chuckbradley

The STI bow looks allot more concentric. Actually I dont see the need for hte interchangeable trigger any more. Its a great idea for the newbie trying different lengths but once you find out what you need you dont need it anymore. I like a short flat trigger and all you need is an STI gunsmith trigger to do flats of any length. they also do a long and short curved trigger. Just so happens i sell them all.

vluc, we have to remove the quality for it to be that. I will callenge anybody to a side by side evaluation for quality of material and workmanship. Not a word battle a real side by side. I think most have already done that by the number of my bags you see on the range. There is none as good or better when you look at the overall picture of Quality, Design and Price. If it could be done better I would take it there. Just the way I am. Same with the Bedell guns, if we could make them better we would. Selling the inner bag seperately may be something I do in the future. For now I only have them inside the complete package. AS far as the mag pouches. I shoot 3 gun also and have a seperate bag I carry with ar and shotgun gear in it. Revolvers? What is that? Is that something you ride that goes round and round till you get dizzy? Oh its that antique Jerry M shoots. Give me my 20 rounds and single action trigger, if I want to limit my equipment I will shoot a single stack 45. If I removed the fixed pouches for variable ones then the guys who the bag was designed for would suffer. I cant change the whole bag for 1% of the shooters, it just doenst make sense. No coming up with an adapter like a local fellow did that hangs over the flap for his speedloaders may be an idea. Still not enough interest to warrant the quantities i have to produce in. Thanks for the input, I am willing to consider all the input and discuss the pros and cons openly but the suggestion has to work in big picture to be feasible. SOme of the changes we have made. First run had the nylon strap sewed in top seam, we had it sewed all the way down the side and intot he bottom seam. A couple customers ripped the fabric stop off the zippers. We changed them to Metal tabs instead. Customers wanted elastic in them to hold pens, tools etc. We added them. Customers wanted mag pouches in the inner bag . We added them. Customer complained that some big open guns wouldnt fit into inner bag zipper pouches. We made the inner bag taller this year. I cant add a gun rug without going up on price and I dont want to do that. We have made all these changes that cost me more but have not raised the price since introduction. All suggestions welcome. Chuck

Mike, that is what I try to do. I take each call as if its the only one. Sometimes it gets crazy around shipping time and I may sound a littel rushed. Also when you call and I dont answer, most likely I am on the phone and it is a policy of mine that I dont interupt an existing phone call to take another or put people on hold. If I am expecting an important call I may occasionaly break that policy. I have voicemail, leave a message and I will call right back most the time. Ok someitmes i get sidetracked or go to a kids ballgame. Call ins and web orders get the same priority. Just that call ins know when they place the order if i happen to be out of something. Web orders do not and I have to get in touch with you to see what you want to do. I appreciate all the kind words. I will try to keep it up and work to be worthy of your business. Chuck

We now build a limited gun with this barrel as well. We call it the lightning. But we are not convinced the configuration is better than the Spitfire. The Spitfire lightens the slide the as much or more so the only benefit is the front sight. We found the front sight on the Spitfire moves so fast it was hard to tell any difference. WE had people shoot the Spitfire and the Lightning side by side at the nationals and the feedback was inconclusive. One theory I am tending to agree with was that the extra weight on the non ported barrel actually slows the unlocking of the barrel down thus transfering more energy in the way of flip. So bottom line is I dont think its going to be the advantage some are leading it on to be. I am going to try to build one in a little different configuration that may be the real trick. We will see. Chuck I started with a history of the barrel and my involvement with it becoming legal but it was edited out, sorry!

The .110 width Dawson Sight has been selling very well. WE have it in the STI .300 dovetail and the Novak .330 dovetail. AS far as the thumb rest in the pic above. It is great for Open guns but in Limited or Limited 10 in the US it isnt legal. John Amidon wrote about it several years ago. It is considered an external device to control recoil. This was determined even for the slide stop with a thumb rest built onto it.

Wow! I had no idea. Its great to be appreciated. This is more than a business to me, its a way of life. I love the sport and the people in it. All I can say is thanks. Guess I will frequent the forums more often now. PaulW, what a pain. When i see your name on my caller ID I cringe at what you are going to throw at me next. But I still reluctantly pick up the phone. hey paul, just kidding. Took me a while but we won you over to a Bedell custom didnt we? And you love it! Michael Bane, I always new you had those kind of feelings for me. You havent called in so long, I am hurt! I hope the rest of you know I am really kidding! Great new TV show, I watch it whenever I can.

