CHA-LEE's Tale

[CHA-LEE]

15 hours ago, obsessiveshooter said:

Will you end up with 4 of these new blasters?

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk
 

Hopefully they are solid enough that I won't need 4 of them to keep up with my shooting activities.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend wasn’t very productive for outdoor shooting. The match scheduled for Saturday ended up getting cancelled due to winter weather. On Sunday I tried to brave the winter weather and do some live fire practice but it was too cold and windy to be productive. I only shot about 100 rounds on a simple box to box drill before my hands got cold enough that I couldn’t even feel the trigger anymore and my hits were going all over the place. The only good thing that came from that live fire session was being able to test out a new Gallant Bullets load for my Limited gun. The velocity of the ammo was a little too slow to make major so I need another tenth of a grain to push it up the velocity. I also tested the accuracy and was able to produce some rounds touching groups at 10 yards. This was a miracle given how cold it was and I could barely feel the trigger. Group shooting with frozen hands isn’t the best way to test accuracy but I got it done. I will bump up the powder drop a little bit and wait for my Atlas Limited gun to come in so I can test it out in that blaster. Every barrel produces a slightly different velocity so I don’t want to go crazy loading ammo until I can verify it will be just right for the Atlas Limited gun.

 

Sunday evening I attended an outlaw practical shooting match at the Trigger Time Gun Club in Longmont. This was a short 3 stage match that had some interesting stages. The first stage was a rage blasting 3 shot per target speed shoot with some movement. The second stage was a standards stage that had you engage two targets with 4 rounds each then reload engage another 2 targets with 4 rounds each. The shooting area for the second stage was setup in where there wasn’t much lighting and seeing my sights was impossible. I tried point shooting at the targets and hoped that I got my hits, but I ended up with a miss. The third and last stage of the night was a large field course that had five different shooting areas you needed to scramble between to access all the targets. I started the stage pretty solid but ended up falling down as I exited the third position. The concrete floor on this bay was really slippery due to target dust and it got the best of me. I ended up doing a belly flop as I fell down and did my best to keep the gun pointed down range in a safe direction. I didn’t hear the RO call out “STOP” so I got back up and finished the stage. It sucked to fall down in the middle of the stage, but my never give up attitude allowed me to finish. My lower back and right knee were hurting after the fall and by the time I got home they both were hurting bad. I had a fitful nights rest as the back and knee pain to keep me up. My lower back felt a little better in the morning but my knee is worse. I hope that I didn’t do any real damage to it during that fall. I am planning on taking it easy for the next few days to let it heal.  

 

I got a message from the Atlas Gunworks people today and they said my Limited gun should be ready in a couple of weeks. Won’t be much longer before I have that bad boy in hand. Hopefully my back and knee are back to 100% by then so I can give the new blaster a real workout.  

[CHA-LEE]

That fall I took on Sunday night is turning out to be a real bummer. My right knee is in a decent amount of pain and my lower back also has consistent pain. I have had this level of lower back pain before and it usually takes several days to recover from that. But this knee pain is something totally unique. My knee doesn't have any bruise of obvious external injuries that I can see but if I touch the outer side of my knee cap it hurts like crazy. The real strange thing is that I can stand and walk on it without any pain. The only movement that creates pain is walking up or down steps, especially walking down steps. Walking up is only a very mild amount of pain, but walking down is mega painful. I will give it another couple of days to see if the knee pain starts to subside, but if it doesn't I will make an appointment to see the doctor and get some X-rays or whatever imaging they want to do on it. I am wondering if I broke my knee cap or something like that???

[Vanniek71]

14 minutes ago, CHA-LEE said:

That fall I took on Sunday night is turning out to be a real bummer. My right knee is in a decent amount of pain and my lower back also has consistent pain. I have had this level of lower back pain before and it usually takes several days to recover from that. But this knee pain is something totally unique. My knee doesn't have any bruise of obvious external injuries that I can see but if I touch the outer side of my knee cap it hurts like crazy. The real strange thing is that I can stand and walk on it without any pain. The only movement that creates pain is walking up or down steps, especially walking down steps. Walking up is only a very mild amount of pain, but walking down is mega painful. I will give it another couple of days to see if the knee pain starts to subside, but if it doesn't I will make an appointment to see the doctor and get some X-rays or whatever imaging they want to do on it. I am wondering if I broke my knee cap or something like that???

If you broke your Kneecap it would be giant and filled with fluid, at least mine was. I took a puck to mine when I was younger and just chipped it and it was like 3x the size!

 May have tweaked some ligaments or something. Id say for sure if it doesn't start feeling better get it checked out, knee issues suck

[Mike H]

Charlie, really sorry to hear about the fall-knee and back issues suck.  I just re-read your book this weekend, and it's more insightful every time I go thru it.  Looking forward to your evaluation of the Atlas line, I love mine.

[CHA-LEE]

My knee injury is almost fully healed up which is awesome. I have zero pain in that knee when walking up or down stairs. The surface just below my knee cap is still tender to the touch but that is about it. The only thing I can’t do with it right now is kneel on it without it being painful from the pressure put on it. My lower back is getting better day by day which is also good. It started feeling better on Friday last week and has slowly improved through the weekend. I didn’t want to push my luck with it on Saturday to go out and practice so I stuck around the house and got some chores done instead.

