MemphisMechanic

Stevie, I'm one of the locals who helps Larry, our phenomenal Area Coordinator and Match Director, set this thing up. I will actually be shooting with the rest of the public this year instead of running one of the stages, but let's just say that I'm somewhat familiar with the Tri-State match. Two years ago, we chrono'd everyone. Last year, we did not. I'm not going to say whether we'll be doing it again this year or not. My advice? After shooting 12-13 years, you know quite well if your equipment complies with the rules or not. Bring legal ammo, gun, and gear... and don't worry about it at all. We're not "out to get" the shooters who pay to come have a good time, and travel several states to do so. We simply don't want anyone cheating, and ruining your day. The most common error for newbies is nerves. Shoot the match just like you've been shooting locally for the past decade, and don't forget about that bump on the front of the slide. Given Larry's reputation for no-shoot and hardcover littered stages, I highly suggest you work on primarily your accuracy if you choose to practice before coming to play. Just relax, and come enjoy your first major match. You picked a good one. Evan

I've never been able to do it, and shoot with scotch tape on the lens to this day. Others pick it up almost immediately. Not only am I cross-dominant, I'm *very* close to 50/50 eye dominance. I notice that people who seem to have a very strongly dominant eye, also have a much easier time shooting with both eyes open - which is logical.

Lots of us running around who do halfway decent shooting with the wrong hand. If you think shooting right-handed is going to help, you're in for a surprise. Most find it takes a good bit of practice just to catch up to where you are with your naturally dominant hand.

In case you missed it, posted above, what do you think your three biggest areas for improvement would be? Don't just go to the range and shoot groups. Figure out what you're worst at and practice it at the range until it becomes a strength. This can have a huge impact on your scores.

Almost all of us use dry meadia, OUshooter. And lots of us are running 650s with casefeeders. Working great for me. Make sure you sift the hell out of it it (I use Cabela's rotary media separator) and aside from having a coupl of 12ga shotshells taped under the holes in the casefeeder to catch the dust... it's never given me an issue.

It was brought up in the Hearing Protection? post that there was a good instructional video on properly fitting foam plugs. I found it worthy of a it's own separate post. I have been rolling them tightly and tugging on my ear to insert them, but had not been installing them deeply enough. I also never thought to remove it and immediately check the plug as an aid to see how well it was installed.

Sin-Ster, GM's run roughly .75-.90 seconds to draw to the first target in practice, focusing solely on that skill. You won't often see a sub-second draw at a match, because no one shoots a match at break-neck practice speeds, and stage designers seldom give us a wide-open 5-7yd target, without running or twisting into some slightly off-balance position first. Where would the fun in that be?

I believe this is a VERY bad habit, hat needs immediate breaking. If you have to, I have gone so far with "shoot, peek, shoot" shooters, as to cut the center of the target out. Fire your rounds through it. Much less temptation to pop up mid-string that way. Once you have presented your sights to the target, do not shift your focus away from the sights until you are finished shooting it. You will be faster AND more accurate.

We keep them out of our range bags, because accidentally loading a dummy into a mag and walking up to the starting line is a lousy reason to screw up a run at a major match. Also, ball/dummy drills are essentially useless for a seasoned competitive shooter. Once you develop a post-ignition-push that subconsciously helps drive the gun back onto target AFTER the bullet exits the barrel, you'll "fail" the vaunted ball-and-dummy drill just like a novice who *IS* actually flinching before the gun fires. I know every other gun forum loves that stupid drill, but it ceases to be of use as your mind/body subconsciously take over recoil control. Most recreational shooters simply don't fire enough rounds to worry about it. Surely you've seen a GM burn down a stage full of small steel, yet have his gun nosedive when a primer fails to ignite? He just went 1-for-1 on four mini-poppers at distance. I highly doubt he's flinching.

I do exactly what you're asking about: M&P 9L. Dawson Precision sights Apex DCAEK trigger 13lb ISMI recoil spring Stippled small backstrap insert 1/2" strip of grip tape down the frontstrap of the grip. S&W fush basepads from the 9mmCompact. Loses the duckbill on the front of the basepad. Stipple a backstrap (dirt cheap if you mess up) by poking it with a $9 soldering iron over & over. Then go to Home Depot, buy a roll of the tape meant to add grip to steps on a ladder, and put a small strip down the frontstrap. Try it. Works great, and fully legal in both sports. Makes a surprising difference.

Also make sure your shellplate's center bolt is as tight as possible while still allowing the plate to rotate freely. Most new Dillon users run theirs too loose, and it'll cause things like this.

I'm going to agree with the rest of the crowd. 2-3" groups at 25yds are commonly accomplished from a Dillon 650 loading ammo en masse into unchecked cases with an OAL variance that's around .005-.010" The right bullet weight and correct OAL for the gun, and consistency in charge weight are far more important. My brass gets checked before loading to make sure the .380s and .40s don't sneak into the mix. And afterwards with a case gauge.

I am going out on a very thick limb, and assuming you are shooting a Glock. Change platforms and it will most likely go away. Grab a 1911 or M&P from a buddy and run a few mags through it. If it disappears, you have your answer. It's not your vision. That didn't change. Your hand/frame/trigger relationship did.

Agreed. There is so little advantage to be gained by shooting at 110PF, anyway. Especially once you factor in a less reliable pistol and steel that doesn't want to fall. And if you were switching between 130pf for stages with steel, and chrono-possible-zones... and 115pf for the rest of your match, you'd really be doing yourself harm. Never quite get settled in on one load's timing and recoil impulse. On a relevant note, I wear an EOTac vest, and am very happy with it. Might grab a spare...

