Pistolpete9

I messed with mine and failed. Much easier was installing a CGW race hammer and adjustable sear. I'm in love with this trigger and this gun. Zero problems. The stock trigger is better than just about anything is stock, but you CAN make it better

Sorry to hear that. I was very unhappy with Century back when Grand Power was under them. Eagle isn't the world's best, but they are definitely better.

First match? Don't get DQ'd and you've done well. I wouldn't even think about what my score is on the first match. Come in last on purpose if that's what it takes. Then you can only go up! Classifiers are a good place to start for sure. You won't be moving and grooving much and there won't be a lot of options about how to "game" the courses. You'll be shooting minor, so pretty much any factory ammo would work. If you get it in your head that you are just going to focus on getting hits and not even pay attention to time, you'll do fine. Know your equipment is ready. The second you finish a stage, go reload those mags to full. Don't touch the gun until you are on the line and they tell you to. You're going to have fun!

Can't argue with St.Charles being nice. Definitely out of the way though and puts you on some of the more congested highways to get into the city.

My TS seems to be wearing down the sight channel but I don't know if it will continue to progress or if it is worn into fitting now. Overall I've been very happy with it and the customer service has been VERY good.

South and West St.Louis County are the safer areas generally. Festus is too far south and Waterloo is too far east. You don't need to go that far away. Up by the airport is generally not such a wonderful area nor is the River City Casino (although just a little south of that starts to get you into the better areas. You'll still be right off of 55 if you go south and traffic is minimal on most days. I would look around where 270 and 55 meet. The Brewery is right off of 55 and is really a great attraction in my opinion. Also, the Missouri Botanical Garden is one of the best in the world if you're into that sort of thing. Our zoo is often rated #1 free attraction in the U.S. but I don't go there too often so I can't speak to that. The Arch is cool and seeing a Cardinals game is fun if it isn't blazing hot (St .Louis summers can be just about as miserable as anywhere I've been). All kinds of other things to do depending on what you're into. Eat something on "The Hill" which is right by the Botanical Garden. It's a famous Italian food area. My favorite is going to Adriana's for lunch (not open for dinner) and asking Adriana to pick a meal for me that SHE would eat. I've never left disappointed. Lots of other really good food in St.Louis as well. Hopefully that helps.

Fair enough. I'm out

Sounds like an amazing rifle! The best I've shot is a Marauder. Get those head shots! Squirrels have the strongest will to survive I've ever seen. Anything but a head shot means a chase (that's not much of an option when doing eradication in a sensitive area). I really like rabbits! They just fall over dead typically.

Also, there is a bit of "what am I here for?" to ask yourself. If you want to win on a bigger scale, it's going to be handloading a .40 in a much more expensive pistol most likely. If it's simply to become a better shooter, than don't worry about having the best. Get what you want and focus on simply improving and having fun. I think a lot of guys get swept up in the gamesmanship and lose sight of what they actually are wanting out of the sport. Some guys really DO want to be the absolute best in the world and are willing to do what it takes to get there. Personally, I can't afford to do that (time, money, marriage) and really enjoy just seeing my numbers get better over time. Which kind are you?

Greg, sounds like you're talking about a springer/gas piston. His is a PCP rifle which are very different in the way they operate. They don't have the massive pistons that the break barrels have. Less likely to beat the hell out of itself, but could damage the regulator or such I guess. I'm with you though. Just drop a pellet in and shoot your grass outside. I've had to do it before. Of course, I guess there may be some that have a bleed off valve

Oh, it's an Edgun. Yeah, you've probably ruined it. Better send it to me and let me rebuild it. I'll have it back within 24 months. Awful nice rifle! What are you using it for? I actually still use a Benjamin Nitro Piston for the majority of my eradication. My PCPs can't keep a consistent enough shot string over the course of a lot of shooting and I'm just not willing to invest more yet. My Nitro Piston probably has somewhere between 400-500 pests to its name at this point. Very different from "hunting" though.

One shot without a pellet shouldn't break your gun, but it's a very bad idea to name it a regular practice. I do pest eradication with air rifles and can't think of a great reason to not just put a pellet in and fire into the ground or whatever is safe if you need to clear the gun. What kind of PCP are you using?

^ Shooting off the shelf ammo, I don't think .40 is the route to go, but that's just my opinion. Also, I think that if you end up going plastic in limited and shooting major, you'll probably want to sell and start over within your first year. Just a guess, but seems to happen a lot

I just tried a case of the Freedom Munitions 135 hollow points and they have been wonderful in my pistol. Accuracy is really good, shoots soft, and reliability is 100%. However, I didn't chronograph any of it so I'm not sure what PF it is. Also, my competition pistol has yet to choke on anything at all and I'm over 5k through it (less than a year old), so I'm not sure that it's a great measuring stick. For your price though, Freedom Munitions is probably one of the better bets. It is bargain basement ammo.

