compujas

I'll let you know how much my eye doctor wants for them so you can compare. Considering they told me it would be $130 for the lenses for Wiley X Romer II frames, I'm not holding my breath for it to be reasonable for ESS instead. ESS charges $95 for the lenses, so I was kind of shocked that Walmart said $30. I'm thinking it must be a quantity thing since Walmart sends them out where my eye dr makes them on-site, but that's still a huge difference.

For anyone interested, I just stopped at the Walmart Vision Center to get an idea how much lenses would cost for the ESS ICE Rx insert and they said about $30. I plan to stop by my local optical center where I got my exam and glasses to find out how much they would charge (for a reasonably extra cost I'll go to my local place instead to support them and have somewhere better to cover them in case of anything). For that price though I'm definitely going to get the ESS ICE setup. I found the 3 lens kit on Amazon for about $51, now I just have to find somewhere to get the insert and have the lenses made. Should cost me a little over $100 for the whole thing. Not a bad deal IMO.

You didn't list any local trainers (and I have an idea why you didn't). But while you may have a point for best value vs. amount of instruction, you still have to take total cost into account. There is only a single class on your list that is under $200 and 2 that are under $400. Also, while I'm not familiar with them, all of the classes you listed appear to be fairly high level classes (advanced firearm, force on force, etc.). I'm sure many people, especially being in NJ where guns are taboo, are looking for basic introductory level classes. Anyone looking for advanced classes probably won't have much issue paying a higher premium for them, or traveling (again, being NJ, not much expectation of high level classes here). Bottom line is, you have a point for best value, but you're not telling the whole story. NJ Firearms Academy, Basic Pistol, $225 for 8 hrs Shoot NJ, Basic Pistol, $198 for 11 hours Shoot NJ, Personal Protection in Home, $225 for 11 hrs GFH, First Steps Pistol, $185 for 4 hrs GFH, Private Instruction, $300 for 2 hrs And that's just a quick google search for trainers with prices listed on their sites. As someone looking for more basic level instruction, I would much sooner pay a little bit more for a homegrown instructor that understands the plight of NJ and works to help our state.

My rx is fairly mild I think. I'm only at -0.75x-1.00 and 0x-1.50, so I think I'm good with pretty much any of the inserts, but I'm leaning more towards the polymer insert for a better hold on the lens as opposed to the Vice monofilament one.

Thanks for all the good input so far. I think I've been convinced into the ESS ICE setup. I'm just trying to research them and see what I actually need and want and where to get it (kind of difficult at the moment since I just got back from having my eyes dilated at the eye dr so I can't see a damn thing right now). The ESS website isn't really the greatest for researching and shopping, but I'm looking into ebay too at the recommendation of several of you.

Seriously. I can't even put stakes, driveway reflectors, or solar lights in the ground. Any more than 3" below the surface and it's no longer dirt, just rocks. I don't even know how we have trees and plants growing.

I did see the polymer insert for ESS, but I don't know how I feel about having the frame in my vision. Or are they large enough that you can't really see it? If they're close enough to your face that they're completely out of your vision, then I may choose those given they're probably more secure than the monofilament ones.

Theron, I do like that idea and how those seem to work. They would definitely solve all of my issues, but they seem pricey considering I already have 3 sets of Wiley X frames. Then again it would also allow me to swap out the primary lenses for different shades, and if anything did ever happen I wouldn't have to pay for new Rx lenses, just new regular lenses. I'll have to keep those in mind. They might be worth the minor extra investment of Wiley X lenses. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like what you linked to is $30 for only the Rx lens holder, not the frame and safety lens, right? If that's the case, it's also $70 for the safety glasses and $95 for the Rx lenses, so almost $200 vs. $130 for just the lenses for my Wileys. Definitely something to think about. Maksim, thanks for reminding me. I did try going to Walmart to see if they had Rx safety glasses, but the vision center was closed (it was 1pm, I have no idea why), and forgot to go back. Are yours safety glasses or just a cheap pair of rx glasses that you wouldn't be bothered if they broke? Unfortunately for me I pretty much need mine all the time, or at least when I want to see detail. I could drive without them just fine but I can't read signs until they're close.

