Kyle Norris

The widebody 1911s are going to be softer, but depending on what you like, that's not always what your looking for. I went from a short dustcover to a long dustcover gun (Para to STI) and am now looking into a short dustcover STI due to transition speeds. I think Eric has the right idea, choose what you like, splits are probably gonna run about the same.

I've also made the "dryer" mistake, and later fired said rounds with no ill effects. I generally don't worry about it unless I'm in a situation which I believe creates an increased hazard (rocky range, ect.) OTOH, rembering what happened to TJ last year at Summer Blast ( round stuck in the mag suddenly released and detonated on the feed lips) it's perhaps worth a little extra caution.

(IPSC G34) 9x19 .355 147gr TC Precsion over 5.0? grs of AA#5 Fed SP primer (not sure of OAL) 145 PF (TRNinVA) .45ACP .452 200gr SWC Prescsion over 5.4gr of AA#2 Win LP primer (1.250 OAL) 167 PF (Me) 40 S&W .401 185gr TC Precsion over 5.5gr of AA#2 Fed SR primer (1.185 OAL) 185PF Some load development work is currently going on. I've reduced my charge to 5.2gr and will get updated PF info soon. Also, the paticular batch of 200SWCs Dad's shooting only weigh about 198grs. No complaints about Prescion at all, has been a good bullet so far.

Same guess here as those before. Go back and take a look at your loading procedure. I've loaded most of my ammo on a 550B, had a problem with squibs when I first started loading. The solution I found was to visually check the level of powder in each case. Haven't had a problem since I started doing this. Also remeber that the crimp does not in and of itself prevent bullet setback, a properly sized case is the main prevention. Check the sizing die adjustment, and consider going to another brand of sizer (Dillon seem to be somewhat larger than the others, although my understanding is this applies mainly to the case head area and not mouth).

I hate when different public safety entities have stupid and/or dangerous rivalries (see reports out NYC). I hate that medicine as a whole has seemed to adopt an "all guns are bad" view. I hate "entertainers" who can have anything they ever wanted, but then shoot/rob/rape/assualt each other over stuff as stupid as a "rep".

Ok, all this talk about what we see at high speed has got me thinking. A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to take TJ's class when it was offered nearby. One of the disscussions in this class was about altered visual perception at speed. Todd stated you will only see approximately 1/3-1/2 of the actual amount of movement is the sight when shooting at speed. I've been calling many D and marginal C hits that later turn out to be misses. The solution to the problem, as has been pointed out to me here, is increasing my visual patience. However, I'm wondering if anyone else has experinced this phenomenon? And are there any ways to increase you perception of what is actually going on?

Rhino, I envy your additude. I just have a hard time accepting my current skill level. I guess in a way I'm mad at myself, because there were many times I could have practiced (or at least dry-fired), but simply sat on my arse because I told myself I was to stressed from school to do it or simply didn't feel like it. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20.... j1b, glad to have you back. My brother and I were actually disscussing the number of shooters from the early and mid-90s who dropped out just the other day. I wish the best of luck.

I often experince this as well. Another possible cause is poor fitting hearing protection. I mostly chalk it up to sun and tension though.

Just got back from FGN, with some excelent video footage of how many bad habits I've picked up. The back story to this is I basicly layed of shooting over the last year and a half to focus on college and obtaining some other certifications I'll need for my career. I'm in the cruise mode for school now, and most of the fire fighting classes I need are now complete. However, I'm now shooting at about 50% of what I was when I layed off. My stance, movement, foot speed, visual focus and patience and countless other things all need work. I figure a minimum of two months of good practice sessions. to get back to where I was, and I'm gonna have to work my butt off to get to my goal of an M card before my 21st birthday. It's incredibly frustrating to SEE what you your doing wrong (I'm calling shots well) but not having the visual patience to stop from pulling the shot off or the focus to make the miss up. Guess I'll just have to give the Dillon more of a work-out.....

Been shooting nickel brass for appx. two years now (Speer). It comes once fired from a police range. I've yet to have a problem, but I ususally don't reuse it more than about four times. Recently I haven't been saving it at all. I've simply got enough sources for free 40 I can leave it on the range.

Visual patience has been the one item I've consistently struggled with since I first started. So the answer is really just focus on seeing what I need to see?

