shred

Todd was down here in November and mentioned he was keen to try and get on the team, and had been practicing at least somewhat. (Edited by shred at 3:00 pm on Feb. 14, 2003)

I haven't had any more Glocks go AWOL to Tokyo without me lately.. Anyway, coming back from the Florida Open, Orlando does the carry-your-bags-to-x-ray-then-stand-outside-while-they-root-through-it deal. They did re-lock bags when asked nicely. FYI- I'm really happy with the lock-the-guns-to-the-outer-baggage technique-- I made a 4-foot coated wire cable just for the job and it works well. I also try to make my luggage a bit 'distinctive' to avoid people accidentally running off with it as above. Typically that means attaching trinkets to it like a kid owns it. My latest batch of glow-in-the-dark spacemen (some with cool ray-guns) needs to be replaced though-- they're breaking off bit by bit. Also note that American Airlines has gone to a 50-lb weight limit per bag (the other airlines are 70lbs)-- If you're over, you have to pay $25 or $50 or more each way. They didn't check in Austin, but they sure did in Orlando. Time for a rude e-mail to the comment box..

Boy did I get a list of stuff to work on from that match.... I had way too many D's and several mystery-mikes that I'm not happy with. The only bright spot was winning my class in the shootoffs. Good thing I didn't have to go against the kid. The couple 'bye's helped too . Now if I could only get paid five bucks a shot on a regular basis, I wouldn't need a real job. (picked up a cert for one of Matt's DVD's on the prize table, so I'll be getting the new one in to review soon)

I read the play way back in high school and loved it. I caught part of a movie version on TV a long while ago and thought it was great. As part of the visuals, one of R&G (I forgot which) was always on the verge of famous scientific discoveries-- archimedes principle, lift & various Galileo things, then getting interrupted.

Spiffy.. The coolest one I've seen was at a local gun store-- it had metal T-channels running the length to mount tooling on whever needed. I forgot the mfg . The Holumber benches are also popular as high-end kit-built benches too. For basic reloading, don't think that if it isn't as solid as four inches concrete it won't work-- I and many others started out loading with a press clamped to a kitchen table. Most any off-the-shelf workbench will be acceptable. Feel free to strengthen/modify as needed later..

If you made a vibratory tumbler, the motor speed shouldn't be terribly important.. put on a smaller weight and it should be ok spinning faster. I didn't put a tach on it, but the motor on my Midway doesn't gear down and it's spinning pretty good.

Erik, I had trouble with the slide-insert-cam assembly occasionally not putting a case fully into the resizing station and making a big mess of things. After lots of lubing and fiddling, I finally gave up and got a new spring from Dillon-- and discovered the old spring in there was about 1/2" shorter than a new one. Replacing that fixed it good.

I have to hunt around PetCo to find walnut. They seem to like hiding it far away from the other bedding material and refuse to admit it's existance. I haven't tried reducing corncob, but something like a blade-type coffee grinder should do it if anything would. Most of the drum-style tumblers I've seen that are sub cement-mixer size use the motor to drive small rollers that the drum rides on. That provides a pretty good amount of gear reduction and much less fiddling around with belts. Cheap vibratory tumblers are mostly an AC motor mounted directly to the bottom of the tumbler bowl, the drive shaft sticking down and a lopsided weight on the drive shaft to provide the movin and shakin. Attach to a base via springs. Add fan to the end of the drive shaft to cool the motor. (Edited by shred at 10:24 pm on Feb. 3, 2003)

Would a lot of falling to half-cock beat up on the sear pin? Not that seems to be happening to Mike, but it's a thought.

I posted my method a while back for a stationary star-- basically, start at the top and work down. If it's moving to start, pretty much the same-- start with the plate coming away from the top and it'll slow down as it tries to reverse direction. People that like their plates moving slower (or mostly still) can modify the order a bit for either-- shoot the top plate, then skip one, then shoot the next one. Now go back to the one you skipped, and then get the bottom two. With that order the star is always reversing direction towards a nearby balanced position, but gun movement is more. (Edited by shred at 10:04 pm on Feb. 3, 2003)

Now that wheelchairs' pretty cool. Does it fold up small? Come in a double-wide? (when we shoot in that great swamp called Houston, you need a chair for your bag as well). Team Shroom lost me in the fog at the RGN's Up til then I was happy following them at 90+ mph. (Edited by shred at 2:59 pm on Feb. 3, 2003)

Media: Hit a pet store or sandblasting place for ground walnut. Pet stores typically stock 5-10 lb bags for lizards and small critters. They also have corncob, but usually way too large a grain size. Sandblasting places stock 50lb bags of walnut and corncob (bring a sample, they have many sizes) (Edited by shred at 2:42 pm on Feb. 3, 2003)

You'd be stunned at what people still call in with these days.. We had to stop shipping the laptop power supplies in plastic baggies because people were plugging them in like that and overheating them.. But I did get my first patent out of a way to wake up a sleeping PC when the user punches the monitor power button a couple of times (at that point otherwise, they assume it's broken, unplug it and ship it back), so I guess the computer illiterate have some use.

If the allen head is stripped, you could use a universal screw-head-adapter (aka a dremel with a cut-off wheel) to make a normal screwdriver slot. If it just won't turn for some reason, you can also try taking some WD-40 to the back of the screw in the magwell. If it's heat it needs, you can try holding the tip of a soldering iron on the back of it too-- that may melt some plastic if used too aggressively.

On a similar topic, how short can you typically make a mag release (as in how little is sticking out the left side of the frame)? I'm asking because as a lefty I'll occasionally slap the button when doing a muffed surrender draw. Also as a lefty I don't need a honking tennis racket out there, so I'm thinking about doing some trimming..

Weeeelll... 50-100 yard shots are typically a bit difficult to justify as "self defense". Sure there may be "Tactical Applications" in an offensive mode, but I think that's kinda not what IDPA is supposed to be about. Occasional long shots are good, but what does shooting a pistol at 100 yards tell you that shooting at 50 won't?

Ahh.. Vince, this is what the evil metric system was designed for. Call it "Three Meters". When people say "Why three?", you can say "because two was too close and four was too far away"

Sub 3 is very good. 3.25 or so is typical M, and 3.5 is good for an A/High B shooter. Especially if it's already spinning, which is typical around here.

One of the best things one club did to help participation was to institute a "$5 extra to leave early without helping tear down" policy. The slackers that were already leaving early, not helping, and setting a bad example coughed up the cash (Brewski fund for the tear-downers!), and everybody else got reminded they were supposed to help. The MD could also issue "Free Early Leave" passes to people that helped with setup.

Be sure and wear the Darth hat so we'll all know you.. I'll see if I can wash my BE shirt before then.

As near as I can tell, the primary motivation for most of the "I want an unported hybrid barrel in my Limited gun" crowd (despite the "I'm a poor Modified shooter that can't afford two guns" pleadings) is so they can then attach the front sight to the barrel, which of course means it won't reciprocate with every shot and will be easier to track. Brian even mentions it in his book.. (Edited by shred at 2:58 pm on Jan. 27, 2003)

How about "May I relocate my front sight to the barrel since I removed the metal it was sitting on?"

so goes the joke... "How does a snowboarder introduce themselves to a skier?.." "Whoa! Sorry Dude"

There's a good spring article on the Brownells site which almost makes up for them losing the trigger job article. This might also be in the FAQ section.

Ted also won Standard class in England (or one of the others WS) as well. He would shoot with us every so often and I remember he was a world champion even before he went to Brazil. He's off doing IDPA now, but having him drop in on our local man-on-man pin shoot and me the only person knowing who he was was priceless..