RAP

Thanks for the info. For my Canik TP9Sfx I use the sprinco recoil system and reduced power FP spring. This gives me a very reliable pistol with a very crisp 3.5 pound trigger. I haven’t replaced the FP block spring, my understanding is that will also reduce the trigger pull weight. I’m happy with the way it is. I also installed the freedom smith trigger added a 2mm split ring on the trigger return spring. Now this Canik has the best trigger for a striker fire pistol I have personally tried. Mine will reliable shoot 147 grain coated Bullets on top of 3.2 grains of Sport Pistol. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I have a P09 I shot CO with for about a year and a half. In my opinion P09’s are amazingly reliable, accurate and easy to shoot. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I have the Sprinco recoil management system in my SFx with their 29 newton striker spring. Item number 18898. This system works really good for me. My loads average 135 pf. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Sarge I think this is as good as one can do for a sport that is officiated by volunteers. Thanks for doing this. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My club offers a discount on match fees when you sign up to help set up/tear down and put away the props. We require the stages be torn down by the squads at the end of the match. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No reason not to. I did a lite polishing on mine. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Have you checked the firing pin block? If the FP block does not move freely it would cause intermittent firing. It would be worth checking out. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I battled plantar fasciitis for years. I went to a foot doctor and he had me do the typical stretches, etc. However, he also had me try these inserts called super feet. They are significantly cheaper then custom inserts. They cost about $50 custom inserts cost $400. I have been wearing them for 3 years pain free. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

No. Although my job requires me too travel. Been doing it for years. It gets really old sleeping in hotels. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Welcome to both of you. PatG you have 3 good USPSA matches monthly close to you. Sparta IL, Arnold in Barnhardt, MO and Benchrest in Wright City, MO Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

9.1.2019 Well, it's been a month since my last posting. August was a very busy month between work and practicing for the Illinois sectional and taking over as Match Director for my home club. Finding time to post in my journal was not happening. Having said that, it was a very productive month. I shot a local match each weekend and dry fired and or live fired practiced each day I was home. I was feeling confident I would place the best I have to date at a major match. Illinois Sectional was a challenging match pushing fundamentals skills. Stages were pretty straight froward, no gimmicks. Admittedly I was nervous. This was my first major match since 2017. (Last year I felt lucky to have shot the handful of local matches I managed to have shot.) I finished 14th in Carry Optics, 79th overall. Stage 1 which was a very straight forward stage. 3 Pepper Poppers and 2 drop turners. I did ok on the stage, HF 4.1116. I felt like I couldn't miss the pepper poppers fast enough. Stage 2 was a large field course I placed 16th with a HF of 4.3664. I had a trip on this stage that cast me time and I Mike. The face planting recovery really cost time. I knew their was a hole and needed to be careful going into the position on the right side, but nonetheless I tripped. Stage 3 was 2 strings; Freestyle and weak hand. I had 8 A's and 8 C's for a HF of 3.5635. Stage 4 was another short course. I had one of the fastest times of 6.85 seconds, but I had 6 A's, 1 C and 1 Mike. That Mike really hurt. Stage 5 was a medium size field course. I had 18 A's, 10 C's in 20.08 seconds for a HF of 5.9761. This is one stage I could have shot much faster. But, I let the no shoots slow me down and took a more conservative approach. Stage 6 to me was one of the funnest stages. Having said that, I also had 2 no shoots on this stage. I had 28 A's, 2 C's and 2 No Shoots. Time was 19.05 seconds, HF 6.6142. Stage 7 was the one of the hardest stages. It had long and close shots and lots of movement. I did ok on this stage, had a make up shot on the long mini popper and I had 1 Mike. 19 A's, 9 C's, 2 D's and 1 Mike. time was 28.07 seconds for a HF of 4.0613. Stage 8 was a mixed bag of shots with medium to long with very close shots. This stage also had a max trap. 20 A's, 8 C's and 2 D's. Time was 22.10 HF of 5.7014. Stage 9 had a couple different ways to run this stage. I chose a less conventional way to run the stage. You could go left or right. Most went to the left. I went to the right and worked my way left. Not bad stage plan, but I didn't execute my best and ended up shooting 2 targets 4 times, all alphas too boot! 26 A's, 5 C's and 1 D. Time was 30.37 HF of 4.8074. Stage 10 a pretty straight forward medium field course. But, there was a twist, going into position 1 allowed you to engage a far target there or take that target from position 2 with the steel. I chose to take all from position 1 and steel only from position 2. This stage I had a Mike on the swinger. The swinger was fast and I called my last shot thinking I had an Alpha/Charlie on the swinger, I had Alpha/Mike. 21 A's, 4 C's and 1 Mike. Time was 23.13 seconds for a HF of 4.6260. Stage 11 was my fall apart stage. This stage I had a self induced malfunction costing me costing me about 6 seconds. I didn't firmly seat my magazine at the make ready. Buzzer goes off sprint to my first position get 1 shot and my magazine started falling out. I manage to catch and reinsert the magazine and finish the stage. 25 A's, 6 C's and 1 D. time was whooping 36.41 seconds for a HF of 3.9550. Stage 12 was a pretty straight forward stage. You moved from laterally left to right or right to left. 20 A's, 7 C's and 2 D's. Time was 23.67 for a HF of 5.1965. Stage 13 was the stage we all were looking for. Last stage of the day. Need to focus and finish strong. This was an interesting stage, starting position was hands on a very mature tree. Shooting position was a Diamond and you needed to go to all 4 corners. 25 A's, 6 C's. Time was 24.25 seconds with a HF of 5.8969. I am happy I shot the match and did as well as I did. I learned a lot about myself and where I am really at in my USPSA shooting journey. I need to continue to improve on moving/shooting sooner and shooting more Alphas. The big take away and improvement from this match was stage planning. Not 1 stage when I heard Make Ready did I think, "what's my stage plan?" To me that was a big victory.

