CHA-LEE's Tale

[PatJones]

Charlie, roughly how many rounds do you put thru your guns between major parts breaking? You say #1 has a high round count, is that all on the same top end?

[CHA-LEE]

PatJones> I don't keep a close track of the round count on my guns so I don't really know how many rounds each part has on it. I do know that the frame/grip of the #1 has at least 100K on it. I have swapped barrels, slides and other parts on it several times though. The barrel/slide swapping was more due to my testing of different configs to fine tune the felt recoil to what I wanted verses breakage though. I think the only "Original" upper parts still on it are the Limcat XL firing pin and AFTEC extractor, both of which are still going strong with no signs of excessive wear or issues. I can't even venture to guess how many springs have been fed this blaster over its service life but its gotta be a lot. I tend to swap springs way more frequently than most just to keep fresh ones in there. 

 

As for the round count between failures on all of my Limited guns combined that is also hard to say due to defective parts. For example, combined I broke 6 front sights and one rear sight this season on all three of my Limited blasters. Crappy sights breaking frequently really isn't a "Gun" problem. Besides the abnormal failures like the Barrel Bushings, Hammer Strut, Barrel Links or grip safety pinning they have run pretty reliably. I do proactively replace parts as I see excessive wear before the parts fail, like slide stops, ejectors, mag releases, and trigger parts. I fully understand that parts wear out and I don't expect anything to last forever when used hard. That and I am exceptionally good at breaking stuff because I don't allow the gun to muzzle flip.

 

I also want to point out that I shoot a lot compared to most others. The more you shoot the more opportunity there is for stuff to break, its as simple as that.  

[CHA-LEE]

Now that all of my major matches are finished for 2017 and the year is coming to an end I figured I would reflect on how 2017 went. I am happy with my major match results. All together I was able to attend 11 major USPSA matches and averaged a finishing percentage of 95%. I am happy with that as it’s nice to generate a GM level average results percentage across these major matches. You can fake your way into GM results on classifier stages but you can’t “Fake” consistent GM results at major matches. Finishing 10th at the Limited Nationals was also a nice goal to achieve.

 

I was able to attend over 50 local club matches all across Colorado which was a bunch of fun. For local matches I am primarily focused on having fun with friends, testing stuff and helping the matches happen. It’s rare that I get to compete against other Limited GM’s locally so it’s pretty difficult to measure my performance against others. I usually end up comparing myself to the Open shooters for the match HOA which is fun but doesn’t always translate well since some matches have obvious biases towards Open. That being said, there are not many local club matches where I am not winning overall or a very close second.

 

I have had fun dabbling in Open while attending the local indoor matches. Having a Red Dot for these indoor matches has dramatically improved my enjoyment verses not being able to see my sights shooting Limited. I earned a GM classification in Open this year so that is nice to get done as well. Every time I shoot the Open gun it’s funny how many people ask me if I am switching to the “Dark Side” for good. I have lost count of how many times I have said “Nope, just shooting Open at the indoor matches”. Shooting Open is fun but I am not ready to switch over to it as my primary division. I still have a lot to learn with Iron Sights and will be shooting Limited as my primary division for 2018. The one thing that I have learned by shooting Open is that the pace of shooting is far more aggressive than Limited when you are running the gun at the proper speed. I have yet to shoot a whole stage at the proper Open Rage Blast pace, but I have experienced target arrays at that pace and it’s wicked. This confirms that an effective Open GM should be at least 10% - 15% ahead of the same skilled Limited GM. I need more experience with Open to really understand it and I don’t think that shooting sporadic indoor matches with it is going to get me there. Maybe that will be a 2019 project?

 

For 2018 I have identified 14 major matches I want to attend and have listed those below. Some of these matches are really hard to get into from a slot perspective, so they may not happen for me. But I am going to try to get into each one. I am not going to attend the USPSA Nationals in Florida as the Universal Shooting Academy and I don’t get along from a weather and lighting perspective. I am going to try the Area 7 & 8 matches instead of the Nationals. This is going to be a pretty busy major match schedule but it should also be a lot of fun.

 

2018 Major Match Schedule

Space City Challenge

LSI Texas Sate Open

Area 1 Champs

Northern AZ Classic

Rocky Mountain 300

Area 7 Champs

Area 8 Champs

Utah State Champs

New Mexico Sectional

Colorado State Champs

High Desert Classic

LA Gator Classic

Area 2 Champs

 

One major change I am making for 2018 is to NOT work any major matches, even local ones. I have busted my hump working major matches in prior years and I feel that I have “Done my time” in giving back to the sport. Working major matches does negatively impact my performance in one manner or another and at my skill level I can’t be giving away any performance to my competition. Working matches also burns up more vacation time than I really want to give up for the only sake of making the match happen. I will continue to help run and work the local club matches as that level of volunteerism is fine. But I am going to see how not working major matches impacts my shooting performance.

