raz-0

Have you taken any classes with this guy? Because I have heard about the CAR system for quite some time and it makes very little sense to me. I don't discount it entirely because whenever the guy talks about it, it seems like he has come up with a pretty cogent set of inputs that he thinks this is an answer to, but in actually trying it, 90% of it strikes me as not making any sense nor having a meaningful benefit. I'll start with what makes some sense to me. The "high" position for close stuff is actually a pretty repeatable platform to practice point shooting/index shooting from a close range with some adjustability in "POA" while maintaining a physical index via kinesthesia. It's also a pretty sound position to try and keep someone from grabbing your gun, and you can go from a low ready maintaining muzzle discipline to shooting very fast. Although it makes things harder, you can pivot with it through a fairly wide range of motion and it can be integrated as a rather natural intermediary position in a weaver or modern ISO draw. Now for what doesn't make sense. Pretty much every other position. One it is heinously complicated about what you are supposed to be doing to do it "right" I have NEVER seen a video that shows anyone but him doing this for five minutes without that person screwing it up royally at some point. I'll note their slick "we are a cool training facility" ad doesn't have anyone using this technique (reinforcing my need to ask if anyone but him can use it right on demand). Two, back to the non dominant eye thing. I'm assuming you go to the dominant eye in one direction and the non dominant in the other based on his rotating around the centerline thing and general happiness to go to a mirror image of a given stance to get "180 degrees" of coverage. The only explanation I have found of this is that it allows you to keep your sights in the line of sight to watching the bad guy, while letting you see everything wiht both eyes. I've tried it, and every single image I have seen of anyone doing it form the muzzle end of things basically has the gun in front of the forward eye obscuring a lot of field of view, and your whole freakin' hand in front of the rearward eye. You literally spend every waking moment of your life with everything other than this system learning to do the opposite of what this system tells you to with your eyes. That strikes me as very much swimming upstream. Three. The guy seems to be advocating the use of this with multiple attackers in mind. However it seems to severely limit range of motion to a cone of fire roughly .45 degrees. He gets his 180 by flipping to a mirror image hold very rapidly. However, with his demise, it seems people are finally showing off the details of the grip. While the thumb pushing on thumb things does give you some stability, it is MASSIVELY awkward to swap hands and reacquire the grip. He's fast at it, but he only really seems to get 90 degrees of coverage in the form of 45 degrees of coverage at each end of his 180. Four. A number of things he touts as advantages are no better with tis than any other system. For example the visual check of empty or not is swimming upstream as far as being in fight or flight mode and what usually happens with target focus (i.e. I'm gonna focus on the bad guy first), and really no different than trying to practice that routine with any other stance. The natural position for a reload is anything but. Even when he demonstrates it, he is moving as far from his index as many other methods, he's jsut practiced the snot out of it, so it looks smooth. Fifth. Accuracy. I have seen very few demonstrations of the system's accuracy other than from the "high" position, and even then it has been at 10ft and less. While the accuracy for truly index shooting form the high position is acceptable, I have also seen students of his who are happy with the system transition to the combat high position, which involves a sight picture, and their accuracy was worse than with the index shooting. Sixth. I see a BUTTLOAD of his students on youtube rushing a hasty draw into an awkward position while sweeping their femoral artery. This seems like an awesome plan. You get more than the hazards of a crossdraw holster without any of the benefits like having an easy draw form within a vehicle from the driver's side. I could get a lot more detailed, but that's a start. In all honesty, after examining it, it looks like what you get if you take someone with proficiency in hand to hand and with a sub gun in CQB and zero experience with a handgun trying to make up a technique form scratch. Imagine the technique with a subgun on full auto, and you get a lot more upsides entering the picture IMO.

