wsimpso1
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Posts posted by wsimpso1
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I too am in the "run what ya got" camp for at least a couple matches.
First, some of us like LTD or LTD10 pistols, others like Production, others like full race Open guns. Same is true in rifles, some like the battle rifle as the US Army issued it, some like a tactical rifle with a low power scope, and some folks like a full race gun with a tank brake, bipod, two optics, adjustable everything. And then shotguns, well, some like to pump it themselves, the rest let it work by itself, and we have folks that like optics and brakes and ports and speedloaders while the rest stuff shells by hand and have iron sights. And you have to figure out what type of equipment you want to run. So:
Most of us have or can borrow a pump or auto 12 gauge shotgun. Heck, a double with auto-ejectors won't put you far behind if you practice the loading a bit;
Most of us have or can borrow an AR15, Mini-14, M-1, FN-FAL, M-14, M-1 Carbine, SKS, or AK-something, or even a Remington Model 8 or Enfield of some vintage;
Most of us have or can borrow an autopistol or revolver and speedloaders.
Pick one from each column, go to the range and make sure that they work and that the zeros are good. Then go shoot a couple matches. After you have seen everybody else's gear and figured out what you want to run, you can go out and start spending money on what you want in a rifle, pistol, and shotgun. Who knows, maybe you won't like it so much. Yeah, right. I even bought my first shotgun so that I could play the whole game.
I am seriously in the cheap camp, being as I shoot a 45 that I have owned since 1980, built my own AR15 flat top upper with a low power scope to go on an AR15 I already had, and bought a low bucks used M1100 that I added pieces to and played with until I liked it. If you can not do your own 'smithing really well, my route is not yours - go to someone who knows the stuff, like Bennie or Accuracy Speaks or the others mentioned above.
Billski
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OK, I am a lifetime cross country skier who can now get sore knees after a good day XC. I have used alpine equipment twice in my life. I learned to snowboard at 44. I turn 50 next month, and I love boarding. Two weeks in the Rockies each winter, plus some other days local (Michigan). I get sore muscles snowboarding, but no sore joints. If I can do it, anybody can.
Some advice. Good lessons are valuable. A good first lesson makes sure that you are set up duck foot, that you spend equal amounts of time on both toe and heel edges, and equal amounts of time riding normal and goofy foot. A good first lesson will teach stopping, board control by twisting the board, several edge control drills, and will absolutely burn in that the uphill edge is always engaged. It will also let you decide if you should ride normal or goofy, get you confortable on both edges, and make it possible to ride switch when it is useful. My wife and I were riding easy Blue cruisers by the end of the week after an excellent basic adult group lesson at Telluride. "Don't you fall?" Yeah, I fall, but they are easy falls, not body slams, and they have collectively become "So What?"
The other excellent lesson I have had was a carving group lesson at Snowbird. It was a weekday and there were two in the group. Wonderful. Learn to turn, learn to carve turns, learn to turn right where you want to turn, learn to not shovel the hill, and learn how to ride supple. I can ride Rocky Mountain Blacks, but they wear me out too fast, so I ride Blues and swear that I will spend more time on stamina training.
Enter mogul fields and trees only after you can do several things: When you can always turn exactly where you want to; When your subconscious skills handle this turn and the next one while your brain is picking your next two turns after that. Seriously. You do have to get to the point where the board and you legs are handling this turn and the next one, and you are picking the line further on, because you will go splat on a mogul or find yourself all crossed up in trees if you are not that far ahead of your board.
Now to Zen. If you have gotten to the point where the subconsious skills are doing this turn and the know how to go to the next one, and the conscious mind is picking the rest of the line, and coach is back there cheering you on and pointing out the things that are working, all at the same time, you are meditating while riding. I got that at Copper in December, and it was sooooo cool. Trouble was, I was only able to stay in the zone for a minute or so at a time, and I was not able to get back there again in my Utah trip.
The last two pieces of advice I have is: Wear Your Armor and Ride Under Control. I wear knee pads, elbow pads, wrist gaurds, and a helmet. That is because I do not like injuries and besides that, it would mess up a shooting season. And becoming an idiot or making my wife into a widow are bad things. You get to choose. A co-worker's young adult son just died of head injuries from thumping a tree during his first weekend snowboarding. No hat, beginner skills, and trees. Bad, bad, bad....
