h4444

You'll love the Dillon. Which one did you order? I know what you mean about the Lee pro 1000. I had a Pro 1000 that I bought used as my first progressive. That press ran great for a while,,,then started acting up. I ran into the same thing, eventually, I was doing more tinkering than loading. The straw that broke the camel's back was a squib (that nobody heard) in the middle of a USPSA match, I cleared the malfunction and went to shooting away. I was lucky,,,,I didn't even know a squib had occurred till I went to clean the gun that night and found a very slight bulge in the barrel just barely passed the chamber. I was shooting really light loads in a Glock 22. The Glock ran after that malfunction about another 100 or so rounds that day without a problem. BUT, if you looke real close you can see tiny cracks all around that barrel. That was probably 10 years ago, that barrel sits on my desk as a reminder.... I was LUCKY,,,,,I ordered a Dillon the next day and sent the Lee to bio-degrade in a dump somewhere..... Byron

My first IDPA match back in the late 90's was a lot of fun. It stayed fun for probably 6 months,,,,then the range nazi's started showing up and invading all the local IDPA clubs I shot at in Iowa. And that started sucking all the fun out of IDPA for me. I haven't shot an IDPA match since the Clinton administration. I guess at some point, I should give it a try again..... IDPA was really fun to me, before the invasion of the fun snatchers. In practice back then, there just seemed to be too many people that want want to bludgeon you to death with a rulebook even when you're following the rules.... I just got sick of the IDPA vs. USPSA crap that was going on then. I liked both games, however back then the difference was the people. I'm not blaming any sport here, I'm just saying the IDPA culture in central Iowa in the late 90's was toxic to me. I liked the game,,,,it was just a group of traveling buttheads that ruined it for me. BUT, that was a long time ago in a land far far away, so maybe I'll get out there at some point and try again. Hmmmmm,,,,,that's an excuse to buy a concealment vest and maybe another gun. I better wait till spring before I even give that another thought considering what I've spent to get back up and running in USPSA.

Thanks for mentioning this, I installed it on my android phone and will use it for dry fire practice. The other thing I like about it, I can plug in my headphones and use my timer without driving everyone INSANE...

Run away,,,,Run away....My budget can't take looking at that very long.....

Them losing is kinda like weather, right? LOL No,,,that's the Bengals under Mike Brown's ownership.

Mods - Feel free to close this thread

Thanks a ton!!!!

Does anyone have the USPSA stage design templates handy/decompressed they could send me? I'm actually looking for the .doc files/contents of the template.exe file... I have Windows 7 machines in the house that don't like the self-extracting .zip file that is downloaded from the USPSA NROI page and my Linux machine can't unzip that file either..... Thanks much for the help. My email address is..... H4444@ymail.com Thanks, Byron

As I noted in my previous post on this thread, I checked my draw last night just to be sure no safety related bad habits had crept there way in. And I'm exactly where I want to be. As I'm moving the gun toward eye level,,,AFTER my weak hand has met the gun and I've rolled it into my grip, this means I'm disengaging the safety just before the gun is at eye level so I don't impact my ability to see my sights as they move toward the target. So, my gun is pointed well downrange before I disengage. I also checked to make sure I'm not getting on the trigger too fast and so far, everything is checking out. SO,,,,if anything were to happen after I disengage the safety, the round SHOULD go safely downrange. Doesn't mean I wouldn't be facing a potential DQ if something ever happened with a discharge at that point in my draw, but based on the angle of the pistol at the time I typically disengage the safety, should the unforeseen occur, I have far LESS chance of shooting myself or spraying anyone around me with shrapnel, and THAT should be what it is about,,,,not when CAN I disengage the safety based on the technicalities of a rule book, but when SHOULD I with regard to safety and optimum performance. I would almost guarantee you there is zero performance advantage to flipping that safety off as soon as your hand reaches the holstered gun. So, if there is no REAL performance advantage, even if legal, why do it????? It makes ZERO sense to me. Even if flipping the safety at the absolute earliest legal point in the draw buys a couple thousandths of a second, at ANY potential cost to safety,,,,I would encourage the shooter to look elsewhere for a safer place to gain back time. There is only one draw per stage/string of fire,,,,,look at transitions, entry/exit at shooting positions, engagement order, shooting on the move, running,,,,,,,any of a TON of places can be improved and gain more performance benefit. Rulebook debates have merit and there are some interesting questions that arise. Ones like this, around safety issues help me to re-evaluate how I approach situations in our sport, BUT, anytime we look at a rule and consider ways to game the rule at the potential cost of safety, we should ask ourselves, are we having the right debate? Byron

