CC3D

USPSA by personal preference but if you're very new to pistol shooting the format of steel challenge is likely the most beginner friendly. Major v Minor is referring to power factor. They are two different point systems for the same target. In USPSA, the scoring system for minor is A = 5, C= 3, D=1. For Major, is A = 5, C= 4, D = 2. Major rewards "more recoil" with more points for your non alpha hits. This changes your aiming scheme and acceptable sight picture a bit. Minor shooters are punished more by non alpha hits compared to major shooters. Theres a lot more to be said on this but I am trying to be concise. Power factor is determined by multiplying bullet weight by bullet velocity and dividing by 1000. Cut off for minor is 125, for major is 165. Different divisions have different rules for major and minor. Some divisions are "minor only", meaning no matter what you shoot you are scored minor. Other divisions like limited have a minimum caliber for major, like .40 SW, which is why .40 is still popular(ish) in USPSA. Open allows major to be achieved with 9mm caliber bullets. I don't think IDPA has major scoring, but they definitely have a minimum power factor for ammo so people cant shoot bunny fart loads. Could be wrong on that. I hope that helps sorry for the word vomit Edit: several people responded at the same time sorry

Not specifically in the email but I'm fairly confident they only sell it in black as there are no other options.

Someone already covered predictive vs reactive shooting so I won't comment much more on that. I see it really as a mindset, are you reacting to your sights being on target, saying "okay, we're lined up, fire the shot"? That's going to be slow and inefficient. Relying on not just sights but index and proprioception, and using those things in conjunction with your sights to call shots is predictive shooting. Ben Stoeger and Joel Park's new book "practical shooting training" covers this stuff really well. I'd recommend it. As far as the laser thing, as others have said, I wouldn't use it. It's going to train you to look at your target for the information needed to call your shot. This information should come from the sights, not the hole on the target. Either way, I personally find a lot of the dry fire accessories gimmicky. If they make you want to train more that's great, but sometimes that money is better spent on ammo than the latest dry fire gizmo. A timer is a good thing to spend money on as well and can be used in dry and live fire.

Welcome! Not a pro by any means, so take this with a grain of salt. What your referring to people here usually call your "index". It's arguably one of the most important things to develop for practical shooting. Basic concept is being able to look to a point on any target, and when you bring your gun up or transition to that point, your dot/ sights will be lined up right where your eyes are looking. This sounds like what you're referring to, although I may have misinterpreted. You hit on an important point though, aiming does not exclusively require use of the eyes, proprioception is very important. Look into predictive vs. reactive shooting and index if you want to hear more educated/ in depth discussion on these ideas. Welcome and best of luck on your journey!

Update: Finally got a version I'm happy enough with to show off. I've had a functional model for a while, the problem was durability as mentioned before. To make enough room inside for it to be weighted realistically, had to make the walls too thin to drop on the ground. Once I made it durable enough I introduced another failure point which was the door I had built in to the bottom of the magazine where the weight would go in. This was just a simple piece that slid in and out to allow access to the hollow interior, but created a weak point at the bottom of the magazine. I have relocated this to the top (which I did not do originally because it would be less easy to open and close). The current mechanism is dropping the weights in through the top and securing the top piece likely with superglue or a set screw. Here it is, ignore the ugliness on top that piece is a placeholder while I model one that fits better. I'll continue to use this version in dry fire to test long term durability. My standard is being durable enough to drop onto a carpeted floor repeatedly and not break. Highly unlikely that a weighted version of this will ever be durable enough to drop onto a hard floor like concrete in a garage. I'm really happy with it so far, fingers crossed this version can withstand the continued drop tests.

Quick update, I heard back from LOK about the grips today. The insert is not removable and therefore not replaceable. Unfortunate but I am still interested in these grips if anyone has experience with them and can speak to their merits.

I've only been out to shoot twice since, but I did notice some changes. When I watch back my match videos, my gun flops around a bit more than I'd personally like. I thought this was due to me not applying adequate grip pressure for .40. Now that I've changed to the springs on my gun I can see that my gun was just over-sprung. The floppiness was coming more from the dip after the shot rather than the actual recoil, which I can see now if I slow down the video. My recoil control is still certainly not where I'd like it to be, I'm sure I'll never be able to run it as flat as I can my 9mm but I can do better than right now. That being said, the spring change (11#) made a massive difference. Return to zero is much better and the hits on target verify that. I'm also running with a buffer despite the advice given. Undecided on it currently but it gives me piece of mind when running the lighter springs. Havnt had an issue with it yet and checking after every session to see if it's getting chewed up. Brass still landing 2 bays over.

