hopalong

Yes MS STATE Practice ?????? What is that ????? Stephanie back to shooting yet?

No they are not Illeagal Lynn, just made things too easy. Kind of like your 31 round big stick for your open gun. SAM

No, I gave it back to him so he could demonstrate the propper way to use a revolver!!!! Thanks Firewalker, see you in Corinth in about 4 weeks???? someone with the initials JM said he was thinking about making the trip up. Hopalong

Shipster, I have a P16-40 LTD and have an Ed Brown on it, the Dawson base pads work fine on it.( I use Para magazines with Dawson +2 pads, grams springs and followers this makes for a total of 21 in the mag and 1 in the gun and they all function flawlessly( back when I shot them ) Good Luck Hopalong

Rhino, For me it does not matter if a course is revolver friendly or not, I picked my poison I will use it. but for the just starting or those experimenting it is kind of frustrating to shoot stages where you have to make timely flat footed reloads. I do agree with you about it not mattering about the numbers of people shoot revolvers or not as long as they are out shooting, BUT ( I think you are shooting production now right?) if you showed up to your semi-local match and everyone that normally is there shows and some new faces too but they all decide to shoot Limited instead of the normal production shooters that shoot with you shooting the same style as you (reloads ect.) they now only have to reload once or not at all and there you are still having to make yours, now you have to figure out the stages all by yourself, and can't watch anyone else to see if they figured something out a little better, ect. these are things we all work on at matches that help get us to the next level and if there are no others there the next level is farther and harder to get to. Revchuck, I reload Like Jerry M, and when I push the ejector I turn the gun up like you do, at first I had trouble but with practice I learned to keep the muzzle obviously shy of the 180. and if it happens it happens pay a little more attention to what you are doing. I also do the same style reload with my Gp 100 and use Safariland comp 2 loaders they also find the hole pretty quick like moon clips you only have to push them after they get in there. Keep the suggestions coming maybe we will find some that will work/help Hopalong

If you are going to TAKE THE TIME TO SHOOT ALL A's then you don't need to shoot major anyway as: A zone hit = 5 points major or minor SO SHOOT MINOR and shoot all A's and take the time to do it. IF NOT:::: Shoot Major take a few b, c, or D hits when they come shoot faster but TRY for All A's NOT TOO MUCH ROCKET SCIENCE THERE GUYS/GALS Hopalong

First of all, Thanks Flex !! I started shooting in 2001 and started with a limited gun, and there was no IDPA around here in the North MS/ South west TN area at the time. about 2002 our club started shooting IDPA and I had picked up a Ruger GP 100 4 inch gun so I shot it occaionally at an IDPA match but still concentrated on the Limited gun and shot it in both. but did really well with the ruger when I made A Limited I decided to shoot revolver just to get the skills up to par or close to the Limited gun, I knew going in that USPSA stages are not very revolver friendly unless you do it yourself but I also knew there were no others shooting one around here and besides it did not matter, I was getting trigger time in (and plenty of reloads) After I started shooting revolver exclusively in November of 2003 I have talked a few of the guys shooting IDPA revo to shoot USPSA a few times and except for the couple who do not think that shooting both is OK they have liked it and have actually Joined USPSA and have classified with theirs. we have a core of shooters in our club that shoot both, and some that shoot one or the other only, they have tried the other types but the biggest reason I hear from them is that the rules of one confuse them when they try to shoot the other. the next most often excuse I hear from them is that they only have time to shoot one discipline and choose IDPA for I think they think it is less confusing than USPSA. ( I KNOW the scoring system freaks them out when they can't keep track of their score like they do in IDPA At larger (USPSA) matches I always hear from the auto shooters that they are sorry the stages are not revolver friendly, my response is " That is OK, I am not shooting against autos and if I have to make a Standing reload so will the others so there is no problem with that". Around here another reason I think IDPA is more popular with Revolver shooters is that a match usually is less than 100 rounds where our USPSA matchs usually are 100 + and if you go to Memphis it is 200+( yes that is a club match and they do it twice a month). A friend of mine went to the IDPA nationals and he told me he really practiced up for it and went through 500 rounds the week before, I told him that I went through 3,000 the 10 days before USPSA Nationals and he liked to had a cow and said that is almost half of what I shoot a year. I agree with Desmark6, when a person picks up a revolver he is looking for a challenge ( if only personaly like mine ) but once I started shooting the wheel gun I have found it to be really fun and enjoyable. I don't know how many USPSA masters there are out there but I do know there were 10 or better at the IDPA nationals and 58 revovler shooters total when at the USPSA nationals there were 1 GM 1 A 14 B and 1 D ----- 2 classes of revolver shooters at IDPA Nationals totaled more than the whole USPSA nationals. I do know that it is not very easy to make Master with a Revo in IDPA and it takes good skill to do so, I am still an Expert but have not tried the classifier in a while(5 months or so) but I think I could make the mark now if I shot one but our club has ran their two for the year already. Maybe if there were some revolver only matches scattered around to get some participation within the ranks, I don't know maybe an Area revolver only match in all the areas and then an unofficial "Revolver Nationals" to show USPSA leadership that there is more intrest out there than they think?. I have come to really enjoy shooting the wheel gun, and still enjoy shooting the autos but this thing of good participation in one shooting discipline and not another that is not that much different really puzzles me. And maybe we need to talk USPSA into an OPEN REVOLVER division to help get the numbers up???? just an idea or two mixed in with a bunch of junk but you have to start somewhere or you will never start (getting more shooters) Sam Keen aka HOPALONG Sorry about the long post

