AzYooper

I shoot an STI and prefer that platform, but my skillset is a better match using an optic. #1 would not be my choice because I know I could do better with an optic and even improve slightly with a comp. I do agree that the STI would have a nicer trigger. How does a 4-5 lb trigger on an XDM affect your shooting? In my case that would be minimal, others might find it more difficult. I would be weaker on quick, sub-1/2second sight alignment.

Thanks. 3.5 gr Vihtavouri N320, 115 RMR HP

Correction: Check-in is available on Friday, October 14th, 2022. (thanks for finding the error @echotango)

Cactus Combat -- Speed on Steel Arizona State Steel Challenge Championship When: October 15-16, 2022 Where: Ben Avery Shooting Facility - Practical Pistol Range 4044 W Black Canyon Blvd Phoenix, AZ 85086 This will be a Level II State Championship match, so a current USPSA/SCSA membership is required. All eight stages of the “Steel Challenge World Speed Shooting Championship” will be presented. This will be an awards only match. Awards for divisions, categories, Steel Master and Rifle Master will be presented on Sunday. There will be two flights available on both Saturday and Sunday (7:00 AM and 12:30 PM). Additional entries can be squadded in the same flight or on a different day/flight, but maximum of 2 guns per flight. Volunteers from Boy Scouts of America Troop #526 will be painting targets and assisting with stage operations. Tips for these great kids are appreciated and available at checkout! Check-in will be available on Friday, October 16, 2021, and you are welcome to walk the stages. If you would like to also practice on Friday (warm up, sight in, test equipment, etc.) there is a $12.00 fee for the day. Friday check-in/practice will be available from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM. If you decide not to check-in on Friday, you may check-in on Saturday/Sunday morning from 6:30-6:55 AM or Saturday afternoon Match fees are $65.00 for the first entry, $40.00 for juniors (under 18) and $40.00 for each additional entry, Pre teens(under13) are free with adult entry. Match Shirts are provided at no additional cost with each initial entry. A limited number of additional Match shirts will be available for sale at the range during the match. Please register with Practiscore: https://practiscore.com/cactus-combat-speed-on-steel-arizona-state-steel-challenge-championship-2022/register We are still in need of RO's for the match. RO's will shoot on Thursday/Early Friday and will have match fees waived for 3 guns.

I had switched from a full size 2011 open gun to a smaller, lighter Limcat Steelcat 2-3 years ago and I think it helps me shoot the stages faster. It has a 4.5" bushing (non-bull) barrel and light comp allowing it to transition quickly. The Steelcal is not listed on the Limcat website, but it is available if you ask them. Limcat placed 1st (KC Eusebio), 2nd (Muneki Samejima), and 8th (me) in Open at the WSSC so they can run fast.

I once tried a 95gr Montana Gold bullet with VV N320 for Steel Challenge. This was the softest load I have felt, but I felt the 115's were slightly more accurate so I stayed with the 115's.

Thank you. That is the information I needed.

I wish there was some information about shipping ammo for this match. I thought that major matches that attract shooters from other states allow you to ship ammo to the match. There is nothing listed at SteelChallenge.com, USPSA.org, nor Practiscore. I have 3 handgun entries for this match, it's a little over a month away, and I have no idea how to get all my ammo to the range. I emailed USPSA a week or so ago, but no I have not got any answer.

I have always wondered about this extreme scenario: You are at a 2-3 day match and on the first day in a building you lean into a wall to get a shot and a piece of the ceiling fall and knocks you out. You drop your gun while unconscious. After getting checked out at the hospital shouldn't you be able to shoot the following day?

