The grass is always greener on the other side

[ErikW]

I started shooting USPSA in 1997 with a Witness .45 and dabbled with a 9mm P9 in Limited (before L10). Back in 1998 or so I bought a used Bruce Gray-built longslide P9 Open gun to shoot Richmond's Open matches, which were too hard for my then-meager skills with iron sights. After fiddling with Optimas, I put a C-More on it and it was pretty sweet. The only thing it had against it was it didn't have a big stick magazine like the 27-round S_I mags. In 1999 I got an STI Limited gun and I competed with it, practiced with it, and dry fired it extensively. So much so, I was having trouble reloading my P9 at the Open matches because of the difference in ergonomics. And I always coveted my neighbors' big sticks. I put my STI contingency and some cash into building an STI Open gun so I would have familiar ergonomics and big sticks. I've been shooting it once or twice a month since I got it, while the P9 has been neglected, sightless with its C-More cannibalized for the foo-foo STI.

My Open STI has a big, full-profile, 5-chamber compensator. It's a big gun built before the power factor was dropped. I've been secretly admiring all the short, light, and sweet Open guns like the SVI IMM. That thing whipped around great. But with Caliban laws and my lack of real interest in the Open division, I'm sticking with my big monster.

Last night I decided to put my spare C-More on my P9, which I figure I'll shoot in the Steel Challenge. After mounting it I turned on the dot and did a few presentations and indexes on my dry-firing targets. WHOA. Short, light, and sweet, just like all those new foo-foo guns I've been coveting! Points nice, indexes fast. I was thinking, Oh yeah, I could really tear it up with this baby in my hands!

I don't know why I'm posting this, maybe there's a lesson to be learned or something.

(Edited by Erik Warren at 10:31 am on Feb. 14, 2002)

[Singlestack]

The funny thing about greener grass is when you jump over the fence and find out that it is still grass.....

[BigDave]

greener grass generally has to me mowed more often...