CHA-LEE's Tale

[Vanniek71]

Have you ever thought of slimming down a bit and changing your diet? Don't take this the wrong way please - its not meant negatively.

I was having back and foot issues - disk, nerves, gout etc and was overweight (I am a LOT shorter than you and was at 235lbs) All I did was go over to a Paleo diet (or otherwise known as don't eat foods with inflammatory properties) and I lost 45lbs over the course of the last year. Not a bunch of crazy exercise or anything. I just focused on feeding my body pure stuff and cut out gluten, added sugar and soy. I'm not allergic to gluten or anything but after some reading found that a lot of the American diet contains inflammatory substances. When I cut all that out I felt better, I lost weight, I had more energy, gout dissapeared and my nerve issues in my back have gone away. Sometimes we don't even know it, but what we are eating can cause all kinds of troubles.

Like I said before I am not allergic to gluten or soy but when I cut it out of my diet, and then eat it again I can feel a difference! That bloated feeling comes back and so does the lethargy.

Take it for what you will, but it's something to think about - with a bulged disk the least amount of inflammation you can have would be the best!

[CHA-LEE]

One question you may want to try to answer is if you will heal faster by just writing off the rest of 2014 and just focus on healing vice trying to continue to shoot at some level?

This time last year I tore the cartilage in my left wrist and while not the same degree of injury you have I still faced a decision. And while I don't have your match schedule I do train 12 days a month plus 2-3 matches/month so i was faced with going from shooting 15 days/ month to zero days/month.

In my younger days I'm sure I would have selected a solution that did not include stopping shooting and would have tried to work through it. However, since I'm old and decrepit I made the very difficult decision to simply stop shooting and let my wrist heal. Best decision I ever made as after 5 weeks i was back to a full shooting schedule. My hand surgeon said it could take several months to heal , if ever, based on what Course of action I decided to pursue. He was also confident he could repair it with surgery but I was motivated to avoid that at all costs having had more than my fair share over the years ...

Just something to consider ....

Thanks for the recommendation. I have thought about that and right after this happened I did take some time off from shooting then eased back into the shooting. When I shoot, it does not "Hurt" my neck or exasperate the weakness or numbness in my left arm. So shooting does not make it worse. After shooting a match my neck or arm does not feel any worse than a normal day at work or laying around the house taking it easy like a slug. I am simply forced into a situation where I HAVE TO use my left arm and it does not do what I command it to do. Right now I am battling the frustration of the situation more than anything else. It is SUPER frustrating to know how to do something properly but your left arm simply can't do it.

[CHA-LEE]

Have you ever thought of slimming down a bit and changing your diet? Don't take this the wrong way please - its not meant negatively.

I was having back and foot issues - disk, nerves, gout etc and was overweight (I am a LOT shorter than you and was at 235lbs) All I did was go over to a Paleo diet (or otherwise known as don't eat foods with inflammatory properties) and I lost 45lbs over the course of the last year. Not a bunch of crazy exercise or anything. I just focused on feeding my body pure stuff and cut out gluten, added sugar and soy. I'm not allergic to gluten or anything but after some reading found that a lot of the American diet contains inflammatory substances. When I cut all that out I felt better, I lost weight, I had more energy, gout dissapeared and my nerve issues in my back have gone away. Sometimes we don't even know it, but what we are eating can cause all kinds of troubles.

Like I said before I am not allergic to gluten or soy but when I cut it out of my diet, and then eat it again I can feel a difference! That bloated feeling comes back and so does the lethargy.

Take it for what you will, but it's something to think about - with a bulged disk the least amount of inflammation you can have would be the best!

Losing weight is always on my mind. Since I am a diabetic and basically control it via my diet I am very aware of what I am shoving into my pie hole every day. Right now I am at 265 and based on past dieting experiences that seems to be the balanced weight level that my body likes. Since I am a diabetic I can't eat many carbs and the more carbs I eliminate from my diet the more weight I lose along with sustained energy. I have gotten down to 245 before using a hardcore no carbs diet but when i was at that weight I would literally have to eat protein ever 2 hours or I would have ZERO energy. If I wasn't constantly eating protein I was totally wiped out with zero energy. That kind of diet works if food is easily accessed all the time (walking by the fridge), but that isn't the case when you are at the range. That being said, I can always eat better and get more exercise so doing just that is a good idea.

