MHughes

Kurt: I have the camera and "No" Todd I won't post any pics of my wife. You get to see her in person at least once a year and maybe twice if you are going to the 3 gun in Raton in August. You don't have another AR A-1 stock with the name "Joy" on it do you? I will try to get Eric, Jimmy, Blane and I to go out and do this drill and put it on a video clip to down load. Send me your address so I can send you this Columbine CD. Mike

Colt, DPMS, Bushmaster, Rock River, Les Bauer all seem to work well. All have the ability to have lemons but most run. The Oly Arms guns I have seen, have never made it through a 223 or 556 course at Gunsite. They have all had problems. Maybe the new ones work but none that I have seen. Pay the extra money and get one from Benny, JP, Jimmy Clark or Les. I like the 18 inch barrels but 20 inches is what you see most of the better shooter shooting. Practice is the most important thing after you find a reliable AR. Just my two cents.

Mccoy, if your doing this out of a side saddle in the low 4's you are fast. Now I'm going to have to try and see what times I can load out of a side saddle. I'm sure most of us, and I can only speak for myself, are loading out of the Chote 6 shot belt carrier and grabbing three rounds at a time. Are you grabbing three rounds at a time out of the side saddle? And I know Kelly does well at any match he shoots. Great job Kelly.

Yes she does, Kelly and I'm sure yours does the same for you. Are you going to tell us about this Texas 3 gun and how you did loading the shotgun?

PacMan: No, I really am old - 55 in Aug - and slow. But I'm trying to get smoother. Thats the practice. And good job on your times with the support hand reloading.

Kelly, how was the Tesas three gun? Did you win? Were you shooting limited or open? Let me know your times for the shooting hand reload. Try Kurts drill and let me know how you did with his. You probably will have a better time with Kirts. Like I said earlier, the fumble factor is greater with the support hand loading but sometimes its worth it and for me it's more tactical. Just takes lots more practice. Something I don't do enough of and it shows.

I'm still waiting for Kelly or someone to tell me their times for "shooting hand" loading. I went out yesterday after reading Kurts time and decided to try this again. I was pointed in on the target, safety off, finger on the trigger, shoot one target, load three, shoot the second target. I did this twenty times First try: .23 first round 2.81 reload three time 3.04 total time worst try - with big fumble .23 first round 5.59 reload three time 5.82 total time best try - really smooth .21 first round 2.63 reload three time 2.84 total time You know I'm pressing the trigger as the third shell goes in. But I never got my thumb caught or had a malfunction, or should I say - Not yet. The best time I did for Kurts drill of starting with an empty chamber, gun pointed in on target, safety off, load six rounds, chamber a round and shoot 6 targets was 8.53 seconds. My lovely wife was doing the timming and recording the times. I'm old and slow. Glad they have something for us over 50 military guys at some of the matches.

Kelly or anyone that loads with the shooting hand. Let me know what your times are for this simple drill. Anyone close to 3 seconds? Good job Kurt, I knew you could do it in under 3 seconds. Anyone else come close or did the other boys not come out to play today?

Kurt (leaving us for Oklahoma) Miller Yes, I mean start with the gun loaded and pointed at the target, with the safety off and finger on the trigger. This is simply a test to see which way you can load faster. I want to eliminate all the possible little differences. You already know the way I reload, I just wanted to see what times others were loading in. Now on your drill, do you load all six to start, chamber the round and shoot all targets...I would think this would be the fastest - or load three, chamber the round, shoot two, load three, shoot four? And Mike45, You can grab four rounds in the support hand and load them but you run a higher risk of fumbling the rounds when you go for four. Three seems more natural, leaves you three left in the holder to load next time and I think a lot depends on hand size. Mine hands are average size and I can and have grabbed four rounds and loaded them without a problem. I think that's a big part of the reason you see so many shooter turn the gun over and load with the shooting hand, it's because of the high fumble factor with the support hand loading. Support hand loading the shotgun takes lots of practice but you gain so much time. In the shotgun matches the loading is a big part of what saves you time and wins the match. And you don't see many shotguns with pistol grips in the matches because like Kurt said; lots of the malfunction problems are caused by the pistol grip shotgun stock. I still use one and mind does not malfunction but I'm an old, slow shooter.

anybody got any times for the shooting hand reloads?

And the debate goes on. Lets do some drills and see which is faster. Strictly for the game. No tactics or speedloaders involved. Load two rounds in the shotgun to start. From the ready on target position with two targets downrange at 15 yards and two yards between targets, safety off and finger on the trigger. On the beep shoot one target. Load three rounds and shoot the other target. Now check your time. Try it both ways, support hand and shooting hand loading. Let me know what your times are. I'm curious to see which is faster. Of course the winner is the one you practice most.

Do some ball and dummy drills to really find out if you are flinching or jerking. At the range during you practice put several dummy rounds with you live rounds in your hand and without looking load the rounds into the magazine. Or have a friend load your mag for you with the dummy and live rounds. Start shooting slow fire drills, always look for a second sight picture as soon as possible. Try to press the trigger to the rear without disturbing the sights. If you press the trigger on a dummy round and the sights move at all, you are anticipating the shot. Most times with a right handed shooter you shots will be low left. You can also do dry practive. Take your empty gun and balance a dime on the sight or top of the gun. Try pressing the trigger to the rear without having the dime fall off the sight or top of the slide. These are old bullseye drills we did in the military but they still work. At 7 yards it is almost always the shooter and not the sights on the gun. Good luck and always double and triple check you firearm when doing dry practice. Also dry practice at something that will contain the round if for some reason a round goes off. That leaves out the big screen TV, the cat or dog and of course the wife.

I was teaching a 223 at Gunsite when the Leupold CQ/T first came out. We received one to try and put it on one of the students AR-15. I only shot it a little. It worked well. I also know Eric Miller has one and one of the guys on our Swat team uses one. From talking to them, they both like the CQ/T and don't have any complaints. It is one of those scopes I want to play with more. It looks to have good possibilities for both real life and the 3 gun game.

Kelly, I agree and support the idea. One "A" hit with a rifle or shotgun slug should neutralize a target but in real life animals still run off and people return fire. But not very often. Just pick a rule and go with it. Tactics are hard to add to the game and in real life with several bad guys how many times would you shoot each bad guy? To me it depends on the situation and you won't know till you actually have to do it. But the more we practice our gun handling and marksman ship the better we will hopefully do when and if the real deal happens. Just my two cents. And you would be so much faster if you loaded that shotgun with you weak hand. And much more tactical!

Keeping both eyes open is definately the ticket for competition shooting or real life shooting. I know when using my Elcan 3.4 or Styer Aug 1.5 you get what we call jump out. What happens when you put the scope on the target with both eyes open, it seems like the target jumps out at you. Trust that the reticle is on the target where you see it and press the trigger. Of course its easier with the lower power scopes but I find it works well with my Elcan too. It takes practice but worth it when shooting close targets. I'm not sure what power is too much that this won't work. I have only tried and used this with the Elcan and Aug. If you want to learn to shoot with both eyes open, place a piece of celophane tape on the support eye glass so you cannot focus with the support eye. Try this for a while in practice. I have found sometime this works and sometime it doesn't. Hopefully it will work for you.