CocoBolo

Another vote for the Precision 180gr bullets my all time favorite, and 2nd place is Bayou. I load them with WST 4.7gr 1.185. Care needs to be take not to cut the coating, so a little more flare than jacketed. PF runs 172 in hot weather. I also shot a lot of 200gr Zeros over 4.3 gr of TiteGroup, a little less recoil but too many case failures. The trick to loading 40 is the GRX push thru case sizer, other wise you run into a lot of rejects. I roll them in my case pro. My friend and 7 time world shoot winner put me on the precision bullets. (Ted Bonnet).

Its all in the plastic. Get a metal gun. Now that I've had my fun, I'm a B class, but I've played the game a lot longer than some. You can't stop the bounce any more than you can stop the wind. That said the most important aspect is that it returns basically to the same spot. If you have to adjust the position that costs time, if you are moving to the next target it doesn't matter. You could take a job as a diesel mechanic for a couple years to strengthen your wrist or try some different recoil springs. There is one assumption here, and that is that you have shot enough that you are oblivious to blast and the sound, once you have shot enough you won't notice the recoil or even notice the sound, it becomes like an out of body virtual reality. Focus on the big time eaters first, if you save .005 a second on a course 16 double taps will you win the match? probably not. If you can cut 1 second off each move to a new position that might be huge. It is not how fast you get there it is how fast you get there ready to shoot.

Make sure you are practicing the technique properly. Doing it wrong 10,000 times will not be a happy ending. You can use a mirror or cell phone camera on a tripod. Maybe you are doing the dirty harry thing. When I do practice this I take it all the way to breaking the shot, don't train yourself to draw and not shoot. (talking dry fire here), but it is also good to do wet fire practice. If you are close to either side of 1.5 seconds to break shot, move on to more important skills like movement and positioning, there is way more time you can cut in those skills. Practice other starts, table, and table unloaded, and reloads.

It takes a lot of dry fire practice to get that gun to come up in front of the dominate eye. You need to do this dry fire in all of the common positions until it becomes natural. It is a lot of work but once done it sticks and it is the best solution, not the easiest or fastest. The kicker is the dry fire helps your shooting as well.

Set up a target at 25 yards if you can hit the a zone 4 out of 5 shots that gun will work, set up a target at 50 yards, that is about as long as we shoot put an 8" pie plate on it and if you can keep the shots on the plate you are good to go. Most new shooters ignore the most import thing in shooting, the platform, if you don't have a good platform the rest doesn't matter. Movement skills, it isn't how fast you get to the next box it is how fast you get there ready to shoot, work on those skills, positioning is huge a few inches left or right will save seconds. My first match I got my ass handed to me by a little old lady in her 80's, shooting a Bersa Thunder. You can spend a butt ton of money looking for the magic, but I can tell you the magic is learning the skills in the game and shooting is just one of them. Like the old farts say it is the Indian and not the bow. Stage analysis skills come with time, some times it makes sense to run up and others the long shot, but then you have to know your strengths and weaknesses, which change over time.

Another vote for C-More slide ride. I have 5 of them, don't waste your money on the click. When I shoot I finely adjust mine the same way I do the throttle on my BMW wide open. Battery life not an issue on at Make Ready, off at Unload and Show Clear. All but one are on 9 major guns, no ejection issues, get an AFTEC problem solved.

Over the years I've seen lots of different guns come and go in popularity. No doubt if you wanna be the envy of the crowd get a Limcat, nothing looks like one, or if you are driving a Lambo then get yourself an Infinity. But when it comes to the test of time, and an absolutely reliable tool for shooting open I'd recommend Triangle Shooting sports, Benny Hill. The question itself says I'm new to open, if that is true you aren't ready for a custom gun because you don't know what works for you, a custom builder could approximate what works for most but in the end it might not be what works for you. I had too many open Guns 5, so I sold one to a friend to have another one built, it wasn't too long till I has bugging my friend to sell it back, because my search for the magic failed, in truth I had sold the gun that worked best for me, I just didn't know that till I tried out other options. It is the nature of the open gun shooter to search for a better tool. But I have to say most all Limcat owners seem happy with their gun, as do Brazos gun owners, and some of my friends do extremely well with AKAI.

