cletus9mm

not sure if anybody will prefer a "loose" fit over a "great" fit but in my opinion its all pretty relative. many custom builders quantify their frame to slide fit with a number like .001". i know what a tight $3000+ gun feels like and i also know what a "loose" gun feels like. what i do not know is what a gun with "x" amount of play feels like vs a gun with "y" amount of play. i would absolutely love to have a few guns with some measured runout to know what the different tolerances feel like. that being said im not aware of advantages of a loose fit. i believe i have read somewhere that properly fit tight guns are less prone to malfunction than improperly fit loose guns. keep in mind thought there are custom builders that build guns tight, or very tight. so tight that racking the slide is difficult to do for a grown man. in my opinion that is excessive but even those guns can function once you can manage to get a round in the chamber. when you grab onto a custom gun that is properly tight, there are few things that rival the feeling. you know you're holding quality, you know you're holding art. with a loose slide fit it detracts from that experience even if everything else is done right. just stating opinions here.

thats too funny. thats the exact comment i made after he made the shot. the hold over was really really high. we were both picking spots out on a tree that was just behind the targets for hold over. im really itching for spring so i can make some video to post on here.

Red Ryder / Christmas story. Does that count?!

shooting .45 factory ammo is a handfull in my opinion. some people love a ton of recoil and some people dont. i'm in the former category more than the latter. you already stated that you reload two calibers. reload .45 also. it will really make a huge difference in felt recoil. as was stated previously use a fast powder and heavy bullet. load it mildly and i think you'll be pleased. try some n-310 or n-320 if your bankroll allows it. if not use some aa#2. in my opinion those are some nice powders to start with. also if you load those to a minimum you will probably want to change out your recoil spring.

i'm in agreement on the trigger pull. providing you're shooting right handed it sounds like a 7'o'clock push. imo the best way to tell on your own is to shoot from a rest. if you're poa and poi are the same on the rest then i'd hold your trigger pull accountable. if not, adjust the sights! good luck and best regards.

saw this happen before at the range i usually shoot at. as in earlier posts, striker fired pistols are sensitive to lubrication mostly in the firing pin tunnel. not sure if you were shooting outside or not, but here in the midwest people experience this problem when the temps drop. a small amount of oil or condensation in the summer will generally go unrecognized. the same scenario in the winter can mean a different story. i've seen guys who shoot the same striker fired weapon all season with no malfs. then the temp drops below "x" degrees and their gun doens't fire. some of the time there is not even a mark on the firing pin. should you lube your weapons, absoulutely. as far as striker fired weapons are concerned, just a small amount on moving friction points other than the firing pin tunnel and thats it. just my opinion based on the striker fired weapons that i've owned.

the weather is gonna be crap up here for the next few months but i vow to make some video of long distance shots once the weather turns. you guys shooting the "carry" weapons and shooting at these distances are nuts!

what's up neighbor? weather sure is suckin it up this week.

+1. this is certainly the place to learn about some new gear/guns that you need. i need to warn you before you spend much time here. this site contains a virus that you'll inevitably catch. it's called opengunitis. the side effects can be devastating. it caught me after only a few visits. the symptoms are as follows. -drained checking account -pawning, selling all of your most expensive/prized possessions for no other reason than being a step closer to a race gun. -begging for overtime at work -if you have a smart phone, you'll be burning hours at work looking in the classifieds which may discourage your boss regarding the overtime. i'll let the rest of the forum chime in on some of the side effects you may experience while frequenting this site. welcome to the forum. good luck battling the symptoms.

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=103993 im a fan of this one

i love #2. its cheap and the recoil impulse feels fantastic imo. even at 170pf. my friend turned me onto it and thats really the only powder he uses now. the biggest thing is that you already like the way it feels. who cares if nobody else does. that being said i like it and use it.

that is excellent!

that is an excellent shot. my buddy is a fanatic about his 1911 45's. i'll try and get him to attempt this hopefully saturday. i'll be sure to empty the beer into my belly first so that no hopps or barley are injured during the making of said video.

some sweet shots posted here! i just can't help but smile shooting pistol at steel a long distance away. putting the pistol at low ready and waiting that second or two before you hear the "ding". it's magical. i'll try and make some video this weekend to put up here. i suppose it would make a pretty fun first video post for the forums.

im spoiled and have a friend that has an excellent farm to practice at. on a fairly regular basis we shoot at targets that are realistically at rifle distances. ealier this year we reached out with pistols a great deal further than we had previously. we set a popper up at 352 yards (measured with a bushnell rangefinder). i believe the popper was 10". the dirt was dry and loose so you could see bullet impact and adjust accordingly. there were four of us there and i was the only person who said that my friend would hit the popper in less than 3 magazines. he was shooting a wilson 1911 with 8rnd mags. long story short he hit the popper in less than the prescribed 3 magazines. he did this twice. the second time he did it within the next two mags. i matched him or came close to matching him with my 38 super open gun. last weekend we were shooting rifle at 525 yards and the same friend was attempting to hit a porcealin sink with the same wilson. he didn't fire many mags at that distance because even with spotting him conditions were difficult to see impact. he got within 10' of the sink with the few mags he fired at it. whats the most obnoxious thing you've ever accomplished at "x" distance with a pistol. please tell me range and caliber and how long it took you to do. i think this type of pistol shooting is ridiculous but also an incredible amount of fun.

