Brian has written a review STI’s GP6-C pistol. It is their offering for USPSA Production and IDPA Stock Service Pistol classes:

The GP6-C is race-ready out of the box. There’s no need to spend a lot of money on a heavily customized SIG, Glock or XD, nor go to the trouble of installing aftermarket parts. Even with hundreds of dollars in aftermarket triggers and components, you will only come close to the single-action trigger on the GP6-C, probably its most outstanding feature. It is a new gun, so accessories are scarce, but I’ve found three suitable holsters and magazine holders. I’m very impressed with the GP6-C, and you’ll see me shooting it in IDPA competitions in the coming months.

I shot it as well and liked it.  Especially the SA trigger, with an extremely crisp 3lb trigger and next to no reset.   I’ve got my G34 pretty well slicked up, at a cost of about $1100 dollars if I add it all up (and I DON’T usually!).  Some of that isn’t in the gun still, you have to try stuff and see if you like it.

The GP6-C offers race ready, no-hassle performance, for $600-$700 bucks. 

It is also light and a pretty decent home defense / carry gun.

But hey… read the review, he covers it in detail.

While in Phoenix recently I dropped by the Dillon Precision factory store. While there I purchased a Dillon Leather by Mitch Rosen leather inside the waistband clip on holster.

After a week or so wearing it in, I can say this is a very comfortable and easy to get on and off holster. 

How comfortable?  I find myself at home, after taking a nap, working on the computer, and I have to feel my waist to see if I’m packing my full sized Glock 22.  It is very comfortable,and I can feel it getting more so as it wears in and fits to my body.

I had been using my 1911 Commander sized CrossBreed holster. It, too, is comfortable, but it is quite difficult to get on and off, and while the G22 “fits” it isn’t as protective of the trigger as I liked. So I decided to give the Mitch Rosen leather a try.

It is easy to get on and off and the clip works from dress belts up to my 1.75” Wilderness belt.

I recommend this holster heartily, especially if you choose to carry a full sized pistol.

Brian Nelson just read and reviewed Ptooma Productions Complete Glock Reference Guide.

In conclusion, if you own a Glock, your police department issues a Glock, or you work on Glocks for other people, you need this book! Here is the link to amazon.com to buy it. You will not be disappointed!

He recommends it. And I’d note that my Glock 35 now has a nice crisp new trigger and competition trigger, safety and striker spring set that he put in it, with this book as his guide. And… it all seems to work (-:

The book is also available locally at Sportsman’s Warehouse.

 
Dillion XL 650 quick change head

I’ve decided to setup an extra tool head for our Dillion 650 reloader.   That way I can make short bullets for Brian’s XDM and long ones for my STI.   Experts tell me our compromise load, short enough for the XDM and long enough for the STI, will eventually jam in one or the other.

So I called Dillon up and explained the dilemma, plus a few issues we had with our Square Deal B (setup for .45 ACP) and the case feeder on the XL 650.

And I must say, I doubt I’ve ever spoken to a customer support person that knew more about their product than Mike @ Dillion.  Awesome!

16 minutes later, I’m a bit poorer, but I’m comfortable that I’ve ordered the right things, and I’ve also gotten some great tips to keep both machines running smooth.

Dillion sure confirms that, in life,  some times you do get what you pay for.

Kudos!

Yesterday, Brian and I shot an IDPA match down in Las Vegas. The evening before Brian had watched, on my enthusiastic recommendation, the DVD.  Or part of the DVD… I’ll explain how watching only 1/2 of it impacted things in a bit. But first, lets cover the video…

The video, which is just Saul Kirsch – a top rated IPSC shooter shooting mostly in Europe – talking to a class in Sweden.   No shooting. Not a gun in sight.  But what he says is magic.

Here it is in a nutshell:

• Only things you do subconsciously are fast.   Training’s purpose is to build subconscious skills. Like drawing your pistol without thinking about it.  And finding the front sight again after recoil. If you have to think to do it, you are slow.  An analogy is your drive to work… you don’t remember doing it, but somehow you got there safely.  He talks about how to train to build subconscious skills.
• The subconscious minds does what you see and it doesn’t understand negatives. It understands only the last 3 words of “don’t hit a no-shoot”.  The subconscious uses pictures as instructions. So visualize good things – like double alphas, and getting a round of applause as top overall shooter.  Basically, this section is “how do you tell the subconscious what you want it to do”.
• Stress is good. The adrenaline it produces makes the subconscious faster. BUT  not too much or it makes it worse.  He talks about how to ramp stress up or down into an optimum bell shaped curve of peak performance.   In summary, “how do you make your existing skills faster on match day”.
• Stage analysis/tactics are for the conscious mind. But as soon as you can you should visualize your plan to give it to the subconscious mind.

