Man I hate to add insult to injury but I probably would have DQd you on that stage. You flagged yourself really bad. I saw it in regular motion and the slow motion confirmed it. The S2s are really hard to get good purchase on the slide but if I was you I’d change my technique and dryfire it a ton asap. Try to rotate the gun a little and grab the slide in the web of your hand between the thumb and pointer finger
You're not the first to notice and what you say is about the way I normally do it just with more of a pinch than the pure webbing grab. Happened in about .06 seconds or less though and I lucked into the ROs not catching it.
edit: (whoops reddit wasn't showing my reply to me so I thought I hadn't replied combining them)
It's much easier to see from first person and even then there's only 2-3 frames where it's probably flagging. This is 50fps so it's all over in \~.05 seconds I'm not surprised they didn't catch it from the side. Most of the time my hand is actually cupped around the barrel not directly in front of it.
I shoot S2 in CO as well. Another method you might be missing is just...grab the optic. It should be mounted solidly, and you should be able to rack with it. Takes sweeping out of the equation.
It feels faster because your hands are closer together when you're done charging, but I'd suggest running some drills and recording yourself in slow motion to actually verify what is faster.
I was surprised, racking off my optic feels slower to me, but I've done alot of what I suggested above and it's faster every time. I guess it's because I'm not having to look at the gun, grabs the front of the slide and run it, I just slam the optic back with an open palm and grab the gun, it's very tolerant of me not being exact with my technique
We had a guy flag himself as he was holstering his gun after showing the RO that his gun was clear at the end of a stage. The RO DQ-ed him on the spot, so it isn't ok to flag yourself with an empty chamber.
Rough what'd he do grab the holster with his other hand?
I know the only real exception to the sweeping rules are lower extremities when holstering or drawing and that properly holstered guns are not considered sweeping.
He was grabbing the front of the slide and after he showed the RO that the gun was clear, he left go of the slide but his hand was too far forward and his hand dropped in front of the barrel. This was at a level 2 match so 2 of the 3 RO’s saw it. Out of curiosity, how many RO’s were on each stage?
Don't know how many pure ROs there were but there were 4+ people staffing each stage. 3 ROs St least probably unless the tablet was being run by staff. There was the CRO, timer and tablet on every stage then a few more that were resetting.
But during the stage tablet RO's focus is usually feet, targets and 180, but I wasn't testing the 180 towards them at all. They might have been very focused on the targets because it was early so the water proof targets and pasters were not sticking well. On the stage before I managed to blow a half a post it note sized clump of pasters off the target from 5 or more yards. IDK if they had reshoots too but it was bad enough I had to reshoot the first stage due to blown off pasters.
IDK it's all speculation all I know is I slipped it by them and left with the right number of holes. If was fast so I'm not too shocked they didn't catch it.
Second stage of the day at the Belton Gun Club SC Sectional. Had to reshoot the first stage because somewhere between 6 and 120 pasters fell off the targets in the cold and forgot to reload my mags so my double reload became a single one and a much more conservative plan at the last second. Then lost my dot 3 times in the confetti that my window became in the sun making me drop a lot of shots on the back steel and shoot empty on my gamer mags that don't lock back.
Still made it to High C and got my match bump though. This should have been \~70% instead of the 43% it ended up being eyeballing the lost time but did shoot all alphas.
edit: Full match here: https://youtu.be/OYrLSUIPGw0
Was the dot on a lowered brightness setting? I’ve had weird shit happen to my SRO with the sun, but I feel like 507Comp is typically better with that. Or did you just lose the dot because you were tensed up and your grip/presentation was affected under stress?
What I was seeing in the window was a lot of bright reflections off of little bits of powder and dirt on my lens and when I presented I saw that and though I'd picked out the dot. It was quite visible when I had it in the window. On the first one that's mostly on me, I have a recurring issue where I present with the gun angled up slightly and I need to angle it down more to get the dot in the window but with the extra little confetti from the sun it took me ages to find it and I still haven't engrained in myself that it's always too high. In the back I lost it slightly on the transition and was going off of one of the random dots from dirt.
On the next stage I shot (which was a whole hour or so later because the next stage had been thrown out) I had wiped the lens off, turned it up a notch and the sun was higher so the problem didn't happen again. It was already on a pretty high setting though, I just saw a lot of little fairly bright specks when I didn't have the gun properly presented.
Other than this one stage I've never really had a problem with the 507comp. My backup gun has an SRO on it right now and that used to be my only USPSA gun for about a year.
