A local club member sold his Glock 21 some time back, but he still had quite a few accessories for it. Long story short, we cut a deal...
Since the Glock 20 and Glock 21 use the same polymer frame, the top ends and magazines are interchangeable. Consequently, one can have a 45 or a 10mm just by changing out the top end and magazines. By extension, they could also shoot whatever conversion barrels are available for either upper.
My friend had a stock Glock 20 slide and barrel with a nice Burris Fast Fire III sight installed, and a Lone Wolf stainless steel long slide 45 Auto with a compensator and ghost ring sights. There were also five 10mm magazines, aluminum magazine baseplates, two holsters and two mag pouches.
Here is my frame with each slide installed. Using a flashlight to prop the pistol up. Sorry for the dim lighting.
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I have not yet fired either, and to fire the 45, I will need to procure magazines.
As they currently are, neither is IDPA legal. Both specific sights and the compensator are excluded.
My plan, however, is to swap the sights between my Glock 20C and this Clock 20 slide. My TruGlo TFO sights on the non-compensated slide and stock 10mm barrel may allow me to classify and shoot SSP with that pistol (although the extended slide release may be excluded) and ESP with the 40S&W conversion barrel.
The 45 may or may not be too long even without the compensator installed :)
I have used enough of these CCI shotshells lately that I needed to get some more.
I checked Cabela's and Academy, no luck. The last ones I got from MidwayUSA online, but they were out of stock, too.
Found a place, Alamo Ammo, in San Antonio. They had them in stock and they are in the state, next best thing to buying local. I ordered two boxes in 40S&W and for the sake of completeness, two in 45 Auto.
In the order process, I discovered that, without some paperwork hoop-jumping, they will only ship to the same address as the billing address of the credit card used. Mildly inconvenient, as this usually results in an extra day as a delivery attempt is made at home, a door tag left, signed and delivery made the next day.
The FedEx guy calls me Thursday night, during the match. I call him back when I'm free and in short, discover that the shipper requires an adult signature and he has to witness the signature. We discuss that it's unlikely that I can be home at any time in his delivery schedule without taking time off work, so he suggests I request that it be held at the depot in Fort Worth so I can pick it up in person there.
I do that, arranged via the tracking website and found that it can be held for pickup not only at some depot but at other FedEx facilities. I have it sent to the nearby FedEx Office store on Camp Bowie.
After work yesterday, I go down there and after great effort on the part of the girl at the counter, the difficulty comes clear. The original driver needed an adult signature because the package is marked ORM-D. They can't accept ORM-D shipments at a FedEx Office store, so it was probably refused and went back to that driver's depot. The ugly bit is that the computer said only that it was held at a FedEx Worldship facility, but not which FedEx Worldship facility.
It was decided that customer service had likely sent her call to a facility that probably closed at 5PM, so for the best results, I should call during regular business hours. I just did that. I have an address and it closes at 5. Hopefully, I can sneak out a bit early and get it today, for tomorrow is the last day before it gets returned to the original shipper.
So....
If I plan to order anything else from Alamo Ammo, maybe I need to fill out that paperwork so they can ship to where I am during the day.
Forgive me, internet. It has been 21 days since my last post....
Actually, things have been a little bit pokey on the shooting front since State.
During this time, I have attended only one match, but I scored pretty well. I really only had one stage that gave me any grief, a stage where all shots were weak hand only. It was a 6 round stage that took 11 rounds to score 8 down. All other shots on all stages were 0's and 1's, which is starting to be the case more and more often.
I have loaded a lot of ammo and the spring mod on my press has worked perfectly through about 500 rounds with no signs of failing.
Powder is beginning to stay on store shelves for more than the length of a Two Stupid Dogs cartoon. Selection is still not impressive, but it's way better than none.
Only peripherally related, I have dispatched a few particularly aggressive snakes. I really try to chase them off first. A rock tossed directly at them or bit of fishing rod whipping is usually enough to make them flee, but if they keep coming back directly at us without keeping a respectful distance, like sands though their hourglass, their days run out. Abruptly. CCI shot shells in my Kahr CW40 work really well. More shot and more power behind it than the 22LR shot loads and a non-heirloom pistol that is easier to carry to the lake. It's a bit loud, though.
The thing that has consumed most of my free time for the last couple of weeks is not shooting related at all. ARRL Field Day is an annual amateur radio contest that I enjoy participating in. The object is essentially to practice extended emergency operations, to make as many contacts in a 24 hour period as possible, but with your station operating in varying degrees of emergency configuration. There are various classes of station ranging from large but completely portable and self-sufficient operations set up no more than 3 hours before the contest begins to folks just operating from their regular setup in their den, with many scoring weights and multipliers in between.
In 2012, I set up a nice permanent vertical antenna and had some friends out. We set up a second temporary antenna and operated a 2E station, two transmitters in a permanent station location, but with power provided by emergency means, in this case a generator. In 2013, I had a scheduling conflict and could not participate.
Then last winter, in an escaped horse recovery incident, I ran over my antenna with my truck. I mowed that thing down. The damage was actually fairly minor, considering. I got two replacement parts and over the last couple of weeks, I have erected the antenna once more!
So, beginning at 28 June 1800 UTC , I will be seeing who can hear me...
One bit of the design of the Lee Pro1000 press that is both clever and a little cheap is the use of a length of ball chain to return the powder measure at the bottom of each stroke. The ball chain works very well in this role., but it is not particularly durable. Mine has broken enough times that it is now too short to use.
Some time ago, I predicted that the chain would eventually be too short and purchased some hardware to replace it with a length of 1/16" steel cable. Due to one of my other hobbies, I generally have a supply such cable laying around.
Last night, the chain broke and, as expected, it was too short to use again. Unexpectedly, however, I could not locate my stash of cable. I was able to work around it to good effect, though it was by using the ball chain again.
The Lee design uses a compression spring to give the return mechanism a positive return, yet some mechanical compliance. Personally, I think this spring is too strong and leads to the failure of the chain. I have contemplated replacing it with a lighter spring, but I think the use of an extension spring instead might prove better still.
My workaround was to mix the leftover ball chain with a new extension spring. The length of the assembly just extends the spring, but it appeared to always retract the powder measure as needed.
It still works basically the same way, but the new spring should put substantially less load on the chain. The spring is rated at just under one pound working load.
I loaded 100 rounds this morning without incident. At least without a powder measuring incident. :)
1. I had a great time!
2. I shot ok, but scored poorly (and yes, that is possible)
3. I had a great time!
I was up early and on the road a tiny bit later than hoped, but still in plenty of time. Signed in, got my score sheets and promptly stuck the barcode labels in the wrong spot. Oh, well. I had fun with it and it doesn't appear to have actually hurt me :)
The match started pretty much on time and my squad started at Stage 8. Between "first stage" jitters and the general weirdness of the stage itself, comprised of three arrays of targets at different tactical sequence ranges, many with partial hard cover and a swinger directly in front of the seated shooter, it was not my best score ever. The SO warned us that it had generated a lot of FTNs and sure enough I had one on that stage; not the last of the day, I might add. At least I got the pressure of achieving a zero down match out of the way early.
