Brian Payne

I run a Benelli M2 with a 9 rd tube. Some matches limit the tube to be able to hold only 8 rds. I have an 8 rd tube but much prefer the 9 rd as long as I can put a plug in the tube that rides inside the spring, I am not a fan of just blocking off a couple of inches of tube and compressing the spring. I hate having to switch the tube and clamp around, re-sight in for slugs etc.. What are some of you guys using that would cut the rounds down by 1, yet leave the reliability the same. I had thought of just cutting a plastic plug down to the right size, but I fear if it just rides inside the mag spring it may cause a malfunction. Ideas or advice?

Another vote for JP.

centermass Thanks, that helps a lot.

MarkCo I like the two stages. How do you get them them on a form where you can write the stages description etc..? How would you draw up a multi-gun stage that had long range rifle steel and short range handgun or shotgun targets all in the same course of fire?

aaaaah. Got it. Thanks

JJH Thanks for the information. I had assumed as much but wanted to double check. The gun has run perfectly as is with the ammo that I have so I won't be messing with it for now. I purchased the weapon thinking that you get what you pay for, but this is one time where I have to say that you get a lot more. Very pleased thus far.

I asked this question on another forum, and thought I would throw it out here also. I just took home a Tanfoglio Witness Limited in .38 super. Excellent so far with over 200 rounds of .38 super comp ammo that is loaded to minor power factor. In the nice case that the weapon came with there were two spare recoil springs. Both springs have different numbers on the wrapper. Are these just spares or are the designed for different power factor ammo?

I just took home my Tanfoglio Limited in .38 super. Very nice. The package came with two extra recoil springs. The label on each spring wrapper has different numbers on it. Can anyone tell me what these are for other than spares? Are they different weight springs to be used with major/minor loads? I am shooting .38 super comp at minor power factor and the spring that was in the gun has worked perfectly.

3 3/4" long and long curved trigger seemed to work well.

I have had both. Now I only have the M&P Pro.

I would like to see an equipment survey at this match. 0ver 250 Pro shooters have a lot of good ideas as to what works and doesn't work and the survey might give a newer shooter some ideas for future purchases. Might be a good time to put in a plug for sponsors as well, letting shooters know where some of this equipment can be purchased. Just a thought.

Guys I have been trying to research these weapons as much as possible. Here is the situation I am looking at and I am hoping to get some advice from those in the know. I am primarily an outlaw 3-gun shooter and shoot handgun only matches as a way to improve the handgun skills and I don't really care about scoring Major/Minor. For Outlaw 3-gun matches the handgun only needs to be 9mm or larger with no power factor. I like the Elite Limited and I would like one in .38 super if it could be made to shoot .38 supercomp (I have several cases of this ammo already). For the most part, I understand this weapon is basically good to go out of the box, but that there are numerous upgrades that can be done to the weapon. Are upgrades necessary right away or can they wait with this weapon. Reliability with .38 super with the current magazine selection should be good? Extra mags are easily obtained from Henning? Would the Match serve my purposes just as well, allowing for more cash to be spent on upgrades through Henning or Canyon Creek? How many rounds can a magazine with extended basepad hold in .38 super? Sorry for all of the questions and thanks in advance for any help.

Any idea if the first entry, even though it came up "submitted to soon", was the entry that was accepted? I tried several entries and they all came back "submitted to soon" even though they were after the 9:30 entry time. I then went off to bed, but my son kept trying and did get our entries accepted some time later. I am in at #204 Pro, and I am just curious if my first entry got me here or was it because my son was diligent and kept working at it until an entry go through. I have to decide if I need to buy my son a nice gift or not

I got "submitted to soon" so I resubmitted and got "submitted to soon" again. No ideas.

Charles, I drove it in 21.5 hrs. straight through for last years Benning Match. I very seldom go over the speed limit (seriously) and just stopped for gas and one meal. YMMV.

As a Minnesota Vikings fan I like to keep a Green Bay Packers helmet in my dry-fire room and use it as an aiming point in case a round were to go off, I wouldn't be out anything. I see you use one also - cool! I do have to give them Kudo's for the great Super Bowl run.

I don't shoot pistol matches very much and I am classified as a "B" shooter. I am going to shoot Pro only because there will be more stages and they should be a good challenge. I will be working on my pistol skills more this year because that is my weak gun of the three. Accuracy is fine, just need to learn to pick up the pace.

A big +1 to what Zerwas said. Paul is great guy to work with and a great hidden talent. I was kind of hoping he would stay that way, but oh well!

