cheers623

My Open gun uses the same frame as the HexTac, including the light rail. It’s drilled and tapped and has the Brazos slipstream mount with RTS2 on it. It’s in 9Major and is holding up just as well as my wife’s Factory Trubor 9Major. Only drawback I can see would be the facing cut on the front of the slide that would need to be made for fitting the comp and new barrel. If you ever wanted to go back to the original barrel, etc....it might look a little odd. Other than that....it’ll work.

I’ve got and use both. From a fitting standpoint, my experience has been that the CK will be MUCH closer to drop on fit. Both are very well made too. For me, the CK is a little more comfortable in the hands. Rgardless of texturing though, I still need progrip for either when my hands are sweaty. You can’t go wrong with either. Other than the magwell and mag release being proprietary on the CK, either one will work fine and be quite different than plastic.....

I did my own with a grinding wheel and then polish with paper wrapped on a paint stirstick. Looked like it was made that way when I finished. Brian of PT did a few sets for me at the PT factory and I watched. He just used an air driven grinder and then bead-blasted them. They came out pretty much the same as mine, except they weren’t shiny because of the bead blasting. The trick is to decide how many “lines” you want to remove, mark them with a sharpie, and then go slowly.

Yep, same thing here. .45 with large primer pockets are getting hard to find anymore. I spend about a third of my time at the press having to pull out small primer .45 Brass. 40sw is the way I’ve ended up going for SS and have noticed that the recoil is easier to manage for me, all other things being equal between 40 and 45.

Well...pretty good advice. Try it...and see...

Don't know if I'd go that far...

I’m using mixed range Brass for my current 9Major Open gun. It’s setup with an EGW extractor that has a longer “nose”on the extractor hook. I’ve filed it down quite a bit to try and eliminate these little dings it makes in the middle of the web of the case when cycling in live fire. However, I don’t want to weaken the extractor too much, as I’ve had extractors fail before from doing the same thing. So, my concern is this: should the dings in the case web concern me? Will they weaken the Brass more than usual for use in 9Major? Thoughts...?

Well now...that’s news! Thanks! I’ve got CK grips on my gats right now. Loved the PT EVos I had...but one too many death-jammed magazines in the grip. For some reason I can’t get the mags stuck in the CK grips, no matter how crappy my reloads.

Obviously there’s a wave of makers and users alike that are adopting the metal grips on their 2011 clones. However, anyone have any data on how many of the top-level Open guys are using them? Nils isn’t, Max...nope. Eddie and Keith, nuh uh. Just wondering if they’ve figured out something, since they could have anything they want in their pistols. They still chose the plastic. I’m struggling with this on my Open gun. Got a metal grip...wondering if I should go back? Anyway...thoughts?

Nothing, factory Warranty. STI may not be the perfect company...but they’ve always been good to me with their CS on warranty issues.

Hopefully I can help. Had exactly the same problem with my wife’s brand new Trubor. First shot off a rest or off-hand, didn’t matter...always 3” to the right of POA at 25 yds. Then every other round dead center POA. Videoed it with three 10 round strings out of three magazines. Printed one 3 round group at 3” to the right and one 27 round group dead center the bullseye. Checked slide stop, barrel feet engagement, and barrel hood lockup. The barrel hood had tons of slop in the breech face cutout. Sent the gun to STI and they replaced the slide AND barrel. Problem solved.... YMMV

JPL’s measurements are correct.

+1 on Ramshot Comp being a solid powder for .40 but...very temp sensitive. In stable climates it’s great.

So posted the below thoughts in another thread in this section. Realized after reading it..."this should be it's own thread" so as not to hijack another thread. So, here it is below. Short-version...all the knowledge and wisdom already contained in the BEnos-verse is only further confirmed. Anyway...here you go: I just went through testing a few powders and bullet weights, along with plated, jacketed, and Hi-tech coated bullets. Specifically Ramshot Competition, Titegroup, and N320. The bullets were Xtreme 200gr RNFP, Precision Delta 200gr RNFP, BBI 200gr TC, Rainier 180gr HP, and Xtreme 180gr RNFP. I used all three listed powders with all of the listed bullets and loaded them all to a 5-shot string average of 171-174pf as confirmed by shooting over my CED chronograph. I also used two different 5" 2011-style pistols for each load. One had a factory STI barrel, the other a KKM barrel. So, I was really trying to be thorough and see what I could find out was my personal preference. I had the time and resources to do this because I just moved onto 24 acres of my own. Always dreamed of being able to experiment in depth. Anyway, per this thread...within all of the similar weight bullets, loaded to identical power factor...I could not detect a noticeable difference in recoil and sight-tracking. Both slow fire and running drills on the timer. Specifically, all the 200gr loads felt reasonably similar and no noticeable difference than you might find from round to round of the same powder using mixed-headstamp brass. This held true with the 180gr loads as well. After working up each load in small batches to confirm velocity, I loaded 100rds of each listed above for testing. In all of this testing, only two big observations stood out. #1) There's a pretty noticeable difference in recoil and sight-tracking between 200gr and 180gr bullets. The 200gr being universally slower and softer recoil impulses. I'm not going to characterize better or worse...just slower and softer. Of course how your gun is sprung up matters as well. And for the record, I also tried 11lbs and 12.5lbs ISMI springs in every test too. The 180gr bullets felt faster and sharper in recoil and sight-tracking. The slide cycled faster and the sights seemed to return sooner. I should state that I've been shooting 200gr loads for the last 10+ years. I thought I'd prefer the 200gr loads...I think I'm gonna spend some time with the 180grs and see. When slow-firing, maybe I prefer the 200s....maybe? When the timer is running...I'm leaning towards the 180s...specifically because it seems that my sights return faster. As to "feel" when the timer is running...not hugely noticeably different between 200 and 180...except my sights return faster with 180s. YMMV... #2) Regardless of the claims..."coated" bullets smoked noticeably more during rapid fire strings and timer drills. This isn't a knock on them, but depepending on lighting conditions, could play into your decision. Smoke clouds definitely formed more with the coated bullets. In addition, they are messier when handling, loading, case-gauging, etc. I use nitrile gloves when loading, so it's not really important. However, it may be to you. Cost-wise..."coated" is the budget-minded winner. My research and bulk-pricing comparison puts it like this: 8.5-9 cents per with coated, 10-12 cents per with plated, and 12-13 cents per with jacketd. This assumes a minimum of 2000 pieces purchased and shipped at bulk rates. So, I'm going to try plated 180gr for a while...because I happened to have 4000 pieces laying around from the 2008 panic-buying frenzy. After that...who knows? Regarding powder...well...that'll have to keep for another post/thread. However...short version is: VVN320 is worth the extra money...to me. YMMV