Empirical evidence. I've tried to dial it out of multiple presses, and you cannot without resorting to performing QC on the components going in. Mixing head stamps and lots on brass introduce component variation, not every brand has the same wall thickness, nor same dimensions on the extractor groove. Lot to lot, wear on the manufacturing equipment can affect those dimensions as well. On top of that, cheap bulk components are only so consistent, so you have variation in them as well. Make it range pick up that may have been reloaded before, as well as being shot out of a variety of guns, and due to how much the brass has been worked due to multiple loadings, or looser/tighter chambers, you'll have wall thicknesses that vary as well as extractor rims that may have been distorted, and general stretching that may show up in any critical dimension. As to why this has a negative effect on consistency of OAL. 1) You ever notice how every single shell holder ever has a groove in it which is used to retain the cartridge at the very least on the up stroke when the case is pulling out of the dies? Well, most of them don't necessarily allow every piece of brass to actually lay flush with the bottom of the shell holder or the sub plate on a progressive shell plate. This is due to variations in how the extractor groove is dimensioned. Even if they did sit flush on the down stroke, it wouldn't matter on the up stroke, and with things like taper crimps and whatnot, you actually change the OAL with that part of the process. It causes less deviation on a single stage because the single case shell holder is concentric with the case and fairly rigid, however on a progressive, I have yet to see a press design that doesn't permit some plate flex. If you have a gap, the resizing station will usually cause some flex as it is usually the station with the most force exerted on it earliest in the downstroke. This causes the spacing between the seating dies and the shell plate to change. Usually with that side of the shell plate lifting slightly. It'll change your OAL simply because at the very least the plunger that the bullet pushes against in the die will be touching a slightly different part of the ogive. 2) Especially with a lee FCD in the crimp station, but with any taper crimp in general, you will find OAL grows a bit with most pistol cartridges after being crimped. Case wall thickness, and overall cartridge length can affect this. The former does so by how much the cartridge binds in the die. The more binding, the more force exerted when you pull the cartridge out. the less binding, the less force. This affects finished OAL. Case wall thickness varies between brands, lots, and is affected by number of times sized, fired, and reloaded as well as being fired in loose chambers. 3) variation in bullet consistency. Take a seating die apart. You will see they contact the ogive rather than the tip of the bullet. They contact the bullet where the bullet's ogive describes a certain diameter. Bullets are imperfect and thus you will find that where that given diameter falls on a given bullet varies slightly from it's neighbor, and thus where a given seating dies set at a specific position will contact them will be different. This changes OAL. In my experience, truncated cone profiles exaggerate this the most. I've fond that if I sort by headstamp using brass that is from the same lot and fired and reloaded the same number of times, I can get very consistent OAL on a single stage press. Mathematically WAY less than 0.01 variance average, but practically speaking although I had less rounds over or under my target length, the maximal variance was about the same as with a progressive press, which was a range of about 0.015 in variation For reference, I'll say I only experimented with stuff I bought new and was known once fired n the first loading, after that it just got dumped in the big pile of brass to reload. Also, especially with progressive presses, as you use them a lot, they get sloppier. I've also experimented with sorting finished loads by OAL and chronoing them. Their velocity spreads overlapped between OAL groups significantly. Given that velocities were consistent within the < 0.004 slop I was getting with zero QC on the brass other than looking for splits and damaged case rims, it's reasonable to say that the pressure curves were similar between them and there was no safety issue. I also noticed no functional increase/decrease in accuracy between groups. However, I'm not the most accurate pistol shooter. I'm only good for about 4.5" at 30 yards if I'm trying, and I'm better than I was back when I did this. These days, I seat with a micrometer seating die, and if I'm seeing more than 0.030 variance with high frequency of variance, I'll diagnose press setup. If I'm below 0.030, and I'm not pushing the max book loads, I'll leave it be. If I am pushing max book loads, I'll hand pick a range of headstamps and beat up and nice loking brass, load them, measure the variance, and use the micrometer adjustment to easily bring sizing in line to keep max length in a functional zone for my guns, and stay above minimum OAL for the charge. I have yet to run into a situation where I could not accommodate both conditions. [Edited to fix brain fart typoes]

If you are running mixed head stamp range pick up brass, you are going to see oal variation. 0.003 and under, and I wouldn't even check the press setup. [Edited to fix brain far typo of 0.030]

I won't say I disagree with him, but he's wrong on a lot of his points. 1) grip angle. An arched or flat mainspring doesn't change the angle of the front strap. If the glock doesn't point right for you, I wouldn't voluntarily choose it. 2) The 1911 was originally designed with a flat mainspring housing. 3) I've seen a hell of a lot less than 15,000 glocks, and I have seen plenty of them fail, but the rate is way less than a box stock 1911. 3) I like the g19 best of the glocks, but if you have wide meaty hands I'd go 17 or baby glock as a nice forceful mag insert can take a good hunk of flesh with it that can actually cause malfunctions. It also bleeds like the dickens. 4) unless you have small hands and a high grip, a grip safety with a bump is hard to not activate. The skinny mil spec grip safety I agree with him about. 5) the gs prevents you from picking it up and shooting it in awkward positions. Compared to similar guns, the glock is damn near the most picky about limp writing. 6) be ignores durability. It takes a lot to shoot out a glock and a 1911, but I've seen more eol cracked glock frames than i have worn out 1911 frames, and the glocks took a lot less time to get there. You can get a glock reliable 1911, but it is likely going to cost you at lest as much as three glocks. Also, it's not like glocks are your only choice for box stock reliability with capacity.

