Paule

Kurt is correct about the collapsing mags when they get down to 25-30 rounds, but... you can take a few of the old-style magpuls (not the ranger pads, the rubber ones that slip over the mag). Cut off the loops and use them as spacers to keep the mag from collapsing. counting one left intact for the bottom of the mag, it takes three to do one mag, five to do two mags. The middle one ends up being like a sliver of pie, due to the curve of the mag, but the diameter of the magpuls is perfect. Fills the gap but doesn't squeeze the mag. And they keep dirt out of the bottom of the mags.

Aaron, Y'all were some of America's finest way before this match. Many thanks to all of you for your service to our country. God bless you. ...and thanks for putting on the match too! Benny, here's a gimmie for you. Remind Kurt it's "grammar", in letters big or small! anyone want to make the easy money in the side matches, bet against me...

The primer anvil issue, that one might come loose and not function, was a real issue many years ago. Not today. The manufacturing process is much tighter. As to powder changing it's burn characteristics from tumbling, it likely depends on the powder. I don't see it as being a problem in IPSC loads, but I wouldn't do it to very light loads in big cases. Some of the loads for cowboy action have a small amount of powder and the burn is close to detonation. Changing the powder characteristics even slightly could be a problem with these, but I can't see how it would in a normal load, minor or major PF in an IPSC gun.

Actually, the redirector pages that hold you captive on a <Back> keystroke are illegal (as much as anything on the internet can be). If you report them to the Feds (FTC, if I recollect correctly), they will fine the folks using them.

Another vote for a McMillan that gets bedded. I did some checking and found a fellow who is a PD armorer and long range shooter enthusiast. He does a lot of bedding work on the side to support his wildcat habit (He thinks a 300 Tomahawk is a nice varmint rifle). He is very reasonable and does great work. I have had him do several and they all shoot better than I do. He does a full pillar bedding for under $100, cheap to me. Also, he has done a bunch of HS stocks with the full aluminum rail in the stock. He skim beds the barrel channel to get rid of the big ugly gap. Looks good and they shoot even better.

Ronnie, I feel your pain. Memphis is currently competing for the "Carjack Capital of the World" title, while simultaneously trying to set a new annual record for senseless murders. Here we always travel armed, and not just pistols. Nothing like 3-Gun to keep those skills sharp for trips to the mall, grocery, etc... Reminder to clear and stow ready-guns prior to entering Ft. Benning is stuck to the dashboard.

Best reason for a vertical grip is when you have to fire a few hundred rounds in a few minutes, then continue holding the gun. 3-gun doesn't require that, obviously. For most, transitions are much faster with an extended off hand, splits are faster with a vertical grip. Much more time to save on the splits though. I did see a guy nearly pull himself head first through a port though... stuck it too far through the port to shoot then got hung up getting back out.

Good work Brad! Hope to see you Sunday.

Safariland makes one in their 6004 line.

R&R and MGM are two of the closest to you and both make good targets. I have both. For versatility, I like the R&R self-setters. I use 3 or 4 for pistol practice with 6" and 8" plates and with mini-poppers (4" center) when I'm feeling cocky. 3 or 4 is plenty for continuous shooting as they reset fast. The mini-poppers make great rifle targets at 50-100 yards and the 6", 8", and 10" plates will challenge your rifle shooting as far as you can see them. 55 gr ball will flash on good hits at 400 yards for me. I have shot the 10" ones at 800 with .308s with good flash activation, though a spotter helps unless you have good glass that far.

I have an 82mm Kowa w/27x LER eyepiece. Love it, and can see .223 holes consistently at 300. Beyond that is not a sure thing. I have compared to quite a few, and the best I have seen was a Zeiss, but at over 2k + eyepiece it wasn't that much better for me. The bigger objective do pull a lot more light though, so if you can deal with the larger size I'd always recommend bigger. I had a 60mm Kowa before this one and it was good, but the 82 is way better in poor light conditions. I also have the 20-60x zoom eyepiece, never use it for targets. The 27xLER is sooo much better. Full field of view with shooting glasses on and the mirage is usually too much for any more magnification anyway.

To me, it depends on the gun. S_I limited guns are easy to over insert a mag when the slide is locked. If you do, you can seat it past the mag catch (lots of time elapses as you try to figure out why your gun is in full lock-down mode). Also, another fun side effect is snapping off your extended ejector on the back of the mag tube. Having had those both occur, as well as having the slidelock engage on a bullet in the mag, cured me. Slide lock on S_I widebody guns are ground down for manual activation only. Now single stacks are another matter. All of mine work on those.

If you get a TV, get one that has the integral VHS/DVD. Then you can load and watch tapes on shooting! (Or reloading...)