 

For the last month I have been thinking about what goals I should set for 2018. The primary goal of HAVE FUN is always at the top of my list. Beyond that I think a good goal is to fully relearn the shot calling process with the new .090 Front / .100 Rear iron sight setup. I am also going to put some serious effort into physical fitness so I can get into better shape. I can feel these extra pounds slowing me down on stages where there is a lot of aggressive running. I am going to try to tackle this effort myself, but I am also going to research personal trainer options as well. Beyond that I really don’t have any concrete long term goals. I always have a list of smaller short term goals that I am working on so that won’t change much. Keeping my blasters running is also a never ending effort as I am good at breaking stuff. I am really looking forward to the 2018 shooting season. Hopefully it will go as well if not better than 2018.

[CHA-LEE]

I ordered a fixed rear sight for my #3 blaster that fits in the Bomar cut. I tried sighting it in last weekend but the point of impact was about 4 – 5 inches high at 10 yards. This fixed sight is too tall even though I have a 180 tall front sight. I don’t want to dick around with cutting down the rear sight or putting a taller front sight on it to fix the POI offset so I put the adjustable rear sight back on. I also put a .090 wide front sight on the #3 blaster so it’s ready to sight in again.

 

I also got the barrel bushing replaced on the #1 blaster so it’s ready to rumble again. I need to double check the sight in on that blaster as well since the new bushing could have changed the POI. I will try to get both of these blasters sighted in on Saturday during the HPPS match. I will run the #2 blaster in the match since I know it works and the bullets go where they are supposed to.

 

This Saturday is the HPPS match that I run so it will be a long day. The weather is supposed to be cold with a high of 46 but it will be about 20 degrees in the morning during setup. The weather on Sunday is looking worse so I doubt there will be a match. Saturday will probably be the only day that I can get some shooting done. Winter is now upon us so we have to take advantage of whatever shooting opportunities we have.   

[itlogo]

1 hour ago, CHA-LEE said:

This Saturday is the HPPS match that I run so it will be a long day. The weather is supposed to be cold with a high of 46 but it will be about 20 degrees in the morning during setup. The weather on Sunday is looking worse so I doubt there will be a match. Saturday will probably be the only day that I can get some shooting done. Winter is now upon us so we have to take advantage of whatever shooting opportunities we have.

 

Yours might be the last match of the year for ECO, too.  Hope to make it out before the freeze.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I hosted the HPPS club match on Saturday. The weather was a little cold in the morning but it wasn’t horrible. I got there early and busted my ass hauling props to all of the bays so the setup crew could get their stages setup. Hauling all of this heavy stuff solo was a bad idea as I hurt my lower back. I stuck it out and worked/shot the match but I was in significant back pain and hobbling around. I powered through it the best I could while shooting the stages but it was too overwhelming by the final stage of the match where I racked up 2 misses and some Deltas. I was blasting in the general direction of the targets instead of aiming because I was almost seeing stars with back pain.

 

I tried sighting in my #1 and #3 Limited blasters after the match but couldn’t produce any consistent grouping due to the back pain. Trying to rush shots in between back spasms does not work well with precision group shooting. I will need to sight these blasters in another day when my back isn’t all jacked up.

 

Since my back was ruined I took Sunday off and did nothing but rest. This helped chill out the spasms but it still hurts like a mofo. It’s a little better today from a pain level perspective but I am a long ways from being back to “normal”. All I can do this week is take it easy and hope that it gets healed up quickly. Back pain sucks for sure. But I think I also learned my lesson on trying to haul a bunch of heavy props on match day by myself.  

[CHA-LEE]

My back injury still lingers. It’s getting a little better day by day but I am a long ways from “Normal”. The only saving grace is the timing of this back injury with it being the end of the year and no major matches until February. We also have a significant arctic blast of cold weather hitting us over the next several days and through the weekend. With daily high temps in the low 20’s I am sure there won’t be any outdoor matches or practicing happening. This works well with my “take it easy” recovery plans.

 

Last night I was able to stop by the indoor range to sight in my Limited blasters. It’s amazing how much better groups you can shoot when you are not seeing stars in pain. I checked the POI on all three of my Limited blasters and adjusted them as needed to get them consistent to one another. I only needed to do a little bit of windage adjustment on both the #1 and #3. I wasn’t able to shoot all rounds touching groups due to the crappy indoor lighting, but the groups were consistent enough to make the proper adjustments. I will double check the POI on these blasters the next time I shoot outdoors. Until then they are close enough to get the job done if needed.

