rkgsmith

We use a lot of Big Dog Steel, super targets and a great guy to deal with..

Match is full. Go to NRA TPC to look it up. Very restrictive and accuracy is premium over speed.

I would be very careful about letting somebody just turn it down without the proper tools. By that I mean a machine that is completely liquid cooled and flooded. Heat from turning will kill a barrel. Contact Compass Lake about turning. They did mine from a blank and fitted a bolt for $120. And it's .75 moa all day long.

If your looking for a Vortex call Scott at Liberty Optics (on the net) he's a good guy and service is top shelf. Don't know if in stock or not, but he's a vortex dealer and prices are good.

Plus I have a bit of Guatamalan surplus left but it doesn't group well. I am something of an ammo whore when it comes to 223. I don't like having less than 3-4K on hand if not more. I use different color P-mags to make it easy to tell what I'm shooting. Black for 55 gr and green for the good stuff, preload mags before match and usually don't need to reload them depending on round count. Kent, I also have some Guatemalan Surplus but I am finding it keyholes through my barrel. Any problems with yours??? Thanks, Racine

I'm thinking about taking the barrel of my 9L and turning it down slightly and fitting a tapered cone, like a bull barrel gun. Anybody ever do one, thoughts on accuracy. My gun actually shoots sub 2" at 25 as it is so I may just be wasting my time. Ideas ??

When properly fitted new parts of any sort don't require " shooting in " to make them work correctly. I'd be awful careful about wiping out the lugs of the slide with an improperly fit barrel.

I actually have 2 uppers set up, one for match use with a stainless mastch barrel and the other with an Armalite barrel for practice. Sometimes I will go thur a bucket of ammo in a very short time, and if its hot outside the handguard is so hot I need a leather glove to hold the gun. Heat is one factor that really eats up barrels so I try to conserve the match barrel.

Love the guns, winter is looking like gunbuilding time for me. What type of holsters are you guys using. I'd be looking for something for 3 gun with a little extra security for running and crawling around.

Can't comment on the WOA barrel, but I picked up a Wilson stainless blank for $100 and sent it to Compass Lake Engineering. I sent my barrel extension. They profiled it, cut it to 18", threaded it and fitted a bolt and returned shipped it for $185. It looks good, but I haven't mounted it yet, but work looks very nice. All thier turning machines are completely contained and flooded with coolant to keep the barrel from heating up. Just another option for those looking for barrels.

Can't comment on that specific optic but you can't go wrong with the Vortex PST line. I ran a 6-24x PST all summer long on my Sako TRG and used it in the Adcor/Sako sniper match. Spun the dials up and down for months in preparatiion for the match. It always returned to zero, glass is very good, clicks were positive and measured correctly. Look up Liberty Optics and ask for Scott, he'll hook you with a good price and fantastic customer service.

Still trying to get out of this match. Larry or Linda where are you. Just trying to give guys on the waiting list a heads up. If anybody has good contact info to get out let me know. Email and PM's not being answered. thanks

Hate to change the subject but have to bail on this match and give up my slot. Know there are guys waiting. Have sent a couple of Emails to Linda and Larry but no response back. Anybody got any Ideas of how I can cancel my slot. Like to give the next guy on the list some lead time. Thanks

Simple cure, just don't run a clamp at all. I never do and have never had a problem.

Ouch, didn't see that coming.

I have an M&P 9L that I may want to shoot IDPA with, however I seem to remember reading something about altering the grip. My question is this? Can I use Marine Tex on the grip to add texture. It does not change anything but the texture. Once applied can only be removed by sanding it off. Secondly can I change the sights with after market sights that need to be milled in like the caspian fiber optic.

I own a blade tech, however TPC rules state a retention device like a snap, thumb break, etc. As far as the Serpa, yeah it's dangerous if your a poor gun handling type of person. Not to spin this thread, I respect your thoughts, but don't blame the holster. Years ago we had an officer shoot herself in the leg drawing a glock from a Level III safariland holster, does that make it a bad holster, no. Does it mean she was a poor gun handler, YES. Let's face it guns are dangerous, reloading is dangerous, running around with guns with 1.5 lb triggers are dangerous, if you want to stretch it driving to the match is dangerous. Guys have AD's all the time, so should we ban their fingers. Seriously, before each operation our team leader recites the same mantra to the team each time we go out, specifically, "Weapon on safe until your in a ready position, finger off the trigger outside the trigger guard unless your on a shootable target." If everybody at a match abided by that rule nobody, regardless of holster type would shoot themself.

