I had a little trouble checking the powder level in the cartridge cases on my Dillon until I discovered the half inch hole in the middle of the toolholder. I now have a light from a small LED flashlight hooked up to the press that shines right down into the third position for bullet seating. I can glance to see if I accidently double charged.
I had a long discussion with a guy at last weeks IDPA match. The stages were so confusing that we were forgetting to hit targets and didn’t know how many rounds to fire at each target. The guy took so much time that he had to back up and repeat the targets. He wanted me to advocate the change to simpler stages.
I respectfully disagreed. If I’m having trouble remembering under pressure what I’m supposed to do, that’s exactly what I need to practice. Real world isn’t going to take the time to explain what you have to do so you know where to place your feet. Real world is going to make you think, remember and improvise the best way out of your situation.
Make it hard for yourself in practice and don’t complain you made a fool out of yourself. Practice still allows you to go home at night regardless how terrible you did. Learn from it.
Sweat during training saves blood during combat.
“Make it hard for yourself in practice and don’t complain you made a fool out of yourself. Practice still allows you to go home at night regardless how terrible you did. Learn from it.”
In the Air Force, we called it “Train like you intend to fight.”
Not that things were always realistic, but they often were. As comm pukes, we were frequently outnumbered and outgunned, so we lost. Which is probably what would have happened if we really got hit.
Come shoot the Carolina Cup next summer, I promise you’ll be very challenged, but not confused. It will be the tenth anniversary of the Cup and we’re bringing back the best stages of the last ten years.
I like your idea about putting the LED in the Dillon, I’m going to try that in the morning.
And good on ya for saying it. IDPA was cooked up to make shooters think and practice for real world possibilities. Some of the scenarios may be extreme, but I never heard of anyone winning a gunfight and complaining that he was too good at it. I stopped because the guys I was shooting with were playing IPSC with carry guns, and that was not what I wanted to do.
I’ve done the same thing to my Dillon XL650.
I mounted an LED-converted AA minimag light to the third stage (blank) of my toolhead.
Very useful.