MemphisMechanic

I'll take them when I can. I had a stage which was the perfect test this weekend. Taking a pair of 10 yd targets on the move allowed me to roll through a spot most others shot flat-footed. As the last last target was partial hardcover, I might as well put the final round in it for a "preplanned makeup." The resulting reload on the move dropped the slide smoothly from the impact of the mag being seated in the magwell. Without having to deliberately drive it in hard.

I use the Dillon roller handle. There was no INF option when I set mine up in '09 No way I'd run a 650 without a roller. that table top is what I used. Glued and screwed .75" ply doubled over. Very good. Oh. BOLT YOUR BENCH TO THE STUDS IN THE WALL NOW. Not later.

My last pair was the Adidas Trail KA, also at $40. I ran 7 tough mudders in them (each one 10-12 miles of wear and tear you wouldn't believe) and shot in them for a full season. They're still structurally perfect, seams soles and all. I only wanted to replace them because getting drenched and then drying them out (in mud runs) over and over eventually shrunk them 1/2 a size and they're now just slightly too small. Huge fan of their shoes if you're going to use them hard.

Academy had a pair of Adidas on sale for $40 this weekend. Some pretty good deals on trail shoes are around as it gets too cold for them to be in demand... and these aren't brightly colored clown shoes either. I find Adidas to typically be half the price of Salomon's, and more comfortable for an E-width foot. This will be my third pair of their trail shoes.

I used to work on doin that. but honestly? I find that alternating makes for a more interesting video for others to watch, like this rather mediocre stage run from this past weekend: I stil keep the "rear view" footage around for myself and fellow shooters to watch and critique, since 1st person is largely useless for that. You likely feel differently, and that's great. Just an option I wanted to share.

Very first match with Stock III. Cant reach the mag catch under match stress quite as well as I could in dryfire, so mag changes are glacially slow. But it'll improve with new grips and dryfire.

Yes, that's what I was saying, above. Tanfos work the opposite way that Glock or M&P striker blocks do: Those are lifted up out of the way by the trigger bar when you fire. In a Tanfoglio it is held upward (blocking the pin) until you pull the trigger and then it drops down out of the way. The 1-piece sear doesn't move as far as the 2 piece does. So you need a taller firing pin safety block and will probably need to fit it for proper function so that your firing pin doesn't drag on it a little. Or a lot.

Wait. They ported the barrel on the Limited? ...Making the Limited illegal... in Limited. That's a bold strategy, Cotton. Let's see how it works out for them.

So... Tanfo SIG P320? Poly frame and interchangeable grips. I like everything except for the phrase "light weight"

Your mention of "canted gun" made me think: Have you taken the time to compare SHO / WHO shooting with the gun canted versus held vertical? I'm curious about your thoughts on that if you have. I keep meaning to run an array both ways over and over and compare HFs, but it never occurs to me when I'm at the range.

Yes. You do. Three years into loading for USPSA matches, you stop being an OCD reloader and just work out a combination that is accurate and makes PF ... then buy 10-20k of those components. Even if you find a combination that shoots 10% softer than your current ammo, you won't notice it on the timer at a match. Certainly won't see it in your score. Guys just like to tinker. Especially those drawn to shooting and loading.

The gun comes with a 17lb spring. And you'll love it with 147s - it'll shoot flatter. There's a reason everyone you shoot against is going to be running a lighter weight recoil spring. I run an 8 pound one in the Tanfoglio I switched to after switching from the M&P, but that slide also has to cock a 14-lb hammer spring on it's way back. Spring weights off of guns like 2011s and hammer-fired production guns are always even lighter than you'd use in an M&P, XD, or Glock.

I believe you're right. It seems like the chamber is also noticeably tighter than other 9mm guns that I own, so that won't help issues either with regard to 100% reliability. I'm going to spend a full week of evening dryfires doing nothing but static and small-movement reloads. Those are absolutely destroying my ability to navigate a stage with this gun. As soon as the Henning grips arrive I'll see how things feel as far as mag button access. After I carve up my brand new $130 grips with a dremel, since I discovered there's no lefty-side groove for your thumb after I placed my order.

Winchester and CCI primers work well in guns without really light strikers and springs. Federals are always far more easy to ignite than the rest. CCI is my personal favorite from a cost/availability standpoint along with how well they run through a vibraprime and a 650. Check with the big online suppliers like Graf's, Powder Valley, and even places like Cabelas.

If you're shooting a 9mm, don't worry about having serrations cut into it. Replace the factory recoil spring with a 13-lb ISMI flat wire spring on the factory guide rod. I ran an M&P 9L like that for 6 years. Never had "web of hand" traction issues while racking the gun that way at all. Pinch the gun between the fleshy bases of your thumb and index finger, too, by the way.

