BrianKr

Would moving to an optical sight help? Yeah, It's a tough situation, but it can be changed. I don't know if it's age or just cussedness, but I was strongly left eye dominant and a right hand shooter, far more common than one might think, and today I keep my left eye open and shoot right eyed and right handed. The new micro red dot on the handgun did help with that. I simply keep the handgun situated for my right eye and the left eye has nothing to do as far as sighting the gun. But shooting left handed might actually be a better option. Many years ago I shattered my right wrist and I was told that I would never have full use of it. I love shooting and not being able to shoot was unthinkable. So I began handling my firearms and dry firing and shooting lefty while my right hand was still in the erector set. I found one thing out during that. I'm a better shot lefty than righty. I no longer own the skill of shooting lefty, but it is possible to learn. You do have solutions.

:-) Yeah, I got that. The data I had told me that my starting load was reduced. I just didn't reduce it enough so that I could work up from where I wanted to start. A few tenths less would have gotten me closer to where I wanted to start out. But small powder spaces, fast powder, and heavy bullets just make absolutely no sense to me. That seems like a pressure spike waiting to happen for the smallest of conditions and I think it's foolhardy. Remember bullet setback when using Bullseye and all of the blown up guns of what was it? 20, 30 years ago? Everyone blamed all sorts of things (detonation is the one theory that I remember best) when all it was was the powder space getting smaller from bullet setback (revolver) and when the fast powder ignited, the pressure spike blew it up. So when I move to a heavier bullet, in this case a very heavy bullet for the cartridge, I'll also move to a slower powder. Not having a pressure barrel I'd rather not guess about what the chamber pressure is but err on the side of safety with slower powder. As I already wrote, I thought I had a reduced load, but my data was meager. Clearly it wasn't a dangerous load, just more velocity than I wanted. I want a target/competition load; I'm not trying for max' energy. Yeah, I just checked and I should be able to safely load more powder, but I don't want to. I'm happy with ejection at this point. The action of the weight of the slide and the spring tell me that I'm pretty close to what I want. But I need more data so I'll put it across the chrono' to see what I actually have. I also need to check for accuracy. It would be nice to have the data of other folks doing this also, but it's no big deal.

USPSA, Dave. Only because that's what's most easily available locally. Somewhere IDPA (is that what it's called?) is shot in Maine, or I think that it is. I think I'd like to give that a try as long as my gear is acceptable. I don't want to rebuy gear. But I really don't know much about IDPA; I'd be lying if I wrote that I did. I know some of the rules are different, not a judgement on my part, just what I've heard. I started USPSA probably 6 years ago, shot it for 2 years and stopped for 4 years while I built a business. Now I'm back into it again at 63 years old. I'm not real good at it either. I shoot it to learn to channel my stress into a positive direction, and for enjoyment. My accuracy is there, but I'm not terribly fast. I'll probably be a "C" shooter if I classify this year. I finally have my M&P where I want it, now I'm fine tuning the load I'm shooting. If I work on my speed I'd classify higher, but I'm not a serious shooter. I like shooting and being out with other shooters. I try to get on a relay where the really serious competitors aren't. It's a great way to spend part of a day.

Thanks for the feedback Batmo. I found groups tighten with the 147s that I tested. That was one of the factors that prompted me to try the 160s. I actually intended to start below the load range and not have the gun cycle at all and work up, but instead it appears I just lucked onto the "proper" load range. I'm also thinking that the heavier bullet will knock over steel better than a light fast mover. Do you find that to be the case with the 147s?

Whoops! Yup, there it is. I must not have been signed in. Thanks for your patience.

Anyone else playing around with that combo? (Bayou Bullets 160s and Power Pistol) I like the 147s that I load and have begun shooting in my M&P, but I figured I'd take it further to see just how much I can tame the 9mm. I did consider using 231 but I wanted a slower powder for the sake of safety so I bought some Power Pistol. Very preliminary results, as all I did was load for function. The first load was 3.8 grains and a COAL of 1.150. It gave a bit more energetic ejection than I get from other bullets with plenty of oomph. So I lowered the charge to 3.7gr* and that was more like the ejection I get from other lighter bulleted loads. As I wrote, very preliminary results. I stopped there for the day. I have yet to chrono' them or shoot for accuracy. I'm looking for approx' 800fps to make minor pf. 800fps is a pf of 128, 790fps is 126. I'm doing this to get rid of the snappy 9mm recoil and both of those loads were more of a push. I like the feel of them. I swapped to 147s and that helped, this is just more of what I like with the 147s. But I want to shoot a bunch of these before deciding anything. * Yeah, I know that's backwards, but I thought 3.8 grains would be a low enough starting point. It was a safe load, just not what I wanted.

Cold and snow doesn't bother me all that much, but I hate rain. I just roll over and go back to sleep. The best I ever shot was a bullseye match about 35 years ago. The weather was freezing rain and it was difficult to just stand. I knew conditions were the pits and I only dropped 2 points that match. Go figure. Yeah, I know what happened mentally. I still don't like shooting in the rain though.

I read the guidelines and it states to search before posting a topic. I may have missed something, but I'm fairly certain that I looked everywhere... I see no search function. Where is it hiding? TIA

New here, but not new to firearms. Old retired fart. Looking forward to picking brains, learning more, and contributing when possible. I've been shooting a 1911 for 45 years, but recently switched to an M&P for action pistol and CCW. Now I dive into the deep end! :-)