Well with a month to go we have 10 stages with all different types of skill tests to try your skills (and other things). STI has granted us Contegency status so those of you who are in that here is a chance to get in on that. we are around Half way full of entries so don't wait too long.(shooting for 150) for those who like to bring the Family, it looks like the Fall colors are going to run just a little late this year around here so that would put them just right for the match as normally it is around the 1st of the month. We are thinking of raffling off a Remington or Browning bolt action Rifle at the Match for future range improvements so there would be the best chance at a quality rifle for little $$$$$. INFO at WWW.CRSSA.COM Hopalong SEE YOU THERE

I know this may be kind of touchy as per the forum rules but shooting is shooting and I am wondering how to get the numbers up in USPSA as they are in IDPA I shoot both and enjoy shooting both they are good practice and actually go hand in hand if you do it right. If you go to an IDPA match you go knowing the rules, play by those rules and if you forget and do something stupid like shooting in the open and not using cover then yes you are going to get dinged with a penaltie that is the rules play by them. And in USPSA there is no rule that says you can't use cover to shoot from it just takes a little longer to finish the stages that way. What I want to know is what can USPSA do or needs to do to get more intrest from the revolver shooters, it is quite evident that they are missing the boat just look at the numbers of Revolver shooters from the USPSA nationals (17) and IDPA Nationals (58) RedMist 10 do you shoot both or only IDPA? (using you as an example if you don't mind) HOPALONG

Redmist 10 About the guy that you would love to learn how to paste targets, If you will wait until it is his turn to shoot and as a squad not paste targets he will get the hint very quick. Hopalong

Wow, 49 years !!!! after meeting him at Area - 3 and then Nationals I never would have thought he was a day older than 100 did pretty good going up those stairs for 5 days though happy BDay BDH

ET45 our club in North MS, (corner next to Alabama and TN) is thinking about having one, if we can get enough intrest as our club is small and would only be able to get maybe 3 from the club to do it as some of us already have. www.crssa.com web site It is still in the thinking about it stage but would likely be in January or February The Closest town is Corinth, MS and that is where we would hold it. Sam Keen

Thanks spook, This makes 3 times I have shot the same match as him and have had a 69%, 70% and 70% and have only been seriously shooting the revolver for 11 months now so I am ok with that. Hopalong

