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JKW

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Everything posted by JKW

  1. And here’s a follow up posted in the same thread: Update here for those interested. Though I’m really not a fan of indoor ranges, I took the H9 out for another shooting session. This time to “compare” it to two of my other full sized 9mm pistols, and to see if the front sight change helped shift POI to where it should be. The Shadow stayed at home and I took my STI Trojan and my CZ Tactical Sports along in its place. I only shot 115gr factory Federal fmj this time.Though I called it a comparison, I don’t mean to suggest that I think they are the same gun. They share a number of traits, but they all have different character. Shooting them in an indoor public range setting does kind of narrow your focus enough that such comparison becomes somewhat valid though. Mainly I concentrated on muzzle flip and my ability to settle the front sight back on target, slow fire accuracy, and (admittedly subjective) “feel” through the recoil impulse. Starting with the big CZ, I’ve got to say that it’s in a class by itself here. It’s got a big heavy frame, a long sight radius, great sights, and a sub 2lb. trigger. With the grip reduction work and the higher than factory cuts under the trigger guard and beaver tail, it fits my hands like it was made for them. It’s also got CZ’s huge extended left side safety that feels like you’ve got a shelf mounted to the frame to press downward on. Accurate follow up shots are so fast that, as I’ve described to my friends, you feel like a hero... Especially when you’re stacking holes, while the poor guy in the lane next to you is having trouble staying on the paper at half the distance. Slow fire reveals it to be an overachiever in the accuracy department too. Hell, if this thing were IDPA legal and I were to practice every once in a while, I might be able to finish better than mid pack in local matches. It also continued its 100% reliability record even though I tried to limp wrist it into failure. My STI Trojan is the prettiest of the bunch in my opinion, but It’s not just a pretty face. It’s a veteran of several matches and has never let me down. Though the trigger is still at factory specs, it’s pretty nice and very predictable. I see the fiber optic front sight easily and with it’s decent trigger I can shoot very nice groups with it. Recoil and muzzle flip are mild, but the sights do not settle nearly as quickly as with the CZ TS. The best way to describe the recoil is smooth, but slightly chunky feeling. Though I haven’t weighed it, the slide feels like it’s got a fair bit more mass than the CZ and the Hudson. I had an unexplained malfunction at the range. The trigger basically went dead. Hammer was back, but the trigger felt as though the thumb safety was on. Grip safety was fully depressed too. Without thinking, I slid the slide back enough to reset the trigger but not eject the round, and the gun worked normally afterwards. I wish I’d paid more attention to exactly what happened, because it never happened again for me to troubleshoot further. And finally, my Hudson. It’s still super interesting to me and I’m very happy with it. The new front sight took care of my slightly low and left hits on target. It’s narrower and lower than the factory sight, and I can now use a sight hold I’m used to. I still can’t shoot the kind of groups that I can with the other two, but they’re getting better. The trigger still causes me some grief when trying for ultimate accuracy, but I suspect it’s more noticeable because of what I’ve shooting it back to back with. As mentioned, both CZs have great triggers and though it doesn’t compare, the STI has a good one. Recoil and flip aren’t as soft feeling or as flat seeming as the CZ TS, nor is the impulse as “smooth” as the Trojan. It has a quickness and lightness in its feel that the 1911 lacks, but the sights come back and line up more quickly than it for sure. They don’t settle with the same supernatural ease as the TS, but the work Hudson did here is very evident. I wonder how much better things would be if the sight radius was comparable to the (9oz heavier) CZ? I’d with 100% certainty add a 5” version of the H9 to my safe if Hudson chose to make one. In the mean time, I’ll continue to shoot and enjoy the one they did make.
  2. Copy and paste of a range report I posted on a local forum A lot of that post was taken from a text I sent to a friend, so it may read a lot like something sent to an individual. It’s somewhat wordy, but probably much more relevant here. Ive edited it a little to remove some local references, but may have missed some. I first became aware of the Hudson H9 when a buddy asked if I’d take a look at them while I was at the SHOT Show in 2017. When we got back, a friend that I was at the show with ordered one through a local dealer pretty quickly. Though I really liked what I’d seen in the H9, I initially held off ordering one of my own because I was convinced that I wanted an Arsenal Stryk B, thinking it’s availability was right around the corner and thought it’d be fun to shoot it and the H9 back to back. Ten months or so later, my friend’s gun was delivered and even though I’d not yet seen his, I couldn’t resist and ordered my own the same day. I’ve since mostly given up on the Stryk after the many false starts since first seeing it at the show way back in 2016. My own H9 arrived a couple of weeks ago and I made a trip over to Saddle River Range the day after I picked it up. My H9 was 100% through about 125 of the 200 rounds I took to the range today. 