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Tim James

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Posts posted by Tim James

  1. Geez, so many people in here are posting with injuries you'd think dry firing and grip strength training was a pretty dangerous and risky affair.

    It certainly shouldn't be!

    Yeah I noticed that. I rarely dry fire, so I figure if I take it easy on the grippers I'll be fine.

  2. Stage 2 – Saving the swinger for last was a complete waste of time. It took you at least 7 seconds to run back to the start position and engage the swinger targets. Think about the Hit factor math on this for a second. The high hit factor for this stage was about a 7 hit factor stage in Production. That means that every second you should be accumulating at an average of 7 points. Alternately, every second you waste is worth 7 points. 7 seconds of wasted time = 49 points, which is almost the same hit factor penalty as 3 misses and 1 no shoot. Think about that. You could have engaged the swinger first and gotten and additional 3 misses and 1 no shoot but shoot the stage 7 seconds faster and have the same hit factor. On stages like this its best to take advantage of the opportunity to catch the swinger at a specific timing. In this case it was best to simply drop the ball, draw to the swinger and wait for it to come out on its first pass. Then engage the bottom target twice on the first pass and the top target three times on the second pass. Then leave. It does not make sense to waste any more time on the swinger after that. Any more time wasted trying to ensure hits on the swinger would be a wash from a hit factor perspective.

    Thanks for spelling this out. I watched some videos of this stage and didn't think I'd be good enough to hit the swinger right away. At a local match I'd probably come back to it because I enjoy shooting the match clean. But your explanation makes sense.

  3. Can you all see the time? I could when I was posting it, but now it doesn't seem to resolve.

    I can see it fine. It says 1.62.

    (This was a joke... :))

  4. I'm also cross dominant (the other way) and all my shots make a nice little pattern on the left of the bullseye. I figured it was one of the things you described. I'm going to work on that next. Normally my accuracy is acceptable but steel plates at 20+ yds kill me.

    Thanks for posting this to motivate me. Now I just need some practice ammo.

  5. Your thoughts are just about 180 degrees wrong! A poor fitting shotgun will always be a poor fitting shotgun and all the effort in the world to make up for the poor fit by trying to mount it will never help. You say that you have to bury your cheek in the stock just to see down the rib. Bad fit! You are trying to modify your face, head and body to fit the gun instead of modifying the gun to fit you. Do yourself a huge favor and buy Rollin's book ($20.00 cheap) and learn about fitting your gun to you.

    Pat

    No, I was echoing people above who said it was difficult to fit a gun (with an expert or your book) to a new shooter. That's me. I don't intend to continue using my 870 that beats me up. I'd like to find a new semi-auto that gets me close enough to run a few months of sporting clays, then really dig into the gun fit.

    Part of this is motivational -- I'll never bother to work on gun fit unless I start shooting clays again, and I don't want to shoot clays unless I get a gun that beats me up less than the 870. Once I do, I'll put the time into getting it fit perfectly. That's just my personality.

    If the book will help me evaluate guns for purchase, I will check it out now.

    If the semi-auto will make very little difference compared to a pump gun, then I'll wait until I'm motivated to fit my 870. I'm not trying to be the guy that throws money at the problem. But I can afford to buy a new semi-auto that fits "good enough for now" if it will help in the long run and get me out shooting sooner rather than later.

  6. This thread is a year old but thanks for bumping it. I'd like to get back into casual 5 stand and sporting clays. My 870 Express beats the shit out of my face after 100 rounds. I can't see down the rib unless I dig my cheek into it. (Funny story: I shot clays with my groomsmen and later realized I'd have a yellow bruise on my cheek at the wedding; luckily it was barely noticeable.)

    I was going to buy a cheap semi-auto to see if that helped. What I learned from this thread is I only need to get a gun that's "good enough" and then worry about fitting it later when I'm better at mounting consistently. The most important thing for me seems to be finding a gun where I don't need to bury my cheek to see down the rib. I ought to be able to do that at a store by myself. (If I'm missing something, let me know.)

    This will help me overcome analysis paralysis without needing to find an expert right away. Thanks everyone.

  7. I don't reload. But someone else suggested keeping an eye on ammoseek.com. If you're on the east coast, check it every morning as soon as you wake up. I've seen boxes of 9mm each of the last two mornings. Once I was too late, but this morning I picked up some range ammo. With shipping it's 30-40% more than I pay at Walmart. At least it will get me through this month's matches.

    It's something to keep in mind for those of us who don't need much ammo and on balance have more money than time to call Walmart or local shops every day.

