Chuck Anderson

Thinking about maybe shooting an IDPA match or two to get classified again and I had a couple questions. First regarding grips. The rules say something about same type and material, no weighted grips. I shoot a CZ SP-01 which I think is at or above weight for ESP with the factory grips. I normally use Aluminum grips on mine which are smaller in profile and lighter. The gun will make weight with these grips. They are definitely not weighted grips since they are ligther. Are these legal? Reloads. It says all reloads must start behind cover. Does this only apply to tactical reloads and RWR or slide lock loads as well. I'm just thinking if I run dry in the open, I'm gonna be reloading the whole way to cover Tactical order. If the following array presents what would be the order. As slicing the pie around the right side of cover three targets will appear, the first at 3 yards, the second at 10 yards and the third at 3 yards. In order to engage T3 you have to expose yourself to T2. My assumption would be 1-3, but I don't want to assume either.

I notice there are a lot of half IPSC targets. Is this an actual target made that way or just cut in half. If it's just cut in half I assume that it doesn't have a non-scoring border. I thought this was a rule regarding paper targets, of course I could be wrong. I'm just picturing a lot of, "well that tiny gray mark is where my bullet touched the target."

Those look like the Rescomp set from South Africa. I bought a set and regretted it. Horrible quality.

Cost is a factor for me. The main reason though is USPSA puts on boring Multi-Gun Nationals, IMHO. I have yet to shoot a MG Nats, or a 3-Gun Nats before that was fun. SMM3G used to put on a really fun one, now it's gotten OK. SOF/WC3-Gun put on some that were a real blast, but no more. RM3G puts on the perfect match, if they would just quit scheduling it so that I can't go. Ft. Benning is the only one that I'm going to get to this year that I think will be REALLY fun. The combination of natural terrain and distance at RM3G makes the match for me. That's why I used to like Rio until they did away with the gully run at the end of the range and replaced it with, normally very boring speed shoots. And, I think, for 2 of the last 3 years they've had to throw out one of the long range stages, normally which ever one I did the best at. At Benning it's the awesome stage designs and the Army toys we civvies don't get to play with. If they would quit holding MG Nationals on pistol ranges, I would probably be more than happy to go. Until then, I think I'll pass.

I have a friend with Hi-Powers done by Cylinder and Slide, EGW and Bob Marvel. All of them are awesome. I would recommend any of these folks.

I think you're okay with the laser grips turned off.

It's not as easy as you think. Springfield Armory will still call and try to give you free guns, as well as a bunch of other sponsors I've worked with. I tell you what Kurt. I'll do you a favor to help you get on the road a bit quicker. I'll pick up your prize at Benning for you so you can hop in the car and go. I'll keep it, but I know your time is better spent on the road home anyway.

Yep, no problem with that combo either.

That would work for some matches, but what about the matches that don't buy prizes. Area 1 was run this year as a low entry fee match, but still had a decent sized prize table ($95.00 entry fee, $127,000.00 Prize table). Very little off the table was purchased by the match. Most of it was donated by our sponsors. Some of them were very specific that they would only donate prizes to a match that gave them out order of finish. Only about $5.00 per shooter was spent on the prize table. Give me back whatever you won at Area 1 and I'll give you $5.00. Other matches are run differently. Area 2 has a very expensive entry fee but an awesome prize table that goes with it. It's well worth it for most people to pay the extra fee for that match. As far as giving prizes away to RO's that has been brought up previously and frequently results in hard feelings or other problems. We did that with the 2003 Area 1 and ended up with $30K in prizes that were donated. Split between about 20 staff that seemed a bit extravagant so we gave most of that away to competitors randomly. In 2006 we did a full prize table at Area 1 that was given away randomly as well. I didn't see a huge difference in the number of happy people in 2006 compared to 2008. This is how I plan to do prize tables at future matches that I run. If there is enough for everyone to get at least their match entry fee back, everyone will walk in order of finish, with possible exceptions for class and category winners if it is a USPSA match big enough to recognize that. For this years Area 1 everyone got at least $100.00 back with most getting substantially more. Some with the Area 1 Multigun. For the US Steel shoot starting on Friday we don't have enough prizes for everyone. We're going to awards Divison winners and the rest will go random. This is just my preference but it's the way I'm going to run my matches.

