Carmoney

Vince, those two guys moticate me too!! We'll look forward to shooting with you in '07!

......proving, once again, that a 1911-pattern pistol headspaces on the extractor hook.

If we maximize our numbers at this match, and get some nice press in Front Sight, etc., one of the goals for next year's match might be to approach some sponsors and see if we can get together a real prize table. But, in the meantime, I can pretty much guarantee you'll get your $30 worth!

Excellent. Got him on the list.

OK fellas, we're sitting at 27 wheels and a week to go. We have shooters in every class from U to GM. Only 7 more and we can set an all-time record for a sanctioned USPSA match! What if I said that Iowa is beautiful in October? OK, fine--what if I said we'll be awarding the rare and coveted "USPSA President's Medals" at this match?? Would that motivate any of you guys that are still trying to decide if it's worth the trip? Aerosigns? Waltermitty? Bueller? Anyone?

Jim, Sam and I will be there, but we'll be shooting L-10, just for kicks! Care to join us bottom-feeders?

In addition to our club's twice-monthly "regular" matches, where all divisions are recognized, including the provisional division, we also run a third club match that is limited to Production, Revolver, and Single-Stack. This is to promote participation in those "smaller" divisions, and give the shooters an incentive to experiment with different guns. This system seems to work really well, and most of the guys seem to like this format. Some of the hard-core Open and Limited shooters only shoot the "regular" matches, but they don't mind because they still get two matches a month. So I say ADD rather than SUBTRACT!!

Questionable? Well, I'll give you the answer: Revolver Division shooters added about $9,000 in entry fee money to the 2006 USPSA Nationals (a match which still had slots available for the taking right up until the last week). Other than the plaques, and perhaps a few more targets and pasters, there was no appreciable cost to USPSA of having Revolver as its own distinct division at this match. Without the separate Revolver Division, most of that $9,000 would not have come in as revenue to the organization, as very few revolver shooters will cross over and shoot a different gun. Revolver Division adds shooters, and adds revenue. It's true at the club level right up through the Nationals. I've thought about this issue a lot, and there just is no down-side to keeping Revolver as a separate division.

Tripod--great!! Looking forward to seeing you there. The stages are pretty much set, and they look pretty dang cool! There's one stage called "The Wall" that will be a great test of strategy and stage break-down, because it appears there are several viable ways to run through it. The two woods stages are better than ever--on one, you work your way down the trail and across the creek on a footbridge, engaging targets all the way. The other woods stage has several activated moving targets to engage. Building stages is one thing--fine tuning them to (1) comply with USPSA course design requirements, and (2) make them fun to shoot (i.e. not too easy, not too hard) with both Single-Stack and Revolver is another challenge altogether. But I think we succeeded! For anybody still on the fence--it'll be worth the drive. We would like to have entry forms in ASAP, but we'll take sign-ups right up until the morning of each match. $30 for each match, or $50 to shoot both.

Hey Chuck, The 002 works fine for 4" guns. Sam shot his Model 10 out of an 002 for awhile with no problems at all. You may also find that your kydex stuff, or whatever you were using for IDPA, works just fine for IPSC also.

Chuck, I realize you are paraphrasing another viewpoint than your own here, but I must point out that Revolver Division is not expendable. There is no other division where the wheelguns can reasonably compete. Divisions are not popularity contests, they are designed to recognize and accommodate the major differences in equipment choice that are available and in use. I can see where there might be quite a bit of overlap between some other divisions, but Revolver truly is a different situation. Forcing Revolver shooters to compete in Limited would be every bit as foolish and unfair as forcing Limited shooters to compete in Open. There is no downside to maintaining Revolver as a separate division. If a match chooses not to recognize the division (which I have seen done), that's fine. If there are not enough Revos on board to justify plaques or prizes (which I have also seen done), that's fine too. But in order to play, Revolver shooters need their own separate division and classification system. Otherwise, it just won't work and the wheelgunners will be forced to switch or leave. The equipment is just too different for Revolver to be a "category" or whatever. Revolver Division in USPSA has entered a healthy and steady growth mode. Whatever happens with L-10 and Single-Stack is a completely separate issue.