After a bit of a lukewarm start, the rest of my shooting was not bad. Lots of 0's and 1's, a few 3's, and occasional honest misses. By the term "honest miss", I mean a miss when engaging a target. The pain point of my performance was a couple of stages where I failed even to engage some targets.
The worst of these was Stage 5. As the first shooter on this stage, I did not have the benefit of seeing others' plans and my own relative inexperience lead me to skip two targets. For the steel, that's 5 down plus an FTN plus a procedural for not shooting in sequence, and for the paper, 10 down plus FTN plus procedural. The rest of the stage was 0's and 1's.
Stage 10 was one where poor planning resulted in running out of ammo at a critical point. There were two disappearing targets triggered by falling steel. The first went well. Drop the steel, it triggers the paper target, which turns to expose then turns back to hide. The shooter has about one second to place two rounds on it. Proceeding to the second one, I dropped the steel, fired one at the paper and... slide lock. My one shot missed, so 10 down. At least there is no FTN on a disappearing target. In my defense, at least one shooter slide locked dropping the steel and had no shots for the target itself. The better plan for me would have been to drop the first steel then shoot to slide lock at the first target, which would have been four rounds. Reload, drop steel then take at least three shots at the second paper. Next time.
Stage 2 was a fairly average score, but due to some taping logistics, I got a free 0 out of a disappearing target. When triggered by a falling steel target, it raises straight up, which causes it to drop it's counterweight, which makes it again fall out of sight. John S and I were the main people resetting and taping this target, but it turned out we were adjacent in the shooting order. I taped and reset the target when John was on deck, but when I was on deck, John was following the SO counting his own scores. Someone reset the target but nobody tapee it. When we counted my scores, there were three 0's and a 1. The SO elected to give me a 0 on it. I checked with John and he gotten a 0 on it, which means the single 1 was actually mine. So, tiny bonus!
The painful bit was my overall score. My total raw time was 433.79, which itself would be just below the center of the pack in my class & division. However, 162 points down, 2 Non-Threats, 4 Procedural Errors and 3 Fail to Neutralize tacked on another 118 seconds, for a total of 551.79, placing me third.... from the bottom. Really, next to the bottom. The very bottom shooter did not finish.
The other bad stat, which also doesn't account for the fact that I got 0 or 1 down on 78 of the 106 targets is "Least Accurate". Understandably, however, 162 points down is still 162 points down. I was number 228 of 234 shooters on that list. Ouch.
I was slightly rushed when editing, so the video is pretty basic. I started at Stage 8, and the stages were shot in an offset sequence, but they are presented in stage order here. Stages 2 and 3 are missing because I didn't start the camera correctly (if at all) before those two stages. The memory card on the camera filled up while we were scoring Stage 7, my last for the day.
I just barely broke into my 6th box of ammo, using just over 250. That would include about a dozen unrecovered live rounds cleared at the end of the stages, so I shot a pretty solid 230+ rounds. I thought I had no ammo troubles, but in putting the video together, I found a failure to go into battery in Stage 7 that I had cleared quickly and forgotten. The first magazine was downloaded to 6 rounds. I emptied that one, changed magazines, fired one shot and that second round did not go into battery. I probably should have bumped it in, but I racked it out instead. That was the only one for the whole match.
In the chronograph stage (also not on video because it wasn't me shooting), my ammo performed well, too. I used load data from various sources to arrive at my particular load, 4.5 grains of Titegroup pushing a 165 grain RNFP plated bullet from Rainier Ballistics. I had not clocked them myself, but I predicted about 950 FPS. The official chrono rounds were 968, 933 & 986, for an average of 962, power factor 158.
Titegroup is reputed for burning pretty clean, especially at higher pressure loads. After the match on Saturday, the muzzle of the pistol had a tan colored deposit. It reminds me of the color deposited on the spark plug of a well tuned engine. Maybe there is a correlation; maybe a 165 grain bullet sitting on 4.5 grains of Titegroup approaches stoichometric.
Speaking of ammo, I have just started using some Tula small primers that I acquired in a group buy back in December. I have found that they seem to feed better than the Winchester WSPs that I have been using for a while. After a little analysis, I think there are two reasons. First, they appear to be smoother or maybe plated. While it's not a lot of friction, less is usually better. Also, the Tula primers are heavier by about 0.5 grains each. Since there is a column of primers in the chute, a half grain times about 20 primers in the chute is about a half a gram more gravity at work. That doesn't sound like much, but for the smooth flow of primers down a plastic chute, it may be enough to make a difference.
Here is a Tula KVB-9 on the left and a Winchester WSP on the right.
The cup is slightly thicker on the Tula, which probably accounts for some of the weight difference and may also explain the occasional complaint of light strike misfires on Tula primers. The anvil is of a slightly different design and is likely made from the same gauge of brass.
I don't care for the plastic tray that the Tula primers come in. It appears to be designed to flip the primers anvil side up while in the trays. However, I need them to be anvil side up once transferred to the primer tray on the press. So far, I have not found a reliable way to turn them. I have gotten close by placing a plate over them, flipping the whole assembly, pushing them into a small bundle, then covering the bundle with the primer tray and flipping that back. Because of the dimension of the plate and tray, the primers either drop a couple of millimeters and bounce or turn maybe even fall out. I will figure out something.
Counting down the hours to my first really big match,Comp-Tac's Republic of Texas State IDPA Championship Match. There will be 250 shooters on twelve stages and a quick glance through the match booklet shows most are 17-18 round stages totaling over 200 rounds. Lotsa bang-bang.
To that end, I seem to have (most likely) solved the occasional failure to go into battery that I had at the last local match. Those rounds were a little short in OAL, 1.118 to 1.122 from a sample of 5 kinda random cartridges from each of three boxes. I experimented with the gauge block and to some degree with the chamber on my Lone Wolf barrel and round that 1.130 - 1.135 was about the maximum OAL that would drop freely into and out of the gauge block. The chamber in the barrel is even a little more forgiving. I have not had the opportunity to fire any of them (and probably wont get a chance before the match) but I hand cycled 45 rounds through the pistol without a single failure to go into battery or jam. We'll see, but I am cautiously optimistic. In loading up for this match, I wanted to ensure I had the least opportunity for ammo related failure, so I would load up my output box full, gauge them all and set aside any rounds that didn't gauge the first time through. Most of the time, out of the 70 or so cases that the press can hold at one sitting, 40 or so would gauge the first time. Of the remaining 30, almost all stuck on a case bulge and could be fixed by running through the Bulge Buster. The remaining few turned out to be a little long, 1.140 to 1.150. Running singly through the seating and crimping died fixed most of these. Seems like there would usually be one or two that none of the above would address, but those cartridges are noticeably... lumpy. Not really deformed, but not smooth either. Maybe the wall of the brass is too thick or maybe not cleaned well enough. Maybe they were over length and the crimping step buckled them. Maybe those particular bullets are oversize. In any case, I have a special box for plinking rounds. They should not be dangerous, but they might have feeding problems, so I don't want them to land in a box of ammo for a match. There was one trend that was hard to ignore. A noticeable percentage of cartridges that fell through all the correction procedure and ended up in the plinker box are headstamped Geco. I didn't really analyze whether there were also a lot of Geco cases that passed, but I did notice a lot in the fails.