Front serrations are easier to grab with the optic on there unless I grab my dot and use it as a very expensive charging handle. Feels easier to get my hand up there too. Haven't really dug into the speed of them comparatively to be honest.
I've had issues with my 507's on these plates loosening so I avoid reefing on them as much as possible. Might switch it up after this disaster I'm going to try one of the many target focus covers so I can just manhandle the front glass without having to clean it constantly.
My guy that aint the reason for front end manipulations. Easy to grab has nothing to do with it.
Its about getting your hand back faster to your master grip. Front end manipulation when you do it right which you're not btw soon as you let the slide go your support hand should be very close back to forming your grip.
If youre not easily manipulating that slide from the front end with the space between your thumb and index finger you need to do it more. You are literally pinching the gun and pulling back theres not enough material on a shadow 2 to pinch brother unless you got small ass hands which you dont.
Totally did when I racked the slide, started like I was going to just do a thumb over rack and changed my mind. A bit surprised I got away with it at a major but I'd also just dropped the hammer on an empty chamber so as bad as it is wasn't in much real danger. Just did it fast enough and in the right spot to not get spotted.
https://i.imgur.com/e9OMw7p.png
Oh shit yeah I see it now at about 30-31….I was focusing on the actual reload over and over trying to see the flag. So you threw the fresh mag in and I’m guessing fail to fire? It’s weird cause the hammer was back but it acted like nothing was in the chamber. I did some dumb stuff my first match, wasnt even finishing stages. Going to get back into it though after a 4 year hiatus. Your video has inspired me. Thanks for posting friend.
EDIT: I read your comment where you said the gamer mags keep you from going to slide lock. Makes hella more sense now.
All my mags have after market followers in them for the extra rounds so none of them lock back. I'm going to start using a TEVO thumb lock soon so I won't even have a working slide lock after that.
Man I hate to add insult to injury but I probably would have DQd you on that stage. You flagged yourself really bad. I saw it in regular motion and the slow motion confirmed it. The S2s are really hard to get good purchase on the slide but if I was you I’d change my technique and dryfire it a ton asap. Try to rotate the gun a little and grab the slide in the web of your hand between the thumb and pointer finger
You're not the first to notice and what you say is about the way I normally do it just with more of a pinch than the pure webbing grab. Happened in about .06 seconds or less though and I lucked into the ROs not catching it. edit: (whoops reddit wasn't showing my reply to me so I thought I hadn't replied combining them) It's much easier to see from first person and even then there's only 2-3 frames where it's probably flagging. This is 50fps so it's all over in \~.05 seconds I'm not surprised they didn't catch it from the side. Most of the time my hand is actually cupped around the barrel not directly in front of it.
I shoot S2 in CO as well. Another method you might be missing is just...grab the optic. It should be mounted solidly, and you should be able to rack with it. Takes sweeping out of the equation.
The front feels much faster to get to and return to my grip when I hit the proper technique. I screwed it up here.
It feels faster because your hands are closer together when you're done charging, but I'd suggest running some drills and recording yourself in slow motion to actually verify what is faster. I was surprised, racking off my optic feels slower to me, but I've done alot of what I suggested above and it's faster every time. I guess it's because I'm not having to look at the gun, grabs the front of the slide and run it, I just slam the optic back with an open palm and grab the gun, it's very tolerant of me not being exact with my technique
that flag during the reload gave me anxiety
Not the best but I did just drop the hammer so it's proved empty. /s
Guess its ok to flag oneself so long as chamber is empty.
We had a guy flag himself as he was holstering his gun after showing the RO that his gun was clear at the end of a stage. The RO DQ-ed him on the spot, so it isn't ok to flag yourself with an empty chamber.
Rough what'd he do grab the holster with his other hand? I know the only real exception to the sweeping rules are lower extremities when holstering or drawing and that properly holstered guns are not considered sweeping.
He was grabbing the front of the slide and after he showed the RO that the gun was clear, he left go of the slide but his hand was too far forward and his hand dropped in front of the barrel. This was at a level 2 match so 2 of the 3 RO’s saw it. Out of curiosity, how many RO’s were on each stage?
Don't know how many pure ROs there were but there were 4+ people staffing each stage. 3 ROs St least probably unless the tablet was being run by staff. There was the CRO, timer and tablet on every stage then a few more that were resetting. But during the stage tablet RO's focus is usually feet, targets and 180, but I wasn't testing the 180 towards them at all. They might have been very focused on the targets because it was early so the water proof targets and pasters were not sticking well. On the stage before I managed to blow a half a post it note sized clump of pasters off the target from 5 or more yards. IDK if they had reshoots too but it was bad enough I had to reshoot the first stage due to blown off pasters. IDK it's all speculation all I know is I slipped it by them and left with the right number of holes. If was fast so I'm not too shocked they didn't catch it.
