PPGMD

So it has moved from Titusville to the Volusia gun club between New Smyrna and Deland. Where is everyone staying?

I just drilled a hole in the belt to attach the QLS mount to it. Most Teklok stuff will take a ELS fork. But I agree the fact that most Safariland holsters have a rearward cant is annoying, thus I use another brands holsters with a QLS fork attached.

And it is even available on Amazon Prime, which means I will have it by Friday. Perfect.

Both my front and rear are serrated. The edge of the rear sight has a bit of a polish to it that is causing a bit of a reflection issue.

Are there any other options than a smoker, or the stuff that comes in the rattle can?

The prize table was pretty good. There were a couple of vendors there. There was no practice range (just a couple of steel stages setup that were similar to steel challenge), no planned dinners that I remember. They did provide all eight stages, lunch, shirts, and plaques. Overall it was a low key affair. But most matches are low key, so that isn't something I would hold against them.

Any chance you can post a picture of that. They mention that it is available but there are no pictures.

Definitely a reasonable judgement from the MD. But I agree better safe that sorry, it would suck shooting a single stack 1911 in open. Honestly I doubt a RO would be able to spot it as we are only talking about two millimeters in my case. Of course that 2 millimeters is causing the manufacturer to make a design new set of base pads just for IPSC.

It isn't a huge issue I have a stock 9 round Metalform without the extended base pad that came in my prize bag at a match earlier this year, I just have to be more careful removing and putting it in which is why I prefer the one with an extended base pad. But it is something I wanted to ask before I showed up at the IPSC match and did it.

Here is a question, does the Barney Mag only used to charge the gun during load and make ready have to fit in the box? I ask because the mag I want to use as my Barney mag has an extended base pad that is USPSA legal, but is too long for IPSC. The mags in my pouches will be IPSC length 10 round mags.

+ 1 I was very pleased to hear that Kevin won it. I haven't been around the sport for as long as others, so I didn't know the back story of his long journey. But Kevin always seemed like a nice guy both here and in person.

And here is the video to go with the review.

Very much so. They ran it professionally, the issues were mostly with match management. My review with pictures: The Barricade Range: This picture is of the one that we shot for score. What they had up at first on Monday was so shitty, that we forced them to tear them down and redo the entire range. This was completed on Thursday afternoon, the day before we went live to shoot for score. Note that nothing is really straight, and that the concrete is just a blank form not sunk into the ground. Also the barricades had different levels of movement, from rock solid in lane four to moves tremendously back and forth like lane 3 at 35 yards. The lane I was assigned. Due to this, the NRA officials have said that the rule book will change to spell out how barricades should be built in the future. The Practical Range: It wasn't until Wednesday that the turning targets were working, but we could practice on it until then. There wasn't much wrong with the range except for the fact that the ground was level, it went from good in lane 2 and 3 to acceptable in lane 4 to an extreme forward tilt on lane 1 unless you were well to the right. Falling Plates Range 2: The falling plates had issues, one there was no locking plates so we had to run one shooter at a time. Second the plate rack wasn't quite right, the stems were a good inch short compared to other falling plate ranges. And of course there was the ground. Finally the procedure for running one shooter at a time wasn't conducive for the cold weather we had. As it was a struggle to stay warm as it took twice as long to shoot the event, and we had to wait for the other shooter to complete their run so our fingers got cold. The Moving Target Range 2: The biggest issue here was the equipment. The target bounced up and down, and had an uneven speed, it would jerk out and then slow down. It took just the right amount of time for the target to pass the opening. Finally there was the awards ceremony, it took five hours. It wasn't the typical Bianchi five hours which includes speeches, patting each other on the back, and useless awards like sponsor plaques (most of whom don't attend the match). No it was waiting on scores to get completed, and not only did that take two and a half hours after the scheduled start time to do they were f*#king wrong. More than one competitor swapped plaques after they privately pulled out their scores and figured things correctly. And then we had another 45 minute wait while they computed the multigun aggregate. Only then did they do prize table. I was lucky and was picked fairly quickly (which netted me a certificate for a FNS9 Long Slide), but it was still 11pm when I left. I know that five hours doesn't seem too bad as that is the same amount of time as Bianchi's awards ceremony, but this was outside in cold weather. This was the match from hell. Never again do I want to attend a match at Rockcastle.

The rain didn't help anything. About the only thing good I can say so far, is that the award ceremony is causal. I am not a big fan of suits. If we have another World Shoot in the United States, it should be at a range with an established NRA AP club or be willing to install the stages semi-permanently well ahead of time and have them troubleshooted by an established shooter or two. Also at the very least the match director should be either a NRA AP shooter, or someone that has run NRA AP matches before.

