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Some 2011s have a problem loading short ammo, like factory. If yours does, you will have to buy ammo that is loaded long. That's expensive. Both of my 2011 40sws will run anything between 1.126" and 1.180". You should have this conversation with Adam before you order the gun. His guns may not have the problem, or he may be able to tweak one so it does not. Failing that, there are a couple of outfits that will load to a specific OAL if asked, and the order quantity is sufficient. For example, Roger's Better Bullets will custom load anything you want, but you have to wait for the end of a run. If you decide you like his 40 minor ammo (165gr) and just want it loaded longer, you'll get it sooner. Same with his major (180gr) ammo. I've shot his 40 minor and it is a sweet, accurate load at around 135PF if I recall.

I see no reason to carry a gun in a holster all day for an SCSA match. I shoot two guns at every match and I bag both.

I shot two entire seasons with my chrome Open gun and MBX mags. The only thing I ever did was clean after every shoot. Major disassembly and ultrasonic cleaning of everything two or three times a year.

I shoot the same load for practice and matches. It doesn't make sense to train with something different that you will shoot on match day. I buy once fired, mixed headstamp brass from Ammobrass. It is sized and deprimed, primer pocket swaged, push through sized, cleaned in SS media, dried and lightly waxed to prevent spots. It's great. Every loaded round drops right into and out of the chamber checker. I would never buy new brass for any match, because this is just as good. I do retrieve a lot of my practice brass and I will eventually reuse them.

I'll elaborate on one of my earlier statements. My 9mm major load has low pressure. It is loaded to 1.161", so it has the case volume of a 9x21. The powder charge is not compressed and I make 168PF with SDs of 4 to 5. How is 38SC going to be better than that? I shot with an Open 38SC shooter at the last match. He was doing the brass chicken dance all day. To top it off, he was using 7.6gr WAC. What a waste. That charge will easily fit in a 9mm and won't be compressed no matter how deeply you seat. I'll tell you I agonized over that choice when deciding to build my newest open gun. I decided on 9mm, just because of brass pricing. Almost all of the matches I go to are lost brass. I now know that all the hype about 38SC being better is pure BS. The only advantage to 38SC is if you insist on using 3N38.

One of my friends now a sponsored shooter) started shooting Open with a poly gun. He almost immediately bought a Czechmate and loved it. I gave him a better load for it and he loved it even more. Then he shot a couple of his teammates worked over DVCs. He ordered one. He said it shot flatter and softer than the CZ. I also started Open as a CZ shooter. I bought two used 2011 Open guns and liked them better. I decided to build a 2011 9mm Open gun with a metal grip. I've finished it and love shooting it. There is something to be said about starting with good used Open guns. You don't know what you don't know, and won't until you've shot Open a lot. My two used guns were very different from each other. Shooting them both for two seasons, plus handling and shooting other Open guns, allowed me to decide what I liked and didn't. I put that experience to good use building my new Open gun. To me it is perfect. After 4000 rounds I wouldn't change a thing. I intended to shoot 9mm minor out of that gun. At the same time I was building a matching 1911 Open 9mm specifically for SCSA. I had been told by a couple of M shooters I'd spend 6 months sorting out reliability and load issues. I read the remarks about 9mm major kaabooms. It all turned out to be a bunch of BS. 9mm major is perfectly safe to reload for as long as you use slow powders. My major load is fully processed mixed HS brass, CCI 500, 10.2gr Major Pistol under a 115gr HAP. That makes 168PF with SDs in the 4 to 5 range. Accurate, clean and soft.

Obviously you just don't get it. You haven't read (or understood) what I wrote, and you are making assumptions. RO traps often go both ways. I'll simplify it for you. If the stage design makes it impossible to get out of your way at the start if you run towards me, I have to know which way you are going to move. If you tell me right and then change your mind, ask me to move to the other side. If there is room, the first thing you will hear from me is Make Ready.

Y, he was comparing AA7 to MP, not Silhouette.

WaJim, I've seen it happen both ways, and not just with a PCC. One club I routinely shoot at is noted for their mostly difficult, technical stages. They minimize the problem by having ALL PCC shooters on squad five and they use excellent timers.

I'm specifically talking about RO traps at the start position. If the design is such that I cannot get far enough out of your way to avoid interfering with you, I'll ask. If you answer, I'll take up start position on the opposite side. I don't get the reluctance. If you are a righty, I'm going to be standing on your right side. If you intend to break that way, you can clearly see I'm an obstacle, so why not ask me to start you from the other side? As I wrote in a previous post, nine times out of ten the shooter recognizes the situation and tells me without my asking. As far as down range is concerned, it's easy to avoid traps. The only downside is you may miss a shot or two on the timer from a quite gun. That's not the ROs fault. It's the MD's fault for allowing that particular stage design. As an RO, part of my job is not interfering with your stage plan, and avoiding reshoots. If there is enough room at the start position where I can assume the normal RO position, I won't be asking you anything. I'm not an obstacle, so I don't care which way you break.

Then I'm going to stand where I should be normally at the start. If you run into me it's a reshoot. If you do it again, your an a hole, because you already knew exactly what was going to happen.. I'll assume you are doing it deliberately, DQ you for unsportsmanlike conduct and call the MD. You can argue it out with him. Maybe the MD will pull the stage, because the RO trap should never have been allowed in the first place. Fortunately, I've never run into a shooter like you. Hopefully, I never will. Remember, don't be a dick applies to shooters as well as ROs.

Well b, if I'm running you in an RO trap I'm going to ask. Don't care if it pisses you off.

