MemphisMechanic

Because he’s a dick, and he wanted your foot completely inside the the box. We all know the rules don’t support his viewpoint, but this type of “shoot it the way I tell you to shoot it” guy is out there. And he isn’t *that* rare. I’m surprised you haven’t run into him before.

There is a dramatic difference on both my 650 and 1050 units. Around double the speed.

Don’t bother sorting by headstamp. Not until you’ve worked out every other variable and gotten down to, say 1.0-2.5” groups at 25 yards ... and then want to try something else to see if you can shrink group size even further. Most of us have never sorted by headstamp for 9mm handgun ammo. Grab a ProChrono Digital if you want to know your velocites. But only if. For general range use, there’s no need, Stay with known book loads and use group sizes as your benchmark, instead. For case lube OneShot is a terrific choice. Use it. Your shoulder will thank you. I can load without it on my dies... but it halves the force required. I don’t like feeling the burn in my shoulder the day after a loading session.

I run it short and mount the butt on my pec almost directly below the dominant eye, and shoot with the shoulders square to the target. The more you blade your torso off to the side, and the further out toward the shoulder pocket you mount the stock... the longer the stock needs to be in order to accommodate the same shooter.

There are two quality options. Deltapointpro or the Trijicon SRO. I’ve run a DPP 2.5 MOA for the past two years without issue. If I were to buy another optic tomorrow, it’d be the SRO. It’s not cheap, but so far it seems to be proving it’s mettle. Unlike the others, where you either get one that goes 10s of thousands of rounds (my DPP) or one that goes back to the factory twice a year (many other people’s RTS2s and DPPs.)

I only load one caliber. The measure has been empty perhaps a dozen times since 2008, just long enough to change powders. It stays full 24/7. Aside from being a little yellow, it’s still working great.

Was shooting an M&P for years and switched to a Stock 3. Shot that for a year to ensure I truly adapted to the gun. Still wanted to go back to a polymer striker gun with a rolling break to the trigger. I carry PPQs, and shoot longslide Walthers In matches. Don’t miss the metal frame.

For now, attach a rubberband to the C-clip on the dropper and wrap the other end around the die underneath the toolhead. Works for the short term, til it stretches out too much. Also, one of the most important adjustments to prevent the last “three times in a thousand” little bit of bullets feeding upside down? The angle of the bullet feeder. It matters. Steep is good. Mine is probably canted at 50 degrees or so. The MBF mounting system makes you want to hang it from the side of your casefeeder at far less than 45 degrees when you first assemble it. A steeper incline seems better.

I used 60 on mine. It’s perfect. Double the traction of sandpaper Talons on a 100 degree day.

What is the weight difference between the two? I’m curious mostly for general knowledge purposes, since I’m not a 1911 guy.

@superdude good catch! I don’t know why I had CFE stuck in my head as being somewhere near N320, E3, etc when I posted. For anyone new who is reading this, disregard my earlier posts when referencing the suitability of this powder. He’s entirely correct.

This. If none of your projectiles left a grease ring and the RO watched you centerpunch 12 targets without the rounds hitting anything else...grease ring presense does not matter. It’s amazing how many ROs don’t get this. The grease ring is not the be-all, end-all. It’s merely one of several factors you can use to score a bullet which nicked a barrel, etc. We were never supposed to worship at the altar of the almighty grease ring.

Load a dummy without powder and push the bullet deeper and deeper until you find the required depth for your gun, where it will drop in and spin freely. (Also ensure that your brass is crimped enough: there should be absolutely no outward flare of your brass.) In 9mm at least, the 5th generation Glocks have extremely short chambers, while all older guns will eat anything that fits into the magazine. Perhaps that carries over to the 45s?

I shot an adapter-plate gun last year and a direct-milled one for all of 2019. Milled into the slide is the way to go if you want to effortlessly switch between irons and optics. If you plan to shoot the dot gun exclusively it’s not an issue.

You are pulling shots low left. Leave the gun alone and go practice with it until you can shoot it straight. Sighting it in for your consistent error, as advised above, would work for now. But it won’t make you a better shooter in a hurry the same way that working on your grip and trigger control with a known-accurate handgun will.

