For those that follow USPSA, there is a provisional new division, called PCC (Pistol Caliber Carbine). In PCC, competitors fire pistol caliber carbines on the same courses of fire as the other USPSA divisions. Rules are available here:
https://www.uspsa.org/uspsa-rules.php
I started shooting PCC about a month ago, and it is incredibly fun to shoot and very addicting. Unlike Carry Optics, another provisional division, which I seem about the only person interested in, each week there are more PCC competitors at matches. Last weekend in Las Vegas, more PCC competitors than Production. Two reasons, I think -- it allows you to deploy a carbine at practical distances, and it is incredible fun to shoot. I have heard it referred to as long gun Open division.
Being a person that likes basically everything in every caliber, I have messed around with hardware.
I started with a JP GMR-13, which is basically JP's version of a blow back Colt 6951 9mm carbine. It is a great PCC choice. My two have yet to have a single stoppage, they are PCC accurate, great trigger, and out of the box all they need is an optic to compete. The GMR-13 is popular enough, they are very hard to get, despite costing about $1,700. Many magazine options are available, boosting capacity to around 40 rounds. Here are the downsides of the JP. The magazine release is small and stiff, and combined with a smallish mag well and the blunt shaped Glock magazines, they are harder to reload fast. The other issue is it is a blow back design, meaning the heavier the power factor of your ammo, the more it recoils. I have been running PMC 115 in my JP with good results.
I also have a Sig MPX. Unlike the JP and other blow back carbines, the MPX uses a gas system. It has some warts. It comes with a lousy trigger, and after market triggers may not hold up, although there is a Geissele MPX trigger in the works. The MPX needs 300 or so full power rounds for a break in. Also, the magazines need to be left loaded several weeks, or they will not work with a slide forward reload, where you manually strip a round (no problem with the slide locked back). There are ten round extensions available from Taran and Springer, adding to the 10, 20 and 30 round capacity factory mags (made by Lancer, I believe). Magazines are expensive compared to the JP using Glock pattern magazines. Here is the big thing, the MPX is incredibly soft shooting compared to a blow back, and stays soft shooting whether you are using PMC 115 or heavy Lawman 147.
Bill Wilson is making up a Beretta mag AR9 for me to try, and I look forward to ringing that out. I expect typical Wilson quality, and fast reloads using the tapered MecGar 92 mags. An issue is there are OEM 30 round mags, but no extensions available for those.
I have posted some videos in another PCC thread, which give a feel for the action. In most stages, if you don't screw up, you will never reload, as you have about 40 rounds in the carbine. Reloads only come in for classifiers, which I haven't focused on yet. Just recently, I started dry practicing reloads, and have my MPX live fire reloads in the 1.75 range. Here is one at full speed:
And here is one in slo mo, to see where I can shave time:
I will probably cover optics in another post as I need to go take the dog for a hike.