rvb

cleaned my gun last night..... well... shooting in the rain counts as cleaning it, right? some un-timed timing-type drills, some groups, nothing much. only set up one target up per person at our practice night as shit kept blowing down. once the slackers left I used their targets for some transition practice and a little shooting on the move. up close transitions I noticed more of a target focus than I ever have before, almost point/index shooting. I barely saw the sights at all... maybe attributed to all the water on my eye pro? weird feeling breaking the shot seeing nothing but the azone, then realizing I saw nothing of the sights, so I'd then switch my focus to verify and the sights would be dead on. worked on some 20-25 yd transitions, trying to increase my trigger speed / confidence shooting fast on the farther stuff. I think I'm starting to close that weakness in my shooting, last yr I was taking WAY too long setting up and pulling through the trigger on the more distant/partials. not much of a practice, but I take what trigger time I can get.... -rvb

Our June match is this Sunday, the 21st! -rvb

A little practice w. The production gun... Finally cleaned dot torture at 5 yds. Couple of observations: 1 slow as hell 2 check out those SHO/WHO groups (dots 5/8)!! Did 3 or 4 Garcia dot drills too.... Not so great on those, all in the upper 20s. Couldn't get consistent... Would have one circle shot clean and the next would be down 2or 3. Struggled a little w. Groups tonight... Never got to the drills I wanted to practice before running out of ammo.... Next time I'll start w. Those... This week I got 2 nights of dry fire in... In a row! -rvb

Had this at a recent club match. I was the RO on the clipboard (nook) and the MD and the RM. I touched the target (the hole, from the back) trying to find evidence of a 2nd hit in a very oblong/sideways hole (classifier 13-03). Shooter wanted a reshoot because I touched it. I said I didn't think that was right but started to get my rulebook. He said "nevermind" and we went on w/ life. I asked NROI for my and the shooter's knowledge... here is the email exchange. Answer was somewhat vague, imo. [i had asked about rule 9.1.2 which specifically restricts competitors from touching targets (not range officials) and 9.6.7 which was you cannot interfere with the target at all during a scoring challenge (does not differentiate between competitor and range official). Seemed like a contradiction to me....] -rvb

then there's all the -other- behind the scene's stuff. -practiscore: making sure tablets are charged and times synced, doing SW updates and testing, setting up the wifi, entering the stages, syncing the registration data between registration and shooting, syncing scores periodically throughout the match to prevent data loss. -maintaining inventory of targets/pasters/paint/target sticks/etc -keeping track of income/expenditures, financial reports to host club -attending host club meetings to report activity (and sometimes beg for $ or range repairs) -answering emails from new folks interested in starting -making sure each stage has the pasters/paint/staplers/etc needed during the match -dealing w/ tablet issues, scoring/rules questions, DQs, prop issues etc during the match -submitting/paying for activity report a couple days after the match -bank runs -organizing and helping with prop repair/replacement that's just off the top of my head.... -rvb

oh, and congrats on the engagement and becoming old like the rest of us! -rvb

I'm glad the new gun is working out for you. I thought you'd like the super over the 9! There's more to life than saving a few pennies on brass, especially at the level you are shooting at! -rvb

the slide lock isn't a very heavy duty piece. It's really all that holds the gun together. I've seen quite a few fail leaving the shooter holding the frame while looking at their slide laying in the dirt. I tend to not let the slide slam home on an empty chamber as I see no need to abuse that part (plus it's still a habit from yrs of 2011 shooting). -rvb

Yes it was on a slick plastic table that didn't sit flat. was hard enough to even get it to point in my general direction... -rvb

