CrashDodson

I use a modified Lee U die, its been turned a bit on a lathe to get closer to the shell plate. I have little issues.

The mark 7 is the best thing I have ever purchased shooting related. Right next to the dillon primer filler

I have a few discounted spots left for a range officer course in Midland texas on December 2/3. I need to know if you want in by the end of the week. Please PM me for more info.

In an effort to improve my shot calling I bought a v4 rts2 from someone in the forums and ordered a cheely mount. I slapped it on the gun last night, dont yet have long enough screws to also attach my thumb rest. I messed with it briefly last night doing draws, it took about 5 minutes for me to start getting the dot every time. Did some more dry fire this morning including weak/strong hand and I dont seem to be having any trouble with the dot just being there 95% of the time. This is really surprising with the height of the dot and mount. I dont understand the mechanics of why it works but it is just working without a lot of effort. I may have ruined the mount using the wrong RTS2 screws but I am not going to touch it unless it starts getting loose. I will hopefully get to shoot it a little this week. I briefly owned a p320RX in an attempt to better my shot calling but after one day at the range I was done with that. Im spoiled with my 2011 trigger and wont ever be shooting anything else competitively. I call my new gun the LimDot. Greg at Peine Custom Firearms is building me a second gun just like this one so I will have a new fresh gun for 2018 and cycle this one as my backup. I ran this season with borrowed backup guns at major matches but never had to use them. The only trouble I had was with the PT ambi safeties I started building up a large callous on my strong hand index finger where the safety would push into. It got so bad that I had trouble disengaging the safety. I took a dremel to it, and as you can see scuffed it a bit. I am sending Greg the dimensions of my safety mod so the new gun will fit my hand perfect.

.71 first shot is salty

Not really answering your question...but if you want to improve your skills then stop shooting so many matches and trade those for practice days. Matches are not practice. Matches do help in ways such as stage planning, stage experience, mental preparedness...but its not practice. Matches are just a way to judge your current level of skill. If you want to get better at skill X, you must spend time on focused practice on skill X. Then go shoot a match to realize that skill.

They are all on youtube

I like the format of the new book and there are a few different drills at the beginning of the book dealing with transitions and sight pictures.

It was great meeting you Scott. We had a fun squad. It was fun learning about production approaches to stages. I have only ever shot Limited and most of my friends shoot limited or open.

Ive been doing a set of stretches the Chiro gave to me, hitting ibuprofen pretty hard and icing my neck in the evening. Im not 100% but it is much better at the moment. I've been looking into stand up desk options for work. This weekend I made the 8 hour trek to the shreveport area for the Gator Classic. I had second thoughts about going at the last minute because i really really really hate being cold. The weather outlook for the first day was low 30's high 50's with similar on the second day. I put my very warm big boy pants on and made the trip. I got to walk all of the stages on friday, most everything was really fast and hoser style stages. Very few no shoots, two swingers and one clam shell. I got to meet and shoot with @SCTaylor which was cool. Hes a great guy and great shooter and we traded film duties. We had a great squad that fought over pasting targets all day. Never had another squad so eager to paste before. We had a diverse squad with every division but PCC represented. Stage 1 had a stomp plate activator for a swinger where the swinger was not visible while activating. This is the first time I had come across this and decided there was no way to really try to time this and chose to play the stage conservative. I ended up taking 3rd on that stage. I think I shot the stage close to my current skill and dont think there is much more I could have done without being risky. Stage 2 had a GIANT popper so close I could have thrown a bullet at it faster then it took me too shoot it. There was also a clam shell that activated slow but once activated moved really fast with a no shoot in the center and the closed no shoot leaving head shots. I chose to come in on the activator and wait on the clam, which felt like forever. Beside the activator was a stacked target with a full presentation on the bottom and a half covered target above. In hindsight I should have taken the bottom target then went to the clam. Stage 3 was where my first mike of the day reared its head. It was coming in on a target while moving with a transition to a popper. The target was easy enough I just wasn't patient enough. This lack of patience cost me 10-12 spots on this stage. Stage 5 was my worst stage of the day. Unloaded start and I didn't seat my mag properly a 3 second mistake. I then took a mike on a target shot while moving right after a reload....patience grasshopper. These mistakes were worth 25+ spots. Stage 6 was a bit frustrating for me. There were two targets in the center split by a double stacked barrel. I came into these targets and they had not been pasted. This instantly caused weird things to happen in my head. Targets were super close so the holes were easy to see and it messed with my head. I took a mike on the second target or a perfect double, where the round went on this 5 yard target i don't know. I had Troy come over and that's when I learned that it doesn't matter if they were not pasted if the previous shooter was shooting a different caliber. I don't see how that is fair because while yes you can see the difference in the holes, I was not given clean pasted targets like everyone else. If the target was 20 yards away it wouldn't have mattered, but with the targets so close it really messed with my head seeing the holes already in the target. I left the first day with more mikes in one match then I have ever had before. I was down on myself a bit but I was able to come back and shoot a clean second day. On the last stage of the day I had to visit with Troy again. There was a target with a barrel that I glanced a round off of, this round impacted in the same spot as my first clean round, leaving a slug sized hole. The original RO call was two mike. I had him come back over, showed him a partial grease ring/radius and asked to see the hole in the barrel. We could not find any new holes, just one scrape mark. He changed the call to Charlie Mike and I asked for the Range Master. Troy came over and quickly determined it was two hits, it took them a little while to make a call on the placement of the second hit but I walked away with two charlie. My squad was very supportive and are the ones that encouraged me to have the range master look at the target. I cant thank them enough. This one call would have changed my match standing drastically. I ended up with a 6th place overall limited finish and 3rd Limited Master. I had 8 hours of drive home to lick my wounds and contemplate my mistakes. Im going to hit this off season with hard focused practice and see what I can make happen next year.