100 of them were 115s and the remaining were 147s. All were FMJ round nose. My gun seems to shoot a little left and a little low, but oddly not as low as my buddy’s gun, nor as low as some of the other reviews have indicated. I took my Shadow (converted to SAO) along to compare, and the H9 doesn’t seem to be quite as accurate. It’s an accurate gun, but my Shadow is a tough act to follow. I love the sights on the Shadow but not so much the sights (front sight mainly) on the H9 and fully expect my groups with it will tighten considerably when I have a better/narrower/lower replacement at least for the front. As far as recoil goes, the H9 shoots noticeably softer and flatter than the Shadow which is a pretty damn soft shooter. It’s detectable, but to be honest it’s soft nature doesn’t jump out at you. At least for me, having the two guns to shoot one after the other was needed to realize the difference at first. It’s kinda weird in that though the difference seems slight, I quickly ended up preferring the feel of the H9’s recoil impulse. I found that I really wanted to shoot it more and more, even though my Shadow was more accurate, has better sights, and has a much better trigger. The total package that is the H9 is just really enjoyable to shoot, and more enjoyable than the slight difference in muzzle flip by itself would seem to suggest. Smooth is a good way to describe it. I’d have put more rounds through the Hudson and fewer through the Shadow if not for wanting to wanting to focus getting a solid feel for two gun’s differences. I’ll have to shoot it back to back with my CZ Tactical Sports 9mm to see how much of a difference the TS’s almost 9oz of greater weight makes. As far as knocks on the gun, they’re fairly slight. I’ve already mentioned the dislike for the front sight and noted that the trigger doesn’t compare to my SAO Shadow, so I’ll expand a little on them. The front sight is too wide for my taste and and I don’t like the orange circle with the tritium dot in the middle. As bright as it appears at first glance, I found it to be hard to pick up quickly and difficult to be be precise with. (Since the range trip, I’ve switched it for a Dawson FO site that allows for some more light around the front when viewed through the (fixed) U notch rear.) The H9’s trigger is a little gritty and a little heavy feeling until you get used to it. Some of the gritty feel is due to the compression of the spring in the trigger safety as it’s pressed rearward against the trigger face. That trigger safety’s travel causes the overall trigger travel to feel quite a bit longer than the typical 1911, which it is supposed to mimic. Once the trigger safety is compressed, the trigger feels much more 1911 like. It is crisp feeling, and after cleaning and a a good bit of dry firing, the reset is quite nice too. I don’t want to too harsh about the trigger though. It’s just that it’s design invites comparison to the 1911 and if you’ve felt a nice 1911 trigger, you’ll naturally want to compare it to that. Put it next to another striker fired gun’s factory trigger, and you can’t help being anything but impressed. Hudson has mentioned that there will be a thumb safety (right side, left side or ambi) kit available and I’m hoping that when it’s available, a trigger safety delete will also be an option. Another minor gripe is that the mags seem a little lightly built. They function just fine and it’s not like they flex when I squeeze them, but the metal looks thin. No one else seems to mind, so maybe that’s just me. My final complaint has to do with the grips and relates only to how I intend to use the gun. They’re attractive and comfortably sized G10 VZ grips but they don’t have much in the way of aggressive texture. If I were going to carry this gun, they’d be just about perfect, but daily carry isn’t what I plan to do with the H9. I intend to shoot IDPA with it, and for that I’d prefer something with more grip. All in all, I’m pretty excited about the Hudson H9’s potential. Having put less than 200 rounds through it, I obviously can’t comment too much on its ultimate reliability, only on its feel and function so far. With these, I’m very impressed. While I don’t own any multi thousand dollar pistols, I do have several that cost more than the Hudson H9 so I like it because I like it, and not because of any need to justify its expense. I’m not at all likely to start selling off guns because I own it, but I am sure that my Hudson will get the lions share of trigger time for the immediate future. Oh and for those that don’t know, Hudson Mfg is a Texas based company. Having LaRue and STI in my safe already, I got a little thrill just from adding another Texas made gun to it.
  3. Edited to add pictures. The red bumper material is harder than it looks in the photos. It’s 90 durometer urethane.
