txaggie

Yes it rained, but this was a very fun match! Stages were good and the staff was very nice. Thanks for hosting this Matt and CASA.

And Practiscore will prompt you if you don't have all the available target lines filled out before you can review the score to save.

(Continued) Now as an RO - I am sure many of you heard or experienced the travails from last year's weather, well I was also an RO at last year's DTC. I also RO'ed at Area 4 at DT in October in the rain and muck, so I definitely thought that the weather would finally show Robert some mercy. I watched the weather reports all week leading up to when we left Dallas on Thursday. It went from 30% of rain, to absolute snow storms and winter weather advisories. Friday morning we got to the range and it was chilly, but the sun was shining and everyone was ready to go. Jim Chambers and I worked together last year at the DTC, and I was really pleased to be paired with him again this year, we seem to work really well together. Our stage had the brontosaurus platform, which really helped to set this match off as something special. Friday's squads were on the small side and Jim and I were able to run them through our stage pretty quickly, even with enough down time to collect brass, as I wasn't sure what the rest of the weekend would hold for us. Jim and I ran 2 palms on the stage and this seemed to really keep things moving, as we could print, while we were actually starting another shooter. Now I have been working with the Palm scoring since Lee acquired the program, so I am very comfortable with them. We only had a couple of glitches, but otherwise things ran fine. Of course the highlight of my day on Friday was getting to run Max Michel through my stage. You know something interesting, I never realized how much pressure there is on an RO running someone like Max. Before I had him on my stage (which was his last stage of the match), all I was thinking was please Max, don't do something to make me have to make a call I don't want to, I don't want to be "that guy" Smile Smile Of course as you could expect, he was blazing fast, 13.01 and 3 down. Just a quick side note, I know I am not telling anyone anything they don't already know, but Max is an incredible person. Our sport is very fortunate to have people like Max in it, and I am certainly glad to have competed with and talked with Max. We left the range knowing that Saturday was going to be brutal. I did learn my lesson from last year with the cold, I brought just about every piece of cold weather gear I owned. Saturday weather did not disappoint, sustained 30mph north wind with blowing snow. So I bundled up and headed to the range. Hey, if the shooters are going to show up, then so will I!! As the wind chill hovered in the teens, gun issues were the name of the game early. I saw one poor guy use his open gun like a bolt action rifle. Every shot required a rack of the slide with a round on the ground. So he used 62 rounds on my stage. I have never seen the cycling of open guns like I was able to see in the morning, it was almost half speed. The snow never quit all day, we saw all types, large flakes, sleet pellets, round snow tubes, small flakes. I think in the cold, we need to add a range command "de-jacket" before "Make ready", as most shooters had to shed at least 3 layers of jackets, hats, and gloves. The footing was ok at the start, but that clay really collects on your shoes, and by the afternoon it was treacherous footing. We only shot 6 squads on Saturday as opposed to 8. And considering the conditions, there were actually some very good performances and good times compared to Friday. Had a couple of "yikes" moments and 1 DQ on my stage, but mostly went off without a hitch. We actually had very good performance from our Palm scoring and printing, and we got off the range about 4pm on Saturday. Certainly Sunday had to be better, right??? Well, it stopped snowing, but it was still blowing at 30mph from the north and as the sun came up, it melted the ice and snow on the ground, so that once again, we had MUD!! Two people fell on my stage on Sunday, full body on ground spread eagle, but I was very happy that they both maintained excellent safety discipline and they both got up and were able to complete the stage. Only had one "OH $%^&" moment where a competitor trapped me downrange of his firearm, but after spending a few minutes collecting myself finished out the squad. Our last shooter was done about 2pm, and then I set out trying to collect some brass, at least the brass not squashed into the mud. We left the range about 6pm and headed back to 6 inches of snow in Dallas, seems to be the major theme here this year. Robert puts on a great match, and he really spends a lot of effort in setting it up, having an awesome prize table and really treats the RO's well. Now, if he would just work on controlling the weather, he would really have something!!

Well, another year, and another Double Tap Championship in the books for me. I would like to take the time to examine this match from both sides, both as a competitor, and as the CRO on Stage 2 - The Rock Quarry. First as a shooter - As anyone who has been in Texas this winter knows, our opportunities for shooting have been very few, and very far between. Since December I have only been able to string 2 weekends in a row of actual shooting, and only 3 matches since the middle of December. So of course I had been watching the weather, and doing my dry fire practicing at home getting ready for the match. Fortunately for me, because I was going to RO, I got to shoot the match on the Sunday (3/14) before the match weekend. The weather was chilly but otherwise beautiful. The props for the stages were top notch this year, and the overall feel of the stages were exactly the types that I like. Enough quick movement and hoser targets, with some nice distance shots thrown in to keep you honest. The hellaport stage with the car (Drive in Theater I think was the name) was one of the most interesting I have done at a match. I could have sworn that when I stopped, I was going to have 2-3 hits in the NS's on the sides of the windows, but fortunately I was clean on that stage. I think my favorite stage was the bowling ball down the chute. I had decided early on to ignore the drop turner. I had a great run, and my timing on the swingers was as perfect as I could have hoped for. Of course, I actually had the time to throw a couple of rounds at the drop turner, but who knows what impact that might have had on my timing on the other targets. I was having a great match until the final stage, stage 12 with the self timer. I ended up with a mike on one target which was my only penalty of the match. Overall I was very pleased with my performance, and I had to see how the weekend would play out and where I would finish. (actually trophied with a 3rd place B-Class in Limited)

I'll second lneel's post. Robert has created a great match this year. The stages were great and I had a lot of fun shooting them yesterday. I'll be RO'ing stage 2, so stop by and say hi!! Good luck to all those that are coming to Wichita Falls and the DTC!!

