blownhemi

Sometimes we need a complete meltdown to keep moving forward. Mine came at my first Australian Nationals when I tanked the first stage of a three day match with seven misses. I didn't zero it but it was close, the score I got, I would have done much better by just walking around to the targets and shooting them almost point blank even if it had taken 100sec or more to do I would have gotten a MUCH better score on that stage. After that my confidence was shot and I either shot the stages so slow that I became irrelevent or I blased the stage with the potentially winning time but with a miss or a PT or both. Getting 18 misses and 4 PT's at a match will really screw with your head, but it'll also force you to re-evaluate your shooting. After a good look at what I was doing wrong, and some coaching time with Brodie McIntosh I'm shooting better (I just came away from the first match I've ever shot without a miss or a PT) and looking forward to some more matches.

I'll be watching again, your Aussie fan.

First stage win is always memorable. I remember sitting down having a drink after a two-day match when the match director walks up to me and says, "Hey Scott, have you ever won a stage? Well you have now!" It didn't matter to me that everyone had stuffed what was a tough stage. I fired a late back up that I wasn't even sure I needed and still won the stage by almost 20%, and I was walking on air. I've only won one other stage (come second on a whole bunch) and I knew I'd won that one even as I was walking off the stage. It's a nice feeling having shooters whose opinions and abilities you respect congratulate you after you've just had the perfect stage (blindingly fast and accurate). Still waiting for the match win though.

Here in Australia primers are starting to get a little thin on the ground. I just burnt through my last 5000 and headed to the local store to buy a few more to cover the gap. I wanted 2000 Federal SR primers but they only had 1400 so I bought them. They did have federal gold series stuff which was more and they had some Fiocci as well but they've been out of Winchsters for 8 months and the distributor can't tell them when they might be getting more. It's cause for concern because primers are the only reloading component that no one makes here in Oz. Without primers we have no shooting.

I use a Lee resizing die in my Dillon 650 to eliminate ther "Glock Bulge", I found my production Glock (stock barrel) didn't like the bulged brass. Using the Lee resizer gives me ammo that I have 100% confidence in.

Thanks, it works OK so far but I had a few problems on the weekend that I'll try and sort out before i take it to a big match again. I can't say I'd recommend a firepoint/optima/j-point/trijicon slide ride sight to anyone at this stage. I had quite a few issues with it from the mounting plate coming loose to the sight itself coming loose. We ended up using loctite on everything to keep it still. Maybe the 357SIG is too much for it. At the moment I'm debating whether to go Docter or Pride Fowler... or to go to a C-more mount. The only issue is that I don't like any of the C-more mounts. Had a couple other annoying things I'd like to fix too. It needs a bigger mag release and a slide racker for a start, I was using a 9mm extractor too and it failed to extract twice during the match so I've finally got myself a proper 40cal extractor. Also had some issues with tumbling rounds, it seem the 160gn pills are having problems. I thought i had fixed it but it seems not. With all the issues I had I didn't manage a B grade score, only managed C grade. First time in Open division and it was graded against Brodie McIntosh so I guess it's not all bad. Best stage score was a 76% and I know I could have bettered that while the worst stage score was 4.67% when I switched to some unknown ammo for a stage to see if it would be better - it wasn't. I ended up with two wild misses because the rounds were hitting nowhere near the point of aim. Oh well, they say you can never expect a gun to run smoothly first time out.

I'm using this two port extended LWD barrel in my Glock. It's something I've just built for fun to run in IPSC Open division. It's in 357SIG (didn't want to run 9mm major and local laws prohibit anything over .38 calibre) and I've only put a few hundred rounds through it so far but it's been pretty impressive. It feeds reliably if the ammo is good (I've had a couple dud rounds that were misshapen) and it shoots tight groups if I do my job right. The only comp stuff I've done with it so far is in a local club match but I ran head to head with the STI/SVI guys and that's before I put the Firepoint on top. This weekend though I'm taking it in the local state championship which will be interesting because Brodie McIntosh (one of the top guys in the world) should be there. I'll be going in ungraded but I shoot A grade in Production division so I'll be looking for at least a B grade in Open. At the end of the day though I'm a Production shooter so this is just for fun. I don't agree with the, "You need A + B & C to be competitive" theory. I've been told by the local guys that a Glock can't be competitive in Open division but I proved last weekend that was not the case. A few of us Glockophiles have put together an Open Glock team to have some fun at this match. It'll be very interesting to see how we go. As for the rest of the gun it runs a LWD slide, Glockmeister reduced power firing pin spring, Glockmeister magwell, Lightning Strike baseplates, ISMI uncapture guiderod and 13lb spring, some kind of trigger with an over travel stop, 3.5# connector, extended mag release and an old Firepoint sight that I've just dropped on in a hurry. Later I might fit a Trijicon or J-point though. The frame was a brand new bare frame bought straight from the local Glock distributor. I'm in Australia, not the US.

I've got to say that the USPSA has a strange idea of what is "Production". I like the IPSC way better where you can't do anything to the gun except add some sights and maybe grip tape if you want. All the internals are stock.

