Nevadazielmeister

Not to derail the subject, but I am curious if this really speeds up the 650 reloading? I find that if I pull the handle any faster then the time it takes for me pick up a bullet, schtuff starts going wrong.. in a hurry.

Thank you Kevin. I agree. Just because I want to compete for more than 1 year does not make me a hoarder. No "flippers" on the other hand.. they can each shit and die.

Yes, that is my wife. Thank you for the compliment Red. Yeh, if she shot topless, she would make Grand Master in no time. But, that would be unfair and unprofessional. ;-) You might want to give the guy at FBC Tactical a look. I have not tried the CR Speed belt. So I cannot give you a fair comparison between the two. I think the CR Speed products are nice.

There was a fire at the ADI plant in Australia and the powder supply to the USA was hampered for this reason along with some other reasons. In 2013 production was disrupted and once that was solved, the drying facility had a fire (or as they put it, a "propellant burn event") that kept it shut down. ADI reported today (1/13/15) that they were back to full production. This impacted a number of Hodgdon flake powder (including the Clay products). It will be a while before these products make their way back into the distribution system. Link for those so inclined. http://www.adi-powders.com.au/handloaders/news.asp#item0 Yes, I see that Hodgdon distributes the H4895, but that is a rifle powder. And then, only one of MANY powders. Thank you for that link, I read it earlier. It was helpful, but did not explain the issues fully.

There was a fire at the ADI plant in Australia and the powder supply to the USA was hampered for this reason along with some other reasons. In 2013 production was disrupted and once that was solved, the drying facility had a fire (or as they put it, a "propellant burn event") that kept it shut down. ADI reported today (1/13/15) that they were back to full production. This impacted a number of Hodgdon flake powder (including the Clay products). It will be a while before these products make their way back into the distribution system. Can you cite any reliable source for that? Can you show where Hodgdon buys powder from ADI? And not some chat room forum crap. I was unable to find any information online regarding this fire having any disruption. Here is an April 2014 PDF discussing the reasons why Hodgdon powders cannot be found: https://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Web%20Page%20Buying%20Surge.pdf So I am not sure what some fire in Australia has to do with the current powder shortage NATIONWIDE. It is excess demand, pure and simple.

Just to follow up on my post from October.... I'm beginning to lose faith in the free market system. I really wish someone with real first hand knowledge would give us the lowdown on what's going on. Maybe the president of Powder Valley.... I'm not 100% on all construction, however I do know that building from the ground up actually takes less time to build then re building, (fire damage or full remodeling) mainly because the existing structure has to be removed. I'm guessing that the cleanup process and procedures alone would tie the demolition up for an extended period of time. Then with the new constitution, as you said I'm sure they are doing whatever possible to engineer the new facility to not repeat the same incident again. I Would also imagine that the building permits and inspections needed to open would be much more extensive then any normal office, wear house or factory. Again this is all speculation. I really hope we hear someone more solid soon about when this "dry spell" will be over. I know a lot of holding is still taking place. It would almost require an over saturated market for a few months to level out and people to start relaxing. Yes, there was an explosion at a powder manufacturer in Belgium: http://www.rtbf.be/info/regions/detail_engis-explosion-dans-une-poudrerie-le-plan-blanc-declenche?id=8217258 It was translated by an american website paper here: http://bearingarms.com/will-a-belgian-gunpowder-plant-explosion-affect-the-u-s-ammo-market/ It only affected the powder manufacturers of Bamuel, Bofors and Vihtavuori. The only reason why you hear about it is rumor and gun shop employees talking it up to scare you into paying whatever you have for whatever they have. I first heard about it at my local gun shop and immediately smelled a rat. That crap pisses me off that we are led to believe whatever. I for one am happy that there is a resource called the internet that can assist us in getting the full story. Powder is coming back folks and we will be fine by summer. There is no fire, there was no reduction in powder supply in the USA. It is simple supply, demand and then you have the hoarders over here.

