Nimitz

it goes the way it ALWAYS goes ..... Ben comes out, holds several classes & just yells at me for 4-6 straight days .... apparently he can't remember that I am a 3-division GM .... been doing this with him since 2015 .... apparently the weather is nicer here in Florida that Wisconsin ....

5 years ago I bought a complete 650XL setup including casefeeder, mounting brackets, tool set, etc - the works. Over teh last 5 years I've needed teh odd part replaced and as any of you who own a 650XL know, their lifetime warrenty is unrivaled. A week & a half ago while cranking out ammo in prep for 6 days of shooting with Ben Stoeger the main arm just sheared of. the press has close to 200,000 rds through it and has been worked hard. called them up to see if they had a 'tune-up service' since replacing that part was not straight forward & other parts could use replacing as well. sure enough that have that service so I packed it up & sent it off. well today a box from Dillon shows up and its a BRAND NEW 650XL. All i can say is if you're getting ready to get into relaoding, look no further than Dillon & specifically the 650XL - you will not be sorry! Just fantastic customer support ....

I now have 1 spot in the Fundamentals class on 30/31 Mar as well as the 1 spot in the S&D class on 3/4 April ... cost is $370 e-mail: SteelShootBanners@outlook.com for the fastest response

You guys all just love to use a material solution to address an operational issue instead of fixing the underlying tasks, procedures and techniques ... you all would fit very well in the military acquisition system

Well we agree to disagree .... never had an issue with a timer even once at a major and it’s not my responsibility anyway, it’s the ROs, set sensitivity correctly and hold the timer where you are supposed to and it picks up shots every time . The physics don’t lie as far as their value and you said it yourself ... ‘good condition’ and I would guess that many folks comps are not in good condition ... ref the OP .... many people love to use a material solution to address an operational issue, it’s easier but not always the best long term answer ...

there is absolutely no reason to have a Comp on a rim fire gun. it does nothing (do the basic physics calculations) & can cause many issues - accuracy being one of the most important

I have a pair from Axil Pro. they have 4 modes: 3 sound enhancement & 1 sound protection. You go to an audiologist to have custom ear inserts made and an audiogram (hearing test). The devices are tuned specifically to your hearing and as your hearing changes over time you send them back with new audiograms & they update them - for free. They are not cheap - $3995 but I love mine ...

C-more. they are on all 4 of my open guns (RFPO, RFRO, PCCO, open-CF), they never lose their zero & never fail & the diodes last a long time. Over 3 years currently on my RFPO @ 5x/week dryfire & 3x/week live fire + 2 matches/month ... I'm sure the others are good as well but ....

hmmm .... is the cost of replacing 2x4s really that big of an issue at your club? What do you charge as a match fee? One of the nice things about matches from a club perspective is that after the initial investment in steel your only monthly match costs are paint & occasionally replacing 2x4s which should only be a fraction of the fees collected at a match. Ex: 50 shooters @ $10/gun for members & $15/gun for non members. So say the total collected for the match was $550. $1/shooter activity fee to HQ: $50 Paint (2 cans/stage @ 8 stages): $60 (if you buy the good stuff, $16 if you buy the cheap, contractor paint from Lowes) Replacement 2x4s (` 2-3/match): $15 (this was the ave when I was a MD) Total ops cost/match: ~$125 "profit'/match : $425 or ~ $5,000/yr Not sure I understand the problem ..... oh and you NEVER listen for the ding when shooting. Even as some 'after-the-fact' conformation thing. Might have to do a podcast about this one ....

this isn't all that complicated .... shooting open division with a gun that requires the higher PFs like what is necessary for USPSA will eventually put you at a disadvantage against open shooters who have a dedicated steel open gun which can run at much lower PF. My open gun for example runs perfect with 130 PF loads. However, until you develop the skills to be competitive against those shooters I wouldn't worry too much about it. Unless you decide you want to go 'all in' on steel challenge I'd just figure out what is the lowest PF your open gun will run at 100% reliably and shoot that. If you change your mind about SC you can always look to get a dedicated SC open gun ...