The problem with getting the barrel straight up, as you have recognized, is that some ROs are watching this closely, and if the barrel comes 1 degree past straight up, it's a DQ. I didn't really think this was a big issue until I watched that exact scenario happen to a Revolver shooter at Area 5 this year. (The involved RO is known to be experienced and fair, by the way, and I don't question the call.) One solution is to adopt the "LFI Stressfire" reload technique, where the palm of the hand slaps the ejector rod before transferring the gun. This is probably what I would do if I ever were forced to revert to a K-frame and Comp IIIs. This is how I taught Sam to do it back when he shot a Model 10. The other is to switch to the Dan/Spook reload style, where the gun stays in the strong hand throughout the reloading process--again, hit the rod good 'n' hard with the off-hand and get those empties moving. Honestly, this is a huge reason to just bite the bullet and go with a moonclipped rig of some sort. Look for a nice used 625 or 25-2 this winter, plan on paying $450-500 or so, you will be SO happy not to deal with speedloaders and loose brass again.....

I'll accept that challenge. I'll bet I can recruit at least one new Revo shooter (besides Sam C., that is) to shoot Nationals with us in 2007. I can already think of several very viable candidates right here in Iowa, and several more in other parts of the country. (Really, I should claim 10mmdave and Nemo as my personal recruits right now, since I know both of them will not miss Nationals two years running!!) I hope USPSA gets the time and place selected pretty fast. My work calendar is already filling up all the way through 2007......

I believe we just started seeing the "senior" label next to Jerry's name this year, so he'd be 50. Leatham turned 45 this year.

Brett, would you settle for comparing yourself with a bunch of second-tier wanna-bes?? (It's gonna be a great time!)

Have you guys not yet figured out that most gunsmiths are absolutely horrible businessmen?

Guys, don't worry too much about pressure for more revolver divisions ("Open Revo" or whatever). I think I'm about as in tune with what's going on with the revolver shooters as anybody out there, and I can tell you there is no meaningful consensus for such a thing. A few voices, nobody all that serious. We will happily and enthusiastically continue to grow as a division as long as we have a place to play. The current Revolver division rules are fine (although we have proposed a few minor changes to make it a bit more inclusive, and it would be even better if those changes are adopted by the BOD!) Participation-wise, 2006 was the best year ever (by far) for Revolver division in USPSA, it's great to see it really begin to take off. We'll probably always be relatively small, but we've gone a long way this year to proving we're a viable and necessary equipment division. Just as one small example, our home club here in Iowa is hosting a special Level II match next weekend, and we already have significantly more wheelguns signed up to shoot than we had at last year's Revolver Nationals! (I'm hoping that fact pushes Bruce up to 50.1%!) I know this is veering a little off-topic, but since it came up.......

That's excellent--thanks very much!

I plead guilty as charged.

Dave, I'd really like to have a copy......if you could make one for me that would be great!

