Notes from the Low Country

[allen-1]

Sat 01/25/2020

I took a class Saturday morning, and shot an "outlaw IDPA" match that night. The class ended at 4 and the match started at 5 so that we could run a classifier in the daylight before shooting the rest of the stages in the dark. It was an "outlaw IDPA" match because we used IDPA scoring, but allowed weapon mounted lights which is against IDPA rules. Definitely a new experience shooting with only illumination being my weapon light. I ran a Streamlight TLR1HS on a Glock 34, and an Inforce on a 9mm AR-15, (two separate entries).

Biggest problem I had was the haze and reflection back of my light from the gunsmoke. And while I'm pretty much of a novice with a PCC, I still scored higher with it than with my pistol. Just reinforced what I already knew - a PCC with an optic is much easier to shoot accurately with than an iron sighted pistol.

After my class, and before the match, I was wandering around when I ran into a couple of guys I know - they're in the picture below. And yeah, that's a .50 bolt action rifle. First time I've seen one up close. The second picture has a 7.62 round from an AK for comparison to the .50 rounds.

When they asked if I wanted to try it - I could hardly refuse - not an offer you get every day. Recoil was surprisingly light; the soda can I shot was absolutely destroyed.

 

[looser38]

Sounds like a fun filled day to me .
The outlaw match would have been quite the experience by itself, top it off with a couple rounds of .50, doesn't get any better than that!
Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[cockpitbob]

Did your sinuses sting, and how much dirt did the muzzle break throw?

That Barrette arrowhead muzzle break is amazing. I got to shoot a friend's 50 from the bench and I'm wondering if it's much different prone. The first shot felt like I got punched in the nose, or more like I had dived into a pool face first. The scope didn't touch me but everything behind my nose stung. My shoulder was fine. After the 3rd shot my face had had enough and I quit.

That muzzle break redirects so much gas back that you get hit with a massive overpressure shockwave. It's so strong it blew a foot long piece of 4x4 off the bench. On one Mythbusters show Adam ended up putting ear plugs up his nose

 

[allen-1]

Did your sinuses sting, and how much dirt did the muzzle break throw?

That Barrette arrowhead muzzle break is amazing. I got to shoot a friend's 50 from the bench and I'm wondering if it's much different prone. The first shot felt like I got punched in the nose, or more like I had dived into a pool face first. The scope didn't touch me but everything behind my nose stung. My shoulder was fine. After the 3rd shot my face had had enough and I quit.

That muzzle break redirects so much gas back that you get hit with a massive overpressure shockwave. It's so strong it blew a foot long piece of 4x4 off the bench. On one Mythbusters show Adam ended up putting ear plugs up his nose

I didn't notice anything other than the muzzle jump. We were shooting at short distance using an overpowered scope, (for that distance). The recoil felt a little heavier than my .308's, but not much. It didn't seem as loud when I was shooting it, as when I was watching my friends shoot it, where I was standing off to the side and perhaps a foot back from the end of the muzzle.

 

[allen-1]

Mon 02/03/2020

My son just assembled an AR pistol this weekend, and ran into something I haven't seen before. The rear takedown pin wouldn't press through. So, I looked at it with a flashlight, and could see that the holes in the lower and upper weren't exactly aligned. You could see a very small piece of metal below the hole in the upper's ear while looking through the hole in the lower.

Hmmm. So, we tried that upper on one of my lowers and it fit. We then tried one of my uppers on his lower - and it fit. So - stacking tolerances. Can't drill it, the drill will just deflect. Can't really mill it, because I don't have a proper jig to mount the upper sideways, and it needs to be absolutely squared up.

Think about filing it, but I'm not liking that because I know how hard it is to file something and keep it truly flat.

Hey, wait a minute. My friend lives up the street - and he works for Daniel Defense. He's a design engineer for them and a rifle freak. I bet he knows the right way to do this before we screw it up. I call him, and five minutes later he's in my garage drinking a beer and showing us how to use a reamer.

The right tool for the job:

 

[Dennis in MA]

Can you do me a favor??? Instead of people leaving N/E because of freedom and moving to other climes, can we have peeps like you ship us some freedom, please?? I like where I live but I like what you have, too. LOL

 

[Parker Duofold]

Having a home in the Low Country is great.

 

[allen-1]

Friday 02/07

The good news is that I'm signed up for the GSSF match tomorrow in South Carolina, at Palmetto Gun Club.
The bad news is that it's about a 2.5 hour drive, each way...



I've got multiple entries, so a couple of days ago I took my Glocks to the range.

