My first post of this year briefly discussed my goal of doing 3,650 minutes of dry practice in 2019. These posts are mostly for my own accountability. Here are my results to this point in the year:
January 1 – 11: 200 minutes, January 12 – 31: 140 minutes
February 1 – 15: 140 minutes, February 16 – 28: 130 minutes
March 1 – 15: 160 minutes, March 16 – 31: 160 minutes
April 1: 10 minutes, L/R barricades, 10 minutes revolver maintenance
April 2: 10 minutes, L/R barricades with reloads
April 3: 10 minutes, L/R barricades
April 4: 10 minutes, L/R barricades with reloads, 10 minutes revolver maintenance
April 5: 10 minutes, two-handed presentation
April 6: 10 minutes, L/R barricades
April 7: 0 minutes
April 8: 10 minutes revolver maintenance
April 9: 10 minutes revolver maintenance
April 10: 10 minutes, OWB presentation
April 11: 0 minutes
April 12: 0 minutes
April 13: 10 minutes, OWB presentation
April 14: 10 minutes, OWB presentation
April 15: 10 minutes, AIWB presentation
Monthly Target: 300 minutes
Monthly to Date: 140 minutes
Cumulative Target: 1200 minutes
Cumulative to Date: 1,070 minutes (17 hours, 50 minutes)
Focus Areas
During this period I was a little less focused than I wanted to be. During this time I had to spend at least four days of driving in excess of seven hours, I made an offer on a house, and was cranking to get the Colt King Cobra review out, so my attention and energy were spread pretty thin. I did manage to get some decent training in, however.
My main focus areas were shooting around left and right barricades, working my 3 o’clock OWB draw, and maintaining my proficiency with the double action revolver trigger.
Left and Right Barricades
The first and most consistent portion of the month was spent approaching and shooting around left and right barricades. I got lucky on my first trip of the month and had an Airbnb with a big hallway that gave me plenty of room to work barricades on either side while still presenting my gun in a safe direction. This is something I had planned to work into my rotation so when the opportunity fell into my lap I took it.
Strong Side OWB Presentation
As I mentioned earlier I spent a ton of hours in the car during the first two weeks of April. I love my Precision Holsters Ultra Appendix holster, but after a couple hours of sitting in the car it gets really uncomfortable. I switched up to an outside-the-waistband rig for driving days (and I will cover it in detail in coming weeks). It also happens that the only holster I could track down for the King Cobra this early in its life cycle is a strong side, OWB rig.
On days that I carried in strong side OWB, I spent my time practicing drawing with it. When I shifted back to AIWB carry (my typical carry mode) I spent some time practicing drawing from that carry position.
Missed Days
After missing several days in March I was really focused on catching up and missing zero days in April. That obviously didn’t happen. I still feel pretty honest; the days I missed are because I was on the road and/or lacked a safe or private space to dry practice. Again, that is the beauty of trying to hit a cumulative average of ten minutes per day: a single bad day doesn’t shatter your record and if you get behind it’s easy to catch back up. I’m pretty happy with this program.
It’s not hard to find 10 minutes a day to dry practice. Take ten minutes you’d be spending vegging out on Instagram or in front of the TV and turn it into a tangible skill.
Liked it? Support RevolverGuy on Patreon!
Good on you for practicing in your Airbnb. I probably would have just written it off as a loss, but practicing around stuff outside your normal practice area is a good idea.
Wait til next week – I got another really cool session in on my last trip!