 

On Sunday I attended the Aurora Gun Club match which turned out to be a really challenging match with the weather. The temp wasn’t bad that day, it was actually pretty good in the high 50’s. The berms still had quite a bit of snow on them and the warm temp melted a lot of the snow creating pretty muddy conditions. The AGC team did a good job of setting up the stages in a manner where the shooting areas were outside of the worst of the mud, but scoring and taping targets was a different story. To make it even more entertaining the wind was crazy that day. The wind was swirling around in all different directions causing all kinds of trouble with blowing down walls, targets, barrels and prematurely activating moving targets. We had a bunch of reshoots due to the wind which delayed the match at least an hour. This crazy wind actually caused me to have a significant stage planning blunder because I wanted to hurry up and shoot the stage before things started to blow down in the middle of my run. I ran past a target and didn’t even engage it racking up an FTE and two misses. That is what I get for trying to switch up my stage plan right before my run then also hurrying my make ready process to beat the wind causing a stage failure. It obviously sucked to eat the FTE penalties, but other than that I shot the stage like a boss. If you are going to screw up a stage run at least look good while doing it right?

 

I did my best to help out during the match while also avoiding activities that would potentially hurt my back. I felt bad about not being able to help with everything, but I didn’t want to do something stupid and hurt my back again. Luckily my squad mates understood my situation and pitched in to pick up the slack that I left. The practical shooting community is awesome like that!!!

 

Tonight I am going to head down to the Whistling Pines match in Colorado Springs. To be totally honest, I am really leery of running around on the slippery concrete floors again. I know that I am going to donate some stage time by not running around “Hard” on those slippery floors. But I will get a chance to shoot so it won’t be too bad.

[CHA-LEE]

Last night I was able to attend the indoor Whistling Pines USPSA match. I shot Limited but wish I had brought my Open gun as one of the stages was a low light situation. My primary goal for this match was to NOT fall down on the slippery concrete floors. I am happy to report that I achieved that goal which was awesome. On one of the stages I partially stepped on my dropped magazines after a reload and immediately thought “HERE WE GO AGAIN” as that usually results in lost footing when stepping on the magazine. But I only stepped on it partially and was able to kick it out of the way before it caused a problem. It sucks to be worried about falling down mid stage run like that.

 

I shot the match solidly without any issues or shooting penalties. I only had 1 D zone hit and that was on a weak hand only string on the classifier for a half hard cover partial target. The Low Light stage was 100% point shooting because it was dark enough that I couldn’t see my sights at all. I shot this stage at a conservative pace and threw some extra shots at the harder targets. All of my extra shots were not needed but I would rather have extra hits verses no hits in this kind of scenario. This stage was a significant disadvantage for the iron sight divisions and I wish I had a red dot for it. But that is just the “Practical” part of the game.

 

It was fun getting some more shooting done that evening with friends. It was also nice to not have to do it in crazy wind or mud like what happened on Sunday. Win / Win for me.  

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I was only able to shoot on Sunday at the Pueblo USPSA match. Driving down south to Pueblo is a good thing because it’s usually warmer down there compared to Denver. The high temp for that day was supposed to be in the low 50’s but when I got to the range it was in the mid 20’s with a steady wind which made it feel much colder than expected. The temp did warm up to the high 40’s but the steady wind was down right bone chilling. These weather conditions created the cold clumsy hands & fingers scenario on the first two stages. The first stage of the day was really bad as I was getting trigger freeze and I completely bumbled the reload because the magazine slipped out of my support hand on the way up to the gun. Feeling the trigger well that day wasn’t going to happen due to the cold conditions.

 

Even though the weather conditions were not optimal I was able to pull together a pretty solid match performance overall. I didn’t have any shooting penalties and only two D zone hits. The first D zone hit was on the first stage of the day when my fingers were super cold and I was battling trigger freeze. The second one was on the classifier which I called a D but couldn’t make it up due to it being a Virginia count scoring stage.

 

The interesting thing about this match is that a few of the stages provided the classic stage strategy decision of staying further back and taking harder shots or running closer and taking easier shots. For these stages I timed both strategies and the “Stay Back” versions did have the potential of saving some stage time. But the risk factor in getting poor or no hits was way too high, especially when I couldn’t feel my fingers in the cold weather. I decided to play it safe and use the “Run Closer” stage plans simply because the shots would be easier with my cold fingers. This proved to be the correct decision as they both resulted in better overall Hit Factors compared to the Open guy on the squad using the more risky “Staying back” plans.

The one thing that I was disappointed in was my aggressive non-shooting running from the start position to the first shooting position on the second stage of the match. This stage had you running about 10 yards with a hard left turn at the end of the run to enter the shooting position. I know I could have run harder and scrambled around the corner more aggressively but I wimped out and took it easy because I didn’t want to slip and fall down again on the loose rocks and dirt in the bay. With this only being a club match I figured I would donate some stage time by not running as hard to eliminate the chance of falling down. If this was a major match I would have given it 100% but would have been really worried about falling down given me recent injury. I have to shake that worry so I don’t wimp out when it really counts.

 

As for my injures, I am happy to report that my right knee is back to 100%. I am super happy that knee injury didn’t end up being something more serious. My lower back is 95% right now which is also good. It will probably take another couple of weeks for it to get back to 100% as long as I don’t do anything stupid in the meantime.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend was a bust from a Match and Live Fire practice perspective. We got hit with a cold front just before the weekend started and it continued through today. I got my Gallant Bullets in last week and needed to verify the velocity of the new load so I braved the cold on Saturday to chrono the new load. It was about 30 degrees and the wind was howling during this chrono session so all I did was run out there, setup the chrono, then shoot the test loads through it quickly. Once the 20 or so rounds were shot across the chrono then I packed it all up and hit the road. BURRRRRRRRR!!!!

 

The good news is that I got the load figured out for new Gallant Bullets. I am using their 180gr 40 Caliber bullet with Prima SV powder at a 4.2gr drop and 1.165” OAL. This setup produced an average velocity of 945pfs which is good enough to make Major PF reliably. It also helps that the Gallant 180gr bullet weight averages about 182gr instead of 180gr. This will put me in the 171 power factor range where I like to be when traveling to major matches across the nation.