[Vanniek71]

Have you ever thought of slimming down a bit and changing your diet? Don't take this the wrong way please - its not meant negatively.

I was having back and foot issues - disk, nerves, gout etc and was overweight (I am a LOT shorter than you and was at 235lbs) All I did was go over to a Paleo diet (or otherwise known as don't eat foods with inflammatory properties) and I lost 45lbs over the course of the last year. Not a bunch of crazy exercise or anything. I just focused on feeding my body pure stuff and cut out gluten, added sugar and soy. I'm not allergic to gluten or anything but after some reading found that a lot of the American diet contains inflammatory substances. When I cut all that out I felt better, I lost weight, I had more energy, gout dissapeared and my nerve issues in my back have gone away. Sometimes we don't even know it, but what we are eating can cause all kinds of troubles.

Like I said before I am not allergic to gluten or soy but when I cut it out of my diet, and then eat it again I can feel a difference! That bloated feeling comes back and so does the lethargy.

Take it for what you will, but it's something to think about - with a bulged disk the least amount of inflammation you can have would be the best!

Losing weight is always on my mind. Since I am a diabetic and basically control it via my diet I am very aware of what I am shoving into my pie hole every day. Right now I am at 265 and based on past dieting experiences that seems to be the balanced weight level that my body likes. Since I am a diabetic I can't eat many carbs and the more carbs I eliminate from my diet the more weight I lose along with sustained energy. I have gotten down to 245 before using a hardcore no carbs diet but when i was at that weight I would literally have to eat protein ever 2 hours or I would have ZERO energy. If I wasn't constantly eating protein I was totally wiped out with zero energy. That kind of diet works if food is easily accessed all the time (walking by the fridge), but that isn't the case when you are at the range. That being said, I can always eat better and get more exercise so doing just that is a good idea.

I'm not saying go low carb, that will totally kill your energy since that is the fastest convertible energy source for your body ...just look in to changing your carb sources... I eat a crapload of veggies and some fruit. I cut out all the carbs from processed sources and added sugars. Makes a world of difference.

And it is a bit harder on the range, but doable. I do it for every match. My cooler is my friend just takes some planning and dedication to stick to it!

[CHA-LEE]

There are a lot of vegetables and fruit I can't eat due to having too many carbs or sugar and most of the ones I can eat have very little nutritional value. For example, I can't chow down on an Apple, pear, orange, mellon or Banana as that will send my blood sugar through the roof. The same goes for starchy veggies like potatoes or beans. Then most breads, rice and noodles are also in that same boat of completely jacking up my blood sugar. Pretty much the only vegetables that I can have in moderation are ones with fairly low nutritional value such as lettuces, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, and mushrooms. It does not make sense to try and force feed myself a crap ton of these limited vegetables I can actually eat at the range.

Yes, being a diabetic sucks if you want to control it via your diet and not rely on insulin shots to offset eating the wrong stuff.

[Vanniek71]

There are a lot of vegetables and fruit I can't eat due to having too many carbs or sugar and most of the ones I can eat have very little nutritional value. For example, I can't chow down on an Apple, pear, orange, mellon or Banana as that will send my blood sugar through the roof. The same goes for starchy veggies like potatoes or beans. Then most breads, rice and noodles are also in that same boat of completely jacking up my blood sugar. Pretty much the only vegetables that I can have in moderation are ones with fairly low nutritional value such as lettuces, tomatoes, broccoli, onions, and mushrooms. It does not make sense to try and force feed myself a crap ton of these limited vegetables I can actually eat at the range.

Yes, being a diabetic sucks if you want to control it via your diet and not rely on insulin shots to offset eating the wrong stuff.

Hey you know your body obviously better than I do, but it's possible. I do it daily. With a bit of research you can find stuff that suits you. It takes an investment of time and some effort but I bet you would see outstanding results.

If you ever want to give it a shot let me know I can help you out. I'm an expert at the Paleo/Gluten free lifestyle. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired and went for it. I'll never look back now!