When I am less rushed, I will dig through the brass and compare these to others to see if I can find a common issue. Using this QA procedure, I loaded up 300 rounds of what should be reliable ammo. They are Rainier 165 grain Round Nose Flat Point bullets over 4.5 grains of Titegroup in mixed previously fired brass. I have not chrono'd this, but I expect it to be around 950 FPS and 155 power factor. This is the same load I shot at the last local match and except for the couple of issues with rounds not going fully into battery, they performed well. The pistol is pretty clean, with only an inch or so of light smudging at the muzzle and a remarkably clean chamber and ejection port. I finally bought a proper concealment vest, a Rothco Plainclothes, in basic black. These types of vest conceal your weapon well, but they are not called "shoot me first" vests for no reason. They hide the weapon but they also scream "I'm hiding a weapon". Or maybe it screams "I'm hiding 19 rolls of film, 3 cameras, two tripods and a portable darkroom". In any case, I don't think it will see much street use for me. With 7 pockets inside and 16 (!) outside, I can picture the last few seconds of my life looking like I'm picking fire ants off me while searching for the particular pocket I put whatever that thing was into. In any case, it's comfortable and it hangs and swings well for drawing and holstering, and that is why I needed one. Maybe it will help the SOs be less nervous when I reholster at the end of a stage because my Dickies shirt cover can be flimsy.
On the airsoft front, WalMart supplied a couple of useful trinkets.
First, I got a cute yet useful target. It's a gel coated target that does a good job of capturing the BBs. It's has an artists rendering of an armed zombie-like creature, done in realistic nuclear green, but otherwise, it's a good way to keep those BBs from going everywhere when I am doing various drills. One drill I like to do is draw, fire once, drop and reinsert the mag and fire again. This target gives me something less general to shoot at *and* lets me easily recover the BBs to shoot again. Plus, you don't step on them later.
The other thing, and I've actually had this for a couple of months but have been doing dryfire drills and didn't need projectiles, is this speed loader from Crossman. You fill this plastic injector thing with 6mm BBs, depress the magazine follower and inject BBs into the magazine a few (6-8) at a time. Three or four depressions of the plunger and the mag is filled. Reloading a magazine takes 5 seconds instead of a minute or two. Construction is kinda flimsy, but adequate if you get the angle just right and don't force the plunger.
I have enough bad habits and few enough rounds downrange that I don't need to pile on The Folger's Thumps.
Even with my difficulties in printing a good score, the stages were fun. There was a mix of moving and staying aware of your cover with challenging standard stages, made all the more challenging by the shakes. Lunch was light and coffee seemed yummy in the afternoon, but by match time, it was in full effect.
There was a consistency in the score sheet. Points down and penalties added 8.5 to 10 seconds to every stage.
I must admit, I don't remember what my procedural error was on Stage 1. I definitely remember that Stage 2 was the only stage without one...
In stage 3, I had one procedural and one bad idea. You start seated in cover behind a barrel. Three targets, two each in tactical sequence. Move way back to P2, behind cover at a long hallway, two rounds on one target. Most shooters (the good ones, I might quip) continued down the hall to take a target to the left, then two more to the right. *My* plan was to avoid the easier breach of cover and take those last targets from the farther hallway. It was doable and had the potential of not harming my raw time. Where it was bad was that I took the first long target from cover, moved to the other hall and took one target, reloaded, then went down the hall. The first target to come into view was the one I had already engaged, but I stopped and gave it two more anyway. To add that extra little something, I had one miss each on the last two targets. My PE was failure to take the first three targets in tactical sequence. Moments before the timer started, I verified with the safety officer that they were to be taken in tactical sequence. Timer goes off, two rounds in the first target.
Stage 4 suffered a similar fate. The description was from P1, two shots each target, tactical sequence, freestyle. Reload, advance to P2, two shots each target, tactical sequence, strong hand. Reload, advance to P3, two shots each target, tactical sequence, weak hand. Limited Vickers count. First rattle out of the box, I had a round fail to go into battery. I cleared that round and continued, but in that confusion, broke tactical sequence. Due to the lost round, I had to reload early for the last shot from P1. That obviously meant I needed to reload early from P2 as well. Somewhere in that reloading fiasco, I took an extra shot at one of the targets. Since I also had a miss on that target and the penalty for exceeding round count is to have the best scoring round dropped, I lost a zero and gained a miss.
I had the GoPro but operating it apparently suffered similarly from my mental compromises and I only captured stages two and three, presented here in reverse order. I guess I still have some chemicals in my system.
I failed to mention that the ammo issue above was not the only one, but it was the only one to interfere with the match. I had trouble a couple times at load and make ready. The SO suggested they might be seated short. It occurs to me that must exactly be it. The seating and crimping die on my press was set the 165g RNFP bullets that I had originally gotten from Xtreme Bullets. When I loaded a batch of BBI's, they were pretty much identical in profile, so very little adjustment was needed. However, what I was shooting last night are plated bullets from Rainier Ballistics. Their RNFP profile is slightly different, closer to RN than the other two.
This is a catalog picture of the Xtreme bullet:
... and this is the Rainier:
Compare the ogive of the two. Though they are of the same nominal weight, the Ranier is slightly longer and has a slightly more acute ogive. The longer bullet means that it gets seated deeper in the case and the sharper angle presents differently to the ramp.
This picture, borrowed from another blog about the affect of bullet profile on rifling engagement, also shows the effect of the ogive and seating depth on the overall shape of the cartridge and THAT can cause chambering problems.
So, this morning I measured and compared a few rounds of both types and I discovered that the cartridges with the Ranier bullets were seated even deeper than just the bullet profile would explain. You may recall that I was having troubles getting cartridges with BBI bullets to gauge well. Some of them, due most likely to a thicker coating of polymer on the bullet, needed to be pushed a little deeper because they were engaging the rifling and jamming into battery. This was not as often a problem for actually shooting, but it frequently meant a jam clear at the end of a stage.
So, let me reiterate this again.... :)
Don't load a bunch of bullets until you have verified all the dimensions and that they will function smoothly and correctly in your pistol...
