AzShooter

Well, lack of ammo didn't stop people from shooting our monthly Steel challenge Match. We had 75 competitors. Most were shooting .22s. Many of our top centerfire shooters also shot .22s. I found a 4 pound bottle of Vhita Vhouri N 310 in the garage this week. I no longer shoot centerfire and sold all my reloading equipment so I mentioned that I'd like to sell this powder. I asked for what I paid for it a few years ago and the first person I told bought it. They said there was a hard time finding powder. I asked for $100 for the 4 pounds. When I check the price on-line it is now being sold for $269. I got what I paid for it so I'm happy.

Well, it took me a few tries but I finally completed a new holster for my Black Mamba 22. The holster has two tension screws so I can adjust how fast the gun will come out and there is no way it is going to fall out unexpectedly. I like wearing my gun instead of using a bag for Steel Challenge Matches.

Awesome build. Good luck with it.

The lighter you make the hammer the better your trigger will be. Remember to change your springs. I use an 11 pound rebound spring. You may want to start with a 13. You can also loosen the main spring to get a lighter pull. If you do, use some blue Loctite to keep it in position. There is no problem to grinding off the hammer spur.

Shooting the IRC one year and they had a stage with 9 poppers. This was way back when we first started having the IRC and things were still being learned. The wind kept blowing a popper over even after it had been reset a number of times. I was the lucky shooters that had the problems the most problems with the stage. I had to reshot it so often, I think 7 times also, that I almost ran out of ammo. I was shooting my 625 at the time and fortunately had a box of 230 ball ammo in my case. I ended up needed it to finish the match. What a difference from my wimp reloads to ball ammo but I managed to make it.

Charlie Prest, the guy that started this 8-shot revolution was my sponsor years ago. He did a coil spring conversion on my 625 that improved the trigger a lot. This was when a 7 pound trigger was considered as low as you could go. I had no problems busting Federal and Winchester primers. This conversion looks an awful lot like Charlie's. It will work.

I've tried the Vortex Venom and the C-More Railway and neither one would let me co witness. I used Allchin mounts for both dots. I would also add some DS-10 speed loaders to your inventory. They help a lot when loading between stages or just for a long day at the range. Here's my 617 with the C-More.

I had a bad experience a week ago with the top end of my Mamba breaking. A small piece in front of the mainspring housing broke off. The gun would no longer fire which was probably a good thing at that point and the top end would no longer close onto the receiver. Volquartsen told me to send it back. This on Dec 23rd and I figured even with overnight there would be a problem with delivery. UPS surprised me and everything went smoothly. Today, Jan 4 I received my gun back from Volquartsen with a new LLV upper and new compensator. Great service from Ryan and all the people at Volquartsen.

I shot the red CCI Clean at our last Steel Challenge Match and was very pleased with it. It seems very consistent. Recoil is about the same as my normal fodder, CCI Blazer 40 grain. Much cleaner without having all that wax on the bullet. I only have 600 more rounds so I'm saving them for a match that counts unless they become available soon. So hard to find anything these days.

I'll stick with mine. Call Randy.

Yes, call Apex. Their new Mass Drive Hammer will work. Randy recommends the stock firing pin but use their springs and you should get a great trigger on you 617. I got one of the first hammers and am very satisfied with it. It's basically a drop in part.

That's the one. Use the cutting wheel and then the sander to make it look good. Good luck.

Tandemkross makes a nice Kydex holster for the Mark IV. You will then have to modify it with a Dremel for the Striplin Thumb Rest. I make my own holsters so I can accommodate then for the thumb rest by cutting the leather down.

I had the least amount of bullet creep by using .358 bullets. Anything less and I had the problem. I only used Winchester brass for the 929 and did use a U-Die when sizing. As far as crimping, I would just remove the bell with hardly any crimp.

Merry Christmas right back at you.

When I got mine I asked Randy and he told me the stock pin actually worked better. No need to buy the extended firing pin.

Yes, as typical you can improve the trigger even on the competition model. Thank the lawyers. With the Volquartsen Accurizing Kit you will get a 2.5 pound trigger or lighter. Mine is now 1 pound 7 ounces. You will love having the Halo Charging Ring, I think it makes racking the slide so much easier. I have one on their bolts for two of my Mark IVs.

I know how temperature can affect ammo, especially when trying to find a load that will make Major or just make Minor. I always test my loads on the hottest days I can find. If it makes it there I know my ammo is good. Oddly, I had a problem with my .22 Sunday while shooting a Steel Challenge Match. Instead of getting Bang, Bang, Bang I was getting Puff, Bang, Puff, etc. I was using CCI 36 gr. Blazers. I had just tested them the weekend before the match at our local indoor range and had no troubles. My bullets were hitting the targets but just a light ping. Four times the RO stopped me because he thought I had a squib. He ran a range rod down the barrel each time and nothing was there so he gave me reshoots for those strings. All I can think of is that the cold affected the ammo that way. I put a handwarmer in my shooting bag for my box of ammo and I put my sweater over my mags before I had to shoot the next stage. This helped. By the end of the match I had no more misfires. It was only in the low 40s so I was surprised the ammo was that sensitive. Sunday I will shoot either my 40 grain Blazers that I've been shooting for years with good luck or Aguila Super Extra. I'm going to test both loads Wednesday to make sure they run. Anyone else experience this kind of problem?

I thought you were going to call Apex. Sorry.

Call first. They don't do much gunsmithing these days. They are more into manufacturing. It's an easy drop in hammer. Randy did not smithing to my gun, just dropped the new hammer in, played with the mainspring and there it was. Works great. Order it and do it yourself if you like.

I shot the December Steel Challenge Match with the Deer Tribe club in Phoenix, Az. today. Not many people endured the cold weather, cold at least by Arizona standards. We started with the temperature in the low 40 and it only made it up to 54 at the end of the match. I lucked out. After lots of ammo problems I still ended up beating my personal best by 3 full seconds. Since getting out of my wheelchair a month ago I've done better each month. My biggest problem today was ammo related. I was getting a lot of weak shots. The ammo would just go puff instead of bang. The RO stopped me 4 times thinking I had a squib but everything exited the gun. This was CCI 36 grain Blazers. It works perfectly in the heat but doesn't appear to like the cold. Next month I'll go back to my Go-To 40 grain Blazers. They always work. I did test the new ammo indoors, didn't get a chance to shoot it outside but now I know to wait until it's warmer. It was all I could find in the stores recently. I would have had a real good match without having to rack the slide a few times during a number of strings. I'm hyped up hoping I shoot as well next week with better ammunition.

Yes, that's the new one. I tested 8 different ammos from CCI Mini Mags, Blazers, Federal BYOB, Remington Golden ,Bullets, Federal Gold Match HV, Aguila Super Extra HV and Wolf Match Target all went off with the pull set to 7.5 pounds. I got the Fed's and Goldens to fire at 6.5.

Sorry, I don't know that answer.

Yes, I was one of the first people to get the new Mass Drive Hammer. I had their older hammer and during an open house at Apex Randy gave me the new hammer to test. I've been very satisfied with it. The Mass Drive lets me shoot more varieties of ammo with 100 % reliability.

I bought the new Mass Drive Hammer from Randy and Scott at Apex. I was able to get the trigger down to an even 7 pounds to make it work with all my ammo. 6.5 and it busted most caps but I wanted to shoot any of my .22s I have in stock. I found that, just like on centerfires, Federal ammo works best in my guns.