[Nimitz]

One question you may want to try to answer is if you will heal faster by just writing off the rest of 2014 and just focus on healing vice trying to continue to shoot at some level?

This time last year I tore the cartilage in my left wrist and while not the same degree of injury you have I still faced a decision. And while I don't have your match schedule I do train 12 days a month plus 2-3 matches/month so i was faced with going from shooting 15 days/ month to zero days/month.

In my younger days I'm sure I would have selected a solution that did not include stopping shooting and would have tried to work through it. However, since I'm old and decrepit I made the very difficult decision to simply stop shooting and let my wrist heal. Best decision I ever made as after 5 weeks i was back to a full shooting schedule. My hand surgeon said it could take several months to heal , if ever, based on what Course of action I decided to pursue. He was also confident he could repair it with surgery but I was motivated to avoid that at all costs having had more than my fair share over the years ...

Just something to consider ....

Thanks for the recommendation. I have thought about that and right after this happened I did take some time off from shooting then eased back into the shooting. When I shoot, it does not "Hurt" my neck or exasperate the weakness or numbness in my left arm. So shooting does not make it worse. After shooting a match my neck or arm does not feel any worse than a normal day at work or laying around the house taking it easy like a slug. I am simply forced into a situation where I HAVE TO use my left arm and it does not do what I command it to do. Right now I am battling the frustration of the situation more than anything else. It is SUPER frustrating to know how to do something properly but your left arm simply can't do it.

Yeah, you're definitely in a frustrating position if shooting doesn't make anything hurt and your doctor says that continuing is not making it worse ... I was 'lucky' in that trying to grip the gun properly caused enough pain that I was encouraged to choose another course of action ....

Is there any chance that while causing no pain, continued shooting is interfering with healing quicker?

[CHA-LEE]

I am not sure if continuing to shoot will hinder the healing process. My doctor said that staying active and using the affected arm as I normally would is a good thing as it forces you to keep hitting the damaged nerves with movement signals. I am not doing any heavy lifting or stuff like that so even though I am trying to use my arm as I normally would. I am still steering clear of performing tasks or movements that might lead to additional injury.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I did a boat load of shooting. On Saturday was the HPPS match which I am the Match Director. Since we have to cancel our match next month I figured we would setup 5 physical stages and shoot them in two different versions making a 10 stage match. We had a decent showing for the match and much blasting was had by all. Ron Avery came to the match and I was able to shoot with him so that was a good gauge of how I my shooting performance was going. I still can’t manage the recoil properly with my weak left arm and had a crap ton of poor or no hits. All told I had 10 D’s and 6 Misses which is pretty much what I have been doing ever since trying to shoot with this weak left arm. I used this 10 stage match to gauge my performance so I could make a decision on attending the nationals or not. I came to the conclusion that I am not going to the nationals. I am about 15% - 20% behind of what I would consider my “Normal” match performance ability with this weak left arm. As I said before, I can get away with doing halfway decent at local matches with this substandard performance, but I would get murdered at the nationals. Its just not worth the time, vacation, and money to go to the nationals and try to perform in this crippled state. More so I don’t think it would be fun as I am sure it would be an endless process of frustration. It totally sucks to not be able to attend the nationals, but it is what it is. I need to heal up from this disk issue and trying to force myself to perform isn’t going to make the healing process go any faster.

On Sunday I shot the Weld County USPSA match and helped the club in a Score Keeper capacity. Since I did registration and setup the Nooks for scoring the match I didn’t get a chance to look at any of the stages before the start of the match. This turned out fine while shooting because most of the stages were pretty simple in setup without too many different ways to shoot them. This match was setup with a heavy bias to aiming with a bunch of hard shots on most of the stages. I did my best to aim my ass off but I was still battling recoil management due to the weak left hand grip. When the gun cycles the front sight simply does not return to the same sights aligned state. I have to manually drive the sights back to an aligned state then break the next shot. If I fail to do that, then I get super crappy hits. This weak left arm situation is showing me how much I have become reliant on a solid index and pointing of the gun during stage runs. Before this injury if the gun was pointed at a target the sights were always aligned properly the same goes in managing recoil while shooting. Post shot the sights would always be aligned. That isn’t happening right now with my weak left hand. There were a couple of sections during stage runs where I would consciously grip the living shit out of the gun with my left hand and the sights started tracking somewhat normal and would come back to an aligned state. But my muscles are just too weak to maintain that level of grip pressure for too long. Its cool to see the sights track and align as they should, but its frustrating as shit to not be able to do it all the time due to being too weak.