...especially with your first major match a week away...
I asked if this camera made my head look fat and my favorite reply was, "No, it's those big orange things."
The headstrap mount worked pretty well, even though it was not particularly comfy. I had trouble getting it to sit on my head with the strap above my ears, which really only mattered because I prefer my electronic muffs to earplugs.
I used the GoPro app to control the camera. That worked pretty well with the exception that my phone kept dropping that network and I'd have to reconnect in order to regain control. I ended up running the camera longer than I wanted to because I couldn't necessarily trust that I could turn it on and start recording in a timely manner and I didn't want any shooting to wait on me to be ready.
My previous use of the GoPro wireless remote on an ATV was very successful, but the remote display also mimics precisely the size of the screen on the camera. For everyday life, my contact lens prescription is split, one eye for distance and the other for close up, but for shooting sports, I like to put the distance lenses in both eyes. This makes the tiny screen of either the remote or the camera difficult to see, especially in the somewhat variable but subdued lighting of the Winchester Gallery range.
In any case, I got some fun video for the match last Thursday.
Due to a fluke of squad logistics, I shot the stages in their actual order. I was on the squad that started with Stage 1. Because of some shuffling to pair spouses and newcomers with their friends on the same squads, our squad was too big and the other squad had to wait for us to finish. I was one of the a couple of people shuffled to balance the squads while the stages were being reset, so instead of 1-2-4-3, I got 1-2-3-4. Not that it matters, but it made editing the video easier because each take was in order. :)
So, as you saw from Stage 1, I skipped a target. This cost me about 10 seconds in penalties, pushing me to 3rd of 4 in my division and class where it might have been 2nd. Other than that, I did ok. Always room to improve.
The biggest thing I immediately see in analyzing the video is that I have not broken the cup and saucer grip habit. That my hands are big and strong enough to shoot OK with this grip is NOT a reason to keep it. I have seen instant improvement in control with a thumbs forward grip, especially with my 1911, but it's just not habit yet.
There was some extra fun with the video for Stage 3. I noticed several things. On the first target (1:19 on the video), the TruGlo TFO sights are REALLY bright. Then on the second target (1:21 on the video), the brass hits the camera. Finally, on the second shot at the third target (1:22 on the video), the brass clearly helicopters up. Here's the post processed slow motion of the whole sequence:
The slow motion processing had me experimenting with the things the GoPro and Kdenlive can do. Here are a couple of examples.
I set the GoPro to WVGA resolution, which it can capture at 240 frames per second. Using Kdenlive to slow that to 5% works out to 12 frames per second:
Sorry for the inside baseball view of my desk clutter...
This speed works ok, but you can kind of detect some "stoppiness" in it because 12 FPS is below the flicker fusion rate for humans. The same raw video played at 24 frames per second is not as slow, but seems much smoother:
The GoPro Hero3 can run at a variety of resolutions and frame rates, so the experimentation will continue.
Last night's regular Thursday match at Winchester was a holstered BUG match. This was posted on the Cross Timbers forum the night before, but I didn't happen to read the forum until the morning of the match. However, I had the holster in my truck, the two magazines in my range bag (and one in the pistol) and I was able to adjust the tension on a CDP mag pouch to safely press it into service with the Kahr CW40 magazines, so I was able to compete as a BUG shooter!
I did ok overall, though I have definitely shot better scores with that pistol. I had a couple of misses and a procedural for which I am willing to say rushing was the root cause. In one stage, we were to take one shot at a target with the last round in the magazine (all pistols downloaded to 5 for all stages), proceed to cover, reload and place another shot on that target. Once I reloaded, I moved to the other targets in the stage. This earned me the procedural. I could have at least made up the missed shot and saved the additional 5 down, but by then I had forgotten about that target completely. :) Other misses and poor scores were due to generally rushing and some of the rushing was likely due to recovering from ammo jams.
I had at least three occasions, twice in the same stage, where ammo failed to go all the way into battery and a couple of times where the last cartridge was jammed into the chamber at unload and show clear.
As mentioned in an earlier post, I have had much of the last batches of ammo, 40s and 45's, have difficulties clearing through a case gauge. All of it has been BBI ammo. I do NOT fault the ammo. It simply takes a little extra care to ensure it is loaded correctly. The copper plated bullets I've used before were simply a little more forgiving.
I suspected that the slightly swollen heads of my used brass was most likely the only remaining issue. After having an ammo jam in the second stage I shot (Stage 1), I tried to purchase a box of factory ammo from the range, but they didn't have any 40S&W at the range and the Gallery store had already closed. So, for the rest of the match, I manually sorted ammo based on the visible bulge. The differences between them to the naked eye, at least my naked eye, were subtle, but I must have sorted well enough because the selected ammo did not jam.
I verified at home last night that slightly bulgy ammo that would stick in the chamber of the Kahr barrel would not stick in the Lone Wolf barrel for the Glock, which is why all the ammo worked well enough in the Glock the last time I shot it.
Since the last post, I have discovered and purchased the Lee Bulge Buster. This is an adapter sleeve and punch that allows you to use a Lee Factory Crimp die to resize the actual full length of a case. So that I can set this sizing operation up separately, I also got an inexpensive single stage press for it. While waiting for the horses to finish their breakfast this morning, I mounted the press and tried out this bulge buster. Visually, the processed case is straight and beautiful. Dimensionally, they are definitely smaller.
This is the same case in before and after pictures. The camera angles were chosen to accentuate the presence and absence of the visible bulge in the case.
One of the cool things about the way the bulge buster works is that it can process finished ammunition, which it will be doing very soon. :)
It's been a couple weeks since I updated the ol' blog, but I'm still doin stuff.
My oldest friend from way back in 7th grade (and that was a while back) came to visit. He caught the last stage or so of the Friday IDPA match at Lone Star. Saturday morning, we set up three IDPA targets out back and shot almost every firearm on the premises, paying special attention to my Glock and my 1911.
Early in the afternoon, another old friend/coworker and his wife came out bearing rifles, pistols and even a bow. The rifles were sighted in and pistols and bows were shot by all. The weather gave us a start, but it let us be in the end.
Sunday, we cleaned and lubed all the very dirty pistols and after my friend headed for home, I set up my press to load 40S&W.
During the course of the following week or two, I loaded up about 150 rounds featuring 165gr RNFP polymer coated bullets on 4.2gr of Hodgdon Titegroup. The goal is a fairly inexpensive soft recoil load for use with IDPA.
4.X grains of TiteGroup is apparently the bottom limit for reliability with the Lee Adjustable Charge Bar. The published range is down to 0.28cc, but I could not get it to throw consistent charges with it turned down that small. I would have expected the extra fine grain size to have actually been less troublesome in small volumes, but that was not what I was seeing. I ended up using the 0.37cc orifice in the standard discs to get a rock solid 4.2gr charge.
