Jim Watson

If you "speed unload" I will ask you to show me an empty chamber on MY schedule.

Anecdote alert: Some years ago, we had one with tarps hung across the indoor range, no walkthrough. Lights out. Step through the curtain, draw pistol, illuminate flashlight, engage. I ended up with one target having six bullet holes because I would find it anew every time I moved between props. We only got in the one stage that evening but it was a challenge. A highway patrolman had dropped in to see what we were doing on Tuesdays after the store closed. He didn't shoot but he still seemed surprised. Maybe it got him to thinking about what would be required if he had to enter a dark space for real.

Zero "conical" JHPs have a following. Look a lot like a HAP. http://www.rozedist.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=RZD&Product_Code=R136-A&Category_Code=ZBJ-9MM

Just another reason the sanctioning organizations don't allow them.

Sorry, guys, IDPA no longer allows blind stages, either. 6.6.10 Blind stages and movable non-threat targets are not allowed. I see no reason not to have a novelty non-USPSA, non-IDPA match with blind stages, but there are limits. As said, only staff and shooters who have already been through may paste and reset. Staff involved in design and setup may not shoot for record. And as the old saw goes, "Anything worth winning is worth cheating for." The last such match I shot, there was little doubt in anybody's mind that one guy was coaching his buds on the upcoming surprise stage. But it could not be proven to the point of DQing them.

I think it is little known and not readily available in the USA. There is a US version called Archon Model B but they do not show any of the Italian Strike One guns.

I have some of the first production run of Metalform 10x9s. They worked fine for a while, then got spotty. Springs did not help. Discarding the spacer and installing Super springs and followers worked pretty well. I don't see any complaints about the current crop whether under Brownell or Dawson brand. Tripps feed well, but as said are prone to stripping a round on a speed load or even coming out of the carrier. CMC XPs are the best I have found but are no longer made under Wilson ownership. I have one of the replacement Range Pro magazines and it is doing well. The Wilson ETM Gen 0 and Gen 1 seem gun specific, good in one pistol, not the other. I have one ETM Gen 2 that is doing well in both. Nine round magazines are a lot less finicky, whether 1950 rear spacer or Metalform/Leatham/Springfield front ramp. A Metalform 38 magazine with their round follower is a fine 9mm magazine. In MY guns.

There are a lot of brands of bullets using Hi-Tek coating. A lot of them use the same Magma machine molds. A lot of them are of good quality. Those are pretty well interchangeable no matter the color. Some, like Blue Bullets coat with Something Else. A lot of them work, too. I shot some Blue Bullets and they were a bit different shape from the BBI and Bayou bullets I was accustomed to. So they had to be seated different - shorter OAL. They shot ok. I shot some coated bullets in the Pre-Hi Tek era. The Bull X was great. Some of the others were ok in low velocity rounds like .38 Special and .45 ACP but failed at higher speed in 9mm. One brand successfully made the transition to Hi Tek.

I went with the half price deal. As you note, the shipping both ways runs it up to not much less than the sale price of a new one. Well, I DID get a new unit, the old one being irreparable. I'd admire to have a Labradar but it costs five times as much and I am not doing as much chronographing as I used to. The local range was not interested in hiring me to run chrono for their customers.

On the shelf, my reloads are in the boxes the bullets came out of. When I go shooting, my ammo is in magazines, I clip up ammo at home in advance. I have enough single stack magazines to shoot the typical six stage IDPA club match without reloading. When shooting USPSA, the eight double columns are pre-loaded and I carry loose ammo in one of those 100 round bulk WWB boxes. If 240 rounds isn't enough, there is always a 50 round box in the bag. Loose primers are rare but not unknown. Inverted primers from the jostling of progressive primer feed seem more common. Either way, it is something to check for in the gauging or plunking process.

Interesting. I am now looking out the window at a sunny yard because I stayed home on the basis of an 80% thunderstorm forecast. I will probably torment myself by looking at the radar over both the ranges holding matches today, 100 and 135 miles away. (Range A has been clearing for a couple of hours, Range B is in the rain with more to come.) I have shot in foul weather in the past, I have eaten a couple of entry fees at minor matches rather than get rained on again. Present policy is not to pay in advance. If I DNS or withdraw on Practiscore, I am not out anything. That limits me to Tier 1/Level 1 matches, but that is ok with me now.

