ggruber

i am starting to get serious about improving my shooting skills after about 2 years of just shooting competition 'for fun'. Now mind you, if it ever stops being fun i will stop shooting, but i spent a training session yesterday analyzing some of my most basic problems, and i would love to get some help from some more experienced shooters. i will confine each question to a separate thread. problem #1. when shooting 8 inch steel plates from 8 yards, i am consistently missing the first plate because i am shooting while the gun is moving (i have sight alignment). Certainly if i slow down my draw a bit i won't miss the plate, but i think that begs the question. am i supposed to be physically stopping the gun to hit the first plate from a draw? my momentum and continuity on the remaining plates is good. even when they are out around 17 yards or so i can nail them fairly consistently. it just feels unnatural to break my momentum on the first plate and then start it again. i realize that speed comes in time, but i already have my accuracy. i need to pick up the pace a bit (sorry about that, i just had to throw it in ) any advice? gary

using a Powers Custom 1 jig, use the settings in the Brownell's article, 5 clicks for the primary angle on the sear, 20 clicks for the secondary angle. use brown to black to white stones. don't settle for anything less than a mirror finish. go SLOW. trying to speed up the polish by shoe shining the stone over the sear will almost always cause a deformation in the sear face, which is a sure road to a major creepy trigger. there is one important thing the Brownell's article left out regarding light trigger pulls (my dictionary says anything under 3 pounds). the main problem encountered with light trigger setups is hammer follow. if the sear is setup correctly and the hammer hooks are not cut lower than 0.018-0.019 than the cause of the follow is a too heavy trigger. i have done considerable experimentation (and spent an outrageous some of money) on this and have found the following: 1. a 100-105 grain trigger is good for trigger pulls down to 2 3/4lb. 2. for every 20 grain drop in trigger weight you can reduce the pull by 1/2 lb. i have an 80 grain trigger in my 45 now that will let me go down to 2 1/4 lb. you can also take an alternate route to 2 lb. the Brownell article gives you a very radical angle on your sear (very obtuse , i.e. greater than 90 degrees). by working with a more traditional sear setup (13 clicks up for primary, form secondary by stoning sear on stone with a 0.020 gauge under rear of sear. this gives you more 'capture' on sear nose under the hammer hooks, preventing hammer follow from bothering you. the only drawback to this setup is the break is not glass, but at 2 pounds, i defy anyone to say how the trigger breaks. regards, gary

shortening your barrel should not affect accuracy, however you will drop some muzzle velocity (around 10-50fps per inch). this means you will need to recalculate your load (increase powder drop to return lost speed). However, barrel harmonics can (not does all the time) affect accuracy. altering the barrel length will most definitely change the harmonics -- the way the barrel vibrates as the bullet passes through it . whether this will affect your accuracy remains to be seen. Are you feeling lucky today? regards, gary

i guess all you guys must have great eyesight. I don't. i put a set of XS (formerly AO) big dot sights on my Kimber 45 2 years ago and haven't looked back. as far as accuracy goes, i can hold under 2" at 25 yards with them, and routinely shoot falling plates at 35 yards. they don't take any getting used to -- as far as i'm concerned, but that's why they make vanilla ice cream as well as chocolate. for all of you who bad mouth the accuracy of the XS systems, have you really shot with them? How accurate do you need to be to hit the 'A' Zone at 12 yards for IDPA? Now if we're talking bulleseye competition, that's certainly different. then i would reccomend switching to the 'small' dot front sight. i'll be happy to match groups at any yardage with anyone who bad mouths this system -- for however much money you care to put on the table. no, i am not a pro, not even a semi-pro. i'm disabled. but i have enough confidence in my ability to use my gun with my chosen sights to back it up. any takers? email me at:gary.m.gruber@verizon.net (Edited by ggruber at 11:50 pm on Feb. 4, 2003) (Edited by ggruber at 11:51 pm on Feb. 4, 2003)

Quote: from BSeevers on 4:58 pm on Aug. 15, 2002 I only will shoot new brass in a big match. I have seen jams caused by bad brass. Why let $29 lose you match. You are probably spending $300-1500 on the match. Brass wears out and new is more accurate. Its more critical with a racegun than a stock gun but...... how is new brass 'more accurate' than fired brass? i have run all sorts of tests on my brass -- and while i do a fair amount of prep work on my brass (primer pocket uniforming, primer pocket hole deburring and primer pocket hole size uniforming), i can't figure out why new brass would have any effect on accuracy. please help. i am sure i must have overlooked something obvious...