Best Caliber for Limited

[zhunter]

I'a a newbie to this forum but I've been shooting IPSC for a while, and thought I'd chime in:

The 9mm and .40 have advantages and disadvantages, depending on Your situation:

- advantages of the 9mm are:

1. if you currently own a 9mm, and are familiar with it, and like it, and use it for other things (defense, IDPA,etc)

it is The Perfect gun for IPSC

2. if you don't reload, or want to reload, it is perfect.

3. I wonder if the disadvantage of "shooting minor" is overcome by the hi-cap & lower recoil? I have been using

9mm for IPSC all year, and have come to the conclusion, that for me, the disadvantages of 9mm are

overcome by the hi-cap/no reload. But, that's personal - some people Love to reload. I'm a C class shooter,

and for me there isn't any pressing advantage to switch to a .40. Fifteen years ago, I was also a C shooter,

and I switched to a single stack .45, and reloaded for it - and I was sorry that I ever did that - even then the

advantages of the 9mm were greater, for me as a mediocre shooter, than any advantage the .45 gave me.

The .40 has the obvious advantages mentioned by most people who've answered the post. If you use a .40, you must reload, and it's not an easy task for a newbie to reload .40 to make major - it's not difficult, but it can be tricky for someone with little reloading experience.

The biggest advantage of the .40 is that when You get to the point when you're shooting really well - and you're at the top of your performance - and you want another edge to propel you a few points higher - you might then consider the tradeoff - you might still want to stick to the 9mm. That extra recoil vs the faster shooting of the 9mm - up to You.

Good luck,

Jack

Sorry, could not resist

[JFD]

I see no advantage for the 9mm at all. You're going to be shooting for fun unless there's just no real competition locally.

I see no real difference in splits between major and minor loads; at least nothing I'd call an advantage against minor scoring. 0.02 seconds faster isn't much (for me).

Additional capacity might help you occasionally. My Para .40 holds 22 rounds and I think it was an advantage once in 3 years. It's hard to find a stage that doesn't allow a reload on the move that costs no extra time. Any extra time saved by not reloading will be eaten up by the minor scoring. Very few times will the extra ammo be of any use. 19+1 is all you need to be very competitive in Limited.

My wife shoots minor in Limited for fun, and she can only hold her own by doing everything else better than the other D class shooters. Everytime I try it I see a 3% - 5% drop in points that takes me below my normal 95% - 97%.

Limited is a .40 game. I could see a 16+1 .45 working for a lot of stages, but a 9mm will always come up short.

Now if you're out to have fun and not beat folks and make them cry, then the 9mm works just fine.