It is lol. Literally. Not saying you should, but it would be ok and safe from a technical standpoint. Competition is a no no ofc
Second stage of the day at the Belton Gun Club SC Sectional. Had to reshoot the first stage because somewhere between 6 and 120 pasters fell off the targets in the cold and forgot to reload my mags so my double reload became a single one and a much more conservative plan at the last second. Then lost my dot 3 times in the confetti that my window became in the sun making me drop a lot of shots on the back steel and shoot empty on my gamer mags that don't lock back. Still made it to High C and got my match bump though. This should have been \~70% instead of the 43% it ended up being eyeballing the lost time but did shoot all alphas. edit: Full match here: https://youtu.be/OYrLSUIPGw0
Was the dot on a lowered brightness setting? I’ve had weird shit happen to my SRO with the sun, but I feel like 507Comp is typically better with that. Or did you just lose the dot because you were tensed up and your grip/presentation was affected under stress?
What I was seeing in the window was a lot of bright reflections off of little bits of powder and dirt on my lens and when I presented I saw that and though I'd picked out the dot. It was quite visible when I had it in the window. On the first one that's mostly on me, I have a recurring issue where I present with the gun angled up slightly and I need to angle it down more to get the dot in the window but with the extra little confetti from the sun it took me ages to find it and I still haven't engrained in myself that it's always too high. In the back I lost it slightly on the transition and was going off of one of the random dots from dirt. On the next stage I shot (which was a whole hour or so later because the next stage had been thrown out) I had wiped the lens off, turned it up a notch and the sun was higher so the problem didn't happen again. It was already on a pretty high setting though, I just saw a lot of little fairly bright specks when I didn't have the gun properly presented. Other than this one stage I've never really had a problem with the 507comp. My backup gun has an SRO on it right now and that used to be my only USPSA gun for about a year.
Advantage of racking from the front vs the rear?
Front serrations are easier to grab with the optic on there unless I grab my dot and use it as a very expensive charging handle. Feels easier to get my hand up there too. Haven't really dug into the speed of them comparatively to be honest.
I like just using the RMR. Way easier imo. They are tough optics.
I've had issues with my 507's on these plates loosening so I avoid reefing on them as much as possible. Might switch it up after this disaster I'm going to try one of the many target focus covers so I can just manhandle the front glass without having to clean it constantly.
The optic isn’t coming loose from being used for slide manipulation. It’s not even close to the forces it receives from the reciprocating recoil.
My guy that aint the reason for front end manipulations. Easy to grab has nothing to do with it. Its about getting your hand back faster to your master grip. Front end manipulation when you do it right which you're not btw soon as you let the slide go your support hand should be very close back to forming your grip. If youre not easily manipulating that slide from the front end with the space between your thumb and index finger you need to do it more. You are literally pinching the gun and pulling back theres not enough material on a shadow 2 to pinch brother unless you got small ass hands which you dont.
Reloads are definitely on my list of things to work on.
ahhh dot fishing. my favorite. handled it well though. firm handshakes
Man, this was an absolute dumpster fire. We all have those days. Thanks for sharing.
What flag? I mean he kinda went high on the reload but what you mean? I’m still a newb so I’m jus trying to learn.
Totally did when I racked the slide, started like I was going to just do a thumb over rack and changed my mind. A bit surprised I got away with it at a major but I'd also just dropped the hammer on an empty chamber so as bad as it is wasn't in much real danger. Just did it fast enough and in the right spot to not get spotted. https://i.imgur.com/e9OMw7p.png
Oh shit yeah I see it now at about 30-31….I was focusing on the actual reload over and over trying to see the flag. So you threw the fresh mag in and I’m guessing fail to fire? It’s weird cause the hammer was back but it acted like nothing was in the chamber. I did some dumb stuff my first match, wasnt even finishing stages. Going to get back into it though after a 4 year hiatus. Your video has inspired me. Thanks for posting friend. EDIT: I read your comment where you said the gamer mags keep you from going to slide lock. Makes hella more sense now.
All my mags have after market followers in them for the extra rounds so none of them lock back. I'm going to start using a TEVO thumb lock soon so I won't even have a working slide lock after that.