Kyle Norris

Started with a tungesten in my guns. Have since switched to a steel guide rod to get some weight out of the gun (STI edge w some slide lightening), and haven't looked back.

BJ and I were inspecting magazines today. On the hit list of my 40 mags are.... 1. A broken front weld on an STI tube is defintely #1 with a bullet. 2. Dawson basepad that appears to be bent. 3. Two tubes that are too narrow about 2/3s of the way down, restricting capacity Funny thing is all these mags ran 100% for the last 8 months. Previously, I have broken two Grams Pads for STI, two Grams pads for Para and an Arredondo pad for Para (which come to think of it I still need to send back to Ralph so he can see why it broke). So here's the question, what other stuff is out there I can try? SV tubes are apperently impossible to get, so it looks like Grams will be getting the two out of spec tubes. Anyone know of basepads that don't bend or break? Any way to keep welds from breaking? Can anyone give me ANY tips to keep from breaking magazine parts?

Just a thought also, do you have any weight in your mags when dry firing? Can make a huge difference in how the mags balance, leading to an unfamilar feel on match day. And the unfamiliarity can lead to your practiced technique breaking down.

Ok, the night before I was supposed to shoot my first club match of the year using my Springfield singlestack the hammer hooks decided to go in the dumper and shear off. I had already had a Para go down by breaking a link earlier that week. So painted into a small box, I decided to shoot Open borrowing my brother's gun. Suprise, suprise, in the first match I ever shot with the foo foo gun I managed a fourth (admitidly a small field) and came with in sight of beating the young lion himself, BJ. Haven't shot a Limited gun that well in a long time, and this was with approximately 1hr of dry fire and no live fire practice. It feels pretty dang good.

As a I love the way a Para shoots (steel frame) but hate the maintnace intensive POS gun that it is I will attempt to speak to this. As mentioned earlier, my first "real" Limited gun was a P-16. This gun could shoot . I can still take it and lay in 1-2" groups at 25 yds off hand, with a stock barrel, bushing and extremely sloppy slide to frame fit. The gun recoils (for me) repeatably, softly, transitions well, settles quickly when coming into a box, ect. That said.... This thing broke more parts than I could stand. In fact, on pulling the gun out and playing with it last week, I broke the SECOND link in about 4-5k rounds. I was planning on shooting this gun in a match two days later (the next night the hammer hooks sheared off my single stack while dryfiring....bad week). I went through two extractors, God knows how many mag springs, different basepads, a factory thumbsafety, a slide stop, not to mention it loved to chew my shock buffs apart in about 500 rounds. All this happened in about 12k rounds. I was tweaking something (usually magazines, I couldn't keep the stock Para or STI for Para running no matter how much TLC I lavished on them) every week to get the gun to hopefully run for a 100 round local match. I finally said enough and bought an STI, which I promptly figured out I don't like nearly as much. If someone made a half decent Caspian 40 mag I can't tell you how tempted I'd be to put a Limited gun on that. Now, however, in cohorts with gmshtr (thanks Phil) my Edge is headed to Keal Manufacturing for some major surgery. Will give a full report as soon as it gets back.

My sob story is I had a link break at a local match, instantly converting my Para to a single shot. Not fun in 40 degree raining weather. Hand stripped a 30 round stage, cutting myself on the BoMar in the process. Curriously however, I'm the only person I've ever seen who's had that problem. Not a common one, but a potentially match ending if you don't have a spare.

And this one time.....

*Voice of many dollars worth of experince speaking* DO NOT buy a gun because that's what everyone else on the range is shooting. Because it may not be what works for you. No matter what the "cool" factor is, many times basic is the way to go. My story, much like you I bought a single stack Springfield 45 to start. Shot exactly one match with it before putting it away to shoot a Para 40. Shot the Para alot, the Para broke alot (not a horrible thing, I managed to learn most of what I know about keeping a gun running from that P16). About the time I got the Para working properly, decided I just "had" to have a long dust cover STI. BIG mistake for me. No matter what I do, I can't get this gun to balance properly for me . So, I got stuck with a gun I'm not happy with because I didn't shoot enough to learn what I liked. Currently considering major surgery on the STI and/or a new Brazos Limited gun with a short dust cover (plus at this time, I'm shooting the single stack I started with, go figure). The moral is, shoot as many different guns as you can. Most shooters are going to be cool with you running 15 or 20 rounds through their gun if you explain you want to learn what you need in a gun. Shoot light guns, heavy guns, short guns, long guns, pretty guns, ugly guns, anything you can get your hands on. Ask someone that you shoot with on a regular basis if you can borrow their gun for a match. My brother just got done specing a 4k dollar open blaster. He didn't drop that kind of money without shooting ALOT of differnet guns. Figure a Limited gun is going to run anywhere from 2-3 thousand bucks, make sure you know what to buy the first time. Then, as Eric mentioned below, don't screw around with a half assed builder, get it from someone you know will get it right the first time. Just my amateur opinion, but that would be my road to Limited gun happiness.

Real fears, getting seriously burned, seen it, not pretty at all. Completely irrational, off the wall fears. Any kind of snake, venomous or non venoumous, doesn't matter. I HATE the things with a severe passion. Will not get with in 20 feet, hell, 20 miles of one if I have the choice. I mean come on, even the Bible says there evil. What more do you need?