The other problem I had was much trouble getting the finished rounds to case gauge well. They kept not quite dropping into the gauge block. I found that increasing the flare in the case mouth helped quite a bit. With the smaller flare, it was much more likely to shave a bit of polymer and lead off the seating bullet. This shaved material ends up on the case mouth and generally prevented the cases from fitting the case gauge.
A few of the rounds were actually a bit oversize at the head end of the case. 40S&W brass takes quite a beating in some pistols, most famously, but not necessarily deservedly, early generation Glocks. To help feed reliability, the chambers are a little oversize, which lets the brass stretch a little more. Marry that to some high pressure loads, and some 40S&W cases can be a little swollen at the head.
I had an earlier chambering issue which was incorrectly blamed on this phenomenon, so I ordered an undersize resizing die. The earlier issue turned out to be inadequate crimping, but I still had the die and some of this last batch of brass is indeed a bit large at the head, so I used the undersize die and addressed that.
Even with all that, they still didn't often gauge right. I wanted to try the Titegroup loads, so I had 100 rounds of "close enough" ammo to take to the match on Thursday. It was during the day Thursday that it dawned on me what was causing the issue. Many of the rounds had scrapes up on the curve of the bullet. Bingo! They wouldn't go into the gauge because the gauge was accurately reflecting the depth of the chamber and the engagement with the rifling. I simply wasn't seating them deeply enough.
Sure enough, I did have two occasions (both caught on video) where my over long ammo jammed the pistol into almost-battery. One was at the end of a stage, so it didn't cost me any time. The other, not so serendipitous.
The match was fun. I had my GoPro on a chest rig. I suspected that the chest view would be of limited value with pistol shooting, and I was right. Stage 1 had an interesting bit wherein for the last three targets, the shooter needed to shoot from very low. Most shooters laid on their side to take these three. Somehow, I had the camera in the wrong mode and thus did not capture that stage. The HD version is here.
Scores were not bad, with the exception of stage 3's jam. In fact, stage three is really the only one much worth talking about.
The stage description was easier to do than to describe. There were two shooting positions and three targets. At the start, you have two magazines sitting on a barrel at P1 and one at P2. At the buzzer, load the pistol and place three shots on any two targets. Remove magazine (you could stow the mag or leave it on the barrel, but it wasn't empty, so you couldn't drop it) and move to P2. Load the pistol, place three shots on two other targets. Remove mag, move back to P1, load pistol with the unused mag and finish with three shots on the remaining two targets. The final goal is six rounds in each of three targets, limited to 18 rounds, and oh yeah, can't shoot the same target twice in a row.
In this dance, my ammo jammed up on the first shot of the second target. I (eventually) cleared the jam and kept count, placing two more shots on the proper target. Moved to P2, did that, moved back to P1 and somehow only placed three shots, skipping the last target. Consequently, that cost me 3 misses and a procedural error for not fully engaging a target with the required number of rounds. I also managed to hit the Non-Threat on the left target. Twice. It was just the edge of the Non-Threat, not that it matters :)
I got home after the match and while the horsies were munching their late dinner, I adjusted the bullet seating die and loaded a handful of rounds that all gauged perfectly. I may consider putting the regular resizing die back since the last 1000 or so rounds didn't actually have that problem.
Maybe I am beginning to actually listen to my own mantra, sloooowww dooowwwwnnn. I did pretty good on this match and I think it's largely due to pacing myself within my abilities :)
I think my TruGlo TFO sights helped, too. They are REALLY vivid in the nice bright lighting of the range at Lone Star and my old guy eyes like them.
The scoresheet is almost boring....
The scores submitted omitted the FTN on stage 3, making my total match score 124.22. This was later corrected. It changed my score, but not my position.
On stage 3, the raw time scratchout was due to a low charge round. When that one went pop instead of boom, the SO called a stop, fearing a squib. We checked the pistol and it turned out not to be a squib, and they let me reshoot the stage. Turns out that was good because I clearly recall failing to get the first two targets in the required tactical sequence first time through.
One stage at this match has caused much post-match discussion concerning a start while seated with a COF description requiring the engagement of 5 targets while seated then move to the next shooting position. In practical terms, I handled it by placing all the required shots, taking one extra shot at the last target, then reload while on the move to the next shooting position. However, fairly recent changes to the rules make the precise time at which on can or cannot move or begin a reload a matter of contention. I will see what comes out of the discussion and just understand that I may or may not get a procedural error which I may or may not deserve if reloading while moving or seated.
In any case, in my tiny corner of the match, 124.22 was enough to have been top ESP Marksman (of three) and while overall scores are NOT tracked or compared, my time was right in the center of that list.
I usually post a pic of my scoresheet and analyze each issue, but as this was my first low light match, a lot of that doesn't really compare with other matches. It's not that I feel any embarrassment over it. I will reveal plenty of what went wrong. I'm just not going to waste the bandwidth with a pic of it. Total score was 172.28, earning me the lowest place in ESP.
Much more important to me is that it was a LOT of fun! Many present had never shot a low light match and as pointed out before we even started, a lot of what we would be doing was experimenting to see what works and what doesn't. In that, I learned that I do best if I shoot strong hand only and wield the light well away from the pistol, keeping light trained downrange and using my night sights in relative darkness.
Numerically, my performance had an interesting trend. Each stage scored kinda alike. The four stages were 19, 23, 23 & 20 down respectively, an average of 21 down on each. Each of the four stages had either one Fail to Neutralize or one Hit on Non Threat, each worth 5 seconds. Even raw stage times were remarkably consistent, 24.71, 29.58, 34.15 & 21.34 for an average of 27.45.
My worst was probably Stage 3 where, somehow, I completely missed three shots on the same target. There's nothin' that makes you feel good like 15 down and FTN on one target! There were two targets in a tarp tunnel with a Non-Threat between them. There was a ficus tree soft covering both targets, but mostly covering the one on the left. My miss, however, was the one on the right. I engaged it. I just didn't get any on it. I didn't get the Non-Threat, either. Shrug. The rest of the stage was 1's and 2's. One issue that many people had with that part of that stage is that the tarp was hanging so that the edges were likely to be fairly near the gun. Muzzle blast frequently sucked the tarp into the line of sight if you covered with the gun near the edge. Those who stepped more forward but still remained in cover had less trouble with the tarp.
I had trouble with low cover last week. I did ok this week, even fumbling with the light.
In Stage 4, I finally figured out what worked for me, light-wise. For this stage, start was with pistol and light on a pedestal, four targets to get three rounds each. At the buzzer, pick up light and pistol and proceed. I picked up the light, turned it on, placed it between my left pinkie and ring fingers, facing off the back of my hand. I kept it low and shot (at) the first two targets on the move to P2. This felt pretty good and as planned, left me with fingers and thumb for the reload without parking the flashlight anywhere. I flat nailed the Non Threat, then proceeded to place only two on the first target and only one shot of three on the other. Regardless of my mental checklist to the contrary, I was shooting faster than I should have been. Once at P2, there were two more targets to take 3 rounds each. On on the 11th shot, I expected the slide to have locked open. When it didn't, I tried and it just clicked. I reloaded and slingshotted the slide and took the last shot. I returned to the previous cover position and tried a makeup shot that apparently still missed.