If this match was in fall I would stay an extra couple of days, and visit some of the local attractions, but when I come to shoot I want to shoot. Anyways the German contingent and Craig seemed to have impressed on the MD better than I did that the issues were very serious. And they are going to redo the barricades to make them studier and thin enough for the open shooters to clamp on. One of the movers is operational, it needs some kinks worked out of it, but they seem to have some ideas to fix it. The other is up, but they only have one generator for the moment and are waiting on the power co to hook up power to the range tomorrow. I imagine that by COB tomorrow it should be operational. The turning target system works, but they don't have it on because they are having custom brackets fabricated to create the proper distance between the targets. He said they should be here tomorrow. The initial plan seems to be that we will shoot the mover and plates on one day, and the other day will be barricade practical. So the drive between the ranges will just be an annoyance for practice. And I got my ammo from Zero, so things are looking up. It seems that part of the issue is the rule book, the rule book doesn't specify how thick the barricades should be. But we, the shooters, expect things to be setup like Green Valley.

If this is on track, I would hate to see what off track is. As of this post none of the ranges are ready yet. The barricade move a ton, and they are 2x4s with the wide side out with plywood on top of them. There are two shooting lanes setup Practical has very little room at the 50 yard line. I doubt we can do more than two competitors at a time. It appears that there is a turning target system, but who knows if it works or not. Plates are ok, two per a bay with two bays. There are two movers, they don't have guide wires yet, I am unsure if they intend to do it. There is probably a good 5-10 minute drive between the two ranges and parking is completely in adequate. The practice range in Columbia is better than the range for the world shoot. On top of that I get the impression from the MD that us expecting a good range at least close to the level of Green Valley as being needy.

The Bianchi Cup's Facebook page is silent since late last year. Nothing on the Youtube channel. Compared to last year this is an almost comms black out. They normally do a pretty good job pimping the match on Social Media.

I'm flying in on Sunday. I haven't seen a charge by Zero yet, I need to call them and make sure that they are giving my ammo to Kim. I would hate to show up and have no ammo to shoot.

Well I talked to my smith. He tends to favor the traditional comp setup, though can do short guns with the Schuemann barrels. But the fact that I realized that I had a Bar-sto barrel certificate from a previous match (which I have to use since the expiration is coming up) tilts it toward a traditional setup. Maybe I will get the optic and mount off my next three matches coming up in the next eight weeks.

Actually at Bianchi I am going to see about at least handling a few different open guns, I know that Doug Jessie, and the other people in the running for the win typically bring a steel gun with them too.

Doug uses a Leupold Deltapoint and Jerry was using an Eotech XPS (with the shroud removed). But good point, I might have to look at a traditional barrel and comp setup with a lightened slide. Though 9mm is must since I don't reload.

So I am trying to put together a 9mm minor Steel Challenge open gun. I want to be able to use factory ammo. I have a STI 2011 5" frame, a STI classic 5" 9mm slide, and a Safariland 014 holster. I already have my gunsmith lined up. Now just need to get some guidance on some of the remaining parts. Magwell: Pretty likely going to use a Dawson ICE Barrel/Comp: I am looking to build a quick transitioning gun, so I am looking to avoid having too much weight hanging on the end. I also understand that since I am going to use factory ammo, and shooting minor that I have to carefully select my comp. The barrel/comp that has caught my eye is the Schuemann Tribrid barrel. Optic: Not so sure about, I want it low to the slide so I can more easily transition from open to iron sights, but I also don't want the left side blocked like on a 90 degree Cmore. I am looking at a Deltapoint 2, though I am unsure about the dot or triangle. Optic Mount: Again low to the slide is important. The Arredondo looks like it would fit the bill, though I have seen some mounts for blast sheilds, not sure who makes those. Magazines: Not really sure, part of me wants to pick up some proper long magazines in case I want to try some USPSA with it. But since USPSA is likely going to be just for fun, I might pick up the Dawson mag tuning kit and do it myself. Ok any of my thinking off? Any suggestions? Just trying to get some ideas before I formally talk to gunsmith I've chosen later this week. ETA: I've been here for over six years and I finally got enough posts to hit the classifieds. Woot, though I have nothing to sell.

Full Results: http://www.ussteelshoot.com/Portals/0/PDFs/2014%20US%20National%20Steel%20Championship_Fianl%20Results.pdf His son took 7th in Production.

$1700 and 3" at 50 yards. Didn't a normal CZ-75 SP-01 win production the year before last?

You will receive a schedule from the NRA with your squading. If you register early enough (typically before the end of January) Tom will call you to see when you want to shoot the event.