CHA-LEE's Tale

[CHA-LEE]

Last night I was able to go to the indoor range and do some shooting with the wife. She is practicing for the American Marksman shooting challenge using my M&P 15-22 with a red dot on it. This was her third practice session using the AM target and she is doing better each session. It won’t be long before she is ready to shoot the official AM Challenge for score. It’s cool to see her get excited about shooting again.

In between her runs I was able to get my Open gun sighted in at 15 yards. After putting the new forward scope mount on the zero was way off from where it should have been at that distance. I was able to get it dialed into hitting a paster at 15 yards without too much effort. I also did some dot tracking testing with the rounded firing pin stop and it works pretty good. Overall the Dot moves more with the forward scope mount but it’s a predictable movement verses the rear mount. Now I can reliably use this bad boy in matches if I want. I might have to bust it out for the next indoor match.

After that I double checked the zero of my #3 Limited blaster at 10 yards. It was dead nuts on at 10 yards so this was a good confirmation of the sights being setup properly after putting the Bushing barrel in the gun. I am going to switch to using the #3 Limited blaster as my primary for a while to ensure its reliability after the barrel swap. I will get my #2 Limited blaster over to Rick for its barrel swap this week so it won’t be long before my stable of blasters are all the same configuration.

[RaylanGivens]

How do you like your Ghost holster?

How do I like the Ghost Holster? Its "Ok" but nothing special. In all honesty I actually prefer a Blade Tech kydex holster for Limited from an ease of use and securing the gun perspective. The kydex holster is also more comfortable to wear as it distributes the weight of the gun on my belt/leg better without creating excessive pressure points. The only reason why I switched to the Ghost holster is that I can use it for my Open gun as well with very little change to the actual holster. All I have to do is remove the Limited gun muzzle perch and the Open gun goes right on without any other adjustments needed. This makes switching between Limited and Open during practice a breeze. In all honesty, since I have been focusing on Limited right now I have thought about switching back to the Blade Tech holster. The only thing that is keeping me from doing it is that the gun position between the two holsters is slightly different and it takes a little while to get use to it during the draw.

Interesting... Thanks for the update... I have a Blade Tech Kydex holster mated to one of Ben Stoeger's Boss dropped offset holster mounts... I use almost identical holsters and mounts for both my Production CZ and my Limited STI Edge... I shoot Limited almost all the time, except for one large Factory gun match at the end of the year...

I like the simplicity of the standard Kydex holster and the adjustable mount, but I have always wondered if I could draw faster with a "race" holster.

No doubt you've tested both holsters... The race holster isn't noticeably faster?

[CHA-LEE]

From a speed of drawing perspective there is zero difference between a race holster and a Kydex. I have tried almost every type of race holster on the market as well. Race holsters will allow you to get away with more of an improper technique some times which makes some people think they are faster. But if you are using the proper technique both can be used to produce the same speedy results. When I am feeling sporty I can rip .70 one shot draws using either type of holster which is way faster than we are usually tasked with doing on a USPSA type of stage. Personally I would rather sacrifice a little bit of drawing time and get a good grip on the gun so I can shoot the whole stage properly verses go bonkers on the draw and suffer with a crappy grip the whole stage.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend was a busy one. I did some training with a friend on Saturday then shot a local club match at the Aurora Gun Club on Sunday. It’s always fun to do training with people and see the lightbulb go on when they start to get it. I didn’t get to do much shooting on Saturday but I didn’t expect to either while presenting training.

For the AGC match on Sunday I used my #3 blaster and it worked like a champ. I have had zero issues with this gun since replacing the barrel and swapping the sights. I am always leery of the front sight walking one way or another so I have been keeping an eye on it. It has not been moving at all so I think it will stay put for the long haul. I used my prescription glasses again for this match and they worked great. This match had a bunch of shadow targets, which are usually my nemesis, but I didn’t have any issues in seeing my sights while engaging those targets. This match also had several stages with low ports so this was a good test of pointing the gun above my normal mounting position. I didn’t struggle with the low port stuff as much as I have in the past so the shoulder workouts are starting to pay off.

