Sept. TSA 2-Gun match / ammo shortage

[FreeLand]

This is not a match announcement! (Walt doesn't believe in match announcements.) That being said the next match is scheduled for 9/27 at Coon Hunters in Batesville, IN.

I'm starting this thread to see if anyone else is thinking about ways to continue shooting events during a time when purchasing factory ammo is incredibly expensive if not impossible? One option is to shoot Pistol Caliber Carbine as I have components to reload 9mm. However, it's been years since I reloaded and never become proficient. Alternative I'm leaning towards is shooting .22LR. TSA rules do allow you to compete with rimfire ammo. Anyone else have way more .22LR on hand than centerfire rifle and pistol?

Besides mounting and zeroing a sight on my rifle to deal with both CQB and targets 70+ yards distant, I need to be able to carry a rimfire pistol and mags. And I think I have found a solution. I found a company called Tandemkross that makes a mag pouch for .22LR pistols. They also make holsters Ruger and the SW22 Victory pistols.

https://www.tandemkross.com/Quick-Grip-22-Magazine-Pouches_p_117.html

Just tossing this out there hoping someone else will consider running rimfire this month.

 

[CZ evo3]

Freeland,

The thought never crossed my mind, but you have me thinking now! If you decide to go this route, keep us posted on the gear you get. I'm very impressionable, and you may just talk me into following you down that road. HOWEVER, I do believe that would put you into OPEN COMBAT, which is kind of an anything goes division, and I am not sure they post the scores in that division. You would have to ask Walt or Chaz.

 

[sassdan]

I have both the Tandemkross mags and holster for my Ruger. I have not used them much but I do like them. I need to get to a TSA 2 gun match and Friday night steel and get some use of them.

 

[FreeLand]

I have both the Tandemkross mags and holster for my Ruger. I have not used them much but I do like them. I need to get to a TSA 2 gun match and Friday night steel and get some use of them.

To my knowledge, Friday Night Steel at Marion County Fish & Game is on a COVID hold for the time being as are all competitions at MCF&G.

 

[FreeLand]

The thought never crossed my mind, but you have me thinking now! If you decide to go this route, keep us posted on the gear you get. I'm very impressionable, and you may just talk me into following you down that road. HOWEVER, I do believe that would put you into OPEN COMBAT, which is kind of an anything goes division, and I am not sure they post the scores in that division. You would have to ask Walt or Chaz.

Making progress on shooting .22LR this month. I have ordered a Tandemkross Low Ride holster and mag pouches for a Ruger 22/45. I intend to run a 1.5" competition belt rather than a battle belt. I'm leaning towards shooting a S&W M&P 15-22 Sport so that I can use Safariland AR mag pouches. I am more familiar with Ruger 10/22 rifles, but using a cross bolt safety at a TSA match is a drawback. Also I haven't found a mag pouch for a 25 rd. 10/22 magazine that I'd want to use in competition.

I think the biggest downside to running .22LR will be the pistol mag changes. Ruger pistol mags don't drop free and inserting a single stack magazine into the tiny magwell will require taking my eyes off the target and watching what I'm doing in my workspace. Obviously shooting 75+ yards with a rimfire bullet will be more susceptible to wind drift.

 

[CZ evo3]

I think you will be surprised how little drop/drift you will suffer at the coonhunters range. I can't wait to see how this goes for you.

 

[FreeLand]

I think you will be surprised how little drop/drift you will suffer at the coonhunters range. I can't wait to see how this goes for you.

So here's the update on my plans to shoot .22LR at this Sunday's TSA match. I ordered and received Tandemkross low ride pistol holster and mag pouches. Quality of these items is good. However, the belt loop on the mag pouches is so wide, they don't stay in place on my USPSA competition belt. I tried reducing the opening size by wrapping with tape, but so far I haven't been able to get them to stay in place. So now planning to wear my battlebelt with High Speed Gear rifle/pistol tacos. I will stick an extra pistol mag in my back pocket in case a pistol mag falls out while running around.

The holster is designed for multiple pistols, so I will have the tension pretty high to avoid the possibility of getting a DQ for pistol falling out of the holster and hitting the ground which will make drawing and re-holstering a little slower. But once the pistol is in place, it won't be falling out by accident.

