7th USPSA Match on Jan 12, 2026

BLACKSTONE JANUARY SECOND MONDAY MATCH

Stage 1: <Comstock>
- Start loaded and holstered with feet on XX's, hands by your side

- Shoot 3 IPSCs from the back right box, with 2 shots per target @7yd, **with strong hand only**

- Shoot 3 IPSCs from the middle box any way, with 2 shots each @5yd

- Shoot 2 IPSCs from the left front box, with 2 shots each @ 5yd

Learnings/Outcomes: 19/27 Overall, 7/10 Div

- 15A, 1C in 19.84s = 3.9315% HF

- I was a little nervous before the start of this

- I felt slow acquiring the dot with strong hand, but it's probably like that for everybody

- It was Blackstone's first time using snow fences for walls instead of the black contractor bag tarps

- I also felt slow on the second array with two hands, but I sped up as I went

- I was surprised to get as many As as I did, and to not hit any no-shoots

- I didn't try move-and-shoot today... the fault line boxes were small anyways

- I went for the hardest targets first, at each array, to control the throttle better

- Live firing again felt odd after doing a decent amount of dry fire

Stage 2: <Virginia>

- Start unloaded and holstered with feet on XX's

- Shoot 3 + 3 from the lane at 10-5yds, working around the snow fences with 2 shots/tgt

- Shoot 2 @15 and 10yd from the right box

Learnings/Outcomes: 16/27 Overall, 8/10 Div

- 15A, 1C in 18.29s = 4.2646% HF

- I was pretty precise this time

- I pushed the pace when I felt like I could and was able to keep accuracy up

- I actively stepped on the fault lines while staying in bounds

- Loading from cold is harder on the move vs static like I've been practicing 

- I chose to shoot from static positions again

- We had to thread the needle on one shot on the left side of the second array to avoid a no-shoot on the right and a snow fence on the left

Stage 4: <Comstock>

- Start loaded and holstered with feet on XX's and hands above shoulders

- Shoot 2 from the right box with 2 each @10 and 15yd

- Shoot 4 then 3 along the lane with 2 each @ 10-15yd

Learnings/Outcomes: 15/27 Overall, 6/10 Div

- 16A, 2C in 19.39s = 4.4353% HF

- I had some really nice pairs in the middle array

- I topped off while making ready, to avoid having to do a mag change on this 18rd stage

- I went R->L on each array 

Stage 3: <Comstock>

- Start loaded and holstered with feet on XX's

- From the right back box, shoot 3 targets with 2 shots each **with weak hand only** @7d

- From the middle box, shoot 3 targets 2x each any way

- From the left front box, shoot 4 targets 2x each any way

Learnings/Outcomes: 11/27 Overall, 3/10 Div

- I barely grazed a no-shoot but didn't hit the perf

- I chose to go to the back box first (the front and back boxes were equidistant) so that I could be fresh for left-handed shooting and throttle better

- I used good 1-handed form again, even though my thumb didn't look up in the video

- I wasn't that slow with shooting, even 1-handed, so only having 2 C's total is nice

- I went R->L in the middle array this time instead of going for the hardest first... the R target was kind of hard anyways since part of it was covered by a no-shoot, so it's not that inconsistent

- I had my first mag change of the match, which I did between the second and third arrays... I didn't want to do it between the 1st and 2nd arrays where I'd already be worrying about going from 1-handed to 2-handed

- I went CCW on the set of 4 targets at the end

- I did notice the up-side down target but had determined pre-stage that I'd still be good aiming for the center of mass

Overall: 14/27 Overall, 3/10 Div

- Good use of topping off pre-stage while making ready

- I've still been treating everything as Virginia count

- I felt like I was going fast at times and slow at times, but I always used my sights this match, which is a big win!

- Good stage prep execution

- Still reasonable to not try walk and shoot based on the stage designs today

- Good 1-handed shooting despite feeling like I was slow

(celebratory pistachio cannoli donut from The Salty)

POST-MATCH TRAINING

Tuesday, Jan 13:

18A "Upper Body Prep" in 26:28, then Glute and Pec PT v2 in 27:23, then "My Invention+" in 56:28 since I'm tapered from a workout perspective even if I'm still under the weather

Wednesday, Jan 14:

Rucked 3.5 mi at Renaissance Park with a 30#RPC in MACV2s after work.  They've built more of and changed up the trails, so the distance was longer than it was last time.

