Bianchi Cup - May 19th-23rd

[rhino]

Do NOT look for your hits - this is entirely about watch the sights in relation to the lead points.

Now you tell me this??? NOW???!!!

 

[slow1911s]

Now you tell me this??? NOW???!!!

Don't you DARE!!! You're the rocket scientist and physics professor and I need to school you on the concept of lead?

I will cripple your ass for this!!!

 

[rhino]

Don't you DARE!!! You're the rocket scientist and physics professor and I need to school you on the concept of lead?

I will cripple your ass for this!!!

Big talk online, Two Meter Boy!

The world needs to know you've been withholding marksmanship secrets from me all along!

The next thing you know, you'll let me know that trigger control and follow-through are important in some obscure way.

 

[Coach]

Big talk online, Two Meter Boy!

The world needs to know you've been withholding marksmanship secrets from me all along!

The next thing you know, you'll let me know that trigger control and follow-through are important in some obscure way.

I hear trigger control and follow through will get you killed.

 

[Ahab]

Wow, what a week. If you've been following my posts on Gun Nuts Media, you know by now that we're done shooting, and I finished 17th overall in Production division. The winner of Production was Dave Sevigny, with the only 1800+ score in the division. Bruce Piatt won Open, and Robbie Leatham took Metallic with a 1909. Metallic was tight this year, with three shooters over 1900 for the first time in Bianchi history.

As far as my performance, well I'm pretty sure I'm psychic - I said in an earlier post in this thread that I figured I was probably good enough to shoot a 1500 or so. I ended up with a 1458, and cracked a 408 on the mover, much to my pleasure. Actually, the mover was my best stage - I shot the 10 yard part of the mover clean, 120-11x. I'm really happy about that, because it gives me a solid foundation for next year.

The brightest spot was finishing third in Production Division in the Bianchi Speed Star match - so I get to take a plaque home in addition to finishing in the money for Production division.

When I get back to Indy, I'll upload the photos I took - I've got over 2 gigs of photos, which I need to sort through and filter the wheat from the chaff. All in all though, this was a pretty fun event, if it was a bit like running a marathon. With all the downtime that they have, this could easily be shot in 2 days as opposed to four.

 

[rhino]

1458 for the first try is pretty darned good.

It sounds like you did some practicing before the match itself!

 

[Ahab]

Well, I took the smart advice and spent some time on the practice range before heading out to the match. I've already got a laundry list of changes for next year - I'm going to stick with Production division, because I've got a vested interest in promoting it, but I can definitely use a better pistol/sight combo than I did this year.

This is my "hope for next year". That's my 10 yard mover target, shot with a bone stock Para 18.9 LDA (to make Production) with Novak combat sights. Next year I'll have better sights and a different gun; and a whole year to have practiced.

 

[slow1911s]

Well, I took the smart advice and spent some time on the practice range before heading out to the match. I've already got a laundry list of changes for next year - I'm going to stick with Production division, because I've got a vested interest in promoting it, but I can definitely use a better pistol/sight combo than I did this year.

This is my "hope for next year". That's my 10 yard mover target, shot with a bone stock Para 18.9 LDA (to make Production) with Novak combat sights. Next year I'll have better sights and a different gun; and a whole year to have practiced.

A 5" 1911 is plenty of gun for that match. If the accuracy is not there, work on these things in this order:

• Shooting groups standing at 25 yds and prone at 50. If they are not as tight as you'd like:
  • Work on your ammo - 115s @ ~1050 fps is what Doug, Bruce, Carl, Tony, Kevin run. If you can load your own, Zero 115 JHPs are about as good as it gets before you make the jump to Sierra or Hornady
  • A properly fit bushing can do wonders for tightening groups. A recommend a SV Infinity Tri-Lock. EGW or Briley would other options
  • If your barrel won't group, consider changing it. Kart is a great choice, Nowlin is another. What you really need as part of the fit is what is called "0.030" lockup", where the barrel stays locked for at least 0.030" of rearward slide travel.
  • Last, but not least, you can have rails installed to improve the slide/frame fit
• Whatever you do, keep shooting groups at 25 and 50 yds. If you can hold the 10 ring at 25 and 35 on the Barricade, you can do it on any of the other events.
• Sights - generally, a skinny, black front sight is what you need. As far as the rear, the new SV Infinity Bo-Mar-esque adjustable rear is bloody fantastic. If you can find an original Bo-Mar BMCS, go with that. The Wilson Combat adjustable rear is another solid choice.

 

[Ahab]

Well, the problem with the para 18.9 LDA isn't accuracy, it's reliability. The accuracy part it does just fine, but in terms of reliability, it has issues in that area.

The sights weren't ideal, either - the Novak sights had a big fat white dot on the front of the gun, which isn't particularly money for the precision shooting you're doing at Bianchi Cup. Since Production Division seems to be here to stay as an actual prize bearing competitive division, I'm going to keep shooting that for the next few years. I have neither the desire nor the interest to lay the beans out for a competitive metallic gun or an open gun.

The new division itself was a success - this year, the first year that prizes have been awarded for Production guns since 1997, the new division drew one fewer shooter than Metallic, and put out more prize money than Metallic division. With "big name" next generation USPSA shooters like Max Michel, BJ Norris, and Dave Sevigny all shooting Production, NRA hopes that attendance in this division will increase significantly next year to include more of the top tier athletes in USPSA Production division.

There's talk of making the gun eligibilty for Action Pistol Production an exact Mirror of USPSA Production with the addition of NRA's rules on trigger pull weight. This would eliminate my 18.9 anyway, since the double stack 9mm LDA gun isn't USPSA legal for Production division.

Edit: oh yeah, that reminds me. Thou shalt not use Bo-Mars for Production division. They're actually specifically mentioned in the rules as being illegal for Production.

 

[slow1911s]

I need to get back up on the rules because the initial set of rules for NRA Production allowed for sight changes so long as they were notch and post, such as Bo-mar.

 

[Ahab]

What is says now is that you can change the sights, provided that the gun originally had sights of those types. So for example, if you gun came from the factory with fixed sights, you can only change to another type of fixed sight; and if it had adjustables from the factory, you can only change to an adjustable sight.

It actually specifically mentions Bo-Mar sights now as being not allowed.

 

[slow1911s]

It actually specifically mentions Bo-Mar sights now as being not allowed.

I believe that the Bo-Mar reference is to the PPC full rib sights or tri-set sights (like Rob Leatham and Robert Vadasz run on their Metallic guns). The reason I say that is that they mention Aristocrat in the same sentence. A standard Bo-Mar rear adjustable sight would probabaly still be permitted (and Bo-Mar sights are not made any longer, at least not under the name Bo-Mar).

I just found the rules, and in typical NRA fashion, they are poorly written. Well intended, but poorly written.

In any event, if you're interested, you should seek out a membership at Wildcat Valley in Brookston. It would be great to get the Action Pistol program back there.

 

[rhino]

I just found the rules, and in typical NRA fashion, they are poorly written. Well intended, but poorly written.

What makes it worse is the hubris involved. The people writing the rules seem to think they're smarter than everyone else (especially the actual pariticipants in the sport), and we see evidence that clearly that is not the case.

I would be embarrassed for anyone to know I had written that particular rules update.

 

[Ahab]

Yeah, I had wondered that about the Bo-Mar bit - but the problem is that because the rules update is rather vague and confusing, it could be interpreted to mean that your Para 16-40 LDA (which is legal in USPSA production) gets challenged because of the Bo-mar style sights and then BAM you're in Metallic division. It's nuts. A lot of the new Production guys would like to see the gear just be a mirror of USPSA Production division, which I would be 100% in favor of.