ORCA

Tightloop They would be in the same shape one with or the other, a Glock or a Sig would recieve less scrutiny from a liability attorney or law enforcment than a 1911 with a single action trigger. I don't like it, its just what I've been led to believe from different gun magazines. Virginia is a lot like Texas in sentiments about guns and laws so I'm probably concerned for nothing. I also don't care nearly as much if something happens (damage or theft) to my Glocks or Sigs as I do with my 1911's, I just didn't want to start that debate.

Ditto. When I cut my frame down it took about 20 minutes. A local machine shop should be able to do it, just make sure they watch the rails. The scallops would be a little pain in the ass to do and not leave a lot of tool marks. I saw a Edge had the frame cut back and the slide and frame narrowed in the front that looked good. Machine shop time in VA runs $40-$60 an hour for simple work depending on where you are and The shop. They might add a charge for tooling used.

Glock 27, Sig 239 or Kel Tec P32 in the truck most of the time. I would be more comfortable with a 5" government of any caliber but I feel the Glock and the Sig would give less legal problems if I was forced to use it.

I don't have a guess on stage 8, but I think you might be close. Maybe Phil will give you a estimate on how long it will take him (then I can multiply that by 2). What are the ranges like at Topton? Does anybody know if there are any gun laws people traveling from Virginia need to be aware of going through Maryland and in Pennsylvania?

Ditto on what Steve said about the doubles. I've been trying recently to decrease my split times and I started firing aimed pairs and strings of six to ten shoots while watching the front sight. I was experimenting with different grip pressures and amount of camming down with my left wrist to see how the path of the front sight was affected and recovery time. While I was doing this I noticed if I let the gun settle I was getting splits of around .25 -.30 to the point of aim. If I didn't let the gun settle I got splits in the .15 -.20 about 1" low left, but to me visually it seemed like the point of aim. Eventually I began seeing the gun paused at a point 1" low left. My subconscious could see the sights near the point of aim, could see the gun was still, knew it was close enough and gave the command to squeeze the trigger. It just took a little time for me to tune in to what was going on. When I did that it I got the feeling of being a third party watching someone else shoot. I now know the feeling and I know I just need more practice (experience) to do it on demand.

When my club bought a Texas star I got to "test" it for a hour or so and a Texas windmill too. Shooting the star when it's turning fast is fun as hell, not in a match, just for fun. The local match director loves steel, the last match was a 94 round match, 44 of which were steel, and half of those were 5"-6" round plates. I shoot 50 -100 rounds on a plate rack every time I practice just to keep up. I did see a M class shooter shoot it by keeping his gun at the three o'clock position and letting the plates come to him as much as he could, I don't know what his time was, but I'm sure it was in the low three's. The local club paid $400 for the star and around $200 to ship it.

D class (until classifier update), limited STI, 10 yards: Best 2.90 Average 3.5 ( If I hit the first plate on the draw .) I have a fast draw and shoot an obscene amount of steel. I've been practicing too...

Best of five runs with a limited STI: 1.71 sec .83 draw .19, .18, .17, .18, .16 splits All A's The all A's is rough (for me, at warp speed), only two of the five runs had all A's. My times for the runs were between 1.71 and 1.85. As a side thought is the second shot typically the longest split for most people? All five of my runs had a .19 split on the second shot. The Steve Anderson inspired increased dry fire regimen is paying dividends.

My .40 load is: 155 Montana Gold 6.0gr VV 320 1.20 OAL WSR primers Makes around 170pf. A little snappy, but very little flip. My gun seems to recover much quicker with 155's instead of 180's. I tried 165's, they were a nice compromise.

I believe those of us in the deepest places of hell are actually in management training. When we get Falwell down hear we’ll raise enough money to get the place air-conditioned. Where did all the range lawyers come from?!?

Since they don't have a tenth level I guess I'm in the deepest rift of the ninth tier of hell. I'm going to Cocytus, the ninth level. The description sounds like a family reunion. Sig Lady - tenth level?!? Way to think outside the box.