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack thread...rambling mind and old age. Moving post to separate thread. Sorry...

Ok, been trying all the different types of grips for wide body 2011s. Right now, thinking the sandpaper/grit/aluminum oxide is the way to go with the sweat from humidity here in the Midwest. Tape cutouts don't work because I grip the piss out of the gun and end up moving the tape around on the grips. No matter how much prep I do before the install. The best I ever had was an old-school Scott grip from SV. Looking for something similar. Have seen some guy, Vince Pesuti on Nils FB page but had no luck finding contact info. Anyone have a lead or suggestion OTHER than "do it yourself"? I don't currently have time or interest in DIY for grips right now. Any help is appreciated! cheers623!

Definitely 8-32

+1 on Don!

As long as you're cool with the 2.5 moa dot: http://www.evergladesammo.com/shooting-accessories/gunsmithing/ega-deltapoint-pro-scope-mount.html

So, the slide is currently just cut for the small footprint of the Jpoint sight and tapped for the two screws. No locator pins. The horizontal surface of the machined area is cut with a 1 degree down angle. My idea is to machine out a larger area on that same 1 degree down angle and drill and tap a cutout for some sort of MOS adapter plate that could be swapped out to accommodate different mini-red dots. Anybody got a lead on someone that specializes in something like that?

Hey guys, I had a great local smith build me an open gun with Jpoint mounted on the slide. Had problems with two different Jpoints in a row. One had auto brightness issues, the other had zero-wandering issues. Without arguing the pros/cons of slide mounted dots, my question is does anyone know a smith that could machine my slide to accept something similar to the Glock/S&W/SA MOS plates that can allow the use of multiple optics. I'd like to try a few different ones before giving up on the slide-mount option. Help is greatly appreciated, Cheers623 DVC

Bladetech does. You just have to select the STI Edge from their pulldown menu. Its got the same width dust cover. Its longer but shouldn't effect the overall fit of the holster and will still provide a secure hold on the pistol.

Sarge, this reply contains some helpful perspective too. The case fullness would be an issue for me...OCD rules the roost on my reloading bench...can't stand powder spillage... However, it doesn't seem that HS-6 would present a terrible problem with that issue. Or...does it? No experience to rely on personally. Any help is appreciated!

I'm an A class shooter on the verge of making Master in Limited and Single Stack. While spending the time piddling around with different powders is fun, spending more time with one powder, trying different weight loads, and finding one that runs the comp best while also getting trigger time seems....more fun and productive. Neither powder will make me better...duh...just looking for experienced Open shooters who've tried both in a 5" no-holes 9 Major gun and that have informed opinions about which one they'd buy 32lbs of. One of my most highly respected shooting friends started with N350 for .38 Supercomp a number of years back based on my recommendation along with others who had experience with that caliber. Now he's a GM and one of the best Open shooters on the scene. He's never found any reason to experiment or try anything else. I'm just throwing this thread out there in hopes of finding out if there's a similar consensus between the Autocomp and HS-6...because when I do buy whichever powder...it's going be a bunch! Thanks for the helpful feedback thus far...greatly appreciated. Keep it coming...

Gonna be keeping only one 9mm projectile in the supply line. I've got an awesome 9 Minor load for my wife in Production and Limited, and for general practice with our various carry guns. That load uses 124gr PDs. A long time ago...during my first go-round in Open, I tried a bunch of loads with both 115 and 124 Montana Golds. Out of a 5" gun with a traditional comp and no popple-holes, I decided I preferred the 124gr over the 115.