 

I also used this range time to sight in and test out the latest iteration of my MPX PCC. I have been fiddling on this thing in my spare time over the last couple of months. The stock MPX is a HEAVY pig, especially out front. The additional weight makes it shoot really soft. But the front heavy demeanor makes it feel like you are swinging a sledge hammer around when transitioning from one target to the next. To shed some front end weight I replaced the stock hand guard with a Lancer Carbon Fiber version. This shed 8oz. Then I ordered a 4.5 inch barrel and had Rick Hebert pin/weld a Titanium shroud on it to make it 16 inches again. The short/titanium barrel shed another 11oz. With these two changes it knocked off 19oz from the front of the gun which was a SIGNIFICANT improvement to reduce the “sledge hammer” feeling out front while transitioning. This new configuration feels a lot better in being able to flick the gun around from one target to the next. My testing at the range was to first sight it in then do some high speed blasting to see how the dot tracks. From a sighting in perspective I was surprised that it only needed a few clicks of elevation and windage to get the POI back to where it should be. I thought for sure that swapping the barrel would require a lot more adjustment but it didn’t. The reduced weight out front didn’t diminish the recoil absorbing function of this blaster as the dot barely moved at all while shooting at rage blast speeds. There was a little bit of dot movement but way less than an “Optimized” AR9 PCC. The one thing that I did notice that was dramatically reduced was the bullet torquing the gun while shooting. With the stock 16 inch barrel the gun would torque clockwise while shooting and now doesn’t at all with the 4.5 inch barrel. This makes sense given that there is much less rifling for the bullet to travel through before leaving the gun. I did this testing with factory Winchester White Box 115gr ammo which is far from being an optimal load for this PCC. Once I get a dedicated reload for this PCC it will be much better in felt recoil making it retarded soft shooting.

 

This MPX fiddle project is coming along nicely. The next step is to figure out an optimized ammo load that balances soft shooting with accuracy. I really need to get my 1050 setup so I can start that phase of the project.

Edited December 20, 2017 by CHA-LEE

[Magictalent]

Hi Cha-Lee

There is one thing not too many people talk about in out sport but is very important in any other sports.

Body injury.

US may have more younger shooters. In Canada where I shoot, I am the "young man" and I am going to hit 40 in few months.

Do you have books can recommend to me, so I can learn how to maintain my no well keep body to work better and be able to shoot in SS category in 20 years?

Thanks.

 

Jim  

[CHA-LEE]

1 hour ago, Magictalent said:

Hi Cha-Lee

There is one thing not too many people talk about in out sport but is very important in any other sports.

Body injury.

US may have more younger shooters. In Canada where I shoot, I am the "young man" and I am going to hit 40 in few months.

Do you have books can recommend to me, so I can learn how to maintain my no well keep body to work better and be able to shoot in SS category in 20 years?

Thanks.

 

Jim  

 

Every day we get a little older and the older we get the more our bodies complain about being old. I am not sure we can do much to reverse the hands of time. We can do things smarter though, like not trying to haul all of the club props by myself. Next time I will find some young backs to tackle that challenge.

[CHA-LEE]

After more than a week of resting and taking it easy my lower back is almost back to normal. It’s probably 90% of normal at this point. I am actually surprised that it has recovered this fast compared to my prior neck injuries. I am going to continue to take it easy and not lift heavy crap if I don’t have to.

 

With the holidays and really cold weather this past weekend there was no outdoor shooting opportunities. Not being able to shoot this past weekend wasn’t much of a bad thing because my back injury pretty much had me out of commission anyway. I was able to do some blaster maintenance instead which was a good thing. I detail stripped, cleaned and repaired all three of my Limited blasters. All three of my Limited blasters are ready to rumble. Even though the #1 is fixed again with a new one piece barrel bushing I am going to dedicate it to practice only duty. Then alternate between the #2 and #3 for matches. The fixed rear sight project for the #3 was a fail so I am going to stick with the adjustable Bomar style rear sight on that blaster. We will see how long the replacement rear sight lasts.

 

The build on the #4 Limited blaster has started. All of the parts have been gathered and handed over to Rick so now it’s up to him to get it all together. I am not in a rush to get that blaster built but it will probably get done over the next month or so. As with any new build it will go through a testing and break in phase before I have it coated. That will be a good winter project to fiddle on while it’s too cold to shoot outdoors. My goal is to have it fully ready to rumble by March as that is when my major match season starts again.

 

There are no matches scheduled for this coming weekend and the weather is currently looking cold so I doubt that there will be any outdoor shooting. Maybe the weather man is wrong and it will get a little warmer before the weekend? We will have to wait and see how it turns out.

