Robb Allen over at Sharp As a Marble has a plan for his USPSA match on Sunday. ExurbanKevin at Misfires and Light Strikes has a plan for his IDPA match on Sunday. Mz. VRWC and I are participating in an IDPA Regional Match this weekend, called the South Mountain Showdown, at Phoenix Rod & Gun Club. Surely, I have a plan for shooting this event, I think. The plan has to be somewhere around here, now where did I leave it?
The plan, meticulously based on the only three IDPA club matches I’ve shot so far…is:
Muzzle safety – Don’t point the gun at anything I don’t intend to destroy, including my own body parts, or my match is over early (instant disqualification).
Maintain the 180 degree rule at all times – Don’t point the gun in a direction greater than 90 degrees to the left or right of the downrange berm (instant disqualification).
Only shoot has fast as I can accurately shoot – Any faster than that will waste ammo, time, and incur penalties. (You can’t miss fast enough to win.)
Have fun and enjoy the experience.
Maintain a relaxed approach to fend off the Red Mist, facilitating quick and safe draws from concealment.
That’s it! That is my plan for this match.
I know how to pull the trigger smoothly, line up the sights correctly, and how to be safe while handling firearms. Any other “things” I could plan on doing would probably exceed the mental bandwidth available after the timer buzzes.
Watching other shooters fire at lightning speed can create tremendous performance anxiety. At some point, you realize that you can only perform at the best of your abilities. You need this realization to keep your competitors’ performance from inducing the Red Mist.
Many people focus on the hoped for outcome of the event, at the expense of those tasks that have to be performed to achieve that goal. When those tasks are performed correctly, the sum of those tasks will equal the desired outcome, which is a winning performance. My focus will be on managing the tasks I have control over. If I do everything correctly, the result will be safe competition, zero-down scores, and a good place in the results.
Now I just have to remember my plan…where did I put that plan?
Does anyone in Pennsylvania want to win a nice gun? If so, get yourself to the Bucks County Friends of NRA Dinner this Thursday evening, September 15th at 5:30 PM. You can win a gun in a raffle, like we have, or win a unique collector firearm at the auction, while enjoying a tasty dinner with people that you’d like to hang out with. Doors open for raffles, games & silent auction at 5:30pm. Dinner will be served at 7:15 PM, at Spring Mill Manor in Ivyland, PA.
While online ticket sales have ended, you can still email Christie Caywood through bucksnratickets@pagunrights.com to get tickets to the best investment in the shooting sports you could ever make. The tickets are only $40 per person and half of all net proceeds go to fund projects within the state on youth firearm safety and education programs, hunter education, range development and improvement, women’s training seminars, and wildlife conservation efforts. The other half is used to fund similar projects with a national scope.
Enjoy a great meal, meet people who share your interests, and maybe even walk away with a new gun, what more could you want?
You want more? Well then, I’m glad you asked! You could also win a pro-gun toaster. No really, you can win an NRA toaster that makes divine, pro second amendment BLTs. Everyone loves this unique and rare item!
If you are on the East Coast, what are you waiting for? Get yourself to this Friends on NRA dinner and support the future of the shooting sports by emailing Ms. Caywood, right now!
Top Shot 3 is right around the corner, premiering on Tuesday, August 9th at 10/9c. Even with the somewhat lopsided ratio of drama llama to actual shooting, I’ll be watching (and hoping the drama llama goes on hiatus for season 3). I’ve already got my favorite shooter picked out for the season – Sara Ahrens. I had the pleasure of co-manning the WOMA booth at SHOT Show this year with her, and she is funny, beautiful and knows how to shoot. I will be looking forward to watching her kick some tail this season.
If you’re not familiar with Top Shot Season 3’s cast of characters, here’s the “exclusive” cast intro video:
In other exciting news, we will be having a Top Shot contest with some great prizes, courtesy of the fine folks at the History Channel. As they say in the TV business, stay tuned for details!
I also wanted to take a minute to give a big thanks to all of you (including the Top Shot producers) who provided me with awesome support over the last couple of months as I made my way through the application process for Top Shot Season 4. Sadly, I did not make the cut, but no worries – I will be back with bells on (and some bigger wins under my belt) when next season’s application comes out.
I’ve previously written about shooting the Springfield XDm 5.25 Competition model and posted a video of Rob Leatham shooting the new pistol. Check out his DrillMaster instructional video to see the gun in action and learn his approach to shooting faster. The Great One shows you how to go fast using the new XDm.
FTC Disclaimer – Mr. Leatham and Springfield Armory allowed me to shoot some free ammo through the XDm 5.25 once upon a time. Springfield Armory has a website where you too can find out where to shoot the new XDm 5.25. As noted in my prior post, I’ve placed an order through Arizona Firearms and Pawn at regular retail. If this doesn’t meet your disclosure compliance standards, please feel free to lower your standards.