 

Since I got the Gallant Bullet load figured out I loaded up 2500 rounds over the rest of the weekend since I couldn’t do any live fire training outdoors. Since I have been going reload crazy over the winter I have about 15K of 40 ammo loaded up at this point which is a really good stockpile to start the season off with. I am actually running out of places to store all of this loaded ammo so I might have to back off a little bit in reloading. That or just commit to loading another full 5 gallon bucket with the Gallant Bullets. If these crazy cold fronts keep us from shooting outdoors on the weekends I might just do that with all of the extra free time.

[blueorison]

Wow this diary is now ~10 yrs/a decade old. 

 

Pretty neat. I hope you are still having as much fun.

[CHA-LEE]

18 minutes ago, blueorison said:

Wow this diary is now ~10 yrs/a decade old. 

 

Pretty neat. I hope you are still having as much fun.

 

Still having as much fun? Absolutely!!!

[CHA-LEE]

This week I got an EMG Customs BAM1 Magwell and put it on my #4 Limited blaster to test out in dry fire. I have really wide palms and up to this point the only magwell that was low enough to fit my hands has been the CAPE. Unfortunately the CAPE magwells are super difficult to find these days. I have tried many “Big Hand” version magwells over the years from many different manufactures but none of them were big enough for my hands. That is until I tried the EMG BAM1 magwell.  The BAM1 has the flare on the bottom of the magwell that is just as low as the CAPE and it fits the width of my hand perfectly. The only difference on the BAM1 versus the CAPE is that the BAM1 doesn’t have a front ledge like the CAPE. The front ledge on the CAPE wedges my support hand pinky into my strong hand which makes it feel like a more locked in grip. This missing ledge on the BAM1 makes my grip feel a little less “Locked in” at my pinky which I thought was going to be a disadvantage. That is until I started doing some dry fire with both magwells to see how they compared in sight alignment and tracking during dry fire. The pinky wedge that the CAPE magwell produces would actually cause a slight dip in the front sight if I changed my grip pressure from firm to hard. Doing the same grip pressure change using the BAM1 magwell didn’t change the sight alignment at all. Even though the BAM1 magwell doesn’t give me the same “locked in” feeling on my support hand it does eliminate sight displacement due to changing grip pressure. Even though this is an interesting discovery in dry fire, I need to prove it out in live fire to see if it really makes any difference when the bullets are flowing.

 

Last night I was able to attend the indoor USPSA match at the Bristolcone range. With the crappy winter weather canceling most of the outdoor matches and practice opportunities I figured I would get some shooting in any way I can by attending these indoor matches. This also gave me the opportunity to test out the BAM1 magwell on the #4 Limited gun. I shot this match as solidly as I can expect for an indoor match with marginal lighting. Most of my shots were called with only a blurry fiber in the front sight due to the marginal lighting. I got all of my hits that night without any penalties. I racked up 1 D zone hit that called marginal while exiting a position but didn’t expect it to be a D. That is all part of the fun in not being able to see the sights very well indoors. Not being able to see the top and sides of the metal front post kept me from being able to see if the BAM1 magwell helped in reducing the low deviation of the front sight while changing up my grip pressure. BUT, the good part is that once the buzzer went off and I started shooting I really didn’t feel anything different in my grip. I expected my grip to feel a little different because of the missing front ledge on the CAPE magwell, but I honestly didn’t even notice it was gone. The gun also didn’t feel like it was muzzle flipping any more than it normally does either. I obviously need some more run time with the BAM1 magwell, especially in normal good outdoor lighting conditions. So far its looking like the BAM1 will be a viable replacement for the unobtainium CAPE magwell. Its showing enough promise that I ordered a couple more BAM1 magwells from EMG Customs. I will likely be using the BAM1 on my new Atlas Titan Operator when it shows up.

 

On the Atlas blaster build front, they tell me that it just got back from getting DLC coated and it shouldn’t be long before its headed toward me. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to get it before next weekend as I need some time with it before I head out to the first Major Match of the year which is the Henry’s Cup in Houston. The Henry’s Cup is only 2 weeks away so that is going to be a tight squeeze to get a new blaster ready to rumble and vetted for reliability. I also need to get a new Long’s Shadow holster made for the Atlas blaster since it is a full dust cover with tac rail. I am keeping my fingers crossed in being able to get it all done before the match. If I don’t have time to get it all done, I will have to fall back to my #4 Limited blaster as the primary for the match.

Edited February 22, 2019 by CHA-LEE

[Intel6]

Went through this same thing back in 2011 and came to much the same conclusion.

 

https://forums.brianenos.com/topic/130879-new-magwell-for-shooters-with-large-hands/

[CHA-LEE]

I got the sad news that my friend and mentor Ron Avery passes away on Saturday after a long battle with cancer. Ron was instrumental in guiding me down the correct path while attempting to maximize my practical shooting performance. When I started in 2008 I was able to squad with Ron at my second ever local USPSA match and watching him burn down the stages with GM level skills was a huge part of what got me hooked on the practical shooting sports. This quickly lead to us training together which undoubtedly took years off of my learning curve in the game. Through the years he always made time for me when I was struggling with a skill or process and needed some honest feedback. I tried not to take advantage of his willingness to help me, but I am sure that I pushed the limits at times.  Through it all he never pushed back on my requests for help and went above and beyond with helping me. Even if he was still alive I would never be able to repay him for all of the help he has provided through the years.

 

My last face to face visit with Ron was in October last year when we got to do some one on one training together at the TPC facility in Saint George, UT. We spent a full day together on the range and worked on several different skills I had been struggling with. Ron’s battle with cancer at that point had ravaged his body severely but his mind and instruction was laser focused and highly effective as usual. There is no doubt that Ron’s unyielding tenacity to live and beat cancer was always evident. I can say with confidence that anyone else in his situation would have succumbed long before it caught up with Ron. Ron was a champions champion in both life and on the range. This was clearly evident every day until the end.  I got a chance to communicate with him only a few days before he passed and as always he was going out of his way to make sure that I was taken care of and all my questions had answers.