With a steady rain all day the man known as "MR Revolver" rode out the flood. Ole hopalong got to watch him on the stage named "Hoser Heaven" (I was the RO) and did not get to watch any other of his stages on my stage there was 5 steel (one activated a swinger on the other side of a barricade and some barrels) and 3 static targets over with the swinger)all this going to the left. A barricade in the middle 5 steel(all bunched up by the way) one which operated another swinger like the left side and 3 more static targets. I kind of expected him to shoot all 5 steel(going left), reload going to the statics shoot 2 of them and the swinger when it appeared, reload and get the easiest static and then go do the other side like wise. NOPE he shot two of the steel (one of the activators) went and shot the statics and swinger , picked up the other 3 on the way back by and then shot the right side the way I expected. did it in the average speed the open and Limited guys were shooting it in. Talking to the others (ROs) they all said that even though they have seen him shoot before that he never fails to amaze them. Now as a RO, if there were more shooters out there like Him and Kay we would be spoiled rotten, those two are some of the most hard working I have had the pleasure to be around. I shot the "other Shootin Iron" (610) as I had temporarily used up all my match .45 bullets and reverted back to the other "old reliable". There were 8 stages in the match and Jerry won all 8, Hopalong finished 2nd in 6 of them and 6th in the other 2 (that is what happens when you skip a target on one stage and then short stroke the trigger twice on the other). There were 7 revolver shooters there( Not bad for a State match ) but here is How it washed out 1st Jerry Miculek GM 100% 2nd Sam Keen A 70.12% 3rd Henry Thiels U 61.07% 4th Richard Timberlake B 59.20% 5th Pat Deberry C 52.31% 6th Robert Williams D 46.96% 7th Hank Stern C 45.52% I went back after it was all over and took out the 2 mikes for short stroking the gun and the 2 mikes for leaving a target not shot at and put D hits in there instead then I removed the Failure to engage penalty and redid the match math and came up 8% so Jerry still would have sailed smoothly through the flood. On another note,(just to show you how good a guy he really is) when I short stroked the trigger I thought I had light hits so I took the grip off my gun and turned the strain screw half a turn(just in case) while doing that at the safe table I dropped the grip screw on the ground and could not find it.(I had 2 stages left to shoot) Jerry and Kay were looking at the stages and just happend to walk by, I asked him if he had any extras with him, and He said he did not but would lend me his out of his gun. he went and took his out while we looked for mine some more and still did not find it. he gave me his and went looking at the other stages and told me to find him at the hotel. Just as soon as he drove off to get a hotel room we found mine and I put it back in the gun and stuck his in my pocket to make sure I did not lose it. Now I had only met and shot with him and Kay at 1 previous match, he called my name and remembered me from that one match (area-3) and then let me use his screw from his own match gun (he did not bring an extra either). This kind of stuff is what makes him and Kay so good. He did not have to do that but he volunteered that I use his to finish the match with. How else could you descibe these two except as "Good Folk". Sorry for the long post but that is well worth mentioning. Hopalong

Carmoney, Have not got to play with it, went to MO last weekend, MS this weekend, TN IDPA next weekend, ARK 3-gun the weekend after that, then 1 weekend off then MS IDPA. Looks Like it will be a while before I can play with it. HOPALONG

OK so we had the: Area-6 swim Area-4 flood Tennessee underwater sectional and now the: Mississippi Monsoon Matt, Loyd Landry won L-10 Well it only goes to show you that if you need rain schedule a major match, the guys down there in Jackson had been a month without rain. John, and Bryant did an exelent job of getting ready for the rain, they lined up some laquer and sprayed the targets with it and made the little rain covers as seen in Front sight and it all worked out really well. Bryant made the decision right away to remove any type movers that would be effected by the rain as not to have any stages thrown out later in the match as what happened at Area-4. Myself and Mike McArthur R/O ed stage 8 Hoser Heaven it had 10 steel and 3 static targets and 2 swingers and the name kind of fit as you could "hose" down the steel and the statics but there was just a little hard cover and No shoots to deal with so you could not just go wide open there had to be some control. Blake had the fastest run on the stage: 12.?? and the most seen time was 18+ Until this match I have never shot, and RO ed in the rain the entire match and I hope that doesn't happen again for a long while. To the shooters, Thanks for helping reset and tape targets, There were 8 squads I ran them all through on Saturday and I only had to ask for help on one squad( wouldn't it be the largest squad though). I did not hear any whinning or complaining about the match itself or the stages but there were some comments about the MONSOON. As was expected by me, from looking at the stage diagrams and remembering last year it was a very straight up match and quite the limited gun friendly match. Mr. and Mrs. Miculek showed up and demonstrated the proper way to shoot a match in the rain as they usually do( rain or not) and I was glad to see them again as they are as good as they come. Enough Said, GREAT Job John and Bryant and all the others behind the scenes for those who missed it, I am sorry you did even though it did get a little damp Hopalong / SAM KEEN

