CocoBolo

After 6 months of attempting to shoot open with a conventional C-More mount, I have come to the reliazation that I am not making progress. Yes, I dry and wet fire. Out of the holster I pick up the dot but when you are leaning around obstacles, pointing thru low or off angle ports etc much time is wasted. Having the opportunity to shoot open and limited on the same course of fire several times I was always faster by as much a 10 seconds with my limited gun. In a steel match where not a lot of movment is required I do fine, but a USPSA match just does not go well. The Jpoint isn't an opion as my STI open guns slides are cut down in the back. I am also left eye dominant righ handed near and far sighted so the Jpoint would be too close to the eye. Yes I have fuzzy rear site but good front sight using single vision glasses and can make good hit with Iron sights. Better hits with the dot at smaller targets at longer ranges, like a Texas Star at 28 yards. So I am thinking that the Barry mount may be the only thing that can push me over the top, with the C-more and also keep me from having to relearn the index when I shoot Open. Any body got direct knowledge of this?

As a note, I just got the Case feeder a couple of months ago, and 38 Super and 9 mm run thru flawlessly. You start to get issues running 40 and 45 cases. 40 seems to have the most issues. I still have the wire, and yes you can adjust the wire to one caliber but I run a lot of everything and just let them shoot across the shop, move the car and pick them up when I get done loading. I acutally timed loading 500 38 super comps with the case feeder, with only one primer tube, it took me 52 minutes.

I am cross eye dominant. I started out closing the right eye, this gives limited vision of the stage. I listened to Brian Enos on the Burkett Viedo, it made sense to me, Bring the gun up in front of the left eye. I will say it took me a few months but I bring the gun up in front of the left eye and it works. During the transition I would catch my self switching eyes its not easy to make this change but it is worth the effort. When shooting strong hand only I still close the left eye, but shooting weak hand its both eyes and always better hits. This worked with my open and my limited guns. It don't work on rifles except with a Bushnell Hollo or an EO tech dot optic. When I shoot a 1x-4x optic its back to closing the left eye, same as Iron sights.

Guys its going to be a great match and while not offical there is going to be extra moolah for each stage winnner. We have a good team of RO's put together and we will keep the match moving. If anyone would like to come out and help set up, we will be setting the stages up next Saturday starting at 8 am. Again not official, but word has at least one stage will have 36 rounds. Get the inside track on the stages by coming out giving back to the sport and helping to set up the stages. After set up we all meet kick back and kock back a few cool ones.

I shoot the CMJ's in my open Guns when I can't get Zeros. They shoot fine however, I had to bump my N350 loads + .1 to +.2 more gr for the Montana gold bullets than Zeros. This was ok on my heavier open gun but it tended to slow me down some with my lite weight gun. This holds true for other shooters as well. A couple of Caspian twins had to bump their Accurate #7, and N015 loads up .2 gr to get to PF.

Been there done that. For starters and all you Dillion guys take a break. I sold all my Dillon dies bought hornady dies, one reason they are better. Also sold off all my Lee dies, they are inferior. That said the hornady expander die is the best die for expanding. I do not use the powder thru expander die from Hornady because it is crap, 38 Super Brass has to be bought at $0.15 ea a die the ruins brass is bad, ever so often it will take a chunk out of the brass.. Stations 1 =Decap Size, 2= Expander 3=Powder 4 = Bullet Seat and 5 = Taper Crimp. If you cannot get a Hornady Expander die (not the powder thru) and in these times I would expect that, Lee makes a universal expander die for Cowboy action shooters that works very well for all calibers (One die for all). Their powder thru expander die is junk the worst. The expander die is very important when loading moly coated bullets, if you cut the moly you will spend hours cleaning the barrel of your gun. If you are loading lead or moly bullets be sure to only use a taper crimp die, a "factory" die will undersize the bullet and it will wobble down the barrel and fill the rifeling with lead. The factory crimp die works fine on jacketed bullets. Also note that the Hornady bullet seating die has a sliding sleeve that aligns the bullet before forcing it down the brass, so if you lay one in a little sideways it aligns it and it goes right in, another reason I went to Hornady dies. I use my lnl for 9 mm, 40, 45, 38 Super Comp, 357, 30 Carbine and .223 Rem, I load about 1500 rounds a month. I don't start crying like a little girl when I have to change calibers, because I don't have a Dillon. +1 on the small pistol powder rotor. Also I bought a metering insert for every caliber that way you only have to set it when you decide to change your load or powder. Snap in the die, push in the metering insert, throw on the shell plate < 3 minutes you are loading another caliber.

Yep, this list is going bassackwards, jumped back to 84 overnight, at this rate I will be back up to 180 by the end of the month.

