Bunchies95

15-17: Florida State Championship, Frostproof, FL February 18-21: 2016 Florida Open, Frostproof, FL March 02-06: Rio Salado Desert Classic/Area 2 Championship, Mesa, AZ 11-12: 2016 Alabama Sectional Championship, Dothan, AL <need match URL> April 07-09: South Carolina State Championship, Charleston, SC 08-09: Battle in the Bluegrass VII, Wilmore, KY. <need match URL> 08-10: Iron Outlaw Steel Match, Fredericksburg,VA 09-10: 2016 Berry's Steel Open, St George, UT 21-24: FHN USA 2016 Area 6 Championship,Covington,GA <need match URL> sign up here 22-24: 2016 Indiana SS PRO REV State Championship, Atlanta, IN <need match URL> May 04-08: 2016 Single Stack Classic/USPSA Single Stack Nationals, Barry, IL 29-31: EEO 2016 Prematch, Hodonice,Czech Republic June 02-04: EEO 2016 Main Match, Hodonice,Czech Republic 10-12: The STI Double Tap Championship 2016, Wichita Falls, TX <need match URL> sign up here July August September 15-18: Oil Field Classic Bellville, TX October November December Edit: added Oilfield Classic

Hey now....they are 1-5 by the skin of their necks. But they tried to do everything possible to lose that game.

Really bummed I had to miss this match. Always fun shooting with you. But life has a tendency to get in the way sometimes. As to the sticky finger issue, pool chalk would be a good solution. Just buy a cube of that and rub it on your finger when needed. I have also seen people fill up a spice container with their favorite dirt as it is free and easily portable.

Sadly I might have to miss this match. There is a good chance I will end up working over the weekend.

I was one of the DQ's at this match. There were a few target arrays that I saw as potential 180 issues. Stage 14 (3 shots per target) probably had the most opportunity for mistakes to occur. I made sure to identify them and plan accordingly. I cannot speak to any other DQ's other than mine, but the stage designs played no part in it. I had been having malfunctions from the first stage Sunday morning. On stage 5, while I was hanging off the rope, I had another malfunction. Released the rope, stepped outside the shooting area to cycle the slide and the gun discharged. DQ was for AD while clearing malfunction. After taking the gun to a gun smith, we figured out the issue was trigger bounce. It's ironic that if my finger would have been on the trigger during the remedial action (DQ in its own right), the AD wouldn't have happened. But it did and I had a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup Blast at a small town Dairy Queen.

Sell the 550 and get a 650. The priming system on the 550 is one of the big reasons I ended up switching to a 650. That and the auto indexing. If you do keep the 550: Clean priming system every 1k rounds (amount of primers I could load up in tubes)Rubbing alcohol on black plate polish primer bar using scotch brite, follow with rubbing alcohol Blow off area every 100 rounds with compressed air Follow rest of Brian's notes If there is wear showing on the black plate, replace it. I think it was every 7-10k rounds I ended up replacing it.

Can you PM me his contact info? Also, when am I going to see you at a match again?

