Jim Norman

I registered, I received the two emails, then was directed to a page that said I could squad, I clicked and the site says I am squaded but no it also says they are setting up the squads, so I am assuming that I MIGHT be in the match, they did hit my CC for the fee.

There is zero burden for running a match with added divisions. None. Suppose we have all the divisions we have now, and no one signs up to shoot one, do you as the MD suddenly have more time? an easier day? No. the same number of people shoot, the same number of stages. So how does eliminating a choice here help? If anything, I'd add Open Revo and Open SS. Get the steel shooters to come out an play. L10 allows those trapped behind enemy lines to travel to a major and shoot a recognized division with their legal equipment, they don't need to beg, borrow, steal to shoot and they don't have to learn a new game. So only three people shoot L10 at your club, so what, you shoot limited, if you win, you still win. What they shoot really does not affect you.

There are many reasons to get a diesel over a gasser, however overall cost is not one! A diesel does generally get better mileage, it costs a lot more to maintain and the entry fee is usually $100,000 more for the same size rig in Diesel over gas. That said, the Diesel rig usually will have a higher level of finish, it will tow more weight and it is likely quieter up front when underway. There are some really nice units out there for about $250,000 now and some that are as low as $180,00 or so. Now, if you need to tow heavy, or if you are going to go for long periods, long distances and often, a Diesel may pay itself off. I have had my rig now for 8 years and I have not yet spent the difference between a gasser and a similar sized diesel in gasoline. I have maybe another 4 years or more at my rate before I approach using up my diesel premium money. At 6.5MPG average over about 55,000 miles in 7-1/2 years I figure I've spent about $23,000 on gas. The closest Diesel unit I was looking at would have cost me $60,000 more than I paid for this unit and it was used, mine was new. With that in mind, I am as I said, still burning the differential. Even if a Diesel got double the mileage, i would still be years before I'd break even. HOWEVER, everything is a trade. The Diesel units weigh more and that is becasue they have heavier insides for one, Tile floors, granite counters, real toilets, stainless sinks, more water tankage and waste tankage, more propane storage and so on. The cheapest way to go is to stay home! OK, that is not an option, so a small trailer you can pull easily with an economical daily driver is probably the least expensive. A Class A, B or C rig will sit a lot, you need to tow a car with you and you need to insure it and maintain it regardless. Tires are about $3000 every 7-10 years depending upon condition and wear. Insurance is $1000 or so a year. Three batteries every 3- 5 years, it does add up. I would not trade the experiences for the money. You have kids? Take them RVing, they will in all likelihood love it! Campfires, Smores, stargazing and all the rest. You can get them away from the gameboy and the internet. You can vacation in fantastic places at a fraction of hte cost of hotels and airfare. and even the Ritz won't let you roast marshmallows outside your room! For our purposes, match travel, all your gear is with you, you have your own bed, often you can camp on a range, especially if you are self-contained.

Well, I registered and paid, I got a link that allowed me to squad, I clicked, it said I am now squaded, with whom I do not know. At this point one cannot see the squads. I am patient. I have put in for a couple extra days off. I'll know soon, I am hopeful that I can actually get the time. (99% likelihood) Gas is pretty cheap (relatively speaking) so baring a major upheaval this will be a great trip. CG is about 35 Min north of the range as I remember. Got to make a reservation there soon. Looking forward to more information. Don't care if stages are posted, would like to know who is going however.

That is sweet! Exactly!

Outside kitchen is not a good idea, my opinion, also a waste of space. Get a grill and a two burner table top, set it up on a table. 40'DP would be a great rig, but you can oversize, many places you'd have trouble getting into. My personal choice is a class A, I'd go diesel at 38-38 feet and tow a Jeep. You can tow 4-down. Easy to manage. If you don't add the cost of the RV, it is cheaper to drive the RV vs a car and hotel. Definitely cheaper than flying. All you need to two extra days.

I am not a longtime Shotshell reloader, I've only loaded a few hundred so far so take this for what it is worth, I have a Dillon 900 that I bought used, It sat on my bench for just about ever until recently. I finally decided I wanted to try my hand at trap and even wtih component costs I can reload a bit cheaper than I can buy quality loads. The Dillon works pretty darned smooth, there are a few issues that you have to watch, it is not the same as loading metallic cartridge. That said, Dillon support is there for you and they have answered my questions and got me on the road to smooth reloading, that to me is worth a lot.

