JeremiahD

... and everything else is a "protip"... ugg.

6/4 Oxford match - Results in attachment. Went in with no goals or expectations, just packed my stuff and went to have fun. Ate well, hydrated (85F), caffeinated, and stayed motivated. Good squad, good match. Went surprisingly well. First stage (2) gun had multiple (like 5...) malfunctions. 1 was my failure to seat a mag (arg), the rest were FTF. Kept it together and got my hits. Second stage (3) I started crapping out on my follow up shot accuracy. 1 FTF. Disassembled gun and found it was pretty dry on the rails. Had switched lubes, this one didn't last. I lubed it up nice and wet and it ran without an issue the rest of the day. Will stick with wilson ultima lube in the future. Did reasonably well on the classifier (el presidente) but had a brain malfunction and it took me a full second to pull the trigger on T1 after the turn. no idea. I was on the sights, just froze. Last stage was a blast. gave myself fits trying to split it into 8's during the walkthrough, said screw it and threw in 2 more mag changes. practice is paying off, nailed them and got a respectable time and a 6.4399 HF Need to work on follow up accuracy, getting right back on the sights and pressing the trigger. Need to stay with a thick lube in the summer (still) need to improve speed keep on keepin' on oxford.bmp

week of 5/29- 6/3: DF- still following the stoeger plan, concentrated especially on practice stages since I was off and I had some time to set them up and reloads because my new carriers came in and I need to continue erasing the bad habit I drilled. Practice stages are definitely helping me move better around a course. Reloads are about back to normal. Making sure I practice "around the belt" to work all the mags. Speaking of, I reached a landmark this week and wore out two "new" mags. Had to reset the feed lips in a vice, would no longer drop free. Mags retired to range use. Overall, NOT impressed with Wilson ETM mags between the follower issues and the feed lips. Yes I know its a consumable item.. PT- still frustratingly slow progress, and as a result of getting rid on distance running I've put on five pounds (and not in a good way). I will not change course for six months on the lifting etc, it takes time to see results but annoyed w/ weight gain. will watch the snacking, improve the diet. May add a long, slow run/ride day Friday 6/2, live fire. Worked target transitions and reloads in a modified bill drill for an hour. I'm pulling the first shots low and left on T1, both shots better but low on T2 and dead on on T3. Not sure whats up.

Hey now! Florida just a bunch of Ohio folks who got tired of the snow Besides, its your nom I'm seconding...

5/27 - BB: Ok, what a time. Great squad, great weather, great staff from the score guys to the Match Director (Thank you SARGE). My wife came out to watch and paste and had a good time. She was gracious to take video to critique so I have lots of great feedback. Goals for my first major match were: NO DQ, make major PF with my newbie handloads (*whew*), NO tail end charlie, apply lessons learned, use your head, keep upbeat and positive and have a good time. Goals met. Highlights: I was sweating the chrono, upped the load I was using 0.1 grain. Tested in at 187. Should get bonus points for shooting 20+ over major limit LOL... Had the pleasure of shooting with some very talented shooters of different backgrounds, including an excellent 'A' SS shooter who was all class. Took video of him to see what I'm doing right/wrong by comparison. Had a very frustrating stage (V for victory) where I planned well, and other than having two makeup shots force slide lock reloads at suboptimal places it went fine... until I got to the last two easy targets because I went dry. i walked back and found a full mag on the ground. I thought I had dropped a full mag after reload as I did a few weeks back and cost myself 3 penalties and a procedural because of it. I was so pissed off I couldn't see straight. After watching the video, I see now I stayed with the right plan, I just knocked the last mag out of the carrier on my second to last reload. I had been putting off buying more carriers, so its still on me, but wasnt the mental screwup I thought it was. Learned to thank the RO's, walk away, take a breath, come back and paste. Had the most trouble in memory stages, particularly where entire arrays would go hidden. Got flustered on one by not paying attention to shooting order (my fault) and had to wing it with a partial plan. Missed a target/FTE Had the most fun (and did surprisingly well) on athletic stages that required movement, odd starting positions, low ports, platforms, kneeling etc. I'm still not fluid or as decisive with my movement as I'd like but I did well. Hit the Dirt and Charlie Dont Surf were a blast. Was dialing speed back some for fear of a DQ. Let go more on the final stage (Charlie Dont Surf) and pushed the speed back up for fun. It paid off well and I think I'm sticking with that, No need to fear the speed if you stay focused. My gun is adequate for playing around at this, but I'm rapidly catching up to its limitations. Pulled low C's and D's on long shots with the trigger, high misses on a couple others overcompensating for it. On one stage with a headshot at range I found my wide front sight completely obliterated the target area. Had to eat two mikes rather than keep eating up time and hope I got a lucky shot on it. New gun has moved up the priority list this year. Overall the hits were good: 199 A, 6 B, 77 C, only 10 D (3.5% of my overall hits), 2 procedurals (both FTE, 1 turned off brain, 1 lost the mag). 11 Mikes, which is unacceptable. 5 weren't engaged at all (!), 2 my front sight obliterated the target, 2 were low into no shoots (trigger), and 2 I lost on the move. Interesting, I can still remember every one of them.. Times need work. Its really holding me back. Lessons Learned/reinforced: I'm still "slow" but I know where to put some effort during PT. Match videos are helping. I'm starting to regain some fast-twitch muscle fiber and my joints are improving. On DF "stage" days, I need to work in complex stages that require memory. I may ask my neighbor to occasionally set them up so I only have a few minutes to plan before practicing.. Staying positive is key. Leave the bad stage in the bay and move on to shoot. Dont overthink, analyze at home. If someone in your squad is down/negative, bring them up. Pasting is (still) good therapy THERES ALWAYS A PLAN. Yes, even for 8 round mags. Find it, rehearse it,and shoot it until its nonviable then adjust! Mag carriers have been ordered, videos posted and analyzed, more targets, bases/stands, and a barrier made up on sunday for DF.