Steel that falls when hit at the base of the popper with a bb gun, may be properly calibrated steel. Read the rule. It only speaks of knocking down steel with a hit in the cal circle. Nowhere does it say anything about not falling if hit anywhere else. For good reason. Can you imagine the extra RM calls? "Stage 2 to RM, we need a calibration, the shooter hit 2 inches below the cal circle with a Production gun and the dang popper fell over again." What percentage of shots in a match are on steel? 10% maybe? If you think that you can gain an advantage by shooting minor just for those shots, good luck with that. My concern would be that minor ammo may make the FFP fall faster than major. Thereby not recognizing power but actually penalizing it. I didn't get a chance to time any of the poppers but it was something we talked about. The minor ammo would hit just hard enough to release the latch and the popper would fall. The major ammo tended to stand it up and seemed to delay it dropping. This could be a concern. But again I didn't take that close of a look.

Ok, I remember the sucky poppers in 2006. They burned me really bad and knocked me out of the top 16. I don't remember any issues in 2007 (although that could be a memory issue, the rain was so bad I don't remember much else). I RO'd the Pro-Am and shot both Nationals there in 2008 and didn't see a single popper have an issue that wasn't related to an activator. They seemed like they worked great. And I hated them in 2006. Don't really know what your current issue but they seem to work okay now.

I'm not sure there is anything in the rules that supports your argument. While I can understand your concern the calibration requirement just talks about getting it down if hit in the cal circle with at least x ammo. There is nothing that says it can't go down to something else. I've seen many plates and plates racks that will fall to a .22 lr. I thought the poppers this year worked great. The only issued I saw were with the activators. FFP's have a harder time (at least it seems) yanking some activator cables. Especially the little US Poppers.

Bend is a nice facility that USPSA did pay to essentially build. However due to the current club officers there will not be another Nationals there. And due to the way USPSA HQ has interacted with some of the folks in Oregon I doubt there will be one in this area at all.

Aside from things that could've been solved through better logistics (switching ends of the range, and parking), what issues were there? Vendors didn't like it as much, as there was no "forced traffic" in Missoula... Other than that??? Yeah, expensive, but... wow, beautiful range, and good excuse to see some national parks Put me on the list as one of those who actually likes PASA, so... The range is not conducive to holding a match the size of Nationals. Being split as far apart means you pretty much have to drive between areas of the range. The roads are too narrow to support that traffic. Parking sucked. It's expensive to fly to, and the hotels are also not exactly cheap. The 2005 Area 1 and the 2007 Nationals were awesome matches and the weather was great for both. Throw a little bit of rain in and problems will show. Missoula is okay for one Nats but don't see doing a back to back. This means we still need another range for a Nationals next year. PASA is an okay range. But it's a pain to fly into Chicago or St. Louis drive and hour and a half, stay in a little city with only a couple good restaraunts and still have to drive an hour round trip each way to the range every day.

Has anybody been looking at the Tulsa weather since we left. It was clear leading up to the match. Had a couple of really lousy days. And I think it's been clear and sunny since we left. The was just a dumb luck timing issue. If we had hit a week in either direction, no problem. There have been 4 Pistol Nationals in Tulsa (that I can think of) 2006, 2007 and two in 2008. The 2006 and the 2008 LPR were just fine. No issues. The 2007 and the 2008 O/L10 were sucky and muddy. That's about the same luck I had at PASA with crappy weather. I know a couple BOD members really like PASA but a lot of members really don't. Gary, do you have another Nationals site picked out since you don't want to go back to Tulsa? Montana while great, had issues and really isn't big enough to host both. Plus it's expensive. You're not coming back to Oregon, Albany and Bend are out...trust me. What else have you got?

My production ammo chrono'd within a couple feet of what it always does. The .40 ammo for the L10 match was another story. It was just a hair shy of 180 PF at home and dropped to 172 at the match. Not sure what the difference was. 9mm ammo chrono'd dead on and the .40 didn't. Weird.

I'm never sure whether to laugh or cry every time I hear a line about the top shooter already having everything they need or not need another widget off the prize table. It's insanely expensive to get to the top of the game. I won't even post the amount of money I've spent to get to where I am because of fear that the wife might see it. There is no one in the US that supports themself completely by sponsorship...no one. Everyone of the top shooters that supposedly have full rides make most of their money training, not from their sponsorships. The days of the shooter getting an actual salary for shooting are over. The folks who are actually employed by the gun companies, like Dave and Julie have many other duties other than just shooting. If a top shooter wins something that they can't use it will probably be sold to try and re coup some of that investment. It does sometimes still get used though. Like the Larue Tactical upper that I won at the Pro-Am this year. It's sitting in the trunk of my work car with the SureFire suppressor, Aimpoint M4 and Noveske Lower (that I actually had to buy myself rather than have it given to me by my hoards of admiring sponsors). And JK, the crack about practicing not being work really shows a lack of knowledge as to what efforts are needed to be competetive at the top levels. It is not fun to be on the practice range shooting in the pouring rain and snow and wind. Or to have the discipline to keep practicing when it is 100 degrees out. The same discipline to spend hours dryfiring and working on your equipment. None of that is particularly fun, at least not for me. However the payoff comes when I go to matches, big or small and do well. And it is a slap in the face to put in that much time to find it be worth a $10.00 piece of wood.

