Chris iliff

I spent 3 and a half years going to matches and shooting, no practice. I am just a lowly "C" in open and limited. Take what I am about to say as you see fit. Buy both of Anderson's books, buy Brian Enos' "Beyond Fundamentals" and then get the first 3 Burkett videos volumes 1-3. Pay attention to Anderson when he says "There is no magic bullet." The honest to goodness answer to your question is practice. It is really very simple. Get rid of all extra movement in your draw,.. hunched shoulders, high shoulder, low shoulder, Burketts video really helped me with this. Now relax and picture the image of your sights in your minds eye exactly where you are going to aim. Now draw and repeat. Everyone has an answer, and most of the answers are informative and some insightful. But, when you get right down to it, YOU are not me, and what works for me, although it might be helpful, may not be the definitive answer. Only you can supply the definitive answer. YOU find this answer in practice. I mean a lot of practice. My advice would be to also practice the draw at targets positioned low, medium, high to the left and the right of your position at distances as close as two yards. I love this sport because nothing is truly known. No stage the same. The only definitive advice is practice, practice, practice. The material I listed is there to ensure you are practicing correctly. The Burkett videos will show you the correct most neutral draw, the stance, and so forth. I think it is a must have if you are serious, and it will demonstrate the mechanics of the draw which is the heart of your question. If you start with good mechanics you will be suprised at how soon you can get that fast draw and first shot with practice.

Didn't I hear that Julie Goloski won some nationals with a gun in 9mm. Competing against .40's and being scored minor,... she won. Wow, I might of heard wrong, how could a person be competitive scored minor? Get the nine and work up a puff load above 125pf, shoot all alphas, and have fun. That's the point.

I like the pad cuts on Gans' website. I think it is picture SL18, they look the best to me.

I like the pad cuts on Gans' website. I think it is picture SL18, they look the best to me.

Dry fire and practice. The dot is deceptive in its simplicity. I hear guys all the time say how much easier the open gun must be, what with "just putting the little red dot on the target", but those same guys crash and burn when I hand them the gun to run a plate machine. Visually it's a better deal. Your focus doesn't need to jump as much as with iron sights, but it requires practice as all things. As mentioned before.... wait till it's not there during a classifier. Your visual references for correction are different and for me it takes longer to get the dot on a bad draw than it does with an iron sighted gun. Dry fire and practice.

I'm one of the guys that switched to 9mm, I'd mail u some of my 38 super if you got any nines. I'd have to count to see how many I have, but I'm thinking between 800-1200 pieces. I could be off on that though. let me know.

I installed one earlier this week. The barrel/comp weighed 9.0oz. The slide weighed 10.2oz. It came out OK. Hey that's my gun!! Although it's in the mail and I haven't touched it since Gary did the work (Gary's a genius, by the way), I just wanted to say it's better than just ...OK,........OK!

Thanks, that's good info. I'll be getting the racegun back from the smith any day now and I will start well below your load and work up. This Ramshot Silhouette is very interesting. Might have to try that after awhile.

I hear a lot about the Ramshot Sil(I'm not even going to try to spell that), but nothing on Ramshot True Blue. I recently had my Trubor converted to 9mm and I have always shot Ramshot True Blue. Anyone with this powder. Works really well in 38 super. Very clean and minimal dot movement. Very inexpensive. I haven't worked up any loads yet for the 9, but will and will post. In the meantime.... has anyone got a load for the True Blue?

I'm not far off from trying this myself. From my research you can wrap the grip in blue masking tape then put a 10 minute epoxy on the grip which gives you some time to work the shape. Do one side at a time. It can be removed and done permanently should you decide you like it. Too start with try building up the grip with play dough putty to get a feel for the size that might feel best to you. Seems that European shooters do this more frequently than do the Americans, perehaps they know something we don't.?! Rather than use skateboard tape that can shift and wear out mix some sand in with clear coat or colored paint for some grit. You can do one of those splatter custom paint jobs pretty eaisly as well. Keep in mind you still want a grip you can use for weak hand shooting. Great info, I think the blue tape is ingenious. Lets you try and get comfortable with the process. The play dough is excellent also. Thanks for the input and let me know if you go for it and get it done. Right now my gun is at the smiths for needed lightening and some other work. But this mod I have been thinking about for several months. Putty first is probably the way I'll begin.

My daughters run cross country. In six years they have never picked appropriate shoes. They always pick on looks not function. Many muscle related injuries and medical bills later they now pick on function first. I don't want to start anything I'm just saying that men and women think differently and that's what makes us attracted to the opposite sex. Now with that said. Call brownells and get a current catalog. Pick a good lower and upper and barrel. In fact pick all parts. Send the parts to the most reputable smith you know. I've heard good things about Hsmith. Also Gary Natale at Gans Enterprise on the web. You'll save tons of money. Your gun will be better and less expensive than any factory assembled guns and you won't have near the medical bills...errr gunsmith bills in the long run. You will come to love what works, anything else will eventually be despised (no matter how pretty) Just my .02 cents.

What is the original grip material? What did you use to do the job? Nice touch to have the finger grooves for your left hand. You obviously put a lot of thought into the project and I am interested in how you accomplished it. Very nice job. Does it interfere with your weak hand on weak hand only strings?

