How to get ready for a match in two (easy) days??

So if I have a 2700/eic/service pistol/DR match in 3 weeks and have two days of range shooting between now and then to practice - what should I concentrate on?  

Some ideas I have:

Practice equally on my three 2700 guns?
Shoot only or mainly 45 and let the others fall in place?
Practice only or mostly my weak areas like 50yards?
Other thoughts like just dry fire a lot

TIA

Just dry fire a lot!

sustained fire when at range with all guns.

I find that I get the greatest benefit out of live fire training to be working on rapid fire. I work on breaking the first shot; I work on rhythm and recovery; I work on shooting the "sixth" shot.

2/3 of the match is at 25 yards; you can put up some pretty good numbers if you clean the short line.

Are you Distinguished?  Do you want to be?

2700's are a dime a dozen.  If I was working on getting Distinguished in either DR or Service, those goals would be my focus.  Dry firing (of course!) and focus on iron sights.  I would use irons in the 2700 to help prepare for EIC/DR.  That and training as JB suggests, with irons.

Good shooting to you.

You can do first shot training dry firing on a target using a timer. That will help getting your shot process/timing down. I also use SCATT for that, as I can only get to the range one day a week to do it live. Fortunately, I have a building that is eighty feet wide, so the target/SCATT is actual distance for training.

I was also using a target and timer with a DA revolver to work on sustained fire. Not the same as live fire, but not bad if you can't get range time as it'll help with getting accustomed to the time duration.

Lots of ways to dry fire.

DA/SA wrote:first shot training

I may or may not have driven all the way to the range last weekend and forgot to put magazines in my gunbox. That could have been a wasted trip, but it turned out to be a good 90-minute training session of: dry fire in a real-world environment with live fire all around; first shot drills at 1.50s with the PACT timer.

Make the most of what you've got.

2 days at the range is 48 hours less 16 hours for sleep,  3 hours for eating and 2 hours for um taking care of other business = 27 hours shooting. 5 rounds rapid fire once a minute, bring about 8,000 rounds.

OK, now that I got that out of my system...

Visualization and dry firing at home is probably as important if not more so than your limited time at the range. 

You're classified a sharpshooter, so I assume you have good zeros at 50 and 25 yards. If not, that is the first priority. 

Focus 80-90% of your range time on what's most important to you. Treat the other events as just fun games.

If your goal is going distinguished, focus on that gun and treat the 2700 as warmup.

If you goal is to score as high as possible in the 2700 then focus on the area you lose the most points. It could be slow fire or rapid fire, 22 or 45, but it's probably 45 Rapid. Don't mess around with a different CF caliber. Even though you are focusing on your problem area, keep it positive. You are learning how to shoot well, not how to not shoot not well.

Probably 80% of slow fire training can be done off the range. Maybe more. On the range, make sure you follow the same process and pull the trigger the same way live firing as you do dry firing. Make sure your guns are sighted and you can call shots. 

Don't worry about timed fire. It can be shot as continuous slow fire or as slow rapid fire, but there's no good reason to train for TF. For sustained fire always train at rapid fire pace. Note that is true for experienced shooters. For beginning shooters just work on getting continuous well aimed shots without worrying about the time. Four good shots usually scores better than 5 rushed shots and is better practice.

First shot and 2 shot drills save ammo and time. You can't clean a target if your first shot isn't a 10. The progression or stair step drill (See description here) is good for training rapid fire, but you might want to choose a fairly easy scoring ring. You don't want to set you standards too high and end up discouraged going into the match.

Thanks for all the great replies. SteveT I especially appreciate some of your tips. FYI I am not distinguished in anything. My goal right now is to make expert and I mostly have been shooting the DR/EIC and service pistol for practice and fun. It has been nice to see my scores improve there as well.

Ok, for another perspective.  

Generally, we will not make significant advances in our abilities in 2 - 3 weeks, or even months.  It's a slow process of ingraining proper individual parts of the shot process, then putting them together and shooting.  And then reviewing for weaknesses, making slight changes in technique or process and keeping the whole process going.  So in general we will not improve the basics a lot over that time.

HOWEVER, we can gain consistency in what we have and that is the key in competing (within your class and overall)  So we might want to make that our plan over the next 3 weeks.   Map it out and write down what you are going to do every day over the next 3 weeks. Get the physical / equipment things takes care of and then focus on getting consistency and mentally preparing to shoot a match.

I would suggest something like the following, but only do what make you the most comfortable mentally during this period.  Do not introduce any new uncertainties.  (New process, technique, loads, sights, guns, etc.) 

Dry fire an appropriate amount each day.  Maybe 20 minutes or 10 minutes at a time, but only for ever how long you can completely concentrate on the front sight in combination for whatever specific part of the trigger / shooting process you are working on.

If you can do this several times over the day, so much the better. But no complete focus = no dryfiring.  (Don't train on not seeing the sights or not following the process exactly.) 

As for actual range time.  

For first day of range time, I would agree to dryfire and work on about 30 rounds of slow fire and about 60 rounds of timed / rapid fire with wad gun and ball gun. (That's 2 - 900 aggs.)  That's all the ammo you get to shoot.  You can dryfire, train on shot process, lift some very light weights (box of ammo, or 5 lbs, etc.) but no other live firing.  This is to get you out of any "blast away, I've got another shot to make up for that one, oh I should have followed my process, etc., most people get into when the go to the range to "practice" (when the should be training).

Second day at the range, same thing except you only get 30 rounds each with the wad gun and ball gun .  10 SF / 10 TF / 10 RF, basically a NMC with the wad gun and the ball gun.  That's it.  Set up just like a match, prep time, open box, etc.  Work or focusing on your shot process, you ain't fixing nothing, you are just relaxing and shooting.  The key word here is "relax" and learn to do it when you only have X rounds to shoot (just like a match) and you're just here to enjoy yourself, feel the gun go off, hear the report, see the holes and really feel what's happening and experience it.  Then on match day, you've already done it before.  (Train hard, shoot easy.) 

People that are used to blasting away or shooting better after they shoot for 10 / 20 / 30 minutes or whatever may have a hard time wrapping their brains around this.  But for shooting matches, less is generally more after you get the basics down and are looking to improve consistency and dealing with er... excitement when shooting matches. (don't want to say those other words that put negative mental states to mind.  (I will say I use "excitement" as the positive side of nervous / anxious,, etc.  But "excitement" = control, acceptance and FUN!)

Just a few thoughts.  Probably need to do this myself more.

CR

CR10X wrote:But for shooting matches, less is generally more after you get the basics down and are looking to improve consistency and dealing with er... excitement when shooting matches. (don't want to say those other words that put negative mental states to mind.  (I will say I use "excitement" as the positive side of nervous / anxious,, etc.  But "excitement" = control, acceptance and FUN!)

Just a few thoughts.  Probably need to do this myself more.

CR

I believe Lanny Basham uses the term "arousal" for the side of match pressure opposite fear.

For what it's worth, I'm recovering from a neck injury and have been unable to lift a pistol (or often my arm even). I'm using my training time on the Rehersal part of competition. Interestingly I feel like I'm learning a lot about trigger pull without even holding the pistol, just laying on my back and visualizing my truly uninterrupted trigger pull. Glad we can work on this sport even if we can't make it to the range.