sslav

Maybe its just me, but I do not see how else you can evaluate your progress. Does hit factor on any given stage mean anything without comparing it to how other shooters shot it? When I started in this sport, skill of a B/C class shooter seemed exceptional to me, skill of M or a GM was nothing short of magic. You bet your a$$ I was comparing myself to C shooters to evaluate my progress. Neither is a good indication of how safe the shooter is. A guy who is a member since the late 80s but has not shot a match in 15 years is not safer than a D class shooter who is shooting matches twice a month for the last six months. A D class shooter may break 180 as he reloads going left to right. An M class shooter can break 180 as he zooms past a target a little quicker than expected. Comparing USPSA to any other sport or competition is just... well... it's always gonna be apples to cantaloupes... watermelons to kiwi's... Whys is that? What is so special about USPSA? It is just a collection of skills. Seems like a fairly close analogy. Well I would not. On any given weekend I have a choice of at least one USPSA match within a 2 hour drive. If I expand it to various steel matches and IDPA I could probably shoot nearly every Saturday and Sunday and quite a few Fridays. I know that I am a borderline B class shooter. I know how I rank amongst the local B class shooters. And I know I can not beat A or better class shooters unless they have a really bad day. I know all of this before I leave for a major match. My goal in going is in measuring myself against a larger pool of like skilled shooters. Classification system allows me to do that. I could come in 95th out of 100 and feel pretty good about it if the other 99 shooters were A class or better. I could come in 1 out of 100 and have zero sense of accomplishment if the other 99 shooters are D class shooters. Overall standings in the match are useless to evaluate your performance unless you know the level of the competition. It all seems to come down to prize tables in the end, doesn't it? Maybe I do not have a problem with the classification system because we rarely see these beasts in our neck of the woods. But if some hypothetical C or D class shooter does get a trip to the prize table, maybe that would encourage them to continue in the sport and maybe get others involved which is to the advantage of USPSA. Maybe it would get a product into hands of someone who did not consider buying it but will now actually use it, instead of selling it off, which is to the advantage of the sponsor who donated it. Yeah seems like a really bad idea to me. Classification system allows shooters to evaluate their progress and encourages participation. Anyone who came in above C class % in that match is at least a B class in another division (and most of them are now at least a B in single stack). That exposes a flaw in the system that should be fixed, but it does not invalidate the system. Aside from these anomalies, performance of C shooters actually validates the system. Top legitimate C shooters actually came in within the C class % for the match. As to those that underperformed, well everyone has a bad day. I have certainly had meltdowns in matches and came in either below my class in % or very low in my class.

And is that good or bad for the growth of the sport? And is that good or bad for the growth of the sport? What do you think will happen to "spoils" when matches start drawing a lot less people? Do you think there will be more sponsors donating more prizes or fewer sponsors donating fewer prizes. Just my $.02

That is exactly what I expect to prove or disprove this spring. I will have to get a lot better at reloading my Benneli first. I am yet to fire a single shot from it, but I already have a negative impression because it takes quite a bit of force to get the shell past the magazine latch as compared to my Mossberg where they slide smooth as butter. Slav

Some of you guys really begin to scare me. Please, pretty please with sugar on top - lock this thread.

Don't use the reduced striker springs. And why not exactly? Reduced power spring with stock striker works 100% reliably with federal primers. There are plenty of revolver trigger jobs that will only work reliably with federal primers, nobody tells those shooters to go back to stock. And with a lightened steel striker Winchester primers work fine too. So what exactly is the problem with reduced power striker springs?

I know everyone says that you have to have a semi to be competitive. I've been shooting a Mossberg 590A1 for two years now. I do not think I have ever been beaten by a semi. I've been beaten by better shooters who happened to be shooting semis at the time. And I have beaten plenty of shooters with bennelis and remmies. After two years of shooting 3-gun, I have bought a Benneli. It was a s good deal so I bought it. We have a monthly knockdown steel match locally and I am planning to shoot both my mossberg and my benelli side by side in at least a few of those matches to find out exactly how much advantage a semi is compared to a pump when the skill level is identical.

I have a Rugger 22/45 MIII. It shoots well. My only complaint is that it is a real b!+ch to break down for cleaning. Field stripping of this pistol is more complicated than detail stripping of every other handgun I own. I made a mistake of detail stripping it once. I eventually got it back together with a lot of help from the internet and trial and error. My solution is to stop cleaning it. I run a bore-snake through it once in a while and lube it up a bit.

Seems to work for the World Shoot. They got 1200 shooters and have yet to publish or recognize class winners at all How many shooters below M class even bother going to World Shoot? What exactly is the problem that is being solved here? That people do not hit their class percentages in matches? Why is that a problem?

