MemphisMechanic

Red Hill Tactical delivered my rush-order holster for the gun right on time. With the standard spacers in the BOSS hanger, it's 1-7/8" from the inner belt. Despite the one image that makes it look more like 4" away. Fits like a glove, no rocking at all even when it's loose - because it's wrapped around the slide releases on both sides. That's an improvement over past holster bodies for other makes. Match #1 happens tomorrow, and I'll live fire for the first time just before it starts.

This should help you guys out: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwzRTye8pZ0VD8Mqa6un1kvPZmqnz2f1U

Intersring that Bayou 147s run heavy. All my Bayou "150gr SWC" bullets weighed 147.0-148.3 grains!

You know I've done a lot of cerakote work and that I'm a Tanfo guy. In my opinion they mix burnt bronze with a little bit of black and darken it slightly. Also remember that you're looking at photographs with questionable white balance and color temperatures: unless you compare the two in person it would be impossible to say. I will say that burnt bronze and black on the same gun look amazing: that's the color scheme I'd pick. A total Xtreme clone will also require 3 colors: you'd need stainless for the controls. That's roughly $100-120 just in raw materials from Cerakote and will drive the price of the project up.

Agreed. I found I heavily preferred a 124/125gr bullet over the 147 in a Stock 3. The gun is so heavy and recoil so light - there's almost no difference in snappiness between the 124 and the 147. After running a few hundred of each through the gun in the same weekend, I liked the quicker cycling speed and sight tracking of the 124s.

I agree with @Tanfastic that the BOSS hanger is superior to the copy... I mean... the Springer version.

I still love the platform more that almost any other gun I've shot. Mowing down a 15yd plate rack with a Tanfo? Sinfully easy with such a stable weapon. But at the same time shooting a heavy metal gun has proven to me that any reliable accurate fullsize 9mm is going to net almost the exact same score - that the gear change really didn't matter. So I just want to play with something else I like shooting, for a year. I'm sure I'll own another one someday.

Buy a ticket to the concert. "Its not the gear" You and I have proven this to ourselves many times over. Glock, M&P, Tanfo, CZ, and now myself with the new Walther Q5 Match. It doesn't matter which bow we use. Once the operator is proficient with it, the archer is pretty much solely responsible for the score. Gear doesn't matter. If it's an accurate, fullsize, reliable 9mm gun? Your scores in Production will be virtually the same. Plastic guns transition faster. The stability of my 45 oz pig of a Stock 3 made 15yd plate racks feel like cheating. They're give and take. Gear doesn't matter.

Most of the tapered cone profile 125-135 weight bullets, from the coated bullet makers, will let you load plenty long in shorter-chambered guns. Fat round-nosed profiles are the troublemakers. As an example using a semi short-chambered M&P? (Not quite as short as a CZ or Tanfo) Acme 124 RN needed to be shorter than 1.110" to chamber. Black Bullets 125 TC spin freely at 1.150" Following that, I'm quite confident that you could load in the 1.125"-1.135" neighborhood for a factory Tanfoglio barrel all day long.

... for a silver stock 3, it looks like. RHT holsters with the double thickness of kydex are as good as you will find. I highly recommend. I'd sell you mine with the gun, if I weren't left handed.

5-10 rounds left in the first magazine, and 5-10 in the second mag? That's a good way to ensure you never, ever come near running the gun dry. Sounds like you have some never or more inexperienced shooters giving you suggestions.

Best option out there is a Red Hill Tactical double-thickness holster body on a BOSS hanger. It's what I run, and I couldn't make the setup more rigid if I cast it from concrete.

Pull .1 or .2 off the mimimum powder charge for an FMJ and you usually have a pretty good starting point for the same weight of coated bullet. If you're starting down at the minimum end of things, you're certainly not going to create a dangerous situation with that first load.

It comes down to how you like your gun to balance. The Stock 3, CZ Shadow & Shadow 2 are all bear more weight out front like a Limited gun. It bothers some guys guys who are used to a butt-heavy gun but I've always like it. That said, I'm going back to a polymer gun and I'm going to sell my cerakoted Stock 3 with all the PD goodies and 7 mags soon.

Both rods function perfectly with the matching spring installed. I have a 13lb ISMI spring for an M&P in the gun right now... and a 15lb Wilson flat-wire 1911 spring on the way.

Operation stainless steel guiderod... is complete. One .288" diameter guide rod which fits the Walther spring. One .250" guide rod which should fit a Glock/M&P/1911 style flat wire spring. I'll see how it (dryfire) functions this evening.

Thanks! Just ordered a 13 and 15 lb Wilson flat spring. I have a machinist buddy at work looking for time to turn me a SS guide rod later today. Uncaptured and 3/4" longer than the factory one to make installation easy, should be pretty straightforward.

Where did you pick up the guide rod?

Trigger started at a crisp 5 pounds even: Tore her down to every individual part before so much as firing it once. The PPQ has an odd action: a hook shaped sear is propped up by a kickstand, of sorts. The trigger bar knocks that out from underneath the sear, and allows it to pivot downward and trip the striker. An aggressive polish of the sear, trigger bar, the leg on the striker that engages the sear, and the firing pin block really made this trigger exceptional: 4.25lbs without any modifications. I have no plans to further tinker with the internals beyond a change in recoil spring weight. And now she's ready for the match this weekend:

Chamber length was brought up: "does this gun have a short chamber?" YES. Yes it does. Made up a variety of dummy rounds. Maximum lengths that will chamber without the bullet ending up in the lands: I have a variety of dummies I cooked up of each of these loaded at 1.100" ... 1.110"... 1.120"... etc. My findings: 125 TC Black Bullets Int'l. Max length 1.120" (fails at 1.125") 124gr Acme RN. Max length 1.108"-1.115" (Failed 1.122") 135gr Black Bullets Int'l. Max length 1.130" (Failed 1.135") 147gr Precision Delta FMJ. Max length 1.125" (Failed 1.130") 150gr Bayou SWC. Max length 1.100" (Failed 1.115")

Allow me to clarify: I found it noticeable when dryfiring at a bench. I found it made little to no difference in live fire practice or during a match when shooting at a higher speed.

That. I found there to be a nearly imperceptible improvement in changing the plunger spring, not worth the decrease in reliability. I run the OEM one with two coils clipped off and it's 100% reliable, but in hindsight I wouldn't have bothered trimming it.

For whatever reason the LP is like the only non-Xtreme Tanfo to come with a one piece sear.

I wasn't planning to buy one yesterday. Just find a shop with an ordinary PPQ to see how it fit me. Two shops had none when I called. At shop #3 though? "Do you have a Walther PPQ in stock?" "Several, yes." "Do you have a 5 inch, by any chance?" "We have that new one with the blue trigger." "I am on the way there!" Picked it up and it pointed right where the Tanfoglio did, the grip fit me perfectly, and the controls are where I instinctively want them to be: "I'll take it." Now I have RedHill rushing me a holster body, and a Dawson sight, Talon griptape, and 3 more mags all on their way.

Maybe I'll become that guy and sit down at a table with both and lecture YouTube on the thinking behind it. Short version is that my Tanfo proved that the gun doesn't matter. Hand someone a Glock, M&P, AccuShadow2, or Walther, give them a month of hard dryfire... and they'll shoot the same match score as long as the gun groups well. I carry plastic guns. I'm used to plastic triggers which roll backward between the wall and the break. I'm gonna go back to competing with one, and the ergos on the Walther are even better than my Tanfo - it feels amazing to my hands. It's also the most left-friendly gun I've ever touched. Both the mag catch and slide release are ridiculously huge and easy to operate without moving my grip.