ORCA

The price of new CD's and DVD's is rediculous. If it's a new movie I really want I'll pick it up the first week it's out while it's on sale. I usually buy used CD's at the local Record Exchange store. If at all possible I'll always buy a used text book, the price is usually a third of the cost of a new one and it's been highlighted. My personal experience with the most outrageous text book is a $80 small book first printing (no used ones floating around) that the professor used about 20-30 pages of the book.

When your building a new gun do you need to leave additional clearance for the slide to frame fit when you are going to have it hard chromed? How much? I'm building a limited gun I want to get hard chromed and I'm surface grinding the mating surfaces and the people at Accurate Plating and Weaponry suggested I might wish to leave an additional .001" of clearance. I know I can grind a little after the plating if nescessary, but it kind of defeats the purpose of having it chromed. The plating guys are hard to pin down for the final thickness of thier coating, I understand it is as much art as science. I guess .001" isn't a bad answer, if you have 2 mating surfaces coated .0003" thick when mated will have .0004" slip fit. I did get the impression that APW coats a little thicker than usual, but it just may have been a miscomunication. I'm glad you answered Bob, the guns I've seen form your shop always have some of the nicest chrome finishes. Is their any other people you would suggest sending a gun to to be chromed?

Start reloading NOW!!! It costs me 9 cents per round to load .40SW with Montana Gold bullets and VV320 powder with brass from brassman.com and using it 4 times. That comes to $90 per thousand. The reloaded ammo is sooo much better than the factory ammo.

Degrees of differance at 25 yards: 8" = .5093 degrees 12" = .7639 degrees 16" = 1.0185 degrees (standard plate rack) 20" = 1.2730 degrees (bianchi plate rack)

You have to learn to call your shots, no way around that. Is it your 2nd shot on the draw that goes low or all of your 2nd shots on a target or every shot after the first on a target? If you are calling your shots and you see your sights dip below the point of aim a lighter spring can help, but there is only so light you can go. If your second shot on the draw goes low chances are your stance isn't set when you break your first shot. If all of your follow up shots on the same target are low you might have too much muzzle flip. Your elbow position is very important in limiting muzzle flip. If your elbows are pointed towards the ground your going to have a lot of flip. You might try rotating your elbows up some, it transfers the recoil of the gun back into your body and reduces the muzzle flip. This realization really helped me. I got it off of Matt B.'s 4th DVD, and had it reinforced by a tape I shot at Area 8 of the big dogs. The gun appears to track more consistantly and has a lot less movement. You can also lighten your grip up when your elbows are rotated up because your chest muscles come into play and press your hands together like a clam shell. There isn't a way to really simulate a second shot in dry fire, but you can do something to illustrate your bad tendencies a little bit. I put a black plaster on a target at ten yards and from a high ready postion I slowly extend the gun towards the plaster lining up my sights as I extend the gun and when I reach my full extention I squeeze the trigger, slowly return the gun to the high ready and repeat. Don't cock the gun and use a mag full of dummy rounds. Do the drill to extreme failure, till your shaking and can barely hold the gun up. Once your approaching failure any jerking in your trigger pull, problem with your grip, problem with your stance will be exagerated and allow you to see it. This has helped me diagnose several problems and gives you a lot of time concentrating on the front sight in dry fire. Lighter bullets also induce less muzzle flip than heavy ones

I'm with Eric. I never heard of cleaning or oiling a IPSC gun between stages. I clean my STI every couple of thousand rounds or just before a match ( I test fire it after cleaning). I just wipe it down and fill'er up with Slide Glide. I only push a dry nylon brush through the barrel, I never do the solvent and brass brush cleaning. Cleaning the barrel between stages is something bench rest shooters do. If your gun is that sensitive to dirt you've got a problem.

I've got one of the little Walther's and it runs flawlessly as long as you don't feed it lead bullets. It does seem to prefer federal .22's.

I'm planning on shooting: Area 6 Summer Blast Area 8 Nationals

Are you south of the Mason / Dixon line? Its hard to beat North Carolina Hickory Smoked BBQ!

Excellent thread! I like your example Bob. It's not the one shot you shot a little slower, it's the 12 you shot slower. Now how do you apply this new hit factor knowledge to different classes. Example a 10 HF stage for a Gm when shot by a D class shooter? Multiply by thier classification % or figure out what thier personal HF would be?

