pisgahrifle

Tightloop & Vlad- Both of you are spot on. One of the nice things about this forum is that we don't tend to degenerate into the name-calling that seems to prevail on some other boards. The downside of this is that we've been seeing way too many little x's on the left side of the screen when checking new posts. Keeping discussions from getting out of hand is one thing- keeping those discussions from getting started so the issue simply becomes moot is quite another. And by the way- I miss Rhino. I never met the man, but sweet God he was good for a laugh. -PAB

I know this is purely a personal thing, but I couldn't buy or use horse hide. I'm not judging anyone who does, but I was raised on a horse and to me it feels creepily like a form of cannibalism. I know, I'm a big hippie, but I think it's true. Remember the old Arab proverb: "Treat a horse well, and it will fight, reproduce, and kill itself for you. Mistreat it and it will kill you." You have to admit, even humans tend to be much less admirable. Just my two cents.

Not my fault you can't fit any more than seven in that sig-a-ma-phone. Hell, even a worn out old Colt can tote 8. Jeez, man, get with the 20th century or something.... That may be the last NYT I see for a while- I kill a man over my Times!

Circle gets a square. I disagree. Remember the recent thread about the sport going back to high school? Well, all this is part of it. I say give as good as you get. I knew of a fella at a club I used to shoot at that got ribbed incessantly. Yeah, every once and a while he'd screw a stage. Sometimes doing silly, silly things. And there was a group of shooters, many of which were regular ROs, that never let him forget it. And it wasn't friendly, either. Most of these guys never had a kind word to say to this poor kid. So once he started shooting with myself and a few of my cronies, we started to take up for him. Eventually he learned to start cracking back on his own- hard. Just because someone has a bit of authority doesn't give them license. I recall that whenever my stepfather was doing something and someone was trying to tell him how, he'd look at them and say, "'Scuse me, I'm the one f&*king this goat, now if you'll be so kind as to stand over there and hold on to the tail we'll get along just fine." Worked every time.

I did IDPA for a good bit. I haven't shot it in almost a year know, but I did right fair when I was at it. Here's the bit of info and advice I'll throw you. Here goes: 1. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." I fully understand wanting to work out your stages. This is the cognitive side of the game that makes IPSC so challenging. The thing about IDPA stages is that they tend to take the cerebral out of the issue as much as possible- to level the playing field, I s'pose. The best way to get around this attitude is to still work the stage out in your head ahead of time, just do it as best you can within the parameters given you. For instance: Let's say you had to engage a three target array in some tactical manner and then advance to another barricade and do another two and a steel. You're shooting CDP. If you were shooting SSD, you'd shoot the first three, dump the mag, reload and go on, right? IDPA will give you 3 for leaving your loaded mag. If they think you did it on purpose, you'll get a 20 for "failure to do right." So what do you do? All a "reload with retention" is is a speed reload where you hang on to the old magazine, that's all. So after you engage your first array, do this "reload with retention" and you've got enough gas to finish the stage. You don't get caught out in the open and get a cover call, and you'll be suprised how fast that retention reload can be when you do it a lot. Practice with a vest when you dryfire. Choose a vest with large pockets, ones that can preferably be propped open with their flap. Put your charging magazine in it to open it up a bit more and give it some weight- that will help you a bit in slinging it out of the way to get your next magazine. Give a thought to putting some weight in the other side, too, for the same reason. 2. A. No- so long as your movement is covered. If you don't see any robot-heads, you should be kosher. B. Yes. If you're slide is down with a round in the pipe, you drop an empty and leave it, then they'll treat it like a full magazine. And no, it doesn't make any sense. When I first started shooting IDPA, I'd go into fits when I saw stages. I thought this was supposed to be real-world stuff, and I found out quickly it wasn't. I had taken the "principles" section of the rulebook to heart. One day I was practicing with a great old guy at the local club when the subject of stages came up. He told me a golden rule about shooting IDPA that I swear did more to making me a winning shooter than anything else- "Don't try to make sense of it. Not much logical about it. Just shoot it as fast and as smart as you can, within the rules, and win. Leave your defensive shooting in the truck, but make sure you don't forget to put it back on again when you leave." It's a competition; treat it as such and you'll win. 3. Sigh. Regardless of what the book says, cover can get mighty interpretive at times. Stay on your RO's friendly side and don't get to far from cover and you'll be fine. Try to really hug your barricades and corners and you shoudln't give them any room to gig you. 4. You are correct. The new book does say that the terms are interchangeable, but calling a tac-load a retention load, or vice versa, is like calling a polish sausage a hot dog, or vice versa. You (unless specified, I suppose) can do either one where one or the other is called for. Once again, I'd recommend just getting used to doing the retention load and load that way unless told otherwise. Just make sure you get your mind back right when you go shoot an IPSC match so you don't hang on to that partial! 5. Bruce282 pretty much hit it right square on the nose. IDPA's scoring system really is the best thing about the sport. No long division, ratios or percentages (note that I did not, in fact, do well in math in any school, any where). You can pretty much look at the timer and targets and know your score. Good stuff. Anyway, hope this helps. -PAB

No, you're right. MS is a big v that runs the rebound lever as well. Only thing is I don't know where to get the old v's that came in the gun stock.

So, so gross.......

Amen to the whole damn post! Seeing things like this happen to women at clubs she's visited is one reason she doesn't care for the sport much. She finally got a chance to see a few good, UNINTERRUPTED women shooters at a USPSA match a while back, and she's starting to come around. It makes you wonder how many women have been driven off from practical shooting because of some a**clown's need to exhibit to the world his cranial and testicular circumference by "helping the little lady shoot that big ol' thing."

