[11:46] Unix-Jedi: Not as clumsy or random as a automatic.
[11:47] Unix-Jedi: An elegant weapon for a more civilized time.
IDPA Match Gear
The IDPA State Championship was a huge success, and a lot of fun. One of the high points for me personally was that all my gear worked 100%, and definitely contributed to the success I had. I ran a conglomeration of gear from different companies, all of which came together on match day in just the way I needed it to.
My gun for the match was my excellent Para 16-40 Limited, which ran flawlessly except for one time that I limp-wristed the gun, so that was my own fault. The three mags I used were two Mec-Gar magazines, and one 10 round Pro-Mag which inexplicably feeds everything I stuff into it – weird. I’ve talked a lot about the gun, so I won’t spend too much time on that.
My magazine holders were the Blackhawk! double-stack mag holders, which so far are the only double stackers I can find which do a good job of holding on to the gigantic Para mags. The gun belt was also from Blackhawk!, the same belt I had used at the ParaUSA Summer Camp event.
Before you guys think that Blackhawk! has me on their payroll (I wish, right?) I actually used a holster from Galco to compete with. After finding out that my Serpa wasn’t considered IDPA legal, I had to find a new holster in a great big hurry, preferably something that would be similar to the Blackhawk! holsters I already used. The holster I went with was the M5X Matrix from Galco, a Kydex/polymer holster that someone manages to look like a leather holster. It’s very similar to the Fobus holsters, but seems to be made of better materials, and is adjustable to provide higher or lower levels of retention on the gun. The paddle on the Matrix did an excellent job of distributing the weight of my Para – even after wearing the gun for eight hours I didn’t notice the weight of the pistol.
For ammo, I ran Wolf Gold – this is the brass cased high-quality ammo offered by Wolf. It ran flawlessly in my gun, and was more than accurate enough to get the job done.
Sometimes, equipment gets overlooked in competition; people focus entirely on the gun at the expense of getting good gear. The problem is that a holster failure could result in you getting DQ’d from a match, or an ammo failure could result in your results not being valid. While the gun is probably the most important component of a match, you shouldn’t neglect your other gear – without it you’d just be a guy with a gun and nowhere to carry it.
That noise you heard
Yesterday, around 3:15? That was the sound of so much awesome collecting in one place that it sucked the air out of half the county and imploded a building.
It was great being able to see my co-host and good friend Breda and her awesome husband Mike yesterday – I only wish that we could plan an event like this over an entire weekend, instead of just one day. Maybe next year we’ll put something together like that, because some of the smart people in attendance realized that we had enough people that we could actually do something really cool at these blog meet-ups, like maybe go shoot some bullets or something.
Also, to Breda: thanks for the beer. It was exactly as awesome as you said it would be.
Hedging their bets
Remington will offer the R-15 VTR starting in 2009 in a new option: with a thumbhole stock. It seems like a pretty smart business move from Remington, as with the possibility of an unfavorable election, they can take an already “un scary” AR and make it even more friendly. It already has an unthreaded barrel, made up in “hunter” camoflauge, and with the addition of a thumbhole stock it effectively makes this weapon compliant with the old Clinton AWB.
Smart business move on Remington’s part.
Indiana IDPA State Championship
This entry crossposted at the Gun Nuts Radio blog under Indiana IDPA State Championship.
This weekend, I shot the Indiana State IDPA Championship Match, at Atlanta Conservation Club just 35-40 minutes north of my house. The match was shot over two days, although most shooters shot it all either on Friday or then on Saturday. All told there were over 100 shooters, and major sponsoships were provided by Starline Brass, Ruger, and a company with which I’m quite familiar, ParaUSA. There were a host of other sponsors for the match as well – we’ll mention more of them on the radio tomorrow night, so don’t miss the show.