Observations from the local level. My father, brother and I have been running a local USPSA match for approximately one and a half years now, and we've had a DRASTIC increase in shooters. WE could barely turn out 15 shooters when we took over, and now routinely have more than 40 show up to shoot. About one quarter to one half of these are new shooters, and it is not uncommon to have anywhere from two to four new shooters a match. We've had about a 75% rate of people showing up for a second match, and maybe 30-50% showing up on a regular basis. Our keys have been: Stage design; simple to understand (no find the target stages, minimum of steel), lower round count, but challanges such as disappering and hardcover targets. and some type of standard every other month or so. Introduction; I've been assigned to give each new shooter a safety and course orientation. I usually spend 15-30 minutes explaining the basics, what we do and don't want to see gun handling wise, scoring, LAMR procedure, ect. If I'm not going to be available, I try to assign a mentor to the shooter that I know will not have a problem "sponsoring" a newbie for the day. Additude; THE MOST IMPORTNAT ELEMENT!!! Anyone who has shot our club will attest we do our best to keep our shooters happy. We see our selves as being customer oriented, if the hole is even remotely oblong, it's a double type of thing. Last match we ran a stage that was "iffy" rule book wise, we listened and will not include something similar again. Many clubs fail to remember they are there to serve the customers need, not the other way around. Advertising; we advertise heavily at local gunshops. Local volunteers are a valuable asset. The same four or five individuals are usually setting up our match, however, we have gotten some people showing up when they can lately. All our volunteers shoot for free, it's the least we can do when they're spending all weekend working their butt's off for our match. Our range is a small, unusable hole in an apple orchard, so it's nearly impossible to get too involved in props, but we do what we can. I started shooting three years ago at the age of 17, and had some excelent mentorship (gmshtr is "da man" in this regard). I acheived B class Limited about one year later, but have not shot to that level for some time until very recently due to a year round, very demanding college schedule. I agree with J1B, college students are dead flat broke and I could not have even shot if Dad and Phil hadn't help subsidize me. I've met some of the nicest, most unselfish people in this sport you will find anywhere. Unfortunately, I have also met the bad apples that give us the "gamer scum" reputation. The problem at the local level is these are often the loudest voices on the range. Don't let them be. It's amazing what some self-deprecation, combined with the occasional, friendly, humourous, ego lacerating comment can do for a ranges additude. Production and Limited 10 will probably save our sport (coming from a guy who shoots a Limited STI) I don't think we'll ever see the sponsor dollars that I'm told were around during the glory days of the sport. I hope I'm wrong, but between lawsuits, IDPA and a decreasing marketshare, I think our chances of that kind of support are limited. Which is a shame, because I'll only get to see videos where 10 or 12 people could win on any given day (just think, Jack Barnes, Jethro Dionisio, Bruce Piatt, Matt McClearn, BE and many others are no longer shooting USPSA/IPSC anymore, I sincerely wish I coulda seen some of these guys shoot in person). I would defintely like to see this port continue to grow, but I don't have all the answers. Maybe discussions like this are the best place to start though.

David, to beat Dad to the punch, he apparently lacked the presence of mind at that paticular moment to reengage the safety.

Hi, I used to post on here a fair amount, but have taken a break from posting over the past several months. I've been having a consistent problem of throwing misses on the last round of an array. I was reading the Awareness and Focus the book earlier today, and noticed BE stated that there should be no conscious thought while shooting a stage. Does this include moving between positions? I'm starting to belive my last shot miss problem of thinking about moving, reloading, or whatever else needs to be done between shooting positions I'm not allowing myself to see what needs to be seen. Is my hypothesis reasonable, and if so, what's the best way to combat this?

Quote: Something else that was amazing was to watch a young kid (12 maybe?) shoot in the shoot-off's. He was shooting a glock and had a super fast draw and reload. He first beat Tom Stidham (GM limited) and in the final heat beat world production champ. David Sevigny. WOW, the kids was fast and had nerves of steel. Hey, that was my little brother . B.J. is 13 and has been shooting about two years now, and has shown rapid progress under coach Phil Strader. I happen to be one of the proudest older brothers you'll ever meet, even if I can't keep up in my old age. (Edited by Kyle Norris at 3:33 pm on Feb. 10, 2003) (Edited by Kyle Norris at 3:34 pm on Feb. 10, 2003)

Quote: from Dick W Holliday on 4:32 pm on Jan. 17, 2003 Some of the NC shooters may have heard this story but an NC shooting instructor had finished for the day and had gotten into his vehicle and his car gun was a P9 he put a round in the chamber using the front serrations and when the gun closed on the live round it went full auto and shreaded his weak hand...after some surgery doctors were able to move some of the remaining fingers around.......Dick This is the reason I come from underneath the gun to use the front serations. Much less of a risk involved. I will agree the front serations are useful whaen unloading at a match as the give the RO a much better view when used from under the gun.

