Kevin Kline

Paul, Did you shoot classifier 99-29 Open or Limited? Kevin/IPSC Supercop

Well Erik, he doesn't actually "beat" people, he just doesn't recommend canting the gun when shooting and I was a particularly hard case to deal with because I just kept going back to it. He said he doesn't recommend it because it makes your pattern and strings at an angle (whatever angle the gun is canted) and will sometimes throw one over the shoulder. Kevin/IPSC Supercop

Erik, I don't cant the gun when shooting weak hand. I used to and it was hard to break, but Todd "beat me" until I stopped. I am glad he did because it has made my weak hand shooting much better. When I draw normally, the inside of my strong hand forearm slightly touches the side of the magwell. When I draw for weak hand shooting, the inside of my strong forearm touches the bottom of the magwell (where the magwell opening is). I grab the bottom half of the grip and then transfer to weak hand. I also don't get the thumb safety until in the weak hand and going to target. I have to MAKE SURE MY WEAK HAND THUMB IS RIDING ON TOP OFF THE THUMB SAFETY AND APPLYING PRESSURE and the gun is straight upright. If I don't get my thumb on the safety and apply pressure, my groups go wildy, but grouping, to the right , BADLY. Pat, That is a good trick with the Cmore, thanks for the info, if I ever go back to Open. I also agree with you that you need to learn the index with the weak hand just like you are doing with freestyle and strong hand. Makes a difference. I had to make myself do it. Kevin/IPSC Supercop

John, I understand exactly what you are saying. First off, USPSA shouldn't ignore and disregard the letter from the Club President and other shooters. They should take this with some credit. Secondly, if they had a hidden classifier stage or the percentage for the entire match went, not just for one classifier shot, but the actual percentage now became your classification percentage, he would only win once in a big match before he was moved up. Kevin/IPSC Supercop

I also stick with the steel firing pins. Bill, you mentioned you switched out the mainspring caps and struts, how frequently? Have you had some wear out? Brian, how often have you changed your mainspring caps and struts out? Kevin/IPSC Supercop

I know what you're thinking, but I still feel more comfortable calling the shot and KNOWING its there. I've also done the third hit or third A thing, but it's a relief to know that I had a third hit with only .20 added to my time instead of a mike. Kevin/IPSC Supercop

Well, I got my Comminoli frame saver tungsten rod and put it in. I used the Comminoli rear shok buff and a Wilson blue buff on front. Shot 150 rounds with no problems so far. It doesn't appear that I'll have any more problems with rounds stopping at the bottom of the feed ramp like I did when I had too thick of shok buffs in it. I'll see when I shoot it more if it happens, but the slide travels back a little further than with .225 of shok buffs in it. It had problems with .225 of shok buffs, I don't think there was enough slide travel. I didn't notice that much difference in softness in recoil from the standard tungsten rod with 1 shok buff compared to the Comminoli rod though. Feel is about the same, but nice knowing that steel isn't pounding on steel and its buffered. Kevin/IPSC Supercop

I shot 99-52 (cash n carry) on 5/27/01. Shot a 100% score and this pushed me into Master Class Limited. 59 points, 7.03 time, 8.39 HF. Probably one of the best stages I've ever shot, obviously by the 100%. But everything just clicked and went PERFECT. Draw, shots, calling shots, recoil, seeing/vision, movement. When I think back on it, it is kind of hard to even remember it, it seemed it just zipped by. I can remember the feeling when shooting it more than just remembering parts of it like the draw, shots and movement. Sounds weird, but that's all I got. Uh-oh, I'm starting to sound like a Zen Buddha. I'm trying to describe it, but that's pretty tough. Kevin/IPSC Supercop http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/99-52.pdf

Icer, Was this Limited or Open? Nice run.

Brian, I don't know for sure about the USPSA thing and not wanting HHF posted, but I've heard others talk about it before. I disagree with it. As long as the classifiers are shot by the rules (and I know this is a big key phrase), there shouldn't be a problem. Here in the Tampa Bay area, the clubs allow us to shoot them once and unless you have a letter from God, you won't be shooting them again. Everyone is pretty fair in shooting them only once and recording the scores correctly. If USPSA would only allow you to shoot it once, it really wouldn't matter if you knew what the HHF is or not. If you don't have the skill to get the score, you ain't getting it. I like the idea of being able to go home and that day, know what my percentage is. I like the individual best thing Brian. Kevin/IPSC Supercop

I know what Pat and everyone are saying when they talk about publishing the HHF, but you still have to shoot it and have the skill to get that score or it ain't happening. At least at the clubs I shoot at in the Tampa Bay area, everyone is pretty fair on shooting and scoring classifiers. You get to shoot the classifier one time and unless you have a letter from God, you won't be shooting that classifier again. This is done to stop the Grandbagging. I realize that other clubs don't do this, but I wish they would because then we could publish the HHF and there wouldn't be all this crap going on. I like the idea of being able to know when I go home where my % was for this classifier. If they are only shot once and not allowed to be shot until you get the score you want, then you will have to have the skill to make the score or you don't make it, whether you know what the HHF is or not. It's a shame someone won't make this a rule and try to stop it. I do believe Michael Voigt is trying and doing good things to change things for the shooter. Kevin/IPSC Supercop

Hey, Brian should know a little about making GM and shooting a EAA/Tanfoglio/P9. Also, I heard the old timers talking about cracked slides in addition to slide stops.

