3-gun noob advice kilothread

lord1234 said:
Will my 870 Wingmaster be ok for this?
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For 3 Gun/Multigun? Yes, an 870 is just fine. Depending on barrel length, choke, it may not be optimal. Also, with the exception of Heavy Metal / He Man, there is not usually a division specifically for pump guns. Shotgun only matches may have a manual division. Don't forget an extension for the mag tube.
 
For trying it out it'll be fine. If you get in to it, you'll want a semi-auto unless you want to shoot heavy metal / he man. I'm in the same boat, but with a mossberg. The 870 is easier to put an extended tube on though.

I think the same advice I give for new pistol competitors applies just as much if not more to 3-gun/multigun. If you have something that will work, come out and shoot. Once you get hooked, there's plenty of time to shop for more gear.
 
Shotgun is by far my weakest point. The 30 round shotgun stage was pretty rough. 5 shot pump-gun plus lack of experience / practice makes for a slow stage. I ran the gun dry a few times and if I stopped shooting to do something else (move, load, etc) I'd sometimes forget to cycle the action. The extent of my prior shotgun experience was probably about 1000 rounds shooting trap and sporting clays over teh past few years and a few hours practicing loading the week before the match. I've got to sort out my gear and then start working with it. I'd like to get a chance to handle and possibly shoot the potential shotgun candidates before I plunk down the cash. It looks like the contenders are the Benelli (suck up the cost of a complete ready to race gun from Benny or Salient or buy a factory one and do some work on it), FN SLP (not sure who works on these, though they seem pretty ready to go out of the box), or Mossberg 930 from Benny (I'm following his 930 project on benos; he's saying softer shooting and easier to load than the benelli for less money).

Rifle, I cleaned the medium range stuff (75-150ish) pretty easily, not sure how the time was, but I'll call that a relative strength for now. "Pistol stages with a rifle" went smoother than they did at Harvard, so I think that skillset is coming along. I'm planning to get a 22LR conversion to really work this live fire. My times feel slow because I'm not driving the gun with confidence. Equipment wise, I think rifle is set other than acquiring my own 30 round mags and possibly trying to get my 40 to run.

Pistol, I need to work on the same stuff I've discussed in USPSA threads, namely dealing with longer stages, keeping the speed up on shots that need a lot more accuracy, etc. Low light pistol shooting also needs a lot of work, but I don't think that comes up in most 3 guns (there was a dark pistol stage in this match) and I've never heard of it in USPSA.

Overall, stage planning, stage planning, stage planning. Long (30+ round) stages and those with multiple guns, I'm just not used to planning and then burning in a plan that long. This match setting up the right gear and remembering all the targets was enough of a task load, I didn't really work on the little time saving stuff.

Overall equipment wise, I need to move to a 2 piece belt system. Rearranging gear on a regular belt without techlocks sucks. I also need to get a cart set up.
 
I've been using a Benelli the last couple years, the M2 field 21". It's a good, reliable shotgun. The SLP is good too, it's the same as a Super X2. You may find the Winchester version used kicking around now and then.
For a .22 LR uppper, look into the Nordic Components. It's a ground up design. They had the foresight to use 10-22 extractors, which would be the weakest link in my eyes. I recently got one, and it's extremely reliable.
Look for me at the Nauset match if you go.
 
I'm looking to just get one of the 22 bolt replacements. It's cheaper, and then I don't need a second scope, etc. I thought about a complete dedicated 22 like the S&W, but it's way lighter than my 223 AR.
 
jar said:
I'm looking to just get one of the 22 bolt replacements. It's cheaper, and then I don't need a second scope, etc. I thought about a complete dedicated 22 like the S&W, but it's way lighter than my 223 AR.
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Accuracy on the conversion is poor. .22 centerfire is .224, .22 rimfire is .222. The long travel in the dummy cartridge gives poor alignment to the bore. An inexpensive red dot on an upper will work well.
 
If you only want to practice transitions at 5 yards, it will be okay. If you want to scale down targets out to 50+ yards...not so great.
 
jar said:
or Mossberg 930 from Benny (I'm following his 930 project on benos; he's saying softer shooting and easier to load than the benelli for less money).
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I have one of these sitting at home, I may need to look into this. Thanks for mentioning it.
 
jar said:
Rifle, I cleaned the medium range stuff (75-150ish) pretty easily, not sure how the time was, but I'll call that a relative strength for now. "Pistol stages with a rifle" went smoother than they did at Harvard, so I think that skillset is coming along. I'm planning to get a 22LR conversion to really work this live fire. My times feel slow because I'm not driving the gun with confidence. Equipment wise, I think rifle is set other than acquiring my own 30 round mags and possibly trying to get my 40 to run.
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jar: How many rifle rounds did you shoot at how many targets? What was the shortest and longest distance for rifle targets?
 
