paul gilman

I have shoot 10's of thousand 45 semi wad cutters they are hg 68 mold design that is also copied by magma bullet casting machines. I use overall length of 1.250 to 1.255 and they feed with out any problem in all of my 1911's and Para's. They even feed in my officers model. If they do not feed there is probably another problem with your gun.I even use this load to test accuracy of a new 45.

I decided to put my M&P 40 a way until I can get the 5 in. model. I have gotten the trigger to the point that a production class Master ask if I would work over his trigger to the same specs as mine. It is 100% reliable know and has very short reset. But the reason that I am putting it away is that with short sight radius I have trouble making hard shoots at distance.I have spent timing practicing and find that at ten yards have no problem making 10 yard head shoots at speed, but longer shoots at small target areas like partial targets at 25 yards I have trouble keeping A zone hits and not getting into no shoot or hard cover. I am 64 years old %and 100 lbs over weight so I will not be a top shooter but my last classifier with my P16 was 61% with the M&P my classifiers are in the low 50's. I am going back to the dark side at this time until I can get a 5in M&P. This has been interesting experiment.

I have a GG&G mount that was a special run for the navy seals on my M1A at this time. I like it very much but would use a Basset machine mount know because they are made so they can be used on different receivers and will adjust.The Sadlack ones can be adjusted when they are made but you have to order a kit from them so that you can measure how your receiver is made. I also put a simple cheek piece on my stock made of kydex that can be raised and lowered for proper eye relief and good cheek weld.

go to STI and they have it on their web sight

I was told that TGO said that it takes 10,000 rounds with new platform to learn it I have 2000 of them down, will see how I shoot it when I get there. I have been dry firing to learn the gun better and will know start shooting groups to better learn the pistol, I have not benched it and shoot just groups because I would like to see how well it shoots when I stand on legs and just shoot it, but think that I need to check it out off the bench to see just how well it can shoot and how my reloads are working.

I have installed several SL barrels in 1911's and they where very smooth and shoot well.

well I have not given up on this gun, felt like it sometimes I have worked the trigger down some more with the parts that came with it, the trigger is not holding me back, I slap the trigger on my open gun because it has very little reset and over travel I have to shoot this with more of a revolver type of follow through and is taking me some getting use to. I find that when shooting a plate rack I will pull some shoots, when going fast. Also when shooting off hand groups I will get a flier out of the group. I need alot of practice with this gun. I find that brass with the head stamp of AMERC will not let me seat the CCI primers and will get FTF at times. so I am know sorting out these head stamps when I prepare the brass to reload.

I load on a 1050 and move the seating die to the position right after the powder die, then run the round through the LFCD with the crimp er removed then through a dillion tapper crimp die to adjust just the right amount of final crimp. I do this because I like the crimp that the dillion puts on the case at the final station. This has another plus in that when loading powders that fill the case up there is less chance that the will spill. I have done a lot of testing for accuracy and find that loads loaded this way seem to be as accurate as the ones loaded with out the LFCD die. As to covering up the problems with this die I have found that if you shoot multiply head stamp brass that some such as CCC and others the brass is not as precise as other brass and the brass is of different thickness and quality is not the same. But way back in the late 70's and early 80's the carbide dies sold by RCBS would not size remington brass enough because it was too thin and you would get set back. So I think that the LFCD is not perfect but it is just one of the tools we have to make loads that are both accurate and will function in most of our fire arms.

I shoot a P-16 in limited and you do have to run the arrendondo lower spacer with dawson base pads. I have found that with the dawsons bases the stack spring from para for there extended pad and stock follower I can load 20 and reload them reliably .

yesterday I went to the range to ck out a new reload with my M&P 40, I was using 180 hollow point berry's over 231 powder. I shoot a group at 15 yards and held them all inside the x ring on 25 yard bulsey target and was able to make shoots on 8 inch plates at 35 to 40 yards. Like G-manbart was saying I noticed that I had to hold the gun with a much firmer grip to get it to shoot well. I will hold a 1911 in a relaxed grip when I am shooting groups to ck accuracy, but found that you have to stay on top of your grip with the M&P to shoot better groups. I think that is because of the single action trigger.

who did you order the parts from, I saw them on sss sight but would like to know where you order these from to get them so fast. Thank you

I find that you don't seem to get it, are you sure you can shoot a decent group, and did you try any other ammo. the Front Sight magazine just had a article on making a 357 sig shoot in Europe and they had a hard timing making it work with a custom hand fitted STI. You should probably try some different ammo and get some one that has experience in shooting groups shoot it for you. G-Man Bart goes out of his way to help people on this forum.

