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loop

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    Ric Swats

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Looks for Range

Looks for Range (1/11)

  1. Will call... Just saw the post. I'll get to you next week. Thanks. Glad you got to them.
  2. Henning sent me a pair of the smooth aluminum grips and some skatebaord tape and assured me they would stay in place during a Mojave Desert summer. Quite frankly I wasn't going to buy it. I've shot the gun with the skateboard tape on the grips in two matches on two days that topped 120 degrees in the Bullhead City, Ariz., area. I've also left the gun under the seat of my truck and it was too hot to touch on a few occasions. My understanding is that "too hot to touch" is at least 140 degrees. The tape has not failed, moved or shifted in any way. I confess, I really did not believe it would hold up to our summer temps - it has. Henning assured me it would, but until you've walked out into 120 degrees every day for a month it is hard to take someone else's word for how things will work. I ordered a pair of the custom checkered grips from Henning, but machining put me on the back burner. He sent me these free of charge to use until the checkered ones are ready. This is super good stuff. I've won all but one IDPA match I've shot in CDP using these grips. The one, well, I was sick. I should have stayed home. I was second. Just posting this to kind of help spread the word. I liked dealing with Henning before. Now I just flat believe him. Nothing puts you to the test like going to a match when it's 115 degrees outside and the AC in your truck just broke. Want to say "Thanks guy!" I won't doubt you again. And, BTW, thanks for always making sure I get prompt, quality service. Oh, and one other thing. I have a limited on order. I hope to have it in time to shoot it at Salt River... Yeah, it ain't IDPA, but I ain't limited...
  3. I have a Match in .45. Before it arrived I ordered the fiber optic sight from Henning. The set screw is just that, a set screw. It does not free the sight to move out of the slide. I had to use a drift to remove the sight. It took a little fitting to get the fiber optic sight installed. I used a plastic drift and got metal shavings off the sight. I knocked it out and took a file to it until I wasn't getting shavings anymore, but the plastic drift would not quite seat the sight the last 32nd of an inch or so. One whack with a brass drift and it went into place with no marring of the slide or sight. Fiber optic rods are available through a number of sources. Dawson is a good supplier to deal with. There are several different sizes of rods and I'm not sure which size the sight requires. I like red and mine is still nice and bright. Right before he left for Europe, Henning said he is about to introduce his own fiber optic sight. When I bought the one for my match he told me I might be interested in the new one. If it is a significant upgrade it may be worth holding off until he returns and has more to say on the subject. The safety does feel like it is made out of plastic, but, as was already posted, Henning has metal ambi safeties and also has the Gold Custom in a single-sided version. The Match is my third Tanfoglio and I have to say I haven't been disappointed in any way by any of them. The RO at our local range gets a little irritated by them. Every time I bring one out he has to replace the target backing because I leave a big hole in the middle.
  4. Thanks for the responses. I have a match in .45 and a poly compact and a standard full size, but I am so happy with them I wanted to move up. But, I also want to shoot IDPA with the new gun. I got into Tanfoglios by getting the full size really cheap at a gun show and then trying it in a match one night. I then ran off six straight wins in CDP. So I bought the match gun. I've changed some springs, added the fiber optic front sight, have Henning's base pads and the aluminum grips and done some polishing on the internals. The match gun is awesome. Once I got the springs tuned correctly it has been incredibly reliable and groups an inch at poa at 10 yards. I love this gun. I'm afraid I'm turning into a Tanfoglio addict. I want a limited now. But, our local IPSC-style group is not sanctioned and all they do is line up the targets and go down the row. I've shot with them a couple times and it is really kind of boring so I've stuck with IDPA (both groups shoot at the same time on the same day). I read the IDPA rule book and the dust cover will be OK. I forgot where I found the exception, but it said it was OK if it came on the gun stock. It's the cone barrel that is the stopper (as far as I can tell). EAA says the overall length of the Limited is 8.1 inches. That's why I thought it would fit in the box. I suppose I'll have to start begging IDPA to allow the barrel. I like every one of my Tanfoglios so much I just want more and better ones... Besides, the wife already OKd the purchase of the Limited. I'm not telling her I can't shoot it in IDPA. I probably just get one anyway.
