kevin c

Yes, I've heard it this way too, and think it's a good approach. I think the philosophy presented with this was that the RO should start everybody the same, whether there was an attempt to gain advantage or not. Just give the shooter another, "Are you ready?", perhaps making them reassume the proper start position if they haven't self corrected (which I often see but only with what I think were real fallse starts) and go from there. But if the creeper make a last minute move and the buzzer goes off before the RO can catch himself, it's supposed to be on the shooter (procedural).For me it still sort of depends. If the shooter clearly double clutched; moved from the start position, stopped and tried to go back to the start position, or if he starts before the signal but then stops, demonstrating that he knows he jumped the gun, either way I would know that it was not intentional, and whether or not I had given the start signal, I'd be inclined to give a reshoot. It's a bit of good will that costs nothing but a few seconds of match time. But when the movement is carried through into the shooting without hesitation, then it seems to me much more likely it was done deliberately for advantage, either deliberate creeping or just pushing/gambling on the edge, and a procedural seems appropriate. So the assumption here is that the shooter needs to be completely still some time (immediately?) after "Stand By" and until the start signal (the exception being a self start where the shooter must perform some action to start the clock). Forgive me for not remembering, but is this in the rulebook?

A bit vague, isn't it? The way it was presented to me many many moons ago was that creeping is a deliberate attempt to gain an unfair advantage by edging away from the required start position prior to the signal (hence the penalty), while the second is an honest accident caused by being twitchy, but starting from the accepted start position before the signal, (in which case the shooter gets a break his way). I was told: if the competitor would probably do the same movement at the same speed and the same manner with a proper start, then it's likely a false start. If the competitor would likely not do the same with a proper start because the movement was too slow and not complete, then it's likely creeping. But which actually gets called is a subjective call, as the OP found out.

Montana Gold 147 CMJ at 1.135 over 3.7 grains of N320 with WSP primers gets me 137 PF out of my G34's.Bayou 147 FP at 1.135 over 3.4 grains of N320 with WSP or Federal SP primers gets me 135 PF out of the same guns, which have #11 ISMI springs in them. I find the Glocks don't run well with lower PF's (I made a 120 to 125 PF load for calibration challenges that will only cycle out of the same guns half the time). Load at your own risk, of course.

I made this same observation a while back (it's up there in one of the pinned threads heading the calssifieds, I think). Bottom line from the moderators - they will not tell us who we must sell to; that's up to the individual seller. If it's just about the money, then you let the sale go through. But if you only want to sell to those have contributed to the general forums, or want to excude those who come only looking for the bargains we offer here as between good friends or members of a close community (as I think we view ourselves here), then you just pm the would be buyer with a polite, "sorry, it's spoken for already", no other explanation needed. Doing so would not be disappointing anybody whom we would likely care that much about anyway.

I'm very happy with my SDB. But it does not load any rifle round that I know of - pistol only.

No personal experience, but a lot of Production shooters including a competitive GM in my club use Freedom Arms ammo. As far as function and PF, I have not heard anything bad about it from them nor anybody else locally. The only complaint otherwise comes from people who pick up the brass, which is that internally stepped IMT/FM/Ammoload stuff that some feel is problematic (though I personally have no qualms about using it for minor PF reloads).

"Hopefully" is not the word. This was the best course I've taken from a USPSA teaching professional in years. Ben's method of demonstrating a drill, having us do it, then telling us what we could/should get out of it, of what to look for, and then repeating the drill, was very effective. We ran multiple field courses to apply the lessons, and for each Ben would discuss stage break down and tactics with us. I think everybody got their money's worth. Many two day courses will tell you to bring a thousand rounds and you end up going home with half of it. Between the course and the five stage club match I used all of it. We were on the bays from 8:30 to after 4 PM both days with only a break for lunch each day. Included in the cost of the class was a copy of Ben's dry fire book. And at the end of it all, we squadded with Ben at the club match on Sunday. Take this course - you will be a better USPSA shooter for doing so. Thanks Ben!