Short and sweet, would Armalite's new AR-180 work for limited 3-gun? (Have no idea why the main title is what it is) (Edited by Kyle Norris at 1:30 pm on Jan. 19, 2003)

OK, observations as both a shooter and minor match official. As a poor college student, I download my STI to shoot L10 because right now I can't afford another single stack (Dad shoots the one I've got now) for the sole purpose of shooting a division I don't shoot that often. I've also spent a heck of a lot of time/money setting up my gun and adjusting to it. I can't currently put that effort out, so I shoot what I know. The gun times and points the same way whether I've got 10 or 20 in the mag, which isn't gonna happen with a different caliber/gun. As I said before, I don't shoot L10 that often, and my class in that division hasn't caught up to my Limited class. It'd be the same if I shot Open, Production, ect. If you want to whoop up on lower class shooters, have at it. Just don't expect to earn a lot of respect in the process. As a match official, there's pretty much two types of L10 shooters we see. The downloads like me, and the "newbie" and/or IDPA shooters that show up to matches. The newbies can often expect to get whooped no matter what division they're shooting ( I pity the suckers that show up for the first time and have to get beat in Prod by my brother, hard on the ego). However, many of these shooters have come back and showed SIGNIFCANTLY improved performance the next time around, and many have been content with simply shooting at the level they started at and having fun. You get what you put in. The Mid-Atlantic region has been showed phenomenal growth last year compared to the two prior years when I started. Our match(North Mountain Practical Shooters) shot at capacity twice towards the end of last year. We started the year(prior to the Norris' taking over) with matches where only 15 shooters showed up. We've retained a remarkable number of first timers. Most of these shooters have been Prod and L10. They don't seem to complain about being beat by better shooting. Most of the whining comes from mid-level long time shooters (take that for what you will).

****Warning, slightly off-topic shameless plugs to follow**** If your in Prince Willam County, Shooter's Paradise in Woodbridge(now under the ownership of my friend and coach Phil Strader) is an excelent place to go holster shopping. The staff there can likely get you outfitted with just about anything you'll need. Phil has done as much as anybody for USPSA shooting in the Northern Virginia area. Second, I don't know if you've considered it, but USPSA is an excelent manner in which to familiarize yourself with your new set-up. I'd like to invite you to the next North Mountain Practical Shooter's match, on the fourth Sunday of this month. For more info go to http://members.citynet.net/northmountaindragon/ . You can contact us by email with any questions. ***End shameless plugs*** With the summer going he way it's bee going in this area lately I'd have to say IWB is the way to go right now. OWB limits covering garment options. However, there is a school of thought that recomends using several different holsters to suit each individual situation.

Mark me the other way. Unless it's humid and I have to use it to keep a decent grip on the gun, I don't use ProGrip. I find it becomes nearly impossible to adjust hand position on the fly when using it.

Carlos, you forget, Phil's not like the rest of us. Something about getting bit by a radioactive roadrunner.... My very, very limited open gun experince echos what's been said. Hybrid guns shoot flatter but are harder to track the dot on, possibly because you have less time to do so(the 100 or so rounds of 38 super I've shot through open guns is not enough to make a good judgement). One thing I found interesting and disconcerting first time I shot an open gun though, you can see your self flinch. Diagnostically great, not so great for the comfort level though.

All the factory 38 Super loads you'll find will be stamped +P. This is the result of a desperate(and probably in vain) attempt to keep these rounds out of guns chambered in 38 Auto, which uses a case almost identical in outside dimensions, but is loaded to MUCH lower pressures. The result of firing a Super in a 38 auto is less than pleasant to say the least...

Juniors do participate on this board(well, at least me). But then I'm only a junior under the new rules... I'm getting ready to start my third shooting season. One of the best things you can do is seek out a knowlegable teacher who preferably has experince with juniors. They will be able to articulate ideas in ways you might not have thought of. I got lucky enough to have two mentors help me along. See if she shows accuracy or speed tendencies, and base your drills of the one that needs improvement. As for me, I currently shoot with my father and 12 year old brother. Strangely enough, I was the first one in our family to start shooting. I've managed to advance to B in a year and a half's time, and currently have my sights set on A this year(hopefully Master).

Hmmm, looks like there's a few more steps in front of baricades in your future Chris . Congratulations

Well, it finally happened. I will be unable to shoot because of a class. What's worse is it's a co-req to paramedic classes, so it's not even really anything interesting. Do I understand the reason, yes. However, that doesn't ease the pain of sitting through an hour and a half lecture on the urinary system instead of pulling a trigger.