motosapiens

wait, wut? how do you measure 'personal best' if you are only measuring against other people who don't practice enough to move up? My personal best is defined either by percentage of the winner, or as a raw score (classifiers, steel challenge). It makes zero difference how many other people who don't practice show up.

define what you mean by 'co shooters'. Is that people who shoot CO all the time? or people who are classified in CO but may have only shot it at 2 matches?

If you look at area matches, you will see a pretty dramatic difference between CO and prod. CO actually ends up fairly even with limited, depending on the actual stages. the question for me is why are you looking for evidence that a dot allows you to shoot faster? This has been proven for like 20 years. Are you also looking for evidence that gravity still works?

I'm still not GM, and at 59, and with the recent HHF adjustments, probably never will be (unless you count steel challenge, where I just got a G card this week after 9 years of competition, woot woot). That doesn't mean I want participation trophies. It doesn't mean I want to pretend that it's cool to not practice enough to get bumped up a class so that I can 'win' my class. I've been to 5-6 nationals as a C, then B, then A, now M. I can't say I ever payed attention to how I finished in the class. For me it's enough to simply continue to improve, and I can measure that by my percentage of the division winner, and by my division placing at major matches. If those numbers keep going up, then I am 'winning'.

successful shooters are typically shooting a bit better than 3:1 A/C ratio.

some guns are just not fond of plated bullets. we have had issues with 9mm and 40 1911/2011 guns having alot of accuracy/tumbling problems with plated bullets. The same exact loads run great in cz pistols however. Coated bullets seem to work excellently in all my guns, so I've just stuck with them. I have never had any issues with plated 45's however. go figger.

meh. not so sure about the costs thing. cost of the gun is only a small fraction of the overall cost of competing (match fees, gas, hotels, time off from work, ammo, etc....) and open is only a 5-10% -ish advantage over limited or CO, depending on the stages. There are far more open shooters finishing behind me than in front of me at any given match. I think alot of people (like me) don't shoot open because they just think it's dumb and impractical. I'm glad you like it, but it has zero interest for me. I'd rather improve my skills with practical guns.

it's still a participation trophy. rewarding people for not getting good enough to bump up a class is stupid.

I would be utterly shocked if it turned out that the best time (to 2 decimal places) was equal for a 24 oz and 50oz gun. I would expect to see somewhere around .05 difference, just based on my own testing. Which is still not that significant, but mathematician, ya know..... .05 seconds pales in comparison to the difference between A and C (generally .1-.2 seconds for major pf depending on the hose-factor of the stage)

as a mathematician, I hate to see people use words like 'exact'. It's easy to prove that in fact you *can't* move a 50oz gun exactly as fast as a 24oz gun, just like Usain Bolt can't run exactly as fast while carrying a 15 lb backpack. However, I suspect you *can* probably move the gun close enough to the same speed that it becomes a non-issue in the majority of situations in USPSA. I think anyone who shoots steel challenge seriously would be able to produce empirical evidence that within reason, a lighter gun results in faster string times, all other things being equal. But enough nitpicking, mrs moto and I have done quite a bit of experimentation the last year or so with seeing how much extra time does it really take to see a smidgen more and get more points, and generally the answer is almost no time at all. It just takes a commitment to call both shots on a target, and then the practice and focus to do that at higher speeds.

I worked nationals in 2012, (and every time since that they've been in the west). I don't see any difference in the amount of crying over rules.

and are actually practical.

meh. winning a local match isn't really 'winning'. with only 40-70 shooters total, I have to look at the overall to get an idea of how it went.

when I see someone shooting L10 around here, it is generally for 1 of 2 reasons: 1. shooter likes shooting a 1911, but realizes that most stage designers are making stages that are stupid and annoying for 8 round guns. 2. shooter carries a 40 or 45 double-stack auto at work and wants to shoot his duty gun. I fall into the first category from time to time. If I'm on a single-stack kick but get to a match and see the stages are stupid (unloaded start followed by 8 round arrays of mini-poppers, for example), I just dig out my 10 round mags and switch to L10.

what's your current classification? How do you finish in major matches?

compensators actually work on major guns. gas pedals on minor guns are at best an indexing aid, and mostly a placebo imho. With a plastic minor gun, a normal male can literally pull the trigger as fast as he can pull it and keep the sights in the a-zone at 7-10 yards the entire time.

As nils and alex gutt and others have shown in recent years, you can still compete at the top of the game with an inexpensive gun. But people are sheep. If Stoeger wore a red clown nose during matches, sheep would believe it was his secret advantage.

I actually think it would be a good idea to allow weights, because it would distract people from actually learning to shoot, which would benefit me.

why don't you just hold your pistol like a grown-ass man? I'm not sure I see the point of extra weight in a minor gun. If the shooter is a little girl, the weight is really going to slow transitions, and if the shooter is not a little girl, the weight is totally unnecessary....

round nose bullets? I found some flatpoints would occasionally nosedive the first round from cobra mags, but not dawson mags. all the roundnoses seem to feed fine in any magazine in my RIA, Dan Wesson and STI 9mm 1911's.

except for all-steel stages, and other situations where the only plausible hits are alphas.

a) no it isn't. b) shooting all alphas with minor isn't as good a score as shooting many alphas with major. c) you are doing it wrong.

you're not wrong, many very small girls do choose minor, because they can score better with a kid's gun. But seriously, if you actually practice you can shoot major just as fast and accurately as minor. The only time minor doesn't suck is on targets where there is only an alpha (zebra paper, or steel). OTOH, minor sucks disproportionately on other partials, because the major shooter can just aim for the middle of brown and pick up 2 charlies shooting at full-speed. Minor shooter gives up the equivalent of another half second if he does that. just on 1 target.... that adds up fast.

I think paid resetters would be expensive and also take some of the fun and involvement out of the sport, but I'm not a lazy and out-of-shape person. I like resetting because it gives an opportunity to get more looks at the stage and keep my head in the game. I would go crazy with boredom just sitting there watching other people shoot and reset until it was my turn.

many of them do.... just not the correct OAL for your gun, lol.