DarthMuffin

+1 on everything BBBB said! Saved me a lot of typing :-) I might add that the MG gold bullets tend to take a bit more powder than others to meet PF. I haven't noticed a recoil difference there, but theoretically there should be a very slight one. Also, I have not noticed any smoke with Bayou Bullets and VV N320 powder. If I looked hard there's some I'm sure, but not that I notice. With the Rainier plated bullets I used, they sometimes had tumbling/accuracy issues. It seemed to happen more out of guns with conventional rifling, in polygonal barrels (Glock, HK, Tanfo) they worked fine. I just finished up a big batch of MG bullets and am switching to Bayou. So far no reason at all to switch back.

Ha! What a board! I got contacted by someone with a broken vibraprime who still has the tubes. Happy day!

No dillon pickup tubes, but I'll see what I can work out with the Hornady pickup tubes. If I put them in the open end they'd be upside-down, I'll have to see if I can take the plastic picker-upper off the other end.

My beloved vibraprime is down to one tube that works, and one that sorta-kinda-works-sometimes. Is there anything out there suitable as a replacement? I have a Hornady LNL-AP loader, so I'm not sure if the Dillon one would work.

They look good but I'm kind of hesitant to spend any more on running type hats without being able to try them on first. The few that I've tried have brims that are too long and come down at too much of an angle. They end up coming too close to obscuring the sights for comfort. Guess you only need to see your feet when running?!? I have two to try that I found on this thread. Now I just need some hot weather and a match or two to try them out :-) Got a bit sectional match this weekend where I'm ROing.

Depends on the stage. I prefer to empty the gun. If I have time after the last target (a couple of steps to the drop point) I'll drop the mag and lock the slide back. Option 2 is drop mag and rack, safety is engaged with one hand as it's placed in the drop point. Just on safe is only used when conditions look favorable (the drop point is such that it's just shy of impossible for the pistol to move around and take off the safety).

Yeah, google the USP Match for an example of that. It's not a great compensator, but it is one.

The RO has the power to ask the current shooter to Stop, ULSC, ask him to come back when really ready, and proceed to the next shooter. Nowhere in the rules does it say you can't, right? If it really bugs you and you think someone is taking so unreasonably long that they're delaying the match and hurting the sport by making it less pleasant for other shooters, then stop them. Or turn around and loudly ask the whole squad if they think he/she's taking too long. Either the peer pressure will speed him up or they'll agree you should stop him or you apologize and there's no problem. We don't need another rule. If they keep doing it every time just to be an a** about it (a USPSA fillibuster?), piss people off or gain an advantage (like the waiting for a cloud example) that's unsportsman-like conduct and we have a rule for that.

The key point here is that per 8.3.1.1 they can't leave the start position without your OK once you give the "Make Ready" command. While there's no time limit there's also only a limited number of things you can usefully do from the start position. Just wait for them to get their mojo together. If a guy is continually holding up a squad, hopefully his squad-mates will have a little chat with him. I find it kind of ironic that the super squads are generally the slowest squads. Not because they don't help tape and reset (they do), but due to the long starts and walkthroughs. Maybe there's a lesson for me to learn here?

I am looking for something compatible with muffs. Doesn't have to be a ball cap, I'm open-minded but I don't see how anything else would work. The Rudy Project hat still looks best to me, but I just ordered one of the Arc'teryx Baller Ass Caps (I was scared to google that) because I had a gift cert for amazon. Still not white, but looks light enough. *cross fingers* If I don't find a solution I like this season, I may just ante-up to a pair of amplified custom earplugs next year. I do a lot of RO-ing so plain earplugs aren't an option I feel comfortable with, safety-wise. Plus, talking to your buddies is half the fun of a shooting match

The visor idea won't work, I'd just burn up top where it's, uh, thin. I saw the columbia ones at a store locally, but they're still pretty dark. Didn't think they'd be much of an improvement. In my experience a lighter color makes MUCH more of a difference than anything else when standing in the sun all day. The Vortex one is getting there -- but looks suspiciously like a mesh trucker's cap I like the looks of the Rudy Project ones, I may have to try them. I have a runner's cap that's pretty close to what I want but the brim dips too much and blocks the sights (apparently runners don't need to see more than 50 feet in front of them?). Maybe this is my million dollar idea -- just need someone to manufacture them

Why would anyone make one of those in black? Strange. Anyhow, try searching for "chill vest". I got tons of hits that way.

I got a do-all cart and have been through one 3-gun so far. It's worth keeping and worth the price, but not without issues: Gun mounts were upside down from the factory. The gun mounts still poke up quite a bit when folded. Not very space efficient. My front tire rubbed the fender initially. I had to bend the whole frame a little to get it straight. No easy way to mount a small cooler. The way the gun mounts work, the long guns interfere with my shooting bag. I rotated the top mounts so they're outboard of the frame, helped a little. Side tires come off easily, but the front one is the one you really need off to fold down tight. It's a little harder to remove, but does come off (and still, we're talking less than a minute added per match). It does seem plenty sturdy enough though, and the fabric and stitching looks like it will hold up fine. I'm going to swap gun mounts with my old cart before I sell it, that will probably solve a few problems.