There are only two CG in Tulsa. I drove out to the last USPSA Nats there a few years ago. The CG on Mingo is ok it is a place to park, it is not, NOT a resort. You have power, water and sewer for a reasonable rate. Personally I prefer this to a hotel, I can head ou to hang out, and still have the comfort of my own shell. If you compare Air, Hotel, car rental and meals to CG Fuel and food, for one it is close, travel with a friend and split the cost and it is much better to drive.

Straight time is an issue. If you smoke a long stage you can pick up enough time often to allow you to or cover you if you did screw up a short stage or three. Converting to points means each stage is equal. or you can make certain types of stages equal, Long shot stages are 150, middle range are 125, short range hosers at 100. This also works as it doesn't allow you to win by only winning one stage. You might be twice as fast as the second guy on the long stage so you have 75 points, to play with, but unless you are that consistent across the board, that one stage won't likely win you the match. In a Straight Time score system if you save 100 seconds on one stage, you have that to spend on the rest.

Two things here, One I have to do that setting as I don't want to risk a match, in 15 + years I've only ever lost one stage so knock on wood.... Issue two, dust, Dollar Store, they have some really nice brushes for.................wait for it..........a DOLLAR and you can trim the brush handle and put an eraser on it and use it as a stylus. The real issue is if it rains, water on the screens really sucketh the big one.

Vlad is a no vote, but Lou is a Yes vote, Decisions, decisions! It would only be 2-3 clays in Pit 6, assuming that I can get the pit. We should expose all our friends to the joys and challenges of big time 3GN matches. I understand what louu is saying, 3GN shuold encompass all aspects of shooting, there should be wide open hosers and tight accuracy, stationary shooting and shooting on the move, static targets and movers.

There was no penalty for failure to engage the 6 clay birds, there was a miss penalty, it was the same for all close targets, 10 seconds. If you shot and missed you added the shooting time to the penalties. Some, very few, elected to not even bother to shoot the clays. More than a few got all 6, many got 3, some 4-5, others only 1-2 and a number did miss all 6. For the record, only 3 people managed to hit all 6 Rifle targets with 6 shots. More than a few fell in love with either the two on the left or the one on the far right. Others got the long ones and went to war on the two close in rifle targets. Look at what you did poorly on and practice. If squatting in a really tight oddball position is not your strong suite, then get into tight oddball positions and shoot. You can do this with a .22lr at 25 yards, it needn't be 300 yard targets. It is shooting from the position that is the issue. Missing the flying clays? Shoot a few flyers when you practice. Everyone works to smoke a load-4 in 2 seconds, but how many are willing to spend some time shooting aerial clays? The flippers are actually a harder target as they are only visible for a very short time and there may be more than one at a time. This was just something we don't see at every match. Which reminds me, I think I'll put a couple flyers into our next 3-Gun match.

Longer is better in our game. You can rest the tube or grab the tube and not burn your hands. A short tube is just a problem waiting to happen.

I sent a note to the AMU. Match sign up is day of match. Probably a great deal if you are local.

Some targets are shall we say, Common, others are no more than a common target with a different presentation, ie, the star. It is 5 8" plates, OK, they move, but unless they are set at a ridiculous distance, an average shooter will be able to shoot it, especially since most of us will give free advice. On the other hand, there are targets that are simply not 'Common', the spinner is one. So is the double star with swinging No-Shoots and the like. They are great sidematch/Carnival targets, but don't belong in a major match. You also should have adequate spares and back-ups, so if your super-zoomy-newest new-fangled target array, hot off the welding table target cost you $2500, you should a ought to have bought two, or at the very least have a set of spare parts and a competent repairman on site. Nothing like having your target bite the dust half way through a match and having to toss a stage.

The big issue with blind stages is keeping them blind. You need enough staff that is not shooting the match to enable you to reset the satge without the competitors and you need honest competitors that won't tell others what to expect. Even then if you can hear the shot cadence you can start to build an image of the stage. Physical challenges are OK within reason. Crawl? OK, Run a bit? OK, Drag a Dummy? OK, Climb over a barricade? Maybe. Run up stairs? OK, Run DOWN Stairs? Not a good idea. Rappelling? Not a good idea. Many of us have, many of us have never and that shouldn't be something you have to learn on the clock! It is all a question of balance.

These were not IDPA matches.