I shot the match totally within my ability and it ended up with a very solid result. I didn’t have any shooting penalties or D’s for the whole match which was nice. I did have a few extra shots on paper which I called marginal but ended up not really needing. But this is to be expected now that the targets are more blurry than I am use to while using the glasses. I think it’s more of a clear sights placement on blurry target challenge more than anything. I need to relearn what an acceptable blurry target sight picture means at further distances.

I need some more time with the new glasses to really get use to using them. But that will come with time. If I can improve my low port shoulder/arm strength some more that will help a lot as well. So far everything is progressing in the right direction and I am looking forward to getting my skills dialed in for the 2016 major matches.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend was a long one. On Friday I drove down to Carlsbad New Mexico to present a training class over the weekend. On Saturday we decided to drive over to El Paso Texas for a USPSA club match. This match was run by my friend Francis Livingston so it was nice to see him again as well. I shot the match with the students and it was a good opportunity to see how they perform in a normal match scenario. The stages were pretty simple with a lot of up close blasting so it was fun hosing down targets like a mad man. We had some lunch at the club house at the range which was really nice then drove back to Carlsbad after that.

On Sunday we did the training class at the Carlsbad range. It was a long day of training and the wind started acting up towards the end of the day. But we all had fun and much was learned by everyone. It’s a lot of fun to help shooters identify issues and provide solutions so they can improve their performance.

I made the 8.5 Hour drive home on Monday and by the time I got home I was pooped. All I was motivated to do when I got home was to unload the car, get some dinner, then go to bed.

Before I left for this weekend adventure I got my #2 Limited blaster back from Rick. He swapped out the Bull barrel for a Bushing one. I did a little bit of feed ramp angle tuning and polished up the chamber so that the rounds would feed like butter as I hand cycled them through. I still need to get this blaster sighted in and will do it this week at the indoor range. Once that is done all it will need is to put a decent amount of rounds through it to ensure functionality. But beyond that all of my Limited blasters should be ready to rumble in the new bushing barrel config.

Its suppose to rain a lot this coming weekend so I might not get a chance to do any outdoor shooting. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the weather forecast is wrong. We will see how it turns out.

[CHA-LEE]

Last night I was able to get some shooting done at the local indoor range. I was able to do some accuracy testing with the #3 and #2 Limited guns at 10 & 25 yards. I shot the #3 Limited blaster simply because I just did a detailed clean on it and wanted to give it a good function test. I was able to shoot a 1 inch group at 25 yards off hand with the #3 Limited blaster so that thing is dead on accurate. The #2 Limited blaster needed a little bit of rear sight windage adjustment to get the point of impact where I wanted it. But I noticed that it was vertically stringing shots about an inch at 10 yards. Even though the accuracy wasn’t the best I still shot about 200 rounds through the #2 Limited blaster to give it a good function test. It fed and cycled like butter so that part is functioning well. There is a very little bit of up/down barrel movement when the slide is forward so I think the vertical stringing is due to the lockup. I am going to have Rick weld up and recut the lower lugs and that should eliminate the up/down barrel movement. Hopefully this fixes the vertical stringing issue. This is a work in progress but it’s not too far off of being right where it needs to be. It should be fixed and back in action by next week.

The fun part of the practice was when I was doing some fast blasting in 5 – 6 shot strings. I used the shot timer and could consistently crank off .14 – .15 splits for the strings. I was only able to conjure up a few splits below that but I was happy with being able to basically rip off .15 splits on demand. The slightly more harsh recoil of the bushing barrel seems to help in this chainsaw shooting.

I was going to shoot my Open gun a little bit but I was an idiot and forgot to put it in my range bag. That is what I get for rushing out of the house right before going to the range. DOOOHHHH!!!

