Updates and review

This year has been quite a year! Although the year is not over, much of my shooting is for the season. I will continue to train and maybe make a match or two.

I have had a banner year in the match attendance department. I was able to attend 5 Championship level and 21 club level matches so far this year. I have also began shooting Steel Challenge and am having fun with that.

New Mexico Section Championship:

I was able to come out on top and win high overall in Limited 10 at the Sectional. I had my share of trouble during the match and was in the process of moving. So I am pleased that I was able to stay on track and focus sufficiently enough to win. I had my gun bumped out of my holster during the match, resulting in it crashing to the ground and knocking the rear sight loose. But after cleaning and some maintenance, the gun was up and running again. I overcame some things in this match where I have struggled in the past so the win was satisfying.

Evike.com:

http://airsoftpost.com/

Evike has continued to be very supportive to me and my Airsoft Training interests. This training has alot to do with my accomplishments this year and their support makes that possible. I have been afforded the opportunity to receive and review two pistols for them as well as several other training videos. Videos can be viewed on my YouTube page in the Training as well as the Reviews and Tips play lists. They have also increased the "rocket" discount code to a 15% savings. Thanks to all of the Evike staff for all their continued support!

BAM Airsoft:

http://www.bamairsoft.com/

More awesome support has come from Burt and Martin. They make the very best Airsoft targets on the market and have innovated the field. They have been very generous in sponsoring my need for many targets to include static, TX Star and Pendulum target systems. They have been great and provide and invaluable service to the Airsoft community.

Airsoft Training:

I have been focusing my training to Steel Challenge practice as of late in preparation to next year's events. I want to get some solid training in, and be familiar with the stages prior to shooting a Championship level event. My training so far has been wonderful and I feel is just the ticket to practice and not go broke in the process! I have also gain an immeasurable amount of confidence and skill improvement practicing on the BAM Airsoft Texas Star target system! This is huge. The TX Star has been a nemesis for quite sometime. But now I feel I have mastered it through training on it while airsoft. I am patiently awaiting a swinger type target to practice with as well. This is another target I could use more practice on at longer ranges.

So, other than local club matches that should take care of getting caught up. I have been quite busy moving and other issues in my personal life as well as a banner year for matches, sponsorship and training activities. It has been exciting to say the least! :-]

Getting back to posting.....

Yup been quite a flurry of activity this summer and fall. But I will be getting my blog caught up again with updates and current postings. Mostly it will be on training notes. But there may be some new developments and match notes as well. So stay tuned and I will be caught back up in no time. ;-)

Group Shooting Training

After talking with a shooter online that was interested in what I would suggest for training for accuracy. I told him about the group shooting drills I have done in the past. These are my "go to" drills for accuracy. While I don't have a barricade to use currently. I stuck to just shooting freestyle, strong hand only and weak hand only.

Freestyle groups were fired from 25 yards on an "open" target (no hard cover or no-shoot) and the strong and weak hand only groups were fired from 20 yards. I haven't done groups shooting in far to long. So I kept the distances reasonable for ego sake! LOL

I shot 100rds Freestyle and 50rds from each of the strong hand and weak hand positions. Results were up and down.

I felt good at my strong hand and weak hand only groups. I shot all A-zone hits save for 3 C-zone hits from each position. Some of the groups were actually quite tight!

Freestyle was a little more humbling in my opinion. I felt I should be able to keep all the shots in the A-zone. Considering when shooting groups, you have ALL the time in the world right? Well, that being the case, there are inconsistencies with muscle twitches and trigger control issues. But that is why we need to get out and practice group shooting. I shot 7 C-zone hits out of 100. The rest were A-zone hits. While not bad, I was disappointed. So, I want to get out there and do more work shooting groups.

I am gonna use some hard cover and or no-shoot targets as well to add a little challenge. This also teaches me what I need to see to shoot a quality shot in those scenarios.

