Chuck Anderson

It's a concern, but you resolve that through updating the classification system, not Nationals. Frankly if someone wants to tank all their matches for the year for the potential of getting a slot to a National match, I doubt anything will fix them. If memory serves, and they might have changed this, you can already earn your way into Nats with a class win at an Area match. I can't see the current Nats slot policy because the link doesn't seem to work.

Since this is precision rifle I'll answer from that perspective. Depending on application YMMV. Cons: suppressors add weight, and it's weight at the end of a very long lever. If you have difficulty maneuvering an already heavy PRS rifle, not for you. Increased maintenance. Any issues in the muzzle threading will be very apparent and cause issues, much more so than with a muzzle brake. Although they provide recoil mitigation, they are not as effective as a muzzle brake. PRS matches require the ability to spot your impact and make corrections based on that. Yes, the guy who hits the most without missing will probably win, but being able to see misses or even where on the target you are impacting is key. They are much more quiet than a rifle with a brake. For a match with one shooter at a time, it's important but not huge. For team matches it makes more sense. Pros: Much more quiet, some recoil mitigation and increased ability to spot impacts over rifle with no muzzle attachments. The price really is not that great and the suppressor will likely outlast the barrel, or two or three at least. In team matches where you may be using partner for support it's much nicer than torching off his ear pro with the gas from the muzzle brake.

There is no requirement for a Nationals range to require 23 bays. This is an artificial stipulation imposed by the current president. For years we've had Nationals with less bays/stages. It's possible to do it. In general having more bays allows you to get more people in shooting a match. But that shouldn't be the overriding concern. To be honest, I'd be happy if Nationals were a bit harder to get into. There was a time when the majority of the slots were performance based and you "might" be able to get in if you didn't earn your slot. Then we started making them bigger and bigger and performance went away. I think it's neat in USPSA that everyone has the opportunity to shoot a National Championship alongside the best in the sport. But when it starts eliminating venues and quality competition, I'm OK with making it just a bit harder to get in. (Note I'm not saying GM only, but performance in D class should be rewarded as well).

Make your own. For about that price you can take Bruce Piatt’s class, and buy all the parts and tools. I’m planning to do a final acid etch on mine (Damascus slide) tomorrow and all ready for my 45th.

Shoot whatever you want as much or as little as you want. Maybe you’ll decide to buy some better gear, maybe not. I started with a Glock 17 20+ years ago. I have all the specialized toys like Open guns, Limited guns, the “hot” Production setup etc. The last match I shot was with a plain old Glock 34. The last time I did dedicated dry fire practice was in the 90’s. If I shot 100 rounds a week I’d probably be doing a lot better, but I have worn my USPSA rig to the range for practice in a very long time. Still have fun at the matches though.

Data is critical for long range. I haven’t found a better way to verify BC. There are lots of great options for getting the velocity right now, but that’s only one component. You really need to be able to shoot a ways to find that out. A lot of PRS matches open up the day before to verify data. You could attend one and get what you need pretty quickly. You really need to get past 500-600 to figure out your true BC. 1000 is ideal if you work your way out incrementally.

I would seriously recommend not buying any of this stuff. Take your rifle and your scope to a match and shoot. Guys will loan you their equipment and you can try it there. You'll suck, probably just like anyone else does the first they try a new sport. You'll find most of the guys there bought gear they didn't need because they didn't try it first. If your gear is a limiting factor, you'll have the opportunity to see what will help you the most. This stuff seems to vary regionally as well. Suck to go buy a fancy tripod and find out your local MD hates the things and designs all his stages to either prohibit them or make them useless.

Not 100%. Wasn't anything terribly difficult. Transition drills, one side of the pit to the other, draw and fire one and two, draw fire one reload one, Bill Drill, and one I picked up from Frank Garcia where you shoot five in the A in five seconds. Keep moving back until you can't make the time or the hits 3/3. I figured the transitions and draw would favor the lighter gun, while the Bill Drills and Garcia drill would favor the heavier, longer sight radius guns. It was pretty much all solidly 6" Sighttracker though. Two things, my experience only for what it's worth. I also wasn't using ammo optimized to the 6" guns. I was using the same 180 gr load that was making 173 in my 5". My new 6" is not a fan of this. I actually found the best for me is a 165gr. I didn't expect that, but you definitely need to test.

I used to use a bushing 5" .40 for Limited. Loved that gun. After fighting it for way to long I put a test together and borrowed a Sighttracker 5", bull 6" and a 6" Sighttracker. I expected the 5" I had been shooting would finish best, if only due to experience with it. After running a set of drills with each gun I ended up selling both my 5" guns and getting a 6" Sighttracker. It made that much of a difference. Even with almost no time on the gun, times were faster and hits were better. It was really hard to argue with. For me at least that stable front sight did make a difference.

First off, he's way off on the numbers. USPSA is about as healthy as it has been in Oregon. We're pulling about 100 for monthly matches. It floats up and down a bit depending, but it's been pretty consistent. Division participation has changed though. When I was AD one of the things they send is an activity report that shows how many competitors are shooting in each are and what division they are shooting. Even within Area 1 it varied wildly. One section in a state would have Limited as dominant and only a few Open shooters. Next Section over had Open as dominant and only a couple Limited shooters. I always figured it depended on whatever the high end guys were shooting. If you had a guy who was crushing it in Open, people would shoot Open. If the big competition was Production, people would shoot that. Revo and L10 were always light, but even within that, every now and then there would be a Section where L10 was in the top 3 division wise. When I took a break a couple years ago, Production was in a virtual tie with Lim/Open numberswise locally. When I came back, there were only a few dudes in Production. More than 2, but less than 10 for sure. Some can be accounted for by two more divisions splitting the competitor pool, but not all. CO is way more popular than it was previously. Enough that I'm going to give it a try this year and see how it goes.

