4sooth

Florida Invitational circa 1984 or so.It was the year the freeze wiped out the citrus industry in central Florida. The first day our group shot the standards.Starting at 50 yards you went to one knee and engaged three targets at 35-45-50 yards.First shooter was a glasses wearing youngster with sandy hair--kind of bookish looking.At the beep he goes to one knee and fires the required six rounds in just over 5 seconds.We all thought this was WAY too fast to hit anything at that range.This guy only got faster as he got closer to the targets.Still thought he was shooting too fast to hit anything.I think he dropped 8 points out of 30 rounds.Won the whole match too!!!! His name--Barnhart something--Jerry Barnhart I think!

Mid eighties at Tangi Sheriff's range in Amite,Louisiana--weekend IPSC match. Two shooters from a prestigious law enforcemet agency which shall remain un-named.As these two were signing up they allowed as how they were not here to show anyone up but after all they were from a "prestigious agency" and recieved state-of-the-art training.Much snickering in the background! Stage one--Bianchi barricade with two paper and two poppers at 8-10 yards-run to next barricade with similar setup.Along the way shoot the five poppers at around 8-10 yards.Both did this in around 40-45 seconds with all A's. Next shooter was Donnie Chatelain--near world class then and later became an instructor at John Shaw's academy.He did this in 8-9 sec's down one point.The hot shots proclaimed "That was fast shooting but as you all know no one can hit anything shooting that fast!"Donnie raked down the poppers on a near dead run!These two had never seen this type of shooting before so their whole world fell apart.One of these guys was an instructor at their academy.He had a bad case of I can't therefore you can't. By the end of the day they finished 34-35 out of 35 shooters--not even beating the women who were novice competitors.

The one I had would do about 2.5 inches at 75 yards using Cor-Bon 115 gr. ammo. In my Glock 17 this ammo does 1340+ and out of the AR it did 1680 depending on the lot number.At this velocity the stuff was explosive on armadillos!!

ANCO---I will send you some pictures of the plate racks I make.If you can weld or have a buddy who does----one of them can be made easily in one day. They are a "improvement"of the ones Ray Chapman has at his training facility.Good scrounging should allow you to make one of these for around $75-$100. Give me a week or so to find the diagrams and you're on your way to better shooting---and having all your buddies want to borrow them!!

Duane our squad was the second of the day on that stage.She did tell the previous squad the same thing but they ignored her and no one was DQ'd. Go figure. This is the only bad experience I have ever had with a RO at any major match. As you say most are ready to bend over backwards to help.

Locally we have used starting positions which preclude creeping or peaking. When using a barricade have the shooter start in the middle so no amount of leaning will expose the target array.Hands in or on marks or holding a rope or other device that is attached to the barrier. On the subject of ROs with unusual ideas or misconceptions about the rules--I had a strange rule interpretation while attending the Florida state match at Eglin AFB in the 80s. During the walkthrough the RO explained that due to the low(and just built) berms any time while the shooter was engaging targets and the muzzle went above HORIZONTAL, which caused the gun to briefly point over the berm,that this was unsafe gun handling and would result in match DQ.She also explained that during reloading the gun must point at the ground---not up in the air or over the berm as this is also unsafe and would be a match DQ. One of the shooters pointed out that every time anyone fired the gun it briefly pointed ABOVE horizontal and would that not violate her idea of unsafe?She agreed that it would indeed be unsafe and we should be sure that it did not happen. Two shooters hauled out their $100 and said that they were protesting and to get the match director right now.She threatened to have them removed for unsportsman like conduct.The rest of us told her she was out of line and needed to call the director and settle the issue. After 15-20 minutes things were sorted out (she was sent to the stats shack) and we shot what was a very fun stage.Started with two Kansas double speed setups and proceeded to some very tricky poppers through some high and low ports. Very good match and beautiful ranges.

Some local shooters have VERY light triggers--on the order of 1 pound and clean theirs after every match. I probably shoot around 2000-3000 rounds a year at best.I really envy you guys who can shoot that much(which I would do if I had a place to shoot) In this area-Southeast Louisiana it is hard to find a place to train due to developement.The nearest place to train is 150 miles round trip and only available on saturday. One of my shooting buddies once said that anyone who becomes a pro shooter should have to move here and use a out of state for their first year of professional shooting!They would appreciate what they had!! LOL Sorry!!I should have said out of state gunsmith

Guys--bear in mind that these guns are ONLY used for playing games.IDPA,IPSC and general plinking. I use a seperate gun--another 17--for self defense purposes. I would never carry a gun this dirty on a daily basis.My personal 17 was used as the sole semi-auto in a benefit match for the Marine corps to raise money for a formal ball.It digested 6000 rounds of donated ball ammo in one day with no malfunctions.Other shooters here have had similar experinces with their Glocks.But if you are using a gun for carry then by all means clean it regularly.

My Glock 17 has not been cleaned since 1997--about 12000-15000 rounds.Some of our local shooters have Glocks with over 30000-40000 rounds without cleaning.I would lilke to be able to do a torture test on a 17 to see how long it will go between cleanings without failure.