GOF

The .357 is awesome in .38 Long Colt/ .38 Special revolvers. Not so good in my 9mm M&Ps... groups in the 4.5 range (25 yards) compared to the .356 147 2.5 inch.

Ruger GP-100 for speedloaders... .38 Spl in IDPA and load .38 Long Colt for ICORE Classic. Wilson Combat and Wolfe make inexpensive spring kits that give me a butter smooth 8-pound DA pull. Had one 4-inch gun go 30,000 rounds of 125 PF (+P) before needing a tune up. Much more accurate than the S&W 686 I started with.

I have done a lot of gun testing for various gun magazines over the last 30 years and the Federal American Eagle 147 FMJ load has proven to be the most consistently accurate load in every 9mm I have tested it from. If it's not "The Most Accurate" it will always be among the top 2 or 3.

I have a Burris FFIII 8 MOA on my S&W Victory RFPO gun. I shot it many times with the dot set at "auto setting" (first hit on the switch) It seemed to 'bloom' a bit on me outdoors, and especially on 10-12 inch plates at 20 yards, and I didn't feel 'solid' with the bloom. One practice stage (Pendulem) I turned the dot down to mid power (two clicks down)...What a difference! Still had 8 MOA dot, but now sharply defined on distant 10-12 inch plates. It made a difference to me. I'm only a B Class shooter right now, but I have run 3.09 on Five To Go and 2.98 on Accelerator... and feel much more positive and flowing with that 8 MOA medium power setting. I expect that I might climb into A Class with it. Big dots are easy to find... but if the dot overpowers the target you can get a miss, and add time to what should be a smooth run. I have a 6.5 RMR, auto adjust dot only, on my SW CORE (B Class there in CO) and it seems to work well. It doesn't overpower the target. I'm not certain that bigger is always better.

A 200 grain bullet at 650 fps makes 130 PF. You should have no problems with a plated bullet sticking in the barrel with that load, and it should be easy to get with 231/HP38, or equivalent speed powders.

It's hard to get "less expensive" than a S&W Victory/FFIII sight (careful shopping, maybe $700-$750 for package). Mine eats anything I feed it and shoots .5-inch (or less) five round 25 yard bench rest groups. Standard 5.5 bull barrel. Strips for cleaning easy. Has 3.15 pound trigger. The interchangeable iron sight/Picatinny rail system top mount makes it a pretty versatile gun... from the factory. Extra mags are available from S&W. I have 5, which is all I need for Steel Challenge. Only two complaints. (1) The grips are small for me and no one is offering target grips yet. Skateboard tape and attention to proper grip fixed it for me. (2) The thumb safety is easily applied. I make a habit of checking it as I get my grip before each string. I'm only Class B, but haven't shot more than a dozen matches, and wouldn't be classed any higher with another gun anyway. I'm happy with it, and have retired my Ruger MKII to back up use. It doesn't have a comp, but I can't see any use for one on a .22LR shooting standard velocity 40 grain loads. Recoil? What recoil? My dot doesn't move.

Mobil 1 V Twin 20w-50w is my choice and it performs perfectly as a 'heavy' lube for the barrel/bushing/frame rails on my handguns and for the BCG on my ARs. Being a synthetic, without petroleum, it doesn't carbonize under heat and pressure. It just stays "lube". It was designed for air cooled motorcycle engines.. which is exactly what a handgun is. It's thick enough to stay where you put it. And, an inexpensive quart bottle is almost a lifetime supply. I don't use it as a 'fine lube" for trigger parts... but for everything else it's hard to beat.

As a CSO at in FL if a shooter drops a mag to the ground on the "ULSC" and proceeds to ULSC I'm not going to call a PE on him. He did "Unload and show clear". What's the problem... he followed the SO commands and cleared his gun. If he fires another shot after ejecting the magazine... different story/situation... and a PE.

From a IDPA CSO... it would be legal with the iron sights, and cover plate, in place and no reflex. At a club match it would be legal in NFC (if the MD allows NFC) with the reflex in place.

I'm interested to know what reflex sights seem to be holding up well to the G-forces generated by a slide mount... and which ones aren't.

Same here. The hand goes to the same place each time and the movement to sweep back until a mag is contacted is the same for all reloads. Easy muscle memory for me.

It is legal in IDPA. The hammer must be down at the Start command, but can be cocked for shots after the Start signal is given.

I've shot a fair bit of PPC. My choice would be a 6 inch Ruger GP-100 with a Wilson or Wolfe spring kit. My GP-100 will toss virtually any decent load of full cylinder 6 round groups into 2.5 or less from a 25 yard bench. Lead, plated, jacketed, Hi-Tek coating... it seems to make no difference. The spring kit gets me down to about a 7.8 pound DA pull, and a very light SA pull. I have found that the standard adjustable Ruger rear sight will "bounce" on you... but a Bowen Rough Country replacement rear stopped that. I find the Ruger GP-100 to be more accurate with lead, plated, or Bayou than the 686 I used to shoot.

