Training–Tale of the tape . . . .

 

The last number of posts I’ve really been working the detail of my range targets.  The idea here is to encourage you to monitor your performance – in detail – and the see what needs work.  Again, the camera in your phone is a great tool for documenting your range trip.

Today I left work a bit after 5PM.  Mrs. B has a church meeting tonight so supper will be a bit delayed . . . .  what to do, what to do.

So, off to the range for what turned out to be about 1.5 hours of training time.  Weather was sunny, temps in the low 60s and the entire pistol range was EMPTY!!!  What more could you as for!!!

I always start with a round with the .22/45 – kinda gets the juices flowing.  The target shows the results by looking at the squares, circles and triangles.   Circles from 15ft, triangles from 21ft and squares from 50ft (really, that much difference between 2 magazines???)

Anyway, that done I went through my standard drills with my Glock 17.  I reserved the 15ft line for the Close Hip only, the rest of the rounds of fire were from 21ft, 50ft and some from 75ft.  However the 50ft and 75ft were all 2-handed, full extension aimed fire.

The remain were from the 21ft and covered 2-Handed, Full Extension, 3/4 Hip and 1/2 Hip.  In total, 140 rounds were fired in all the drills.  If you have any interest, each drill is labeled and the results noted around the outside of the target shown here:

Again, as you spend time at the range, take time to document your efforts, it’s a great way to show progress and find your weak spots.

However, in this case, I want to take a broader view of the target and look at “the tale of the tape”.  I tape in between each round - right after I note the round number and my score.  My goal is 80% across the board.  Tonight – not so hot for some drills – heavy sigh.  Yet, the tape tells a fairly good story.

Considering you see 120 of the 140 rounds taped up, there is a good distribution center mass.  There is reasonable distribution along the spinal column.  There is not a band of tape below center mass indicating that there was not major issue with flinching.  Misses outside the silhouette are mostly in-line with the center mass hits rather than low/left, a continual problem I have.

Finally, a quick count shows  26 rounds off the silhouette which shakes out to 81% combat effective hits  for the trip.  Nice if it were higher, but gives me something to work on next time.

Bottom-line, use your targets, use some tape, track your results and at the end of the range trip, take some time to evaluate the “tale of the tape” – it can tell you a lot.