Hi all: I have 1 spot left in a Skills & Drills class on 3/4 April. Reduced class size (7) and class is only $370/person because I'm holding several classes in a row. Location is Port Malabar Rifle & Pistol Club, 610 Hurley Blvd, Port Malabar, FL. First 'paid in full' via PayPal gets it ... Ken

I have to say that I'm quite surprised at everyone's response .... some points to think about based on what I've read: - Ignoring the 'potential' competitive inequity' for a moment, i don't see anything 'bad' about being told a shooting order and then with only a few seconds to think about it, have to perform against that standard. To me, that is quite a bit more challenging then simply shooting an order you've practiced and shooting it. If you want to really test a shooter's actual skill level you give them a shooting challenge to execute in real-time which they are not necessarily familiar with and see how they perform. - If the idea that not everyone is shooting exactly the same order really bothers people than you simply select a random order at the start of the match for each stage & everyone (for that day) shoots that order. - for those of you who have read Brian Enos' book, you might remember he talks a lot about 'habit shooting' particularly in the sections of his book where he discusses his Steel Challenge shooting days. "Habit shooting" is where you just do the same thing over and over again by route, and where you are not actually in real-time seeing what you need to see and making adjustments in micro seconds based on what your training has taught you WRT to your fundamental techniques. Most people see that as sub conscious shooting but it's not. When you're shooting 'subconsciously" you're letting your subconscious mind takeover and do what you've trained it to do. You're not thinking about things - this is the conscious mind and more importantly, you're not just habit shooting where you just do the same thing over and over, regardless of whatever feedback you may be getting in real-time as you are shooting. This is one of the pitfalls I see from a lot of shooters who make the same mistakes over and over again at matches. they simply have got in the habit of shooting a stage in a certain order but the real-time feedback loop the subconscious mind needs to make corrections as it gets feedback is missing. - here's another way to tell that you may be habit shooting: when you go to a local match and see that maybe some stages have the targets not all level and that really bothers you that is because you've been doing a lot of habit shooting. In other words, you expect to see things a certain way since that is familiar and comfortable to you (ie:a habit), and when faced with the fact that it isn't you become somewhat "unhappy". For the shooter who has trained his subconscious mind correctly, he doesn't concern himself with that because he knows it dosen't actually matter as his subconscious mind will make real-time corrections based on the feedback he is getting from what he is seeing One of the reasons I created the random transition drill (pg 111 in my book) was to specifically address the issue of 'habit shooting'. When you can walk up to a stage, have someone call out a shooting order to you and then you shoot it in roughly the same time as you do for the order you regularity train on, that is when you know your skills have developed to a point where you are actually shooting subconsciously. But you all have nothing to worry about, since I'm in charge of nothing, you will never have to worry about shooting anything like a Random Steel Challenge Match ....

I've had this idea for some time about how to possibly make SC "more interesting" for USPSA shooters and so I've decided to post it here to see what others think. If the discussion becomes interesting enough I'll probably turn it into a topic for an up coming podcast ... So here's the background: one of the chief 'complaints' about the sport from hardcore USPSA shooters is that since the stages never change, there is not as much challenge as with USPSA since you never know what the stage will be prior to the match. Ok, we can't change that the stages are always the same but we can make the shooting challenge possibly more interesting and at the same time test your skills which, after all, is what this is all about. If you're a dedicated SC shooter you already know that a lot of what some USPSA shooters claim is an easy sport is nothing of the sort but my intent is not to argue that. Ok, my new version of Steel Challenge is called "Random Steel Challenge" and here's how it would work: when a shooter steps into the box the RO picks up a 'random number generator', hits a button and a number sequence spits out. This random number sequence consists of numbers from 1-5 and now is the shooting order that the shooter must shoot all 5 runs of that stage. Plates are numbered from 1-5, L-R as seen from the shooting box just like the numbering system that I created in my book & have been using for years: simple, consistent for every stage & matches what you see from inside the box. That's it. here's an example: 5TG; using my numbering system plate #1 is the 10 yd plate, #2 is the 12 yd, #3 is 15yd, #4 is the 18 yd & the stop plate is #5. Just about everyone on the planet knows you shoot this stage : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 (stop plate). But in Random Steel Challenge you could step into the box and be given the order: 3, 2, 1, 4, 5. which is a much different shooting challenge. For those who would say that it would not be "fair' because some shooters might get a "harder' shooting order than others, remember it's random so is should even out in the end over 8 stages. You could also make it random every run which would create 39 different sequences each match per shooter which would likely even out things even quicker. However, please realize that the better the shooter you are the less important shooting order really matters. Anyone want to claim that they could beat Max or KC or BJ if they were required to shoot each stage randomly while you get to shoot it like you've always done & practiced? Also don't get hung up on the mechanics of executing this in a match. You could easily develop a sheet of paper that has all the possible sequence combos numbered from 1-n for each stage and have the shooter pick a number which then correlates to a shooting order. However, I suspect writing an App for a random number 1-5 generator would be quite straight forward. Anyway, I'd like this to be a conceptual discussion only. Figuring out how to execute it won't really be that hard. Anyway, there it is. let the flaming begin .... lol