I hope to ride until I can not get out there anymore. Just like shooting.
Billski
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At Remington Arms, they monitored our hearing and lead levels as part of an annual physical. I did product engineering on guns at Ilion and on ammunition at Bridgeport. DuPont (our parent company then) took it all very seriously. Our exposure was both from firing and from making ammo. We made primers, lead shot, slugs, buckshot, etc. And everyone could stay below limits if they just wore their gloves and did not stick dirty gloved fingers into their ears. Really. So can you.
I did a calculation of the exposure due to lead oxide left on cases and guns, and I will summarize that one by saying that if you do not lick your cases and gloved hands clean as you handle cases and clean your guns, you unlikely to ever live long enough to get enough lead exposure in a lifetime of relaoding and cleaning guns to hurt you. I would be more worried about the cleaning materials.
The biggest problems do appear to be casting bullets and poorly ventilated indoor ranges.
Billski
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Starting by answering your question - www.homebuiltairplanes.com which is mostly for builders not buyers. Next up, come to Oshkosh during EAA Airventure. Or look up regional fly-in's closer to home at www.eaa.com. Next place to check is Sport Aviation and Kit Planes magazines, but they do have something in common with gun mags - they have a hard time ever saying anything bad about a tested airplane (gun). I believe that Kit Planes is running a forum where you might find some honesty.
As both a homebuilder and a designer, I can say that Experimentals, when properly built, are where it is at. When they are not properly built they are really bad news. The builder's care in building is very important to the topic.
Folks can say what they want, but statistically, airplanes on Experimental certificates (after having flown off their test time) have about the same safety record as certificated aircraft, with the same predominant causes of accidents - fuel exhaustion, continued VFR in IFR, stall/spin etc. They also have about the same level of mechanical problems resulting in accidents. Don't believe me, check it out with the FAA's own website.
This is not to say that there have not been some spectacular failures... Two local (fatal) incidents with homebuilts on their test programs that I know of:
Sonerai built with an O-200 instead of VW conversion, tricycle gear instead of taildragger, never checked the CG, ballasted the tail based upon calculations instead of measurement, found it to be unstable during taxi test (indicating aft CG), still did not weigh it or check CG, finally flew it and it got away from him about 20 seconds into the first flight;
Lancair built without removing the peel ply from the bonded joints (The manual only tells you in every sub-chapter that you have to do this or the bond joints will fail with usually fatal results). Well, with material built into the bonded joints that is there to come off easily, the airplane disassembled itself on a high speed pass. Story is this was the second flight.
The other two local fatals that I know of were stall/spin within the airfield. Only airplane problems on those flights had to do with the pilots in the command seats.
You pays your money and you takes your chances...
Billski
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WC 844 and 846 for sale are all surplus and mostly from pulled down ammo.
I have used WC 846 with GI bullets (55 FMJBT and 62 SS109 FMJBTSP) and Rem 7 1/2 primers, and it works great for plinking, short range tactical rifle practice and training new shooters.
If I am going to a match with shots at 100 yards or more, I use better bullets and powder, usually either 69 grain or 77 grain BTHP's. My favored powders are VVN135 for the 69's and RL15 for the 77's, all in front of Rem 7 1/2's in Win or LC cases. H4895 works great in these rounds too. This knowledge is all left over from when I shot High Power, but it works so well that I just do not believe in messing with success.
Because cases and bullets and powders all vary, and because barrels and crimps also vary, and because I use moly coated bullets, I do not recommend a powder charge. Start low and work up to some standard velocity, but do not worry over getting the last 50 fps. The targets can not tell the difference.
Billski
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The particular benefits of ARs are inherent accuracy, lightweight, good ergonomics, many custom parts to do just about anything you want to it, and it is cheap to buy and feed. Other advantages are the modularity of the thing. One lower with two uppers can give you an open gun and a tactical or stock class gun.
The sum total of doing an accuracy build of an AR15 is to free float a good barrel. Everything else is sights you can see, a trigger that you like the feel of, and accessories. Want to upgrade later? You can do that easily. Another advantage is that you do not need a gunsmith if you are fairly good with tools. New barrel, float tube, different sights, different stock, muzzle device, etc.
At some matches you get 300m plates and flasher targets, and you will be competitivie with many AR's here, but the AK and M-1 Carbine are going to take a lot of ammo to get you hits at those distances.