  5. I've been considering getting a Limited, but read on the IDPA Web site that cone barrels more than 4.2-inches long aren't permitted. EAAs site says the Limited and the Stock have cone barrels and both are more than 4.2 inches in length. Anyone know if there is an IDPA class in which the limited and/or stock are legal? If it makes any difference I'm looking at .45 ACP as the caliber.
  6. I received my Tanfoglio match in .45 on Monday (last week) and made a number of changes to it before I fired it. I put in a Henning long firing pin with Wolff Spring, replaced the recoil spring with a 12-pound Wolff, put on Henning's aluminum grips and replaced the front sight with the fiber optic. With the front sight replaced with the fiber optic I have no complaints about the sights. I did have an issue there. The screws on the adjustable sights were turned all the way down so tight I was afraid to turn them hard enough to break them loose on my first trip to the range. When I got them back to my workbench I had better tools and light and found out what the problem was and it was easy enough to break them loose and make adjustments. I like the rear sights with the fiber optic front. It's a quick, easy sight picture that I don't have to think about. Second trip to the range was Sunday. I immediately eliminated my favorite target load because it was shooting two-inch groups at 10 yards. The third load I tried went down to one inch so I set about sighting the gun in. In the process I changed from a 12-pound recoil spring to a 14. I still didn't like the way it felt and went to a 16-pound spring. Suddenly the groups opened up to eight inches. This is where things got weird. I had two mags of target loads sitting on the bench (the original load I'd eliminated) so I thought I'd shoot them up and go home. My targets have a one-inch diameter red dot in the center and in the first half-dozen rounds of the target loads the red dot disappeared. After two mags any trace of red in the middle was gone. Changing the recoil spring made the load go from iffy to incredibly accurate. I have a theory why that happened. The lighter recoil springs allowed more barrel movement before the bullet exited the barrel. The stiffer spring kept the gun locked up until the bullet exited the barrel. That, however, doesn't explain why a round that was delivering excellent accuracy suddenly went wild. Trigger is a little heavier than I'd like (wife says I'm nuts). Didn't have any trouble with set screws. Very comfortable with settings I made. Overall, I'm very pleased. The gun is very accurate and I have zero reliability issues. Will know more Tuesday night after IDPA match. And, once again, KUDOs to Henning. With his help I was able to address my issues before I even had the gun in hand.
  7. I took my 16-year-old niece to the range for her first time shooting a week ago. She is 5-1 and maybe 95 pounds. Her dad is a liberal lawyer, but my sister grew up around guns in my family so I was finally able to teach her to shoot. My niece shot 11 guns, but her favorite was "the big silver pistol." She asked to shoot the Tanfoglio .45 again over all the other things she tried. After she shot everything I brought she shot four more mags out of the Tanfoglio. She said it was her favorite of all the guns she shot. I thought she'd go for one of several guns (.32s, Makarov, etc.) that would fit her hands better, in my opinion. But, she liked the Tanfoglio. I don't know if they fit people with small hands from first-hand experience. I'm 6-2, 210, with pretty fair-sized hands, but she sure liked it. I do know what her 18th birthday present will be (her dad will hate me even more than he does already). Next time we go to the range we work on hitting the paper...
