Jim Watson

That sounds like a long time but not an extremely long time. How many bays for six stages? A lot of hurry up and wait is built into the system. Stages are large with only one shooter at a time. You can only shoot, get out of the way, get targets scored and pasted, and the next shooter called up so fast. More and smaller squads help but then you have to have more SOs, and assumes you have bays and people to set up multiple stages. I have been going to a Wednesday night indoor USPSA shoot. The employees have everything planned out and targets, dividers, barrels, and boxes laid ready. Target locations for Classifiers are measured out and marked on the floor. Six stages on two bays in 2 1/2 to 3 hours depending on attendance. But it is part of a paying business, so efficiency is rewarded.

We need Limited Minor! Well, that's what I shoot anyhow but I don't think we need yet another Division. Wonder if IDPA will call it a SSP if IPSC calls it Production.

Right, so often it is "Sure, we will classify you, just come in early or stay late from the match." But... the best classifier I ever shot was "embedded" in a long match. The inherent weakness in IDPA or USPSA classification is that shooters are crazy for novelty, every match must be different, so classifiers have to be Special, one way or another. Not like some of the old dull shoots where everything is the same and every score goes on your record. I still have score cards from my years in ATA Trap.

I have no doubt that the specialist will do better by staying in his specialty. When I changed from IPSC to IDPA for reasons that seemed good at the time, I shot only IDPA so as to not have to keep up with two sets of rules and procedures at speed. I was then a bit of a contender so it made a difference. Now I am older and slower and I have found I can "program my brain" for the match du jour.

It is only IDPA, therefore beneath contempt by some here, but a nearby club has been allowing .22s in NFC during the ammo and component shortages of the Panicdemic. It was that or shut down because attendance was down about 75%. Knockdown targets are not used, mover activation is by hand on a Popper or pull rope at the firing line, stomp pad, or turnstile. I have been shooting my Nelson conversion most but not all the time; I occasionally shoot a centerfire just to keep some sense of recoil control. The Nelson took ammo selection, cleaning regimen, and magazine adjustment, but now it is approaching centerfire reliability. There is one CZ Kadet shooter doing very well, but most of the mouse guns are Glock 44, which have gotten pretty well broken in and tuned up. I saw a S&W Plastic M&P Compact .22 and a Ruger of some sort at the night shoot last weekend.

That simplifies things a lot. Based on my experience with a 2011 in IDPA ESP, a set of plugged magazines would be a help; I found it easy to lose count and have too many or too few rounds.

Nicky Carter, Mississippi etc. I am in Alabama but my official AC is a lot farther away, so I always ask Nicky when shooting at his place near Saltillo MS. I think this is a sensible approach and I hope the official rules will reflect it when they get around to a new edition. It should also apply to the other automatic divisions EXCEPT SSP. I would hate for SSP to end up like USPSA Production with only a nodding resemblance to stock guns.

A friend started on his G44 with the standard connector he had left over from the G17 he had installed a Ghost Rocket in. It helped enough to tell, so he is going to get another aftermarket connector for the G44.

The only time I ever shot Expert on the Classifier was when it was "imbedded" in the first Summer Sizzler in Tennessee. And it didn't count because it was not shot in order. I got match bumps to Expert in ESP and CDP, but the CDP never made it to HQ and I still show SS there.

Not unique to IDPA. As a guy here said: "With a big match coming up, I'd rather be a high B than a low A."

There are/were three classifiers, the original 90 shot, a 72 shot which is still on the books, and the 25 shot. https://www.idpa.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/IDPA_Standard_Classifier_Stages.pdf Ask your MD to set up the 72. Years ago, a member devised a 54 shot classifier claimed to test the same things as the 90 but it did not fly.

I have some of those in .38 Special for IDPA SSR. They are ok with mild loads and a taper crimp but I could wish for a real revolver bullet with a crimp groove for full loads. I wish somebody made bulk Lyman 358311 but it would require Magma to cut new molds, they don't have anything of the sort that I have seen.

Brazos has the same 124 gr 9mm mould and quality seems OK.

You guys are talking about what I call practice. I thought training is when somebody else tells you what to do to improve. Any road, I am six miles from an indoor range where I don't try to get in a holster but they don't care how fast I fire, so I can do all manner of drills from tabletop and low ready. It is 13 miles to an outdoor range, sparsely attended on weekdays, so I can run as wild as I care to set out targets for.

Great. When you get an answer you like, quit asking.

I am loading those 124 gr "shouldered roundnose" from Bayou and Brazos with good feeding in all guns. (Same mould, my last purchase was Brazos because Bayou was so far behind.)

That's a shame. I didn't always agree with Robert Ray, but at least he would answer the question.

The word "bull" does not appear in the rule book. What I said about semantics, is a "heavy barrel" or a "cone barrel" the same as a "bull barrel?"

I think it will fit The Box. Then you get into the semantics. It has a "bull" barrel which is not addressed in the rules although "cone" and "heavy" barrels longer than 4.25" are not allowed. If you have one, take it and shoot it. If you don't, I would not buy one without a clarification from HQ. That is one of those silly rules that people with nothing better to do make fun of.

My club now runs a "style" match kinda sorta like IDPA. There are some inconsistencies even within the MD's homegrown rules and procedures. You just have to apply Rule Zero. We are not affiliated but the MD runs what he thinks is a USPSA rules match, but isn't. At least he is consistent in what he sets up and how he calls it. In my (pre Covid) theatre of operations, there are a couple of ranges that hold regulation IDPA and regulation USPSA. No huhu. Another place had a homegrown IDPAish event with written rules. It did not draw so they now have a regular USPSA and a practice match not distinguishable from USPSA. Still another operation started as IDPA but mutated as the MD and CSO tried to draw from LE rather than sportsmen. It was doing pretty well getting cops some practice until the MD changed jobs and no longer had time to fool with it.

I don't know about a CZ, but my 1911 oriented gunsmith says any sort of movement like that, a "dead slide", is a major fault.

With 115 gr ball and a sight height of 2" that Federal app shows that with a 50 yard zero, POI will be within 1" of POA from 10 to 65 yards. A 15 yard zero is really the first crossing, 2.2" high at 50 yards, back on at 90 yards. I looked at some carbines at the store yesterday, reddot sight height is more like 3" which puts you within an inch from 15 to 85 yards with a 75 yard zero. The only thing to worry about is parallax due to a tall sight at close range.

I have three smoking stories. One of the ROs at my small local club smokes those skinny sub-cigars. He is considerate about staying downwind from me and other sensitive noses. The Wyoming Antelope Club has three large semi-enclosed bays. I once heard a RO yell at a smoker from the next squad who was scoping out the stage to stay outside until his turn. I used to shoot with a guy who literally kept a smoldering cigar in his teeth throughout, even while shooting. A nice guy, good shot, usually there with nice wife and son; normally good people to squad with. But I could not stand the smoldering stogie and had to take a different squad.

I sit at the 550 and Rockchucker, stand at the 1050, CH, and MEC. I think the 1100 would take a lot of pull to operate sitting, but I saw a guy at a commercial reloader on a tall stool in front of a 1050. It got him (mostly) off his feet but let him put some weight against the handle. My 1050 sessions are short, my arthritic knees and back tire pretty fast. I was looking at a 750 instead of 550 for 9mm, but could not get anything definite on using it sitting.

FLG has one like that on his shelf of broken parts, it is squashed down and worn flat, about as strong as a fresh firing pin spring. The guy he built the gun for just didn't see the point in replacing springs as long as the gun went off. Oh, yeah, he also has a cracked slide from that same customer.