Ross Chevalier

Interesting demographic here - a psych student's wet dream... Top of my list remains Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand - my daughter's name is Dagny, enough said. All the Clancy, Forsyth, McNabb, Demo Dick et. al. but I did miss a few of my favorites Anything by Jack Higgins featuring any of Liam Devlin, Sean Dillon or Martin Brosnan, despite a proclivity for Walther PPKs Original Ludlum - not the co-authored crap he never really wrote, try The Matarese Circle first Robert B. Parker - any of the Spenser novels. Most of us are fairly autonomous people - Spenser and Hawk are autonomy defined Early Eric Van Lustbader - great insight into the oriental mind Go Rin No Sho - Musashi - makes you think More to come... Ross

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon Beautifully photographed, classic story, well choreographed sword sequences. Watch in chinese with english subtitles, viewing the dubbed version will annoy at best and cause screen damage at worst (cause you will shoot it) Ross

Mike, You worry me. Actually you worry lot's of people. Many of them are medical professionals. With nets.

fwiw, for .40 loads I like N340 but have moved back to Federal SP after some unpleasant misfires in my Glocks and HKs with WSP. Of course this is for production class or general gun fun shooting. For open, I followed Pat's advice and went Federal SR. No faults. Cheers, Ross

Thanks Pat, for the compliment. (And mr. harrison is one of those shooters from whom a compliment is value highly). Your points are well taken. There is no excuse for a job done poorly when the capacity is there to do it well.

Big Dave, I hear you. It happens, but if you can, put your shields up and let it go. You're a long time dead and in 30 days, the event is insignificant. Sometimes it helps to remember that the best reason to be polite, conscientious or helpful is that you get pleasure out of doing so. It's for you, the others merely have the freedom of choice to benefit from your actions or be a narrow minded weasel oxygen thief. Cheers, Ross For reference I offer "Who is John Galt?"

This is an interesting thread. So I am not a real hot shooter, and compared to some of you folks, am very new to competition, and yes am an NROI RO. I work long hours and spend lots of time away from my family. So why bother to run matches? I really enjoy this sport. Whether I'm great or not is less relevant to me than having the pleasure of shooting, particularly with other shooters. When I took the IPSC Black Badge course, I had two instructors. First day, first guy was a complete dick. A consumate professional at driving people out of the sport. Second day, a person who was genuinely interested in having another member of the competitive community, being safe and having fun. I decided at that time that I had a choice to either be a positive face to the sport, or some arrogant bozo. I picked positive, but a whole whack of others take it as a power trip. I get great satisfaction out of seeing new shooters come off a course and say "man that was tough but it was fun", or seasoned pros come off a course and say that "that was cool, it wasn't the same old hose and go. You had to think the course through" I design courses and RO matches because I get personal satisfaction out of watching the other shooters have fun. Some days I shoot well, others not. But even on a bad day, having someone on one of the squads really enjoy it is very fulfilling. As a confessed non-expert, I get damn tired of the rule interpretation lawyers and the "the fault line isn't bolted down with 42 foot lag bolts and could move and that wouldn't be fair" waawaa artists. Last I checked this was a sport, ie game. If you want to be a lawyer go practice law. If you want to whine about life's inherent unfairness, go read James Gleick's book on Chaos Theory and then be under the 5pm train. it ain't fair, it ain't equal and it cannot be. Ever. Or, go out, shoot, meet some nice people, talk about mutual interests, have fun. We're all a long time dead, why make strife? Encourage a new shooter or recognize an exceptional performance. You really do get back what you put out. Of course wtf do I know, I'm one of those darn Match guys.....

Pat told me about this directly. It is truly an excellent drill. FYI Midway sells these rolls of fluorescent red dots of just the right size. Handy if you don't have targets made up in advance. Cheap too.

IMHO, (meaning I could be wrong), I really like Vit N350 running 6.8 - 7.0 grains with a 230FMJ load. Makes about 179 out of an STI Edge, and about 175 out of my G21. OAL 1.263 +- .005, light crimp. YMMV depending upon the inertial pressure of the barrel. Recoil is smooth, more a push than a snap. Burns very cleanly. In a fully supported barrel you can go hotter if you are seeking a "Pat Harrison Signature Fireball".

I've tried MagSlick and basically its a lot of coin for what is basically a teflon style spray lube. From a physics perspective, reducing the nascent friction of the mag itself via polishing/sanding/chroming will have the greatest long term benefit, and will result in minimal potential for FOD (Foreign Object Damage). All lubricants, chemically, are carriers, or transport mediums and can carry crud. Waxes, alternatively, act as barriers or repellents. So typically, you will use a lubricant to maintain a friction transfer surface where your primary concern is consistency of motion (ie slide-frame connection), whereas you would use a wax as a repellent to prevent contamination that could impede effective function. Corollary is that lubricants tend to last longer than waxes before reapplication is required. Teflon lasts like a lube but repels like a wax - hence it's ongoing use in cookware. Lube products with PFTE additives like Slick 50 can provide the best of both worlds, the criticality being how much is used. PFTE creates a microchemical bond with low elasticity and works best when a very thin layer is applied. If a thick layer is used, it gunks up very badly, and performance can in fact be impaired. This is particularly noticeable in older muscle car engines that are worn a bit and then have a PFTE lube dumped in. Hope this helps, or at least cured any insomnia