SA Friday

Here is what I would do. I would push the far left target/steel array towards the center rear of the berm, Move the upper left target/steel array into the back left corner of the berm. Take three or four of the walls and run them straight down the center forcing movement from the left of the berm to the classifier array. Take the back right targets and put them on the right berm just up from the classifier array. Run a fault line angled from the walls in the center back to somewhere about a third up from the left corner of the berm. Starting X's on this fault line; shoot em as you see em. I'll put something together in a powerpoint to show what I'm talking about.

I'm not suprised about this at all. The first 4th gen I looked at kinda shocked me. The area where the front of the newly designed guide rod and the bigger front hole in the slide for it are really touchy dimensions. With that front washer being made of fairly thin and light metal, I could see a recoil spring popping through the hole and getting jammed there. I liked all the other changes but this one I wish they would have skipped and stayed with the older assembly.

Didn't Hart used to have a Rem 700 custom tune package where you sent him a new Rem 700 and he tuned it to shoot 1/2" MOA? That might be an option. Can't really screw up getting a GA though...

Limited and Production are two different versions of the same game. The equipment options from each result in the shooter focusing on different skills in unique ways. When I switched to Limited, my draw and reload were very solid, but my movement did and still does suck. Limited, you get to focus more attention on your movement because you are not jamming a new mag home every time you move. stick with Limited for a while. Focus on learning how to move faster and more efficiently. Then, if you want to go back to production later, it isn't going anywhere.

G-man. in that price range, he is best off buying one of the high end factory made rifles in a 30 cal mag cartridge that fits him best and putting the rest of the money into the best optics he can find. I have lots of factory non-custom rifles that shoot 1/2", but the work was put into customizing the ammo to suit the rifle, and the money was put into good optics. Really, if he wants an amazing shooting gun... Drop the $3k into reloading equipment and some materials for the 300 Weatherby. That cartridge is very accurate, and more than enough to do the job. Reloading for it cuts a lot of the ammo cost for weatherby ammo.

He likes FO sights with the FO missing... Don't ask me why, but he seems to get by with it like that.

TG, Solo 1000, WST, WSF, N320 All have advantages and disadvantages. TG makes coal train smoke with lead and moly bullets; Solo 1000 power lots fluxuate like a pregnant woman's emotions and doesn't throw very well but overall works with just about any bullet in all three calibers; WST very reverse temp sensitive; WSF is the slowest of them all; N320 is twice the price as all of the above. With jacketed bullets, go with TG. With lead, Solo or WST. Independently wealthy or buy the hype that 320 is twice as good as the rest, then get the N320. I've shot them all in all three calibers... I shoot TG and Solo exclusively based on the bullet.

Steve, it could be the grip you are using is placing the meat on the inside of your left hand on the extended mag release and causing the digging. I had this problem a little when I first started shooting. I stuck with the extended mag and my grip changed over the years to better stabilize the gun and take my palm off the mag release. I don't even feel the extended one now unless I'm shooting a G35 with really hot defensive rounds. Try tilting the top of your left hand more, pointing your left thumb more and parallel with the barrel while gripping the gun. This could help place the release in an open pocket at the point where the inside of your thumb and index finger bend while gripping the gun.

Change the sights: Warren-Sevigny, Dawson, or Heine. Tru-grip on the guns grip to help with establishing a grip like Flex was talking about .25 cent trigger job. I like to smooth out the edges on the safety plunger too when I do this. 3.5lb disconnector, polished extended mag release I prefer the extended slide release, but most don't. You might want the std flat slide release. you may or may not want to change out the guiderod to a non-captured stanless steel, and you might want to go to a little lighter recoil spring, but don't sweat this. If it's cycling your ammo, then leave it alone. As with anything in life, moderation is the key. You start taking mods on a Glock too far and you just get an inconsistant running firearm.

Are the distances in the sketch to scale? If so, that's a HUGE amount of space and you are asking the shooters to essentially traverse a zig-zag course over 50-100 yds to shoot a couple of targets. The targets have to be shot up close or take head shots over 25 (?) yds. There isn't really any option there. It all the points for lots of time or no points for a shorter time. Either way the HF is going to be pretty low; so you are forcing everyone to run to each spot and shoot up close. The end result is a foot-speed contest. Are you going to have them shoot the back steel from inside the jail area? How far is that? I have some ideas, but the scale question is a huge factor and has to be answered first before I could recommend any changes.