Yep, you always remember that first one. Now you've got to look forward to the first outright win. Congrats

Yeah, what's the deal there. The guy is in the fast squad but nine shots and a draw in 1sec flat and a 32 round stage in 8sec flat sounds a little too fast.

Open Super squad at the moment Name Division Points Eric Grauffel Open 1-378.41 Kamille Eusebio Open 1-300.99 Maxient John Jr Michel Open 1-281.32 Brodie Mcintosh Open 1-239.41 Chris Tilley Open 1-231.29 Jaime Jr Saldanha Open 1-201.27 Emile Obriot Open 1-200.75 David Mcconachie Open 1-116.30 Gareth Graham Open 1-089.00 David Soldini Open 1-054.14 Remy Deville Open 1-054.02 William Joly Open 1-012.59 Horacio Cariello Open 1-000.70 Demetrius Oliveira Open 872.19 João Carvalho Open Junior 1-105.42 Bj Norris Open Junior 1-083.92 It's a pity Brodie had a bad day today with three misses because it looked like he started so well. Hopefully he can pull back some ground over the next three days. Go Brodie!

I am certainly not going to flame you for that. If we currently limited everyone to just one division, we would likely not fill the match. While we might fill the match, the members are better served by full matches since the match loses less money. Rather than say we should should limit shooters to just one division, would it not make sense to host a week long match that would allow 500 shooters to shoot their division of choice in one big nationals? I am not saying I am ready to abandon the current back to back nationals format. What I would want to do is that which would best serve the membership of USPSA. I think you'd make up for it in international entries. I know lots of Australian's would like to compete at the USPSA Nationals but the general impression over here is that you have no chance of getting a spot so why even try.

That'd be the San Francisco start

If you want to free up some slots why not limit everyone to shooting just one division? Now I'll go and get my flame suit on. Seriously though, nowhere else lets you shoot in multiple divisions. You pick a division (production for example) and do your best. That's the way it should be.

I think some of you have forgotten the meaning of the word Practical. That means we shoot when it's stinking hot or when it's pissing down rain. I bet some of you guys would be complaining because the range didn't have enough shade if it was sunny the whole time. As for the trophy situation, I can't understand leaving behind a trophy from a Nationals regardless of where you finished. Leaving them behind shows a lack of class. Those who did so should be named and shamed.

That's the funniest thing I've seen all day.

Considering Beretta doesn't make Ben's gun any more, what would they be advertising? Customer: "I want a gun like Ben's so I can kick ass, too" Beretta: "Sorry, we are no longer making guns that kick ass." Kidding asside, I'd think Ben could make a good billboard for SOMEONE! -rvb OK, so maybe not that particular gun but a Beretta of some description mabye - the 90 Two for example? Not really up on the good Beretta's, I haven't had much luck with them myself. You're right though he would make a great billboard for someone. Well done anyway Ben.

Good luck with your Nationals shooting Sharyn and I'd love to here more abut the technical side. Australia being such a big country with so few people means that we're pretty spread out when it comes to major matches. I'd love to stream some of these matches to the net so we can show it to people in other states or even overseas. the video was good considering it was just a laptop webcam and the audio was simply outstanding. I've been doing some trials with Ustream and while I can get the video look very good (I have some very good camera's) the audio sucks (it sounds like I'm channeling darth vader). It would be awesome to get the technology out there so we can share our sport on a larger scale. Are you still going to stream the world shoot? I hope so, i'll also be more in touch with my timeline as far as staying up late is concerned.

Sorry but in my opinion the last thing you need is a score person getting haragued by a shooter by the RO is running someone else through the stage. This is why most scoring offices are off limits to shooters (in my experience anyway) unless there is a legitimate concern over a scoring error. I think Palm certification as part of the NROI is a great idea though. That way the RO's are already familiar with the program before they start. Scoring shooters under the wrong name isn't the fault of the palm system but the score person instead. I've seen it plenty of time with paper too and it usually requires the person involved to go off and grab a new score sheet. It's just a matter of the scorer making sure he's got the right person in the start box and not just relying on the squad order. No different or worse than paper scoring. I hear these so called complaints but I've yet to hear anything that just doesn't come back to the scorer making a simple mistake. About the only legitimate concern seems to be the NPM situation which I'm sure Peter will fix up.

So have you been approached by any sponsors yet? Maybe you should talk to Beretta, without you they wouldn't even have a gun in the top ten. It's worth looking at.

Fantastic job - thanks from down under

Make sure you nail those standards, lots of points just begging to be taken.

Isn't that Jessie Abbate? Hell, I'm from the other side of the planet, you guys would know better than me.

Do you think it hurts you to be following Dave through as the next shooter all the time?

We've been watching through Sharyn's streaming webcam. You're doing OK. Don't let them phsyc you out, they know you're there. Sevigny named you as someone to watch out for on the DR TV Blog. But don't let it go to your head either. Shoot your own game and block out the distractions.