[CHA-LEE]

No matches this past weekend due to the holidays. Since there were no matches and the weather was cooperating on Saturday I wrangled up some friends and we did some Live Fire practice. We setup a large field course and shot it several times in different ways. For this practice session I used up all of my ammo that wouldn’t case gauge. Surprisingly it all ran with zero issues. I thought for sure I would have at least a couple jams using this ammo but I didn’t. It was nice to burn up this ammo as it’s been sitting around for a while now and I didn’t trust using it in a match.

 

Between practice runs I was able to do some slow motion video of all three of my Limited blasters to see how the recoil felt and muzzle flip/bounce looked. I shot these three blasters in the same conditions with a full magazine to eliminate any weight variables. Since I had been shooting the #1 blaster most of the day I used that as the baseline of what felt normal. The #2 blaster felt a touch harsher in recoil and the #3 felt a touch softer. Both of these guns felt slightly different in slide friction when I racked them before shooting. The #2 felt like it had only oil on it and racked with very little lubrication resistance. The #3 felt like it had thicker oil on it when racking it. It was cold coming out of the bag so I can attribute the “thicker” feeling to that.

 

I am using the same spring and firing pin block setup on all three of these guns (10lb Recoil, 20lb Hammer Springs). The slide weight is also identical at 12oz stripped. Overall the felt recoil and sight tracking is very similar between all three of these guns. There is a little bit of muzzle flip which happens when the slide bottoms out on the frame. There is a little bit of muzzle wobble when the slide snaps back forward, especially on the #2 blaster. I wish that I could get away with using a lighter recoil spring as that would eliminate the muzzle wobble, but prior testing also confirms that the accuracy goes out the window when I use a lighter recoil spring. I might revisit testing heavier hammer springs to see if I can reduce some of the slide velocity. I have tested heavier hammer springs in the past and that usually leads to the muzzle tip up during the shot situation which I really don’t like. I will do some more hammer spring testing but I will probably end up back where I started. The good thing is that this setup is fairly consistent across all three of my Limited blasters.

 

 

At the end of this practice session I was able to give my MPX PCC a run in the new light weight front end configuration. I shot the stage with it to compare to my pistol runs and it was really easy to shoot. The heavy front end feeling was completely gone and I could flick it around easily during hard transitions. I shot the stage using only the big circle in the sight and that worked out really well until I got to the mini poppers. When I got to the mini poppers I was looking for the 2 moa dot in the middle of the circle which wasn’t turned on and my shooting was delayed looking for it. That was a bone head moment on my part but I can’t be too hard on myself given that it was my first time in shooting the MPX that day with only the big circle reticle. I am still shooting factory ammo with the MPX so the recoil was a little more harsh than it needed to be. Even though I could feel the recoil in my shoulder the sights barely moved on target. I could literally shoot as fast as my finger could go and keep my hits on target. The next step for this MPX is to develop a dedicated ammo load for it. I will try to get that done in the next couple of weeks.

 

It was a very productive practice day with friends. I also tried my best to take it easy on my back by not lifting heavy stuff. Even though I tried to take it easy on my back I was still in hurting shape at the end of the day. My lower back hurt a little but my right foot was in some serious pain. This back injury is causing pain in the arch of my right foot to the point of making walking difficult. I did some research on this and this type of remote foot pain is common with a sciatic nerve pinch at the S1 vertebra level. I took it easy over the rest of the long weekend and the foot pain has chilled out. The strange thing about the foot pain is that walking doesn’t flair it up, but standing does. If I stand for an extended amount of time then the foot pain starts to build. Walking after that doesn’t make it go away. If I refrain from standing stationary and keep walking around the foot pain seems to take a lot longer to manifest. All I can do is continue to take it easy until this injury heals. Getting old sucks!!!

[CHA-LEE]

My back is doing a lot better. I don’t have the foot pain anymore which is awesome. Right now I only have a dull back ache if I sit or stand stationary for a long time. If I keep moving then it usually doesn’t have any pain at all. I am still taking it easy in lifting stuff and will continue to do so for a while. There is no need to rush in to lifting stuff when I can wrangle up some help to make the process easier. The hardest part for me is asking for help as I am used to doing stuff by myself.

 

Old man winter decided to stay away this past weekend so I was able to shoot on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday I got to do some live fire practice with some friends. I didn’t get to shoot a bunch but I did get a chance to test out my new Rudy Project +.50 diopter shooting glasses. A while back I had some +.50 Diopter lenses put into my Rydon Rudy Project glasses. The first time the prescription was made the focal point position in the left lens was screwed up and it gave me a vertigo feeling while wearing them. I had to get the left lens recut to fix the focal point position and now they work properly. There is a little bit of magnification change as I look through the extreme left/right sides of the lens but that is to be expected with a wrap lens like this. I used these new shooting glasses on both Saturday and Sunday and didn’t notice any difference in performance from my old straight lens shooting glasses I have been using. The primary reason I wanted to switch to these Rudy Project prescription glasses is due to their better wrap around eye protection. Nobody wants to lose an eye at the range and there seems to always be something flying around during matches or range sessions.