    I told myself after 2008 that I ought to stock up. But my Walmart never had enough ammo to buy in bulk. Maybe I'll switch to large orders online from somewhere like Georgia Arms. It's probably easier for reloaders to stock up.

  8. Some of you might be interested in a computer game called Receiver, by Wolfire. The focus is on manipulating weapons and magazines with individual keystrokes for each task -- dropping the magazine or opening a revolver cylinder, loading individual rounds, racking the slide, etc. It's a glorified tech demo that was created in a week, so there's very little game here. You wander around procedurally generated rooms and shoot automated defenses. But it's unique enough that it's worth playing around with for 30 minutes. Unfortunately they're charging $5 for it, so check out these videos to see if you're intrigued.

    It doesn't sound like he's a gun expert. Feel free to send the developer constructive criticism.

  9. There was a brief moment toward the end of the Hotchkiss challenge, where they showed Mike Hughes cleaning the bore -- and it was beautiful to watch. He ran the wet swab through the bore, withdrew it, as it exited the breech he spun it in his hand, draped the rag/cloth over the other end with his other hand, and ran the patch through the bore.

    Yes, I'd still like a thesis on why some of the top USPSA shooters screw up on pistol challenges every now and then, but it's always enjoyable to watch their preparation and economy of motion.

  10. I don't remember the bullets being visible last season on the shots and misses. Do you think that was added in post-production, or do they have high speed cameras on all the targets? The bullet from the Sharps rifle hitting the target looked really odd, like it was added digitally to show the viewer where the rounds went.

  11. Brad, I don't know if you're checking the thread, but I appreciated your presence on the show. The cameras had their eye on you, and when I watched carefully I picked up some little USPSA maneuvers that even I do in C class, like going through the motions before the stage, and an intense focus during practice on the particular skills you'll need to compete. I don't think an average viewer would notice, but I liked seeing USPSA's principles of visualization and economy of motion on display. Thanks.

  12. $45-50 is pretty steep since I am just doing local matches for fun, but I might try out one of the premium brands to go along with my two 6-shell CCW carriers. I have a little time and money to experiment. It will be a birthday present anyway. (I believe I got 3-gun gear for my birthday last year too; I'm glad I have at least one hobby that provides a few gift ideas!)

    Good point about space being a premium. I am left eyed but right handed, so on multigun stages I will have my handgun on my right hip and my shotgun on my left shoulder. I won't have any room to put caddies around my right hip.

    And thanks for the tip on the velcro side saddle. I couldn't figure out the right keywords for those. That's what I wanted. I don't want too much weight on the gun loading weak hand because uh... I'm still rocking the stock Wal-Mart 28" barrel or whatever it is. :blush:

  13. Andre was dead weight to the Red Team. Watching him shoot just made me cringe... :blink:

    Speaking of the : blink : emoticon, I wish the editors had given Kelly a bit of a reprieve during the elimination challenge practice. Most Hollywood actors don't even blink that much, although I guess he hit where he was aiming.

  14. I'll be honest with you, I just don't feel like spending an hour researching 3-gun accessories. Does anyone know who makes the 4-shell holders in these weak hand reloading tutorial videos?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wU5dsnBsxXs

    What is the best 870 side saddle for a left handed shooter? It looks like some of them are so long they would get in the way of my fingers. I am looking for a couple of shells on the gun for quick weak hand reloads, whereas most of the ammo will be on my belt. At least that's what I'll be trying out first.

  15. I'm not so sure about those "steel backers." It looks like there's a lot of flak coming out the back of them during the slow-mo introductory parts. Maybe it's just the disintegrated bullet?

    Why didn't anyone on the blue team go inspect the prop afterwards? I would have been crawling all over their sets right after each match to make sure they didn't screw something up. Perhaps it was against the rules.

  16. Well, I have to admit defeat. I was hoping a well qualified original post would be enough to get a quick cheap recommendation, but you guys put too much doubt in my head! :rolleyes:

    I will take a look at a few optics at the local matches and find something I like for Christmas. I have lots of other gun gear coming in for my birthday that will keep me busy, and I love shooting irons anyway. Will grab the Miculek comp for the hell of it.

  17. Hmm.. I was going to throw a simple red dot on there given that local matches don't go past 50 yards and I just wanted to play with one, but now I'm tempted by that Millet DMS-1 (or similar) because I'll be able to try out a few more aspects to an optic than just a dot. Total rifle newbie so I want to see what I like. (And as I mentioned, I'd go try out everyone else's equipment first but the birthday is coming too quickly!)

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