Two things that worked for me to help with reloading at speed and not dropping shells. The first was switching to the 20 ga. shotgun for a season. The smaller shells allowed for holding five shells in the normal 4 rd carrier, and seven shells in the 6 rd carrier. When you get used to loading seven 20 ga. shells at a time, going back to the four 12 ga. shells is a breeze. The second was practicing with a 6 rd carrier loaded with six 12 ga rounds. Practice loading all six. When you switch back to loading just four shells, the hand will handle the dexterity easily. Basically just saying to switch the training up a little, and break some of the mental paradigms down. Try going slow for a while until your fingers figure out what your brain is telling them what to do.

DryNo - Sorry about that. Damien and I had a pm comversation about Fat Free 6" guns and I told him that I am now running an M&P Pro. I was talking about that gun when I mentioned the holster. You are correct, I don't think there is one for the 2011 style weapons.

Damien I always used the Bladetech DOH also. Now switched to the Safariland ALS, can't remember the model number. Just as fast, but won't allow the weapon to fall out until the thumb latch is moved.

Tyler I want to see the video of you loading eight and beating the par time at 4.8 seconds.

Way back in the day. Transition training a Police Department from the Revolver to the new fangled semi-auto. I went through nomanclature and all of the other dry boring stuff. At the range I had the Officer's load there mags while their weapons were kept in their holster. It went something like this. Officer looks at mag., looks at me, looks at cartridge, looks at me, then looks at the mag. In Law Enforcement we call this a "clue". I never thought that I really needed to get that simple, but for someone who had never touched a magazine or a semi-auto, I guess it was a little foreign.

For the last few years Minnesota 3-gunners have been blessed with monthly shoots held at a range located in the center of the state. These shoots have been attended by many shooters from surrounding states as well. We called these shoots "Mini 3-gun Shoots" because they were not quite as elaborate as the bigger 3-gun shoots people are used to. These shoots were geared more toward getting new shooters involved in the sport, as well as giving more advanced shooters a chance to get out and practice. The more advanced 3-gunners volunteered to self RO their squad and give advice and pointers to the newer shooters. It was a great way for people new to the sport, to see some of the different equipment used, and why that particular shooter chose that equipment. It also allowed for a more relaxed, learning type environment without the added stress of being overly competative. The range handling these shoots is now closed to "action shooting sports" (hopefully only temporarily), so we are now looking for other ideas and locations. There are several local ranges that host USPSA/IDPA handgun shooting, and they have offered their ranges for 3-gun, as long as there is someone to be the "go to person" who would handle all of the matches. These ranges do an excellent job of putting on the handgun matches, but understandably, they already have their plates full without having to take on the added work of putting on 3-gun shoots as well. They would want someone that would become a member of that particular range, and go in front of the ranges board to get approval for the matches, and handle the adminsitration of the match, etc.. We have four different ranges that would be usable and at first blush, it appears an easy fix to have just one person to head this thing up. The problem is, it is difficult for just one person to handle getting matches set up in more than just one range. A small, but dedicated, group of active 3-gunners is in the process of setting up a meeting to try to get this ironed out and some guidelines put down on paper. I am interested to see if anyone on this forum has gone through anything like this, and rather than re-invent the wheel, get any suggestions to possibly make this process go a little smoother. We have even tossed around the idea of forming a "Minnesota 3-gun Association". This association could be responsible to putting on 3-gun shoots in several different ranges in the state. Any ideas on this would also be appreciated. Especially if there are any state organizations already. It would seem, the easiest fix would to be to appoint one person for each range to be the "3-gun Range Master". That person would be in charge of getting things set up for their respective range. The challenges that would need to be overcome would be: Getting boots on the ground to get stages set up and taken down. Score keeping. Check-in (money coming in) etc.. There is also the problem that most handgun ranges do not have equipment that is high power rifle friendly (steel targets). Long gun abandon boxes, etc.. Would it be better to have a state 3-gun association that would have association owned steel rifle targets, computers for score keeping and other bookkeeping, range drop barrels for long guns, etc.. And have these items in a Gypsy trailer and haul it to the match? Or only hold matches at ranges that are willing to supply those items that are unique to 3-gun matches? Any ideas welcome.

Prize distribution should be determined by the people that put on that match. Denise and JJ put on a great match that I have enjoyed for five years, they have the right to have things as they see fit. As a competitor I have the right to vote with my money or my feet. My feet get the nod for this shoot. Regardless, the Rocky Mountain 3-gun Match will still be known as "THE" match to attend I am sure.