People, the biggest complaint I have read is that my Shooters Connection Tournament Bag is too heavy. All the space that is there doesnt have to be filled up, its there if you need it though. Thats why it comes with the lift out inner bag so you can use it as a stage bag if you dont want to carry the whole bag around. The new version of the bag has mag pouches in the inner bag as well, 6 of them. The 2 complaints that my bag along with others was trashed after a year is really weird considering my bag is no doubt the most rugged bag made today. I have to admit the first batch did not have the best design on the way the shoulder strap ring was attached the the main bag. The factory sewed the strap for the ring into the top seam and that was it. We had about 50 out of a 800 we had to replace. On the second batch we had the factory sew the ring strap down the side and into the bottom seam. Have not a single one come loose in the last 3000 bags. The 2 other bags we had returned were from zippers ripping out. Although I shouldnt replace bags where the user forcefully ripped the zipper out, I did. Bottom line is I offer customers who are not sure the option to return it if it isnt everything i say it is when they recieve it. I havent had one returned. Most cant believe what they are getting for the price. Sure there are some cheap imitations out there but I have always been told you get what you pay for, in the case of my bag you get more than you pay for according to most of my customers.

I suggested to Ed that he send the gun back to STI since they do stand behind the guns. Over the years I have sold both SVI and STI. When I sold SVI the problems were numerous. The guns would not run out of the box. This was due to the fit being so tight and some fine tuning things did not get done. They even told us that the last 5% of tuning needed to be done. I used to go over each gun if I had time and tune them. When I started selling STI I noticed there were less problems and the guns ran better but were not perfect. Most of the things are small fine tuning items. Mostly extractor or magazine issues. There were some issue like mag catches and rear sights that came out bad that STI has dealt with. When I first started with SV i had to tune whole batches of magazines, some would not drop free or the lips were not the right dimension. They got better in time. Brian , the man himself, showed me how to shape the lips of an SV mag to make it work better and I still use those mags today. They have Blue dye all over them and file marks but they work so I am not about to get new ones. STI has had the same problems with mags but in the last year or two the quality control has been alot better. They seem to have completely fixed the drop free issue and the consistency on the feed lip dimension is quite good. I havent sold SV for a couple years so I am not sure whats up with them now. This isnt just isolated with STI & SVI. I was at the range a few years ago and the guy next to me was shooting his new Kimber. It would not run. Rounds kept nosediving or sticking on the ramp. I asked him if he wanted me to fix it. I took the extractor out and took a little tension off, it didnt miss another beat. I had a local guy who bought a Lexor about 6 months ago and was getting pretty frustrated. He finally called me so I told him to come over and i would look at it. I told him all it needed was the bottom edge of the extractor hook beveled since as the case was coming up under the extractor it was biting into the case rim. He opted to put an Aftec in it. It ran 7 complete mags without a hickup. He was very happy. He continues to be happy. I have learned in this sport that it is best if you learn how the gun works and how to fine tune things since some parts will and do break eventually, I dont care who makes them. I wish the factory guns would go through that one extra step to make sure these thngs are already done. I know STI and SV are supposed to test fire their guns. Sometimes I wonder. Once you do get it right dont mess with it, if it aint broke dont fix it! This leads me to say this is why I entered into an agreement with Dan Bedell to build guns that we put are heads together and designed. I have taken into account all the factors pros & cons and risks with associated advantages. I believe we have come up with the ultimate in race guns, both open and limited. I wanted a gun I could stand behind 100% as being the absolute best combination of all thats available. This doesnt mean there still isnt a place for factory guns. Those that understand fine tuning and want an affordable option could benefit from the lower pricing. Sorry for the long rant. Ed bought the very last Lexor. The Lexor was an exclusive model STI built for Shooters Connection. I now push the Spitfire as the ultimate limted gun. Hopefully STI has dealt with his issues. Ed, if it still needs some tuning and you want to send it to me I will be glad to go over it. Chuck Shooters Connection