[CHA-LEE]

My second Phoenix Trinity Stainless Steel grip showed up on Monday. Once again it is a work of machining art. I disassembled the Full Dust Cover / Bull Barrel 2011 to test fit the PT grip onto the frame and much to my surprise it went right on and seated to about 98%. It would only need a very minor amount of fitting to get it fully seated to the frame. This is very unlike my first one on the bushing gun frame that took a significant amount of fitting to get it onto the frame. This just shows how much the STI frames vary from one to another which is kind of disturbing, but it is what it is.

Last night I spent about 4 hours getting the PT grip fitted to the Bull Barrel frame and everything tuned up. I spent most of the time blending the bottom of the grip to match the main spring housing and round off some of the sharper edges. I did this on my other PT grip and it made the magazine sticking at an odd angle during reloads a lot less prevalent. I am happy with how this build turned out so far and the balance of the gun in my hand is very different vs the plastic grip and SS magwell. Once I got everything done I put the Bill Barrel gun on the scale and it came in at 49.5oz which is a little bit heavier than the bushing barrel gun. The bushing barrel gun is 46oz in its current configuration which I prefer. Since I knew that the full dust cover / bull barrel gun would have more muzzle side weight I ordered an aluminum guide rod to try out. Currently the Bull Barrel gun has a standard steel guide rod but I am going to test out the aluminum guide rod in live fire testing to see which one feels better. I don’t know the exact weight difference between the aluminum guide rod vs the steel but it has to be at least a couple of ounces. I will measure the weight difference between the two tonight.

Since the Bull Barrel gun is ready to rumble, I am going to take it out tonight after work to do some live fire testing to see how it shoots compared to the bushing barrel gun. I am leery about making too many spring or weight distribution changes on the new build while my left arm is weak because it does not make sense for me to tune the gun to “fit” what my weak left arm wants or needs at this point. If the live fire testing goes well tonight I will run the Bull Barrel gun this weekend at the local matches.

[CHA-LEE]

Yesterday I was able to get out to the range and do some shooting with the new Bull Barrel gun with the PT stainless grip. I did back to back shooting drills against the bushing gun and the Bull Barrel gun shoots WAY flatter and softer. The muzzle flip on the Bull Barrel gun is dramatically less and I can shoot it super chainsaw fast while maintaining solid on target hits, even with my gimp left arm. The front sight was tracking and returning perfectly without needing to grip the crap out of the gun unlike the bushing barrel gun. Since I was able to achieve the same sight tracking with the bushing gun when my grip strength was “normal”, but now it’s hard to manage I am leery of making any changes to either gun until my grip strength comes back.

The only down side to the Bull barrel gun is that the beaver tail isn’t as big so the slide is chopping my hand a little bit. Since I was able to shoot the Bull barrel gun much better than the Bushing gun I have swapped the bigger beaver tail from the bushing gun over to the Bull. I am going to use the Bull barrel gun this weekend to shoot the club matches and see how it goes in match conditions. The Bull barrel gun only has about 300 – 400 rounds on it so its reliability hasn’t been proven yet, but its yet to have any issues which is a good start.

I don’t want to jump the gun on determining which platform is “Better” than the other but right now the Full Dust Cover / Bull barrel setup feels significantly better. I am not sure if this is because the extra weight helps offset my weak grip pressure condition or not, so I think I need to wait until my grip strength comes back to “normal” before I make a final determination. Until then I think I will focus on shooting the Bull barrel gun to verify its reliability.

[Not-So-Mad Matt]

I have gotten down to 245 before using a hardcore no carbs diet but when i was at that weight I would literally have to eat protein ever 2 hours or I would have ZERO energy. If I wasn't constantly eating protein I was totally wiped out with zero energy.

You don't mention fat at all, but when you're eating no-carb, you need plenty of fat -- which still seems wrong to many people raised to equate low-fat with healthy.