A .22, outdoors, with reactive targets gets people "into" shooting real fast - really a lot of fun, no noise, no recoil. Especially with good ear muffs - and no "loud neighbors". Indoor ranges are too crowded, too noisy - magnifies the "bad" effects of shooting. Yup.....I've been shooting indoors for so long I don't notice the noise and such anymore. It was my mistake..... .22 is exactly what I started her on, we live near and indoor range with a huge supply of rental pistols. Unfortunately, there isn't a .22 in my collection right now. Been to busy stocking back up on Limited guns, Single Stacks, Presses, conversion kits, components and such....But there will be on in the safe soon.

I'm running a load the made major in my old SS. Since coming back and not having a chrono anymore, I'm running the same load in my new SS. I KNOW that means jack in terms of making it or not. I'm not intentionally cheating, I went straight to a known load that used to get me where I wanted to be, If I can't chrono before my major in late October, I'll load up a batch of match ammo just a touch hotter just to be sure, I have room to safely up the load a bit. It isn't intentional, just a lack of equipment and range time. Besides, I have to shoot unclassified at this major,,,,,so if I accidentally go minor (which I highly doubt), it probably isn't going to be the end of the world since I'll be shooting against the GM's anyway and I'm NOT a GM.....but, I'm not a cheater either. Byron

Hmmm....This thread has really got me to thinking. I developed and refined my draw YEARS ago, it is like a subconscious act now after many thousands of repetitions and analysis learning the right/safe way to do it. BUT, I'm thinking I need to review it to make sure NO bad safety habits have crept in. I KNOW I don't disengage it while it is in the holster and my preference is after my hands come together and as I'm rolling my weak side hand into my grip as I begin presenting the gun to the target. I'm going to review it later today to make sure I'm not disengaging earlier than I want to. I want to do it after the gun starts moving toward presentation that way IF something happens I'm not spraying shrapnel around my toes or if it is a seated start I don't sent one through a leg or something, but I want to do it slightly before I'm at eye level that way I don't move the gun/sights as I'm presenting the gun forward/moving toward final alignment for my first shot. Byron

Last house I lived in was a small acreage in Rural Iowa. I bought about 4 acres,,,,then someone bought the 140 acres behind me. And of course they built their house directly in line with the ONE and only ONE safe angle of fire I had....... So, there went 5 more years without having my own practice range. Now, I'm back in a city and in the same old stinkin' boat that I have to pay for range time.....

My wife shoots me dirty looks anytime the subject of shooting comes up......... I'm still working on that little issue. In a few more years once the oldest daughter is old enough to watch her siblings, I may have a chance to rectify that as I actually have gotten her to go to the range ONCE and she seems to want to learn more, but not on the indoor range I normally shoot at these days. I took her there once and of course on our left we had somebody shooting a .44 mag and on the right was a .500 mag and neither could hit a bull in the butt with a bass fiddle, but MAN they could make some noise and my wife was sensitive to it, even double plugged. I've shot on indoor ranges for years and years and the large bore magnums in there ARE unpleasant. I just need to get a membership to BGSL (hmmm,,,,maybe I'll do that right now) so I can get her on an outdoor range and maybe stand a chance to getting her into shooting sports. Byron

It can't be a terribly high number of GM's, I won my B card at area 3 in 2003 by placing as second C and shooting a B class score and there are far more GM's now than there were then, just the nature of our classifier system. There couldn't have been but 4 or 5 GM's shooting my division back then. HECK, I wonder how I would have done in that match if I was 100%, I SEVERELY pulled my right hamstring just a few days before that match. The back of my leg was black and blue and the muscle would spasm like mad,,,,but I was shooting that match heck or high water, I just couldn't run very well. Being an area match in November in a warm weather state that is home of a boatload of GM's, there will be PLENTY GM's in the field.

