DogmaDog

200 gr LSWC 4.6 gr WST WLP 1.258" (or therabouts) OAL 0.469" crimp any old brass Aout 170 PF in my L-10 gun. DD

Stuck in C, I might know what you mean. I usually shoot pretty accurately, but I don't think I call my shots very precisely. I am getting to the point that I can tell if a shot was "off", and fire a makeup without having to see the bullet hole, so I am making a generalized call. Sometimes upon reflection I can articulate to myself that the front sight was above the rear sight notch, and the shot went high, but when I actually make the decision and fire a make-up shot, all I really have is this sensation that the shot was "off" and I need to shoot again. Of course, that doesn't happen all the time, either, but it is happening more and more often. DD

You might give Comp-Tac a try (www.comp-tac.com). They have pretty quick turnaround, and could probably accomodate you, though I don't see anything about 1911s with rails, specifically. Of course, you could go the race holster route and get a CR-Speed or something like it. Most of those holsters only care that your pistol has a trigger guard, because they don't cover anything else! Check shooters connection (www.shootersconnection.com) for several of that type. Also, bring ALL of your Glock magazines to the first match you shoot, and if you don't have some 10 round mags for your Kimber, you'll want to get some. You'll likely find someone at your match who will share some mags with you and your wife, if you turn out not to have enough. I'd be prepared to shoot courses up to 40 rounds long (most are fewer, but more than 30 is common). Good luck, and welcome to IPSC! DogmaDog

Reshoot, Man, there's just no way: 27 seconds vs. 17??? That guy's score should just jump out as anomalously low, indicating something is wrong. If something is wrong, fix it. The shooter hasn't yet signed the score sheet, accepting the score, and the 1 hour time limit for protests hasn't expired--I don't see why the shooter can't introduce a second protest after his first one about props. DD

Heh. If you don't have a timer yet, then just get a Pact Mk IV from Brian. $200 for both is a pretty good deal. Search for PACT or chronograph, and you'll find plenty. DD

I recently switched to a limited gun with a FO sight, from a L10 gun with a plain black sight. My FO has the smaller .040" fiber optic, and I really like it. I feel it's easier to track the front sight now, and my splits, especially in something like a bill drill, are faster. On the other hand, it works poorly on an indoor range, and the gun itself is substantially different from my L10 gun. 6" barrel vs 5", tungsten guiderod vs. stainless, single stack vs widebody. Not a controlled experiment. These days I'm also thinking that a green fiber optic jumps out at me more than a red one. MColiver is right about the "trick of the day". DogmaDog

I experienced a similar problem, but the hammer would fall all the way...not stop at half cock, but it wouldn't fire twice...I'd just have a hammer down on a loaded chamber. It happened in a match when I was firing weak hand only, and it happened during practice when I tried to shoot as rapidly as possible (and was shooting splits around .15). I could reproduce it in dry fire by canting the gun to the right while holding it weak handed, and pulling back firmly on the trigger. I gave it to a gunsmith, who adjusted the sear spring a bit, and now the problem seems to have gone away (though I've only shot about 200 rounds since). I hope it doesn't recur. DD

Angus, I like that rear sight for the CZ, but what I would like even more is a fiber optic front sight for my 75b! Do you sell those on your site (I couldn't find them), or can you recommend another source? Thanks, DogmaDog

Jaque Imo's restaurant in the Garden District is outstanding, and not terribly expensive. The aquarium on the River Walk at Canal St (approximately) is pretty neat, and air conditioned...so if it's hot out, and you don't want to walk around the zoo. On the other hand, I saw 2 giant tortoises mating at the zoo...that was pretty fascinating/horrifying. If the Quarter is too crowded and seedy for you, then check out St. Charles and Magazine streets in the Garden/Warehouse districts. Lots of decent restaurants, bars, shops, etc. Not sure if the Friday Night Steel Match will go at the St. Bernard Indoor Shooting center or not--what with the MS classic match this weekend. DogmaDog

Shot this in L-10 back in January of '03 and scored a bit over 45%...don't remember how fast it was, or what my points were. Shot it again in Limited this past weekend 56 pts, 8.18 sec, 6.846 hf I came in second on this stage to Blake Miguez, who shot an 8.5236 HF. I wonder if shooting it indoors is a handicap, as the highest HF at our match was 10.17 in open, and we had TWO GMs shooting, and neither beat a 10 HF. It was really awesome to watch them shoot, though! DD