We know the truth about the war between the yellow and the gray...

FYI to all yal yankees the new politically correct term for "Hillbillies" is Appalacian Americans. Also while on the subject we redefined the english language, we made it right.

Glocks - Plastic guns need love too!!!

Lesbian Nazi hookers, kidnapped by space aliens and forced into weight reduction clinics. -Could concealed carry have prevented thier ordeal? "Appalacian Americans in desperate gun fight for survival against urban terrorists", or "Hillbillys go on a rampaging shooting spree in New York City". -You decide. Why do IDPA shooter hate IPSC shooters? Is it gun envy or penis envy? - You decide.

I got a set of the Rudy's Project Freon Golfs, I think they're the best pair of glasses I've ever owned.

Ikytx, good idea! I hadn't thought of that. I just used the thin Dillon lock nut.

I spent the holidays setting up a better dry fire area. I made my barricade out of pvc. I ran wires from my rafters around the room so I could hang targets, vision barriers, and cardboard barricades. I also have a net that I can hang from the rafters to catch mags when I'm doing mag changes.

The rounds that failed were once fired glock brass resized using a Dillon die. The FCD would probably be enough, the EGW U die some times hangs up on a case in the first station of my 650.

After reading the good reviews on the EGW dies and the Lee FCD dies I bought both for .40 SW and .38 super. I haven't had a round fail the case gauge since. I would definently buy a FCD die, I had 400 rounds of .40 that wouldn't pass the case gauge. I ran them through the FCD and all but 20 passed the gauge after being processed with the FCD die.Those 20 dropped into my barrel. The FCD die paid for itself several times over the first day I had it.

Make A class limited. Learn to shoot without emotion. Shoot 4 major matches this year, Area 6, VA Blast, Area 8, and the Nationals.

The operative word is "trying". I have my moments though. The only reason I'm still in C class is I don't shoot many classifiers and I pressure myself on them. I shoot limited-10 classifiers and don't really care what I do on them and I'm 17% higher. Shows what you can do when you get out of your way. I need more match experience too. I've improved a lot over the last 9 months or so but I don't have confidence in my new skills yet. Gimmie a little time. The last classifier I shot was Steel One, I got a 69% with a miss if that gives you a idea of my potential. My next skill to nail down is transitions.

Deflef, Instead of being hits in the A zone it's now a group in the A zone, and if I throw one out of the group I know it. I've been tryng over the last six months or so to get to the point that at 10 yards I can shoot a 2" group as fast as I can pull the trigger, and still call all the shots. I don't practice the Bill drill everytime I shoot, for me its more of a relaxation thing to get rid of some stress. I normally do it at the begining of practice after some draws.

I think we should bring'em over to our side and try to encourage them to come shoot a match or at least watch one. For the most part if someone is safe with a gun and likes to pull a trigger they're good people as far as I'm concerned. I'm going to try to shoot a few IDPA matches this year and make a few converts if I can. I know thier are some people who will never see IPSC as a true test of skill. I met one around a month ago who had been to all the big name tactical schools and his job was teaching security guards and body guards to use a handgun. His opinion was that IPSC just teaches high speed gun handling skills. He also thought every time he shot an IDPA match he was practicing for a real gun fight, but he felt that the distances were to far away and 95% of all targets should be withn 5 yards.

Paul W, Thanks, it's taken a lot of dry fire to get the draws down ( I've been on the Determinator program) and a lot of live fire watching the front sight. Well your going to laugh your ass off. I'm a 50% limited and a 67% limited 10 shooter. I really blow at classifers. The gun is a heavy limited STI .40 I built myself. I pulled a .1 off my draw since the summer and my splits went from the high teens to the low teens. More important to me though my draw accuracy is extremly improved, and my groups at speed are much tighter. This drill just happens to play to my strengths. I think everybody has a skill or two they naturally excel at, the draw is mine. My goal for the new year is a consistant sub .7 draw on demand in matches with solid accuray. I slow down on the draw in matches to get better accuracy, .8 range.

Finally got a few nice days in to practice and did a few 10 yard bill drills. The best was a 1.42 with a .67 draw. The average was between 1.5 and 1.6 with draws ranging in the .73 to .78 area, all A's. I'm around .3 faster on the drill than I was in the summer, and my hits are a lot better.