I doubt they would be able to do it at a World Shoot. The rules are pretty specific about enforcing 90 degree rules. Not sure how they could get around that. I have shot 360 degree bays in competition. The RO roped himself to the shooter. It is a really suprising experience how much you miss the first time that you do it.

USSA has more than enough room to host a World Shoot. The one in Ecuador had 24 bays used. USSA has 20 conventional, plus two, 100 yd carbine bays, a side match bay, Action pistol bays with turning targets, the shoot house, the 360 bay (which could easily be turned into half a dozen temporary bays needed. There is more than enough parking space available at the range, especially if you bus some competitors. The range is still under construction. There will be more parking by 2011.

I completely buy that figure. It's not just USPSA looking for money. When you look at every National, Area, Sectional, and, Local match that asks for Match Sponsorship, I'm sure it's higher than 300. Add in the Law Enforcement, Tactical, Charity, IDPA, ICORE, STC, Pro-Am and other disciplines there are a lot of hands trying to reach in the same pocket. I know there are way than 100 3-Gun matches in the country. We run at least 26 a year within an hour of my house. Not all of these are big enough to ask for sponsorship, but several do. I've talked to some sponsors (Springfield comes to mind) that get hit with around 1000 requests a year for sponsorship. One of the reasons (I think) that 3-Gun has such great prize tables is because there isn't a huge glut of big matches out there. Off the top of my head I think there are less than 10 (5ish) 3-Gun matches that have $100,000.00+ tables. There are several that fall into the 25-75K range but nowhere near as many as there are pistol matches. Which would people rather have, 5 3-gun matches with $200,000.00 on the table at each or 20 3-gun matches with $50,000.00 each?

I was curious about that myself. If it is a direct copy of STI/SV I think they would have a hard time with that argument. I think the fact that there are probably 30 some odd 1911 manufacturers out there would help the cause. If it is an "improved" or modified design, that would probably be subject to the 500 unit rule. (As a thread hijack, USPSA really needs to stop making some of these weird double standard calls. You can't use a Sighttracker 9mm bbl in a 5' or 6" configuration but you can use it in .40. Their logic is that there haven't been enough in that caliber. Anybody look at the guns of Jarrett and Leatham? How many 6" .40 cal Paras have been produced, how many 6" .40 Springfield Hi-Caps. I'm not saying they were wrong to use them but I have a hard time seeing the difference.)

That's what I love about you Troy, that wonderful sense of humor. Although I guess 2001 was really more mid-September rather than late September.

That was actually what I saw for most of the stages. Mud depth wise at least. It was muddy everywhere but I didn't see the holes that would suck up your leg to the knee (okay a bit of an exageration) from 2007. I don't think the mud was every up over the top of my shoe in the shooting area.

While I agree wtih you, I'm not sure this is the best argument to use. Shooting has gotten expensive lateley, for everyone. I'm sure everyone, from the top finisher to the last place finisher could stand to have some expenses paid by winning something. Trapr. You're right the top levels should be somewhat even across the top. But if there are 120 shooter in TO and 12 in TI, I don't think the top 3 should pay the same, as mentioned by Kurt. Maybe the top 1 in TI. But that is as far down as 10% goes. Is it right to award someone for beating 11 other people the same as the person who beat 119?

Do what you want. I like the idea of what you are planning. BTW, Mike Hughes is a patent attorney in Washington State. He's also a really good USPSA competitor. Might be worth giving him a call on the patent issues. It sounds like you have some ideas for different features that are not currently made by SV or STI. Good. There are certain things that a very small level producer is going to be able to do that a major manufacturer can't. It's not worth it to STI or SV to shut down a production line to make a one off frame with a certain feature. If you can fill the niche cool. I doubt STI would quit selling grips completely. It would be a horrible marketing decision. Especially since 80-90 % (my guess) of folks who shoot USPSA modify their grips in some way. There is no way I would buy a gun for $1700.00, undercut the trigger guard a bit too much and find out I can't get another grip for it. My guess is they might change their distribution model and only sell them factory direct at retail, or to manufacturers they approve of, such as SV or Bar-Sto. It would cut into some distributors pockets to do it that way but grips would still be available to shooters.