My Pre-Season Preparion for the 2019 Shooting Season

Back in November, I posted my 2018 Shooting Season in Review article and talked a bit about what my plans were for 2019.  It’s now the beginning of March, and I want to take a look back at both the off-season, and the “pre-season” of 2019, as I’m about to kick off the 2019 shooting season in earnest.

THE OFF-SEASON

Depending on where you live in the US, you might not actually have an “off-season.”  Here in Southwestern Ohio, outdoor matches run from the beginning of April through the end of October (plus or minus a couple of weeks on either side).  I for one am happy for the off-season – it’s a great opportunity to recharge, re-assesses, and work on new things.  As planned, I took off all of November and December from dry fire practice, but continued to shoot both “for fun” and competition.  By the time January rolled around, I was itching to jump back into regular training.  During this time, I also took a hard look at my gear and made a few minor but significant changes:

PISTOL

I had great success with the SIG Sauer P320 X-Five during the 2018 season shooting both Carry Optics in USPSA and Steel Challenge as well as Production (at one match) in Steel Challenge.  I will continue to shoot the X-Five in 2019.  The one minor change I will make is to the grip module.  During the 2018 season, I mostly shot with a stippled and cerekoted grip module.  The stippling was great, but I still ended up using Pro Grip on my hands, particularly when shooting on hot days with sweaty hands.

I also had Alma Cole (former Team SIG shooter and well known in the SIG community) give one of my stock X-Five grip modules a silicone Carbide treatment.  Admittedly, I didn’t care for it at first – my right hand was bleeding after the first dry fire session.  After my hands got used to the rougher grip texture and I took some sandpaper to a few of the sharper sections, I found that the silicone carbide grip really was head and shoulders above anything else in terms of a no-slip grip.  For the 2019 shooting season, I plan to use Alma’s silicon carbide grip exclusively and even ordered a 2nd one for my back-up X-Five (which I sometimes shoot in Production division).

PCC

The SIG MPX has been my PCC of choice since PCC was a thing, and that will continue in 2019.  In fact, I’ve added the new SIG MPX PCC as a backup gun to my SIG MPX carbine, which has received some significant upgrades.  I replaced the stock MPX barrel with an In Lead We Trust 16″ barrel and replaced the stock handguard with the Isler Custom Gun Works Carbon Fiber Hand Guard for the MPX.  I’ve been using this configuration for the last 90 days, and have roughly 1000 rounds through it in both pre-season matches and practice.  Reliability has been rock solid, and I’ve seen big improvements in my performance thanks to the significant weight reduction.

AMMUNITION

Late last year I began using Federal Syntech 150gr. 9mm ammo for my “match ammo” for both pistol and PCC and I remain positively thrilled with it – I’m sure I have over 5000 rounds down range.  Federal announced a Syntech variant at SHOT Show this year designed specifically for PCC which I will probably try, but for now I’m planning on shooting Syntech 150gr. at all my matches this year.

OTHER GEAR CHANGES

The only other big change I made was to add some more and colorful CR Speed Versa Mag Pouches to my pistol/PCC belt.  The additional holsters aren’t really necessary for USPSA in Carry Optics but is helpful for Steel Challenge for when I come to the line with 5 magazines.  The red and black motif is something that’s used throughout my clothing and gear.

Last year I started wearing Hunters HD Gold shooting glasses, and I got a 2nd pair when my eyeglasses prescription changed in January.  This year I’ll be shooting the new Velocity frames – look for a review coming soon here on ThruMyLens.  Spoiler warning – they’re fantastic!

The only other piece of gear I want to mention is my RangeRunner XL Gun Cart from Range Tactical Gear.  This was another addition that was made late in the season last year but wow is it incredibly nice to have.  Expensive?  Yes.  Worth.  Every.  Penny.

PRE-SEASON

January through March was extremely cold and had quite a bit more snowfall than we typically see in SW Ohio, which left little opportunity for getting to the range for live fire practice.  I can count on one hand the number of times weather permitted outdoor shooting during this time.  So I didn’t get as much time to shoot some of my other non-competition guns as I’d originally planned.  Bummer.  But, starting in January, I did return to dry fire on a weekly basis – usually 4 times a week (sometimes a bit more, sometimes a bit less).  I usually dry fire 1st thing in the AM (after the dogs have been put out and fed breakfast) for about 15-20 minutes per gun.  That may not sound like much, but this year I’ll be shooting pistol, PCC, rifle, and shotgun in USPSA, Steel Challenge, and 3-Gun.  At a minimum, that’s 4 different firearms, so dry fire usually takes me around 1-1.5 hours.  In reality, I most often practice pistol and PCC in dry fire, with shotgun coming in a couple of times a week (mostly for reload drills).  Luckily, there are a couple of indoor matches I shot during the off/pre-season – one of which is a weekly match.

Currently I’m practicing the same dry fire drills I did last year – I have three which are mainstays for me, and about 5 others that I rotate on an ad hoc basis.  The focus for these drills is a consistent and fast draw, smooth and fast transitions, and of course quick and consistent reloads.  The big change for me is that I’ve shaved quite a bit of time off the par times for each drill.  One of the mainstay parts of my routine is to practice both the left and right side of the Steel Challenge stage Showdown (via banners which simulate the target presentation).  I’m using par times for both pistol and PCC which equate to “GM” level performance on each.  I’ve also shaved .3 seconds off my El Prez dry fire par time, which is significant.  My goals for both USPSA and Steel Challenge are to “class up” in each division.  In USPSA, I want to go from C Class Carry Optics to B class (this should be easy as I’ve been a fraction of a point from B class forever…I just wasn’t able to shoot many USPSA matches in 2018) and from PCC B Class to A Class (I’m fairly close now).  In Steel Challenge I want to go from Carry Optics B Class to A Class, and from PCCO A Class to M Class.  I don’t really have any set goals for 3-Gun – I didn’t shoot any 3-Gun matches last year.  I shot a very cold mini-match in February and had a very solid performance, and a mid-pack finish.  I don’t know that I will shoot any 3-Gun majors this year, but do want to hit a local match every month that fits in my schedule.

I’m getting ready to shoot my first Level I Steel Challenge match of the season this weekend.  I’m trying to temper my expectations, but I’ll be interested to see how my stage times for both CO and PCCO compare to my last match of the 2018 season (the Tennessee State Championship), which was my best performance of the year.  I’m hoping it will not only help “knock the rust off” of shooting Steel Challenge but also hopefully validate what I’ve been doing in dry fire.  The following weekend I have another Level I Steel Challenge match followed by a local United Multi-Gun League (UML) match.  Toward the end of the month I have a couple of USPSA outdoor matches on the calendar, including an all-classifier match.  So things are kicking into full gear quickly, but I’ll post an update article in a week or so with some initial results including any changes I’m making to my training schedule.