Well Area 4 is in the books and not the result I was expecting or even hoping for. I ended up getting DQ'ed for an accidental discharge while clearing a malfunction. I had been having trouble with the gun from the start of the second day. The malfunctions were either hammer follow or a dead trigger (not sure as I was just worried about getting the gun running again while on the clock and cycling the slide would fix both). I had another malfunction while hanging off the ropes on Stage 5. Released the rope, which forced me out of the shooting area, cycled the slide and BANG. I know my finger was off the trigger so the gun fired on its own. This DQ hurts for two reasons: 1.) It was nothing I did, gun malfunctioned in an unsafe manner and 2.) I was in the hunt for the win. I have to figure out the gun issue so I can have a lesson learned from this DQ. Since I am still new to 1911 style guns, I have no idea when springs need to be replaced or if it is a trigger geometry issue (bought the gun used with a trigger job on it already). Other than the DQ, it was a great match. I shot pretty well for the most part, had issues on small far steel. Stage 7: This is the stage I started on. I felt like a got off to a slow start here. The stage had to gun unloaded on the barrel and no mags on your person. The WSB wasn't specific on where the mags could be so I had them strewn across the stage where I could get to them. I had one mag on the chair that I stuffed at the buzzer, and picked another off the barrel to load with. I shot the first array decent, but not aggressive enough (especially the 15 yard partial). The challenging part of this stage was the two moving plates at the end. They were protected by static steel hardcover as well as a steel pendulum. I saw lots of people waste 5-10 seconds trying to get the plates. The question was go for the fast time and fire off two quick shots at the plate or try and get them. Being a 115 point stage, possibly giving up 30 points was quite the risk. After doing the math, the HF would improve if you knocked them down in less than 6 seconds, so well worth it. Stage 8: This stage had cross activating movers where the swingers were visible from different ports. The start position forced the stage plan in terms of physical route you had to take. I opted to take on target trough a port from a distance so I could have an extra two rounds for that array. This was a decision due to lack of confidence. The swinger and one plate were at ~20 yards so I planned to throw an extra shot at the swinger and an extra for the plate just in case. Glad I made that decision because I needed the extra round on the plate. Stage 9: This stage was pretty spread out so you needed to be quick on your feet. I opted to activate the movers from the start position as that kept me from going to slide lock in the middle of a mover array or prevented a standing reload in the last position. I did an accidental reload as my feet started reloading, but didn't waste any time with it. Just shot the next target and reloaded again as planned. I had a beautiful entry into the next position, shooting the first target 2 A while still settling into position. By now the swingers had slowed to the point that they weren't much of a challenge. The last position I came into a ittle hot. Called a high miss on my my second shot on the first target but moved onto the steel anyways. This was a delay in the brain function. I needed one extra shot on the steel and automatically made up a close delta on the next target. This left me without a round to make up the called miss. I opted to eat the mike instead of reloading for it. Would have hurt my score but saved my pride to make it up. Stage 10: This was one of those "screw single stack" stages. The stage had two bobbers that were disappearing. You could save some time by skipping them but would lose 15% of the points. The stage plan I came up with had me reloading after the first target. This gave me a nice array of 8 by taking on target from the side of the wall instead of closer through the port. It also gave me enough rounds to attempt the first bobber instead of skipping it. I ate a mike no shoot on the partial target that I entered the position on (you had to shoot this one first if you wanted a chance at the bobber). The shot was just a half inch low and wasn't called. I timed the bobber beautifully and got it as it was coming up for a nice A/C. The second one I accidentally shot the steel first as my sights crossed it, so the timing was off and resulted in on NPM. Stage 11: This stage I finally found a grove. I came up with a single stack unique plan and executed it as good as I could. There was a little bit of time wasted due to far and small steel. But other than that was a beautiful run. Would have been a stage win. Stage 12: Tossed from match before I shot it Stage 13: This was our first stage without moving targets on it. They were relatively close but had some tight shots. This stage had plenty of options on how to shoot it. I ended up with a plan that had 2 extra reloads as a matter of convenience and no matter how I looked at it, I couldn't avoid a standing reload. I don't think there was an optimal plan for single stack like there was for limited or open so I picked the one I knew I could execute well. I had a great run on this stage. One for one on steel, no make ups and little hesitation. I even hit my spot on a tightly obscured target with the gun up and shooting as soon as the target was visible. The only hiccup was in the final position, I hesitated on the entry and was slow to index on the head shot. I think I might have been better off shooting this array in the reverse order. Stage 14: My only goal was to survive this stage as there were plenty of chances to break the 180 here. The stage started from the front and you retreated either left or right. I chose to go left, which I wasn't comfortable reloading in this direction. I had to be perfect in the first array with two USP so I could carry to the next position. Then I could reload while retreating back and to the right, which is a comfortable direction. I opted to shoot the close targets first and then the far target from this position. Since it was 3 shots per target, this had me going to slide lock. I figured this was better as the final position was a lean to the far target without a significant distance advantage. I wasn't so sure on the last shot on the far target so I had to make it up from the final position anyways. Cost me 1 second to make up a C with a miss....oops. Stage 15: This one would have been another stage win for me. Due to the round count, I shot it slightly different than if I were shooting production. I chose to step right first to engage a hidden target as I was afraid of missing the position should I engage it later. I carried rounds to the left side and engaged the partials there. By the time I was reloaded, I could engage the close center array. I got a little hung up here and had to stutter step so I didn't step outside the shooting area. Carried two more rounds to shoot the next target, which was only available from the center. I reloaded into the left open target and started the hard transition to the final 3 targets (beautiful reload by the way). As I started to transition, I fired the second shot at the first target and called it marginal. After finishing the final three targets I swung back to the first target to re-engage and saw the delta barely there so I left it. Stage 1: Yet another potential stage win. I didn't decide on a plan until after the walk-through. There were many plans that all had a flaw. I chose to start in the center, do a shuffle dance so I could make an 8 shot array. Then I went to the low port (deep squat for me). I ended up kneeling instead of squatting which cost me some time, though I think I was more comfortable in that position. Low ports are always challenging for me to call shots and I clipped a no shoot with a called good shot. I got the points so I was lucky. Most people engaged a plate from the port but I chose to lean around the right wall to get it. This enabled me to carry rounds for the long run from right to left and engage on target tucked behind a barrel. I took a chance at the end of the stage and didn't reload going into the final array, which gave me nine rounds with one piece of steel. Since I had it in my mind to get a good sight picture on the steel, that's how I shot the last two paper targets as well. I should have been much more aggressive on those but I still executed my plan well. Stage 2-5: This was the next day for my squad. And also when malfunctions started happening. The malfunctions would have cost me the match on their own, but then the AD happened and I was on my way to Dairy Queen. I couldn't hang around Stage 5 but rejoined my squad on the final stage to hep reset. Even though I didn't get to finish the match, I still had a great time and came away with some good lessons learned. I need to work on low shooting positions and some harder leans. The biggest thing is I just need to get my confidence back. This is a direct result of not practicing as much as I should. I have Oil Field Classic in two weeks, and don't have time to get out to the range much. So unless I get a gunsmith to fix my SS gun with 100% confidence, I'll either skip the match or play around in Limited with my production gun. The money is already spent, but I don't expect a good match performance from me so I plan to just have fun if I go.

