Mberry

I run a 200 yard zero on my gaming gun and my hunting rifles. It gives me the largest zone of acceptable accuracy. Acceptable accuracy to me is a factor of 1) target size (or kill zone), 2) Estimated ranges I'll encounter, 3) Ballistic characteristics of the load. If you have a smartphone, you'd do well to spend a few dollars on a ballistic ap. You can learn more tinkering with the zero information on there than you will from reading these posts. Once you have the zero and your holds figured out, start messing with the environmental conditions and load data. It will certainly help you understand what is going on with the bullet once you've pulled the trigger. There are several programs available. I prefer Strelock for simplicity and the reticle print function on there is a game saver at matches. For finer functions, you can move up to Ballistic FTE or some of the other, higher end, programs. For now, you could even start with some of the freeware that is readily available from Winchester, Federal, Remington and many more.

Thanks, unfortunately the Martinsburg one specifically forbids them. They allow "service" dogs only. Considering the pup will only be about three months old, I doubt that will fly! Yes, and I while I appreciate that they "Leave the lights on", I think my wife and son would prefer something with a few more amenities! The goal is for them to have a blast so that they are begging to come to the next match with me.

I only have a year in this game, so take my observations as those of a beginner, but I have had similar thoughts and finally came to a somewhat constructive observation. My hackles raise quickly, as I believe yours do, when someone is rude or challenging to me. This is a positive attribute in my line of work, and possibly life saving in yours. People who rely on their instincts to sense aggression may be more sensitive to RO's who are a bit barky or bearish. This may be especially true if you have gone through schools where people in positions of power over you act that way. Perhaps you have worked your way up through that food chain and you are now well above people talking to you in a tone lacking respect. I say this because I get rubbed by RO's and mention it to squad mates who haven't noticed the guy being rude at all. Those squad mates are generally in non-confrontational lines of work. At a recent major match, there was one stage where I thought the RO was a raging prick. No one else seemed to notice, but he rubbed me the wrong way from the minute we pulled up to his stage and he pointed out where he wanted us to park. He didn't do anything wrong, it was just the way he did it. No smile, no wave, he just pointed at me and then pointed where he wanted me to park with authority. It seems stupid even as I type it, but it was a control thing. He was taking control from the very beginning. I'm normally in a position where I am in control, so that rubbed me wrong. I ended up shooting with that same RO as a squad mate a couple of weeks ago and we got along great. Come to find out, he was a retired cop. Imagine that. Turns out he is a prick, but one I can get along with just fine. My point, if there is one, is that I agree with you and I absolutely hate being yelled at while I am enjoying myself at a match. It consumes my thoughts and doesn't help my shooting in the least. In the end, it only hurts me. I've tried to ignore it and I seem to run in to the situation less now than I did in my first few matches. I even went so far as to be extra nice to an RO that I thought was being a prick at a major match and he softened up. I know you have a lot more match experience than I do, but if I can offer a tiny bit of advice it would be to try extra hard to change the situation, or at least your perception of the situation, so that your scores don't suffer from it. Not that you'll incur extra penalties, but if your sub-conscious is consumed with thoughts of the RO, it won't perform well at the tasks you need it to. I use a trick from a really bad movie I saw once, I force a smile and say, "I never did mind so much about the little things". Macho? Not in the least, but it reminds me that I'm there to have fun and I don't have to be the alpha all the time.

Any one have a recommendation for a cool, pet friendly, place to stay? My wife and son are coming to man a booth at the match, and we'll have a new puppy in tow. It's part of our nomadic summer vacation. I've looked online without much luck and need to keep it fun for them so they will be enthusiastic about attending more matches in the future. Thanks!

If you haven't tried the matches out at Academi- you should! Lots of fun and a good group of folks. I don't shoot the pistol matches very often, but I try to make it to all the 3-Gun matches. There is a pistol match and a 3-Gun match every month. http://www.blackwatershooters.com/ Hope to see you out there!

When do our checks get deposited? I keep getting excited when I balance my check book!

If you are a fan of your USO, check out the new USO SR8. I have been running one for about a month and it is impressive. It's a lot of scope, but if you are going to be taking shots at little poppers at 300 yards+, you will appreciate it. The red dot is definitely day light visible on this one and with the FFP reticle it makes for a nice, fast, close range optic. You have to buy the top of the line one to get the Red Dot feature. They got it right when they made this beast... I've looked at all the others and for my money, I'd go with the Vortex (if the USO isn't an option). The Swaro is a little nicer, but I couldn't justify the jump in price. The Vortex is just an all around great choice in my opinion. I've yet to meet someone who is using it that is not extremely pleased with their choice. The dot in both the Vortex and the Swaro is daylight visible. I have handled the Leupold at SHOT, but I've read a few poor reviews on it for gaming use. I should have one here in a few weeks to try out and I'll do a write up on it after I've put enough rounds through it to have an educated opinion on it. I remember being impressed with the size and weight of it at the show.

Thanks!

What is the terrain at Topton like? Running shoes, or hiking boots type stuff? Also, can you drive to each stage, or should you bring a cart? Nothing like packing at the last minute...

Thanks, Chuck. Reading most of that thread made it a lot easier to justify spending the $$$ on a Benelli that was "Race-Ready". That's why the 930 is now a loaner!

