Chuck Anderson

Yep, the aluminum grips are USPSA legal. They are factory grips.

The way to comply is to fully decock the gun as specified in the rule book. If it's got a decocker, you have to use it and where it decocks to is where you start. If it doesn't have a decocker, lower it all the way down. I would worry so much about the CZ design and AD's when doing this. I've had the hammer slip about half way down. The round still didn't go off. Not something I would want to try on purpose but I don't worry about it anymore either.

The battery life is actually 50,000 hours. But that is at one of the intermediate setting, not 10 or 11. I haven't been able to get an answer from Aimpoint on longevity at the highest settings. Definitely get the ScopeCoat. They are available for the Micro. The other problem I had with the rubber lens covers is that it leaves a greasy film on the lens.

And what are the complaints? If the complaints are that they got beat by a bunch of civies then they should reevaluate the reasons for being there. Sounds like if they didnt open it up to more shooters, there wouldnt have been a match. And who was the complainers? if it was the occasional leo's then they now have a benchmark to work toward. Actually they were both reasonably active practical shooters, one was a B class shooter, the other was a GM. The complaining come from the fact that it was billed as a LE match. i.e. duty gun/gear etc. When they got there a bunch of the local IPSC shooters showed up with race gear. I'd be pissed as well. If you're going to advertise that a match will be something you better make sure that it is.

I will say there was a recent three gun match that was billed as LE only. When the match director didn't get enough entries he opened it up to the local IPSC crew. I'm still hearing complaints about this. From LE shooters that are also IPSC shooters. They were ticked off when they thought it would only be cops they were competing against. It's one match (well maybe five or six nationwide) does it really affect anyone? If you are so mad that you don't want to have anything to do with it...don't. I just really don't see the problem.

Last I heard was that they were still out of spec. That came from the gunsmith building my gun this spring.

Caspian makes great 1911 slides. Their Glock stuff is still a bit iffy. I imagine they will get the hang of it eventually.

The dirty littls secret is that the NRA believes that only Military and Law Enforcement should be shooting tactical 3 gun matches. This is a far cry from the founding mission of the NRA to make civilians better marksmen before they entered military service. Based on my experience in sponsoring a free match for law enforement that can with lunch, a shirt, and prizes, only those members of law enforcement that want to shoot matches or want to shoot better show up. As such the matches end up being a benefit to those membes who are already shooting matches or would shoot matches but as to overall law enforcement, they lack significance. I'm going to try to keep as much sarcasm as I can out of this. You're basing your opinion on one whole match? Seriously? We used to hold a three gun match for LE in the Portland Area. It used to fill up with well over 100 LE shooters from the area. Most of these folks didn't shoot during the rest of the year. Some shot that match for the first time and became much more involved in the shooting sports. I was one of them. Without that first LE 3-Gun match I'm not sure I would be shooting competetively today. The NRA has come a long way in the last couple years. 10 years ago I doubt the NRA though LE needed to be taught tactics. The NRA instructor course was pretty widely (at least in my area) considered a joke. Recently they've come around and are actually teaching useful stuff. I think the fact that the NRA thought enough about it hire people to promote the program is a good sign. I've got the Host form sitting on my desk to run one of these next year. I'm betting we have enough success to make it a worthwile program.

Couple issues with both methods. Slide stop lever: The lever is tiny and easy to miss. I've seen very accomplished shooters miss it during training and match and fumble with the gun for a long time. It also doesn't give the slide the full length of travel to drive the round home. I've seen this cause jambs in malfunctions, particularly in dirty or improperly lubricated guns. Mag Insert/slide goes forward: I really do hate this one. We beat it out of all of our recruits. Couple of reasons. You have the same problem with the shortened length of travel. The biggest one though is it doesn't always work. I've had at least two occasions during matches where the slide went forward upon mag insertion but didn't chamber a round. Probably due to weak magazine springs. Or the slide doesn't always go forward. Shooter is planning for it to go forward, because it does, like 90% of the time. And stands there with a dumb look on his face. Or the shooter who doesn't expect it and stands there with a dumb look on their face. I've actually seen some shooters have the slide go forward and then press check, mid-stage. I teach to always rack (for LE). For competition where the course is planned out shot to shot, it's a toss up because it may screw up your next array if you jack a live round on the dirt. The final downside is the lengths I've seen people go to get the slide forward. I've seen folks hammer the mag into the gun hard enough to dang near knock it out of their hands. Or my personal favorite the mag spanking where they beat on the bottom of the gun when the mag is in to get it to go forward. Slingshot: This is taught for more reasons than gross motor skills. It is taught becuase it is a consistent motion that has multiple uses. The same motion loads, unloads, reloads, and clears simple and complex malfunctions. The slingshot gives the full force of the recoil spring to drive the slide forward. It is more positive. If you grab the slide and yank back the gun will load, unless there is something else wrong, in that case none of these methods will work. It's up to the individual shooter. The slingshot is the most positive but takes the most time. The slide lock is less positive but can be very quick. The mag insert/slide forward method is the fastest but least positive. It's your call as to how much you want to risk to gain a chance at time. When I shot the Glock I normally used the Slingshot, even in competition. Now that I'm running the CZ I use the slide release, but it's a lot harder to miss.

Caspian had (has?) some problems with getting the Glock slides dimensionally correct. Striker Channels drilled off center etc. I didn't fix mine, I sold it. The guy I sold it to told me about the extractor cut being wrong. He said he opened it up (whatever that means) and the gun ran fine until the slide cracked (it was pretty extensively lightened for use with Minor ammo only). My suggestion would be to hook up with a Glock shooter who has a 35 and start switching parts. Put your slide on his frame. If you're still having issues, you've excluded the CCF. Next try his bbl in your slide. If the gun still doesn't run, you kind of left with the slide. You're actually lucky the gun pukes that often. The ones where it only malfs once in 500 rounds are a pain to identify.