I'm just getting ready to machine several comps for a new open gun I'm building. I figured I would try 4-5 different designs and materials. Personally I was planning on machining the steel then hardening it. The materials I'm going to use are A2, 4140, grade 5 Ti, D2, and just for kicks some exotic work hardening stainless steel like MP-35 or MP-55. For the Ti comp I'm going to machine it, harden it, then press fit a threaded stainless steel bushing in it. I might pin the bushing in place, but I doubt it would need it. I really like the Brazos comp configurations and the 7 port EGW. I'm planning on starting with 4 or 5 .300" wide chambers and add side ports to see how they affect the gun. I will probably try angling the front port forward on one comp to see how that affects the feel. I would imagine a steel comp that had been chromed would give the longest life. If I have comp ready the next time I send something to the plater that is getting a Black Diamond coating I'll have it plated. The Black Diamond coating is suppose to be over 90c, but I'm afraid it would be subject to chipping. I've been looking at every comp I could find and they seem to be a very subjective item, what one person likes another one hates. As others have said I would suggest trying other peoples guns and work from there.

Looks like I'm shooting Friday.

Ditto, EDM or ream. $50 is a good price.

I have the Koenig hammer in my limited gun, 17lb main spring, STI s7 match grade sear. The hammer needed to be slightly polished on both sides to fit in my STI, but the hooks were perfect. I have a tri-glide trigger system and the strut and firing pin are ti. Works great and I'm putting the same set up in my open gun.

One point that has yet to be brought up, if the gun was built using a standard frame and a cut down slide and in the future if you decided a short gun wasn’t for you would still have a unmodified frame. If I were going to have a gun built I would ask the gunsmith who was doing the work what his preference was and decide from there.

Like PaulW I got 3 of the triglides with a long trigger bow. The length is 1.770"on the triglide triger bow, the length of the standard SVI bows is 1.715" (STI 1.710"). When I put the two parts on a comparitor the front of the triglide trigerbow is angled back, the standard is square. I checked with Brownells and consensous was that the bow was indeed to long. I asked if it would be alright for me to reform the bow, to square it it up, and Brownells said they would still take it back if that failed to correct the problem. After I squared them up and got the length down to around 1.715" they worked fine. I personally have the triglides on two STI guns and one SVI gun. All had the same problem and the same fix. I tried to asked SVI about the problem and never got a response from them. I swapped out parts one day from the triglide with standard parts and to me the titanium spring is the trick part of the triglide system.

Excellent question Steve, I can't wait to see some good tips from some forum members. The VA Blast was tricky as hell wasn't it? I asked one shooter on my squad how he did it so easily and he said that on the confusing areas of a stage he programmed how many targets to shoot from a position ( p1-2, p3-3, p4-2,...). I think experience helped him as well. I tried to visualize what I would see from each position instead of memorizing a strict program. Congratulations on your finish in the VA Blast and making Master. I can see your practice regimen is paying off and you are now analyzing your performance from the match and are taking steps to correct any perceived deficiencies

Welcome to the dark side Eric! Civil engineers build targets, mechanical engineers build weapons, electrical engineers find the civil engineers for the mechanical engineers. It has always amazed me that when physics majors go for a different degree the majority go for EE. My microprocessor teacher had his doctorate in physics. I'm obviously a EE, although now I'm considered to be a control systems engineer specializing high end motion applications and micro machining. I saw your web site, keep your hand in control systems, it's a good specialty. I own a systems integration company now and a third of a machine shop, but I started out doing engineering side jobs. You might wish to take some CAD classes if possible (AutoCad & Solid Works), they will expand your chances of finding side work while in school. The injection molding industry is a weird one. One of my best customers (Gala) went from forcing me to expand to virtually no business due to over seas pressure. Every company I've ever dealt with in the injection molding industry was extremly cheap. Every notice how EE's seem to make more money than ME's, until the ME picks up a good specialty? Best of luck in your endevours.