Find a teacher. It doesn't necessarily have to be a GM high-end USPSA shooter. Find someone who is solid in your area that teaches well, and solidify your basic shooting skills. Then practice those skills in live and dry fire.

Uh oh... What are you going to send me? I've only seen one stage that this was done. It was a Frank W. stage down at PPPS. It was a blast, but I'm not sure it would have passed a Level II match review. We all agreed he was on some really good drugs when he came up with it.

I saw that on the one primer too. I think based on the pics there could be enough shaving to allow some gas to escape before the divit is flattening. This would account for the molten shaving and probably some of the reason the primer didn't completely flatten out. I thought about the gun unlocking too early too, but the OP stated he was using a heavier recoil spring in the gun in question. One way to check if this is the problem is to try the heavier spring in the working gun and see if the results occur again. Either way, I wouldn't be shooting that ammo out of that barrel.

That was kind of the point of the thread. I keep reading about the no smoke lead and moly but when I shoot it, it smokes. When I see other people shoot it, it's smokey. I think the above is the reality. Whether it matters or not I think depends on whether you're indoors, outdoors, it's windy, calm, sunny, overcast. I practice with lead. I shoot at a range with sandy brown berms, if it's still and the sun is setting in front of me, I have a hard time picking out targets when I am focused on my sights. It's better with FMJ. I look at a lot of Ben Stoeger's videos and follow his diary, it's pretty easy to tell whether he's shooting moly or not, and he usually mentions it. I was just hoping to see the miracle "no smoke lead/moly load" I keep reading about. Maybe it's coming... Weather conditions come into play too. Shooting here in CO with very low humidity and a considerable lack of O2, they don't smoke hardly at all unless you are shooting something like TG. When I was tinkering in MD with 9mm moly loads, the smoke was much more with all that humidity and O2. Wind comes into play as to how long it remains in front of you. BTW, 147gr Precision with TG is one of the most accurate round I ever shot out of a pistol, but you had to take a break between every 5-6 rounds to let the smoke clear to find the targets again. It was like shooting black powder, no joke.

VV N310 is the only powder I've ever seen bulge a case like that. You have HIGH pressure. The pressure is flowing the primer cup into the firing channel, sheering of pieces, and then continuing to flatten to where you can't see the sheering. That's probably where you are getting the funny primer marking from. The next round's primer is getting marked up from the sheered part of the previous primer. Just because the primer didn't completely flatten and the sides of the primer is still rounded doesn't mean you are OK. N310 is very fast burning, and probably isn't staying in the high pressure zone long enough to totally flatten out the primer. The different barrels may have different throat lengths, and in your buddies gun the bullets might be getting chambered into the rifling. This would cause the pressure spike. Second, if the chamber is throated differently and is more loose, you could be seeing the brass bulge when fired from his gun and the tighter chamber in yours controls the brass more. N310 is very touchy stuff, and pretty unforgiving.

Was the squib loaded while in the manual index mode or auto index mode? Auto. Was still in the learning phase and I knew it indexed as I fixed another problem. So, no double charge, but could have been a squib buried in the completed rounds. I dump my completed rounds pretty regular, and if I have a questionable reloading sequence, I pull the entire bin. If I think there might be a double charge (only once), I soak the rounds in bleach water and toss the whole lot. Bleach kills the primers.

Bullet set-back, heavy (but not double) charge, or out-of-battery discharge. I suspect all the smoke is the gasses melting away lead from the bullet below it. I suspect bullet set-back from the looks of the primer hole and the short OAL.

I started my 14 year old step-daughter and 12 year old step-son last summer. I spent four good solid days at the range with them and progressed them through the basics and then into basic safety while moving. The 12 year old wasn't ready for USPSA, but the 14 year old was. I had them both shooting steel challenge wed afternoons down in Pueblo, and then got the 14 year old into the USPSA matches. I had them shooting a glock 17 and a glock with an AA .22lr conversion. I stuck with the 9mm with the 14 year old as she was ready to handle the gun. The 5" S&W M&P is probably the most ideal youth pistol out there as it accomidates small hands very well. If he's big enough, a glock or XD wouldn't be a bad starting off point either. I was having my step-daughter shoot limited minor with extended mags. I wanted her focusing on the shooting and not the reloading. The extra rounds in the mag, a good trigger job, and a tungsten guide rod helped compensate for a lot for her small stature. She's a pretty small girl for her age, but handles it well once I got the gun set up for her. I NEVER asked her about her overall times. I always stressed getting her hits and being safe. I helped her with walk-throughs and stage plans at first and then let her do it herself unless she asked for help. It's her shooting, and not mine. I wanted her to feel ownership in the shooting and not just doing what 'Dad told her to do'. I also would not RO her if at all possible. She DQed her first match, and it was a huge lesson for her. It made it easier for everyone me not being the RO, and she learned there weren't going to be any short-cuts or exceptions made for her. FWIW, it turned out well for my kids.

