Rob Boudrie

The Nationals is one area where the USPSA president has a lot of authority that does not flow from the board. Under the bylaws, all nationals matters are the responsibility of the president. While the Prez generally informs the board about contact negotiations, and gets board approval before multi year contracts, the venue choice is, in the end, his responsibility. Ditto for decisions regarding the format - all divisions in one nationals vs. two nationals; what divisions in each if two nationals; etc.

They now have a JHP 9mm that works nicely in supers - not sure if it's in their on-line system yet or now.

The law is clear - post Sept 1994 not legal in MA. No, the state does not have a history of going after this - but that does NOT mean it is legal. I don't know where you got the idea that voting has to do with anything in MA. If voting could change anything they would have outlawed it years ago

Competition shooters drive their guns hard. If you get a S&W revolver, you KNOW you will be able to get parts for many decades to come and factory service if necessary. Thr Rhino is an interesting concept but, unlike a 1911 clone, the chances of being able to get parts (other than leftover inventory picked up by some place like Numrich) if the manufacturer goes out of business are pretty close to nil. If the Rhino does not succeed in the long term getting a critical part for repair might be like trying to track down a component for a Medusa revolver.

I am NOT an attorney, and this is NOT TO BE CONSIDERED LEGAL ADVICE. That being said, I can mention that MA has a re-statement of the federal AW ban and that mags made after the Sept 1994 date are unlawful in MA.

Lock warranty is not the issue - lockout warranty is Even those manufacturers that warranty the lock rarely warranty against lockout - pay some one to service a lockout, or damage the safe, not covered - but they'll give you a nice new lock free of charge if it fails during the warranty period. To read about how the self proclaimed "best in the business"warranty applies to safe lock, read the Bane article: http://michaelbane.blogspot.com/2008/12/cannon-safe-failure.html Although Michael finally got it open by attaching a new keypad, Canon made it very clear that they will NOT provide lockout service under their lock warranty.

It's a matter of how many 9's of protection you want. One 9 means 90% of the thieves won't open it, two 9s means 99% won't. Gun safes are typically 12gauge; 10gauge or 3/16" (with some thicker or multi-walled units). Virtually none (except one of the AMSECs) come with a TL15 or TL30 rating - and even such a rating simply means "cannot be opened in 15 (or 30) minutes using tools, other than a torch, one person can carry". Move up to TRTL60x6 and you have 60 minutes, all 6 sides, including torch. The only problem is that such a unit (for example, the ISM Super Treasury) will not only weigh several tons, it will cost a ton of money - I'm talking tens of thousands. My guess is that any decent gun safe gives you at least one 9 of protection, and the better ones may approach two 9's. Abrasive grit blades for circular or reciprocating saws, angle grinder blades, metal cutting blades of any sort, carbide blades and cutting torch tips should be stored inside your safe since it is not unheard of for B&E artists to use tools they find on site to do a box job. Despite claims to the contrary, gun safes do not offer "bank vault like protection" ... but if you're burgled, your odds of still having your stuff go way up if you have one. You're falling for the marketing - pay more attention to the overall weight of the safe and the thickness of the walls. Safe manufacturers like to advertise on strength, which is why you see all the talk about the bolts, hardplate in front of the lock, videos of people trying to sledgehammer a safe (but never ones of someone using a grit blade on a circular saw or torch to open the side door), and overall thickness gets only a passing mention - or is described in surpulatives that make 12 gauge sound like it's actually thick steel (it isn't).

One thing a bunch of us do at the end of some practices is set up a self-resetting mini popper the end of a 100 yard range. Everyone lines at 20 yards or so and takes a single shot. Those that miss leave the line, and everyone moves back another 20 yards or so, and we repeat until we get to 100 yards. We usually start with a dozen or so people and end up with 1 or 2 shooting from the 100 yard line.

I think what he meant was "registry editing can be dangerous to your data if you don't know what you are doing", not "registry editing is a way to securely erase a drive". Formatting a drive is not a good way to securely erase it. One of many freeware tools that will do the job is the free Microsoft Sysinternals command "sdelete" (google for it).

One nice trick when shipping bullets besides double boxing is to put the bullets inside a tyvek bad inside the box - that way, a rip in the box is less likely to spill bullets. Fortunately, the USPSA provides free tyvek mailers that work very nicely as inner wraps for bullets.

