CHA-LEE's Tale

[birdog]

Birdog> If I did a chrono every match then I would agree that it would be bullshit. But this is the first time that I have seen a mandatory chrono at a local match since I started shooting in 2008. I average attending about 50 local club matches a year as well. So to me, doing this was way past due anyway.

As for pushing new shooters away due to the chrono I disagree. Our game is run by rules. Meeting the minimum power factor is part of the rules and one of the three fundamental tenors of USPSA. Accuracy, Power and Speed. We shouldn't circumvent our rules to bring in new shooters should we? That doesn't make any sense to me for setting the proper values or expectations for new shooters.

I also want to point out that I posted two versions of the match results. The first was with the shooters declared power factor given at sign up and the second version was with the chrono results applied. So I think everyone still got a fair shake in the end even if that included some hard lessons for a few.

I agree with all you said. I stand corrected.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend was crazy packed with shooting. On Saturday I attended the USPSA club match at AGC. I shot my #3 blaster for this match and had a fairly solid match. My performance wasn’t anything special and I felt like I was simply getting it done well within my comfort zone. I racked up a few more D’s that I wanted but the bulk of them were in low ports were I was probably shooting too fast for my weak left arm. I am still working out my arms trying to get them stronger but those darn low ports kick my butt.

The day before I picked up my #2 Limited blaster from Rick as he got the new barrel fitted. My intention was to get it sighted in and test fired after the match on Saturday, but I didn’t have time to sight it in. I did shoot about 100 rounds through it to simply function fire it and it worked without any issues. When I got home I took it apart and looked at the lower lugs to see how it was wearing in and it looked really good. I made it a priority to sight it in and break it in some more over the long weekend.

On Sunday I presented a group training class. As always, it was a lot of fun training and seeing people learn new things. I didn’t get a chance to shoot much during the training class but I did get to sight in the #2 blaster. It only needed a slight windage adjustment and the vertical was dead nuts on. The vertical stringing issue is now solved and I could shoot a paster at 10 yards off hand without much trouble. Since it was working and sighted in I decided to use it for the indoor match that evening at CGC.

We wrapped up the training class at about 6PM and I drove straight over to the CGC range to attend the indoor USPSA match. It takes about an hour to drive from the BLGC outdoor range to the CGC range and the match starts at 7PM so I was really pressed for time. I made it to the CGC range just as the match started and was able to get ready and shoot the first stage with my squad. I shot this match ok but I could tell that being worn out was affecting my performance. By the time the match was finished it was about 10:30PM and I was BEAT. Needless to say I didn’t have any problems with getting to sleep that night.

I had Monday off for Memorial Day and decided to head back out to the BLGC range with some friends to do some stage based practice. I also wanted to get a decent amount of rounds on the #2 blaster then test its accuracy again at the end of the day. We setup a long field course stage and shot it a bunch of times. The stage had 8 small plates at about 15 yards and they were kicking all of our asses. I was missing those plates like crazy and it was mega frustrating. If I buckled down and aimed super hard I would hit the plates but I would still mash the trigger and pull my shots creating misses. Overall the practice was a bust for me as I couldn’t get into it at all. I was still tired from the long day before and just couldn’t get motivated to shoot effectively. I tried my best to push through the suck and shot about 450 rounds through the #2 blaster and it ran flawlessly. At the end of the practice I shot another group at 10 yards and it was the same as before with about a paster size group off hand. Its looking like the #2 limited blaster is ready to rumble with the new slide and barrel.

When I got home after practice I broke down the #2 blaster to clean it up and get it prepped for coating. During practice and the match on Sunday the front slide cuts were catching on the holster as I drew the gun because they were so sharp. I rounded off the sharp edged of the slide cuts so that shouldn’t be a problem any more after it gets coated. Now I have to get all of the gun parts back over to Rick so he can coat them. When it’s all done the #2 blaster should look new again. It will be nice to get it back together and in action.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I shot and served as the Range Master for the RM300 match. This is an abnormal match with only 5 stages but each stage is 60+ rounds. Usually this match is plagued with poor weather where it rains and creates a total mud bog. But this year the weather was awesome. No rain and no crazy wind. Out of the 12 years they have hosted this match “prefect” weather has only happened twice with this match being one of them. Needless to say everyone was super happy about the nice weather.