+1 on the bullets. I have a Bushmaster patrolman I have only been able to run fmj in it everything else upchucks. I was told that I needed to cut the front of the mags down to run hollowpoints and soft nose bullets. It ain't broke it runs fmj perfectly so I not fixing it. Sold all the non fmj to a guy with a bolt action.

I am the most impatient waiter on the planet, stuck here in #82 limited and #158 Open. I'm making plans to go even if I don't get a slot, just taking the wife and having a good time in Vegas. Will take in the spectal see what it is all about. I think this year being in Vegas is a whole new game, people will go just like me because it is Vegas. I have heard stories of other years where folks just showed up at the match paid and shot, my guess is that won't happen this year. In another month if the numbers are not rolling down, it probably won't happen for 81, is what I am figuring. My plan for next year is to get my CRO, then I will work the match even if I don't shoot it.

I'm not a big dog daddy three gunner but I have done a few. I can tell you Benny will recommend a Benneli, I called him and that is what he told me. I went to my first three gun with a 1900's winchester hammer outside pump. A guy shows up with a nice Rem 1100, I asked where he got it, answer "Benny", this after Benny told me those things won't finish a match. The guy did finish, I finished as well but learned that the pump will beat you to death in a three gun. I have shot 1100 Rem since the 60's find them to be the best shotgun for bird hunting ever made. Any way I bought an FN SLP MK II, I have shot it in several 3-Guns, Benny's 3 Gun in San Antonio etc. It has given no trouble. At the Austin LoneStar 3-Gun it was even triple shot, three shooters used the gun in the match. Yep, one of those Benelli's went into upchuck mode and I let another shooter use it. The second was a friend that went with me. I always use a heavier load 1 1/4 ounce and 3 dram equiv, the gun just runs. I aways give it a good cleaning before a match and probably run it a little wetter than most. Practice is at night killing varmits out by the chicken house. By the way the guy with the Bennelli liked the FN so much, he ditched the Benelli and bought an FN. The FN he said cycled faster and had less recoil. Those are my preceptions as well after shooting everything out there except a Saiga. Put that FN up for sale in the classifieds, it will go fast, or find a smith that can fix it.

Guys reading this thread is probably going to cost me money. I have and shoot open, limited, and single stack but have been thinking why not take Production for a ride. I shot one classifer match with the Wife's CZ75b and it was pretty nice. The shadow with the mods you guys put on sounds like a nice gun to run. I might just have to call Angus and have him fix me one up.

I have had the same issue and just tossed the slide racker in a box on the loading bench. This saves a lot of time looking in the dirt for it at the range. I like the detent ball Idea will ask my smith about that. On my very lite gun no slide racker, they add to slide weight, but my old school tank of a gun ok on that one. If you just now discovered the racker issue, have you check the screws in your C-More mount and your grip screws. My limited guns never fall apart but I learned with time to loctite even the grip screws on my open gun. By the end of a match the gun was litterally falling apart. After a few thousand rounds my Comp also got lose, so it got a health dose of 620 loctite and hasn't moved since. Having your C-More fall off the gun in a middle of a stage isn't pleasant. Open guns take a real beating, loctite everything, if you think you will never need to take it off red, else blue.

Ok, I know something about all this. I used that magic formula of puroxide and vinegar, after which I ordered a new barrel for the gun as it pitted the steel. I probably forgot to set my stop watch and left it soak more than 15 minutes, the recommended max. I will say the moly was gone but it had orange peel like a bad paint job. At this point I was sure that the barrel had been the issue with the accumulation of moly and lead, wrong. No matter what I shot the loads in I had the same problem. Cure was a Hornady expander die, when loading moly bullets you must be careful to flare the case enough that the moly is not cut while inserting the bullet. After changing to a good expander and using a taper crimp I can shoot 200 in a match and the barrel is still very clean. Back to the cleaning. I tried every chemical product on the market, wasted a lot of money and time. The best method is to use a jag and to wrap it in a ChoreBoy, or wrap a wire brush, I used the copper choreboy rather than the stainless steel one. Just take an old pair of sissors cut a piece and wrap it round a jag and send it thru a few times and it is clean. If your barrel is rough on the inside this can also contribute to build up, get some flitz and polish it a bit. I use JB Bore Paste when the barrel is very dirty, makes it shine like a mirror, yes it is abbrasive but so are all those thousands of bullets I'm shooting..

Saturday at Bullehole range Ted Bonett's American Action Shooting Club will hold its Monthly ColorPlast action shoot. It is not USPSA or IDPA but has a similiar format, the targets are smaller and the shooting is the main part of the match. In other words you won't have to strain your noodle to figure out the stage, but you will need to make good hits. Sign up is at 8:30 am hammer down at 9:00 am cost is just $15.00. The club caters to beginners and its a good place to get some quality shooting with your carry gun. Weak hand strong hand and of course a couple of mandatory reloads are sure to be in at least one COF. Normally around 125 rounds. http://www.americanactionshooting.com 2 nd Saturday is ClolorPlast Match 3rd Saturday is Steel Macth.