"fun" range 30 minutes one way uspsa sanctioned range 1 hour one way.

way overkill for pistol in my opinion. there are websites that are very well respected among benchrest shooters that tout people that load their brass and shoot it at 600-1000 yards and win competitions. they win these competitions against people who hand sort their brass/bullets for weight. is it a variable that you are able to control? abolutely. is it worth the time sorting as opposed to practicing? absolutely not. please keep in mind this is just my opinion and i have nothing factual to base this on other than an extensive amount of reading.

me: "do you carry any .22 conversion kits other than the ones you have made by kimber? gun counter guy: "kimber is the only mfg who makes .22 conversion kits" me: "okay, thanks for your help". to this stores defense, most of the people there are excellent. they went through a massive hiring when our new president was elected due to the increased volume of customer. i think the application process went something like this. "can you spell gun?" okay excellent, you start tomorrow.

i've read in more than one place that it's "better", "more accurate" to weigh 4+ charges and then take the average of those "x" amount of charges and base your throws off of that number. can someone please explain to me why this may be the case. thanks in advance.

i can't disagree with your decision on 231. it's a pretty fast powder for both calibers and should you should be able to make loads without a ton of felt recoil. my most recent loads is 231 with 147 grain zeros. i've been shooting 115's and 124's for a while and just started with 147's. they are definately more pushy while the lighter two are more snappy. im using 4.2 grains of 231 for 9mm and havn't loaded any for 45 yet. i believe i purchased the pound for 17 dollars at cabelas (spoiled i know). havn't loaded any for 45 yet but i'm sure i wouldn't be disappointed. n320 is unquestionably excellent but nearly twice the price. if you don't have a ton of rounds under your belt with handloads just buy a couple pounds of whatever you can get your hands on. shoot a bunch and then try a switch. it takes practice to be able to appreciate how different powder/bullet weight combinations feel. primer prices are slowly dropping (around me at least) and if you're gonna be purchasing 10k+ you can more than make up for a hazmat fee by shopping online. happy shooting.

ive done a ton of reading on this subject in this forum and others. the more i try to track down fact, rather than opinion, i find a growing number of people are not brushing their barrels. without trying to muddy the waters i will say that i've gone 5 or 6k rounds in my cz tactical sport without cleaning the barrel. last time i shot off a rest at 30 yards, the gun still shot a ragged hole with a flier albeit touching the others in a 5 shot grouping. i've shot a combination of cmj and fmj (exposed lead base) bullets, and all are were maximum book loads using power pistol. the barrel still looks shiny and clean with nothing discernable in the lands or grooves using my naked eye. im going to continue just shooting the gun until i recognize a difference in accuracy and see if brushing it brings it back. i used to clean religiously but i'm going to try and shoot the rifling out of this gun before i brush mostly out of curiosity.

I'm left handed and right eye dominant. If you compete and or just want to become the best you can be, my suggestion is to start practicing with your weak hand. It will absolutely be slower now but with practice you'll be a better more rounded marksman by shooting with your weaker side. I'm one of the few that toiled through in order to shoot with my dominant eye. I originally did this for pistol but figured it would be in my best interest to carry my practicing over to rifle as well. I'm a little biased towards this though mostly because it is more difficult to find left hand friendly gear. This was some extra motivation for me. I started by buying a right handed holster and drawing from it on a nightly basis.it did not take as long as I thought for the draw to feel "normal ". I did the same thing with a shotgun but with less frequency. I shot trap (and was pretty terrible ) for a while while doing this. I might mention that I'm still not very good but shouldering the shotgun feels second nature at least. Really it boils down to practice and how bad you want it. I'm glad I took the time to practice. My pistol shooting would not be where it is today had I not.

looking at the numbers i think i'm on one of the extreme ends of this spectrum. i'm 5'9" and my favorite sights out of the pistols i own and shoot are the sights on my cz tactical sport. the gap on my rear sight measures .167 and my front sight measures .095 at the top. the first time i looked down the sights i was very nervous that i would never like it or get used to it. my first time sighting the gun in i was pleasantly surprised. my groups were some of the best i had ever shot. like others here have mentioned your eyes naturally line things up, and these sights are no different. i might add that friends of mine all had the same perception about the sights. they all said something along the lines of "the rear sight is so big and the front is so narrow". they were all skeptical and when they put it on paper, they changed their minds. my suggestion, get the rear sight as wide as you can and the front sight as small as you can. if you don't like it, make the front bigger! good luck!

hey neighbor, there are some unsanctioned matches in bristol wisconsin. on "action pistol" nights you can shoot pretty much whatever you want. can't shoot any high powered rifle, but you can shoot a .22 variant. they do comstock scoring and it's all just for fun. it's really a good time. a little further north than that is schultz rod and gun club. forgot what town but if you google it you'll find it. they are the closest uspsa range to me and i assume to you as well. i've never been there due to weekend time constraint, but plan on heading out soon. pm me if you want some more info!

+1 to what jax just said. the part that troubled me most was it was turned into a popularity contest. top shot to me means that the most well rounded shooter should win. i would much rather see a point system employed to eliminate the competition vs a vote. kelly was a prime example of this through a good portion of the season. he constantly faced elimination not because of his lack of skill, but for his lack of "popularity" with the people he was rooming with.