Thursday, Jan 15:

SB and I had a call with the Mammoth II girls, so I split this session up into 0.75hrs and 0.75hrs on either side.

- I started with static draws

- Added 90 degree turns

- Continued doing press-outs in between mag jamming

- Did 180 degree turns left and right

- Started drawing from hot but stepping up to an imaginary fault line... can't go too fast... need to treat it like a walk and shoot to stay stable.  You can make up time by taking bigger initial steps before dialing in the precision with smaller steps

- A little bit of multiple targets

- Walk to draw from cold and holstered... still amazing to me that the times can be not that far off from slower static draw times.

(continued celebrations)

Friday, Jan 16:

18A "Lower Body Prep" in 23:55, then "Lower Push BW" in 40:03

Saturday, Jan 17:

9.2 mi zone 2 trail run sticking to my target HR range this time at Latta Nature Preserve in 2:37:28 in Saucony Nomads (17:07/mi)

I wonder how much variety there is in peoples' laundry machine pocket- and machine- emptying dumps.

Sunday, Jan 18:

Dope collection day at Coleman's with SB.  Not ideal weather, but we only have so many free weekends to get necessary tasks done.

2-gun Bay: for 1 hour

- Started here since I wanted to stick with a 36yd zero.  The zero was still good, so I just slipped the turrets for the first time.  I didn't bother to slip the windage turret, so that'll just live at 0.1R for now.

- Afterwards, we did about 8 runs of the Armored Eagle Training Jan 2026 drill of the month.  It was the bill drill at 15yd with a target time of 3.5s.  The best I got was 8-ish seconds with one drop.  I tried to slow down to avoid drops, but I still got the drop.  We didn't stick around to try forever, since we had a lot of other things to take care of.

New Zero Bay: for 1 hour

- I got DA info (42*F, 29.59 Hg, 82%RH, -696 DA) and figured out my 100yd dope while getting chrono data, which averaged 2562fps, with an ES of 179.3 and an SD of 46.7.  There had been one outlier causing this.  

- I also checked zero on the MDT HNT in 6.5CM, which would be our primary weapon.  I adjusted 0.2 down after my initial 5-rd group, and after I confirmed, I saw that it was 0.1 high... I didn't touch it again, though

- In the meantime, SB got some trigger time on the FDE LMT, figuring out optical focus and butt stock lengths

KD Range: for 1 hour

- We figured out dope out to 600yd, although the results at 600yd were not consistent and swung by 0.3 in elevation.  We had about an 8mph wind.  I go transsonic at 650yd.  I got the initial numbers, then SB confirmed with her on the same gun.  Getting dope is definitely easier with a spotter!  

The numbers weren't lining up with kestrel as we got to 500yd and beyond, but we just wrote down all the results, and I'd figure out how to fit the curve by manipulating inputs later.

It was chilly, especially because I was damp from going prone at the cowboy bay to zero.

Monday, Jan 19:

18A "Upper Body Prep" in 25:53, then "Pull-ups" in 29:05 (not bad with lower-end reps), then "Dip Abs" in 27:49 where my straight leg lifts were ugly

Tuesday, Jan 20:

Dry fire for 1.25hrs

- Did walk-and-draw with waiting to hit a threshold before being "allowed" to shoot

- Presses

- Did walk-and-draw with shooting at will when ready (shaved off 0.1s without waiting)

Wednesday, Jan 21:

In the morning, I did a rare 5am workout.  Glute and pec PT v1 in 23:11, then HDT 31.1.2 (core) in 33:03, then 10x 60#SB squat cleans as a finisher (hadn't done these in a long time, and they were pretty good).  I had a lot to do this week but also wanted to maximize recovery time before this weekend's 10-hr adventure race in Virginia.

Went to Blackstone to re-zero on my reinstalled optic plate and optic on my oldest CZP10C, which I've been using for dry fire since it's beat up and lost its front sight anyways

To my delight, I didn't have to adjust anything.  It was still on.  I did a mag of ball and dummy to check zero.

Then, I did a couple mags of Haley Strategic's 5-4-3-2-bang and 4-3-2-bang, then 3-2-bang.  I was good about not pulling the trigger when I didn't have the shot despite the countdown.

I did some cadence drills, too.  Not bad.  I did have to re-grip after 3 shots early on, but it got a little better later.

Thursday, Jan 22:

I had more rucking to do before the upcoming end of the Pathfinder Ruck Training Class, so I did 4.5 in 1:19:27 at Renaissance Park, going pretty fast.  I did the normal [now extended] loop, plus the short course MTB course to add more, in Garmont T8s and a 30#RPC.  I had to get in what I could before the upcoming winter storm.