What weight bullet, what temperature at the range, what mags, what length gas system? With a mid length gas system on a 16" I have had similar issues with some old stock 62gr wolf and pmags in cooler weather (high 30s). Too much friction, not enough gas.

Not really, at least as far as functioning goes. A 1911 will operate reliably with a fairly wide range of recoil spring weights, the experimenting comes in when you want to alter the speed the slide comes back or goes forward and how that makes recoil feel. Unless you are going with REALLY light loads, in which case you will have to go to a lighter spring.

Depends. At local matches, we usually take your word. At a major match they will pull the bullet and weigh it.

I forget who I signed up with, but they beat the snot out of JCP&L. My rate for the electricity is lower by about 20% on the electric supply charge (not the delivery charge). They guaranteed my price for a year, and the way the law in NJ works means you can change whenever you want without penalty. I suspect I'll have to switch when my year is up to continue maximal savings, but I can say that one thing I was consistently seeing form JCP&L when I got the electricyt form them was that magically in summer, the last estimated bill before the summer rate increase would be and absurdly low estimate of my KWh used. Like lower than every other month in the year. Then when they upped the rate they'd do an actual meter reading and... amazingly coincidence... I suddenly have a bill almost double my actual usage at a higher rate. Worst year for that was what should have been two bills, one for about $240 and one for about $305 was high $600. For me, it has been a painless experience, and in the first year should save me about $350 without factoring in meter reading shenanigans. Probably closer to $400 if I do. We'll see how year 2 goes. BTW, the natural gas offers vs. PSE&G did not offer anything obviously beneficial.

I'll give the otis kit a +1.

Yes, although there's no hard in fast rule as to how a round will feel as it is dependent on the design of the gun, caliber, bullet choice, and powder choice.

It is not in fact treason. Your own quote spells it out. It isn't a declaration of war on the nation, and it isn't aiding and abetting an enemy of the nation (i.e. some nation or power we are at war with). In general dictionary terms, what they would be doing would be considered sedition, the undermining of the constitution and bill of rights, our founding laws that are to be adhered to unless lawfully changed. But that doesn't work either because our sedition laws don't cover such behavior. In fact the closes our sedition laws come in contact with the regulations on the 2nd amendment is the question that asks if you have advocated the overthrow of the government, or are a member of a group that does so. That's there because of the Alien Registration act of 1940, which defines sedition as doing just that. The espionage act of 1917 also covers as sedition if you "willfully spread false news of the American army and navy with an intent to disrupt their operations, to foment mutiny in their ranks, or to obstruct recruiting" which doesn't cover what you are upset by either.

Sheer number of matches per month? Depending on your location it is likely steel or USPSA. Also, it's not like you have to pick just one. If you shop smart, you can get gear that is decent for USPSA, steel, IDPA, and probably a few others that don't have a lot of matches. Shop really mart smart, and not only can you have something that can shoot fairly competitively in some division in most every pistol discipline offered in NJ (except bullseye, rimfire, and black powder stuff), you can get it done for less than $800 total. You can basically shoot a match every Saturday and Sunday without leaving the state.

Yes, you are giving them permission to check stuff protected by HIPAA, what they actually check is a mystery though. What they care about is even more of a mystery. I can say that I do know someone who had to go to mandatory counseling (not court ordered, but required via government regulation), bothered to get a signed notarized letter saying they were good to go in the opinion of their shrink, and their local police were not interested in the slightest in any bit of it. When asked what to answer, and here's my stuff for the please explain, they were told just check no and they didn't need to see any paperwork. Their local PD had an officer doing it who was kind of a PITA to boot.

I wouldn't miss under god in there. I support freedom of the individual over the notion that we must protect our nation's "christian identity". However, for the most part I dislike these lawsuits as whenever the "victim" is interviewed, it seems they are more interested at beating down the ideas of those with religious beliefs than with freedom or even the welfare of their children. To date, every single one of these strikes me as being more about telling people with religious beliefs that they shouldn't have them or else, and that to me originates form the same place as religious fundamentalism. I would find it interesting if for once the argument came from the position of individual freedom and equality before the law, but it never seems to.

