pjb

I have been to a few Nationals. Missoula was a great place for the match. It should host another one. The stages were great, they did not seem to favor the dot guns that much, in fact, if anything, some of the no-shoots on the clam shells would crush the dot gunner if he did not know his zero. BTW: I was called for coaching. I did not argue with the CRO about it. After he read the rule, I asked about "at the RO descretion." This means to me the RO does not have to make the call or ignore the call. He decides. There was no criteria stated in the rule as to how, when or why the RO makes the call. This is acceptable to me. The RO made the call and I accepted it without complaining, whinning etc. I did disagree with with the penality for the shooter. It was silly. The shooter gained no advantage by shooting, he actually lost more points because of it. He might not of even heard me. Who knows but Gary. Gary was a stand up guy about it. I felt bad he go penalized. In the long run, it did make for interesting conversations with a great number of people. I do not know about Tulsa but hope to find out this year. PASA is just fine, not great, just fine. Unlike Chuck, who I respect very much, I would prefer there be matches held around the country. I do not like the idea of a home range. I do like the way the three nationals are arrange on the calendar; Spring, Summer, sort of Fall. I would like this to continue.

+1 on the new stuff. I used walnut for the first time and polished my brass after reloading. I did not clean the walnut off the enough well enough. Sure as s!%$t, I had jams. Additionally, I did a very good clean job on the gun but did not get the mag well quite right. The mags with the Dawson base pads dropped right out. Then on the second day, I decided to to a top end clean the night before. I did not get the slide release all the way in, it started working its way out on my first stage. Lessons learned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In ABQ matches, most everyone has to pick brass, paste or reset every after every shooter and every stage. At Tuesday Night Steel in Mesa it is the same. In LA, well it is darn near impossible to find brass in the long grass. However, I have been in matches in WA and CA where it is pretty hard to get people to pick brass. Because of the open squadding in some CA matches, people waiting refuse to help out any other squad. They only work for themselves.

It is a good shotgun. My decision was based on what others were finding success with at the 3Gun Matches. Remington Benelli Winchester/Browning These seem to be the ones achieving the most success. There is a guy on the USPSA site selling the Winchester Practical at an outstanding price.

jhgtyre, Good Advice. I am in the beginning stages of learning the long gun. I am trying to experiment with iron, dots, and scopes in practice. Actually 'beginning' is being kind. I can pound steel plates, prone at 300-400 meters with a scope for fun but in a 3gun match, I am just learning to set a stable platform(read-sucks!!). Hence, I am working on that before I really make a decision about sights. This way I can experiment before I spend the bucks on better sights. Shotgunning is pretty striaght forward-Benelli, 21" vent rib, fiber optic front sight, DMW extension and bolt handle-sound familar Beven?

I have a BSquare on mine A3 and use cheapo rings for right now. It is pretty good but the eye relief is an issue. Accuracy Speaks makes a great riser, as Kellyn stated it allows the scope to move forward so the scope is adjusted to your style of holding the AR rather than having to adjust to the scope. The cheapy rings are because I haven't decided between a scope and red dot. I keep switching them out. I went to KMart and purchased a $50 Bushnell Variable to try out. Low investment before I decide to buy a serious scope and rings. Is your front sight on your AR? With the riser I use either low or medium height rings to clear the front sight. I like Leupold rings. They can cost as much as $50 but most are in the $25 range.

What is the length of the spring? If you cut of couple of coils, then you can add an additional round. However, it may not feed correctly. You might want to return it and call speed shooter international for a DMW tube and collar.

I turned fifty this year. I have been wearing contacts for decades. For about the last 5 or 6 years I have been using mono-vision. My right is used for reading and my left for seeing long distance. The problem is my left is dominate. I generally shot pistols right handed, rifle and shotgun I can shoot with either. So basically, I am all #$^@!^ u p. I have tried a bit of everything. Shoot with left eye closed, shoot with right closed, shoot with both eyes open and put a difusing patch over the left eye where it would focus on the front sight. I am still working through all the options. I shoot a smoking fast qualifier with the small patch over my left eye a couple weeks ago. It was about 25% points above my normal times. I do not know if it was an anomally or not yet. My next visit to my eye dr is soon, I will explore reducing the power in my left contact so I can focus with that eye and shoot with both eyes open. Browning makes the 'magic dot' which you can get off of their web-site or from Gamaliel. Some people used a piece of type to do the same thing and it's much cheaper. I am not sure if this helps but it is nice to know there is a whole lot of us out there having the same issues to address. Good luck.