Ever since Sam (my 13-year-old son) and I began shooting together a couple years ago, Sam has experienced countless examples of generous support from our shooting friends around the country, both tangible and intangible. Today I want to share with the forum community the latest example. Sam had been fortunate to win a couple nice components at various matches, including a 6" .45 barrel and a single-stack 1911 frame. He thought it would be really cool to someday build these treasured prizes into a long-slide .45, and shoot it in L-10 Division. So I decided to post a "WTB" classified listing here on the forum to see if I could locate a 6" slide. Within hours I was contacted by a shooter who is a regular here on the forum (but a guy I had never actually met), who began the process of helping Sam make his L-10 gun into a reality. Before I go any further, here's a photo of the gun, in the white: Beautiful, isn't it? Now let me identify and sincerely thank the fine people who made this possible: Briley: Briley donated the 6" match barrel, along with a whole bunch of other stuff, to the '04 Steel Challenge, where Sam won it as part of his prize package. Thanks to Briley for its generous support of the shooting sports. Caspian: Sam's lucky lottery ticket at the '05 Area 3 match got him the single-stack frame on which the long-slide pistol would be built. Thanks to Caspian for being there. DougC: A good friend of ours for many years, Doug Carden was kind enough to toss Sam an expensive match trigger kit (hammer, sear, disconnector) after winning it at last year's Nationals, knowing Sam needed these parts for the long-slide project. Doug could have used this kit himself in one of his many ongoing pistol projects, but gave it to a junior shooter friend instead. Thank you, Doug! Carlos Guzman: Carlos is not only a great Texas gunsmith, but a very talented USPSA shooter in his own right. Here's a shot of Carlos at the bench: Carlos happened to have a 6" .45 slide available, and originally I was going to purchase it from him. But Carlos obviously has a huge soft spot for kids who shoot, and when he found out it was for Sam, he wound up giving Sam the slide. And as if that wasn't enough, he then offered to do all the machining work on the slide--for free. And as if that wasn't enough, he finally said to send him all the parts, and he would take care of building up the entire gun for Sam--for free. And he certainly did an excellent job. When Sam opened the package and looked at his long-slide .45 for the first time, his words were, "That is quite possibly the wickedest gun I have ever seen." That's very high praise from an 8th-grader! I was pretty much speechless--which, as you all know, is rare for me. Carlos, I hope you know how happy you made this kid with your labors and your expertise--thank you so much! Gunsmith Services website MarkS A18138: Well-known to all of us here on the forum, Mark Self is the guy I first mentioned at the top of this post. He's the guy who brainstormed this project with his friend Carlos Guzman and helped put this whole deal together. Mark made this great thing happen, even though at the time, he had never met Sam or me in person. You see, Mark is one of those guys who truly believes that "the family who shoots together, stays together," and he puts it into practice by competing with his own whole family (who are all very solid USPSA shooters). At Area 3 this year, Sam and I finally got a chance to meet Mark and his great family. Mark, what can I possibly say?--other than thank you! With no time to practice with his new long-slide .45 that had just arrived, Sam was just going to shoot revolver at the Great Plains Sectional Match last month. But he could hardly stand to have the new gun out of his sight, so finally I suggested that he go ahead and switch to L-10, and give his new pistol a try. We ran three 10-round mags of practice ammo through the gun to check its functioning and see if it was sighted in (both were perfect). Sam then proceeded to take this gun, which he had shot only 30 rounds through, and damned if he didn't win High Overall in L-10 at the Great Plains Sectional: L-10 Results Here's a quick video clip of Sam running a stage at the match with his new pistol: Sam at Great Plains Sectional Again, Sam and I want to offer our most heartfelt thanks to everybody who contributed to this effort. I will probably never be able to truly reciprocate your generosity directly, but I can promise all of you this--in the future, whenever Sam and I have the chance to offer some kind of similar help to another junior shooter, we will jump at the chance. Because we know how much this effort meant to both of us. And finally--thank you, Brian, for creating this forum. This is where it all happened. Mike and Sam

Either popper activated "Drazy's Crazy Contraption." Most people shot the right popper first, and while it was falling shot the left popper, then swept across the paper. Revolver shooters were better off just engaging the left two paper targets with one shot each, then hitting the right non-disappearing paper with two shots. It wasn't as bad as it looks.

Hey, just heard about this from a shooting buddy. Supposedly it's running again this Friday morning?? He's going to tape it for me, but in case he misses it, could somebody please get it saved on VHS or DVD for us? We don't get cable. It would be nice to see Sam back when he was still in his "clean-cut kid" phase.

Yeah, I ordered one of the Ron Power hands once....man, the thing is so oversized it seemed like way too much work to fit the thing. Although I'm sure for a gun that's waaaay out of time the Power hand would be just the ticket. There's a gunshop an hour away that has a bunch of hands in stock, the gunsmith has already mic'd the hands and marked sizes on them with a sharpie. When he times guns, he picks the one he needs. Me, I just buy a couple of the thickest hands he has in his bin, and they seem to work without too much fitting work. As one famous fictional wheelgunner once said on the silver screen, "A man's got to know his limitations."

Now you're talking!