Welcome. There are multiple local venues to shoot at in the immediate and greater Bay Area: the Hot Shots at Richmond 9my home range), Diablo, TASC at Chabot, Davis and Sacramento have just about all of the action pistol games, and long gun (rifle and shotgun) are growing in popularity as well. I load everything on a SDB. Just ask (me, either in person or on line here, or post in general to get the benefit of all the experience available in the forums) if you have any questions. See you soon!.

^^^ What I do also. I have three conversions, each with all pertinent parts bagged together. It all fits with room to spare in a 8"x8"x3" cardboard box stowed under my bench. I only have one measure, so I have to diddle the powder bar, but I'm have several loads for each caliber so I'm used to that.

There's a local supplier I see at gun shows here in California who has N320 (one pounders, 4 pounders for other Viht powders). VERY expensive though ($38/#). Lemme see if I have his email at home and you can ask if he ships.

I'll say this, anybody can give advice, and even a beginner can give good advice. But I suspect that understanding and explaining how such may or may not apply comes with experience, which is why suggestions from somebody who can explain from experience (otw, not another newbie) might make the most sense. For instance, Saul Kirsch has taught the use a prone position with no ground contact foward of the lower chest and abdomen, allowing faster lateral transitions on widely spaced targets, but only in this specific situation (and I've tried it myself, successfully). But he likely does put the arms and maybe even the gun down if he is prone on an 50 yard head shot. I've also had people tell me that I am "fishing" on the draw (muzzle up over the target and then down), when actually I am trying a Kirsch technique of keeping my line of sight (eye, the FS and the intended POI) on the target through out presentation, and bringing the rear of the gun up as I drive the gun out. It looks like I'm doing it wrong, but it won't be wrong for me until I find the technique doesn't work out for me. It's all good. Try different things, because technique should evolve. But, yes, it helps when the suggestions come from somebody with experience with what they are suggesting.

What would you all say to a variation on a theme: The downrange portion of a shooting area consists of an anchored wall with multiple grips on its uprange face. The fault lines defining the sides of the shooting area extend uprange frome either side of this wall, each about 18 inches in from each side of the wall, so that engaging the down range targets meant a good lean around either side. The ends of the side fault lines butted up against the wall. The WSB stated that the uprange face, the grips and the tops and edges of the wall were part of the shooting area, but not the anchoring braces behind the wall (else the very tall could get a foot down on the structure behind for a solid shooting position). This was at a level II match (sectional), where the stages and WSB's were vetted and the actual set up reviewed iin person by NROI.

I shoot Gen 3 G34's with N320, and have only limited experience with TG, but I have heard and personally found it to be the case that, even lightly sprung, the Glocks seem to run more reliably closer to 135 PF. YMMV, but you might want to test a hundred or so rounds WHO or SHO or some similar test of cycling function before cranking out a couple thousand at 25 to 130 PF with your "high capacity" press and then getting major aggravation with rounds that won't play. jus' sayin...

Recently I've been able to pick up .22 LR ammo at gun shows, with more availability, variety and tolerable prices, but my impression is that the brand I'm prefer (CCI MiniMags) seems to have more misfires than I'm used to. It's not as bad as the cheap bulk stuff I used to get (Remington Golden Bullet), which, so far, I haven't seen much of for sale, but I was pretty accustomed to near 100% reliability for the higher price I was paying for the CCI's. Now I will get three to five rounds out of a box of 100 that won't fire on the first strike (and the FP strikes from my AA conversion look good) or that will short stroke the action as though the round is a bit underpowered (the AA conversions are a bit finicky that way). Anybody else with quality issues on recent production .22 LR?

I'm no chemist either, but have read at least this much: that silicone is used in medical catheters and implants, as a lubricant for food processing machines, as additive to frying oils, and for baking sheets for cookies. It's used in Mylanta and Maalox for intestinal gas. It's one of the ingredients in antiperspirants, one of the main ingredients in Silly Putty, and is used in the sex industry for toys and personal lubricants. My personal impression is of pretty low toxicity, and personal experience is of no skin problems (mind you, that's RELOADING personal experience )

Not that I am aware of. Did you have some specific problem in mind?

