CHA-LEE

Last night I was able to attend the Indoor USPSA match at the new Bristol Cone range. I have never shot at this range before so it was cool to check it out and see how they do things. I also decided to shoot my Open gun for this match as its first official match. Even though I still don’t have the “optimal” ammo for this gun it’s at least close enough to get the job done for a local club match like this. We shot four stages with most of it being box to box type of setups which is normal for this type of match since all of the rounds need to impact the back stop. On the first stage I tried setting the dot brightness pretty high, just below flaring, and it was very distracting. It was hard to maintain a hard target focus with the dot being so distracting. I shot pretty aggressive and ended up mashing the trigger enough to pull a shot down into a no shoot. This stage also had a door in the middle that I opened too hard and it bounced closed so I had to reopen it to unblock some targets. This wasted a couple of seconds on the stage screwing around with the door. The Second stage was a three box setup with two boxes in the back and one in the front. From the back boxes there were two sets of double stacked targets both close and far. I was able to shoot the far partial targets really aggressively and get solid hits. I was also able to hose down the close targets in the front box really good. I don’t think that I can run the Open gun any faster on the close targets than my Limited gun, but I can really see a shooting speed difference on the difficult targets. The third stage of the day was back on the first bay where the stage was basically shot again but from the opposite direction and each target required three hits instead of two. I was rocking that stage really gun until the last position where I had a really light round fire which didn’t have enough power to cycle the slide. So I had to stop shooting, rack out the spent case then remount the gun and finish. This cost me at least two seconds dealing with the issue. Other than that I got good hits and was able to shoot really aggressive when needed. The last stage of the day was the classifier which had you drawing off of a table twice in two separate strings and shooting tight no shoot partial targets. I haven’t done any off the table drawing practice and was kind of surprised by how much the back of the C-More was in the way of my normal pick up point for a Limited gun. I probably could have simply picked the gun up with only my strong hand, but that didn’t feel “Normal” either. So I ended up picking the gun up pretty slow on both draws and then wanted to get solid hits so I shot slow too. Even though I was shooting slow I managed to mash the trigger on the final target pulling the hit just into the No Shoot past the perf. YAY….. Drawing slow, shooting slow and getting a Miss No Shoot to boot. That is not the way to start my classification with this new blaster. Oh well, it is what it is. Overall it was fun and I learned some good stuff about what dot brightness is optimal for indoors. I still need a lot of trigger time to get use to looking at the target instead of the dot, but it’s cool to be able to shoot way more aggressively on the further/tighter shots. I also found a couple of things that I need to figure out in Dry fire that is unique to the Open gun. The weather is suppose to be really cold this weekend and we are getting over a recent blizzard so I am not sure if there will be any matches or practice this weekend. We have a couple more days until this weekend so maybe it will turn around, but I am not holding my breath.

Yes. The Plastic grip can fail where the metal insert molded into it starts to separate from the plastic and that will allow the grip to shift around on the frame causing all kinds of trigger issues.That is why its important to keep an eye on the gap between the back of the frame and top of the grip. As that gap increases it starts to cause problems. Most of the time the gap is due to the grip screws being loose. But if the metal insert in the grip starts to separate from the plastic then it will cause the same issue. A competent 2011 gunsmith would observe and test the grip fit out as one of the first things given the failure description described.

Any practical shooting match is nothing more than a product that people find value in attending. If a sanctioning body chooses to "sour" the product with inappropriate rule changes then competitors need to start showing their displeasure by voting with their feet. If you are into the practical shooting sports there are plenty of other types of matches to attend. Keep in mind that at the core of every practical shooting sanctioning body financial viability is paramount to their long term sustainability. If you screw the product up enough to start impacting the income then it should be obvious that the incorrect rule changes were made and it lead to reduced attendance or even losing club affiliations. I don't shoot IDPA matches any more because I don't find them as challenging or fun as USPSA matches. Since I am not an active IDPA match goer you can take my opinion on the subject as such. When I hear that there is talk of increasing the -1 hits to one second penalty I can't think of a reason why that would improve the match experience for the average shooter. I can see how it would further separate the "average" shooters from the good ones. It does not make sense to further punish the average shooters who are the ones that are usually paying the bills and making the matches happen. But then again I choose to not participate in IDPA matches because it's not my cup of tea, so maybe I just don't get it all together anyway.

