narwhal

I was wondering how people deal with a really poor match result? Do you take the parts of the match you did poorly on and implement those into practice more to improve? Do you shrug it off as a bad day and not change too much? Do you look at your equipment and consider changing it? Does it tend to de-motivate you and make you wonder if you're just wasting time doing something you don't have any natural talent for, or does it energize you to improve? I shot a club I've never shot at while out of town on business, and got absolutely smeared, finished 24/36 overall when I'm used to finishing in the top 10% of a similar sized field back home. Yes, it's a better/more competitive club. Had an equipment problem (a magazine fell out of it's pouch while I was sprinting between positions, costing 20+ seconds), and there were tons of really tight shots on swingers/pop-ups usually with non threats around them plus a lot of partial targets 50% covered by non threats, and I ended up pegging 3 NT's, whereas most of the field was able to avoid doing so. Also I had not been able to dry or live fire for 2 weeks directly prior due to flying for business, so I was a bit cold. Anyway, still a beginner, only shot a few dozen matches but this one was probably my worst result.

Cool thanks, yeah I was hoping for something I could carry and compete with in 1 gun, hoping for maybe CCP idpa but I'd imagine it's too tall.

Hi, I was wondering if anyone knew the dimensions on the STI Guardian 2011 (L x W x H), grip width, weight, w/ an empty magazine, etc. I can't find this info on STI's site, although admittedly I am an idiot and may not be looking in the correct place. Also, any reviews on the pistol or thoughts on what divisions of USPSA/IDPA it might be legal in are appreciated. I am a noob who is considering making the leap from plastic guns, so go gentle.

They increased maximum height for BUG from 4 & 1/2" to 4 & 5/8" presumably to accommodate the S&W M&P shield in that division.

On the latest rules revision they increased the maximum height for BUG to 4 & 5/8" or 4.625" to accommodate the shield, I guess.

Haha, kind of frustrating. I've been practicing for an upcoming classifier with my M&P compact and am well within the expert time almost every run in BUG with it, but usually 5 seconds over expert in CCP with it. Oh well, more motivation to practice I guess, doesn't really matter since I doubt I'll ever shoot anything beyond a club level match and classification is just for my ego.

Hello, A local club is putting on a USPSA match in a few days and I'm going to try it. I've never been to one before. I've shot about half a dozen IDPA matches in the past 3 months (because they were available on my days off, not any kind of preference) and am pretty bad (Sharpshooter), have been using a carry gun (M&P 40 compact) for that in their concealed carry pistol division. Anyway, I also have an M&P 40 pro 5" and I'm considering shooting it in Limited major because I have 3 of the 19 round 140mm Taylor Freelance magazines and a carver custom flared magwell, although the rest of the gun is stock (black rear sight/FO front). The gun holds about 4" groups at 25 yards with my unskilled self shooting slowfire groups. Would I look like an idiot showing up to shoot limited as a beginner? I have shot a friend's STI edge so I know the M&P is not really a competitive gun in the division with it's 5 pound trigger, it would just seem fun to me to try something way different from IDPA (less reloading, more shooting). My other option is to shoot without the magwell and use stock magazines in production. I have some .40 minor ammo which functions fine in the pistol should I choose to do that. Thanks in advance.

Yeah, I think the M&P compact is a good bit shorter than the M&P shield, at least when using the flat base magazines without the pinky extensions. The compact is about 4.3" from the bottom of the magazine baseplate to the top of the rear sight, which I reckon should be the tallest point on the pistol.

Thanks, S&W lists the compact as 6.7" long which would be .2" over. Barrel is listed as 3.5" and weight as 24.9 oz. I'd imagine it still fits in the box, because it's not over 6.5" in any one axis (it's probably 6.7 if you measure from the back of the bobbed beavertail to the muzzle, but they aren't on the same plane) but I guess not legal for BUG. They don't list a height or width spec that I see on the internet.