I shoot cheap coated bullets loaded over titegroup. I pop my barrel out and run a brass bristle brush through it every other time I shoot, to ease my conscious about leading. It also makes it less work when I do a deep clean, so I don't have to run 100 patches though it. As for the rest of the gun, when it starts to look like hell I'll remind myself to clean it, which usually doesn't end up happening for a weeks after. IMO, if it starts to jam up in practice it's time to clean it, until then its up to your own standards.

Vase mode is an interesting idea, although if you plan to drop the mags to practice reloads, the one line wall thickness won't hold up. The issue I'm having now is with making them durable enough to drop repeatedly while fully weighted, even with several wall layers its still an issue. Will post an update when I get a droppable version printed up.

Dang, I didn't even think about that possibility. That makes me wonder if these inserts for the grips is question are removable, and if so, replaceable. That way if the g10 starts to wear down you could pop in a fresh one and move on. I'm going to reach out to LOK tomorrow to see if that function exists.

I've had my eye on the LOK "CZ Thin Brass w G10 Bogies Insert" grips for my TSO for some time. They're very pricy compared to other grips by LOK so I want to make sure they're worth it before making the purchase. Does anyone have experience with these specific grips (maybe on a TSO specifically)? How does the G10 insert hold up over time, is it just glued in there or secured some other way? Am I giving up some of the grippyness of the regular bogies by going with these? Any help is appreciated. Also I'm having a hell of a time finding a decent picture of a TSO with these grips on. If anyone is running these please send me a picture!

As others have said, wear what is comfortable and sturdy. I have never been a fan of the "stretchy" jeans fad, until I bought a pair to wear in the colder months to compete in. That extra bit of flex does come in handy when doing some of the acrobatics certain stages require. They're also sturdier around the waste I find, with more cushion like you mentioned. As for shoes, Solomon speed crosses are super popular. They're a trail running shoe and a happy medium between cleats and running shoes IMO. Worth looking into, they may suit you for that ground you described (depending on how actually solid the surface is) but I would not use them inside (regular tennis shoes probably fine). I think some sort of cleated shoe is important if you're shooting outside. It took one slip n' slide in regular sole shoes to convince me no to wear them at an outdoor match again. The traction they provide is very confidence inspiring, especially on rapid deceleration or tight corners. I'm not a fan of boots just because they're super heavy and I fell very uncoordinated trying to run around in them, but some people really like them. I'm no expert but that's what makes me most comfortable and confident to run around in.

To be fair, sub 100 out the door in the store is better anything I've seen online in the past year (at least) once you account for hazmat and shipping. Most "found primers on the shelf!" posts I've seen have price tags of 125 minimum.. so 90 bucks is good news to me! Lets hope it keeps on going down.

I'll add my two cents since no one mentioned them yet, I use Brazos precision bullets for all my reloads. They're the cheapest on the market usually by a few cents per. Some people don't like them but I've loaded around 5k rounds of them so far without a hiccup. About 1k of those have been .40 through my TSO, no issues of any kind yet. They sell by the pound, not by number, I assume to keep shipping simple. You can mess around with the amount you buy in order to get the best deal on shipping. For example, you can ship 4 bags for 14 bucks, but it also costs 14 to ship 3 or 2 bags, so buying 4 is the best deal. But to ship 5 bags it costs 21. Probably TMI, but check them out if you havn't already.

No, they have a compartment built in where you can add weights. I just use unloaded bullets (no casing) to weight them because that's what I have around and they're a known mass already, so easy to count out how many I need. And as for the cost of the ender, I paid like 160 for it. They go on sale all the time, and they have different versions of it like the pro and v2. All that being said, prices may have gone up, and sub 200 for a machine as reliable as the ender 3 is hard to beat.

It will depend on what bullet weight you generally use. When I made dummy mags I add weight to them with unloaded bullets. It's easy to do the math on how many you'll need, but again it will depend on your bullet weight and whether or not you run extensions (more bullets more weight).

