Progress Report #1
"Life has a way of making the foreseeable never happen, and the unforeseeable that which your life becomes." Everett Hitch, Appaloosa.
One week and 150 rounds into my new draw, my new draw seems to be about 20 milliseconds slower and more accurate than the thumb roll draw. This is just the opposite of what I expected.
I may be slower because the draw is not fully committed to the subconscious and therefore I am shooting from the frontal lobe. Any thought slows you down. Most of my shots during a match at Rio were within a few milliseconds of each other and generally about 20 mls slower.
The increased accuracy may be coming from the fact that my muzzle height is now higher and less angle is required to the center of the target. Most of my variance at Rio was horizontal although I did have one match where I walk the hits vertically.
At Rio I started the event at 1.33 (.58+.75) and finished the only shooter clean at 1.56 (.56+1.0). Unfortunately in the shoot offs I tried to race The Draw because of our history and had a gunfighter rating of 0 (.0+.0). Never ever abandon the system.
I hate dry firing on the light but that is what I need to do to get the new draw into my subconscious. I have a timer light from Boss from Texas. I don't know if he is still making or selling them but they are great for laser practice. They operate just like a CFDA timer on automatic but with the target light only staying on .3 of a second. The goal is to hit the light with the laser while it is still on.
Anyway, it has been a good start. Just got to persevere. Now where is that 75 mls?
One week and 150 rounds into my new draw, my new draw seems to be about 20 milliseconds slower and more accurate than the thumb roll draw. This is just the opposite of what I expected.
I may be slower because the draw is not fully committed to the subconscious and therefore I am shooting from the frontal lobe. Any thought slows you down. Most of my shots during a match at Rio were within a few milliseconds of each other and generally about 20 mls slower.
The increased accuracy may be coming from the fact that my muzzle height is now higher and less angle is required to the center of the target. Most of my variance at Rio was horizontal although I did have one match where I walk the hits vertically.
At Rio I started the event at 1.33 (.58+.75) and finished the only shooter clean at 1.56 (.56+1.0). Unfortunately in the shoot offs I tried to race The Draw because of our history and had a gunfighter rating of 0 (.0+.0). Never ever abandon the system.
I hate dry firing on the light but that is what I need to do to get the new draw into my subconscious. I have a timer light from Boss from Texas. I don't know if he is still making or selling them but they are great for laser practice. They operate just like a CFDA timer on automatic but with the target light only staying on .3 of a second. The goal is to hit the light with the laser while it is still on.
Anyway, it has been a good start. Just got to persevere. Now where is that 75 mls?
Fell back into old habits at the match. Allowed the announcers to distract me so my practice draw went away and I wound up looking at the back of my hammer after the shot, so wild left or high. Have about 7 weeks until the next match so maybe I can get that habit trained away. The journey continues.
ReplyDeleteAfter winning the Turkey shoot in Mitchell SD against some very good shooters, I evaluated my shooting style for some fine tuning. I left too many opportunities to get beat and needed to close the holes. 1) I was only shooting 60% or a bit better. 2) time from .385-.420 left me vulnerable to faster shooters for a few shots.
ReplyDeleteIt is COLD in South Dakota so ALL my work must be done on a CFDA laser system. I set the height at 44 inches at 7 feet (we shoot at 21 feet up in God’s country) I may block some of the laser target in the future but left it at 8 inch circle. I worked the data chunking as you call it. I guess I have been always doing this… never called it anything! I taught Police recruits using this same “subconscious” techniques you speak of, so I get it, but was not applying it to CFD until it was brought up a few months ago by someone else on CFDA FB… I must thank that guy whoever he was.
I am using the light and timer so I don’t slip into slowing down to get hits. Keeping the mantra of never slow down….you may be slowing down and don’t know it??!! I confirmed I was not messing up my muzzle angle by shooting a few in the end at 21 feet 50 inches tall target…All was fine.
I put my changes to the test in the Mitchell monthly shoot this weekend. I was happy to see Beaver Creek Kid show up too. I had several world class shooters to compete against now, Boulder Vaquero ect.…perfect. We shot a 3x match. I lost my first one to a slower shooter while trying to find the plate, and then won all the rest. I gave Beaver all 3 of his X’s. I had to give him 2 x in a row in the 1st-2nd place shoot off, which really pushed my mental game!!
Taking out the first round, I would guess I was at 75% hits. My times were .362-.390. I only had one shot over .4 all day at .408. I tried to get closer to the light as I shot, but it only worked for 1/2 of my matches. So I am happy and will keep practicing…mostly done fine tuning.
Only thing to add, 44 inch center is a 9 foot shooting distance if you follow the way the target moves in CFDA, it comes down 1/2 inch per foot closer. An 8 inch target is correct diameter for 7 feet, a 9 foot target should be 9 1/4 inches.
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ReplyDeleteMistype by me. I have it at 43 inches at 7 feet. my draw height is 40 inches..or close enough for gov't work. Math gives me a headache...If this was the old west and you 2 were debating numbers, I would shoot you both and take whoever's boots are better...
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