i don't think it's quite 4-5 inches low. 2-3 is much more like it on a real close target. I zero at 25 with a 90 and the difference is probably a little more than an inch. I like only worrying about adjusting in one direction such as holding an inch+ high on targets 3-4 feet away. When I first started shooting open with an upright mount I got talked into zeroing at typical ranges in matches. The gun still shot low on close targets AND it shot high on 35 yard plates! So I was aiming high up close and low far out. Too much geometry for me to fool around with on the clock. Going to a 90 and zeroing at 20-25 yards eliminated half of the problem Or zero it at 15 and be a little high at 25 and a little low at 5 then not even have to worry about the offset difference for any distance. At that point there will be more sight displacement by slapping the trigger too hard so the little bit its off close or far really does not make a difference. On my Open gun setup I am using a 90 degree scope mount. Much to my surprise the bullet weight seemed to make a bigger difference in the close to far POI than anything. In my testing 124gr bullets had at least twice the vertical drift as 115gr bullets. When I sight in the 115's to be dead on at 15 yards. They are about an inch low at 5 yards and 2 inches high at 25 yards. To me that is well within the bounds of how much I can influence the POI by simply mashing the trigger while shooting aggressively. It also doesn't hurt to have some "trigger mashing insurance" for the further shots.

He is talking about a 90 degree "Sideways" C-More mount instead of the traditional straight up C-More Mount. The "sideways" C-More mount moves the dot lower towards the bore axis to an almost Iron Sight level. This reduced offset between the sight and bore also reduces the vertical drift of the point of impact at different distances.

Check out the following thread on Iron Sights...... http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=142607&hl=

One thing to consider when zeroing your gun is what the "Average" distance that most of the difficult shot are in matches. From my match experience locally and nationally the "Average" difficult shot distance is about 15 yards or simulated 15 yard shots where the target is closer but with the use of partial shots with No Shoots or Hard Cover to make it a harder shot. Sure, there are stages where the targets are further than 15 yards, but that is usually the exception verses the norm. You shouldn't be setting up your sights for the exception target distances. Knowing that most of the difficult shots will be in the 15 yard range I setup my Point of Aim / Point of Impact to be dead nuts on at 15 yards. This will result in a slightly lower POI on closer targets and a slightly higher POI on further targets. But that vertical string from one distance to another is also dramatically affected by the bore axis verses sight height. For most iron sighted pistols the sight to bore offset isn't that much, so your shots will not string much vertically from one distance to another. But for an Open gun with a tall red dot will have dramatic vertical stringing at different distances because of the increased sight to bore offset. I have seen plenty of Open shooters who Zero their guns at 25+ yards get punished with misses or no shoot hits when they have to engage tight shots up close because their POI is 4 - 5 inches low on the close targets.

How much did your hands hurt after all of that? The recoil of that revolver looked painfully hard.

