New IDPA Rulebook in the Works

Proposed 2013 IDPA Rulebook - Adobe PDF file
(If that doesn't work, go to IDPA.com, click the "Compete" tab, and then the "Rules" tab.)

ShootingUSA Podcast on IDPA rule changes with IDPA Executive Driector Joyce Wilson.

Looks like they are allowing Stainless Steel guide rods for Glocks, but still not allowing grip texturing or grip reduction for Stock Service Pistol division.  I understand that it could be considered an "enhancement," but I don't really appreciate disallowing modifications required to fit a grip to a shooter with small hands.

The custom "mid-length" magazine release in my Glock 19 is still not allowed in Stock Service Pistol division, but the extended one used for the 34, 35, 20, and 21 pistols is allowed.  I modified a competition part to make it smaller, snag-free, and more appropriate for an actual defense pistol.

I guess they aren't allowing the Gen1/Gen2/Gen3 recoil spring assemblies for Gen4 Glocks, because "Slide inserts to accommodate a different recoil assembly design" are specifically disallowed.  If you intend to run minor loads, and a Gen4 Glock you may need something like the Glockmeister Stainless Steel Gen4 Guide Rod assembly with a reduced-power recoil spring.  There may be other options, but that was the first thing that I could find.

The proposed 2013 rulebook still does not specify that plastic grip plugs are legal for SSP, if they protrude from the butt, like the Scherer slug plugs that I always use for carry guns.  You can get away with them in some matches, but not for others (click that slug plug link, I explain why).

Springfield XD pistols will be allowed in Stock Service Pistol division, not forced into Enhanced Service Pistol division.

There is a change to the rules regarding reloading behind cover:

All reloads must be performed behind cover; however, a shooter, who runs the firearm empty while in the open, may initiate an Emergency Reload while advancing to the next position of cover. The shooter must continue moving while performing the Emergency Reload and may not engage any remaining targets until behind cover, if cover is available.

WooHoo!  The 2005 Rulebook specified that all reloads must be performed behind cover.  I never understood the logic of not reloading, should you find yourself standing in the open with a completely empty pistol.  Cover is good, but stages are sometimes set-up so that you must start the course of fire standing (or sitting) out in the open.  I didn't expect that 3 second penalty having not completely mentally devoured the rulebook.  It seemed like the most prudent thing to do.


Until the new rulebook is officially approved, matches will continue to be run under the 2005 Rulebook.

What I've Been Up To

I got some sights in from Richard Heinie on, er, Wednesday or Thursday, I think.  I got a tall front sight for my Glock 21, which was shooting high.  I also ordered a Ledge rear sight with tritium for the Glock 19, which I bought a couple years ago, but have mostly ignored, except for shooting 1200 odd rounds through it.  The old front sight from the 21 went onto the 19.  The 21 is now shooting to point of aim, and I'm ready to carry the 19.  The 19 will also likely go along for a carbine training class at some point in the future.

I also ordered a tritium sight set for the Kahr PM9, hoping it would fix my problem of hitting high with that pistol.  It didn't.  The pistol still shot 9 inches high (!) at 50 feet.  I can bring it down a bit by filing the rear sight, but probably not enough.

Heinie night sights for Kahr pistols

My Kahr With New Heinie Sights, and Custom Pocket Holster

I shot a Ruger Rimfire Match earlier today at Delaware County Field & Stream.  Although I didn't shoot all that well with the AA Glock conversion pistol, I did pretty good with the 10/22, and it was fun.  The same range is running rimfire pistol plate shoots on Wednesday nights, but I work nights and haven't been able to go.  I now have a legitimate purpose for the 10/22 that I've used to burn through 25-round mags of cheap bulk ammo.  See. . . I can shoot a rifle offhand. . . I just need 40 M.O.A. targets!   :-P 

UPDATE, 8/1/2010:  Looks like I took second in unlimited class somehow, placing just behind the gentleman who set up the shoot.  Don't quite know how that happened.

