Range Report: Practice and DSF104 Movement Clinic, 5/13/24

[BassCliff]

Hello everyone,

We had some wild weather today here in the Upper Midwest. I was hoping to get my lawn mowed before the rain started. The weather app on my phone said it would start about 8pm. "Plenty of time," I thought. My training session wasn't until 6pm. It started sprinkling on me about 3pm. I thought nothing of it. Then the lightening and thunder began. All I needed was 15 more minutes to finish the entire lawn. I decided to call it quits when the hail and wind gusts started. Maybe I can finish tomorrow.

Some of that hail was marble sized, most of it pea sized. I wasn't expecting that. I got myself cleaned up and put my kit together for the class. I'll be working out again with my new VP9. I think I may be ready to carry it after this training session.

I got to class a bit early so I had time to get on a lane and shoot a box for warm up. I loaded 10 rounds in 5 magazines and blasted away, a combination of rapid fire, speed and accuracy.

Yeah, I had a few flyers when I was really pumping the lead down range. The target was at a distance of 10 yards. All the hits made the silhouette, barely. Glam shot!

I guess I could've taken a little more time with my practice, possibly improved my accuracy, because class wasn't ready to start yet. So I took another stroll through the pro shop and talked to Bob about becoming an RSO at the range. He says they're always looking for RSOs and they'll even reimburse my training fees after a certain amount of time on the job. Cool. I asked Bob where the Hi-Point section was located. Believe it or not, they didn't have any. But he's be happy to order one for me.

After a short briefing in the classroom we got on the range. It was a small class that got smaller. We started with four students but one guy forgot a critical piece of his kit and decided to reschedule his session. So the three of us carried on. It was a fun session because the other two students, a married couple, and I have taken many classes together.

We grabbed a booth and got loaded up. I had condensed my gear down to my small range bag, bringing only the essentials.

Usually I bring everything, tools, timer, stapler, tape, etc, but not tonight. We started with some simple warm-up drills, single shots, double taps, triple taps, on command at 5 to 7 yards.

So far, so good. The instructors are going to start messing with us now, making us shoot faster, more complex drills, with movement pivoting 90 or 180 degrees, going out to 10 and 15 yards. Still, I'm hanging in there.

Drat, I had a few outside center mass and a couple of my head shots were low. I wonder what Ian and Ashley will come up with next. They're a good crew and it's always fun shooting with them. We're all headed back to the booths now to reload our magazines.

I haven't practiced much at 15 yards but my VP9 treated me well from this distance.

I actually hit a couple of head shots from here. I didn't do so well on the numbers unless we were at 10 yards or closer.

I'll be back in the next post to finish up. Thanks for looking!



Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[BassCliff]

Hi! I'm back!

Let's continue...

Yes, I shot the 124 grain S&B, almost 150 rounds tonight.

While we reload mags, Ashley is marking our targets just to see how we do on the next drill.

Ian had us do a few "3-2-1" drills. On command, three to center mass, two to the pelvis area, and one head shot. Seems this would come in handy if the bad guy was wearing armor. I did pretty well on this drill. Oh yeah, they'd call a number once in a while just to keep things interesting. Just one hit on the numbers.

Then we did a drill they like to call the "Tactical Stroll" where we walk in a line back and forth, up and down range, waiting for a command to fire. We have to watch our line and spacing, and be ready to pivot if we're facing away from the target. We had to be ready to shoot anywhere between 5 and 15 yards. But then they'd call something silly like "Seven!" but there isn't a seven on the target. Not to worry, they didn't catch me drawing my weapon when there was no target threatening me.

For the last drill we worked on a "Tueller" type scenario. The targets would pivot and we were to put hits on them when they faced us.

We started with a three second presentation, then 2.5 seconds, down to 2 seconds, and finally 1.5 second target presentation, putting one head shot on the target. The instructors were pleased with how fast the class was shooting tonight, with pretty good accuracy. This was my target toward the end of the night.

Yeah, there's a few I wish I could take back but that's why we practice, right? I got only six out of eight on the numbers when they were called as well as a little high on a few of the head shots. I was fairly pleased with my workout tonight. We packed up our gear and headed back to the classroom for a quick debrief.

The drive home was pleasant, no rain. It's fully spring here in the Wild Wild Upper Midwest and everything is getting really green. It's a lot greener here than where I used to live in California. I just miss the deserts and the mountains a little. But you know what? This place has great big gobs of water just laying around all over the ground. It's pretty cool.

I've decided I need to practice my speed draw a bit more and get that back in shape. I'll be working out on my laser range to try and get my hits under 1.5 seconds at five to seven yards. It's been a while and I'm a little rusty on the "speed" part. But first I'll need to clean some guns. I've been a bad boy. Hey, thanks for coming along. I'll see you next time. Be blessed.


Thank you for your indulgence,

BassCliff

 

[belladonna]

Looking pretty good to me Cliff!

 

[Belt Fed]

Nice shootin sir, all dead bad guys and awesome range and pro shop. but no Hi Point display? Really? i always get a kick out of indoor range pics and all the holes in the ceiling and walls.

 

[Bassbob]

Nice shootin’ Cliff.

 

[somorris]

Good job, Cliff!