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After 17 Hours on the road yesterday, we made it home last night. I will be making a full report later on, complete with some video and pictures from the match. Congrats to KC, Dave and all the winners!

Rimfire Match update

Busy night tonight, so not much time for an update. For those following my Facebook page, you’ll already know that I had some ammo issues throughout the match, namely, rounds not going off. Needless to say, it didn’t lead to my best performance… Big congrats to Dave Sevigny, the 2010 Rimfire Champion, and also setting the new fast time for the Rimfire match, right around 64 seconds.

Looking forward to the Limited and Open matches, hopefully I’ll be able to make the ground up to be in the hunt for SteelMaster. All I can do is try and go 1 for 1 and see what happens!

Facebook was not wanting to let me upload pictures, always says the upload fails right at the last second. I’ll try and work on it some more tomorrow, but I think the wireless network may not have enough upload bandwidth to get the job done. Keep looking on the Facebook to get current updates from the range!

Titusville Day 2

Had another good practice day again today. I feel confident going into tomorrow’s Rimfire match. I shot about 1000+ rounds of Rimfire, and cleaned my gun a bit. Thanks to the Aimpoint Micro, I don’t have to worry about my zero wandering. I checked it and didn’t have to adjust it at all. I haven’t had to adjust it since…well…since I put it on the gun over a year ago!

I saw Dave, K.C., and a bunch of other folks I haven’t seen in a while. They all look like they had a good practice today too, so I’m sure it’s going to be another exciting match this year.

Looks like there’s rain coming in tonight. I hope it doesn’t affect tomorrow too much. Maybe it’ll just blow right through here.

Not much else to update on, just trying to relax and get pumped for tomorrow.

Titusville, Day 1

Got in around 10 PM yesterday night, pretty much went straight to bed, 17 hours in the truck sure didn’t treat my back very well…

After hitting Wal-Mart for a few supplies, Dad and I got out to the range and started in on practice. I always start off with Limited, then progess to Open and finish with rimfire (if there’s interest, I may write an article on why I practice that way). After working the kinks out with each gun, I was shooting very well and now I feel great heading into tomorrow and then the match starting Friday. All of my equipment is running great, so I don’t foresee anything to hold be back from performing my best this weekend.

Saw some familiar faces and had some good conversations with friends, so I’m feeling pretty good mentally and physically. Lucie flies in tomorrow afternoon so I’m really looking forward to her being here for the match. Will post some more and try for some pictures tomorrow evening.

Daily updates from Titusville

As we close in on the US Steel Shoot in Titusville, look here for a daily update from the match. Also look for pictures and updates from the range on the Facebook fan page.

Tactical Solutions Products

Hey Guys,

I’ve been getting a lot of requests for the TacSol 2211 uppers with the aluminum barrel like I use on my steel gun. Soooo, in response to this demand, they have a run of barrels available through me, both as complete kits and barrels to add to your existing 2211 Conversion. Right now, there are the following available:

2 Blue Threaded End
1 Red Threaded End
3 Matte Black Threaded End

They have more threaded end and standard non-threaded barrels that have not been anodized yet, so you can order one of those in any of the colors TacSol offers with the lead time of getting it anodized. The price for these uppers will be the same as the normal steel units, please see their website for all the options.

I also have a special run of the AR-22 uppers available with a Stainless barrel. These uppers are set-up the same way as the LT uppers, with a free-float handguard, and .920 barrel and 1/2 X 28 threaded end. Price for these is $650.

If you order something direct from TacSol, don’t forget to use the code NORRISVIP2010 at checkout for 10% off of your order!

New Sponsor

Hey guys, I’m very pleased to announce that I am now working with MGM Targets to promote and represent their high-quality line of products. Travis and Mike are two great guys in the sport and do a lot to support it through the Ironman match and the Junior camp done in partnership with USAMU. Please remember to support the people who support us!

Training with a .22

As an instructor and shooter myself, probably the most common error I see in pistol shooting is trigger control. The importance of trigger control can’t be overemphasized in pistol shooting, if you cannot fire the gun without moving it, almost every other aspect of shooting is null and void. There are several ways to help your trigger control, shooting groups and dry fire are two such ways, but both of those have their own issues.

Shooting groups with your normal centerfire gun gets expensive very quickly, even if you do reload, and also the recoil and blast of the round can mask the small imperfections in your technique that make all the difference as the range increases.

Dry fire trigger control practice can get boring, that leads to sloppiness which only reinforces the bad habits that you are trying to work out of your shooting. Without objective feedback on target, it’s very hard to tell if you are improving. It’s also easy to do since you know that the gun is not going to fire, so there is no reason to flinch or pull away.

Which leads us to looking somewhere in between, something affordable, yet provides objective feedback, both on target and recoil when we pull the trigger, enter a high-quality .22 pistol. I’ll talk about what it has done for my shooting in a second, but first lets go over my criteria for a gun to fit this training purpose. The first thing is that it must be accurate, otherwise it will be impossible to gauge your improvement rate and if you even have a problem at all! Second, it must be reliable, nothing will disrupt  your focus faster than your equipment not working correctly. Third, it must have good sights and a good trigger, both of these are almost mandatory if you want to do well shooting groups at 15, 20 and 25 yards. My choice is a S&W M41, which right out of the box fits all three categories about as well as any gun can. You’ll also need a total of about 5 magazines.

Now that you have your .22, how to use it? Well, I like to use a five bulls-eye target from LE Targets, called the SI-5, set at anywhere from 10-25 yards depending on your skill level. Most of my practice is done at the 15 yard line. The goal is to shoot the tightest possible group, even if it isn’t dead center in the target. By shooting a small group, you reinforce making sure the sights are in exactly the same place and holding them there until the bullet leaves the barrel of every shot. There are several other games you can play as well, such as rapid fire groups and transition groups, albeit with a larger area for the rounds to hit.

After about a week of 2-300 rounds of slow-fire .22 a day, I noticed a huge improvement in my Steel Challenge shooting, being much more consistent and accurate on the plates, even shooting faster in some cases since I had practiced putting the sights on a small point quickly. I’m ready to find out what a month or two of the same routine will bring to the shooting line!

Aimpoint Micro R-1 for sale

Hey guys, I’m selling the Aimpoint R-1 off of my steel gun, it has a small ding on the top of tube near the front objective, but otherwise it’s in great shape. Just decided to replace it with an H-1 so all of my battery caps/screws, etc are interchangeable. $475 to your door in the lower 48. email is BJ (@)bjnorris.com

Items for sale

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