To chime in on the themal/IR debate... I have used thermal imaging cameras (TICs). They are EXTREMELY cool, and allow firefighters to size-up a fire or other incident without immediately putting themselves in danger. However, what you looking at with a TIC is more of a difference in heat levels than heat it's self. For instance, I could easily see a fire through a wall with a TIC as it is much hotter than the surrounding area. In the same vein, I could easily see body in a mass of fire, as it is much COLDER than the surrounding area. Three things however, easily defeat a TICs abbilities. Reflective surfaces are one. A TIC can not see through glass verry well at all, or any kind of polished stainless steel. You end up looking at yourself. Good insulation (concrete block, ect.) will do it is as well. The final one, and probably most pertinent to this disscussion is similar tempatures. You will not be able to make out a 96 dgree human in a 90 degree (or for that matter 70 degree) ambient envrionment. There is not enough of a tempature difference to make it show up very well. So seeing a sniper through a block wall with no other heat sources would be very unlikely.

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The guns come out of the safe for a match, they are all checked before they ever leave my hand to reach for the next one.

Arson is definitely an extremely personal hate for me, 'nough said about that. Tyro, Sorry for your loss.

I hate that whiny kids use college as an excuse to do all sorts of stupid, moronic hurtful things to themselves, leaving others to scrape them off the bathroom floor, roadway, etc.

Another vote for Rescomp products.

300lb, glad to hear your out of the woods for the moment and good luck for the future. Now, if I can use your thread to purge my own demons for just a second.... I HATE from the deepest darkest pits of my soul people who intentionally set fire that have this sort of destruction. Juveinile fire setters are one thing, I can't really muster the same hate I can for adults that get a high off of on unleashing the red devil. The the word I heard is that this is an arson fire. The peice of fecal matter that set this fire has put thousands of civilians and brother firefighters in nnnecessary danger so they can get off on whatever fire gives them, collect insurance money or whatever other demented reason they start fires. I've spent three years of my life in a dangerouse enough as it is job WITHOUT some a-hole attempting to give me more work. Not to mention that developers are building stuctures that may collapse in as little as 8 minutes after a fire starting (another Hate thread entirely). The worst kind are the individuals who are out to hurt firefighters intentionally (reference the Arsonist handbook) by cutting holes in floors, blocking responses, venting buildings to allow fire spread, ect. Unfortunately, arsonits are rarely caught, and often minimally punished.

For all you VA and MD shooters, Straighter Shooting Inc and Shooters Paradise, owned by our very own gmshtr (also known as Phil Strader).

If I'm not mistaken, all the matches mentioned earlier had both Standard and Limited, as well as Modified divisions. USPSA Production rules were used, and and IPSC Production winner was not recognized.

First off, welcome to Virginia. Secondly, as new (and new the area) shooter coordinator for North Mountain Practical Shooters, I would like to invite you to shoot our match on the 4th Sunday of the month. We usually run a 4-5 stage match on a small range just outside Strausburg, in the scenic Shenandoah Valley. Drop me a PM or email if you need any more info. Now that the shameless promotional plug is over, I'd like to reinforce what Carlos said. There is an amazing level of IPSC activity in this area. The level of competiton in VA is exceeded by only one or two other places. There's usually at least two M's at every match you attend. What part of Virginia are you moving to? Our family made the move from Houston to Northern (and now NW) VA 10 years ago.

I'll go on to expand on this (if you don't mind me hijacking your thread slightly Pete). I hate cocky people who can't back it up period. Unfortunately the volunteer fire service and shooting both tend to draw in these people (primarily males ranging in age from about 18-35) like moths to a flame. Must be something about feeling macho. I'm tired of hearing of somebody's supposed prowess at performing a skill, only to find in a moment of need it's not there. I've been left hanging before, sometimes involving a life. I find as my personal level of knowledge and awareness expand, I have less and less time for sombody who belittles me, yet can't even pass a high school level fire certification exam, or safely shoot a stage on a regular basis. Cocky, macho idiots, quite honestly, need not apply to be anywhere near me.

Pretty sure this has been covered before, but I can't find any post relating to it in a search. Which do you perfer for 3-Gun applications. I seem to recall in previous discussions that 20 was perfered over 16, with 18 being considered the perfect comprimise. Also, any issues with making minor, or downrange energy with 16"?

My limited understanding of things is powders do not curve normally outside of the minimum and max loads listed. Best bet is to load by the chrony.

I think coverage needs to be a balance between the "Omigod those guys aren't human" and the normal everyday shooter. I agree with Duane, it's entertaining as hell to watch a national champion run through a course, doing things that seemingly aren't possible. If it wasn't enteratining, demonstration shooters couldn't make a living. However, if that's ALL you see, then it seems an exercise in futility to even show up as a new shooter.

I was watching the NPPL (paintball) Nationals on OLN tonight, and was amazed by the number of sponsors and vendors the size of their displays. The place resembled an outdoor SHOT show for the paintball industry! All the trickest new stuff was on display. Extensive media coverage, things to do besides play paintball, large spectator turnouts, ect. Now granted, paintball is a little more spectator friendly than IPSC, but still, there were hundreds (thousands?) of people on the grounds that had no connection to any participating team. I know this has been covered before, but why do we have around 8 vendors, a relatively small amount of media coverage (even from shooting publications), no spectators whatsoever, and a range that offers USPSA Nationals and nothing else? What's the problem, and more importantly, the solution? Why can't we fill up Race Gun? I used to be resistant to an all divisions combined Nationals, but the more I think about it, the better it seems. Should we also think about moving away from isolated ranges like PASA Park to something closer to a major metropolitan area? Quicker posting of preliminary stats in an easier to read format? What do ya'll think? What's the way to make our national championship feel like one?

Just an idea I'm playing around with. Who would be able to shorten the dustcover and put scallop cuts on the slide of an Edge for a reasonable price?