Just to follow up on my post from October.... I'm beginning to lose faith in the free market system. I really wish someone with real first hand knowledge would give us the lowdown on what's going on. Maybe the president of Powder Valley.... This is just my opinion, as humble as it is. People are still hoarding and buying in bulk. Many are still buying in bulk and flipping the sales at 2-3 times the price. But have faith, things are improving drastically. I figure by the end of this year, the crisis will be over. I just bought 9 pounds of Titegroup from Natchez at a reasonable price and now have powder for quite a while, maybe 2 years. Just keep looking and check out gunbot.net reloading page, where I found the powder I was looking for. Some friends are getting into reloading now and powders are just coming in for them. They are happy to know that the worst is over.

Watch the classifieds here, and determine who's builds come up the most often or are slow to sell, compare that with guns that come up seldom and sell quickly. I'm not an engineer. Well, I am no engineer also, but we can reverse engineer, correct? When has a Limcat ever come up for sale on this board or any other? I am just so glad I live in Reno, NV and know the owner. So I guess I am lucky that I live close to my future Open pistol manufacturer.

I find the my FBC Tactical belt very comfortable and very stable. The outer belt is VERY stiff, but the inner belt is very soft and is just so secure. This might be a regular feature of all 2 piece competition belts, but I feel no need to shop for another belt now. So the wife loves her belt very much. You guys know the saying, "Happy wife, Happy life".

Much as we love to chase gear and encourage others to spend more money, with practice and experience, the rifle you have is capable of getting you well into the thick of things. A $5K rifle as compared to what you have with a 3-4 hundred 1-4 scope (Tac-Optics) or a 1x (Limited) at say $1500 won't make any difference until you are finishing into the top 30 or so at majors. I see all these videos talking about how this rifle or that rifle "made" someone a better shooter. HOGWASH! If your rifle is 1MOA capable in the hands of an accomplished shooter, then you need dry-fire, ammo and practice until you can match their performance. If, in 2015, you spend every dime you would spend on upgrades on practice, you WILL have better scores. I admit I like good gear, but no way I will ever waste $1K on an optic for a 3G AR or $2K on a 3G AR or more than $1K on a 3G pistol...just not worth it to me. I've shot the "top drawer" stuff against the entry level stuff on the clock...in most cases, the differences are within the margin of error due to running multiple drills over and over. Some of the "top drawer" gear does not even perform as well as mid-grade gear in terms of accuracy or reliability. I shot a "high end" upper for a few years...best decision I ever made was to sell it. It was not long term reliable with too tight of a chamber, gas system failures, etc. It has to be reasonably accurate and 100% reliable or it is on the auction block. There are tons of "new" parts out that lack the fundamental engineering and design and I see these gizmos fail and newer shooters who bought the marketing pitch struggle with the system, getting marginal support from the maker without the fundamental knowledge base to get to the heart of the problem. You have a better than average trigger, comp and handguard...stick with it for a while. I am going to have to disagree. The rifle, particularly the barrel, chamber and bolt, are key to accuracy. Then a quality optic is important. If you can get 1 MOA accuracy out of a rifle, then yes, stay with that. But I am curious as to what kind of accuracy the OP is getting, really. There are vast differences in accuracy from one manufacturer to the next. I had a Bushmaster XM-15 E2S. It shot like complete crud. I could not get it to shoot well at all. It would hardly stay on paper at 200 yards. I tried all kinds of ammunition, paying particular attention to bullet weights, profiles, etc. So to say that it is more the shooter is really unfair to the shooter. If your gun shoots like crap, then no matter what techniques you use, it will not perform. I have seen some amazing accuracy with match grade barrels, bolt carrier groups and triggers. In 3-Gun, you only need accuracy out to about 300-400 yards, which is not very far at all. But to have a good barrel is the key. I built a MK12 SPR profile rifle for my father, using a Timney trigger and a complete BCM Upper Assembly in 18 inch barrel length. That thing shoots amazingly well. My recommendation to the OP would be to upgrade the most important components. The JP rifles are very nice, right there with the BCM rifles. If you want to go full retard, you can try the Larue upper assemblies, but I think they are still like 1 year out. I have not personally seen them shoot so I cannot say if the Larue's are worth it.

