motosapiens

mrs. moto has been shooting 38sc for a year. i don’t really see it as a significant hassle. if we were loading 9major we’d still have to be super picky about brass to make sure the gun runs reliably, and wed be more limited in powder choices, and the slide would eventually crack. we work a few majors every year which makes brass easy to come by, but the other local 38 shooters just pick up their brass and buy more when they need to. you can buy alot of brass for the cost of fitting a new slide, lolz. personally, i would prefer LO to reward major, but its pretty obvious from surveys and discussions that most folks (including all gun mfrs) would prefer minor only, so thats pretty much the end of it

my former agency’s duty ammo (winchester ranger 147) made 177 from a pcc. i didn’t test it from a pistol but all the other rounds i tested in both showed a 10-15% difference, so i would expect well over 150.

i disagree with you 100%. what people (leos and civilians) actually shoot defensively is what the sport is based on.

i never said otherwise. my point was about the origin of the sport being in practical shooting, not video games.

i don’t know whether ill go co or lo as my eyes age, but id be cool with my shadow2 being bumped into lo for weight. id also be cool with shooting it in co with no magwell and 15 rounds.

this is literally the wrongest thing that has ever been posted in this forum. LEOs invented uspsa as a practical sport to increase practical skills.

i agree with this too. i don’t like it, but the truth is that the DEI pendulum has swung to where everyone shoots 9mm so that chicks and poofs can pass their quals.

i agree with this. sure, cheap practice rounds are in the 130pf range, but duty/defense rounds seem to be 150pf or higher. ive never been a fan of watering down sports so that lazy people can compete without making any effort. i understand that times change (and people get lazier and weaker), so it’s probably time to bump up minor another 10-15 pts, since we’re not shooting revolvers anymore, and thats the only reason minor pf is so low.

sa only is a big advantage, and every division that allows 2011s is totally dominated by them. sure, a few elite sponsored shooters will accept money to give up a couple percent and they will still do well, but that in no way means that 2011s aren’t objectively better for racing. almost everyone sensible seems to becoming to the same conclusion, that reverting to a slightly more restrictive CO is the best way to differentiate the divisions, and also still allow a place for crappy plastic guns to be competitive in the hands of non-pros.

the same thing that stopped all the whiners from shooting lim optic minor in open. hurt feelers. everyone wants a division where their particular rig has an advantage. if i make it to open nats, ill be shooting lim optics major there, because i think open is dumb but my wife wants to go.

this is why many of us have been just shooting matches with our friends instead of freaking out about what stoeger and his acolytes think about the BOD. serving on boards and committees sucks.

just doing the math, i predict that as soon as i spent the money on a new barrel, the slide would probably crack, so im waiting until i need a whole top end. in the meantime, im having better results with 40 minor than i was with 9, so it seems to be no disadvantage.

im not convinced that the g forces are significantly higher for 40 major than 9, assuming sensible recoil springs. it looks and feels like 40 minor moves the slide noticeably slower than 9, and with less muzzle flip. my wife wants to go to open nats tho, so instead of buying another open gun and practicing with it, ill probably just shoot 40 major that month.

I also was wondering about the seal with the brass. I was getting an occasional extra light round when I was at 133 power factor, which I guess might be a stiffer piece of brass, not expanding enough to seal. So I bumped the original 180g load up to 140 power factor. i’ve been shooting that for about a month and just tried the 165s today To get a baseline. The lighter bullets may leave the case just quickly enough to start letting the pressure out earlier.

4.0 gr ba9.5 @ 1.018 , 180 gr blue bullet = 750fps average, and brass ejecting 5-6 ‘. same exact load on the same day with 165 gr berrys = 530fps average and brass doesn’t eject at all. I know plated bullets are not as slippery as coded, but I have never experienced such a large disparity. I’m wondering if I am just at the ragged edge of low pressure.

it seems like you should be right, and you probably are, but it wasn’t that long ago, that BJ recorded the fastest time in history with his carry optics gun. perhaps at the world speed shoot it would make sense to shoot a real open gun but I am just going to shoot my LO gun in open if I do any steel major matches this year. outside of worlds, there is usually not any serious open competition at the steel matches I have attended.

? thats like 15 mins every 3rd day. most of the rest of your post seemed very helpful and sensible.

for steel challenge with no reloads and no power factor it seems like a 2011 should be comfortable in open. steel has way too many irons divisions too.

or relegate it to separate matches so we can go back to funner stages.

i recommend 550 because it is easy and quick to switch calibers. you’ll need 2 extra shellplates. i find it is worthwhile to have a dedicated powder measure for each caliber.

im sure you are joking, but most good shooters clean magazines every time they hit the ground. in hicap divisions it takes barely 30 seconds.

many (perhaps most) steel challenge RO's are also uspsa RO's, so whether or not you can do it, I wouldn't, just to avoid headache and bad habits. When I go to the safe area to take off my undershirt, for example, i take my mags out before I enter the safe area, even tho I know I can handle the belt with the mags still in place. In the safe area I take the gun off, then remove the belt, then deal with my wardrobe. Least chance of something going wrong or someone else annoying me.

nothing wrong with LO. Currently CO is more popular, but I predict LO will end up bigger. Pretty much just depends on what gun you want to shoot.

lol, so does everyone. dr Mitch is right tho. I dont have any issue drawing to a 25 yr mini popper in DA. It takes me about an extra tenth of a second if the first shot is a really challenging one, but for anything easier than a 15 yard zebra, it's the same first shot time as my 2011s.

probably personal preference. I did some back-to-back testing with my free staccato P, shadow2, and atlas titan 40-minor. The staccato had significantly more muzzle flip, but it did also come pretty much back to the same spot pretty quickly. The end result was I'm going to shoot the Atlas until I run out of 40 bullets, and probably sell the staccato. For my personal tastes and experience, I think a 5" barrel on the staccato (and probably a longer dustcover, but maybe not full-length) would be a significant improvement for competition. OTOH, it's a pretty badass carry gun just the way it is..... I would keep it for carry except I already have a p01 that cost $500 and shoots just as well. I've been very impressed by the build quality and accuracy of my staccato P, but the staccato XL just seems crazy overpriced to me without a metal grip, whether it 'needs' one or not.