B.J. Norris

Jeff ran a very smooth match on Saturday. The stages were short, but did test some different skill sets, like rollover prone, and a 40-ish yard swinger with a rifle. I had a great time, and it was pretty nice to not spend 4 or 5 days to shoot a match. I'll be back if they have the match next year!

How often would you say you notice the flickering with the MK6? Does it happen often? Not too often, and it's mostly while trying to run while shooting at low-power, since everything is bouncing around. When I'm in the eye-box with the magnification cranked up, I've never noticed any flickering. ETA: I'm using the CMR-W 7.62 reticle with 77 Gr loads.

I think the answer depends a lot on the type of matches you're shooting. After the FB3G last year, I decided to start looking into FFP, as the match was very long-range rifle heavy, with big swings across the stages. I've been running a Leupold Mark 6 this season and love it for distance, shooting wide spread targets at 3-400 with the scope on 3-4X is awesome. That being said, I just mounted a VX-6 on the rifle I use for the Pro Series, because its SFP. SFP is better suited to for super-fast, bay style matches, since the center dot isn't near as sensitive to head position and you don't lose the illumination as easy. IF I had to pick one scope and use it exclusively, I'd pick the Mark 6.

I'm pretty certain that I'm the mentioned 3GN Pro who ran the house twice(not like there were a ton of us there), so I'll chime in. The fault lines in the house were there, but weren't mentioned in the posted WSB, the quick brief I got before shooting, nor did they look freshly painted(at least when I was there). I can't recall ever being in a shoot house that had fault lines, and I know they use it quite a bit at the range, so I honestly didn't pay much attention to them. When I finished my first run (about 17.5), I was told I had to shoot from two ports... They had to go ask the RM for clarification, which is when I re-shot it, ending up with a time about 4 seconds slower than the first. I think there we some serious issues with the WSBs that led to the problems. As most everybody has mentioned, I want to shoot the same match as everybody else. I certainly don't want to have an unfair advantage over anybody because of physical changes in the course. I strive to hold myself to a certain level of personal responsibility, and I want the score that I earned/shot, good, bad and sometimes ugly. My suggestion is that the stages need more time to be de-bugged and more people reading the WSB before anybody is allowed to shoot them. A few good RO's and shooters walking the stages can solve the majority of potential issues, just because it's a different set of eyes than the people who designed/built them. I've designed quite a few stages for USPSA matches, and no matter how hard you try, you always have a certain way you want/imagine people will shoot the stage. Sometimes, this allows for a loophole or two in the course and/or WSB that people from the outside looking in can spot in a heartbeat. I wasn't able to make it back for the prize table, but I understand STI and the other sponsors had an awesome show of support for the sport! Thanks to everybody who made the match happen!

Overall, the match was great. I really enjoyed the mix of stages, the weather (TFD anybody? ), the schedule and everybody who was out on the range, staff and shooters alike. Huge thanks to all of the match sponsors, and my own sponsors for helping me bring home my first major Tac Scope title! My take on the MG abandonment. It was different from last year, and it wasn't necessarily made totally, painfully obvious that it was. The biggest confusion comes from the fact that dumping a locked open pistol or rifle happens so seldom. Most people probably never really think through that part of the rules, and just defaulted back on last year's experience. IMHO, instead of just quoting the rule over and over, the WSB should have really included language to the effect of "I know how we did it last year, but this year is totally different". I'm not trying to point fingers or assign blame, I just really hated to see so many people get sent packing. Hopefully everybody can take it in stride, and make some improvements for next year's match!

Hey guys, if you're ready to start taking the next step, check out the video I just uploaded.

Jeremy, Unless things have changed for 2014, the $1300 Tour Fee included all 4 match fees. They paid a minimum of $250 to every competitor who finished the match, at every match, along with some pretty good product based prizes if you were in the Top 30-ish. For me, it was well worth the fee.

For the most part, changing rules in response to innovation only stifles innovation IMHO.

Thanks for posting that, BJ! I'm hoping to see you shoot next week at Steel Challenge. I'll be there bringing up the rear of the scoring since it will be only my third Steel Challenge Match (It made sense at the time when I signed up, but now I'm wondering what the heck I was thinking). What pistol are you using in this video? I couldn't get the video paused in the right position to figure out what it was. Hey Eric, It's a 6" 9MM Sight Tracker STI, built by Cameron's Custom Guns. We built it with Steel Challenge and 3 Gun in mind, but it worked awesome for Pro-Am, and it was also perfect for Bianchi Cup, as it groups about 2.5" at 50 yards!

Scott, I don't think they're posted anywhere yet, but the Top 3 in Limited for the Pros was Matt Sweeney, Bob Vogel and myself. Not sure about the Open, I know they had some rain delay... Here's a little bit of headcam footage.

I agree with Noah, 7625 and N320 are quite different in terms of burn rate, volume and shape. If you're looking for a cheaper option than N320, look at Titegroup and HP38. Those burn rates are very close to N320 and I've seen the same charge weight give the exact same PF.