Final issue is the accuracy of my S&W 15-22. Mounted a scope and tried to sight it in on Sunday. The best group I was able to shoot at 90 yards from a rest was the size of a paper plate. I may only be competing against myself, but that's not going to work. Since shooting .22LR means being scored as Open Combat class, I'm considering shooting the stage on the rifle range with my AR-15 and then using the 15-22 for the three CQB stages. Open Combat is the class you end up in if you don't shoot the same two firearms for the entire match. I think I can afford 15-20 rounds of .223 ammo. (Although, if I have any misses on the rifle stage, I won't be able to blame the rifle! More thought required.)

 

[dung]

Open class is good. If you are the only one, you automatically win! I wouldn’t be opposed to shooting 22, but I never bothered to get a holster for my mark iv and my old pump Winchester’s tube is mighty slow to load.

I think I will still compete with 9mm and 5.56 until I get real low. With the shortage I am avoiding uspsa like the plague. Tsa is never too hard on my stash

 

[Ark]

FreeLand, have you considered the possibility that .22lr might not actually be able to knock down the poppers or activate the movers at 50+ yards? I know from resetting them that they are not dinky targets. You might be looking at double or triple taps to get them to fall.

I'll be running 5.56 and 9mm, the TSA matches are a worthy investment for the ammo.

 

[CZ evo3]

Ark, that is an excellent point

 

[CZ evo3]

Well Freeland, how did the .22 cal guns go over at the TSA match? I hate that I couldn't be there to see it.

 

[Ark]

I chatted with him briefly before the match but didn't get a chance to follow up and see how it went. All the rimfire/open guys ended up in a different squad.

 

[FreeLand]

Well Freeland, how did the .22 cal guns go over at the TSA match? I hate that I couldn't be there to see it.

To start with, I have to credit dung with saving my match with the reminder about steel on the rifle stage. Had I only brought .22LR, I would have had an unacceptably lousy score. I ended up shooting my regular firearms (.223/9mm) on the rifle stage. I shot all .22LR on two of the CQB stages and then a 9mm PCC and .22LR pistol on the third stage.

I was happy with the Tandemkross holster I bought for my Ruger 22/45 pistol. It does require a lot more force to draw and re-holster than the Blade-Tech I normally use. But the pistol came out on the first tug every time and there were no worries about the pistol falling out while running. I think I'm going to try using my High Speed Gear pistol tacos next time to hold the pistol mags. The Tandemkross .22LR pistol mags pouches 1) don't stay in place on the belt and 2) need to be spaced widely apart to avoid grabbing two mags at once. The High Speed Gear tacos don't hold the .22LR mags snugly, but maybe I can figure something out. That would make for a consistent motion reaching for reloads whether shooting rimfire or center fire. I liked using the S&W 15-22 as the manual of arms is exactly the same as my regular primary weapon. However, I have concerns about the accuracy of the 15-22. More testing is required to determine if it is the weapon, the optic not being properly sighted in or just sloppy on the part of the trigger puller.

My biggest happy surprise is that I didn't have any horribly bungled reloads. The magwell of a .22LR pistol is tighter than a 1911 and I expected that to cause me problems considering I normally shoot a double stack pistol. I also didn't have any issues with the 15-22 reloads.

Biggest complaint is that by shooting .22LR, I was scored in the Open Class which means you don't get scored. Walt just sends you a photo of your raw sore sheet and you have to do all the math to add up the misses and points down, etc. I hate MATH! Maybe if a bunch of people start shooting .22LR, we can convince him to tabulate the scores and report them on the EXCEL file he sends out even if they aren't part of the list of sorted results.

While it isn't quite as satisfying to shoot .22LR vs. centerfire, I still had fun.

 

[Ark]

But the pistol came out on the first tug every time and there were no worries about the pistol falling out while running.

Could you even imagine if that happened tho

 

[FreeLand]

Could you even imagine if that happened tho

Yeah... been there, done that. Got the DQ!

 

[dung]

That hurts! I am just glad no-one actually got hurt.

just so you know, you can chuck your info into the spreadsheet pretty easy to see where you land. I did it on my scores.