BeerBaron

agreed. new shooters get the wrong idea when they see some dude who is a M or GM racking the slide, catching his ejected round in one hand, doing some cowboy twirl (yes I'm exaggerating) and whacking it into the holster in 0.2 seconds. They then think it's some kind of mark of skill to ULSC in the shortest possible time, doing the most possible things with your hands. It's an important piece of safety and should be done deliberately and carefully.

given the pain of DQ telling you what to do at ULSC is probably redundant at this point as I'm sure you'll be super careful from now on. There are a couple of good tips posted though and they may save another newer shooter from AD'ing at ULSC. The 'not on the clock' tip is a good one. I have never AD'd at ULSC but I did have a kind of bad habit. I would often start to turn my body or bend to pick up my mag as I was still locking my gun into the holster. It wasn't super bad, but it wasn't good either. Now I make it a point to stand rock still until my gun is locked in holster and my hand is well off the grip. It's also false to state that it's the RO's responsibility for safety. It's the shooters. You are in control of the weapon. No one else. I'm not sure of the words in USPSA but in IPSC they were changed at some point to "IF clear, slide forward hammer down holster". That points the onus on the shooter to determine if they are clear. my routine is simple and I do it the same every single time. First thing I do when finished and get "if you are finished...." is drop the mag and let it fall to the ground (I want all my attention on unloading the gun). Then I rack the slide once and hold slide back so that RO and I can both see in the chamber. He then says "If clear...." I then rack the slide twice more and then pull the trigger (again making sure it's in a safe direction). Then into the holster, lock the holster, hand off gun and now we are all cool. Now I can pick up my live round (if I ejected one), and the mag and then do whatever I want (pick up brass, look at targets, argue over mikes, whatever!). Like most things it's about getting a routine and sticking to it AND building in a couple of redundancies into that routine. By racking the slide twice more after ULSC I know if a round pops out something is wrong... One thing is for sure. You are not the first to AD at ULSC and won't be the last. The main thing is no one was hurt and you learned a lesson from it.

um yeah you got it. RM is aluminium (looks and feels nicer) and has changeable inserts for different guns. for not much more money than the racer you get a more versatile rig. my vote goes to the RM too, or the other I really like is the H&S CW5 (do NOT like the CW6, it's crap). lock is very nice and easy to use. still holds it securely without the lock. draw is very easy. they are delrin not aluminium but I really like them.

Unfortunately I can't give you the answer on the powder coat methods but I can vouch for the HITEK coating system (as used on Bayou bullets and sold in home use kits from same). I live in Australia and the availability of CMJ and FMJ bullets is pretty patchy here. partly because of the success of bullets coated with the hitek system. most of the commercial bullet casters here use his product (top score, HRBC - Hawkesbury River Bullet Company, John Connors, bullet factory, Ray Gray and many others that I haven't mentioned). One or two use their own (like westcast which in my experience did lead my barrel). At any local IPSC match there will be a big number of open shooters (mainly shooting 38 super, 38TJ or supercomp with perhaps one or two 9mm major) obviously all shooting major using HY-TEK coated cast bullets. There are still a number of guys using berry's or frontiers or HAP too. The general consensus is that the hytek coated bullets will shoot 'faster' for the same load as used with a CMJ (that is my experience too even at minor loads). So you can run your coated lead stuff with less powder (obviously still need a load that works your comp properly) and still make PF. The other general consensus is they do not lead. There will be the odd shooter who tries them and for some reason doesn't like them. Generally it is not using enough flare when loading (scraping the coating off in the loading process) or perhaps using a brand with a different type of coating other than the hytek stuff. Or perhaps he just got a bad batch. Over the many I've shot I have once or twice got a batch that perhaps weren't baked properly, or something went wrong and the coating was not quite right. but 99% of the time they are great. I imagine if it's as good as people say in castboolits that powder coat may work just as well. though given you can by the hytek system for not much money I would be inclined to say try that first. Also, you'd be surprised how many you can coat with a small mixer and small oven. you don't need some massive industrial cooker to crank out a decent volume. don't forget they only back for 10min or less...

great looking duty gun SV-cop. very nice indeed...

well done. stock II is arguably the best production gun there is out of the box. CZ has a better DA trigger but the stock II has the bull barrel, better fit and finish, looks nicer and to me nicer grip dimensions. I'm sure you'll love it.

the silver colour is not chrome or bare metal. it's silver polycoat. black slides are either blued or black polycoat depending on which model. black frames are black polycoat.

great vid. thanks for sharing.

the 712 practical shotgun looks nice. I'm not that clued up on prices in the US but at 700 clams it seems like pretty good value to me for a entry level 3 gun shotty.