Left to right - .22 conversion kit on a Poly80 lower, G43, G48, G34 and a G17 with Trijicon RMR.
Not shooting the .22 at the match - but I wanted to play with it at the range because it's fun to shoot.



Set up a couple of plates, and ran through about 200 rounds of 9, plus maybe 50 of .22. The .22 was educational. I realized shooting it that I'm anticipating recoil, and pushing the gun down. Real obvious on a .22 since there's no recoil and I could see the slide movement. Which explains why I sometimes shoot low. Which gave me something to work on.


After I shot those guns, I got my other carry gun from the truck and ran a few rounds through it. It's a Gen3 G17 on a LoneWolf frame, with a light. Here's a pic
of it next to my Poly80 .22:

 

[allen-1]

Mon 02/10/20

I shot a Glock match Saturday in South Carolina. It was o-dark-thirty when I left my house, and a chilly 33 degrees. Yeah, I know - for New England in February that's almost a warm spell, but here in Georgia - that's COLD. Layered up because I knew it would get warmer as the sun came up; and by mid-afternoon it was 61 degrees.

If you've shot a Glock match, you know the format. If you haven't, there's plenty of online data, start with gssfonline.com, that's the official site.

I shot 6 divisions, and had the pleasure of running into Jay as I was headed for my first signup. Last time I saw him was we RO'd the same stage for this match in Savannah. He's a good shooter and a lot of fun to hang out with. He was entered in 7 divisions, so we staggered our runs and made up a tree. He'd shoot 3, I'd shoot 3, he'd shoot 3 more, I'd shoot 3 and then he'd shoot his last gun.

I screwed the pooch with one of my plate rack runs, and missed a couple of shots, but overall I was pretty pleased. Looking at the numbers to see where I can do better next time, and it pretty much boils down to "shoot more accurately and a little faster" - there's a surprise, huh?

There's a bunch of numbers involved, but here are the comparisons for my overall times from the first time I shot it and this past weekend.
Civilian 101.91 => 73.08
Competition 107.45 => 99.46
Master Stock 101.99 to 71.91
Pocket Glock 95.97 to 84.08
SubCompact (first time): 71.27
Unlimited 108.21 => 58.20

The biggest improvements were in Civilian, Master Stock and Unlimited - and it's interesting. The unlimited is simple to understand - I shot it previously with a G34, this year I ran a red dot.

Civilian and Master Stock times dropped a lot - and the difference is that I shot a G48 this year and a G17 previously. That G48 tears up my thumb, but it's a remarkably easy gun to shoot accurately.

The other takeaway for me was that I really need to find a plate rack down here to practice on. I lost a lot of time on those runs.

 

[allen-1]

My local club has only been open a couple of years; I joined it on the first day they opened the ranges. I lucked out, because I'd been looking for a range and another parent at a Cub Scout meeting told me about this new club opening. Drove over, looked around and handed over my credit card for a year's membership. Went home and my wife asked me how the Cub Scout event went (pine derby workshop). Told her "fine - and we just joined a gun club down here". She smiled.

Anyhow, the owners of it come from a non-tactical background. None of them had previously shot USPSA or IDPA. They built skeet/trap ranges, pistol ranges, and rifle ranges - then threw in two tactical pits because they thought there might be an interest.

Four years later:

• 5 tactical pits
• USPSA and IDPA club
• a building just for our club props, with secondary storage areas available for members
• hosted (3) IDPA Tier-2 BUG matches
• hosting Georgia State IDPA match this coming April
• Monthly IDPA, USPSA and "other" matches, (3 scheduled matches per month)
• hosted (2) Glock matches; next one's already scheduled

There's been construction going on next to the long distance rifle range - they're adding (3) more tactical bays. The plan is for the rest of the members to use these when we're running scheduled matches in the existing five bays. This is all from owners who had no exposure to IDPA or USPSA before. It's an amazing amount of support.

The club has other amenities, including a stocked pond, .22 range, an archery range, a pro shop and a clubhouse with a full bar where weekly dinners are served. Did I mention shotguns? I know I didn't. When they first opened, they had (2) skeet ranges and a trap range. They're fully automated now, using card readers - you can use them any time. They also added what appears to be a first class Sporting Clays course, and just built a Five Stand.

 

[sigfanboy13]

If you ever end up near metro ATL gimmie a ring

 

[allen-1]

Mon 02/17/2020

I picked up a Glock 31, (.357SIG), a while ago, and I've been wondering how I would do in USPSA with it .vs. my usual G34. I think that the goal of USPSA is to score as many points as possible in as short a time as possible. My G34 is minor and the G31 is major - so there's a scoring advantage for Charlies and Deltas with the G31.

