ParaJoe

This hook is what the pulling wire attaches too. The wire that attaches to this drags the target trolley along the top wire from one end to the other. Now the chain that you saw in the above pic attaches into this little device that we made. Basically it's a piece of 1" square tubing missing a side, then welded to the pipe at the correct heigth. When the chain is fed through this a cotter pin sticks through holes in the sides and holds the chain in place. Our system uses constant tension on the trolley so that when the cotter pin is pulled by the activator; popper, door, swinger, the trolley takes off. Here's a pic of that. Now here's the side that the weight that does the actual work is suspended from. That pulley I got from Home Depot. I think it's called an industrial pulley. All of the goodies that we used were in the same location at the Depot. As you can see it is more or less just a huge "L" bracket that we fashioned to the top. It is about two feet long. The distance that we had to move our mover was about 12 feet so we needed our weight to drop that far down. Well, the weight dangling from the one pulley wasn't far enough so we doubled it up by drilling another hole in the end of the bracket and anchored the wire to their. So it was anchored on the end, ran through the pulley on the bracket, and over to the hook on the trolley. We put out weight in between the anchor and the pulley so that when it fell it actually pulled 12 feet of cable.

OK I think this turned into a Dial-up killer. I set me up a PhotoBucket account so let's see if I can do this. Here is a pic of the bases. Each one has a threaded coupler on the top so that we can screw the upper piece into, for easy storage. Here's a pic of the threaded coupler. The pipe is something that the guy had laying around in a junkpile so it was free to us. Here is a pic of the trolley that holds the target(s) up. Basically it is a piece of 2x4 that has those clothes line pulleys screwed in to the sides. We have pieces of 1x2 screwed into the backside that reach downwards to actually hold the target. We did it this way so if we wanted to make a no shoot/shoot/no shoot mover we could just make a longer trolley. The trolley rides on steel wire and is pulled taught with a little come-a-long. Kinda like the ones that you see on cargo straps for trucks. Here is a better picture of the clothes line pulleys. We had to make the little metal tab so that the wire that it rides on wouldn't bounce out. It just spins into position and screws down tight.

Alright then, I got the pictures of the stands and the whole apparatus but I don't have anywhere to host the pictures online. Shoot me a PM and I will email you the pics if you want.

One of the local shooters and myself just built one of these for our last match and it worked like a dream. Things to keep in mind. It will more than likely get shot at some point and time so keep extra parts on hand. Built it simple enough so that your average person can figure it out. I'll mosey out to the range tomorrow and take some pics of the parts that we used to give some ideas. JOe

I built my bench roughly 40 inches high because that's what felt right to me. I have a 550 and with it mounted to the bench without a Strong Mount I can sit or stand. I was at the local auto parts place and they were selling barstools that looked to be the perfect height so I bought one. Works perfectly. JOe

I will vote Subaru or Toyota. I have a Toyota (actually it's a Scion XB) and it's great. I will never go back to American cars/trucks again. My daily driver right now is a 62 VW Beetle but once it's time to grow up and get a more practical car (read::less work), it will be a Subie/Toyota. JOe

My first cruise was on the USS Enterprise in 2001 and the Navy was still using the F-14 a lot. There's nothing like standing 100 feet from a Tomcat at full a/b on the catapult. It's hard to explain. Imagine your eyeballs and teeth rattling around like they are about to fall out and your chest pulsating. It's great, and loud. JOe

Instead of counting rounds as you are shooting, try to break down the stage to the points where you will have to reload. Group the targets in arrays that you feel comfortable with. If you are comfortable shooting ten shots then reloading, then do that. Plan your reloads in your walk-through of the stage and run it in your head. Visualize everything happening. And when you think you've got it, do it again. This way you won't have to count each shot, just remember your reload points. It'll be a little easier to shoot when your head isn't somewhere else. JOe

That's what I did until the tape got weak and the thing went flying down the hallway.