I built two Simpson Strong Tie benches for a couple hundred bucks. I'm the size of an O-Lineman in the NFL,,,,were my knee able, I'm sure I could do jumping jacks on top of mine. I've sat on them and they are ROCK solid. Here they are. I have ZERO wood working skills, the plan is online and if I can do it, anybody can. Byron's Benches I googled Simpson Strong Tie and found the plans on their website, gives you everything you need.

At least the NFL puts a good product on the field (aside from the refs right now). They are structured such that there is far more competition/parity in the league.

Live long and prosper....Going all Vulcan on us? Just kidding, all good stuff as usual. Byron

To prevent the hammer from falling/touching off a round if the trigger hasn't been pulled.....

You're killing me....just killing me. I get the stink eye spending $15 bucks on a club match. Hell, I get the stink eye just dry firing.

I just went through this debate myself, and I went with the .45. The reason being, I already had everything needed but the gun. I already had a .45 SS, BUT the old SS wasn't really setup as well as I would have liked for the SS division. BUT, I didn't want to modify that pistol any further. So, I wanted something setup and ready run out of the box (with a few minor changes). I did tweak a few things, but nothing major like I would have needed with the old SS. Byron

Just made a discovery, it isn't so much my approaches/entrances to new shooting positions that was the problem Thursday, it is the visual distractions at the shooting positions. If you watch the video above, you'll see on the first stage I had to shoot through a port and was able to blaze away....those were big ports.... Now, the pause on the second port is NOT trigger freeze. When I took the first shot my left foot was on the edge of the shooting box and was sliding,,,,,I had to re-position my foot before I could god back to shooting. If you watch the second stage,,,,it is the same shooting problem, shooting through a port at relatively open targets. I let the visual distraction created by the smaller port slow me down. You'll see a HUGE difference in the splits on those two stages and there is virtually NOTHING different about the shooting problem. Lesson learned....forget the ports, walls hardcover,,,,,who cares, the targets are all that matter.

OK, I shot the Thursday night match at Bud's. Let's recap the most recent goals.... 1. Don't forget the camera. I get the rare "check/fail" here. I remembered the camera, but the batteries were dead. Alas, my buddy Ricky Flynn baled me out and got video of my last two stages, which leads to my second goal. 2. 2. Focus on improving my approach/transition to my first shot in new shooting positions. Fail....I still sucked. I'm not getting setup into a good shooting position when I transition to a new location on the stage, so I'm having to re-adjust and it just burns time. That, and I move like a pregnant yak. Still working on both of those,,,,I'm down nearly 40 lbs over the last year, so my mobility is getting somewhat better, but it still STINKS. However, I did compete in the single stack division for the first time ever, and with a new gun. I'm diggin' the Hard Chromed Trojan. It is running great. About 300 round through it so far, no hiccups. Here's the video.....And yes, that is a suppressed, MP5 I start stage 3 with, however, I kept it on semi-auto, but cost myself precious seconds screwing with the selector switch and such. Byron

Now THAT is a story that needs to be repeated!! Too often the negative stories are retold. This is a very good positive story. +1

I had a double on a classifier once...Bang and Clang. I didn't ask for it,,,,my RO immediately called it a double as he looked up briefly as I engaged the paper target in the middle saw the first shot/hole, then saw the hole "open up" just a little with the second shot. Basically, he said the edges of the hole kind of twitched outward with the second shot When we went up close on the target, I'd have been hard pressed to ask for a double. Of course....I was focused on seeing the front sight, so I didn't see the what was going on with the target. LOL And trust me, that RO wouldn't have given it, if he didn't feel it was the right call based on what he saw,,,even though in reality, at the brief moment he looked up, he wasn't watching what he was supposed to watch......my pistol and me. Byron