Thank you for the info, I am looking for less expensive bullets for my 40 and am looking at the black bullets have been shooting 180 lead with 231 powder that makes major in both my M&P and Glock 35, the glock makes major with about .3 grains less powder. I found raz o info on the lee FCD interesting because I use one on my press, but the way I use it is with out the crimp pieces in the top and then follow it with dillion taper crimp die. I did not like the way the lee does the crimp so took that out of the equation I will have to test this with the black bullets. I have used berry plated bullets and have not had a problem with them. I appreciate all of the information and will get back to you on the lee die the way I use it, with lead bullets it seems to make no difference in accuracy. hope to see you on Sunday at the match Evan.

I started loading and shooting 45 and have shoot 10's of thousands of reloads in it. My most used load was a 200 lead swc over 6 grains of 231,with this load I have shoot many matches, and also carried this round and have shoot a lot of small game with it. This load PF is 192, so very good on pepper poppers, the old ones where very heave and would not fall with the loads we shoot now. If you came out with a 9mm you where laughed at. I could shoot about 1000 rounds between cleanings and never have a problem with malfunctions. I would not use this load at this point I would use about 5.5 grains and crono to see what power factor it was, I think that 231 is one of the most accurate powders for the 45 and lead bullets. I have also used large amounts of red dot it works very well 4.8 to 5.0 grains with 230 grain lead round nose is a very good load I also loaded 200 swc with 5.2 and worked very well. One comment I lived in Alaska and Idaho at this time and I carried my 5 inch government model every where I went. from cannoe trips down Alaska rivers to back country pack trips and this gun never failed me.

Jim I like your avatar, I meet the people using them for these 2 guns and what was the best and worst things about each. Thanks Paul

My experience with military surplus magazines are they are not worth the time and frustrations to get them to work.

I would like to know which 180 and 200 black bullets they are using in glock 35 and M&P 40 full size. I know there are several post on this subject and I have read them I just am looking for the most current information. Many thanks to all

I shoot a p16-40 and it will shoot anything that I want to load but did not start that way, one is to load long and the other is to polish the feed ramp, I know do this to all of my pistols the way I do it is I take a wooden dowel of the size of the brass case for the one I am working on, wrap it with 600 wet dry paper and polish in direction of travel of the round. y I then load a couple dummy rounds and function them through the gun slowly watching how the feed and where they hit the ramp, this is to check if the magazine is releasing the round at the rite time. Brain posted on the forum in gunsmithing a way to check and adjusted your over all length. hope this might help.

I started with a single stack back in 1980 and worked my way through all of the changes in guns, from the single stack to single stack 45 com gun to single stack 38 super and shoot both limited and open with para high caps. I like them a lot but decided to shoot one of the plastic pistols for a time. The reason that I choose the M&P is the way it fits my hand and comes up when I index it, I can close my eyes and bring it up and the sights are very close when I open them. Also I got the 40 so I can shoot in limited and production and get another classification. Also the glock trigger makes my trigger finger sore.

I would just take my bomar sighted single stack 38 super out of the safe, down load it and go shoot.

I have a running experiment going with my M&P 40, I polished the trigger bar and the contact surfaces on striker and sear with 600 grit wet dry paper.This did not change the reset but made the trigger much crisper and very shoot able, while this will not replace a full trigger job it would be a excellent way to do the trigger for a carry gun. Also this gives you insight on how the trigger and striker work. This is what I would recommend at this time, then after you shoot the gun for a period of time you can decide on the next step in your modification to make the pistol fit you better.

Well I said that it would be a trail and error posses and here is where I am at this time. I have pulled the trigger apart and polished the trigger bar and sear this made the trigger lighter and much smother, know I will order the titanium safety plunger and new sear. I have found that you have to be much more careful when reloading, both overall length and primer seating are more critical then for a 1911 style gun. Also when shooting groups with both 189 grain copper washed and lead bullets I can not get it to group as well as my P16.

Here is my double question,I have a 012 and have had the pistol fall out when taping and picking brass, number one is the 013 up date working and number two has anyone had experience with Arrendodo holster. My problem with like the goast is that I shoot a Para and the trigger guard is round and doesn't fit there block safely. Thank's all

I have found that the most important thing for consistent ammo when using brass that is not of all the same head stamp is to use a premium micrometer seating die and then use dillion taper crimp die.

I have found that universal is to slow for lead in 45 and does not burn clean and SD is higher