I bought the hammer spring pack from Wolff and put in the lightest hammer spring in my CZ (16 #). So far it works 100%, and the trigger pull was substantially lightened. I think I have the stock 14# recoil spring in the gun, and shoot mostly S&B factory ammo. 132pf shouldn't be too low in 9mm, so you may want to drop your recoil and/or hammer spring weight down some more. DogmaDog

Alright, You mentioned me by name, so I'll respond with what "expertise" I can. Hopefully you've read this post by me: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...ndpost&p=116583 If not, that should help. For the two springs you mention, it sounds like the shorter one with thicker wire probably has a higher spring constant, but will be compressed a shorter distance when installed in your gun. So both springs may in fact exert the same 15lb of force when the slide is opened, while the shorter one will exert a little less force when the slide is closed. My guess is you won't notice any difference between those two springs. In my .45 I've run everything from 10 lb to 16 lb springs. I have to drop to 10 lb to get reliable functioning with my wimpy 125 pf (if that)155gr steel load. One time I forgot to take the 10 lb out and replace it with the 14 lb I used for IPSC major loads. I fired about 500 rounds before I remembered, and didn't perceive any difference. One problem we have with tweaking our guns is that everything we change is over a very narrow range of possibilities--you might be able to vary your spring weight over a factor of 2 (say try a 10 lb or a 20 lb spring, and either would work), but you usually can't get even that much variation in other areas--you might be able to increase or decrease the weight of your gun by 10%, or change the weight of your bullets by 25%, or vary your powder charge by 20%--all of these are pretty small changes, and it's hard to make any difinitive measurements that would tell you what's "better" or "worse" . With springs, try several. Shoot enough to ensure your gun functions reliably (I'd be surprised if those 15 pounders didn't work). Then if you feel, or think you feel, a difference between springs of different weights, pick the one you like better, and stick with it. I use 14 lb spring in my .45, and a 12.5lb in my .40, for major PF loads. DogmaDog

Hey Jkushner, Sorry, the best answer I can give you is "I don't know whether you'll make 165 or not". In general, you'll get a higher power factor using a heavier bullet than you will with a light bullet. 180s will produce higher PF than 165s, even with the same powder charge. My bullets actually weigh about 175 grains, so if yours weigh 180, you'll get a bit higher PF from that (weigh them on a scale...I've found cast bullets will average 5 grains or more different from the weight stated by the manufacturer). On the other hand, you'll lose some velocity with the shorter barrels. Finally, how tight your chambers are will have some effect. According to my loading manuals (I'm doing linear interpolation between the start and max loads to find the velocity for 4.7gr): Lasercast says you'll get 908fps (163 PF) Winchester says (with 170gr lead), you'll get 940fps (159.8 PF) Both of these manuals list 5.0gr as a max load, and 4.5 and 4.0 as start, respectively. Jeff Maass' data, from his website which I don't have handy; 180 gr RNFP (West Coast...I don't know if those are lead or not), with 4.8 gr WST makes 168.8, and 5.1gr WST get 176.0 PF Anyway, based on those published loads, I would not want to shoot your load at a major match without testing it on a chronograph first. I would guess that load will be very close to making major, but it could fall on either side of the line pretty easily! Oh, by the way, my loads these days are actually 1.178" OAL, or so, not 1.19" listed above. Hope that helps! DogmaDog

Hmmm. Your reasoning sounds plausible, but unless you can find published load data in a reloading manual, you should not attempt it! What would your starting load be? What would your max load be? Would a rifle powder burn so slowly that you'd have a bunch of unburned powder flying out the muzzle, or a huge fireball? Would it even be possible to make major? In my opinion, too risky to attempt to answer those questions unless there's some basis to start out! DogmaDog

Wow. I didn't see any of the Olympic shooting, but those are all pretty horrendous safety violations! I had thought "Treat every weapon as if it were loaded" and "Never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot" were universal gun handling rules, regardless of the discipline. When I shot Highpower Rifle, I never witnessed a violation like you have described, even though that discipline could be regarded as more "target focused" than "gun focused". We would, for example, not rest the butt of a rifle on our shooting stool (muzzle pointing straight up, but lower than your head) with the bolt closed. I've never seen careless gun handling during the Winter Olympics biathalon, either...of course, they don't have any time to stand around resting after they shoot--sling that rifle and start skiing! DogmaDog

Interesting, and nauseous at the same time. "I feel badly" is still nauseating. DD

