ttolliver

When I was casting about to answer that question myself, I found that a lot of people tended to consider 5 points over safe enough. Those threads that had people loading to only 3 points over often had other people saying that might be a bit narrow and surprise you when you least expected it. As you already pointed out, one consideration that could work either for or against you is the temperature sensitivity of your powder. And you'll see comments here about keeping ammo out of sunlight in extreme heat conditions, etc. Or firing the first manually loaded round into the berm when you get to the chrono. I figure those people who dial it down to 2 or 3 points over minimum PF have to take those precautions pretty seriously. The rest of us less so.

Great thread! I can't help but point out that no one here has responded from a purely motivational perspective. If the OP is interested in his draw right now so I say go for it. Use that interest to drive more practice time than something he might not be particularly jazzed about. Yeah, that answer won't get you to GM. But c'mon, am I really that alone here with a primary goal of having fun and maybe someday being an A shooter?

Welcome from Minnesota, although I grew up around Champaign and my wife Arcola.

To be fair, not all rear sights just tap out quite as easily as suggested here. Oh, they all come out. And it's still a job you can do for yourself without any stress. But my M&P rear sights mushroomed a brass punch pretty badly before they started to shift. So still go for it yourself, but there is the possibility that yours could be a bit tighter.

Brian Enos' book is a must have, that goes without saying. The only DVD set I have is Matt Burkett's, but I have to say they're quite good. And Steve Anderson's Refinement and Repetition is an excellent playbook for dryfire exercise. Brian sells all 3 here through his website. If you like listening to podcasts, Steve Anderson he also has a podcast where he dispenses a little wisdom most days. He's entertaining and gives you a shooting related thought of the day to noodle around.

Welcome to the sport Tommy! Even though you were clear in your Limited division focus and had no immediate plans to start reloading, the Devil's Advocate in me can't help but point out the .40 will be more versatile across divisions if you do get a wayward eye. Although the utility of using it in production as a super-soft shooting minor .40 would require undoing more of the mods than switching between Limited-10, Limited, and Open. I hear you on the equal comfort of shooting 9mm and .40. But as you grow in the sport there's a good chance you'll find yourself valuing even an incrementally softer shooting round. And for that .40 has the edge over 9mm.

I was searching the BE forums for SS holster recommendations and ran across this thread. Long story short, I contacted DAA and asked if the vertical adjustment on their new PDR Pro would be high enough to be SS legal (e.g. front strap above top of belt). Saul himself answered my email with a big yes! So I'm planning on buying a PDR Pro when they become available. It was almost a week ago that Saul said they should be available any day. And believe me, I've been checking every day

Wow, that is a long time. I wonder if he's a little tightfisted with changing media and it takes that long to get a proper shine. He's certainly going wear his tumber out 10 times faster than the rest of us.

What's bad about it? Good timing that I ran across this thread since I was about to buy some more tumbling media. I usually bought it in small boxes at the local shop for cheap enough not to care. Maybe $3 or 4. Barely noticable when added to my normal bill, hehehe. But the price jumped to $9 or so recently -- enough to make me go hmmmmm...

I suppose I should be a little embarassed that I just took the time to read this entire thread. What can I say, it's a slow morning at work. First and foremost, I like Sarge's MD approach. I'd let them shoot but pull them aside and give them some advice. What I think should be most concerning about an over the top tacticool poser is whether they're going to be a safe shooter. The scariest kind of newbie has too much confidence and is unwilling to take advice. And anyone who comes out ATAS (gotta love that one) is wearing a billboard that they're sporting some serious confidence and pretty strong ideas. So the real test is what they do when they immediately recognize they're way over dressed. If they quietly lose the fingerless gloves and kabar strapped to their calf without having to be told, they'll probably work out. If they're so oblivious that they have to be nudged into losing them they're certainly not the brightest bulb in the pack, but they may still work out. If they argue, well...we don't need their money that bad. So for me it has nothing to do with personal freedom...it's are you ready to learn. And I can attest to the kilt and blue crocs -- and they shoot faster than I do

I've dabbled, but had no real purpose in mind beyond the fun of getting it running and reliving my UNIX dev/admin days. Another discovery for me that turned out to be a blast was the picaxe micro controller: http://www.picaxe.com/

+1 what hornetx40 said. I know for me maintaining contact with but not somehow relaxing onto the sandbags in the wrong way is really difficult. If I want a really accurate series of shots sometimes I'll move next to the shooting stall wall and let my forearm contact the post. That adds support in a useful place that doesn't negatively impact my shooting stance.

Great ideas to kick around -- thanks guys. When I was noodling about the effect of the temperature extremes on metal, my thoughts went to the colder brass being ever so slightly more brittle. That made me suspect that some sort of brass failure (case rupture or head separation) might occur at a slightly lower pressure level when shooting really cold brass.