Oh, and my AA Glock conversion upper is now sporting LPA adjustable sights.  The rear sight holds a zero pretty well.  Although the front sight is much taller than the Glock front sight, and may cause holster clearance issues, I like these a lot better than the plastic Glock sights.  I can now see light between the edges of the rear notch and the sides of the front sight now.  Another issue may be the hinge pin of the rear sight, which is a cheap roll pin.  I've heard several stories of broken hinge pins in Bomar-type sights, and I don't imagine that roll pin will hold up to very many major .40S&W loads.  I'll post more on these sometime later.

LPA adjustable Glock sight set


AA Rimfire Slide with LPA Sights

LPA Adjustable Glock Sight

UPDATE, 11/20/11: The LPA sights are still doing well.  I don't recall ever adjusting the sights, after the initial adjustment just after installing them.  I'm quite impressed, and would buy another set in a heartbeat, if I needed them.

A quick shopping note:  DSG Arms is selling 5 PMags with 150 rounds of Fiocchi 62gr ammo for $109.  I've got lots of AR mags, and I'm reloading .223.  If not for that, I'd probably jump on this deal.  Scroll a bit down this page for a free shipping code I posted recently if you're buying.

I updated the Spike Network shooting/self-defense show post.

3-Gun TV Show Coming to VS Network

FNH USA (Fabrique National.  You know.  The PS90, SCAR, FiveseveN people) are sponsoring a show to air on the Versus TV Network.  It's a 3-Gun competition show.  The show is scheduled to begin in July of this year.

From what I'm reading in America's First Freedom, the show sounds a lot like the Front Sight Challenge show that aired on Versus a few years ago, but at least it will bring a shooting TV show to those (like me) who can't get The Outdoor Channel.

UPDATE, 8/7/10:  Don't know what happened, but the show is on The Sportsman's Channel, or something like that, not Versus.

Competition Shooting Book and DVD Reviews

Practical Shooting: Beyond Fundamentals
The subject matter is similar to that of Thinking Practical Shooting. The way Enos writes in the first couple chapters, it’s a bit like Asian philosophy or something. There’s a lot of talk about focus, concentration, awareness, consciousness, meditation and all the subtle differences. I found it to be really obnoxious. It’s almost as bad as listening to a hippie explain what it’s like to be high. Fortunately, the rest of the book is a little easier to digest.

There are some good tips on how to refine your draw and presentation. There are some drills that should be helpful. It may be one of the best books on shooting technique, and has some interesting insights on which targets to engage in which order in a competition setting.

I appreciate what Enos has done for the sport, and I suppose the Thinking Practical Shooting, and Principles of Performance books that I prefer would not have existed without Beyond Fundamentals. After the second read, I have decided to recommend this book, if you think your shooting mechanics may need some improvement.

There is a lot of information in the book. Although the book is not very thick, it seemed like it took me weeks to get through it, whereas I got through the other books pretty quickly. I think that there may be more material per dollar than the others.

Burkett's Videos 1-3
I waited far too long to buy these. Seriously. I might have gotten more of my match entry fees back as prize money.

Setting up equipment. Although some of the holster information is found in the Bianchi book, Blued Steel and Gunleather (a book that's older than I am), I have not seen this much information elsewhere. He even suggests a couple models of football cleats for the USPSA/IPSC games.

There is some discussion of pistols for the games, although almost every pistol shown in the videos is of the 2011 type sold by Burkett’s sponsor SVI.

Although most of videos are devoted to USPSA/IPSC type matches, much of the information carries over to IDPA, and there is IDPA specific information.

Burkett dissects draws, movement between shooting boxes, stepping into the shooting boxes, shooting from barricades, shooting on the move (also covered in Practical Shooting: Beyond Fundamentals, although slightly different technique), kneeling from standing-start and from moving, going prone, and target-to-target transitions to name a bunch. Applied to your game, these tips should cut fractions of a second off your time here and there, and improve your scores fairly dramatically.

One thing that kinda bugged me was that he made a crack about one of his students hopping into the shooting box, rather than stepping in. I swear that I’ve seen Leatham or Miculek teach exactly that on the Shooting USA TV series.

