Matt in TN

I'm a Glock guy who is testing the 1911 waters, and I know very little about the mighty steel pistol. I shot about 200rds through my 1911 in practice with no issue before taking to a 3-gun match this weekend, where I had several FTFs (FMJ 200gr bullet at 1.270" OAL, nose hit feedramp in frame and stopped). Clearing the gun, putting the offending round in the magazine, and trying again usually fixed the issue, so I don't think it was the ammo. Comparing mine to another guy's 1911 at the match, the feed ramp in the frame of mine looked a little bit rougher than his, so I came home and polished it. When I took it apart I noticed it was fairly dry, which made me wonder - do 1911's "like to be run wet" like ARs do? I literally do nothing to my Glock (G41) but shoot it, and clean it every thousand rounds or so. Does the 1911 need to be cleaned and lubed more frequently? Oil or grease?

Hit it with a 308 and the popper falls back so far the front legs come off the ground. To the point that you think the whole thing is going to tip over backwards and you won't have a second shot. No matter how many times I shoot steel with .308 it still makes me giggle a little. And it never fails to excite the onlookers. ;-)

I've had great luck with 43.0 gr IMR8208XBR. . . . . . . . . In my .308, behind both 155gr and 110gr bullets. ;-)

I've used 4.9gr of Titegroup behind a 230gr played or FMJ bullet for years now (probably 10,000 rds) and been very happy with it.

Great stuff - thanks!

Is the flasher the only target people are using anymore for long range rifle? Are there any other designs/ideas that make it easy for an RO to call hits, yet are cheap and simple enough to use plentifully and make it through a match without repair? Is anyone using 1/4" AR500 and counting on the "ring" to call hits? Does it hold up to .308?

This. Moar ammo! And match fees, and travel costs...

This. The only downside to leaving the expander ball is that it can increase small variations in headpace and runout. But as the man says - in 3-gun it doesn't matter, and brass life and neck tension matters more. The M-die sure is nice for loading flat-base bullets though. I'd call it a "must have" if you're going to do very many of them.

I forgot the second part of my question: What are the best 3-Gun socks I should wear?

I recently switched from a FAL with a 6-7lb surplus trigger to an AR-10 with a 4lb Timney. One of the drills I'm using to try and improve my speed is a modified V-Drill. But when watching the video and especially the slow motion playback I was really surprised to see how far and how often my trigger finger was coming off the trigger. I'm thinking this is a hold-over from almost two decades of shooting long heavy 2-stage military triggers, is wasted motion, and something I should be trying to overcome. Or is this the "slapping the trigger" I hear everyone talking about, and it's OK and expected at higher speeds? All of my trigger control lessons came from Highpower Rifle competition, so I've never really learned the correct techniques for pulling a trigger quickly. Can anyone put me on the right path before I waste a bunch of time going the wrong direction? And yes, this is a very small part of my training as the gains to be made are relatively small. Most of my rifle live fire I spend trying to do better at going one for one on long range from various positions (especially those evil skinny sammies!) - that's really what eats my lunch at most matches.

You'll definitely want a heavy duty stand of some sort for that beast - hope you like it!

I took a chance on a Celestron 100mm for $229 and am thrilled with it. Full review is here: http://www.falfiles.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4348481

Sorry man - nothing yet. Trying to focus on my own training and not think about Match Directing for a little while!

Since you are just getting started I say you show up with your duty gear and just do it. We have some guys who do that for years because they want to get better with their duty gear and don't really care where they land in the rankings. As long as they themselves are getting better each time, they are happy. And I am always happy to see those guys out there, because it means they take their job seriously. I hope THEY are the ones who show up to save my ass instead of the donut-eating fat slob who only shoots when he has to qualify. And we have some guys who can't stand to "lose", get pissed off at their gear, and buy all brand new race gear after on single match. To be fair, we have those guys on the civilian side too. :-) You've just got to figure out where you fall in that spectrum. Until you do, you might as well show up and shoot with what you've got. If you wait until you are "ready" you'll never do anything.

Save the date: The 2018 3G4V Run N Gun, Presented by Rockcastle Shooting Center, will be on March 17th and 18th in 2018. We will tentatively offer a 5k on the 17th and a 10k on the 18th, but we have a lot of details yet to work out before we confirm that. You can sign up for either, or both - Registration will be about 90 days prior to match date again. Work won't really start on this for another 6 months or so, so don't ask TOO many questions yet. But start training...

I did one of Ed's match grade heavy barrels and free floated forearms on my FAL back in 2002 or so, and can't say enough good things about it or him. It shot a reliable 1.25 MOA with the gas on, and 0.75 MOA with the gas turned off.

I hope she at least wears leather pants. ;-)

I like it! You named your dog after Lita Ford?!?

Not only did thay dude look cool, he could absolutely RUN that gear!

All the pics my wife took are at https://www.flickr.com/photos/lisastennett/page1 Feel free to use them however you'd like, but please give Lisa Stennett a photo credit if you do.

Some stats from the match: The fastest runner finished in 53 minutes and carried 10% of his bodyweight. The average competitor (overall) carried 13% of their bodyweight. The lightest weight carried was 6% of the runner's bodyweight, and the Mule carried SIXTY-FRIGGEN-TWO percent of his. The competitors shooting 308 and larger averaged 13% of their bodyweight as well, so that pretty much kills everybody's excuses on BOTH sides of that argument! And the females on average carried 14% of their bodyweight, so they made us men look like a bunch of, well, sissies. And the pic below has the breakdown of gear and caliber shot:

This was for a Run N Gun "biathlon" - sorry, I should have said that up front. No rules apply, and I'm literally making it up as I go. I'm just trying to see what is most common out there and give people what they expect when I can. At the moment, scores can't go in until everyone is back because of a few technical difficulties. And this being my first match, I ran them with two different scoring systems and was sure they both matched before announcing anything because I'm paranoid and want to get it right. But it's good to know that it is a given in USPSA. I'm mostly an outlaw 3-gun guy, with some IDPA and Highpower Rifle mixed in years ago.

I just put on my first match last weekend, and purposefully did NOT publish the scores until AFTER the awards ceremony. I wanted the ceremony to be the big "reveal". But I got a complaint afterward that someone wished I would have posted them before the ceremony, and it got me thinking. It seems like I've been to a match where they posted the scores and gave people time to check/dispute their scores before the ceremony. That's a nice idea, but it would also put us yet another hour behind when everyone is already impatiently waiting for the ceremony and awards. So what does everyone do? This match had trophies for top 10, and a random prize table draw. I can see having a dispute period if $50k is on the line or something, but when the prizes are random draw anyway I don't know that a dispute period is worth it?

Thank you for the kind words, sir! I have a ton of pictures and video that is going to take some time to process and share, but for those who wondered "how on earth did the Mule get that 142lb pack under the barbed wire???":