Overhung

I recently bought an hk45 v1. I took it to the range today and shot about 50 rounds through it before I put it though its paces. I hought the best way to do this was to pit it against my other 45s (Springfield Trophy Match), and FNX45T with RMR07, and and shoot the IDPA classifier. I shot a couple of strings with one, and then another, and then the other in sort of random order so I wouldn't suffer from the driving range syndrome where I knock out all of the rust on the first two attempts and clean it on the third. First impressions of the gun It's very high bore axis but is reminiscent of the FNX that I have been shooting for about a year now so no problems. Soft shooting even with that high bore and me shooting some supercharged hollowpoints- no hickups. I hate - hate - hate - hate the shape of the trigger- that exaggerated 3/4 moon means lots of practice to keep me from dipping the front during speed firing. The trigger again is similar to the FNX- but the FNX isn't so rounded. Sites are surprisingly easy to track at speed for the most part, but I did have some flyers that I missed. Of course low. I wish I had 12 rounds, but the 10 rounders help my home sickness for the Peoples Republic of New York. Ok so I shot the IDPA classifier in the hottest day ever in south Louisiana at the Southern Shooting Center in Houma. I only have USPSA targets anymore and the pasters I have didn't adhere to the target all that well so compromises were made- namely pasters wouldn't hold so I did the best I could do scoring. I gave myself a reshoot if I messed up the round count or if the gun jammed. I shot the first stage as SSP (DA/SA, safety on, and the second two stages as ESP (SA/SA safety on). Overall I am impressed with the HK Here are the scores: _ 1911 _ FN _ HK Raw Time _88.51_ 110.87 _ 88.36 Points Down / time _ 20/10 _ 16/08 _ 24/12 Total _ 98.51 _ 118.87 _ 100.36 Class _ Exp (CDP) _ Sharp (ESP) _ Exp (ESP) I finished off the session with 3 x 10 Bill Drills with targets from 5 yrds, 10 yrds, 15 yards (same string) off the timer. I threw shots left on the 10 yard target. The gun shots about 2" low at 25 so I may switch out the front sight. Now I have to see about triggers- Id like to reduce the double action. I have been struggling with the RMR on the FN. It's not intuitive and I cannot find it as fast as I can the irons. Also after the shot is broken the glass on the RMR is so dark (even in HOUMA sun) that I cannot find the dot and I cannot align the sights until the dot comes back in view. I don't lose it every time, but I do enough. The trophy match would have been sold off years ago- it has issues, but it runs when I roll my own- nothing but factory today. But a friend who no longer is with us sold it to me and he meant a lot. It has some extraction issues and overall neglect since I started shooting limited with my Para-40. The FNX has some problems with the trigger sticking- I cant tell if the gun is that filty, I was riding the decoker, or I didn't let it reset. The HK and I struggled with the trigger, and I got caught riding the safety / decocker. I am happy with my V1. I would be orgasmic if there was a straighter trigger- like the ones offered by CZ.

New to rifle shooting, and sorry for the stupid question, but how big ahould the target be for a 300 yrd zero without magnification, js hitting a 10 in plate considred good, or am i trying to hit a 6incher- if i can even see it?

I have tried reading this thread from start to finish and am lost in the argument. The point is moving to a less human shaped target will get more people to pick up the sport, thus increasing the avenues of advertising for vendors, thus getting more people... And, one side attributes the stagnant membership count to scary targets. One person had the courage to compare watching the sport to paint drying. Isn't this the AWB mentality placed on paper targets. No scary thumb hole stocks, not bayonet lugs, and darn it, no magazines over 10 rnds. And can any one attribute anything other than pre-ban magazines being sold to us at butt-raping prices? It's not the targets that shun people, it's our collective self-righteous attitudes (show up at a USPSA match with a Ruger) and a mobilized media against us that does. Get more people to shoot before you discuss growing our little pin-prick of a sport. Democrats and community activists needed to pander to some Southerners and had to silence their overarching goal of disarming the populace for our own protection and made clays cool- we're not looking to take away your stuff. And Chevy and Ford are on it. This isn't the place to have the skirmish over heads. It's out there convincing people to buy equipment to defend themselves against heads, to hit bulls eyes, to break clays, to knock steel over, etc.

What about option "C" - No grown men using the word "Buds" Seriously though, I am in the same place for a different reason. The range is an hour away, there and back, 2 hours. And all matches, minus Area 6 Championships, are designed to be slow, bottle necked, painful exercises, especially when there are M and GMs around and their usual lack luster chronies who hang on their every word and forget about taping, or worse yet, approach the line without their mental plan in place and use many a minute to rehearse while 11 people in the squad are quietly watching. Throw in another hour for score compilation, I am looking at a 6 am to 3pm door to door exercise. With up to seven hours standing in the hot Louisiana sun standing in mud and now crude. I love shooting. I love USPSA. I love the sport. But I hate the pace. I find myself shooting much less because of the pace of play. It's analogous to playing golf behind a 4 some of women beginners on a Saturday. I tape and tape and paint and reset and score. I do. Many do also (I'm not on the cross here), but in the end it is 30 seconds of fun and an hour of taping x 6 stages. I was flamed last year a bit when I suggested the ROs not engage each shooter to excruciating detail during a match, and I think there should be a time limit for making ready. Protests should be limited- strange how it is always us C and B class shooters indicating that we put a 30 yard double tap into the same hole. In short, I don't think it would be as much of a negotiation, if we could remove idle hours from a match. Shoot more stages, or go home early. Your club may be different.

