BillGarlandJr

How does it shoot with jacketed ammo? I’d think if the chamber is crooked it would affect the accuracy with everything you’d shoot through it

I had gone back to the stock spring after messing around with other guide rod and spring combos, and that was mainly to get the gun to run reliably. Since then, I’ve put a few thousand rounds through the pistol, which has broken it in nicely. The stock spring is pretty heavy and I felt like I was fighting some muzzle dip, so I went back to the P320 guide rod with a 14# commander spring. It’s running great and the gun comes back down on target nicely. For many of these Rival S pistols, it could well be they need some breaking in before they really run they way we want them to.

I shoot 124/125s because they shoot well (accurately) in everything I own, and I shoot them better than heavier bullets.

I laid in a good supply of these last summer and haven't regretted once. Beautiful bullets and they shoot great out of everything I've shot them through so far. I used to be a MG guy, but like many of you, the constantly having to check for them and not being able to have a reliable supply got frustrating.

I have both the VP9L and Match. I really dig both of those pistols and even shot them in some matches, but just as Matt said above, it’s the lack of aftermarket support keeping me from running them more frequently. I’m actually good with the stock triggers, but I can’t find a set of sights I like. Both of the VP9s I have are the OR versions and for some reason HK used a different dovetail cut than the original for which there are some decent options from Dawson Precision. Typical HK really.

My guess is 16 or 17

Wolff. It worked fine, but since I made that post, I’ve gone back to the stock recoil spring assembly. After putting a couple thousand rounds through the gun with it installed, the stock assembly has broken in nicely and I’m actually really pleased with how the gun shoots now.

I grabbed at set of the LOK grips and I gotta say, they’re really nice. Thing I like about G10 grips vs. grip tape or other similar options is the grip isn’t so “grippy” that its difficult to rotate my hand around the gun to hit the mag button, or make a grip adjustment on a draw. But man, once my grip is locked in, the gun really doesn’t want to go anywhere. I think these grips are a huge improvement over stock. Yeah, they’re a bit spendy, but they address what I thought was a shortcoming of the pistol in stock form, so they’re worth it to me.

I like the look of those. Just ordered a pair. Thank you for the heads up.

I agree with this. I've been in this sport for a bit at this point and can remember a time when it was fairly uncommon to be able to take a pistol out of the box and expect it to run reliably with all types of ammo, or magazines. We were always fiddling around trying to find a fix for whatever the issue was. Why did we do it? Because if you could get some of those pistols running reliably they were sweet shooters. So much so that the hassle was worth it in the end. I suspect this is much the case with the Rival S. In the grand picture, having to put an o-ring around the base of your mag, or buying some different aftermarket bases (which we're all going to do anyway) is not that big a deal. I have a Rival S and it does the over insertion thing if I put a fair amount of upward pressure on the base of the magazine. Is it ideal? No. I'd prefer if it didn't do that, but I'm trying to remember the last match I shot where I went to prone and anchored the gun on the deck. Might have been Area 1 in 2009 in Nampa. Regardless of when it was, its not something we do very often around here, and I'm not seeing a ton of match videos where I see it needing to be done. I suppose if a stage like that came along and I didn't have a sure fire fix for the over insertion issue, I would simply adjust my position to avoid a malfunction. I think the Rival S is a nice enough shooting pistol that it's worth making that adjustment for one stage if needed. As for slide lock reloads, mine doesn't lock back so no factor there. I can ham hand the mags into the gun. Something else to keep in mind is what the Rival S was intended for, which is competition shooting. I'm not going to carry it for work, or as an EDC. If I did then the over insertion issue would absolutely need to get fixed, but for what I'm using it for now its just fine and I'll keep shooting it in the occasional match I'm able to make it to. If Canik or someone else comes up with a fix for whatever ails it, I will definitely get me some of that, but for now its a great shooting pistol as is.

According to a post on the Gram by Nils, Taylor Freelance is coming out with a base pad which is supposed to remedy the over insertion issue.

I messed around with 13, 14 and 15 pound recoil springs in my Rival S. All of them worked, and each had their merits, but presently I am running the stock recoil spring. With the 124gr load I'm shooting the dot tracks very consistently, and I'm not noticing any appreciable dip of the muzzle, which was a concern and why I was trying lighter recoil springs. I will say initially the stock recoil spring seemed a little to heavy, but now with a number of rounds fired and it being more broken in, its better. I'm going to run this for a bit and see how it goes.

I was loading Blue Bullets 135gr’ers for my Rival/Rival S and was getting similar results to those of the OP. 4” or so with the occasional flyer. Based on RangerTrace’s recommendation to another forum member, I got my hands on some of the 124gr Matchwinners and have been super happy with them. Groups shrank to around 2.5” using some Prima V powder I bought years ago, and the flyers went away. Laid in a big supply of them after that and will be running them for the foreseeable future.

I just got some 124gr RMR Match Winners, and I’m very pleased with them. They shot great out of both my polymer and S Rivals. Pretty good value.

It’s a standard P320 guide rod. I ran about 300 rounds through the gun with the 13# without a hiccup, but I think I’m going to go with the 14. My only concern at this point is when the spring wears and breaks in a little. The 13 might not have all the oomph it needs as it gets near the end of its life.