jkmccoy

This was my first BRM3G and I'll definitely be back. Thanks to all the sponsors for supporting the match. A BIG thanks to all the RO's who worked the match. Thanks to Andy for setting up a really fun and challenging match. I wouldn't mind though, if you don't set up the tiger cage from stage 4 next year. Cheers, Kelly McCoy BTW - Squad 2 was one of the best I've ever shot with. Zero whining, everyone worked, everyone was on time and ready, and everyone seemed to be really happy to be shooting the match. Thanks.

Gerrit, My son (Will) and I are shooting 3-gun open using open Tanfos. We built open top ends for two pistols using compact slides and full size barrels. We're using old Tasco Optimas for sights, but we milled the slides and mounts to fit. JP has a bunch of different bases for the JPoint mount (that also fit the Optima). Depending on which sight you have, one of their bases might fit the sight cut and give you an easy back up. Of course, knocking out the rear sight and installing the base for the red dot is more gunsmithing than I'd like to do between stages. OTOH, you could put together a whole open top end for not a whole lot of money. Cheers, Kelly

This was one for the record books! The match was incredible. All of the stages were challenging and fun to shoot. The match ran smoothly despite the weather conditions. The prize table was great. Mike and Andy did a remarkable job setting this one up and running the match. I'll definitely be back next year! Cheers, Kelly

Mike and Andy, I'm really looking forward to shooting and working the match this year. I really appreciate all the work that goes into putting on a match like this. See you next week. Cheers, Kelly

Tim, It doesn't look right to me. On all the Tanfo's I've had any experience with the back of the slide is flush with the frame when the slide is completely forward (in battery). Will it go ahead and go forward completely if you push on the back of the slide? If it comes to rest like this when you let the slide down gently it might just be new gun tight. If it stops here when you let the slide drop and it resists going the rest of the way forward then there's probably a problem. Cheers, Kelly

Three weeks away from the Task Force Dagger match Murphy has intervened. While practicing yesterday we managed to break the bolt carrier on our Saiga 20. The "other" shotgun is a big step down and Will isn't at all excited about the prospect of shooting the world's only open-division Win Model 12 (yes, 10 round tube, ports, red dot sight). So, I'd really like to repair the Saiga. A substantial amount of internet search and phone time led me to very nice and helpful people at Dissident Arms and R&R Targets both of whom suggested purchasing another Saiga and taking the bolt carrier out of it. Additional calling around confirms that parts (especially bolt carriers) are essentially unobtainable. However, purchase of an additional shotgun right now (just to get the parts) would be an unwelcome financial strain. Does anyone have any suggestions on where I might find a bolt carrier? Have one collecting dust in your shop? Thanks, Kelly

Jack, Sorry I can't help you. I have almost zero experience with CZ's and I've never even held the model you're referring to. John had some comments in your other thread. I do have substantial experience (competition and carry) with the Italian made Witnesses (sort of CZ clones). But, as noted above there is a basic design difference in the safeties so my comments on those guns don't apply to the CZ. John, Biker and Ironic, The safety has always been a feature that I really like on the Witnesses. Because you can engage the safety with the hammer down you don't have to rely only on the long DA trigger pull. Because the safety locks the sear (and thus the hammer and the trigger) engaging the safety pretty much locks up the gun. We had a CZ Shadow in the house briefly a couple of months ago and the difference in the safety was one of the first things we noticed. On the CZ you couldn't engage the safety with the hammer down. Cheers, Kelly

John, I certainly wouldn't question your expertise, and it may be that we are discussing different pistols. I have almost no experience with CZ's and really can't comment on them. The original question asked about an "EAA Compact L". As far as I know there isn't an alloy frame compact pistol imported by EAA. EAA does import compact Witnesses and I commented on carrying a steel frame compact Witness. I'm quite certain that on my compact Witness (and my TZ75 and every other Witness Will or I have owned while they were still DA/SA) with the hammer down and safety on the trigger and hammer are locked and it can NOT be fired. You had me so worried I went upstairs, got my compact out of my briefcase, unloaded it and tested. I also got the TZ out of the safe and checked it. Cheers, Kelly