 

I am saddened by his death and feel that we are all diminished with his loss. But I am also happy that his struggle with cancer is over. What he went through while battling cancer was horrible and his drive to “Beat It” made that struggle much longer than most would be able to endure. I can only hope that he was able to achieve the majority of his goals while he was still with us. Knowing how Ron was and his never ending quest to achieve maximum performance, he could have likely spent multiple lifetimes striving to achieve all of his goals. His hunger to live every day to the fullest will be missed.

 

Rest in Peace my friend. I hope that I can help carry your teachings and insights forward so that it can live on in others as it is living on in me.      

Edited February 25, 2019 by CHA-LEE

[Hammer]

Well said. He was one heck of a teacher/coach/shooter/man. He will be greatly missed by many.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend was once again a bust from an outdoor match or practice perspective due to the winter weather. It was too cold and there was too much snow during the weekend for any outdoor shooting to happen. This is a bummer, but I really can’t whine about it too much as I really wouldn’t enjoy freezing my ass off trying to shoot in these winter conditions. Since the likelihood of the outdoor shooting getting canceled due to winter weather is high, I have been focusing on attending indoor matches as much as possible.

 

Last night I was able to attend the Outlaw Practical Shooting match at the Trigger Time Gun Club. This is run pretty much like a USPSA match with the same soring and basic rules with the only difference being a more general set of divisions. I shot my #4 Limited blaster with the BAM1 magwell on it. I didn’t notice any negative affect in performance when using the BAM1 magwell, but once again it’s hard to really assess it because of the marginal lighting. What I can say is that I really didn’t notice a difference in using the BAM1 magwell over the CAPE while shooting stages and that is a good thing.

 

This Trigger Time match is the same one that I fell down at last month. Their large field course stage once again had a bunch of scramble running on the slippery concrete. This time I purposefully picked a movement path and aggression that would reduce the chance of slipping. Doing this kept me from slipping during the stage run but it also sucked to donate time in less than optimal movement aggression. Donating a few seconds in slower stage movement was worth not falling down and wrecking my back or knee again though.

 

I was able to shoot a pretty solid match without any shooting penalties. I did rack up 2 Delta hits on the large field course. One was a mystery Delta as I called the shot “Good”. The other Delta I called “Marginal” in the C zone but it ended up being a D. This stage had turtle targets which are a lot easier to rack up Delta hits and the lighting was pretty poor on this stage so I am not going to beat myself up too bad over it. Getting a couple of Delta hits is much better than racking up a couple of Misses instead.

 

Even though this match was short and the lighting wasn’t the best, it was still an opportunity to do some shooting which is a good thing during these winter months. Beggars can’t be choosers in the winter time.       

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend was a bust from a match perspective. We had a really cold winter storm roll in Friday night producing a decent amount of snow and single digit temps. This continued through the whole weekend so all outdoor practice or matches wasn’t going to happen. This was a bummer because I got my new Atlas Titan Operator Limited gun on Friday and wanted to get some range time with it.

 

On Saturday I had to give this new blaster its maiden runs at a couple of different public indoor ranges. The first indoor range I went to was packed and all I could do was make a lane reservation 4 hours out. I made the reservation then drove across town to another indoor range and was able to get a lane. At the first indoor range I was able to test the POA/POI at 10 yards and found that the POI was about 4 inches low at 10 Yards. Since I am using a fixed Novak style rear sight, this POI offset isn’t a big surprise as it usually takes a little bit of sight swapping to get the POI dialed in. This blaster came with a .180 tall front sight and I had a .160 tall one at home to put in there. Since I couldn’t do any sight adjustments to fix the low biased POI I decided to do some spring testing and trigger spring weight testing. For the Recoil & Hammer spring setup I started with a 9lb Recoil and a 17lb Hammer spring as an initial baseline as that is what I use in my other Limited guns. This felt really good to start off with but I figured that since I had the range time I would test out some different spring weights to see if it made it fell or track any better. I used slow motion video to capture the footage of each spring rate tested so I could see exactly how the different springs were affecting the cycling of the gun. I started with the recoil springs and tested an 8lb and 10lb. The 8lb spring left the muzzle slightly high after the slide snapped forward and the 10lb spring caused the muzzle to dip down then back up as it snapped forward. The 9lb spring allowed the muzzle to come straight back down to level as the slide snapped forward.

 

Then I tried 18, 19, and 20lb hammer springs. I swapped the 17lb hammer spring out with the 20lb to start off with to make the biggest jump first. The 20lb hammer spring produced a lot more muzzle tip up right as the slide started coming back after the shot fired. I absolutely hate any amount of muzzle tip up right as the shot fires so I tried the 19lb and then the 18lb to see at which point the muzzle tip up stopped. Once again I ended up back at the 17lb hammer spring which is right at the point where the muzzle tip up stops happening.

 

Ultimately this recoil and hammer spring testing ended up being all for not since I ended up right where I started with the 9/17 spring setup. But given that this is a completely different blaster in a significantly different slide/barrel config that I have been using I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t missing out on a spring setup that would potentially be better.

 

In conjunction with the Recoil/Spring testing I was also making minor tweaks to the Sear spring to dial in the overall trigger weight and sear push through pressure. Since I had to take the mainspring housing off and on during all of the hammer spring testing it only made sense to tune the sear spring at the same time since it was already apart. I got the trigger weight and feel dialed in just how I like it making it feel “Normal” in comparison to my other 2011’s. When I got home after the range session I measured the pull weight and it was exactly at 2lbs 4oz for a break weight which is dead nuts on in pull weight that I like. I think it’s crazy that I could get it dialed into a specific trigger pull weight and break feel by replicating it at the range without even using a trigger pull gauge.  