I got it to about 2.5 - 3" free hand at 22 yards (length of indoor range). I could do better if the light were better I think, but that group is honest, and I am happy with it.

Sure. I did shoot with it before I bought it and found it to be accurate. It was modified to include a Schumann Barrel. Post some tomorrow.

Just wanted to share I bought a new (used) P16 to start my forray into Limited from Limited 10. I will be at Area 6 next week with it. Took it out last week to better accommodate ourselves. I shoot well with the gun, and in the one steel match I shot, outside of bunch of squibbs, I did well. I am still playing with the loads, but settled on something that I know works with the gun (recommended by the previous owner). I started shooting groups with it and I was ALL over the place. Nothing worked. Some clicks up, some down, left, right, no matter. I packed up the gun and went home after doing some draw two reload two on some plates at 10 yards- wanted to end on something positive and was doing ok here. I could not get the failure of not shooting groups from 15 - 25 yards out of my head. I was very depressed and frustrated. I am a decently accurate shooter, so this was hitting my cockles too hard. Self Doubt. Why do I spend all of this money? Why can't I just get better? blah blah blah. I decided to put the gun down for a couple of days. And would resight once I wasn't so bothered. That night I woke up at two am (normally do anyway) got the gun out of the safe and wiggled the exceptionally loose front sight left to right almost the full length of the dovetail. I went to bed satisfied. I knew it wasn't me. I was just disappointed that I did not have more faith in myself. And did not scream "WHY ME GOD?!?!" from the mountain top so readily. I have a couple of dabs of epoxy to hold the sight in place for the weekend match, and plans to get it repaired / replaced there after. And I am shooting groups much better, allowing me to comfort in my strengths and focus a bit more on my weaknesses.

I put a post up in the wrong forum- it should be here- about watching all levels of shooters go through some stages- its in techniques. Individual reaction times not withstanding, the differences in light and sound at the distances we are typically shooting quickly don't matter all that much. The true time savings is not the waiting for the steel to hit vs the sight picture, the savings is between shooting fluidly and stop indexing on each plate an waiting for it to fall before you index to the next. It takes only a flash to see the sights pull the trigger and move on. It takes a bit more to see the sights pull the trigger and wait for the feedback. It may only be 1/4 of a second, but per plate, on a 6 plate plate rack, that could be up to 1.25 seconds. Of all our senses, our sense of taste is the quickest. I am not tasting any of you ROs.

This past weekend I travelled to compete in a charity match for Toys4Tots in Columbia. The crew that I was shooting with all decided to shoot L-10. The guys on the squad are better shooters than I, but they usually shoot different classes. Since leaving IDPA I have not had an opportunity to compete with friends as most have either dropped the sport, or gone on to limited. Since this was a charity match, it was not sanctioned, but it was run like a USPSA local match even though there were 120 shooters with many more on standby. The courses were straightforward and there were no stars or swingers at 25 yrds etc. I used to RO a lot at IDPA and since the switch, I have not taken a class, and help out by taping. I notice that when you tape you watch the course of fire run again and again, or talk to a buddy during the shooting. While RO'ing you watch everything especially the shooter. Since there was such a large percentage of our squad shooting L10, many people executed the COFs similarly. I think that the biggest challenge I have is the seeing what you need to see faster, and faster indexing when throwing up at a target- I have to search for the sight and then I am too tenative when I find it. Anyway. I got to run 17 shooters through 7 stages. What I noticed that the beginner shooters look at each target after they shoot it. At first, its a noticeable pause. Bang pause, bang, look, look, look, transition look, bang ... Toward the end, as they got "faster" it was more bang, bang, look, transition, aim, bang... The expert shooters are more constant tempo. Maybe some shoot .4 sec splits, some lower, but none were in the .2 sec that are advertised here during drills and standards- so I can shoot at pace with these guys- I just didn't. The expert shooters are bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. And in that time they have engage a paper, small popper, and paper from around a corner or through a door way. and sprint to the next place while most others kept their guns trained on the steel until it dropped, and they processed it. It was amazing the difference. And it was very noticeable. And I never saw it before. I wonder how during the course of fire my time is bunched during the string. I have been struggling with transitions and sighting in initially. But I think I spend less time practicing an trusting my shot calls, an verifying my hits. On average, I was running about 3 - 4 seconds a stage behind my friends (the better ones) and competetive with others. I was happy with my performance except for 2 mikes that I swore I hit. As always I learned some stuff. I don't know how to practice them yet, but seeing shooters instead of seeing a course may help me understand some things you guys type better.

