danjordan78

Hahahahaha!!! A "World Championship" supposedly in two months and no one knows anything about it other than the president. Doesn't inspire much confidence. Guess if they don't care any more about it than that I will find someplace else to go. Bummer...

Anyone know of any other matches going on the same weekend?. Doesn't matter where. If USPSA doesn't want my money I will spend it somewhere else. Have to make a trip down from alaska anyways so might as well shoot a match or two!

2 months away and still not a word from USPSA about Steel Challenge WSSC. It's not wonder they can't get anyone there. How can they expect people to make plans and arrangements without any kind of prior planning or notice? Emailed a couple of people at USPSA headquarters to see if they know anything.

Accelerator - What I talked to a couple of people about was thinking about the targets as being on the same focal plane. 1 and 2 are close and you can be much more aggressive on them. 4 and 5, being farther away and harder, take more focus. By taking 1 and 2 first then swinging to 4 and 5, the focus is further away, more intense, and that can be carried into the stop plate, which is sort of in between the two. Also, by starting on 1 (the smallest target) they can get to it quickly, swing past the 18x24 aggressively, transition to another 18x24, and get the focus beaded in for number 4 and then the stop. Going the other way we are transitioning to number 1 (a smaller target) where it's easy to sling a shot at it hoping to get to the big number two target and then having a hard time slowing the gun down for a good stop shot. I shot it 5,4,1,2, Stop also. Just mentioning the conversation I had with a couple of people. I can see how both ways work and it might depend on your skill level.

Awesome!. Thanks. A couple of those can be looked at several ways so it's nice to see how the top shooters did it. I was able to watch a few but not all. Most of what I saw was in practice days which obviously was the same.

Posted this in the classifieds but thought a lot of the Steel people would see it here as well. Figured with the new DVC limited coming out and all of the 3gun shooters out there someone is bound to have a double stack 9mm laying around that they want to get rid of. Need an iron sighted limited gun, already have an open one. Looking for an STI so that I can use the same mags as I use with my Steel Master open gun, but can always use a couple of extra if you have them. 2011 will give me the same grip on both guns. Not looking to inherit your problem child. As we all know steel is all about having a gun that runs. Might even ask for a 1 week trial period to make sure it's going to work. Don't want to get stuck with someone's self build that doesn't work. Something stock or close to stock is preferred. Not looking for a full custom gun or I would have my own built. PM me with what you have. Am open to different options. Willing to rebarrel if need be. Thanks!!!

Ruger or a Buckmark. I run a Ruger 22/45 Lite and love it. The whole practice and match I had 1 dud in about 750 rounds (luckily that was in practice). Not one issue with the gun itself. Other than a spring wearing out this winter, I've never had a single issue with it. I have a conversion that I like shooting, and it runs really well, just not well enough...

Great to meet all of you that shot the match. It was my first big match and fun to meet people and see how things were run. Hope to see you all at future ones!

4.0 grains of 700x with 125g blue bullets makes 125 pf and is really soft out of my steel master

The back targets are actually lit up by lights from the top (they have flood lights for the normal targets shot at 50'). We try to use the halogen lights on the floor to light up the targets that don't have overhead lights on them. It's not perfect, but it works just fine. No one complains (they might notice and mention it though...) If I had it to do over I might change the mounting system next time I do it. I designed and made some brackets that fit over the end of the 2x4, have a post sticking out the front of the bracket for the target to hang on, then a couple of pieces welded on that hold the shields in place. Problem we ran into was that the targets weren't centered in the shields. We solved that by using some galvanized, perforated straps which we could bolt the targets to and adjust the height with the various holes. Works OK but the straps get shot up a little. If I redo it, I would use normal steel target hangers, and just weld a 1/2" or 3/4" solid steel rod sticking straight up from the top. Then I would drill holes crossways in it, and put a cotter pin with a washer through it. One single hole in the shield and it would slide down, be held in place and you could adjust the heights to keep the steel targets centered. The target stands are easy. One 8' 2x4 makes the base, and the upright slides in and out for easy stacking, take down, and replacement. 2 - 24" pieces are on the floor for legs, 2 - 20" pieces are cross wise with 2 - 4" pieces between them to create a slot for the upright to slide into. If you don't want to take the upright out, one screw thru the bottom holds it in place. Things are crazy at work this week and then I will be heading to Florida for the Steel Nats. After that I would be happy to help anyone that is interested in getting indoor steel going and how it's been working for us!

Damn, and just when I was really starting to like it...

Really? No one even has looked at this thread! Great idea and working really well for us. Just another way to get more shooting in during the winter months!

Anyone know what the definition of a "rifle" is as far as Steel Challenge goes? Reason why I ask is someone showed up to one of our matches with an AR with only a 4" barrel. Has the paperwork since it's considered a rifle by BATFE standards (shoulder fired with a shorter than 16" barrel). Amazingly light and seemed to work pretty well. Can't get much lighter than that for a barrel. With it so short it was amazingly fast to transition with as well. Not sure what they would do at a national/world level match with that? Below is the USPSA Multigun rule, but if it starts as a rifle, and has a shorter barrel put on it, it's not technically considered a pistol according to BATFE. 2.1.2.1 Handguns with shoulder stocks and/or fore grips of any kind are prohibited. Rifles and Shotguns must be fitted with a stock, enabling it to be fired from the shoulder.