Now as to using .30 cal... Guys do it and they get major scoring too. But custom parts are less available and/or more expensive, and it costs nearly twice as much to shoot it. The standard M1A is fine at shorter ranges. If yoo have 300 m targets, the issue rifle may shoot too large a group for you. An accurized one may require a gunsmith on staff to keep it shooting well (sights, bedding, gas system).
Now there have been folks talking about guys with M-1's, and shooting that grand old battle rifle gets you all kinds of cool points. It has the same problem as M1A in accurized form.
The thing about AR's that put off people is the gas system. It dumps powder residue on the bolt, carrier, and next round... It really is not a problem with a polished chamber and something resembling regular cleaning of the chamber, bolt, and carrier. Go to the rifle forums and look there for more on that topic... Oh and the direct impingement gas system is what makes the AR so inherently accurate.
And the really great thing about all of this stuff is you get to decide and get out your checkbook.
In the real world, well, this forum is about sport. AR15.com has many discussions of the AR as a serious weapon.
Billski
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For the AR pattern rifles and shotguns, moly grease in the summer, and CLP in winter. Works fine. The synthetic motor oils may be better.
The pistol gets Slide Glide until the temps go below 0C, then I go to CLP there too.
Billski
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So far ACTS is a pretty small, pretty much a one range, one club group. There were 19 shooters at the February match. As such, its management and decision making is pretty close. The rules committee is three people, and they talk about things and make decisions. I expect that I will join and ask for a voice in things too. Until it gets out of its infancy, this is what I would expect. If it really does grow, expanding into other clubs, I expect that it will continue to be based on practical use of rifles, but I would also expect that it would reflect its membership's perspectives too.
Billski
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Attended the February ACTS match. Fun bunch of people. I fired the match and had a good time. As a game, it has much in common with IDPA, from the targets to the emphasis on use of cover to the scoring method (You lose a full second per point!).
There was one long field stage starting near the 100 yard firing line with targets engaged from cover and the shooter having to cover the entire length of the range and then do a house clearing. Long stages are time consuming to run, but it was fun. The other stages were closer and better described as exercises. One stage was shot three times, once from each side of cover, and once with the rifle on half of the targets, and then transition to the handgun for the other half. Fun match.
Since these guys have only been running since last summer, they are experiencing growing pains. Some efficiencies can be had and things will get even better.
I am going back.
Billski
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Hey Louie and everyone else attending,
Is anyone else coming from Michigan for Saturday? I am looking to share the ride. Heck, maybe there is someone shooting on Sunday, and we could swap me into that day.
A possibility is making the trip by light airplane with a rental car on the other end.
Billski
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Who is going from Michigan to New York for Square Deal Rifle Match in April? Anyone want to share the ride?
My primary plan is to go by light plane and rent a car out of Binghampton. We can do the whole thing in one day that way. I own half of the airplane and have an instrument rating, so it is pretty do-able by air.
Driving works if the weather looks bad for flying or if all I get is folks who would rather drive.
Anyone? We can talk about how much weight later.
Billski
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I have had the good fortune of being squadded with Jake when he was still shooting production, and the biggest problem I had with watching him was that I just couldn't believe that a human could work a gun that fast and shoot so many A's at the same time. He has some other stuff working, like lots of dry fire, but if he says "just aim" and Brian likes it, well, you could pay lots of money and get poorer help.
Jake, thanks for posting.
Billski
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You guys might check out this site:
http://groups.msn.com/TheMarylandAR15Shoot...esightzero.msnw
It covers a variety of battle sight zero's including being zeroed at 50 yards.
I agree with kurt, there is no substitute for shooting at all distances, knowing what your adjustments and holdovers for different ranges and positions are.
My tactical rifles and competition gun are all dead on at 50 yards and there is a correction card taped to the stock for other ranges... Simple and it works.
The great thing is that if you disagree with me, you can do it some other way. No big deal.
Billski
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Welcome aboard Tony. I could not make the January match, but I am now planning for the second Saturday in February, and looking forward to it.
Billski
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I had to modify mine to make them work. Here is the thread...
http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...topic=29704&hl=
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Erik covers things pretty well. The big reason behind people building piston/operating rod AR's is because the direct gas impingement system is percieved as unreliable by some. After all, it does dump powder ash all over the inside of the upper. Not that I have seen that contribute to problems. I have seen some filthy AR's that work great...
