Going in cold....

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  • ACC

    Master
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    133   0   1
    Mar 7, 2012
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    N. Side of Indy
    I have just recently started shooting Friday Night Steel Matches and USPSA and I LOVE it. However, I am having one problem.....showing up to these matches COLD having not shot in weeks sometimes and having to come right out of the box shooting.

    How do others deal with this? I rarely have time to get out to the range much (wife/young kids) so warming up the day or couple days before is hard. Any suggestions?
     

    gregkl

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    Apr 8, 2012
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    People tell me I should be dry firing daily. I have tried a few time, but so far haven't been able to get into it much. I am going to set up a spot in my basement with a target on the wall and some decent lighting and will try it again.
     

    7920drew

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    Jul 17, 2014
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    Lafayette, IN
    Dryfire for sure. I'm not able to get into it to the extreme some people are. I generally try and get a gun in my hand for dryfire 3 or 4 times a week. Usually it's for 15 mins or 20, sometimes longer if I get in a groove. I've got a few targets on the walls and mainly work on drawing, reloading, and transitions between targets. It seems like something that doesn't really help but I can promise you, if you do it, you WILL get better. So much of USPSA has to do with competent manipulation of the gun, probably as much or more than actually firing shots. You'll probably get more out of ten 20 minute dryfire sessions in between matches than you will from a single live fire practice session. Also right before the match spend 5 or 10 mins at the safe table (with empty mags!) and so 15 or 20 reps of draws and reloads- or in the morning before heading to the range. Either will help.
     

    gregkl

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    ^^^Thanks. I do know I need to practice picking up that front sight and getting it properly aligned with the rear and the front post on target. I am definitely hunting around for a good sight picture!
     

    Twangbanger

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    21   0   0
    Oct 9, 2010
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    I do think getting to an indoor pay range for 30 minutes, one or two days before the event is worth the $13. Most of them you can't draw from a holster, but that's a pretty small part of the "time equation" in everything except classifiers anyway. If it's a no-holster range, I have found that 50 or 100 shots of putting the gun down in front of your body, then presenting it quickly and getting off a rapid pair, over and over, works on sight acquisition and just generally getting the gun presented on target quickly and being able to take a shot fast without jerking the sights (most of the time in competition, you're presenting the gun from some kind of lowered hold position, anyway, not the holster). Even if the range has rapid fire restrictions, I have never yet seen one object to rapid pairs if they're separated by some interval of time (putting the gun down to re-set the drill), and you're keeping the bullets where they're supposed to be.

    Another thing you can easily do at an indoor range, is take the standard "torso" paper target they always offer you, and at the push of a button you can move it to different distances, and see what effect different "tempos" of shooting pairs has on your ability to keep hits in the A-zone at different distances. If you're new to the sport, you'll find that a _ton_ of shots in USPSA are taken at a distance of 10 yards or so, and learning how much of a sight picture you need to get a quick pair of As at that distance is something you can visualize and use over and over in your competition shooting.

    In addition to dry-fire practice on things like reloads, getting in and out of positions, I think if you can do the above you will find you don't lose too much ability over the winter, even if you're not able to go set up multiple targets outdoors and do drawing and movement scenarios. Dry fire is very important, but I just don't think there's any good substitute for putting holes in paper. Good shooters can probably maintain themselves with mostly dryfire over the winter, but I think the newer you are, the more you need real holes in paper.

    (And I'm not a "good" shooter, just somebody who's been doing it a couple years, just got my B-card, and is trying to figure it out like you are).
     

    bwframe

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    Feb 11, 2008
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    I've been known to shoot matches cold as practice and skills tests. Determining how well my gun handling might work for self defense.
     