THE Club I call HOME is Cross Roads Sport Shooting Assn, Glen Mississippi Home of the MISSISSIPPI STATE 3-GUN CHAMPIONSHIP. even though I am a Tennessee resident they let me shoot with them. Our Club has a flat $8.00 match fee member or not, we shoot at least 5 stages a match ( 1 USPSA ) a month, and a steel only match run under USPSA rules that goes 100% to the club JR program ( 5 stages too usually) once a month. Both matches usually run 100 rounds and occasionally more on the USPSA match if we have big field courses. We do not intend to make money on the matches just break even or clear enough to pay the monthly power bill. I am so sorry for you folks who have to pay so much for so little... Memphis is 12 dollars non-members and 10 members and you better not show up there with less than 250 rounds as they will use 200 of them. Hopalong

Reneet Good for them, looking forward to seeing them again. Matt, Too bad you are there as I am going down by myself but will be going a day early to shoot on Friday so I can give you some kind of Procedural Saturday when you come through and shoot stage 8. See everyone there, drive carefully. Hopalong

SG I saw how you kicked all our butts at the steel match last week..... Tell RB to suck it up be a good CHEERLEADER and take you to Jackson to shoot. Hopalong

Thanks, SG, Carmoney, Lynn and Spook I wrote this thread to try and get more folks to a very good match next year, I know it is a late in the year match and some folks are starting to wind down their shooting getting ready for deer season ect. but this is a match worth going to if at all possible. Carmoney, if you are already plotting.... I will make sure I get my entry in early and request squadding with you and "Young Sam" just so I can keep my eyes on you. and thanks for the Kind words. By the way Carmoney shot 84 % and won 1 stage so even though he says it was his "First Major" he is going to be in the hunt where ever he goes. Good Shooting Mike, and "Young Sam" Hopalong

Spook I too see a slight difference between dry fire and Live fire, example when shooting splits and transition drills the draw is usually comparable but the splits are always .02 slower between shots and transitions are about the same. I do more live fire than dry fire as I can shoot in my own back yard and the range I shoot at is 18 miles away so I actually feel "strange" while dry fire practice. I have thought about the difference of times as I noticed my "problem" about 6 months ago, the only thing I can atribute it to is you are sub consciously trying to control the recoil with the gun (including the trigger finger). I am almost positive that is what I am doing as in dry fire I get .15 splits and in live .18 (with the bottom feeder I do not have this problem as I think the slide taking up the initial shock lets me have the freedom of trigger finger as I can get .12 splits regularly in both live and dry fire) your draw times may be slower due to you expecting the "bang" instead of the "click". my advice " if possible more live fire, if not dry fire in the garage or back yard to simulate range conditions" Good Luck, Hopalong