my experience is similar to yours. though a bit better. I used blasting media. fine grade walnut shell. added dillon rapid polish. it certainly was no where near as good as the lyman green corncob. one funny thing it did do was clean my tumbler nicely! after a year of tumbling with the lyman green media the bottom of my tumbler was black. I checked and lyman said no need to clean it, just leave it. well the first batch of walnut shell cleaned it out nicely! still I've gone back to lyman stuff. yes it's expensive but it lasts ages. I have a friend who has been using the same batch for nearly 20 years!!! he has washed it once and that kind of ruined it (removed all the green stuff). not sure I'd go 20 years, but it certainly can last a year tumbling 200 cases a week. another lyman green fan here. I'm not keen on the red lyman walnut stuff though as it has abrasives in it. do not want any abrasives getting into the chamber or anywhere else in the gun or magazines or even in my press. so I stick to the green which has no abrasives in it.

You can now buy replacement batteries for the CED7000. so if the battery does die at least you don't have a dead timer now. They are not expensive. maybe $20 and should last 3 years or more. probably cheaper than buying lots of 9v

no one? hard to find reviews. I've basically only found one and the owner was not an IPSC shooter, a mac user (so couldn't use the PC features) and of course wasn't so happy. personally since I shoot IPSC, shoot outdoors and have a PC I'm keen to hear from someone who has used one.

Yeah I can't see you ever loosing dough on a $500 used 75 SP01 shadow unless it has something un-repairable on the frame... barrel might look like it's had some rounds but should clear up nicely unless it's been abused. They should (and do) last a looooong time. some club guns here have done 250,000+ on original bits.

I remember reading a post by Eric G and he mentioned he does like target focus (and no doubt why he often uses at set of sights that have a fibre optic rod in the front and 2 in the rear making it a fairly bright 3 dot sight). He did say though that for shots over 15 yards he switches to just one eye open which for me means more or a sight focus (as with only one eye open looking through the sights target is mostly obscured). if Interested the post is on the IPSC global village in the Eric G section. Dwight has good advice and I tend to agree if what you're doing works there is no reason to change it just for theory. but it wouldn't hurt you to try some techniques and you may improve.... and I still think all top shooters have a clear sight alignment for anything longer than about 7 yards. but as I mentioned over the years they get really good muscle memory so where they point the gun they know where the POI is, hence they can use target focus more successfully than a newer shooter.

I had the same problem. Left eye dominant, right handed. in fact when I started shooting I couldn't close my left eye without my right eye closing too. So I tried shooting right handed with my left eye, but as I was also shooting some olympic/ISSF type stuff which is SHO that didn't work so well. So I put a small target patch on my left eye glass. I closed my right eye and positioned the sticker so with my right eye closed the left eye could not see the sights. Now I could shoot both eyes open and over time my right eye strengthened to the point I can now close my left eye without my right eye closing (it does still squint a little). It sounds like you are doing ok as is, but steel challenege is not very long distance. I'm guessing longest distance is 15 yards? in some USPSA matches I'm guessing you might get targets out to 25 yards. in IPSC here we occasionally get targets at even 50 yards. or mini targets at 25 etc. at those distances seeing the front sight clearly so you can get good sight alignment is pretty important.

that is the stock 2 shooters dream! let me know when you crack it. trigger jobs are ok, but when you have a tanfog that will only ignite federals and federals are getting hard to get you have a problem!

I agree with most of what was posted BUT if you do want to shoot IPSC production then the SP01 shadow is the better option I think. Mainly due to the dovetail for the rear sights. many more adjustable rear sight options for that cut than for the regular SP01 (and in IPSC prod you cannot modify the slide dovetail to fit different sights). I also think the no firing pin block is an advantage. without the FPB the trigger does feel nicer to me. So i guess if you plan to shoot some IPSC matches AND don't want to have to get work done it's worth to spend a little extra for the SP01 shadow. on the other hand if IPSC is not an issue and you are happy to spend some money at a gunsmith then the cheaper upfront SP01 may be the go. all depends on you. both are a nice thing.

