rexican

I've been using it a few months now, and it makes cleaning my dedicated .22 AR upper easier. Gunk wipes right off of the bolt. I used a heat gun for the first couple applications. I have had issues before in South TX with guns getting absolutely caked with dust, and I thought the paste would help alleviate that. So far it has worked really well. One of my buddies even ate some last hunting trip... he said it tastes waxy. It is kinda weird having a gun that smells like mint, too.

rock river sells an "oh shoot" kit for around $15 that includes an extractor spring, ejector, cotter pins, detents and such. They also have a RRA bolt repair kit for around $30. I like to have those on hand when I go hog/coyote hunting (I always talk myself into bringing a backup rifle anyways ).

Thanks Brian, they have some good stuff on sale. CDNN has them for $25, but with TX sales tax it would end up being about the same to ship them from out of state

I'm going to order a tacsol barrel for my buckmark and start doing some practice, but I can only find 2 of my mags. I know I had about 10 at one point, but I don't know where they are hiding. I was wondering about the cheaper (sub $20) mags from sportsmans guide: do any of y'all have experience with them? If not, is there some place to find OEM mags cheaper than $28 I would probably pick them up for peace of mind.

I recently sold off a couple guns, and with the extra cash I picked up a used tac 30 for my 18" 5.56 and have been waiting for a deal on a primary arms micro dot with QD base for my .450 bushmaster. So, my buddy asks if I want to go pig/coyote hunting in south TX next week. Heck Yes! Then I realize that I have no short range optic for my 450, and the scope that's sitting on it isn't sighted in. I have two scopes for my 18", on larue mounts so I could swap back and forth. Neither of them are sighted in! I haven't reloaded in weeks, because I put it off till I cleaned up the garage. I finally have a chance to test out the 450 and I'm not prepared... I could order a micro dot, but I'm not sure if it would be here in time. Worse: it would be close to $185 with tax and shipping. But hey, at least I get to go hunting.

On top of what these guys said, I used to have a 17c, the advice I would give you would be to avoid reloading lead bullets. That was a fouling nightmare that I would not like to repeat. I'm pretty meticulous when it comes to gun cleaning, but I could never completely get the lead out of those vents.

Oh, that math... My range is over 45 miles away, and I drive there once a week ($1.55 each way in tolls no less). My truck averages 16.5 miles per gallon... close to $20 in gas per trip... I planned on getting back into matches 2 months ago, but one thing or another has kept me from even doing that. I swear... if I didn't practice so much, I might actually be able to shoot matches again

Thanks for the link, SLM. I have a 13# I can try out as well, but it feels a bit stiff. I'll have to wait till wednesday or so to try them out.

Thanks Wide45 and Intel. After reading that I remembered I just ordered some replacement 10lb through 13lb springs to try in my dawson, and they're already in my range bag. A few minutes ago that light finally came on and I remembered where I put the Ace conversion. I remember seeing a thread awhile back (I don't remember which forum) on tuning these things for reliability. I'll search for that after I give this thing a thorough cleaning. It's probably been 10 years since I shot it.

I have an old colt ace .22 conversion (somewhere) that I remember being complete minus recoil spring. Does anyone know where to find one/ what weight.

I just realized its been more 2 hours and I've read through this entire thread... I guess I was about 9 years old when the magazine capacity ban went through, and I used to spend my allowance buying pre-ban beretta 92 mags. I know... I was a weird kid. So, I'm 12 years old, at this gunshop in College Station with my Mom, and I ask how much for the pre-ban beretta mag behind the glass. The guy behind the counter says: that's a 10 round mag. Being familiar with that exact aftermarket magazine maker(and apparently a confident little smart-ass), I proceeded to explain how you could tell it was a 15 rounder. As I continue looking around, I see him pull out a pen and start to fiddle with the basepad. The pad goes flying off, and the magazine spring hits him directly in the eye. Laughing, he eventually said to me: "yeah, looked like a fifteen rounder!" This was almost 15 years ago, and I still remember his face.

I finally ran out of my .223 reloads before the holidays and put off reloading some more until after the craziness was over. My buddy gave me a call and told me I'm invited to his place to hunt in south TX for pigs, coyotes, and stuff I'd use a .223 for. For Chirstmas I built myself an 18" BCM barreled upper and haven't gotten around to shooting it yet. So, today I get back from work and dig out all my .223 components and make some rounds to sight in tomorrow and to shoot down there. I sorted brass, gathered my components, and got out my .223 shellplate for the dillon and slid the toolhead in to place... there was no decapping rod sticking out of the depriming station. There is nothing worse than realizing how big of an idiot I am, coupled with the realization that I will have to pay .40 cents a round tomorrow on my way to the range (when I have enough components to make thousands of rounds at home). I know with every squeeze of the trigger I will be grimacing with discontent. My only comfort is that I've decided it's high time to replace my old crappy mismatched sets of dies with a brand new set of Dillon dies from Brian.

does it only happen when you load it to capacity? Can you load 6 rounds and replicate the failure? I was just thinking a burr on the spine that is in the front of the mag could cause a malfunction at a specific point. It does not necessarily explain the double feeding, but I'm curious. If for some reason you can't resolve it, I'll offer to trade you a working, unmodified 20 round pmag for your malfunctioning one. I have to modify 20 rounders pretty extensively for my 450 bushmaster (removing the front spine altogether and threading nylon screws into the follower to take up the lost space) and they still run perfectly...