 

On Sunday I shot the AGC match. They decided to forego the classifier again and setup 4 large field courses instead. This match is usually biased towards close easy targets which produces a lot of hosing shooting scenarios. This match was different as there were 90% partial targets and a lot of hard aiming distance shots. This slowed the shooting pace way down and it showed in the stage hit factors. I don’t mind more difficult shooting stages like this as I can buckle down and earn my hits. But my squad mates were getting beat up pretty bad by racking up shooting penalties or shooting a crap ton of C/D zone hits. Matches like this are usually a good wake up call for local shooters to reinforce the requirement of marksmanship in matches. Aiming hard on every stage paid off as I didn’t have any shooting penalties or D zone hits for the match. The only thing I wasn’t happy with that day was my movement aggressiveness when running from one position to the next. I wasn’t giving it 100% as I am still leery of injuring my back again. That being said, I would rather donate a few seconds to the competition due to half hearted running verses go crazy and hurt my back again. I am sure I will get back to running around aggressively once my back is healed.

 

Hopefully we can get lucky with the weather again next weekend. The weather forecast is currently calling for temps in the mid 40’s for next weekend. We will see if that holds out. If there is anything consistent about the Colorado weather is that it’s extremely inconsistent and hard to predict.  

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I wasn’t able to do any shooting on Saturday. The local match was canceled and I had other things to get done so it wasn’t a waste of a day. On Sunday I attended the Pueblo match and it was a fun time. The stages in this match were biased towards run, stop shoot positions with a decent mixture of shot difficulty. The sun was out and there wasn’t too much wind, but the temp was cool enough to keep our coats on. I am actually surprised how lucky we have been so far with the weather this winter. We usually have a lot more matches getting canceled due to winter weather by this time of year. Hopefully the hardcore winter weather continues to hold out a little longer.

 

My back is doing much better. I only have a small amount of dull back pain if I am on my feet for a long time. The specific foot pain is totally gone now which is great. I am still taking it easy by not lifting stuff that I don’t have to. I think I will stick to not trying to lift heavy stuff for a while.

 

My first major match of the year is the Space City Challenge in Texas at the end of February. My second major match is the Texas State Open in April. It’s been a couple of years since I have attended major matches in Texas so it will be cool to make it down there again.   

[CHA-LEE]

Last night I attended an indoor evening match at the Bristlecone Range. It’s been a while since I shot there so I figured I would give it a go. I also decided to shoot Limited at this indoor match to give the Dawson sight setup a run in the less than optimal lighting. They had one large field course stage and three standards type of stages. The field course stage was a three shots per target setup with a good mixture of hosing and aiming. The three other standards stages were a good test of draws, reloads and aiming. Those were not much fun compared to the field course, but then again they never are.

 

I had two mistakes for the match. They both happened on the same standards stage which was a one shot on each target, reload, then one shot on each target again. The start was a turn draw and I got a marginal grip on the gun with my right hand registered too far forward. This kept me from being able to reach the mag release during the reload and I had to shift the gun in my hand to reach it. Then I rushed the shooting after the reload and broke the last shot too early resulting in a miss. I knew that I had a miss as soon as it broke, but I couldn’t do anything about it on this Virginia count stage.

 

I shot all of the other stages really solid with no issues and good points. It was interesting to shoot indoors again with my Limited gun. Seeing a well-defined front sight wasn’t happening due to the poor lighting. I ended up aiming and calling my shots by using the light bars between the front sight and rear notch. Being able to use this alternate method of aiming was an interesting advantage to using the tighter light bar setup. I need to do some more experimenting with this in the future to really prove out its effectiveness.

 

It was fun to be able to do some shooting in the middle of the week. That and it’s always fun to attend matches with friends. Even though the stages were biased towards standards, it was still better than not shooting.   

[CHA-LEE]

This weekend was a crazy one from a weather perspective. Saturday was clear skies and T-shirt weather, then Sunday was a blizzard with a high of 25 degrees. This is a great example of how crazy the weather can be here in Colorado.

 

I was very grateful for the awesome weather on Saturday as that was the HPPS match which I run. We setup 6 fun stages and had a blast in the nice weather. We were a little short staffed for this match so I had to do triple duty as MD, Score Keeper, and Stage Setup. Sometimes it happens that way and all we can do is buckle down and get it done. My primary goal while running this match was to not throw my back out again. I was successful in achieving this goal and did so by asking for help with all of the heavy lifting. I am really glad that I didn’t throw my back out again as that sucks.  