You know you're really in North Jersey if you can barely pick up (if at all) 101.5, and even if you can get it, they never talk about your area. There have been many times where I've been driving even on Rt 24, which is really not that far north, and get a staticy signal.

Being that I'm now newly indoctrinated into the Rx glasses wearing crowd, I was wondering what others do for shooting. I noticed that my eye doctor sells Rx Wiley X Safety glasses, which I have 3 sets of Wiley X non-Rx safety glasses. I asked about them and they said they can make me Rx lenses for $130 for them. I'm considering doing that since I my regular glasses are rimless so I'm not too comfortable wearing them a lot at the range. I'm not planning on getting them just yet, but I wanted to see what other people that wear Rx glasses do for safety glasses when at the range. I'm also not sure if I want to go the Rx safety glass route because of the inability to use tinted/shaded lenses during bright sunny days. Do any of you have Rx safety glasses, or just get the larger safety glasses that fit over your Rx glasses, or what? In case anyone is wondering, I'm nearsighted with an astigmatism. The one time that I've been to the range since I got my glasses was like night and day difference. I could actually see bullet holes at 10yds, I could see my front sight, everything. It's almost like there's some merit to this science and medicine stuff.

I personally subscribe to the 195/78 dividing lines. Below 195 is South Jersey, above 78 is North Jersey, in between is central-ish...and then there's the shore. I grew up in Springfield (Union county, border of central and north) and now live in Jefferson (Morris county, border of north and deep north). I can also get on board with "The Real Map of NJ". Another good indicator is average distance to the nearest supermarket/Target/Walmart.

How different would it have been had they sent it in an envelope with the ANJRPC return address label on it? People would still be able to figure out that you are a member of ANJRPC (not necessarily a gun owner, just a member of a gun organization, I'm sure there are NRA, SAF, etc., members that are not gun owners). Do you get any firearm related magazines? Because they have your address on them too for everyone to see. I do however agree with your first two points about the price increase and the slow application processing. Fortunately it doesn't bother me too much because I upgraded to a life membership since it was more cost effective for me, but it still bothers me on principle.

Nick, check out the pinned post in this forum. There's a bunch of videos direct linked there and I provided a link to the PowerFactorShow, a weekly show where they cover different topics. There's about 52 episodes in there already, and the first 20 or so are the very basic topics. I found it to be very informative as a newbie to both USPSA and IDPA.

Absolutely agree with you. I'm hoping to be able to get into a squad like that where everything just naturally works smoothly instead of 8 people who happen to be shooting the same stage for that hour. I have no problems at all with having an assigned role to help keep things moving, and in fact would prefer it so I know I'm actually supporting the squad rather than merely being there because I have to. With the apparent boom of interest in USPSA on here lately, it seems like there may be a need for multiple NJGF squads per match soon. Given how friendly everyone here is, I definitely look forward to shooting with everyone.

Sorry, I didn't mean that I was looking to brasswhore, really I'm just looking to reclaim the majority of my own brass. I'll have no idea how much I shot anyway, so it doesn't bother me if I don't get 100% back, just a reasonable amount. I don't need to take other people's brass for myself (unless of course they don't want it, but even then given the 9mm major factor to be careful of). It sounds to me though that as long as I don't get in the way of match momentum, I can pick some up while targets are being pasted and reset. I'll likely be shooting most events with a friend anyway, so we can always pick up for the other to speed things up. I just wanted to make sure that they weren't treated as lost brass events (like the CR 2x4 matches) and see if there was some standard procedure always in place.