We had a five stage USPSA match Saturday, and I ran both guns. I'm loading for both, 124 plated over 4.0 Titegroup for the 9 and 147 plated over 4.0 Titegroup for the .357Sig. No malfunctions with either gun, no problems with the ammo at all.

The guns are very similar, the frame is identically sized, the slide's a bit thicker on the G31, and of course it's longer on the G34. I'm running Warren Sevigny sights on both, plain black rear sight with green fiber optic on the front. I used the same holster and magazines for each, just changing magazines and guns for each run.

The 31's harder to shoot, because of the recoil. It takes me a split second longer to get it back on target, and the blast is still slightly disconcerting.


G34 - 97 Alphas, 32 Charlies, 1 Delta, 0 Misses, 0 NS
Points - 322.2079; Time - 173.69

G31 - 104 Alphas, 26 Charlies, 0 Deltas, 0 Misses, 0 NS.
Points - 319.8876; Time - 187.84

I shot the 9 slightly faster, but picked up one Delta and 6 more Charlies than the G31.
So - I either need to shoot the G31 faster, or shoot the G34 more accurately.

I think I'll keep working with the G34 - ammo's a lot cheaper, and it's more fun to shoot.

 

[Deleted member 67409]

I picked up a Glock 31, (.357SIG), a while ago, and I've been wondering how I would do in USPSA with it.

...

The 31's harder to shoot, because of the recoil. It takes me a split second longer to get it back on target, and the blast is still slightly disconcerting.


G34 - 97 Alphas, 32 Charlies, 1 Delta, 0 Misses, 0 NS
Points - 322.2079; Time - 173.69

G31 - 104 Alphas, 26 Charlies, 0 Deltas, 0 Misses, 0 NS.
Points - 319.8876; Time - 187.84

I shot the 9 slightly faster, but picked up one Delta and 6 more Charlies than the G31.
So - I either need to shoot the G31 faster, or shoot the G34 more accurately.

I think I'll keep working with the G34 - ammo's a lot cheaper, and it's more fun to shoot.

My first handgun was a Gen3 G31. Very fun gun to shoot, I enjoyed the muzzle blast and recoil. However, in my time with the pistol, I would say that the G31 is NOT a USPSA gun. The gun itself is too light for rapid fire unless you're shooting a ton of .357SIG and gaining the necessary experience to master the pistol. The problem there of course is that shooting factory .357SIG is expensive; the cheapest newly-manufactured ammo (not factory reloads) I found online just now is 28.72¢ p/round, whereas 9x19 Winchester White Box is as low as 15.6¢ p/round. Adds up when you're shooting hundreds of rounds per weekend. Now, obviously handloading would mitigate the expense of shooting .357SIG, but it won't be as cheap as handloading 9x19.

Another issue is capacity. AFAIK, there are no 33-round or the like Glock mags for .357SIG. If you're shooting Open. If you're not, not so much an issue, but something to keep in mind.

If you're insistent upon shooting .357SIG for power factor purposes, I'd suggest either practicing a ton with the G31 or buying a SIG P226 in the caliber. However, the P226 is DA/SA and won't give you the consistent trigger pull weight like a Glock does.

Final issue with the G31: there's no MOS version yet in .357SIG, so you're paying to have the slide milled rather than just buying a new slide or a whole gun. Again, this is an issue if you're shooting Open. Otherwise, not so much.

Let me put it this way, if someone asked what gun to buy for USPSA, I wouldn't suggest a .357SIG Glock.

 

[allen-1]

Mon 02/17/2020




We used this as a fundraiser side match Saturday. It's a Steve Anderson drill, and is surprisingly difficult. It looks really simple. Start in one box, shoot diagonally, move to the other box, shoot the other target. Do this until you miss - or hit par time, (60 seconds).

If you have two steels, try it sometime. You may be shocked at how hard it is.

We had 23 entries:


That zero on the bottom is Bob's score. He drew and missed his first shot. I've probably shot 30 matches with him in the last 4 years - he's shooting a 1911 and without seeing it, I know he rushed his shot.

The 31 on top is Brad's score; I've probably shot 5 or 10 matches with him. He's good, really good. He took 5th overall in the match itself.

I shot it with a "carry optic" pistol, (G17 with Trijicon RMR), and with my G34 with iron sights - I wanted to see how the two compared. I've been shooting the optic a little more lately, it's my pin gun but I've started using it in steel matches. If the transitions are fairly level, I can shoot it reasonably well - when I have to do a serious re-acquisition - I'm slow.

