Newbie Question (probably Been Asked Alot Before)

[tburns2]

I just shot my first Steel Challenge match a few weeks ago. It was the big deal in Piru. I shot it with my cowboy guns. As you might expect, I was in the back of the bus score-wise. Having shot itand seen what the real deal is all about, I want to get more involved and shoot next year's Steel Challenge with an auto in addition to my cowboy guns. My gun of choice is a Glock 35 .40 S&W. Am I losing anything against the other race gun platforms?

It's my first .40 so I took it out today and sighted in the iron sights at 25 yards. The first thing I noticed was how pleasant it was to shoot. It didn't give the sharp crack a 9mm does or the big rolling shove of a .45ACP. It's also REALLY danged accurate. After 10 or so sighters to get the sights aligned, I was able to get three-shot groups that touched each other all afternoon. So, someone tell me....where from here? I want to trick it out possibly as far as making it an Open gun. Will all I need be a C-More sight and optics mount, better trigger, and a comped barrel (probably from KKM)? Share your wisdom guys and gals.....

[AlamoShooter]

The most important thing is ...You have to like the gun you are useing. & If you look at how long you can use the gun the price is not that much. $700 for a gun or $3,000. Shoot it for five years. and you still have a gun that can be of some value. Shoot in several matches a month = use the same gun, have for over five years that is way over 100 matches, if my gun got lost in the lake it would have cost me + $25.00 at each match. I if I had only spent $700 it would have cost me $7.00 So think about it as the more you use it the less it will cost. Each gun is worth about 1/2 it new price at the end of five years.

NO a glock will never be as much fun to shoot as a gun that gets complements when it is the leather. hang me if you want. but Id rather dance with a pretty girl any time.

I may not know nothing, but I do know what fun is.

I can shoot revolver somtimes and it has out shot my race gun some years. But I could never give up my full race steel gun = its just too much fun.

Jamie

[Flexmoney]

Glock 35 as a standard Steel Challenge gun:

- Reliable

- Accurate

- Draws as fast as anything

- Transitions as fast as anything.

- Soft shooting (with reloads)

Great gun for standard/stock/Limited. I win with it often. And, when I don't...it's sure not the guns fault.

(I'd be hard pressed to turn one into an open gun though.)

[HSMITH]

+1 to what Flex said.

My $.02, if it is worth that much to you, is to basically leave it alone. Put some good target sights on it, made of steel. Polish (lightly) the contact areas for the trigger mechanism, this just 'wears' the trigger in and brings the smoothness a little earlier. Put some skateboard tape on it and pronounce it done!!

Why do I say this? Well, Glocks run as well as any gun made when this approach is followed. Start changing springs, put a new barrel in it, this and that, next thing you know you have $1000 into a $500 gun that doesn't run 100%. The only Glock problem I can remember seeing in the last year of matches that wasn't user induced was a broken trigger return spring. The user induced problems have been burst fire, tons of jams, light strikes, etc. The Glock is a great gun until monkeyed with.

[AustinMike]

Nothing wrong at all with shooting a Glock in Steel Challenge! I've been going back and forth between my G17 and my shorty open gun. I love the Glock because my busy schedule often keeps me from reloading and keeping my gun as clean as it should be. The Glock runs no matter what and I can my cheapo factory stuff from Academy when I didn't get time to reload for a match. In .40, it's a little tougher to find good cheap factory stuff though!

Last steel match I shot, I did better with the G17 than the open gun. Not sure how much is the gun vs. me struggling with the dot. In any event, if you like the Glock, shoot it! Having rotated through various guns the past year trying to figure out what I like best, I'm convinced that doing well has a LOT more to do with you than the gun. Reliability and accuracy are all you really need from your gun, the rest is up to you.

[Steve Moneypenny]

for steel challenge you will probabally want to reload for the glock 35, where as the 9mm might be a slightly better choice as you have cheaper low power factory ammo out there. But if you reload, get some Precision Bullets 155 grain bullets and the price can't hardly be beat!

[JFD]

While basically a Para Limited shooter, the first thing I thought of after putting a few thousand rounds through my G35 was "this would make a great steel gun". Transitions are super fast with the light gun compared to my heavy Para or even my Kimber L-10 gun.

Mine is also super accurate, so hitting what I'm aiming at isn't a problem.

Since this is now a dedicated Minor gun, I guess I should give those 155 bullets Steve mentions a try. So far I've just used the 180s I already have.

[DanM]

I own a G35 with all of the bells and titanium whistles that I used for SC and IPSC a few times. I still even dust it off and try it now and then. Thankfully, someone let me try a 1911 9mm one day and I went out and bought one the the very next week. I absolutly LOVE the 9mm. As many others have said, shoot what YOU like. For me, it was the 1911 9mm. If you do shoot the G35, reload the softest shooting caps you can

[tburns2]

Thanks for the advice, everyone. Finally got all the bells and whistles attached. Thought I'd share a little and see what you think.

Edited September 14, 2006 by tburns2