major or minor

[motosapiens]

you guys are bumming me out I just bought a new SW 1911 9mm Pro. Its my first 1911. It looks like I get penalized in USPSA as I'm stuck in the SS minor division. well at least my 9mm reloads will fit in all my pistols ie 1911, glocks and rugers. Maybe I'll just have to buy another 1911 in 45 or 40, if my wife finds out...........well I'm not going to talk about that

You're not paying attention. I think it's pretty even (except at matches like SS nats that are specifically set up to punish minor).

Most of the normal uspsa matches I've shot this year, I think shooting major was a disadvantage, and I've only continued doing it as prep for nationals.

I think theres a reason the top production shooter usually beats the top SS shooter at major matches, and it's not just the production guys being better. The extra 2 rounds means you can shoot steel more aggressively and gives you significantly more flexibility in stage planning.

p.s. but you should still buy a 1911 in 45 because not owning one is dumb.

Edited April 29, 2015 by motosapiens

[shooterDrew]

I've been shooting primarily production since I started shooting USPSA (a short 8 months ago)... recently shot a classifer match in SS w/ major. I performed terribly. Partly I think because I've grown so accustomed to minor loads from practice and the matches I've shot that when I went to major I was all over the place trying to shoot the same splits as when shooting my minor production gun. Add that to trying to get used to planning a stage around 8 round mags vs 10 and I have opted to give SS minor a try for a while. I probably won't shoot SS a lot, but I got a spot at SS Nats and for the rest of the year maybe I'll shoot some local matches. As its stated above somewhere this was a good excuse to make use of a new gun and a 9mm 1911 with 130pf loads is just plain fun to shoot.

[Yagi]

in my opinion, if you dont intend to shoot nationals.. then by all means go with minor. but if you are, go with major....the reason being is that national level matches have a well balanced array. if its just a level 1 or level 2 i always see the advantage of using a minor 10 round.

[Quag]

thanks guys I feel better, my first post was a bit tongue in cheek. I'm happy with my 1911 9mm and all of my pistol loads (I reload all my pistol ammo) is in 9mm. I'm used to shooting a 10 rd glock in production and other than gun handling I'm not going to have much of a transition in approaches to stages in SS with my 10 rd 1911. It just kind of sucked when I realized you get less points for minor. A rookie mistake. But I do this for fun and I doubt I'll ever go to a national match. I'll also shoot steel challenge and IDPA ESP with my 1911. Its a great pistol and I'm going to practice with it for a month or so before going to matches. For steel it will be fun to make up some higher power factor loads (I use 147 grn FN Bayou now) and see how she runs. Incidentally at a local USPSA match last week end we had one stage with a lot steel on it. I dropped each 8 steel heavy knock down targets with 1 shot each using a G34 loaded with low power factor rounds about 130 to 135 (I load about 10% higher than the minimum. I've never had a problem with steel and low PF 9mm 147 grn if (and maybe that's a big if) the target is calibrated right

[motosapiens]

It just kind of sucked when I realized you get less points for minor.

You only get fewer points for non-alpha hits. If the extra 2 rounds allow you to either shoot more aggressively, or avoid a standing reload or two, it can very easily make up for a whole match worth of charlies.

[greyhounder]

Living in the Empire of New York I envy you guys choices of ALL the REAL divisions.

I'm now 61, shooting SS and done both major and minor using 45,40 and 9. Realilisticly know a solid C hope to make B that said like major for the reason have to think more where to reload as most stages here set up for 10 rounds.