Carmoney

Heh-heh!! I've been waiting for D.Carden to jump on board....knew it was just a matter of time!! Fellas, we got ourselves a real shootin' match shaping up here! (Everybody make sure you sign up for the Point Series before shooting the match, or the points won't count, and there's precious few "other level III tournaments" on the calendar.)

Trying to impeach me with my previous testimony, eh?? Well, both statements are true. Just like last year when I told everybody I was a new guy and that I had used Millett sights for many years. Those were both true statements also.

Absolutely, cheetahs, it would be great to have you shoot with us. Get your paperwork in ASAP, though. Since there are only 7 shooters per squad at this match, we may wind up with two revolver squads. You might even drop Linda Chico an email and see if she can hold a spot for you on a Sunday revo squad, see what she says.

Tom, you're thinking of Mill Creek, which hosted Area 3 last year (and will again this year). The Sunflower Classic / Kansas Sectional is at Capital City, which is a really nice facility just west of Topeka: http://www.capitalcitygunclub.com/pistol/ccps.html

Thank you Keith. I am. Tell you what--someday when we're old men, our eyes are about gone, and we have lots of money laying around, we'll switch to Open. (It sure looks fun, though, doesn't it??)

Y'know Cliff, I shudder to think what sort of god-awful perversions those hilljacks have planned for you down in Mississippi, once they get you all liquored up with that free "beer." So unless you have Burt Reynolds standing by with his compound bow, I really think you'd be much safer out here shooting with us wholesome farm boys. Plus, I know the Kansas crowd would love seeing a "Master versus Master" showdown! It really is a good match.

Bubba, we'd sure enjoy shootin' with y'all, but that weekend I will be defending my championship at the Sunflower Classic in Topeka, Kansas. I know for a fact that pskys2 (a bona fide Revo Master) and some other midwestern wheelgunners are not going to make this an easy task! Good luck to y'all anyway. Make sure you get ol' Hopalong out there behind his revo, a southern revolver match wouldn't be the same without him.

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Ron, no worries...the weekend is finally here! (And, by the way, I thought your analogy made some good points.) But can you please edit it again, and this time make Sam the smart one?

Dang, Ron, all I could think of as I read your little parable is that it sounds like Sam's dad should cash in some of Sam's college bonds and buy him a nice open gun!

So Ron, when you administer tests in your classroom, do you ensure that they can be negotiated by all of your students, even those "who lack fundamental skills"?

For the record, in my original post, which has been moved over here, I was referring to Ron Avery, not Ron Ankeny! Just thought I better clarify....

Personally, I think every match ought to have a dremel stage. Then we'd see who shows up in all the magazine ads and Lenny Magill tapes......

I just assumed all you New Englanders would be in attendance!

This stuff ain't rocket science. A slight rearward bend on the left leg of the sear spring will probably give you what you're trying to accomplish. Try it, test-fire it, adjust it again if need be. If your hammer hooks and sear angles are properly set up and prepped, careful adjustment of the sear spring is the primary method of dialing in the desired trigger pull weight. Remember, you can't learn to do stuff yourself if you don't dig in and try. Being able to perform simple gun work is an extremely valuable commodity to the high-volume shooter.

Ah-riiiiiiiiight!!!! Y'hear that boys?? Party at the Smith compound!! Dennis, I knew you shot the Blast last year, and was hoping to bump into you this time. If you can shoot Sunday, have them put you on the revo squad! This is gonna be great....! Now we just need a few more of our Southern and Western and "end of the earth" brethren to join us!

Bob, I booked my room through Travelocity.com. The number I have for the Super 8 is 717-852-8686, it's on Arsenal Road in York, PA. I figure, how can you go wrong with "Arsenal" Road? I'm shooting Sunday.

Ah, h4444, ever since I've known you I've been able to tell there's an open shooter inside you just waiting to be released!!

From Richard Heinie: "Everybody will get a participation award/prize whatever you want to call it, at registration, just like last year. There will be plaques and there will be guns." (Note from Carmoney: Last year's participation gift at the SSC was a neato Caspian 1911 multi-tool.)