The weather forecast is looking really crappy for this coming weekend so I highly doubt that we will get a chance to do any shooting outdoors. The forecast is calling for rain/snow on both Saturday and Sunday. Its not looking like I will get much practice in before heading to the Area 6 match next week. I think I will focus on getting some more ammo loaded in the mean time.

[CHA-LEE]

We got pounded with snow this past weekend which dashed all chances of outdoor shooting. A couple of shooting buddies of mine thought that we might be able to drive down to Pueblo on Sunday to practice as they didn’t get as much Rain or Snow as the Denver area. But the range was closed so that idea was a bust. I was able to get my #2 Limited blaster back from Rick after redoing the lower barrel lugs. I took it over to the indoor range on Sunday to sight it in and verify if it was fixed. I am happy to report that the vertical stringing issue is resolved and I was able to shoot all hits touching groups at 10 yards without too much trouble. I still need to put a decent amount of ammo through it to prove functionality but I think its going to be good to go. I am attending the indoor USPSA match down in Colorado Springs tonight and I am going to use the #2 Limited blaster to give it some more run time.

On Thursday I am heading down to Georgia for the Area 6 match. This match filled up really fast and by the time I signed up I could only get on an “All Day Friday” shooting schedule. This is good and bad in the fact that I will get all of the shooting done in one day and be able to head home on Saturday. But its also bad in shooting all 12 stages in one day is going to be pretty exhausting. The current weather forecast is also calling for a 90% chance of rain on Friday with the weekend being dry so I am already going into the match with a handicap. Shooting in the rain sucks on many levels. But it is what it is and I need to suck it up and get it done.

[PatJones]

Charlie, what items do you bring with you to the match to help deal with the rain? A rain coat is obvious, what else?

[CHA-LEE]

Not much extra really. Rain coat and some water resistant shoes. I always have a shower cap in my range bag for dusty or wet conditions. Other than that its 100% mental in accepting that fact that you are going to get wet and try to keep its distraction to a minimum. I don't like it when my hands get wet as that makes them more sticky or slippery so it affects my grip on the gun. But the primary thing that really sucks is shooting at bagged targets. Its not a big deal on the full open targets, but the hard cover and no shoot partials are really difficult because you rarely can see where the shooting portion of the target is through the wet and beat up bags. It turns the stages into memory stages because you have to memorize where to aim on all of the partial targets because you can't see them well enough to pick a place to aim at during the stage run.

[birdog]

What are these water resistant shoes you speak of?

[CHA-LEE]

Salomon makes a Speed Cross 3 in a "claimant shield" version which is water proof. They are short ankle height shoes so they are only good until you submerge them under water to ankle height.

Merell makes a nice water proof boot called the Fraxion Shell made in a mid or full ankle height. The sole has a large lug pattern and soft rubber just like the Salomon Speed Cross 3.

[CHA-LEE]

I shot the indoor match in Colorado Springs last night. I used the #2 Limited blaster and it ran like a champ. I donated some Turtle targets to the match so we could shoot a stage with them. The Area 6 match has several stages using the Turtle targets so I wanted to get some more trigger time on them before leaving for the Area match.

I shot fairly solid last night. I only had one shooting penalty for the match which was just nicking a no shoot while trying to pick up A zone hits. I called the shots good on the target but the hits ended up being a little lower than desired. Oh well, it is what it is. Using the prescription glasses helps in seeing my sights indoors but it’s still not a cake walk. You have to stay diligent on the sights or it will turn into a disaster. It was a lot of fun shooting the match and having fun with friends.

I am going to use the #3 Limited blaster as the Primary for the Area 6 match and take the #2 as a backup. I need to get everything cleaned and packed up for the match. Hopefully I can make some time tonight to get that done so it does not end up being a last minute scramble on Wednesday.

