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January Trivia


shred

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This month, we're going 35 years back. June, 1977. Just outside Denver. The IPSC-sponsored US National Combat Pistol Championships. What will be later called the first USPSA Nationals.

The question: How many shooters used compensated pistols at the match?

And the tiebreaker (since otherwise it's a guessing game): What is a "Snick"?

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Snick.....A gunfighting holster rig....

http://www.warriortalk.com/showthread.php?93922-My-Snick-Holster-Gunfighting-Rig&p=1293641#post1293641

And I don't know how many used compensated pistols, but there were 30 open shooters....The match was restricted to 125 shooters....95 in the "Championship Class" and 30 in the "Open" class.....

http://www.americanhandgunner.com/1977issues/AHND77.pdf

Edited by GrumpyOne
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I'm going to say 11. Really no rhyme or reason. Just a guess.

Snick is what happens when you are in a serious public situation and something happens that makes you want to laugh really hard, and it starts to slip out (like a snicker) but you catch it just in time. <_<

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Sort of amusing that race holsters have been around since Day 1 and at least 3 of the top ten at the very first US Nationals used them. Changes the "good old days" traditionalist line a little ;)

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Some excellent memories and impressive Google-Fu, but as-yet we have no complete answer.

So, since we now know what a 'Snick' is, and we know the answer isn't zero (despite how 'manly' they may or may not have been in those days) or one, or 30 (the 'Open' refers to slots were walk-on versus 'earned' by winning other matches) the tie-breaker is now either the name of a shooter that shot one or the smith that built one.

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Smith that built it...J. Michael Plaxco

"In the early days of IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation) competition, where power, accuracy, and speed of target engagement were equal elements rewarded by the scoring format, the .45 ACP in the familiar 1911 Colt-type pistol reigned supreme for many years. The basic 1911 evolved into a highly modified, but uncompensated, .45 Government Model typified by the Clark Pin Gun design, which featured a simple muzzle weight. The gun’s transformation into the fully compensated 1911 began when J. Michael Plaxco introduced the first compensator, consisting of a muzzle weight with a single expansion chamber and vertical porting to reduce recoil and muzzle lift. Even with these changes, however, the .38 Super began to dominate Unlimited or Open Class competitions in l987."

So, if the smith wasn't him, then I would suggest that maybe the gun wasn't truly "compensated", but merely muzzle weighted. So, by that definition, there were 0 shooters shooting compensated guns...????

http://www.gun-tests.com/performance/sept96compkit.html

Edited by GrumpyOne
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Not a muzzle weight. Gas was redirected to some extent.

There is a difference in this case between 'compensator' and 'compensated'. See: Glock 'C' models, for example (though not relevant unless some number of competitors had access to a time machine and particularly poor judgement, given what else would have been available :rolleyes: )

Plaxco is (as far as I know), correctly identified as the first to use a traditional compensator.

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We have a winner! Two shooters, one of which was Ray Chapman. Both used 6" barrels in 5" slides with top-cuts to redirect muzzle gas and cut recoil.

IPSC shooters have been a bunch of gamey bastards since the very beginning :roflol:

post-1846-0-98812000-1325992494_thumb.jp

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Trick question...There is a difference between ported and compensated..... :angry2:

Even your article doesn't say that they were compensated....and erroneously says that the cuts were used as a muzzle brake....They were ported, nothing more... :ph34r:

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