Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. BETTERSHOOTING Dave Anderson obert Vogel won the 2008 USPSA Production division national championship. He’s also a past IDPA national champion. His achievements are even more impressive when you consider he trains in his spare time, while serving as a full time police officer (and SRT member) for the Kenton, Ohio department. His work ethic and time management skills must be phenomenal. Vogel won using a Glock 34 9mm. He uses Sevigny sights with a fiber optic front sight. The pistol has a plug (Pearce Grips #PG-GFI) in the space behind the magazine well, to prevent possible snags during reloads, and a steel guide rod. The trigger (4½ pound pull) is factory-stock. His holster is an inexpensive synthetic model from Ky-Tac, perfectly suitable for everyday wear. Just like the pistol: simple, basic and reliable. I bet most of us non-champions have fancier and more costly gear. R VOGEL’S VOICE These photos were taken at intervals of about 0.15 seconds. From initial grip on holstered gun to an accurate shot fired is three intervals, or under a half-second. Vogel shooting his Limited gun, a Glock 24 in .40 S&W. Vogel says the slanted grip lets him get the support (left) hand high on the gun for better recoil control. Top-level competition is expensive, considering travel, lodging, match fees and ammunition. Even though he reloads his practice ammunition, the cost of 30,000+ rounds annually adds up. Only in the past year or so has Vogel got a significant sponsorship, from Eotac (makers of tactical clothing for military and police as well as for private citizens.) Vogel is grateful for the sponsorship, which let him break even in 2008, and to use Remington factory ammunition for matches. Vogel says he simply shoots Glocks better than any other handgun he has tried, but in uniform he wears his department issue SIG Pro 2340. When he started shooting competitively he used a high-cap 1911 for three years. One day while training he shot an IDPA course of fire with a Glock, just to try it out. To his astonishment his score with the unfamiliar Glock tied his score with the 1911. Vogel says the Glock grip angle lets him get the support hand higher on the gun for better recoil control. And the longer, heavier Glock trigger (relative to a 1911 pull), far from being a disadvantage, gives a better surprise break and lets him shoot more aggressively. Glocks are fairly light pistols. For shooters with adequate hand/arm strength and good recoil management technique they can be driven faster than heavier guns. Fun Or Training? Consistency R W obert Vogel says competition and police duty are “different worlds,” but in some areas the worlds overlap. The biggest benefit of competition is “it gets you comfortable and familiar with having a gun in your hand.” Many cops simply don’t shoot enough to be comfortable handling their duty gun. Another advantage is confidence. Vogel has never had to pull the trigger in the line of duty but says there have been four or five times where it has been “real close.” It’s a great comfort, he says, knowing you can make the shot if you have to. On the occasions he arrested suspects at gunpoint, Vogel says the training took over. His competition experience has made drawing and indexing the gun subconscious skills. The conscious mind could focus totally on the situation, the suspect’s actions, and the appropriate response, right up to the critical shoot/don’t shoot decision. There’s merit to the argument competition can also teach bad habits. We’ve all heard stories of PPC competitors getting in shootouts, emptying their revolvers and looking around for a bucket in which to drop the fired cases. Vogel feels this may be a legitimate concern. In reality it has not been a problem. For example, competitors are required to unload their firearms after finishing a stage in a match. Nonetheless Vogel says he has never had an urge to “unload and show clear” after a suspect surrenders. Although he shoots a lot of matches, most of his shooting time is spent training on a “hot” range, where the gun is kept loaded. hat’s the difference between “almost-winning” and winning? Vogel believes consistency is key. There are lots of shooters who can win individual stages. Problem is in order to do so they have to push hard, right to the ragged edge of control. In a big match with lots of stages, they are going to go over the edge occasionally. Winning a big match means staying “within yourself” as athletes often put it, backing away from the edge enough to stay in control. The trick, of course, is to know where the edge is. An example Vogel uses is the “splits” between shots. Lightning-fast splits might save a few hundredths of a second per split. But just one stutter (“trigger freeze”) can blow all the savings and more, especially if the shooter is swinging to another target and has to go back. Vogel is currently offering a limited number of competition training sessions, as his work and competition schedules allow. * For more info: www.vogelshootist.com; www.eotac. com (clothing); www.warrentactical.com (sights); www.sevignyperformance.com (sights); www.pearcegrip.com (grip insert); www.brownells.com (Seattle Slug); www.taylorfreelance.com (Seattle Slug); www. kytac,com (holsters). WWW.AMERICANHANDGUNNER.COM • JULY/AUGUST 2009 20