Bucky

If there was an existing gun making 128.5, then 131 is NOT as close as possible to 125 without going under. Please take this as constructive critisim as a consideration for next years match and not a bitch fest. I think this is merely an area for improvement. Otherwise, the match was run well.... except you had the heat turned up WAYY too high. Oh yeah, maybe we should consider the new rule book to change the calibration ammo rule to be over 120 but not exceed 125. That allows "room for error"

My experience was several high shots on the steel from various competitors NOT knocking the poppers down, some of which were shooting major power factor.

Please give an example where you could shoot on the move and it was advantageous to do so. Thanks, Bucky.

Hmm, the two people that got bumped to Open were Eric and Al. No Dave listed. Please check this link A8 FGC Open Division Are we talking about the same match?

I use a 1 minute dot for steel and I love it. Plus, I can see it fine no matter how bright out it is. For IPSC, I switch to the 15 minute diamond.... whoops, that would be a holo sight - sorry Well, when I did shoot CMore, I used a 4 minute for a while, then switched to 6 because of washout in bright sun. Wish they made the 4s with a little more horsepower.

-- As for a match critique, certainly not a horrible match and much better than last year. Still, seemed like every stage was "shoot from this port, shoot from this window, shoot from this doorway....." Very few oppurtunities to shoot on the move, and the few where you could, the shots were too hard to make it worth wild. The biggest disappointment of this match is how the steel was set and how they were calibrating it. When we shot the last of the three steel speed shoots, a Glock shooter in our squad shooting factory ammo shot a popper in the lower part of the sweet zone. Then he reengaged it and struck it at a perfect 12:00 in the sweet zone. The popper stood. (This shooter chrono'd at 138 PF mind you). Well the calibration gun took it down and he got a miss. The RM claimed that he was making 131.6 pf and since the rules say that the calibration gun should be as close to 125 pf as possible.... he claimed that was as close as he could come. Pretty pathetic, for a match of this magnatude. Also heard that this RM called this gun the "Sledge". Sound to me like he is in effect calling it the "screw the shooter" gun. One more thing about my last paragraph - If there was another calibration gun on the range that was making 126 power factor (as I was told there was), than would they in fact be following the rule that "as close as possible without going under 125"? Seems that this is not as close as they had something much closer. Another observation is that just about everyone on our squad had to re-hit one of the poppers on the three stages to make it fall, including the major power factor shooters. By the third day, it seems that there were very few issues - even the Production super squad. Guess their bullets are special -- again, this is just an observation.

We were very assertive in driving this into the competitors in the walk through and explaining the penalty for doing so.... 'cause we didn't want it to happen. AND it did NOT happen. There were two guys bumped to Open division during the Area 8 FG Championship. One had fired more than 11 shots during the course of fire and another cocked the hammer on the draw on the standards stage. NOTE: We also mentioned this in the shooters briefing as a don't do. These are very controversial rules, but they are the rules nonetheless. If they are a problem, we need to change the rules, not accept, then ignore them.

In USPSA for Limited division it was stated. Page 23 of the Blue rule book (7th Edition USPSA) under rule US 2.12 iii "All ammunition for auoloaders must be .40 caliber (10mm) or larger in diameter and be measured at 175 power factor or greater to be scored major. Smaller calibers are scored minor and must be measured at 125 power factor or greater. Revolvers chambered for .357 magnum or larger may also be scored major if the ammunition tests at 175 power factor or greater"

I am pretty sure the .357 exception specifically stated for revolvers only, making a Coonan.357 still scored as minor.

You might want to think twice about Hard Chroming the safety. I find the hard chrome makes the safety feel slippery. I had it done (accidently) twice on stainless safeties and in both instances had it removed. Usability is more important than looks, although I find a little contrast in parts finish looks good.

One thing that I didn't see mentioned in the HK vs Sig debate is the Mag Release. Now whether you like the HK release or not (I personally do not), it is different than the majority of Autos we shoot. If you shoot different guns in different divisions, this may be a big consideration. I seem to change guns / divisions every other week (I don't know why), so I like to keep as much consistant as possible, with the mag button being an important one.

Josh, When I shot a Caspian .40, all you can get where Pro Mags (the ones Fred Craig sold). The metal they use is a little softer than most factory mags, but I actually liked them 'cause they were really easy to tune and polish up. Once I did, they were 100%. (Can't say the same for my STI.) Overall they are pretty good, and a great value. I just picked a couple up for my Beretta. Again, had to do a bit of tweaking, but now they run great. -- Bucky.

A friend of mine who was an instructor cracked his P226 frame after about 40,000 rounds. He shot nothing but +P+ ammo. Sig replaced the frame for him, though this was 8 or 9 years ago. Not sure if they'd do so today. I would expect lighter loads to go way further than that. -- Bucky.

I am surprised no one mentioned STI's contingency program .... or did I just miss it? If you shoot any Area or National Championships, that alone is incentive enough to go for the STI. That is probably the greatest marketing decision in the history of our sport and probably accounts for the fact that the usage of STI in the Nationals survey is way higher than SV.

Eric, I second Zach's endorsement of the Blade-Tech. They are great holsters. Also, don't be discouraged that you don't see the XD listed on their web site. They'll make to order and their very easy to deal with. Bucky.