You'll have to contact them to see if they are still working on JM's. I believe they are no longer working them over so that they can focus on the VM's and Benelli's. To answer your questions, it will run with the stock spring, but I'm sure that it is less than ideal as far as pressure goes. As for the work I had done, it was a small laundry list. I had the lifter welded, some internals worked over, a Hi-Vis sight installed, a larger safety put on and the most important one- having the barrel bent so that slugs are POA/POI at 50 yards. I can't remember the total of all the labor, but I believe it was around $400 total. I saw an article recently showing that Salient is working over JM's. I'm sure it's pricey and the wait is long, but a tuned gun that never malfunctions at a match is priceless. I counted the seconds it took to clear shotgun jams in one match and it knocked me from 3rd place to 7th... That's a big difference in prizes and points!

Well, I kept cutting until it didn't have enough pressure to load the last round and the problem never went away. Not sure what the problem is, I guess the spring was just too stiff? Looks like the loaner gun will keep the stock spring and no extended cap! If anyone has had this problem before and figured it out, please let me know what you did to make it work. Thanks!

Great point, thanks. I'm changing the spring out because I added the Nordic XXL end cap. I loan the JM out all the time to new shooters and I want to make sure I'm loaning them a gun that will run, I've got over 5k rounds through it and felt it was time to replace a few things before this season. While it has not been flawless, I've figured out that if I completely break it down and clean the piston (including the rings) every 500 rounds, it runs very well. I spent a little extra $$$ on this one and sent it in to TSS for a tune up prior to BRM3G last year. Slugs hit where you aim them and it shoots really soft in comparison to my M2, I think it's a great shotgun for people just getting started in 3-Gun. Sounds like I need to keep cutting! And by the way, the gun has certainly run better since you tuned it up. Not having to hold three feet low and two feet left at fifty yards to hit a slug target has certainly made the game more enjoyable! Thanks to both of you for the advice. See you out there!

Thanks. I've always read from 12"-14", that's why I'm concerned. It's only a $5 spring, but it took me over a month to get it! If I would have known they'd be rare, I would have ordered several.

I just replaced the mag tube spring in my JM 930 and it won't let a shell past the stop. I can manually release a shell by depressing the shell stop from the inside and wiggle through the first three rounds, then I can get one to release by hitting the bolt release. When I hit the bolt release, more than one round tries to feed past the shell stop, like it's got too much power. I started with the spring cut at 14" past the end of the tube and I'm down to 11.5" past the tube and it's still acting up. It's a Nordic spring and is obviously stronger tan the factory one, but I can't imagine that cutting it any shorter is the right answer. I have it loaded to capacity right now and I'll let it sit overnight to see if it settles the spring a little. Being new to shotguns, I may be doing something totally wrong, but I can't imagine this is a complicated process. If I'm missing the obvious here, please let me know. It's a back up gun, so the world won't end if I don't get it figured out right away. Thanks for the help.

Just ordered some through Midway. Wish I had been able to order a higher quantity, 50 slugs will go pretty quick and shipping costs as much as two boxes of slugs.

I'm having the same problem... What did you adjust to fix it? I can hit it correctly about 75% of the time if I go slow, but once I start to speed up my error rate increases drastically.

That was a great match! When they say it's like shooting a major, they aren't kidding. It was extremely well run and the stages were awesome. I was in squad six and the RO's were a lot of fun. They certainly kept things moving, but we were never rushed. Thomas made the match a blast, he must really have a stock pile of ammo, because the speed of his trigger finger would put most open shooters to shame! A huge thanks to Charles and Steve (and the many others I don't know the names of) who make this whole Tarheel series happen. It was well worth getting up at 3am and driving four hours to shoot this.

Just switched everything on mine with no issues. TekLok holes and ELS clips match up just fine. The only thing I did not switch to ELS was my holster, I just left it on belt loops so I can easily slide it around.

Thanks!

Has anyone seen a registration/ start time or round count posted for this?

I used a dremel with a high speed cutting tool for the initial rough cuts, then I used a sanding wheel to smooth that, followed by a scotch brite wheel and finally a felt wheel loaded with jewelers compound for the final polish. It took me a lot longer than it should, but I did it a little at a time to make sure that I didn't get too aggressive. I would go conservative in the beginning and save the polishing until I was happy with the final cuts. Look at a lot of photos on here to get an idea of how much material to remove, then tape it off and go for it! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

My M2 is a Franken-gun... Even though it has a Comfortech stock, it has the regular (non-gel) recoil pad on it. I'm looking for a replacement but I'm having a hard time swallowing $90+ for the factory gel pad. Has anyone tried the other aftermarket pads out there? I'm going for a 13.5 LOP, so I need the most cushion per inch that I can find! Thanks for any advice/ experience.

Urikagold- What bolt handle is that? Nice looking VersaMax!

Mine ran great out of the box and continued to run well with light cleaning until it decided it was dirty enough. Once it was too dirty (after about 1k rounds) it would jam quite often. I followed all the advice and took it down to naked and cleaned the piston, that worked well for about 300 rounds and it started jamming on me again. I took it down to parade rest again and this time I popped the rings off of the piston and cleaned them too. It was amazing how much carbon they were holding. I went against my norm and lubed the piston and rings with FireClean, I usually run pistons dry out of habit from growing up with an M14. The 930 runs like a top again after cleaning all that carbon out of the rings. I recently got an M2 and I'm actually torn as to which one I like better. The M2 loads a little easier and is certainly more refined, but the JM930 shoots so much softer. I can really tell a difference on transitioning between the two, I am faster on target arrays with the JM930 simply because I can handle the recoil better. It may just take some time to get used to the M2, but I'm not selling my JM930!