I'm fairly certain there is no such thing as shooting lead or moly coated lead without some smoke, but there is quite a range to color and amount. 180gr BBI's and Solo 1000 in my limited guns makes very little smoke. Just do a string search on youtube for SAFriday (no space).

I haven't dwelled into this subject as much as I would like to have, but there is some information out there concerning grass fed and free range vs grain fed and stock yard animals and their nutritional impact when eaten. I know we have switched over to grass fed/free range beef and it seems to have a much less impact on my digestive tract. The fat in the beef is yellow instead of white. Some of what I've read suggests it's better for your LDL/HDL levels. We've switched to locally produced eggs from free range chickens lately too. The owner is a family friend and we've been out to his place. There isn't even a fence or door on the coop. They are legitimately free range. So, switching to buffalo meat could be the same effect as most buffalo is grass fed. Like I said, I just haven't had the time to dig into this info as much as I would like. It does make sense though. I could see how feeding cattle with corn all the time would change the meat and result in different LDL/HDL levels in us after consumption.

Food Rules by Michael Pollan 1. Eat Food 2. Don't eat anything your Great-Grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. 3. Avoid food products containing ingredients no ordinary human would keep in the pantry. 4. Avoid foods that contain HFCS 5. Avoid foods that contain some form of sugar in the first three ingredients. 6. Avoid foods that contain more than 5 ingredients 7. Avoid food products that a 3rd grader cannot pronounce. 8. Avoid food products that make health claims. 9. Avoid food products with "lite", "low-fat", or "non-fat" in their names. 10. Avoid foods that are pretending to be something that they are not (MARGARINE!!!, insert Jake's avatar here). 11. Avoid foods you see advertised on TV. 12. Shop the edges of the grocery store and stay out of the middle. 13. Eat only foods that will eventually rot. --- 20. It's not food if it arrived through the window of your car. 21. It's not food if it's called by the same name in every language. --- 27. Eat animals that have themselves eaten well. I don't agree with all of his info, but the mass majority of them I do. Then again, I don't necessarily agree that the Atkins diet is best for everyone either. I had a horrible time keeping my cholesterol levels out of the danger zone while on it. More vegetables and less meat helps my system. Not everyone digests food the same. For example, GMOs cause my wife all kinds of problems with her lupus. We went to a GMO free diet and she came off of low grade chemo (methotrexate) within a month of the switch. I suspect what we DON'T know about nutrition at this point would fill volumes.

Curtis, this is what you need to read and listen to. Big Panda is right, but you are not at a stage in your shooting where this will benefit you very much. Learn what Charlie is talking about along the way, but you really need to focus on reducing the amount of time it takes to do EVERYTHING that doesn't involve shooting an hole in the A zone. Dry fire practice reloads and draws till they are automatic and clean. Live fire practice your movements till you learn where to shave time and/or can eliminate overall time by shooting and moving accurately. Lastly, you are at a stage in your shooting where spending some cash and taking a class with Avery would shorten your learning curve.

I easily have 350k rounds reloaded on my poor little RCBS Pro 2000 of all kinds of rifle and pistol rounds, and have only loaded one squib. These rounds were loaded mostly manual index. Only within the last year or so have I had the auto-indexer on it. The squib was entirely my fault, I caught it, but only after it hit the finished bullet bin, and I pulled the ammo for slow fire practice with my 45 ACP 1911. Found it in the last 5 rounds fired. It's 99.9% reloader, and 0.1% machine.

Pretty much not any more input to give on this topic: Solo 1000, WST, WSF, Unique... 147's don't shoot well out of the CZ's but a few have gotten them to run. It's a very few though. 135's are the way to go with a CZ. WST is your best bet if you can get Winchester powders.

I don't have answers to your questions, but I do have more possibilities for the problem. Your follower or springs could be catching on the bottom of the mag tube lip. Also, your ammo's OAL could be enough to cause some binding inside the mag tube and not letting everything move freely.