[Vanniek71]

I have gotten down to 245 before using a hardcore no carbs diet but when i was at that weight I would literally have to eat protein ever 2 hours or I would have ZERO energy. If I wasn't constantly eating protein I was totally wiped out with zero energy.

You don't mention fat at all, but when you're eating no-carb, you need plenty of fat -- which still seems wrong to many people raised to equate low-fat with healthy.

Fat is very important! But have to make sure it's the good fats. It actually is the most energy dense nutrient. Good for that long term sustained energy

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I got a chance to give the Full Bull 2011 blaster a good thrashing in match conditions. On Saturday I attended an outdoor USPSA match with 5 stages and there was a good mixture of fast blasting and aiming hard. The Full Bull ran flawlessly and I could run it a lot more aggressively than the bushing gun because the felt recoil and muzzle flip was a lot less. This also showed well in the available points shot I was able to capture which was 91%, which isn’t great, but it’s better than the mid to low 80% I was having before using the Bushing gun. I can still tell that I am not able to transition as aggressively as before and managing the recoil in awkward positions is still crappy, but it’s a lot better than before using the Bushing gun. I am really liking how the Full Bull 2011 is shooting. It feels like it has a little too heavy of a recoil spring as the front sight dips low slightly post shot, but I am leery of making changes to lighten the recoil spring while my left arm is still weak.

On Sunday Night I attended an indoor match at the Centennial Gun Club. This was a four stage match with some varied shooting challenges. As always, seeing my sights indoors is a challenge but this time they setup some flood lights near the shooting areas and this dramatically improved the lighting conditions. On the first stage of the match I slipped on my dropped mag after the reload and fell down half way through the stage. I kept the gun pointed down range and didn’t do anything unsafe which was good, but I had to pick myself up with only my weak left arm and that was a struggle. I had to do quite a bit of shuffling around on the ground before I could get back up and finish the stage. I didn’t fall down hard and did a good job of catching myself as I fell so I didn’t hurt myself so that is a good thing. But it’s always unnerving to fall with a loaded firearm in hand while running around a stage. The fall down cost me about 3 seconds of stage time but I didn’t DQ myself so losing time is better than going home early. Other than falling down I felt like I had a decent match. The Full Bull 2011 ran great and I am really liking how it shoots.

After the Sunday match I was able to get some slow motion video of me shooting shown from the side. I wanted to see how much the gun was muzzle flipping or displacing while I shot. I was consciously gripping the gun as hard as I could with my left hand and while shooting it seemed like the sights were tracking properly. I did observe a slight dip low of the front sight post shot as the slide snapped back forward. When watching the video in slow motion I am able to manage the muzzle flip really good as the front of the gun is only coming up a total of an inch. The whole gun is probably displacing an inch as well. I can also see the slight dip low post shot when the slide snaps back forward but it is pretty minimal at about a quarter inch. I think that I could get away with using an 8lb or 9lb recoil spring to further minimize the muzzle flip and dip, but I am still not sure if the current displacement of the gun is simply due to my weak left arm or not. Right now, the gun is working properly in its current spring configuration and I can shoot it pretty well so I am leery of making any changes to “Tune” it to my weak left arm. I would rather keep it as is and see how it changes as my strength increases.

From a weak left arm perspective, I am gaining back a little bit of strength each day. I was able to break the 120lb grip strength threshold on Friday and it has maintained that level or slightly above through the weekend so I am happy to be out of the 110 – 119 range where I have been stuck at for a couple of weeks. I am doing daily grip and arm exercises to keep both of my arms active. All I can do is keep at it and hope that the strength keeps coming back. I am still a good 80lbs shy of my pre injury grip strength level so I still have a significant ways to go before I am back to “normal”. The good news is that I am making recovery progress, even if it is going slower than I want. I would rather make slow progress and heal from this verses go under the knife to try and fix it.

[CHA-LEE]

Here is the slow motion video I was talking about. I am going to use this as a reference for when my left hand grip strength is at 120lbs, then do it again when my grip strength improves to see what the difference looks like.