The powder check will save you if you let it. If I am checking charge weights I never put the powder back in the case, I dump it into the powder measure. The case goes too. That way I never seat a bullet on an empty case by accident. Before I had the powder check I had a static problem in one powder measure. I had a rash of squibs, at least 12-15 in a run of 2500 cartridges. Cured me for good... I save the primed cases and, when I have enough, I "shoot" them to ignite the primers then load them up as dummies for dry practice. you can never have too many dummies!

I even chemically de-lubed some and moly coated them. they still smoke. Those SWCs sure make pretty holes though...

Exit pupil size also factors into how easy (or hard) it is to align your sightline with the scope bore. As the exit pupil gets smaller your eye alignment must be more precise in order to get a full field of view. Attempting to shoot fast on the move with a smallish exit pupil will highlight this. Also, when the exit pupil becomes smaller than your pupil diameter you will see less through the scope due to less light transmitted to your eye. This is why it works better in low light to reduce scope power. More light beats more magnification.

There were a lot of M1 Field guns made with wood furniture. Might find one of those laying around.

While scoring may be harder and take more time, mutigun stages can take more time to run. Kurt made a great point that seems to have been missed. Preloading is good, and coupled with an out of the way clearing area, stages will be less likely to get bogged down when two or more guns are used. I am happy to have someone pick up gun(s) I have left behind while shooting a stage. Just clear the one you end up with and let the scoring begin. As long as someone is watching them, clearing the others while the next shooter is starting should not be an issue. As it was pointed out, cowboy action shooters do it every day. Their stages do run fast, and while they don't have targets to paste, they usually have a stage or two with clays to reset and they always retrieve brass and hulls.

A ballistic computer will not range for you, to be sure. But a mildot master won't tell you the exact dope for your rifle and load in changing conditions. I guess you could carry a notebook with reams of dope for every combination of altitude, temperature, pressure and humidity, but I prefer an electronic solution for that part. Like any calculation, the more data the better the answer. so I record data throughout the year(s) so I have various temps, altitudes, etc. stored for a given load/rifle. Makes it easy to get very accurate dope for a given set of conditions, once you know the range. When I spend thousands of dollars to get to a faraway place, then hike for days to get one shot at a (for me) trophy animal, I want that one shot to go where I intend. Shame on me if I don't do everything I can to ensure that outcome. Having the best tools I can get and learning how to use them works for me. I use 3-Gun as an opportunity to use all the tools I have to stay familiar with them. For example, on our last elk hunt we covered an area with over 4500 ft. of elevation change and encountered temperatures ranging from 8-68 degrees (Farenheit). I was lucky enough to get a shot that was only 225 yards. My partner killed a 6x7 bull at 660 yards. We were very comfortable with our calcs and took the shot. Would not have tried it without good data. Not saying this is for everyone, and Erik's plan for trajectory cards is a good one, especially when you can get a 10-day forecast from weather.com and predict range conditions for an upcoming match. I also have Ballisticards for most of my rifles (from Schwiebert Precision). In fact, what I recommend for a complete kit is: Ballisticards - scope dope Mildot Master - all purpose field ranging Slope Doper - up/downhill corrections or... Angle Cosine Indicator - (faster but pricey) Laser range finder - faster than mildot master for many situations ATRAG2 - current conditions scope dope Kestrel 4000 wind meter - all atmospheric conditions Necessary for many? Nope. But lots of good shooters in the Afghan mountains have been using all of this stuff since 2002, with good success. God bless them.

Multi Gun for me. Not all 3 on every stage, and only one on some is fine too. As long as the stage runs smoothly and is not bogged down with complicated pre-staging and clearing problems, the chance to test a wider set of skills is appealing to me.

Steve, Calling yourselves the KY crew might be a mistake. Folks could get the wrong idea! ha ha ha...

One reason I switched to a Treo650 phone was so that i could run my ATRAG2 chip on it. No more separate Palm Pilot for bal-comps.

We'll pray for you (that you don't end up in San Francisco). For those that do have/use Cieners, there is a guy named Joe Black who makes a loading block that modifies a Ramline loader to work with them. Takes about 5 seconds to load a 25 round Ciener. Sharon and I have shot up to 3000 rounds in a day loading with one of these. Without it I would have NO thumbs at all. Link at Ciener Mag Loader Had great pics to show how it works.

I'm self employed and got exactly this sort of coverage from Blue Cross of TN. I would bet they have similar coverage policies in most states. Mine is 5K annual deductible, $5-$10-$25 prescription card, 5 million lifetime cap. (If it takes more than 5 mil to save me, my wife needs to let me die.) Premiums are $100/mo. I'm 54 yrs old.

Ciener is selling 25 rd mags again (since the ban went away). Prices are the same as he charged before the ban, so if you like the way your kit runs you can train with 22LR in an AR platform. I have two uppers built just like our match ones only with Kuehl barrels. Modified Ciener kits run flawlessly and they will shoot inside an inch at 50 yards.