It's always interesting when I see people talk about how hard Gun "X" is to shoot on small targets, or partials, or fast. I've had splits under .10 with the Glock, you can shoot it fast (not even using the 18). I use my Glock for 3 Gun where it's not uncommon to have 4" plates at 25 yards, no problem. Or shots with the handgun out past 100 yards, still works just fine. It's almost like if you line the bumpy things up on the slide and don't jerk the trigger the shots go where they are supposed to...weird.

I guess I'm a novice. Had my best Nationals finish using a Glock 17 and Remington UMC ammo. Still shoot a Glock 34. I've shot 2011's, CZ's, Tanfo's, Sigs, Beretta, 1911's, Revos, Walthers, even that STI GP6. Haven't found anything else I shoot better than the Glock regardless of price. Might be because I carry one for work and dedicate the majority of my training time to it. Bottom line, if a guy is asking if a Glock 17 is an acceptable gun to shoot Production with, it is. Is it necessarily the best gun for that person, dunno. But I guarantee random folks on the internet don't know either. Go shoot it if you have it. Ask the other guys you are with to shoot their guns as well. Most will be more than happy to let you. If you find something better, go buy that. Or better, just buy ammo and practice until you have enough time to decide if Production is where you want to stay and if so, which gun is best for you.

Used to be you had a choice between STI where you could buy a cheap ugly gun and pay a gunsmith to make it run. You could buy an SV that looked great, cost way more and pay a gunsmith to make it run. Quality on both seems much better in recent years. The factory SVI bought in 2003(ish) sucked. Still have it, although most of the parts have been replaced. Looking at your original post it seems you like the SV more. If you do, go for it. Doesn’t seem like you would go wrong with either and if the SV makes you happy and you can swing it, buy the one you want.

So I just finished up a 1911 build and I’m a bit stalled. Damascus slide and black nitride everything else. The original plan was some mammoth ivory grips, but not sure if something else might look better. Pure BBQ gun, no competition purpose. Just looking for something to finish it off that will set off the damascus. Any suggestions?

I don't think he has since then actually.

I remember doing this at a section match and the stage designer got so mad at me. It probably didn't help when I told him to not be lazy with his stage construction next time. What I was getting at with the rule is if the target isn't visible at all, then it will automatically have the penalties. No reason to put it in the book. It's clearly oriented towards targets that might be partially visible and is intended to penalize the shooter.

If it never appeared at all, why would you need to add the penalties? There wouldn’t be any holes in the target.

Shot this one at the SHOT show with Factory 9mm. Worked great. I wouldn't use it for USPSA Open, but would have been perfect for 3 Gun or Steel Challenge without a power factor.

STI has had a few very large LE contracts in foreign countries. The Phillipines I think for one. I shot the heck out of a couple of the Staccatos at a range day at SHOT. Probably went through several hundred rounds and watched at least 1K shot. Not a huge sample, but never saw one bobble. I don't trust any gun out of the box for LE. But these do have potential.

I liked Speer 165 gr for factory ammo. Was right about 172 out of a 5” gun.

No, but I’ve never seen an RO try to start someone with a bungee on either.

Nope, push it straight forward from the rear. Pops right out. Yes you can pull up through the lock as well, but this is the wrong direction for that.

An interesting holster to mention. Even with the lock in place on the CR Speed you can still knock the gun out. Just have to apply a bit of force in the right direction. Was sitting with Larry Weeks at the FN 3Gun and he was telling me how secure his holster was. Tap, tap tap and out it fell.

Whether it’s a DQ or not, I’d still prefer my gun to not fall out and hit the ground. Just because the shooter wants an additional retention doesn’t mean it’s not secure. I’ve seen guns get hooked on stuff, particularly in the winter months when shooters around here are wearing a few layers. As as far as deciding what the rules mean, I think I’m gonna listen to Gary Stevens over bret. Don’t know bret’s background, but I do know Gary’s and there are few people I trust more on the rules than him.

Sounds like you are in Italy. Which might change the dynamic a bit. There are a lot less companies in Europe involved in the shooting sports than in the US. Your pool is significantly smaller. My first sponsorships came from products I was already using. I didn't go out and seek the sponsors, they came to me. Early on it was in the form of free product and the occasional match entry. I've had a few that paid cash, but it's rare. Usually those sponsors are either new to sponsoring shooters and don't realize we area crappy investment, or there was a significant return for them in some other way. Crimson Trace was my biggest for awhile, but I also ran their match for three years and they were pretty happy with it. I doubt they would have given me the time of day if not for that. Shoot matches, be a good person. Help your squad, help the new guys, be the shooter people want to squad with. If you use something a lot, and like it, ask the owner if they can help you out a bit. Be prepared to answer the question of how it will benefit them. If the answer is that it won't, don't be surprised if they say no. Don't waste your time looking for sponsorship from companies you don't use. You'll find yourself not liking the product, that shows through and you'll get a rep as the guy who just shoots whatever he gets paid for. Then nobody wants you.