This was the first IDPA State Championship held in Indiana since (I believe) 2004, and it’s good to have a major match back in the state. Based on what I saw this year, next year will be even better. Obviously, for a club running their first major in a while, this was a learning experience for everyone – and I feel like the lessons learned from this year’s match will go a long way towards making next year’s state championship an even more successful. I don’t want people to think I’m knocking Atlanta CC or the way the match was run. I feel that this match was a smashing success for Atlanta, and because of that we should be able to continue to see major caliber matches in Indiana for IDPA shooters for years to come. The chief driver behind that success was and is Jeff Brown, the area coordinator for IDPA. Jeff poured a lot of his blood, sweat and tears into this match, and without him it wouldn’t have been possible. Also, in addition to having a passion for the shooting sports, Jeff is an all around good guy. We had the opportunity to chat for a bit about the match, and in every interaction I’ve had with him he’s impressed me as a classy person, and someone who deeply cares about ensuring that our shooting sports and heritage are preserved. Kudos to Jeff Brown and all the staff at Atlanta CC for a great day of shooting.
As to the match itself, if I had to describe it in one word for my ADD readers, that word would be “cold”. Match day it was about 40-45 degrees on the range, overcast and windy. I had not dressed accordingly, because the forecast was for 55 degrees and mostly sunny. Oh well; I shot through the cold, and while I didn’t turn in my best performance (5th in ESP), it was good enough to beat the other media/press guys in attendance, earning me a win in the High Press Gun sub-category.
The courses of fire were for the most part very well laid out. Out of the 20 courses, there was only one COF that I personally wasn’t a fan of, however as I said the other 19 courses were absolutely phenomenal. My favorite by far was COF number 8. You start from behind a table in the kneeling position, gun at the low ready – the idea is that you’ve already been in a gunfight and now you’ve reached the last guy who is holding your girlfriend/wife hostage. You have to come out from behind the table to the left or the right (no going over the top) and shoot the badguy in the head, as the rest of him is obscured by hard cover. Of course, you also shouldn’t shoot the hostage. Now, that may sound pretty easy, except for one thing – you have one bullet in the gun. If you miss, you have to reload, which from that kneeling position would be pretty awkward. The fastest time on that COF for the day was 1.67 seconds, I had the third fastest at 1.79. Courses of fire like this are what made this such a great match, as they placed a strong emphasis on being fast and accurate.
I spent a lot of the “standing time” talking to other shooters, trying to get a feel for how other people thought the match was going. Everyone seemed pleased – from the greenest Novice class all the way to the dedicated Master class shooter, this match was a big hit. Again, it’s a great pleasure from a personal standpoint to see IDPA major matches back in Indiana, and I’m looking forward to seeing more and more of these matches as the years come and go.
Here are the match winners and sub category winners:
CDP Champion: Chris Martin CDP – Master 194.38 (26)
ESP Champion: Larry Hill ESP – Master 202.14 (25)
SSP Champion: Dick Lichon SSP – Master 177.84 (30)
ESR Champion: Bob Briggs ESR – Sharpshooter 276.57 (17)
SSR Champion: Steven L. King SSR – Sharpshooter 313.48 (60)
High Senior: Larry Hill ESP – Master 202.14 (25)
High Lady: Roxanne Hill ESP – Marksman 340.66 (47)
High Law Enforcement: Jeremy VanGieson SSP – Master 238.54 (28)
High Press: Caleb Giddings ESP – Sharpshooter 303.06 (28)
High Military Veteran: Dick Lichon SSP – Master 177.84 (30)
High Distinguished Senior: Mike Hanlon SSR – Expert 375.80 (88)
Most Accurate: Rich DeMondo ESP – Expert 222.15 (9)
Congratulations to everyone who shot the state championship match this year. We’ll have more coverage of the Indiana IDPA State Championship match tomorrow night on Gun Nuts Radio at 9pm Eastern – don’t miss it!
Down the Rabbit Hole
I have two 1911 type pistols, a 9mm and a .40 S&W. After thinking about getting a gun for USPSA Production Class, and then realizing that I had a perfectly good gun for Production, I kicked a few more rocks around (thought about rifles) and then realized that by not owning a good .45 ACP 1911, I was doing a great disservice to John Moses Browning.