I do not have a titanium striker, but switching to a lightened steel striker eliminated an occasional light strike I would get with WSP primers and reduced power striker spring. Given the extra cost of federal primers and the difficulty of finding them, I think the lightened steel striker is well worth the cost. Slav

I shoot because I enjoy shooting. I attempt to estimate the cost/fun factor of a match and if the ratio is acceptable to me I go. If it is not acceptable, I do not go. If match fees are raised to increase the payoff, it affects the cost/fun factor. So it may affect whether or not I will attend the match. But how the money is split up in the end has no bearing on my attendance. On the flip side, whether or not some big name guy is shooting the match, also has no bearing on whether or not I will shoot it. Slav

Thank you very much. Exactly what I was looking for. Slav

Is it possible to do and if so, how?

I guess that a lot of not so great shooters tend to think they get better with a lot of mods......... I am not sure how you get that from the data collected. The only reliable pieces of information is that there are a lot more B and below shooters than A and above shooters that have responded to the poll. Of course you did not need a poll in the first place to know that. Other than that I see no statistically meaningful trends.

If shooting on the move is a legitimate shooting challenge, then why is shooting on the move over uncertain/difficult terrain less of a shooting challenge. Are shooting from a boat, a jetski, a suspended bridge or a rolling rail cart legitimate shooting challenges?

I use a black hawk double case for rifle and shotgun. No complaints. At ranges where I tend to shoot it is rarely convenient to run back to the car to swap guns between stages. It is a soft case but I've had no issues with the scope so far.

The guys in the video seemed to be loading pretty slow. Belt caddies seem faster.

That means nothing. It was obviously there only because the stage builder had too much time and an extra piece of wood on his hands.

You're not far from Old Bridge. Check out www.OBRPC.org and come out this Sunday if you can. There are USPSA "practice" matches at Old Bridge indoor range first and third Friday of every month. It is probably the best place to start. Come on down.

I usually like to game stuff, but man, that takes the cake. I hadn't thought of that one. It doesn't change the gun to belt measurement for classes that stipulate that either, since the measurement is taken from the inside of the (outer) belt. Sounds to me like it would impact the measurement. Lets say the outer belt is 1/4". If you overlap it at the holster, the measurement to the inside of the outer belt should be to the inside of the inner most layer of the outer belt or 1/4" more than if you overlapped it elsewhere. Slav

During my RO class I was taught that "Handing" means having ammo in a condition where one action could result in a loaded firearm. So a mag on a belt is fine because it would require two operations to get to a loaded firearm: 1. Get it from the belt, 2. Insert into gun. It is also fine to have ammo in your range bag while the range bag is in the safe area - for the same reason.

I came up with this thread by doing a search, but this site no longer exists - or at least is not in the same business. Is there anyone else out there who could put extended ambi safety on a Rugger 22/45 Mk III?

This is going to sound a lot more confusing than it is in practice, but here is how I do it. I prefer to load in fours and eights because I can load four comfortably. As I go through the course I try to keep the "rounds in tube count" following each array and reload. So if I had an array of six followed by an array of five with moves in between in my head it would go something like: "Shoot six, load four, six in tube. Shoot five, load four, five in tube .... etc. " If I had a miss on an array or say dropped a shell during the reload, I simply adjust the count accordingly. So if I know I would have five in tube following the second array and the reload, but I had a miss on the array, I now know that I have four in tube after the reload. What that would mean to me - unless I am coming up on the last array and four is enough - is that I should be loading another four. So I basically know how many rounds I have before I engage each array. I also know how many rounds I will need for that array. If my count in tube is ever not sufficient for the next array, I know I need to load more. I normally do not count the round in the chamber at all. It is in effect my spare round.

I started in production and that is what I am mostly sticking with. Around here there is plenty of competition in Production, Limited and Open so lack of competition is not a reason to switch to a division. For a while I shot Limited minor with my production gear/loads long enough to get classified. I am thinking of branching out into either Limited 10 or SS next year just to get some sunlight on my 1911. But production is going to continue to be the division I shoot the most.

+1 There are a good many of us who simply do not have a means to shoot beyond 200 yds regularly or at all. If you have 500 yd + targets you will seriously scew those stages in favor of the fortunate few who have a facility to zero and practice at those distances. And further, higher penalties assigned to such targets just adds more insult to injury, as well as make a stage really bog down/time out.. IMHO +100 There are high power matches and MOR matches to test your precision skills at long ranges. We do not shoot pistols to the extremes of either range or precision in our matches, do we now? I am not advocating all pistol range targets only. But a balanced match with say about 20% of the stages going out to 150-300, 50% out to 75-150 yards and the remainder 75 yards and closer seems like fun mix.

I have a few random thoughts on the subject. 1. What is the point of using airsoft? How would that promote our sport? 2. Having watched countless videos on Youtube, I have come to a conclusion that IPSC/USPSA style matches are visually boring. And there is little you can do about it. If you have seen one guy run around popping off rounds at targets that you either do not see at all or certainly can not see the hits on, you have seen them all. It is about as exciting as watching paint dry - unless you are interested in observing someone's technique. In short it will not be attractive to a general audience. At best you may get someone curious enough to stick until the first commercial break before they get bored. 3. What is fun to watch is knockdown steel - because you can see it fall. Especially in a Man vs. Man format where it is almost like a race. I can see something like that draw an audience.