xsrdx

I compete just fine in B Class USPSA Limited with a Glock, a Blade Tech and IDPA legal Galco magazine carriers. As stated before, there may be a point in Limited/L10 where you "need" a race rig to be competitive, but it's probably deep into A or Master. Don't let the gear fool you, it's 99.99999% the operator; a GM would shoot well using a PPK from an ankle rig.

156 shooters finished the match, IIRC. 1st Overall - Mike Voight 2nd Overall - Todd Salmon 3rd Overall - Tom Carpenter Top HE MAN - Blane West, finished 11th overall with a limited AR10, 10rd 45 and an 870. 10 stages, rifle targets out to 305 yards, and great props including a bus, cars, an elaborate and well constructed house, and an airplane. The longest "run and gun" was about 300 yds, half downhill and the other half uphill. And it rained, every day, so it was muddy, and slick. A 20ft low crawl under wire on the long range rifle stage, and a strong hand only mandatory reload were some other highlights. Not one, but two Texas Star pistol targets, both surrounded by no-shoots. Two stages required rollover rifle engagements - horizontal slats. Quite a few DQ's for 180 violations, lots of movement up, down and sideways. Muzzle control and situational awareness were critical.

156 shooters finished the match, IIRC. 1st- Mike Voight 2nd-Todd Salmon (Always a bridesmaid in NC? ) 3rd- Tom Carpenter Top HE MAN - Blane West - finished 11th overall with a limited AR10, 10rd 45, and an 870. 82nd - ME, thank you very much. Great match, lotsa DQ's for 180 violations. Super cool props, the usual cars and even an airplane. And not one, but TWO extensive excursions - even a 20ft low crawl - into several inches of extra gooey NC muck, since it rained every day.

We shot this one Sunday, our "local" VA pro/GM shot this LIMITED with a combined 11.15, 113pts for a 10.1345 HF, I think that's well above the average HHF. Fun to watch, hard to do. 2nd place on that stage was another GM at 87%, 10.60 combined with a mike, HF 8.8679. I shot it a little slower, combined 18.73 with 102 pts, HF 5.4458. Beat my previous score but didn't get me any closer to A class....

Alternatively, for those that perhaps didn't have pets. Plus, pets often have goofy names like "Rover". There are no porn stars named "Rover", and for men with female pets, the "pet name" won't work. Kinda tough for girls with male pets too. Your PORN STAR NAME is simply YOUR MIDDLE NAME, followed by the street name at the house you grew up in. Lane Roundup. Yeeha.

I learned to shoot with both eyes open, weaver, using my left eye to focus on the sights. I just tilt my head enough that my nose blocks my right eye from the sights. At this point, it's very comfortable for me. I'm RH/right eye dominant tho, so I'd probably be faster/better if I used my right eye to shoot pistols but I'm satisfied at this point and lack the iniative to retrain my whole technique. I do use my right eye for rifle/sgn though, and I shoot a modified Weaver/ almost Isoceles now, so all is not lost...

In the military, they are the same thing - JP8 is used to service everything from diesel HMMWV's, to turbine powered tanks, to turbine powered helicopters. Simplifies resupply. Jet fuel - fixed wing - is a little different, largely due to the high altitudes jets have to perform at. Turbine exhaust smells "good" because it's extremely hot, and has almost no particulate unburned hydrocarbon exhaust. A warmed up diesel smells similar, and I suspect most of the trucks you see belching black smoke are either under tremendous load, which requires a big dose of raw fuel to maintain combustion temp, or they are cold, and thus not burning fuel very efficiently. Turbodiesel exhaust at moderate load and normal operating temp smells very similar to gas turbine exhaust. Most trains are diesel-electric hybrids; diesel engines power a generator that provides power to the transmission. Diesel Electric Locomotives

Oh, and the little guys driving light duty diesels - they paid about $4000 extra for that engine, and they get 15-20 mpg pulling trailers, or just driving around - vs. about 8-10mpg for an equivalent gas engined truck.

I use the Grams extensions/followers/springs in my FML mags; they work flawlessly UNLESS the mag gets dirty. If dust/crap gets into the mag, the rounds will bind and fail to properly "pop up" into the feed lips. The holes in the mag spine don't help here. As long as I run a brush through after I get it funky, all is good. No problems with Grams followers and Federal AE40R1/180gr, G35, 15lb recoil spring/THE captured guiderod.

Hey, that describes the average Seattle WTO protester perfectly....

For heavy duty applications, diesel engines are far more thermodynamically efficient than gas engines. A gas engine big enough to pull a decent size semitrailer would use 3 or 4 times as much fuel as a diesel. There is some merit to the hybrid argument, train locomotives are in fact big diesel electric hybrids and have been for 30 years. Making that type of powerplant smaller is difficult, and gas engines are only efficient up to certain size limits - so any IC/electric hybrid trucks in the future are likely to be DIESEL hybrids, not gas. Diesels get work done, more efficiently and economically than any other type of powerplant in their size range. It's unfortunate they offend you, but without them we'd never be able to strip mine, bulldoze environazis out of their tree houses, or hunt whales to extinction.

Does "lack of interest" count as a rationale? I've never shot a smoothbore with optics, so I'm hardly qualified to comment, but I've never let that stop me before... I don't think optics are that much help considering shotgun engagement ranges and ammo. With slugs, maybe, but a fiber/ghost ring setup is pretty fast and accurate anyway. With birdshot, especially shooting clays, precise shot placement is less of an issue. Limited shotgun has always been about reloading speed. Take away the porting, speedloaders and the long mag tube, is an open gun with a HOLO that much faster on a typical sgn stage? I don't know, but I think the difference would be substantially less than that between limited and scoped rifles on a 250yd rifle stage.