I am currently working on a dry fire mag for the TS line up of pistols. I'm getting very close to a finished and functional model. Theres a thread I started on here where I've been posting updates. Someone asked me to do a shadow 2 magazine there, which I plan to do once I finish the TS model. I don't have a shadow so I just need someone with dial calipers to send me detailed specs and I can get cracking on one.

I use an ender 3. I've had it for 2 years now and still runs like a champ. I seriously have used it multiple times a week since I got it and its still going.

Exactly! Trust me I love watching match breakdowns and seeing people blast through stages. I eat that up. But the sport itself has a lot more nuance when you factor in the competition aspect, why certain competitors chose one stage plan over another, how one decision helped or hurt time/ points etc. I know nationals were live-streamed this year, that's a step in the right direction. Some simple commentary or even live updates could spice it up a bit. I've heard the argument that the sport doesn't translate well to the screen, and is better enjoyed by participating. There may be something to that, but we somehow managed to make other sports like golf watchable, I'm sure we could do it with USPSA.

Absolutely, some professionally produced match footage banked with a bit of commentary could go a long way too. Theres an old series called Hot Shots that follows Jerry and Max and some other pro shooters around for a few seasons. I've watched it a dozen times. Something like that applied to more modern media could reach audiences in a new way. Right now when you search up USPSA on YouTube theres nothing real great in the way of professionally produced match footage. Mostly guys who are positing their own stages which is fine, but very little of anything interesting in the way of commentary. I'd love to see a new initiative with USPSA media trying to do a more modernized take. Based on a lot of the recent conversations in podcasts and this thread, I don't think I'm alone in that desire. I'm interested to see where potential new leadership may go with this in the future.

That's an idea I've been toying with actually, trying to figure out a way to implement that. I really like the design of the sebo magwell but cant justify spending so much on something that will be completely chewed up in a few months. I don't care about how the "chewed up" magwell makes the gun look, but the metal gets worse and worse on your feed lips the more jagged/ textured it gets. Working out an exchangeable plastic protector for the magwell like the Dawson design could solve that issue but would be difficult to implement with a 3D printer..

I was actually about to start work on a similar design. I was going to go for the TEvo sports looking *thumb rest [generic]*. I'll do some mock ups and post them here to see if anyone has feedback. I also have already made a version that resembles the style of the TS2 thumb rest that comes on the racing green model: Didn't end up using this one because I like my thumb to sit a bit higher, but it works just as well as the one I currently have on the TSO.

Here is a link to one I found, says 4.75 inches. https://tromix.com/product/witness-hunter-8-pound-booster-spring-w-guide-rod/ There are a few websites that sell them from what I could see in my limited research. Edit: On second look, 4.75 appears to be referring to barrel length but I could be wrong. I saw in another thread that the guide rod is longe for the witness '"long slide" or maybe "hunter"

I know a few people have replied already, but here is one more vote for the locking race holsters from Ghost. I have a Ghost "The One S" for my TSO and I love it. "The One S" and "The One Evo" are the exact same construction, they only differ in color scheme (according to customer service). Those are the supported ones. One thing to note is that the "Ultimate" line (the unsupported version) is not compatible with the TSO (again according to customer service). There is a slight bit of play in my holster currently, but it can be adjusted out if you want to fiddle with it. The lockup is super secure so the bit of play doesn't bother me. Its a rock solid holster for a great price. You can buy just the holster body for a good discount too if you have extra hangers from other rigs around!

I wanted to show off something I've been working on. I really don't love the design of the factory magwell on the TSO. Looks wise it's okay, but it sure is tiny. I've had my TSO for a few months and the magwell is already completely chewed up. I've been working on a 3D printed design for a better looking magwell with a wider opening. Say what you want about 3D printed parts, they aren't bomb proof, but hold up better than you'd expect. They're also cheap to make if you own a printer, so replacements are easy to come by. If you know CAD you can also make super custom items that are spec'd exactly how you like them. For the life of me I could not get good lighting for this picture, but I'm happy with the look. A good eye might notice a 3D printed mag release and thumb rest, both my design as well. Anyone else running 3D printed parts on their race gun/ rig? I'd love to see some of the stuff people have come up with. You really can't beat the customization that a 3D printer affords.