How did you blow it? As in, where did you drop too many points?

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it. you know why? Because I'm of the opinion that even with the new striker, you should really buy a spare striker assembly to keep in your spare parts kit. My gun came with the old striker. It now lives in my range bag, ready to go.

I run a 3/4" wide strip of grip tape down the frontstrap under the triggerguard, and stipple the backstrap. Nice and grippy. And easy to convert back to stock.

Ouch. Surprised you made it all the way to the Indoor Nats without learning this one. Swap a standard release in there, or else do NOT push down on the gun while picking it up. ...Or slide it across a bumpy table...

What's easier than painting part of the front sight green, so that you'll stop hammering the trigger with the red front dot pretty much anywhere in the rear notch? If you don't have 'bifocal eyes' and you can focus on the front sight? Take a sharpie and black your front fiber out for one match. I very much think you'll like the increase in precision. I don't miss my fiber optic front, at all. Also, if you don't do that, you owe it to yourself to try a green front fiber. Even on a range covered in green grass which would logically make the front blend... Let's just say this. A friend swapped his out, then I did, now almost all of our locals are running a green front. It's easier to pick up, brighter... just better. But a bloack front post, I find much easier to shoot fast if you also like being accurate. I just couldn't keep my attention on the corners of the sights with a big dot staring me in the face.

CED now has a 20-position one, done with a Chymler reamer, for $55. It's on my shopping list. Oh, it's also made fairly short. They say the nose of the bullet will protrude, which I like. Easy to tap them back out. I NO LONGER USE MY BARREL. IT LIES. On the way to a match three weeks ago, I checked every round with my M&P 9L's barrel. Found one defect, pitched it. (I normally use a Dillon gauge, but couldn't find it) At the end of the third stage, the round chambered at ULASC was stuck. Had to grip the slide overhand and smack the grip to get it out. It had a noticeable bulge around the base. I took the gun apart at the safe area and chamber checked it. It was slightly snug, but would drop in. Weird. Kept the round. Tore my garage apart and found my Dillon gauge. Dropped in partially, and short of a hammer, it wouldn't have gone in flush. Clearly a bad round according to the case gauge. Took that round back to the range next time. Chambered it. Slide went into battery. After firing it, I needed a squib rod to get it out of the barrel. I'll stick to case gauges.

Myth. Or at least, that it matters. I weighed my 9L slide, a forum member weighed his Pro's. The difference was grams, not ounces. Negligible. That's one of those things that got started somewhere early along in the M&Ps years, and was spread across the internet (I used to encourage people to buy the 9L for the lighter slide!) without anyone bothering to actually confirm it.

Also, EXs don't actually shoot the gun much more quickly than SSs. Dryfire your butt off getting your reload, draw, and especially your movement from position to position more efficient. If we're just talking classifier shooting, forget efficient, rapid movement. But it absolutely will win your class for you in EX and SS at matches. Every stage is a footrace. The guy who gets to the end the quickest, can take a bit more time to do everything else and still break even. If you want the expert bump via classifier, go practice your butt off on stage 3s long shots, and get your draw and reload without concealment down pat. Both of those are done VERY often on the classifier. A half second off each load and draw HAS to be at least 10 seconds saved overall. Now don't miss the heads, shoot stsge 3 pretty clean, and it's in the bag.

1.5 years to go from first match to SSP Master over here. Shaprshooters do everything just as well as Experts, for the most part. They just do it all a little bit slower. Push for more speed. Shoot a months worth of local matches worling on speed. "be accurate, speed will come" is a LIE. Drawing, reloading, accuracy all come rhorugh hard work and repetition. Shooting fast is the same as the others. You must practice speed. Every time you spend sufficient amounts of time pushing your spees until the wheels start to come off the wagon, you'll be able to shoot a little bit quicker when you back down to a good, accurate speed once again.

Work on fleeing from each shooting position as soon as the front sight lifts off the final shot. Hard. aggressive. Like there's a grenade on the ground in front of you, about to go off. Or something dramatic like that. You linger for a full second in nearly every shooting position. Which tell me you're probably looking for holes. Which tells me you're probably not calling your shots (reading the sights). That means the biggest shooting skill you need to focus on is this: Put up a close array of three targets right next to each other. Run to the end of a wall and focus your eyes on the first one. Present the sights, focus hard on them, and STAY ON THEM FOR ALL SIX SHOTS, snap your head and sprint back the way you came the nanosecond the front sight lifts on the final shot. Pound out a reload as you go. Never focus on the targets again. (Keep the target array simple. A complex array with distance or no-shoots will require you to focus on each target to acquire it.) Work on trusting your sights. If you know where the sights were indexed for each shot, that's all the information you need to know where the hole was punched in the target. Looking at it wastes time. In general, if I had to pick one word for what will help, it's aggression. Reloads, transitions, and especially all movement.

Solo100 is a very clean powder. If you load jacketed ammo over it. JHPs or CMJs (no exposed lead at the base of the bullet) will be even cleaner. In this case, the smoke comes from the moly coating burning off the bullet, not from the powder. If you want something cleaner, try WST or VV N320. Those are about your only options. My indoor load was a 124gr Precision Delta over Solo1000. Outdoor load is a 130gr Black Bullets moly over Solo1000. So I have a little bit of experience with this one. Btw, the P.D. FMJs I use do have an exposed lead base. But still are more than clean enough to shoot low-light indoor stages.