THS

BIg Dave Were you at the Summer Blast? I was on the same squad with Bill there, maybe we met also. Tom

Jon, Grip take WORKS! and it's cheap too. Maybe you need to ease off on the number of rounds you fire in a practice session until your hands get accustomed to the extra traction. I have rough spots on my hands from my grips, but that is the trade for a non-slip grip. Now when I shoot I stop if I get pain in my handsarms. It's a game, and I don't need it to be painful instead of fun. Tom

Flex Erik and all, Be carefull with the assumption that the extra 4 inches of barrel are the culprit in the accuracy department. It is probably more like a combination of factors, most being "Shootability" issues like sight radius, percieved recoil, muzzle blast, etc. The 4 inches alone would equal to about 100 fps in most calibers, and given the number of barrels I've seen cut down and re-chambered without any change in true gilt edge accuracy, I really doubt that is the cause of the "trend." The bigger issue seems to be the location of the gas port being MUCH closer to the pressure peak in the burn cycle, and the corresponsing violence in the cycle of operations. This is in the M4 vs A4A2 debate which I have been knee deep into of late. I cant discuss the exact reliabilitybreakage issues due to the nature of what I do, but I know Colt is working to slove this. My hope is that when they solve it, we'll see the benefits also. I think the shorter version made by Bushmaster with the barrel ending just after the front sight assy, using full length handguards MIGHT be a better option for 3 gunning as that keeps the gas port where it belongs and you get a full sight radius. You still get muzzle blast, but compared to our open guns it should be a non-issue. You also get the benefit of a shorter platform, which is easier to transition target to target quickly. I love my carbines, 9mm and .223, but I have not yet put them to a test at 500 or 600 yards.... Maybe that'll be something to try..... with the .223 that is. Shoot safe. Tom (Edited by THS at 3:48 am on June 20, 2002)

Way to go Bill! Watching you make a single stack .45 work made me wonder why I spent so much on a .40 cal fat gun that wont even function all the time. For all the other forum members: If you get a chance to shoot with Bill, take it. He's a fine competitor and great example of what USPSA should be. Damn good shooting bill. Tom

I've been using A for way too long also. Reviewing some video I can see HUGE changes in my body language after a malf, especially on multi string stages, CQStds comes to mind. I'm looking more for the "solve the problem and splice back into my original shot plan." I only get there rarely, as I put a LOT of pressure on myself to perform. I think that comes from a severely limited match schedule, so each one becomes a huge deal. "If I only get to shoot one a month, then it better be a good one." would sum up my attitude. As a result, the inevitable glitches have too big an impact on the rest of my day. When you find the answer, please let us know! Tom

You can downlaod stages also. I went to the USPSA site, Major Matches, and then Summer Blast. There was a link to download the designs in Adobe. They look like they should be FUN. Tom

Calling the shots has been my measurement of a solid performance for a long time. Although I rarely get it as well as I'd like in the practical game, I have had some REAL eye opening experiences in the NRA Highpower rifle and 3-Gun pistol events. I always tell my shooters that having shots on call is much more important than where they actually score, especially at the beginning of a shooting season. We all wobble in an aiming area, some have smaller ones than others, but executing proper trigger controll, follow through, and sight vision (I wont use alignment, as dots allow other things) will deliver shots exactly where we think they should be. As a drill I often take spotting scopes away from rifle or bullseye pistol shooters, and as they fire they have to tell me where the shot is. I plot a small diagram WITHOUT telling them the exact location and have them fire again. They'll try to make the calls perfect, and after a few repeats of this drill, they normally improve in call quality. Pistol shooting drills like this require a partner, and ensuring the shooter does not "peek" at the shot hole after the shot. With turning targets I would sometimes edge the target as soon as I can after the shot to stop this. In the end, you trust your call, stop looking downrange for confirmation after each shot, and therefore get more accurate and faster. I will always remember a day when I was shooting 50 yd slowfire practice with a .45 Hardball gun. I fired a 10 round string in an unusually high awareness state (I can remember it like yesterday) and I fired shots with slightly mis-aligned sights that were center! It seemed that when my sights always pointed to the X ring, even when mis-aligned. It is hard to describe, but when I was setteling a little left, the front sight would align to the right in the rear notch, or the other way. Having thought about this I am convinced I was executing on a purely subconcious level, and my mind knew what was acceptable sight alignment to fire an X or 10 so the shots fired. From that day on I've been confident in my ability to make the gun do what I want it to, and things got much easier for me. The score was a 99 with 7x's. The 9 was the last shot; fear of success???? Calling your shots is sort of a culmination of skills. You know you did everything right, and therefore the shot will be exactly where you last saw the dot as it lifted. Shoot a slowfire group at the beginning and end of every practice session, say at 20 yards where the shot holes are hard to see quickly, and concentrate on calling the shot as opposed to little groups or perfect A's. You'll be there in no time. Tom (Edited by THS at 4:02 am on May 31, 2002)

Bill, I'm looking at Friday. That is fathers day weekend, and I'm trying to balance time with kids and shooting. I can get a day off much more easily from work that I can from my kids! I've already re-done my match checklist, and ordered some 180's to load for the Blast. Shoot center, Tom

OK, this is painful. Looking back I can see a few good points for the future. 1. Don't have a fight with your wife the night before a sectional. It makes it real hard to clear your mind. 2. Check to see that you bring your belt, holster, mag pouches and inner belt. Your brain will fade even more if you have to use concealment gear with your race gun. 3. Test fire FULL magazines of the ammo you intend to shoot! Even if it is factory, it may not work under too much tension. That was my weekend in a nutshell! Looking back I should have switched to production as soon as I realized I had forgotten my race belt and attached gear. I had my carry Glock, plenty of mags, and factory .40 Hydra Shok. Instead I tried to use Glock and Sig mag pouches and an IDPA type holster with my STI in limited, which resulted in my getting creamed. I hope my squad mates had a good laugh at least. The ammo gun malfunctioning was just bad luck. I had chrono'd Hydra shok several times with between 5 and 12 in a mag with no problems at all. Then I stuff 20 in and everything goes to hell, FAST. The extra spring tension changed the feed angle just enough to keep the rounds from feeding for the first several from each mag. Of course it took 6 of 9 stages to figure that out and down load mags. I reloaded more, but at least it ran OK. I wrote a full page in my shooting diarytraining log, a bunch in red pen too, in an effort to commit these lessons to memory. I wish for the day when I can shoot a full match up to my skill level WITHOUT stupid judgement errors like these. The Summer Blast is in 2 weeks....... Tom

Erik, First let's eliminate one thing. Buy, yes I know that hurts, some good 55gr factory ammo and test fire a clean weapon. I have extensive experience with national match M16's, and the problems you describe could be several things. Eliminate your relaods first. Don't use Federal 69gr GM for this; I have seen and shot many AR's that would not extract that ammo. Take a minimum chamber and pressures right at SAAMI spec, and you'll get poor extraction with the smallest bit of crud in the chamber or temp spike. Fed GM is great ammo, but some guns don't extract it well. I don't have a lot of experience with your powder choices, except to say that VERY few NRA HP shooters use ball powder due to temp sensitivity. 3 Gunners tend to pick spherical powders so they can keep the dillon going, but there is a trade. I don't mean to insult your reloading skill; please don't be offended! Tom