Jack, Are you asking about the CZ75 Compact L? That's an alloy frame compact gun. I may have missed something, but I've never seen an alloy frame Witness. I don't have any experience with the CZ's, but I can comment on the EAA Witness compact. As far as carry goes... I carry a steel frame compact Witness (.45ACP) everywhere it's legal. It's a little heavy, but I wear good holster belts and don't have any trouble. I use a Safariland holster with a custom kydex paddle and it's quite comfortable and easily concealable (even under a Hawaiian shirt in the summer). I really like being able to carry it with a round in the chamber, hammer down, safety on. The pistol shoots well and is reasonably comfortable. Same ammunition capacity as my 1911 in a smaller and lighter gun. Overall I think it's a great carry gun. It's what I chose. Cheers, Kelly

I will admit that I'm a little bummed that we won't be throwing live grenades. Maybe just flash-bangs? Even with inert grenades the stages this year look over-the-top fun. The match is 456 rounds! Minimum! This match is well worth the entry fee. It's even better that part of the fees are donated to TFD. After shooting and RO'ing the match last year I will also say that I'm comfortable with the safety of the stages. As george said, you need to be comfortable with slinging and unslinging weapons and aware of where weapons are when slung. I can't wait to shoot... Cheers, Kelly

We wouldn't mind shooting with Ryan... If he will promise not to get to the end of the stage and then run all the way back uprange to re-engage rifle targets! Cheers, Kelly

John, Still sounds like a lot of fun. We're planning to shoot the 3-gun match. Still 9:30 start? Do you need pre-registration information? Cheers, Kelly

Razz, It sounds like fun. I'll try to make it down for the match. Cheers, Kelly

Pat, If your range is within 2-hours drive of my house, I'll shoot all four! Three gun is my favorite (by a lot). I've shot some carbine matches and they were lots of fun. I've shot some carbine/shotgun matches and enjoyed them. I shoot pistol matches when there isn't anything else available. I'll bet a lot of 3-gunners would say something similar. We enjoy all of the weapon platforms (that's why we shoot 3-gun). If 2-gun formats mean more available matches... we'll shoot them. It's possible that there will also be people who don't want to shoot all three guns who will be attracted to the 2-gun matches. Cheers, Kelly

Albany GA and Columbus GA both have very convenient, small, airports that are pretty close to the range (1 hr. drive). From either of those airports your only choice is to fly to Atlanta and there are about two flights per day. It will likely be more expensive than flying into Atlanta, but depending on your origin it may only be one connecting flight. Obviously, Atlanta has lots of flights to anywhere in the world all day long. That airport is a good 3.5 hour drive from LOTG (probably closer to 4 hours in the real world). Hartsfield-Jackson is a huge airport and getting into and out of the airport is a pain and likely another hour added to the trip. The Tallahassee airport is smaller and much more convenient than Hartsfield-Jackson. It's about a 2-hour drive to the range. The tickets will likely be a little more expensive than flying into Atlanta, but it may be worth it. Just the observations of someone who lives in SW Georgia and has made lots of travel arrangements (business and family) in the past several years. Cheers, Kelly McCoy

Adam, you had the cushy RO job last year... sitting in the shade on top of the sniper tower. I think it's only fair that this year John gets the sniper tower and you get to run up the dirt hill on stage 9 (200 times!). Cheers, Kelly p.s. I will miss the added challenge of south Georgia June weather. March will be much cooler and will take reduce the "cruel and unusual" factor. Maybe it will rain so we can shoot in the mud.