Hi Renny, Thanks for the nice comments about Sam. Yes, that's my original 25-2 6.5" that I bought back at Riley's Sport Shop in Hooksett, NH back around 1987 (it was well-used even then) when I first starting shooting competition shortly after I turned 21. I've put a lot of rounds through that old gun over the years since, and I'm glad Sam likes shooting it so much. That stage required the steel poppers to be shot before leaving the box, then the remaining targets were shot through the port under a curtain. Not sure whether you can see it in the video, but you had to drop low to see the targets, so it was de facto mandatory kneeling. I pretty much shot it the same way Sam did--although I managed to toss a shot onto the hardcover on one of those close targets to the left--my only penalty of the match, but one that still haunts me. If I know I won't have to jump back up, dropping to both knees provides a good shooting position (remember Tim Conway's "Dorf on Golf" series?) that doesn't impede access to the moonclips. I wish I could get Sam to practice kneeling and prone, but normally I can't get him to practice much at all! Fortunately, we shoot quite a few matches and our local club matches tend to be challenging with high round count (i.e. lots of reloads for us), so we try to stay reasonably tuned up that way. Sam probably won't get real serious about shooting this year until baseball season is over....but that's OK, baseball's good for him too.

This is definitely contrary to everything I've been hearing. Who did you talk with--somebody at Sedro? It may very well be that USPSA is not contributing any prizes or plaques because that is all being handled by the 1911 Society and Springfield Armory, and the person on the phone didn't understand that. Doug, I believe last year's gun prizes were not given away by raffle, it was a Lewis Class thing where they used the USPSA class percentages as the cut-off points (OK, it's almost a raffle, I'll grant you). The class winners each received one of the five custom 1911s built by the big-name pistolsmiths (Heinie, Garthwaite, etc.), if (and only if) they were shooting a Springfield in the match. If not, the class winners got a Mil-Spec 1911 and the custom gun was given to the next shooter down the list. Richard Heinie has stated that Springfield, as well as some additional manufacturers this year, will again be offering contingency prizes for shooting their products. Last year was also the year they announced that if anybody beat Leatham, they would get to take his match gun out of his holster and keep it. (Afterward, he made everybody laugh by mentioning that he deliberately used the crappiest, ugliest gun he could find that still worked, just in case that happened. Of course it did not, and Rob won the match once again as expected!) Great match--I can't wait!

I think if a 10-round flush-fitting 9mm single-stack mag could be made to function reliably, we would already have a bunch on the market. Nine rounds seems to be the functional limit. A number of companies have supposedly been trying to get this figured out for some time now. But I would love to be proven wrong!! A reliable 10+1 1911 that I could feed cheap WWB ammo would be the berries!! (If I have to reload special 9mm ammo to make it work, it defeats the whole purpose, I'll just shoot .38 Super which works great in a 10+1 single stack.)

What do ya mean, funny? Let me understand this, cause I don't know maybe it's me, but I'm funny how? I mean, funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny? You said I'm funny. How am I funny, what's so funny about me? Tell me, tell me what's funny!

Sam's not going to this one....a little too much $$ to bring my sponsored shooter.....I almost didn't sign up myself as I'm trying to stay closer to home this year, but then my wife asked what I wanted for my birthday next week, and Summer Blast visions began dancing in my head.... I'm arriving early afternoon into PHL (not the closest airport but pretty cheap tix from DSM), may or may not make it to the range while the shooting is still going on. I booked a room at the Super 8 ($51.99) but will certainly be available to join up with all you guys for steaks and barley pops on Sat. evening! This is shaping up to be a great match for roundgunners!

Again, there are very specific skills/timing/lead/coordination involved in successfully shooting a spinning target like we saw on Stage 18 (I think it was 18) at the '05 Nationals. People are making a big mistake if they assume those who can clean the spinners are just lucky. I know certain shooters who are very good at stars and spinners, but who are definitely not at the GM level overall. I certainly see nothing wrong with a stage that happens to test those particular skills, even if it's not "GM-friendly"! I also see nothing wrong with 50-yard standards and memory stages, as they too test different, yet potentially valuable, sets of skills. Gotta wonder if terms like "Bubblegum stage" sometimes really means "type of stage I'm just not real good at shooting"......