The DOH was originally going to be excluded in the 2008 rule change. The BOD took another look and changed that language. The Blade-Tech DOH is legal for all divisions except Single Stack.

You might also check the dimensions of the extractor cut in the slide. I had a Caspian .40 slide that was not cut right and didn't allow the extractor to move freely. I had the exact same malfunctions.

I'm just in shock with the fear of seeing Craig on an angled rooftop wearing his kilt like he did at Area 1 this weekend. ewwwwwww

Thanks for posting Dave. We gave a lot of thought to the door and had conversations with the owners as well as folks that have used them before. I went through the results and pulled out everyone that had 2 or more procedurals on that stage. There were less than 30 but I can't remember the exact number off the top of my head. I noted a couple things. There were people that went through the door that I really didn't think could. Most of the ladies got through and even Tyler Roberts went through after two hits. Tyler is around 12 years old and if the kid weighs 80 pounds I'd be surprised. What I did notice was that the people who took the penalties were clustered by squad. There were a lot of squads were everyone got through, juniors, seniors, super seniors and ladies. 100% success. Then there were stages where 1/2 the squad took the penalties. You can draw your own conclusions from that. I know I drew mine. The intent was to get people to give it an honest try. If they didn't think they could, by all means skip it and run around. There are stages like that all the time. I had hoped that the RO's would demo the door before each squad to show how to hit it. There is a technique. Obviously if an 80 pound 12 year old can get through there should have been more folks that did. For the folks that gave it an honest try and couldn't get through I hope it didn't mess up your game too bad. I talked to one of the shooters who seemed to be complaining the most about it. The question that came up was what does this have to do with shooting. For me it was a way to force an action at the beginning of the stage to stress folks and take them out of their comfort zone. Much like many of the other props that have been used at matches across the country. Like dropping a package in a mailbox to start a stage, or pulling a string to activate something else. I don't know. We probably won't use this set up again for an IPSC match. I can just about guarantee that it will show up again next year at a couple matches though.

Man am I glad this match is over. I wanted to thank all of the staff but also all of the competitors. I know when it gets hot it is easy to lose focus. Especially for us Northwesterners unaccustomed to the heat. We only had a few DQ's and this says a lot for the shooters staying with it. I also wanted to send out a big thank you to all of our sponsors. It never ceases to amaze me the generosity of the folks who support our sport. We had over $120,000.00 on the prize table for a match with a $95.00 entry fee. Please do me a favor though. Pull out your match booklet or go to the website. Contact a sponsor or two and thank them. Better yet buy something. Doesn't have to be big. Just letting them know we appreciate them is how we get them back each year.

Travis, I'll make sure Bruce gets ths. Thanks for bringing this up, just another example of what a stand up guy you are. Sorry I didn't get to see you this match.

Yes, if you go down to the heat and need medical attention your options are Tom and Bruce. Tom has the medical training. Bruce just seemed to be excited to give people mouth to mouth. I guess he's just a people person.

Edited because Robbie called me up and told me I'm ignorant and made me feel bad because he was right.

Actually a true gamer would use a high cap 9mm in "Heavy Metal" The pistol only has to meet Tactical Class rules. Minimum caliber is 9mm x 19mm.

Squad lists will be posted at Registration.

No Super Squad per se. We've got some top shooters coming in but because of the schedule there are some scattered on each day.

Geez, one Area 1 match in the snow and we're never gonna hear the end of it. Who would have expected snow in May?

I'm still trying to lure him to Oregon. Apparently he'll come to Montana but Oregon is a stretch.

No snakes, no ticks, no cooties. There will be a pit with a side match that you can also pay $5.00 and practice/sight in if you want.

Talk to the police or don't. That is your option and your right to do so. However, I will tell you that I have had many instances where a person talking to me has gotten them out of trouble. I've done at least a dozen consent searches, probably closer to 50, where it turned out there was no problem and the person was all done. Without the consent search, additional investigation would have been required that may have had negative consequences on them. I've had several cases where after talking to the suspect, I was able to determine that the "victim" was either flat out lying or not being entirely truthful. Several of these were cases where, before the suspect interview occurred, there was probable cause to arrest. While it may not have been the easiest case to win at trial, if the suspect is not willing to talk, there is probably a trip to jail coming up. Depending on my individual circumstances it might be a better idea to talk than to risk arrest. Example from a report I was reading yesterday. Dad calls 911 to report a fight between him and 16 year old son. Dad says son hit him and he did not hit son. Son has big old black eye and says dad hit him. If dad stopped there or didn't talk to LE at all, I guarantee he would have been arrested and taken to jail. Two stories, one has a visible injury to back it up. The rest of the story dad told was that the son self inflicted the injury. Son eventually admitted days later that he did cause the injury to himself to get dad thrown in jail. Also it was briefly mentioned for the shooting incidents. If you are involved in something and there is evidence that may be lost, strongly consider pointing that out. CSI folks are not infallible and may very well miss that. Escpecially if they have no idea where to look for it. I've got an Att. Murder case sitting on my desk. CSI initailly decided a bullet found a couple blocks away didn't come from the incident. After viewing the detailed diagrams created because of witness and victim interviews, the bullet did come from the shooting. But if noone told us where they were standing there would have been no way to determine that.