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My switch from plastic to Tanfo


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I thought it could be interesting to document my journey from plastic gun shooter over to the Tanfoglio Stock 3. I would have loved to find something like this when considering the switch.

After some admittedly sporadic dryfire, a Dawson front sight, and silicon carbide treatment on the grips, it was time to take the 10.5/5.0 lb trigger to the range.

Despite the flared magwell on the bottom of the gun, this is a hard gun to reload. The mag opening is larger, but so is the magazine. The G34 I shot from 2006-09 and the M&P from 2009-16 are simply much easier to load. (Think metal sliding across a polymer cutting board, versus metal dragging on metal.)

It's accurate. A 3" group at 25yds was a rather casual affair, and I'm no bullseye expert. I don't feel like I have to work as hard to shoot tight groups, but it's likely just that the gun feels smoother and more solid.

The trigger... I didn't think DA would be a change, but it is. A big one. The thing that's new is that you begin working the action right at the beginning. With a Glock or M&P you quickly delete 2/3s of the travel by pulling through the pretravel, and then beginning your real trigger press when you work the connector or sear.

With a hammer gun, the whole pull is work. What that means is that I'm working the trigger before I acquire a sight picture - just a bit, but it's happening and that is new. The weight isn't the issue, it's the length of the pull.

(Ben Stoeger was definitely right that you need to pull through the trigger, and not "stop and snatch" in an attempt to trap the sight picture.

SA isn't a problem so far for me, as long as I'm expecting it. I shanked 3 or 4 follow-ups shots low on the transition from DA to SA, which means practicing in live fire every chance I get.

The gun is fat and heavy and the buttons are in all the wrong places. But I can already tell it'll be a fast sexy machine once I'm used to it!

Warning - Sketchy reloads ahead:

 

 

DA & SA pulls, unfired:

IMG_7249.JPGIMG_7248.JPG

Edited by MemphisMechanic
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Nice. real good write up!

 

My DA is almost exactly what your SA is... lol. you can work it down that way too.  have you polished it yet? That alone will knock 1-2 pounds.

 

Edited by johnbu
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13 minutes ago, johnbu said:

Nice. real good write up!

 

My DA is almost exactly what your SA is... lol. you can work it down that way too.  have you polished it yet? That alone will knock 1-2 pounds.

 

Nope.

I'm going to weigh it at every step. Next comes the pull weights now that it has 350 down the pipe, and then after polishing.

Edited by MemphisMechanic
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I'm making the same switch but I'm coming from an XDM.  Got my trigger pull way down and have shot 1 classifier match so far.  I didn't become an instant master shooter.  I put up classifiers that were right in keeping with my average and I considered that ok since I've only got about 500 rounds shot and am still adjusting to the DA first shot.

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26 minutes ago, MemphisMechanic said:

Nope.

I'm going to weigh it at every step. Next comes the pull weights now that it has 350 down the pipe, and then after polishing.

You have more patients than i !

 

I dry fired 3 times, went online and ordered up a pile of junk. I didnt even live fire it in factory fitment.

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Family wants to grab a big chunk of the parts for my birthday, for one.

For two, no one has done it! Everyone just does all the parts and polishing at once.

 

EDIT: Just retested the trigger. After a few hundred dryfires and 350 rounds, negligible affect on trigger pull. Averages exactly the same.

Edited by MemphisMechanic
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Reloads: practice them with zeal. The problem is that the opening of the magwell is a set of compound angles.  It is dumb garbage design, but it is one of very few flaws inherent to the gun.  Just do reloads.  Do an amazing amount of reloads.

Do a ridiculous amount of DA triggering also.  It takes a lot to master that facet of shooting.  At the same time, don't get so trapped in it that you neglect SA dryfire simulation, or your maximum trigger speed will suffer greatly.  No one wants to be stuck at .18-.20 splits.  Those are lame.

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6 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

Hah!

Theres really no demonstrable need for a split faster than that to win a USPSA match, even at the top level.

But a .12-.15 is what gets you laid. ;)

I'll have to take your word on that.... I'm married! Lol.

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14 hours ago, MemphisMechanic said:

Nope.

I'm going to weigh it at every step. Next comes the pull weights now that it has 350 down the pipe, and then after polishing.

 Thank you so much for doing something like this. I was going to do this very thing, but since you're going to do it I don't have to :-)

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6 minutes ago, ShortBus said:

Johnbu what is all done to your gun

His gun is properly tuned..... He's polished everything inside and out, he's had his chamber reamed to SAAMI spec or based off his particular load, Titan Hammer, Xtreme Sear, Patriot Defense Springs, Exteneded FPB, Patriot Defense Firing Pin/Factory Firing Pin, and he takes advise and is willing to listen when problems come up. There is no set standard setup for these guns, you have to be willing to try new things if you want the most out of your pistol. I cant tell you how many guns we have seen that vary so much in finally pull weights with the same parts and components installed. John is extremely OCD when it comes to his polishing, all pins, and even the insides of springs get polished.

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14 minutes ago, PatriotDefense said:

His gun is properly tuned..... He's polished everything inside and out, he's had his chamber reamed to SAAMI spec or based off his particular load, Titan Hammer, Xtreme Sear, Patriot Defense Springs, Exteneded FPB, Patriot Defense Firing Pin/Factory Firing Pin, and he takes advise and is willing to listen when problems come up. There is no set standard setup for these guns, you have to be willing to try new things if you want the most out of your pistol. I cant tell you how many guns we have seen that vary so much in finally pull weights with the same parts and components installed. John is extremely OCD when it comes to his polishing, all pins, and even the insides of springs get polished.

Yeah... ^^ that stuff.  lol. 

 

With finely tuned mechanism friction is not your friend.  I just figured out what's moving, rubbing, rotating, pivoting etc and tried to make it smoother.  unlike some, I don't go mirror bright on all things. That could impact tolerance stacks, timing and operation if done too far. The cautions against using sandpaper are valid.  A tip is to clean / degrease everything and dyechem (or use a sharpie marker) to mark the suspect areas. Then operate everything dry firing, racking etc. Take apart and see what is actually rubbing. 

The prep prior to popping in new parts or when detailing factory parts makes the difference between a good trigger and a better one.  Same with the slide smoothness and reliably feeding and extracting.  It takes time, but so does dry fire practice. Using a reliable predictable gun is IMHO, desireable and helpful in competition.

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4 hours ago, johnbu said:

Here's  your DA goal.  100% popping wolf primers.

Sorry, but it isn't.

I won't dip below a 14lb hammer spring because I want the gun to eat the occasional slightly high CCI *Magnum* small pistol primer.

I got a screaming deal on the mag primer, which is slightly harder than standard CCI, and a 5.5lb DA will be just fine by me. 

I like a gun that will eat anything. Absolutely anything. Even high and hard primers. So unless someone wants to lend me a 10/12 pound spring to test in the same gun, you'll see me with a 14lb spring when I test the finished gun.

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I plan to start by polishing the factory parts and see what a change that makes and to learn the internals.

Then fit and install the new standard PD recipe (Titan/BOLO/sear/springs) unpolished and test the gun.

Then polish all of that hardware and see how much the trigger drops, again.

Edited by MemphisMechanic
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No idea how hard those are. But using what you got a smoking deal on,  is good!  Next time I'm puttering about with the gun, I'll see about a vid with 14PD in it.

Oh, feel free to ask questions on the innermost workings and what to do.  They aren't hard, but compared to a glock.... yeah more complex. Lol.

Edited by johnbu
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