Vlad

I've seen a few with chips missing out of them. I've asked this question before (mostly from the IPSC folk, not USPSA): When does wear become not a factory option? Clearly the factory doesn't offer a rust finish (IPSC issue) or a worn out magwell (Issue every where). Also how can you tell wear from modifications and do you want to be in that game? I know my CZ magwell doesnt look like it used to. Being steel is isn't really any more beveled, but the edges have gotten rounded off, which is bound to happen is you wear out magazine bodies against them.

From what I understand back in old Will's time the word "lawyer" meant something else then it does today. I hear it meant "legislator". That does nothing to change my agreement with the plan.

Yeah, my experience with the SA is that the extractor is good for about 2000 rounds after which you need a new one (I'm the friend that Raz-0 mentioned). I also love the CMC 10 rounders, the big pads make them easier to grab from the belt and stuff in the gun, though I think any of the mentioned brands would work just fine, more a matter of preference. Mine started life as a milspec and I replaced most everything but barrel, bushing, frame, slide, and sights. If you want a easy trigger job, I can recommend the Cylinder and Slide trigger kits. I have one of their 4.5lb kits in my gun and it feels great and has worked for about 5k to 7k rounds now. They run about $150 from Brownells. If you need to replace the factory one is up to you. The two things I think SA's need replaced are extractors and mainspring housing. In my experience SA extractors are VERY hard to tune and once they lose their original set they become kinda worthless. I used a Ed Brown Hardcore with great results. The mainspring housing contains the silly locking system that SA puts on their guns. If you want to use a standard mainspring you need a new housing, plunger and the plunger pin. You might as well take the oportunity to replace with with a magwell. I used the two piece Ed Brown, but if I did it again I would use the SA on piece deal that Raz-0 got, though I prefer flat. I use TG and 230's but thats mostly because I use TG for everything so it makes it easier. I hear Clays is sweet too

--> QUOTE(Paul B @ Aug 17 2006, 07:04 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> +++++++++1. Wait till you have to pay full price for your own coverage and are over 50! I am the most conservative person there is politically, but health insurance may be one of those problems only government can solve. God I hate saying that. If you think it is expensive now, just wait to see how expensive it will be when it is "free". That's not to say that a lot of insurance companies arent crooks and that something should be done about how the health industry operates. I just don't think that governemnt take over is a good idea.

A related issue that recently came to my attention. Some guns make front sight watching a lot easier. I normally shoot a CZ 75, but at the last match Nik Habicht was kind enough to lend me one of his G34 for the day. I can see the movement of my CZ front sight, but it feels like work. With the Glock I had the odd feel that I was sitting behind the gun, with a cup of coffee, waiting for front sight to do its thing, seeing so clearly and with so little effort that on a number of shots I had the mental time to think .. "POW .. Hey look at the sight. It has some shmutz on the left side of the white dot. POW .. Yup on the left and some on the lower side .. I should clean that off before the next stage. POW". Very strange feeling. I think that fact that a G34 slide is proabably twice the weight of the CZ one might have something to do with it. Heck, the CZ slide is an afterthought, most days I think I just have reciprocating sights on a fixed barrel. Anyway, I though I would mention it because for some reason I always thought that watching the sights is kinda the same thing for all guns around the same power factor, and while I was aware that other mechanical bits do make a difference, I never thought it would be so huge. In retrospective, I guess it makes perfect sense. Maybe we should change "Indian not arrow" to "Indian with arrows that fit him".

Can I get dies for my Dillon?

Yeah .. what Flex said. And what about grip tape on the bottom of the mags?

HBD Kyle!

Something which I though of today and which may be relevant to this tread ... Over the time "practical shooting" sports have been around how much have shooters improved and how much as gear improved. I recall reading somewhere that when the good Colonel came up with the El Prez, anything under 10 seconds was considered damn fine. I'm a B class shooter, and I don't think all that much of my shooting skills, but most of my El Prez runs are under 7 nowdays, and sometimes under 6, with a production setup. So .. how much better overall are shooters today vs "back then"? Also it seems to me that the gear has taken a few giant steps forward. Current off the shelf guns are more accurate then old military rifles, withing the range of their cartridges. I wouldn't be surprised if your average Glock or 1911 was at least as accurate as the guns these sports started with. And open guns ... the optics alone make a huge difference. Where am I going with this? I guess you can say I'm talking about evolution. Maybe it is practical to have most targets at 7yards because that is the distance that makes most sense "on the street" or in your house. Maybe the tactical/practical roots of the sport, which dictated that the handgun was a weapon of last resort and to be used in close combat, dictate that most courses of fire should be presenting targets in tthe 3 to 7 yard range. But the overall quality of shooters and that of their guns has increased some since the games got started. Evolution in shooting techniques, equipment, and competition should be forcing a evolution in course design. The modern handgun can perform up to 50 yards, and thats just the personal defence weapon, nevermind some of the hunting handguns. Almost everyone past D class can hose 7 yard targets well enough for most self defence scenarios. Now what? for the stages to continue being challenging we need to push the limits a bit. We can add lots of hard cover, soft cover, no shoots, and wiggly props and keep the targets at 7 yards. That can be fun. We can also move the targets further out, to 20 yards, 30 yards, or further. And then still add all those hard wiggle props. Both aproaches would work. Either one by itself would be boring after a while, not to mention it wouldn't test all shooting skills equally. So what is my point after all this ranting? Make stages hard. Make them damn hard. Take all shooters out of their comfort zones. Don't tell me about the new shooters and how this would stop them from coming back, because I'll call BS. I was a new shooter. I liked the hard stages then. In fact, every damn time I've seen someone really bitch about a hard stage, it was not a new shooter doing the bitching. The new shooters thought the hard stages rocked. The bitching was done by experienced shooters, A class or above. Why? Because they were forced out of the comfort zone. Screw the comfort zones. Make stages hard. I have no problem with the hoser stages every now and then. They are fun. They even present their own kind of "hard". But if all we shoot are spit ball hoser stages, then their "hard" stops being so, while other skill sets atrophy or never get developed. So please, pretty please, make your stages hard. I may bitched that I sucked at them, that I missed, that I had a bad plan. But I won't bitch that it was too hard.