I like pistols more because I have a big ego and I think I'm pretty good at shooting them. I shot pistols merely for the joy of putting holes in paper (it was a lot cheaper and faster paced than rifle shooting when I was growing up). We used Rifles and shotguns for hunting, and I practiced with them before the season opened, but not much more. All that has changed, and I've almost got all my gear to shoot my first multigun match, but in truth I'll probably always enjoy shooting pistols more.

Welcome!

The unit 2 is more like an aluminum version of the colt ace conversion: the entire slide moves. I've used my unit 2 with an STI 2011 for a couple of years and have just found the ammo/mag combination it likes (tacsol mag, 40gr CCI mini-mags) It's still not 100% reliable, but I've gotten a lot of practice in clearing malfunctions quickly. The sights are set up remarkably close to my limited setup, and I have found it to be a great training aid. I also didn't have the mag loader for the Marvel-STI mags and spent more time loading than shooting. I would usually take some pliers to a spent .22 mag shell and use it in place of the loader, but it sure made me wish for a third hand.

Are you looking at the Unit 1 or 2? There is a lot of info on the Unit 1's in the steel challenge forum. If you're looking at a Unit 2 I can chime in some more.

haha, thanks guys. JK, I was reading Brian's book this morning (specifically the part where he says he will never shoot someone else's reloads nor allow someone else to try his major reloads in their gun), so I shook my head and grinned at the irony a little while after it happened. My dad has been reloading longer than I have been alive... but I approach it completely differently and have even taught him a thing or two(when he'll listen to this whippersnapper ). He has gotten better about it recently, and these reloads were about 5 years old. I have 2k 40 bullets waiting to be reloaded, but I'm waiting for my chrono to get here to work up a major load. Best wishes for a speedy recovery, grant.

Today was absolutely beautiful and to make it even better, I had an errand to run a couple miles from my range(which is 40 miles away). I am pretty much out of my own reloads, so I thought I would run a couple hundred rounds through my marvel conversion and a some of my dad's mixed 38 supers out of the pt1911 I had drift adjusted the rear sight on. He is the complete opposite of me when it comes to reloading: he keeps no records and will just throw a bunch of different batches into the same box. He has gotten a lot better, and will even separate headstamps for rifles now. In the box he had given me were lead, fmj, and 158 gr. loads he had made by resizing .358 bullets down to .355. Everything was fine until I loaded 4 of the resized rounds into a magazine. The first 2 rounds had very little recoil, and I moved to the next target. Then I remember watching the front sight, and the feel of the trigger on my finger... then somebody slapped me across the right cheek. I honestly didn't know what the hell had just happened, but there was oil or something on my glasses. I locked the slide back and hit the mag release, but no mag dropped into my hand. I looked at my hand and it had parallel black lines across my left palm. I look at the ground and see the magazine and spring.... At that point I knew exactly what happened. I turned around (I was in a tactical bay by myself) and set the gun down on my tailgate. It looks like the unsupported part of the shell ruptured and melted the lead nose of the last hollowpoint in the mag. The slap I felt turned out to be powder hitting me in the face; it was red for an hour or so, and just a couple specks of blood. Luckily, I had those massive clip-on sunglasses over my normal glasses, so I was just peppered lightly on the tip of my nose and above my lip. My hands are fine, they're usually brown, but were red for a little while. All in all, I was pretty lucky to get away with some powder burns, a cracked grip, and busted baseplate. Seeing Grant22's accident recently kept me thinking that it could have been a lot worse (I had my own primer incident 10 years ago with a RCBS hand priming tool that took some weeks to heal from). I have plenty more mags, and now I have a clear project for that gaboon ebony I got last month.

Nice, thanks icedevil and bigbrowndog.

Alliant has some more data on their website where you can search by caliber or by the powder. I don't find it to be as helpful as Hodgdon's site, which lists reccomended starting loads and much more information. Winchester/Hodgdon/IMR are compiled into one online database, and they have a wider range of different bullet types and weights. This may help with your powder selection if you if you wish to try another type later on. I believe titegroup and 231 were mentioned earlier, both of which are fine choices. Congrats on your Dillon, and safe loading, Rex Edited for repitition.

Thanks, that answers my question. I have the "tactical" straight stock with the sling plate in the middle on it right now. I had incorrectly assumed that the tactical stock was the pistol grip version. Luckily I have that extra set of what I assume are wood "field" stocks so it won't go to waste. (look at what assuming got me the first time ) Are y'all using a limbsaver-type pad on your tactical stocks, or am I being a wimp?

Thanks CZ, I'll try giving them a call. I think it's marked correctly, because the template in the booklet is noticably different. Rex

Sorry to hear that, and IMHO I've never been overly impressed with the vanek triggers. I was raised shooting 1911's, so I'll always appreciate a good single stack trigger. During college I read Ed McGivern's book and got pretty heavy into double action revolvers. The glock has always seemed like a pretty nice median to me. The smooth pull with no staging is almost like my tuned model 25(though quite a bit shorter). One of these days I'll pick up a 625 and shoot a couple matches in revolver class for grins. Hopefully I'll see you around, DoubleA, we're not too far from each other. Sorry for the digression I'm making my comeback in 2 months (I haven't shot a match in more than a year), and I'll be shooting the gun I enjoy shooting more. The glock will still be my backup, but I just have more fun with the STI.

I just picked up a limbsaver 10401 pre-fit pad for my m1 super 90- it has the factory synthetic, non-pistol grip stock. Suprisingly (it says it will fit the m1 super 90 field), it does not fit my gun. I placed my factory buttpad up to the template and the holes are about 1/4" closer together on the limbsaver buttpad. I have factory wood stocks for it as well, buried in a closet somewhere. was the 10400 the correct model?