I am looking forward to the next one!
We also have match in Weatherford tonight and I'm late to leave!
At the request of Stephanie, the Lee CSR I had been emailing with, I sent them the two broken toggles and the peripherals connected to them for inspection, along with a package of documentation about the circumstances for each break and (this is a hazard of any such correspondence with me) my theories as the the weaknesses of the design and what I would do to correct them.
Since they had already replaced my original toggle and had shown great interest in the problem, I was satisfied and considered the matter addressed, at least until such time that I might experience another breakage and I now have a spare toggle set on hand if that happens.
This morning, however, I received another email detailing an order for all the parts I had returned, zero cost, and under customer notes: "REPLACED AT NO CHARGE". So now, I will have three sets of toggles for spares!
Tonight's local IPDA match at Winchester is a milestone one for me. The first match I was there to see was a low light match. For safety reasons, new shooters are not allowed to participate in such matches, so I was limited to observing, but it was a very cool thing to see and I was hooked. Tonight, I get to shoot in one!
Always happy to have a good excuse to get a new toy, so I shopped a bit and got a StreamLight ProTac 2L. This thing is about the size of the old Mini Maglight, maybe smaller, but about a million times brighter. The specs list the high setting as 260 lumens. It has multiple modes accessible by pressing or double/triple tapping the switch. These modes are also programmable to a degree. I set it to menu 3, which has low (13 lumens) for first choice and high (260 lumens) for second choice. So, to count scores and navigate, I just turn the light on. To shoot, I double tap it.
I have practiced a bit with drawing the pistol and the light. I have not stumbled across a graceful way, especially if a concealment garment is required, but I can do it safely. The other juggle will be magazine changes. If the rules dont preclude it, I will try to retain the light as I swap magazines, but I may need to stow the light temporarily. I am prepared to work with either method.
For the Thursday night match, I shot the 40S&W out of the Glock with the new sights installed.
Generally, it felt like I could find and align the sights faster, when I slowed down enough to do so. :) They weren't as bright as I had hoped in the indoor range. I will check them out outdoors this weekend. All in all, I am not at all disappointed in them.
Other than the shockwaves and burnt retinas from the Power Pistol muzzle flash, I had no ammo trouble at all, not a single hiccup. They are a lot hotter than they really need to be, duh. The same 155 gr bullet over 7.0 grains of Power Pistol almost makes major power factor out of the 3" barrel. I loaded these before I was really involved in IDPA. My next round of competition 40's will be a bit softer.
Stages were kind of similar to each other tonight. The first two involved downloading to 6 rounds, either advancing or retreating on the first one or two targets then taking four other targets from covered positions. Stages 3 & 4 were essentially the same stage for minimal reset time, but instead stage three was all shots weak hand only and stage four was all shots strong hand only.
In analyzing the scoresheet, I see two things... Neither of the single hand stages had procedural errors. I think that is a directly result of SLOWING DOWN to shoot.
I don't have a sight pusher tool. Maybe someday, I will want one. For now, I just want these installed and I foresee leaving them there forever, so at lunch I took the pistol to a nearby gun shop where they were able to install the sights while I waited and for less than I was quoted on the phone. :)
Its hard to get a decent picture of the sights with the iPhone, but the dots are pretty bright. They were REALLY bright out in the sun. The real test will be at an indoor range.
I also got a stainless steel guide rod. IDPA rules ( 8.2.2.2.22 ) allow replacing the guide rod with one made of a "material that is no heavier than stainless steel". I'm not sure if the stainless guide rod will be any measurably better than the plastic one any more than I think a tungsten one would be better than stainless. It does cycle with slightly less spring noise and it looks really nice next to the stainless barrel.
That makes it pretty much official. The only thing left to change out is the trigger itself and I don't really have any specific plans to do so. I might put on the Talon skate tape grip treatment. I have it already, but haven't put it on. The Talon grip works pretty well on the Kahr. I also have an extended magazine release that I may or may not go to the trouble to install. Otherwise, I think I am done modifying this pistol.
It is a Generation 3 Glock 20C. I have the original barrel, a stock 10mm Auto non-compensated barrel and a Lone Wolf 40 S&W conversion barrel. I have three stock magazines. I have installed a 3.5 pound trigger connector and polished the trigger rub points. I have installed an "extended" slide release and extended slide lock. Today, I have added a stainless steel guide rod with a stock weight 17 pound spring and TruGlo TFO sights.
Considering their longevity, it should come as no surprise that Lee Precision does customer service well. I contacted Lee Precision through their webpage contact tool, Sunday evening I think. Sadly, I did not keep a copy of what I sent, but basically I said this is the second set of toggles to break on me and that I was not necessarily seeking free replacements but just a solution to the problem. I attached pix of both broken toggles. During the day yesterday, I received an automated email from Lee Precision thanking me for my order of "BL CHALLENGER TOGGLE" at $0.00. At first, I was a little miffed because I already had toggles on the way from MidwayUSA, but then I got another email, this one from Stephanie at Lee Precision:
Hi Robert,
I'm going to ship you a new pair of toggles in tomorrow's mail. From your pictures, everything appears to be setup correctly with your toggle linkage. Do you mind sending back the broken toggles to the factory for inspection? I'd like to ship these back to our vendor for them to inspect.
Sincerely,Stephanie
So, very happy that they are not just willing to replace the broken parts but to try to figure out why they broke.
I replied:
Hello!
I'll be glad to. I will enclose some documentation of the conditions and symptoms of each break. I know that I want as many details as possible when I analyze a part failure. For my opinion's worth, this part would benefit from being thicker in the places where mine broke and if the hole through the center were square instead of eight points, it might distribute the stresses better. As it is, four long narrow bands have to withstand all the full force of my arm plus the leverage provided by the handle and in reality, only one narrow band probably gets the majority of that force. It is at the thinnest point adjacent to that contact point that the first break happens. I took the liberty of ordering another conversion handle set from MidwayUSA to ensure I had my press operational as soon as possible; I've been shooting for many years, but only recently discovered IDPA, so I'm shooting quite a lot these days :) In any case, I will be up and running very soon. I will endeavor to keep accurate counts of rounds loaded should the situation arise again.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say that my first reloading equipment ever was a Lee O-frame press that I had back in the '80's. I loaded as many hundreds of 38/357 and 45 Auto as my budget would allow and I'm sure that I would not have been been able to shoot even as much as I did without the low cost and high utility of my Lee Precision equipment. So when returning after a long break from shooting, I looked at Dillon and Hornady progressives and, sweet as those presses are, the return on investment in the form of money saved reloading is measured in weeks and months with the Pro1000, as opposed to years with the others. That's not to say I will never have one of those other presses, but the Pro1000 meets and exceeds my shooting needs today and I have no immediate plans to change.