So you agree that even though my HF determines where I rank for that stage my actual score used to determine a match winner is based on how well I did on a particular stage compared to that stage winner. So my score is not based on just my performance, it is based on others performance as well. Basing my score on someones shooting is not the same as comparing my overall match performance to other shooters. Take Prod nationals, as close as it was the result could have easily changed based on how well a shooter outside the top 10 shot a particular stage. Would have had nothing to do with Ben's or Bob's performance. IDPA kinda got the scoring right, atleast how I shot is my score, the only thing that can change where I finish is my own shooting. I think there might be a flaw in your logic..... You and I shoot an IDPA match. You shoot first on every stage in the match, and complete the entire match before I even roll in and shoot the following day. Let's say ten stages and you score ten seconds on each for a 100 seconds total time, including all points down. I come along the next morning and shoot every stage in 9 seconds -- haven't I just pushed you down to second on every stage, and in the whole match? In USPSA the comparison's the same, only in reverse. If my hit factor of 10 points per second beats everyone else, I get all the available stage points. If you score a hit factor of 9 points per second, you get 90% of my score -- my score didn't affect you in any different way, than it would have in IDPA. I simply shot faster and better in both examples -- not likely to happen in real life.... I think Strick is looking at this scenario: **Assume 5, 100 point stages where everyone gets all points. Shooter A shoots all stages in 10 seconds for a total time of 50 seconds. Shooter B shoots Stages 1-3 in 10 seconds, but shots Stage 4 in 11 seconds and 5 in 9.1 seconds for a total time of 50.1 seconds. In time plus scoring and USPSA scoring, Shooter A always wins. (50 sec vs. 50.1 sec, 491 pts vs. 490.9 pts) Now let's throw a pesky B class shooter (Shooter C) into the mix. He has no chance to win the match, but can influence the results using USPSA scoring. He normally would shoot all the stages in 15 seconds, but manages to connect on stage 4 and shoots it clean in 9.7 seconds. He has now made whatever went wrong for Shooter B less of an issue as shooter A&B's relative percentage to the HHF is closer than before. Shooter B ends up winning the match due to the performance of Shooter C on one particular stage. (488 pts vs. 488.2 pts vs. 360.7 pts)