Friday,  Jan 23:

Cramming in more miles before the storm... 5.5 in 1:40:14 with 30# in the v2 Rucker, wearing Rough Runners, which were nice.  Went around the neighborhood at night.

Also built out dope cards for the TTG SC guns.

Saturday, Jan 24:

The adventure race ended up getting cancelled.  Sad for the MDs who put in a lot of work to plan it.  Sad for the participants because they had prepped for it and were looking forward to having a fun time there.  But the permits had been pulled for the state park and forest, and it was the best for everyone's safety.  It would've been dicey trying to travel back from that, potentially.

I prepped for the storm.

I also squeezed in another quality workout while I had power and the guarantee of a hot shower afterwards.

I did Cleve's Heavy deck of cards, with 8-ct body builders, brickyard man makers, 4-ct flutter kicks, and ruck swings, with 20 reps for aces, 15 reps for faces, and numbers as-is (no jokers in this deck).  It took me 1:26:48, even without the jokers.  My joints felt ok handling it this time.  

Gun Run Team Match @ Sawmill

TRAINING LEAD-UP

Sunday, Jan 4:

I was eager to get home and get back to practicing for shooting comps.  I got a new AR set up for the Tactical Games Sniper Challenge, so I wanted to see how well it shot, and I wanted to start getting data for it.

Cowboy Bay:

It took me only one shot to zero my new Vortex Razor Gen3 1-10x, with a 4 up, 1 right adjustment.  Nice!  I shots some groups with 55gr vs 77gr and did 30 rounds positional shooting with a VTAC board to see how forgiving the eye relief was, and to see whether I positioned everything well when I installed the accessories.  I was happy!  

Unfortunately, my chrono was out of batteries, so I couldn't get hard data and would have to manually figure out holds.

Forest Bay:

This was a good place to shoot some targets at typical RNG distances... 100-300yd.  The Forest Bay (that's what I call it) has good targets and props for testing out the gun on such targets.

On 10x power, I noticed that the targets that were in the shadows at about 260yd looked a bit blue and foggy.  Parallax is fixed at 150yd on this optic.  I spent an hour and a half. here and used about 150rds figuring out dope and just getting a feel for how the setup worked.

KD Range:

Next, I went to the KD range to try to get dope at farther distances.  With the number of people that were there, though (it was busy, maybe from people wanting to get out and play with their new toys that they got over the holidays), it was hard to use sound to figure out if you hit.  I had to go based on plates moving or seeing dirt, and that can be hard with 10x and parallax and 10x optical degradation and maybe recoil. 

I spent about an hour and 70 rounds here.  I managed to get good dope through 300yd.  I could only get some 400yd dope after the crowd diminished and I was able to finally hear some hits.

Old Zero Bay:

It's a good practice to re-check zero at the end of a dope session, to make sure nothing has changed and that the data you just collected is valid.  My end-of-the-day groups were bigger than my initial groups, but who knows how much of that is the gun getting dirtier or hotter or if it's me being more impatient and less of a perfectionist later in the session.  I also had to remove the mag after chambering each round to allow sufficient room for my bipod and bag to do their jobs.  Lastly, the sun was getting into my eyes because of the direction of the bay.  The sunshade helped some, but it was still uncomfortable.  The zero was still good, though, despite all those challenges.

I finished the day by trying to get 100yd dope, but the sun in my eyes was just not worth it, so I called it a day after 5 rounds.

Monday, Jan 5:

45 min Intervals Ride with Tunde Oyeneyin covering 14.4 mi, 482 cal, 157 ave watts, 80rpm ave, 46% resistance average, 19.2mph average.  I liked her style!

Tuesday, Jan 6:

18A "Dynamic Warmup" in 24:13 felt pretty fluid, other than a slightly sore glute. 

Next, HDT-KB "Grind You Can't Cheat" 12 min AMRAP with a 30#KB with 2 rounds and 44 reps, which hit the spot pretty well.

Then, I did a little circuit of 3x (100 jump rope, 25 pushups, 20 40# calf raises, 50 40# 4ct flutter kicks) in 18:48... I liked it!

Afterwards, I did a 1 hr dry fire session.