I've had some of that older Armscor brass in the past and I also did my best to lose that brass first. At the Area 2 prize table there was a case of Armscor that was passed by many times so I took it. This new Armscor was marked differently (Armscor USA) and was really good quality. I still like Starline, but if it was not available I would not hesitate to by more of this newer Armscor.

a few months ago I also had checked the voltage on 357's and switched to those. I was buying a new diode every few months and it would be bright for a month or two, then it would be dim again. I bought a new cmore and had the same problem. I sent one back to cmore and the tech there recommended cleaning the module with brake cleaner every once in a while because mine was just dirty. Rick, it is a good idea to have a backup. One of my cmore's started going on and off on a stage - the first day of Area 1 last month. I had changed to a mount that can swap the cmore's easily so went with my backup and was back in action. Joe

After shooting a stage I was asked IYAF,UASC. I dropped my mag into my right hand (I'm a lefty) and noticed that there was a popper still standing. I raised the pistol, supported the pistol a bit with my right hand, aimed and shot the popper with the chambered round. The RO and I laughed a bit, but he did not think that I was done because I never really completed the first command, my gun was not shown clear. The RO did not yet go into ICHDH, probably because I did not eject a round. I agree with others that if ICHDH is not stated the shooter can continue to shoot. If the RO had gone into ICHDH right away before I had shown clear I might argue that I was not given the proper time to respond to the first question. ICHDH is a command that should be a response the a shooters action (UASC) and not just something spoken after the first part. Also - I'm not talking about shot that goes off during unloading. That would have its own circumstances.

Nils can shoot open and would have a chance at winning Nationals, especially since some really good shooters have moved out of Open. He might need to warm up a bit on an open gun to get National Champion. After Area 2 he came by our stage to take pictures, chat and thank us for working the match. I let him run the stage with my open gun and him time was around 3rd or forth best we had seen in the match. We did not record or remember the hits so it would be difficult to know exactly where he placed, but he was very smooth. And this was with gun he had never shot before.

If you want to do practical shooting this is one of the best places to be. You get to shoot weekly matches and compete against som really good shooters and even get free advice from them. The Drillmaster class with Rob Leatham is even cheap. Rio Salado (probably the closest) - Mesa 4 USPSA clubs = 4 matches a month on the weekends (check the schedule). Signup starts at 7am (8 in winter) and signup is open for 1.5 hours. There is no real squading or membership, just show up, pay the match fee and shoot. Since they have experienced setup crews the stages are really good. About 50-70 shooters a match. Tuesday Night Steel Every Tuesday night 4-7pm signup. 4 stage steel match. This is a fun match, but can be quite busy with longer wait times. About 170-190 shooters a night. Phoenix Rod and Gun - South Phoenix 1 USPSA match, the first Saturday of the month. Nice stages, but not always as elaborate as Rio. About 25-35 shooters each match. The lines are a bit smaller because there are less shooters. Thursday Night Steel Similar to Rio's TNS match, but fewer people and less lines. Ben Avery - North Phoenix USPSA - they have USPSA matches, but because it is farther away and there are other matches closer I do not get out to those matches. Ben Avery Steel Challenge There are two monthly SC matches, the second Sunday and the third Sunday. Both setup all 8 stages. The second Sunday match includes a shoot-off and rifle/shotgun "after match" competitions included in the match price. The third sunday match submits scores to SCSA. I only shoot handgun and these are the matches I am familiar with, I know there are many more. All of these matches have setup and teardown crews so you will not have to do that, but no will argue if you offer help (match fees are waived for helpers). Rio and PR&G have range memberships, a little over $100 a year I think, and the third Sunday match at Ben Avery has a club membership. None of the matches require a membership, but the match fees are a few bucks cheaper when you are member. I don't remember all the fees but it is from $8 (member at PR&G ThNS) to $23(?) at Ben Avery SC.

I haven't shot with you for a while and I noticed you are much better, even after taking some time off. I guess that is showing in you overall ranking in the match. Your transitions are getting much better. You should come out to Deer Tribe steel challenge on Sunday. Good transitions help in steel challenge matches, also there is very little running. Tuesday Night Steel at Rio and Thursday Night Steel at PR&G both use similar rules and they have their own classification. After 3 wins in your class, with enough people in the class, you move up to the next class. There are no set classifiers so this is the way everyone is classified. There are quite a few steel shooters that do not even shoot USPSA. At TNS steel there are probably 25-30 GM's and maybe 10 of them are USPSA GM's. Joe

I almost went out to Rio for that Hosemasters match, but I had some work to do on my truck. I was really sorry I didn't make it until I seen the classifier - I really don't do well on the one-handed runs. The first stage looked very good, your target to target transitions are getting a lot better.