I have shot in a match that required loading your shotgun from a bucket filled with water! not too bad if it isn't COLD! Other matches required reloads off of "Bodies" that were found along the way. You loaded the "Bodies" with your mags or shot shells with a mandated number of rounds. I believe the SG was all in a bandoleer that was strapped around the Dummy, Pistol mags, 3, were loaded each with a mandated number of rounds, you were to recover the ammo along the way back to a safe location while maintaining the weapons and dragging your 'Buddy". You started out with your rifle loaded with 20 rounds, no extra, 10 targets each required 2 hits, you were lying in a bunk under a blanket, your rifle on the ground next to you. A real adrenaline rush! by the time you got to the of the stage!

For 3Gn, I ALMOST never change chokes. LM all the way. It is important to know where your pattern is. Assuming that the L-R dispersion is roughly equal, you need to know the Over and Under for POA. Is your gun shooting a 60/40? 80/20 40/60 or 50/50? If you are shooting a 70/30 choke at heavy plates you may well be shooting most of your shot over the top. This is probably nearly as important as having a doughnut hole in your pattern and not realizing it. Ideally set up a patterning board and hit it from 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 yards with the chokes you plan on using . We have a steel baker at our club, but I don't recommend it under 15 yards, large pieces of cardboard work as well and are much safer.

I currently plan on staying onsite in my RV. I may decide at a later date to drive and stay in a hotel. Hotels have issues that traveling as a turtle I don't generally experience. Looking at the map, it would appear that the nearest off site lodging is 40 minutes minimum. That is almost an hour of shut-eye time when you add in the load out and account for possible traffic. It looks like they do have some pretty decent onsite housing as well. My question here is do we contact them direct regarding lodging? or do we go through Charles?

For anyone that is interested, yes, updating to the newest version of PS for the IPad solved the issue. Since I didn't see a note here about a new edition and I don't do auto-updates, I missed this. Running 1.667 as opposed to 1.661 (May of 2015) has solved this issue. Thanks to the crew that checked this and confirmed that this was the issue. Apparently USPSA will only accept the report from a limited number of releases.

So I am trying to upload a classifier/activity report. I create the report in PS 1.661, I email it to myself. I select it and I attempt to upload. I get a message that the file is not a PS or USPSA Activity file.

So I suppose I am on the opposite end of the spectrum here. I have lost a fair amount of my hearing over the years, Shooting, Loud tools, Motorcycles, Go carts etc. I am down about 30%. My wife and daughter kept bugging me to get my hearing checked. I did and that is what the results were. I have over the years shot with no protection, foam plugs, molded plugs, molded plugs with sound channels, military plugs, hardshell muffs and electronic hardshell muffs and finally I spend the money on a pair of Sport Ear Custom hearing aid.noise suppressor units. Cheap? No, not by a long shot but cheaper than most in ear hearing aids. Are they as good as a $7k pair of in ear aids? I don't know. They work. With them I can hear things I thought didn't even make noise! and I can shoot just about anything without a concern. I learned something when I was getting my hearing checked, once you start to lose your hearing, your mind starts to forget what certain sounds are. So, even if you were granted a pair of perfect hearing aids that miraculously gave you all the frequencies back, you might well not understand what you are hearing. It may take a while, or maybe never till you relearn what certain sounds mean. So, do take care of your hearing, it is probably second only to sight in the 5 senses.

I have to admit that so far I have had a grand total of about 4 FTF with my S3k. All with slugs, Fiocchi low recoil. And one interesting issue last week, the last round fed out of the tube onto the lifter, but didn't cycle into the action. Maybe I should clean it? Nah!

Too many people in too many 'dynamic' or 'action' shooting sports forget that we keep score on paper (OK, electronically now) and everyone goes home at night. All the training, all the actual shooting experiences in the world will not guarantee the outcome in a 'two-way range'. As Pat said, "Shooting is Fun!" Arguing about which shooting sport is more fun is OK, TO A POINT! At some level however it starts to really detract from the fact that 99%+ of us lose money by shooing, not that we wouldn't lose the same or more sailing, playing golf or any other endeavor, but this is for just about everyone of us a way to get out with friends and acquaintances, get a little fresh air and RELAX. Once that goes away, then it starts to remind me too much of work! Well defined rules are important as is the fair and even enforcement of the rules. If there area arbitrary calls it starts to detract from the Fun Factor. This ties into the IDPA is tactical vs USPSA will get you killed mentality of some. I could go on, but Most has been said before by better writers and shooters than I