  4. I made two of them, both for rolls that JP didn’t yet have systems to fill. One is for my 9mm (this was back in 2012 before JP had a 9mm offering) and it uses a very heavy brass buffer and 1911springs. I can’t remember what rate springs I settled on but I think it was a 22lb and 24 lb. One of the springs is full length and there is about 1/3rd of another stacked on top of it. The guide rod diameter allows the two spring flats to remain aligned and function without kinking from the ends trying to “nest” within one another. It totally transformed the gun, making it smoother and quieter. I now shoot it suppressed almost 100% of the time and can’t imagine living with the “SPROINGGGGG!” of the old system. The second is a super low mass system that I’m using with a lightened bolt carrier. It uses a very short and light delrin buffer (with a long fixed bumper to achieve to proper travel) and JP springs. I say JP springs, because I bought their spring kit so that I can play with it and sort of dial it in. I’m using this one in conjunction with a gas bleed type of adjustable gas block, on a slightly heavy-ish rifle (for a 16” gun) with the whole idea being to see how soft shooting I can make it. I’ve still got some experimenting to do, but the results have been promising so far. I say if you have a lathe in need of a project and a super specific want, go for it and build a captured spring system of your own. I built neither of mine because I didn’t want to pony up the funds and buy the JP product. They were built for rather specific purposes that weren’t perfectly covered by JP. In fact, I have a short JP captured spring system out of a Maxim Defense CQB stock that I use in a short buffer tube (not the Maxim) on a 300 BLK SBR. I have no desire to replicate it because if I did, I’d end up with pretty much exactly what JP provided. Yes, the two I made were fun to do, but having done it twice now, I’ll spend my free time having fun on some different gun related project.
  5. I'd be looking to glue on some sort of plastic rod that runs up the front of the mag body and hits the underside of the magazine well. The longer the rod, the more surface you'd have for a good bond. Might even be worth extending the rod all the way down the front of the mag to the base plate for even more support against the forces trying to pop it off when the "stop" slams into the magwell edge. It'd be ugly and the mags would then be dedicated to the carbine, but I bet it'd help with your problem. Heck, it occurs to me that you could even take wood dowel, cut it to the right length, rubber band it to the magazine from the baseplate up, and see if it's worth doing more permanently.
  6. I don't know, this is pretty dang fun. Suppressor on or off, just loads of fun.
  7. What exactly do you like more then a 2011??I dunno...Maybe the 1k plus dollars I had left in my pocket after I bought it? Seriously though, I don't own a 2011, though I'm sure I will someday. As much as I love my 1911s, the Shadow fits my hands better and I seem to shoot it better. When considering the design, I prefer the 1911/2011 for its simplicity (though not its ease of home tuning) and more intuitive disassembly and reassembly. That shadow has lots of little parts and pieces that require care to keep straight and also to not lose.... The safety detents and their springs are shockingly tiny, and the sear cage can be mildly intimidating to work with the first time through. What exactly do you like more then a 2011??Maybe all that pre travel in the trigger But seriously, does that magwell fit the box? The trigger has very little pre travel and is adjustable internally. When I made it, I purposely designed and fit it so that I could remove the adjustment screws completely without seriously impacting pre and post travel. It rivals all but a well tuned 1911/2011 trigger in feel and can be made comparable to even those triggers with a drop in comp hammer. Yes that hammer would require potential fitting to get the safety working right....The required fitting is easily accomplished at home by all but the most inept tinkerer, but it can be avoided altogether by replacing the sear with an adjustable CGW sear. It currently breaks at a little over 2lbs with the factory hammer and sear and has only a little bit of creep, so I haven't popped for the hammer.The magwell is CZC's IDPA legal one and it reportedly fits in the box. I'm just a club level shooter (and not a very good one of those) so my gun hasn't been subjected to that level of scrutiny.
  8. This is my idea of the ultimate ESP gun. I like it better than my 9mm Trojan.
  9. Is it as simple as a barrel and magazine swap? I've found myself in the possession of two Tactical Sports in 9mm. I'd planned to complete a grip reduction and refinish of the second one (my first one is already done) and sell off the one I like the least. But now I'm thinking I might need a .40 TS to possibly start using in some local USPSA matches. Wonder if the conversion is the better way to go over buying a new gun?
  10. Is it normal for the SP bases to not have a hole in the bottom to allow a tool to be inserted? You know, to push the locking plate/spring out of the way for disassembly?
  11. JKW