Like most others around here into USPSA/IDPA, I reload. I was wondering how it tends to work with picking up your brass at a competition? From the little I saw at a match I watched at Shongum a few months ago, I noticed that after a shooter completes a stage, a number of people swarm the field doing all sorts of things (scoring, pasting, picking up brass, resetting targets, etc.). How does reclaiming your brass tend to work? Does it all get pooled and whoever is interested at the end of the match just splits it up? Or do you make it known that you want the brass back and whoever is picking it up after your string returns it to you? Or is it typically treated as a lost brass event? I personally wouldn't really mind splitting the large pot at the end of the day and getting mixed brass back (to me if it's still useable it's good enough), but I know some people might care. Just wondering since I'm planning on getting into USPSA this spring. If it's lost brass or a hassle to get brass back, I might as well buy the cheapest stuff I can find and not care, but if I can get it back then I won't mind using my reloads.

I personally plan on buying a Blade Tech DOH holster and Revolution double mag pouches. I was originally going to use the Serpa CQC Sportster that I have, but since that's for my Glock and I now decided to use my Beretta 92, I have to buy a holster anyway and decided to go the buy once, cry once, route. Hopefully it works out for me. Unfortunately, being a lefty, there isn't a huge market for trading/selling/buying used gear when I find out I don't like it.

Agreed. Maybe a little more than 3-4 weeks before? I know Blade Tech has a 3-4 week lead time, not sure about others, but still good to have some time to think about it and have things delivered.

I'm interested, and likely a friend of mine as well.

Now that I have my gun cave just off my man cave, I get to sit down and have a nice clean space when I'm working. I used to have to do everything in the garage and stand there for hours. Now I have a nice workbench with a stool so I catch up on my podcasts (usually Tom Gresham's Gun Talk) and clean the guns or do some reloading. I don't mind cleaning them, but I tend to get a little OCD about it and don't like that I can't always get them back to factory new, but I deal with it. I don't get to go to the range too often, but I'll usually clean them after every other trip or so since I usually only put about 100-200 rounds per pistol per trip. My bolt rifle usually will get a bore snake after every trip though because it's my accuracy gun, so that's every 25-50 rounds. The AR15 I do probably every other trip also because I hate when there's a ton of carbon buildup on the bolt tail, so that alone will take me about 30 minutes with a dental pick scraping it all off. But like I said, I listen to podcasts while I'm doing gun stuff, so it's more relaxing for me really.

I only checked under Competition products, no wonder I missed it. Thanks. And I don't intend to shoot IDPA, but famous last words, right? It looks like the DOH piece is removable though, so couldn't I just remove that if I wanted? I have a feeling that no matter how much research I do to find the right holster, I'm going to wind up just like so many others, with a box of holsters that I don't like.

Any lefties out there that shoot USPSA that can recommend a holster? I know the de facto holster seems to be Blade-Tech, but they don't appear to have their DOH holster for lefties. I have a Blackhawk Serpa Sportster (Paddle only) that I plan to use to get me started, but if I stick with it I plan to upgrade to something better. For right now I plan to use my Glock 22, but I also have a Beretta 92A1 that I may decide to use instead, but I'm still not sure. Any suggestions?

This happened to me also this past election. The site you posted still shows me as District 25 (I think I'm 26 now). Luckily I checked my sample ballot before walking out the door and noticed it wasn't my regular legislators anymore, so I quickly looked up the new ones by name. They really should update the state legislature page and probably should have sent out a mailer saying "Hey! We redistricted you, you're in District X now." I'm wondering if that's why nearly all of the incumbents were voted back in, if everyone showed up at the polls and didn't recognize any names.

Another thing to keep in mind is quality of the ammo. Say you're loading for a precision .308 (like I do). The cheapest ammo you can find is about $12/box for 20 rounds for American Eagle. My calculations with my particular components show that I pay $8.61/box, so not a huge savings. But taking into account that I am loading match grade ammo that will typically run about $30-40/box, I'm saving a crap load of money for the quality. When it comes to pistol, everyone starts reloading to save money and continues reloading to shoot more. My calculations for 9mm when buying bulk powder and plated bullets with free brass is $5.49/box. When's the last time you found 9mm brass cased ammo for that cheap.

I have been looking into upgrading to a Life Membership lately since my 3 year is expiring this month and the only option other than the $300 Friends and Family discount is the oh-so-generous $975 direct from NRA. Luckily my coworker is a life member and just got the friends/family paperwork so I'm going to do mine through him.