I had been using a green for the past few years. The reason being is my intention was to use the fiber to help "find" the front sight, while still using a traditional sight picture. The red was too bright and distracting to look past it to the front post. I've found now that I progressed since then, it has become a hinderance for the tighter shots, at least for me. But hey, it's all personal preference.

Has anyone tried using 38 super mags and just loading the 9x19 longer than stock? I was thinking about converting my single stack from .38 super to 9mm 'cause of the savings in brass. That would be the first thing I'd try, being I have many .38s magazines. This of course assumes you reload your own. -- Bucky.

Nik, First all, you should know me well enough that I am way too lazy to do that. All kidding aside, magazines should be 100% no matter what "roll" I use them in. The fact that it happens more with L-10 does not mean it is not on the verge of happening in Limited - which I want to avoid. All things considered, I noticed that I had never tuned the mag in question. I recently tuned and polished the lips on that mag and put in an ISMI spring (with recommendation from this forum). Additionally, I did the Brian Enos Barrel Ramp tuning, since the jam appeared to the round not getting out of the mag / not getting up the ramp. I took it one step further and did the final polishing with 2000 grit sand paper (thanks Dave O!). Next stop, I'll try the Grams spring. I like his stuff and use his base pads, but dude your web site has been under construction (and not updated) for like 5 years. If not for this forum, I wouldn't even know he made springs. -- Bucky PS: I guess nothing is really 100%. I even saw a Glock jam at our last match

Topic says is all. I was wondering what you prefer / use in a 140mm .40 caliber SVI magazine. I had been using Arredondo followers for a few years without incident. Recently I started playing with L-10. Now occasionally I get a failure. A GM friend of mine told me that he doesn't feel that the Arredondo spring with 10 coils is enough for a 140mm mag, though he prefers them in the shorter tubes (126mm). I have a couple ISMI springs, a SVI factory spring and a Wolff extra power spring. The ISMI is 11 coils. I can get 20 with that, but it's tight. The SVI spring holds 20 more comfortably, but that seems to be 10 coils as well. The Wolff is 13 coils and I barely get 19, though I assume you could clip a coil or two. What do you recommend?? Also, wonder why shooting L-10 is more of an issue? I would assume because I am running the mags more to "empty" than with traditional Limited. Thanks.

Certainly, if it works don't fix (break) it. The original poster is having a problem, and now it occurs with his original configuration (no buf). As for the OAL, it only becomes critical if you are having a problem. The "replacement" 170mm tubes seem to only work with rimless brass and they do require a bit of tuning. That being said, I had 3 that ran flawlessly and got me 29 +1. And they were USPSA legal (fit the mag gauge). Sometimes those 2 extra rounds really help - admittedly, usually due to poor course design. Using TJ brass requires a different shell plate and an extractor adjustment. -- Bucky.

Although using a stiffer recol spring would probably help, going rimless certainly alleviates a lot of issues. To demonstrate this, load a mag to capacity with 38 super. Now unload the magazine with one hand stripping the rounds off with your thumb. Now do the same with rimless .38 super. Notice the rounds come out MUCH easier with the rimless. The same effort is somewhat synonymous with what the slide needs to do to strip off the round.

A group of us switched from Bull barrels to Bushing Barrels in our .40 Limited guns shortly after the powerfactor was lowered to 165. One thing that we found (and it stumped us until we figured out the cause) is that the "thinnner" barrel in the bushing guns would chrono slower after hammering 30 or so rounds through them, where the Bull Barrels didn't seem to see such a radical velocity loss. -- Bucky. BTW: I've been to matches where you chrono immmediately after shooting a stage.

As for Case capacity: When I switched from Super to Super comp, I wanted to see the difference. So, I loaded each case to the top with Winchester 540, then weighed each. I was able to get a full grain more with standard super than with super comp. I'd be willing to bet that TJ gets even less than the SC. As for differences in velocity, I've found that the velocity differences were not consistent. They seemed to vary more in relationship to how used the brass was. As for Capacity: I can get 28 rounds in my SV big stick with .38 Super, 29 with Super comp. dpeters8445: You didn't mention (I don't think) what kind of Gun you're shooting, that can make a difference. One of the issues with shooting .38 super (rimmed) is that over all length of the round becomes critical. If you make them too short, you risk improper rim stacking. What that means is the rim of the case of the top cartridge is below the rim of the one beneath it. So, when the round is stripped from the magazine the rim has to hop over the other rim to feed. If your slide is not going back as far, it has less momentum to pick the round up as well. I remember this being extremely critical in the Caspians. Steve said: Are you using a weld job, or the replacement tube? I was able to tweak one to get 29 .38 super comps, and the mag fit in the mag guage. If you're interested, I'll start a new thread on the procedure. -- Bucky.

I'll be there shooting Production. Meeting up with my Posse', as they'll already be there for the 3 gun. They're a bit more gun ho than I (pun intended). Someone mentioned that there will only be 15 stages??? I also heard that the awards were going back to formal, and prizes were going to be done afterward??!! These are all the things that most the shooters hated in the past and that Mike Voight changed at the "Will of the shooters". Now it seems he slipping into Andy Hollarism..??? What a shame. BTW: Matthew Mink stated: What is GT? Thanks, Bucky Pollard.

It certainly doesn't look up to what they've run in the past. Kind of disappointing. Oh yeah, and check "trigger time" Draw and fire 4 rounds in 1.1 seconds fixed time! How many C class and below shooters can even get a single shot off in that time? What about the Production shooters?