I have an S_V with the aluminum grip delivered in December 2008. Currently it has over 8700 rounds and no signs of issues with the grip. I actually really like the light weight and size of the grip, and have been very pleased with it.

Looking forward to seeing you back at the range Ed, get well quick!!

This was my first DTC and also my first major USPSA match to RO. Baptism by fire on both counts!! Here is my story: Got there on Wednesday night and went and found the range, of course after driving right by it as the sun was setting. Left the rain in Dallas, or so I thought. Got to the range at about 7:30 on Thursday morning and it was about 50 with a light mist/fog. Shot stage 1 pretty good, had lots of A's, but felt slow (and it was). Then shot Stage 13 with the tether (see good videos from one of the other competitors here - ). Had a Mike and knocked one of the tennis balls off, and then fumbled my reload. Lost 20 points and time on 2nd stage of the day.Shot the rest of the stages pretty much like the first, lots of A's but my times were just average, nothing to write home about. Caught a NS on one stage, but avoided the Mikes for the rest of the day. I was half way through stage 4 or 5 and noticed the big red thing on the end of the slide was missing!!! So I had to make a repair and install some new fiber optic in the front sight, must have caught it on a port. After lunch the sun had come out and we were actually able to enjoy some really nice weather for the afternoon. Finished the match about 3:30. I really enjoyed the shoot house (stage 12), the targets were painted with fluorescent paint and they were lit with black light. I also liked stage 11 with the magazines in the skull, quick fun stage. A great match in great weather. BTW, thanks to Rhonda and Dave and Jim for RO’ing our squad in the morning, an added bonus. Got up Friday morning at 6am and the temp was 56, which of course was the projected high for the day. Got to the range about 7:45 and headed to my stage - RO on stage 2 with the teeter totters. First squad was ok, but the wind had started to pick up. Then it started drizzling, so out came the bags. Well, the wind also picked up out of the north, and our bags ended up in Houston. And of course because our targets were now wet, the tape wouldn't stick at all. We must have replaced targets about every 10 competitors, I sure was glad the squads were small on Friday. Then about 10:45 it started really raining, so we stopped for lunch. Of course now we had targets with no bags and no tape, so we replaced them again, in the mud, red slippery, caked on mud. I was warm enough doing the RO thing, but I sure did feel bad for the competitors, the conditions were beyond suck. After the rain stopped, it got colder and the wind picked up more, so for the rest of the afternoon we saw mixed snow, sleet, and drizzle. Fortunately it wasn't enough to give us more grief for taping the targets. I got to run Travis Tomasie, Blake Miguez, Dimac and the other Friday super squad through my stage. That was really cool to see them still have fantastic times in absolute crappy conditions. Only had one person wipe out on the planks, but no DQ's on our stage. Left the range about 4:45 with Lee, Ken and Nick, and we headed straight for Academy. Of course, they had almost NO winter gear left. Funny thing though, there were about 10-15 other shooters there trying to buy the nonexistent gear as well. Got up Saturday morning and the temperature was about 26, with a 30mph north wind which put the wind chill in the middle teens. Bundled up and headed to the range. I was wearing thermal pants, blue jeans, rain pants, thermal shirt, turtle neck, sweatshirt, jacket, heavy jacket, rain parka, and gloves. I was warm, but hey, I didn't have to shoot, so I was fine. So now we had unbelievable cold, but hey, at least it was a dry cold!! It was hard to recognize anyone because of all of the winter gear, but the team from Jamaica was certainly visible, they were all decked out in their green, yellow, and red colors. I had a good person to work with, so were able to run the big squads (17-20 people) through our stage in about 45 minutes. Saw some really good shooting and the footing was better than the previous day, so the times were starting to drop to around 20 secs on the stage. The sun came out briefly midmorning, but it was still below freezing till early afternoon. Due to some issues with a couple of later stages, we ran the Sat/Sun super squad through our stage at about 6:15. This squad had Dave Re, Scott Stockton, and a host of other good shooters. Overall, other than being cold, it sure was better than Friday. We had a couple of people crash into barrels moving off the planks, but fortunately no DQ's, even though several went completely spread eagle down on the ground. We ran 9 squads through our stage and left the range about 7:15. Sunday was cold as well, but the sun was up and by mid morning, I was able to shed most of my cold weather gear. We only had 4 squads to run in the morning so we were done just after noon. I only had one incident where a shooter wanted to run the stage a completely different way. I got trapped by a wall and he ended uprange of me about 10 yards engaging targets off to the side of me. Fortunately he was engaging into the side berm, but it was quite rattling to say the least. Took me about 5 more shooters before I was calm again. They did the results and prize table till about 4pm. There were enough prizes so that everyone got something, and man was there a lot of stuff. You got your name called and you got to pick a bucket with about $100 worth of stuff. It was really a great match and Robert did a fantastic job compensating the RO staff, I will definitely offer to RO again in the future. I figured out that I averaged walking ~40yds for every shooter, and 300+ shooters I walked about 12,000 yards. I had fun, but I wish I had shot better. Oh yeah, the results - I finished 61st out of 131 in Limited, 60% of Travis Tomasie's score. I think I played the game too conservatively as my times ended up pretty average. Oh well, live, learn, and move on to the next target. Smile