Edited September 29, 2014 by CHA-LEE

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I attended the 2014 High Desert Classic down in Albuquerque New Mexico. This was my 6^th year in a row to attend this match and it is always a fun event. This year was no different as it offered 10 challenging stages to shoot with all but one being a large field course type of stage. In years past this match has at times been plagued with high winds causing dust and sand to get into everything causing gun and gear issues for most everyone. This year it was mostly calm winds with only a few heavy gusts towards the end of the day on Saturday. Other than that the weather was awesome all weekend long which was really nice shooting weather.

Going into this match with my new Full Bull Limited gun without a significant track record of reliability had me a little worried but I decided to go the whole match without cleaning it to see how it would fare. I had about 500 rounds on it before heading to this match so it was already pretty dirty to start off with. If this blaster could function properly through these dusty and sandy conditions without needing cleaning it would be a very good testament to its “Running Dirty” reliability capabilities. I am happy to report that the gun ran very well even though it was really dirty. I had one nose dive jam late in the day on Saturday, but I believe that jam was due to my lack of proactively cleaning my magazines in the dusty conditions. I was basically wearing my loaded magazines in the windy and dusty conditions and the fine dust was causing some slow registration of the rounds on one of the magazines. It sucked to have a jam mid stage run but it was a good lesson in knowing how far I can push the mags and gun in dirty range conditions. I know for sure that my EAA magazines would have completely failed if I exposed them to the same dusty conditions that day, so when comparing apples to apples the STI mags actually performed really well in comparison.

Since my left arm is still not up to full strength I knew I was going to have some recoil management issues on some of the stages with funky shooting positions. My left arm is basically at 75% strength now, which is a lot better than it was a month ago, but its still quite a bit weaker than my right arm. If I was shooting from a normal stance and consciously gripped the crap out of the gun with my left hand I could shoot and transition pretty good. The heavier Full Bull limited gun also helped in reducing the overall felt recoil and muzzle flip. My shooting is getting a little closer to “Normal” as my left arm strength is slowly coming back.

We checked out all of the stages on Friday and figured out solid stage plans for each one. I was really excited about shooting the match as all of the stages were challenging and fun. On Saturday morning I was in a mental fog and this fog pretty much stuck with me all day long. I was struggling to produce aggressive stage runs and overall wasn’t into it. I have been in this mental state before and it’s a sucky place to be during a match where you want to perform your best but you mentally out to lunch. I ground through the 7 stages on Saturday simply trying to survive each stage without giving away too much in time or points but I ended up “Donating” three misses and several seconds of mistakes to the competition that day. On Sunday I was back to normal and performed solidly on the last three stages of the match. Since I had a lack luster first day and a solid second day I really didn’t know where I would end up overall. When the results were tallied I ended up second overall to Glen Shelby missing first by only 5 match points. I wish I wouldn’t have given away so much on Saturday by being in a funky mental state, but that is just how it happens some times. The good thing is that I learned some good lessons about my gun and mags. I am really happy with how the Full Bull limited gun performed and feel that it has made some significant headway in proving its reliability in dirty conditions.

I was able to get all of my stage runs on video and have uploaded them to my YouTube channel. Now it’s time to go through my gear post match and get it ready for some local club matches.

[aaronsdmf]

Nice job in New Mexico man. Glad you are starting to feel better. I'm sure it's pure agony and mentally taxing when you KNOW damn well you can perform at a certain level yet unable too. We are our own worst critic, so don't beat yourself up to bad dude.

[CHA-LEE]

Last weekend was a busy one. On Saturday I presented a group training class and it was a lot of fun. The weather was nice but overcast most of the day. About half way through the day it started raining and hailing for a little bit, but that didn’t last long and blew over as quickly as it came in. Everyone in the class enjoyed themselves and a lot was learned which is exactly how it should go. I got to shoot a little bit at the end of the class but that was it. I was fine with that because I was pretty worn out from presenting training all day.

On Sunday I headed down to Pueblo for their monthly USPSA club match. The weather forecast was iffy predicting high winds in the morning and rain in the afternoon so I knew that we were going to have an interesting day at the range. In the morning the weather was nice with very little wind but as soon as the match started, the wind started to pick up and got gradually worse as the day went on. On the last stage of the match the wind was crazy and just as we finished the last shooter on our squad the windy conditions reached a peak and started to blow down walls, rip targets off of the stands and basically destroying the stage. This is the “Practical” part of practical shooting I guess. I was just glad to get done shooting before the windy conditions started wrecking everything. Another squad in the match was dilly dallying on churning through the stages and didn’t get to shoot stage 3 before it got ripped up by the wind so that stage got tossed out. That sucked because I had a good run on that stage, but it is what it is.