- Draw and shoot from static

- Presses (after already out of the holster) to get a good NPA onto target

- Multiple target transitions

Key takeaways... use a forceful snatch that grabs and jerks up on the grip from the holster, keep your head and neck upright to avoid soreness, pull out the slack as you push and trust that you'll be on by the time you finish pulling, and push the pace to see the limits of accuracy.

Colorado friends...

Thursday, Jan 8:

3 miles with a 30#RPC on roads near the movie theater to kill time before watching "I Was a Stranger".  That was a well-made and powerful movie.  I highly recommend it!  It opens your eyes to the experience of people who live through stuff you only hear about on the news but that seems so far away, and you realize how at the end of the day, despite all the differences we seem to have, we're all human and have the same kinds of wants and needs at the end of the day.

Saw a bunch of deer when I got home.

For dry fire, I continued with draws from static, presses, and multiple targets, for 30 min.

Friday, Jan 9:

For my 1 hour dry fire session today, I removed the WML for the first time, to see how it changed things.  The gun pressed out a bit more wildly than I was used to, but more quickly.  I actually ended up liking it.  With recoil, though, I might not like it as much as I do dry.

I also started adding in turn 90 degrees and shoot, instead of shooting from static.  I actually got my fastest times yet... I wonder if it's because 1) the momentum of my body from the spin adds to the speed of the press-out, and 2) maybe the NPA I naturally end up with on turns is more aligned to the target than whatever I happen to pick when choosing a static position.  Draw and shoot speed is heavily dependent on how aligned my press-out is.

GUN RUN TEAM MATCH @ SAWMILL

SB and I took a year off from doing Mammoth, partially due to scheduling conflicts, and partially to have a year to focus on other things like gun runs and not have to spend a lot of the fall season plus winter break dedicated to long range and heavy rucking.  We were sad to not be a part of it, but it did allow us to sign up for the Gun Run team match instead, since it fell on the same weekend.

We had cleared all but one stage at the Land Nav Team Match, so we wanted to see if we could clean that up and clear every stage.  It's hard to predict how difficult the stages will be at each match, and it's always different, so you can't compare apples to apples.  The night matches were super hard this year, but they're pretty challenging overall between the fog, the limitations of low light visibility, and lower familiarity and practice with night shooting equipment.

I was looking forward to using the new LMT FDE in this match.  The primary purpose of getting that gun was to use it as our mandatory gas + 5.56 or .308 gun with 10x max magnification for TTG SC, but a secondary purpose was to have a gun that didn't have the popped primer issues that my BCM started having.  I think I've gotten popped primers with different kinds of ammo, so it may be something about the gun, and rather than spending a lot of time and money on replacing different parts and seeing if it makes a difference, this seems like a decent solution.  I've been using that BCM as my comp gun since my earliest comps, so who knows how many rounds have gone through it.  I take detailed notes about all of my shooting practice and comps now, but I didn't in the early days, so I wouldn't even have a reference to go back to.  I've replaced gas rings and the trigger already due to issues.  I had replaced the charging handle early on because I prefer the Radian, but everything else is stock.

I ended up having mostly 115gr aluminum 9mm plus a couple mags of 147gr since I didn't have all that much aluminum.  At gun runs, especially ones without a lot of falling plates or resettable plates, being light matters more than the slight reduction in recoil.  For 5.56, I brought mostly 55gr but had a mag of 77gr in case of longer range shots in the wind.

I had some kind of respiratory thing I was fighting, but I could still run ok... I just had to cough up mucus a lot.

We got a quick lesson on how to apply an Israeli bandage before the match.  We'd be needing to use it.  It's good to practice something other than TQs all the time.

Stage 1:

- We started with a cold pistol, which was different... the reason was that one person would get an Israeli bandage applied to their strong arm by their partner, forcing us to use our support arm to unholster, rack, and shoot 3 rounds at 3 targets. 

- As I shot my support arm shots, SB shot rifle at 7 targets downrange at 80yd, 2x through.

- Next, SB ran up to a pistol position to shoot the same targets again, 2x through, with pistol.

Learnings/Outcomes: PASS in 100.34, 22/67 passers / 73 total

- I debated a little too long in my head about whether I wanted to be shooter A or shooter B, but in the end, I decided to do the weak hand shooting, since I had done it before (minus the racking) at a GBF event.  I've seen lots of videos of Trench Grenade racking his irons against objects, so I was very familiar with how to do that part.

- It worked out well, because I got all my hits with no misses, and SB crushed her COF.  

- With my smaller arm diameter, it did take SB many more wraps to wrap me up than it would've taken to wrap up someone bigger, though... an unexpected downside.