Fantastic plastic seems to be more of a production thing, but paying for a gun that has the ability to go with optics and then not using optics seems like a waste of funds. Production is also the best place for 9mm. Pretty much any factory ammo seems to get you easily into the minor range. However, I'm a horrible person to ask because I use a 9mm CZ TS that has been modded a bit. I shoot minor and use factory ammo. These are considered to be greater sins than showing up with a Hi Point to many, but you have to do what makes sense for you. The really invested guys are going to tell you that you NEED to roll your own ammo and they might be right. I compete mostly in outlaw matches and the skills there are not nearly as close as at Area matches where a hit or two can make the difference between first and fourth place. I say that to say, do whatever you feel works for you and don't be afraid to make the wrong call. If you decide to get really into the sport, the changes you need to make will become obvious. Just get out there and play!

That's a great idea and my wife would probably like that much more!

Way to get that first shot off! Watching these makes me hurt. I can almost keep up with the pace of your shooting, but that draw to first shot is really what makes a great plate rack run. I waste far too much time there. Looks like you are going to get along just fine with that Atlas.

Seems like equipment issues are the lowest hanging fruit for sure. If you can't routinely get through several hundred rounds without a problem, you're going to lose several seconds (at least) every match. The red dot will probably be corrected pretty quickly if you dry fire at home. It was hard to pick up much else because you were struggling so much with the gun and not shooting like you normally would.

I would add another thing that I know I'm going to get blasted for, but it works. Xbox. Get a Call of Duty game and use a semi-auto rifle or pistol and you will really improve your fast twitch muscle in your trigger finger. Good trigger control; NO. Build raw speed; YES. I know that it sounds unconventional and I'm not promising it will make you a better shooter, but it will improve your trigger speed. I'm not a GM or even a M. My draw and transitions are not very good and I still don't have as strong of a grip as most of the guys here. The one and only thing that I feel confident I could match most of them on is trigger speed (unfortunately this is the the most worthless of competition skills). My little brother is an expert with pistol and rifle in the Marines and he has a very fast trigger finger. He never shot a pistol until about a year before going in the Marines. Xbox fingers!

A friend of mine and I used to end shooting sessions with a mag dump race. Usually our muscles were used up anyway and accuracy was starting to decline. It was a good way to figure out what stance and grip worked for faster shooting and we quickly discovered that it's difficult to keep a perfect run going all of the way through a full mag. We were total rookies and had zero instruction and it helped us become....faster shooting total rookies

My TS is absolutely amazing and I can't recommend it too much higher. It is a bit on the heavy side for steel challenge in my opinion. Once I get it on target, the rest is easy, but draws and wide transitions are noticeably more difficult than with a lighter pistol. That's just about the only negative. That said, if you are already invested in the platform I would personally stick with it. SP-01 with all of the Cajun Gun Works goodies will be one heck of a gun. I would be shocked if you aren't very happy with that decision.

Memphis, I assumed the same. As a matter of fact, I felt it was true halfway through all of the runs I did. I think the brain has a tendency to round to the best results. It's similar to people who shoot 20 groups that average 1.3 inches, but have 4 of them go sub inch and they say the rifle is MOA or better. All A's going really fast is definitely way at that distance, but when I'm trying to pull .11s it really is beyond my limit (which probably explains why I rarely get those splits while competing) . YMMV, but then your probably a better shooter than me too, so that's not surprising. That's kind of what I want to see. The differences on this from different level shooters. Thanks!

+1 That is not C shooting. A somewhat finicky critique that I would have is it looks like there are stages where you might get into a cadence of shooting regardless of distance to target. I'm not 100% sure that is what happening, but it looks and sounds similar to what I do at times. Really make sure that your eyes are part of your brain's discussion on how fast you should be pulling the trigger. I end up not getting good hits on the longer shots and going a little slower than I should on the close in ones when I get into cadence mode. What I'm wanting to hear when I watch my own videos is that when engaging targets from different distances the splits should be noticeably different, but transitioning from target to target at equal distances should be hard to hear. Approximately zero of my videos actually sound that way.... Nice performance! Punch out a few classifiers and there is NO WAY you will remain at C.

I'm willing to bet that the spring is a big problem. On an inertia gun there's not a lot of leeway. That's why something as simple as changing the weight of the gun can mess things up.

How old is the gun? That click happens to me, but I use a Mossberg and that only happens if it goes over 400 without a cleaning. Odd that an inertia gun would do that