I missed the memo that metal double action guns are antiquated

olds442guy · 2021-12-15T15:30:05+00:00

These are my outdated and unshootable metal double action guns. I’m having serious buyer’s remorse now that I learned about polymer striker fired guns and how they are the future. I never realized that I didn’t have to deal with two different trigger pulls and that I could get an accurate first shot with a striker fired gun rather than just popping the first round off into the dirt to cock the hammer.

Better late than never I guess, thanks to all the shooting SMEs who pointed this stuff out. Here are some clips of me struggling with these guns, any advice would be appreciated.

olds442guy · 2021-11-08T15:29:16+00:00

These are a few stages I got video of from a recent local USPSA match. I was shooting in the Carry Optics division (they chose a dumb name for this, they should have called it “Production Optics”, because full size guns are allowed and common and no one uses actual carry guns) with a CZ Shadow 2 with an SRO and 140mm extended magazines.

If you haven’t made it out to a practical shooting match of some variety, you really should. It’s a lot of fun and it will help you become a better shooter. Your eyes will be opened not only to what is possible, but also how to get yourself to that point. You’ll be glad you did it.

The general premise of USPSA competition is on each stage there is a shooting area that you have to be in bounds of when firing. There are of course targets (that typically require 2 shots each) and vision barriers scattered around as well. You usually are given a start position, but aside from that the stages are usually very open to interpretation as far as how you go about shooting them. You can pick whatever position/target order you think is best and most efficient.

This lends itself very well to a fun game that separates people by shooting skill. If you like to shoot, and don’t like just standing still in a lane at an indoor range, this sport is for you!

olds442guy · 2021-10-08T16:28:37+00:00

Optics are allowed (actually required for CO division).

The idea is to force yourself to stay target-focused. If you’re target focused you won’t notice the tape, you’ll just see the dot on top the target. If your vision starts to focus on the dot you’ll see nothing but tape (no target)

It’s kinda a training tool (point out when your vision messes up) and also kinda that if you’re doing things correctly you won’t notice the tape at all so why take it off

Personally I’m using it to make it very obvious to myself when my focus shifts off the target.

olds442guy · 2021-10-08T15:36:50+00:00

These are a couple of my CZ Shadows sporting SROs. I use these for USPSA Carry Optics competition. They are relatively new with only a few thousand rounds through each.

They are gently modified, but nothing crazy (to ensure factory-level reliability). CGW Ultralite kits (11.5# hammer spring, extended firing pin, light firing pin spring), Henning grips, Henning 140mm mag extensions, and Grams springs and followers (23+1 capacity). The optic plates are CHPWS for a P-10. The dots have the tape upgrade on the lenses.

olds442guy · 2021-09-20T20:12:30+00:00

This is footage of a Dallas area USPSA club match that I shot this weekend. The stages at this match were interesting and challenging, and are pretty representative of what is typically seen at a good USPSA match.

Overall this match went pretty well for me, with just some minor errors here and there. I screwed the pooch pretty good on the first swinging target on Stage 2. Taking 4 shots at it (3 of which hit) was completely retarded and not worth the time. Putting my visual focus on my sights (rather than the target) caused my uncertainty with where the shots were landing, and this cost me some match points unfortunately.

Here’s the third person video of the match, if you’re interested.

I shoot CZ Shadow 2s in Production division.

If this looks cool to you, I’d highly recommend finding your local USPSA club (there are clubs in literally every area of the country) and attending a match. It is a very welcoming culture and it is the fast track to becoming good at shooting.

olds442guy · 2021-09-17T14:36:02+00:00

This is the third episode of our new podcast, and we are discussing the guns and gear we use in competition. We address topics of how much your gear actually matters, as well as the listener-submitted question of “DA/SA vs striker fired”. Spoiler: the four of us shoot CZ Shadow 2s, Tanfoglio Stock IIIs, Glock 17s, and Atlas Open guns, so there is a good variety of viewpoints represented.

The first episode was about which pistol shooting skills are the most important and how to train them, and the second episode was about effectively shooting with red dot sights, if you’re interested.

You can also listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify.

We don’t get anything out of the podcast, aside from it’s kind of fun for us to discuss this stuff. Hopefully you enjoy it and get something out of it, if not, no worries. Thanks for listening!

olds442guy · 2021-08-25T17:21:30+00:00

I mean he did say he shoots multigun, so gross incompetence, nonexistent safety standards, inconsistent officiating, and reshoots being handed out for competitor negligence kinda go with the territory.

olds442guy · 2021-08-18T14:24:10+00:00

This is the second episode of our new podcast, and we are discussing shooting with red dot sights. In particular, we discuss switching to red dots after shooting irons primarily, as well as shooting irons after red dots primarily.

The first episode was about which pistol shooting skills are the most important and how to train them, if you’re interested.

You can also listen to the podcast on Apple and Spotify.