So I have a collection of various sponsors' hats and without fail they're all a nice heavy material and usually in tactical black. Does anyone make one suitable for hot weather? Ideally I'd like one light colored (white, but tan will do), as vented as possible without letting too much sun in, made out of a thin wicking fabric, and compatible with standard earmuffs. All the ones I've found are either for women's running/tennis, or incompatible with earmuffs (some desert/fishing/outdoorsy hats).

I like the long eye relief on my TR21 for my AR10. Would probably not have problems with a TR24 either, but the 21 was what was available at the time...

I question that too, but I guess if Amidon gave the OK, who am I to argue? I still don't like off limits areas, they're a band-aid for a poorly designed stage and just invite IDPA-style forced procedures. Change up the problem rather than forcing the solution you want to see. The only two uses I can imagine for them are at a small club's L1 match where they have limited resources for props/walls/etc, or if you have an oddly shaped or under-construction bay and need to keep people out of a certain area for safety reasons. I designed a stage similar to the above for our L2 match last year where the RO could walk around the tunnel. To avoid shooters bypassing the tunnel I just put a step-on activator in the tunnel. The above stage could have been fixed by that, or by just eliminating the right-hand port in the tunnel and associated targets, or by staggering the ports so you can't "shoot through".

Thanks for the clarification. There are some "default assumptions" in USPSA, like hands relaxed at sides if not specified. That's the comparison the CRO gave, but there's nothing in the rules about always observing 2x4's as fault lines and assuming the space they enclose is a shooting area... I will stick to my guns next time Or better yet be onhand to help set up the day before.

No diagram. I'll pay more attention and try to bring it up *before* shooting the stage next time. Not a big deal this time since I got the reshoot.

Quick question that came up at a L1 match: If the stage description does not specify that targets must be engaged within a shooting area, is the "default" that it should be so? This came up because there was a stage, with boards set out to define what one could assume was a shooting area. However, the stage description said nothing about it. It just mentioned that all targets must be engaged through ports. I did that, but with disregard for the fault lines defining the shooting area. I couldn't find a rule covering this, but the CRO said it was a "default" assumption and I got a reshoot since they couldn't remember the count for all my procedurals.

Thanks for the link DBTN! The first pic on your thread is exactly the problem I'm getting. I'll try beveling/polishing and get a pair of glock extractor springs on order (I'm not fluent in Glock, same spring for all models I assume?). If that doesn't fix it, then I'll go to the light piston.

OK, so here's the history: I have an SLP Mk1 with about 1000 rds on it using a slightly cut-back lifter, opened the loading port, and gently rounded off the corners of the chamber at the extractor. It's always worked perfectly with Walmart federal 7 1/2 bulk pack and the heavy piston. I recently had c-rums weld up a new lifter (with slot). I installed it and ran 2 boxes of shells through in practice, worked fine... Fast forward to my first match since that and I had a bunch of fails to feed. The shell seemed to be not lining up with the chamber, it just didn't go in. Sometimes pulling back the charging handle would get it to go in, but most of the time I just racked it out and racked in a new one as I was under the clock and couldn't take the time to analyze the problem in detail. I'm thinking the problem must be related to the lifter and lack of the "V" fork to guide the shell. I just did about 45 minutes worth of searching and reading other SLP threads and didn't find anyone else with this problem after a welded lifter. Any suggestions what I can do to help this? Do I need a stiffer spring somewhere to compensate for the welded lifter? Should I try the light piston? Bevel the edge of the chamber? Try different ammo?

I have a Young SLC with a JP low mass rifle buffer, just used it in my first match yesterday. It worked perfectly, and am very happy with it. However, after I bought it I chose to go with a JP barrel and adjustable gas block for the rest of my build so I probably could have got a package with JP's bolt carrier for about the same price. Live and learn I guess. The only thing left to improve on my rifle is the loose nut behind the trigger. That needs a lot of work still.

I remember a stage at the 2010 Nationals where you started outside the shooting area, which caught me (procedural). There was a target right at the start in which you would break the 180 if you took it anywhere besides just across the line. Yeah, definitely a mind trick stage, and yeah it caught me. Not saying this is a bad thing though, it's part of the game.

5.0 is still very good! But I know how you feel. I just got my weak hand reloads figured out (still slow, but can DO them reliably now) and now this comes along. I'll never be one of the cool kids

If it was ordinary scoring, this is easily explainable by the other shooting doing bad on two low-point stages. If it was time plus, he must have done enough better than your friend that his overall score added up to be more. Example: your friend worked out to 40% on each of 4 stages, for 160pts. Other shooter got 80%, 80%, 5%, 5% and he's at 170pts. With time plus and the 100 points per stage, all stages weigh in equally. With normal scoring an 8 round speed shoot stage weighs in 1/4 as much as a 32 rd field course.