Oh, and don't let anyone talk you out of Single Stack. Assuming you shoot major... 8 round mags aren't that much of a limitation over the 10 round divisions as long as you're an accurate shooter. You'll find that most stages are designed with movement between clusters of targets needing 6 to 8 shots. 10 round magazines do become an advantage when you need makeup shots. Offsetting that disadvantage is the fact that 1911s are amazingly accurate platforms, have awesome triggers, can shoot an low recoil 230gr load, and will happily eat cheaper cast bullets all day long. Although to be fair, what you save on cast bullets you'll spend leaving more expensive .45 brass on the ground Of course there's single stack minor that gives you 10 round mags but at the cost of minor scoring.

I think the hardest division to start in is one with no other newbies. Sure, we all need to learn what the best shooters do. But some of the most effective early learning is done alongside other newbies. It really helps learn early concepts when you see other people doing things wrong. And it's a great stress reliever when you can laugh with a few others who are doing the same knucklehead things you're doing. And it's a much more realistic group to measure your own progress against than the long climb to get as good as experienced shooters who have been in this sport for any number of years. So following that logic, Production is going to be easiest and Open probably the hardest because newbies just don't start there.

+1 on the advice about shooting your Ruger for now and spending your limited funds on ammo, match fees, and some training materials. Try to hold off buying a gun until you've had a chance to borrow one and shoot it. If I had to guess, I'd say that most of us never really end up totally happy with half of the guns we buy. They all have some feature or look we're chasing when we buy them. And they all feel great in the gun shop. But for one reason or another they fall short in some way after we get them home. That's definitely something to avoid if you're on a budget. As was pointed out, develop some friendships within your club and you'll have loaned guns and equipment available to you before you know it. You might end up buying the loaner gear at used prices when whoever you borrowed it from starts a new project. Last but not least, don't let your goals get in the way of having fun!

Why is it the simplest solutions sometimes escape us?!? Thanks George! Just need to do a little experimentation on how well some gel packs hold temperature in a small cooler.

I agree completely with accuracy testing offhand with a discard element. But rather than a specific number of shots to discard, I discard those shots that I already knew I was doing something wrong when the gun went off. The fact that that probably happens 1 out of 5 is pure coincidence ;~) Seriously though, I like to shoot 5 shot groups and read the story a whole series of those groups tell. Sure they'll be a flier from half the groups on a typical day, but shooting only 5 shot groups helps with that. And the accuracy story is plain as day when I'm done.

I'm working up a 40 major load and thinking through how to adequately allow for powder temperature sensitivity when doing chrono work in the winter. I'm not going to surf so close to PF 165 that I'm worried about velocity. I just want to make sure I'm getting summer case pressure levels for over pressure evaluation. Sticking to VV powders reduces the issue significantly, but even VV has some temperature sensitivity. Their manual lists a 1% velocity increase and 3% case pressure increase with each 18 degree (f) increase. Using round numbers, a load that produces 1000fps at 20 degrees would develop 5% more velocity (1050fps) and 15% more case pressure at 110 degrees. If I increase the powder charge to give 1050fps at 20 degrees, would I be producing the 15% additional pressure at the lower temperature as well? And would this allow me to evaluate the case pressure signs I would experience at 110 degrees? That being said, I don't plan on trusting those extremes. I'm just wondering if that logic is sound. For now my goal is to produce indoor practice ammo that's close to the what I'll shoot this summer. So I'll be doing chrono work at 30-35 degrees for what I'll initially be shooting around 70 degrees. And obviously once it's being shot indoors it'll get real case pressure evaluation at 70 degrees. Then once outdoor temperatures come up I'll run the same incremental test again. Thanks!

Thanks guys!

Hey everybody, long time lurker. Never really posted since there's such great content to search through for all my newbie questions. About how long do you think you spend with a new handgun before you grip, raise, aim, and fire center mass with almost no conscious effort? I'm there with my CZ 75B Omega I picked up last spring and became an immediate range favorite, but it couldn't tell you when along the way it happened. The reason I ask is that I just bought a SA Range Officer. It's my first 1911. The trigger is the biggest immediate difference, but not bad just different. No worries about rushing anything, the range time and process of dialing in with a new gun is part of the fun. I'm just curious what people think about transitioning to new guns and transitioning those new guns into competition. And yeah, I know lots of variables. I'm relatively new to this hobby and sport. Call it 3 years shooting handguns, a dozen matches under my belt, and my newest gun probably gets 500 rounds of range practice a month. And a lot of firsts still ahead of me ;~) Thanks, Tom

Can I do seating and crimping in 2 operations with the same seating/criming die as long as I run the seating screw all the way in so that the crimp never comes in contact? Thanks, Tom