glad they are helping - that's what they are for!

It's great to see that lots of shooters are getting better using the drills from my book and dry fire using my dry fire system ..... keep it up and you to could make GM in less than a year of dedicated training like Stick has just done!!

gotta admit this doesn't make a lot of sense to me .... if they are starting to detach that's BAD and you need surgery to fix .... back in '13 I had got diagnosed with a partially detached retina and since my local eye surgeon couldn't do it he told me to get in a car & drive to the Baskin Palmer Eye Institute in Miami 3 hrs away & he would call them & fax my stuff to them. The next morning I was in surgery -- I'm no eye surgeon but detaching retina are nothing to fool around with. Once the macna starts to detach the risk of blindness sky rockets.

sounds like you've already answered your own question ....

the fact that the comp is milled into the barrel still makes it longer and heavier than it would be without one .... My personal best (classification ) times in RFPO continue to drop since I've removed my Comp so I could argue that I'm getting faster without it .... In the year since removing it I've had 7 new personal bests across 5 different stages .... and while that is certainly the end result the real reason is not "no Comp" per say, but the fact that the overall balance of the gun is now very different - the gun was noticeably (to me at least ) nose heavy with a 5.5" TacSol barrel and Comp which in turns affects both sight picture an transitions. Removing teh Comp eliminated this issue. There is also simply is not enough recoil in a 22lr round for a Comp to make a significant difference in how flat the rim fire pistol shoots... grip strength is way more important than a Comp for keeping the gun shooting flat. My measured grip strength in my weak hand is 120#s and 130# in my strong hand which easily keeps the gun flat without any need for a Comp or all the 'overhead' which comes with it. If it's working for you that's great but I'd never consider adding a Comp back to a rim fire gun ...

take the Comp off your rimfire pistol/rifle .... they are not needed, (I did extensive testing to prove this to myself) and as you noted are a pain to clean & do affect accuracy if you don't clean them regularly. Neither my RFPO or RFRO have comps on them ...

There have been a couple of SC stages that have been retired since the sport was first introduced & Flying M 2000 is one of them. Can't tell you the history of why .... BTW, the reason Speed Option is called what it is is because one of the plates used to be 'optional' meaning you didn't have to shoot it but if you did and hit it you got time subtracted from your run .... the top shooters were so good at doing it they started to get scores less than zero so it was abandoned ...

UPDATE: i found someone who has taken 2 of the slots so there is still one left ...

Please see the ad I just posted in Classified about this ... all 3 of my slots are available at a reduced price to you ...

As an RO try the following at your next level II or higher match and watch what happens: shooter completes a stage run, ULASC, RO calls 'range is clear'. No RO brings up any issue related to a possible DQ. Shooter leaves the shooting area, 5 more competitiors shoot the stage, 20 mins goes by .... RO #1 goes to RO #2 " I think we need to DQ that shooter from 20 minutes ago due to XYZ" ...... never gonna happen ..... this is is what happens at SC matches because wwe're allowed to shoot multiple guns at the same time ..... This BTW is one of many reasons I think either USPSA needs to recognize that SC is not USPSA and rules may need to be different to cover the sport correctly or just sell it and let someone else run the sport on its own .... (Exit soap box now)

Thx,. I'll check them out ...

You need to paint it ..... Lol