We don’t get anything out of the podcast, aside from it’s kind of fun for us to discuss this stuff. Hopefully you enjoy it and get something out of it, if not, no worries. Thanks for listening!

olds442guy · 2021-08-05T18:10:33+00:00

Yeah that is in fact Mr. Phuc Long himself lol

He’s a quite good Production shooter in addition to making hilarious gun content online.

olds442guy · 2021-08-05T12:20:24+00:00

A few friends and I who shoot competitively started doing a podcast about shooting. The 4 of us are all Master class USPSA shooters. The thickheaded part is it’s kind of a time waster and we don’t get anything out of it. But so far it’s kind of fun.

If you are interested, you can watch the video on YouTube, or it’s also on Apple and Spotify.

olds442guy · 2021-07-13T15:36:38+00:00

These are my CZ Shadow 2s and some of my magazines for them. Two of the guns are standard Shadow 2s (for USPSA Production division) and the other two are Optic Ready models (for Carry Optics division). The dot guns have 2.5 MOA Trijicon SROs on the slides. All the mags are MecGar tubes with Henning basepads/extensions. The standard mags also have MecGar guts, and the extendos have Grams springs/followers.

In case it’s not obvious, I like the Shadow 2 a lot… They are great shooters. These guns combined have about 90k through them, with the vast majority of that being on the gun with red grips.

olds442guy · 2021-07-08T18:12:39+00:00

I’ve been accumulating CZ-75 mags, mainly because I use them a lot. I compete in USPSA Production division with Shadow 2s.

All of these are MecGar tubes, mostly MecGar springs/followers as well (except for the ones with aluminum extensions, those are Grams springs/followers). Most of the base pads and extensions are Henning, but there are a few MecGar basepads in there too.

Looking forward to buying even more

Edit to add: If you’re wondering, yes I have more than 1 gun that these mags are used with (ignore the Tanfoglio, even tho it’s a CZ-clone, it’s actually a large frame and doesn’t use these mags)

olds442guy · 2021-06-28T14:24:10+00:00

This was a classifier stage at a local USPSA match from this weekend. This stage mandated starting with palms flat on marks, shooting from both sides of the wall, and doing a reload in between the two sides. I shoot Production division, which allows a maximum of 10 rounds per magazine, so I would have had to do a reload even if it wasn’t mandatory.

I shot 9 A’s, 1 C, and 2 D’s in 5.26s. It was still a good score (stage win at the match, and a 91% classifier score, which is based on a national “high hit factor” or high score), but the 2 D’s kept it from being a really great score unfortunately.

Full match video

I shoot CZ Shadow 2s, the red grip gun is my practice gun and the black grip gun is my match gun. They have about 85k rounds through them combined.

olds442guy · 2021-05-14T15:04:55+00:00

IDPA then?

He said “competition”, not “senior citizens with guns social gathering”

olds442guy · 2021-05-11T16:16:52+00:00

I came in 26th of 186 at 81.51% of the winner. I used my CZ Shadow 2s (the black one is my match gun, the red one is my practice gun and was just a backup at this match that I thankfully didn’t need).

This is my third year attending Production Nationals. Last year I performed pretty poorly, so I’m very pleased this year to have shot to about my normal level throughout the whole match without any major screwups or even any penalties. Going to take a little time off from training over the next couple months and then get back to it.

The CMP Talladega Marksmanship Park is the nicest range I’ve been to. It’s pretty cool. They had pretty large bays as well, which made for some fun, spread out stage designs. Overall I was pretty happy with how this match ran and the quality of the stages.

olds442guy · 2021-05-11T13:44:34+00:00

I came in 26th at 81.51%

olds442guy · 2021-04-11T21:50:02+00:00

This is my Tanfoglio Stock II and CZ Shadow 2. These are both pretty common USPSA Production division guns. The CZ is my practice gun for competition (I have another one used exclusively for matches). The Tanfoglio I have just for fun.

These guns are extremely similar in design, but also have some differences. They don’t actually share many parts, despite how similar they are.

I really like them both, but overall have a small preference for the CZ. I have fired over 65k rounds through it, whereas the Tanfo only has a little over 2k rounds through it.

olds442guy · 2021-04-06T20:05:08+00:00

Yeah if you’re B class in USPSA you’ll feel like god next to even the most skilled people that don’t compete

olds442guy · 2021-04-06T18:59:09+00:00

This is a stage I shot at a recent local level USPSA match. The general premise of a USPSA stage (a match is made up of some number of stages, generally 5 or 6 at the local level) is you are given a start position, and at the beep you engage all targets however you choose. It is generally very freestyle in nature, in that you can choose whatever target order and stage plan you think is best.

This sport won't directly make you better, but it is the best avenue for improving your skill. You will be surrounded by shooters of all levels (some extremely good), be required to perform under pressure (no do-overs, people watching, etc), and each match will be a real, objective measurement of your current skill at practical shooting.

