Vlad

I've also seen the screens fail to respond in sub-freezing temps. Keep them inside a jacket or something.

No such thing as controlled pairs. Think of each shot as a separate individual shot and make sure you aim it instead of willing it on target. Edited to add: and by "no such thing" I mean that you shouldn't think of it that way. Someone somewhere may call that a thing, but really you should consider each shot as its own thing. As soon as you think "pairs" you end aiming once and shooting twice and then you miss.

Last time I ordered a kit from APEX it came with plunger springs for BOTH small and large plungers. If they still do that you could just use the old sear cage with the small plunger and the APEX spring. That's what I do, and it works fine.

Hmm .. do you have a old small plunger sear housing? Because then you need a whole sear cage, not just the plunger.

Hmm ok, but they look to be the same price as the ALS, which for my M&P was like $35

Sure, but we do practice with our competition rifles and want our brass back

If I may suggest, you might consider making a version that mounts behind the scope mount. Lots of us are running slick handguards with no rear sight on the upper receiver for game guns, so you have room behind the scope mount but not forward top rail to snap this on.

Cute

I don't think anyone is bored of your videos. I think we would all rather see you crank out data for EVERY comp.

Your first step might be to start shoot 125PF, instead of 105,000PF That's like 840 times lower recoil so it should much easier on the old wrists.

There is a rather dumb movie named "Faster", and when we are introduced to one of the characters he is going through a series of very complex yoga moves while looking at pictures of his past and his progress that brought him where he is. Then he wakes up his girlfriend and tells her "I'm done with yoga, I've beat it". To me that is sorta like what the OP has set himself up to do by setting the goal of "making GM", because if you don't burn out on the way there, you will probably do so afterwards from the letdown after a success (and yes again Lanny Bassham wrote about that as well). Personally, I like to set generic goals like "I want to be a better shooter" and then keep track of them with smaller skill relevant increments, such as "I want to always shoot better then my buddy XYX" and when I reach that goal I move it to "I want to shoot better then my better shooter buddy ZYX" or maybe set it to I want to shoot in the top 10% at next years BlahBoom match. IF the intermediate goals are kept reasonable then when you reach them not only do you have a sense of accomplishment, but the next goal is easy enough to pick, all the whole working on the big goal, being a better shooter. Maybe one of those steps is getting a GM card, but to my mind that is one of the small goals, not the big one.

Well Patrick, maybe your issues with buckling it by yourself are indicating you need a pit crew. It's time to bring some style to this game so maybe a couple of simply dressed models following you everywhere would class home the joint a bit

The spacing thing I've learned to control with the inner belt. Put some marks on the inner belt which indicate the "right" fit. Then don't lose or gain weight. The pop loose part can be fixed with a an extra belt keeper or two. Heck, a zip tie is cheap as well. For buckling, I find that setting it up such the the posts end up right behind my holster works best for me.

Shrug, I seriously thing you guys are losing the plot. You can make the argument that any rule is unnecessary, right up until someone gets killed. You can decided it isn't a safety rule because you don't like it, and I can argue gravity doesn't exist right up until my ass hits the ground. If guns don't go bang until someone presses the trigger then you don't mind if I sweep you wish a loaded shotgun, right? I mean we can keep the clowns out and the just sweep ourselves all day. Oh nevermind that new shooters exist, nevermind we have 12 years olds shooting this game, its all good. Anyway, I'm out of this discussion, you guys go right ahead and convince match directors to remove any rule that absolves you of taking that fraction of second to apply a safety correctly. Just let me know which ones those matches are so I can avoid them.

Sorry, what? I'm pretty sure the whole safety on thing is a safety rule. As far as I can tell people think it needs to be removed. I suppose you can argue that it isn't a safety rule because you disagree it helps with safety, but then we can make the same argument about every safety rule if you don't like it.

So out of curiosity what other safety rules would guys like removed? 180s (such as they are already)? AD's into a berm? dumping a shotgun in a barrel with the muzzle up instead of down? Can I get a list of what other rules you guys don't like?

Fair enough, if your argument is that 2lb trigger on Glocks or M&Ps or whatever are probably a bad idea and possibly less safe then 2011 with working grip safety, I wouldn't disagree with you all that much. If your argument is that we need better dump receptacles, yep I agree. I wouldn't even have a problem with "chrono" stages were equipment gets checked for safety But that is not what the first post was about, to my reading. In the last 3gun argument I got into on this forum, people were telling me that we should man up and not stop people for losing hearing pro because that's the competitors equipment hence their problem. Well maybe we can man up and flick on safeties on our equipment, I think we can manage the couple of ounces of finger pressure.

I'm not really fond of speed unloading either. Just flick the damn safety and don't throw the gun in there like a madman. Odds are no one is winning or losing the match based on it. If I was a safety first kinda guy I wouldn't shoot 3gun. Exactly what is the argument you guys are making? It is too hard to flick a safety or make sure your spring holding it up is strong enough? Really? You are trying to tell me that it is that hard to do but we should be running around with guns even if we lack that level of coordination?

Yep, but it can be the difference between a DQ and a call for an ambulance. The point I was trying to make is that I see and hear of more stupid things happening when people abandon guns then when they draw them. Given that stupid does happen, lets keep the stupid down to a DQ instead of a sucking chest wound. A 180 break sucks and it is a DQ, but a 180 break with the finger on the trigger is worse. We are running around with scissors here, lets not pretend we are not throwing around deadly weapons.

You are however going to shove it in there as quickly as possible while running by with your mind on the next section of the stage. I've seen people miss the bucket completely. I've seen people grabing it back out because they forgot a target. Oh, and i've seen them land backward with the muzzle towards the shooter.

Sorry, it doesn't answer my question. I assume though that you mean that you wouldn't feel comfortable with a cocked and unlocked 1911 being holstered with the safety off but you are ok with it a bucket? What is the difference? In either case the gun is not under the active control of its owner. Heck I can argue the holster is a LOT safer then a bucket, the trigger is well covered, the shooter is mindful of the gun as they grab it instead of rushing to dump it, it is almost in every way safer. So please explain to me how is a different issue? Are you saying the designed for the purpose holster is less safe then the NOT designed for the purpose huge blue "hoster" that is a bucket? I have ZERO issue with the notion that a gun should be abandoned in ANY condition that we accept for a holstered gun. For example some match rule say if I start with empty chamber hammer down safety off, and I draw my gun that way and dump it without charging it first that is unsafe because the safety isn't on. Yep, thats goofy, but that is not what we are talking about.

Well you guys should be quite happy with the move towards time penalties for guns abandoned without the safeties on. It is only one step closer to not caring about safeties at all. However, are you guys ok with holstering your 2011 with the thumb safety off? I mean they have a grip safety, right?

Well instead of clearing each gun, you are now test firing each questionable gun. I think from a match management point of view thats an issue. Plus who does it? RO or shooter? Is there a question about the RO not pressing hard enough or pressing too much or whatever? I personally think it is a bad idea.

Too many people disable their grip safety, so you would need to test every single gun dropped without the manual safety on. Instead of just looking at it and saying its good, you would now need to "fire" (dry or wet) each gun after each dump to prove it works.

The lugs lock the barrel into recesses milled in the underside of the slide when the slide goes into battery. Yep, but it is the hood and the funny little bump on it that control its forward position, so the lugs may not fit perfectly in the slide and still get solid lockup at rest. I suspect there is a gap forward of the lugs and as the slide starts to move backwards and the barrel unlocks the slide smacks into the front lug. Thats my guess anyway.