  8. First, I want to give Kudos to Henning. I called last week about the checkered grips I ordered. They won't be ready for several weeks, but Henning said he'd send me a pair and the skateboard tape to use until my new grips are ready. Two days later (we live rurally and it usually takes three days for local mail) I got the grips from Henning. Thanks Henning. Great service! We shoot IDPA the first and third Tuesday evenings of each month (we have good lights and a very warm climate). The third Tuesday is revolver only. I went early because I wanted to see how the grips felt when shooting, but the bay was occupied and I couldn't test fire my Tanfoglio. I mentioned to a couple guys, including the range master, I wanted to shoot my Tanfoglio because I had new grips. Later I showed them the grips and the gun became the talk of the match. So, for the final stage the range master decided we could shoot another gun if we wanted. I switched to my Tanfoglio, "the gun with the sand paper grips" as it was now being referred to... They pulled a surprise. The last stage was three targets, two shots each at seven yards, but with the lights turned off three seconds before the beep - zero night vision. I just double tapped where I thought the targets might be and shot four zeros and two ones in 4.22 seconds. After the match the range master offered to stay and let anyone who wanted to stay and shoot "the gun with the sand paper grips" keep shooting. I shot first, because it's my gun, and emptied a 10 round mag at seven yards as fast as I could and put six in COM with the other four all in the ones. But, when the other guys shot it they were all very impressed. I loaded a full mag for one guy and he made a cloverleaf in the middle of the target and said "I'm just going for head shots now." The next six were square in the middle of the head. My Tanfoglio is the bottom-of-the-line in .45 ACP, but it has a few minor mods. That gun really opened some eyes tonight for a bunch of guys who have lots of guns and shoot a lot. We may have made some converts. BTW, the aluminum grips with skateboard tape earned my respect as well as a few other people's. I would just be happier with checkering because I don't trust the glue on tape when the temperature hits 120... I'm still sky-high on my Tanfoglio. I've shot it in three matches and have three wins - and the gun just keeps getting better.
  9. I must have instinctively left the firing pin and spring dry because I took them out today to wipe off any lube and they were dry as a bone. Thanks for the really fast service on my parts, Henning. Very pleased with all of them. Shot it Saturday with all the parts installed and performance was excellent. Really like the feel of the aluminum mag base plates. Local smith says that if carbide will cut the slide he can do it. I'll wait for you to come out with your front sight. Meanwhile I'll make do with my single drop of highway reflective striping paint for a front sight. Actually a pretty nice, bright yellow front sight that gathers light quite well for paint. Thanks to all for the help. One more question. The slide stop/release on my poly .45 doesn't do anything either manually or with the mag follower. The stop is about an 1/8 of an inch short of contacting the follower. But, even when I try to engage the stop to the slide by hand it won't hold. I took the slide stop out of my steel frame and tried it in the poly and it is exactly the same. The one from the poly works perfectly in the steel frame. The trouble seems to be in the width of the poly frame. Even though the stop clicks into place correctly the stop doesn't seem to line up with the frame. Then there is the gap to the follower to consider. I thought of welding an extension to the stop to contact the follower, but that doesn't cure the stop block from aligning with the notch in the slide. Any thoughts or suggestions?
  10. Thanks for the info and the welcome. I've enjoyed reading the forum despite rarely posting. I installed Henning's extra long firing pin and put a little grease on the point where the reduced-power spring contacts the pin because it felt really rough when it was dry. It's easy enough to remove it and clean it so I'll do that ASAP. I just hate it when metal-on-metal feels rough. That brings up another question though. The firing pin I took out was very greasy feeling. I doubt it was all from powder residue. Does the factory use some kind of lube, perhaps graphite or some other dry lube, on the firing pin? It hadn't occurred to me that IDPA rules would be an issue with the firing pin. But, it is easy enough to change. I also have a compact-poly .45 that I can put the pin in if it isn't legal for competition. The compact has been another pleasant surprise. I have three different accuracy loads for .45 that I've tailored to suit my guns. The compact will shoot two-inch, 20-yard groups with two of the three loads. The third load looks like it came out of a shotgun, but none of my other .45s will shoot two of the loads accurately. The compact has taken over as my carry gun because it is so accurate, reliable and lightweight. I installed the parts I got from Henning and shot the gun yesterday. Those were the firing pin and spring, a reduced-power recoil spring and aluminum base plates for the mags. The gun has functioned 100 percent since I got it, but it felt better with those minor changes. Shot a hair under a 2-inch group at 20 yards. Will practice a little and shoot another match before I make additional modifications. Funny thing is both Tanfoglios shoot 2-inches or under at 20 yards, but the full-size steel model is dead on with a target sight picture and the compact is dead center with a combat sight picture. Both really like a 230-grain LRN over 4.0 grains of Bullseye.