Years ago I built a digital one & installed on my 650. It was activated each time the shellplate was fully at bottom of travel using a roller microswitch. It was less accurate than guesstimating from primer boxes: jams and discarded rounds threw the count off. If you do this, install the switch or infrared LED in the discharge chute, so that it only counts finished rounds.

The reply I just posted might help you shed some light on this. And yes, that spreadsheet is every round I’ve ever loaded and chrono’d. F = M*A is an equation we all know well. You can change the weight of the projectile and the burn rate of the powder around to get two different weight bullets to recoil with almost the same exact felt impulse. You just need to get in the same ballpark with regards to energy exiting the muzzle, and the burn rate of the powder permitting a similar recoil impulse. And CFE is very popular partially because we like shooting softer ammo at cardboard targets.

Ahh! In that case... If you want it for zombies (it’s for more than punching cardboard) grab a good JHP like a gold dot, and push it with a slower burning powder like Green Dot, power pistol, or WSF. Why change powders? Well... Intro to handgun recoil considerations: 1. Heavy bullets recoil LESS than lighter bullets do. Seems backward. But it is 100% true. 2. Powder burn rate is also seemingly backward: * A slower burning powder produces higher velocity ammo and a sharper recoil impulse. Great for defensive ammo. * A fast burning powder like CFE produces soft recoiling ammo, and slower muzzle velocities. Less powerful ammo. Great for target ammo. The simple explanation of how this is true? A fast-burn powder is used up before the bullet is halfway down the barrel. It’s a very high-pressure burst, yet still a small puff of gas. Picture it like a dart gun: You’re blowing into the blowgun really hard for a fraction of a second. High muzzle velocities aren’t possible due to the pressure spike: you’re already at +P pressures before your 147gr bullet is anywhere near 1,000 FPS. A slow-burn powder lets you use more of it, because the bullet is advancing further down the barrel during the time when the powder burns, so available volume and chamber pressure are occuring together. You’re not blowing on the back of your blowdart as hard, but you’re pushing on it for a longer period of time. Faster projectile velocities result. You also get more recoil, partially due to the fact that a significant volume of gas exits the muzzle as soon as the bullet clears, and the barrel of the gun becomes a rocket nozzle propelling the gun backward. I have a few hundred rounds I loaded that are kept in a box in the closet: 124gr gold dot and the maximum book load of Green Dot. They’re certainly hot enough to get the job done, with muzzle velocities a bit higher than factory Speer or Federal HST ammo. But they’re certainly not some crazy +P+ recipe.

True. I built one myself, back then. I never shot 3-gun. Wound up selling that upper, after I got done being ‘that guy.’ True.

We’re getting off-topic. Let’s return to the man’s question, Jack.

This is true in Magtech’s case. Their 124s are... sporty.

The repeated advice not to begin reloading when ammo is cheap... is something I find amusingly shortsighted. An election year is coming, and with those come historically high prices on ammo. Plan ahead... and listen to 4n2t0.

We can do this SO MUCH cheaper. With readily available components. I’ve already done this exact same trial and error process. 147 HST is my carry load as well. Wanted to shoot ammo that recoiled just like it in a defensive training class.. Buy any 115 jacketed bullet and follow the recipe in the first line. Stagger load a mag with this ammo and 147 HST and you won’t be able to tell which round is which. WSF and 115gr bullets can both be found at your local shops pretty easily, too. (CFE is much faster in burn rate than the powder you’ll find backing defensive JHPs, and would have produced noticeably softer recoil under a 147.)

Logic like yours has whiners wanting all uprange starts deleted from the sport too. Eventually everyone sits still in a chair shooting everything from their wheelchair. The rest of nation’s populace whines about participation, softness, tenderness, and inclusivity for everyone. Used to be this was the only demographic left wherein athleticism, toughness, endurance, and even pain tolerance were things to be prized. Used to be. Now it’s too hard to bend over and duck under a few sticks while manipulating a weapon. How sad and soft we’ve become.

Think about how pathetically diluted the human gene pool is becoming when many of the people reading this thread are inclined to agree with you. Due to the horrific challenge of having to surmount a 30” tall picnic table. Which effectively comes equipped with a stair on both the ascending and descending sides. That kind of thing should absolutely be in matches, perhaps with some targets only visible from atop the table. If you have a bad knee, that’s fine. I’d gladly build you a ramp to make this kind of enjoyable obstacle plausible.