Using coach's eye with its timer feature I have been able to get fairly accurate splits on some of the gunslingers here in the Valley of the Sun. I am pretty confident that Thirsty's draw speed is 120 mls give or take 10 mls. Powder Keg's draw speed is 150 mls again +/- 10 mls. My draw speed is right around 160 mls.
Sunday we had an interesting match on Shady Mtn between Thirsty and Powder Keg. Before the light Powder Keg flinched but he did not move the gun in the holster. It was an observable body flinch. Thirsty drew on the flinch and hit a .307. Powder Keg then drew on the light and hit a .379. Okay, handjudges and range masters, call this one. Knowing the draw speeds of the shooters you can conclude that Thirsty had splits of reaction time 154 mls, draw time of 120 mls and flight time of .33 mls. Thristy clearly drew 154 mls after the light came on. Powder Keg would have been190/156/33.
I have been hearing rumblings that they is a move afoot to change the shooting distance or size of the target to get more hits. Nobody said anything to me probably because I am such an opinionated fella. If you can't hit the target shooting 3s then either you are practicing missing or you have a draw that is inherently inaccurate. If you practice enough to shoot threes, then you practice enough to be hitting 80%.
I went to the mountains and practiced exclusively speed. Screwed up my draw. Came back and could not hit the inside of a barn. Grail fever will do you in quicker than any other ailment. My fault. No need move the targets closer, I just got to remember that a fast miss will not help me against that gunfighter I have to face, whether he is a world champion or that ten year old that does not miss.
"Quick don't mean much in a gunfight!" Little Bill, Unforgiven.
1. re changing target size or distance: Bad idea. The standard gunfight distance is seven yards (2 feet) Lots of people practice at seven yards in many disciplines. If they want to be really deadly, they'll go t a man-size target at 9 feet, but that seems a bit much. The 24 inch target at 21 feet is perfectly "hittable". Fast is fine, but accuracy is final. Or, you can't miss fast enough to win in this game.
ReplyDelete2. Good job analyzing he reaction/draw/flight times. Altough I am curious how you got your flight time at 33. Down here near sea level, our bullets fly (based on my chronograph) at 610 fps. Basic math tells me that my bullet flight time is 34 mls. Not that it makes that much difference, but I'm always playing with numbers.
3. "whether he is a world champion or that ten year old that does not miss.". Heh! yeah, those kids will beat you every time.
Good post, and even though I'm not fast yet, I still like reading your stuff. Keep putting it up.
Major D.
That should be seven yards (21 feet) above. Damned keyboard.
ReplyDeleteThanks. My math was 1÷650×21. The video actually appear to have a slower flight time but since the other splits are +or - 10 mls, flight time has least variance.
ReplyDeleteThanks. My math was 1÷650×21. The video actually appear to have a slower flight time but since the other splits are +or - 10 mls, flight time has least variance.
ReplyDelete