My personal view is that the upper of a competition gun should come apart every couple hundred rounds for barrel and chamber cleaning anyway, as an accuracy maintenance issue if for no other reason. Now, if you only ask your rifle to shoot 4 minutes, you can skip cleaning the barrel. But plates at 200 yards gets tough with a 4 minute gun. While you have the upper off and apart, clean the bolt, carrier, and upper. No big deal.
I have had two with high end barrels, float tubes, and tightened up sights for Highpower, one service grade rifle, a shorty in the bedroom closet, and my Tactical class competition rifle. Reliability issues have been limited to Frankenmags (during the AWB days, Bushy was selling 30's shortened to 10 rounders with bolts in the sides - avoid them), a misguided attempt at ballasting the carrier, and a somewhat rough chamber on the shorty. Now shorties are generally less reliable than the 20" and 18" guns with the rifle position gas manifold. When I polished the chamber on the shorty, it too became 100%.
It is true that you should keep a new carrier key, bolts, gas tube and roll pin on hand for the time when you clean the rifle and notice the tube is worn or the carrier key bolts have loosened. Now that is just $30 in spare parts laying around that will save yoyu the wait for parts to arrive. How does that compare to the extra $$ in the POF? When properly installed and adjusted, gas tubes and carrier keys last as long as the barrel, which is 7000 to 9000 rounds.
One other reason to stay with the direct gas impingement system. The whole accuracy equation with AR's is to float a good barrel. After that is sights and furniture and recoil reduction, not rifle accuracy. Yeah, no bedding, no gas system tuning or cleaning intervals of a fussy piston like in the M1A etc. This is because with the direct impingement system, by the time the gas impulse travels down the tube and reaches the carrier, the bullet is in free flight. With gas piston systems, the gas mechanism feels the gas and starts a vigourous bending vibration to the barrel, and the muzzle can then be in a different place on each shot while the bullet is making its exit from the bore. This vibration just does not have to be dealt with in conventional AR's. Nobody in High Power uses the gas pistons - they give up some accuracy. Now admitedly, High Power does demand more accuracy than a tactical match with a few "long" shots at 100 yards, but if you are shooting at a place that puts flasher targets at 200m or more you will prefer the more accurate system, find or load ammo especially for those long stages, learn you zero and wind drift, etc.
Billski
Oops, I just re-read my note. Just because a barrel is not cleaned does not mean that a 1 minute barrel will shoot 4 minutes, but 2 1/2 minute rifle might...
The other misses in my note I will leave up to others to point out.
Billski
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I hope that nobody else was offended by my comments. I was trying to get somebody, anybody, thinking about camradery and have some fun at the same time, thinking that a laugh might be better than badgering. ipscbob, I do apologize for the offense, and to everyone else.
Now bout the burn out topic - bgary pointed out attiitude checks, and tlshores did too, but from different directions... I took a Lanny Basham seminar a long time ago, and he talked about how important the aggressive attitude and the arousal factor was even when he was ruling the roost in Smallbore. Somehow, I could never make it work in Highpower, but it shows up wonderfully now.
I have found that summoning up a little of the teenage aggressiveness and maybe some anger when the RO says "shooter ready?" helps me to be sharp when the beeper goes off, makes me a little stronger just when I need it. After all, I am going to be a Senior shooter in the spring, I need all of the attitude and strength I can get. For me it is just a tool to finish the aggressive side, but if you mix in additional goals, well, it could change the way you approach a stage, a match, or a whole sport.
Try it out to see if it puts a fun new twist on the game.
Billski
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Brian advocates (you have picked up and read a copy of his book, haven't you?) using white paper plates as practice targets. I now believe in it. Sight alignment is a clean doable thing that we must do to shoot well. The black front sight within the black notch is conceptially clear and unambiguous. But if you were to try to put it on the center of a black target, well, it is tough to do quickly, just where it is on the target is hard to tell, the alignment becomes obscured, and (this is important) you have trouble watching the sights in recoil and recovery.
As far as we have all been able to tell, learning to go from good sight picture and trigger release to the next sight picture, and then learning how to do it at Warp Speed REQUIRES that you see the sights through much or all of recoil and recovery. This is what builds smoothness and accuracy, and speed grows from smoothness and accuracy. If you set up your training situation to make following the sights harder, you hinder this learning. If you put sights on a black background you will lose them as soon as recoil disturbs the sight picture. You do not want to get used to losing the sights in recoil.
