Going to shoot minor

[JFD]

Until I get a better set of sights for my .45, I'm going to shoot my .38 Super 1911 with minor loads.  It's set up perfectly for L-10 and I already have all the mags I need.

It will be interesting to see if the lower recoil will translate into increased speed and accuracy, making up for the minor caliber.  At any rate, the good sights will help out plenty.

I've been too much of a coward to shoot minor before, but being short of funds leaves me with little choice if I actually want to see the front sight without searching around for it.  This .38 super is also my absolute favorite handgun.  I've been shooting this one since 1970 and feel very comfortable with it.

Now if I can just control my grip pressure.  I found myself strangling the poor gun last week.  When I relaxed my grip the sights immediately seemed to return to the "A" zone as if by magic, and my speed was greatly increased.  I just read the BOOK, so otherwise I may not have picked up on the grip pressure problem so quickly.  It's so much harder to shoot well when choking the gun half to death.

[tightloop]

I know it does not relate to you because you are not shooting Open class, but I will relate a story about another World Class IPSC shooter, Tom Campbell.  

In 1980, 81, and 82 Tom shot the IPSC Nationals with a S&W 9mm because he worked for them and they did not make a 45 suitable to modify to shoot IPSC and compete with the 1911's. The next year he shot a prototype 45 by Smith and a Tee shirt that said, "Uncle Jeff was right."

If I am not mistaken, a 9mm shooter has since won the World Shoot, I think it might have been Doug Koenig, but overall minor caliber shooters have not done that well.  Grip pressure aside, load it up to make major and go for it.

[ErikW]

Koenig won with a 9x21, not Minor.

Matt Burkett took 5th Limited at the recent Race Gun Nationals shooting Minor.

If you've got the discipline to go for As on every shot, go for it. I wouldn't count on a speed improvement.

[titandriver]

   Erik --- was Burkett shooting .40 or a .38 or 9x19 in Limited at the Nats? Any idea why he went that way?

  Thanks,

[BSeevers]

Also

You can't shoot a 38 Super Major . If you could I would and think its silly we can in Open but not Limited. Guess we really are unsafe in Open I think I might be concerned about slide speed with minor. If you have the gun set up for it like a steel gun then it would be great advantage. Ignore people if they criticize you about shooting minor. We have a local guy that came out A production. He shoots a Beretta in minor. They make fun of him but I encourage him to say yea but I beat you and your SV/STI/Para Open/Limited blaster.

PS To compete at high levels(except Production) you must shoot major. Matt was an exception. The rest did or tried to shoot major. Matt and other Pro GM's could shoot any reasonable gun and win. Look at Erik Graffel. Man, I would not use any of his equipment choices.

[titandriver]

   Oops --- meant to ask if Burkett shot minor intentionally, if so, what caliber was he shooting.

[BradC]

Matt did in fact shoot Minor on purpose.  He was shooting his SV 9mm.  Its a VERY nice shooting gun (I got to play with it and help break it in during a training class earlier this year).

I'm very impressed that he pulled 5th limited shooting Minor.  I wanna be like Matt! =)

BradC

A46143

[JFD]

I just reviewed the results of my last few matches and found that unless a big dog was giving Production a whirl, those guys are the only people I can regularly beat.  I will now guess that this is either because they're new, or because they're stuck with minor caliber scoring.

This is a relatively bad development.

I do have another .45 slide with good sights I could use.  I've been trying it on my .38 Super frame and FTFs are a little too common.  Perhaps it would do better on my .45 frame, and maybe a bit of parts swapping between the two .45s could result in something I can use.  I still have a couple of weeks to wring it out before the match.  if it still won't run, then I can always bite the bullet and shoot the .38 Super.

As a lowly "C" class shooter, it's probably better to not give away any potential points unless I have to.  

If I can get this grip pressure issue resolved and a .45 running, then I should be able to win L-10.  I don't normally strangle the gun, but my regular grip isn't light enough to allow for the kind of results I saw last week.

Time to practice.

[JFD]

I just got through playing around with my spare slide.  I had it working perfectly at one time, then it decided to choke 4 times in the first stage of a local match using RN ammo.

It seems that the extractor, which I must have switched before that match, has too much tension for this slide.  I put the extractor in that should have been installed in the first place.  The thing cycles like glass.  I'll take it out this week and make sure it functions correctly.  Lucky that I checked the mags as well.  Turns out the 10 round mags needed a bit of trimming to work with a new mag well on that .38 Super frame.   The gun will probably stay a .45 since I've given up IDPA and no linger need an ESP gun.

Seems likely that the minor caliber experiment will have to wait for another day.

[Patrick Sweeney]

The son of our clubs VP, Jeff Gerak, shot in last years Michigan State Championship with his CZ in 9mm.  He shot Limited, and won Limited overall, shooting Minor.

His dad built him a new Limited gun (I don't remember Para or S_I) and Jeff should be really kicking butt now.  (He shot the CZ very well, but never really liked the sight tracking.)  I think he might be shooting Major, but then again, he might not, since his Dad has been shooting Minor Limited for a couple of years now and doing well.

Get A hits and it isn't a problem.  Get sloppy and your scores go all to hell.

[skeeter]

i came 3rd at that match that jeff won shooting my glock 24 and i've been playing with minor ever since. on some field courses it really seems to help then on others it hurts if a stage is up close and fast with 20 or more rounds i do great. if shots are long i'll get to many c's and it'll will hurt. so it's a trade if i knew that all the stages were  long i'd go limited minor more often.

[tightloop]

thanks for the info Erik, I thought it was minor

[MattBurkett]

Yeah, I shot a 9x19 at the Limited Nationals on purpose. A bunch of people thought I was nuts until they saw the finish. I think major would have moved me up a few slots, but, Robby won that match. NO QUESTION about it. He shot his match and did a great job.

Now you all probably want to know why. Well, I just came off the Steel Challege with the same gun, had two days to prep for the Nationals and said what the heck lets see what happens. I knew the gun and it was rocking so I went for it.

Now did you guys also know that I shot a carry holster? Hows that for interesting!

It was the most focused nat's I have ever shot. Only hit one no-shoot, just rubbed him by .1 of an inch. That was frustrating. Thought I was going to get through it clean. Consistency is what got me through to a fifth place finish. Dropped my share of points but no major stupids that it seemed everyone was having. Tell ya that this was not the match to shoot minor in though. With around 80% of the targets being hard cover/no-shoots/swingers, it was probably the toughest match since the early 90's when I was getting going.

The first nationals I shot freaked me out and sure made me a better shooter. The first stage was 50 yard standards with HARD COVER! God did those targets look small! Learned how to shoot out to 75 after that! That has paid off big dividends in many matches. This years nat's had 50 yard standards and I shot it without any pick ups and one less D than Doug (we were on the line at the same time) and he was shooting Open. Talk about walking away pumped!

Anyway's learn how to shoot fast and hit a whole bunch of A's. Minor or Major doesn't really matter then. :-)

Just sucks that no-shoots score the same.