I'll also suggest that you should never use more than 2 part naming in any stored procedure.  If you ever change to a different database name, you'll have a wad...

Wow.  While I understand the paranoid basis of those rules, they're just silly even as suggestions.  I feel for ya.  The one about using functions is probably the worst of them...

99% of the time, the apparent "start delay" is caused simply by compile time.

Heh... I think it's downright ridiculous anymore to even save an indication of gender.

So you're all set then?

No pun intended, but this is SIMPLE.  Create the new target table with just the clustered index.  The clustered index should be identical on both tables for the best performance...