The RO and the Assistant RO are a team. Often the team will discuss responsibilites and what expectations are. To be clear the assistant is normally helping to watch for steel falling down, foot faults, and other duties as assigned by the RO. In the scoring process I will often ask the assistant to score all the no shoot targets, when scoring the shoot targets you may miss a distant no shoot with a hit etc. The assistant may also be able to position in such a way as to view the shooters hands during movement looking for safety violataions. In major matches entirely too much of the RO and assistant RO's time is spent telling shooters over and over again when they shoot. Come on kids pay attention. The best squads are organized have a shooting order. In the absence of that I write it down post it some where on the stage and don't answer any when do I shoots, if you ask your up, make ready.

I use WST in 9 mm, 40, and 45 all make good loads, both jacketed and Moly coated lead. 9 mm 125gr Jacketed at 4.4 gr 40 S&W 180gr Jacketed at 5.1 gr 45 acp - 200gr lead at 4.7 gr. 40 S&W with 185gr Precision Moly Coated aka black bullets 4.8 gr. Cleaner than Tight group and less temp sensative. Mild report and fairly soft. I tried N320 in 40 and 45 and it is very clean and more of a push than a snap, took more powder than it should, also $33.00 per pound, WST I paid $111.00 for 8 lbs.

+1 on the CZ and Tanfoglio lines. I have shot CZ75B in production, but you will need to do some trigger work, like a 15lb spring and the competion hammer. Same goes for the Tanfo. between the two I prefer the CZ and the SP-01 and Shadow are the tops in that line. I am old school like heavy metal gun and a hammer. The only plastic gun that I have been impressed with is the M&P Pro, it seems to have a decent trigger and should work as a production gun right out of the box. It is plastic but it does not feel like a Matel Toy. I only shot about 20 rounds in one at a practice session but I could run it fairly fast. I won an XD and shot it once sold it the next day. With night sites the XD would make a good carry gun, but it would need a lot of work to be a match gun. There is no excuse for a bad trigger on a 1911 take it to a good smith have them replace the cheap parts and do a trigger job, shoot single stack or limited 10. Doing this will teach you how to do a reload plan and how to shoot stages, clean mags, and hit what you are shooting at since you don't have a huge mag full of bullets to spray and pray, when the match is over it can be your carry gun.

IPSC aka USPSA. Fiber optic sites help your speed in this game, but do not increase accuracy. A thin blade front sight will get a more accurate site picture. I made these changes on my CZ75 Tactical Sport, went to fiber for speed and to an adjustable Bomar type site to get the bullet to hit where the sites were pointed. Trigger, the Angus trigger job with the competion hammer is awesomely good. I duplicated it almost on the Wife's CZ75B by putting a 15lb hammer spring in and the Angus Competion hammer, which requires a smith or skill to shorten the safety bar. The trigger can be significantly lightened by just changing the hammer aka main spring to a 15lb. This spring will set off Winchester White box and all but possibly wolf primers, costs $5 and takes 10 minutes if you know how. While your at it if your mags are not dropping free just straighten out the mag break or put a replacment straight one in $10 from Angus. The very best way to progress is to DRY FIRE and PRACTICE. Being left eye dominant fails to be a handicap when you learn to keep both eyes open and bring the gun up in front of the left eye instead of the right eye that don't work anyway. I have fought this battle and it took months to get it right but it works. Ask Brian Enos he is cross eye dominant. On steel stick with your 9 mm there is no power factor and it will run under powered loads, the bullets cost less. Bonging the gong at 40 yards is not as easy as it looks, doing it fast is even the square of harder. You could probably sell your CZ for enough to buy a Glock, then it would not fit your hand and you would have to learn the trigger and in a few month and 5,000 rounds of ammo you would be right back to the spot your at. Spend the money with Angus if you got it if not spend more time dry firing. Get out to a USPSA match and have some of the best fun there is. We all started at the bottom but we all started.

The number one thing that is important in a mag is reliabilty, if you can't trust it, it will cost you more in the long run than it will ever do for you with capacity. Last Saturday I was 45 seconds behind my rival after the first stage, Just don't ask how that happened. He had the hi cap tuned mags with the bolens etc, in stage 4 his tuning ran out the mag puked, he cleans mags stage 5 another mag upchuck, I beat him in the match, score one for reliable mags. I didn't miss the extra 3 rounds of capacity. One salt shaker episode will wreak havoc in a stage, possibly the match..