So, I've taken the calipers to my M&P compact. In the latest revision they bumped the weight up to 26 oz w/ an unloaded mag, my m&p compact weighs 24.75 oz. It's really close on the other dimensions. It's almost exactly 6.5" long (6.5" max). It's about 4.3" tall with the non-pinky extension magazines (4.5" max). With the large grip insert, it's questionable on width, but since the grip insert is kind of spongy I can get a 1.35" reading if I depress the rubber grip a little bit with calipers at it's very widest point, otherwise it's about 1.38" (the limit being 1.375"). Width becomes well within limits if you go to the medium or smaller grip insert. Barrel length is also close but mine measures 3.4" from the back of the chamber to the muzzle. You don't have to include the feed ramp in that measurement do you? I was wondering if anyone else had looked into this or if there has been any kind of ruling, since it is so close every dimension except height. I'm on the fence about whether to shoot it in CCP w/ pinky extensions or BUG w/o anyway. Thanks.

the M&P compact is definitely legal in CCP stil. The M&P fullsize I think might be a hair too tall. I measured a little over 137mm from the bottom of the magazine to the top of the rear sight with digital calipers, which is just 1mm too tall for CCP. Maybe some kind of super low profile sights could get it into CCP, not sure. They are both questionable on width with the large sized backstrap but the bastrap material is kind of rubbery/flexible so not sure if you would be able to squeeze it into a box or if you'd just need to use the medium backstrap.

Well, so much for my M&P compact in BUG. It is over the new weight limit by about 2 ounces. Oddly, I can now shoot an M&P fullsize (4.25 barrel) in CCP since it meets all those qualifications, and even throw a 9mm barrel in my .40 and be legal i think. It is close on the width with the medium grip insert but would probably still fit even with that. Does anyone see a reason why you couldn't shoot a fullsize M&P in CCP now?

I think I was down 2 on stage 1 (1 from weak hand only and 1 from strong hand only), down 5 on stage 2 (a few from SHO and a few from the El Pres), and down about 25 on stage 3. I'm just slow right now, mozambiques running about 3.2 and taking too much time to ensure all the hits on the headshots, etc. Also really slow on SHO and WHO trying to ensure clean hits. I can occasionally get a 1.5 first shot off but it's usually closer to 2. In dry fire a trigger break at 1.2 is no problem, it's that hesitation of getting the 100% down zero the sight picture in live fire that is costing me .5-.75 seconds, but I know that will go away with practice. Unfortunately I have a job that puts me overseas with no chance of even dryfire for about 2 weeks a month, but I try to go to the range and practice live fire about 3x per weak plus matches on weekends when I'm at home.

Nah, the reload wasn't specified in the COF since the SSP/ESP guys were shooting the first 3 targets and the next 3 targets from the second position before they reloaded. Looks like I got a bogus PE, oh well, just a local match.

I shot the classifier with the BUG last week and was only 15 seconds from expert with the factory stock M&P 40 compact. I'm pretty sure I can clean that up to expert eventually with a lot of practice. I can easily get about 5 seconds from my retention reload splits in stage 3 if i actually practice those (my splits on those were 5-6 seconds each, horrible haha) and by speeding up my splits on the 3rd stage @ 20 yards, which run in the 1 second range right now (even getting those down to .75 or so would save 7-8 seconds on the stage, just switching to 9mm might do it). I can't seem to bust under 20 seconds of string 1 stage 3 without getting a LOT of points down, but if I can smooth out the reload that should go to 17-18 seconds. Right now on stage 3 I can shoot it clean if I take about 60 seconds for all 3 strings combined, If I go balls out for speed I can shoot it in about 40 seconds but go about 30 PD. I just need to find the accuracy at my 40 second pace. I feel like a ton of my wasted time is waiting a half second or so on everything for that perfect sight picture and perfect trigger press, which really isn't necessary, especially on the 7 yard stuff, but the stock trigger on the M&P is ~6 pounds so the force needed to fire the shot can easily torque the gun off target if I'm not deliberate;y smooth.

Question, I got a procedural for reloading at a recent match. The C.O.F. was as follows, (I was shooting BUG division with 6 rounds in the gun at start) Gun on table, at start pick up gun and engage T1-T2-T3 from the end of the table with 2 shots each, then move to P2 (10 yards away) and engage a seperate set of targets from behind cover.... So I shot the first 3 targets from the open as dictated in the COF, the gun ran dry since I had fired 6 rounds, and I reloaded while I moved to the cover for the next targets. I got a procedural for reloading while I was moving. Was this correct?

Right, except for dimensions (width 1 3/8", length 7 1/4", height 5 1/2", barrel length 3.6" and weight 29 oz w/ unloaded mag), everything else goes by ESP I think.

