cautery

You would be well-served to stay as far away from "ben stoeger" as reasonably possible. Have you read Brian Enos's book? If not, I HIGHLY recommend that you read it twice in the next 3 months..... Immediately, and take notes of stuff you don't get, or you think is cool, etc, etc.... Then, read it again in 90 days IF you have studied, practiced, worked out, etc. It will seem like a whole nuther book and you will learn so much more. Lather, Rinse, Repeat.... every 90-180 days from now on. You will learn something you had no idea was there EVERY time you read it. When you are through it the FIRST time, let me know, and I will turn you on to a couple of other books that you should have/use. Spend that $3000 wisely and manage your time/training, and you can be a Master in under 12 months.... a REAL one.... not a paper one. It's all up to you.

Well done! Good work; good product; and basic people skills and you can do quite well.

Oops... sorry. Emanuel "Manny" Bragg. GM, instructor, past office holder, EXCELLENT instructor, and just one helluva guy.

Send some of 'em my way!

$3k? 5 days? I advise against both. Bestest/fastest learning in a "class" I ever had was a 2-day class with Manny. Don't remember how many rounds, but I was toast by the end, and still shooting 300% better.... for a while. Gotta practice EVERY DAY if you want to be better than good. Dry fire, dry fire, dry fire... Less than 1 in 10 pulls should be live... unless you just like making empty brass. My 2/100ths of a pretty piece of paper... worth what you paid.

Not in my neck o the woods. Folks ain't spending money for nuthin. I'm in the big middle of trying to do my 60-year downsize, and I can't find anyone with money for good stuff.

I'm only concerned for size into the case feeder. I "inspect" by sight and feel while loading. I inspect LOADED rounds before they go in a match box. Practice goes straight in the box and I HOPE for a failure or two for true drill in practice. Mostly never get one.... ever.

A certain amount of mass is necessary. This is a "you gotta test it" kinda deal. Personally, I think its a solution in search of a problem, and it will eventually be problems in need of solutions. JM 2/100ths of a piece of the idea of a monetary unit.

Nope. Not new. Can be done safely by any competent and ethical craftsman with the right tools or contractors. If you have doubts about either their competence or ethical adherence, then they shouldn't be building your firearms. THAT thins the herd considerably.

Build your own database on your own rifle. Everything else is a Band-Aid on a wound you don't HAVE to have.

Or, if you want to dip your toe into the tippy top of a bottomless pool of .... You can sort brass by head-stamp (or save lots), measure to meet a minimum, trim back to a common length, and otherwise uniform/prep the brass, then sort for weight and only take those within whatever # of grains you choose. Then set the machine to be optimized for super consistent components, sort your projectiles on weight, concentricity, whatever you want to discriminate on. Then make double sure each powder charge is thrown within "spec" and bullet is set at the precise place every time ( a whole 'nuther gigantic black hole of "How good is good?").... verified by gauges.... soooo many gauges. Then, you can move to the firearm and put a new custom chambered, smith fit barrel in... or do it yourself if you are brave and willing to buy a few barrels. Then get your own reamers made up with your specific chamber design... ... and... Does it work? You bet! I proved it starting with a bone stock Glock. Is it worth it? Only you can decide that. Hope this helps.

If you think it is about a "scoring disadvantage" then I am of the opinion based upon this one statement alone that you have COMPLETELY missed a KEY portion of the philosophy of the sport. (meaning: this is my kneejerk reaction to what amounts to a foolish statement and thus is as likely mistaken as it might be reality). Hope I'm wrong. You really mean that? Do you not know WHY there is a scoring "disparity" not "disadvantage" or "advantage". WEIGHTED..... for a reason.... a good one.

Bro. Take my advice and keep your head down unless you want to see ZERO posts and the ban hammer. I've been here 22 YEARS and have 600+ posts, and got questioned about my motives. You have CLEARLY been post harvesting to make the Classifieds minimums.... Do yourself a favor and PRAY the Admin does not see this thread! How about you back up and realize where you are and just be a decent dude, chill, and learn, and help folks out if you can. The privileges will come when they come. Just my 2/100ths of a worthless piece of fiat currency.

Ben Hayes. Hayes Custom Guns. Central Texas. Close enough. Look no further. Serious. Man is a genius with Mr. Browning's heritage, a dedicated artist, and skilled/experienced craftsman.

You are welcome. Some things don't wear off...

I am Airborne, and I mostly agree. I figured it out about 4 yrs in and branch transferred to Aviation. My Uncle was an Air Force Officer. He swore me in at Commissioning and sincerely asked me to change my mind and take a Commission in the Air Force. (great story) A decision I got wrong, and will forever remember. Funny story. I am deathly afraid of heights. (More precisely, I am afraid of hitting the Earth at great velocity) Like for real. But I have dozens of jumps.... Moral of the story... You DO what you have to do to feed your family. That $100 (and then $110) a month was the difference between solvency and hunger for a brand new Officer and his family of 2 with one on the way. Now, flying... whole nuther thing if "I" am the pilot.

That sound you heard was a Forum Rules violator having his "4th Point of Contact" sheared off by a well-composed and reasoned response. Bravo Mike! Well handled. I am in awe of your self-control. I shall endeavor to emulate your example.

deleted

deleted

deleted

deleted

NO ONE wants to hear the truth.

Question #1 - Are you able, and do you have your eyes open when the trigger break happens? Until that answer is "Yes". You will never be "calling" your shots. You will be estimating your shots. It is a sad truth. I have a terrible time keeping my eyes open. Takes constant practice. It is perishable for me. However, at the extreme other end of the scale, once you have so many (evaluated) rounds downrange that you could not possibly count them all, your body/brain will learn more about where the weapon was when the trigger broke... You might even call 80% or better without a clear snapshot of the break.... very rare.... akin to the "Zone" in rarity and not even tangentially related. Have you read Brian's book? Lately? If either answer is "No", remedy the situation and then work your way back up from the ground and when you get back to shot calling, I'll bet that you have zero issues with it at all. Be well!

IF we are going to enforce proscriptive emails as the means of governing this sport, it would be 1) a HUGE surprise to me, and 2) a MASSIVE shift in the philosophy of USPSA rule-making that I was taught by folks who have 2 decades more than MY 17+ years. Yes, I "get" that this is Steel Challenge.... It's still utterly inconsistent. Having inconsistent policies/philosophies between the two sports is confusing and potentially UNSAFE. IF SCSA is going to be under the USPSA umbrella, it needs to follow the same policies and philosophies as closely as possible for consistency, sanity, and safety. I'm sorry, but if there is NOT a rule that specifically prohibits this situation, then it should be permissible. You cannot go around making up rules willy-nilly. NO ONE in this organization has that power. ANYONE exercising power in this organization like this is wrong. It is a violation of everything I was taught... It is a violation of the very spirit of this sport.

If you have an emotional attachment to a pistol, don't use it. That said.... it's a Kimber. If it will run reliably in a match, and you can feed it on your budget, then shoot the ever-loving crap out of it and have fun while shooting .45 ACP.... shoot single stack if/when available.... Warning shooting 1911s and 2011s is addictive and WILL get expensive at some point! Enjoy!