My first DPP lasted somewhere between 15,000 - 16,000 rounds before it broke. Don’t remember the exact round count. Sent it in for repair put my back up on to use. When I received the repaired one back (they changed the circuit board). Lasted somewhere around 2,000+ rounds before the battery contact slipped. Sent it back turn around including shipping was 10 days. Put it back on and have about 3,000 rounds on it with no problems. Personally I like DPP dots and will continue to use them until something comes out that is really better. My advice: no matter which dot you decide to use have a back up. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes and no. Weight variance importance is dependent on the shooting you are doing. For Pistol shooting 2 grain weight variance isn’t a big deal and you wouldn’t even notice. However if your shooting 600 or 1000 yard Benchrest 2 grains is a big deal. When I shot 600 yard Benchrest I weighed my Bullets to make sure the lot I purchased didn’t have a big variance. A 1/2 grain variance was pretty typical for precision match Bullets. As far as bearing surface goes. When shooting for accuracy start with a good quality match bullet. Bearing surface will vary between brands not necessarily bullet to bullet. What variance bullet to bullet (same brand/type bullet) is so small it won’t be a factor. When loading ammo for accuracy consistency at every step is important. I remember when I started shooting benchrest an older Gentleman gave me the following advice. “Find the load that your rifles shoots best. Don’t sacrifice practice by chasing the latest and greatest gadget and don’t get caught up chasing tiny details. Practice Practice Practice!” Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I would invest in Ben Stoeger Breakthrough Marksmanship book. I took his class last June and we did all of his drills that are in this book. It was very helpful and he gives you some diagnosis diagrams to help figure out whats happening. I still do a lot to the drills today, such as his doubles. I will continue to use these drills to keep refining the basics which helps in my overall shooting.

Last week I forgot I had a load of brass in my FA wet tumbling. I went out of town on business for a couple days. When I got back home I remembered the brass and all I did was tumbled the brass an additional 30 minutes and rinsed and dried as normal. No problems. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