- This felt good to crush and was a great start to the match!

Stage 2:

- Start kneeling in the river. 

- On the beep, move up the bank and to the first tree, with shooter 1 on the right and shooter 2 on the left

- Shooter 1 shoots 3 targets with 2 hits each

- Once Shooter 2 starts to shoot the same thing and provide cover fire, Shooter 1 can move to tree #2.

- Once Shooter 2 is done, Shooter 1 can start engaging the same targets with the same COF, allowing Shooter 2 to move.

- Once Shooter 2 is in place and Shooter 1 is done, Shooter 2 can shoot the same thing, allowing Shooter 1 to move to tree #3.

- Once - Once Shooter 2 is done, Shooter 1 can start engaging the same targets with the same COF, allowing Shooter 2 to move.

- Once Shooter 2 is in place and Shooter 1 is done, Shooter 2 can shoot the same thing

Learnings/Outcomes: FAIL (53/73 passed)

- SB realized during the first two positions that the chest rig that she borrowed from me and was trying for the first time, was affecting her ability to get good eye relief from prone (which caused her to do some free recoil)

- She switched to braced off of the tree at the third tree, but her ejection port against the tree caused malfunctions, like it did for many different teams

- I heard her say that she was getting failures to feed, so I was going to offer her a mag (after confirming that she wasn't allowed to move to my spot to shoot since I was done), but it wasn't actually a mag issue.  She switched to kneeling, which helped, but we timed out before she could finish.

- I needed to pull my butt stock out by one click to get better eye relief

- I also didn't catch the instructions on how many times to shoot each target at first, so we also lost a little time there

- Comms were otherwise decent... based on me arriving at the tree first, we had a frago and had me shoot first since I was already there.  

- Next time, our pro word would be "shoot" instead of "go", though, since "go" sounds too much like "no".

- I was zoomed in quite a bit, but fortunately, I was on the intended target each time and not on the wrong target

- Sad to fail the stage at the last position with the last shooter.  Oh well, each stage is a learning opportunity.

Stage 3:

- Before the clock started, we wouldn't be allowed to talk to our partner (penalty was 10 burpees)

- We had to make ready our rifles, then stage them on the railroad tie before swapping positions so that we'd be shooting our partner's guns.

- Once the clock started, we could talk to each other.

- We had to do alternating hits three times per person on 3 targets

Learnings/Outcomes: PASS in 27.64 (16/73 because everyone passed)

- SB had looked through my scope before the match and did a little dry fire, so it wasn't completely foreign to her.  We had even figured out the adjustments needed for her optical focus.

- I didn't touch the optical focus on her gun, but the targets were big and close enough that shooting at the slightly blurry targets was fine

- We each only missed once and were able to get back in sequence with our hits OK

- Comms were good... SB helped to keep me on track

- I burned my elbow a little on hot brass afterwards, since I was on the right after doing the switch

- We were really happy with how it went... our shots went one after the other, with triggers prepped

Stage 4:

- On the beep, put the log onto the stretcher

- Team carry the stretcher to spot 1 and each person must shoot the 40yd silhouette 2x but not simultaneously

- Team carry the stretcher to spot 2 and simultaneously go after 7 knock-downs

- Team carry the stretcher to spot 3 and each shoot the plate array 1x but not simultaneously

- Team carry the stretcher to spot 4 and each shoot the last target 2x but not simultaneously

Learnings/Outcomes: PASS in 146.41 (48/64 passers / 73 overall)

- We had 2 teams to wait on when we got there.  It was at the top of a hill, and it got windy and started misting rain, too.

- I was at the front of the stretcher, and SB was in the back... we've carried stretchers many times before at GORUCK events

- The stretcher was heavy but not crazy heavy

- I couldn't decide whether I wanted to sling the rifle in front or in the back and ended up moving it around a lot wasting time... the sling would get in the way of my pistol, slowing down my draw a lot despite my recent dryfire... I guess I need to do some dryfire with rifle slung.

- My trigger did get stuck a bit on the safety once

- I put in a fresh mag at one spot while SB shot, after SB had to do a mag change mid-string.

- Not terrible, but SB was always ready to start pistol shooting before I was, so I should get better at that

Stage 5:

- Start with the team in the driver and passenger seat of the humvee

- On the beep, get out and climb into the back of the humvee and read the COF from a piece of paper

- The paper says to shoot the British from the rev war, who are marked with X's, with 1 hit each.  Then the partner does the same.

