SSlav

Was that mental image absolutely necessary?

For serious. Two things to keep in mind: 1. Don't chase the plates. Pick a spot and let the plates rotate into your shots. 2. There is no other place you can practice shooting a Texas Star except at a match.

I am putting up a Texas Star on my stage. And it will be moving by the time it is visible.

If you show up at 8 am with a bunch of ears and a staplegun, I am sure something could be worked out.

Yes

There may be a few people less because of the holiday. If the weather is bad the turnout will be even less.

We generally tend to shoot rain or shine. So unless it is actually pouring rain, the match is on.

Looks like I will finally be able to be there and to stay until the end. My first full match of the year.

I do not believe either HK or Sig offers you the best value for the money.

1911 actually has a pretty slim grip compared to a lot of higher capacity handguns.

A lot of people reload successfully on a 550 otherwise that model would not sell. However it is hard to argue that it is less fool proof than auto indexing press. The only person I personally know that has ever had a double charge reloads on a 550. And he loaded lots of rounds both before and since.

If you are shooting USPSA and steel you will want a progressive press eventually. Single stage or turret just don't produce ammo fast enough. So you might as well buy once. Dillon is the the gold standard. Hornady also gets good reviews. Normally I would recommend Dillon SDB. It is a nice little progressive press with auto indexing. You get it for about $370 preset for a caliber of your choice and ready to go. You can not get much in the way of accessories for it. Caliber changes are about $100 a piece. You can comfortably load about 300 rounds per hour to start and work up to 400 once you get the rhythm down. On the downside it uses proprietary dies that will only fit SDB and it will not reload rifle rounds. Which may make it a non-starter for you. If you want to load rifle you will have to get either Dillon 550, Dillon 650 or Hornady Lock-N-Load. All of them accept standard dies, can be equipped with a shell feeder and will load both pistol and rifle cartridges. 550 does not have auto indexing - meaning it does not advance shell plate every time you cycle the handle. That means that you have to pay more attention or risk a chance of either a double charge or a squib. Otherwise it is a really good press. Both 650 and Hornady have auto indexing. I think Hornady has a bit more of vertical travel which makes it slightly slower. Hornady will run you about $200 cheaper than Dillon. Any one of the tree choices will work. Another option is to get a SDB for pistol and a single stage or a turret for rifle. Most shooters that reload for rifle go for extreme accuracy rather than volume.

Semi by a mile. Revolver takes a lot more practice to get proficient with. The long and heavy double action pull is hard enough to master when you already have most of the fundamentals in place. For a novice pistol shooter, semi trigger will be a lot simpler to master. It will help you avoid early frustration that may discourage you from shooting. Once you are proficient with a semi, go ahead and get a revolver if you are into that sort of thing. I enjoy my 686 now. I am even gearing up to do some USPSA shooting with it some day in not too distnat future. But I all but gave up on it when I first got it.

Lots of things changed since the 80s, Bob. Unless you are shooting 9mm Major, there is no longer any need to walk the fine line on the edge of having your gun explode because of a few FPS. You go to an IPSC match and you will see jacketed bullets and molly bullets but you will not see much bare lead at all. I can dredge out a ton of opinions on every subject on the internet. But the simple fact is that molly coated bullets work. They work great for IPSC. Bullseye guys still stick with lead but I see a lot of them shooting in respirators. So yeah, you are right it is a free country. You are welcome to your lead.

For 230 gr. .45 RN Meister Bullets (Hard Cast Lead) $125/1000 - Shipped Magnus Bullets (Hard Cast Lead) $118/1000 + Shipping These were the first two that came up in a search. Are these the best prices, probably not. I assume you could probably find something a little cheaper - say $100/1000 or $95/1000? Black Bullet International (Molly Coated) $115/1000 - Shipped Looks like in the absolute worst case you are looking at $0.02 per bullet difference. And possibly no difference at all. But ... :thsmiley_deadhorse: :thsmiley_deadhorse:

Lead is dirty. It fouls your gun a lot more than jacketed bullets. Leading is a pain in the a** to clean out from your barrel. Chemicals that make the process easier invariably are nasty stuff that is also bad for your health. Lead vapors are nasty and good ventilation only reduces the exposure - it does not eliminate it. And finally there is no reason for it. Lead may have been the only thing that was available for a long time but that is not the case anymore. For just a penny a round or so you can shoot molly coated bullets that have all the advantages of shape that lead has and are a lot cleaner. But that is my opinion, you do what you think is best for you.