Well I am off to do some strength training now. ;-) Need to start running sometime too. %-)

New Sponsor & Airsoft Training

Recently I approached Evike.com about sponsoring my training with Airsoft products and they agreed to help me out. A big thank you goes out to Julie and Evike.com for your support. I appreciate everything and I feel I can help support their company through directing the many people interested in an affordable alternative to live fire training for USPSA competition.

Today I set up the camera and did some basic drills. I worked on unloaded gun starts from a table and a standard drills reloading from the belt.

Training went well. Even with monkeying around with the camera. :-) I shot about 360 rounds today. I shot the steel really well. Hits on target were pretty good as well. All considering my mind was more on videoing and making a video for uploading to YouTube.

I think I really got the point across to go to Evike.com! LOL Check it out below:

Freedom Gunworks paint job

Today I received my new grip from Bobby at Freedom Gunworks. I had to reinstall a pin in the new grip to deactivate the grip safety. But other than that it was pretty straight forward. Now all my gear will match a bit better and not clash so bad. LOL

Airsoft Training

Today was focused on longer range shooting. I set distance to targets at 11 yards. With the miniture targets, that roughly mimic'd a distance of 25 yards visually. At this distance the airsoft gun looses it's accuracy. Especially when low on gas. So the results are more humbling. But this definitely puts a premium on accuracy! I could see some of the bb's fly wildly when fired resulting in hits that where not where I had aimed.

I set up two hard cover paper targets and two mini pepper popper targets. Here is what the target array looked like:

I fired 360 rounds today. I practiced target transitions left to right and right to left. I also varied start position from hands at sides draw and surrender draw. I shot 120 rounds for groups. Firing twelve-10 shot groups. All shots today were fired freestyle. I am faster shooting left to right. Most likely due to being right handed and right eye dominant. I can pick up the targets faster in that direction.

I had great sight focus and awareness and called every legitimate miss along with the wild flyers do to gear limitations. I logged 7 misses on paper and 7 missed shots on steel. In all honesty, five paper misses and 4 steel misses where gear induced. So that leaves the 5 other misses that I am resposible for. Which is still acceptable shooting at hard cover and mini steel targets at about 25 yards. I still will work to improve that figure. I will have to get out with live match ammo and work at this distance and beyond to futher train on accuracy.

Airsoft Training

Today's work involved no-shoots and head shot only drills. I placed 3 targets with 3 no-shoot penalty targets in front to obscure the targets.

I worked on drills freestyle, strong hand only, weak hand only. I also practiced some speed draws and mozambique drills.

All done, I fired 250 rounds. I only had one miss/no-shot hit. The rest were all A-B-C zone hits. I really focused on seeing the sight and lead with my eyes well today. From the results, I can see how well I have improved in this area.

I would have liked to use more distance on the targets to enhance the premium on accuracy, but my training area didn't allow that option. I will work on doing more long range training as soon as time and availability permit.

Airsoft Training

Spent time with the kids all last week so I didn't get out and train. But today, I managed to log in a 240 round session on two slanted hard cover targets and three pepper poppers

Today's training consisted of freestyle, stronghand only and weakhand only drills. I also varied the starting hand position.

No real issues with the airsoft gun and equipment. Basically fill the mags with bb's and gas, shoot, let them warm in the NM sun while I shot the next mag. By time I was through 4 mags and filled them up again they ran fine.

Results were average. I had 1 missed shot on steel stronghand only and 2 missed shots on steel weakhand only. I pushed the envelope on the speed in training as usual. But I have noticed an improvement on the steel shooting skills. Paper targets yielded good hits.

There is a prop offered by Cabela's that I found interesting and would help improve my Texas Star shooting skills. It seems pretty interesting and may be something I aquire in the future.

Product Description:

Explosive shooting fun results when you test your skill against this rotating target holder. The wheel holds nine VisiChalk targets on a sturdy metal frame, and rotates when a target is hit to increase the challenge. With adjustable legs, you can set the unit up on uneven ground. Hits produce a cloud of colorful nontoxic, biodegradable chalk dust visible at long range. Includes 18 colored target discs.