Shot a steel and USPSA match over the past month. The steel match was horrible. I had replaced the front sight with a narrower blade, but didn't get a chance to sight it in. I think the height was different, but ever so slightly. I figured out I had to aim at the bottom of the plate in order to get decent hits. A bigger issue than that was that I couldn't actually see the blade. The fiber is now such a large proportion of the sight, that it lit up like a spotlight on me. Nobody had a marker I could use to dull it and I forgot mine....oops. Didn't get to touch the gun between the steel match and the day before the USPSA match due to school. But after setting up the USPSA match, I had an opportunity to practice a bit. After dulling the fiber and adjusting the elevation a three clicks, things were working out better. I set up three targets, one at fifteen, steel at 30 and paper at 23 and played around with shooting them. I can hammer out the fifteen yard target and get good hits, but fell apart on the 23 yard target. I could feel the gun shift around in my left hand. This caused almost all of my second shots to be high right from the first. Need to figure that out. The USPSA match itself went very well. I was able to put together some very good runs and one total disaster. I did have some time loss when I hesitated on a few targets. This is a stage programming issue. I attribute this to being the main RO on the squad and not having enough time to prepare as I held onto the timer until I was in the hole. The heat of the day did take a toll on me. It was 100 with very high humidity. Even though I drank plenty of water, by the last stage I was just in a fog. It showed as I had a disaster of a run. I will try some electrolyte replacement additives next match to see if that helps. I had a great run on the classifier (paper poppers). Gun came out of the holster awesome (1.25 draw) and the reload was slick. However, I went past one of the middle poppers as I was running the steel and had to go back to it. That cost me maybe half a second, but otherwise a good run. That is not a stage where you want to pause on the steel much, I just let the gun travel too fast. I'm glad that I saw it and could make it up without hesitation. Now that I'm done with the school semester, I can make it out to the range more. I am going to try and make it out at least once during the week and another weekend day. Plus I want to attend a match a weekend until Area 4. This should help with the stage planning and execution issue.

The great Single Stack experiment was scheduled to end after Double Tap. I was not happy with the results so I have decided to extend the trial to the end of the year. I was expecting a smooth transition and have observed anything but. It has been frustrating to say the least. My match results have been pretty good (3rd Place @ Double Tap & 2nd Place @ Cowtown Classic) but I just have not felt comfortable shooting this gun yet. Still nothing feels right. I guess that is what happens when you shoot the same gun for 4 years. I have yet to be able to ride the knife's edge for an entire match. I can be aggressive or accurate. At Cowtown, I was much more accurate than the winner, but he shot the stages so much faster that he ended up winning (I thought I actually won until scoring corrected him to major). Double Tap was a big improvement, but there were instances of shooting wayyyy too aggressively and racking up bad penalties. I am still learning how to recover from bad stages. Tank a stage, and it takes me a stage or two to pull things back together, just need to forgive and forget. Here are the things I have learned thus far: Shooting Major is FUN!!! I am not as accurate on partials/steel as I used to be. Switched to a narrow front sight last week so I can actually see some daylight between the post. My reloads are wicked on the move, but are being over thought while stationary 2 rounds may not seem like a big difference, but it is huge in stage planning. I am seeing the odd target arrays now to get better reload positions. However, with my good reloads it doesn't matter much Shooting SS has not forced a correction on the amount of makeup shots I take, this is a mental discipline issue that I am still working on. 45 brass is hard to find...everyone who shoots it usually picks it up, so no range brass. The next matches on my schedule are Area 4 and Oilfield Classic. Thankfully I have the entire month of August off of school so I am going to try and hit the range a lot. Let's see what I can do in the next month and a half. Either way, this experiment has been frustratingly fun!

Stage 6 was pulled due to the fact that the series of clam shells was not repeatable as the targets soaked up water (even when not in water, high humidity near surface). Stages 7 & 9 were pulled as they were unsafe to shoot.

Yes you can. You enter the score first, then input the DQ. Had it happen this past weekend where we knew there was the possibility of the shooter getting the DQ overturned and scored the stage to prevent a reshoot should the DQ be overturned.

Stage 3 about an hour before shooting started Saturday morning (all water gone when shooting started): Stage 3 when match was called for the day (about three hours after first picture)

Looked through the scores....holy crap was this match tough!! There was only ONE shooter who finished in the top twenty of any division that shot a clean match. A quick mental average was around 80 penalty points for top 20 finishers.