That was part of my 1911 Madness post, wherein I realized that no matter what I did short of buying a $2k custom made pistol from Wilson Wombat that I would have to replace a bunch of MIM parts no matter where I get my gun from.
That lead me to wander around the intertrons pricing out things like beavertail grip safeties (hammer bite sucks), magazines, trigger groups, and I’ve suddenly realized what a wonderful world I’ve entered into.
You see, I’m a tinkerer. I like to take things that work just fine and see if I can make them better, whether it’s a cell phone, a holster, or what have you. The world of aftermarket 1911 parts is essentially a tinkerer’s dream. There are jillions upon jillions of parts for me to choose from, with a huge user support base in the form of blogs and gun forums. It’s absolutely phenomenal the amount of information and just plain cool toys out there.
I will probably buy a “mil-spec” model, and just kind of go from there. I want to build a gun to my specs so I can put all the silly crap that I like, and none of the silly crap that I don’t like on it. But my goodness, the rabbit hole goes a loooooooooooong way down.
Buzz Gun Fun
Cowboy Blob shoots an ACTS (American Confederation of Tactical Shooters) match with a full-rock-and-roll UZI.
It’s kind of fun to watch the video and instead of watching the shooters, watch the dust fly in the background whenever his Uzi makes that “brraaaaaap” sound.
Match Prep
The IDPA State Championship is tomorrow! Tonight I will be at home, annoying my wife while I study courses of fire and do presentations from the holster with an empty gun. Tonight’s agenda includes double checking my gun, holster, and magazines, packing up my range bag and then lying around trying to sleep. Some bloggers who have shot matches with me before know I get all jacked up on adrenaline before I go shoot, and I’m already starting for the State Championship.
I’m hoping that the rain will hold off for the rest of the day today – some of the guys are shooting the match tonight, and I’d hate for them to shoot in the soggy mess that’s going on outside. Plus, I don’t want the range to be all soggy tomorrow, either.
If you’re not shooting the IDPA State Championship, but are still looking for something to go shoot tomorrow, head out to Marion County Fish & Game for their monthly bowling pins match. Pins are still my favorite thing to do with a handgun, so I’m a little bummed that I’m going to be missing this month’s match.
Wish me luck, or better yet, wish that I be fast and accurate.
Lorne Michaels on Sarah Palin
Okay, so everyone knows that Lorne Michaels is the creator of Saturday Night Live, and a raging liberal. However, here’s what he says about Sarah Palin.
I think Palin will continue to be underestimated for a while. I watched the way she connected with people, and she’s powerful. Her politics aren’t my politics. But you can see that she’s a very powerful, very disciplined, incredibly gracious woman. This was her first time out and she’s had a huge impact. People connect to her…
Huh.
More on McCain supporter “attack”
Update: Turns out it was all bullcrap. I cannot condemn this sort of tomfoolery strongly enough. There are plenty of legitimate political and social objections to Barack Obama that we don’t need to engage in outright lies and falsifying police reports to discredit his candidacy. I am personally apalled that this woman would stoop to this level in order to make a political point.
So, I posted yesterday about this as it broke, and then I updated that evening because I had my doubts. I got some angry email, so I wanted to post the picture of the alleged victim and explain why I doubted that the “B” scratched into her face was legit.
First off, the “B” is backwards. That’s exactly the position it would be in if someone who wasn’t paying attention did it to themselves in the mirror.
Secondly, it’s really, really shallow. I’ve scratched myself worse than that just by scratching an itch vigorously.
Third, and finally, it’s almost perfect. There are no jagged lines on the “B”, no sharp corners like you’d expect from a maniac who was holding someone down and carving a letter into their face. Any rational person would have been struggling and fighting back, which would have created a much more jagged and ugly wound track.
Now, she does two black eyes, and she most certainly could have been assaulted and robbed. However, the “B” just doesn’t figure. If she had said she was attacked and beaten because of the McCain sticker, I wouldn’t have a problem at all believing that, but the presence of the backwards, shallow, and perfectly defined letter “B” just makes me want to call bullcrap on this.