Adaptive Defensive Shooting Summit

Adaptive Defensive Shooting Summit

Adaptive shooting is not something I ever really gave any thought. Growing up in northern Maine, most families hunt.  This was also true for my family. I got my hunters safety card when I was ten. Every fall my dad, brother and I would drive through fields and woods looking for the elusive whitetail buck. A couple times I managed to tag out but usually it was my dad who brought home the meat.  I love venison and it was always a treat to have it for supper.

Even though we hunted we didn’t do a ton of shooting.  We sighted in the guns every season but the rest of the year we didn’t shoot much.  I have always loved shooting though. I just never thought of it as adaptive.  To me it was just shooting.

Discovering the Summit

When I recently saw a post for the Adaptive Defensive Shooting Summit coming up this fall in Epping New Hampshire I immediately reached out to the organizer, Trevor Baucom.  I had no idea he is such a prolific shooter until I did a bit of internet stalking.  You should check out this episode of Shooting USA on YouTube to see his story and skills I signed up that day and then had to figure out how the heck I was going to train.

Seeking Help

I have a friend Mark Paaso who is an avid shooter.  So I did what I always do when I get myself signed up for things I am not sure how to do.  I reach out to people who are already doing what I want to do.  Mark was very happy to help out and we have been training for a few weeks.

Mark is part of a shooting exhibition team called Team Zespy.  You can also find them on Instagram and Facebook

You should definitely check them out for some amazing trick shooting. Every time I go to practice I get to see them put on a show.

You’re A Mean One Mr. Flinch

Ok back to practicing with Mark.  My dirty little secret of my shooting is that I have a flinch.  I have always had a flinch from the first time i fired a gun.  I have compensated by holding some distance above my target which is fine shooting at a big target like a deer.  It is not fine trying to hit a bullseye with a handgun at 20 ft or more.

My first day out we just got familiar with safety and how the gun functioned. Once we had that out of the way I just started trying to shoot.  I am using Mark’s HK VP9 since I didn’t currently have a gun of my own. We needed to get a baseline for where I was at and go from there.  My flinch quickly presented itself when I started hitting quite a bit below the target.  I was perfect left to right but way low top to bottom. We went through some drills where Mark would have me not look at him and he would either give me an empty gun or a loaded gun without me knowing which.  I then had to squeeze the trigger as slowly as possible until it clicked or fired.  At the end of the hour my aim had improved but I was still flinching.

You Shoulda Had A V8

I also noticed while shooting that i had a hard time maintaining my balance. I was either leaning to the left or falling forward.  Mark had a ratchet strap in his truck so we decided to try that to help with my torso control.  It helped immensely and I became a lot more accurate. There was one problem th0ugh. It made it really hard to breath.  Breathing is important. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I went home and did some research.  I found a wheelchair chest strap that I thought would work.  I was a bit apprehensive since it was so expensive, probably because it had the word wheelchair in front of it.  I am trying not to spend hundreds of dollars making this happen. . If it didn’t work I would have to buy something else and then something else and so on. Luckily my dad and his girlfriend lisa helped me pay for it.

I got the Bodypoint Universal Elastic Strap and couldn’t wait to try it out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course I forgot it the first time out but managed to remember the next time.  It works perfectly. I can sit up mostly straight and breath while shooting.  I still need to figure out a bit more stable stance but things are really starting to come together. Thanks to Mark and some brainstorming we are really getting a system to work.You can really see how much straighter I am sitting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working Out The Flinch

That pesky flinch is still there though. It creeps out every time I try to really focus.  When I am just rapid firing it seems to mostly go away.  So next time I am going to try the 22 caliber handgun to see if I can just get used to shooting accurately and not flinching before rolling back up to the 9mm.

Stay tuned to see if the flinch goes away and I start hitting the bullseye consistently!