I shot the whole match on Friday and it was a lot of fun. I did a really good job in staying hydrated so that wouldn’t affect my performance like it did in Utah. Shooting a major while getting pulled away from the stages regularly to deal with Range Master duties isn’t a good combination for producing a decent match performance. But it seemed to work out ok. There was only one time during the match that I felt like I wasn’t ready to shoot due to working RM issues and asked to be put further down on the shooting order. My squad was gracious enough to give me some extra time to burn in my stage plan and it worked out well for me.

I feel like I shot the match fairly well given the circumstances. I was shooting on a squad with the bulk of the Limited division “Heat” so it was nice to see how my stage runs were stacking up during the match. We were all having decent stage runs and small mistakes here or there so it was really hard to know who was in the lead by the end of the day. I knew it was going to be close race for the lead. After the shooting was done on Friday they compiled the results and to my surprise I was in the lead by about 30 match points. This lead held through the weekend so I was able to take the win at this match which was cool. It’s not too often that I can win a major match that I am working. I have compiled my match videos and posted them on my YouTube channel if you want to check it out.

I had fun working the match the rest of the weekend and did my best to keep the event running as smoothly as I can. I didn’t have to make too many RM calls or steel calibrations during the match so that was cool. For the most part the match ran like a well oiled machine, which is a testament to how much work Jerry Westcott (Match MD) put into the match up front. Shooters think that these major matches happen magically on their own when in fact it takes a crap ton of work many months in advance of the actual match. My hat is off to Jerry for producing yet another awesome and effectively run match!!!

Now it’s time to get ready for running the Mile High Showdown in two weeks!!!!

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I was able to attend two local USPSA club matches. My goal for this weekend was to give my #2 Limited blaster some more run time after getting it rebuilt. On Saturday was the CRC match in byers and I went out early to help setup early in the morning. I was able to sight the #2 blaster in before the start of the match. It only needed a little bit of rear sight windage adjustment to get the POI where I wanted it. I shot the first stage with the #2 Limited blaster and had the strange event where I hit the mag release with my left hand while rebuilding my grip and fired a shot. This has happened before with this gun here or there and the mag release is sticking out a little further than my other guns. After the first stage mag drop debacle I switched back to my #1 blaster for the rest of the match. It worked great for the rest of the match. When I got home after the match I compared the height of the mag button between the #1 and #2 blasters and the #2 was about 1mm higher than the #1. 1mm doesn’t seem like a lot of difference between the two but its enough to allow me to push it in with my left hand some times. I did some wrenching on the height of the mag button to lower it to the same height as the other gun. It seemed to be out of the way in dry fire after the adjustment but I needed to test it in live fire to verify.

It was HOT at the range on Saturday topping out in the upper 90’s. I drank over a gallon of water that day and I was still a little dehydrated by the end of the day. There wasn’t a consistent breeze through the day so there were a couple of times where the heat was pretty oppressing. But we powered through it and got the match done.

On Sunday I attended the club match in Pueblo. I shot the whole match with the #2 limited blaster and it worked great. No mag dropping issues or any other gun drama. My shooting on the other hand was pretty lack luster. I started off the match with a mike/no shoot on a head shot at about 10 yards away. I mashed the trigger on the second shot and called it marginal and it ended up being bad. I should have made it up but I didn’t for whatever reason. I think I am still getting use to the different sight picture I see with these new glasses. Then on the classifier stage it was an unloaded start with a reload and I botched the load and the reload both. The rest of the stages I shot ok but nothing special. It was hot at the range that day as well in the mid 90’s so I think I was just worn out. The good news is that the #2 limited blaster seems to be back in action. Its nice to get all three of my limited blasters back to 100%.

