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It was a short day for me. I had to leave after my third stage to go to a birthday party.

I felt like I shot pretty well. I had one miss from utter confusion on a stage, and one miss from not using my front sight, but other than that I did ok. Oh, and I also hit some square tubing that was part of a barricade that got in my way. It was kind of funny, bang GONG bang. I didn't shuffle over enough to get an unobstructed view of the target.

I recall seeing the front sight more than I have at some previous matches anyway.

I really wanted to put my new draw into practice on this match, but as fate would have it two of the stages I shot were barrel starts, and the other was a draw into portal so I didn't get a chance to use it.

No glaring issues today, I'm happy. Not fast at all, but I was just there for the trigger time more than anything.

This is not an AAR because, firstly there was no action and in my opinion the term is misused when discussing a civilian firearms class, and secondly I am way too lazy to write one. You can read one here if you want to.

Todd is a great instructor. Knowledgeable, funny, and seriously dedicated to his craft. Apparently he's going to be coming twice a year to that particular facility, and I would definitely take the class again, or any other class he offers for that matter.

I did not learn a whole lot of new things. That's not surprising, I have a stack of certificates from classes offered by KR Training and Rangemaster and there's a lot in common between the three instructors.

What I did learn was a better way to do my press out.

What I originally learned was to bring the gun up to a ready position pointed at the target and roughly over your heart. Then you push the gun forward, pick up the front sight, apply pressure to the trigger, and if all goes right the shot breaks at full extension with the front sight on what you are trying to hit. I'm not going to lie, that was always a bitch for me. It literally took years for me to be able to pick up the front sight on every press out, especially under stress. I did finally get the hang of it though and haven't really thought about it in a while.

Todd's way is to bring the gun to a ready position where your eye, the front sight, and the target are all in line. The gun is angled up, but your finger is not on the trigger. As you press out, you rotate the gun so your rear sight is now lined up with the front sight and you can place your finger on the trigger. From there, it's the same. You continue adding pressure to the trigger so that the shot breaks at full extension with the sights on the target.

I don't want to start a war or anything between the two schools of thought here. I can see how the original ready position has some benefits. It's better at retention, and you can shoot from that position if you need to. I didn't really like the idea of a ready position that has the gun pointed up at first as up is not always a safe direction, and likely frowned upon at some ranges, but it's not really any different than doing a reload, so I guess I was able to rationalize my cognitive dissonance away. Todd's way really makes my wrists hurt after a while too which he says is because I don't crouch enough. (Then I crouch more and my back hurts. Sucks getting old.)

So long story short, I have to put some reps in on my press out.

About the FAST drill. I have shot it once before with Hsoi. I don't really do drills. I don't know why, I just don't get a big kick out of them and if there's other people there it makes it a big hassle to do them. Anyway, I don't remember my times from that range trip, but I don't think I ever shot it either fast or clean, and we weren't even doing it from concealment.

I was able to get 8.00 seconds on my final FAST drill @ AFHF. No penalties. I literally jumped for joy. It's not really a great score, to be honest, but I earned it. Messing with my draw was really giving me fits all weekend, and I was putting huge amounts of stress on myself to get a good score. Had we just showed up and shot the FAST drill 300 times that weekend I'm sure I could knock enough off to get an advanced score, but I wouldn't have learned anything. To learn a new technique and use it to get a personal best is a pretty big deal in my book.

I am the quintessential crammer. In college I would never go to class, never do homework, occasionally show up for labs, and then teach myself everything that would be on the test a couple nights (often only one) before taking it. My grades sucked, but I graduated. (Of course I will tell my kids a different story, but I digress.)

When it comes to work I only cram in certain contexts if I can do anything about it. As a rule, you can't produce stuff that sucks if you want to stay in business, employed, etc.

However, I still cram. I always set all these goals about how much practice I am going to do before the next match, or training class, but I never achieve them.

Realizing that practicing every weekend just isn't an achievable goal right now, I have endeavored to practice in smaller chunks.

Dry fire is a big part of that. I'm doing little 10 minute sessions whenever I have time or need a break from work.

Another thing I'm doing is getting my eyes used to darting around and changing focus. It sounds weird, but it helps with eye stress from staring at a monitor all day and has some practical application to shooting.

