Training with Tim Yackley

This past weekend I was fortunate enough to be able to spend two days shooting one-on-one with Tim Yackley. For a young man, Tim has been shooting at a very high level for a long time. A former instructor down at TPC in Utah, Tim consistently finishes near the top of any competition he enters, pistol, rifle, or shotgun, close and fast or far and fast. You may remember that Tim won the first Prairiefire match last October, beating Nils Johnasson in a spectacular show of marksmanship and coolness under pressure. Beating Nils, at all, is no small feat, but beating him by going one-for-one on a very difficult steel course, not once, but twice in a row, is really pretty amazing.

We basically worked on the fundamentals but also included some competition-based movement drills, shooting on the move as well as stand-and-deliver type stuff. Comparing the options of stand and shoot versus move and shoot was extremely interesting.

On that particular drill, we were shooting from three different positions on paper and there was a plate rack in the middle that could be shot from any of the paper positions. If I ran as fast as possible while shooting everything from stationary positions, I ran it in X time. If I shot the plate rack on the move from one position to the next, I was 1-2 seconds faster. The only downside is that you are more likely to mess up while shooting on the move. Even so, I found that it took two misses on the move to equal my stationary time. Seems like a reasonable risk in many cases.

Though I have only dabbled in USPSA in the past, I can see where it is beneficial to have high-level shooting on-the-move skills. Mine were, shall we say, a bit rusty. I used to do it a lot for work, but not so much these days. This was a good reminder to start incorporating more shooting on the move into my practices.

The picture at the top is Tim, standing behind the ammo I burned up that weekend. 1100 rounds through my backup LTT P30L. That gun only has a couple thousand rounds on it now, but my main gun is sitting at 10735. All but one shot has been trouble-free, and that one round certainly seems to be the ammunition’s fault. The backup currently wears a Holosun 507 Comp, but will likely get an SRO soon. My main gun has had an SRO on it for the last 9500 rounds or so, and it too has been trouble-free.

The ammo for this training session was kindly donated by Ammoman.com. I mostly shot the brass-cased Blaser, but also a little of the Winchester white box. Both worked perfectly, and I’d happily use either. I have been trying to pay attention to ammo prices lately and I think that Ammoman’s shipped prices are either as good as it gets, or certainly within a dollar or two of anyone else.

Below is a short video of some of the draw practice we did. Tim was behind the timer and we were shooting at A zones at 7 yards. If you get a chance to shoot or train with Tim, take it!