 

All of this spring testing and sighting in forced me to shoot about 300 rounds through the gun in varied shooting speeds which was another primary goal of this testing session. First and foremost, the gun ran like a champ with zero functionality issues. My existing 1.165” OAL 40 Major ammo was hitting the feed ramp in the perfect spot just above the half way up point. The ammo was feeding as smooth as butter with zero “Chunkiness”. The trajectory of the extracted cases was consistently exiting at 1-2 O’clock. I couldn’t evaluate the full arc of travel of the extracted cases inside the shooting lane as it was too narrow and the brass was hitting the wall. That would need to be confirmed in a range without obstructions to the right side of the gun.

 

Since I got my first round of testing done I packed up my stuff and headed back home. When I got home I swapped out the .180 tall front sight with the .160 tall version. I also swapped the CAPE magwell for the BAM1 to see if that would make any difference in how the sights would track in the next round of live fire testing. A quick inspection of the gun showed that everything was still good to go so I restocked my bag with another 300 rounds of ammo.

 

The second round of indoor testing was primarily focused on accuracy testing as the lighting at this indoor range was much better than the first. The lighting wasn’t the same as normal outdoor lighting but it was good enough to shoot pretty good groups. The shorter front sight raised the POI a couple of inches but it was still a couple inches low at 10 yards. Even though the POI was still lower than I wanted for this testing session I couldn’t do anything at the range to fix it because I would have to swap the rear sight for a taller one, which once again was back at home. This was an error on my part as I should have brought the taller rear sight just in case the POI needed to be raised even more. Since I wanted to churn through the 300 rounds of ammo I brought I did a bunch of group shooting to see how it would fare. I could consistent produce all rounds touching groups off hand at 10 yards which is right in line with the accuracy I expect out of a high end competition pistol. After that I did some doubles drills and assorted rage blasting to see how the group size would end up in those shooting conditions. Cranking out consistent .13 - .15 splits on the doubles and bill drill style rage blasting produced about a 6 – 8 inch pattern of hits at 10 yards with is in line with how my other Limited guns would fare. This to me confirmed that the spring and trigger setup were optimized and the timing feels identical to my other Limited guns. The felt recoil on this new Atlas Blaster feels about 5 power factor softer than my other Bushing Barrel Limited guns which is about the felt difference between using a Bull Barrel vs a Bushing Barrel. This second range session was once again another successful churn through 300 rounds with zero issues or drama. So far I had 600 rounds down the pipe without any issues whatsoever in functionality. To me, this is a new experience as my other Limited guns had some “Teething Pains” to overcome by finalizing barrel feed ramp angles or extractor tuning to get it to function 100% reliably. This may sound strange but getting a new custom 2011 and having it function 100% reliably right out of the gate without major feeding or extracting tuning needed is a new concept for me. Especially when using my existing OAL ammo that is tuned in length for my other Limited guns.

 

When I got home from the second indoor testing session I dug through my Novak rear sight bone pile and found one that was .375” tall. The existing rear sight is .325” tall so the .375” tall one should bring the POI up quite a bit. The only bummer with this taller rear sight is that it has a much bigger rear notch from back when I was using the .140 x .140 size notch. This is dramatically larger than the .100 x .100 rear notch that I have been using for a couple of years now. With the narrow .090” front sight and .140” rear notch setup the front sight seems like it is dwarfed by the huge rear notch. Even though this post to notch width setup isn’t optimal the rear sight is at least taller so I can test it to see if the POI is raised enough. I can live with a POI that is slightly high at 10 yards but absolutely will not use a setup that is low at 10 yards. This concluded the shooting and tuning I was able to do with the new Atlas Titan Operator on Saturday.

 

On Sunday I was super lucky in being able to get some more live fire shooting done at a private indoor range. This was really good because I wanted to see if the new rear sight height fixed the low POI and it would also give me a chance to chrono my 40 ammo through it in comparison to my #4 Limited gun. I started off the live fire session by once again shooting groups at 10 yards to confirm the vertical POI but also dial in the windage. The POI was about 1 inch high at 10 yards which is higher than I would like, but it’s at least high and not low. I then got the windage dialed in as it should be. This old Novak rear sight sits in the dovetail a little higher than the standard Harrison sights I like to use. I have ordered a Harrison .375” tall Novak rear sight with a custom cut .100 x .100 notch. Since I know the Harrison rear sight will sit lower in the dove tail I am going to wait until that gets in and test the vertical POI with the existing .160 tall front sight to see if that makes it dead on at 10 yards or not. If it’s still high then I might have to switch to a .170” or .180” tall front sight. All of this fixed sight swapping is expensive and is time consuming, but once I get it dialed in it will provide 100% reliable sights for many tens of thousands of rounds. I would rather go through this sight swapping pain up front than use an adjustable rear sight that WILL fail at the most inopportune time down the road. This is the whole reason why I went with the Titan Operator model instead of the standard Titan. Fixed sights don’t fail and the Titan Operator comes setup with fixed sights.

 

After sighting in the gun I was able to do some comparison chrono testing between my #4 Limited gun and the new Atlas Titan Operator. Both guns produced the exact same velocity which averaged 945fps. This is yet another “WIN” from an ammo perspective. Given that I have over 12K of 40 Major ammo stockpiled I was really worried about the new Atlas blaster needing a different OAL or Powder drop to make major. Being able to use the exact same ammo in the new Atlas blaster is a huge issue avoided.

