knightkrawler00

Gary Stevens makes a good point. I've always used the safety area, it never crossed my mind to do it on the line.

The biggest advantage for me is the walk through. I was constantly worried about dropping the gun after doing so at the 2007 L10 nationals, so I was going through my dry runs in slow motion. Without the gun, I can dry run as fast as I want, which did decrease my stage times.

I recently moved and have the same dilemma. I went from half of a two car garage to a 5'X9' room with a water heater in it already. I was able to put together a 2'X3' bench next to the water heater and I'm in the process of building shelves to hold everything at this point. The RL550 is mounted on the end of the bench with a Rockchucker and powder measure on the long side of the bench. I can pull the RC and powder measure pretty quick and have the bench open for gun cleaning and fixing, the RL550 can stay where it is as it doesn't take up that much room. Going from am L-shaped bench that was 3' deep and over 6' long on each leg has been less painful than I thought, less room to gather random junk. I used 4"X4" fence posts for the legs, then screwed a piece of 3/4" plywood to the top, braced the legs with 2X4's, put 2X4's under the top around the perimiter then more 2X4's side by side under the rest of the bench top. I screwed it to the wall with 1/4"X5" wood screws into the studs. All done and reloading for under $70, including the hand saw.

Grilled last night with wind chills in the negatives!

I've got slight pressure on the frame forward of the take down lever with my support hand thumb. I tried to break the "habit" after reading BE's book, but never could. I finally gave up after noticing that my shooting wasn't showing an improvement either way, not even "trick of the day" short term improvement.

It's amazing all the stuff that goes into a range bag for "just in case" moments. I uses to lug all that stuff around to every stage, by the end of a match, I was beat. Started to take only what was needed for the stage in my bag. The gun, mags, and a little ammo, leaving everything else in the car. I even started to bag my gun after every stage, it was easier to do walk throughs at speed, and my back was thanking me after the last stage. I like the idea of a small bag to take to stages and a larger bag for the car that contains all the stuff we might need. To answer your question, Bill. I've got a pistol, lots of magazines, lots of ammo, spare parts that could be "easily" swapped at the range, hearing protection, eye protection, a timer, oil, rags, a couple of Clif bars, water and gatorade, tools and cleaning supplies, and at the end of the day there is a bunch of brass in there. I now go up to a stage with enough ammo for a few stages, magazines, and the pistol. I can go get my stuff in the car if I need it.

I work for a dealership with seven car lines, three shops, and about thirty technicians. We all work flat rate, which is where you get payed a certain time for a repair no matter how long it actually takes. As you can imagine, there are jobs that pay really well and jobs that aren't worth doing. But, you have to take the good with the bad as it generally balances out in the end. It used to be that everybody did used car inspections, which is a really good paying job. Then management decided to have two guys dedicated to doing the used cars. This should be a fairly low paying hourly job, where the vehicle is repaired by real techs after the inspection is performed. Or a flat rate job that is given to the guys that have been there forever and just can't turn good hours anymore on the retail side, as a bonus of some sorts. Not at my place. The job is flat rate, and the two guys are getting paid on the same scale as the rest of us, only they aren't good enough to make it as retail technicians. The system is being blatantly abused by one of the guys. He is performing repairs to cars that don't need to be done, and when something does need to be repaired he can't fix it right and it ends up with someone else fixing it. We have attempted to go to management, but they don't seem to care or want to deal with the problem since the guys look extremely good on paper with the amount of hours being turned. The problem is, the dealership is paying for those hours, unnecessary or not. I guess it doesn't matter that the "90 day account", for used cars repaired within 90 days of purchase, is empty for the first time ever. This is also the account that the salespeople get a bonus out of at the end of the year, too bad I won't be around to see "it" hit the fan when the salespeople don't get a bonus that is generally counted on as part of their salary. I'm packing up and moving as soon as my house sells, there is at least one other tech that is quitting, and most others have resumes out. To put it into perspective. I have over ten years of experience, a college degree in this area, an ASE Master certification, and I'm a lead technician. I'm also one class and eight tests away from a GM World Class certification, think Grand Master in USPSA. I will not make half the money these guys stand to make this year ! Wrapping it up. My employer has taken two guys that simply aren't good enough to make it in a real shop and given them the highest paying, by far, technician jobs in the dealership . And management's lack of action to repair the problem is driving good honest technicians out the door.