I second the nomination for Sarge. If I had to pick one person (tough to do, btw...) on this forum who has been the most helpful to me, a complete stranger and very green newbie to the sport, he has my vote. From pointing me in the right direction to the good local matches to offering solid advice to a new shooter without making me feel like a complete idiot to giving me an excellent gunsmith contact when I needed one urgently, he's a great ambassador of the sport and the forum! Serious bonus points for putting on & directing an excellent match this past weekend at the Buckeye Blast

5/27 - Buckeye Blast, first level 2 match. I'll update the range log with observations Monday but one of the most important things I wanted to get down at the moment was this: Last match I was lowest C. After that I said: Goal for next match is not to be Tail End Charlie. I finished my first L2 66/105 in C class. Yes, its remarkably average, but its NOT last.

Been using these: http://www.cabelas.com/product/clothing/mens-casual-clothing/mens-casual-pants/mens-cargo-pants|/pc/104797080/c/104746680/sc/104262480/i/104076180/cabelas-mens-ultimate-rugged-pant/1938658.uts Looks good, moves well, very comfortable with the bit of stretch they have built in, has held up when I have had to get on the ground. I may have to find some shorts for the late summer club matches, will see.

I understand that, and meaning no offence but.. I'm saying pricing them as "collectors items" makes (really) no sense, considering what they are: used colts. I think Polymerfeelsweird's comment hits the nail more on the head (reject guns being sold for custom high end 1911 prices). to each his own I guess, but its not like these are armorer built guns or used in any historical event, they're just off the shelf colts with a barcode and stamping that the buyer chose to send back. I evidently just dont understand the colt collectors market well enough to appreciate $2500 for what they are. Me, I'll wait to see if the 1911's the CMP has get approved for release.

Because Im an idiot and posted the length I used for the shorter .451x .615 projectiles I have. The coal has been corrected to 1.230

I've never really thought of cerakote to be all that abrasion resistant. Look at the cerakoted M4's out there in sandy vacation spots that have it rubbed of the high spots. I'm surprised they even originally specced it for a holster-carried sidearm. as far as the price goes... pff... 3k for a used colt?

Just to update, in case anyone runs across/searches this thread in the future: in my 4.75" Colt Commander, the lowest load using Bullseye under a 230grn plated round (.451x.644) is 5.0 grains with a COAL of 1.230 (+/-005) making 167.3PF, average of 9 rounds tested. Your mileage will vary Now looking forward to a 5" 1911.

5/21 - Miamisburg match, 6 stages (5 +1 classifier). Well put together, great stage layouts. Reasonble turnout and good RO'ing kept things moving well. Wet ground, dry weather. The shoes continue to pay off- dry feet and good traction throughout. Without doing a stage by stage breakdown, it went like this: I'm showing progress, but still have a habit of breaking concentration, getting off the sights, or not gripping well. (7 D's, 7 Mikes, 0 NS) That’s all just laziness and bad habit and can be fixed. Will continue to work to eliminate. Speed is the biggest thing keeping me under the local SS B shooter. I'm consistently with him points and penalties. I am at least %15 (3sec) and at most %30 (11sec) slower than he was on each stage. 6 mags not seated hurt me here as well (see below). Continue to build fundamental gun handling (draw, transition, reload, etc) and work hard on fast movement and landing well in a solid shooting position to reduce time getting on target. Got tired on last stage, did a couple of stupid things. will have to address before next weekends all-day L2. Bad draw killed the classifier for me (bad grip on the initial movement caught the beavertail in the web of my hand and had to rebuild the grip costing at least a second in a stage of 5-9 seconds, and my mental game. Unacceptable.) Things I learned: -I've been practing mag reloads with empty (1 snap cap) mags. I have trained myself to not use the required force to seat a full mag with a strong spring. I immediately went home and made up 24 dummy rounds set to an obviously too-short OAL for identification and will use those to practice REALISTIC reloads. Will be hitting those hard daily until I erase the bad habit. -I'm eating, drinking/hydrating etc. but need to take a good look at combating fatigue later in the day. Cost me at least 2 mikes and a brainless move that could have gotten me dq'd -DF works. Continuing training and PT as planned. More practice and experience in field courses is needed but I'm gunning for B (at least..) by the end of the year. Other notes.. Got a chance to try out a proper SS gun. I need to upgrade as soon as is financially practical. Got to chrono my final 230grn load, and it does make major (whew..) Good squadding makes all the difference at times. A lot of good feedback, positive attitude, chances to learn yesterday. Great experience before next week.