All sorts of freaky things can and do happen. A man has survived a 2000 ft fall. But that does not mean that 2000 ft. falls are not lethal. This FBI report seems to refer to the same incident that you mention Or at least enough details match for it to be a possibility. The conclusion of the report is as follows: • Determined individuals can sustain many gunshot wounds in areas that produce great pain and continue to fight a long time, even without the aid of drugs or alcohol. • Shot placement is everything in a gunfight and always the key to stopping a threat effectively.

Told by whom? Did whoever tell it to you actually tried it? For how many rounds? Did they have any malfunctions? My 40-9 conversion will also work with just a barrel swap. Or rather mostly work - with the actual number of malfunctions depending on the ammo used. I have not been able to get through 5-10 mags without a malfunction. I do not consider that working. With extractor and ejector swap it runs like a glock.

Does that matter since we live in NJ and can't conceal carry? I have done this with a G-35 and a 9mm conversion barrel. The only way I was able to get full reliability was by also swapping the extractor and the ejector to the appropriate caliber. I would assume this will hold even more so for .40 vs .45.

1911 - classic. Everyone should own one. The better question is - "From what manufacturer?" And that is as likely to start a flame war as asking what pistol caliber is better. SR9C and G-19 sorta fall in the same niche. I would go with a G-17 over G-19. In that case it kinda makes sense to stick with the same platform for the compact so I would go with a G-26 over SR9C.

First of all I do not believe there is anything wrong with 9mm. If this state ever allows mere citizens to have CCW permits - I have a g-26 in my safe that I do practice with. I do not want to offend anyone but I feel that if you think .40 is not a manageable round, then you are doing it wrong. There is a tendency of inexperienced pistol shooters (and I was an inexperienced pistol shooter until fairly recently despite owning a pistol since 1992) to lock up every muscle as tight as possible in an attempt to outmuscle the recoil. With that approach the weakest link in the chain fails - and that typically will be your hands/fingers as opposed to the larger muscles in your arms and your back and you will have the gun breaking your grip - forcing you to re-grip the gun after every shot. This is not happening because you are not holding the gun tight enough. It is happening because you are gripping too tight. You have to allow some "flex" into the system. That means that your back and arm muscles should be tensed only to the level necessary to hold the pistol up - no more and no less. You should not be tensing them in anticipation of recoil. Your elbows should not be locked. To start with you should also loosen up your wrists as well. This approach will let your body soak up the recoil and it will seem a lot less violent. Aside from that it is all a matter of practice and getting used to it. When I switch from shooting minor in production to shooting major in limited (USPSA) - as I am doing now - It takes a few practice sessions to get comfortable with a fully loaded .40. Beyond that the difference is negligible. It takes a few extra 1/100s of a second for the follow up shot over the minor load.

I would not stress out over the ambi controls on the pistol. 1. Trigger - is am ambidextrous on all models 2. Slide Lock - There are better ways to release your slide than fumbling with a slide lock whether you are lefty or a righty . 3. Mag release button - I actually believe that the standard (righty) mag release is more ergonomic for lefties. It can be operated with either you trigger finger or your middle finger depending on what is more comfortable for you. I use the middle finger. IMHO on most firearms I have to shift my grip to get to the mag release with my thumb. Given all sorts of enlarged buttons I see people use in competition, I am not alone. As a lefty I have never had a need for one of those.

I flagged the original as hatefull speech and in comments wrote "against gun owners"

The last time I checked my mailbox I did not see a check from the state for assisting to enforce gun laws - or any other laws for that matter. Thus it is not any of my business. If I see a rifle with a collapsable stock - I assume it is pinned. When I see a mag that sticks out of the gun more than it should - I assume that it is plugged to appropriate capacity. If I see a fully auto firearm - I assume the owner is an LEO or is otherwise licensed. I am not under any obligation to either validate or disprove these assumptions. I mind my own business and everyone else should do the same. If you feel that you need to do something to improve the attitudes of the state and its residents towards firearms you can: 1. Get involved in political campaigns. 2. Start an educational B-log 3. Go door to door and talk to the people in your neighborhood .... or come up with some other useful approach. But whatever you do - stay the f-ck out of other people's business.

I like this idea! Here is what I wrote to him. "Hey that is a really remarkable find. It is really unusual to find one with the original scope. Does it have any paperwork authenticating it?"