Well, certainly the Army M24 and USMC M40 Sniper Weapons Systems are thus equipped .... The Army has issued several thousand M4 systems, to special operations, airborne, air assault and light infantry units. While the standard carrying handle sights are available, the vast majority of these carbines are equipped with either the ISSUE Close Combat Optic, AKA the Aimpoint Comp M/L, or the ACOG NSN, AKA the TA01 NSN. Both optics are government issue items and have seen widespread use in Afghanistan and Iraq. The USMC is on the cusp of adopting the full length M16A4 MWS, a flat top M16A2 with the same multi use M1913 rails as the M4, to be fielded with a staggering array of night vision, visible light, IR laser target acquisition and aiming (PAQ4/PEQ2) and several options for magnified and 1x day optics. You may not prefer it, but "Scoped Tactical" represents the way most police and military that use firearms for a living are equipped. Does that matter? Perhaps not, but the present USPSA divisions don't interest a large number of capable 3 gunners largely because of the insistence on either WWII era target acquisition and aiming, or having to run some open foo foo rifle setup with pink handguards and a hydraulic bipod, a mag-lev pistol holster with two retention straps and a rain cover, and a 7ft battery powered shotgun if you just want to shoot a scoped rifle.

Was that true across divisions though? I *think* (there I go again) the gas guns are more popular in open, while the M1's are overrepresented in the limited division. The Benellis certainly seem more popular at major "tactical" non-USPSA matches, at least in the past. Just an impression, YMMV and it's been over a year since I've been to a national level 3 gun anyway. Clearly either platform will get the job done.

Notably, although you may or may not fit this description, shooters of large stature - over maybe 200ish - tend not to notice much of the Benelli recoil. While an XL like Kurt, for instance, may not notice recoil after the buzzer, it might be a problem for an S/XS female shooting slugs. For 3 gun, most shooters pick the "tactical" slug loads to reduce the hit somewhat, but the majority of modern 3 gun shotgunning is with birdshot that doesn't recoil much anyway. Shooting 71/2 low brass all day is pretty painless, even for skinny folks shooting the flyweight Benelli.

Kurt runs a SGN about as well as anybody I've seen at a major match. Todd Salmon and Blane West can win a few shotgun stages as well - in limited or "tactical", the Eye-Talian gun seems to be the ticket. I think you'll find most top 10 3 gunners that DON'T get free gear from sponsors will be running the Benelli. The Remington is soft shooting but heavier, the Benelli is light but recoils a bit harder. Go figure. Both have won matches. SX2 verdict is still out IMO.

The Army calls the Aimpoint the "Close Combat Optic", or CCO. Feedback from SWA to date seems to indicate a preference for the ACOG NSN, given a choice between the two, primarily due to the ACOG's magnification and its battery free operation, FWIW. That may not have much to do with 3 Gun but I found it interesting. Most of the operator types that shoot 3 Gun seem to really like the EOTech, and it seems to be the 1X optic of choice. Hey Kurt, you must be talking about me? LOL.

Yup, the CSM, or Combat Shooters Model. I switched from the old 3 stitch Instructor belt to the CSM this year; the CSM is reinforced with a stiff, but flexible insert that adds considerably to its stability. I regulary tote my (black plastic) blaster, (black plastic) holster and 4-5 20rd (black plastic) loaded mags around with it all day with absolute confidence and comfort. Not quite as solid as a two piece, I reckon, but it looks a lot cooler, especially in Tactical Guru Khaki. I use it with a Blade Tech holster and Galco (black leather!) mag holders; not sure how well it would work with the levitation/anti gravity type magneto powered, gas operated race holsters but I suppose pretty well. Plus, I can rappel with it in the event an alpine emergency occurs on match day. Try that with your Safariland velcro whiz bang race belt.

Limited, 7.42, 55pts This one should get me a "B" card... Shot the left paper array first, left to right, reload, shot everything else from the right, from right to left, finished on the left PP. Felt pretty fast and still not an A score. This is a tough game....

BUMP The Usual Suspects have already introduced HR 2038 to extend this flawed legislation.... Assault Weapons Ban and Law Enforcement Protection Act of 2003 Keep the pressure on.

This is tough - my pick though Steel Magnolias Holy cow, just kidding. Sorry. Gotta be HEAT Because it has Ashley Judd, AND full auto CAR15's. Easily the best gunfight ever filmed. Convincing, powerful performances from Pacino, Kilmer, DeNiro, and Sizemore. Cinematography and sound that defy description. Turn up that bank robbery on the big screen 5.1 surround and it's like Knob Creek, the USPSA 3 Gun nationals and Mogadishu ALL IN ONE. And then there's Ashley Judd, all that AND a bag of chips. What more does a movie need?

You sit up and beg. She rolls over and plays dead.

Zach, Go to the VAMD Section website, Virginia-Maryland USPSA, go the the pull down " section clubs" menu at the top, and email Jason Stoddard (St. Charles Practical Shooters, MD) or Dave Myers (Northern Virginia Practical Shooters / Quantico), tell them your story and they'll get you squared away for the next match. Both clubs are very friendly to new shooters, just be willing to learn and diligent regarding safe gun handling. (EDIT - Looks like you've hooked up with North Mountain, good luck and good shooting. The clubs I mentioned are close to DC but a hike from Winchester)

BTTT FYI