We got a chance to shoot the new Springfield XDm 5.25 Competition series 9mm on Saturday. Legendary Team Springfield Armory shooter Rob Leatham and his wife, Kippi Leatham, a fellow Team Springfield shooter, invited people out to shoot the new XDm Competition series pistol at Rio Salado Sportsman’s Club.
The short review
It is an excellent gun for competition!
The longer review
The Springfield XDm 5.25 Competition is based on a wishlist Rob Leatham gave to Springfield Armory a few years ago. The 9mm XDm Competition series starts with the current XDm lower, complete with a match trigger and interchangable backstraps which allow you to adjust the grip size to fit your hand.
The upper part of the new XDm is where the real changes have been made. This pistol features a 5.25″ match grade barrel, extending the sight radius to 7 1/4″ for a more precise sight alignment, while reducing the recoil. The extended barrel and slide gives the pistol an 8.3″ overall length.
The extended slide features a lightening slot to keep the weight the same as the shorter, non-competition XDm at 29 ounces. The Springfield XDm 5.25 Competition also has a low profile adjustable rear site and a fiber optic front sight.
The gun is built to be legal for competition in USPSA and IDPA shooting. Production Division approval is expected after at least 2,000 guns are built (hopefully in the next month), in time for the USPSA Nationals.
The Trigger
Mr. Leatham brought out two stock XDm 5.25 Competition pistols, and one with a Springfield factory trigger job. While the trigger job resulted in a much lighter trigger pull, the stock triggers were fine and had a medium pull, a clean break, and a consistent reset. The pull and reset are excellent compared to other polymer guns (I’m spoiled by a nice 1911), and was a noticable improvement over the standard XD trigger.
Shooting the XDm 5.25 Competition
TGO (The Great One, Rob Leatham’s nickname) brought the ammo and let us shoot as many 19 round mags as we wanted to, with only one restriction. He doesn’t load magazines for anyone else. That seemed reasonable, so we stuck around to shoot the steel plates that made up the Springfield Challenge stage.
The stage had steel plate targets, so while group measurements weren’t possible, the accuracy of the pistol was apparent. Shooting quickly at a 6″ swinging Hostage Target Head plate at about 10 yards demonstrated the improved recoil control and sight radius that make this a formidable pistol for competition.
Just in case there was any question on the new pistol’s accuracy, Rob Leatham’s Mother placed a dead center hit on each of the plates.
Conclusion
It is safe to say that I liked the Springfield XDm 5.25 Competition. The gun sights easily, the trigger is good, and the accuracy is great. In fact, I’ll be contacting Arizona Firearms and Pawn this week to order a two-tone XDm 5.25 Competition and see if they’ll accept a partial trade for an XD-9.
Out with the old, in with the new
UPDATE: A distributor has relayed that the XDm 5.25 Competition in black has an MSRP of $799 and the bi-tone model has an MSRP of $869, with gun store prices around $100 lower.
UPDATE 9/17/2012: XDm Reliability report for my XDm 5.25 – I now have over 5,862 rounds through the gun without any mechanical failures. One failure to eject (FTE) occurred at around 3,410 rounds when using beatup reloads. A failure to feed happened after about 4,490 rounds due to a bulged case, and at 5,282 due to a short cartridge.
I’m very excited to be attending another Friends of NRA event tonight, this one sponsored by the Central Arizona chapter. Am I hoping to win another fine firearm like the one we won last year at this same event? Not this time.
I WANT THE TOASTER.
It’s not just a toaster. It not only creates a perfectly golden and crispy treat, it also brands the NRA logo on to each slice. The toaster was part of the live auction at the last Friends of NRA dinner we attended earlier this year, but because it was part of a special, larger auction (the high bidder of the toaster also won a chance at a DPMS AR-15), the toaster commanded a hefty sum. The final bid was $375.00. For a toaster. Ouch.
I’ve got my fingers crossed that the toaster makes another appearance tonight, this time without any other offers that will drive the price beyond my reach. Wish me luck!
It’s time for the fun to start at the LuckyGunner.com blog shoot, at an undisclosed location, just outside Knoxville, Tennessee.
We made it to Tennessee, and our firearms did too. The TSA check on our luggage was a bit of a nail biter as we watched the TSA agent swabbing the contents of the bags (like holsters and gun belts – think there might be some gunpowder residue on there?).
The bags passed the test, and while there was no “bad touch” for either of us, we both were directed to the “enhanced” millimeter-wave machine. After getting an unknown dose of radiation, we made it to the gate, arrived in Tennessee and jumped into the rental car just in time to drive through a ginormous super-cell thunderstorm.
We arrived a couple of days early so we could check out some of the sights. It’s green beyond imagination!
The jungles of Eastern Tennessee
We’ve had a lot of biscuits since the International Biscuit Festival is underway in Knoxville. Picked up some extra radiation during an educational visit to the American Museum of Science and Energy in Oak Ridge (as in Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Oak Ridge Boys). Now, it’s time to meet celebrity gun bloggers we read on a regular basis and hang out with some old friends.