When you have a short slided open gun and thumb shields on your safety there isnt enough room to rack the slide and if you did it would be slow. The fastest and easiest solution is a slide racker. I wouldnt have an open gun that didnt have one on it, especially the sidewinder. They just make loading and unloading so much easier. They work great as a kick stand for table starts. And no I dont need it to clear jams since I am shooting a Bedell Shorty, but if the need arised the racker would make clearing so much faster. It also makes it easier to look inside the chamber when unloading. On my limited gun i grab the front of the slide to do all these things but with a cmore mount you cant do it on an open gun. I did buy the mold for the sidewinder slideracker. First production run is due Jan 20th. I was hoping earlier but no such luck. First run will be stainless like before. Sometime in the future I may run some aluminum ones. Chuck www.shootersconnection.com

Just to clear some things up. We did come out with a basic open gun for 1995.00. When i say Basic it is basic. Jan 1 we did go up on these to 2095.00 but to be honest most are choosing our tricked out Shorty which is now 2595.00. And that includes everything including all the top end, high tech parts. From the Schuemann AET Barrel which is the highest tech most accurate barrel out there to the Titanium Bedell Compensator. We include the Koenig Hammer, Aftec Extractor, EGW Sear, Extreme Disconnector , Brown Safeties, STI grip Safety and slide racker. It also includes all the gunsmithing such as stippled grip whihc is shaped for comfort. This in addition to the knukle relief we do on the grip safety makes our gun the most comfortable you will ever hold. WE have also come out with a new model that goes for around 4500.00. No difference in this model and our tricked out model , its just for those that think if you spend more it must be better and we can wait to build it in a year for those that think if you wait longer it must be better. Seriously, our lead time is now 3 months, sorry , but More and More are realizing what a great deal we are offering and Dan can only build them so fast. With about 100 guns out there now more are seeing first hand the great job Dan does and are feeling more comfortable with his work. Chuck

Yes Paul, we have the silver blast shields in stock and the black anodized ones should be here tomorrow , 1/7/05.

The top 20 list has many problems. In more cases than not it doesnt reflect ones ability to perform at a real match. There are many "paper GM's" who shoot classifiers over & over again to get a top score. But look at where they finish at a major match. They simply cant perfrom to the same level where the top 20 list shows them. There are several who havent shot in years but remain on the list. I have advocated for years that one must shoot at least 2 classifiers or 1 major match a year to remain on the list. I want to applaud your efforts. With your willingness to include matches you have missed or were not aware of I am anxious to see the new results.

I dont know if your list includes everybody it should. I shot Limited at the Aware Invitational and Indiana State Championship, won both, am classified with USPSA as a 98.735% Limited shooter. I am not listed. In fact 2 of the top guys you have listed were 3rd & 4th at the aware Aware. Dave Sevigny 3rd & Phil Strader 4th. Brian is not listed. I am sure he can still hold his own. I am not sure the list with the parameters set gives a relaistic look of the top shooters. It may be a list of shooters who shot the matches included in your parameters, but you cant say it is a list of top shooters overall.

Patrick , maybe you need to hire a caddy for the day. :-)

I am a Cmore distributor. they use dot do blanks so you could drill your own pattern but so many people were screwing them up and it was alot of trouble to change the mold during production and time had passed where in IPSC circles the cmore pattern is now standard. The blankc are no longer available. Only solution is go with the aluminum mount and slide ride.

I know for a fact that Springfield bought the first grit grips from the burner.

Erik, I have thought about this and we may look at it agian on the next lot. Problem is keeping it conveinent as a range bag which is what it was meant for. I wouldnt suggest using it to check a gun in. I check my guns in a hard sided lockable suitcase. I used to carry my shooting bag on the airplanes but not now. This last summer on the way to the Aware match my son & I checked our bags which had everything in them but guns, ammo and mags. No problem. We tied the draw string to the shoulder strap ring. On a soft bag if they want in they will get in. As far as the embroidery is concerned I thought most shooters like to tell people what they do. It was a thought to just have "tournament series" even though I didnt want my company name on it I wanted soemthing similar so I opted to leave Shooters on there. Got any more ideas that would imrove it? Cant get them done on the lot in progress but maybe the next one.

A customer told me that there were several comments regarding the Shooters Connection Tournament Series Shooters bag and I do appreciate all those good comments. There were a couple comments about 2 smaller bags. Thats why I have 2 bags in one! Take the inner bag out for a stage bag and leave the rest of the stuff in the car. Or if your like me and feel like you have to take it all then take it all. Thats why we have the contoured , padded , non slip shoulder pad. If you order one , open the box , evaluate it and then if you dont want it just ship it back for a refund. All your out is shipping. I havent had one returned yet. (Edited by chuckbradley at 12:40 pm on Oct. 23, 2002)