Hopefully these belts work for you. I emailed FBC a couple days ago and have not received a response. I'm in need to another belt and liked the look of the FBC but w/o a answer I guess I will be searching elsewhere. Thank you. I am sure you will receive a response, just have to be patient. It took over a month for ours to be completed. I guess there is more demand out there for custom belts.. and quite simply, Jimmy is the ONLY guy out there making these things. I will post my impressions when I get it. I would however warn that I have never owned another competition belt before, so this is like a teenage driver dropping into a Ferrari. Little reference to base a comparison on.

Meanwhile, here are our FBC Tactical competition belts, completed and will be shipped to us shortly: Very excited.

Here might be a stupid question, something reserved mostly for rifles: What kind of twist rates are people using with these bullets. I read a common theme here: The light bullets provide poor accuracy and the heavier bullets provide better accuracy. And then the opposite is true for someone else. I suspect it might be that the bullets are overstabilized given the twist rate of the barrel. I do not suspect that the crimp could affect the "pointing" of the bullet prior to entering the rifling. Just my two cents, but I would like to hear other peoples opinions regarding the phenomenon which is VERY true in my 5.56 caliber rifles. (55 grain with versus 77 grain a 1in7 twist barrel.)

Gotcha Youngeyes. So I have questions. Maybe I am missing something. After doing some internet searches, it amazes me that there is ONLY ONE custom competition belt manufacturer in the world! Can it be that FBC Tactical is the only company (really just one guy) making these belts for people? Does anyone have any other belt manufacturers that make it custom to the user? Also, is this important at all? And what belt would people recommend, money no option? I have a friend who is getting into this sport and with FBC belts not taking orders for awhile, I wonder what other options are out there. From my brief searches, I see the CR Speed, Double-Alpha, Black Scorpion, and Safariland. Meanwhile, I understand that I should get my FBC belt later this week or next. If anyone is interested, I can report as to my impressions, with what little experience I have with competition belts.

Over the past 8 years I've shot at 16 different ranges (not including the Nat'ls in Las Vegas). Each has a different way of handling brass. Seems to me if the MD shoots a .38 super, they seriously allow everyone to pick up their brass any way they like. If the MD shoots a 9mm, he has very little interest in anyone picking up brass, and feels it impedes progress of the match without any real benefit. Totally up to the MD. If you're going to bring it up, I'd bring it up gently, and perhaps privately. Or, get a ground swell before the meeting, if the MD doesn't like the idea. I don't know if that's 100% true about MD's. But for my matches I welcome shooters to pick up THEIR brass before we leave the stage. But I do not let the brass whores pick it clean. I don't allow any extra brass pickup until everything is cleared off of the bays and put away. This encourages a few to stay and help. But I personally get highly irritated when me(MD) and a handful of people are carrying everything to the barn to be put away and the chickens are taking home a thousand pieces of brass and didn't lift a finger to help. Sure I get some extra brass out of the deal but those that stay and help all get some if they want to pick it up. I like this approach and agree. Being a MD myself and just getting back into USPSA, this is smart thinking. There are always those who seem to somehow get out of helping out. Luckily, here in Reno, NV, they all pitch in and the stages are torn down super fast. When I came over to watch my wife shoot, I stayed and helped put away stages while she rested, as she has a minor back injury. After that was all done, THEN I went out and collected some brass. Man, there was a ton.

I have had good accuracey with loading the way the 650 is set up. I would worry about not having the powder measure alarm. I was just interested as in in the front of the website I order from has some intereesting information, Read what it says here. https://www.dardascastbullets.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Session_ID=b027ed8860b38d1a3e6de09bfc52e613&Screen=SFNT&Order=0&Store_Code=dardas Yeh, I read the page about not flaring case mouths. What a joke. I would simply switch to a different bullet then. I have had amazing success with Xtreme bullets. The copper plating is very easy to work with and there is minimal copper fouling and absolutely no lead fouling. Just switch bullets and save yourself money and heart ache. In fact, I reviewed the prices on 9mm and here is a price comparison: Darda Lead Cast - 9mm - 124 grain round nose - $12.70 per 100 or, $0.127 per bullet. Xtreme Copper Plated - 9mm - 124 grain round nose - $39.90 per 500 or, $0.08 per bullet. So am confused why anyone would chose Darda.