Video 3 is an interview with Brian Enos. It is about 45 minutes long, and is not broken up into chapters, which means you have to watch it all in one lump, or note the time where you left off and fast forward to it the next time.

Burkett's Video 4
The video starts out with a review of setting up gear, grip, stance, and draw, as shown in the first three videos.

Shooting from trigger reset is discussed. I wondered where that would come in.

There is more coverage of shooting multiple targets with drills on a couple plate racks.
Bonus video is of a national USPSA match. Damn! Those open class guys can really hose those targets! The stages are pretty wild too.

Burkett Practical Shooting Manual
This one’s a tough call. A lot of the same material is in the first three volumes of his video series, and it makes a little more sense in video form than in words. There are some practice drills recommended in the book that may be helpful, and some other tips and equipment information that isn’t covered in the video series. If money is really tight, and you’re good at reading textbooks, maybe skip the videos and buy the book. Otherwise, I would say skip the book and just buy the videos. If you feel like you get a lot out of the videos and want to get a little bit more of the same, then consider getting the book also.

Thinking Practical Shooting
Mostly, this book is on being mentally prepared to shoot a match, and win it. I'm having a hard time explaining what's in it without giving it all away.

Although the author says that he didn't want to make it a book about shooting technique, there is some technique discussed, and it was good enough that I highlighted a good bit of it.

I am glad I bought this book, because I can see how this information can definitely help cut down on the number of "brain freezes," mistakes, and garden variety match screw-ups. I started highlighting on my second time through the book, and by far it is my most highlighted shooting book. There is a lot of useful information here.

The book will help you to be prepared to shoot, thinking positive about your skills, and hitting
the spots you want to shoot as you go through the stage. I can see it also helping you to get jobs, women, and success in general. . . although I imagine a lot of you just rolled your eyes at that.

The book is specifically centered on IPSC, although almost all of it applies to USPSA, and a lot of it still applies to IDPA and other "practical shooting" matches.

If you are not shooting matches yet, get out there and do it, but definitely think about getting a copy of this book.

Refinement and Repetition
It’s an introduction, followed by 80 pages of dry-fire drills, with half of those pages dedicated to recording your times. I probably could have lived without this book; I could have come up with my own dry-fire drills and recorded them in a notebook or in a spreadsheet.

Principles of Performance
The first eighty-some pages are similar to Thinking Practical Shooting. Then there’s thirty-something pages of dry-fire drills (although half of the pages are for recording your times). Last are about twenty pages of live-fire exercises, again with space for recording your times.

The first eighty pages are what makes the book valuable to me. There may be some duplication from Saul’s book, but there’s a lot of other things that Saul didn’t hit on. There is an interview with Lanny Bassham, author of With Winning in Mind, that I think comes off like a sales pitch, but contains some helpful information, and I’ll probably end up picking up a copy of the book.

Perfect Practice
Like Refinement and Repetition, this is a dry-fire drill book. There’s about 120 pages of drills with maybe 1/8 of that dedicated to space for you to record your times. I could have lived without this one also. I guess that I was looking for some novel approaches to dry-fire practice, and I guess there just isn’t any.

I Won! Sort Of. . .

I caught the bowling pin match at Field & Stream this time, having missed the first one in the fall, because I got the date wrong.

It came down to me, and Bob Britton (with a High Standard), and the same Bob Britton (second entry with a Ruger Charger). So we went up to shoot, and I edged out Bob who was shooting the High Standard. Would I have won if Bob had a second magazine for the High Standard, or if he had used the Charger? I dunno, maybe not.

I shot at least one shoot-off clean, 5 shots and 5 hits. When I reloaded, I made my mag changes clean, but I had a few moments of brain freeze, and didn't start the first shoot-off with both hands on the grip, which was just dumb.

It was fun, and was the first match I ever made a profit on, if you consider the cost of ammunition used in practice.

I shot this one with my race gun with the Advantage Arms rimfire upper, and a ProPoint PDP2 that I keep ready and sighted in for the AA upper.