This weekend we got lucky once again with the weather. Both Saturday and Sunday ended up being in the 60’s which was really nice shooting weather. On Saturday I attended the CRC USPSA match and shot Limited. I also brought my Open gun so I could shoot the hot 115’s on a few stages after shooting them with my Limited gun. I shot the match fairly solid with my Limited gun with only a couple of minor issues. I got all of my hits and it was fun. On my Open gun runs I was able to consistently finish the stages 2 – 3 seconds faster than my Limited runs. Being able to shoot the long distance and partial shots faster and more aggressively is where I think most of the stage time is coming from. It’s still “odd” shooting the dot and seeing it dance around while shooting. I also found myself waiting for the dot to settle too much on target before breaking the shot. On Sunday I decided to go practice with the Open gun instead of attending another match. I spent a lot of time shooting drills and tweaking the POA/POI at different distances. The vertical shift of POA vs POI from close to far is dramatically more than an iron sighted gun. And much to my surprise the 124’s had a more dramatic vertical shift than the 115’s. I settled on a 15 yard zero which produced about an inch low at 5 yards, and about 3 inches high at 25 yards. Setting the zero at 20 or 25 produced a much lower POI at closer distances which I think would be more detrimental while engaging close targets verses being a little high at distance. I would rather have a little bit of trigger mashing insurance at distance anyway. I did some close to far and far to close drills burning up the different loads of 124gr bullets. I also tested to see if the point of impact changed left/right verses manually displacing the dot at different distances to see if there was any parallax to account for. Much to my surprise, regardless of distance or where the dot was within the glass, where the dot was is exactly where the hit ended up. So it’s literally a 1 to 1 sighting process. Where the dot is = where the bullet will hit. That will make learning how to shoot this bad boy as speed a lot easier than with iron sights. The only POI offset that I have to consider is the vertical stringing verses the distance. But with the 115’s and sideways C-More mount there really isn’t that much offset to account for. I will affect the POI more by mashing the trigger while shooting at speed verses the actual offset. I chronoed the 115’s with my chrono and they came in at a HOT 1575fps which is 181 power factor. That is way too hot so more ammo loading and testing is going to be needed. We are going to try an 8.5gr drop instead of the 9.0gr to see if we can bring the velocity back down to a reasonable 168 – 170 PF. Since the ammo was so hot I didn’t put much effort into trying to get use to the tracking of the dot or dot noise as I know it will be reduced when the ammo is softer. That and I shot a bunch of the 124gr bullets that have a more dramatic dot movement than the 115’s. More than anything this practice session was a “learning how to crawl” with the Open gun type of practice. I was getting use to the Ghost Holster, Turning On/Off the dot every run, adjusting the C-More to sight it in, loading & unloading using the slide racker, and basic stuff like that. It’s going to take a while to get use to all of these new “basic” things so it was nice to get a bunch of repetitions with it. The good news is that I didn’t have to “hunt” for the dot at all while shooting. Every time the gun was drawn and mounted the dot was right where it should be in the middle of the glass. The bad thing is that I catch myself looking at the dot instead of the target quite a bit. The other bad thing is that the back bottom edges of the slide are sharp and it was cutting into my hand. Damn panda paw is always in the way. I will have to round off the sharp edges so it does not cut me open when it hits my hand.

Q: Bull, bush or island barrel? A: KKM .355 cal, Bull Barrel, 1/18 twist Q: Which comp? A: Cheely Stainless 4 Port Comp Q: Any barrel holes? A: No. There are enough holes in the comp

I also want to point out that its not the shooters fault for delaying the match/stage by calling for a proactive calibration of a popper. If the RO's were managing their stage properly then the delay wouldn't happen in the first place. Its the lazy RO's not maintaining their stage properly causing the delay. The RO's really don't have a leg to stand on in refusing the proactive calibration of a popper that has functioned questionably for other shooters. The malfunction isn't going to magically go away on its own.

Not arguing, but could you point to a rule supporting this? (Specifically that a competitor may request a calibration without having shot the steel in question.) I'll note that I agree---but if a CRO disagrees and doesn't want to call the RM (which is possible in the case of a CRO who is deliberately ignoring a faulty popper) what rule would you cite for this? From Appendix C1......4. The Range Master must arrange for each popper to be calibrated prior to commencement of a match, and whenever required during a match If the RO or CRO disagrees with the shooters request to recalibrate the popper they can request the RM for a final ruling. This is no different than a shooter escalating any other ruling call to the RM.

The primary issue with the "Finger on the front of the trigger guard" support hand grip is that it does not promote the canting forward of the wrist. It actually does the opposite which is a big problem. You want the support hand wrist locked forward to eliminate it as a hinge. The second major issue with the finger on the front of the trigger guard is that it puts a strange leverage/pressure point on the gun that is uneven. This usually shows as an up and to the left type of muzzle flip. We want a "even tension" type of grip on the gun that allows the muzzle flip and sights to track in a straight up and back down type of movement. A proper "thumbs forward" type of grip can produce a near zero muzzle flip level of recoil management. You simply need the proper grip angles and grip pressure. There are no "Magical Tricks" that can be done instead of gripping the gun hard in the proper way. Below is a video of me shooting my Limited gun with 170 PF ammo. Even without a comp to assist in muzzle rise mitigation a near zero muzzle flip level of recoil management is possible.

I doubt that the "Approved" modifications listed in the USPSA Rule book were written with the intent that ANY feature from ANY combination of production manufactured 1911's can be combined to create a FrankinGammer 1911 that is still legal. NROI needs to step up and delineate what the interpretation(s) of the approved modification list should be.