Local IDPA match last night. Performance was similar to last week's in that I did pretty ok on three stages and lost my brain on one. :)
Before I even got to the range, I had mental issues. I left home without a holster belt or concealment garment.
Since it was raining when we finished up the BUG match, I didn't gear down at the range and my belt ended up in the closet at home with other belts. During cold weather, I have generally always had a jacket in my truck anyway, but with nice weather the last week or so, no jacket.
So.... at lunch I went to the nearby Dickies outlet store and got a 4X short sleeve work shirt. It's just about perfect for IDPA concealment. If the tail of it was a little heavier...
As for the belt, I was lucky that the gun store at the range had a Blackhawk rigging belt big enough. I figure if I have two main pistols and two sets of holsters and mag pouches and two range bags, I guess I can justify having two belts.
Going straight to the score sheet....
I had a four procedurals, one cover call, two for tactical priority from cover and one for 16 rounds in a 15 round limited stage. Both of the tac priority calls were while re-engaging previous targets after moving to cover and I simply did them in the wrong order after moving. I think a little forethought might have helped me avoid them both. The targets in both cases could be engaged in any order in the open, but needed tac priority from cover. Perhaps planning to engage them in the same order in both conditions would have helped because apparently, that's what I did :)
Stage 1 had a cover call, but otherwise, went well.
Stage 2 was just a mess. I hadn't slammed magazine home, so I got one shot followed by a few seconds of fumbling. A couple shots in, I had a round that failed to go into battery; I racked it out so I was short to finish the six shots while retreating. I reloaded and made up that last missed shot, which set me up to miss tactical priority for the rest of those targets. I hit a non-threat on one of the remaining targets from P2. Hey, I didn't drop the gun, so I had that going for me...
Stage 3 had a particular difficulty in that we had to shoot two of the targets from behind low cover. As soon as I knelt, my left calf cramped and I had great difficulty not toppling over forward from behind cover because I couldn't get my uncooperative leg extended properly. Due to that gyration I had a miss on the first of those two targets.
Stage 4 was a simple stage, presented with 5 targets needing two body and one head each in any order, but it was limited to 15 rounds total. I had a miss on one of the heads and made it up out of habit. Since all the body shots had already been taken, I didn't skip any of the head shots. Later I realized that a skipped head would have been 5 down (2.5 seconds) and the raw time might have been a second or so less. The procedural was 3 seconds, and so mathematically I may have been better off skipping the last head shot. Not that it would have made much overall difference after stage 2 :)
So, neither my worst or best performance, but it was still fun.
I got home and while the horses were dining, I thought I would continue loading the last of my 45 Auto brass. I am down to less than 200 left to load. I'm cranking along with no particular issues when I hear that snap/clunk sound that once before heralded the eventual disconnection of the handle.
Sure enough.....
The first one broke after about 5000 rounds. This one in less than 1000, more like 800. This will not do.
Since I need to keep loading, I ordered yet another handle and toggle set today, but now I am going to contact Lee and see if there is any chance it's something I'm doing.
The 2014 BUG “Bring-Uh-Gun” IDPA Championship Match was a big part of my weekend, duh.
However, that is not the only thing a-goin on 'round here...
A while back, I ordered some used brass from a guy I have gotten quite a bit of brass from. The brass from him has always been in really good shape and he is generous with extras to ensure his customers get the quantity they are expecting. My order of 10mm was no different. Unfortunately, he has not responded to several emails, so I suppose I need to shop elsewhere for brass now :(
I got a bit of a deal on this batch because he knew that it was partly small primer and partly large primer 10mm Auto and discounted it accordingly. In the last few days, I've been running batches of this brass through the tumbler. When I started looking at it and sorting it, I expected a relatively small percentage to be small primer. Turns out to be about half of it.
This brass also had the usual bit of mis-sorted stuff, a few 40S&W and 357 SIG, a handful of 38 Special and a couple of 223. Sadly, nothing exotic :)
I had gathered about box worth of rejected 45 Auto loads, mostly primer issues. I spent a bit of time pulling those rounds and reloading what I could. Mostly, they were straight forward crunched or upside down primers that just needed to be removed and redone. I don't depend only on my safety glasses and turn my head away when I deprime cases with live primers. Afterall, they are enclosed in the resizing die when the pin hits the primer. I should probably use my universal deprimer, which does not have a tight fit over the case, but it is also really easy to not have the case aligned properly and break the pin. It's on it's third pin now. Plus, there is no safe way, for the weapon or user, to fire them in a gun, so I just grit my teeth and do it with the press. I have never ever had a primer go off in the press, so it must be ok :)
Anyway, I had a few of these 45's for which the original primer just didn't seat all the way in. Even with a second attempt, they began to distort without seating any deeper. I retried a couple of them and they still wouldn't seat, so I just tossed them in the trash. It finally occurred to me to check one them closely and this is what it looked like.
The original primer cup had split when it was pressed out and only part of the primer came free. There was a ring left in the pocket blocking the new primer from fully seating.
13 stages, plus a steel sidematch, all with Back Up Gun loaded to 5 rounds and several with nifty pick-up guns. Overall, I shot my Kahr CW40 fairly well, finishing at the center of my division.
The sky flirted with raining on us, but it did not really come down until after all shooters had finished. Stages were shot in semi-random order based on bay availability. My squad started in the middle, stage 12 if I recall correctly.
There was a suppressed Walther P22 for the pickup gun. You begin handcuffed and seated with the P22 on the table in front of you. Your BUG is in a box across the room. At the buzzer, you pick up the Walther, place two rounds in each of three targets, either seated or on the move then retrieve your BUG and place one round in each of 4 remaining targets from three covered positions, two with non-threats adjacent.
What a way to start a match!
Here is Paul V's run at this stage:
For this stage, I had 1 down each on 4 of the targets and 1 hit on a non-threat.
I wont belabor the details on the score numbers, but basically it went like this:
While I did have several FTNs and a hit on non-threat, I only had one procedural for cover and I'm pretty happy with that. I like all those "0 errors" in that list.
Since I did not record the order in which we shot the stages, I will just highlight a few.
Stage 1 started in an unusual manner. For the scenario, your spouse has been
taken hostage by thugs, one of them has a knife to her throat. After
drawing your weapon they refuse to let her go. You are convinced they
will kill you both as the others start toward you. For the start, the shooter has the target in the sights and finger on the trigger and calls "Drop the knife!" to indicate ready. At the buzzer, place one shot on each of 5 targets. I got them all. My only zero down stage!