I am feeling about as ready as I can be for the Area 6 match. Hopefully the rain does not give me too much of a performance donkey punch while shooting the match.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend has been crazy with match shooting. I flew out to Georgia on Thursday to attend the Area 6 match. I shot the whole Area 6 match on Friday, then flew back on Saturday morning. I got back early enough to catch the tail end of the local Aurora USPSA match so I shot through that match just in time before all of the stages got torn down. Then Sunday night I attended the indoor USPSA match at Centennial Gun Club. Attending one Major and two club matches in the same weekend was craziness!!!

I have never been to the Area 6 match or range it was hosted at in GA. The range facility was really nice and it looked like they only used a portion of their total available bays for the match. My buddy Dominic and I walked the stages on Thursday and figured out our plans for all of the stages. The weather was in the low 80’s and the humidity was present but not oppressing. The weather forecast called for rain pretty much all day on Friday so we were preparing for the worst while shooting the match.

On Friday it was overcast most of the day with it raining for about half of the time. Luckily the rain was only a drizzle and not a full force down pour. Either way shooting in overcast skies with bagged targets and in the rain still sucks. My prescription glasses worked great for the overcast lighting though. I could see my sights and without them I would have been screwed. On the first few stages I transitioned between aiming too much and going slow or not aiming enough and racking up a bunch of C/D hits. It was difficult to find the right pace of shooting for how well I could see my sights in the overcast lighting. I need a lot more practice in those conditions to figure it out with the new glasses.

About half way through the match I noticed that I was missing steel way more than I should have been. I looked at my front sight and thought it as slightly displaced to the right so I touched it and it moved easily back to the left. With my front sight wondering around in the notch its no wonder I was having issues with the difficult steel shots. I decommissioned the #3 blaster and switched over to the #2 blaster for the remainder of the match and it ran without issue. I wish I could blame my train wrecked stage on the front sight issue but that was 100% failure on my side. The only stage that I screwed up royally was stage 12 which had several no shoot partial turtle targets at varying distances. I racked up 3 misses and 2 no shoots on that one stage. I have not practiced no shoot partial turtle targets at 25 yards and they ate my lunch. I literally didn’t know where to aim on them and favored them too low or high which resulted in miss no shoots or over the top misses. This target setup is what I will be practicing the next time I head to the range. Other than that I had a few small screw ups here or there but no train wrecks. My consistent performance netted me a 3^rd overall in Limited which I was shocked that held up given the train wreck on stage 12. Some times you get lucky and some times you don’t. I got lucky this time. The good thing is that my buddy Rob Cook was able to get my stage runs on video and I uploaded them to my YouTube channel.

We flew back to Colorado on Saturday morning and I got home by 12:30. Since there was a local club match happening at the Aurora Gun Club range only 20 minutes away I decided to jump back in the car and head over there to see if I could shoot through the tail end of the match. I got there at about 1PM and each stage only had a few shooters left before finishing the match. I strapped on my shooting gear, loaded my mags, then shot through all of the stages with only a few minutes to check out each one before shooting it. I would simply walk up to the stage, walk through it once or twice then shoot it. I kept my stage plans really basic and was able to execute the basic plans pretty well. I know I left about 5% on the table from not being able to polish the stage plans and program them effectively, but it ended up working out shooting them on the fly. I was able to get all of the stages shot just in time which was super lucky timing on my part.

After the match on Saturday I decided to clean up my #2 Blaster and replace the front sight on the #3 blaster. While cleaning the #2 Blaster I noticed that the slide was starting to crack on the rail right at the junction for the guide rod tunnel. It’s a bummer to have the slide crack on that gun as it has been a solid work horse for a while, but nothing lasts forever. It will get a new slide and I will have to leverage the #3 and #1 Limited blasters in the mean time. I got the Front sight replaced on the #3 blaster and had a chance to sight it in at Rick’s on Sunday.

Sunday evening I attended the CGC indoor match using the #3 blaster to test it out after the front sight replacement. It worked great without any issues. It’s always hard to see your sights indoors even with my new glasses so I shot a little more conservative than I could have. I had 1 miss for the match on a Zebra hard cover target which I called marginal and made up the shot but the make up shot landed right next to the marginal one in the hard cover. Other than that I shot pretty solid and it was fun to shoot with friends.