No worries. Anyone know how late the range will be open tomorrow? Would like to walk stages but i have to take my son to school before starting the 8 hour drive.

How was that diagnosed? I dont know all the parts of the spine but my pain is right at the base of my neck level with the colar bone area. He said it was inflamed but blamed most of it on my job where i sit for many hours a day. Did you have xrays or a ct scan or something like that?

Found it http://lagator.org/GatorClassic/2017/Gator Classic Stages.pdf

After high desert I did not touch my gun for a week. Not sure why...just had no motivation. I got back to dry firing this week and was surprised to start smashing par times right from the start. Perhaps a break every now and then is a good thing. I have only been dry firing once in the evening, hopefully getting back into my two a day routine next week after Gator. I have not shot a live round since High desert. Struggling to keep the home life in good shape while also pursuing this GM dream. For the last 6 days I have had crazy neck pain. It just started one day and got to the point where I could hardly turn my head. Ive been to the chiro twice and its getting better but still not 100%. I turn 35 next month...I guess the wheels are starting to fall off.

Where can they be found?

There was a stage at the desert classic this weekend where shooting limited I needed to reload twice, and once after only firing 8 shots. You dont see that too often but it happens. At the same match I was handed an empty mag I had dropped. Thats an Oh sh!t moment in limited.

Nobel sport prima sv is supposed to be the new hotness. When I run out of ramshot comp in a few months that is what I am going to try.

From what I have found, if I accidentally leave them loaded for a week, I will have feeding issues the next time I try to use them.

Good stuff from @a matt Of the things I learned from Ben last year one is make the shooting as easy as possible. Trying to do crazy gamer stuff does not usually result in better stage times. Another is stage plans dont make that much of a difference. If a top guy shoots a stage two different ways, their score will be very similar either way. Make shooting easier while eliminating extra shooting positions if possible. Find the most efficient route from point A to point B. Hustle. If your not shooting your losing points. If your shooting minor, your losing points. If I shot the same stage major and then minor in limited, my major self will beat my minor self, every time. While your just getting started its understandable. But if you want to play the limited game competitively you need to be shooting major. The basics of stage planning is 1. Confirm the stage start requirements. You only have to start the way its written. 2. Where do "I" start (If there are multiple start options, what are you most comfortable with?) 3. Find ALL the targets 4. Where can I see the targets? 5. In what order can I shoot the targets most efficiently (this is usually a shoot them as you seem them answer)? 6. Where do I need to reload? There are times where you may only shoot 8 rounds or similar in limited before reloading. On activation sequences you have to learn what your capable of to know how to shoot a certain sequence. There are plenty of times I see a GM shoot an activation sequence I know I am not confident doing, so I have to play my game at those times. As Matt said, once you have determined your stage plan...commit to it. Changing your plan last minute because the local hot dog shot it a different way is a recipe for disaster. You should be rehearsing the stage plan in your mind over and over and over until its your turn to shoot. The execution of your plan will then be automatic. If the days and weeks after your match you cant recall all of your stages in detail, you did not mentally prepare those stages correctly. At the top of the game everyone is going to run the stage pretty much the same way, and if not the results will be pretty much the same either way. Mental preparation and execution is the game at the top. The top of the top is decided by points shot.