That's the one that is on sale, marked down from $745.50 to $25.00? What a deal.

I have a PACT dispenser + scale that works well. Not all do, a friend returned his and got the RCBS.

It would require a whole new "upper", barrel, slide, and small parts. Probably a good deal of fitting. Machining, too if going to an integral ramp like SA uses on the 9mm but not the .45.

CAS with an automatic.

Are they making 2000 a year? 8.2.1 Stock Service Pistol Division (SSP) Handguns permitted for use in SSP must: A. Have a minimum annual production of 2,000 units. Discontinued models must have had a total production of 20,000 units

I only use the EGW U die for loading 115 gr bullets so as to get that wasp waist and prevent setback of those short slick bullets against the feed ramp. Dillon sizer is adequate for 124 coated and any 147. I always use the Lee CFC die. Some mixed brass is not sized by it, nearly all of the cases that are show the burnish mark near the head where the Dillon does not go. Rarely see a mark over the bullet, even the long 147s. I don't get the ring shown above with any die combination I have. I didn't think you could push 9mm P through the 9mm P CFC for ironing out the bulge, that the Makarov die was the one to use if you just must.

I have read the 9+1 strategy for a long time. I think it is only an advantage if the MD is unimaginative and the shooter is very accurate. One piece of steel, a three best CoF, or one pulled shot and that "five double taps and reload on the transition to the next target" approach is out the window. I DO shoot a bit of 9+1, though. I wanted to keep using my .45 without getting my arthritis kicked into a flinch, so I went to midrange loads at Minor. A couple of us worked on 9 round .45 single stack magazines that would fit The Box and off we went. The 12 shot stage seems not as common as it used to be. But I remember when we had an AC that would not approve an 11 shot stage because some would have to reload and some would not.

Strange, Wilson now owns CMC. How many sets of magazine tooling are there? I have some early Metalform 10x9 and they are not up to CMC XP or Tripp, probably not as good as Wilson ETM-2 or CMC/WC Range Pro. Maybe they have improved, everybody likes Dawson and they sure look like MF with aluminum bases.

Early days, I saw a gunzine article with pictures of the guns in use. One was a C96 with the "broom handle" wrapped in bandage and tape.

Answer to OQ: The 9mm 1911 is just about perfect for IDPA. It falls in the ESP Division which I think was originally written to give obsolete single stack .38 raceguns a home, once shorn of comps and scopes. The guys are right, if you have a 9mm 1911oid, shoot it. If you have Something Else reasonably suitable, shoot THAT until you are sure you like IDPA well enough to buy a match gun. "Division Capacity" is 10+1. You can usually find a 10x9mm magazine that works. It has been a while since I heard that "9+1 is better because you can double tap five targets and reload on the transition to the sixth." That calls for an unimaginative MD and perfect accuracy.

I am in the stone age with a one hole gauge. I use the Lee CFC which cuts my rejects down to maybe 2% and even those will nearly always chamber and fire in practice. When hit with the "Squee, it's going to size down your bullets and you won't be able to hit anything." plaint, I look at some ammo and see that the burnish mark from the CFC is typically near the head of the case where the Dillon sizing die radius doesn't reach, not over the projectile. And not even that when loading 115s with a U die to give some "coke bottle" and prevent setback. I have an EGW 4-holer which is not much use because its "chambers" have no throat and any bullet other than hardball will not enter.

Well it SAYS Point of Cover. But you are right. Saturday I was examining each POC to plan just where along the fault line I wanted to shoot from. Seldom in Cover as it used to be defined.

Hard to see how it is defendable. The rule says: 3.6.3 When Fault Lines are used to delineate cover: A. Fault Lines are used to ensure a shooter is behind cover when engaging targets from a Position of Cover (PoC). There will only be one Fault Line at each PoC, and that line applies to all targets engaged from that PoC.

1. I tried that the other day. I outsmarted myself and shot WHO outside my effective range which cost me numerous points. But then I am not the DC. 2. I think that is the correct interpretation. How are you on treating the fault line for the last POC on the stage as the fault line for the stage? Hereabouts we are not allowed to advance beyond that last fault line to re-engage or pick up a bypassed target. . Years ago, HQ got an offer for just that, free. Obviously they did not accept. I don't know where he was from.