Yep, I use the Captains of Crush grippers 2 - 3 times a week. Before my last neck injury that affected my left arm/hand I could easily close the #2.5 with both hands. After the neck injury I can't close the #2.5 any more with my left hand, but I can close a #2. I am still working on getting my left hand grip strength back to what it was, but I think the permanent nerve damage to my left arm/hand will keep me from getting back to 100%. My right hand is still the same strength as before. I can almost close a #3 with my right hand. From watching your slow motion videos its hard to tell if the excessive muzzle flip is due to actual grip strength, friction on gun, or wrist angles. If you take a slow motion video of the support hand side that will tell more of the story about your grip on the gun. If your support hand is staying stationary and the grip is moving within your hand then it could be a grip strength or friction on grip issue. If your support hand wrist is bending along with the movement of the gun then its usually an issue with your wrist not being locked forward in the canted position properly.

No. The "Baller" mirror copper finish that Aaron's gun has would cause an awesome overload for my gun leading to the implosion of the universe. We don't want that to happen so I will stick to my Black Slide / Burnt Bronze Frame/Grip color scheme.

The few long slide Open guns I shot had a way more dramatic muzzle flip with dot flying off the glass upwards than the shorty's. The shorty open guns had less dot displacement but more dot "noise". The steel grip has seemed to calm the dot noise quite a bit. That and when you ask a gunsmith to build you a "Race Car" its usually best to let them build you what they feel is the best race car based on their experience. Rick prefers the shorty Open gun setups using sideways C-More mounts and 9mm Major ammo. I am sure I could have demanded some other gun configuration to "Try" but I don't feel like wasting thousands of dollars on open gun setups to learn all of the same lessons the hard way.

The Open gun load testing continues. I was able to try a 115gr + HS-6 load today and get some slow motion video of it. The video is posted below. The 115’s have a slightly more sharp felt recoil than the 124’s, which is to be expected. The cool thing is that the post shot muzzle bounce/attenuation is dramatically reduced with the 115’s. These rounds are a little hot at 175 power factor so I am going to do some testing with a little bit slower velocity (168 – 170 PF) to see what it does to the muzzle flip. I might need the extra gas of the hotter load to reduce the initial muzzle flip, or maybe not. But right now I am pretty much sold on the 115gr bullet and HS-6 powder. Once I get the powder drop optimized then I will fiddle with springs again to see if I can further minimize the muzzle flip or slide velocity but I doubt that much more tweaking will be needed. As it is now the dot tracks straight up then comes straight back down with very minimal “noise”. The Dot never leaves the glass and pretty much stays in the middle of the glass the whole time moving in a straight up/down streak. Since I am still fiddling with ammo and spring setups on the Open blaster I don’t want to do too much practice or match shooting with it until I get it totally optimized. I want to learn the timing and get use to the tracking of the dot when it’s in the “Final” configuration. It may be a little while before I hit the practice hard with this bad boy but the project is progressing. I feel that I am well ahead of schedule in the goal of getting this thing going by 2016 so I am not worried about a delay right now.

This setup I am using an 18lb hammer spring, with a very rounded firing pin stop, and 7lb recoil spring. Wolff Springs that are not Variable.

Oh, I should also add that I am using the exact same spring and firing pin curvature setup between these two loads.

I finally got a chance to test out the 115gr JHP + HS-6 Powder. This 115gr + HS-6 load is a little hot as its pushing 175 Power Factor, but even at that its producing less muzzle flip and post shot muzzle attenuation than the 124's. This 115gr setup should get even better when its backed down to 168 - 170 PF. As it is now the dot tracks up slightly then straight back down without much dot "noise" and does not displace much from the center of the glass. 115gr + HS-6 124gr + HS-6

If the slide has been internally lightened then its not legal for Single Stack. The rules are pretty clear in restricting the removal of slide material for the purpose of lightening it for a competitive advantage.

I am shooting into a buddies Bullet Trap. Its a home made setup with AR500 steel in the back and multiple layers of wood and rubber in front and sides of it. I think he has to rebuild the rubber/wood portion every 1000 rounds or so. This home made setup is not good for practice or training as there isn't enough ventilation to keep the air clean. But it works good for firing some test rounds into it or chronoing loads. It sure does beat driving 50 miles one way to my "Local" range to do the same thing outdoors. I am using my iPhone 6 with the Slow Motion Video feature to capture the footage.

Wouldn't the below rule make the "Stroking" option illegal? The whole purpose of stroking the gun is to provide a competitive advantage and the only way you can do it is with a Mill. Slide lightening, cuts, ports, or any milling deemed to provide a competitive advantage.

I guess I don't get why you are so worried about the slide to frame fit. I have shot plenty of "rattly loose" slide to frame fit guns that were still tack driver accurate.