MemphisMechanic

^ What that guy said. You have to work up a load at various OALs with various PFs and shoot groups with them all to find what your gun likes. Often if you can load out to 1.160" for example, maximum accuracy is found around 1.125 or 1.135" My (reamed) gun particularly likes a 135gr load I used to use, at 1.115" even though I could load it all the way out to 1.165" and there's no way to predict it. You have develop your load the old fashioned way. If you have two identical guns, they'll usually reach maximum accuracy with different loads, too!

It's a range of different sight pictures: At zero to a few yards, close and dirty? Look at the target in the center of the A-zone and place the three blurry black bumps in front of it. Work the trigger fast and grip the gun as hard as you can. At 7 yards I want to see the fiber glowing very close to the center of the notch still rather blurry in front of my target For an 8 inch steel plate at 20+ yards? Equal height equal light, roll the trigger back smoothly with the front post in razor sharps focus. Ignore the fiber and focus on the corners of the sights. See everything YOU personally need to see to make the shot, but don't waste time seeing more than you need to either. Also, apply a bit of chap stick to your weak side dominant eye on your glasses next time. Smear it around to slightly haze over the lens in the spot you look through while shooting. It's a huge help for me as a cross-dominant shooter to shoot both eyes open at speed.

My stock 3 with henning pad, mag, SSI Scales: 1302 grams / 46.1 oz Stock 3 with henning pad, mag, no grips at all: 1268 grams / 44.9 oz Stock 3 without mag. No grips. 1150 grams / 40.6 oz I included grams because it's far more precise than letting my scale round things to 1/10th of an ounce.

Up until 2016, Tanfoglio made a Stock, a Stock II, and a Stock III. Naturally, many people referred to the first gun as a "Stock 1" just like the guy who posted that auction. That was all fine and dandy except that... for 2017 Tanfoglio hasintroduced an actual Stock 1. This is the gun which has finger grooves in the grip frame and a straight-walled barrel and should play more nicely in IDPA.

I'll do that tonight if I remember. Can you get me the weights of your grips too? I'm planning to switch and I'm curious if half a safety, lightweight guide rod, grips, and basepads can get a Stock 3 into IDPA legally.

I used to use Flitz. @johnbu suggested I try blue magic, and it definitely gets you a shinier part more quickly. Pick up a small tub of it from the auto parts store.

"I never teach my pupils. I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn." - Albert Einstein

Stock 3's are heavy. I'm running SSI Scales which probably weigh a bit more than the factory wood grips. Without basepad or guide rod:

You are. First of all, accuracy is primairly a fiction of slide-to-barrel fit and lockup, so you won't be affecting that. Second, John's method simply gives you a slide as smooth as it'll be after you put a thousand rounds through the gun. Polishing compound on that much surface area isn't going to do more than remove the very highest spots.

You're welcome. After all, what match conditions are we sighting our guns in for? Tight shots at distance. Things like an upper A zone at 15-20 yards, or a target with a noshoot obscuring the bottom half of the A-zone... or a steel plate at that distance.

Discontinued at the end of 2016.

On all of them, too. Not just the ones you add some shiny option onto.

Make it a natural habit in dryfire for a few thousand reps.

You either need to shoot that classifier faster with those kinds of hits... or shoot it clean. Shooting .30 or so splits like that, you should be able to shoot 17-18 As and 2 or 3 Cs. Get your gun up much much earlier when you move to a new position. See first stage when you leave the plate rack and enter the 2nd shooting area for a really slow example. Learn to call shots. You're looking at targets to see if they got hit, instead of getting that information from your sights.

Huge wasted movement as you bend over to the side to draw the gun. Get the fresh mag drawn nearly instantly as soon as you fire the last shot and headed upward. You'll load on the move much more quickly. Stop jogging and run.

@CHA-LEE sold me his data a while back. It was an amazing 10 page document. The first page had one scentence on it: "The harder you grip the gun and the straighter you pull the trigger at speed, the better you will shoot." The other nine pages were blank.

Try an 8" steel plate - freshly painted white - at 20-25yd. Turns out that half of my group size at 25 was a lack of a high resolution aiming point, even with things like a black duct tape X or shoot-n-see target. White/black contrast combines with the natural human ability to spot the center of a circle really easily. Step into an unused bay for five minutes with screwdriver, a can of white paint, and two full mags at the ready next time you shoot a match. You'll find you can get your group centered on the plate much more quickly than on USPSA/IDPA paper. (Make sure your gun is really close to center at 10-15yd before backing out to 25 to save time.)

Depends how good a friend your machinist is.

Personally I've decided I'll go back over and play in IDPA a little bit, but I'm not spending that kind of money on the "other" sport, which was my first love before I knew any better. I will likely end up with a $325 Witness Steel 9mm with some severely reworked internals, and the slide milled for a 1911 or other common front sight dovetail to fit a fiber optic front blade. I'm curious to see what a $500ish budget can do with this platform.

@1eyedfatman the shallower the notch which forms the single-action hammer hooks, the less work your trigger pull is going to have to do in order to lift the sear out of the hooks and fire the shot. Left arrow: single action hammer hooks Right arrow: half-cock notch

And @MikieM ... if you have any problems with reliability at the range on your first test day? Slip the slide off and remove the firing pin block for the rest of your range trip. If you have rounds go click instead of bang then you know it's a result of DA strike force versus primer seating & brand. Once the gun has eaten several hundred reliable rounds and you know your ammo is perfectly reliable in it, reinstall the FPB and see if the gun is still 100%. Some of us needed to fit our extended firing pin blocks with the Titan & 1pc sear combo... but most did not.

Glad to hear I achieved my objective with those videos. All your friends need to do is search "Tanfoglio Tuning" on YouTube. I tried to pick something easy to remember.

@emjei only if the longer spring doesn't physically collapse into a solid (coil bind) before the slide is done moving. Otherwise your gun is short-stroking. The whole thing from the Wolff employee who said he "just ships a two pound heavier spring for a long-slide gun" seems to no longer apply, if LS and standard springs are showing up as different lengths. They used to be the same length. Kinda.

It all comes down to execution. A poor plan executed perfectly will always beat the prefect plan executed poorly. Never forget that all you need to do is shoot As rather quickly. All those plan options only add up to perhaps 10% of your score... the other 90% is shooting and moving quickly and cleanly. Pick a plan early and memorize it so there's no hesitation between buzzer and final shot. Don't be "that guy/gal" who changes their mind when they are on deck!

Let's try this: Stuff one mag into belt then feed the gun a second on the move. Staart in the center position, and shoot everything in the left port and whichever target on the right or in the center which is visible with the least movement. Staying in center position, Change mags at slide lock and finish the remaining targets. Grab another mag on your way past, load at slide lock, and shoot right right plate rack. Grab final mag and load on the move to the left plate rack. (The only advantage this stage plan has over yours is less time spent standing still filling up your belt.)