update on the5/15 indoor match, I placed 8/29 overall and second in my division (of 5). Managed to beat all of Production and half of Limited, go figure. I know the local indoor match is a relatively limited talent pool, but I'm pretty ok with those results String 1: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5qCNf6Yn9axMDQ1SGszMGprdlE String 2: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5qCNf6Yn9axX3Qycm1JZ2RYWU0 String 3: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B5qCNf6Yn9axYlByLTRIUE5XcTQ

5/15- Open Range! Landed a membership at the local club so I can FINALLY live fire practice from a draw, some movement, etc. Did some basic DF elements drills live and realized the reason I have two modes (match vs practice, match being slower..) is that I'm confident during DF that theres no live ammo, no potential for an accident etc and go all out. I naturally back off during live fire (and matches). Was a revelation, and am looking forward to fixing the issue with regular live fire supporting the DF drills. I can be fast and safe, just need to get over the mental block. 5/15 - last full indoor match of the season. Doing better with my movement, draws, mag changes, and transitions. One NS, and just barely nicked it.. Asked someone to video so I can see what I'm doing and I've already identified more to work on/smooth out. 46A, 1B, 21C, 4D, 1NS, 54:36 5.8131HF Not bad, probably still middle of the pack, but I'm applying lessons learned and that works for me. I'm taking too long on longer shots, but I'll work on that once I have draw/mag change/movement down pat. Where I'm at now compared to where I was in December when I first started this trip is night and day. I'll be working hard on field skills this summer.

Keeping up on DF, improvement happening but slowly. Moving better, working on staying low during movement and "landing" smoothly. The stoeger schedule I'm following is working out, although I miss the occasional day due to time. Need to carve out a set time. Getting burned out on PT with no real goal (ie, race to run or trip to do etc) kind of let it slide the last couple weeks. getting back into the schedule/habit. Need a decent goal.

I'm aware, which is why I put that in bold at the top of the post I was just hoping to get a range or an idea if anyone else used it before I ran off a half-dozen loads to test. no dice, so I tended up taking about 5 loads to a friend who offered to chrono. None made major in my barrel much to my surprise. I switched to production ammo temporarily until I can get something going, I'll probably just hold back the bullseye for range loads and switch to clays or viht. The end-all solution is going to be switching to a proper 5" 1911 competition gun in addition to the powder switch. thanks for the feedback

5/8- Miamisburg indoor- . Table starts no longer phase me, partials no longer psych me out so this was pretty much a go-fast stage. Tried to stay on the sights and only shoot as fast as I'm able to hit, keep on the speed on everything else. Had a lot of fun, brought the time down, got my hits. This has been really beneficial for applying lessons learned, too bad its a winter league and ending in a week or so.