Benny, I assure you I milled the rails down for a local gunsmith to the length he specified, I assume you are refering to the lower part of the rails where the recoil plug would make contact needing to be machined as well. I consider that part of the rail. We are speaking of a 5" frame and commander slide here? My gun isn't finished yet, but I took a long/wide frame and full profile slide and milled them to match a commander length barrel. The gun has as much travel on its slide as a goverment length STI. I don't see how their could be any more to modifying the length than that. I didn't have to touch the rails. I did make a custom length recoil plug for it and turned down a guide rod to fit. Sorry for drift, not trying to flame name gunsmiths (thats why none were mentioned by name). As for me considering their tolerances loose picky people consider me picky, and I deal in tolerances most people would never see. If someone can get $4,000 for a gun and have a year long waiting list good for them. Hell, I was going to buy a SVI IMMI and have a matching limited SVI made by the factory till they ticked me off.

One club I shot at lets women and juniors shoot for free. I like the clinic idea for new shooters. When we do range improvement work we have a clinic afterwords.

Sorry EERW, I got so busy talking about what I was doing I forgot to answer your question. It is easier IMHO to make the rails of a standard length gun shorter, all you have to do is cut and radius the rails and use a commander slide. To cut a slide down you can cut most of it down with a band saw, if your brave and have brass pads in the saw, and use a large carbide end mill to mill the slide to final size (which would be trash or damn near when your done). I could see an additional $40- $50 to mill the rails off, $70-$80 to cut a slide down, $50-$60 to cut down a long/wide frame to the length of a commander slide, and $40-50 to match a cut down slide to a cut down frame. I guess you would be looking at around $300 to $350 for the addition work over a normal open gun on a stroker like design, but $100 for a rail cut and commander length slide. I feel like the price of guns is getting out of hand, and so is the lead times people quote. Six months for a gun!!! My limited STI I just finished has $1,100 in parts, took about a month to get the parts in,and two or three saturdays to build. The gun has a AET barrel, SVI triglide trigger parts, stainless steel safties and magwell, Koenig hammer, and I cut it to have a three sided profile like the IMMI as well. I have looked at several guns from top name smiths and companies and I know they are working on a time table but to me their tolerances are very loose. Yes I'm talking to people who think their $4000 dollar gun is as tight as a bank vault. I know I can take as mush time as I want to work on a gun, and I have access to better equipment than most smiths, but I expected better. From what I've noticed gun smiths aren't machinists and machinist aren't gunsmiths. (Rant Mode on) I'm tired of companies who think just because they are the first to put a old mechanical principal to use on a gun they invented it. SVI is the poster child of this, press fit ball bearings - been around forever, shrink fit parts (comp on IMMI) - been done a long time too, never mind that titanium doesn't thread worth a damn and its easier to drill and ream it to size. Don't get me started on the price of magazine base pads. What is these people's shop rates $100? Mark up 100%?

I'm building a short open gun now. It's a cross between the SVI IMMI and the Dawson Stroker. It will have a long-wide dustcover, full profile slide, be cut down to commander length with the three sided profile of the IMMI. On the one Dawson gun I've seen I believe he just shortened the front of the rails of the gun on a mill to increase the stroke. He may have modified the slide but it would be much easier to machine the rails. I've got $1600 in mine, it's nice owning a small machine shop.

At our local club in Roanoke VA we've seen a large rise in the last year of people coming to the matches (me included), I believe nearly double. The main difference is a new match director. He is frendly and encouragining, puts on a good challenging match (you better like a lot of steel), sends out e-mails when he needs help, wrestles with the powers that be at the club for range equipment and improvements. We got a Texas star, a Texas windmill and a motorized rotator last month. He works hand and hand with the IDPA director. The last match director was lucky to get 15 people to come to a match, the new one had 20 show up to move rocks to improve the range and 35 to the first match this year. To get more RO's he got the club to help pay for a RO class, I believe if you were a club member the fee was $30 and $50 for non club members. We now have 20 certifed RO's. Most people at the club shoot production, limited-10, or limited.

I just got my time slot, Saturday AM. Hope to see some of you there. If you know what stages you will be RO's on let me know so I can introduce myself and say hello.