Bear1142

Huck, There's no need for a heavy (or bull) barrel. A standard profile barrel will work just fine in whatever length barrel you choose. Erik

Merlin, Make sure it's the gun and not you (no offense meant.) Even a slight flinch on the trigger can cause your problem. If your sure it's not you, then I would wait a little bit. You just had your gun lightened. Give yourself some time to adjust to the new setup and balance of the gun. I would go at least three practice sessions without changing anything. If your still noticing a problem, then start switching springs. Erik

Don't mess with polishing. Have you mags coated with any one of the various teflon polymer finishes. It makes them very slick inside and out. They also clean up very fast. Just pull a rag through them and your finished. It may cost a little bit, but it's definitely worth it. Erik

Kurt, Nice write-up. I'm working on some barrel issues myself. It involves some old technology with some new revolutionary design processes. If all of the performance claims are valid, this barrel will change everything. Stay tuned. Erik

Patrick, As you've enumerated, you have two distict liabilities, minor PF, and less than ideal magazine capacity. Shooting L-10 will eliminate one of your liabilities. Shoot high A counts and you can reduce your other liability. The extra reloads for shooting L-10 works both ways. It will also increase the number of potential mistakes by your opponents, creating more opportunities for you to capitalize on their mistakes. I see L-10 as your only real competitive choice. Erik

I'm the lone Haarts guide rod guy. Erik

I'll have to remember this the next time I get attacked by a concrete floor Erik

If SS and CHP5 are going, count me in. Erik

Kurt, Knowing your disdain for USPSA 3-Gun National matches, I'm sorry your first foray back into it was such a disaster. Please don't let last years match be indicative of the level of quality of our matches. You and your loyal followers are very talented shooters and I look forward to the challenge of competing against you. Just so you don't think you were singled out, here's another incredible story from last years match. A friend of mine is legally blind in his left eye. On the stage where you had to go prone and shoot through both lower corner ports on the left and right side, my friend declared to the RO he was going to take a medical penalty because he was blind in his left eye. After the buzzer and the pistol shots, he went to lower right rifle port and engaged the targets. He got up and moved to the lower left port and got into a prone position. He then got back up and went back to the lower right port and reshot the targets. The RO contacted the RM to notify him of what happened for scoring purposes. The RM, for some unknown reason, contacted the MD. The MD found my friend and told him he needed to reshoot the stage. My friend informed him of the medical situation and how he declared ahead of time he was going to take a medical penalty. The MD refused to allow the medical and told him he would have to reshoot the stage. My friend refused and cited the rulebook. The MD told him if he didn't reshoot the stage, he would DQ him for unsportsmanlike conduct. Not wanting to be DQ'd my friend reshot the stage and took misses on all of the targets on the lower left. I'm still stunned at this level of incompetence at a Nationals level match. I will never shoot another match run by this MD. Erik

I ream all of my chambers +.003 over max case length ( 38 Super= .903"). This allows room for dirt/carbon (because we all clean our pistols so often) and gives me a little margin for error in case I get a long case. You'll never notice any difference in accuracy, but it will help your reliability. Erik

Aw crap, here we go again. Gravedigger, do a search and you'll should find some pretty good threads concerning Mercury guide rods. For the record, I've used them for more than 5 years and I feel they have some merit. FWIW, I'm also in the minority with respect to their effectiveness. Erik

Homer Simpson mode...uummm, cookies!

Shootergirl, Damm, nice blindside. I think I'll just slowly back away from this topic before I end up in the poll. Erik

Erik, I don't think the style of crown on a pistol really matters. As long as the crown is protected and is perfectly concentric to the bore axis, you should have no crown related issues. Erik

Erik Warren, he has a goatee. He reminds me of evil Cartman, with red hair. Erik

Kelly, I, personally, do not find any real difference in recoil between the 75's & 55's, but some shooters are more sensitive to it. I guess I have a little too much girth for either round to push me around much. Erik

Lower A zone Respect the no-shoots by redefining your acceptable sight picture, don't fear the no-shoots by running away from it. Erik

Nick, Don't get too caught up in the downrange energy and wind drift arguments with the 77's. Wind drift on the 77's vs. the 55's out to 300 are virtually identical. At 500 yards, there is only a few inches difference. You don't really start to reap the benefits of the 77's until you get out past 600. Very few 3-gun matches will have targets anywhere close to this distance. Most long range shots will be in the 300-400 yard range. As for downrange energy (or momentum), that only matters if you have to knock down steel. Most of the longer range steel targets are flashing type targets that don't require you to actually push over the steel. This is where a good match scouting report is essential. It's always good to have a heavyweight load ready to go. I usually have bring about 50 rounds of my heavyweight loads to a match, but I only use them to meet a specific match requirement. In the end, take all the factors into consideration when selecting a base load (Accuracy, recoil, ballistics, cost, etc.) Erik

Jake, Thanks for the introduction. Lumber was my high school nickname. I earned it for a number of reasons, but one of them was my deceiving agility (Remember the impending collision with the wall on the hill at the Nationals?) Kinda like calling a 350lb. man "Tiny." Don't worry Jake, there will always be a darker side of me that holds back the "Pain and Rage." Erik

Some magazine base pads should bring the capacity up to around 18 Erik

Eric, Sorry for the slow reply, I'm out of town on "business." I've never been much on establishing par times for my drills. I run the drill, establish my best hit factor and work to improve it, either through faster technique or better accuracy, depending on which side of the equation is lacking. If I had to set a par time for establishing a baseline for this particular drill, I would think if you're under 10 seconds, your rolling along pretty good. Erik

Eric, For some close speed work, I do modified Vice-Prez's at 25 yards. I use 4 target instead of three. Two on each reload two on each. You can throw in standing to kneeling and standing to prone for some variety during the reloads. This is also a pretty good drill to test drive rifle comps. A good comp. should let you hammer the targets without having to make any adjustments. Erik

Schmitz, Tension is nothing more than the anticipated result of your performance. Concern yourself WITH the performance, not the result. Erik

John, I enter using the outside foot, irrespective of which side I'm moving too. While I appreciate Matt's talent and skills, I have to disagree with his style. Getting your hips squared to the target in the fastest possible manner will increase the stability of your shooting platform which will help your be more accurate and manage the recoil of the gun better. Getting your outside foot in the box first will allow you to do this. Also, you never want to make a direction change off of your inside foot. Using your inside foot (entering with your left foot, moving right) will increase your chances of slipping or losing traction. Watch any football game. If you see a player lose traction on a direction change and fall down. 9/10 times he made the cut on his inside foot and lost traction. I'm not saying Matt is wrong, it's just a different style. Try them both out and see what works for you. Erik

As much as I like the idea of a SS only class, I can't support this idea. It will only dilute the divisions more. Like Flex jokingly stated (at least he sounded like he was joking) "When's the Glocks only Division coming?" Why are 1911's so special? How about making it a sub-division of Production. There would be a high SS award within Production. Restrict them to Production Division rules (or SS society rules), let'm make major/minor, but keep the mags at 8 rounds. I'd go head to head against a major 1911 with 8 round mags with a Production gun with 10 rounds mags in minor. Otherwise, drop it. Erik