BradGannaway

What you have to do know is convince someone else to go shoot a match. If we all bring at least 3 new guys a year, and those new guys eventually bring new guys, and so on, we can make this sport HUGE! I honestly think we are sitting on the brink of an explosion in the popularity of shooting sports. I have learned, over the past six months, that most people have no clue that USPSA is so easy to get into, and some have no idea it exists. When I bring new guys, they always say the same thing I did when I started, "I wish I had known about this sooner!!" Welcome to "crack" for shooters!! BSG

Ok, I'll admit, I'm not the smartest guy in the world, but I did score in the 90 percentile on the math portion of the GRE. I get the part that says how much each case weighs, but what does the rest of it mean? 9mm, 59.46gr/ea, 117.7cases/#, 8.5#/1000 This is what I'm reading; - 59.46gr divided by each...each what? - 117.7 cases divided by a number....what number and where does 117.7 come from? - 8.5 multiplied by a number, divided by a thousand.....what number and where does 8.5 come from?

Here's the initial version of my LINKS PAGE. After arguing with my website editing program all night long, I finally convinced it to do what I wanted it to do. I'm going to be adding more just about every day. BSG

AWESOME, AWESOME, AWESOME!!!! I will be following up with some of you guys to see if you can do some QC on the work I'm going to do over the next few weeks. Thanks for the GREAT ideas, and please, if anyone has any more, feel free to share. And if anyone has any constructive criticism, don't worry, I've grown some real thick skin after 16 years in the Army with multiple combat and overseas tours. I want to promote shooting and second Amendment rights AS WELL AS USPSA. Thanks again. BSG

Brian, Again, you represent what I LOVE about this sport! I've played golf, softball, club basketball, and MANY, MANY intramural sports and all have paled in comparison to the comradery and friendship I've experienced within shooting sports, especially USPSA. (And we're shooting guns!!! Who would have thought?) After six months of shooting USPSA I am still amazed at the shortage of members(comparatively)to those other sports. I may be dreaming big, but I am on a mission to increase the participants in our sport dramatically in the central Alabama area to start off with, then the state, and who knows from there. Thanks again Brian. And for all you other guys on this thread, I will be adding the links to your clubs and organizations to my links page that I am in the process of building. If you don't mind, and have time and space, please add me to yours. Thanks everyone. BSG

I've been stationed at FT Sill, OK for the past two years, and have been a member of the Oklahoma Shooters Association almost the entire time. It's a site for ALL shooters, not just competition shooters. It's been nice meeting guys, through the website, that live close to me, and to be honest, OSA is responsible for getting me into USPSA......or at least a few of the members are responsible. Since there was nothing like that for the state of Alabama, and since I'm moving to Alabama, I started a website to fill the gap. My problem though, is that for one, I'm brand new to web design and if you check out the site, you can see that it's not very "flashy". But, my biggest problem is getting people to the website. The people that do find the site, usually join, if they are from Alabama. However, my site rank is almost non existent, so when people google my site, it doesn't come up. I've been reading about how to fix this, and one of the best ways is to get other sites to link to my site. Now we get to my real question...........how to ask someone to put a link to my site on their site? It sounds like a simple answer, but I just don't want to put someone in an uncomfortable situation. Also, does anyone know anything about getting advertisers? I don't want to make money for me, rather to have contests and pay for members match fees, t-shirts, and stuff like that. Any help and advice is greatly appreciated. BSG

No issues loading the .380 on the 550. Welcome to the forums. BSG

I'm at 3.8 gr of TG behind 124gr MG JHP. 133ish PF and accurate as hell!!! BSG

I am about to buy a 650, and I know a beginner who just bought a 650 and it is KICKING HIS ARSE!! I have to disagree with you on this one. Plus, I can still load about 125 rounds an hour with my Lee Turret. Granted, that's no where close to the 500 an hour I do on my 550, but again, I jumped right into that 550 after I loaded for a while on my LCT. I guess it just depends on the person. Just my .02

You can do it via "elbow greese" but it's really not going to be as good as doing it with a dremel. Also, using a stone to start off with will make the job so much easier and the results so much better. If you don't, it's kind of like polishing a turd.

OK Jesse, I'll stop there..........I was about to come back with another one, but I'm sure there are people on here that would start to wonder if the bantering got as bad as it was in Breckenridge!! BSG

Some of this depends on how picky you are being about your grip. There are always times, every now and then, that my grip is not "perfect". I realize, at those times, that it is not the gun, nor the weather, nor the way someone is looking at me, rather it is my mind. If I get to the point that I seem to be having a bad grip more than acceptable, then I start back at the beginning........draw practice. What always helps me is that I will start from whatever starting position......table, hands at side, hands above shoulders....whatever, and use a par timer. But, instead of going as fast as I can through the whole process, I intentionally slow down right before I "snatch" the gun. It's almost like a pause, which "makes" me think about a good grip. If you'll go to my website, go to the competition and upcoming events section, there are some videos of my` matches. You will see that "pause" in some of the videos. I'm now working on "working' that pause out of my draw, but I'll tell you, it makes me grip the gun like I should, which is worth the extra .20 seconds it takes.

