I'm not a sponsored shooter, and I don't have people knocking down my door wanting to hand me free items to use them, and make the product look good. I've spent time trying, and picking out gear that is reliable, functional, and does exactly what I need it to do. Shooting is not a cheap sport to participate in, its not the gun that is costly, no matter how big that number is, it ends up being one of the lower costs when you start to compare it to ammo, match fee, travel expense, and extra training if that's what you end up doing. I know that there were plenty of cheaper options out there for gear, but not wanting to repeat a beginning shooting mistake, and buy a ton of different guns, and waste a ton of money finding something, this time I decided to "buy once, cry once." Spend the money on something that works for me, and that I won't be looking to replace anytime in the near future.
USPSA:
This year I'm going to be running in the Single Stack Division, I took some time to look at several different options, but decided to run the Dan Wesson Pointman Nine. Dan Wesson (Owned by CZ) has a rep for building a great gun, it's not a custom gun, but it's about as close as you are going to get with a production made gun.
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| Dan Wesson PM-9 |
I'm still going to run my Ghost 360 Mag Pouch w/1911 Insert in order to keep using my old Production rig. With the addition of a Bladetech holster to the BSPS BOSS Holster my rig is set, and ready to go.
3-Gun Gear:
Pistol
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| Hayes Custom Gun 6" Sight tracker |
The "Alpha" Pistol in my safe these days, is a brand new, Hayes Custom Gun 6" Sight Tracker that just came home. The order was originally going to be for a .40 Limited Gun, but when I got into 3-Gun last year, I decided to switch the order to a 9mm, which allowed me to reload only one caliber. It would have meant shooting Limited Minor in USPSA, and that's why I made the call to shoot this season in the Single Stack Division.
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| HCG 6" |
Personally I think it's some of Ben Hayes finest work, he told me it's the best looking 6" that he has done. Phoenix Trinity frame and aluminum aggressive grip. Ben sandblasted the grip just a little bit for me to remove a bit of texture, but left it with the perfect grip for me. The trigger breaks at a very crisp 1.6 lbs, it has minimal reset and almost no over-travel, it's flat shooting, ridiculous accurate, and is very easy to shoot at the small steel, long range plate racks, and far steel that you see in 3-Gun. This gun was worth every penny, and will be the pride of my collection for a very long time.
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| It's going to run a lot of this brass! |
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| HCG 6" Sight Tracker & Dan Wesson PM-9 |
Rifle:
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| HCG 18" Custom AR |
Once again, I went to Hayes Custom Gun for my AR. Last fall they were the choice when Linda got her AR. I found out pretty quick that AR's are not quite "one size fit's all". I realize that I could have put in a lot of time in practice with Linda's AR, but I had some significant issues with eye relief, and I had a very hard time getting a consistent cheek weld. In short, I lost confidence with the AR in very short order, post Fallen Brethren, and this year I decided that I wanted to run something that fit me. My stock is a Luth AR MBA-1 which gave me a little extra cheek height, and a little longer stock, which has helped me with my eye relief issue. In addition, I'm getting a consistent cheek weld, every single time. The stock is tan, because that's the stock that I won at Fallen Brethren, I may cerakote it down the road, but right now it's a reminder that 3-Gun Prize tables do have some decent prizes, and even someone who did not shoot a good match can win something worthwhile.
On top of my AR I'm running a Vortex Razor HD Gen 2 1-6x24 w/JM Reticle, I looked at both the Leupold VX-6, and the Swarovski Z6i as possibilites. The Leupold had the same old eye relief issues I'd experienced in the past, and the Swaro is a great scope, but it was nearly twice as much as the Vortex. Better? Yes, but I can't quantify it, and for my dollar, the Vortex, and it's amazing eye relief were a great fit for me.
I'm most nervous about rifle in 3-Gun, but this week I've developed some confidence in my AR. Now it's going to be a matter of learning the dope, and my hold overs. Since this is my AR, and I have all season to get used to it, I expect that by October I'll be able to have a much better grasp, and not have to write distances and holds on my arm for long range stages!
