MemphisMechanic

Which Dillon are you running? I modified my 650 to drive primers a little deeper by shimming the primer ram's stop up higher like this: ...and my gun is running a 14 pounder, and flush primers don't hit consistently in double action. The gun sets off anything in SA. I'd certainly shoot yours with a 14 before considering a lighter spring. If it runs 100% at 14 then you run into issues with a 14, you'll know what your problem is. Won't be wondering.

Everyone gives more 'political' answers than you, Tony. Abrasive bastard.

Ask ARy or Johnbu. Honestly I'd just go ahead and replace it with the factory one right now. Weigh your trigger before and after, just for peace of mind that it didn't change much. With a 14# hammer spring my S3 will fire anything in DA except for the 1 in 100 CCI's that my Dillon 650 sometimes leaves a couple of thousandths high. In SA it even ignites those. "High" in this case means they're still below flush, but not buried. Primer depth is now a crucial factor in your gun's reliability, so keep that in mind as the #1 cause of any rounds failing to fire. At least on guns with barrels that have been sent to visit Bevin.

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Guys are chasing better trigger pulls, and lighter springs are always better, right? I'd have bought one six months ago, before the "PD Optimized" recipe was so widely known and successful.

You don't want to change the plunger spring, B_RAD. Upside: Barely noticeable drop in trigger pull. Downside: Likely reduces upward pressure on the trigger bar enough to cause the hammer to fall too early in DA. Probably not worth the risk.

All six of my CDNN mags function effortlessly with my Stock 3. But they're the $15 Mec-Gar's , not the $25 K9 mags.

Told ya. They fit almost anything, you just need to swap the leaf springs for weaker or stronger flavors in some cases. CZ mags fall easily out of my pouches if set up for Glock/M&P/Tanfo.

Talk to @Kingman and I bet he (Red Hill Tactical) can whip up a pair of IDPA compliant individual mag pouches. His holsters are top notch and he had no problem making a lefty stock3 holster body for my BOSS hanger - not exactly something you find in the local gun shop! No one runs a double carrier in IDPA who finishes near the top, and for good reason.

And I thought my S3 was horrible when factory at 10lb 5oz SA pull weight was higher than yours though!

Ghost ghost ghost ghost ghost. http://benstoegerproshop.com/ghost-360-universal-magazine-pouch-uspsa-ipsc/ Cheap. Fit Tanfo, Glock, M&P, CZ... and retain all of them well due to the leaf-spring setup. Also costs $0 to use them either bullets-out or bullets-forward.

Was joke. Thank you for killing it, kind sir.

What hammer spring weight are you running?

No racker?

I don't know about that. The "triple hoper" I tended to lean upon in my early days seemed to frequently generate an RO yelling "1 Charlie, 1 Delta, 1Mike!" Seems like firing two well-aimed rounds at the A-zone actually beats squirting three bullets in the direction of the brown thing. Who'd have thought?

I've had two different Blade-Tech holster bodies on my BOSS rig, and I'm now running a dual-layer holster body from @Kingman (redhilltactical.com) on it to fit my Tanfo Stock 3. The RHT body cost roughly the same as the Blade-Tech and is actually smoother and offers a cleaner draw - the BT body sometimes bound if you didn't lift the gun out exactly vertical. It's also solid as hell, being twice as thick. I would heartily recommend that combination. Order the hanger for $50 from BSPS and a holster body from RHT for around $58, requesting it be drilled for BOSS hanger in the comments section on the order page.

You mean firing a quick "triple hoper" at it and scurrying off to the next target isn't ideal technique?

Hey, I can shoot one-hole groups at arms length... then write "50yd" on my target and post it on the internet, too.

