THS

Again! Yes, AGAIN! Some of you read my "trying to retire from the Marine Corps" hate rant last year before the board crash. Sadly it was lost in the conversion, and I did not have the stomach to re-write it. Well.... Now I have chapter 2. 21 years of honest and faithful service, and in the first week of June I went to see my Commanding Officer to discuss things like terminal leave, Permissive TAD, and detachment dates. We agreed on a detach date of 15 September. Based on that I made plans for a retirement date of 1 January, which met all the parameters, as long as the CO approves my PTAD and retitement leave going from 15 Sept to 1 jan. Yesterday he balked! Told me in a meeting 'I don't remember that conversation nor that date" and "We'll be briefing this in November to the CG." blah, blah...... Now I'm left with 2 choices. Ask to retire on 1 Jan as planned, hoping I'll get me terminal leave so I can be ready to work on 1 October. If he denies my leave at the last minute, I'll lose another job offer..... Or, run a short fuzed retirtement request for 1 October. That costs me about 4 grand cash, and then puts my family at great risk if the job offer vanishes, as I can't support a family of 5 on my retirement...... Bend over Tom, the "needs of the Corps" comes first. BULL SH1T! This guy just doesn't want to operate without me. Said I was the only qualified person in the Corps to do the job, and therefore I'm too critical. I wonder how many times that's been said? For 228 years the Corps has gone on, and I know it will after I'm gone, so.. Why do some people think they can be so f-ing selfish as to screw my family, not once, but twice now. This Sucks!

Hmmm. I do this, Range certification, for the Marine Corps as part of my primary duties. In fact, I teach it too. I'll tell you the riccochet pattern is complex, and the safety distances we use and require would make most civilian ranges I've been on unusable. I'll post diagrams if I can. We take a full week to teach surface danger zones, and that enables the person to check safety zones for a huge amount of weapons and scenario's. The small arms like we use in IPSC, with movement boxes, and multiple engagement options would take at least 2 days. I'll post some data from my office on riccochet distances based on impact media. All the data I have is based on high dollar research, but covers military calibers and projectiles only. Be carefull what you ask: you wont like my answers! Tom

I shot a match in Angola Indiana this past weekend, heck, if your wife had you driving 600 plus miles to see her family a club match would be a big deal to you too Well run shoot. They had volunteer RO's at each bay, and I walked up, read the stage description and shot. I pasted my holes and moved to the next stage. WOW! I could have do the entire 4 stage match in about 45 min if I'd wanted to. Instead I got togther with 4 others and we did it in an hour or so. Really efficient. Anyone know if results to are posted on the web? Maybe got an electronic copy you could forward? I'll shoot this again next time I'm back that way. Thanks Tom

Hmmmm. If you don't like the moderation... Don't post! This is a private site, and the concept works both ways! The other locked thread concerning 11 in the mag was locked for a few reasons. I'd have locked it way earlier, as it was a textbook example of thread drift. As for those who have been in voiolation of the rules, fix yourself. I don't care if you like using the barney mag or not. You either have 10 in a mag or more. Simple. The whole 180 break as opposed to being 'close' and benig warned is a subjective call. Comparing the 2 is never going to work. One is a yes or no, and the other is a "from where I was, your muzzle looked........" Is it Friday yet? Tom

I have bought gear from him before, and will again! I got mine in under a week, and it WORKS, which is more than I can say for a few other so-called specialized gear makers. I especially like the dump pouch! Tom

Sounds just like the types of focus in The Book! And yes, I also use the same 'look through the sights' mode when they are up close. Now if I could learn to stop using the sights on those same hoser targets every time I'd be FASTER too. Oh well, 20 plus years of bullseye have made some habits hard to break! Tom

It is WAY softer than the oroginal. I can draw through the locked position with no trouble at all. That also means he gun is less secure too.... Even with this softer part, I still think this is faster AND more secure, than my Safariland 012 was. Too bad it only comes in purple Tom

