ncxdm

Well congrats and enjoy the 550. They are a lot lot faster and I think they build great ammo. Mine has been great to run. Once you get the rhythm they about run themselves. My biggest setup note is to check everything after you have a full shell plate. I had some things change a little bit and it was because I had run single round through a few times to set it all and not run it with a full shell plate. Happy shooting.

Welcome to the forums. Let us know what area you are from and we can see if we can help with anything else.

Hello Glad you joined. Catch you at a match sometime. I have shot down at the ant hill range near you and I think buccaneer gun club does some matches as well. There may be stuff north of Wilmington that I am not aware of. good luck on the competition side of things.

Glad you joined here and thanks for your service. There is a ton of info on these forums and vetdocone got it right. The nc section has the info you want on it. I have shot the ant hill matches and enjoyed it. They have about 10 bays at this point but the ones they setup all point the same way so I usually end up with sunburn on one side of my face. Can't speak to the others. I keep trying to get to sir walter but I can't make the dates work. Anyway you should also google carolina shooters club. They have some other match stuff posted there for around your area.

Glad you joined. Great info on these forums. Catch you at a match sometime.

Hello and welcome. I have found these forums to be a great source of info. Good luck with three gun. It looks like tons of fun. I just have a hard enough time getting to the range with my pistols much less finding time to practice all 3. Maybe I will catch you at a match some time. I get out to the pha two gun stuff occasionally.

Welcome to the forums. There is a ton of IDPA around some indoor and some out down by you. I would check out the NC section website in particular the other places to shoot. It has most of the USPSA and IDPA matches listed in one way or another. http://ncsection.org/OtherShoot/OtherShoot.htm. Hope I catch you at a match sometime.

The others who replied hit most of it. One of the most important parts of reloading is staying aware of what is going on in the press. You need to look in each case before you put a bullet on it. Weighing later will not tell you much of anything. I started with win 231 that will pretty much overflow the case if you double charge and it meters really well. Go slow and search this site there is a staggering amount of knowledge here.

Hello and welcome. I agree with sarge on where to start looking. If you are shooting straighter with another though I would lean toward the grip affecting your trigger pull. I like to work on that with dryfire as long as you are honest with what the sights tell you.

Welcome to the Forums! And you should say thanks to Santa. I enjoy my 550 and it makes some great ammo. See you at a match sometime.

I will have to swing by sometimes. I am over at the gun rack to get powder now and then. Thanks for joining the forums.

Welcome and Glad you joined. You have my beat I have just been running a 550. Hope to see you at a range or match sometime.

Welcome to the forums. I hope I see you at match sometime. Keep shooting well C is not a bad place to start at all.

I do the same thing when I go between platforms like that. For some reason it shows up more on the 1911 style trigger for me. Unfortunately it usually takes me live fire to fix it. Good luck. And shooting off a rest definitely helps identify what is going on.

I use win 231 for both. It has been a good powder and hogdon's site will at least give you some good places to start for your loads.

All of the above is great info. The only thing I would add is make sure you know the safety rules for where you are going. Make sure you understand what a cold range is and where the safe areas are if they have them. Go slow and safe for your first match and you will get lots of help. While actually up shooting remember the 180 degree rule. I also see a lot of new guys who don't understand that once your pistol hits your holster you don't touch it until make ready on the next stage. They will show up on the next stage with the slide back or be monkeying with things behind the line. Scary sometimes. Anyway best way to figure things out is to go to a match and shoot. I have found people to help out a lot especially when you are new. And don't just shoot but paste and reset things you will learn from that too. Good luck!! Have fun and beware the addiction that follows shooting a few matches

If you want to change size there is also the scale button. It looks like a broken rectangle with a white one on top. If you click it then the object you want to resize you get red boxes that appear. Grab a red box and it will let you modify size on that axis. Worth using on walls etc. Watch that you don't scale targets. That is where right click and explode helps. Or you can double click the group to edit and then click out of the area when done.

I agree with all of the above. It is all great stuff and worth following. I would add that sometimes I chase shots around the target some when I am checking after each shot to see where it landed. Make sure you keep your focus on the sights for 3-5 shots and then see where they went. I typically shoot tighter groups when I do that. You can only keep a really tight focus on the sights for so long but at least keep it for a few shots. It helps tell you more about your trigger pull. That would also be my other note on the pattern you are getting I have a friend who shoots like that some and it is usually because he is steering the shot with his trigger pull more than a flinch with his grip. Good luck.

If you are looking for a great color match to cardboard the law enforcement craft colored ones really are the best. I like the shooters connection boxes better but the color just is not as close. The law enforcement target rolls do let pasters escape the roll but the color and texture is spot on for cardboard. I would go after those if you want something that matches.

Welcome to the forums. Enjoy the reading.

Ahh the biggest pain in the neck in sketchup. The arrow keys are great to lock you into axes. You can also watch the color of the line as you move along a surface. Depending on the color of the line you will follow the plane of the bottom of the bay. Try moving just one axis at a time (say just red then just green). If you type a number as you move it will move the target that many feet along the axis you are working on. Makes it quick to get exact dimensions if you need it. Another part of this is where you pick the target up from. If you grab the base where it is in contact with the ground it will let you "snap" to the surface and you can drag it freely and it will not sink. If you grab the top of the target it will try to snap that point to the surface you are working in front of and your target will sink or disapear into the object. Hope that helps.

If you want another quick way to make things repeat in sketchup add a tail to the line. So basically make an L shape with one side going across the bay and the short side going your 10' or whatever dimension. Then group the parts grab themand you can copy and until you get where you have covered the area you need. Then grab it all and rotate while holding control it will duplicate the whole thing and let you drop it again at 90deg. I will try to add some pictures when I have a minute. Your friends in sketchup are the group command and the copy (control on pc). At least until they add a working mirror command.

I agree with Clintv. The law enforcement pasters are the closest to the cardboard paper color I have seen. It is nice when practicing and you don't want an artificial aim point.

Welcome to the forums. I hope the new gun shoots well. I have been working toward a new shotgun. The wife has been a little to attentive lately so that is on hold for a while. Something about a new dishwasher first.

Ahh grip is a never ending adventure. For me on the xdm it is less about backstrap and more about trigger finger and thumbs that steer me off target. Now the backstrap changes your finger position particularly on the trigger so start with some dry fire strong hand only and see where you get. I like to start with less of my hand on the gun and add more to see what is screwing up my grip. I know when i go back to a 1911 from my xdm i shoot left until i fix my trigger finger position on the trigger. YMMV and good luck.