I personally like 125gn pills in my CZ 75 SP01 Shadow. I find shooting them at around 1050 fps for a power factor around 130 is a nice load. I've also shot quite a lot of 135gn round nose at around 950 fps and quite like that load too. and just to through a spanner in I've also shot a 120gn at 1070fps for about 128 PF and it was quite good too. all were using the same powder (an australian made powder made by ADI called AP50 - it's a moderately fast burning pistol powder) but different loads. between about 3.3gn for the heaviest pill and 3.7gn for the lightest. my findings where the lighter pills shot faster gave more recoil back into the hand but the gun cycled a little faster and muzzle lift was not much at all. the heavier pill shot slower had less recoil into the hand but a little more muzzle lift and of course cycled a touch slower. between the heaviest and lightest and fastest and slowest there is not a massive difference. I have not tried the really heavy 147gn stuff which seems to be popular in the US in 9mm production guns. It's rarely used here in aus. most guys I see are using either 125gn or 135gn pills. as far as types go they are all cast lead pills coated with the hy-tek polymer type coating. I use a 125gn semi wadcutter which has no lube groove, flat base and is slightly oversize at .3565. They shoot nicely with a large bearing surface and the flat base helps with accuracy too I believe. I also shoot 135gn round nose, 120 semi-wads, and 124gn round nose CMJs. OAL is important and does tend to change POI etc. In the shadow I find 1.080 and as short as 1.060 is just fine (just make sure they feed ok). if going long I never go longer than 1.100 in my shadow. They like the short stuff. I say load up some of the 147gn at 880fps and load up some 124gn at 1040fps. so you're going to both ends of the scale. Try them back to back. compare POI. compare group size and most importantly see which ones YOU like to shoot. Then once you've chosen your favourite weight, load some at 1.060, 1.070, 1.080 and go up to 1.100 if you want. see what OAL does to the accuracy. once you've chosen your OAL and crimp (try some with 'light', 'med' and 'heavy' crimp) then re-chrono to check they still make a comfortable PF. Then load up a bunch and enjoy. I do tend to agree with burningsquirrels. The different weights are no more or less accurate. just shoot flatter or not. changes POI a bit. different deisigns may group tighter though. like flat base vs bevel base. lube groove vs no groove. stuff like that. just have a little play.

I doubt it. some guys seem to shoot 'ok' with a strong target focus and a fuzzy front sight, but my guess is generally they are older shooters. they used to see the front sight clearly and have developed excellent muscle memory so gun is in the same place every time. so now that their eyesight has changed and they have more target focus it doesn't matter to them so much. but they would have had probably 20 years shooting with a clear front sight to develop to that point. and they probably aren't going to get to M or GM with things that way. seeing the front sight really clearly is a pretty important part of shooting well. I'd say sight picture and trigger control are the 2 biggest things for someone who is learning their way in practical shooting. grip, stance, target etc is all important too. but without a clear sight picture it's all for nothing. same goes for trigger control. you can do everything else perfect but if you jerk the trigger it all amounts to naught.

should only have to replace the barrel if you damage the crown, or get a ring in it from a squib or from shooting it whilst it's really leaded. with the slide stop best idea i've heard is this. buy a new slide stop. put it in and shoot 300 rounds or so. now take it out and it becomes the 'match' slide stop. put the used one back in and use it for practice. only use the match slide stop at matches and count the rounds. it will then stay 'new' much longer and if the other one breaks during practice? no big deal. I'd also say: keep spare fibre for front sight. in fact front sights themselves are fragile keeping a spare of those is not a bad idea. spare guiderod (especially if you're using a steel one) spare recoil spring TRS seems like a good idea as does hammer spring. funnily enough my shadow is 5 years old. had 2 owners and shoots about 200 rounds a week average. nothing broken yet and nothing replaced either. actually that's a lie. 2 front sights broken (most likely touched a barricade when shooting service). can't blame the pistol for that.

on topic. I'm also looking to buy a timer. has anyone used the CED7000PRO yet? it looks really good. I love the idea of being able to score with it. I just want to know how nicely it works in practice? any feedback? or do I just have to try it?

take a look at the follower and you'll see a little piece that contacts the inside of the slide stop. that is the part that pushes up the slide stop and causes the slide to lock back. you just need to sand/grind that down a little till it no longer pushes up the slide stop. don't go too nuts. we are talking fairly small amounts between it being enough to lock the slide and suddenly not enough.

great test. probably more useful with full mags instead of empty ones. even the crappiest mag pouch on earth will hold empty mags in any direction. it's different when they have 15 rounds in them...

That is a bargain! dammit, wished I knew there was a coupon when I ordered my second set from amazon a couple of weeks back. for $100 you will love this combo.

I would go the CR speed. come with inserts to suit a range of mags, can easily fit a magnet to them to carry your LAMR mag or for table starts etc (if your division allows it), they are mega adjustable. as far as mags falling out? no way. they hold all mags very securely. I have one set that are now 5 years old and still going strong. get used weekly. the DAA plastic ones are very nice too. but I still like the CR speed.