Just saw this on Facebook!! https://www.facebook.com/GenerationPracticalShooters?fref=ts

I got a certificate for a free entry into the match and followed its instructions for redemption but it hasn't been applied yet. Match sign up has booted me off the entry list twice for non-payment. Who is the best person to talk to in order to get this resolved so I can keep my sqaud selection?

Friday's practice session was a success on multiple levels. I invited a shooting buddy to come out to my new range. I haven't been able to practice with him since last July, so that was fun to get back into a familiar rythm. We are pretty equally skilled so we constantly push each other. I made the biggest gains in the past when I was practicing with him on a regular basis. We set up a short stage with a single ported 8' wall: 3 targets @ 7-8 yards at varying heights and mostly open (left side), 2 stacked targets at 15 yards on the right side (one head shot and one bottom half hard cover) and a plate rack in the center at 14 yards. Nice combo of tight shots, open shots, short movements, lowish ports and steel. We started shooting on the left side at the close targets. I can really hammer them when I want to, but I need to ensure that I have a good grip right off the draw or the points are crap. The short movement to the right side provided ample time to do a reload and not feel too rushed on the movement. Getting into position and settled in was tough. The targets required a slight lean to see properly and they were very difficult shots. It felt like I spent a lot of time trying to stabalize myself to get clean shots. Then short movement with reload into the plate rack. I re-learned the importantance of going one for one on the steel. It is better to slow down a tenth of a second per shot to ensure a hit than it is to have one or more makeups. I noticed if I picked a definitive aiming point on the steel (usually bottom third) I would do much beter. When we started from the right side, it was very much apparent how much time getting into position for those tight shots was costing us. By starting on those targets, we were able to shave a full 2 seconds off the stage time as it enabled us to shoot the easy targets much sooner as we didn't need to be stable. I found myself finishing the array before I even really got into position. That is an awesome feeling. It was also really cool to see 1.7 second reloads with ~ 6 yards of movement as well. That really shows my reload practice paying off. I was able to shoot the close targets much more aggresively as I had a better grip on the gun after the reload. I need to focus on getting a solid grip off the draw quickly. To end the session, we changed up the stage slightly. we pushed the close arry out to 15 yards and shot those through the port, the head shot was brought to 8 yards, and the plate rack (4 plates only though) was shot leaning around the wall. This provided an interesting planning opportunity. Do you split the second array, eat up a large transition, in order to do only 1 reload and have ammo to spare on the plate rack? Or do you run the round count right to the limit on the plate rack (not easy shots)? Or last option was to do two reloads? We tried all three. The first option proved to be the most consistent as we had the capacity to miss once or twice on the plates, but took 0.9 seconds on the wide transition. The second option proved to be the quickest by about the 0.9 seconds of the transition, but was the most inconsistent as there was no room to miss. The mental stress of having to go one for one either slowed us down on the shots too much, or we missed and ate a standing reload. The last option, while the easiest, was the slowest. Just too many reloads with no movement to make up the time. The best part of the session came after we cleaned up....Jim Bodkin was in town and stopped by the range to deliver us 20k nice beautiful red coated potential A-holes......quite a workout unloading his truck but I'm set until my first major when I can get another personal delivery.

Had a really good dry fire session last night.....well it was more like 4 sessions last night. I would read a bit, then take a break to dry fire, rinse and repeat. Set up an array of two 2" plates, 1/3 classic target, two 2" plates and stood at 7 yards. This puts everything at a simulated 21 yards. Started with basic draw 6 reload 6 from various hand positions. On thing I noticed was that I was consistently having to raise the sights up to the target after the draw. I don't recall having to do that with the XDm so maybe it is a grip angle difference that I haven't become attuned to yet. The XDm is supposed to have the 1911 grip angle, but sure enough when I put them on top of each other and line the grip/beavertail up, the barrell is angled differently. I'll pay more attention to that in the future. I was also paying a lot of attention to making sure I saw the gun pause on th plates and had a clearly refined sight picture. I figured 21 yard 6" plates have no margin for error. Next I worked on a box to box dril using the same array set up. Start in one box, draw to the other, shoot 6, reload to start box, shoot 6 and reload back to the other box. The main focus of this drill was to have the reload finished in the first step so I could be aiming as I was entering the next box. The movement was short enough that I didn't have to move all that explosively and could really focus on settling into position smoothly. I was surprised that I didn't have to be completely stable before breaking the shot on the first plate so I will need to confirm this in live fire to make sure I'm being honest. I also noticed I still have a habit of getting taller while getting into position. I enter in low, but as I settle the movement, I straighten my legs. I think this has to do with my comfort shooting fully erect and not liking crouching. Shooting in low positions is something I am going to have to get more comfortable with. Next up was a square drill where I shot two plates, moved forward, moved right, back, left. I focused on keeping the gun up and aiming at the next target, not worrying about capacity. This drill wore me out more than anything as I was constantly moving and gripping the gun hard. No time to relax. Forward and right movement was easy, back and left was not. I kept wanting to break my grip moving in those directions. I'm not so worried about the backwards movement breaking my grip, but the left movement needs to be perfect. Short movements between arrays either right or left without a reload is quite common. Finally I set up two 1/6 scale poppers at a simulated 50-60 yards distant. At this point I was just focusing on gun handling. Draw, shoot, move, reload, shoot. There was no particular order or anything like that. I just made up what I was doing as I went along. I think I only set this up to get away from studying and didn't really learn too much.