Definitely my best "stage" of the day. I focused not on shooting quickly, but on not missing. I parred out on both runs, with 29 hits with the optic and 27 with the iron sights. Half of the guys I beat in this stage are better USPSA shooters than I am - some of them by a really large margin. I'm betting that they tried to shoot it too fast.

Like I said - it's deceptively easy looking. Try it for yourself.

 

[allen-1]

My first handgun was a Gen3 G31. Very fun gun to shoot, I enjoyed the muzzle blast and recoil. However, in my time with the pistol, I would say that the G31 is NOT a USPSA gun. The gun itself is too light for rapid fire unless you're shooting a ton of .357SIG and gaining the necessary experience to master the pistol. The problem there of course is that shooting factory .357SIG is expensive; the cheapest newly-manufactured ammo (not factory reloads) I found online just now is 28.72¢ p/round, whereas 9x19 Winchester White Box is as low as 15.6¢ p/round. Adds up when you're shooting hundreds of rounds per weekend. Now, obviously handloading would mitigate the expense of shooting .357SIG, but it won't be as cheap as handloading 9x19.

Another issue is capacity. AFAIK, there are no 33-round or the like Glock mags for .357SIG. If you're shooting Open. If you're not, not so much an issue, but something to keep in mind.

If you're insistent upon shooting .357SIG for power factor purposes, I'd suggest either practicing a ton with the G31 or buying a SIG P226 in the caliber. However, the P226 is DA/SA and won't give you the consistent trigger pull weight like a Glock does.

Final issue with the G31: there's no MOS version yet in .357SIG, so you're paying to have the slide milled rather than just buying a new slide or a whole gun. Again, this is an issue if you're shooting Open. Otherwise, not so much.

Let me put it this way, if someone asked what gun to buy for USPSA, I wouldn't suggest a .357SIG Glock.

I shot the G31 in Limited-10 and the G34 in Production. So 10 round mags, and 10+1 to start. The G31 is a lot of fun to shoot, but it's a handful.

I'll be shooting my G34 next weekend in IDPA postal match.

 

[Supermoto]

Your hit factor with the G34 is higher than with the G31

 

[allen-1]

Your hit factor with the G34 is higher than with the G31

I'm still struggling with understanding scoring in USPSA. I understand "score as many points as quickly as you can". I understand that Charlies and Deltas are given more points for Major caliber than Minor. So I know I need to move quickly and shoot accurately. Both of those are problematical for me

Here are the shooter cards, (the placement number is within division); I really don't see much variance, a couple of the stages are better with each gun.

 

[Supermoto]

Hit factor is points divided by time. Your points for major are great, minor is good except for stage 3 and 5. But you are getting hammered in time. And problem isn't shooting because there is only a small difference between major and minor times. Your problem is probably stage planning, management, and stage movement. You don't need to move faster (although it helps) you need to move sooner and shoot sooner, have the gun ready to shoot as soon as the target is available and be in a position that sets you up for the next target...almost like playing pool. It is rare to have a stage were all out running speed makes a difference, but efficient, direct movement always matters

 

[allen-1]

Hit factor is points divided by time. Your points for major are great, minor is good except for stage 3 and 5. But you are getting hammered in time. And problem isn't shooting because there is only a small difference between major and minor times. Your problem is probably stage planning, management, and stage movement. You don't need to move faster (although it helps) you need to move sooner and shoot sooner, have the gun ready to shoot as soon as the target is available and be in a position that sets you up for the next target...almost like playing pool. It is rare to have a stage were all out running speed makes a difference, but efficient, direct movement always matters

Thank you very much. Printing this out.

 

[allen-1]

My buddy Mike works six days a week - so getting to an FFL has been tough. He's been planning on shipping this firearm to me since I left in October. Has to go FFL to FFL because it's an interstate transfer of a handgun.

And this popped up in my mailbox - it'll be here tomorrow.

It's like Christmas - in February.



UPDATED - picked it up yesterday from my local FFL; should be going to range today after work.

New Acquisitions January 2020 - Firearms Only!

First pre ban lower had it shipped from out of state.

www.northeastshooters.com

 

[Broc]

Shooting at night like that sounds pretty cool and great practice.

Do you want to see something stupid?

That is me on the left shooting next to a .50cal. After 5 shots, I realized why no one wanted to sit next to the guy. I felt like I got punched in the face 5 times.

 

[allen-1]

Shooting at night like that sounds pretty cool and great practice.

Do you want to see something stupid?

That is me on the left shooting next to a .50cal. After 5 shots, I realized why no one wanted to sit next to the guy. I felt like I got punched in the face 5 times.