I don't know you. But I've known lots of other guys who said that and I'm extrapolating from those experiences: What you feel to be sprinting and hustling between A and B is more than likely a casual stroll to the next array. He likely transitions his gun from target to target three times more quickly than you, too. Get someone to film you shoot a few stages. Film the fastest guy in your squad who shoots the same division. If you shoot the stage very similarly, even better. Then sit down at home, watch them, and be honest/critical about what you see. (What follows isn't quite 100% accurate as far as breaking down hit factors, but is close enough to get the point across simply) He shot the match in half the time you did. In a sport that is basically scored in a points per second fashion, you would have to have shot twice as perfectly as he did in order to win, which is utterly impossible. He'd need to miss on nearly every target.

I can't answer most of those. Just these: 1. Put the factory firing pin back in. It's heavier and pops primers better than the Henning with light springs. 2. A 1-piece sear lifts the firing pin block less than the 2-piece and will require the extended firing-pin block. You'll probably need to fit the block so that it just barely blocks when the trigger is relaxed, because the sear will only let it drop about 1/32" or less when you pull the trigger and it needs to let the firing pin go by with zero drag. There's very little movement, and so your parts need fitted perfectly. The Xtreme block will probably not drop far enough to allow the FP to clear. So you simply file down either the head which sticks out of the slide, or the square tab that sticks up into the channel, until it can just barely block the pin but clears when the sear pivots downward and sends the firing pin forward. The extended FPB versus the shorter factory one:

So. Discoveries in it's very first match Half my DA first shots went click on the first hit. More hammer and spring polishing in store. Then I'll examine primer seating. (The barrel will be reamed after next weekend's match.) Stage 1 featured lots of makeups induced by my longtime habit of prepping the trigger while cleaning up my sight picture. This would be the reason for so many makeups. I was firing shots I couldn't call, so I fired extras. This is the first gun where my (lefty here) trigger finger has issues reaching the mag catch. Which means the mags wouldn't come out of the gun when I wanted. This is the first gun where my ring finger can occasionally bump the mag catch. So I'm also offering a yard sale on half-emptied Tanfo mags while shooting stages. Both of these were remedied by flipping the mag catch back to the lefty side. But mag changes still stunk because I couldn't reach it and I'm not used to flipping the gun. Henning grips are on order to thin the grip just enough to get my thumb easy access to the button, then it's time for dryfire like whoa.

I got lucky. I found my mag catch plunger by sweeping the dining room and finding it in the debris pile. I take guns apart in there rather than the garage for exactly this reason - it can't hide beneath a floor jack in the dining room. So I guess, technically, mine didn't get lost. It just took me fifteen minutes (and a broom) to pick it up.

And also agreeing with the others... a larger group of shots is more accurate, statistically. Would you pay attention to a poll predicting who was going to win an election if they only talked to three people? There's a point where it isn't worth the time, though. If I run 10 rounds across a chrono and every single one is 133-35 power factor and the ammo shoots tight groups through my gun? I'm gonna leave ballistic-engineer mode, call it good, and spend the rest of my range time getting better at shooting fast and all the other USPSA skills I need to hone.

ES is extreme spread. Ideally every single one of your rounds would be the exact same velocity. However that's something you'll never see. Extreme Spread is the difference in FPS of your fastest bullet minus your slowest one. Pretty simple stuff. SD is standard deviation. Statistically, how far off from the mean each of your rounds is going to be. An SD of 5 would be some incredibly consistent "match grade" ammo, and anything under 10 is ideal. On the other hand, I haven't been able to work up a load with Ramshot Competition powder in 9mm that is lower than 22. They're all over the place velocity-wise. Accordingly, RS Comp is being burned up in my practice ammo now. (Side note. That ammo is still accurate as hell, grouping around 2inches at 25yd!) As mentioned above, you'll want to see *why* your ammo has the variation that it does. For example, if you have fired 18 rounds over the chrono that are all 955 to 970 fps but round #19 clocks at 859 and ruins your ES... It's likely that either the chrono read it wrong, or some of the powder slopped out of the case while it was on the press. That's not a huge cause for concern. It happens. However, if your rounds are varying wildly by 100fps (970, 901, 1002, 940, 995, 911 would be example readings for each shot) then you'd want to look for a cause somewhere in your reloading process. Change powders and see if your powder measure just doesn't like whatever you used, for example.

I've loaded nothing but 9mm, for six to seven years , on a 650. And done so in 500 to 1,000 round batches. I'm going to implore you to buy a 1050. You'll really really want it within six months. If you don't go that way, at least buy mine so that I can make the jump. ;-)

The reduced power springs and lightened strikers that some trigger jobs come with? Often they don't. No.

And will it pop CCI & Tula primers consistently?

Can someone point to a place that breaks down the various GP guns? STI GP-6 vs K100 vs Q100...