 

Since the new Atlas Titan Operator had an acceptable POI I put it through its paces on some live fire stages. The only bummer is that I had to use a Ghost Race holster with it because the Tac Rail on the frame doesn’t fit in my current Long’s Shadow Kydex holster. I will need to get a new Long’s Shadow Kydex Holster that is made with the Tac Rail built into it. Until I get the new Long’s Shadow holster I will need to use the Ghost Race holster, which works fine but is not as comfortable to wear on the range as the kydex holster. I was able to shoot another 400 rounds through the gun during this live fire session and it once again ran like a champ with zero issues. The only oddity during this live fire session was seeing the much wider light bars due to the .140 rear sight notch. That was a little distracting because the sight picture looks abnormal. Other than that I could run the new Atlas blaster just as good, if not better, than my #4 Limited gun. Going into this Atlas gun switch I was really worried about there being a significant felt recoil or timing difference from what I have been shooting. From past experience, major changes like that take me at least 10K – 15K to get used to the “new” feeling or timing. Since the Atlas Titan Operator is very similar to my old limited guns in feeling and timing it will allow me to maintain a distraction free performance while practicing and attending matches. This is yet another major reason why I went with the Titan series instead of the Nemesis. The Nemesis is an awesome blaster but its front heavy sight block and light weight slide feature design isn’t needed with my level of grip pressure. The Nemesis has a felt recoil and timing which is dramatically different than the Titan. This isn’t to say that the Nemesis is a “Bad” setup, it is a great setup for people that need those features to return the gun properly post shot. I simply don’t need assistance with returning the gun properly post shot because I grip the gun hard enough to do it with my grip pressure alone.

 

Through this past weekend I was able to put 1000 rounds through the new Atlas Titan Operator. I got a tremendous amount of testing and tuning done which I honestly didn’t think I was going to be able to do without hitting the outdoor range. I have deployed many “new” or “rebuilt” 2011’s over the years and this Atlas Titan Operator has been WAY easier to deploy than any other I have had. In the past with other blasters it usually took about 5k of testing and tuning before all of the “Teething Pains” were worked out. I am leery to say this as I don’t want to jinx myself, but with only 1K down the pipe on this new Atlas blaster over a single weekend I am confident enough to deploy this bad boy at the Henry’s Cup happening this coming weekend in Houston. I still need the new .100 x .100 rear sight and kydex holster to deploy this Atlas Titan Operator in a 100% “Normal” fashion. But neither of those things are show stoppers that would keep me from using it in a major match. I am looking forward to giving this new Atlas Limited gun a solid workout this season.  

[CHA-LEE]

Last night I was able to attend the indoor USPSA match at the Whistling Pines Gun Club. This was my first official match with the new Atlas Titan Operator. I shot most of the stages twice just to get more run time on the gun and my squad was really gracious in allowing me to do that. I hate to ask for special treatment like that during a match, but this was my last opportunity to get some live fire on the new gun before I head to Texas for the Henry’s Cup. The new blaster ran flawlessly through the match and I was able to get another 200 rounds through it bringing the total round count to 1200 so far with ZERO reliability issues.

 

On the first stage of the match I had a self induced premature magazine drop by gripping the gun harder as I pulled it back when moving from the first to second position. On the draw my support hand grip was slightly higher and forward than normal and this put the heel of my palm right on the magazine release. This caused the mag to drop from the gun unexpectedly and I had to do a standing reload to recover. This issue has happened in the past with my other blasters when I get a bad support hand grip and try to roll with it so this is nothing “New” that is due to the Atlas gun. I simply have to grip the gun properly to keep it from happening, which I do 99% of the time.

 

This match had a good mixture of close blasting and distance partials which allowed you to rip it and aim hard when needed. The lighting in this range is ok, but still poor enough that I am forced to use only the fiber in the front sight to aim and call my shots. This is normally not a problem with my normal .100 x .100 rear notch, but this proved to be a real issue with the much bigger .140 x .140 rear notch I am currently using. Since my acceptable sight picture in these poor lighting conditions is “Fiber anywhere in the rear notch” it wasn’t aligned enough to produce consistent good hits with the much wider and deeper rear notch. I racked up 1 miss and way more C’s and D’s than I expected for this match. This was confusing at first because shots that I called good were ending up as being C's or D's. Then it dawned on me that the wider rear notch was the root cause. This wider rear notch shouldn’t be an issue when shooting outdoors as I will be able to see the front sight clearly and process the light bars normally without having to rely on the fiber alone. But it’s good info to know that “Fiber anywhere in the notch” isn’t good enough if the lighting gets bad for the Henry’s Cup. This just means that I will need to be a little more patient in my sight observation to let the gun settle a little bit more before breaking the shot in poor lighting. I proved this last night by doing just that on the last stage of the match and got all A zone hits. By the time I get back from the Henry’s Cup I should have a new rear sight at the correct height and notch size to install on the Atlas blaster. So I only have to deal with this crazy big rear notch for this one match. This really big rear notch isn’t optimal, but it’s not a deal breaker.  

 

Given how well the new Atlas Titan Operator has run so far I am going to use it as the primary blaster for the Henry’s Cup. I will also bring my trusty #4 Limited gun as a backup just in case something funky happens with the Atlas during the match.

 

This indoor match also gave me the opportunity to try out some new shoes that are supposed to produce better traction on these slippery concrete floors. I found a pair of Brooks Launch 5 running shoes that have a sole thread pattern that is very compact and also made of fairly soft rubber. The tread looks kind of like winter snow tires. The second bay at this range is very slippery due to the smooth concrete and dust which was a very good test for these new shoes. These Launch 5 shoes worked AWESOME in these super slippery conditions. I could run and brake hard without worrying about slipping or losing traction. I will be using these new shoes for any indoor matches from now on. Hopefully my slipping and falling down days while shooting indoor matches are over. My knees and lower back will be much happier about not falling down as well.

