Carlos

Patrick wrote: "9mm can be touchy about crimp, and 9mm with lead even more so. If you over-crimp, accuracy suffers. Crimp as little as you can get away with, and still not have feeding problems. Do not use crimp to prevent bullet set-back, do that with a proper diameter belling stem." Excellent reply; all I can add is this: w/ a fast powder like bullseye, you need to test for & prevent set back. Do not bother w/ the so-called "bench test" (pushing the bullet against a bench). Old wives tale that is. Instead, load a dummy round, measure OAL, load it into the Tanfoglio mag & rack the slide HARD. Then eject onto a SOFT surface like a couch & re-measure. More than .05 set back (shorter) & you might consider using a Lee brand U or undersize resizing die (under $20 direct by calling Lee - as in on the telephone; its not on their site). Try LESS bell 1st - could also solve the problem. I would personally go to a 147 (much less perceived recoil than a 124) & switch to inexpensive plated bullets.

CZs are really fantastic guns; I have been saying that for years here on brianenos.com Do a search on CZ 75 or CZ 85 & you will find many many posts about how great these guns are. Reset in SA is very short & they respond to the same tuning tricks as a 1911 for SA. They compare favorably to John Browning's High Power; if you buy a new HP today, there will not be a barrel "hood" like there once was, but the slide will still have a 1/2 round cut out for the "hood" of earlier HPs - & that is the set-up on the CZ (old HP-style barrel hood). The guns are already excellent & when the new SP-01 comes out, they will be THE guns to shoot in Production. Look out for the Standard IPSC in Limited now too. Regards, D.

Excellent U/O summary Sig Lady! All that stuff went on & more! However, no cornholing at U/O - - at least not the sort of cornholing we're talking bout here. Looks like a certain U.S. political party must really feel corn-holed today! (you know - like they just finished a game of cornhole of course). But that might be considered a political comment so please moderate if need be.

Congrats Gorila; good looking kitten. Seems to be shredding things already.

D.C. recently had a lead scare when it turned out the city knew about & failed to inform/correct high lead levels in the city water system. Lots of lead info followed. There seem to 2 levels mentioned as "minimum" levels for exposure: -some say that level is 10 mcg/dl & above; supposedly the only "treatment" that a doctor will suggest at low levels is: "remove source of lead from patient's environment". -some claim that 10 is actually the pediatric limit & the real exposure limit for adults is 24 mcg/dl & above. -I have heard that during the decades when leaded gasoline was used, the average for adults in and around unban areas was 22 mcg/dl, though I could not confirm it after an internet search. 2 years ago, I tested at a 12. 1 year ago, it was 13. I am careful about washing both hands & face after every shooting session & wearing left hand "finger cots" when reloading. I also use supplements including apple pectin & chellate form Calcium. I would also like to find an inexpensive source for the amino acid EDTA in capsules/tablets; another internet search only found high-dollar supplies.

Winchester wrote: "The weight of the bullet did not change, however bullet weights can vary from lot to lot." Great. Make sure the next lot uses bullets weighing 147 to 180 grns (good idea Kingman!) & use a really small charge of really fast burning, soft shooting powder. And lower the price. Then I will give up reloading 9mm. I got a similar reply from Federal regarding their cleanprimed ammo. Short & patronizing. Oh well.

GMW2B wrote: "Its a popular game in the area around Dupont Circle!" -That would be an area in Washington D.C. known for predominantly gay/lesbian/bi/transgendered (GLBT)-friendly establishments. The Circle is also known by the not-so-P.C. nic-name "fruit loop". As for how I would know what GLBT means? I spent 2 years of re-education/indoctrination at the hippie-haven known as University of Oregon, Eugene, before making my escape back into the real world. Eugene was a cool town in a wild state & I liked it there; the closed-minded crap they taught at U. of O. was not so cool. Not sure how much corn-holing really goes on back there at U. of O. Don't really want to know actually.

How about focusing on the changes to USPSA brought about by the sunset of the AWB? What changes you ask? Well, the last 2 World Cahmpionships/ World Shoots were won by a Tanfoglio Race gun, the likes of which are less & less often seen in USPSA/ the United States. Sure there were a couple of "pre-ban" mags floating around but during the dark years of the ban, I never once saw Brownells sell "Genuine Tanfoglio Replacement Tubes for "High Capacity Mags". At the same time, there were scads of STI/SV mag parts. Now that has changed. And what about Caspian? It was not the most inviting platform for a new shooter to build/buy an open gun with considering the lack of replacement parts. I believe the AWB did little to harm STI or SV sales in the 2 "high capacity" divisions of USPSA: Open & Limited. The AWB about killed off new Open & Limited guns by Caspian, Tanfoglio, CZ & frankly, who knows what else might have developed into viable USPSA platforms due to the ban? For example, in 1997, CZ developed the .40 "Standard IPSC" - a purpose built single action w/ a long heavy dust-cover & a factory tuned 1.5 lb trigger. Only it used its own unique magazine that was banned from import (in more than 10 round format) into the USA prior to 9/13/2004. Never saw "replacement tubes/140mm parts" for sale here either. Hence, there was ZERO developement of this fine gun in USPSA. Now I love my SV & STI, and for me right now, I think they are the very best for our sport. But I would rather have my faith in S_I confirmed by competition on a level playing field & not by some idiotic ban which only 2 companies (sv & sti) seemed to find a way around. Yes, yes, I know about those Glock tubes that popped up befor the ban, but they never were the equivalent to buying a "tuned" STI/SV mag body replacement tube. So lets hear about Graufel's guns set up. And CZ's competition magazines. Or Glocks. Or HK; whatever, just something we COULD NOT easily have during the ban.

