fullautodave

Does this apply to the new keyed mainspring housings on some factory guns? How do I start a string? Key in lock? Key in hand? Key in left front pocket, or as in my case, back at home in the nightstand? Dave

I thought if you disabled your grip safety, you did it to enhance the relialibility of the weapon

Rick; Ask your insurance agent about a umbrella policy. I have had one for years and you can drop all of your other liability policies, auto and homeowners, to the minimum required by law and make up the difference with the umbrella. Mine costs, I think, about 250.00 per million dollars. You can subtract the savings on your other policies from that. Dave

I believe the intent of this rule is not to leave any ammo behind to allow your real-world opponent the chance to retrieve it and then shoot you with it. If you are making a legal reload and drop your next mag on the ground or miss your mag pouch when you go to stow it, there wouldn't be a penalty if you went to your next magazine and then retrieved your dropped mag before you advanced to the next shooting position. If you are making a legal reload and drop your next magazine on the ground and you go to the next magazine and finish the string WITHOUT MOVING to another position, then you have left no ammo behind. I am not sure how else it could be done, would putting the dropped mag back in your mag pouch create enough sound to activate the timer? At the 2003 IDPA Nationals in Little Rock, this very thing happened to TGO on Johnny V's stage and he was given a PE but it was overturned because he had not moved since dropping the mag. At this years Nationals in Little Rock a shooter dropped a mag while moving to a new position and the SO picked it up and handed it to the shooter so he could finish the string ( he needed it ) and did not recieve a PE. Did the match director approve this action for all shooters or just the ones sponsored by Wilson Combat?

Yea, I liked the part where he made you a human target stand for your shooting partner. As far as the latest article in the TJ, it is definitley an improvement over the other ones. He even quoted special agent Scott Warren in this last one. Anybody at the 1998 IDPA Nationals in Jefferson City, Missouri remember what Scott's T-shirt said? Great people. DA Dave

I can not disagree with to much on this thread but I believe this is just wrong. BW was very competitive, and very, very supportive of USPSA. He got screwed and then got mad and then set out, in my opinion, to make IDPA to be different more than anything else from USPSA.

"By the way, airgunning is still against the rules" Where is it written that airgunning is against the rules? Sight pictures, yes. DA Dave

He does look at at least some of these forums, I have a nasty e-mail from him to prove it. DA Dave

Don't they do that at the Nationals almost every year? They call it a Tac-Load off the clock. That way you can have high round count stages and still be "legal". D A Dave

Jane's IDPA scoring software is the bomb!!!!!! Dave

Would you guys quit arguing long enough to tell me when the match at Coney Island is.

This ( '04 Nationals ) was my first major USPSA match and I admit I went into it with a "fear" of being DQ'd because of all the stories I had heard about the RO vs. us mentality that does or did exist in USPSA. And after going to the shooters meeting and listening to a GUY WITH A DRESS ON tell us how to be safe, I was beginning to wonder. However, and I know this is no comfort to the people that did get DQ'd, I thought things went pretty well considering there were some 180 traps and some real good places to sweep yourself. I actually seen one guy get DQ'd and he had done nothing unsafe but placed his weapon ( empty ) on a table before getting the range command to. I think for 563 shooters and no more than 6 (?) to get DQ'd and no arbitration that says something. This don't mean I think Unleashed was treated right or wrong, I wasn't there, but something has changed or all those other stories were just BS. Dave

I see a lot of people here asking about new "IDPA legal" holsters. A new holster rule is in the works and is RUMORED to be implemented around the first of the year. The holster list will be abolished and what works for you may not work for someone else. Rumor is that the gun must not be more than 1/2 inch from your body and the latest RUMOR is that when holstered the gun or holster must touch your body. Like I said this is just rumor but I hate to see someone go out and buy a holster and before they get a chance to use it , it becomes illegal. Happened to me with the Helwig a few years back. Dave

I believe the problem lies with marketing. The Croations called it a SA and Springfield Armory called it a SA, so the BATF picked up on that. If you watch real close, after the gun is cocked, the firing pin indicator thing in the back of the gun will travel farther out with the pull of the trigger. Not very much, but a little. I believe it is as much a SA as a LDA or even a Glock, but I don't get to write the rulebooks. Even heard that question asked of the guy that heads the "other shooting sport" that begins with I and that was the reason. Springfield called it a SA, so thats what it is. Dave

Don't bother calling HQ right now, they are in Africa for the next 4 weeks. Only office help in Berryville.

They are both challenging in different ways. It seems in IDPA the challenge is figuring out the rulebook and the proper procedure. In USPSA its trying to make it through a COF without getting a penalty or DQ'ed for something you may or not have done.