 

Now its time to get all of my gear reset, cleaned and packed up to the Henry’s Cup. I am excited to attend my first major match of 2019, but I am also a little bummed by the current weather forecast. Right now the Houston forecast is calling for rain the whole time we will be there so this might turn into a mud bog soggy mess. I will be packing all of my rain/mud gear for this match so I will be prepared for the conditions. But slopping through mud for three days doesn’t sound like much fun. Sometimes we need to embrace the suck to get the job done. I have a feeling this is going to be one of those situations.  

[Flatland Shooter]

Never shot Rosenberg during a hard rain but it seems to drain well and dry up nicely. Hope it won’t be a problem. 

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I attended the Henry’s Cup match in Houston hosted at the Area 59 range. We were able to check out all of the stages on Friday which was a good thing. Many of the stages had multiple ways to shoot them and some needed some extra time to figure out the best plan. There were also several stages with tricky moving targets that also had a lot of engagement order options. I was glad to be able to see the moving target stages being shot that day as it allowed me to formulate some solid stage plans.

 

The weather on Friday was really nice with zero rain. But the forecast for Saturday & Sunday were looking grim. I was shooting the PM Saturday, AM Sunday schedule and the forecast called for rain starting at noon which was right before we started shooting for the day. When we got to the range it started getting really dark and it did rain for a little while but it all stopped before we started shooting the PM schedule. Luckily there wasn’t enough rain to make it a muddy mess either. The sun was out and there was a nice breeze most of the time when we were shooting on Saturday. I took full advantage of that and laid down some solid stage runs with the new Atlas Titan Operator. The wide rear notch wasn’t an issue in these good lighting conditions as I could see the front sight well and call my shots using the light bars. Seeing my sights well would become a significant issue the next morning though.

 

Sunday morning greeted us with heavy overcast skies and a constant mist of fine rain. The lighting conditions were poor enough that I could only see the fiber in the front sight and this is where the side .140” rear notch started causing me trouble. I had a lot more steel makups and C/D zone hits than I wanted due to the poor lighting and trying to only use the fiber in the rear notch sight picture. This is the exact situation that I didn’t want to run into with this wide rear notch sight. I had to embrace the suck and do my best to survive the early morning stages. I reigned it in well enough to not rack up any shooting penalties which was my primary goal during that morning. But I donated more time and points than I would have liked while doing it. Eventually the sun started coming out more and more so I could see my sights better. I can’t wait to get a new rear sight on this blaster so I can get back to the more effective .100” wide rear notch that I know works pretty good in these crappy lighting conditions. The good thing is that even though it was “moist” on Sunday it didn’t turn into a full on rain while we were shooting. Right after we got done shooting the last stage of the match it did start raining for about 20 minutes and I was super glad that we were done before that hit. Overall I felt that we got super lucky with the weather that weekend. It could have been much worse.

 

I knew I donated some performance on Sunday but hoped that I still had enough headway to win in the Limited division. When the final results were posted I ended up being High Overall in Limited 10% ahead of second place Jeremy Reid. Its cool to be able to produce a win for my first major in 2019. What was really cool is seeing how my agility and strength training has helped my mobility and endurance during this match. There were quite a few low port shooting positions that required deep squats while engaging wide arrays of targets. I was able to get into all of these positions effectively and never felt like I was straining or weak while shooting in them or trying to get out of them. It’s really cool to see that type of physical performance improvement at a major match.

 

 

[CHA-LEE]

I forgot to mention that the new Atlas Titan Operator and Long's Shadow holster both worked awesome. Zero issues with either. Its really nice to have equipment that just works with zero drama.

[Furrly]

3 hours ago, CHA-LEE said:

This past weekend I attended the Henry’s Cup match in Houston hosted at the Area 59 range. We were able to check out all of the stages on Friday which was a good thing. Many of the stages had multiple ways to shoot them and some needed some extra time to figure out the best plan. There were also several stages with tricky moving targets that also had a lot of engagement order options. I was glad to be able to see the moving target stages being shot that day as it allowed me to formulate some solid stage plans.

 

The weather on Friday was really nice with zero rain. But the forecast for Saturday & Sunday were looking grim. I was shooting the PM Saturday, AM Sunday schedule and the forecast called for rain starting at noon which was right before we started shooting for the day. When we got to the range it started getting really dark and it did rain for a little while but it all stopped before we started shooting the PM schedule. Luckily there wasn’t enough rain to make it a muddy mess either. The sun was out and there was a nice breeze most of the time when we were shooting on Saturday. I took full advantage of that and laid down some solid stage runs with the new Atlas Titan Operator. The wide rear notch wasn’t an issue in these good lighting conditions as I could see the front sight well and call my shots using the light bars. Seeing my sights well would become a significant issue the next morning though.

 

Sunday morning greeted us with heavy overcast skies and a constant mist of fine rain. The lighting conditions were poor enough that I could only see the fiber in the front sight and this is where the side .140” rear notch started causing me trouble. I had a lot more steel makups and C/D zone hits than I wanted due to the poor lighting and trying to only use the fiber in the rear notch sight picture. This is the exact situation that I didn’t want to run into with this wide rear notch sight. I had to embrace the suck and do my best to survive the early morning stages. I reigned it in well enough to not rack up any shooting penalties which was my primary goal during that morning. But I donated more time and points than I would have liked while doing it. Eventually the sun started coming out more and more so I could see my sights better. I can’t wait to get a new rear sight on this blaster so I can get back to the more effective .100” wide rear notch that I know works pretty good in these crappy lighting conditions. The good thing is that even though it was “moist” on Sunday it didn’t turn into a full on rain while we were shooting. Right after we got done shooting the last stage of the match it did start raining for about 20 minutes and I was super glad that we were done before that hit. Overall I felt that we got super lucky with the weather that weekend. It could have been much worse.