With a white background, you stack the deck in your favor for seeing the sights. This also gives you something to help bring the sights back to the middle of the target. The white center on the standard target trains you to bring the sights to the center of the target. And when you get to the point where ripping the paper plate apart without losing many shots onto the rest of the target, you will have the high percentage score that is essential in all action and practical shooting sports.
Billski
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Rika, I just read your thread, and I have few things to say. I hope that they help.
First, what is the deal with Californians? Why is anybody driving alone to matches or practice sessions? Gas is costly, and good company on a car ride is priceless. Here in Michigan, we have folks that car pool to matches more than 30 to 45 minutes away.
Second, what is the deal with California men? Not that Rika wants to have to fend men off, but here is an attractive, intelligent, lady shooter having to drive alone to matches! Guys, wake up!
Third, and this is the big point - Teaching in the sports that I like has always helped me keep my batteries charged. I have been a range instructor for skeet and trap (Lordship Point!), classroom and boat instructor in sailboats (my sailing club), a coach for a junior smallbore rifle team (local rifle club), instructor in cross country skiing (my ski club), and a coach and instructor in High Power (my gun club). It has been a lot of years since I coached skeet or smallbore, but I still do the sailing and skiing. I intend to get a CFI someday soon and start instructing flying. That does require a more serious leap than the others.
One of the things about teaching is that when you are doing it, you have got to really learn it and know it. Teaching with motivated students can be just terrific when you see them make improvements and build enthusiasm.
So Rika, I do not know what to do about your fellow Californians, but if you like teaching, find a way to do more of it. It can be very rewarding. Maybe you can convince some of the folks that you see at many of the matches to start riding together to them... Good luck, and keep burning!
Billski
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Chickenfried,
On this forum, you are dealing with True Believers.
The spooky thing is that this stuff really works. It may be hard to understand how Zen can relate to shooting at Warp Speed, but it does, and Brian's book may never go out of date.
Billski
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Hmmm. Most of my competitive shooting background is rifles, and the overwhelming advice is to swap hands, but that is because you can not usually get the gun in fornt of the dominant eye any other way.
With a pistol it does seem easier to adjust the gun a bit to put it in front of the eye. My experiance with pistols is that they want to line up to the left anyway, and adjusting to make the gun point where I look is not so easy. Adjusting far enough to get the sights aligned on the left eye is not something that I think would produce good results.
Maybe somebody else can comment on the long term results of shooting crossed vs just biting the bullet and changing sides, which is what I personally would do.
Billski
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I bought a flat top upper reciever, a DPMS aluminum float tube, a four-rail gas block, a Miculek brake, and take-off barrel (from a match 'smith who removed it from a base rifle to build an NRA High Power gun) turned to A-2 profile and shortened to 18", and a new bolt/carrier. I think that I had $400 in the upper at that point. You are hoping that you get a good barrel here, but it worked for me, and should be good for many thousands of rounds.
I added a 1.25-4x 20mm Simmons on Benny's recommendation on this forum, with a Scout rail and mid hieght rings to get it to the right height for my face shape. That added another $200 to the bill. I plan to add the JP Short Range Tactical sight to the forend for another $100 to give options up close.
It rocks! No malfs with 52 grain through 75 grain handloads and my old short line High Power load of 69 grain handloads shoot into 3" at 200 yards.
Billski
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I would love to see it.
If there were more tactical rifle matches, I probably would not shoot many pistol or even three-gun shoots.
As to the comment about shooting NRA High Power, I stopped doing that when I found out how much fun practical and tactical shooting is. My eyes fail me when I try to do that 600 yard part of the game. Also, High Power is too much like work.
I suspect that the big issue is not so much finding people who want such an event, as finding a critical mass of people to put on such matches leading up to and including a National Championship...
Billski
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Nobody? I guess that makes me the guinea pig. I may make their January match, and if I do, I will report back.
Billski
Hk Guns...
in Humor
Posted
This one made the rounds awhile back, and I commented on there being more errors than just putting the cartridges into the magazines backwards. The barrel appears to be of smaller bore than the cartridges.
The advertising company and marketing offices should both be fired.
Billski