And if we can convince them to let us use hicap mags, do you think they will encourage us to use HP Ammo something like 250 PF? Woouldn't that be more realistic? I don"t carry 165 PF LSWC.

Thats what I am talking about, simpler COFs. Scenarios that don't need a lot of explaining how to shoot it. Like my example ( not mine originally ) here is what is happenning, now go solve it. I don't think we need to bog it down with lots of "directions". Go to the basics. Shoot from cover, shoot from concelment, and don't get "caught" in the open with an empty gun. That is not all that hard to explain or understand. Its when you go telling people when and where to reload that makes it confusing. Tactical priority/tactical sequence, yada yada yada. I am not saying there is not a place for these procedures, but if I wanted to go shoot PPC then thats where I would go. The biggest problem with the rulebook and not just IDPA's is people want to take every rule and pick them apart. Don't make IDPA or USPSA either one complicated, just go back to basics. I agree with Michael, it is PITA to design four or five COF every month that you have not used before, but just go to basics. Dave

Geezer: I agree this example is a skills test, but what skills? Shooting or memory? And I am not saying that a skills test or standards don't have a place in IDPA but, lets don't confuse them with scenarios. El Prez is as close to mixing them up as I would go. I have not been to any of the "self defense" schools so maybe I am un-informed, but in my described scenario, do you mean to tell me you are going too engage the bad guys in tactical sequence and then tactical priority? I don't think so. The best I would hope I could do is run for cover and shoot each one until they quit being bad guys. What I would probably do is empty two magazines without getting my gun out of the holster and scaring the shit out of everybody. Just because the LGB says we can use skills test is no reason to use them. The LGB is a guideline, not a roadmap. In order to promote your club and keep shooters coming back you must give them what they want. In my experience, the only ones that want standards and skills tests are the ones that are real good at that kind of shooting. I believe that if you want to become a better shooter, that is the stuff you need to shoot, but most people ( myself included ) don't like it. I try to practice twice a week and standards is an easy way to practice and a good way to measure your improvement. When I pay an entry fee and travel to a match, I want to shoot "real life" scenarios, not a skill test. Dave

I think another way to NOT intimidate a new shooter is to keep course design "more realistic". And I don't mean to start another fire here, but "realistic" in accordance with IDPA's definition. If you have a scenario where your changing a tire in the middle of the night and three badguys are sneaking up on you, instead of requiring the shooter shoot all three in tactical sequence two rounds each and then re-engage with head shots after you reach cover in tactical priority. Just have them shoot all three while going to or from cover. I think thats' what I would do if it were me in "real" life, not 1-1-2-1-1-1-1-1,and on and on and etc. And I think you can make scenarios whre there is a choice of when and how to do a reload. Set up a string where the less experienced shooters can do a slide lock reload, but leave room for the more experienced shooters can do a tac load if they feel it is an advantage. Stage design should say, Here is a problem, show me how to solve it following the rules. Not go here then go there and do this then do that. I agree with the others that you should cut the new guys a little slack, but they are going to get beat and some of them in my experience can't deal with this and won't come back. Police officers can be perfect examples of this. But if two days after the new guy gets spanked at the match and he still don't know what he supposed to do on stage 3 then we are fighting an uphill battle. Dave

Okay, let me come clean. I was at an IDPA match in Arkansas that Ernie also attended. After the match and while we were waiting on scores, Ernie and Company had a display up in the lobby showing his "wares". While Ernie was talking to someone else, a "friend" of mine picked up Ernies gun from the table and laid it on a postal scale they happenned to have there. My "friends" comment was that if Sig made a magazine that weighed one half ounce, the gun would be legal. For the record, what my friend done was wrong. Having said that he had no reason to lie about it.

I got an idea, why not if your going to have a match with say 80 shooters, IDPA, USPSA, or whatever, just make everybody show up the day before or early in the same day and qualify? The fastest ( highest scores ) get to shoot the match and the rest get to watch. No more, or at least less, sandbagging. No classes. If I was the 81st shooter to show up, then next week I would practice. By default, everyone would get better, and is that not what every club's charter claims? We want to make you a better shooter. I know, I know that would mean the same fast guys would go to the prize table every week. But that should be the way it is anyhow. Reward hard work and accomplishments, not mediocrity. Sarcastic mode now off Dave

Before anyone buys this version for IDPA competition, they better weigh the thing unless they just want to be a cheater. Seen Ernie's on a scale last weekend in Arkansas. It was without a magazine so I guess it could be legal if sig makes one half ounce magazines. Dave