Brian has been working since Christmas with his new airsoft  to make fundamentals like drawing, movement, transitions and picking up the front sight be subconscious.  I knew that was important before the video. So we started him on a daily training program to build those subconscious skills.

But the video showed him to visualize properly.  And he did that to good effect on 5 of 6 stages, putting in top 3 to 5 scores (of 50 shooters).  

But as the final stage came, he knew he had a great run going, and he was stressing.  And what part of the video hadn’t he got to yet… how to reduce stress.  He tanked the last stage, and while he had a good match, if he had just shot in the middle of the pack on that stage, he would have finished 4th of 50 shooters overall.  He just didn’t have the stress management skills yet to handle the brink of success.

So we plan to finish the video this week and integrate some stress into his training using drills like 10 alphas, where you have to draw and shoot an alpha, repeatedly until you get 10 in a row.  The stress you get at shots 9 and 10 can be significant, since you have to start again from one if you miss.

In summary, the DVD was a pleasantly helpful surprise.  It will be available for loan at the next match.

Brian shooting stage 3 at the AMU Junior Shooter Clinic Match
Nov 2009
Picture by Dan Fitzgerald

The AMU camp ended yesterday.  In a word… awesome!. Brian had 2 days of training from world champion action pistol and rifle shooters + a 6 stage match. And Rob Leatham straightened me out in a class for parents on Saturday (-:

Here is a summary, written just after it ended.

I will write up a report on the Rob Leatham class soon. He is fun and a great trainer. He spent all day on the trigger and multiple shots to a single target, with a brief but very useful explanation of how to build a grip. Guess that is important!  By  the end I was shooting significantly faster, as in a LOT faster. And I could put 19 of 20 into the Alpha at 25 yards.  Whether that will hold without his magical presence, I do not know…

Brian & Ken see how ammo is made!

As a side note… I used their .40 match ammo in a class with Rob Leatham yesterday and it shot perfectly!  It made major but had less kick than traditional factory ammo and was reliable and accurate.

 
So we started hunting around on GunBroker.Com and in local shops.  Sure enough Cedar Post Pawn in St. George had it an attractive price. And we walked home with the Kimber, a Kimber .22 conversion kit, and 1,000 rounds of Federal .45 ACP.

Initial Impressions:  Very nice!   It is quite accurate. It shot where I pointed it. And the crisp, light, trigger made tight groups a piece of cake at 10,15 and 25 yards. I’m talking “holes overlapping” at 10, and 2” freestyle at 25.  No malfunctions.

We had no malfunctions in the first 100 rounds fired.

11 Year Old Experience

I was concerned that Brian, age 11, might have trouble with the recoil. But that proved to not be a problem freestyle anyway.  He was able to do faster, accurate, splits with the Kimber than with his XD(m) 9mm. And because the trigger was so much better than the XD(m) his strong hand shooting was more accurate as well.  His times were about even because the recoil really moves his single hand shooting arm quite a bit.

.22 Conversion Kit

The .22 conversion kit factored big in our decision. With ammo prices sky high, being able to train with .22 ammo can pay off quickly.  The conversion is easy to switch out. And it is quite accurate. It cycles fast and we only had one jam (on the first shot).   The only issue I had with it was it didn’t want to lock back on an empty magazine. That makes emergency reload practice (IDPA) hard to practice. But we can do that with dry fire drills anyway.

Summary

Excellent pistol. I don’t have much experience with the .45 ( basic Officer training/use in the Army).   This one shot where I aimed, felt well balanced, recoiled smoothly, and had excellent tritium night sights that were easy to pick up even facing a quartering sunset.

Once our 1911 holster (Blackhawk), mag holders (Bladetech), and Chip McCormick Power Mag magazines come, one of us will be shooting Single Stack at the next match.

Note: If you have a gear you would like to review, please e-mail me. I’d be happy to post your review or to set you up with posting privileges.   I’d like this site to become an active place for shooters to learn the latest things of interest to our sport.