I put a nice little three shot group in the middle of the calibration zone of a full sized popper two days ago. It wasn't activating a paper target but did cover a USP behind it that was not engageable unless the popper was down, and it barely rocked with each shot. I stopped and got a calibration, which went my way. The better strategy was to finish the stage, but I just plain didn't feel like wasting the ammo or my energy. Of course, it didn't hurt that my gun was the official calibration gun for the match, and that the calibration ammo for it was made by me to be between 120 and 125 PF in that gun. (Oh, and don't fret - somebody else did the actual calibration, not me, putting his shot in with my first three, and those were made using my MATCH ammo, which is 133 PF).

Most of the classifiers I remember used a table pretty much as something to start behind with no expected movement around either side. So the width and length wouldn't matter, just the height and clearance for any seated position where part of the body is under the rear edge. Needs to be sturdy enough for body parts, props, guns and magazines, but I think that's just about all. Now, something like MiniMart needs a specially built prop. We had one, but I don't think we've shot that classifier since the prop fell apart (is it still on the list?).

I've used lube since shortly after starting to reload for the sport 20 years ago. Started with Dillon lube, switched to OneShot, and now use ZEP Par silicone. I find that I would often get a sticky residue using OneShot that I ended up removing with isopropyl alcohol post loading. The silicone stays on, leaving the rounds slick in the magazine. I put the spray into a gallon zip lock first and than add brass for shake and bake afterwards.

I like what Saul Kirsch said, which pretty much reflects Jake's comments. At any given level of power, IPSC performance is a matter of accuracy and speed, and how much accuracy you need to sacrifice to get the speed. If you don't have the ability to produce a certain degree of accuracy at will, you don't have it to sacrifice to get the speed.

I know this is for the rules section, but doesn't 5.2.4 say that if you retrieve a magazine from a place forbidden by the division rules, during the COF, you will be placed in open? Thought there was a further ruling that an empty mag was not an issue. Thanks for the clarification.And this points to 6.2.5.1, which says to place the competitor in Open if they fail to satisfy the requirements of the division. You pull a mag from a pocket in front of your hip bone during the COF, loaded or not, you get moved to Open from Production.

^^^ As far as rounds in the mags, this is what I do. At the Make Ready command with a loaded holstered start. I will have seven magazines. A barney mag to chamber a round from that will be empty and can be put anywhere on my person without fear that if I grab it in the heat of the moment, I won't get moved to Open; a mag with ten rounds to complete loading to Division capacity; five magazines on the belt. Works for me. Other ways noted above work for others. Your call.

I have lots of mags, but find that I use the same ones for matches (a set of six or seven) over a couple years without changes and they stay reliable. Thats probably 80 or ninety matches, usually on gravel or dirt. I do clean them regularly though (but not after every stage unless they end up dirty in sand or fine gritty soil). I have a different set of mags for practice, and they have held up pretty well too (they were mags retired from the previous batch of match mags because the bodies were getting beat up and would occasional cause a jam [but see my comment below]). I have started to change out the followers and springs in both sets every couple years. I had kept the original springs in for several years, but they got mushy and I started getting misfeed jams. The older practice magazines have gotten more reliable with the new guts. Your dry fire magazines will last a lot longer when you learn not to blow your reloads. };^D

Any appropriately sized punch pushed through the basepad hole and angled to the front (as shown in darkvibe's video) to tilt the retaining base plate and then levered forward should work. I use a dedicated punch on my bench with the edges rounded off the decrease scratching up the interior. At the range the steel punch on the GTul's brush, also rounded off, does the same (I ended up never using the other part of the tool seet to squeeze the tabs). And sarge is right: they should loosen up after a few takedowns. If really tight you might elongate the hole a bit by levering, but it never gets to the point for me where it made the pad unusable/unreliable. There's some slick technique where you can push on the corner of the pad against a hard surface to get the pad over the tabs. I have hardly ever been able to make it work for me.

"Sometimes you're the bug, sometimes you're the windshield." --Unknown "The Bug" by Mark Knopfler, Dire Straits, On Every Street, 1991