8.3.2019 Today my 2 buddies and I drove to CAPS (Lefthanders) in Illinois to shoot a USPSA match. Caps puts on a really good match and is worth the 2 hour drive. I ended up 3rd in Carry Optics behind 2 really good M class shooters. Both of these guys were also 1st & 2nd in the overall while I placed 11th out of 70 shooters. When we arrived they had just started shooting so it was fury of activity; signing up, loading magazines, etc. When we finished loading our magazines we needed to start shooting. Fortunately the stage was straight forward so stage planning was pretty easy to get established. We shot it just like to 2 shooters we could see before us. I linked a video below that shows 5 of the 6 stages. Did not video the classifier. We started on Stage 2 and the video starts on that stage as well. I wanted to specifically work on stage planning and foot speed at this match. Stage 2 - 19 A's 7 C's and 1 D. Time 14.81 HF 7.9001. As you can see in the video from the start position you had 4 paper targets 2 on right and 2 on the left. I lost time by not starting to move as I was engaging the last paper target on the left. I also had 2 misses on the steel in the back, I was thinking of my next target instead of following through the shot. Overall, not too bad considering the circumstances of just arriving and loading up and shooting. Stage 3 - 14 A's 6 C's and 3 D's. Time 14.58 HF 6.2414 This stage you started on the back fault line in the middle. I chose to run to and start on the left. I lost time by not having the gun up and ready to start shooting when I approached the second position. Also, I found my shoots in the C & D zones going to the next target. I was rushing my shots to get to the next target. This is something I noticed through out the match. Stage 5 17 A's 6 C's 1 D and 1 Mike. Time 12.17 HF 7.7239 This stage my movement was solid. I shot my way into and out of each position pretty good. However, I missed my 1st shot on the 2nd target. I'm not sure way. I remember the dot being on target but I missed. I also would have shaved a second or two from a better stage plan. I didn't notice until after. But, you can see from the video on the 2nd position I could have engaged 3 poppers from that window and move 1 step to the left and engaged the remaining 2 poppers. Reload would have been done between the 2 ports. Stage 6 16 A's 4 C's. Time 15.11 HF 6.0887 This stage was pretty solid. I did feel like I could have moved faster between positions. I also, believe I could have started shooting sooner. Realistically I think I could have shaved a second off by faster foot work. Hits were solid. The C's were close except one. It was very close to being a Delta. We needed an overlay to get it right. Stage 1 20 A's 7 C's 1 D. Time 21.71 HF 5.6195 This stage was a fun and challenging. I came up with 3 different stage plans. The start position was standing outside rear fault line holding simulated chainsaw. Handgun is loaded placed on mark on the table. I choose upon start signal to engage 11 seeable targets from the table. Then I moved to the left engaging the targets did my reload going to the 3rd position. I felt good about engaging the 2 available paper targets as I got into the shooting area. I also, felt my wide transitions were solid. I could have saved time by engaging the targets to my left if I had my gun up and ready to shoot. Probably cost myself a second from that alone. Overall I was happy with my performance. I have many things to work on before Illinois Sectional at the end of the month. But, I feel like I am making progress and improving.

I have and use Ben Stoeger Dryfire Reloaded. It has been huge in helping me make A class. Also his new book, Breakthrough marksmanship is great when you can live fire. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

When I was rehabbing from a knee operation my PT had me do agility ladder drills. Although I was rehabbing and this was toward the end of my rehab, the side effects was improved ability to change direction. Ability to accelerate and decelerate quickly and switch positions fast. Plus it was a pretty good cardio. This is something worth including into a regular workout regiment. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

For my TP9Sfx I use Taylor Freelance base pads and grams followers and Springs for CZ (FKC 11 I think) and I get 23 rounds in my magazines. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