I run 7.3gr of Sil with a 124gr. 9 maj at 1.165. This load has made major up to temps of 105F, however one cold morning down at the Gator Classic the chrono hit 184 pf. It was a beast that day till it warmed up. I shot mostly STI 2011 but I do have a Glock (keep this on the down low), it runs well with the same load. I've tried about every powder, and Silhouette is my favorite. I've even done 9 maj with Accurate 7, 10gr w/125gr 1.165.

I have a Bedell Comp on one of my guns, and I load it up around 175 pf, just to tame the beast. Titanium, have had to ream it 4 times, over the years. I also added two poopel holes to make it softer. The same gun, different barrel and comp (Dawson's Todd Jarrett) shoots softer @170 pf. No holes.

I think the answer is it dependents on how serious are you? I wouldn't go to the Nationals with a load of kanker brass, nor for that matter the Gator Classic or any other major match. But back to the original question. Yes I would shoot twice minor loaded brass 9m. When it comes to 9 major I let the brass vultures have mine, but I'll pick their brass up if they abandon it. The first step in brass prep it to go over it with a magnet, some of them are not brass, a steel case will jam up the gun to the point it has to be hammered out with a rod. Next to the tumbler, then to the case pro. Once loaded every round is drop checked with Zero Tolerance, all the failures go in the practice bucket.

Nice old school gun. Load up some115gr with 11 gr accurate 7. That comp wants lots of gas. That pro point way more accurate than c-more. Cure the rattle with Accurail. Thigter tha dick’s hat band.

Dawson makes a run once in a while. I like how light my cone comp guns are the bull just a little heavy out front.

I tried a bunch of comps, my favorite is the Dawson Todd Jarrett. I have this in both Cone and Bull Barrel guns. If it bucks too much for you then start drilling. I use Silhouette it has temp issues but it shoots nice and soft. I have also shot a lot of Accurate 7, compressed load at 10 grains. I shot AutoComp when I couldn't get Silhouette, was out for 2 years. Spend more time doing Dry Fire and less time looking for the magic sauce! Exercise and practice movement and positioning skills, stage analysis.

Flatlander I'm have go get a good Marlin Camp 9, and show you how a $300 rifle can get the job done. I had one, and it whopped all those high dollar AR's at the IDPA 2 guns, without breaking a sweat, but then so did my Knock off M1 carbine. Its the Injin not the bow! LOL Haven't seen you in a while!

I wonder what Bullet Jerry M used on those 9 mm 1000 yard shots. LOL If it will stay on an 8" plate at 50 yards its go to go. Precision Bullets uses swaged lead instead of cast lead, they are about all I shoot in .40 Limited the 185 grain with 4.3g of WST, it just don't get no better. 9 mm my FAV is the Bayou 135gr, next up the Acme LipStick 125gr. None of them fail to make regular deposits in my Comp on the Open gun at any velocity, ok Drimmel time. All of them will deposit in the barrel if you don't get the flare right and over crimping is a nono. 45 Single Stack Precision Bullets 200gr Semi Wad Cutter, never fails to feed in my LA Gator Classic match gun, Round Nose forget it! The holes are awesome. I need to make some soon.

Just for Clarity Chris, is it Staff Saturday actual match on Sunday, and is it Open Squadding as in the past?

LOL Reminds me of when I started shooting open. Let me add some parameters around dry firing, make sure your dry fire routine includes leaning around corners, sqatting down into a window and all the odd positions we encounter in a match, then throw in some reloads in those off positions, followed by two more rounds weak and strong hand. Honestly there isn't anything more fustrating than being 4 feet from a target and a no shoot, and shooting the no shoot 3 times while searching for the dot. There is just no short cut to dot mastering lots of time with your new friend the dot. I'm guessing it took me about a year to master the dot, after that I didn't look at it when a target was only a few feet away I trusted my point and shoot ability. But if you can read this you don't need a dot, you can shoot irons, just need the right glasses.

This is a good opportunity to revisit your ISO9002 ammo process. If you have a "failure to feed" and it is one in 100, well it is probably a small variance with your ammo, after all you did buy the cheapest bullet you could find, No?. Be more critical during the drop check! Make sure it is perfect else it goes into the practice bucket!