I think it is amazing and a real tribute to the John Browning design of the 1911, and shows how far ahead of its time the 1911 was, that shooters today are still using them. However, STI calls their guns 2011, because the design and function is the same, but the technology is far beyond what it was and the quality of the materials and some of the parts have slight changes making them function much better. The machining, quality, and technology of todays 2011's is incredible. They have just improved on the design a little, but made leaps and bounds in technology. I believe you can do it with a EAA/Tanfoglio, but there are no high caps anymore. Very, very few gunsmiths know the EAA/Tanfoglio guns and how to make them work and they had slide stop problems. The slide stops used to break a lot and were very frequent from what I understand in talking with older shooters. After talking with Eric Grauffel (IPSC World Champ) of France at the 2001 Florida Open, he said Tanfoglio was aware of the problem and in the past 3-4 years has changed their materials and manufacturing to prevent this. They changed the type of metal/steel through metalurgy tests to prevent this from happening. He said he has not broken a slide stop or cracked a slide in almost 4 years. He shoots about 60,000 rounds a year and has for several years. He said he has changed slides for different reasons, but not because it was broken or cracked/damaged. Seemed like a real nice kid though. Doesn't know me from Adam, but talked with me for about an hour at least. Have anyone else seen him shoot in person. This kid is unbelieveable, simply WARP speed in 6th gear and nothing else. Armando Valdes made GM shooting a Glock. I think there is maybe one other shooter who is a GM with a Glock, but thats about it. Real hard to do it with a Glock. The 1911/2011 can be customized to fit you perfectly and makes the learning/ skill curve a lot shorter. Kevin/IPSC Supercop

Everyone, I put the STI tungsten rod back in with two shok buffs (.90 & .125 Heitt buffs) and an 11lb spring and went and shot today. It shot really well. It might have short cycled a little bit but not enough to make that much of a difference for me to tell just yet, or maybe it did and I just didn't shoot it enough. I was basically looking to make sure it would function first. The recoil was a little more consistent this way than with the Sprinco rod. There was a little more felt recoil back in my hand than with the Sprinco rod, but more consistent and that is what I'm looking for. I noticed that shooting at 25 yards, I had 9 A's and 1 C. With the Sprinco rod, I would mostly get a couple of low C's and maybe even a D, and I think it was from the extra spring returning into battery. With the buffs and standard rod, it didn't do that and my A count went up. Next, I want to try the Comminoli frame saver tungsten rod with reverse tungsten plug and shok buffs and see how it feels. Thanx, Kevin

Thanks, Brian, very much appreciated.

Travis, I just read your response on Henning Walgren and his shooting on the move. You are right, he is incredible on the move, but when you are 6'8" and every step you take is like 4 of mine or everyone else's, it really helps! Just kidding, Kevin

Brian, If you are considering doing videos or anything else, you can count me in for some. I also know others that will be interested. The guys that I shoot with in the Tampa Bay area would be very interested. Kevin

Chris, I use grip tape on everything. And I mean everything. My IPSC, duty, carry and any other gun you can think of. I have been using it for 6 years and I can remember feeling it for the first time, it was love at first feel. I went home that night and taped everything, including the kids. Now a gun just doesn't feel right unless it has skateboard tape, I truly have a problem. Anyway, I use the 3M tape from Home Depot, it lasts longer than others and if it gets a little wet or a little solvent, it doesn't come off. It stays on almost until you decide to take it off. Regular skateboard tape gets slick and slips everywhere if it gets wet. Kevin

Chris, I've also been down the 180,200,220 gr road before. The heavier bullets seem to give more push and recoil back into your hand than the 180's but the muzzle doesn't move as much. However, the 180's seem to move the muzzle a little more, but faster and less push and recoil in your hand coming back at you. I don't think the 180's flip more or less than the heavier bullets, but I think they flip and cycle faster than the heavier bullets. I think it is more of a perception of how fast or slow the gun flips and recoils. I like the 200's because it kind of puts me in the middle of the road. I get to have the medium of both worlds. It all depends on how you want and like the gun to feel. Kevin TY31384

Pat, You said you use Slick 50 in your mags? Just wondering. I got some Magslick a couple of days ago and I'll be trying it. I have been using Mineral Spirits to clean the mags out from all the carbon and fouling between matches. I then spray Pledge (yes Pledge, the furniture polisher) on a rag and run the rag through it. It makes the inside of the mags slicker than you can imagine. Remember grabbing or touching something that has been sprayed with Pledge, pretty darn slick. I use the Mineral Spirits and Pledge between matches and Pledge only between stages. I'll try the Magslick and see what happens. Do you use a spray Slick 50? Kevin

Patrick I understand what you are saying perfectly, but I think USPSA was having a problem between Open and Limited shooter, where they were GM or M Open shooters, but shooting B or A Limited because they were only going off of classifiers and they were cleaning house.

Brian and TT, I took a class from Todd in 98 and he told us to keep the gun in our face while moving from position to position. He told us to keep it in our face so it would be right there and we could see it if we needed to clear a jam or something was wrong while moving. He also told us that we would be making most mag changes while moving from one position to another and the mag changes were going to be done from the gun up anyway. I have used this technique for 3 years with very good success. I have watched tapes of myself running a stage and noticed that I have the gun just a Todd instructed and didn't even know it. I was doing this subconsciously, which I think it a good thing. Kevin