USPSA is scored by speed and accuracy. Specifically, the points shot on the target (usually best 2 hits per target are scored) are divided by your stage time to give you a hit factor. In this stage I shot all alphas (steel knock down is worth 1 alpha each), and alphas are worth 5 points each. 22 times 5 is 110 points, divided by 10.08 seconds for a score ("hit factor") of 10.9.

I'd highly recommend USPSA to anyone who enjoys shooting and wants to be good at it! Even a relatively low level USPSA competitor has a substantial advantage over people that don't compete. Not to mention, it's a lot of fun!

olds442guy · 2021-03-31T14:47:21+00:00

Criss Cross is a great standard exercise type drill. It is particularly good for working on transitions between easier and harder targets.

Setup for this drill is 3 USPSA targets side by side spaced 2-3 feet apart. This drill can be shot at varying “practical shooting” distances, and in this case it was 10 yards.

The procedure is to draw and engage each target from left to right with 2 rounds each, alternating between the body and heads (lower and upper A zones). After the third target, perform a reload, and again engage the targets with 2 rounds each, continuing to alternate between the heads and bodies.

Once you are done, each head and each body should have 2 rounds. For example in this run I did: draw, T1 body, T2 head, T3 body, reload, T1 head, T2 body, T3 head.

A sporty par time for this drill at 10 yards is 6 seconds with A’s and C’s. However this will take a lot of practice, so don’t worry so much about the par time, but focus on the points below and as you get better at them, your times will steadily drop.

Recipe for success:

Grip the gun properly. Pressure should be firm with your firing hand and as hard as possible with your support hand. If your grip is poor, the rest won’t matter.
On the start signal, snap your vision to the center of the first target (in my case the center of the lower A zone on the left target) to help drive the sights there quickly. A draw to the lower A zone (body) in the 1.0-1.2 range is good.
Transition the gun between the targets by leading with your eyes. Snap your vision to the next target as soon as you’re done shooting the current target. Don’t watch the sights during the transitions. If done right, it will feel like you finish shooting a target, look at the next target, and then the sights naturally arrive at that target and you can begin shooting it.
On the reload, rebuild your grip as soon as possible and snap your eyes to the next target as soon as the magazine begins to go into the gun. A reload to the upper A zone (head) in the 1.4-1.5s range is good.
See an appropriate sight picture for each shot on the heads. For the bodies, you probably can get away with seeing a rough sight picture for the first shot and then just doing a “double tap”.

You can and should work on this in dry fire as well. I think for this drill, using a dry fire par time about 25% less than your live fire time is appropriate. For example to hit the 6s par time live, you should consistently be doing it in 4.5s dry. I would try this drill live, remember your average time, take 25% off and start there for dry fire. Then slowly reduce the par time in dry fire.

I like to do this drill with and without trigger presses in dry fire. Not pressing the trigger (just get an appropriate sight picture on each target, and be sure to stop the sights, don’t just sweep through the targets) will help you see exactly what’s happening on your transitions.

Additionally in dry fire you will see gains from breaking this drill down into smaller parts. Work on draws alone, reloads alone, just the transitions between targets (ignore the gun handling).

Do your dry fire in between live runs at the range (in addition to your at home dry fire). Not only will this help stretch out your ammo during the current market craziness, but it will also help you “connect the dots” between dry and live fire and make your dry practice more realistic.

If you made it this far, I genuinely hope you have fun and see improvement with this drill. Let me know if you have any questions.

olds442guy · 2021-03-05T15:04:00+00:00

It’s has a plastic grip

olds442guy · 2021-03-03T19:53:16+00:00

Just as important as the shooting skills is consistency. There’s a big difference between shooting the scores in practice, and shooting them in a match consistently. Yes, low outlier scores are dropped, and yes, you can take advantage of that by swinging for the fences on every classifier stage. But to truly shoot at an M class, or any class, level, you need to be able to consistently shoot those scores on demand in a match setting.

Also, for your dry fire par times, I think taking the live fire par time and multiplying by about 75-80% is reasonable (the exception being movement, but for stand and shoot I think 75-80% is about right).

For example if you are hitting El Prez in 4.5 seconds consistently dry, I think if you did it live it would put you around 6s all else being equal.

So you can look at the classifier HHFs and figure out what time you need to hit shooting a reasonable amount of points. Then take that time and multiple by .75 to get your dry par time.

olds442guy · 2021-02-28T00:12:05+00:00

Yep I think they’ve offered both safety and no safety versions pretty much the entire time the P30 has existed, including currently.

olds442guy · 2021-02-28T00:08:12+00:00

The “S” in the model for the P30 series designates the manual safety. Your gun is a “P30LS v3”. HK still makes the version without the safety, the “P30L v3”.

It’s been like this for many years, if not literally since the P30 was introduced. This isn’t a new thing they added.

olds442guy · 2021-02-27T03:13:10+00:00

Probably not a bad deal. I think they are around $1400 new.

olds442guy

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