shred

Yup-- That's what I meant up above.. there was considerable "discussion" on the IPSC list at the time, and the net result was it's not limited-legal unless somebody makes 500 of them.

My trick is to mentally 'fold' the top arc of the D-1 over to make a circle. If I shoot at the bottom of that circle, I'm in the 0-ring. Around here a score in the high 60's or low 70's will win Am-Civ, and anything under 100 usually wins cash.

I got one of the first batch and used it at the RGN's on most of the stages. It's been working fine. Dave Skinner of STI says the follower was one of the things he'd been meaning to work on forever.. He said these were designed to work more reliably in more conditions (out of tune/spec/spring/dirty) than the old ones. Added capacity is not a feature.

I've used both N340 and N350 for 124 gr 38 Super loads and prefer N350-- pressure seems lower and the comp seems to work a bit better too.

I agree with Erik-- In my experience, new stage designers want to empty out the prop shed and throw in everything, including the kitchen sink, so go a bit easy on fancy stuff. It'll make the match run smoother too. Throw in a hoser stage or two-- they're 'fun' to lots of people. Otherwise, shoot for balanced stages, stages with lots of different ways to shoot them, and not much memory-testing (that's not-fun to lots of people). Try to allow for both D and M shooters, production through open. Count on shooters to find new and interesting ways to shoot your stage that you didn't see. Try really hard not to get annoyed if they somehow figure out how to shoot your stage totally unlike how you wanted them to. (Edited by shred at 6:44 pm on Sep. 10, 2002)

I got one as a replacement for a broken STI tungsten rod and was a little annoyed to discover that the instructions say "You must use this with the included recoil spring plug-- grind chunks off your comp if needed". My Open blaster has a slightly shortened slide and thus the RM plug sticks out a tad and bangs into the comp. Not wanting to grind away on it, the RM is going someplace else.

Btw, Chuck at Shooters Connection tried to float that idea a few years ago and got it shot down as a "prototype". They didn't mention the front sight issue at the time (which seemed like the main point to me, given Brian's book-- I guess he's mollified that now). Seems like another not-really-needed arms-race deal to me, but what do I know, I mostly shoot Open

I've been there (well, I still am.. ) 83% at one time. The problem for me is every so often I'll shoot one that comes in high enough to be entered, but down in the 70's. That hoses your "most recent eight" for quite a while. What I've seen some people do is try and run 110% on classifier stages-- that way if you hose it up, it gets thrown out as too low, and if you get lucky, you get a good score. Alternatively, you could shoot CM99-32 a lot-- I think that's the easiest classifier on record. What's interesting is looking up some of the big names-- most of their 95-100% scores come from major match finishes and lots of their classifiers are in 'mere mortal' territory. (Edited by shred at 6:42 pm on Sep. 8, 2002)

Pretty much the biggest stage changes I've seen in the past 6 or 8 years are many less shooting boxes, less speed-shoots and more walls-with-holes (doors, hatches, windows, etc). "Single-stack friendly" has replaced "revolver neutral" in course design.

Maybe.. the LDA trigger is very different from a 1911 trigger-- lots more reset and distance. That said, learning to shoot a DA trigger well can be good for SA trigger control too. There are a number of threads on DA/SA cross-training on here (I'll let somebody else search them out-- I'm on a slow link today)

This might be the simplest tool ever, but it comes in mighty handy fiddling with recoil springs and full-length guide rods. No more chasing spring plugs all over the house! Works great with Recoil Masters too! Powered by the air you breathe and the thumbs you type with! All you do is take a chunk of something reasonably thin and stiff (I've used wood, plastic, metal and even an empty primer tray) and drill a 1/2 inch hole in it. If you want to get fancy, put a little notch in one side of the hole, like so: To use it, stick the reverse plug in the hole, add springs and guide rod. Put a couple fingers on either side and your thumb on the guide rod head. Push Note that your other hand is free to wave to the paparazzi until such time as you deign to put the takedown pin in. Once you do that, the tool slides off easily. If you're into really heavy springs, you might want to set the guide rod head on a table or something. (I thought everybody had one of these, but then some at the RGN's were in awe of my gadget) (Edited by shred at 6:15 pm on Sep. 8, 2002)

At the RGN's in the shooter packet was a new VV loading pamphlet. Right after the .38 Super data was data for the .38 Lapua, which I've never heard of. Is that another Super variant or what?

I usually mention that it "started out as police-type training, but has evolved into a sport". You can then make analogies to Football or Javelin-throwing or Chess if you like. This removes some of the Rambo-esque feeling too.

I had a chat about the original topic (courses for C & D shooters, if you remember) at RGNs. We were discussing Stage 1 with the 40-yard poppers through a low port and how we'd probably not do that at home. The question was, are non-challenging courses good or bad for the shooters? Sure lots of penalties & misses suck, especially if your gun isn't sighted correctly (I shot my first year with iron sights and had no clue where it hit past 20 yards), but it's also nice to stretch shooters a bit and let them know they really _can_ do some things. (I still frequently believe I can't hit a static target between an activating popper and the activatee during the walk-through, but when shooting I always have plenty of time). Consensus at that point was that a _few_ longer/harder shots might not be a bad idea, especially if you give shooters a chance to approach closer should they so desire. Preferably on steel, so the new shooters get a bit of feedback.