That looked really good Randy. I is nice to see it from your head cam. I have practiced that move about 5-10 times at Phoenix Rod & Gun. I used that on Stage 4 at Nationals: Stage 4 was out last stage of Nationals, and the RO's also. One of the RO's said that about a dozen shooters tried that technique and only about 3 had it work for them. For you righties you have to make sure your left had is in place and firm otherwise the mag slam can turn the gun past the 180.

(off topic) How do you run 80 shooters in 3 hours? Shooters show up between 8am and 9:30 am. There are no squads and no order for the 4 stages, but you can go from stage to stage with your friends. Each shooter spends about 3 hours shooting, but the match lasts until 12-12:30 pm. Last Saturday was 5 stages, two on the same bay and this slowed the match a little. There were 90 shooters that day (Rio Hosemasters) I started at 9:30 and finished at 1pm.

There are two difference parts to a match here that need to be address separately. One is setup and tear down and the other one is helping with stage reset and taping during a stage. I feel that helping during the match resetting targets and picking up brass should be done by every who is capable. But when I say I like a paid, although lowly paid, setup and tear down crew I feel the opposite. For our matches this would not be very workable. Just one of our ranges has 4 USPSA clubs and this means 4 weekend matches a month. The average at each match is 70-80 shooters and it takes most of us 2, maybe 3 hours to shoot and leave. If everyone had to stay for setup and tear down We would all carry out 1 target stick and put away one target stick and we would all be there 9 hours. In short order we have only 25-30 shooters and everyone would have to stay and help. The point I trying to make is that if you have about 30 shooters and also have the possibility to bring in more shooters if they can show up, work while there and leave when done, the matches may be able to grow. Most of our shooters here help during the match, but a lot of time they get distracted by all their talking. I suppose I have done this at rare times, but part of shooting is hanging out with our friends and socializing.

We have some matches here that have a lot of shooters and those matches are run like businesses. There is a regular setup crew that shoots for free and gets to split a set amount of money. There is a small match here that I had volunteered at for about 4-5 years and you would shoot for free if you were a helper. After that long I was getting burned out. Some nights is was just me tearing down the stages. So I stopped for a while. They would get other volunteers, but they never lasted more than a few months. The number of shooters for the match went down as they found more reliable and convient matches to shoot. I told the people in charge that the matches in this town are not potlucks they are fast food. Shooters can just show up, sometimes in a wide 4 hour period, shoot and go home. They were convinced enough to offer free shooting and a small amount of cash to the helpers. This helped grow the match and get better stages. Most of the shooters here do not have a problem paying a couple of extra bucks to have someone else take care of the helping. When the number of shooters gets up above 80 this method more than pays for itself. If your matches do not have that many shooters you will have to rely on volunteers more.

We have two steel Challenge matched every month that use all 8 stages. One of them submits scores so I can gauge my progress. There is a certain pursuit of perfectness when you try to improve on such simple 5 shot runs. If the format changed every month it would just be another steel match. We have two steel matches every week, so I can get enough of those.

Chris, thanks for posting this for us. I did not do so well in the match, but your spreadsheet made it easy for me to learn that I came in 1st A on one stage.

I take my cases out of my media separator one handful at a time. I pour the shells from hand to hand a couple of times and I can hear split case and cases that are not my 38 SC. Because I have been doing it a while I can even hear the 9X21 cases when they hiding in my SC.

I have the new style SVI mags with Bolen internals and I load my 38SC to 1.26. I have been using this as my main mag for a bit over a year without a feeding problem.

I used Practiscore at Area 1 and I was the RO that did most of the electronic entry. It was fast and would catch me if I had a bad entry so I was really happy with the system. Sometimes the shooters in a squad were competing against each other and would ask to see the stage hit factors after they had shot a stage to see how they were doing against each other. We did have one time in the afternoon when a battery was getting below 25% or so and the iPod froze during scoring. since the shooters follow behind taping we we could not determine the first couple of target scores and had to issue a reshoot. This was our only problem during a very large match. I learned to add the backup battery earlier and we had no problems after that.