    Ultimate ESP

    I found that only factory CZ SP-01 18 round mags will work with the CZC magwell. The bases have to be modified or replaced too. Mecgar 18 round mags cannot be made to work.
  12. JKW

    Ultimate ESP

    I did the same thing as TennJeep with this one. I decided I wanted SAO and a magwell for my CZ ESP gun. I also had a nice SP-01 Shadow, but I kept this one.
  13. Hmm. Shoot it like this? Like this? Or loud like this?
  14. All very true. The only thing I'll add is that it doesn't like the extended safety on my Tac Sport. I'll need to see what I can do about this because I've grown to love that huge safety!
  15. JKW

    CZ newbie

    Thank you for the compliment, NoKimberDave. The trigger I made on a whim when I decided to go the SAO route.
  16. I think you got a bad holster. I haven't used mine yet, but I don't remember having any issues with fit when I checked it.
  17. JKW

    CZ newbie

    I'd consider Tennessee Jeep's advice. An SP-01 Shadow will lock you into basically SSP configuration when shooting IDPA. If you think you might like to shoot ESP and take advantage of the few mods it allows, look at a 75 Shadow.
  18. Thank you Twister. It's tungsten Cerakote.
  19. Bought a second TS this weekend. The grip reduced gun fits my hands so much better than the new one does, and the under cuts allow for a significantly higher grip than the minor material removal suggests it should.
  20. That's a foxy looking TS. Hard chrome?
  21. It's tungsten, and the work was done by Jason at hammerdownsports.com. Jason is a member here with the user name of kfd147. I bought the gun from him with the grip alterations and CeraKote already done and am very happy with it.
  22. JKW

    Best TS base pads

    They work with mine http://www.brianenos.com/forums/uploads/monthly_03_2016/post-54673-0-50030000-1458190922.jpeg Thanks Hallz. I actually came in to say that I double checked the SP bases on my Shadow mags and they looked much thinner at the lip than I remembered them to be. Took a chance before seeing your picture and ordered 5 of them this morning. I figured I'd have no trouble modding them slightly if needed, but it's good to know that I won't have to.
  23. JKW

    Best TS base pads

    Does anyone know if the Springer Precision extended bases will work with the CZC magwell? The factory plastic base on one of my TS mags needed to be slightly modified to get the mag to seat, and looking at the Springer bases I have on my Shadow mags, it looks like they may be a little thick at the top if designed the same way.
  24. My new to me TS. Really wish I could claim to have done the grip reduction and refinish, because a fantastic job was done on both.
  25. [uRL=http://smg.photobucket.com/user/JKW/media/1C5455C3-0438-41D8-A5A0-E06113EA4B8D_zpsiu5lukex.jpg.html][/url] Here's mine in three different forms.
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