Hero is a strong word. My "hero's" who are shooters are names you'll never know or hear. Some compete in our sport, but most use it as a reason to shoot, and they already shoot a LOT. I can guarantee you Todd, Jerry, Rob, Benny and a host of others have spent long hours providing instruction to them, even moreso since September 2 years ago, and they'd know who I'm speaking of in a general term. Some post here when time and deployments allow and their humility is matched only by their perspective of what is important in the world. As for Shooters I Admire and Respect.... Julia Watson is a awesome. She is the fist woman to win several different things at the National Rifle Championships, against all comers men women and children, and sets records doing it. This was 5 years ago. Last week she shoots a 200 with 11X's standing, on her second day of shooting in 2 years! She is wise beyond her 25 years, and an exceptional person as well as shooter. This probably means very litle to most of the posters here, but it is an awesome accomplishment, and I lack the means to draw a decent comparison. Phil Strader has offered tips EVERY time I've talked to him or shot with him. I've watched Todd and Max Jr, and was amazed at their speed and accuracy. Todd seems to coach every shooter in his squad at the matches in our area. Pretty cool for a champion! Matt B has helped in a few ways, asking nothing in return. BE's book was the vehicle I used to gain confidence many years ago, and this forum has been like the grad school of shooting for me. I try to take an on-line course every day too. Many others have helped me or motivated me: they include Bill L, Tom D, Jason J, Don L, Ray Y, Carlos B, and a host of others. Philosophical thread drift follows. As people we are the sum of our experiences and interactions with others. Those who's names I wrote here, and many others, have made me a better person. Tom

There are 4 models. 2 use AA batteries, which make the housing longer. One is Night Vision compatibile, the other is not. The other 2 use N size batteries making the overall length anout an inch shorter. Again, one is NV Compatibile, the other is not. The AA runs about 400 hours per pair. The N version is about 100 hours. All 4 have the aluminum cage over the display area. Now, If I could get a way the change reticles a little to see what's best..... Tom

I have the ced and the little yellow one, duh I can't remember the brans right now. Anyway, I like them both. The CED has a sensitivity adjustment I like, but I've buggered the screw I change it so much when going from outdoors to indoors really often. The little yellow one is real simple and supposedly reads splits below .09, like I'm going to use that! The CED has a bunch of functions. For me the smaller yellow one is the first one I grab out of my bag, Hope this rambling helped. Tom

What a COOL match! I met a few new BE'ers, including IPSCG34, his Dad TRNinVA, Nik, RKooi, JLHardy and GMW2B as well. Overall I think it was well run and pretty challenging. I shot Friday, and we waited for a shower to move through so we did not have to use bags either. I hate BAGS on targets. I shot a huge percentage of A's, and only 5 D's in the whole 205 round match. I was happy with that, except I was a little too conservative and probably should have pushed things a little harder. Overall I was 69.???%, which isn't too bad, considering. Reviewing the HoserCam footage has been enlightening too. I was choppy and mis read a few stages, and moved prroly too. Now I know where to work!!! Thanks to everyone who worked the event, and congrats to Chris, Phil, and David. I hope you all come the Va\Md sectional in October. Last year it rivalled the Blast! Tom

Sitnger, Commercial ammo marked 5.56 should stil be OK. Tyr a box or 2 to see if you get poor extraction , blown primers, or stuck cases. Any of these would indicate the tolerances are stacking up AGAINST you. Most commercial brass is much thinner in the critical neck area than the military LC type, which helps keep pressures controllable. I have seen Federal commercial .223 Gold Medal pop primers in certain guns. There was nothing wrong with the exact same ammo in another 30 guns, but the tolerances in Chamber and bore dimensions were on the tight side and we blew primers. The ammo was good, the gun was good, they were just not compatibile. Now, If you are buying surplus 5.56mm, you are more likely to have a pressure issue, and certainly will not get the accuracy benefit of the chamber, as the ammo is service grade too. Think of it as having a NASCAR car in the driveway, but putting 80 octane GasOHol in it. It runs, fast too, but nothing like it would with the 120 plus octane racing fuel. It should work, and does in most cases. Yours might not.... Tom

Color scheme? What are we doing, painting the master bathroom! Do you all have a Martha Stewart color coordination list too. Try BLACK, Steel on top, Plastic on the bottom. Now, the really cool ones get the red and white 'barber pole' on the magwell trim like Flex. I'm going to the Summer Blast. I'll be shootin' while y'all is a flamin' Later