And finally, a big "cram" practice session at the range the evening before the match or whatever.

I'm taking a class in two weeks for the first time ever from someplace other than KR Training, so I will be testing this method of practice. I know it's not ideal, but it's what I have time for and is hopefully better than nothing.

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a prepper, at least not compared to the folks on TV.

I think we could go 2-3 weeks if something did happen, and that should be long enough for us to either figure out a plan or for whatever it was to blow over. There are a lot of unlikely things that could happen that I am not prepared for, but so be it.

Ok, that out of the way ...

Our fridge died last week, and our new fridge wasn't delivered until yesterday. We had to throw all our perishables into ice chests, and to make matters worse the wife had just gone to the store.

Anyway, it occurred to me that if I was a prepper, it might not be a bad idea to get another freezer and just keep it full of ice. With the right ice chest, and enough ice to dump in it, you might be able to get 4-5 days before it reached an unsafe temperature. Plus, if the world is ending, it would be nice to have a few ice cold beers just before it happens.

So the first trip with our new pop up camper/trailer is over.

Fun was had.

It tows really well with my wife's pickup. You would hardly know it was back there, until it was time to stop. With the tow-haul mode engaged on the transmission it does some pretty aggressive downshifts when braking.

Trailer brakes will be added next time. Legally I don't need them for this size trailer in my state (Texas), but more safety is a good thing. I have all the parts, just need the time now.

I discovered the water tank fill line is broken and there is no storage tank for grey water. Also, the outside grill is missing the parts to mount it to the camper, but I think I am just going to chunk it.

The furnace works well though. It got fairly cold one night and we appreciated it. I wasn't sure we really needed it as I have camped many times in the Texas "cold" with just a sleeping bag, and not your super duper arctic expedition bag either. I have to admit coming into a warm camper after shivering around my pitiful excuse for a camp fire was nice.

The beds were surprisingly comfortable. They don't look that comfortable, but I laid down and went to right to sleep both nights.

It's nice to be able stand up inside. Unless it's a big 8 man tent, I am always hunching over inside a tent and that get's old.

Set up was pretty easy. Luckily I didn't have to do anything to level it side-to-side, so it wasn't anymore involved the pitching a tent (heh).

Next time I would like to tow it with my Jeep someplace more off the beaten path.

First night match in at least 6 months. The weather was perfect, a little humid but a nice breeze with temps in 60's.

We had to shut down early because of complaints from neighbors, but I managed to shoot all the stages plus the bonus. I'm thinking there won't be another night match there anytime soon.

This was the first time I had shot a night match with "normal" sights. Usually I use my M&P Pro with a fiber optic front sight. The difference was huge. Whereas before there was just little bit of dull red plastic, there is now a bright white beacon. I just don't think you can beat a single white dot when using a flash light at night.

The match is more set up for carbines than for one handed pistol shooting, so it was pretty challenging. Hitting an IPSC target 43 yards away shooting one handed with a pistol against the clock, is not easy and not something you get to do very often. I wouldn't say it's the ultimate test of marksmanship, but I have done other matches where it's just kind of a hose fest with a flash light, and I prefer it with the long shots. You really have to have a good trigger pull or you will end up with a lot of misses. (I had too many of those myself.)

One thing I found was that the neck index method doesn't work for me when shooting through small portals. I eventually had to resort to shooting where I thought the targets should be. I only missed one out of four, believe or not.

The bonus stage was shooting a suppressed AR from LaRue Tactical. That was sweet. The targets were 240 yards away and lit up with a strong spotlight. It was blowing pretty strong from right to left, so I aimed for the right edge of the target. I hit 3 out of 5, which is ok I guess. That was one sweet rifle. I've never shot an AR all tricked out like that. The trigger was around 2-3 lbs and had a short and crisp reset. Basically, completely unlike my AR's trigger. Me want.

I bought a used pop up trailer. I know RV camping is rather frowned upon by some, but I'm at that point in life where sleeping on the ground isn't fun anymore.

It took me a while to find something in my price range that wasn't all worn out, had holes in the canvas, etc., and also had the features I wanted. I went to look at it during the day, and it was nicer than I expected. I wasn't expecting perfection at the price I could afford, but it was nice and clean and didn't have any foul odors.

