G'day Radagast, good to see there are also some Aussies over here
. I keep a number of friends over there and have visited a few of your cities. I wasn't brave enough to get into the Outback but did get a little bit into the Bush. Great people, great food, and great wines. Answering your questions, I guess the Star B would be accepted (they do follow the classic 1911 pattern) but I doubt if there would be many units fit enough as to withstand the stresses of serious IPSC training and competing, or that their owners would be willing to use them for that purpose. Remember that spare parts are scarce. I read that in Oz you can't go any further than 9 mm/38 Super when it comes to calibers. Am I correct?. In that case, of course that 9 mm, and subsequently Minor, is the only alternative. Not the case here. We have guys shooting Major in Standard and Open, and the .40 cal and .38 Super are their calibers of choice. I don't think these guys in my country are shooting Classic for monetary reasons. It's just something new, and a new challenge for them. A lot of them, though, come from the Standard Division. Availability of firearms is not an issue. These guys are shooting STIs, Kimbers and the like. Me, I shoot Production with my "Old Lady", the Star 30M. She keeps up with the CZ Shadow and Glock crowd and she beats a number of them regularly
. Whenever she wears out (hopefully she's got a long way to go 'till then), I'll place her in a methacrylate box in my living room, with a home made decoration to bravery
.
ATLDave,
All of us shoot the same matches at my club. We hold club-level matches (usually 4 or 5 stages) and regional level matches (up to 8 stages). In the future we plan on hosting national level matches as we have some new ranges and we would be able to accomodate 10 or 12 stages comfortably. Number of shots vary greatly. There's a little bit of everything, for short to long stages. I agree that in the shorter stages there won't be much of difference, since you'll do a mag change anyway, but in longer stages there will be.
Truth to be told, I haven't read the USPSA rules and don't know if the rules are much different than those of IPSC. I presumed they weren't. How is the situation like, in the US, when it comes to this Division?.