I need to find reduced power springs for a Colt 1917/ New Service. I'm assuming there's a decent trigger somewhere under that 16# pull, I just need help finding it. Furthermore, my patient, kind and munificent wife (don't ask- she might read this) can't shoot the thing DA. She'll strain like a fat man at a Chinese buffet, but she can't quite break it over. At all. So- anyone got any ideas as to where I might find such creatures? (One more thing- don't say Wolff. The gal on the phone- got bless her pointy little head- didn't know what a New Service was, much less a 1917. I did manage to keep from laughing when she asked if SAA springs would do, though. Maybe that'll help get me into heaven someday.)

ANGER!!!! Yeah, I hate that, especially since I've started saving my brass. I shot at a club once where they stressed the same thing, and to do so made every monthly local match a "lost brass." Turns out that someone possibly associated with putting the match on had cut a deal with some local reloaders for them to come pick up everyone's spent brass. Nobody ever would have known about it had the reloaders not showed up a bit to early one day. No one knew where the money they paid for everybody's brass went, either.....

To preface, I've read all the 550 v. 650 stuff on both the store and forum that I could find. That said, I'm still not sure whether I want a 650 or 550. The dealbreaker for me is not, perhaps suprisingly, the speed of the machine. I'm planning on loading up to 2500-3000 rounds per month, and I'll be loading for several calibres. I know this puts me in 550 territory, but the 650 has one option that keeps drawing me back to it- the powder check die. I'm still a rank reloader by any measure, but when I first started I was using a friend's 550. He got me going and I did a case's worth in two sittings. The thing was, I had a squib (my first) in that 1000. I feel like I'd be more comfortable with the check die, but if I'm just more careful and observant can I do without it?

Okay, here's the deal: My wife has a thing for SA revolvers. The Old Man gave her a 5 1/2" old model Vaquero in .357 for a "welcome to the family" gift, and she adores it. She's also become more receptive to the idea of shooting matches with me know that I'm moving toward USPSA. The only problem is she wants to shoot her revo- the SA one. To be quite honest, i'd like to go run my SA and lever guns in a match format, too. The obvious response is to go shoot Cowboy Action. I've asked about shooting through matches at a couple of places without "dressing up"- that's something neither of us want to do, and have gotten a rude and abrupt "no" from every CA shooter I asked. So my question posed is this- is there anywhere we can go shoot our SA's in a USPSA or even steel challenge type format in shorts and running shoes? Or should we only drag them out come hunting season?

Thus far the tiny ball of love and affection has destroyed a pair of her mother's heels, several handbags, a pair of glasses, two interior doors and a dust ruffle. And I'd still kill a man over that dog.

That old stand-by, cheap-a$$ DPMS bolt for about $35 or so will do you right. It may not be shiny or funny colored, but you can't beat it for the money.

Accurate, reliable, and it didn't even have a "Cartel" name on the side o' it? Say it ain't so!

Up here in Suckland it's around 2.30 a gallon. A friend of ours just came in from the place where all the crazy people live (California) and said it had gotten up to $3.63 per out there. Of course only crazy people would pay that. I figure we'll be crazy enough here soon.

I'm a shooter- it's what I do.

The soundtrack's hot, no?

I like the pants. There, I said it- "I LIKE 5.11 PANTS!!" I'm thinking about getting another pair for hiking in the fall and spring, and maybe for early season hunting. I like where they've put pockets and how well-built they are to be so lightweight. I do, in fact, even have a vest. CAVEAT: I used to shoot IDPA and I got flak for having a ripped up old cover garment ("them torn out'n pockets'll give yuh an unfar advantage, they will"). I also got it for a better price than anyone has on anything ever before. I do not wear it out of the house. I like being married, and I agree with her on this one. Really. That said, it's getting harder and harder for me to wear my new favorite pants out in public with. First I see people actually wearing the vest in public. Then I see a guy wearing the pants and a "US Marshals" polo on the Metro, replete with some "tactical" nylon briefcase. Then I hear they've come up with a "tactical blazer." (I own quite a few sportcoats and one or two blazers. I have worn a full-sized 1911 under all of them. They have hidden it very well for many years. My wife likes them, though she considers many of them outdated and strange. They are not tactical. Many of them are twill.) Now a "tactical watch?" I'll stick with my 3x5s, an ink pen and tape, and when I need to know what time it is I'll look at my cell phone, thank you very much. My A2's stock may be covered in stickygoo from loads long past, but at least I can confidently say I didn't pay $200 to be tactical. I think I'll breath now.

As a complete aside, I've used Duracells in my Surefires and been super-pleased with battery life. I don't know why but they seem to last twive as long as the SF ones. The downside is that they do cost a bit more.

NOOOOOOO!!!! Send it to me!

This thread should, in the end, bring us to the best damned website on the Internet- I mean the whole freakin' Internet- but since it hasn't yet, here it is. Prepare to be amazed: www.realultimatepower.net

Quite possibly the best damn movie I've seen since college. I might actually even buyit!

I just learned to "escape and evade"- and with a quickness!

Liota- It's OK- I think that kinda thing's going around. Some AF instructor-"pistol guru"- high-huskerdoo at Dover convinced a buddy of mine up there that he's carrying the most accurate, reliable, sturdy, low-maintenance and absolute best service pistol coming and going in the 92F. So sturdy that the only thing thay ever have to do to them is, and I quote, "just change the springs every 100,000 rounds or so." I am not kidding- that's exactly what he said. The 92F, or M9, or whatever you want to call it is a much better pistol, in fact, than those dangerous Glocks, over-complicated Sigs, or that ancient, unreliable, hard-kicking 1911. The worst part is that he's starting to believe it. Go fig. -PAB