Hi, Shot a friend's Edge awhile back and thought it was incredible. I've been shooting plastic guns for years and am finally considering stepping up to the plate on a 2011. I want a 5" Eagle in .40 since most of the clubs around me are IDPA, but I'd still like to be able to shot USPSA major L10, and I'd order 3-4 extra 126mm STI magazines. I'm probably just going to order one from Dawson or Brazos but I've read a lot that they need "tuning packages" to insure reliability. However, I don't see anything of this sort offered on the STI or Dawson website. I don't really have the time or patience to sort through a lot of reliability issues on the pistol when I get it, so I'd prefer to spend extra money up front to get something that works. I've tried searching the web for this sort of info but most of what I find is old info from 5+ years ago, and also a lot of searches turn up stuff about Subaru STI cars instead of pistols. Thanks for the advice, feel free to link me to older threads if this has been answered already and I'm just bad at searching. I live 45 minutes from Dawson and 2 hours from Brazos if that matters, I don't think they take walk-ins anyway.

Thank you!

I shot BUG for the first time in a local monthly match with about 60 shooters and I was the only one in the division. I haven't shot much lately, but overall score would've put me in 15th out of 38th in SSP, so at least I wasn't slowing the squads down too much. Was happy with that until I saw a revolver guy that best my score by 20%, LOL. Can anyone confirm if externally visible modifications such as aftermarket triggers are acceptable in BUG? I'm under the impression that ESP rules apply and am considering an Apex forward set trigger for the M&P compact I'm using for BUG.

Ah, do you know if the FS trigger is legal for ESP? If so, it should be legal for BUG, but not for CCP. Supposedly BUG rules for modifications are the same as ESP as long as it still complies with the size and weight restrictions of BUG.

Thanks, I appreciate the answers.

Hi, Have an M&P 40 compact that I use for concealed carry and IDPA. Am considering making it a game gun for IDPA back up gun division and just getting another compact to keep stock as a carry gun. I was going to put a KKM .40 to 9mm conversion barrel in it, and go with the Apex forward set trigger and competition AEK. Really unsure if I should change the sights though, as of right now it has the S&W factory trijicon night sights (3 dot). I'm guessing a front FO setup of some kind would be better. I go back and forth on doing this though, because I do like to use IDPA for concealed carry practice using IWB holsters, even if that does make me a bit mall ninja-ish. I usually only have to compete against one or two other shooters in BUG out of a field of 50 or so, so not really worried about where I place, although I imagine I would get my ass kicked hard shooting a stock compact .40 against someone of equivalent skill shooting a small 1911 in .380 or something. Also I like that the stock M&P is incredibly reliable and can do things like go a few thousand rounds without cleaning if I want to, don't know how the apex would affect this. Currently a SS and my goal is simply to make expert within a year. Is the M&P compact with mods actually competitive BUG pistol or should I just be looking into some other type of gun.

So I shot an IDPA match again recently after about 4 years away and am a bit confused. I understand that round dumping now is completely OK and there is no risk of an FTDR. The biggest confusion for me is the reloads now. When I quit shooting, if I remember correctly it was pretty simple - if you wanted to reload with rounds still in the gun, you needed to do a reload with retention; otherwise you could do a slide lock reload. Can't remember 100% but I think back then all reloads needed to be behind cover. I was reading online that for awhile they made it so that you could not reload while moving at all, then changed it back so that you could reload while moving again as long as you were behind cover? I apologize, I'm pretty dumb, so my rulebook reading comprehension is bad, can somebody explain the reloading rules now in simple terms, and confirm that I'm correct about round dumping? Planning to try the new BUG division with an M&P 40 compact next weekend, and being limited to 6 to start and for reloads it looks like I'll need to have reloading rules down pretty cold, haha. I take this to mean that you can shoot on the move and in the open until you run dry and may continue moving while performing your reload, however you cannot fire after the reload until you're at the next shooting position and behind cover if the COF dictates cover must be used. There are a lot of conditional statement in the above rules section so I just want to be sure I'm interpreting it correctly. I guess my main question stems from the hallway scenario - you are advancing down a hallway, engaging targets at the other end because the COF mandates shooting while advancing, the gun goes to slidelock before you've engaged all the targets. Do you have to retreat to cover to perform a reload to avoid a procedural? I interpret the rules as saying yes.

Hi, I have a Berreta A391 Xtrema2 with the 24" barrel and would like to start using it for local shotgun/3 gun type matches. I was using a Mossberg 930 SPX but it has shown itself to be unreliable to the point that I had to sell it, and my 6 pound 870 express is simply too painful to shoot a lot of rounds through. I need a magazine extension for the Xtrema2 though. Is the nordic components model a good one to get? I was looking at the +4 to bring total capacity to 9 shells with 2.75" ammunition. Also does anyone know if the +4 is about flush with a 24" barreled A391? I don't know much about divisions in this sport, but will a tube capacity of 9 rounds still allow me to shoot in limited? Finally, am I going to need a clamp to secure the extension to the barrel with a magazine this long? Thanks in advance!