Terrific concept! Thanks for sharing the idea & hope the match sells out. D.

WhooHooo! I won! By some fluke of dumb luck or fate, I managed to win my 1st club-match attempt at revolver shooting: Revolver: Doug Johnson (Chris Elniff 2nd) L10: Vlad Dreyvister (Chris Elniff 2nd) Limited: Phil Strader (Chris Elniff 2nd) Open: Ron Francisco (Megan Madigan 2nd) Production: Vlad Dreyvister (Todd Sindelar 2nd) from www.shootersparadise.com Granted there were only 4 competitors but a win is a win & I'll take it thanks! Even had I not won, this was a great experience & reccomend everybody giving it a try. Don't worry about me getting a fat head though; at last weekend's outdoor match I shot my way down to 2nd with poor shooting(not so impressive when there were only 2 of us & the other guy's gun jammed up a couple times). Still, a lot of fun.

"So, I was happy with the chrono function of the MKIV timer until I shot thru one of the sensors!!" Dang it! Them damn things dont work half as good after you shoot 'em. Gad dang defective product if ya ask me. So I hear. . . not like I know. Or anything.

Could swear I was able to get the Super X2 Practical to do that too. . . will have to verify. Ghost Dog?

Welcome to the forum! What country are you in? Best regards, Douglas TY-44934 N.Va/D.C. area

Now that the U.S. magazine ban has sunset, when can we expect to see "normal" capacity 140MM and 170MM magazines for the nearly identical STI/SV and SPS guns?

Forgot to add that the match began in the rain & the 625 is currently the only stainless steel gun I own. That, along with the mud/wet grass slowing everyone else down too, made my stage times lower than I expected (though final results pending & the auto shooters still dominated). In all, a really great time! Revolver results from the classifier match are posted on www.shootersparadise.com under the USPSA Club section. Looking like I will possibly shoot into C class, though the high hit factors are not known so its impossible to say. Douglas TY-44934

Our monthly match (www.shootersparadise.com) was a classifier & I managed to borrow a revolver holster for my bone stock 625 as well as 3 moonclip holders; I enjoyed shooting it so much that I took the revolver out today to B.J. Norris' match (North Mountain). This gun is great to shoot! Very accurate & I found myself shooting more Alphas than I usually do. Virtually no recoil (625s are quite heavy). SUre it needs a cylinder chamfering but it works. Also, the gaming aspect of thinking in multiples of SIX instead of 10 or 20 is very different for this Limited/Production shooter. Not quite ready to hang up my usual USPSA hardware, but still a very good time. If you have never tried Revolver, take the plunge.

Mark - I have the dim.s someplace at work; generally you can take it down to where the top radius meets the side flat without entering the FP hole. As far as forward dim, I have seen the rear portion milled fairly close the breach face - say within .500"; though more may be possible.

Welcome Noah. Too bad you missed last night's Shooter's all-classifier match. Much fun was made of yours & my favorite N-310 load; it makes so little noise & recoil that few Major types believe that N310 even meets Minor. Look forward to seeing you next month. Regards, Douglas

Called TNT today & looks to them like Star will wrap up business at the end of '04. Word is out & now Star orders are 1 month behind. I hope the owners of Star reconsider & keep supplying us with an excellent product at an excellent price.

I believe that Atlanta Arms is now producing a 147 load that should meet your needs. You might also contact Cor-Bon as they also have produced a line called their "match ammunition" load that (with a 147). If anyone went to the "Beretta Day" at NRA's HQ Range - the cor-bon 147 match load was used that day. Failing those two sources, I would use any standard velocity 147grn 9x19mm load except Remington/UMC in the yellow box. It repeatedly jammed my bone stock Glock 17.

Driver8M3 wrote: "and .40AET was a great caddy, driving my bag from stage to stage" Criminy! The guy wins two Glocks and a CZ in one weekend & the very next week he has to have a caddy to carry his shooting bag around for him??! Man o man, you REALLY let that GSSF win go to your head! Good shooting Russell. After last night's classifier match, I think there is a new classification card in your immediate future. D.

"immediately excommunicate" - agreed, though I was thinking of a more harsh penalty . . . Anyway, certain commercial shipping containers apparently have steel floors made of sufficient hardness to withstand even rifle fire; I recall a magazine article about a 3gun/"tactical" type match a few years ago that used targets cut from this scrap material. Perhaps someone else here remembers that article & can tell you more.

Great stage designs! Very technically challenging match w/ a large variety of target types/distances/presentations. Also, from a shooter's perspective, administration ran efficiently & quickly. Stats were run top notch & complete results posted on Sunday night. Well done! I know issues will/have come up (its a 1st effort at Thurmont), but please keep in mind that this match has fantastic future potential (and yes, it is an easy drive from my place so I am a little biased). Lets build on this year's experience & make next year even better. Regards, D.

Welcome Rainman. If you have a free moment, I would enjoy hearing about IPSC activity in Japan - particularly the use of air-soft guns. From the winning performance of some Japanese shooters, I take it their airsoft practice routines are extremely effective. Regards, Douglas

Quantico's USPSA range was once inhabited by Black Widows - ordinarily not a problem except that being a military range, they require you to police up every singe piece of spent brass from spider habitat (the ground) after shooting. It also makes you think twice about picking up the old tires during set-up/take down. I hear they are common in Fredericksburg as well.