My shooting performance for the match was ok, but nothing special. With the overcast lighting conditions I struggled with seeing my sights the whole match and this lead to a slower shooting than normal. I am still battling the weak left arm situation so my primary focus through the match was to grip the crap out of the gun with my left hand while shooting. I did ok with this on most of the stages, but failed on some and the gun was muzzle flipping a lot more than normal. I had one miss in the match on a long distance target that I called very marginal while shooting it and it ended up being a miss. It sucks to have a miss, but it was good to know that target was going to be an issue due to staying diligent on the sights. I am really getting use to the Bull Barrel 2011 and am glad that I have figured out a solid configuration that works for me. I still wonder if the Bull Barrel 2011 will be the right setup once my left arm strength gets back to normal, but I will not know for sure until I get the strength back.

From a left arm weakness & numbness perspective I seem to be at a recovery stand still right now. I am doing daily grip exercises in an attempt to put the weak muscles to work and recover from whatever muscle atrophy that has occurred. I am also measuring my grip strength in both hands every day and I am not seeing any more gains over the last couple of weeks. My left hand has the same level of numbness and the grip strength which is usually in the 120lb – 125lb range. This is still a good 75lbs shy of where my grip strength was before this disk rupture so I still have a long ways to go before I am back to “normal”. I am trying to keep a positive attitude about this injury healing over time and getting me back to normal, but it’s disconcerting when I don’t see any improvement over a couple of weeks. The good thing is that I am in zero pain right now so I know the healing process is working. All I can do is keep at it and hope that the healing process continues so I can get back to 100% strength.

[CHA-LEE]

I found out an interesting tidbit today. With the October classifier recalculation my average percentage was bumped up to 98.8% and that put me 10th on the "Top 20" Limited GM's list on the USPSA Website. As far as I know, this is the first time my name has graced the Top 20 list so its an interesting happenstance. I am not sure what to think of this as I do know that your classification percentage average isn't usually directly linked to your overall match performance skills. Its probably a one time statistical anomaly that my classifier stage and major match results ended up with an average landing me in the Top 20 list. I will probably get dropped back off the list once the November recalculation happens as I know I have some low 90% classifier results waiting to be submitted and applied to my average. Either way, I can at least say that I was on the Top 20 Limited GM list at lest once for whatever that is worth

[Glock26Toter]

Screw all that. Just enjoy being up there while it lasts. Good job man!

[CHA-LEE]

This past Saturday I once again hosted the HPPS USPSA match. We only had 3 board members to run the match so I had to wear both the Match Director and Score Keeper hats that day. A couple days before the match I sent out an e-mail request for the local shooters to help with setup in the morning since we were really short handed. I was extremely pleased with the setup help response we got. There were a bunch of shooters who showed up early and we got all of the stages setup in record time. This gave me ample time to make sure each stage was setup properly and ready to rumble, then jump into the Score Keeper roll and get everyone registered for the match. It’s awesome when all of the shooters pitch in to make the match happen!!!

When hosting this match I never really get a chance to break down and program the stages properly before the start of the match. So this is my chance to test my keep it simple stage planning and limited time in programming the plan skills. Luckily for me all of the stages were pretty straight forward in their plans so there wasn’t too much effort needed in figuring out the strategy for the stages. I didn’t try to push hard while shooting the stages as I just told myself to grip the gun hard with my left hand and simply shoot when my sights are on target. This plan worked out on most of the stages and I didn’t have many issues. One stage I bobbled a reload and that cost me a second or two. Then on another stage there was steel plates at about 20 yards with no shoots behind the plates. I plugged the no shoots behind one plate 3 times before taking the plate down so that pretty much sunk that stage run. Other than that I had a fairly solid day of shooting. Everything went smoothly from a match management perspective so that was nice as well.

