MemphisMechanic

Raises hand I’m at 2 years and just over 5k rounds on one DPP 2.5MOA. But not because Leupold is amazing or something. RMR, RTS2, DPP, nothing it up to the abuse of slideride with our kind of round counts. I just got one of the more durable ones. It’ll die eventually. Every dot does. Fingers crossed that the SRO actually holds up for 30k per year, because someone really needs to do it.

Thanks for the info @BobT. I am only interested in USPSA on the 3rd weekends, I appreciate confirmation that ORSA is worth the drive.

@BobT my parents just retired to Maryville. How has the area been treating you for two years? Looking forward to hitting a match while I’m out that way at some point. Memphis is 6 hours away so I certainly didn’t have good reason to shoot in East TN before.

No wonder you only have 8.5 fingers left. I was wondering.

I see what you did there.. I can’t wait to open the rulebook (app ) in a few months and notice that takedown levers have been slipped into that list. Making USPSA great again.

You have to manually decock a CZ or Tanfo, yes. But that doesn’t mean you have to “cowboy” the hammer or pinch it with your weakhand, and hope your grip doesn’t slip. It’s perfectly safe if done correctly. Use your body to block it’s path, rather than trying to restrain it from the rear:

It’s a FEELING to the way the gun recoils - a perception - which you prefer. Let me put it this way: given 1,000 rounds to practice with both and get the feel for the gun & ammo combination down... do you believe that your bill drill runs would consist of a tighter group, and a faster time, with either ammo? I doubt it. Ammo doesn’t matter much. There’s hardly any difference at all. The last national championship in Production was won with factory 124gr American Eagle you can buy at the local store. Several of the other shooter in the top 20 were sponsored by a factory ammunition company. There’s no actual advantage to shooting lightweight gamer ammo. We just all want to think there is because we paid so much for our Dillons.

You will see very little difference (likely none) by switching between FMJ bullet brands. Different jacket materials will cause a small change in velocity (Montana Gold’s are slower than Precision Delta FMJs for this reason) but it’s not a big difference at all. On recoil? Let me go ahead and save you some time: Several times I’ve loaded a 147 to 130pf and a 124 to 135pf... staggering them in a magazine. None of my buddies could tell me which was which. Just load up some 124s to 133ish and shoot. Don’t experiement with bullets and powder, that won’t help. PRACTICE helps. Load a jillion of the same bullet and powder, and go shoot. For your wife, load a 115gr bullet on top of 3.2gr of titegroup - what you normally load beneath a 147. It’s crazy soft, but the gun likely won’t cycle reliably without a lighter recoil spring.

For the other novices reading this, just know that a lot of us didn’t have this mindset and you do not necessarily have to. Thinking about shooting USPSA? Just go. Go to a match! Don’t let any worry about practice or being good hold you back. Everyone there remembers how horrid they were the very first time. We’ll help you out! This mindset will change remarkably by the end of the year. Competition is hard on your ammo budget and this is why all of us reload. It isn’t uncommon to burn through 500+ rounds in a practice session at the range by yourself. My last advanced competition class was 3,800 rounds in three days. Skip the widgets. A minus connector, then polish the internals, add sights, grip tape, 13lb recoil spring, and a lighter striker spring. Done. Almost every M/GM glock shooter I know uses this recipe, and there’s a reason IMO. Don’t buy toys. Practice a lot with a stock-ish gun. That’ll work for now. Stick with it if it keeps you from shooting shot #2 without a sight picture and a proper trigger press. But don’t fall into the trap of firing on that cadence no matter what. If your sights aren’t aligned, disregard your tempo trick and fix them. Then resume. In the future your cadence on different targets will vary: watch the veteran shooters. you’ll learn to rip two into a close open target, then how to take the required time to ensure two quality hits on a 15+ yd headshot target from watching them. Either learn to flip the gun in your hand to reach the button, or install an extended one: all aftermarket super big releases are now legal in carry optics and production. Install whatever aftermarket triggers and slide releases and mag buttons you like. Grammar.

You don’t worry about individual group weights because they simply do not matter. No reason to control then. People overcomplicate what we do. If your press drop ten charges which average 3.8gr of titegroup consistently? Then quit worrying about it, drop a 124gr FMJ on top of 100 of them, and head to the range. Do they chrono at 130-135ish PF? They will through pretty much any handgun. But always check everything you reload. There is no excuse not to chrono. Does *your* firearm shoot them straight? It might or not. Adjust OAL and velocity, or change bullets or powders until the load works optimally in your gun. If it makes PF consistently and it’s accurate in your gun? You’re good to go. Those are the standards that matter. @bwikel I say this because I’ve had ammo with an SD of 5.2 that didn’t shoot worth a damn in that gun... and ammo with an SD of 15 that shot 2.5” at 25yd through a very sloppy M&P.

This is the way to go for IDPA/USPSA style handgun reloading. You can tell I practice it. How else do I record charge weights to the hundreth of a grain? I’m damn sure not trickling my powder charges. It’s a ten drop average. Nearly every recipe I’ve ever loaded:

I’m a fulltime CO shooter too. For reference. I’m not saying this out of hate for carryoptics - it’s my favorite division. Once you’re out of C or B class and have solid gunhandling fundamentals and grip? You’re faster and it’s easier to track the sights in a GM/M-class classifier run like Can You Count with irons than it is with a dot. (Something which is more reminiscent of a self defense situation than the stages full of 20+yd shooting.) Irons are faster than dots at close fast hosing work, which is something your local guys who shoot both Limited and Open have been saying for years. Of course I wouldn’t say the same thing about rifles. Recoil characteristics are entirely different. You aren’t watching a front sight lift and return with a rifle.