  11. I wanted to shoot one more IDPA match with my .45 before I ordered parts. I did and ordered from Henning late Tuesday night. Parts arrived Friday. Thanks for great service. Got the aluminum base pads for the mags and was surprised to find I actually have a screwdriver that fit that little tiny Allen bolt. But, ended up with a couple more questions. The extra long firing pin and reduced power spring - what effect does removing the firing pin safety plunger and spring have in terms of safety? Is there something I should watch out for? I've never done that before on purpose. It is IDPA and it is supposed to be what you'd carry on the street. Should I lube the firing pin and spring? They're already in the gun with a light coat of Tetra grease, but was the grease a good idea? Do I need to clean the firing pin channel when I field strip the gun? Does removal of the safety plunger require more frequent cleaning along its channel? The 12-pound reduced-power recoil spring was labeled as increased power for a 9mm longslide. Did I order the right thing? (Again, already in the gun.) I'm getting an SD of 13 for a 788 for a 230-grain, LRN bullet over 4.0 grains of Bullseye. Is that appropriate for that spring? I hope to test fire Saturday to check new parts. Trigger seems a little smoother. Slide racks more smoothly, but not noticeably easier. I'd like to put a fiber optic sight on the front, but my low-end gun has the integral front sight. Local smith is unsure a dovetail can be cut into Wonderfinish. Will standard carbide bits cut dovetail into slide? Or, am I kind of kidding myself? Should I just go ahead and save long-run money and look to upgrade? I really like this gun. I've shot the same Kimber and Sig in IDPA for years, but this pistol just outperforms them both by a mile. I picked this up at a gun show because it was cheap ($300) and am still stunned by its performance and capability. Last match finished fourth. My fault not the gun's. I screwed up a tactical reload so badly it was ridiculous and then found out it didn't even have to be tactical.... Then got an FTDR for not paying attention to the briefing and going to the wrong station. Then blew a shot because I thought the hammer should have dropped in DA, so I let off and hadn't fired a shot (feeling really dumb). Even so, was right on the tail of the top three with a big gap behind us. I really appreciate the feedback I've gotten here. Thanks very much to all.
  12. I wish to thank everyone for their gracious responses to the low-rent guy with the cheap pistol. The first think I'd like to say is that I am a pretty good shot, but I am not that great a competitor. I'm usually middle of the pack which is why I was so impressed with what I was able to do with this gun. Give me something that I really need to hit like a deer or a rattler and I'm a darn good shot ... LOL (I'm real good with rattlers.) I really have trouble focusing on paper so reactive targets like poppers are good for me. I just get bored poking paper. I also should mention that the first time I shot this pistol I knew it was a good fit for me. It was just a stop in the desert and all I had to shoot at was clumps of dirt, but I didn't miss a one. I've already bought another Tanfoglio (sorry, I just can't call them EAA Witness). I got a compact poly .45, the eight-rounder. I had to buy an older one because I don't like sight rails. Thus far results are similar to my big gun except there is a lot more felt recoil. It is not a competition gun. Too much recovery time. Good carry gun though. I would like to say that I've followed this forum for a while now and have come to develop a great deal of respect for Henning (and yes, I did my research). I also would like to thank you, Henning, for your advice and support. I will take you up on the mag pads, firing pin and recoil spring in fairly short order (but we have a gun show in town this weekend and, well, you know). I am uncertain about the grips. I've got to shoot this puppy a little more before I make that change. I've found that a great deal of how well I shoot depends on how I hold the gun. So far I haven't missed much with this thing. It has already leapfrogged Kimbers and SIGs that have been my standbys for years. But, the looks of your H-152 grips will undoubtedly have me test driving them sooner or later. I think the silver ones would make my pistol look striking. (Wondering if skateboarders have clear grip tape... Then wondering why I want a $300 gun to look striking.) The mag pads brings me to another question. My spares are silver (probably stainless), unmarked with black followers. They do not lock the slide back, which is not good for IDPA. Do I have some oddball after-market mags that should be replaced to guarantee the H-400 pads will work for me? They function flawlessly except for locking the