View attachment 332963

Ouch. I don't know which is worse - standing near a .50 outside, or next to a .556 indoors.

 

[looser38]

Shooting at night like that sounds pretty cool and great practice.

Do you want to see something stupid?

That is me on the left shooting next to a .50cal. After 5 shots, I realized why no one wanted to sit next to the guy. I felt like I got punched in the face 5 times.

View attachment 332963

I don't think the others are any better off.
Brutal, but friggin awesome also!

 

[allen-1]

Thu 05/20/2020

My local club here is fairly new, opened in 2016. As I mentioned before, we started with two tactical pits. The owners have no background/experience with IDPA/USPSA/3GunNation, etc. so the pits were almost an afterthought. We currently have five tactical pits, (left side of picture below).

One of the ongoing issues is that when we run a match, we'll use all of the pits, which (rightfully), upsets members who come out to use one. So, the owners are creating some new bays. I was originally told that they were creating three new pits, at the opposite end of the range from our shooting club pole house (where we store our props). These pits won't be used for our normal matches - they're for others to use while we've got the existing five pits in use for a match.

I found out Saturday that they're creating FIVE new pits - and that they're adding TWO new pits down by our existing ones.

Ian runs an unmanned aerial service, (drone), and he took this picture the other day:





UPDATED:

So, after Ian posted his pic, and Mark posted a couple others about the construction - our club's facebook pages blew up with conversations about what the new construction was down by the existing tactical bays. Richard works there. He's the guy that built almost all of the structures, (with some help), he runs the construction equipment - and he's the cook. The range has very little staff overhead - a couple of owners, a couple of paid staff and local kids. Everyone who works there carries out multiple roles - but Richard's the epitome of it.

He's the guy running the heavy equipment to fix up the berms in the existing bays and he's creating new ones.

His comment on the construction:

 

[allen-1]

Mon 02/24/2020

We've got a benefit 2Gun match coming up. It's got a couple of stages and a bonus stage. You don't have to shoot the bonus stage, but you can pick up extra points by shooting it. Stage Notes from the bonus stage are a riot:

 

[allen-1]

Thu 03/12/20

Pictures of a "mini AK-47" that I took last weekend at a match. It's from PSA, chambered in 9mm.

 

[allen-1]

Sun 03/15/20

I posted previously that a friend of mine has a milling machine. I have one, but it's fully manual and I'm NOT a machinist. I can finish 80% lowers on it, and I make the occasional one-off part; but my abilities with it are limited.

My friend on the other hand IS a machinist; he just finished 9 months of schooling and is employed running a CNC machine. We went out today to buy mulch, 65 sacks between the two of us - and I checked out his garage while we were unloading his share.

He's got a MILLING MACHINE - and a really nice setup for doing CADCAM. The piece in it is a piece of "scrap" from work that he's using to work out the code to make a Glock slide. The last two pictures are "scrap" from work.

 

[allen-1]

GA State IDPA match scheduled for April 24th and 25th was just postphoned to October 23rd and 24th.

We've got 8 positive cases in Bryan County as of this morning out of 2,930 active cases in Georgia; (102 dead).

One of my neighbors and her son have just tested positive for Covid-19.
She works at Gulfstream and he's been playing outside with other kids.
She's in my neighborhood, but not a friend - and our grandchildren don't play with her kids.
I'm not worried about direct transmission - but I suspect that our neighborhood is about to get ugly.

After a man in my town tested positive, his son (who lives with him), continued to frequent local businesses, without any precautions.
He's been in the same grocery store, hardware store and gas station that I've been to in the last several weeks.
Not terribly worried about this because I've been gloved when touching anything outside of our home, and discarding the gloves carefully into the trash, then washing up and I've been staying way the hell away from every one besides my family.
Still makes you want to scream at the dumb.

Sign of the times - a family of four just walked by my window. Mom, dad, two teenage girls, all out getting some fresh air walking around the neighborhood. All reading their phones as they walk.

 

[allen-1]

Albany Georgia is now a Covid-19 "hotspot", and the tale of how it got that way is interesting.

Days After a Funeral in a Georgia Town, Coronavirus ‘Hit Like a Bomb’ (Published 2020)

A mourner came to Albany, Ga., to attend the funeral of a retired janitor. After a pause while the infections incubated, the virus swept through the community.

www.nytimes.com

 

[allen-1]

Wed 04/01/20
From the Georgia Department of Public Health, as of noon today:



On a much lighter note, my friend down the street with the CNC just finished his prototype SCAR lower, which started as a block of aluminum. He's getting serious...