Incorrect start position. RO should not start the shooter until the required start position is assumed by the shooter. If they do, reshoot. It doesn’t matter, as LEOs the invariably came in last place anyway.

Red hill holster body boss hanger shooter’s connection brand belt daa racer pouches The belt and pouches are upgrades from the holster body and ghost pouches sold by BSPS. (Having used both.) The belt is cheaper and just as good as DAAs.

Too obvious. Welfare Open Minor. WOM. Regarding what to call it? Call it Carry Optics. Works just fine. Tons of gun guys carry a red dot, it’s the new trend. Those of us with actual proficiency just know better. Just like racing, or golf, or anything else? You have tons of guys with lots of love for gear, and no skill in using it. They buy dumb things for their carry guns rather than practicing hard with basic equipment.

Since they had to cancel after a rather insane level of windstorm shredded all their stages AFTER they fought rain for an entire week? I think I’d cut them some slack on this one. Unless I had a nonrefundable plane ticket booked. Then I’d be pissed.

The hell of it is... You might switch optics, but sooner or later they all fail. some samples right away, some make it 20k shots. You’re playing the lotto with any of the dots out there. The DPP is the most reliable of them (mine is at about 7,500 rounds) but still fails.

On an XL650 it is normal to see a variation of around .005” - .010” When I loaded ammo to 1.125”... I would see 1.120” - 1.128” or so on the OAL. Mind you, that is AFTER all of the expensive upgrades. The shellplate bearing and most of the other things offered by places like Reloading Evolution. It’s normal. Don’t stress over it. Your bullets will vary by .001” to .002” and your brass’s neck tension causes even more variation. The biggest source however, is the partially filled shellplate. If you are resizing a case the teeter-totter like shellplate is tilted to the right. If that station is empty it’s tilted a few thousandths to the left. That matters a lot. That said, I loaded lots of recipes which shot 2” at 25yds. Don’t let your OCD win. If the gun shoots your ammo straight and it chronos consistently, you don’t need to worry about OALs or anything else varying. That’s why I never worried about it at all. Only reliability and accuracy matter. What the calipers say frequently doesn’t.

Glock 33rd mags with a TTI +10 on them. Pretty much all I use when shooting PCC.

Compete with a 5” PPQ in Production, or this bone stock Walther 4” PPQ in Carry Optics: Carry gun is an actual bone-stock 4” Walther PPQ. (or a PPS, depending on attire.)

5.4 Eye and Ear Protection 5.4.1 All persons near an area potentially exposed to ricochet debris or bullet fragments are required to wear eye protection. All persons near an area where the sound of firearms being fired may potentially cause hearing damage are required to wear adequate hearing protection. 5.4.2 If a Range Officer deems that a competitor about to make an attempt at a course of fire is wearing inadequate eye or ear protection, the Range Officer may order the competitor to rectify the situation before allowing the competitor to continue. The Range Master is the final authority on this matter. Honestly I’m surprised it’s even being asked. I’ve never been to a shooting range would would allow people onto their bays without eye & ear protection. If the MD isn’t taking action, I’d let the range owners know.

I used to carry in a Theis. His quality is very high, I would buy another one without hesitation if they make the style you’re after.

I’m in Memphis. We’re in corner where TN, AR, and MS all intersect. Shooting matches all summer long at 90-103 with 80-90% humidity is just what we’re used to. Hydrate well, my friend. Drink a bottle of water a stage. If you honestly hate drinking water? Bring gatorade, it’s yummier and I chug three times as much fluid when it isn’t bland - personally I drink a bottle of water, then gatorade, then back. And toss a few applies or bananas and various fruit in the cooler, too. Make yourself drink a bottle per stage. I will literally chug the remainder of a bottle while reloading mags before I’ll let myself walk to the next bay - hydration is something I enforce on myself strictly. If you don’t have to hit the toilets every two or three stages? You are not drinking enough. If you don’t have to piss, find a bottle of something and drink the whole damn thing. The heat takes away your appetite too, which is just as big of a danger to performance at the end of the day. If shooting all day I try to eat a snack every half hour or so. Granola bars, fruit, etc. Eat cleaner than you usually do. It’ll matter in the heat. Do not change your normal caffeine intake however; getting jittery or sluggish or a headache on match day isn’t fun. And don’t fall for the big fat lunch they sucker you into pigging out on. Snack all morning, eat perhaps just a hamburger off their grilled buffet of gluttony, and rely on your snacks in the afternoon. A heavy lunch is death to your performance. Avoid that, eat light and often to keep yourself fueled and alert, try to over hydrate, and you’ll be one of the few left standing tall at 5pm.

That’s what happens when guys want a new division because they have a gun they want to shoot competitively, not because there is an actual need for the new division. Standalone Limited minor is as dumb as Production Major would be. “Make 40 S&W M&P’s great again.”

Limited Minor is not and has not ever been it’s own division. Just like Open or SS, a competitor may choose to shoot major or minor power factor. Are you saying that you’d like it to be, and don’t understand why it isn’t? Perhaps because we already have one too many Limited divisions.