 

I knew I donated some performance on Sunday but hoped that I still had enough headway to win in the Limited division. When the final results were posted I ended up being High Overall in Limited 10% ahead of second place Jeremy Reid. Its cool to be able to produce a win for my first major in 2019. What was really cool is seeing how my agility and strength training has helped my mobility and endurance during this match. There were quite a few low port shooting positions that required deep squats while engaging wide arrays of targets. I was able to get into all of these positions effectively and never felt like I was straining or weak while shooting in them or trying to get out of them. It’s really cool to see that type of physical performance improvement at a major match.

 

 

Just curious What are your splits on targets passed 10 yards.. It's always fun watching you shoot.. 

[CHA-LEE]

23 minutes ago, Furrly said:

Just curious What are your splits on targets passed 10 yards.. It's always fun watching you shoot.. 

 

Splits on targets at any distance have a lot of other variables to consider that can impact shooting speed. Lighting, movement, physical obstructions, physical position, grip and recoil management all have an impact on split times. The real answer is that my shooting speed is 100% dictated by what my sights tell me is good enough for the shot given the current situation. I never make a determination before hand on a specific split time for any given target. That leads down to the path of double tapping instead of calling your shots. 

 

With that being said, most of my splits end up being in the .18 - .25 range for the majority of targets in practical shooting matches. Shooting faster splits on more difficult targets, while producing solid hits, can separate your performance from most others. A good example of this would be my Stage 3 run from the Henry's Cup. Most people would find the really fast splits on the close targets cool to see. But everyone can shoot the close targets fast. What separated my performance from others on that stage was being able to rail on the four 15 yard targets in the back of the berm almost as fast as the close targets. Being able to engage those back targets at a much faster pace than most others is the primary time savings component to my stage run.

 

Fast splits are only good if they are also deployed along with fast transitions. If someone is cranking out sub .20 splits regularly but their transitions are double or triple the split time then they are losing a crap ton of time on transitions by "Trying to shoot fast". Matches are won with effective transitions. Matches are usually lost when people try to "Shoot fast" with crazy splits everywhere.     

Edited March 11, 2019 by CHA-LEE

[Furrly]

25 minutes ago, CHA-LEE said:

 

Splits on targets at any distance have a lot of other variables to consider that can impact shooting speed. Lighting, movement, physical obstructions, physical position, grip and recoil management all have an impact on split times. The real answer is that my shooting speed is 100% dictated by what my sights tell me is good enough for the shot given the current situation. I never make a determination before hand on a specific split time for any given target. That leads down to the path of double tapping instead of calling your shots. 

 

With that being said, most of my splits end up being in the .18 - .25 range for the majority of targets in practical shooting matches. Shooting faster splits on more difficult targets, while producing solid hits, can separate your performance from most others. A good example of this would be my Stage 3 run from the Henry's Cup. Most people would find the really fast splits on the close targets cool to see. But everyone can shoot the close targets fast. What separated my performance from others on that stage was being able to rail on the four 15 yard targets in the back of the berm almost as fast as the close targets. Being able to engage those back targets at a much faster pace than most others is the primary time savings component to my stage run.

 

Fast splits are only good if they are also deployed along with fast transitions. If someone is cranking out sub .20 splits regularly but their transitions are double or triple the split time then they are losing a crap ton of time on transitions by "Trying to shoot fast". Matches are won with effective transitions. Matches are usually lost when people try to "Shoot fast" with crazy splits everywhere.     

Thank you for  that feedback, Stage 3 on those exact targets is why I was asking about your splits, it seemed that you shot them just as fast as the close up targets.. Impressive 

Thanks again 

[CHA-LEE]

This past Saturday was supposed to be the HPPS match that I run. But the crazy blizzard we had on Wednesday hit the BLGC range hard. I called the BLGC Range manager who lives on the property to get a status and he said they had 10-12 foot drifts in places and he had been working all day on Thursday to attempt to clear the roads on the property but was still not able to get them all cleared. Many of the berms had huge snow drifts in front or within them as well making them inaccessible. The weather warmed up on Thursday and Friday which helped melt the snow but that turned what had been cleared out into a complete mud bog which triggered the official closing of the BLGC range until further notice. It’s BAD when they shut down the whole range for Snow and Mud conditions.  

 

Since we had to cancel the match on Saturday I figured I would get some indoor practice done on Saturday instead. I also helped a student with some training on Sunday. No matches for me this past weekend but I was able to get some shooting in which was great. On Friday I got my new rear sight installed with my normal .100 x .100 notch. I also swapped the front sight with a .180 tall then filed it down to a .170 height. I was able to get it sighted in on Saturday during the practice session and the POA/POI is dead on now at 10 yards. Having a .100 x .100 rear notch back on the gun was like putting on a comfy pair of old shoes. I have been using that narrow rear notch for quite a while now and it made calling my shots feel normal again. Since I know that the front sight has to be .170 tall for the correct vertical POI I have ordered a new Dawson front sight at that exact height. Filing down a .180 to make it a .170 worked in a pinch to verify the vertical POI but it takes off too much material on the top of the sight which makes it much more difficult to see the top corners of the iron. In the current filed down configuration the fiber dot is very close to the top of the sight and it makes it much more difficult to see the top corners of the iron. Once I get the fresh .170 tall front sight installed it should be the final step in this voyage of getting the Atlas Titan Operator dialed in from a sights perspective.

 

Through the weekend I was able to shoot another 500 rounds though the new Atlas blaster and it continues to run like a champ. Right now the total round count is at about 2000 down the pipe with zero issues. It’s awesome to have a new competition gun run like a champ from round 1 with zero issues.

 

I might have a chance to attend an indoor USPSA match this coming Thursday at the Bristolcone range. We will see how work goes this week to see if I can break away early enough to drive across Denver to get there on time.