Sometimes it is. If the stage is designed in such a way the starting RO could be in the way depending on which way the shooter turns, ask. I hate RO traps. I can think of a couple of bays this happens in. Nine times out of ten the shooter knows this and will tell me which way they are going to go. If not, ask. You can do it while the shooter is standing by while taping and scoring are going on. If not, definitely before Make Ready. It is preferable to a reshoot and a potentially unsafe collision. I'll also note I have never seen an RO trap in an L2 or L3 shoot. L1, unfortunately it sometimes happens.

Yes. Sunday's match was atypical in that there were many open spots. The DE State Championship drew a lot of shooters away. I mention this, because signup on Practiscore is usually full in a couple of minutes. If you are later than that, chances are you will be on the wait list. Pretty much the same story with Lower Providence USPSA matches. Ontelaunee puts on great matches, and a dynamite monster match at the end of the year.

Yes, if you load long like 1.161"+. Pressures are low. I don't use it because it is so bulky. I need 9.4~9.5gr to make 9mm major and I can't compress the powder enough to get a bullet in and stay put. I bought 12 lbs. when it was scarce, because all the Open shooters told me it was the cat's meow. Well I finished building my 9mm major Open gun and went to load some ammo. I opened the first jug, weighed out 9.4gr 3N38 (manual says good for 1480fps) and tried to pour it in a 9mm case. It didn't fit. I had to pour some, tamp, pour more and tamp again. Turns out all the Open shooters saying it was the cat's meow were all 38 Super/SC shooters. That case is so big you can fit a major charge and a small vacuum cleaner in it. So my 12 lbs. sits on the shelf waiting for some local 38SC shooter to want some. I'm using Major Pistol powder and have no such problems with it.

Local stores. Maybe not so many use Federals around me, so there is no premium. $150 a case. That's what they were charging the last time I was in King's Shooters Supply. I just looked on Grafs. $148, cheaper than Win, but a little more than CCI. Where's the premium? Plus they are in stock.

To me this is absolutely hilarious. I guess it depends on what part of the country you live in. Around me, the only small and large pistol primers you can be sure to see when you walk into a store are Federal. Plus they cost the same as CCI and Winchester which are pretty much hit or miss. I'm talking cases here. If all you want are 200 CCI 500, you have a reasonable shot, especially if there are two or more stores near you. I basically gave up trying two years ago. Shopping several stores all the time costs me more in gas than the shipping and hazmat. So now I just order online. A typical order would be 16 lbs. of powder and 10,000 primers. I shoot multiple disciplines so I keep a lot on hand. 20,000 SP and 10,000 LP primers. I buy bullets 3000 or 4000 at a time in 9mm and 40sw. For bullseye I order 10,000 to get the same lot. Powder depends. For Open powders I order more when I open the next to last 8 lb. jug. For non-Open powders I order when I open the last 8 lb. jug. I have lots of different powders to use for minor and major loads, so I have backups if a particular powder is backordered forever.

He is shooting major.

It depends on what you are shooting at. For Steel Challenge and USPSA, bullet weight variance of 1 gr low to high is acceptable. For bullseye, it is not. If you load to 132PF with a 147 and they pull a 146gr bullet, you only drop to 128PF, so as long as your SDs are good, you'll have no problem.

First, you are trying to do too many things as timing RO. It is the scoring ROs job to look for foot faults, etc. in an L2 match. Second, it depends on the timer being used. The CE Pocket Pro and Pro II are my favs because you can hold the timer down and forward and still see the time. They do not appear to have any problems picking up even RFPI standard velocity without a comp. The AMG Commander is an outstanding timer. It is harder to see the display and keep the receiver down range, but its sensitivity is such that you don't have to worry about it. CE 7000 timers are the ones I most frequently run across. I don't like them as much. If you adjust the sensitivity to where you can pick up uncomp'd rimfire rifles or PCCs, you risk getting false positives from echoes. I run a comp on my rimpire Open pistol so the shot timer has an easier time picking up the shots. Even so, I've gotten used to ROs holding the timer over my shoulder and in my sight for the start. I've learned to ignore it.

Which dot you prefer depends on what window size you want and what you are going to shoot with it. A Burris FF3 8 MOA with a new battery is bright enough for USPSA, but not for steel challenge in bright sunlight. The FF3 will last seemingly forever when slide mounted. The oldest of my five has been mounted on one of my 1911 45s for years. 40,000+ rounds of bullseye (156PF0 and major (172PF) later it is still going strong. I love the glass on my RTS2v4s, But At 6 MOA on steel the battery is drained in one match. I have one directly mounted to the slide of a custom 1911 45. No issues so far. I've switched to DPP 2.5s for Open and Steel. It is the brightest of all the dots I've tried. It holds zero on Open guns, even when slide mounted and the battery lasts a long while. It is a little heavier than the others, so to keep your slide speed up you should have the slide milled for a mounting plate rather than use a dovetail adapter.

Federal primers have the softest cups. Rounded primer edges with a shallow firing pin dimple at major means there is debris in the firing pin channel, too heavy a spring, using a Ti firing pin with too low a main spring, or too short a firing pin. I had exactly the same issue. Moving to a Dawson or Cheely extra long firing pin solved the problem.

We'll see. I just built two custom guns with Trubore blanks with custom comp cuts. The first is 4500 in with no issues. In the next two seasons I'll have 25000-30000 through, so we will see. I've never had a barrel fail and I shoot a LOT, but there is always a first time.

If it runs 100% and you like it, keep it. From my experience, you'll take several months to get an off the shelf DVC to run 100%. After you've shot it for a season or two you will have determined what you like and don't. Then it's time for a custom gun.

Repaint if first string only. As I said earlier, it is quite clear. I don't agree with it, but those are the rules. ROs are allowed to coach in Level 1, so I'd tell the shooter to move to the second box in Showdown.