Okay. We have a diagnosis. It isn't an over-fit firing pin block, which ARy and I thought was possible. That leaves... primers and hammer spring strength. I went through 200 rounds tonight, decocking the hammer 200 times. (Not terribly fun.) After the first "click" on a double-action pull, I took the block and it's spring out of the side and continued to run another 175 rounds through it. The malfunction ratio was identical to what I've experienced with the block installed. (I brought some of my old 135BBI/1.070"/CCI primed ammo with me, just to be sure.) Before the range trip, I shimmed the stop for my 650's primer ram upward 1/16" with a small piece of sheetmetal and loaded 100 rounds this way. I reduced my light strike ratio to 1 in 50 rounds on CCI primers in mixed-headstamp brass. That's about 20% of what I was experiencing before, when it would go "click" about once per magazine if every shot was fired DA. There's always some variation in primer depth on a 650, but this does seem to drive them all a bit deeper. Here's the shim I'm referring to: So... now that I know what's going on, I have two possible futures: 1. I find that the PD firing pin will let me light the ammo coming off of my press, and I stick with their 14 pound hammer spring. 2. I switch to a Wolff 14 pound spring, or an EG Medium spring. Per Johnbu, those are both heavier than the 14# PD but they also make the trigger stack again. Remember that as soon as the gun makes it through a match without problems, I'm going to start feeding it magnum CCI primers. If I hand-primed my ammo, switched to Win or Federal primers, or immediately converted to a 1050, I'd have a perfectly reliable gun. As much as I want (and plan) to convert to a 1050, that's not happening anytime soon. This gun has to learn to love the same ammo every other 9mm I own consumes without complaint. I don't particularly mind if it winds up with an 8# /3.75# trigger in order to accomplish that goal. I'm not trying to constantly play with springs in order to drop my pull weight. This gun's job is to run flawlessly in matches, and I've never been able to tell a 4 pound trigger from a 7 pounder once the timer goes off. Trigger weight is something to argue about on the internet and it doesn't affect your match placement, as long as it's reasonable and the action is smooth. The PD firing pin and the Wolff/EG Medium hammer springs will all be here in about a week. We'll see what the winning combination turns out to be.

My highest was in the low 20s, running an indoor match weekly and loading for that match... and shooting outdoors 3 times a month too. Quitting the indoor match alone halved my lead level, and switching from jacketed to coated bullets dropped it further still. FMJs have bare lead exposed on the base of the bullet, whereas HiTek coated bullets have no exposed lead at all. It hovers between 6 and 12 now when I have it checked, and I'm content with that. Especially since I work in an industrial setting and my baseline exposure level is expected to be higher.

Along with the holes in the hammer and sear for their pivot pins. And the hole in the frame for the hammer spring. Going back in and hitting every pin and every hole meticulously took almost 1.0 / 0.5 lbs off my trigger pull weights. Which means more importantly that things moved more easily. Which means there's less force lost to friction when the hammer is sent forward to strike. That's what I was really after.

Impossible! The gun clearly needs more parts thrown at it! It can't be the ammo. More widgets is the answer! Ahem. If I had a dime for every time I diagnosed a poorly running diesel truck due to fuel contamination issues, after it's owner had thrown $3,000 worth of parts at the problem...

LEFT: Factory firing pin block which only works with the factory two-piece sear. RIGHT: The extended firing pin block (Xtreme) which only functions with the one-piece sear. There is approximately a .030" difference in height as measured here, if you're not sure which one you have: If your firing pin isn't clearing, you'll probably see peening on it here, like I did before I filed down the Xteme FPB until contact disappeared. The easiest way to see if the problem is the FPB is to take it out and go shoot the gun. Hopefully your light strikes disappear. My gun still had light strikes last time I shot it. I'll be removing in on my next trip to the range if they haven't disappeared.

Can't do it. Skipping around past all the Van Halen and then "enjoying" 8 minutes of shooting talk crammed into a 45 minute long rambling podcast about all the surgeries on his dogs... I have his first book. I'll buy his second one. When he condenses his podcasts down to 10-15 mins of SHOOTING talk without turning it into a classic rock station I'll drop $20 on those in a heartbeat. I actually liked his interview on the Shooters Summit (at www.firearmsnation.com) because Arik kept him on shooting topics for the entire 50 minutes. I paid $20 for full access to the Summit, as proof of my earlier statement.