After this long weekend of traveling and shooting I am worn out. I need to take it easy for a couple of days to recover from this crazy weekend. I am planning on sitting behind the reloading press for the next couple of days to get restocked on ammo and chill out.

[ZackJones]

I saw you at A6 but every time I did was while you were either on a walk through or otherwise involved on the stage so I never said anything. Hope you enjoyed your time in Georgia.

[CHA-LEE]

I saw you at A6 but every time I did was while you were either on a walk through or otherwise involved on the stage so I never said anything. Hope you enjoyed your time in Georgia.

I am sorry that I missed you at the match. I try to stay busy while at a match so if you see me again introduce yourself without worrying about bothering me.

[EEH]

When does work come in to make money ?

[CHA-LEE]

Work never stops for me. I work in the IT Service sector so I get to fix stuff at all hours. Stuff does not break on a schedule so I get to fix things whenever it breaks. My phone is always on and e-mails are always getting replied to. I simply jam the shooting in between fixing stuff.

[birdog]

It is nice when you edit the stages so they are all in one video instead of separating them into vids of each individual stage.

[WJM]

Split at 1:28 sounded like a ~.10. Holy moses.

[CHA-LEE]

That was a bump fire into a target about a yard away.

[WYgunner]

This past weekend has been crazy with match shooting. I flew out to Georgia on Thursday to attend the Area 6 match. I shot the whole Area 6 match on Friday, then flew back on Saturday morning. I got back early enough to catch the tail end of the local Aurora USPSA match so I shot through that match just in time before all of the stages got torn down. Then Sunday night I attended the indoor USPSA match at Centennial Gun Club. Attending one Major and two club matches in the same weekend was craziness!!!

I have never been to the Area 6 match or range it was hosted at in GA. The range facility was really nice and it looked like they only used a portion of their total available bays for the match. My buddy Dominic and I walked the stages on Thursday and figured out our plans for all of the stages. The weather was in the low 80’s and the humidity was present but not oppressing. The weather forecast called for rain pretty much all day on Friday so we were preparing for the worst while shooting the match.

On Friday it was overcast most of the day with it raining for about half of the time. Luckily the rain was only a drizzle and not a full force down pour. Either way shooting in overcast skies with bagged targets and in the rain still sucks. My prescription glasses worked great for the overcast lighting though. I could see my sights and without them I would have been screwed. On the first few stages I transitioned between aiming too much and going slow or not aiming enough and racking up a bunch of C/D hits. It was difficult to find the right pace of shooting for how well I could see my sights in the overcast lighting. I need a lot more practice in those conditions to figure it out with the new glasses.

About half way through the match I noticed that I was missing steel way more than I should have been. I looked at my front sight and thought it as slightly displaced to the right so I touched it and it moved easily back to the left. With my front sight wondering around in the notch its no wonder I was having issues with the difficult steel shots. I decommissioned the #3 blaster and switched over to the #2 blaster for the remainder of the match and it ran without issue. I wish I could blame my train wrecked stage on the front sight issue but that was 100% failure on my side. The only stage that I screwed up royally was stage 12 which had several no shoot partial turtle targets at varying distances. I racked up 3 misses and 2 no shoots on that one stage. I have not practiced no shoot partial turtle targets at 25 yards and they ate my lunch. I literally didn’t know where to aim on them and favored them too low or high which resulted in miss no shoots or over the top misses. This target setup is what I will be practicing the next time I head to the range. Other than that I had a few small screw ups here or there but no train wrecks. My consistent performance netted me a 3^rd overall in Limited which I was shocked that held up given the train wreck on stage 12. Some times you get lucky and some times you don’t. I got lucky this time. The good thing is that my buddy Rob Cook was able to get my stage runs on video and I uploaded them to my YouTube channel.