This coming weekend I am running the Mile High Showdown. I am serving as the Match Director and I found out this weekend that my Range Master can’t make it so I get to do that job as well. I am also doing the Stats so my plate is going to be very full. I am going to try to shoot the match but if I get busy with running the match I will put shooting it on the back burner. My top priority is to make sure that the match runs well so my own shooting performance isn’t much of a concern. We are starting the stage setup on Thursday so its going to be a long 4 day weekend for me. The totally awesome thing is that the weather forecast for the match is looking clear. It will be hot but it at least won’t be raining or anything like that.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend was the Mile High Showdown. Holly Cow that was a crap ton of work!!! We setup all of the stages on Thursday. Luckily we had a good crew of guys to help with setup. By the time we got done with the setup I was so beat that I only had the energy to walk the first 6 stages to come up with some sort of stage plan. I would have to figure out the second set of 6 stages on the fly when I got to them while shooting the match. My focus was on making sure that the match ran well overall so I didn’t put much effort into optimizing my shooting performance.

I shot the whole match on Friday and felt that I did ok. Nothing special but also no train wrecks. I was simply treading water while trying to keep up with all of the match work tasks. Being the MD, RM and Stats guy had me being pulled in all different directions through the whole day so I really couldn’t focus solidly on my own shooting. At the end of the day I was in the lead in Limited just beating out Paul Clark Jr by 5 match points. With Bob Krogh and Ron Avery set to shoot the match on the weekend I knew that my match performance would be able to hold up to them. But it was at least fun to be in the lead for a day.

I didn’t get out of the range on Friday until almost 9PM as I had a bunch of prep work to get done for the weekend. To say that I was tired by the time I got home was an understatement. The alarm went off at 4AM the next morning and I was back at it. The match ran very smooth over the weekend without any major issues. There are always small things that need to be resolved during any match but overall it ran like a well oiled machine. I was physically worn out by the time the weekend rolled around so I was super glad to have shot the match on Friday. I don’t think that I would be able to shoot any better on the weekend if I wanted to because I was so physically spent. I did a great job of keeping hydrated in the hot range conditions. I drank a gallon of Advocare Rehydrate each day and I think that really saved my bacon from getting mega dehydrated.

When all of the results were final Bob Krogh won Limited in convincing fashion and I was in second overall at 94%. Congrats to Bob for a great match performance!!! I am still surprised that I finished second given the circumvented state I shot the match in. Sometimes you get lucky I guess. Either way I had fun running and shooting the match. I feel that from a match management perspective this was my best performance yet. Even though I was tasked with wearing a bunch of different hats I didn’t feel overwhelmed. I think this is mainly because my match staff team is so awesome. Everyone busted their ass to make the match happen. Everything runs smoother when you have a dedicated group of people working hard towards the same goal.

One really cool bonus that I got from the match is that my buddy Andrew filmed all of my stage runs on his GoPro. I didn’t even know he was doing it during the match and I was way too busy to even ask anyone on my squad to film my runs with my phone. He got all of my stage runs captured and compiled them into a single video. Listed below is the link to the video on YouTube. Cool Stuff!!!

https://youtu.be/szF_NkbthaA

This week I need to recuperate, get my shooting gear cleaned up and load a bunch of ammo. I am not feeling very motivated to get any of that done today but I will see what happens when I get home from work.

[SCTaylor]

Sounds like a great weekend! Congratulations on the finish and well run event!

I especially appreciate the video. Coming from someone in your classification, it is nice to see a) how you engage the targets and the speed at which you do. As a new guy, I seem to think of M & GM guys as "super duper" fast and push myself too hard on speed in sake of accuracy. It is a great benefit to see the real deals in action.

[DocMedic]

Cha-Lee, Great match. I love how this match test every ability in your arsenal as a shooter. You and your Staff/RO's did a great job!

[Vanniek71]

Great match Cha-Lee, The stages were awesomely difficult, I'd say they rivaled Prod nationals last year and some were even tougher, loved it!