I was fortunate enough to get a 9mm 1911 built by Gavin Ford, www.fordshooters.com. This was a gun he built for a raffle fundraiser for the IN SS/Prod/Rev match. I wanted to take a minute to highlight his work. It's impressive! I'm keeping this piece! I'm not a big SS shooter, but I'll be using this gun from time to time. It will, however, be my primary steel gun. I've never said this about a gun before, but it's almost too pretty to be putting a bunch of holster wear on. Almost. I'm no photographer, but here are a couple photos of the gun. Notice the high-power cut, bobbed nose with slant spring plug, tri-topped and scaled slide, the bevel on the bottom of the slide, and flawless fit/blending of the slide/frame/grip safety. There are lots of well done subtle features.... Trim/bevel on the slide stop pin, checkering, mag well, etc. So how does it shoot? Well, I've only had a chance to get it out one time and put a handful of rounds through it. I was hoping for some better refrigerator art to show off Gavin's work, but I got sloppy on my 3rd or 4th shot. I shot this group at 15 yards. At least it shows the potential the gun has (and the lack of potential the shooter has!) So now we know it shoots, how does it SHOOT? Here's 6 rounds in 0.65s. With 135 PF loads it's like shooting a .22. It's unbelievably flat. The trigger breaks cleanly about 2.6 lb by my gauge, right where I like it. It ran perfectly even with the 120 PF loads I use for popper calibration. This thing is FUN! The only thing I plan to change is the grips, and that's just a preference thing; I like grips that are a little thicker. -rvb

crash/burn on my first match w the new card! well, truthfully 88% of maskey isn't too bad for me... I'm still struggling w/ running the match and shooting well, even going into year 2. It's either someone having tablet problems or a scoring issue or a prop issue... always something. I only got to do a walk-through on three of the stages (and I did pretty well on those, 92-96%). It takes me a couple of stages to mentally reset into shooter mode... I started off rough on my first two targets of the day... 2 NS penalties hurt. Ended at like 67% on this stage, down about 30 match points out of the gate. I definitely didn't have my head on right yet. my third stage (Stage 5) I shot so-so (lost some time to a couple make-ups on steel and did an un-planned/un-needed reload for some reason) stage 1 I missed the walkthough fixing a prop... and it was a pure memory stage. I listened to Corey telling someone his plan, walked it twice to try to see what he was talking about... I got all the targets, but about 4 seconds off pace. ended up only shooting 90% of the points. pretty dismal.... -rvb

You have more important things to be panicked about! Haha! I don't feel ready, either! -rvb

Well, it seems either I or classifiercalc was off... PRODUCTION Class: GM Pct: 96.47 High Pct: 96.47 -rvb

Just a heads up for everyone. They have 37 north out of Ft Wayne close at this current time. (they are replacing the RR tracks.) They may be done by Sunday but I do not know. If it is closed just turn right on the road before the tracks. Then go to the first road you can go left on. Turn left and that takes you right back out onto 37 north. Maybe a 1/2 mile outta your way. They are also repaving 37 which is a mess but I don't expect them to be working on Sunday so that should not be an issue.

Fort Wayne, IN is shooting on the 3rd Sundays, March - Oct. We typically run 3 long field courses, 2 short/medium courses, and a classifier. Our next match is this Sunday, May 17. Registration Begins: 9:00 A.M. *New-shooters meeting: 9:30 A.M. Shooters Meeting: 9:45 A.M. Match Begins: 10:00 A.M. *New-shooters meeting prior to the match: If you are new to uspsa, we'll give you a quick introduction into the basics of the game (safety, range commands, scoring). Registration Fee: $20 (General entry) $15 (FWRR member) $0 (setup crew) Juniors shoot free with paid adult The Fort Wayne Rifle and Revolver (FWRR) gun club is located north of Harlan, IN, just off 37. 15715 Rupert Rd Grabill, IN 46741 41.234010/-84.888246 Maps and directions can be found at Fort Wayne Rifle & Revolver Gun Club...www.fwrr.us "Like" us on facebook, at www.facebook.com/fwuspsa Questions? Email me at ftw_uspsa@yahoo.com or PM me here. Hope to see you there! -rvb

Thanks for the kind words! We have a good crew helping to build stages, so we get good design variety and lots of effort goes into each stage. Of course, we're always learning and never perfect, but we try to put on a good match. Hope to see you this weekend. -rvb (Match Director)

winner of SS, Mike Gnyra