That shouldn't be a difficult thing to adjust for. Maybe the shooter could use a different name/alias, and the scoring system would then be viewing two different shooters. Just saying it can't be done does not truly address the issue. I realize that this could be a problem at anything other than local club matches (which are, basically, practice sessions anyway) and might not work at upper tier matches. But there's no reason it could not be accommodated at a local club match. The last three letters in American spell 'can'.

I could see a legitimate reason for a shooter to shoot 2 guns in the same division... example; a shooter has 2 different RFPO guns and would like to see which is actually the better choice. Or, 2 Production, Limited, SS, etc. If the shooter has 2 score to compare it's a valid exercise. Most club matches allow a second gun at a reduced fee at MD discretion. There should be some way to do this.... maybe the alias idea... but there should be some provision for it. It could be valuable to the shooter.

I would tell him "No problem, just supply the factory ammo you are requiring me to shoot." Won't make a difference, since you can't go down in classification without a Doctor's orders.... so let him pick up the tab. And, if he wants, he can have the brass

My friend & shooting buddy, Massad Ayoob (who is a court certified Expert Witness on self-defense shootings in Lord knows how many states) has some strong thoughts against the practice of using reloaded ammo for self-defense. Some are the result of actual court proceedings & verdicts and his reasons against the practice are too long to go into here. The bottom line is don't do it! The "unintended consequences" can be severe. If you can load the HST bullets to the same velocity as the factory load, then why not avoid all the potential problems and just buy a box of factory loads and run those in your EDC gun, and just practice with your reloads?

I tend to think this is correct. (The quote feature didn't work.... but I wanted to quote Alma from a couple of posts above... #58). At 2016 FL State SCSA there were only 3 CO shooters (KC was one and dominated). There were 9 PCC shooters. Maybe the carbines are more readily available from 3-Gun crossovers than COs are from any other gun sport. Maybe it's "too new". Maybe other shooters are still getting their 'rigs' ready. I do know that Classifications in CO are coming up quickly. That was the first match I shot with a CO and I'm now listed as B Class.

231/HP38... WSF... BE-86... N320... N310. All will work well for 9mm Minor.

I am very happy with the 6.5 MOA RMR. It's been slide mounted for about 4,000 9mm rounds in USPSA/SCSA without problem. Some other sights didn't make it very far... the G-forces were more than they could handle.

One of the 'issues' I see with some Steel Challenge stages is that they exceed the distance that many smaller clubs (which, IMHO, are the heart & soul of SCSA) have the bays to set them up in. As a result, the only time many shooters get to practice these are at larger club matches that have the room to set them up... and not at their home club. I'm not saying that distances with existing plates be decreased. Maybe distances with smaller (6 or 8 inch) plates could be decreased. Shrink distance to allow smaller clubs to run them, and shrink plate size to maintain the Challenge. As for adding more movement.... as noted above, many club shooters are of an advanced age that has 'diminished their foot speed'... add the raised tubes on the shooting box and some have to spend more time watching their feet than the targets when they move on Outer Limits. Painted line shooting boxes would ease that, but not many smaller clubs would do that. Those ranges have to be torn down after the match so that the 'regular club members' can use the ranges. Just some thoughts

I was on the squad that finished late. We were combined with another squad that didn't fill (thus removing one squad and creating a separate larger one). We were the largest squad in the match. It was just the number of shooters on the squad, and not due to lack of participation or poor ROing. We frequently had more shooters running down stage with paint cans than there were targets to paint, and our RO team were excellent. We were caught from behind a couple of times by smaller squads, but that was due simply to our having a significantly larger number of shooters.... some of which were a bit inexperienced... but not enough to overly delay things. An observation -- 9 PCC shooters overall and only 3 CO. I was a bit surprised at that, given the newness of PCC. Hat Tip to Matt Mitchell and his staff. It was a well run match in record heat (105-108 heat index). They had shade, ice and water at every stage.

I left the factory iron sights on my M&P CORE when I installed the RMR and I honestly cannot remember ever seeing them when presenting to a target. The only thing my mind 'sees' is the 6.5 MOA dot. If I remove the RMR and shoot the gun in IDPA, or USPSA Limited, the iron sights work just fine. I kinda like that level of versatility.

I load in Florida - high humidity. I have seen no ill affects. I do maintain some level of temp control with an AC, but not to a great extent. One suggestion -- load your powder measure when you start reloading, and empty it back into the factory powder container when you're done. Don't leave it in the hopper for extended periods of time. I've also had no problems with primers -- even those left outside in a non-temperature controlled storage shed. Humidity doesn't seem to be an issue, at least for me.

Thank You!