LOL I'm 68, I get a kick out of the younggins complaining about their aches and pains and telling me I'm too dry when they a sweating like crazy in the heat. You know who I'm talking about the ones that walk up to shoot and their pants look all wet! By the end of the match they are toast. That said, the key is not how fast you get there it is how fast you get there ready to shoot. Think about it then watch some folks, they get to the spot plant look at the target then raise their gun, that is slow, a couple steps before I get to that exact spot I want to be in my eyes are on target my gun is up in shooting position and it goes bang most times before my trailing foot has settled. This is more for those working towards A. My fitness starts with stairs, who likes running, ok Forrest, I do 100 floors of stairs 3 to 5 days a week, I did 20,000 floors in one year. Next up is upper body and core strength, dumbells every which way, then some Planks, and side planks, much better than crunches, and chair squats, and push ups. My observation of an "A" vs an "M" is consistency that is probably what needs improvement. When you start using age as an excuse, just go ahead put your head between you legs and kiss you axx goodbye. I don't use my age as an excuse for anything, I can do anything now I could do at 20, only better since I am way smarter than I thought I was at 20. Well except for hearing, that I need aids for. LOL

I've loaded 100,000+ rounds on my LNL the ball is still round. Spend that money on some good dies. My next orphan sock will get sacraficed to the LNL.

I built the first 22/45 lite in this area and had a lot of steel challenge shooters laugh, till I won every match. LOL Some good volquarsen parts, and mag work make it 100% reliable, lite and fast, accurate enough for steel challenge. Don't skimp on the optic, I put a C-More on mine then it all came together. I shoot the federals cheap and reliable. I reliably hit that steel at 35 yards. 22 ammo was not available for a while but I traded 9 major ammo for it, that little gun has about 40,000 rounds down the tube still accurate and reliable. Requires cleaning after every match and practice session, mags as well. Now I don't see a lot of long barrel heavy 10/45's, the same hecklers are running the Lite. Back to the main question. The most import thing is that the gun fit the hand for a youth, my small hand go to, for my female friends is the CZ Shadow, fits small hands, it is heavy so it absorbs recoil, and it can be modified easily with just some spring changes to be a good production gun. Lots of gun handling training, learning to lower the hammer etc. There is a reason that all matches don't allow for drawing from the holster on 22's, it isn't safe don't recommend it, get a 9 mm, load up some mouse fart loads and let the kid have fun.

Even if you have a backup gun, if your primary goes for a dirt knap, your match is in the toilet. At the Gator one year 2 rounds into a 32 round stage I had to quit the stage with a "broken gun", I was on a run to win my class until that disaster struck. Last stage of the day, fixed it overnight shot well but that one high point stage killed it. The best is to have a shooting buddy with a similar gun shooting together and back each other up. Saves both of you a lot of dough, just make sure that your ammo and his ammo work in each others guns, mags, holster, and then there is the trust issue, do you trust his ammo in your gun? If you do have a backup make sure the same ammo works in both, mags work in both, holster works for both, because you can spend a lot of money on the accessories. I shoot open, limited, production, and single stack, I have backup open guns (3), limited backup(1), and everything else hopefully good luck. Multigun yepper extra rifle, and multiple shotgun backups. In 10 years I needed a backup gun, 2 times, (1) issue turned out to be a metal case, disguised as brass in 9 major, wedged in the chamber, (2) cracked slide. Both times I didn't bring the backup. LOL

Sarge I normally run about 7.3 gr of Silouette some times 7.0 AutoCom, and 10gr of Accurate 7 over 124gr JHP's Montana Gold or Zero. I'm sure that I coujld get a few loads out of the brass but it isn't worth either the risk or effort to track that. I stick with my recommendation if you are using range pickup and you don't want to have feeding issues that kill your match then play the odds to your favor, use and lose them. Oal is 1.165.

Most of my fellow 9 major shooters think you can reload the brass 3 times, and they seem to have more than their fair share of issues. I mark my brass so I don't pick it up, there are always enough noob shooters that don't reload that I can live off of picking up their brass. I have no issues with brass, none. Once and done. No sense taking chances. Your primers look good. When I was counting to 3 my tumbler would be full of lose primers. The end to primer shortage is becoming an RO, a couple of major matches a year and you will be buying more coffee so you can have cans to put it in.

Huh 9mm, LOL Crimped primer pockets, I lose a bunch of primers to those. I could eliminate that problem by spending days looking at and sorting out the brass.