You got it! I looked and talked to everyone I could. I almost went with the Benelli 18.5 with rifle sights. But the extension can only be 1 inch past the barrel so that would limit the rounds you can hold. It was a bit of a pickle. I ended up calling Beven about his gun. He prefered the vent rib, which I do also since I shoot skeet for 20yrs. So I looked at the auctions for a M1 S90 21 field with plastic stock. Found one cheaper than the Benelli Tactical, which if you know the Phoenix area is pretty damn cheap. Oh yeah, it has a fiber optic for the front sight.

Boy can I relate to what you experienced. I like shooting a single stack 1911 in L10. I do ok for a beginner. I went immediately to C class, my last qualifier was at 65%. The RO said, you a pretty good shooter but you really need to get a high capacity gun so you can compete in Limited. Some of our Limited folks are now starting to shoot L10 on alternating matches. It is making for a lot of fun. For me, it is just being practical, a single stack .45 L10 keeps me out of the equipment race wars. I pay $25 for a mag v. $80 to $100. My ammo is $150/1000-I buy, cannot reload. Basically, I am happy in L10. It seems like a purist division, very basic equipment, although I hate to bring it up, but it is more like using the same equipment as in a combat situation. But I am an old geezer who is rather retro oriented anyway. Personally, I am glad to see people in L10 and the Production classes.

I went through the same crisis, which to get first! I ended up trading a 20ga. Browning Superposed O/U for a Bushmaster. The shop did a blue book retail to retail trade. Needless to say he made out like a bandit-and it did not bother me in the least. I do not hunt anymore, the gun was collecting dust. So a trade was ok. No cash changed hands.--However, If I had to spend cash, I would buy off one of the auctions or at a gun show. Seems to me you can get a stock AR for about $600-700. I paid cash for my Benelli and all the extra goodies-it came to <$900. With Walmart selling shotgun shells for $3 a box-I shoot my Benelli a lot more than my AR. I also went cheap on the extra sights for my AR (A3 Removable Handle), a cheap Tasco Red Dot ($30) good to about 200 meters and a KMart Bushnell 3-9 for $49. Needless to say, time is the major issue now-finding it to shot, then which to practice. PS: my shooting buddy just shot my Benelli at a shotgun stage after an IDPA match. He is buying one this week. As mentioned in the other post-it seems a lot easier to find the time and place to shoot the shotgun. BTW: Benelli Field 21" barrel, five chokes, DMW tube and collar. You can shoot skeet, trap, sporting clays, action shotgun, and 3gun. Very versatile weapon. Good Luck deciding.

http://www.3gungear.com/

I just went through the same issue. I was interesting in competiting in 3Gun. However, there really is very little out on the web. I ended up asking alot of people questions about their choice of guns. Luckily I was in AZ for a couple of weeks. I talked with people at Rio Salado and Dillon. Combine with the folks here I finally came to these conclusions: Winchester Practical-gas operated, heavy, new to competition. Good overall impression. Remington-lots of after market products, gas operated. Very popular, heavy Benelli-not so many aftermarket products, recoil operated, very light swing. Bottom lines were: Remington-reliability issues, Benelli-people who do shoot over/unders complain about recoil, Winchester-too new. Costs: Remington $450+ then add on aftermarkets=$850 Winchester $800 ready to run Benelli $800 plus $100 for extensions, etc I went with Benelli with aftermarket products from Speed Shooters Internation and 3Gun Gear. Reason: High reliability differentiated it from the rest. The costs were all about the same <$900. BTW, I went with a M1 Field, 21inch vent rib barrel NOT their Tactical (Mag capacity issues and 18.5 inch ghost ring barrel. Remeber the extension can only extend an inch beyond the barrel). I took it out to the skeet range. I shot my dad's ten year od reloads(yeah I know-could be dangerous), Winchester AA, Remington Gold, and Walmart cheap Winchester ammo. Light loads to heavy loads. It all worked. PS: Be patient and you can find the right price for whatever model you want.