I use fixed iron sights. I just assume they are still on the gun and I don't bother talking sight pictures unless I expect to start with a really tricky first shot. That said, I used to get freaked by loaded sight pictures, now I don't care.

I can sure see part of this argument, as some contraptions can be a bit silly and not really about the shooting. However I think we need to make sure we don't carry this idea too far. Let look at an example. At a recent local match one of the stages involved a large plastic blue barrel, you all know the kind. The barrel started at the feet of the shooter, and it had to end in a box at the end of the of the course of fire. The actuall course of fire was made of of 3 free fire zone, and the description said that the barrel had to be in the same free fire zone as the shooter when the shooter, when the targets where engaged and that certain targets had to be engaged from certain freefire zones. On the surface this is the least freestyle stage on earth. My first reaction was this stage sucks. In reallity the stage was quite fun, and almost everyone shot a different way. Most chose to carry the stupid barrel part of the stage while engaging targets SHO. Let me assure you that shooting accurately at things SHO, while hauling an ungainly object is most definitly a shooting skill, and a shooting skill with practical applications. I'm no expert but I think should need to recoginize some monkey props are there just for stupid reasons, like the toss the grenade to activate a port one. That is not a shooting a challange. However props which do force a shooting challange, such as shooting one handed, being off balance, making reloads difficult, etc, should not be thrown out with the bath water. I like hard. If I wanted a PURE shooting challange I'd be shooting bulleye.

I like opaque because of the challange, but I understand the safety issue. I really like bgary's idea of using both.

I load 9mm and .45, and I no longer keep track of batches of brass. I have two big piles, one for clean brass, one for dirty. Most often I loose my brass long before it wears out. When it comes to loading, I don't have a case feeder so every case goes through my hands and if the case is split, or looking like might split soon, or if the rim looks chewed up it gets tossed. It is kinda funny by some .45 brass is still going strong even though the headstamp is not readable anymore. I do see the occasional loose primer pocket, mostly with 9mm, but only once in a blue moon.

Also Chote makes version as well: http://www.riflestock.com/catalog_page.cfm...mp;NewProduct=0

I'm putting on an entire match, thank you very much. You're welcome to come see what I think a match ought to be on an all-steel field course. Eric, I didn't mean to imply you don't do your fair share, I should have been more clear. What I meant is volunteer to put up a stage at the match you are having problems with as an example or inspiration to the other stage designers.

I agree with you, and I don't mean to contradict you in the hate forum (specially because as I mentioned I agree with you) but you could also voluteer to put up stage or two.

The evaporation kind, cooldana's and the like, work rather well. In fact, my dog approves too, he wears a doggie version when hiking in hot weather and it sure helps him too. The vest sounds cool, and I'm sure the technology is there and that they are not selling frozen snake oil ... but at that price I can buy 10 cooldana's and a few bags of ice.

heh .. Am I the only one who never bought one and just uses a thin dowel with a mark on it? Well a mark, and 9mm case inside of a .40 case, inside of a .45 case as weight up top.

http://419eater.com/ for hours of fun.

Cripes .. talk about obscure quotes man ... The only one I have a guess at is 8, and without checking, I'm guessing Phonebooth, Kiefer Sutherland and Colin Farrel.

They are hard textured plastic. No rubber to be found. They have just the correct level of texture that when you close your hand they stay put but if you need to change your grip, you can relax your hand and you are good to go.

I like the Ergo grip panels. Nice texture and a bit thiner then standard, but still using standard size bushings.

This is only funny if it doesn't start a whole new crop of the same tiered old arguments. Can't we all friking agree that this game is and can continue to be different things to different people? Do we need to mock those that we don't agree with even within our fairly small community? Sorry to be the party pooper.

8/10, just like DJ I had trouble with the no-waiting and the random hand wave.

Sure ... though techincally I would still be right because the new power supply was still dead. I didn't speculate on the reasons of demise