I'm really glad to see this one on the schedule for 2014. It was a great match last year. I'll be there in March (and much better prepared than I was last June!). Kelly

There has been substantial speculation about the weather for the SE3GC. I understand that for some of the previous Ft. Benning matches the weather has been unpleasantly cool. On the first week of December it is possible that even south Georgia will be cold, but it doesn't seem likely. I live about 60 miles from Blakely (north of Blakely). I remember attending a Christmas party last year wearing a short-sleeved Hawaiian shirt and being one of four guys at the party wearing Hawaiian shirts. I'm not expending a lot of resources on handwarmers. Cheers, Kelly McCoy

Hamp, I'm with you! I know how much work it is to put on a major 3-gun match and the late change of venue is really tough. The Legion OTG facility is excellent, but I'm sure it's tough to redesign the match for a new location. Let us know if you need help setting up. I'm not far from LOTG and I could come down to set up if it would help. Cheers, Kelly

If anyone is still curious, I've fixed the problem. The rifle is back to shooting reliable 1.5-2.0" groups at 100 yds. I'm sure there will still be lots of speculation about what was the problem. Yesterday I disassembled the upper. I removed the Samson rail. I removed the home-made comp. I removed the scope and mount. I removed the gas block and gas tube. I unscrewed the barrel nut and removed the barrel. I cleaned all of the parts thoroughly. I re-installed the barrel with a different barrel nut torqued to 65 ft-lbs. Reinstalled the gas block and tube. Installed a Miculek comp. Reinstalled the Samson rail. Reinstalled the scope and mount. At the range today the rifle shot much higher than it had been. I adjusted the scope and moved to 100yds. I shot a bunch of 5-shot groups. All about 1.5-2.0 inches (see below, these are groups shot at 100yds). All groups were reasonably round and without obvious vertical stringing. The last time I was at the range the rifle was shooting groups 8-10 inches tall at 100 yds. Although it's possible that the problem was the compensator, I think the problem was the barrel nut. When I removed the first barrel nut it was obvious that it had only been in contact with the shoulder on the barrel exension for about 1/2 of the circumference. It was also much easier to install the rail on the new barrel nut and it was no trouble to tighten the rail parallel with the barrel. Thanks for your suggestions and helpful comments. Kelly

I think I'll try golf as a hobby. It seems to be almost as addictive and nearly as frustrating as 3-gun competition. Will and I went to the range today. We mostly shot at 50yds from a solid bench with front and rear sand bags. We used the Vortex scope in the Nikon rings. We removed the scope and mounted the old K4 in the Nikon rings. We cleaned the bore thoroughly. We removed the handguard/rail. We used different ammo. We fired about 20 five-shot groups with similar results. Poor groups with lots of vertical stringing. I've attached some pictures below. The two groups in the pictures were shot at 50yds. I'm not sure it was clear in my original question (because I asked about possible problems with the PEPR mount), but the rifle was shooting pretty well and then suddenly it wasn't shooting well. Shooting it without the comp is a reasonable suggestion, but it was shooting fine with the home-made comp. A cracked barrel nut sounds like a real possibility, but I can't find a crack. What would cause a sudden loss of accuracy in an AR?

Again, I appreciate all the suggestions. The rifle only has about 500-600 rounds through it. I'm pretty sure that something changed that caused a big change (for the worse) in accuracy. I'm sure that the gas block isn't hitting the rail. I've checked the comp and the end of the barrel and there isn't much carbon build up. I did think that removing and re-instaling the rail might have been the problem, but Sunday when I moved the rail away from the front of the receiver it didn't change anything. The PEPR mount apparently wasn't the problem because the problem didn't go away when I changed to a different scope mount. I don't think I can do anything else until I get back to the range with a different scope and that won't happen until this weekend. Cheers, Kelly

Thanks for the suggestions and sorry I didn't report back sooner. I've been out of town on business. I mounted the Vortex scope in the Nikon rings and we went to the range on Sunday. Same results. Terrible accuracy and lots of vertical stringing. The targets look like what I once saw with a bolt gun where the wooden forend had warped and was pressing against the barrel unevenly. There would be a couple of shots close together, a couple of shots close together but inches away, and sometimes another shot somewhere else. We were shooting Sunday from a solid bench with front and rear sandbags and Will and I both got the same results. We tried 50yds. and 100yds. We tried different magnifications. I loosened the rail and slid it forward about 0.020" so it wouldn't be touching the front of the receiver. No change. I did forget to take the old scope to the range, so I couldn't make the definitive test of remounting the Weaver scope and shooting that combination. I won't be able to get back to the range before Saturday, so I won't have those results for a couple of days. Because I can't figure out what would have caused the accuracy to drop off so dramatically and so suddenly I'm thinking something's wrong with the new scope. Bill, if you have extra Larue mounts you could send one this way. I appreciate the suggestions about possible problems with the PEPR. Because the problems didn't go away when I changed mounts I'm leaning away from the PEPR as the main issue. Kelly