I'm not well achieved in the sport but I have taken video of myself in practice and had someone tape me at a few matches. As Flyin40 said, until you see yourself making the mistake sometimes it doesn't sink in. I have been doing a lot of practicing here lately and with no one to practive with, it gives me something that I can take home and see the mistakes I made. Just my .02. JOe

That's some mighty fine craftsmanship on that sutff there. Nice looking pieces.

Thanks for the heads up on this issue. JOe

Where did you get this info and where can I find it? I'm not challenging you or anything like that, but if this is true I'm off to the gun shop with a quickness to get me a few things. Thanks, JOe

Does anyone have a template for covering the frame of P-16 with grip tape. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I have the skateboard tape on mine and it works great. About the template, I just used a piece of paper and started with little cuts. Then it dawned on me, just use the Hogue grips as a template and trace around. So if you have the Hogue's, use it as a template. A friend I shoot with took the "front strap" from the Hogue's and chopped it off. He then glued it to the frame and wrapped the rest with skateboard tape. Looks wierd, but feels great and works well for him. JOe

It's just one of the many clubs in MidSoCal. It's literally 5 miles from my house, so that's how I found it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Well I don't really consider Ridgecrest MidSocal. Middle of nowhere if you ask me. It seems like everything is 2 hours away though so maybe I am in the middle of everything??? JOe

Cool there is one closer!!! Well I could make this one. It's going to be a little tough being as my club shoots on the third Sunday and this is the third Saturday. I'm not going to be able to make it this month because the lack of planning but next month I'm going to try to go. Thanks for the help Chuck S. Where did you find this? Is this where you shoot? Have a good night. JOe

I guess I should have been a little more specific. For me to get to any of the steel matches that are remotely close to me is a 300 mile round trip. I already to that once a month for a match and I can't afford to do it twice. Maybe once every other month. We already have a bunch of steel targets here we just don't have the 10, 12, and 18x24" plates. We'll think of something. Thanks for the info. JOe

Here's the deal. I'm still fairly new to shooting but shoot all I can. Right now it's two matches a month and one 300 round practice session. I would like to shoot a Steel Match but I don't want to drive 150+ miles to do it (the closest club I found was Piru). My local club shoots a .22 steel match every other month and there is usually a pretty big interest in it. Quite a few times people have brought out their regular IPSC pistols and shot them also and more are going to next time. So I was thinking, how about having a steel match at our club? Run what ya brung type of deal with different classes for scoring. Entrance fees kept low due to just having to get more paint for the targets. The problem is that I want to do this without pissing off the SCSA folks. I know it sounds dumb because it is a local match worth no more than bragging rights and good practice. My other problem is that the club I shoot in is an IPSC based club and we don't have the correct sized steel. We have the standard 8" round plates and some square steels. Might I be able to use the steels I have until I can get the club to get the correct size? Just move them in a little closer or something while keeping the correct angles? Any help or suggestions you can give would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, JOe

I hate practicing for a match every night the week before said match, driving 150 miles to the match, paying the entrance fee, and screwing up on the first stage and not being able to shoot for score. I hate not getting brass back at a local match. I hate getting so worked up over myself screwing up, even something minor and insignificant like not getting from one box to another how I wanted, that it drags me down.

Probably

This happened to me today at a local match. Sucks but what can I do. Oh, order another one.

I didn't notice too much flamage with this load either Harmon but it has a very wierd recoil feel to me. More like a rolling recoil than a snappy. I like the snappy. Parajoe

I shoot 200 LSWC's with 4.6grs of TG and they make major. I built an electrochemical bore cleaner from parts sourced from Wally World and Home Depot and it works great. I clean my pistol after everytime I shoot it and this keeps the leading down. I have tried several types of powders and different bullet manufacturers but I'm beginning to think if you shoot lead be prepared to clean up after it. But it's cheap and shooting 1,500 rounds a month I'm not spending the cash for jacketed. Parajoe

I won L-10 Unclass so I'll be getting one also. Thanks for coming everyone it turned out to be a really great match. It was nice to be able to put some faces to all the names that we have on the board. See ya, JOe

With 200 SWC I shoot 4.6gr of Bullseye or Titegroup. I get the same results with both powders but the Titegroup is cheaper and cleaner burning.