Henning's been doing it for years. He uses an binary putty to built it up. Here: http://henningshootsguns.com/tech/tech.tan...bettergrip.html Thanks, I'll check it out.

It's all in the individual. I seldom pick up brass, because to me I would rather be trying to figure the stage. I usually score/tape and I'm lucky to get 40%-50% of my 38 super back at a match. I go to shoot and learn and I just do it better when I'm not squinting for brass... but, that's me. Knowing yourself is the important thing. I recently switched to 9mm, don't expect any problems, but that's not saying there won't be any. I will deal with it one problem at a time. Took me half a summer to work all the bugs out of my Super, that was 3 years ago, not one hiccup since. In the end 9mm is cheaper, cheaper means more rounds downrange, that means more practice, higher hf's, higher classification.

I have seen some guns with epoxy (or something) built up on the left lower part of the grip.... So the left hand (heal) touches the grip better. Has anyone done this to thier gun? I have been contemplating this and think it would stabilize my grip better (large hands) and would like to know how to do it. Materials used. Any techniques. ETC....

Thanks, that's good info and just what I was looking for in a response. I'm leaning towards the M&P as I handled one and was impressed with the mag release and the grip angle. The Glocks are great, I have two, a 17L and a 35, but on both, even with the extended mag release I have to shift my hand ever so slightly. The M&P with the medium grip attached felt perfect. Keep the answers coming.

Read all 28 pages of M&P, whew...! If you are shooting the M&P 9mm in USPSA Production I'd like to know .... 1. How many matches used? 2. Your thoughts on gun. 3. Stuff you've done to gun,....trigger, sights, holsters, mag pouches, etc. Anything helpful!

Thinking of shooting production a little next summer. Thought I'd use a G34,... can I put a Seattle slug (brass weight) up the open hole in the bottom of the grip?

I have used Ramshot True Blue powder for 3 years in my open gun and love it. I have heard other people talk about it spiking. I have never had a problem. Does anyone have any concrete info about this "spiking" problem?

There's no way to know if a round that's hot or been cooked will hit higher or lower until you test it to find out for certain...especially on a gun with a comp. Faster bullets usually hit lower (they exit the bore earlier in it's rising arc) but again, the comp issue complicates things. Unless he's using a reverse temp sensitive powder that would lower velocity as it got hotter and then it gets interesting. First shot is 4 to 5 inches high. I use Ramshot True Blue and currently use 124 FMJ Precision Delta's with 8.8 grains of powder. You have given me some things to check and I appreciate the response and your time. Thanks and I'll let you know after some testing. 4 to 5 INCHES? At what distance? That does sound like a ton for a first shot problem... if it does the same off a sandbag I would check to see if maybe you have some lead build up in the comp. I'm at 10 to 12 yards. My Father also suggested lead in the comp. I will know more after my practice session tomorrow thanks again! I haven't done the sandbag, but will tomorrow. Good luck... let us know what it was... I cleaned the comp with a dremel tool and the little round ball thingy. Problem is gone. Thanks for all the help!!!!!!!. Shot an El Prez at the match today and it was the best El Prez I have ever shot. If your reading this Mr. Anderson-... THANK-YOU!!! dry fire works,..go figure huh? Took me 2 1/2 yrs to figure it out!!

There's no way to know if a round that's hot or been cooked will hit higher or lower until you test it to find out for certain...especially on a gun with a comp. Faster bullets usually hit lower (they exit the bore earlier in it's rising arc) but again, the comp issue complicates things. Unless he's using a reverse temp sensitive powder that would lower velocity as it got hotter and then it gets interesting. First shot is 4 to 5 inches high. I use Ramshot True Blue and currently use 124 FMJ Precision Delta's with 8.8 grains of powder. You have given me some things to check and I appreciate the response and your time. Thanks and I'll let you know after some testing. 4 to 5 INCHES? At what distance? That does sound like a ton for a first shot problem... if it does the same off a sandbag I would check to see if maybe you have some lead build up in the comp. I'm at 10 to 12 yards. My Father also suggested lead in the comp. I will know more after my practice session tomorrow thanks again! I haven't done the sandbag, but will tomorrow.

There's no way to know if a round that's hot or been cooked will hit higher or lower until you test it to find out for certain...especially on a gun with a comp. Faster bullets usually hit lower (they exit the bore earlier in it's rising arc) but again, the comp issue complicates things. Unless he's using a reverse temp sensitive powder that would lower velocity as it got hotter and then it gets interesting. First shot is 4 to 5 inches high. I use Ramshot True Blue and currently use 124 FMJ Precision Delta's with 8.8 grains of powder. You have given me some things to check and I appreciate the response and your time. Thanks and I'll let you know after some testing.

I am fully in the grip and very nuetral.

Got both of your books and "With Winning in Mind", I dry fire your drills 4-5 days a week. It's definitely not Dry Fire, but you could help me with your mental program. Does it change for different stages, or is it always 2 Alphas at your natural speed?

I shoot an STI Competitor in 38 super w/C-More . I have noticed that my first shot is always high and then the gun shoots dead on the dot every shot after the first. If I keep shooting, the gun shoots where I aim, if I take a few minutes to reload or inspect targets the gun will shoot high first shot. Is this a heating cooling problem? I am at a loss and need some help?