The night I took it home, the running lights wouldn't come on. The brake lights worked, so I drove it with the hazards on. This probably should have been a clue, but I found a blown fuse on the truck and just shrugged it off.

We are taking it out this weekend so I spent last weekend getting it prepped, and it sure turned into a chore.

I replaced some missing bulbs and lenses for the running lights but I still can't get the lights to come on. The previous owner said that they never came on until he started driving and the trailer got a good ground through the ball. This should have been clue #2, as there's a ground wire in the trailer's wiring connector that connects to the vehicle.

I verified the truck was putting out the proper voltage at the proper places so I began to concentrate on the trailer. I decided I needed to charge the battery and I would just start jumpering connections and see what happened.

Well, the battery was dead, and my charger couldn't bring it back to life. No big deal really, but here goes a trip to Autozone. I knew I needed some stuff so I could hook up the charging wire on the truck, so I could at least accomplish two things on this trip.

I get back and plunk the battery onto the trailer and hook it up, and wire up the truck. I decided to plug the trailer into the truck to see if it works. *POOF* smoke and sparks come out of the connector and I trip the circuit breaker on the battery.

Ok, something really isn't right, and I'm frustrated.

After I chill for a while, I get my multimeter out and sure enough the + and - are reversed in the trailer's connector. I switch them, and since I have the connector apart and a fresh battery I decide to start seeing what wires go to what.

Nothing.

I assumed the trailer was grounded to the battery, but it's starting to look like it isn't or it was but the ground has gone bad. Unfortunately I don't have any 10 gauge wire handy, so off I go back to Autozone.

So now the trailer has a proper ground, and I start figuring out what each wire does. Except for the tail lights, everything was wired wrong in the connector. That's now fixed.

I have working lights. Yay.

On to the brake controller. I hook it up. It says I have no brakes. Damnit, how much stuff is wrong with this thing?

I had to pop open the pop up to trace the wires, and determined that only 3 volts are making it down to the axles. I ran out of time at that point and had to button everything back up.

I am going to roll with it as is, it's light enough that you don't really need trailer brakes. When I get to the camp sight and have everything open and have room to work on it, I will run new wires and hopefully that will be the end of it.

I decided to do some upgrades on my carry M&P after my last range day.

It's now sporting a KKM barrel and Warren Tactical sights.

I had a lot fewer shots go low and left, that's good. Some of that is definitely because I've actually been working on dry firing more, maybe all of it.

I did have some flinching. I hate indoor ranges because they are so loud and percussive, which are perfect conditions for developing a flinch, but the rifle club was washed out due to rain. Anyway, anytime I hit off, I couldn't recall seeing the front sight lift which means I'm blinking/flinching.

Groups were cut way down in size, maybe half after culling out fliers. But it's not really a good test because I could hardly see the bullseye on the targets. It's not bright enough downrange and my glasses were fogging badly so I ended up doing all my shooting at 7 yards due to that. Next time I get a chance I will go to the rifle club and do some experimenting with the stock barrel and the KKM barrel from a rest.

My reloads were hitting point of aim. Yay! My carry ammo was 2" low. Boo! Theoretically, at 25 yards my reloads will be high and my carry ammo will still be low, but probably not enough to matter for either. I can live with that.

Before




After

I don't reload much in the Summer if I can help it because my bench is in the garage and humans will expire after 5 seconds in my garage in the Summer. Ok, not really, but it's damned hot. I try to do all my reloading for the year in the Winter and Spring.

Today is a beautiful day, sunny and mild. Thought I would start loading up some of my 40S&W gaming load since I ran out last month.

Spent last night and the early part of this morning cleaning it up, and adjusting all my dies and what not.

I went to seat the first primer, and nothing. Ok, try it again. No primer. What the heck?

The plastic piece that holds the rod that the primer "slider" uses to move back and forth is broken, so the rod is just flopping around and not letting the slider make it's full length of travel.

Damnit.

I'll be calling Hornady on Monday.

I guess it wouldn't be a bad idea to pick up a hand primer. I could have gotten a couple hundred rounds done today, and that would get me through the next match. I'm going to pick one up.

UPDATE:

Hornady came through. Part is in the mail with no charge to me.