Since the Sunday USPSA match was canceled I decided to wrangle up some friends and go out to the range for some live fire practice. We setup a large 30 round field course stage that had a bunch of different ways that it could be shot and several difficult shots mixed in with medium difficultly and easy hose down shots. I really didn’t have a structured training or practice plan for this day of shooting as I just wanted to have a fun day at the range to do some shooting with friends. I did get a chance to try out the bushing gun against the bull barrel gun again and the bushing gun is still a more violent shooting gun, but it seems to cycle and return faster than the bull barrel gun. The beaver tail on the bushing gun is still not wide enough so the slide was biting me and I didn’t shoot it much because I didn’t want to turn my hand into hamburger. The trigger on the bushing gun is set at 2lbs and I found that I was able to shoot the tighter/difficult shots a lot easier with that gun because the trigger was lighter and I didn’t feel like I had to mash the trigger to get it to fire. My bull barrel trigger was setup to about 2.75lbs and it did feel a little heavy while shooting. I lightened up the bull barrel trigger to 2lbs and tested it out again and I could then shoot it faster and more accurately because I didn’t feel like I had to mash the trigger to get it to go boom. With the lighter trigger it just felt like I could shoot from a more relaxed state because I didn’t have to mash the trigger to get it to fire. It was a fun day of shooting at the range with friends and hopefully we can do that again soon.

Tonight I am going to the Whistling Pines indoor match down in Colorado Springs. I am eager to see how my shooting goes with the lighter trigger on the bull barrel gun. So far the bull barrel gun has run like a champ with only one failure to feed jam in NM when my magazines were super dusty. Other than that magazine issue, it has run solidly for about 1000 rounds now. I think this blaster is going to be a solid performer for a long while to come.

[PatJones]

The bull barrel gun had a heavy trigger when I shot it Saturday? I guess I do have a revolver callus on my trigger finger.

[CHA-LEE]

The bull barrel gun had a heavy trigger when I shot it Saturday? I guess I do have a revolver callus on my trigger finger.

The definition of a "heavy" trigger is all relative I guess. Going from a double action pull of a revolver to a single action 2011 trigger is a significant difference regardless of the trigger pull weight. On Sunday Robert was there and let me shoot his 9mm Minor and .45 Major revolvers for fun. I lasted three shots on the Minor revolver and two shots on the Major revolver before I quit. Shooting a revolver is an "Acquired" taste I guess

[thermobollocks]

Shooting yours, it certainly felt more violent than my other major semi-autos (factory M&P Pro and boring Sig 1911). I just figured it was tuned to your preferences and grip mechanics. The sights got back in place promptly, but recoil was perky. Is that the idea, speed up the slide cycling while taking a little more of a beating to the wrists?

Of course coming from fixed breeches and 15# recoil springs something's going to feel different.

[CHA-LEE]

Shooting yours, it certainly felt more violent than my other major semi-autos (factory M&P Pro and boring Sig 1911). I just figured it was tuned to your preferences and grip mechanics. The sights got back in place promptly, but recoil was perky. Is that the idea, speed up the slide cycling while taking a little more of a beating to the wrists?

Of course coming from fixed breeches and 15# recoil springs something's going to feel different.

My limited gun is setup with a 10lb recoil spring and a 15lb hammer spring. With this spring combo the slide velocity is way higher than a "Normal" heavier spring setup. This basically means that the more violent recoil feeling is basically the slide smacking the frame when it comes all the way back, verses the tip up muzzle flip feeling using a heavier spring setup. The trade off with this light spring setup, even though the recoil "feels" more harsh, the actual muzzle flip is dramatically less. I would much rather live with a more violent felt recoil that dramatically reduces the overall muzzle flip because the less the gun flips or displaces the sights off target means that I can take the next shot that much sooner. Managing the harsh recoil is done by simply gripping the gun harder. I can usually crank out .15 - .17 splits when shooting aggressively and flirt with .10 - .12 splits when I am really getting after it. At this shooting speed, any amount of excessive muzzle flip or whole gun displacement during recoil will dramatically change the point of impact from shot to shot. At that shooting speed there is no time to manually drive the sights back to an aligned state or drive the whole gun back to the same aiming location on the target. The sights need to track up and return to an aligned state post shot and the gun needs enough mass to stay on the aiming spot with the proper grip and stance.