MemphisMechanic

I'm catching mention of a difference in safeties and you just mentioned a difference in hammers. I wasn't aware of either - although for hammers it's probably largely irrelevant since every 2 or 3 seems to get fitted with a BOLO/Titan combo these days.

That's obviously the short answer that anyone who is shooting a 2 is going to give. What I'm wondering is all of the reasons why you feel that's the case. And if they vary from shooter to shooter.

Did you shoot or handle a Stock 3 as well, before choosing the 2?

So there's a 19 page thread in the CZ forum chock full of guys who can't wait to ditch their Shadow... for a Shadow 2. I'm curious exactly what has made it so popular to keep buy a Stock 2 instead of choosing the Stock 3 on the Tanfoglio side of things. I have a pretty good idea what the answers will be, but I'd rather hear your answers without suggesting potential ones.

I live 25 minutes from the range and I'm there most weekends. If any of you guys are willing to "risk" shipping ammo to an unknown fellow shooter, send me a PM and I'll be happy to help you out.

Supposedly the Xtreme trigger, although it appears straighter to the eye, increases the DA trigger reach far enough that most guys take them back out. That's what I've learned from reading the Internet - never touched one myself. Hopefully others will confirm

Back at the range a week later with 1/10th of a grain increase in charge weight: Chrono'd through a 5" M&P With an Apex match barrel in it: 135gr coated bullet - Black Bullets Interational 3.76gr Ramshot Competition 1.079" OAL CCI primer 75 degrees (indoor range) 992,930,980,986,958,1007,985,996,974,989 979.7 Feet Per Second 132.26 Power Factor 21.83 Standard Deviation

He said REQUIRED. Not *able* to strategically insert them to improve your score. We had a local stage recently involving a 30 ft wide wall. At either end were four tight headshot targets - so taking them on the move was not viable. Immediately around each corner was an 8rd steel array. Each end effectively had four paper and 8 steel. In my opinion that's just unimaginitive stage design. By, you guessed it, one of our Open competitiors.

This is primarily a competition shooting forum. Most of the guns being discussed/built will be 'match only.' The hammer spring or striker spring has more of an influence on the trigger pull weight than any other spring in the gun. Guys who don't feed their weapons Russian or CCI primers sometimes run a slightly lighter spring. Guys who don't mind shooting only Federal primers (the easiest to set off) will be running much much lighter springs.

Photos?

Agreed. To a point. Give Limited and Open shooters options. But also give Single-Stack at least one way to shoot it without slogging through multiple flat-footed reloads. The rule book requires the latter, but it doesn't prohibit the former.

Okay okay, yes. Technically... you can feel it. Standing and shooting. During a match? Nah. Load something reliable and accurate and consistent and focus on practicing with it. Not chasing the perfect powder and bullet with load after load. I think we're all saying the same thing.

Now we know where all of them are.

They're known as Unicorn's for a reason...

Just doing 5 points over PF isn't enough for some ammo, but is a ton of cushion with other loads. How CONSISTENT are your velocities? If you are working with a load with a very small standard deviation (velocities all within a few FPS of each other) then you could theoretically load to 125.1 powerfactor and be okay. (until it's colder at the match or the humidity changes or their chrono reads slower than yours - but that's a different story...) But if you have inconsistent charge weights and OALs and a peaky powder, you can easily see 100fps variations in velocity. That ammo could concieveably cause issues if you loaded to 130pf and they happened to choose a few of your slowest rounds. Develop consistent, accurate ammo with everything well about 130 and you'll be very much good to go. An additional benefit most don't catch at first? The powder burns more cleanly / completely in most cases when you're at least halfway up the range in the reloading manual. It keeps the gun cleaner, in addition to the increased force cycling your action a bit more briskly.

You won't feel the difference (with the same bullet and powder) between the charge weights for 127 and 135 power factor. Try it sometime. Load a mag going back and forth between the two and see for yourself. But you'll never go home early at a major, the gun will run more consistently, and steel that's hit low has a better chance of going over. Newbie gamers load to 127 PF trying to minimize recoil. Experienced ones load to 132-135 and know the gun will run 100% and that they can rest easy during the chrono stage.

Do you do group shooting at a match pace, or slow fire? The former is a much better use of your ammo budget, IMO.

Honestly when running the timer I judge by the final split. For two reasons: 1. The RO frequently gets far enough from the shooter that it may not pick up the middle series of shots during a stage. (For example when a shooter enters a dead-end position he will come exploding back out of to head the opposite direction, and any decent RO won't create a safety hazard by going in with him.) 2. How many makeup shots did you fire? 3? 6? Combine that with the timer possibly not picking up a shooter when you back off 10 ft... counting shots on the timer isn't at all foolproof to ensure you're being fair. Whats my preference? 1. I watch the timer in the corner of my eye as he fires his last few shots, to ensure it's about to record an accurate final time. 2. Checking the final split ensures that timer didn't get bumped a few seconds after he finished - I don't want to PVH someone on accident. Unless he reloaded for the final shot, anything over 05.-1.0 seconds is going to cause me to stop and make sure the time is right... unless he went dry and had to reload for one last shot or something.

He gives out good deals on those nifty Pivothead glasses, too.

The cone-fit barrel describes how the muzzle end of the barrel locks into the slide. It's more consistent than your usual non-high-end 1911 guns - than most other Production legal firearms. Think of it as Tanfo's "accu Shadow" equivalent. The Lim Pro and the Stock 3 don't have this feature. And just like with a Shadow, they're still really damned accurate in most cases. But the Stock 2 and the Accu-bushing'd Shadow have 74% more marketing ... and must therefore obviously be better.

I can't help with your answer regarding the recoil control side of things... However. I made a modification to my M&P (an Apex hand-fit barrel) that dropped the 25yd group size of my gun with heavier bullets from around 5-6" inches down to 1.75-2.0" note: We aren't discussing "internet accuracy" where the fanboy just quotes the manufacturer. I shot freestyle groups going back and forth between barrels with the same ammo, and that's the actual result. I didn't realize how much of a boost to my confidence it would result in. Not until I the first match with partial 15yd targets, anyway. Knowing your gun is extremely mechanically accurate is a night and day difference... But coming from the Shadow instead of a piece of combat Tupperware, I doubt you'll notice much of a change.

In return, don't confuse a lighthearted joke on the internet with actual scorn. ;-)

He has been reviewing guns for quite some time. Long enough to know that each negative comment - on any particular platform - will bring its diehard loyalists out with their pitchforks and torches. Even Hi-Points. I'm sure his skin is thicker than that. Unlike ARy's... who loses a full night's sleep each time someone thinks a negative thought about the BOLO.

I'll be mailing mine in tonight!

Shoot the gun left handed. If you make errors, they'll be in the opposite direction.