The trigger pull on my CZ-75b got better when I replaced the mainspring with a lighter one (15 or 17#)...but it could still use a trigger job, and a FO front sight. I took a file to the rear sight and widened and deepened the notch, so I like the way it looks now. I think the grip on the CZ is very comfortable. The CZ does suffer the drawback that in order to make ready, you have to manually lower the hammer while pulling the trigger (unless you get the BD model), which is somewhat controversial, at least around here. I'm curious, too, to hear how to get in touch with this "Angus" guy, or some other good CZ smith. I'm sure the trigger could be lightened dramatically just by changing the sear/hammer geometry such that the hammer isn't lifted up more during the trigger pull. DogmaDog

Dude, I'd love to drive to work in a TIE fighter. Then I could just sit at my desk with my feet propped up, and flick my light saber on and off all day. DD

Glad to hear the tips are helping. I'll add one caveat to Eric's list: beware the "trick of the day" This is the phenomenon that whenever you change something, you may see an instant improvement in performance, not because the new thing is really "better", but because it's new and requires you to pay attention in a way that you weren't before. Thus, learning to shoot is a never ending process. What was old will be new again. What works for you today may not work forever. What we all are trying to learn is to be able to analyze our own shooting. To be aware of what we really are and aren't doing, and make conscious decisions about what we really should and shouldn't do, and then change our shooting process. All of these experiments (shooting into the berm, for e.g.) are about developing awareness of what you and the gun are doing. Anyway, I'm glad you're improving! Good ideas spill from this forum in torrents (Flex, that "ring around the A zone" shot-calling drill sounds really cool!). DogmaDog

My left eye really is weaker than my right eye, so keeping my weak eye open doesn't produce any weird "double vision" or distraction issues for me. I shoot with both eyes open. The advantage is that I have peripheral vision on my left side while I'm shooting that way, so it may help me to acquire targets faster when I go from right to left. Squinting one eye closed takes effort, and may introduce unnecessary tension into your shooting. Some have suggested just using a piece of semi-transparent scotch tape to cover the focal zone of your weak eye. That way, you still get the benefit of peripheral vision, but your weak eye can relax, and won't focus on anything directly to the front--your strong eye will do all the aiming. DogmaDog

http://www.theonion.com/opinion/index.php?issue=4039&o=2

When you are dry firing, watch very carefully what is happening! Does the front sight move at all as you pull the trigger, or as the striker releases? If it does, then you're gonna miss, and you need to change *something*. I find with my Kahr (like a shrunken, dessicated Glock) that I have to pull the trigger with the second joint of my finger in order to achieve a straight pull that doesn't disturb the sight alignment. Lots of people on this forum have mentioned in various places that you can shoot faster than you can flinch...if you just shoot a whole magazine into the berm rapidly, you'll blink or flinch for the first few shots, but eventually out-shoot your flinch reflex, and start to be able to see as the shot is going off. I find even when spectating I'll blink for the first shot or two, and then be able to see as the shooter's string progresses. In my own strings of fire, I don't blink much anymore (though I'm sure it happens sometimes...why once in a while and not never or all the time, I don't know). Finally, if you don't encounter those problems when you use a 1911, it's because a 1911 is better! Go get one for yourself. Everyone should own a 1911, and the sooner you get a good one, the happier you'll be for the rest of your life. Don't expect miracles, but if you've already seen results, then you can probably expect the same from a new 1911/2011. DogmaDog

Oh man, I gotta go out soon and get me some sushi! Mmmmmmmm! Erik, I'm sorry you think it sucks, but that leaves more for me! DD

We skirt that rule by specifically following the procedure mentioned in the rule book (pull trigger while grasping hammer with weak hand, and lowering hammer slowly. Is there a risk of an ND when following this procedure? Yes. Is it really that much greater than the risk of an ND when loading a 1911 with a sub 2 lb trigger (round goes in chamber, safety is still off)? I don't think so. Would it be cool if CZ devised a system with both a decocker and safety, so you could carry cocked and locked, or lower the hammer with a decock lever? Sure. I have never had a problem following this procedure with my CZ. I keep the weapon pointed in a safe direction, and accept the risk that I might have an AD, and be DQd...but this is the same risk I incur with any other handgun. As long as the shooter is under the supervision of the RO, pays attention to what he is doing, and follows general safety rules, he'll be fine. DogmaDog

"The point is mute" If you keep saying that, then the efforts of all of your English teachers through all of your schooling will be moot! DD