Shotgun:
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| HCG Benelli M2 |
As you may have guessed, I went back to Hayes Custom Gun for this 24" Benelli M2 with 12 round Nordic extended mag, using Carlson chokes. Aaron is member of Team Benelli so with him doing the work, and essentially teaching me shotgun, you would not expect anything else. The reality is, that we looked at other options, but the ease of operation, and reliability of the Benelli made it worth the investment. The last thing I wanted was to spend $300 on a match entry,plus hotel, food, travel and ammo for a match, and have a shotgun that did not run, which eliminated a couple right off the bat.
This is actually Linda's shotgun, which she is graciously sharing with me. Since the shotgun seems to fit both of us, I did not see a reason to go out and get a second one at this time. Doing the customization, and loading port work is not cheap, and again, did we really need a duplicate? I'd consider a 26" gun with a 14 round tube in the future, in part because I could use that better shooting clay's and dove hunting, which are things several work customers are interested in.
We did have a rear sight installed, and I think it was a very wise decision, the gun shoots slugs like lasers, and I have a ton of confidence in the gun. I'm going to have to spend a lot more time with it, and work on things like loading bird and buck together as needed, but being honest, I love shotgun, and I love the Benelli.
I'm using Invictus Practical Rack 12 caddies. Actually, I've got a couple of the Rack 12, 4 8Q caddies, and 4 4Q caddies. They aren't all mine, they are split evenly with Linda. I tried Taccom caddies, and found them to have so much retention that it was nearly impossible to grab shells consistently. I know a lot of folks like them, but they just were not for me. I borrowed a set of Carbon Arms caddies, and really liked them, but again, just a hair more retention that I wanted, and it was hard for me to get clean grabs. Invictus have solid retention, and make for a very easy and consistent grab that makes a lot of sense for me, who is just learning to quad load.
Invictus owner, Kevin Pratt also came thru for me. Getting ready for X-Treme, I did not have a chest rig, and I would need it because there is a 48 round stage in the match. He did not have inventory, for a chest rig, and the second Rack 12, but he communicated his expected "in stock" date for parts, let me know that they came in, rushed me to the front of the list, and shipped my order on a Saturday. That is going absolutely above and beyond in terms of customer service.
Ammo:
Pistol, I'm running my own reloads, which right now is 3.8 grains of Bullseye (until it's gone and I switch to Titegroup) with Xtreme 124 grain JHP plated bullets. This gave me about a 128 PF out of the Dan Wesson, and I still need to chrono with the HCG 6". Accuracy has been solid, but more testing is needed.
Rifle. 55 grain PMC brass is going to be the standard match ammo that I'll run. It doesn't take advantage of the 1:7 barrel twist, but it's been consistent, it's reasonably cheap, and I've got a few thousand rounds of it. For long range stages, I'm running Fiocchi Exacta 77 grain ammo with Sierra Match King Bullets. That ammo ran great last year, and I fully expect the same results again this year.
Shotgun I'm running Fiocchi Low Recoil (1145 FPS) slugs which have performed exceptionally well even at longer distances. For now I'm going to finish up some Remmington Gun club birdshot (1200 FPS) that I bought while breaking in the gun. The gun runs it very well, and it's not low recoil, but it's very manageable. I am sitting on several cases of Winchester Light Target Load (1145 FPS) which I anticipate being able to run once the Gun Club ammo is gone, and the gun is fully broken in.
Summary:
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| HCG Custom Benelli M2 and AR |
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| HCG 6" Sight Tracker and Dan Wesson PM-9 |
The gear far exceeds my ability. I could probably achieve similar results with a Glock, a JM 930 Shotgun, and a Bushmaster AR. With all that said, it's top notch gear that will make my life easier, and if I will never question the reliability. Huge things that mattered to me, so that peace of mind is worth something to me. It's a bit of a quality of life issue, with my gear all set, now I can focus on ammo, practice, and other things.
Really looking forward to the 2016 season!
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