I shot a steel tournament tonight with the x-carry grip on my P320; it's a compact slide on the x-carry frame (the basic frame, no funnel and no weight).

I'm neither a particularly impressive shot nor remotely competitive. I'm not particularly experienced, as it's only recently that I've actually been entering any competitions, and even then never with any possibility of winning.

My times improved by over 100 seconds today, which is a quantum leap over where they've been; it's certainly not me. That is, I didn't make a drastic improvement overnight. I've only shot this pistol with the x-carry grip on it once, and that was at an indoor range, so running it on the steel today was different, and new. Despite that, and despite my own shortcomings, my times were substantially faster, which can only be on account of the pistol and frame. It's certainly not me.

I'm impressed.

Now, if I can only improve my own shooting to match...

Most of my improvements in shooting recently have been because of changes in My grip. If a grip module can improve My grip then it should improve my shooting. Amazing how little things can make a big difference. Congrats on finding something that helps!

This has got me thinking a lot since yesterday. Because there's nothing about my fundamentals that changed over night, it seems that the improvement doesn't reflect anything about me; it's the change to the P320, and possibly to to the grip.

This means that there's a fundamental flaw in what I'm doing and that the pistol has served as the crutch to overcome it. The most obvious thing this says to me, I think, is that this comes down to basic shooting and gripping, prep, follow through, and probably some anticipation in the shot.

Going from a G34 to the P320, it's not just the grip, I don't think, but perhaps that the P320 is allowing me to get away with fundamental mistakes that are amplified more in the G34. I should be able to shoot either one without any significant difference, and more importantly, if I'm shooting the Glock a lot more, then I should have done worse arriving with the P320 for the first time, new grip frame and all, to shoot. I think the difference in the times is certainly telling me something, but I'm not sure exactly what it is. It strokes the ego to think I made some kind of quantum improvement, but I know that's not the case...so the question I'm asking myself is what is the case.

It would seem that if I can pin that down, I'll have something concrete to work on. This seems like a golden opportunity to expose a major weak area, and I know it's staring me in the face and I can't see it. It's driving me nuts.

The G34 I've been taking to the meets is more than capable. It's a great pistol. At an indoor range, taking my time, I make small little groups and can do that all day. When I move onto little more dynamic environment, and speed up a bit, it all goes to hell, and even if I take my time and walk through the steel challenge, those tiny little paper groups are showing up as a bunch of flaws.

With the P320 I was able to move faster and transition better and was more accurate; my round count to finish a stage was less.

I do note that with the G34 and the Trijicon HD XR sights, the front dot has to be on the target, obscuring the point of impact to hit where I want to hit; with the standard Trijicon HD sights I've got on the P320, I'm hitting directly above the front sight. When I went to single hand, weak hand on a stage with a plate rack and a pepper popper, I was missing, and in an embarrassing turn, I shot for the plate on the rack and knocked down the pepper popper underneath it with the weak hand. That has to be pulling the shot, but then I noticed a lot of shooters missing those small plates weak hand, and several did what I did, too. Not an excuse, but an observation.

I’m with you on the X-carry grip. I don’t shoot competitively but adding that grip has really improved my shooting from a speed and accuracy standpoint. It has greatly improved my enjoyment of the gun itself. Now I just wish they’d make one for the 45 (could be a Dremel tool project in the future - at least the basic frames are cheap).

I ran it again this morning; whatever epiphany I was having the other night seems to have run its course: I still suck.

My youngest son shot his first match today with a stock P320; it went as one might expect for a first time out, teen.

It's clear that I need to get out and shoot a lot more.

Interesting thread. I think the match you shot very well is probably more indicative of what you could/should be shooting like. I would think the 320 suits you better. I am a SIG and Hk fanboy, and have been shooting my Hk's for the last 2 years, including the vp9, which I love. I started this year shooting my 320x5 then switched to a 226, then hkp30. Two weeks ago I went back to the 320x5 and was shocked at how well and fast I shot. I shot a uspsa classifier match and got bumped to b class after being stuck in c class for years. How much did the gun have to do with it? Well, I would say a pretty good amount considering I'd only shot it once in almost 6 months and that was the week before the match. Generally I will say I shoot all my guns pretty equally, but sometimes one may track better for you or align faster, etc. I think if you keep competing you will see pretty good results with the 320. Not that you couldn't do as well or better with any other gun, but that one may have a faster learning curve for you. Please keep us updated.

Upon further reflection, I may be using the wrong ammunition, as the steel targets seem to be repelling it.

Did you by chance have your ammo sitting next to a large magnet?

quote:

Originally posted by dc54:
Did you by chance have your ammo sitting next to a large magnet?

Yes. One of those newfangled brass and lead magnets.