We had someone use aluminum arrow shafts cut to length and corks to cap them . 22 rounds fit right in them. Between every other stage she pulled her tube, dumped in an arrow full of rounds, and stuck the tube back in. Worked awesome!

After some experimentation and lots of thinking and research, we finally got indoor rimfire steel going! With 8 months of winter, I needed some way to train for US Steel Nationals! Started an 8 week league for .22 pistol and rifle with rotating stages. That way you can see your improvement over time. We are only doing rimfire, no centerfire yet. Not sure if we will do any CF or not as there is a lot more energy there for any kind of frag or deflection to cause damage. We ended up using galvanized steel ducting that was leftover from the installation of the air handling system. We cut 24" sections from the 24" and 36" diameter ducting. The 24" is good for the 6"-12" circles and 9x18" plates (we made reduced targets so we can scale the stages down), and the 36" is perfect for the 18x24" plates. We cut slits in the front edge and folded over a rim so that it would catch most of the frag as it came back. Leaves a nice little pile of lead at the bottom at the end of the night. Right around the plates where most of the energy is dissipated from the the frag it dings the metal up a little,but I don't think it will ever wear thru. Figured out a way to mount them on the stands and that's about it! Doesn't really matter if you hit them directly, it just punches a little hole. They will wear out eventually but we cut a couple of extras for when we need them. Could probably pick up scraps from the sheet metal place in the future too. Super light and you can store them outside if you need to. We set up halogen lights on each target to light them up fairly evenly and painted dots on the floor for the different stages. That way we only need to measure once. You can color coordinate the dots too so you know which is which. Looked at the tire idea like they do in European Steel Challenge. They are just heavy and I was a little worried about the little .22 bullets bouncing off of them. Had numerous people warn me about that, even with 9mm. To get big enough tires for the 18x24 plates we needed semi-truck tires too that were HEAVY and had really thick side walls. Looked at using conveyor belt or thick rubber mating too cut into 18-24" wide strips, but didn't want to have to come up with whole new frames or ways to hang them. They are pretty heavy too. Also thought about building something similar to this using welded wire to make a "barrel" and then wrapping that with sheet metal. Could use heavy gauge metal for CF too and it would probably work. This is what I was working on before I came across the galvanized ducting. Works awesome! Maybe someone else can use the idea to get more shooting going in their clubs in the winter!

I'm no expert by any means, but from all the research I have done 400 is fine for handguns, especially non magnum. 500 is for rifles and high velocity, big magnum handguns.

Best way I've heard to clean them off is with buckshot or BBs. Grab a couple of people with shotguns at the end of the day and blast away. Couple of shots and it cleans most of the paint off.

I have mild steel and they work fine for .22, but that's it. Had an extra plate that I thought might hold up to my light 9mm SC loads. Was just fine if you hit the plate in the middle, but if it was on the edge at all it dented and bent it. Go hard once. Don't go cheap unless you want targets for just .22lr and then plan on buying another set for center fire.

That's a good excuse. I wonder what they would say their reason is the other 50 weeks out of the year...

Just saw they posted the 2015 dates for June 18-20 in St. George, UT. Hmmm, gonna have to think about that one.... Not on the SCSA webpage (which other than the 2014 results hasn't been updated since 2012!), but it's on the USPSA Nationals page. Haven't updated the worldspeedshoot.com yet either. Really hope they start paying attention to Steel Challenge a little more soon. Pretty sad how they almost completely ignore it...

Am going to be running some steel matches in the future and I'm wondering how ranges can run so many people in so short a time. I'm going to the US Steel Nationals in March and am just as anxious to see how the match is run as I am to shoot it. I'm assuming they will have 200 competitors and they are saying things will be done by 2pm each day. How do you run 200 people through 8 stages that quick? I know there are other ranges that have monthly matches that run 100+ people as well. Is everyone able to get done that quickly? At our local matches it's pretty much an hour per stage, even with separate bays for each stage. Do you have open squadding so people just wander from stage to stage? How do you cut time? What if you only have 2 bays or one big one that you can set up 4 stages in? Anxious to find out. Thanks.

Sent you the chart Maarten, let me know if you have any questions. ToddKS is the one with the PowerPoint, so you can PM him if you would like a copy. I had all of the targets made out of 16g steel and shoot them in my garage with the airsoft guns. They are plenty accurate, even on the smallest, and furthest targets. Had my mags drilled and tapped so I can hook it up to my air compressor and not have to worry about the gas in an enclosed area. Lightweight tubing and you can do your draws and everything without even noticing it. About the only way to practice much when you live someplace with 8 months of winter!

How long has the current system been in place? People get better, times get faster, maybe it is time for the classifications to get harder. Love the fact they are breaking it down by division now.