DogmaDog

Dry fire practice can help by training your index. Try some of the closed-eye drills that are bound to be described around here. Draw with eyes closed, and then open your eyes--your sights should be aligned. Close eyes, transition somewhere, open eyes again--still aligned? Basically, you're training your hands to hold the gun with the sights aligned in front of your eye, and to just go to that position when they aren't in it. Burkett's live fire timing drills also will help. DogmaDog

Don't buy a new gun. Spend the money on the reloading equipment. Right now your limit is how many rounds you can put down range in practice and competition. Reloading will get you some more. Once you've done that, and reloaded a while, you can start thinking about whether you want to shoot in a different division than Limited-10. I started with a Kimber 1911, too, and decided to move to limited because there were many more shooters in that division, and I wanted more competition, so I got an STI 2011 in .40...but that's more like $2000 (or $2500 when you add all the mags, holsters, pouches, etc.). Your 1911 won't ever hold you back in L-10. DogmaDog

The problem is that whatever it is you do to recover from recoil and fire another shot should be just enough...more won't be better. DogmaDog

I've known highpower shooters who put the butt of an M-16 on top of their shoulders. Usually, they're using very heavy rifles, and shooting slow fire, so what little recoil there is doesn't really matter. When I see military types with the stock outside their shoulders, I attribute it to laziness--the weapon is just hanging there on a sling, and it takes less work to hold it there. Also, it's kinda hard to hold the butt against that thick, slippery flak vest, and there's probably some piece of highspeedgear sitting there, too. Why can't you have the rifle in your shoulder and rotate it counter-clockwise?? You could also try a dot or iron sight on top of your scope, or you could try the "occluded eye" trick that Matt Burkett describes in his AR-15 video--basically you cover the objective lens of your scope, so you can see the reticle with your strong eye, and you see the target with your weak eye, and the brain superimposes the images. DogmaDog

Hey all, I shot my CZ-75 in an IDPA match this past weekend, and had terrible problems with it. I started with 9mm aluminum cased Blazer ammo, and encountered serious malfunctions. When I switched to brass-cased S&B, the malfunctions continued. In one instance, a round was near-vertical with the breechface pushing against the side of the casing, while the bullet was jammed against the roof of the chamber. In a couple of other instances, I attempted "tap, rack, bang" and wound up with a double feed. The pistol has never malfunctioned before (though I've only put about 500 rounds through it), and I've always used the S&B ammo in it. I'm going to take it to the range to troubleshoot it soon, but I would like your advice on how to methodically diagnose the problem before I take it to a gunsmith. Right now, I'm thinking I'll 1) Clean it, 2) Experiment with a couple kinds of ammo, 3) Try to determine if the problem is isolated to one or more magazines, 4) Try replacing magazine springs, and then 5) Take it to a gunsmith. What else would you do? Thanks, DogmaDog

Anyone else notice that the new Front Sight lists Rob Leatham as a new Production Master? If he keeps at it, he's going to be a force to be reckoned with pretty soon. DD

Huh, According to my USMC marksmanship instructors, "one click of elevation on the rear sight will move the strike of the round up or down 1 inch at 100 yards" so 1 moa clicks for elevation, and it's 1/2 moa clicks for windage. You can get (supposed) 1/2 and 1/4 moa elevation knobs, with more little detent holes in the bottom. Kellyn may be right though, if he's done the empirical work to figure it out. And the numbers on the elevation knob are for range in hundreds of meters, for M855 ball ammo, as rhino says, but the clicks are all the same size. You could just zero the weapon at each yard line by counting clicks up from the bottom, or you could make reference to the numbers, and start at "8/3 -2" for the 200 m line, and go to "5" for the 500 m line. But who knows how well that will work for your ammo? Do you have any ballistic data for that ammo? Or will you have the opportunity to zero it at several ranges? DogmaDog

I've never had a problem except when the shell plate isn't turned fully into a notch...then I've crushed a case. But if I did my part, it worked fine. My suspicion is that the cases have a little bit of play in the shell plate, and they sort of "self-align" as they go into the dies, so it doesn't really matter too critically if the toolhead moves a few thousandths. I can push on my toolhead and it isn't really tight in the frame of the press...but it makes good ammunition. DogmaDog

I use WST in .45. With a 200gr LSWC bullet, I use 4.6 gr and get a 170 PF, loaded to 1.258" (or so) and 0.469" crimp, out of a 5" barrel. WST is much less dense than titegroup, so a 4.6gr charge of WST fills a lot more of the case than the same weight of titegroup. I've speculated that a denser powder will produce greater variation in charge weights because a reloading press measures volume, and any error in volume produces a larger error in weight with a denser powder. My speculation hasn't been confirmed, but I think it does make some sense. My own results are only for .40 cal, where I've found that with 175 gr bullets, WST produces lower extreme spread than TG, while the spread is lower with TG when using 200 gr bullets. Go figure. Anyway, with samples of 10 to 15 rounds over the chono, I get standard deviations of 8 to 15 fps (extreme spread is hard to interpret statistiacally). So if you're getting something in that neighborhood, I wouldn't worry about it. Also, if you get good groups with the ammo--all the bullets go where you aim when you do your job right, then you don't really have a problem. Just load 'em hot enough that the probability of going minor at a match is really small. DD

Buck, Don't wait to lose weight! Start shooting USPSA now! Yeah, maybe you will move a little slower between shooting positions than some of the skinny guys. Yeah, maybe you will have trouble kneeling. So what? In local matches, I've only had to go prone once or twice in 3 years of bi-weekly matches--just doesn't happen often. If you go after the greater challenge, you'll have more incentive to improve, and a better chance of success. And you'll have fun. Shoot steel. Shoot IPSC. Shoot everything! Good luck, DD