First let me start with this: IF you like shooting lots of bullets in one day you NEED to make THIS match. We shot 10 stages and 278+ rounds and were done by 4:00 (first shot 8:45 or so) and did not feel rushed or anything at all. If you feel you need to get some practice in reading stages for the best way to shoot them you NEED to make THIS match, I can honestly say that on 5 of the 10 stages in the match there were at least 3 ways to shoot them and run the same kind of times.( for a Revolver ) I had the pleasure of shooting with a fellow from Arkansas named Jay Christensen (not a Native Arkansan as he is quite European but I never did ask exactly where he was from). Jay had got into some bad food the evening before and had been sick all night and half the day but still shot like a man on Fire. He was shooting a 625 but was shooting Minor and doing a very good job of it. I shot the "Shootin Iron" 625 and shot Major and that I think was the deciding factor between Jay and I as we both shot about the same stage speeds sometime I would have the faster time and the next stage he would but the Major scoring pulled my stage points just a little higher generally. Mike Carmoney and his son Sam shot on a different squad than Jay and I which was too bad as I sure wanted to shoot with them. Sam made an Impression on the whole match as he is only 11 years old and (as I am told ) runs that wheel gun very good, with just more time he will be a force to recon with. Larry Treen a Missouri native and from what others at the match told me a good wheel gun shooter too made the trip down and took home the Missouri Revolver Championship, that is 2 years in a row for Larry so some of you Missouri Section revolver shooters need to make him work harder next year. This was the first time for me to meet Jay, Mike, Sam and Larry and they all were first class guys and would shoot with any of them any where. The stages of the match were at first glance Not revolver friendly at all, most arrays had 8 shots and it looked like a "Standing reload from Hell match" but after the inital shock of 8 per array and then you start really looking the stage over there was other options, you just had to look for them. there was wide open shots, tight shots with N/S and lots of Hard Cover and some steel mixed in just to make it interesting, oh yeah one of them there Texas Stars too. (but not like Area-3) and some long shots if you chose to shoot them and forget them or you could work them into the stage for late in the stage and shoot them close but then they would be behind a N/S or only partly exposed ect. The Range Officers were top Notch, I could compare them with the staff from this years Nationals as they were very competant, fair, courtious, and the US vs. Them attitude was no where to be found on that range all weekend. Results are up on the USPSA website go to the Members Area, click on major match results and then MO fall classic. I very much recomend this match to not just revolver shooters but any who might think about going, I do not know where there is a match like this as well run as this one was. Hopalong / Sam Keen

SG, Now you went and told on yourself, you won't be able to sucker me into a friendly round of trap with you Good going. Hopalong

Great Match !!!!!! If you like shooting a whole bunch of rounds in ONE DAY this is the Match to go to..... We ((I was shooter number 126) so that tells you how many shooters they had show up for this thing.) shot 10 stages, and right at 300 rounds in not only 1 day but we were done by 4:00 (my squad) NOW, to all the members in Squad 20 thanks for putting up with this Southerner I can't remember a better squad to shoot with ( especially for a bunch of Yankees, and a few mid westerners) Squad 20 came out of the match looking pretty good, we had I know of for sure (and may miss some so don't hurt me too bad when you see me again) 5 out of a squad of 10 bring home hardware here are overall results: OPEN Sherwyn Greenfield Limited Emanuel Bragg L - 10 Rick Watkins Production Matt Who ? Revolver Sam Keen 3 out of the 5 are BE.com'ers so congrats go to all and a little extra go to EB and that Who fellow in Arkansas. The stages were as stated before pretty straight up, unless you shoot a revolver, but here is the deal, if it is trouble for one it is trouble for all so nothing gained or lost. most arrays were 8 shots or could be engaged from other spots, I have not shot a match this year that was so challenging to figure out how to shoot the stages because the options of shooting them were so many. One stage in particular I would like to shoot several more times as my squad mate Jay Christensen and I figured out 5 different ways to shoot it( with a Revolver ). This match could easily have been won by any body in any division as it did not lend itself to any particular type of divsion better than another, that is a good job of stage design, and set up so Good Job goes to all who did it. In closing I recomend to anyone that even thinks about shooting it to go do it it is a blast. Carmoney, The pleasure was mine. You and "Young Sam" are a class act as is the rest of the Carmonies. Sam made quite an Impression on everyone there, that is a result of good parenting and guidance.( See what I mean about any Sam shooting a revolver has to be COOL ?) Hopalong Oh yeah, Congrats go to Larry Treen for Missouri State Revolver Champ. This is the first time I have talked with Larry and He is a class act too. 1 more thing, Jay Christensen shot the match after having food poisoning and being sick all night and half the match, he gets a special hats off as he shot a hell of a match while doing it.

Don't worry Benny, I will keep the HONOR and hold up my end of the Bargain, sorry to hear about the barrell, Maybe you should try something a little heavier that 125 grain bullets (could not resist that one) Kurt jsut because Benny cant shoot his doesn't mean you can't either I was even thinking about taking the dot off.... but since you are going to shoot the MOUSE I guess me and the RAT gun will just have to play by ourselves. See Ya'll there, with what ever you bring.... I don't care just show up SAM / Hopalong