[PatJones]

You put together the best matches I've been to. I'll be back again next year, I wouldn't miss the mile high.

[thermobollocks]

Tons of fun to shoot and tons of fun (relatively speaking...) to work. Can't beat having an MD who's got his crap together

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I shot local club matches on Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday the club was shorthanded so they asked me to bring and setup a stage. I shot my #2 Limited gun at that match to put some more rounds through the freshly rebuilt config. The gun ran great but I had one instance where I bumped the mag release with my support hand while gripping really hard. Lucky for me it happened on the very last shot of the stage and I was done shooting. When I got home I did some more tweaking on the mag release paddle position and hopefully it will be out of the way now. Other than that I shot pretty good for the day. I didn’t have any shooting penalties and no D Zone hits. I could have shot a couple of the stages more aggressively but it just didn’t happen.

On Sunday I did some training with a couple of shooters during the day then attended the CGC indoor match in the evening. I decided to shoot Open since I have not shot that blaster in a while. I also wanted to get at least one match on the forward 90 deg scope mount. My match performance was horrible. I am not sure if I was simply worn out from training most of the day or if I was thrown off by shooting open, but I racked up an alarming amount of misses and no shoots for the match. I also had an FTE which I can’t even remember the last time I did that. Match performance aside, the Open gun ran well. The dot tracked smoothly straight up and down and stayed in the glass the whole time. I had one nose dive jam but I think that was due to me getting my thumb into the slide in a heavy crouch position. With a 7lb recoil spring it doesn’t take much thumb in the slide to screw up the feeding.

I ordered a Delta Point Pro sight and Cheely mount for the Open gun so that is the next phase of testing. I like the low dot vs bore axis of the 90 degree C-More mount but it chews up too much visual real estate to the left. It forces me to shoot medium transition width target arrays left to right because I can’t see the next target to engage until I start driving the gun towards the next target. That usually leads to over shooting the target then having to move back to it.

The last update I want to mention is that I picked up Lucas Oil as a new sponsor. I got their products a couple of weeks ago and have used them on my guns with great success. Their Extreme Duty grease and gun oil works great. The Extreme Duty grease has about the same “Thickness” as slide glide light which is what I was using before. I have about 1000 rounds on the grease setup and its holding up well. I should be able to shoot several thousand rounds between cleans with the Lucas Oil products keeping everything lubed up. The cool thing about the Extreme Duty gun oil is that it has a tackiness to it that keeps it sticking to where you apply it. Its not thick oil, its just has a tackiness to it. Normal motor oil or other gun oils don’t do that and usually run off of where you apply it or get flung off when you shoot. I am also looking forward to representing Lucas Oil at the matches I attend.

[Ssanders224]

Charlie,

I went to wolf extra heavy mag release springs a while back, and have not had a problem bumping the release since.

just a thought.

#bighandproblems

[CHA-LEE]

Charlie,

I went to wolf extra heavy mag release springs a while back, and have not had a problem bumping the release since.

just a thought.

#bighandproblems

I have the extra heavy mag release spring in there already. I have short thumbs so I need a paddle that comes back towards my thumb so I can reach the mag release without needing to shift my grip. I have reduced the size of the paddle as much as I can but the angle of which it points and the height of it off of the grip need to be perfect or I will hit it with the palm of my support hand.

[Ssanders224]

Charlie,

I went to wolf extra heavy mag release springs a while back, and have not had a problem bumping the release since.

just a thought.

#bighandproblems

I have the extra heavy mag release spring in there already. I have short thumbs so I need a paddle that comes back towards my thumb so I can reach the mag release without needing to shift my grip. I have reduced the size of the paddle as much as I can but the angle of which it points and the height of it off of the grip need to be perfect or I will hit it with the palm of my support hand.

Ah, gotcha.

