/left. This may be a combination of not utilizing the optic properly (looking through it at the target, instead of at the reticle) plus bad trigger discipline and off hand laziness. Here's target #4.
Well, that is marginally better, with one bad low/left flyer. Just for fun, I'm going to try something I don't normally do. I'll put up another 8" reactive circle and pound it with 50 rounds. Let's see if I can make a big raggedy hole.
That's not bad for mediocre. How about a glam shot?
Ha! Interesting. If you use your imagination it looks like a little doggy. Anyway, the hits started drifting toward the center as I progressed from magazine to magazine, paying attention to fundamentals. I loaded all my magazines with 10 cartridges at a time, force of habit. I guess I want the reload procedure to remain second nature, even when I practice. That's 100 rounds through the Echelon. Let's move on to the Mod.3. Here's target #1.
Right off the bat, not terrible. With line breaks they're all in the black. It really helps when I look at the target through the optic. Here's target #2.
That's a little better. Check out target #3. I'm starting to shoot a little quicker.
You can tell it's starting to spread a little. I made a note to shoot this next target at an even quicker pace.
A little more spread but still, with line breaks, all in the black. I'll take it. It's time to take a little break and sweep my brass.
Ha! All they have is a show shovel. Since I didn't get to shovel snow today, I'll use it for brass. Drat, I just ran out of B-8 centers. Let's shoot a 1/3 size USPSA silhouette.
I think I would've hit all in the A box if I'd slowed down just a little. But I was having too much fun. Now I'm going to pound 50 rounds on this last target just for fun. Actually, there's 40 hits on center and 10 on the head.
The last 10 hits were supposed to be head shots. I started off a little right but pulled it on after a couple of rounds. Funny, that ragged hole looks like a camel.
That brings my session to an end. While I was out it tried to snow a little bit. I supposed I could shovel this if I really wanted to.
Then again, I think not. I'm going to go pick up Friday fish fry for Mrs. BassCliff and I. I hope you all have a wonderfully blessed weekend. Thanks for hanging out with me.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff
It's hard to believe that the last time I was on the range was over two weeks ago. Between travel and illness, I haven't been able to practice and even had to reschedule a training class. But not to worry, my mediocrity outdid itself.
I made the short drive to the older facility and found my favorite lane was taken, so I got my other favorite lane.
This is the fourth time in a row these two have followed me to the range, XD9 Mod.3 and Echelon 4.5F Comp. The latest news, in case you missed it, is the Echelon is now sporting the same optic as the Mod.3. I removed the Hex Wasp and installed a Holosun 507C-X2 green circle-dot. I like having the same sight picture on both pistols.
Today I used mostly S&B 124 grain but I also had a box of PPU with me. Everything worked beautifully today, 100 round through each.
I had done a rough zero with the new optic on the Echelon, just using the iron sights as co-witness. I started off using my range pack as a rest, shooting at 10 yards for the whole session today. Here are the first five hits.
Hey, you know what? That's not too bad for a rough zero. But I'm going to see if I can't center them up a little more. Let's see if I remember which way to click this optic. Here's the next five hits.
Nope. I wanted to move to the right a smidge. Seems it went left a smidge. I'm going to stick on a reactive circle and try again. Five more hits.
OK, a couple more clicks. Here's five more hits to see if I'm close.
OK. I don't think I can get much better than that, especially considering who's doing the shooting.
Now let's try a few targets freestanding, without the backpack as a rest. Here's a 10 shot string on target #2.
Yes! There's the mediocrity you've all come to know and love! Still, if I can pay better attention to fundamentals, I think this will work. Here's target #3.
I'm not sure what's going on here. There's a nice tight group of eight hits but are low/left. This may be a combination of not utilizing the optic properly (looking through it at the target, instead of at the reticle) plus bad trigger discipline and off hand laziness. Here's target #4.
Well, that is marginally better, with one bad low/left flyer. Just for fun, I'm going to try something I don't normally do. I'll put up another 8" reactive circle and pound it with 50 rounds. Let's see if I can make a big raggedy hole.
That's not bad for mediocre. How about a glam shot?
Ha! Interesting. If you use your imagination it looks like a little doggy. Anyway, the hits started drifting toward the center as I progressed from magazine to magazine, paying attention to fundamentals. I loaded all my magazines with 10 cartridges at a time, force of habit. I guess I want the reload procedure to remain second nature, even when I practice. That's 100 rounds through the Echelon. Let's move on to the Mod.3. Here's target #1.
Right off the bat, not terrible. With line breaks they're all in the black. It really helps when I look at the target through the optic. Here's target #2.
That's a little better. Check out target #3. I'm starting to shoot a little quicker.
You can tell it's starting to spread a little. I made a note to shoot this next target at an even quicker pace.
A little more spread but still, with line breaks, all in the black. I'll take it. It's time to take a little break and sweep my brass.
Ha! All they have is a show shovel. Since I didn't get to shovel snow today, I'll use it for brass. Drat, I just ran out of B-8 centers. Let's shoot a 1/3 size USPSA silhouette.
I think I would've hit all in the A box if I'd slowed down just a little. But I was having too much fun. Now I'm going to pound 50 rounds on this last target just for fun. Actually, there's 40 hits on center and 10 on the head.
The last 10 hits were supposed to be head shots. I started off a little right but pulled it on after a couple of rounds. Funny, that ragged hole looks like a camel.
That brings my session to an end. While I was out it tried to snow a little bit. I supposed I could shovel this if I really wanted to.
Then again, I think not. I'm going to go pick up Friday fish fry for Mrs. BassCliff and I. I hope you all have a wonderfully blessed weekend. Thanks for hanging out with me.
Thank you for your indulgence,
BassCliff