On Sunday, I shot in Double Tap's group instead of with Mez, like I normally do. Because of this, I didn't have anyone to video me. Or so I thought. Double Tap has some fancy shooting glasses with a camera built in and since I'm vertically challenged, he was able to video my stage by merely standing behind me. I haven't decided if that's a good or bad thing, though.
It was a slow stage. I made the conscious effort to reload multiple times instead of running to slide lock. The reasons for that were the swingers and poppers. I had just enough rounds loaded to activate them, but even with my extended 10-round mags, I wouldn't have had enough rounds to engage the targets.
I shot the left hand side of the stage mostly weak-handed, which I think is good practice, so I'm not too terribly disappointed in scoring an eight on the swinger.
I shot the right side of the stage strong-handed and I think the transition between shooting weak- and strong-handed is becoming easier. Of course, it's always much more comfortable to shoot strong-handed, but switching back and forth between them is becoming much smoother. If for some reason my dominant arm was injured, I'm confident that I could make the switch to weak-handed shooting without even thinking about it.
Does anyone else practice weak-handed shooting? How about switching between the two? What are your feelings on it?
Update: Scores are in. I came in second to last in my class (mags with 10 rounds or less). We had only eight shooters in my class; the top four or five were decided by tenths of seconds. Not too surprising, actually. The 1911 shooters are REALLY good. Really, really good.
However, when I compared the overall scores, I beat nine of the high-cap shooters. Which means that even with more required magazine changes than they had, I shot faster and cleaner. I'm okay with that, since on average their magazines hold seven more rounds than mine do.
Also, the side match with borrowing Double Tap's AR and having problems with unslinging and the stupid magazine release was surprising to me. I did not come in dead last. You could have knocked me over when I saw that on the score sheet. My raw score was competitive, but once my penalties were added in, it dropped me to seventh out of ten.
I never felt comfortable shooting with either hand, so I constantly switched between the two. Pretty soon, I couldn't TELL which was my weak hand and which was my strong hand.
ReplyDeleteI typically carried while riding a motorcycle, so it was nice to know that if I needed to draw while at a stoplight or a sign, I could do so with my right hand and not worry about dumping the clutch and causing an embarassing or life threatening tip-over.
I am also normally right-handed, so I tend to carry things in my right. It was comforting to know I could still draw and fire left-handed with about the same accuracy.
All bets are off if a reload is necessary, though, as I am still predominantly right-handed. Never thought a reload would be necessary when carrying a .45. If you can't stop the threat in 8-10 shots, you proabably shouldn't be shooting at it. My thinking has changed, now, but I was pretty young and green back then.
Deej
Yep- I shoot weak handed as much as I can. Not only is my weak hand connected to my dominant eye, at this very moment my strong hand IS injured. Gripping anything snugly, holding up any kind of weight right now is OUT of the question. Completely. So more weak hand practice it is.
ReplyDelete(The injury? Tendonitis. From knot tying. Yep. Been tying a.lot. of knots.)