This isn't my first rodeo. The scope was mounted on the upper (not on the rail). I don't know what part of my post would have suggested otherwise. Kelly

I'm headed for the range tomorrow for some more testing, but this is bothering me so much that I thought I'd ask your opinions (sorry for the long story)... Will (my son) and I recently completed building a new AR for 3-gun competition (open). We finished an 80% lower, Jard trigger, DPMS slickside upper, AR Stoner 18" stainless barrel, we built the comp, Samson 15" Evolution rail. A scope on top and a red dot (Optima) offset on the rail. When we first put it together I put an old Weaver K4 scope on top in a pair of Nikon cantilever rings. Never intended that to be the final set up, but we could use it. The accuracy wasn't as great as we'd hoped, but it was acceptable. We were shooting 1.5-2" groups at 100 yards from a bench using only a front rest. Also, although the groups were bigger than I'd hoped the groups were reliably round. We both shot the rifle in a match at East Alabama Gun Club last weekend and the rifle performed just fine. This week I acquired a Burris PEPR mount (quick detach) and a Vortex Diamondback 3-9X. (Say whatever you want abou the choice of scopes, at least it's much better glass than the ancient K4). Yesterday evening, I mounted the PEPR and the Vortex and figured that the better glass and higher magnification would at least let me do better from the bench. While I had the scope off of the rifle I also removed the Samson rail and reinstalled it. When I first installed the rail it wanted to point up when I tightened it down. Yesterday I got it lined up right and tightened down so it's parallel with the barrel. I went to the range today. I was shooting at 50yds. from a table in one of the pistol bays because there was a .22 benchrest match on our rifle range. They were not at all interested in sharing the range with someone shooting an AR with a noisy comp. I was using front and rear sandbags and had a pretty good rest. I started shooting reloads with 55 BTFMJ's. A load that we've been shooting in this rifle. Immediately I had problems getting on the paper. I finally moved to a 15 yard target and realized my shots were very low. I adjusted the scope and moved back to 50 yards. On the paper, but still low. I adjusted the scope some more - and ran out of adjustment while still 9" low at 50 yards. I took the scope mount off the rifle to see if maybe I hadn't gotten it installed straight and found obvious wear marks on the top of the receiver and the bottom of the mount. So, I tightened the screws and re-installed although I couldn't feel any movement in the mount. It's still shooting 9" low but I have some loads I want to test with 69grn bullets so I set up the chrono and start shooting. I hadn't really shot a group yet, Just a couple of shots here and there trying to get roughly zeroed. I started shooting 5-shot groups with different loads. The groups were terrible! Lots of vertical stringing. Five to six inch groups at 50 yards. Several groups with two shots in one hole, two shots in another hole, one shot somewhere else. Of course, I'm working through a pressure series with a bullet I've never shot so I don't really know what to expect. Part way through I remove the scope mount, tighten it again, and re-install (I still couldn't feel any movement in the mount or scope). I finish the pressure series and didn't get a decent group with any load. Then I decide I should test the 55 grain ammo that I've been using. I get the same results. Five to six inch groups with lots of vertical stringing. I tried shooting a couple of groups with the red dot and the groups were better, but not great. I've removed the scope and mount and remounted the Vortex with the Nikon cantilever rings. I'll go back to the range tomorrow and see if that helps. Questions... Could the PEPR mount be the problem? Because I couldn't get sighted in (all shots way low) it looks like the mount doesn't fit this rifle/scope combo. I know it was moving some because there were wear marks. I tightened it and couldn't feel any movement but I don't know if it was ever really solid. Could the rail be causing a problem? It's the only other thing I changed yesterday. To get it to set straight with the barrel I had to hold it quite firmly back against the front of the upper as I tightened the screws. If it isn't one of those things, what would cause a sudden loss of accuracy? Thanks, Kelly