Stage 2 had a Beretta 92 pickup gun. In the scenario, you are cleaning the pistol when thugs invade your home. Your BUG is in a keylocked safe across the room, but there is a partial magazine for the Beretta on the table. At the buzzer, you load the Beretta, place two rounds in each of two targets, then retrieve your BUG to take out the remaining 4 targets from cover at two positions.
Stage 4 had a Ruger pickup gun. In the scenario, you have been taken hostage by home invaders. Your BUG is in the drawer next to you. Your spouse stomps on the invader's foot, making him drop his gun on the table in front of you. You see your chance and take it! At the buzzer, you pick up the Ruger and place two shots on each of the two nearest targets, retrieve your BUG from the drawer and place two in each of two remaining targets.
Stage 6 had a cool prop, named the Boone Flipper in honor of the CTASA member who designed it. In the scenario, you see two thugs and their pit bull attacking a woman. You shoot each once, but the two thugs get back to their feet and need two more shots! This is accomplished with a pair of hinged target stands and a steel popper target. When you shoot the popper, it falls forward, catching two arms on the target stands. It's weight pulls those targets down while lifting the other two into position. This one is way easier to understand on this video featuring Matt C, who would go on to place first in Expert division.
Most shooters placed one shot on each target, then shot the steel. Matt's plan definitely saved him some time. He shot one paper target, then the steel. While waiting for the steel to fall, he shot the other paper target. Then, of course, the two new targets once presented. My time on this stage was 6.18 but Matt's was only a tiny bit more than half of that. That would be why he is Expert :)
Stage 7 was probably the coolest pickup gun ever, an AR pistol.
There are 7 targets, but you are required to place 1 shot through each of 7 ports. Once your BUG runs dry, you pick up the AR pistol for the last two. Here is Todd H running though it:
The time to be gained was in selection of the port order to conserve movement. A shooter gave me what I think was a good tip on order of shots. I was first first going to just go left to right, but he suggested a specific order that seemed to work well. Note that each port has a color. He suggested black, red, blue, white and gray. By going in that order, I was able to get the first three with minimal foot movement, then crab right and stand up for the last two. Then move to the AR for those two. I didn't notice at first, that the left barrel was pointed more towards the right target and vice versa. This might have made it slightly easier to line up those two targets. For the first one, I shot very low, a 5 that was actually on the paper. See the paster at the very bottom. :)
The real joy of the stage, however, was the report of the short barreled AR, particularly fired within the tube. It was a very satisfying thump, with a big muzzle flash and the occasionally moved hat bill or lock of hair. It's a shame that we only got two rounds out of it.
Stage 9 involved shooting kind of from retention from under a counter. Your
working the night shift at the local convenience store when 5 armed
thugs come to rob and eliminate all witnesses. The first three come
to the counter, then the getaway driver and the rest of the gang come
in with a hostage. To set up, your BUG is in hand under the counter in a specific spot and a big revolver loaded with 3 rounds is in the cash box. At the buzzer, you engage each of three targets with one shot each from under the counter, then engage again from above the counter with one shot to two of the three heads. Retrieve the revolver and engaging two steel targets. If you're good, you have one round left in the revolver for any makeup shots. I managed two down 5's and one down one, but avoided the dreaded FTN. The revolver was originally a S&W Governor, but it developed issues and was substituted with an equally substantial S&W 625 with the same 45 Auto ammo. It was a very nicely tuned revolver and shot quite nicely.
Stage 10 was bizarre. For the scenario, you are taken by terrorists, they have put a hood over your head and
are rounding up the rest of the family. As one of them attempts to
tie your hands you grab his gun and save your family. For the start, you have the opportunity to get set with your aim at T1, then the SO places a hood over your head. At the buzzer, you fire at least one shot before removing the hood and engaging the rest of the targets.
Here's Paul again:
Stage 11 was the last one our squad shot and it was the one I would have least expected to do well on. For the scenario, a crazy man with a knife is attacking and he won't hold still, he must
be jacked up on drugs as your first shots have no effect. Your BUG is on the table. You activate a swinger with your strong hand then engage the swinger with a Mozambique, but there is a non-threat directly in front of you. Just to ensure you don't have any spare ammo left, you must also take a steel gong behind another non-threat.
Here is William M running through this one:
I was very pleasantly surprised to have only 1 down on the swinger. It cost me time, but I left my pistol relatively stationary at the left hand apex of the swing and took my shots there. After three, I took careful aim at the steel so I would have one more for the swinger and took that one at the head. The strategy worked.
Stage 13 was the first time I had engaged a mover. The mover is a target stand that on rails with a spring loaded cable to pull it one direction or another, in this case straight towards you. At the end of it's travel, the target falls over forward and is no longer available. I did not capture video of this one, but Matt C had his GoPro camera running on his go at it. The thing moves pretty quick!
There was also a chronograph set up. A chrono stage was required for the Big BUG contenders because ammo was required to make 165 power factor in a 5 inch barrel to qualify as Big. However, for information gathering purposes, all guns were chronographed and the information logged. In my squad, a lot of the guys load pretty light for recoil reasons, which is fine. What I was shooting happened to have been loaded before I had any IDPA experience, so I just made them medium hot. Out of the short barrel of the Kahr, it makes pretty good boom (especially in Stage 9's shooting-inside-a-box scenario) and three shots chrono'd at 1000-1050 FPS. It was first assumed to be factory ammo, probably between the heat and that they are really shiny copper plated bullets in nickel plated cases.
Raffle tickets for a Kahr PM9 (didn't win it) served as entries for the steel sidematch. I bough a few tickets, but I only took one run at the steel because we approached that stage in the middle of the match and I didn't want to spend too much time on it and delay the squad. After all the stages were shot and we were waiting on the scores to be tallied, several people rejoined the steel match and I probably should have just for the fun of it. Then again, that's when the rain actually came down. It's fun to have about 50-60 people crammed under a 20x20 shed roof.
My total score was 211.69, ranking me 7th of 13 completed scores for Standard BUG - Marksman. That got me no trophies, but I was very happy to not be near the bottom of everything as I frequently have been. I am getting a grasp of it. While I won no trophies, I did win a random drawing for a $25 Cabelas gift card. Heck, that's about half what the match registration cost. That's nearly free as far as I'm concerned. Well, if you don't count ammo... or gas... or breakfast and lunch... and the magazines and holster I got to make life easier....
A bit of trivia. So far as I could tell by overheard conversations, the longest distance traveled seems to have been a lady who came from Seattle to play. She commented that, yes, it rains all the time in Seattle, but it doesn't pour like it was at the time she mentioned it. They generally just keep shooting in the misty drizzle that they mostly get.
A good time was had by all and about 4PM, I headed for home, tired, a little sore, a little damp and surprisingly, a little sunburned. Rain was pretty hard for most of the drive home, so it was a little slow going.