5/4-5 got into a car accident, took the days off from training. 5/5 - was able to chrono a range of my loads (thanks again!) and found even my 4.7's don't make major (161pf). All loaded ammo has been relegated to the practice bin, switched to the factory PPU I've been running on Monday indoor matches (%100 recoverable brass for the foreseeable future. I'll go with a straight 5.0 military ball load which I KNOW makes major once I crank up the press again. 5/6 - Circleville match. Alot to say here. Overall I'm trying not to be really disapointed. Need to focus on what I did well and learn from the rest. Unreasonable to think I'm going to be Rob Leatham on my second field course but 49/70th and low C sucks. Goal for next match is not to be Tail End Charlie. Brought a notebook, took good notes immediately after each stage. What worked, what didn't etc. will use those to guide training, but will be sticking with the DF plan for consistancy for now. The entire course had stuff new to me and was broken up well so I had to think hard on a stage plan for each. Heres a summary: -First stage (3)- had a pull-cord actuated target which was no issue. table start, all mags on table, no good way to break down the stage into 8's until I realized if I took the first two targets plus the pull, reload, step back and sweep four targets at each corner at nearly 170deg (yikes..), I was then positioned within arms reach of a reload, and the remaining targets were broken up into 2 neat groups of 8 with only 2 runs and a mag-grab reload on the way. I'm pretty proud of that. Gun malf (fte/double feed) cost me nearly 10 sec and a mag (Arrg), otherwise this was a solid run. 20A, 1B, 8C, 1D with 0 pen. Lesson learned- Keep walking the stage in your head until you shoot. Theres a good plan there someplace! -Second stage (4)- Lots of low, bent, or kneeling shots. Again, came up with a very solid stage plan. Again had a fte/double that cost me time, and worse, I had drilled the stage plan so well I followed it... and dropped a nearly full mag right after the malf. Shorted myself ammo on last target. Took the gun out to safe area and swapped the extractor with a good used one I carry, problem solved for the rest of the match. 21A, 4B, 5C, 1D, 1M (last target.) Lesson learned- The ability to adapt a plan on the fly is just as important as making a plan to begin with. Bring spare parts/tools. Consider two more mag pouches (6 total) -3rd (5)- first time with a texas star, first time on a swinging bridge. This stage went suprisingly well, considering the variables. Had the option of shooting it twice due to a range equipment malfunction (I did, just for the experiance). Missed the star a few times, but cleared it properly (head, shoulders, knees and toes..lol), went low and spread my feet for a good position on the bridge and it was a nonissue. Shot while moving for most of the rest of the stage, pushed the gun around aggressively, ran from point to point. happy with this one, despite the low score simply because my time was within 5 sec of everyone else. 22A, 1B, 7C, 1D, 1M (yanked trigger) Lesson learned- Clean up your speed work, otherwise its just fine to push hard if you stay on the sights. -4th (1) Classifier 03-03 (take em down). Just shot this at wilmington with a respectable score, figured I'd push the speed and see what happens. lost the sights, sent 3rd round just into a NS. As soon as I did that I knew it was a wash so I slowed down and got hits and didnt worry about score or time. not a huge loss, but irritating Lesson learned- Its NOT fine to push hard if you ignore your sights... -5th (2) first time with popper-actuated targets and corresponding no shoots. Tough to think around the course with 8 rounds, and I took my time to come up with a good plan. Unfortunately I tried to get cute with the plan and since the stage brief read "engage targets as they become visible" I did exactly that. Since the steel actuated targets were reasonably visable on the ground I took them there, then took the steel. Got dinged with two procedurals. Lesson learned- ask the RO if there may be ANY discrepancy between your stage plan and the rules. one last observation, the painted steel sights were pretty dingy halfway through and very dificult to pick up. I need to remember to clean and retouch them after every shoot until I move on to a dedicated comp gun. 5/7 - match cancelled due to conditions, rested up, cleaned gear etc, got caught up on domestic stuff.

Thanks but... not 230gr plated, or bullseye powder i was looking for a ballpark with those specific components.

I always took that rule at face value (no grip panel mods in SS) just to stay on the safe side of the rules. That said, I have worn a noticeable, deep groove into the (rubber) left grip panel on my 1911 from constant mag changes (and have the matching callus on my right thumb from all the rubbing...). I've often wondered if an RO/MD would call me out for that since its no longer in its stock profile and one might assume I did it intentionally..

Thanks GB, Thats pretty darn close to some of the loads I worked up, thanks for the confirmation. I suspect the 4.0 load will be way too low, and th 4.3 will be on the bubble with a commander length barrel. Thanks again.

anyone using bullseye and 230gr plated rounds? Buehler..? Buehler..?

results are in, 10th (out of 22..) place, 329pts, 0 penalties, 64.34sec, 5.1135HF 204.2087 points, 56.72% (of a class B open shooter) Taking a hard look at that I see I have the most points with 0 penalties out of the field (good) but my time is still on my average for this short indoor course (55-75 sec). I was hoping to see improvement in time and I think I flubbed it in two places: Losing track of the front sight while attempting to go fast, and making up those shots which cost me seconds. I suspect I could have eaten two misses, saved the time, and moves up two places with a HF around 5.8. I know it took me a full second to process the math in my head for a makeup shot, another for each transition or remain on target and make the shot, and another two for going to slide lock 3 times. Probably more. The obvious solution is don't do stupid things like lose the sights and buy a miss. Problem solved. The secondary solution is hang a spreadsheet in my head to I know immediately how much time a makeup shot is worth and build that possibility into the plan on the fly. Will continue to focus on speed during all DF. Crush the gun, go fast, done.

I'm now 2 months into taking this seriously and I feel I have all the wheels on the ground finally..