Rufus, I know MANY Military Police types, and I think they stay away for several reasons. The biggest is pride. I talked to Ernie Langdon many years ago when he was a Marine Sergeant at our tier 2 school for people going overseas in hostile billets known as High Risk Personnel course, (HRP for short). Ernie was THE MAN at HRP, and was pretty arrogant about it. Then he decides to come to a IPSC shoot on our unit facility one weekend in '94 I think. By his own admission, he expected to crush everyone there. Diddn't happen! Not even close. Last year at the Summer Blast he told me that was an eye-opener for him. He was the best in our top level school, and realized he needed to look outside the box to get better. He used it to improve; most simply choose not to see where they fit in the big picture. Most of the MP's I see think they are the cat's butt already, and feel intimidated by competition. Most are doing a job, one they got picked for, and most could give a damn about firearms beyond that. Most do not own gear, nor do they have a place to store guns and or ammo. Most get less that 300 rounds PER YEAR from our uncle for training. I wish I could get MP's and other LEO's too, to get involved. Tom

Finally a topic I really KNOW. The Wylde chamber is Bill's personal design that removes some of the excess size in a 5.56 chamber, especially with respect to leade and throat dimensions. In a nutshell, the 5.56mm is a looser version that is designed to run dirty. The Wylde, and a few others now, have smaller throat diameters and shorter leade's with different angles as well. As a result, they start bullets more centered to the bore, and allow less gas blow-by as the bullet engages the rifling. That makes them more accurate, and in a game that requires hitting a 6-inch X ring from 600 yards, these designs are required. The downside is that as you tighten up tolerances, you also risk increased malfunctions, which are killers in our game. There are benefits to both, you decide whether gilt-edged accuracy is worth the risk! Tom

Flex left. I'll help. Seen more than 20 Beretta slides come apart. Have more than a few 1911's going into fragmentation on video. Nearly every KB I've ever heard of was a reload. Hmmm. Give a moron an explosive, a flammible solid and an igniter and something stupid happens, so the sheep follow the herd and blame the tools. DUH? Someone shoots a major nine, or 9 by 21 and blames the gun for coming apart. WHAT? I wonder if they've ever seen a correctly done pressure test. We do them at work, and what some of these closet chemists throw into a case challenges physics and metallurgy! I don't want to RO, I want to be well away! My STI was bought factory new, and NEVER ran right, not even for 1 stinkin' 4 stage 60 shot club match in the year I had it! Over 5000 rounds, and all I got was good at malf drills! Gone at a big loss, Yep "Firearms at the next level" or some similar crap. My glock's trigger aint so sweet, but knowing it'll go bang EVERY time is well worth the trade. So is the 20 percent bump in my limited calssification. Just like the seiko divers watch I wear, it is not real fancy, but it is reliable! Does this flame hurt even more knowing the glock jockies are winning with such sub-standard gear I feel better now! Tom

No funky parts. Extened mag release, JP paddle on a Glock part from what I can tell. Lighning Strike magwell. I've watched this gun run for a couple of thousand rounds and never saw anything like this before. Then again, we have been shooting 20 and in on a steel facility, and guessing the misses were us.... No visible cracks. Feet and locking lug look OK considering the wear. BarSto might be OK, except there is no way it will be ready for The Summer Blast.

A friend and I are getting ready for some practice today and we decide to shoot some drills first. He comes back with a puzzled look on his face, after 60 shots at about 7 to 10 yards, and I don't say anything. We start checking poppers at 40 yards, and his G35 is shooting like 5 FOOT groups. No kidding, we change angles to be sure these are not deflections, and sure as heck, that aint. I take a mag from him and bang away with my G35. Dead on, band and clang on demand. Then he explains the puzzled look from before; he has what he thinks are doubles that are really tumbling bullets! At 7 yards they were still A's and the occasional C, at 40 plus they are WAY out there. The data: Factory ammo, winchester ranger 165's first, then Speer Gold dot 165's, which are also sending one into lala land too. (FYI In my gun, everything's OK) The barrel has 23k rounds on it, and has never seen a reload of any type. We swap his barrel into my gun and I get 2 in 15 that are out there, as in D's at 25 yds. His gun with same barrel was more like 5 out of 15. Looks like well over half are not going in straight. Summer blast is exactly a week away. Someone tell me the answer PLEASE! Tom