The policy is included in the minutes. Short form: - Available to Level II and above (Level I matches can use the local match calendar) - Access will be granted while sanction is pending - If sanction is not obtained, the listing and squadding will be taken down. This will not be done arbitrarily, but is in place so a club can't claim "We'll be Level II", use these features, and then "change their mind" after their match is listed. These listings and match squadding are intended for major (level II and above) events. This policy simplify formalizes and clarifies this point. rob

You might find the first item in the minutes from the most recent USPSA board meeting (posted on www.uspsa.org) to be of interest

Ever wonder why you rarely see Dillon stuff in stores? It's because that Dillon's dealer program has very low margins (when compared to other reloading brands and products). Some major brand presses are routinely available for 33% or more off retail - and the seller is still making money at that price. Dillon dealer margins don't come anywhere near that percentage. There isn't room for Brian to offer a Black Friday special without working for free. Capturing both the wholesale and retail profit has worked well for Dillon - and for us, since it pays for their legendary warranty service.

And to think - after such heroism, he has to settle for having Obama hang the medal on him.

American lost my luggage on the way back from Dallas yesterday. They delivered it to my house today, J frame intact, no sign of it being screwed with (I watched the TSA inspection, so I doubt that had anything to do with the delay).

I am pretty sure this is not the case with many major brands brands, though I believe EGW does make a bar stock thumb safety (thanks for the info on that one).

One of the differences is manufacturing - the SVI are machined from bar stock. I am not aware of any other brand of thumb safety that is machined rather than cast (not sure if anyone is using MIM for the thumb safety).

I get about 1/2MOA at 100 yards with the Federal 168 match ammo and a Leupold 4.5-14 @14. I'm not a great shot, so I would not be surprised if the actual accuracy is better than what I am able to get out of the gun.

One may consider the fact that the world body has adopted a different more PC "classic" popper design as further proof of this. Yes, I know both remain in the book at present - but then, we were assured there was no plan to remove the metric target from the book at the time I predicted it's demise in IPSC several years ago.

RE: On-Line Squadding It is quite possible some matches may find the use of a skilled squadmaster fits their needs better than self squadding. I find that self-service squadding works best for matches where registrations drift in over many weeks; assigning an initial squad; and letting people move around. It's not quite as useful for a match that fills on the first day from a lottery. When considering features, we need to concentrate on those that will help people who want to use such a system - not shove it down the throats of those MDs who feel that doing it themselves fits their need. Self service squadding was created out of frustration - no matter how I tried, there was always someone who didn't get what they want, was not satisfied, showed up at the match and was unpleasantly surprised, etc. Self service squadding has, for those matches I administer, removed that headache. RE: Match Results Additional features will be forthcoming that will use locally uploaded club results. For example, you will eventually be able to get a report of all matches you have shot that are on file (of those uploaded since 10/1/2010 when we went to the new database method for storing results); examine your trend on percent of possible points shot; etc. Although these features are not yet in place, the structure to "data mine" the post 10/1/2010 matches is ... provided, of course, your club is posting to uspsa.org. Even if a club posts to its own site, I strongly urge that they also post to uspsa.org.

How did it get that pricey? I shipped my ammo (500 rounds 40, 180gr) UPD ground from Massachusetts to Las Vegas for $29.57 from a UPS depot. Taco Bell on the right when you are heading from the hotel to the range, Del Taco on the right when you are headed back from the range.

Speaking only for myself and not the entire board... I am going to propose that USPSA lift the veil of confidentiality on high hit factors. I also will be drafting a proposed policy that will allow those with interesting projects like the Classifier Calculator to make arrangements for a direct data feed from USPSA so their data is always current. Although I could put together a HHF calculator once approval is granted, I have no plans on doing so. When people come up with cool ideas, like the HHF Calculators that are available on the web, I want to support them - not use the advantage that direct access to the data give uspsa.org to squash their efforts.

I need more than a rumor to look at changes, and I have not been contacted with any specific info regarding why Linda and Troy say it doesn't work for them. I don't know if this refers to some technical problem, or if the logistics of how on-line squadding works is not consistent with the way they run their matches. I do know that many major matches use the on-line squadding system without any problems.

One of the basic design criteria for the new site was "frameless" - so that it would be easier for people to bookmark the exact pages they prefer. You can even make your classifier page or personal profile you web brower's home page. We chose to release at Phase I where some things (summary of classifiers by state, top 20, etc.) are not included. We will be expanding as we continue to develop the new site. rob

In the old days, someone who arrived at a match wearing a defensive sidearm, or who wished to re-arm upon exit, had to do so surreptitiously, or outside the range entrance to avoid a DQ. The rules now provide for a safer way to deal with a carry gun that does not require any competitor to compromise their defensive posture. There is no excuse for unloading a carry gun at the safety table, particularly when the rules provide a safe alternative.