Thanks for the kind words there, Ganderite. And for those of you who don't know Ganderite's (very) extensive shooting background, we are all in the presence!

Trust me, he's likely forgotten MORE

than I'll ever know about rifles and pistols!! I'm just a spring chicken right next to him!
It's all about learning and sharing what works (and often , what does not work) for you. Many black rifle owners have loads and loads of gear, but few of them have the opportunity to get out and stress test them under (match) intensity. I did not mention deployment and combat in sandboxes, we are not preparing any of you for that. We are preparing you for the ORA Service CQB matches... and of course

the potential zombie invasion. LOL
Speaking of what works.... Here's a shameless plug for the Norinco M4.... We had a couple of Norinco M4 (price point boomsticks at $ 800ish to $ 900ish) and they ran all weekend without a hiccup. I should know because I'm the safety dude on the line watching and monitoring any stoppages, clearing drills, and back on the line shooting safely. They are great to use in this game. One would hate to think of carbon'ing up an LMT, KAC, Noveske

, and destroy the

collector value of a COLT's boomstick. Many of you discovered that some mags don't drop freely of some mag wells. Many of you learned that 5.5 round magazines really work well. Many magazines pinned to 5 (not to be confused with 5.5) bring out the ghosts in a rifle / mag system. Some of you got super wise and drew letters/numbers/symbols all over your magazines to identify them for further improvement/tweaking/testing/eliminating and/or relegating to the purpose of a FOUR round magazine (advance to the next pink line, double tap each fig 11), then transition to pistol (2 to the center , 1 to the top).
I had a good night's sleep after a long weekend of shooting and sharing. I thank all of you who sacrificed your time and money and energy to spend a weekend on Langemark Range with Timk and myself. The cameraderie was second to none, witness: nobody wanted to leave the parking lot after all those handshakes and high 5's.
In all my years of the shooting sports, Service CQB has the most fun and friendship after the matches/clinic. Then again, my M14 Clinics are a hoot, too.

Gotta get ready for the day job
Barney