 

Since I was running around with my head cut off getting stuff done before the start of the match I didn’t have a chance to look at any of the stages from a shooting perspective. I had to figure out all of the stages on the fly during the match as we got to them. This is always a good test of my stage breakdown and programming skills. Several of the stages had multiple viable stage plans so it was cool to be able to figure out which plan I wanted to use quickly and program it effectively. I stuck with plans that were basic with more running around to keep them simple and it worked out well. I think I had the second best plan on a couple of stages but the planning was too complex to program given the limited time I had. Overall I shot the match pretty consistently and fairly solid. I didn’t have any shooting penalties and only 2 D zone hits. Both D’s were called as such while shooting but I was either already leaving the shooting position or it was a Virginia count stage and I couldn’t make it up. I am glad the match ran well and we all had a good time in nice weather.

 

On Sunday I was able to do some indoor live fire practice with a couple of friends. Given that it was a blizzard outside I was like a kid in a candy store. This was also a good test for the sight setup in less than optimal lighting. For the paper targets I was able to use the “Light Bars” for the majority of my aiming. That fell apart when aiming at rubber mini poppers sitting in front of the black crushed rubber back stop. Seeing the sights properly on those targets was nearly impossible so I had to resort to point shooting at them which wasn’t very effective. Overall it was a good practice session and much better than not shooting that day.

 

I picked up a Canik TP9 SFX the other day to fiddle on for Carry Optics. I did a trigger job on it by optimizing the stock parts and got the trigger from 6lbs down to 3lbs. Then I threw in an M&P reduced power striker spring and 13lb recoil spring since they fit. I was able to test fire it on Sunday during the indoor practice session and it went BOOM every time so that is good. The trigger feels nice and I can run it fast which is also good. It has an extended slide release lever which digs into the heel of my left hand while shooting so that is going to get ground down. I also need to add some grip tape to it for more friction. It still has the iron sights on it so I wasn’t able to test it with a red dot on top. My plan is to put a Delta Point Pro on it to see how that works. I should be able to get that installed once I get that sight back from a buddy I let borrow it. That and I need to get some mag base pads to make them 140mm. After that it should be ready to rumble for Carry Optics. I might give that a go during the indoor matches instead of my Open gun just for fun. Or I might sell it after I get it all figured out. The cool thing is that it’s a really cheap project to play with during the winter months.  

[HoMiE]

Does grinding the release down on canik make it an prohibited external modification?

[itlogo]

Quote

We were a little short staffed for this match so I had to do triple duty as MD, Score Keeper, and Stage Setup. 

And #4: competitor

 

Quote

My plan is to put a Delta Point Pro on it to see how that works.

If that plan doesn't work out, I have a Burris FF3 that works most of the time.  You only need to turn it on once, maybe twice per run.

 

[CHA-LEE]

36 minutes ago, HoMiE said:

Does grinding the release down on canik make it an prohibited external modification?

 

I just checked the rules. Grinding down the extended slide release nub is a prohibited external modification. That rule also states that the slide stop can be replaced with OFM parts from other models on the approved gun list. The TP9SA has a flat slide release so I can get one of those and put it in to make it legal. Thanks for the heads up. I am used to fiddling on Limited and Open guns where I can do whatever I want and its still legal.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I was able to attend a couple of matches. The Saturday match was at the Aurora Gun club. It was COLD in the morning in the mid 20’s with a slight breeze.  With snow in all of the bays it made for some cold shooting conditions first thing in the morning. It eventually warmed up to the mid 40’s by the time we finished the match. But that was a stark reminder that it is in fact winter time and freezing our butts off at the range is going to happen.

 

This match had a good mixture of aiming, hosing and running. There were some stages with good shooting speed change ups within target arrays. There was also a stage with a decision of staying back and taking harder shots or running up to a shooting box 10 yards closer and taking easier shots. I always find it interesting how many shooters don’t dry fire both methods to figure out which option is actually the best. I timed both methods and they were about the same time but it was far more risky shots staying back. Before I shot the stage most of my squad was shooting it from the back. When it was my turn I ran up and it blew people’s minds because they thought for sure it was going to be slower. After my run everyone changed their plan to run up. It’s strange how shooters tend to be lazy in their stage breakdown effort for things like this. Oh well, their loss.

 

I shot the match fairly solid. I had one miss that I called marginal but was shooting 18 rounds out of a 20 round mag and didn’t want to run out within the array. In hind sight I should have made up the shot as I still had a few rounds left. I had an unplanned bump fire at the start of the array which I thought consumed my extra rounds for the array so I felt like I didn’t have enough ammo to make it up. Through the match I also had 3 D zone hits. One of them I can live with as it was a diagonal exposure of a target with a no shoot in front. But the other two were pure sloppy shooting on the first target engaged in the array. I was dragging the gun across the target while settling in the shooting position and it resulted in laterally displaced D zone hits. Other than these issues I shot pretty good and it was a fun time shooting with friends.