No? Oh yea, I bet you're leaning towards pink since it will match your panties, right? :roflol

I'll chime in on this one........ I say get the 550 AND a Lee Classic Turret Press. In fact, I say get the Lee package first, spend about a month learning to reload on the Lee, then buy the 550. I remember when I started reloading, my brother had a 550. He tried to show me how it worked, how to change calibers, and how to trouble shoot........I retained about 5% of what he told me. I almost didn't want to reload at all. So I bought the Lee classic Turret package for just under $200. Read the Lee manual from cover to cover, read the "ABCs of Reloading", then got at it. For almost a year, I was happy with the Lee press. Then, I started shooting MUCH more and bought the 550. I still use the Lee press to do my .308 and .380s since I don't load them as much, plus I use it to work up loads on other calibers since I can make it single stage only. After the load is worked up, I set it up on the 550 and run with it. I sold most of the ancillary stuff I got with the Lee press for just about what I paid for it all. So, that's why I recommend both........however.....YMMV BSG

Cool. New stuff to make me feel like I suck more!!! :roflol: Much, much more stuff to work on. BSG

That would have thrown me through a loop too. When in doubt, make the RO explain, and re-explain the stage; that's part of their job. BSG

99 degrees is hot????? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Try 108 at the New Mexico HDC!! Welcome to the forums!!

Glad you joined. Welcome aboard and share the knowledge!!

It's funny you should be on the topic of efficiency while entering a position. I had a M pull me aside a couple months ago and give me one of the best tips I've ever received. He told me to "begin" to stop about a half step away from my predetermined foot position. Why? (that's what I asked ) When I SLAMMED into a position, my gun was almost already up and I was setting the sight picture up. This caused a little (and sometimes a lot) of front site bounce, which sometimes cost me anywhere from .5 to 1.5 seconds trying to get the front sight on target. So I started to "slow down" a half step before my position and now, by the time both my feet are in position, I've either already fire one shot and sometimes two. What it allowed me to do was keep that front sight steady all the way through the presentation, thus kind of allowing me to shoot "on the move" and not really think about it. I did a lot of practice on this at the range, and still do to keep my body reminded that even though I have explosive movement, I don't have to have explosive stops. I'm just a C shooter, but I thought that sounded like the kind of answer you were looking for. I may be wrong......... BSG

I've got extremly dry eyes, had LASIK ten years ago and am wearing glasses again, have horrible "floaters" in my eyes, and can't wear contacts to shoot because they "move" around too much and get me out of focus. I've had to spend a lot of time dry firing, while practicing on my focal point and teaching myself to go there automatically. It's kind of like practicing on draws and reloads to me. The more I practice it, the more my mind doesn't think about it on a stage which allows my mind to be clear, open, and stay aware of everything going on. I'm beginning to understand and experience that "awareness state" that BE so often talks about. I will be developing and refining that skill for a long time, but I've seen a huge improvement in my shooting by subscribing to that level of conciousness. Basically, I'm saying that practicing at the range and dry firing will give you your answer eventually, but don't look to fix anything immediately. If you are experiencing "good" vision on some stages, try to store that away in your memory, take notes right after the stage, and try to reproduce that in practice. Good luck.

I've been trying to convince my dad of this. Hopefully he will succomb to the addiction when both his sons are shooting USPSA. Welcome. BSG

This thread is not helping me at all!!! I still can't make the decision. BSG

Thanks to the staff, we had two fun days of shooting. This was the first time I got to shoot with Mike Seeklander, and I learned a lot. I've got a few pages of notes of things I've got to practice. If I shoot it next year, I'll shoot Limited so I can be in the running for a gun, trophy, or belt buckle. BSG

Sign up for the Texas State Limited Championship that's happening the weekend of July 10th. You'll get to meet a lot of people, ;earn a lot, and have a great time. Welcome.

This was my first "major match" and I could not have had a better experience. I've been shooting USPSA since February, and have learned a lot. I took 2nd place, C class, in Production and got a $100 gift certificate to Montana Gold from the prize table. I'd say I did pretty well for my first non-local match. I have to thank Phil Strader and Pat Doyle for all the advice throughout the match. These two guys are first class shooters and all around first class guys. The stages were something like I've never seen before, and it was a little weird having an aquatic themed match in the middle of the desert. But, other than the stinking windmill (I hated that thing) I loved every minute of it. I am going to write an article about the match and submit it to Front Sight and see if they will publish it two issues from now. I got a few pictures, but I'd like to see if any of you guys have any pics you'd like me to submit with the article. The other thing I was wondering is if anyone has any funny quotes, incidents, or just something interesting about the match that I can use in the article. I really wanted to get around and talk to a few people, but I was just beat Saturday night, and had to drive 8 hours after the awards ceremony, so I really didn't have any time. So, I'm gonna see if I can get some "comments" and "interview responses" here. Again, thanks to the staff, sponsors, and everyone else that made this match possible. It will be something that I will try to shoot again. Brad