I use 180gr currently. I was using 200gr. The true answer depends on the feel that you prefer in the gun. I ran 200gr because the gun shot flatter and was easier for me to control. Now that I have improved my skill and ability to shoot I have droped down to 185gr Precision Moly. The gun is a bit snappier but still within my ability to control. I shoot with two GM's they both use the same powder one shoots 180gr jacketed and the other shoots the 185gr Precisions. I have to think that these two know what they are doing since they made GM. One likes the weight of the Edge the other has a std dust cover lighter gun. Another Limited (B Class) shoots 220gr bullets, he says the gun just sits in the A Zone when you shoot. He did win the TX Open Limited 10 class. The proof is always in the application. I try to test things using a plate rack. Run the plate rack with each variable with your time, check the split times, the overall time. Which one can you run fastest with and still be accurate. Sometimes I use 3 or four paper targets so the infamous double tap can be measured. Establish a base line then change only one thing at a time and measure the effect of the change. That is what I try to do. I shoot the same load on everything, sometimes the steel wags on the post like a dogs tail. Who's got time to play with minor loads.

+1 on the lighting. I only shoot TiteGroup with 200gr Zeros in .40 that load is 4.3 gr and comes in at about 169 pf out of my edge. A 180gr bullet will take more powder so my guess would be 4.5 to 4.6 gr is spot on. OAL is 1.190. aka long. Have you checked the consistency of your OAL, if the OAL is varying by .005 or more then this could have a small effect on the bullet speed. This happens a lot when loading if the press operation isn't consistent like seating a bullet with only one brass in, then seating with all stations having brass. TiteGroup is temp sensative, its hot here in TX, in the fall I was going to the Gator so I punched the load up a tenth, at the Gator that .1 gr and the cool temp made the gun hard to control and the Chrono came out 189 pf. The other question I would have is the chrono at the same distance from the muzzle on each test. If the Chrono is too close then muzzle blast can affect it. I put mine about 10 feet away, further if I am shooting my open guns, or the 357 mag. I had a CZ TS I had to load short for but I found that chrono results were about equal to the long OAL when using WST, 5.1gr with 180gr Zero, 5.2 with 180gr MTG.

I shoot STI Edge with Montana Gold 180gr Bullets in 40, but prefer Zero in jacketed bullets, they take .1gr less to push at the same speed. I am a C class shooter but this load is also used by two Grand Masters that I know here locally, for their names PM me. OAL is 1.190 powder is Winchester WST at 5.1 or 5.2 gr depending on Chrono results. Federal Small Pistol Primers other primers also work well. I use a good crimp so they fall in the SAMMI gauge. At this length they will only go down to the groove before the rim. If you think the round might be fat put it in backwards and check it as well they are rimless so it will go in. WST is about $111.00 for 8 lbs and that will load 12,000 rounds, or enough bullets for 6 months if you shoot as much as I do. TiteGroup is a little dirty for my taste and it is reverse temp sensative yes when it is cold it gets hot. I only use TiteGroup with 200gr Jacketed bullets. Hot weather load is 4.3 gr at 1.190. I prefer the Precison Moly coated bullets at 185gr with 4.8gr of WST loaded once again to 1.190. 231 is a popular powder for limited, it is old school, as I call it but again they carry it in an ice chest to the match.

I have shot 1,000's of rounds of Monarch (serbian) steel cased 223 rounds thru my BushMaster M4 with no issues. Also shot Wolf with no problems. 55gr FMJ/BT. If you could get small rifle primers the .223 is very cheap to reload. At any carbine match I pickup a 1000 pieces of brass just from the Squad I'm shooting with. It is a lot of work prepping the brass but after that it is nothing to prime, powder, and seat I do that in my progressive press, and produce 500 rounds an hour. Yes, I have a case feeder.

I had a CZ75 TS those gun come from the factory with a shock buff on a plastic guide rod. Hand no issues but changed the shock buff every 3000 rounds when it started to look beat up. I have 4 sti's two open two Edge, no shock buffs, no issues and no tennis elbow..

Interesting thread. For comparision MTG 180 and Zero 180. The MTG 180 takes +.1 to +.2 gr to make same FPS over Zero. A 185 gr Precision takes .5 gr less than either of the 180 jacketed bullets for the same PF. I have used WST 4.7 on Precision 185, 5.1 or 5.2 on Jacketed 180 gr bullets. Tite Group at 4.3 gr with a 200 gr jacketed. I have also made PF with 5.0 gr of N320. I have a friend that shoots SOLO in limited with precision, he gave me a few bullets to shoot they were soft, but the chrono told me why, they were also 160 pf. The best choice for me has been WST as it is cheap at $111.00 for 8 lbs, or you can get 3 lbs of N320 for about that. WST is cleaner than TiteGroup. WST also works great in 9 mm and 45 acp. It don't work in my 38 Super Comp open gun. TiteGroup produces so much smoke with lead bullets that you have a hard time seeing the targets.