Actually not really. You just don't start with an actual glock. The ccf race frame with the long rigid rails plus some of the REALLY light tirggers and one of the aftermarket G34/5 length slides and barrels, you can make a pretty darn accurate gun from a box of parts for the cost of an off the shelf 1911. But historically, the p210 is up there. CZ clones with some welding up on critical fitment areas and then some hand fitting have been used. For service pistol, the beretta 92F has been beaten into submission. There's always the option of a 9mm 1911 off the shelf, when you start to outshoot it, send it off for a match barrel to be fit and a really light trigger. More than likely, if you wnat a cz style gun decked out out of the box, there's the sphinx guns. There was also an upper made by hogue (IIRC) to go on a 1911 frame that had a fixed barrel. PEople also did some nice work customizing H&K P7 pistols for USPSA back before the widebody 911 changed the game. If you have enough money, and you can find a competent smith willing to entertain novel concepts, you can probably make anything accurate as long as you can get parts.

What kind of setup do you want? With a singles stage, you can mount it to a board and clamp it to the table. You don't need a lot of space. I reloaded for years in a closet under the stairs.

Powder is pretty tolerant of temps, but really high temps can alter burn rates. Interior of the car in summer is hot enough. That's way hotter than a vented shipping container gets. Humidity though REALLY matters. It wont affect burn, but you really want to get your volumetric measure before it starts picking up moisture. Most powder is hydrophilic, some very much so. Upside is you'll be throwing underpowered loads by weight, so it won't hurt you. Humidity doesn't matter much until you break the seal on a container of powder.

The alpha is a minor modification, unless there is something special about the mounting system. They made the extrusion slightly more rigid (probably just the result of it not having a slot cut in it), and changed the mount. That's it. And they jacked the price from $175 to $189. And if you are building from parts you don't necessarily have a stock nut. You have yet to refute a single point of mine. Troy can charge what they want, but I don't have to buy it.

If someone gave me Norton for free, I'd punch them in the face and make them eat the disk. It's that good. IMO, for free stuff, I'd use Microsoft security essentials, avast free, and AVG in that order of preference. My reasoning for this is that MSE is actually better at catching stuff than both the other two (slightly), and uses a LOT less system resources. Avast get #2 because it's not as slow as AVG, and has a pretty user friendly interface. AVG gets the bototm of the list because although it is generally ok, in the last couple years they have pushed out updates that have identified critical system components as threats, and hose your system when it cleans them up.

Not doubtful. There apprantly wasn't much in the way of snow, jsut some rain, so mostly it's just going ot be dealing with the cold. I'm working on scoresheets now.

So by eliminating the wrench, they don't make me pay for it. They achieve this by charging me $10 more. Your logic is flawless sir.

Thanks.

Anyone know the hours off the top of their head?

For all the referencing of the revell case, people seem to leave out that the charges against him were dropped, and his property eventually returned. What the circuit court was ruling on was false arrest under the color of law, and being able to sue the state for keeping his gun for so long. The court punted on the false arrest because he was arrested for a legitimate reason, meaning someone thought he broke the law, and that wasn't flying in the face of FOPA in their opinion as he was no longer in transit. It's a pretty tortured interpretation of in transit IMHO, and the one anti gun thing really in the case is that it seriously undermined the intent of FOPA to provide safe passage. There is conflicint sets of precedent on the issue in multiple states as well. You really don't see transport violations come up too much unless it is trying to pile on charges to force a plea, or messing with some out of stater either in ignorance of FOPA, or in an attempt to say FOPA does not apply here. Most of that reason is because the list of legal places to possess gets kind of hard to define legally. As KenW points out, the argument for a hotel room certainly has legs. Does it mean you won't have to lawyer up? No. Does it mean that your lawyer can argue the hell out of it in a manner that a DA really doesn't want to deal with? Yes. This, you ahve no rights in NJ in regards to guns. What you have is a prohibition on them with affirmative defenses outlined in the law. Arguably, this entire structuring of the firearms laws is contrary to an incorporated individual right, and thus being charged under them is theoretically challengable. That challenge likely won't float in NJ, but that's what circuit courts and SCOTUS is for.

Herf gun?