I've tried to use centerfire guns before, and never did very well. I think I'll be sticking to the rimfire conversion.

Woo Hoo! 2nd Place in Action Match with Irons

I must have had a really good brain day last Sunday. Apparently, I managed to beat all the guys with open guns to take 2nd place in the action match at the local club last week.

I did it with this:

a Glock 17 that I bought used that I have less than $550 in. I popped in a reduced-power firing pin spring for the match. The trigger bar, 5lb. connector, and firing pin are polished. The slug plug is a brass unit from Taylor Freelance. Sights are Heinie Straight Eight Slant Pros with the race cut. I had cut belt slots in the Crossbreed SuperTuck holster, and wore it OWB with some simple kydex mag pouches.

Doug beat me fair and square with the 1911. He's been playing the games longer than I have. I'm not really sure how I beat the guys with open guns who cleaned the plate rack with ease, or the other, better shooters, with full-bore Limited pistols.

I'm wondering if I'll find out later that there was a mistake in the scoring

Stop Plates and Pact Mk.IV Timer

I'm posting this because the info is hard to find. The manual that comes with the timer sucks, and it's hard to get hold of Pact Technical Support.

There's three jacks for RCA mini-plugs (the kind you find on a headphone cord) on the back of the timer. Two for stop plates, and one labeled "AUX," which I think is actually for headphones, so you don't disturb other shooters with the beeping. If you plug anything into the jack for Stop Plate 2, the timer automatically goes into head-to-head mode.

Anyway, the timer can be set to stop when the circuit either opens or closes. For example, if you hooked up a normally open switch to the timer, and the stop plate closed the switch, you would go into the timers menu and select "Stop Plate Circuit Open"- "Yes". I may have the language a little off, but I think you get the general idea.

I plan to make a plate rack for the Airsoft gun next weekend. Depending on which way works best, I can either set it up so that the plate holds a plunger switch closed when the plate is up, or I can let the plate fall on the switch to push it closed.

Minor Loads for Competition

Reloading Disclaimer, Read First

9mm Luger
124gr. Zero FMJ, 125gr. Zero JHP, or 124gr. Precision Delta FMJ
4.2 grains Hogdon TiteGroup
1.125-1.145" OAL
Federal Small Pistol Primer, Wolf Small Pistol Primer, or Winchester Small Pistol Primer
Any brass
Gets me about 130PF+ from a Glock 17
Book load goes up to 4.4 grains, so it's pretty safe. I've shot a lot of 115gr bullets, but loading them to minor gets you closer to the max load with TiteGroup.

.45ACP
230gr Remington MC bullet (looks like FMJ to me)
4.3 grains Hogdon TiteGroup
1.165" OAL
Winchester Large Pistol Primer
I have used Remington and Federal brass
Gets me about 132PF+ from a Glock 21
Book load goes up to 5 grains, so you've got a lot of wiggle room.

JP Enterprises Glock Magazine Funnel Review

It's really more like a bowl with the flat bottom cut out than it is a funnel. It is light, it looks pretty good (matte black), it feels pretty good on the grip, and it fits in the IDPA box. Dawson makes a lightweight funnel that's IDPA ESP class legal too. The lightweight Dawson ICE mag funnel is the better product. I think that even slug plugs work better for getting the mag into the pistol quickly.

Last Action Pistol Match of '07 at DCFS

Just shot the last action pistol match of the year at Delaware County Field & Stream. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out, considering that I was using iron sights and a 5 pound trigger. Took me 10 shots to take down the stupid bowling pins, no surprise there. Shot mostly A's on the IPSC targets, 2 C's and a Mike on either the swinger or the one half covered by the hostage. I think I might make the top 5.

The MPearcex mag pouches and Uncle Mike's kydex belt holster worked well enough. I need to make a couple more belt keepers though.

I've got vacation days to burn, so I'll probably be hitting the steel and IDPA matches at Classic Pistol through the end of the year.

EDIT: Didn't do nearly as well as I thought. I came in around 10th. I think I need to work on shooting faster and okay, over sorta fast and good. . . and practice shooting pins.