Lotta old geezers don't pick up their brass at matches. I'm a little brass whore. I pick it all up. Free is less than $17.00. Keeps the range cleanter, too. I'll leave it if it's really cold, or muddy, or raining. DD

The biggest factor I see is that you pretty much HAVE to reload your own ammo if you shoot open. Much of the ammo open gunners shoot is very hot in the 9mm calibers--it would be hard to find a factory loading that would make major, and harder still to find one that would make major AND work the comp effectively. Better to keep your CZ, buy a reloading rig (Dillon 550 or 650), and learn how to reload while you learn how to shoot with the CZ. Then you can go for an open gun. Good Luck, DD

I agree. Even at IDPA matches, I don't find out "the score" (who won, where I stand) until after the match is over, so I don't think their scoring method (time added), though simpler, really helps. IPSC scoring is just your rate of scoring points, instead of an absolute number of points. Your hit factors for each stage are normalized for the number of shots in the stage. What's so hard to get? (all right, I am being facetious...it is pretty convoluted) Really, though...I think hit factor scoring is important, because the value of a second is different for shooters at different levels...if you're a Master, a second is an eternity, and if you're a D class shooter, it's not much time at all. Time added scoring denies that truth. DD

Oops. Is that the case with all the "99-" classifiers, or just some of them? My clubs are still complaining that scoring software doesn't support the new classifiers. ?? DD

Limited, B class 58 points, 9.90 sec, 5.8586 hf No revelations about this one. DD

Shot this one 1/8/05 86 points 14.60 sec, 5.8904 hf First stage of the day. Limited, B class. Looks like it'll be 58% according to what's posted above. So nothing special in my case. DD

Shot this one on Saturday. Everyone before me was hitting the no-shoots next to T3, so I took head shots, and fired an extra one for insurance (didn't need to, as it turned out). Then I dumped a shot into the hard cover on T-4, and fired a make-up shot on T-5 (I knew something was wrong, but I guess I didn't know where) 42 points (including a 10 point penalty) in 14.43 s for 2.9106 HF. Limited, B class. This isn't going to move me anywhere. DD

Shot this one on Saturday (1/8/05). This is a tough classifier. I dropped a round into the hard cover (actually a couple, but I made up one), and had a hard time hitting the steel strong hand only. 98 points, -10 for the miss, is 88 points in 29.68 s for 2.965 hf. That's going to be pretty low for limited, B class. DD

Wow, Unpopular classifier. I shot it Saturday (1/8/05) 83 points. Limited, B class. On the weak hand string, my transfer was bad and slow, and I only got two shots off. Everywhere else, I got 5 shots, except the close string, where I shot 6 As. This one will really hurt you if you try to cram 6 shots into every string, and especially if you shoot after the time expires. DD

No. 10 rounds only is a good constraint. If you remove it, then you severely reduce the number of pistols that can be competitive--you get a race. Immediately, .40 guns go away, and 9mm dominates. DD

The most important reason to mess with load length is to ensure reliable function. After that, there is a safety consideration: as you shorten your load, you decrease the available space inside the case, and correspondingly increase the chamber pressure. So if you need to shorten your load, then you also need to back off the powder charge, and work back up. Some people here have also observed a slight increase in velocity from shorter loads, all else being equal. If they are right, then shorter loads are actually somewhat more efficient than longer loads--you get the same velocity with less powder. So recoil should *theoretically* be very slightly less with the shorter loads. I seriously, seriously doubt that you would perceive any difference in recoil between long vs. short rounds, though. DogmaDog

Wow. With a 200gr LSWC, I load to 1.260" (same as with a 230 LRN), and have had no problems in my single stack. My speer manual lists 1.275" as the max length, and the shortest load that book lists is 1.155" for a 200 gr. JHP. Pretty big range, but there it is. DD

Huh. I wonder if I could make any money by offering to drop off a bunch of dirt, leaves and twigs in people's living rooms, front yards, and on top of their cars... DD

I tooled around for a while with some numbers, and figured out that everyone pretty much has the right answer: Load your ammo so that it averages 5 pf more than the pf floor you are aiming for. I have an Excel spreadsheet and a derived table that shows average, min, max, standard D, and sample size for both pf and velocity. I plot the results of my testing in a graph, and fit a linear function to the data, in order to predict what charge I need to make 170 pf. I also weigh several bullets, and figure out the lower bound of a 90% confidence interval on the average weight--that's what I use to calculate power factors from then on with that bullet. Dogmadog

Vince, Thanks for quoting the rules for me. Yes, you've got my question right. By my reading, the rule only addresses situations in which the target is hit by a bullet, so "accidentally turned edgewise" by wind or earthquake or whatever doesn't count. We're talking about the target getting shot, and accidentally failing to fall down. My understanding is that if a reshoot is issued, the shooter starts the stage over from scratch...for example, if I were in the middle of a run, and shot a no-shoot paper target, but then the RO bumped me accidentally and I asked for a re-shoot, then I wouldn't get a no-shoot penalty--my score would be as shot on the second run, as if the first had never happened. The new rules suggest that there's a different procedure, but they don't explicitly say that the penalty from one run is carried over to the second run. Also, it would be inconsistent to carry over a penalty for a no-shoot on steel resulting in REF, but not to carry over a no-shoot on paper, or a foot fault, or a miss in any other situation in which a reshoot was later warranted. DogmaDog