 

On Sunday I attended the CGC indoor match and I shot my Open gun. I wanted to shoot my Limited gun, and almost did, but decided to give the Open gun a whirl since I haven’t shot it in a while. This match was a train wreck for me. On the first stage I had a miss on a partial hard cover target because I was trying to engage it with too much dot streak and the shot went over the top. The second stage went ok but it was an up close hose down stage. The third stage was the classifier which was Diamond Cutter and is 4 partial targets with no shoots blocking each one. I figured I would take it easy and shoot all A’s on this to ensure good hits. I was rewarded with a low shot just into the no shoot to eat a Miss and No shoot. All of my hits were biased lower than I was aiming but I figured I was simply mashing the trigger. Then on the last stage it was a good mixture of aiming in the back and hosing in the front. In the front section there was a double stack of targets with a no shoot in the middle. The no shoot was only about 2 inches tall between the upper and lower targets but I managed to plug it solidly twice while engaging the upper target. I also shot through a barrel because I screwed up my target sequence and engaged a target with half a barrel covering it. I know that I was aiming higher on the targets than where my hits were ending up. I shot a group from that position after the match and sure enough my Point of Impact was about 4 – 5 inches low and an inch to the right. It’s been a long time since I have sighted in this open gun so it’s my fault for not double checking its zero more often.

 

For the match I racked up 3 no shoots and 3 misses which pretty much sunk my overall performance. With these small 4 stage matches you can’t afford to give away 75 match points in shooting penalties and expect to do well. From a performance perspective, I wish that I had shot my Limited gun. But then I wouldn’t have figured out that my point of aim / point of impact was screwed up on the open gun. I will get it fixed this coming week. It just sucks to throw away a match because of a stupid failure like that.         

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend was a bust from a match perspective. No match was scheduled on Saturday so I went out and did some live fire training instead. The match on Sunday was canceled due to the winter weather. It was 12 degrees with blowing snow in the morning on Sunday so that would have been miserable shooting conditions if a match was run.

 

I am glad I got to shoot on Saturday though as I needed to get some stuff tested out. I sighted in my Open gun at 15 yards. It started out 6 inches low and I got it adjusted back to a dead on POA/POI at 15 yards. I am not sure how that thing got off by so much. Especially since it has held its zero so well in the past. I need to double check the POI on that thing more often so I don’t run into the same situation again.

 

I tried sighting in the Canik blaster with the Delta Point Pro on top but its accuracy was too crappy to even sight it in. At 15 yards it was producing a shotgun pattern about 6 inches in diameter so sighting it in was impossible. I will see if I can get the accuracy to improve with different ammo but so far the accuracy has been pretty crappy with the two factory ammo’s I have run through it. This thing might be a lost cause if I can’t improve the accuracy.

 

We setup a large field course that had a good mixture of aiming, hosing, shooting on the move, reloads, and hauling ass. This stage was kicking everyone’s butt in some manner or another which was good. I wasn’t feeling into it like I normally would be so most of my runs were pretty lack luster. I kept blasting in the general direction of targets instead of using the sights. This is usually my first indicator that I am not into it. But I pushed through and pulled it together for a few good runs. It was far from my most productive practice session but it was way better than not shooting. My #1 gun ran like a champ and I didn’t have any mega performance failures so I can’t whine too much.

 

I am attending the indoor USPSA match down in Colorado Springs this evening. I am going to shoot my Limited gun at this match. I probably should shoot my Open gun, but I have an itch to shoot my Limited gun instead. We will see how much the lighting affects my ability to see the sights.

[CHA-LEE]

I attended the Whistling Pines indoor match last night and shot my Limited gun. The stages in this match were a divergence from their “normal” hoser biased target presentations. You had to aim your ass off at this match, which was a good thing. The lighting wasn’t horrible so I could see my sights fairly well. I racked up a miss on the first two stages which was a bummer. Both misses I called very marginal so I wasn’t surprised that they ended up being misses. I will take these misses as a good shot calling learning experience. On the second stage I slipped and almost fell down while running hard into a shooting position. These slippery concrete floors are tricky to deal with, especially when you have 5 – 6 strides of hard running between positions.

 

The last two stages I shot pretty solid and it was a lot of fun. I didn’t have any D zone hits or No Shoots which was good given that 75% of the targets in the match had no shoots on them. This was a good test of indoor iron sight shooting. I am glad that I shot my Limited gun at this match as it was good practice for less than optimal lighting conditions. Shooting a Dot at this match was a significant advantage. If I shot my Open gun I would have been able to shoot most of the stages faster with better points. Oh well, maybe next time.