GamingGoddess - cool videos. Hey I'm on youtube - I was the RO on stage 2 with the teeter totters. The conditions were unbelievable. I shot the match on Thursday and was comfortable in short sleeves Friday was horrible. Our targets were facing the rain, and when we bagged them when it started drizzling, a gust of wind blew them all into Oklahoma!! We were replacing targets about every 10 shooters because the tape wouldn't stick. I felt really bad for the shooters, but everyone handled it great. It was funny seeing other entrants in Academy sports in Wichita Falls on Friday night buying all of the nonexistent cold weather gear. Saturday morning was brutal cold, with a powerful north wind. But enough about the weather, this was my first DT match, and I thought the stages were great, and I really had a great time. It was awesome getting to RO such a great group of shooters.

As for the grip, unfortunately I don't have a lot to compare it to, but I am sure glad that I got it on my gun. It seems larger than some of the older grips. As for a range report, long distance shots are amazing with the S_V compared to anything I have ever shot before. My groups are easily half of the best I could do with my Glock. Once I get used to this grip safety thing (and learned that you don't have to take up the pretravel on a 2011), I will probably be having a lot more fun!

Thanks guys! I really like the grip, fits my hands really well. I have felt quite a few of the older plastic stippled grips, and this feels much better in my hands than those. Sure does feel a lot better than any of my Glocks

This is my new blaster. S_V in 40 with the latest aluminum grip. Have used it in 2 matches so far, and really love it!!

Well, about 6 months late on last year's goal Finished first in SSP/EX at Texas State IDPA match, so I got bumped to SSP/MA.

Just purchased it guys, thank you very much for the helpful advice!!!!

I am trying to figure out what format I need to convert a wmv or avi file to in order to have it play automatically on my DVD player for my TV. Is there a program that anyone can recommend that will do the correct conversion? Thanks.

Thanks for the insights guys. Do you have to worry about the firing pin spring pulling the slide out of battery with a lighter main recoil spring like in a Glock?

My wife has a full size M&P 9. When she is shooting factory ammo, the shells eject nicely to the side and away from her. However, when she uses my 130 PF 147g loads, the shells essentially flip over the back sight and many of them hit her in the face. How can I "tune" the ejector to make them flip to the side? Thanks.

Well I was disappointed that he got hurt last night, NOT disappointed in the outcome of the game Go COWBOYS!!! Hopefully he will be back on the field soon!!

What I Like?? The start of a new tradition of pounding the sips from Austin!! :D B)

Shot this on Saturday, I don't remember the string times exactly but they were close to 7, 3.5, and 4.5, total time was 15.68 and 114 points shooting Limited MINOR. Good for 72% Now I can throw away a stupid 49%

Great room Mark, the Aggie stuff is the icing on the cake!! Deron

How about "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak?

Thanks for the answers guys. I agree with Flex in that the stage needs to be setup in a way that the RO's can see what is happening downrange.

Here is the scenario - stage at the Arkansas sectional back in May. On the stage, you have to engage a popper through a port which will activate a peek-a-boo target. Before activation when the target is static, only about 1" of the head appears above the no-shoot. The port is cut out of plywood, so you can't see the target or popper except through the port. The buzzer goes off and I begin the stage. When I get to the port I see that no one reset the weight on the front of the peek-a-boo target, so the no-shoot will not move out from in front of the target. Because of the setup of the port, the RO can't see that the prop is not reset correctly. This was my first level II match and hadn't encountered the situation before, so I stopped myself and informed the RO that the equipment was not set. The RO said ok, and he had me unload and show clear. When I went back to my buddies to get some more magazines, they told me that I should have kept shooting and not stopped myself, that I was risking zeroing the stage. And here is where my question finally leads, how should I have handled the situation. As I said, the shooter was the only one who could have seen the prop wasn't reset, if I don't engage the target then I risk the FTE and associated misses penalties. If I had gone ahead and engaged the target, then I risk the time to engage as well as the -10 no-shoot penalties.

Not once, but twice from 53 yards!!!! Go Cowboys!!