Hot Brass

+1 on the Ready Tactical speedloader and moonclip puches.

At the Cherokee Wheelgun match earlier this year there was a stage that required a RWR after 3 rounds. I dumped the half spent moonclip out of my 625 into my hand and dropped it into my holster, then grabbed a new moonclip and finished the stage. It was smooth and quick. Of course I did have to fish it out when the stage was over. Another shooter put his half spent moonclip back into his holder. On the next stage he grabbed the half spent moonclip and could not get it in the gun. When he realized what he had done, he had to stow the half loaded clip and grab a full one. It blew his match. I made a mental note...

The trophies should go out next week. The member who handles the trophies (and left them at home on match day) has been out of town... -Capel

The has been posted on YouTube. Hopefully, they won't mute the soundtrack.

Depends on the mouse, her fart, and your perception of mouse fart hardness/softness. I think you guys are trying to pick the fly poop out of the pepper...

There are a few hundred located here.

I tried to shoot zero down at a 7 stage club match once. It was a disaster. I was so focused on making my hits that I literally lost track of time and I only reduced my points by 25%. From that point forward, I went back to shooting as fast as I could and my scores went back up to where they were before. From my perspective, it is easier to slow down than it is to speed up. Having said this, I will agree with Duane. I have watched dozens of shooters go from novice to their current level, over the last 6 years. I will say that the guys who start out moving and shooting too fast for their current skill level progress up the class ladder quicker than those who start out slow, but more accurate.

A 2.5 second reload with a 625 using moonclips (ESR) and a cover garment is a Master class reload. A 3.0 second ESR reload is Expert level. This is based on my dry-fire drills using par times on a CED timer.

As the MD, I made the decision not to award any penalty. The Sr. SO did bring this incident to my attention immediately after it happened. So if you disagree with my call, fine, but don't think our SO's don't know what they are doing. Quite the opposite, they just know that I don't play range lawyer and in situations where there is no advantage to the competitor, the benefit of the doubt goes to the shooter. Personally, I don't see where a laser gives anyone an advantage, in fact I would go as far as to say it is a disadvantage. We hold weekly indoor IDPA "fun" matches and people bring lasers all the time. I have even tried to shoot a COF with one. If you are watching that bouncing red dot, you are certainly not looking at the front sight. It takes 5 times as long for that dot to settle compared to the front sight. If they offered a competitive advantage, every IPSC Open gun would have one. When they come out with a recoil compensating laser, maybe I'll change my opinion. For the record, I'm in favor of changing the rules to allow grip mounted lasers. Lots of people have them and carry them every day, but I don't think they will change who wins matches. I'm behind cover, so go ahead and shoot... -Capel

The only reason I know what I'm about to say is that I recently did the research for an article on military protective eyewear. The problem with plastic lenses, from a using-them-as-shooting-glasses standpoint, is that if you hit them hard enough they'll shatter, just like glass. The polycarbonate used in quality, shooting-specific protective eyewear won't. Duane, I used to work for GE Plastics, the company that invented polycarbonate (Lexan). It will shatter given enough of an impact and depending on the temperature. There are many different formulations of polycarbonate designed for things like impact resistance, UV resistance, optical quality etc. We had a large window in our office that had .45 ACP slugs in it. This "bullet proof" glass was actually 3 layers of 1/2" polycarbonate laminated together with a plastic sheet of some kind between the layers. This is like your car windshield where 2 pieces of glass are laminated with plastic in the middle to keep the shards of glass from flying around during an accident. Chances are very good that the lenses in T Bacus' picture above are polycarbonate. I'm not saying all shooting glasses are the same, e.g. one vendor could trade impact resistance for optical quality etc... -Capel

I heard somewhere that Donnie has been sick and not shooting much lateley. This is 3rd or 4th hand information... Had a blast at the Nats, but noticed the lack of a tall, handsome young chap named Donnie Burton. Anyone know what's up with him? Hopefully nothing personally troubling! ---HP'ing Along

I had the chance to shoot them on a Glock once when a friend was evaluating them. They are not for me and I've never seen anyone at a match using them, but I don't think they would be illegal in IDPA.

Steve J, This stuff is a moving target, no pun intended. I've been building these movers for 4 years, as a hobby. After building one of them, we run it until it fails and then toss it out and replace it with a new and improved version. I first started out with electronic actuators. You can get the general idea by reviewing this web site. This year I've converted over to pneumatics because they move faster and are usually more reliable. Rain is a problem with all things electrical, but our biggest problems have been with the people using them. People do things that the designer never thinks of, so in order to improve reliability, you have to make these things idiot proof. That is the moving target. By the time I documented one of these designs, someone would find that one weakness and break the damn thing. They are getting better and more reliable, but I doubt they'll ever be perfect...

Here is our most recent match video if you are curious as to what you may see at this year's match.

The SO made the right call. It's an FTDR. Brain fart or not. If the SO did not call it, because he believed it to be an honest mistake or whatever, then that means every shooter in the match could do the same thing and claim a brain fart. Consistency goes out the window. I would not presume roxymajor was cheating, anyone can have a brain fart, but I would still give him the FTDR.

Dave S. recently sent me a video that he made of the 2007 IDPA Georgia State Championship. As a shameless plug for our 2008 match, you can see a link to it here.

I would agree with this observation. What this poll does show is that the folks who take the sport seriously, read these forums to keep abreast of issues and learn. It comes as no surprise that the higher ranked shooters take the sport more seriously.

When we shoot the classifier as a club match, we run it in 6 bays. Works fine with no backups. Unfortunately, match attendance suffers when we do this. Most of the shooters who feel like they have reached a plateau don't show up.

The 2008 IDPA Georgia State Championship will be held on September 20th, 2008 at the South River Gun Club in Conyers, GA. This year's match will be a one day event and will consist of a 13 stage course of fire. Stages will include: numerous electronic and pneumatic movers, a shoot house and a lot more. The round count will be approximately 200 rounds. This match will have a shotgun start so you may shoot with whoever you wish. We will limit the number of shooters to 200, so register early. Registration and payment can be completed on-line and if you have shot with us in the past, there is NO paperwork to fill out. If this is the first time you have shot one of our matches, you can fax the waivers in. For more details, see the match announcement page. If you want to see what the movers look like, search youtube for the word GADPA.

Steve, I'm not saying that. In just about every match I've shot, if you step across an open door before engaging threat targets, you would get a PE. The scenario I was describing at the SC State Match was where the door was closed to start. You could open it and shoot from the left or open it and shoot from the right. The door opened into the shooter, not away from the shooter. If you stepped across the door while opening it, you would not get a PE. I did not watch every shooter, but I imagine that if you opened it to the point that it would expose 100% of your body and then stepped across, you would get dinged.

I've had both the 5.11 and the Woolrich. In fact, I currently have both the lightweight and heavy Woolrich. I like the heavy vest (with lots of pockets) for vacationing. You can carry a ton of crap around wally world with one of those things. Otherwise, I only wear the lightweight one during matches. It works very well for me.

Gman, There are videos on youtoube. Just search on postal match.

kmitchl, There was a stage like this at the SC State match. The hallway had 3 doors. I never say anyone get a PE for opening the door as you described. I think common sense prevailed. Now, if the door had been open...

Case 1 was the cylinder release came off and case 2 was the cylinder fell off the gun. Both were due to screws backing out. Both shooters knew that loctite would prevent the problem...

I would suggest you aim to win DC in every sanctioned match you enter. That will keep you challenged for a lifetime.