For the whole match, rifle targets ranged from a few feet out to ~150 yards. Several stages only had targets out to about 20 yards, basically a pistol stage with a rifle. One stage had targets out to about 40-50y that you had to shoot from a boat dock that moved up and down, and there were some moving targets. That stage was ~20 rounds IIRC. The long stage had 3 100y shots at MGM flashers from the bench with a pickup gun, then 30ish rounds of room clearing type stuff (if you took some targets from the longer positions it went out to maybe 25y.) Then you ran across a bridge and went prone for 8 steel targets. MGM lollipops at 75(2) and 100(2), and then 2 flashers and 2 IDPA silhouttes with the -0 cut out for a plate that activated a flag all at about 150.

The total round count was about 150 rifle, 100 pistol, and 40 shotgun. IIRC I went one for one on all of the far steel except for an initial miss on one lollipops and one of the IDPA targets, both of which I made on the next round. I dropped very few points on the other rifle stuff except the far array on the boat dock.
 
jar said:
Stupid question, I see the Benelli M2 field recommended all over, but doesn't the vented barrel put you in open?
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It's a vent rib barrel...not a Ported barrel. It doesn't put you into Open, like a standard Mossberg 930 barrel would.
 
What's different about the 930 barrel? I thought vent rib meant it had a rib and holes in it. What about the 28" Vent rib barrel on my mossberg 500?
 
jar said:
What's different about the 930 barrel? I thought vent rib meant it had a rib and holes in it. What about the 28" Vent rib barrel on my mossberg 500?
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The 930 barrels are ported, ie holes in the barrel to vent gasses upward. The Vent rib barrel has gaps under the top surface of the barrel, hence the ventilated designation. Years ago, some shotguns came with solid ribbed barrels, like side by sides.
Your Mossberg 500 has a vent rib barrel, not ported like the 930 shown at the link.
http://www.mossberg.com/images/Mossberg_Guns/930/New/85110.jpg
You can see the vents between the posts, 2 and 3 from the muzzle.
 
I'm starting to lean toward the Nordic 22LR upper. I tried a friend's conversion in my rifle on weds and it wasn't reliable with my Timney trigger. Dan, what trigger are you running with yours?

I weighed my upper, and the 20" bull barrel NC22 comes in right around the same weight. That solves one issue I had with the dedicated 22. Next question is optic. I'm not dropping the cash to put a Meopta in a LaRue on a 22. Any recs on a cheap knockoff that does the job? I don't need match reliability, I just want something that works. I'd like to stick with 1-4 though.
 
jar said:
I'm starting to lean toward the Nordic 22LR upper. I tried a friend's conversion in my rifle on weds and it wasn't reliable with my Timney trigger. Dan, what trigger are you running with yours?

I weighed my upper, and the 20" bull barrel NC22 comes in right around the same weight. That solves one issue I had with the dedicated 22. Next question is optic. I'm not dropping the cash to put a Meopta in a LaRue on a 22. Any recs on a cheap knockoff that does the job? I don't need match reliability, I just want something that works. I'd like to stick with 1-4 though.
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Weaver V3 1-3x
 
I'm running a stock parts trigger system, modified. Trigger pull is 2 3/4 lb, stock weight hammer spring, lightenend hammer. Noooo issues to date with Nordic's upper. I have the 18" upper, and stuck a Burris 5moa dot on it.
Supermoto's suggestion on the Weaver 1-3x is spot on! Good scope, and reasonably priced. Optics are supposed to be better than a Millet DMS and I suspect it's more durable too.
 
jar said:
I asked which of the two barrels I have available for my 500 that I should use for my first 3 gun match, 18.5" cylinder or 28" vent rib with screw in chokes.
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They should be setting the steal at the match light enough so that it can be knocked down with a 20 gauge with a 24" barrel and IC choke. If they do that you should be able to knock down anything with your ATAS 18" barrel and cylinder bore. Personally I like the shorter lighter barrel better. Just get some #6's and some high brass loads in case they have something heavy to knock down.

jar said:
I wasn't sure how important chokes were.
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I use my Diffusion choke for as many stages as I can. If something isn't falling easily for other shooters I will switch to a Light Modified and/or run #6's or #4's. Sometimes the Texas Stars can be a bitch with open chokes becasue a lot of your shot misses the plates. So a heavy load with light choke can also sometimes get you two or three for one.
 
Thanks Jesse, and welcome to NES. I ended up using the 28" barrel for that match and it worked fine. The plan is to get a semi-auto shotgun before next season. I have high hopes for the Mossberg 930 competition model that Benny Hill and Jerry Miculek are working on. Hopefully it'll be ready to be shown at SHOT.
 
Dan S said:
I'm running a stock parts trigger system, modified. Trigger pull is 2 3/4 lb, stock weight hammer spring, lightenend hammer. Noooo issues to date with Nordic's upper. I have the 18" upper, and stuck a Burris 5moa dot on it.
Supermoto's suggestion on the Weaver 1-3x is spot on! Good scope, and reasonably priced. Optics are supposed to be better than a Millet DMS and I suspect it's more durable too.
Click to expand...

A buddy of mine has a Weaver 1.5-5x that was under $300 and its pretty nice.
 

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