[CHA-LEE]

This past weekend I decided to get out of town with the wife and head to Grand Junction. I brought my shooting gear and had a chance to do some practice with Bob Krogh on Saturday and Sunday. It was fun to do some blasting with him over the weekend. We setup a few stages with some fairly difficult shooting with tight shots and steel at distance. We were both pushing the envelope on shooting speed for the partial targets to see what we could get away with. There was some success and some fantastic train wrecks but much was learned. On Sunday it was overcast so that was a good test of shooting in less than optimal lighting conditions. My glasses worked out well but I still found myself trying to focus on the targets instead of the sights. Some habits are hard to break.

The one thing that I found is that if I gripped the gun super hard I would also mash the tar out of the trigger. Gripping hard would speed up my shooting and transitions but it would also produce hits that were 3 – 4 inches low due to mashing the trigger. On fairly open targets this wasn’t an issue but with the tight no shoot partials it lead to a lot of miss/No shoot hits. The real bummer is that I called these shots “Good” so I am not seeing the front sight dip ever so slightly as I mash the trigger. This was on the overcast day so I am not sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me due to the lighting or not. Either way I was mashing the trigger really bad towards the end of the Sunday practice day and I couldn’t keep my hits out of the no shoots while trying to shoot aggressively.

I need to put some more work into shooting these super tight partials aggressively to find the proper solution. I also need to work on taking multiple steps while exiting position and engaging targets skill. It’s not that I can’t do it, I just don’t feel very comfortable while doing it.

It was a good practice and I was able to put a decent amount of ammo through the #2 blaster to confirm that the mag button issue is resolved. Its running like a champ so I think it’s ready to be put back into Primary status.

Now I have to put some more serious time behind the reloading press to get my ammo stash restocked.

[CHA-LEE]

After the painful trigger mashing experience over the 4^th of July weekend I started doing some dry fire testing with different trigger depths and angles. I currently using a short SV trigger shoe on all of my guns. Since I can’t go any shorter I started making the trigger shoe longer by putting in temporary spacers and seeing what the front sight would do in dry fire when mashing the trigger aggressively. I tried a bunch of different angles and depths then settled on a flat shim that was 3mm more forward. With my finger slightly more forward the sight displacement was very little even when mashing the tar out of the trigger.

I had a friend measure the length of his Medium SV trigger shoe and surprisingly it’s also 3mm more forward than the short shoe. So swapping the short trigger shoe out with the medium should be perfect. Since I didn’t have a medium trigger shoe on hand I glued a temporary 3mm plastic shim to the front of my short trigger shoe. This was a pretty desperate temporary fix but I wanted to see if the longer trigger would actually make a difference in live fire during the weekend matches. I am glad to report that my temporary fix worked through the weekend without any issues and that my “Mashing Low” hits were gone while shooting the stages. I wouldn’t have though that moving the trigger forward only 3mm would make such a dramatic difference but it did. I didn’t even notice the longer trigger while shooting and it didn’t affect my speed of shooting either. I am really stoked about getting this issue fixed. I have been battling the “low hits” issue for a while now.

The two local club matches I shot this weekend were fun and challenging. The weather was hot but not humid so it made for acceptable shooting conditions. I was drinking water consistently all day so I did a good job of not getting too dehydrated. The match on Saturday I was really happy with my shooting from an accuracy perspective. I shot a 28 round all steel field course stage with only needing 1 make up shot on a 20 yard plate rack. The rest of the shots were in the calibration circles of the steel so that was awesome. There was also an all hard cover stage with a lot of hardcore aiming and all of my hits where right where I wanted them. The only bummer was on the classifier where I broke my first shot too early and sunk it right into the no shoot. With it being a Virginia count stage I couldn’t make up the shot and that is always a sucky feeling when you know you have to eat a Mike No Shoot. Oh well, that is what I get for trying to rush things instead of letting them happen at whatever pace is needed.