Hey Phil, When are you shooting? Is Jason going to be there, or have you sent him out of state so he's not embarrased by an old guy like me whuppin' up on him? It should be fun! Last year had more than a few stages that could be shot in about a handful of different ways. I hope these are the same. Shootin' Quantico this weekend? Tom

Update. I talked to Larry on Saturday, and both Sat and Sun were filled at that time. Over 199 entries then as well. Last year there was a mailing ahead of time that had the stage diagrams and a few other things. I got squadded with 2 other guys I shoot with regularly, so we should have fun. That assumes it don't rain again..... We've had like 28 days with rain in the last 36! YUCK. Tom

I shot targets like this in Hawaii recently. We had 8 targets with vertical tape making 16 scoring surfaces, left and right halves, in a night shoot. They were about 9 yards downrange, in a single array that was sort of circular. Being Hawaii, 10 rounds was the legal limit, so we reloaded a lot too. I remember shooting 2 pair, reloading, 2 pair, etc until I was done. 3 reloads I think. When all was done I had a target where the left side had an A and a Mike, and the other side had 3 hits. I also remember shooting a truckload of C's and D's, as I decided any hit was better than a bunch of Mikes.....after the first reload. The stage really favored the open guns with dots as they could see and shoot make ups much more easily than the Limited and production guns did. All in all it was a vision test more than a shooting test. Just my thoughts, Tom

I wrote a long dissertation about scales a while ago. I don't remember the thread, though. I have a lot of experience with them, in a reloading capacity. Like the previous advice, what matters if if your scale repeats. EVERY time. I had a PACT, and a few others and did a small scale test. I took the exact same 210 grain Berger VLD bullet and weighed it 100 times. Yes, I allowed for warm up time, and calibrated each scale per the factory recommendations. What I saw was every scale I tried, 5 of them, except the Denver Instruments, showed a variance in recorded mass. Some went from 205.X to 212.8 grains, others showed much more variance, but even that is statistically small. The DI on the other hand, showed 209.9 grains, EVERY TIME. Yes, every time for 100 cycles! It aint cheap, but I was weighing every case, primer, bullet, and powder charge for 1000 yard shooting. It had a lot to do with the strain gage versus piezo crystal technology, I think, but the bottom line was you get what you pay for. I sold that scale recently, and before I boxed it I weighed that same Berger bullet, and 7 years later, it came in at 209.9 grains. Cool gear!

Update. I had the MRI and today got the results. I have 3 disc's that are compressing, 3 "bone spurs" and an "Asymetrical narrowing of the canal." The short story is my spinal cord is being compressed against the inside of at least one of my vertebrae, and or the bone spurs are pressing there as well. Off to a neruo-surgeon. The doc I saw was happy we had decided to do the entire MRI thing up front, and this will only get worse....... This sucks.

Interesting post. I have a video of me shooting indoor RF Standards that shows me having a malfunction on the strong hand only stage. Immediately after I finish that string my body language changes big time! For the next string(s) I'm one Pi$$ed shooter. Worse yet, I blow the weak hand string too! I watch that tape frequently, as it reminds me what happens why I worry about shots that have already left the gun. I try TOO hard, or try to "make it up" and at that point it usually goes to hell FAST. Intensity is a good thing, but so is the perspective that this is a game. No More. No Less. I think damage control is most important after a crash like miine. At that point there is no real way to make up 4 seconds lost to a malf, and I should have focused on POINTS. Lastly, when it stops being fun go try something else; sporting clays, bullseye, anything. If you are paying to not have fun, you are missing something. Relax and shoot; the friendships are way more important that the scores anyway. Tom

Chris, I'm no where near that level yet, and being in the Corps I don't get to choose doctors either! Had an MRI monday night, and get the results this friday. Siince my first post my thumbs are numb virtually all the time, and I've lost dexterity too. I had to have my 8 year old daughter hand me brad nails to finish some trim work, as I couldn't feel well enough to pick them up. The bright side is that I ahve not been having problems with my index fingers, so I can shoot a little. I have no idea how my workstation should be set up, and hate flying this freakin desk anyway, so that could be a part of the problem. Thanks for the thoughts all, Tom