I just spent the weekend in Kalispell for a job interview that seemed to have gone really well. There's a good chance that I'll be moving there as soon as possible. Just wondering what to expect as far as USPSA matches are concerned. Thanks for the replies.

Had one in 9MM and one in 45ACP, threw them both away. I was having problems with tumbling in the 9MM, pulled some of the bullets and they were now undersized .002". Pulled some 45, same thing. I was using plated bullets at the time, FMJ's probably wouldn't have done the same thing. I went to the Redding Competition seating dye, much happier.

All of my best reloads I can remember seeing the magazine withess holes very clearly as the magazine slid home. It's possible that you are moving your head around too much, causing movement in your arms. This is why it's important to keep the gun up in front of your face, to minimize movement of every part of your body, not just your arms.

I was just going to start my own thread on my hatred of a certain hybrid from a company that I won't mention, but this looks like the place for it. Right now I'm working on a two year old hybrid truck to replace the high voltage cables, rotor, and stator. The cables melted, amazing the truck didn't burn down, due to being overloaded by the "electric machine". No kidding, that's what the rotor and stator are referred to as in the diagnostics published by the manufacturer. The rotor and stator are sandwiched in between the engine and transmission, so the transmssion has to come out. Since we, the technicians, will never have to work on these half-a$$ed POS's it's nearly impossible to get the transmission out without spending more money than I will make on the job to buy special tools. Not to mention that I will in no way get paid for all of my time in the job, I love flat rate too. Actually, what really makes me mad is the fact that the truck actually gets less mpg than it's non hybrid twin. That's right, less mileage due to carrying around the extra weight of the "battery pack", the "electric machine", and all the other assorted BS it needs to run. The only thing this truck does as far as hybrid is concerned is shut the engine down at stops, then start automatically when you let off the brake. It will only stay shut off for a maximum of two minutes so the "battery pack" stays charged, and won't shut off at all if the A/C is on. Oh yeah, it doesn't help propel the vehicle either. I've been putting "battery pack" in apprentices because it's just three 12 volt batteries wired in series, come on. What we have is a more expensive truck, that gets worse mileage, and has an incredibly expensive starter/alternator. Oh wait, the manufacturer does get a huge fuel credit for producing a "hybrid" and the customer can plug in 110 volt appliances in the bed. Who cares that you can buy trucks from other manufacturers that have invertor's installed and wired to the bed from the factory, or that repair bills will be huge when the thing goes out of warranty, it says hybrid on the damn thing so it must help the environment, right? And in the next few months we're going to see a 300volt, 500amp hybrid truck. Great, touch the wrong thing and it kills me. What thing, I don't know because there is only one place to get training, it's across the country, and there's no way my dealership is going to send 20 technicians across the country for the class. Don't get me started on how ethanol uses as much fossil fuels to create as it saves in the vehicle, or how engines can't be built to really enjoy the benifits of ethanol unless it is running 100% ethanol. My 17 year old Honda gets over 40mpg, runs on 100% gasoline, and has 269,000 miles on it. When they can beat that, maybe I'll change my mind. Then I'll probably touch the wrong gizmo and it won't matter anyway.

I measured mine at 1 1/8" from the inside of the outer belt. Oh well, I like the Bladetech's better anyway.

I feel your pain. Made it to #10 B class L10 earlier this year, broke my hand, then had three in the low 60's go in when I could finally shoot again. Now I'm down to 70% and won't be able to shoot but a few matches over the next few months.

A baby seal walks into a club.