Afternoon/Evening at The Range

Catfish of The Texican Tattler invited me to join the Dallas Action Pistol Shooters for a practice session at Quail Creek Public Shooting Range this afternoon. So after work I hurried home, got my gear (forgot my hat) and headed near to Denton to learn a bit from one of the better action pistol shooters in the Metroplex.

Did I mention it was near Denton? There is always something going on with the 35W so I left early to get there on time. It's a good thing I did. One dead school bus in the left hand lane followed by one dead tractor trailer in the right hand lane intermixed with a couple of wrecks in the opposite direction that everyone had to stop and gawk at made a usual 40 some aught minute drive last north of an hour. Pulled into the parking lot just before 6:00, paid the range fees and met all the guys. Turns out I knew most of the folks there from the Cross Timbers IDPA matches, so I fit right in.

I decided to use my Fobus paddle holster for the first set of drills. I pretty much never use the Fobus for anything other than a handy place to keep my pistol when I'm at the range doing something other than drills. I had a bit of trouble getting the gun out so I switched over to my Milt Sparks that I use for my daily carry and for matches.

I had a great time and Catfish pointed out some areas where I have backslid. I have been working on double taps and three shot drills so much that a nice and consistent 6 shot cadence was problematic. It was bang bang - bang bang bang - bang - bang bang. I'll have to work on that. My draw has also gotten sloppy, I have to go back to slowing down and working through each step.

The Kimber failed on the 11th round of the day. Hammer drop, nothing. Eject the round, hammer drop, nothing. Looking at the primers you could barely see a dent. Removed the firing pin and found nothing wrong. Reassembled the pistol and all was well. I'm really not sure what happened. I had a second failure, a double feed when shooting a five target stage. That was the only jam, and it was with the Wilson Combat ETM that I am testing. Zero failures with the Tripp Research magazine so far, and quite a few with the ETM. I am about ready to pass these on to someone else to continue the test.

It was a good afternoon that went into the evening. I put about 130 rounds down range and found some things that I need to work on before we go to Blackwater with Todd Jarrett.

It is outstanding that catfish does this for the local action pistol shooters who want to improve their abilities and I am sure to be taking advantage of this resource again and again.