First open gun, thoughts?

[user293]

brand new to the open class, but not new to USPSA. Im going to sell a few guns to fund a new gun but i dont know whats all out there. My budget is 2500-2800$. i figure i can get the gun and a mag now, shoot it a bit over the winter, and get the rest of the stuff in time for spring season. im leaning heavily toward a Trubor thats been supertuned by Dawson Precision. in 38 super. can t afford a grandmaster, or brazos custom, or any other high end custom open guns, but am i missing other? is there other guns beside STI's out there thats within my budget? any ideas would be great thanks.

[Glk21C]

keep checking the classified section here and uspsa.com

[GrumpyOne]

brand new to the open class (division) ,but not new to USPSA. Im going to sell a few guns to fund a new gun but i dont know whats all out there. My budget is 2500-2800$. i figure i can get the gun and a mag now, shoot it a bit over the winter, and get the rest of the stuff in time for spring season. im leaning heavily toward a Trubor thats been supertuned by Dawson Precision. in 38 super. can t afford a grandmaster, or brazos custom, or any other high end custom open guns, but am i missing other? is there other guns beside STI's out there thats within my budget? any ideas would be great thanks.

Trubor is a good p;ace to start, for sure. There are other options out there (Tanfoglio, SVI, Millenium custom, etc), sometimes you can find a good used one for a lot less than a new one.

Edited September 18, 2010 by GrumpyOne

[user293]

keep checking the classified section here and uspsa.com

i check em everyday, havent sold my AR and 1911 though yet. its gonna be hard to do as there are my only AR and 1911, but they can be bought again, and i gotta see first hand what this open thing is all about

[G-ManBart]

Have you shot an Open gun before? If not, I'd highly recommend talking to the Open shooters in your club....they'll be glad to let you try their guns. I've seen very good Limited shooters try an Open gun for the first time and have them say "no way, that's not fun"....loud, blasty, snappy recoil straight back. I always forget who came up with this description, but Open is like heavy metal music...loud, fast and definitely not for everybody. R,

Edited September 18, 2010 by G-ManBart

[SLM]

...Open is like heavy metal music...loud, fast and definitely not for everybody. R,

I think that used to be in 3quartertime's sig line?

And yes, it seems Open is a love it / hate it thing. Definitely try to shoot a few and if possible borrow one for a match. It would really suck to sell off your other guns just to find you really don't like shooting an Open gun.

[fishhunter3]

Have you shot an Open gun before? If not, I'd highly recommend talking to the Open shooters in your club....they'll be glad to let you try their guns. I've seen very good Limited shooters try an Open gun for the first time and have them say "no way, that's not fun"....loud, blasty, snappy recoil straight back. I always forget who came up with this description, but Open is like heavy metal music...loud, fast and definitely not for everybody. R,

I love metal, now I know why I like open class (not bad for an old man)

[user293]

one guy i know is actually letting me use his backup rig in a few weeks including ammo. so ill try it then. i tried a dudes caspian after a match as well (first time shooting one) let me put 2 mags through it and i loved it. loud as **** but i didnt care. im younger so i dont really think a cool, loud, fast, expensive gun will be against my wants. i think its where i wanna be. ive been shooting single stack, but wanna try out open. i guess we will see if its for me when i roll with it in a few weeks.

[G-ManBart]

Have you shot an Open gun before? If not, I'd highly recommend talking to the Open shooters in your club....they'll be glad to let you try their guns. I've seen very good Limited shooters try an Open gun for the first time and have them say "no way, that's not fun"....loud, blasty, snappy recoil straight back. I always forget who came up with this description, but Open is like heavy metal music...loud, fast and definitely not for everybody. R,

I love metal, now I know why I like open class (not bad for an old man)

Open Division

[user293]

and there is that CZ Czechmate 9mm major in the classifieds that i can afford. but 9 major kinda scares me, as ive never loaded that before. i saw a guy runnin 9mm major at a match, and had 2 case failures. they split halfway around at the bottom of the case. they were once fired i believe.

[Sarge]

and there is that CZ Czechmate 9mm major in the classifieds that i can afford. but 9 major kinda scares me, as ive never loaded that before. i saw a guy runnin 9mm major at a match, and had 2 case failures. they split halfway around at the bottom of the case. they were once fired i believe.

I've seen more .40's do that than 9majors. Hell I saw a 22 blow in half today at a steel match. Not sure if it was a 22 major though.

[CocoBolo]

and there is that CZ Czechmate 9mm major in the classifieds that i can afford. but 9 major kinda scares me, as ive never loaded that before. i saw a guy runnin 9mm major at a match, and had 2 case failures. they split halfway around at the bottom of the case. they were once fired i believe.

The CZ is an unknown quantity but it sure looks nice, I'v had a Tactical Sport in limited great gun, I've got a Shadow for production, again a great gun. Other than having more open guns than I can shoot the only thing that bothers me about he CZ Chekmate Open gun is not knowing what OAL it can handle. If I knew for sure it could handle a 125gr RN at 1.165 I might just jump on it.

I've been loading 9 major for about 6 months now, about 10k rounds from range pickup and I've tried 5 or 6 different powders with 115gr and 125gr and I have not blown anything up yet, I only load them major once, I'm a chicken, and I like to do well in matches, and don't believe in slide rackers. 38 SuperComp on the other hand I load it a bizzillion times till is splits, now that might be 10 or 12 but I don''t bother to track the number of times.

I've split and blew the top off a few 40 cases in a CZ Tactical sport limited gun, ruined my stage but that was the extent of the damage.

[gfmun]

I got really lucky and picked up a custom .38 Super used at a very low price for my first open gun. I didn't realize what a good deal I got until after I shot it and looked around at what the others had and what they paid.

I really like mine, but for a lot of people the first open gun is like the first bass boat, the first motorcycle, etc. The first one tells you what you want in the next one. I would suggest a used open gun to find out what you really want before you put a lot of money into it. Probably if I shot better I would want another one, but right now this one works for me.

My buddy has a Trubor in 9 major and loves it. It runs and runs and runs.

thanks,

George

Edited September 18, 2010 by gfmun

[Sarge]

http://shootersconne...Item-P1205.aspx

Out of stock right now but they will get some in soon no doubt.

Call and talk to the SC crew and they will set you up.

9mm's are in stock for the same price.

Edited September 18, 2010 by Sarge

[Neil E.]

I have a Trubor in 9 major form Dave Dawson and love it. It runs all the time. I have only been shooting it since January this year and made B class last month. I started back in USPSA (after a 25 year hyades)in May of last year 2009 with a STI SS. Not to bad for a real old guy

[Dave.O]

To the OP. If you get hooked by the open bug like I did. You'll love it. 4 weeks ago I shot limited exclusively, that is until I got the chance to shoot a friend of mines gun. Hooked.!!!!!! I fully blame SLM too.! I found a trubore in the classifieds and haven't looked back.

[SLM]

I fully blame SLM too.!

:evil laugh on: Mwhuuuhahahahaha! :evil laugh off: :devil:

[gb32]

After I shot Open for the first time, I never wanted to shoot Limited anymore. Which is why I sold my Limited gun to fund a new Open one.

[blaster113]

good info in the previous posts. I'd definitely suggest trying as many open guns as you can before taking the plunge. For a first gun I would try and find a nice used gun with a low round count in .38S/.38SC. If you decide later that you don't like open you can turn around and sell the gun at little or no loss, depending on what you got. My first open gun was a well used Caspian; my experience with that one let me know what I what wanted in the custom gun I just got built. Open is a blast