7/27/2019 It's been 3 weeks since my last entry. I have been very busy with work with travel and a lot of distractions. I have shot 3 matches including today since lefthanders. My home club BRRC on July 13th and Sparta on July 20th. BRRC I won my division; although in a very ugly way. Sparta, my friend won CO division. He shot very efficiently and I shot like crap. At BRRC my execution was hit and miss. Admittedly I was distracted from work issues and staying focus was a challenge. At Sparta things went down hill. I did stupid things like reloading when not necessary and shooting from positions that didn't make any sense. My buddies were surprised at some of the dumb things I was doing. But, those matches are behind me and now onto todays match. Today I shot at Green Valley. I did much better as today as far as staying focused. However my stage planning was not so great. I came in 3rd in CO and 7th overall. I had a friend video my stages from today which is something I haven't done in awhile. As I reviewed the videos I saw several areas that I need to work on. First, I wasn't aggressively moving between positions. Transitions were slow as well. On Stages 4 & 5 my stage planning was not the best. Stage 1 - 26 rounds 22 A's, 3 C's and 1 D. Time 29.18. 7 paper 10 steel 1 drop turner. This stage was pretty straight forward as far as stage planning. From start position you had 4 paper to engage to the left 1 popper that activates the drop turner, a double Texas star and ends with 3 partially hidden paper targets. Watching the video I started off at a good pace engaging first 4 paper while moving. Problem I went faster then I should of causing me to move past the popper that activates the drop turner. This put me in a position to shoot and stand and wait for the drop turner. From there I engaged the double Texas star. This was tough! I have little experience shooting one of these and to make it harder there were barrels on each side creating a window to engage through. No one was very fast, in fact most shooters I RO'd, took 20 seconds or more to clear the star. This was the only Stage I had a Delta on. Stage 2 - 15 rounds 12 A's 3 C's. This stage had 2 paper 11 steel. Again this was pretty straight forward. You were gonna have to shoot from 3 positions, left, middle and right side. My only issue on this stage was pulling off the steel plates by anticipating the shot. On video I could clearly see my gun moving to the next plate before the shot causing misses. Hence unnecessary seconds on the clock. I just couldn't miss fast enough. I need to practice with steel. Going forward I will incorporate this in my training. Stage 3 - Classifier 18-03 We Play Games. 16 A's, 8 C's total time 21.51. First string went well. I could have had a faster draw, my movement was quick, reload was smooth and I was quickly shooting after stepping into the 2 box. Felt really good. Second string started off solid, movement into 3rd box was good. Re-load was smooth and fast. But, my transition to weak hand was my problem. Viewing my second string on clip shot I could clearly see I lost time adjusting my grip and looking for my dot. I realize I haven't practiced transitioning to weak hand after reloading. I will now. But my weak hand and strong hand hits were very solid. This practice has paid off. Stage 4 - 25 rounds 21 A's 4 C's. Time 19.57 10 paper and 1 Texas star. This stage was solid except stage planning. I completely missed an opportunity to shave 3-4 seconds off my time. I didn't see this until after I had shot it. I'll chalk this up to learning. The good, I was focused and I did execute my plan well. Stage 5 - 32 rounds 26 A's 6 C's. Time 25.50. 16 paper targets. This was a challenging stage with lots of movement and I came up with 4 workable ways to shoot this stage. Most shooters choose to take the targets on the right from the start position then move to the left for those targets. I choose to move to my left at the beep and shoot 9 targets from that position and move to clean up the remainder. Some of the shots were pretty long and tight. But this eliminated 2 positions. My big mistake was over running 1 target causing me to take a couple steps back to engage and according to clip shot that cost me 2.5 seconds. My second mistake was moving up to engage the remaining 2 targets. I could have engaged them from the position I had to readjust myself because of over running it. Again this cost me a couple seconds. Overall I am happy. I feel like I turned around my downward spiraling performance. I plan on shooting Arnold tomorrow with a primary goal of working on my stage planning and keeping focused.

This is what my DPP did. Leupold repaired it quickly. Turn around was 3 days after they received it. I have about 600 rounds on it now. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

My first DPP lasted somewhere in the neighborhood of 15,000 rounds, maybe more I don’t remember. It finally went out during practice. Sent it in for repair put my back up on until it came back. Put it back on and got another 3,000 plus rounds on it. Battery contact slipped, sent it back in they repaired it quickly and it now back on and seems to be fine. Expect to have some issue so have a back up. I believe manufacturers are improving reliability of them. But, they still have a little ways to go. It reminds me when the first hunting scopes came about years ago. Reliability was very questionable and rifles still had iron sights as back ups because you’ll most likely need them. Now reliability is stellar and most rifles don’t have any sights on them outside of a scope. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

What I do is take the lowest weight as my bullet weight in the formula to determine PF. Example, I recently purchased Brazos 145 coated round nose Bullets. I checked 20 Bullets the lowest weight was 145. That’s the weight I used. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Chetc, Are you seating and crimping in one station? Are you using a Lee seater/crimp die? Reason I’m asking; I went through this problem when I was using the Lee seat die. What was happening, as the bullet and case was entering the seat die the die was immediately removing the bell on the case and by the time the bullet was seated to depth the case mouth was tight enough that a lead and or coated bullet was digging into the bullet shaving off some. I now use a Redding competition seater and Redding taper crimp dies. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I use aComp Tac Boss Dropped and offset holster set up for my TP9SFx. I got it off of Ben Stoegers Pro Shop.