On Sunday I attended the match in Pueblo. It was hot down there with a high of 102 degrees. There was a slight breeze so it wasn’t horrible but hot none the less. I once again pounded water all day and did my best to keep ahead of the dehydration issue. I was a little more dehydrated at the end of this match verses the one on Saturday but it wasn’t super bad. I shot the match ok but had a few mistakes. I got a bad grip on one stage and my hands were too sticky to reposition the gun so I tried shooting like that and racked up a bunch of D’s and a miss. On another stage I fell out of the shooting area and had to get back in to finish my last shot on the target. Then on a speed shoot stage I hit a no shoot behind a mini popper because I was aiming at “White” instead of aiming at the center of the circle. On a good note I did shoot the classifier well and the stage 6 field course. Stage 6 pushed the boundaries of my shooting on the move while moving aggressively. It worked out great and I crushed everyone on that stage. Overall I was ok with my match finish but I could tell the hot range conditions were affecting my mental sharpness.

This week I have to get the trigger shoes swapped out on all of my blasters. I hope that the longer trigger shoe is really going to fix the low hits issue and not just a “Trick of the day” thing that only works for a couple of matches. We will see how it goes.

[CrashDodson]

I found the medium works much better for me also after shooting with the short for several months.

[PatJones]

Charlie, I find I am more sensitive to trigger length in my 1911 than I am in any of my double action guns with a pivoting trigger. I think the additional movement of the pivoting trigger let's me feel the direction I'm moving the trigger; I can feel "straight." With the limited movent of the 1911-type sliding trigger I find it more difficult to feel "straight" outside of slow fire. With a long trigger in the 1911 I pull left shooting at match speed. Did you ever need to play with the trigger shoe on your old Tanfo?

Edited July 12, 2016 by PatJones

[CHA-LEE]

I did go through a trigger depth optimization process on my EAA/Tanfo guns. I ended up with a trigger position that was pretty far back in the trigger guard. That is why I started with the short trigger shoe on the 2011. I actually put a bottom curve short shoe in there to start because that had the same tactile feel of the slightly curved EAA trigger. The bottom curve trigger shoe made the front sight dip really bad so I switched it out for the short flat and have been using it since. I have always had a low biased POI with the 2011 when shooting aggressively. Way more than my EAA guns. We all mash the trigger harder than need be when shooting aggressively so any little thing that can be tweaked to minimize sight displacement while mashing is welcomed. At least it is for me.

[CHA-LEE]

Last night I did a detailed cleaning and inspection of the #2 blaster and installed the medium trigger shoe. The hammer hooks were looking a little iffy so I replaced the hammer and freshened up the trigger job. I have not had any issues with the hammer following or anything like that but I would rather error on the safe side and proactively replace it verses waiting for it to fail. While I was in there I also replaced the recoil spring with a fresh one. Working on this blaster reminded me that I have not done much recoil/hammer spring testing using the slow motion video with the new bushing barrel setup. I have thrown some different weight recoil/hammer springs in my range bag so I can test that stuff out again the next time I go out for some live fire practice. My left arm and grip has gotten stronger since the last time I did the testing so that increase in strength its self justifies doing the testing again. The process of finding the optimal setup never ends.

The bummer is that it will be a couple of weeks before I get a chance to shoot again. The wife and I are going on Vacation this coming Saturday and will be gone for a week so I will be devoid of all shooting activities for a while. All I can do this week is get my gear prepared so I can hit the ground running when I get back. My next major match isn't until September so I have plenty of time to get myself and my gear tuned up for the final series of major matches at the end of the year.

[MarkCO]

Have a great Vacation.

[CHA-LEE]

Have a great Vacation.

Thanks Mark, we are looking forward to it!!!

[CHA-LEE]

Last night I was able to get the #1 Limited gun cleaned up and reworked with the medium trigger shoe. One thing that I noticed while getting it all tuned up is that when the trigger is at 2lb 4oz (Where I normally set it up) the break felt a lot heavier than it use to. Then I had “duh” moment because my finger is further forward and has less leverage against the trigger. With the short trigger shoe the 2lb 4oz trigger pull weight was the perfect weight for that setup. I think I am going to need something lighter than that to optimize the new medium trigger shoe setup. I am going to leave my #2 blaster at the 2lb 4oz setup then setup the #1 with it right at 2lbs. Then I will test it in dry and live fire to see if the lighter weight works better than the heavier setup.