 

The Space City Challenge is the first major of the year for me and its coming up in a few weeks. Due to our fair weather winter I have been able to maintain a regular shooting schedule. I feel like there hasn’t been any forced “Down Time” during the winter which is a good thing. I should be ready to hit the ground running for the Space City Challenge.   

[CHA-LEE]

Winter has finally caught up to us here in Colorado. The super cold and snowy weather canceled both local matches this past weekend. It was too cold to venture out for practice as well. Since I had some shooting down time I got some work done on my #4 Limited blaster. I have decided to build this bad boy myself while taking some gunsmith training from Steve Pitt for the Slide/Frame/Barrel fit. I am a total novice to running a mill so we tackled that first on some scrap metal before we started cutting on my gun parts. Once I felt comfortable with running the mill we started cutting on the slide. We took it nice and slow making measurements several times before cutting which was a good thing. I was able to flat top the slide, cut the sight dove tails, and also do 25lpi lines on the flat top. Overall this wasn’t a lot of total work completed. It took us about 5 hours to get that far given that there was instruction happening through that whole process. The next session we will focus on the frame to slide fit and maybe barrel fit.

 

Back at home I got the PT Metal Grip to Frame fit sorted out and prepped several of the lower parts. I also got the Extractor, Firing Pin Stop and Firing pin fitted properly to the slide. It took quite a bit of time fitting the PT Grip to the Frame and getting the SV Trigger bow fitted to the grip. Then I tuned the mag release and blended the grip to the main spring housing. I still need to get the actual trigger job done and sort out the beaver tail. But I should be able to get that stuff done this week. My goal is to get the majority of the lower parts fitted and ready to rumble this week. Hopefully I can get some more machine time this week to at least get the slide fit to the frame.

 

One of the interesting things about this build so far is the slide weight verses lightening cuts. I am using a Caspian slide and it is lighter than the CK or STI slides I have used in the past. I prefer a stripped slide weight of 12oz. On the CK or STI slides we had to do decent size lightening cuts to cut the weight. On this Caspian slide it’s almost at 12oz after the sight cuts and flat top. Not needing to hog more weight out of the slide will make it look quite different than my existing limited guns. But it should feel the same when shooting because it will be the same overall weight as the others.

 

I am excited about building my first gun from scratch like this. I am sure I will screw some stuff up along the way. But that is all part of the learning process. If it doesn’t end up the way I want it to that will be 100% my fault. All I can do is give it a go and see how it turns out.

[Husker95]

I've been to Steve's shop when I picked up my gun last fall.  You going to get one of those mills like he has?

 

[CHA-LEE]

Husker95> Nope. Its not cost effective for me to spend $25K - $30K on mill, tooling, and jigs to build a few blasters for myself. I would rather use others equipment and pay them for the use.

[CHA-LEE]

At the start of 2018 I deployed a different grip strength training exercise program using a new tool called the SideWinder Pro Extreme #3. This tool is designed to produce friction resistance when twisting the bar. The friction resistance can be adjusted via a spring loaded adjustment knob on the top of the bar. A friend of mine suggested getting one of these for increasing grip strength in a more balanced manner verses the standard spring loaded grippers.

 

To be honest, I was skeptical at first as I thought my current grip exercise program was pretty solid. This SideWinder tool proved that my spring loaded gripper exercise program wasn’t sufficient. Especially for working out my extensor muscles. I deployed a daily exercise program using the SideWinder in varied positions. Even though I started out on the lowest tension setting this thing was destroying my forearms in short order. I stuck with the daily regiment on the lowest tension setting until I could perform three full sets of 25 reps in each position. It took me about a month to increase my strength to the point of being able to do that. Then I bumped up the tension setting to “Level 2” and have continued with the daily exercise program. I am currently in the middle of “Level 2” and it successfully destroys my forearms every workout.

 

I have noticed an increase in forearm muscle mass since I started using the SideWinder tool, which is to be expected. But the biggest change I have noticed is dramatically increased one handed recoil management. I can tell that my overall grip strength and endurance has increased because my old spring loaded gripper exercise program is now easily completed with very little fatigue. The thing I really like about the Sidewinder is that it’s pretty low impact which minimizes the chance of tendonitis.

 

The only negative about the SideWinder Pro Extreme #3 is its price at $145. This is pretty expensive verses buying $15 - $20 grippers. But this tool is very well made and worth its cost if you want to take your grip strength to the next level. I have listed a link to this bad boy below if you want to check it out yourself. I also want to point out that I have no sponsorship or commercial affiliation with Sport Grips or their products. I purchased their product just like everyone else does. I am simply trying to convey my experience and findings with a good product that will help improve your grip strength and endurance.

 

https://sportgrips.com/product/pro-xtreme-3