I heard something that they redesigned the Super 1050 a bit from the first models that reportedly flung powder out of the cases with wild abandon..

I posted this someplace else a long while back... "Too little trigger finger" and "Too much trigger finger" are some of the many areas on those "Target Analysis" targets that claim to tell you, based on where your shots land, what you're doing wrong. They're OK for bullseye-type shooting, but not very useful for diagnosing high-speed shooting problems.

GSSF Armorers, as a rule, will not install 3.5lb connectors at a GSSF match, with the possible exception of replacing a broken one from a Glock that originally came from the factory with one, you have both pieces in your hand and maybe not even then.

Something I noticed at the RGNs (which was almost all tight shots), was that I needed to program in 'move fast' when it was needed to get someplace else, or I'd be way off the pace. Sometimes it was only a couple steps, but it made a big difference in some of the stages. Could be a trick-of-the-day, but I foresee some video review in my future. Moving box-to-box and setting up on targets seems a bit different-- getting there ready to shoot is key and it's complicated, but if you know you've got 6 steps before you even need to get ready ("index on the rutabega"), make 'em fast ones.

I already made my 'during-match' comments, and am finally back home (Oregon is a nice place to visit-- My GF came up after the match and we toured around until yesterday). Not a lot to add to the previous comments.. the squad got more than our share of bad breaks-- from scoring (if you've gotta pull an overlay out, it isn't a no-shoot) to the weather to the guns breaking (Karl's broken scope mount and Tom's Glock troubles), which didn't help our attitude. Blowing past that target and the the 50-yard CF probably cost me 20 places and maybe a chunk of wood, but otherwise the match went well for me. Fix the squad schedule and I'd probably even do it again. It was fun meeting the BE folks-- I think all of them were different than I'd expected them to be Prizes-wise, the tables weren't big-- I know there was a much better table at Area 4 'cause I helped with it. Detlef finished 50th Limited and got a $100 certificate for bullets (if I give it to him )-- after that, it dropped off rapidly. In Open, there were a lot of Schueman barrels (mostly hybrids) left at 50th, as well as bullet & holster certificates and some JP AR-15 parts as well.

I made up a haiku to commemorate Sunday (no 5-7-5 complaints, please): Rain and Cold Fifty Yard Standards Baggies Suck --- We got hosed because we had to shoot the standards at the end of the day, in the lightning and rain, with baggies on the targets, and thus couldn't eyeball our hits off the clock (and then make up misses as needed) at the 5-yard line like every other squad. We complained and darn near arbitrated but Voigt said it was a 50-50 shot at best. The officials said "We shoot no matter what the conditions, now quit whining". So then we come in Saturday morning and there's fog on the range. Guess what? The squad on the standards got to wait 45 minutes for the fog to clear.. even though the targets were plenty visible. The officials claimed it was a "safety issue" since they couldn't clearly see the back berm-- somehow that didn't stop the 17 other bays from shooting on time. Monday the word of the day for the squad was "No". As in: "No, that doesn't touch the A-zone", "No, even though the grease mark doesn't touch the perf, that's still a No-shoot". "No, you have to wait for the super squad.. they were playing for an hour and are now reshooting". "No, you can't play with the door (even though the SS did)". "No, that we didn't DQ Barnhart for his AD on stage 5" (despite plenty of other witnesses, the RO's didn't see it) Pretty soon we'll all be on a first-name basis with the entire match staff. I'm annoyed because the stages are good and the range isn't bad (when it's not raining on, freezing or sandblasting you), but the squadding schedule and bad breaks we've been getting are combining to make this a lot less fun than it could have been.. A few benefits of the doubt to the shooter and a decent schedule and this would be a great match.

Well, the BE squad is getting a reputation at the match... and it's not a very good one (though not really any fault of our own ) As far as the super-squad goes, they were a primary cause of our waiting today, which furthered our less-than-stellar mood. Anyway, early word is JJ is tearing it up in Open, though he shot a bunch of makeups on the Standards (another sore point with the BE-squad). I know less about Limited, but I think Rob hasn't crashed yet, and most of the others have. ($900 for the whole squad to arbitrate? What a deal!) (Edited by shred at 11:17 pm on Aug. 26, 2002)

What I try to do to avoid the self-pity bugs after tanking a stage is to get my copy of the scoresheet and write down on it everything I messed up and therefore need to practice. That I fold up and stick in my bag. Somehow that gets my mind into an "I'll work on/worry about that later" mode and I can keep going better.

Yeah, but it's easy for bill drills to end up as hosing exercises with little benefit. If you do them, you've gotta watch everything that's going on and understand that what the timer says is the last thing you should look at.

You and me Bill.. tickets on Delta, ammo on a UPS truck somewhere north (I hope) of Mesquite, TX On the first stage of a big match, the ghost of Jerry Miculek (can you have a ghost if you're still alive? anyway) pops into my head with one of his quotes "You can't win the match on the first stage, but you sure can lose it..", so I drop it back a notch.. and usually end up shooting one of my best scores.

Hmm.. I don't know how to reply to that but my 2 cents is that switching every so often and "Cross-training" has benefits and penalties. I don't think you can switch back and forth for match use daily, weekly or even monthly and expect to maintain your edge with either, but you can also learn (and notice) a lot by picking up something else and shooting it for a while.