It’s funny how we get use to something feeling “Normal” and get distracted by anything that does not feel normal. I am going to lighten up the trigger on the #1 blaster until it feels “Normal” again and see what the trigger pull weight ends up being. Then use that as the new test weight against the old setup. The fiddling never ends!!!

Tonight I am going to get the #3 blaster cleaned up and reworked. If I am feeling extra motivated I will do the Open gun as well. All of this wrenching is tedious but that is what I get for having so many blasters. It does give me a chance to go through each gun from top to bottom to ensure everything is good though.

[CHA-LEE]

Last night I got the #3 Limited blaster reworked to install the medium trigger shoe. I also did some dry fire with the 2lb trigger and the 2lb 4oz trigger and I prefer the lighter 2lb trigger. The 2lb trigger feels “normal” to me verses the other one and I guess that is to be expected since I have less finger leverage against the trigger now.

I then setup all three of my limited blasters with a break right at 2lbs. Getting all three of them to have an identical trigger pull action feel and weight is super difficult but they are about as close as I can get them. I still need to get the Open gun trigger reworked but I am not sure if I am going to have time to do it this evening. I have to get packed up for this trip to Hawaii.

All of my Limited blasters are cleaned up, reworked and ready to rumble when I get back from Vacation. It will be nice to hit the ground running when I get back. Next on the practice schedule is to retest the recoil & hammer spring combos with slow motion video.

[CHA-LEE]

There were no matches for me this past weekend so I decided to get some live fire practice done on both Saturday and Sunday. I got a chance to do a bunch of Recoil & Hammer spring testing to see if I could find a combo that was better than the current setup I am using. I started out with a 10lb Recoil and 18lb hammer spring combo and tried all kinds of spring weight combinations. After many swaps I and slow motion video review I settled on an 8lb recoil and 17lb hammer spring combo. This setup still produces a slightly harsh felt recoil that I want but reduces the muzzle flip a little but more importantly reduces the muzzle bounce as the slide closes. I used the 8/17 spring combo to shoot the practice stage a bunch of times and I really liked how it felt and how the sights tracked. This setup actually reminds me of how the recoil impulse felt and sight tracking looked when I was shooting my EAA/Tanfo limited guns.

I uploaded the Before and After slow motion video onto my youtube channel if you want to check it out. The two look very similar on video but when I look at them one frame at a time on my phone I can see a pretty big difference. More importantly I can feel and see a pretty big difference while shooting the two setups. The one thing that I didn’t do after settling on the 8/17 spring setup was shoot some precision groups to see if the really light recoil spring is degrading the lockup and thus accuracy. I had accuracy issues when using lighter recoil springs when I had my first short dust cover with plastic grip gun, so I am not sure if these new long dust cover guns will have the same issue. I need to double check that the next time I am at the range. I did finish the practice session shooting 6 inch plates at about 35 yards though so the accuracy can’t be that bad.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnxkWIq1Rf0

I also didn’t notice any mashed low hits on the difficult partial no shoot targets and I am attributing that to the medium trigger shoe. The trigger weight of 2lbs felt “Normal” and I didn’t have any issues with trigger freeze or mashing so I think that using the 2lb break is right where it needs to be.

The practice stage was a long field course that pushed the limits of engaging targets on the 180 while shooting on the move through the stage. The shooting area was a zig zag that had you moving left and right while shooting on the move so it was a good test in shooting while moving in several different directions. Overall it was a challenging stage that pushed your limits which is nice.

It was really nice to spend a decent amount of time on gun tuning to prove that the new setup in springs and trigger shoe are actually better. I am looking forward to getting use to the new setup and seeing how it does during matches.

Edited August 1, 2016 by CHA-LEE