I tune mags and shoot quite a bit. I have found that grams springs last longer than TTI. If I forgot and left a mag full of ammo for a few days with TTI springs, they were pretty much trashed. Grams seem to hold their shape longer. I am replacing springs about every 3-4 months. My current setup is I rotate in new match springs and rotate out the old springs for practice. I use SVI tubes with TTI base pads. I make sure to unload the mags at the end of every match or practice. I tune the feed lips every 3 months or so and before every major match. If you have "gun" problems with a good 2011, 99% of the time its mag related.

The goal is really just to be doing everything sooner. As your coming into a position your gun is up, using your knees to be low and stable, and shooting as soon as your sights tell you that you can. Want to make sure your not coming into position low and then standing up, then shooting. Your shoulders should not really change elevation as your entering, shooting and leaving. The difficulty of the targets your shooting dictate how you have to setup in a position. Easy targets your weight may continue to move in your direction of travel as you shoot and then get out of there, or your feet may never stop moving at all. If your coming in on hard steel or partials or whatever, you will likely have to get setup in the position but you should come in, shoot and then do your hard exit (split step or whatever). Just make sure your not coming into position, standing up, then shooting. When leaving a position the difficulty of your last targets dictate how you can leave. Perhaps its a wide open target and you can actually be taking a step as your firing your last shots, or if its not as easy you can begin leaning in the direction your going or maybe just loading up on the foot your going to push off with. Shooting on the move doesn't always mean actually taking steps, it can be just the shifting weight. Depending on the room you have to dry fire in you should be able to setup scenarios for easy/hard entry and easy/hard exit work. You also need to figure out how low you need to be for your sights to remain stable enough to shoot while moving. If you dont already have dry fire books I would pick up some for ideas.

This weekend I shot the High Desert Classic. The week prior I only got a few nights of dry fire in and one half-hearted live fire session. Looking at the stage diagrams and then walking the stages I was not really enthusiastic about the match. It looked like a carnival match, literally with a roller coaster with two targets mounted on it. While I dont like gimmicky stuff the match was still pretty fun to shoot. The stages were a mix of hose and difficult targets with several movers with activation sequences that could be timed to your benefit or leave you standing and waiting. I got to shoot the match with @CHA-LEE. Its always great having a GM on your squad to hold down and beat until they give up their stage plans. Since Charlie is easily 6'4 I skipped the beating part and just hovered around instead. A lot of the stages were straight forward but a few had options and Charlie really helped me make the best decisions. I ended up 5th overall and 3rd master in Limited. My best major match performance to-date. I shot 86% of Charlie who was the overall match winner. I felt I shot the match pretty well and within my current skill level. I shot the match more aggressively then I have been shooting this year, but not intentionally. Charlie shot the match a little over 20 seconds faster than I did. While there were a few seconds that I could have saved in a few places by not hesitating as much, he just flat out shoots faster than I can right now. He shoots partials with the same confidence as open targets, and that is an area I need to work on. I walked away from the match with 3 mikes and 2 no shoots. The 3 mikes all came on the same stage. It was a memory type stage with targets that ranged from a few yards out to at least 30 yards. There was a lot of hard cover targets at pretty far distances (USPSA far). The first mike came from pulling off a target too soon, I rushed and it bit me. The second was on a partial target with upper half of the target available at about 25 yards. I called two acceptable shots on the target and ended up with a great group about 3 inches down into the hard cover. Shooting partials at distance is something I am going to add into my training. One no shoot was from the wobbly bridge, there were 4 mini poppers with no shoots behind them. Broke the perf on one. The other I took an unnecessary makeup shot on a max trap as the NS was coming up and nicked the head of the NS. For whatever reason I shot steel at this match better than I ever have before. Things just connected for me and I am not 100% sure what I was doing any different than any other match. My head was really clear, I was just there to shoot. In my video there are obvious times where I am still hesitating/over aiming. On one stage I had a half loaded mag on my belt, a bone head mistake that I have not made before. Two stages had strong hand shooting. While I practice strong hand dry fire, I rarely practice it live fire. While i shot good points on these stages, I did so pretty slowly. I need to throw one handed shooting into my training so that I have the confidence to do it quicker in a match. I know I shot one handed pretty slowly due to just lack of confidence. I have a few weeks to put in a little more work before the Gator classic to finish up my year.

Our range surface is caliche. We started using lag bolts with portable impact drills....but after a half dozen matches the bolts get damaged, dissapear, stolen and they are expensive. I have gone back to nails/spikes. Im looking into getting some of the hammer bar things they used at nationals. We built all new walls with feet that are made of plate/flat bar that is two feet long. We have bad wind here in west texas and unless the wind is really bad 40MPH+ our walls dont require nails. We use 1/2x1/2 square tubing and snow fence. We stake down any fault lines (2x2 boards) that might get stepped on/kicked.

Do you take notes like this when running mini stage type stuff thats not really repeatable on a later day?