Schedule 40

You're a very rare breed of shooter if you are able to guarantee a major match victory within the nex year. Best of luck!!!!

I'll tell ya' what I know.Predicting that you will get promoted through the ranks via "match bump" simply doesn't make any sense. If a shooter is not a Master, then he/she will have to shoot the classifier at least once every year. If you were to just barely fall short of your "bump" year after year, while at the same time developing into a better shooter, then are you trying to tell me that you would "sandbag" your classifier run simply to stay in your current class and not be promoted through your annual/mandatory "skill test"? I can not see where this line of thinking makes any sense. Any shooter who has the skills to promote their current classification during their annual classifier run and then purposely fails to do so in an attempt to only be promoted through a "major match bump" is simply doing IDPA and all of it's competitors a major disservice.

I'm not assuming anything. I simply gave an example of what could happen in some situations. There is roughly a 20 second difference between an "almost made MA time" and a "barely made EX time". Therefore, the possibility exists for a major match to be held in an area where every competitor in EX is in that "barely made EX" group. The winner of this group of shooters should certainly be happy and proud of their victory, BUT their new Master classification will probably soon make it very evident in upcoming matches that they were not fully ready to me in the new class. This example, obviously, could be used at any level of classification in IDPA. This is my reasoning for not understanding all of the hype of a "match bump". I don't believe that it's always a good thing. 20 seconds is a very large amount of time in IDPA!!!!

I know that I said that any shooter who makes Master either way should be proud, but I simply don't understand all of the hype about a match bump. Think of it this way......You're shooting SSP Expert at a major match against 12 other competitors in your class. Each of these competitors, including yourself, barely classified as experts, having ran the classifier with only two or three second to spare. The winner of this group of shooters will automatically be thrown into "Master Class". Congratulations on the achievement, but it will soon be obvious that the happy victor is in over his/her head.

A shooter should feel proud of making Master no matter which way they earn it. If you are not a Master, then you are forced to shoot the classifier at least once a year. If you give it an honest attempt and "make the grade", then no one else should be able to tell you that a match bump would've "meant more". Fact of the matter is that there is not a very high percentage of IDPA shooters that make Master; so any person who accomplishes it by either of the two ways should feel very good about their progress.

Striker springs (Wolff reduced power only if you shoot Federal primers) and a bag of "stock" trigger springs. The trigger springs are, in my experience, the weakest part of an otherwise excellent design.Might not hurt to keep another recoil spring handy while at matches either. The only other thing that I've seen fail on a Glock 34 at matches is when something crazy like an improperly installed front sight goes flying off during a stage. I guess it wouldn't hurt to have another one of those in the range bag too, along with fiber optic pipe, if your sight is equipped with one.

I've spent a lot of time shooting the 30 and 21. They're both big guns (very thick). The 30 is a sweet shooter, but for my money the 21 is the best feeling 45 Auto that I've ever shot. I've never owned the 30 (it belonged to my shooting buddy), but have carried my 21 extensively IWB with an untucked T-shirt and have never been "made"; so, the 30 is workable for a carry gun. I will not try to tell you that it will be comfortable though. When you take it off at the end of the day, it will be imprinted into your hip and look like you're still wearing it. I recently acquired a G26. I will never carry the 21 again. This gun is awesome. Inside of 7 yards, I'm able to shoot it as fast and as accurately as my G34. It's noticeably thinner than the 45 Glocks and far easier to conceal. I was anxious to see what the recoil impulse was going to feel like. I've shot a G27 (.40) and a G33 (.357 sig) in the past. They are the same exact size as the 26, and although I won't say that the recoil was painful or terrible, it's definitely snappy. The 26 is "night and day" more pleasant to shoot than either one of those pistols. Go with the 26. You'll love it!!!!

Game gun: Glock 34 Carry guns: Glock 21 and 26 depending on how I'm going to be dressed. The 21 is actually easier to conceal than most would think, but there are some occasions when I just don't feel like dealing with that giant stuck to my hip all day. I find that by keeping the basic platform the same that the skills transfer nicely from game gun to carry rig regardless of the size of the pistols.

I'm open to that idea...rehearsal dinner could be switched to a rehearsal lunch on the range I'd attend..... as long as you don't wear any of that "Buckeye Gear" that you always have on when I run into you

Take the time to get "good" hits. You don't want to be wasteful with it, but .5 seconds is a long time to ensure a center hit. No sense in giving away too many seconds due to sloppy shooting. If you're running with EXP guys, then I believe that you have the skills to shoot "down zero" on the first two stages if the proper amount of time is taken to collect the hits. Pulling that off would be "huge" because stage 3 is what sinks most people. I have seen so many "points down" here that could have easily been avoided by shooters who should've just taken a few more seconds to get the hits. Those few "real" seconds would've been far less that the 15 to 20 that many of them suffer in penalty time.

I'll definitely be there. This match has been a ton of fun the past two years. Just curious though as to why it got changed to April. That is a huge transition from the first two matches, which were held in late October. It seems like we all just finished shooting it. Actually, this was my last of 5 majors last year, and this year it will be my first.

Hey, Bruce! I'm confused by the title of this post. I didn't know that we were supposed to stop shooting. How come I'm just now hearing about this? I'm glad that I never got busted shooting last winter. When should it be safe to do some live-fire outdoors again? Just messin' with ya!!! It's nice to finally hear from a familiar face that I recognize. You're far more "hardcore" than I'll ever be if you're willing to travel 10 hours to shoot club matches all winter long. I wish that I could find that kind of time and devotion. Good luck with your search, and I'll see you next March at SKSC. Safe shooting, Mark S.

Most of us could have identified your "inner conflict" simply by looking at your user-name and profile-icon. Just listen to the little red guy with the pitch fork on your left shoulder, and shoot the Glock. Otherwise, you should change your name to Shadow.

Thanks, Flex. I was starting to feel like I accidentally ran a lawn-mower over a nest full of ground hornets. It was certainly an interesting conversation that was taking place, but my question was answered after the first few replies. Politics, finances, match management aside...... this sport is all still somewhat new to me, and I'm just happy to be a part of it. I plan on attending the Production Nationals regardless of where they take place, and I'm sure that all of those involved will do their best to make sure that the event will be held at a location within the best interests of our organization.

Thanks for the update. This will be my first nationals, so I've been quite anxious to know exactly where we'll be attending them at.