Okay Chris, So, was your decision the right one? How do you feel about your decision today, some 3 years later? Can you please share with us your observations? Have you had a chance to compare this open gun to other's in its league? We would appreciate your objective views, even though I know that is hard to do, especially after spending so much for a wonderful tool that you might cherish.

I would have just realigned the earth to change the orientation of the 180 boundaries so she wouldn't have been in violation.... So many girlfriends expect the Earth to revolve around them to accomplish that. You guys are really just dating the wrong women, wow. Here is a youtube video that is helpful: As for giving someone a "pass" on a 180 rule, I disagree. I think this rule must be followed to the letter. I do have a question for the OP: Did she understand the importance of the 180 rule? Did she know that breaking this rule would result in an automatic disqualification? I suspect that since she had shot a couple of matches she would know, but I think it is really hard to tell the girlfriend/wife/teenage daughter anything. I agree, never RO your girlfriend/wife/teenage daughter. I would even include the mother in law, cranky cantankerous grandmother, female politicians from California, and crazy chics named "Tiffany".

So did you eventually get your belt? What did you think of it? Was it worth the wait and price? I did and I have to say that no mass production belt I own is even close in workmanship or comfort. No more having to look for belt keepers and such, the overlap is secure from the get. I can't say enough good thing s about it, well worth the cost and the wait was shorter than expected. Since I ordered mine, Bobby has revamped the fitting process and done away with the custom embroidery. Take a look, I wouldn't recommend anything else. That link is now dead. Did it change? Kevin, It is not dead, just sorta not working. I would go to the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/FBC-Tactical-Inc/647368511949304 Jimmy is very busy. My wife and I are waiting for ours. We ordered it about 1 month ago. How he makes it custom is very unique. He asks for a measurement inside the loops of your pants. With this, he custom makes the inner belt and that arrives in about 2 weeks. You then measure the outer circumference of this and email him the size. He then custom makes that piece. So the process is understandingly slow, but accurate to within a half inch. Shmella, Thank you for sending jobs overseas. Keep buying that Midway crap. When you go to draw and the holster waggles all over the place, you will realize that having a stiff competition belt is key. Jimmy with FBC Tactical works very hard, does the work himself, and is determined not to compromise quality for quantity or profit. A true American, in my book. I am happy that I spent $125.00 for ONE belt, not $120 for two. People who come online and talk about how cheap they bought something is fine, but when they talk about how it is just as good as the higher priced item, makes me sick. Complete ignorance.

So did you eventually get your belt? What did you think of it? Was it worth the wait and price?

Here is a good video that states "Reduced sized targets are a value added force multiplier in any systemic training package": Enjoy.

I agree completely. Muzzle velocity is dictated by many factors, but the variation between shots in different atmospherics is solely due to powder temperature. If you have ever been to a long range rifle match, some participants keep their ammo in a cooler. I use a Applied Ballistics Kestrel which calculates my muzzle velocity based on the temperature, which is pretty much a linear graph. At 80 degrees Fahrenheit I get 2901 fps for my .308 and 2840 fps at 40 degrees. I suspect that the difference in muzzle velocity is due solely to the pistol powder, which is more affected by the temperatures than rifle powders (especially Varget).

I am sorry, but I disagree with most of the people posting. The whole, "the tool will not make me a better shooter or better competitor" is bullshit. It will. The CZ Tactical Sport is way better than the M&P, hands down. I say, if you want to get that firearm, get it! Customize it to where you feel SUPER comfortable with it. You will shoot more and well… what do you know.. you will do better. With tons of experience in the precision rifle world, I see this all of the time. People trying to justify their cheap equipment to do just as much as the top level shooters. It just never happens. You are only as good as your equipment. If the equipment is the limiting factor, then you will always wonder how good you can be.

So the Rudy Project Custom Rydons came in and they fit perfectly. The racing red ImpactX lenses are very nice. So two thumbs up for Rudy Project, my first interaction with them. Watch out Oakley!

Any just think, without any serial numbers, there is no way they can tell whether they are purchased before 2000 or not. Go figure. From what I hear, nobody cares. Open gun competitors are not running and gunning in downtown Oakland or East Los Angeles. No worries.