I got a little tired of shooting this past year- since making the change from IDPA to USPSA, I noticed that my abilities had plateaued, and the general cost of matches was a bit restrictive. Plus, weekends are spoken for in a post Katrina, Gustav, Ike environment. About a month ago, I went to the range and fell inlove with it all over again- just a little steel match that they throw down in Thibideaux every weekend. I was awful. Trigger freeze, misses, the shakes, not topping off mags at the end of each string. Over the past month, I have shot about 1500 rounds. In matches and in practice sessions, I feel the skills improving. Last week, the steel match came up again. I still doubted my draw- had some negative thoughts in my mind- so I have practiced that since-but shot well. I started to pick up speed and get misses- which was okay- since I was trying something new. On one string, I fumbled the draw- normally about 1.5- 1.75 but I knew it was about a 2.5 draw- did not unlock the trigger guard that I habitually engaged. Got the gun out an shot in 3.38. It was an easy array, but I felt myself shoot faster. You can say smoother, whatever, but the gun an my eyes were in synch. It was noticed by my squad the fumbled draw and the blaze after that. I know that if I don't break through this barrier, I will plateau again. I was an upper level EX in IDPA, and my standards were good enough to get me into a solid B rating, but my match performance is a mid to low C. I know where my weaknesses are in the field courses, but when did you upper level shooters ever break with those noises in your head that told you to slow down, lay up, use two seven irons instead of the 3-wood- if you get the drift. I know that if I keep this practice pace up, I will get to A- which reading how much you guys practice to get to MA is probably all that the other influences in my life will let me get. Practice will get those negative thoughts outside my head. I am struggling with letting the gun drive, rather that point-aim-really aim-really aim again, then fire. I find I lose time trying to speed up this sequence rather than seeing enough. Dan- Back in Love with Shooting

I went back to the range today- the first in six weeks. I have a new girlfriend and it is amazing how much things prioritize. But... I got a bay to myself and was doing some movement drills- not a lot, but enough to get the feel of move shooting back on. I had a blast. A couple of bays down, some guys has set up a stage. I ran twice through. I shot it pretty ok the first time around. Good hits, okay time. I was happy. Shot it again- rushed- typical match paced. I shave off a whole second and took 27 points down. I learned something. A second shaved maybe isn't about shooting more rushed, it is shooting more quickly. I have to shoot more quickly with out daudling- not shooting at the same pace but pushing splits. makes sense. I can't wait until next weekend.

When you changed the base pads, did you disassemble the mags? Did you put them together in the right spring orientation? My wilson 10 rounders work fine. My eight rounders won't lock one of my guns back. For 8 and less- I prefer McCormacks

Thanks shred. It reminds me of the Area 4 Champs this year where our squad mate was DQ'ed early in the match. The SRO warned everyone that there was a high potential for DQ. He sat and watched that point. Not everyone was DQ'ed, but in the end, the course design or set up was not correct as there had to be an observer for that place. I would consider that a trap. It is different if one runs by a target, mind breaks, and shoots backwards, spins the wrong way, and sweeps the crowd; they get the bus ticket (I like that phrase). If during the walkthru some one has to mind me of a special place in the COF where there is potential, that whole crew is guilty of negligence. It is not about breaking the 180, it is about potentially sweeping the crowd with a hot weapon during the excitement of the stage. Guns go off at the wrong times in these situations. Some poor schmo is going to jail, and some other- the RO, SRO, and club hierarchy are getting their pants sued off. And Thomas, the assertions that "we told you so" won't hold water. Being DQed is only part of the argument, being in the crowd and swept by a D class because there is an 179 degree target is quite another. An extension of the logic should be that everyone should be hot at all times, because guns should not be carried unloaded. It is the responsibility of the shooter not to muzzle anyone and they should retain control of their gun at all times. But, I have to show clear- to eliminate a threat. Telling me to be careful in the John, or lunch line does not eliminate a threat; nor does telling me not to sweep the crowd when there is a 180.

How can you call your shot if you did not see your sights lift? You guys are starting to make sense. I have been struggling with sight picture / calling shots. I think I HAVE been looking in the wrong place. I think terms "sight Picture," "calling shots," and "visual patience" are very closely related but often described as something completely different. That quote from Saul K. about the three aspects of shooting at this critical moment. If any of the three things don't make sense- if you feel you have blinked- did not see the sights- the gun moved funny, you you just react and take another shot- or is there something that makes you break the plan and risk a reload out of your plan?

Planting the elbox is about getting my arm to a place everytime +/- I see many of the top guys do this rather than float the gun they firm the arm against the torso. i am copying that- and it seems to work.