    Twangbanger

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    Oct 9, 2010
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    This thread is (was?) about sport shooting...however I'm having trouble recalling the name of which tactical trainer it is who recommends allowing skill to go cold? As a desirable and enlightening experience? :dunno:Who was that guy? :scratch:
     

    rvb

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    4   0   0
    Jan 14, 2009
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    IN (a refugee from MD)
    IMO, Shooting "cold" = not "warmed up," or not "grooved in."
    I feel I shoot every stage "cold." I don't feel I ever get "warmed up" with just 20 seconds of shooting every 45 minutes. Every stage could have been better if I could have spent 5 minutes live firing right before "make ready." Every stage is a "cold" performance (other than the position/footwork rehearsals from the walkthrough). It's the reason my "cold" drill times/HFs are not as good as my "warmed up" drill scores in practice.

    Going to a range sometime the week beforehand, or even the day before, is practice. It's not getting "warmed up." In fact, if you haven't been practicing on a regular basis (incl dryfire), it can even be detrimental. There's nothing wrong with having a practice session right before a match if it's part of a regular practice schedule. However, Practicing right before a match in a last ditch effort to salvage an off-season of laziness will very likely leave you frustrated going into the match.

    Improving your baseline ability is called practice. If you haven't put in the work in advance, then no amount of "warming up" is going to replace that lost practice.

    if you leave a match frustrated with your "cold" performance, well, that's just telling you where your skill is currently at. The "cold" performance IS your performance.

    2c

    -rvb
     

    Twangbanger

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    21   0   0
    Oct 9, 2010
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    ...Every stage could have been better if I could have spent 5 minutes live firing right before "make ready."...Going to a range sometime the week beforehand, or even the day before, is practice...Improving your baseline ability is called practice...

    Right? The matches I've gone too don't have a "warm up station" off to the side (and it's sorta kinda discouraged in the "Safe Area" (!)).

    I want to get like you guys some day, where you're so good at running and transitioning the gun, (I'm presuming) you can see it in your sleep. But I'm not there yet. I see a fair tendency in new shooters to get things like completely unexplained misses. And for someone like that, (and I offer this advice with due respect, because I'm nowhere near as good as you) depending on the reason for the misses, it's possible no amount of dry fire practice is ever going to fix that. If it's jerking the sights, I think dry fire helps. But if it's simply being unfamiliar with how much sight picture you need, for example, to hit tricky head shots in a given classifier at a given distance, only bullet holes in paper (connected with observation of what happened over the gun) can address that sort of thing.

    But I totally agree. Shooting before the match is indeed called "practice." And where I come from, that's not considered cheating! :yesway: (but I will read the next set of rule revisions very carefully...)
     

    Coach

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    3   0   0
    Apr 15, 2008
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    I know an indoor range where drawing from the holster is allowed.
     

    rvb

    Grandmaster
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    4   0   0
    Jan 14, 2009
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    IN (a refugee from MD)
    I see a fair tendency in new shooters to get things like completely unexplained misses. And for someone like that, (and I offer this advice with due respect, because I'm nowhere near as good as you) depending on the reason for the misses, it's possible no amount of dry fire practice is ever going to fix that. If it's jerking the sights, I think dry fire helps. But if it's simply being unfamiliar with how much sight picture you need, for example, to hit tricky head shots in a given classifier at a given distance, only bullet holes in paper (connected with observation of what happened over the gun) can address that sort of thing.

    Thats getting into a whole other topic from the going in "cold" question.... Now you are getting into shot calling, which is one of the most critical skills in shooting. And yes, live fire is critical to learning shot calling. There are quite a few threads on that topic.

    -rvb
     

    racegunz

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    3   0   0
    May 6, 2015
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    Indiana
    This thread is (was?) about sport shooting...however I'm having trouble recalling the name of which tactical trainer it is who recommends allowing skill to go cold? As a desirable and enlightening experience? :dunno:Who was that guy? :scratch:

    The one who DOESn't make money with firearms in any way, who works 6-7 days a week 10-12 (or more) hours a day, who has a family that wants his time, who just might have other hobbies. NOT the guy who is wearing the shirt with the catchy slogan about training harder than your adversary so when you meet him you defeat him. :nuts:
     
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