Just to throw something else into the mix. 300 Win Mag from NEMO Arms. http://nemoarms.com/portfolio/omen-match-300-win-mag-ar/

How will the "prizes in main division only" rule be applied to SteelMaster? I'll already be in San Antonio on the 26th, so I'm thinking of coming down for Sunday, but wondering if I need to bring all of my stuff...

Dan, For me it comes down to consistency. Shooting it 4-3-1-2-S may be a tenth or so faster if you have a good draw, but it was harder to put 5 runs together under pressure. I can run 1.9's all day long shooting 1-2-4-3-S, whereas the other way I really feel like I have to push my draw to get down into the 1.8's, and it just didn't work in the match for me.

Thanks to Sheldon, all of the staff and sponsors for an awesome event!

Keith, While I do realize that my squad ran slower than most of the match, there are several factors that influenced this and I do not appreciate the personal attack against me and my students. All of my squad showed up to shoot the match. I believe your squad had 10 people on the ground and had 3-4 no-shows. That fact is totally out of my control, and I could not have predicted it. Alex told me that the match was full at 12 person squads with a huge waiting list, and he was pushing them up to 14, and asked if I could run 14 in my class, I agreed. Because the students had more than just a match fee invested, they made sure to be there. After we shot stage 1, we waited every single stage. You said it yourself, the wind was the worst enemy on Saturday. I can't speak to the reason why things were not spiked down better, but they weren't. We had approximately 15-20 reshoots on Saturday due to range equipment failure, 2 on the first stage alone. Again, these things are totally out of our control. For instance, when we got to stage 3, the previous squad had one shooter trying to re-shoot so many times, with so many problems that we had time to walk down, get lunch,come back and get half of lunch eaten before she was done. The barrels were continually being blown over until Arthur and Alex brought over some lathe and weights to hold them down. When the Rangemaster shuts the stage down for repairs, the squad may not protest it. On stage 4, the squad ahead of us was nowhere near finished when we got there due to the REF on the plates. The caps that the plates were mounted on were loose on the 2x4 stands, therefore any strike on the cap would knock the plate over. As I remember, I was the one digging old banding material out of the berm to try and shim the stands up. We also ran out of pasters on the stage, which makes it hard for more than 2 people to go paste. To address your personal attack against me for not helping tape, paint, etc. With plenty of people in my squad, I tried to stay back and coach the students as best I could while other people helped reset. To this end, I volunteered to go first on every stage, so nobody had to actually shoot first, and so I could be finished and focus on them. I believe your group also asked me several questions about the best way to shoot a stage. My goal was my students and making sure they had a good experience. As the day went on, it became a more and more difficult event for people to make it through and perform well. You look at my results that and realize that I was not there to shoot an awesome match. I'm sorry that ya'll had to wait so long, I really am, because I've been there, and I know it seriously sucks. However, it was a variety of factors that we couldn't control that made the problem as bad as it ended up being.

Cameron's Custom just built me a 6" 9MM for Steel Challenge and 3 Gun to go with my 5" USPSA Limited gun. The attention to detail on both guns is fantastic and they are a great crew to work with. My next project is to have them build a new Steel Challenge Open Gun to replace my aging Brazos (it starts to wear out afte about 150K rounds for some reason...)

Just got word from Charles regarding shotgun capacity... "It has been changed. Load what you want after the buzzer. Please post on enos. Thanks."

Class is already half full, better reserve your spot soon!

Hey guys Alex and I are working to bring ya'll a great training opportunity for the match this year. I will be offering a course on Friday, March 8th that will consist of a “Fundamentals Tune Up” in the morning, and then moving on to more advanced skills like Shooting On The Move and being able to decide when it’s appropriate, moving targets and finishing up with stage breakdown and mental game as time allows. After that, I am going to squad with the class during the match and coach them through each stage, I'll even go first on every stage if ya'll like! Expect to shoot around 750 rounds or so on the training day, plus the amount you'll need for the match itself. I'm really looking forward to this, as I love this type of training/coaching combinations. Cost (all inclusive for targets, range fees and such on Friday) is $250 per person, but please note that it does NOT include your entry fee to the match and that will need to be paid separately. To sign-up send me an email at bj@bjnorris.com and I'll get your name on the list. I expect it to fill pretty quickly, so don't delay!

I believe '93 was in Fredericksburg, VA. 2000 also had the Limited Nationals in East Huntingdon, PA.

+1, I'm in the same boat and wanting to know if I need to plan on going to AZ, or to FL for the Steel Challenge Nationals...

That's a bold statement and pretty far from the truth.. +1 Paul, if somebody really cares about the match, they are going to travel to it no matter where it is held.

Hey guys, I just saw this thread. I'll contact ya'll and see if there's any interest in getting a class set-up. Thanks!

I'm supposing that I am the party mentioned in Ben's post, since I did have a huge malfunction in the final stages of the 2010 Production Nationals that took me out of the (very close) running for the title. The malfunction in question was a case head separation on a bad piece of fired brass, not anything to do with the firearm itself. Why was I loading fired brass to use at Nationals? Let's just say it was touch economic times that year. Seiichi's right too, I'm getting all my stuff loaded by SBR now, we've got some fairly innovative loads on the board.