Since I bought my 9L I have been shopping around for a holster. I need something with retention for the Police TPC matches so the blade tech style won't work. I like the safariland, but don't like the barrel sticking out. Well I was at the range today and just happened to stick my 9L into my Blackhawk Serpa that fits my glock 21 and guess what, it fit like it was made for it. Only sticks out about a 1/16 of an inch, plenty of channel for the front sight and minimal rock. Gun locks in and the draw is nice and smooth. On another note I knocked off some other " must do's " with the pistol, accuracy testing and trigger fucntion. Fired about 250 rounds of 124 ball and 147 Fed Hydra Shok. Accuracy was good with both rounds, 6 shot groups at 25 yards from a barricade that printed in the 2 to 3 inch range. Both lots of ammo printed in the same spot and accuracy was the same. 147's do have a little more felt recoil though. Think I'll just stick with the factory barrel for now as this accuracy seems good enough. Groups printed slightly high so I think I'm going to go fiber optic, just a little taller than the factory sight. Went on to really play around with the trigger and it seemed to get better with each shot. Nice and smooth, reset was good, and I was consistently doing .13 - .15 splits on 10 yard poppers. Think I'll leave it alone for now. May tinker with bead blasting the slide for a two-tone look then serrate the top before putting on the sights. Also going to marine-tex the front strap for a little better grip. Overall really liking this gun.

Thank you,, I stand corrected. Just trying to give him a pat on the back for putting out the info.

I did it all. Just followed the power-point as Dan has it written. Like I said in my first post, I was amazed it actually went off. I used a make-shift jig to stone the sear and this made the cut square and true, a lot better than I can do by eye.

Maybe putting the cart before the horse here but.... Have not shot my M & P 9L for groups yet, but just curious of those who have switched off for a match barrel like the storm lake brand. Has it made much of a diffrence in the accuracy? Is it worth the cost?

Sometme back I purchased a 9L that like all factory pistols needed a trigger job. Searched around and found Burwell's DIY trigger job on his site. I'm pretty good at gunsmithing and have all the tools, but never on the M & P line of pistols. That powerpoint of his is easy to follow, well put together, and took a lot of the guess work out of the job. I used a modified Ron Powers jig to make the sear cuts and this worked great. Well I put the gun back together and quite honestly didn't think the gun would fire because the trigger felt so light. Took it out today and put 50 rounds thru without a glich. Big thumbs up to Burwell for putting that info out there. I don't know him personally, but if he is willing to put out that kind of info, he's a stand up guy in my eyes. If your looking for a trigger job on the M & P and don't want to tackle it yourself, by all means send it to him. If my trigger job was good from his instructions, then I'm sure he'll slick one up like nobody's business. Thanks again.

I usually try to determine what a good HF is for the stage and shoot accordingly. Stages with HF's above 7 I shoot for speed and below 7 I shoot for accuracy. Not saying I don't try to be accurate all the time, but high hit factor stages tend to be speed heavy, while low hit factor stages seem to be accuracy heavy in my opinion. My overall goal is never to shoot more than 5% down on any stage. But sometimes 5% will kill you on a short fast stage, so if your going to drop some points do it quickly. My .02 for what it's worth.

Shot the match in Fairfax earlier this year. Like many I don't agree with the rules regarding the scoring border hits. However that being said, I knew the rules before I shot the match, and it applied to everybody, so like it or not it was fair. Prizes were given out according to order of finish and Larue uppers counted just like guns. Because of this I finished 4th in tactical, and was the 8th guy to go to the table and still got an STI single stack 45, which I thought was pretty good for a 35 dollar match. Personally I won't travel for a trophy only match, however some guys will and I say good for them. If you win a gun or upper, then no more guns for you, and I see nothing wrong with that. Sometimes guys like to see better shooters at a match just for the chance to see how somebody else would shoot a stage, or what type of gear they are using. If your a top shot and enjoy traveling to these matches for trophies, again I say good for you. When I shot the match there was a stage that had paper targets (no shoots ) on a shotgun "shot" stage. One of the RO's said if a pellet strikes the furring strip holding the target it would be considered a hostage hit. After a short discussion with the MD this was resolved. Now was the stage RO trying to be a "dick " about it, No he wasn't. He just didn't know the rules about scoring zones on targets. Would this have happened at an area match, again No. But this is the type of things that come up and need corrected. That will take time. Let the NRA get some match experience and problems like this will go away. I have shot the match 2 years running, and will continue to shoot it when it comes to town. It's a good match, and allows some LE guys to experience the thrill of 3 gun. Who knows some will stray into USPSA and that is good for all of us.

I've grown tired of getting "bit" by my Glock and recently shot a M & P and liked it. Planning on using it for Police Matches, possibly IDPA and maybe even production division. Several questions, will a 9L fit in a box that is 8 3/4 " x 6" x 1 5/8". (thats the NRA-TPC box) What class and what modifications can be done to the 9L for use in IDPA. Finally, what modifications for Production in USPSA. Thanks