Learnings/Outcomes: PASS in 159.08 (53/59 passers out of 73 total)

- SB thought we had to do alternating hits again, but I read the instructions as one person shooting all the targets then the other person repeating.  My interpretation was the correct one, but Ellis said in the AAR that many probably got used to the alternating hits from other stages and kept defaulting to that.

- It was hard to see our misses on the back targets, even with the Gen3 10x glass... it looked a bit foggy.  Maybe fixed 150yd parallax, the small impact of a 5.56, and rain making the dirt compact and less dusty played a factor.

- Fortunately, flashers told us when we did hit, and straight on was the hold that ended up working.

- SB did burn a round high on the berm to try to troubleshoot and see something

- I had a very wobbly sight picture on those far targets and feel lucky to have hit!

- I did use my 77gr ammo here, since it was windy, although the wind was mostly a tailwind.

Stage 6:

- Both start in the closet at the ground level of the connex

- One person goes to the side of the connex and shoots 5 hits each at 4 different targets

- Next, they read the COF that the other person needs to shoot, over the radio

- The other person has made their way to the top of the connex to the receive the instructions and shoot

> 1 hit on center diamond target

> 2 hits on left torso

> 3 hits on right torso

- Once the rifle shooter at the top of the connex is done, the pistol shooter makes 1 hit with rifle on the diamond target

Learnings/Outcomes: PASS in 170.21 (55/60 passers / 73 overall)

- I decided to give one target instruction at a time because I figured that I wouldn't be able to remember everything, but SB is good at KIMS, so I should've given her all the instructions, especially because having to confirm being done each time meant picking up and putting down the radio from the ground while shooting from a rail, although she could've clipped the radio on her chest rig.  Next time, especially if it's easy to remember instructions, I can give it to her all at once.

- My pistol targets were really close and big

- I was allowed to make ready on rifle while SB was shooting her targets

Overall: 12/73 on the run, 44/73 on the shoot, 26/73 overall

- Nice finish!

- Too bad about stage 2... will clear the match next time!

- We were fast on the run!

- Weather held up, fortunately

- I tended to like the butt stock out one click

- The rifle did well, and the witness marks stuck

- I need to get more stable on longer range targets... maybe bring a small bag... something

- Use "shoot" as the pro word in the future

- After analyzing the instructions to pass along on the radio really quickly, decide whether there's a way to frame it and make it easy to remember everything in one go

- I wonder how much fixed parallax affects the performance of the optic vs the light transmission at 10x vs glass quality

- I was happy with how my pistol shooting was, although I need to improve how I manipulate it in conjunction with the rifle sling

- No intel this time, but if we had had intel, our plan was to remind each other of it before each stage

- Decent comms and use of our SOPs as usual

NEXT DAY

Sunday, Jan 11:

After the gun run, I replaced the stock LMT trigger with a Geissele SSA-E for a lighter pull weight.  I also installed a 3-inch strip of arca rail at the front of the handguard to give the bipod a place to attach.  I didn't need the extra weight and capability for the gun run, so post-match was the time to do it.

I know another all-female team who signed up for Mammoth in April, so I created a couple of videos to help them make decisions about gear, too.  The videos weren't anything fancy... just ways to explain things quicker than a bunch of typing would've taken.  

For physical training, I did 3 miles in 1:09:59 around the neighborhood with a 30# Rucker v2, still under the weather.

I did 2 hours of dry fire at night.  

- One challenge of dots is that they can change brightness on their own sometimes due to sensed changes in lighting condition.  I was working in an irregularly lit hallway, so this was a challenge.  I had to train myself to look even for dim lights.

- I do better grabbing the gun while actively thinking about releasing the ALS lever on the Safariland holster, to avoid fumbling it.

- Keep long sleeves out of the way for fuller contact on the gun

- Think about having a high grip along with that ALS lever press

- I did some mag change drills, but it was kind of irregular, because I'd typically slingshot instead of using the slide release for whatever reason... the slide release is much tougher to push with the dummy caps, but I don't want to build non-ideal muscle memory

- I started practicing starting from unloaded, hands above shoulders, facing uprange.  Surprisingly, it didn't add that much time compared to my slow times drawing from hot and static.  It did seem more natural to load not in workspace... you don't have to move the gun and make extra distance... maybe more efficient but less tactical in real world situations where you want to stay heads-up.  I did do some runs focusing on staying in workspace... also slamming the mag to ensure an insert... no harm in guaranteeing that it's in.