That's where the distant steel comes into play Roy. I'm sure you'll get your 450 into the backstop.

From Area 4 FB: Limited GM-6 M-12 A-19 B-23 C-16 D-9 U-15 Open GM-13 M-18 A-23 B-24 C-12 D-5 U-8 Revo GM-1 M-2 A-1 B-1 C-1 D-0 U-1 Prod GM-8 M-17 A-13 B-20 C-24 D-5 U-14 SS GM-0 M-1 A-1 B-3 C-7 D-0 U-3 L10 GM-0 M-1 A-1 B-1 C-2 D-0 U-1

Thanks! The balancing act sucks, but I think it will be worth it.

Well I followed up a good match with probably the worst match I've had in a long time. It was a rough match as most of the targets were very challenging (20 yard swingers, 28 yard plates, partial swingers, etc). The word "mean" comes to mind. I loved every minute, even the most frustrating parts. It's been a week since that match, but heres what went wrong: Engaged safety on close target due to loose grip Slide Failed to lock back on classifier 3 Mikes Forgot and entire array due to last minute plan change (rookie thing) So here are my solutions and game plan Get thin safety installed, maybe even single sided as it is my strong hand riding up into it. For now I will sand down the offending side as a stop gap measure Found the offending mags, they did it on the safe table too. It doesn't seem like they are pushing the slide lock all the way into the slide. Still investigating, but a gunsmith gave me some advice on how to modify the slide stop by cutting a slight angle in it. Cannot shoot as aggressively on partials as I can with my 9mm. I just cannot time the gun yet. I have been focusing on letting my sights settle on small targets in dry fire Very confusing stage to breakdown for single stack. I saw an option that allowed my to eliminate a low port with far targets, but had me eating a standing reload. Except when I went to burn that plan in, I completely skipped an array as I had it in my mind go there after the first position, but was walking right past it in the walkthrough. NEVER EVER CHANGE THE PLAN WITH A FEW SHOOTERS BEFORE GO TIME!!! Of everything, that last mistake pisses me off. Now enough bashing on what went wrong, what went right? Most of my stage plans were rock solid. Except for the one incident, the plans were executed flawlessly and were solid plans Reloads were good, not amazing but good. I HAD FUN! It was 65 degrees in south Texas and I was shooting guns, what more can you ask for? This past week was really busy as I had a deadline at work that I had to make, so very little dry fire for me. Today however, I made sure to take lots of breaks between homework and work to get some solid dry fire in. I swithced my mag pouches to CR Speed with the 1911 insert and noticed an immediate difference. I can get my hand on the mags without jamming my thumb into my side. Getting a better grip out of the pouch allowed my to really focus on the reload itself. Doing a draw 4 reload 4 reload 4 drill I was able to get the mag seated and start presenting before the other mag hit the ground. That's about 0.5-0.6 seconds to get the gun reloaded. I like it, I love it, I want some more of it! Still working on polishing up the presentation part but its coming along nicely. I hope to be in Master class form in a few weeks, then can start the hard push to GM.

I have had the same issue with a box I bought recently. Even got a primer stuck in my 650 magazine tune and had to have Dillon replace it.

Saw on the Generation Practial Shooters Club Facebook page that an email will go out tonight.