slide back. Do I need to buy factory followers to cure that or do I just need to buy some new mags? If that's the case I have no objection to buying a couple of your mags with the aluminum base and factory follower. I just don't know which way to go. Got another thing to say: "You got a Thompson?" Um, I'm a certified sub-gun instructor. You're only about 400 miles upriver from me and I've got a friend near Durango with about 400 acres... Seriously, we have one of the biggest Thompson-only shoots in the country here in NW Arizona. I will check the calendar and make sure you are invited. It's one day of teaching and introducing the public and another day of just Thompson folks blazing away. You can camp out at my place about five miles from the range or we'll put you up in Laughlin, Nev., 30 miles away but much more entertaining. Personally I like my place better. Guess I'll just never get over enjoying the aroma of fresh horse manure compared to stale cigarette smoke. I will at some time be in touch about the EGW work. When you get a good gun you need to be smart enough to know it and take advantage of it. For Gary and UW, I have a question. I've been shooting IDPA for years. I'm also an NRA certified instructor in several handgun disciplines and am certified in defensive shotgun and sub-gun. I've looked at the EGW slide stop pin, but can't figure out why I would not want my slide to lock when my gun is empty. I am the king of procedurals in IDPA so I have definite reasons I want it to lock back. And, if I were to ever use it for self defense I want it to lock back. I've only shot one IPSC match, unfortunately it was a state championship, about 10 years ago. I was smoked. But, is there a reason it works better in IPSC? Again, I have to apologize for the length of my post. I'll offer up that I write for a living so once I sit down at the keyboard the words just kind of overwhelm my brain. I also want to thank all of you, ks-shooter, Nemo, sinnsyk, Gary1911A1 and UW Mitch for making me feel welcome here. I was really afraid the guy with the cheap gun who colors outside the lines may not be accepted. Thank you for making me feel at home.
  13. I'm new here, but have lurked a while. I've wanted a Tanfoglio for years and finally got one a few months ago. It is the basic full-size, all-steel version in .45 acp. I just shoot IDPA so I'm not really into all the tricked out stuff, but I've been shooting IDPA for about 10 years. I took my Tanfoglio to the last match and wasn't going to shoot it, but they set up some really long courses of fire and I realized the only gun I had that would hold enough ammo with the mags I had was the Tanfoglio. I decided that even though I wasn't comfortable shooting it in a match for the first time to go ahead and give it a try. It is the first time I've ever won a match shooting a gun in competition for the first time. I was stunned, absolutely amazed at how well I shot the gun. On two of the three courses of fire I not only had the fastest times I had perfect scores. Not bad for a gun I picked up for $300 at a show. That brings me to the subject of my post. I've been following posts on this group and it is not oriented to the type of shooting I do. I've reviewed Henning's site (enough that I've pretty much memorized it) and there is little mention of the bottom-of-the-line gun or .45s. What I'd like to know is what I can do to improve the gun I have for competition. Will the metal base plates give me increased capacity? Will a change in follower help? What about springs? I shoot 230-grain .45 bullets at typical factory velocities. Can I make an improvement by changing out springs? I'm curious about replacing the sear and hammer. I want reliable above all. I see the firing pin on the Henning site and wonder if it is realistic to change the pin and spring for what I do. Sometimes I shoot real crap ammo and have no idea how hard the primers are. Would a new firing pin with a weaker spring be capable of reliably detonating odd primers? This last about primers comes from the last match. It was a night shoot and it was so cold I decided to shoot some Wolf ammo. I had a couple boxes left in the ammo can. I didn't want to spend time picking up brass in that cold weather. That makes it even more remarkable. I won the match with a new gun shooting the crappiest ammo in my box. In general, what can an IDPA shooter do with the lowliest Tanfoglio in the lineup do to make improvements to his gun? I still can't believe it. When I shot the string of seven steel targets it sounded like and IPSC shooter. I have electronic muffs and while I was transitioning to the paper way to my left I heard "Wow! Did you see that?" To say I really, really like this gun would be an understatement. Thank you all for your patience.
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