We flew back to Colorado on Saturday morning and I got home by 12:30. Since there was a local club match happening at the Aurora Gun Club range only 20 minutes away I decided to jump back in the car and head over there to see if I could shoot through the tail end of the match. I got there at about 1PM and each stage only had a few shooters left before finishing the match. I strapped on my shooting gear, loaded my mags, then shot through all of the stages with only a few minutes to check out each one before shooting it. I would simply walk up to the stage, walk through it once or twice then shoot it. I kept my stage plans really basic and was able to execute the basic plans pretty well. I know I left about 5% on the table from not being able to polish the stage plans and program them effectively, but it ended up working out shooting them on the fly. I was able to get all of the stages shot just in time which was super lucky timing on my part.

After the match on Saturday I decided to clean up my #2 Blaster and replace the front sight on the #3 blaster. While cleaning the #2 Blaster I noticed that the slide was starting to crack on the rail right at the junction for the guide rod tunnel. It’s a bummer to have the slide crack on that gun as it has been a solid work horse for a while, but nothing lasts forever. It will get a new slide and I will have to leverage the #3 and #1 Limited blasters in the mean time. I got the Front sight replaced on the #3 blaster and had a chance to sight it in at Rick’s on Sunday.

Sunday evening I attended the CGC indoor match using the #3 blaster to test it out after the front sight replacement. It worked great without any issues. It’s always hard to see your sights indoors even with my new glasses so I shot a little more conservative than I could have. I had 1 miss for the match on a Zebra hard cover target which I called marginal and made up the shot but the make up shot landed right next to the marginal one in the hard cover. Other than that I shot pretty solid and it was fun to shoot with friends.

After this long weekend of traveling and shooting I am worn out. I need to take it easy for a couple of days to recover from this crazy weekend. I am planning on sitting behind the reloading press for the next couple of days to get restocked on ammo and chill out.

As a fellow "variable front sight" shooter, you might consider thoroughly degreasing the dovetail, using anaerobic activator and loctite 620; If you are using 262, it doesn't seem to be very effective on the front end of the gun because of temperature and solvents. 262 is a thread locker whereas 620 is a retaining compound. Ultimately, it comes down to fitting, but this can help prevent having an adjustable front sight.

[CHA-LEE]

Yes, the adjustable front sight is what I get for thinking that lock tight alone could hold it in place. I have replaced the front sight with a new one that is fit tight as it should be with lock tight as a secondary measure of retainment. We will see how it goes.

On a good note I got the replacement slide in today so it shouldn't be long before #2 is back in action.

[jnr88]

You might consider staking the front sight. I did that on a Limited that twice had front sight issues. Never again after staking.

[PatJones]

I prefer pinning to staking. If you remove the fiber insert, you can drill for a 1/16 roll pin and then install a new fiber optic.

[CHA-LEE]

This front sight moving around issue only happens when I try to cut corners. Trying to reuse a front sight off of another gun that has been fitted to a tighter notch and hoping that lock tight will keep it in place isn't a good plan. That is why I replaced it with a new one and fitted it properly with a tight friction fit. I don't foresee this one coming loose. But then again I am really good at breaking stuff.

I got the replacement slide in over the weekend and over to Rick. He should be able to get it fitted on the #2 Limited blaster some time this week. Then the whole break in and sighting in process will start over. Its never ending fun keeping these three Limited blasters running.

This past weekend we got pounded once again with a lot of snow and rain which canceled all matches. This was actually a good weekend for that because I have been really sick since Friday. I am not sure what kind of sickness I have but its not fun at all. Fevers, coughing, fluid in my lungs, massive headaches, YAY!!!! I was feeling somewhat normal on Sunday afternoon so I met up with a shooting buddy and we did some blasting indoors. I got a chance to play with my #3 Limited gun and my Open gun so that was nice. But it wasn't long before I was totally drained of energy and went back home to fall back into a sickness coma. I hope that this sickness is on the tail end of the process because I am tired of being sick already.