HuskySig

The 2007 Area 1 match had a James Bond theme. As such, one of the stages had targets that were painted up to resemble tuxedos. All of the black paint was hardcover. They were neat targets, but a pain to tape. I can only imagine how long it took to prep several dozen of those targets ahead of time.

Nice work Donovan!

...And you're a Life Member why?

Remember that USPSA gets $2.50 for every classifier score that is submitted. That becomes a sizable chunk of change when you think about how many individual classifier scores are submitted each and every year.

When it comes to 9mm X-Five extraction problems, it seems to be luck of the draw. Mine was really problematic, but there are a good number of people who have never had an issue. I didn't have an extraction problem this past season, but my shooting volume was way down. I will say, that when my Allround is working it is by far, hands down, my favorite pistol to shoot. I would take it to the range over anything else I own. It feels great in the hand, popgun recoil, and great accuracy.

Where's the poll option that says "Shoots Production often, doesn't care about the rule?"

The extractor problem is common with all X-Fives, not just the Allround. The main problem with the extractor is that it sits too low on the breech face. Because of this, the amount of contact by the extractor claw on the case rim is smaller than it should be. To overcome this deficiency, extractor tension becomes a much more critical variable. Too little tension and the claw slides off the case rim. Too much tension and claw will prevent new cartridges from feeding properly. This is also more prevalent in 9mm X-Fives. X-Fives chambered in .40S&W and .45ACP seem to be less susceptible to the mis-located extractor problem.

A small blow torch works great. I bet you could also use a gas cooktop. It's possible that a Bic lighter would work too. I don't think a soldering iron or a heat gun would get the part hot enough.

Is it what is referred to as "Extended?" If so, you can modify your current slide catch. Heat it up, then bend it outwards. If you don't heat it first, it will snap in two.

Chuck, How feasible would it be for USPSA to adopt a rule like IPSC has in place for this type situation? Specifically IPSC rule 10.5.2, which says: "Allowing the muzzle of a firearm to point uprange, or past the default, or specific safe angle of fire during a course of fire, (limited exceptions: see Rules 5.2.7.3 and 10.5.6)." Something like this would give individual clubs the ability to designate muzzle safe points such as the top of the berm. Instead of potentially losing clubs, I would think USPSA would rather take a more proactive position and try to work with clubs. Especially clubs that are in urban areas where bullets leaving the range is a very bad thing.

Yes, it is possible. Bruce Gray did it for me on an X-Five Allround. I don't fully know what it involved, but I suspect a lot of polishing and some very custom mainsprings. It was pretty amazing work, but the SA was too light for me. I now use Wolff 17-lb mainsprings, which has upped the SA pull weight to probably 3.5-4.0 lbs.

This is probably a dumb question, so my apologies. When was the last time you pulled the extractor to clean it along with the channel it sits in? I remember about half through my first season of USPSA I was at Puyallup and my P226ST started failing to extract. At one point the RO looks at me and asks very matter of factly "When was the last time you cleaned the extractor." My response to him was something like "You have to clean the extractor?" Turns out a clean (external) extractor is a happy extractor, even on Sigs. I pull mine about every 1000 rounds or so to clean it and the channel. Visual patience is a common saying around here. It's true though. You have to work on developing the same satisfaction shooting Alphas that you have right now just shooting Brown. Speed is not your issue. Imagine how good you're going to do when you develop the skill to consistently call your shots. The video from Marysville is a perfect example of where you're losing massive amounts of time. You shoot at a piece of steel, think you hit it and start to move only to realize you missed. Then you have to go back, reset, and shoot again. I understand that disposable income for practice ammo is tough to come by, but live fire practice is really the only way to learn how to call your shots. Dry fire can do a lot of things, but without doing the live fire practice to verify your skills it can be fairly misleading.

Or leave the gun smithing up to someone who knows what they are doing? I've watched you shoot a number of times and it's always the same thing. The buzzer goes off and you shoot at one speed, max speed. You really need to learn how to take your foot off the gas and stop shooting at "Brown" and start shooting at the A zone.

I'd be interested in seeing how your work compares to that of GGI.

staudacher, Looks really good! Not sure how much demand there will be here in the US, but It looks quite a bit more functional that what Sig has to offer. Perhaps the market is in Europe where there are a lot more Sig shooters?

There's always Limited 10...

Looks like you counted your chickens before the eggs hatched!

Simply put, I think a blazingly fast draw is way overrated. It's amazing to me how many people on this board claim sub one second draws in practice, but when match day roles around the real "For the money" draw time is considerably slower. A couple years ago I posted in the classifier section about a 96-97% run on a classifier that I shot. It was one of the few times where I actually looked at the timer after the fact. The draw, splits, transitions, and reload were all quite pedestrian compared to what people seem to expect. Long story short, I'd rather have a rock solid 1-1.1 second draw than a flaky hero or zero 0.8 draw any day and twice on match day. Remember. There is only one draw per stage compared to how many splits and transitions? The ability to call your shots consistently at speed is where you'll see the most improvement in your scores. You can really only do this out at the range through lots of live fire repetitions. At home, it's pretty easy to do dry fire practice for reloads and draws. Again, I spend more time on reloads only because there are generally more reloads per stage than draws.

I'm all for moving the Area 1 match around yearly, it helps to prevent burnout while keeping things fresh and interesting. Closer to an airport would be nice, but not essential. It'll be interesting to see if the Southern Utah Pistol & Revolver club has enough manpower to produce a match on the scale of an area championship. A quick perusal of their results from this year isn't confidence inspiring. January 15th - 5 stages, 23 shooters February 5th - 5 stages, 24 shooters March 5th - 5 stages 20 shooters March 19th - 5 stages, 14 shooters April 2nd - 5 stages, 18 shooters April 16th - 5 stages, 16 shooters

In a similar vein, I miss the match break down that shows the number of participants at a match broken down by Division and Classification. The breakdown is coming - we had to concentrate on the essentials for Phase I. The detail for a competitor is already there - Look for "Competitor or USPSA Number ", a box to enter the member or competitor number, and "Display Summary" at the bottom of the page that lets you pick what division and stage you want to see. I'll add the "click the uspsa number" feature shortly - but, at least you can already get the data you seek. Almost nine months later, and still no match breakdown for divisions and classifications. Also, I miss the breakdown of classified competitors per state. Will that make a comeback some day?

Excellent. The middle of nowhere.

Jordon, Thanks for making the squad list work at each stage! SALUTE! Squad 21 was definitely into "competitive taping", thanks guys! I hope our new found friends from Washington state will come back next year to dry out. Enjoyed talking with you guys. G-lock (David Cross) Rick, Steve, and I made it back to Seattle last night. We're back to enjoying our typical 60 degree weather! We might be the only ones interested in moving the match back to March. Squad 21 was great. I figured out that I had to have precut pieces of tape on my fingers ready to go if I actually wanted to tape any holes. I thoroughly enjoyed the stages and the ROs, but not the heat. Matt

Yikes! There's about 5-6 of us coming down from the Seattle area. We've seen 70 degree weather once or maybe twice so far this year. We're gonna die!

What squad are you in? I will be shooting my Bruce Gray 226 Elite. Also managed to scrape up enough money to take Max's two day class before the match. I will be shooting in squad 23. I'm in squad 21.

I concur. A great match two years in a row. Thanks!