Alan Adamson

I found another excellent idea via this method... I *hate* S&B brass, Well, lucky for us they all have glued in primers and red glue. So you fill a box of 9mm (the blue dillon boxes worked just great for this)... 90% of them will be web down then you tilt the box on it's side, but not enough to let them all fall out... you can read the headstamp through the bottom of the box and you take a loaded round of 9mm with a RN head and you just pick the S&B's out... I did a bucket of 5000 or so in 30 mins probably... way easier than hand sorting them...

Nevermind... I measured wrong, it's a 17" not a 16" and I know that will work I have one already that works just fine.... duh...

Yes, I know.... it's just a matter of time... they all will break (why STI took them off the market), fit or not...

it's a long story as to how I got here and I don't have to go here if this is s stupid idea... I've got a cut down 16" rifle length gas barrel... It's actually a really good barrel that the threads were screwed up on and instead of it being cut down to a 17, it was cut to a 16 ... But, I wonder, can they be made to work - reliably? Dwell time seems to be the main issue it appears... I can solve some of that by putting a suppressor adapter on it and and suppressor, but I'm wondering if I can put a suppressor/brake adapter on it and use it as a backup upper if I ever needed it for 3G? Does and adjustable gas block solve any of the issue? Light BCG? ligher buffer/spring, etc? Just curious before I put everything back together.... This is really an SPR type gun that I use for some long distance shooting, I just was thinking maybe I could dual purpose it... or not... I always have another 18" barrel that I can put on this upper if worst comes to worst. Thanks Alan

My issue with the .380 plate, and I have one, is that you can only put a few cases in the .45/.380 sorter. This because the 9mm cases will plug the slots, and then you'll miss a bunch of .380 cases... The trick with the .40 plastic flip box is just brain dead easy, I just dump from my black sorter (the 9mm one) into the 40 box, and just shake it back and forth and move cases to the open holes, they just fall in, almost always web first.... Then it's really easy to see what is *long*, short and especially those makarov cases are a little harder hence the board trick... 9x19 vs. 9x18 can a bit hard to distinguish... The .380's are really easy and you can just pick those out, then dump the real 9's into your sorted bucket.... *WAY* faster than the .380 plate version... YMMV, Alan

yep, thats where they break, usually it starts at the top where the ultra thin area is directly above the mag release on both sides, then it cracks down that area and as the crack grows, it causes other areas to be stressed and it ultimately falls apart. While originally they said it was fitting related, they later discontinued the grip and are redoing the mold/model to remedy this issue, as they *all crack*.... Round count is the only variable... Mine have about 3K rounds on them is all. And I fit them so there were no marks or pressure points when assembled. Alan

I think everyone knows that the original aluminum grips have been discontinued.... I have 2 that are broken and so I called STI today to see what warranty is for them. If you have to have something today, they will trade the broken ones for mags or plastic grips... pretty much value for value... But, they are also re-designing the Aluminum grip to remedy that thin area where they all crack. The new grip should be out in January and they will warranty the old grip for the new one when it's available... So hang onto those broken ones... Alan

While I have one of those sets of *shell sorters*... I found an much simpler way to sort out the 38S/SC/TJ 9x21, 9x18, 380, etc from 9mm. Take a 100 round plastic flip case for .40 caliber... pour a bunch of *sorted down to the black tray set* brass into the plastic box, shake it around a bit until all 100 holes are filled. Now pick out the odd sized stuff. If you are looking for the 9x18 (makarov(sp)) stuff, take a small wood board and place on top of the 9mm shells... hold it tight and then rattle the sandwich, if anything moves, you have 9x18 or 380's that you've still missed. It's very simple to do and very effective. Credit where credit due.... Found this out from a fellow shooting partner.... Morphire who's also on these board. Alan

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=86570&view=findpost&p=996740 That is the 650 discussion with the mcmaster carr part numbers for the bearing and plates. I just figured I'd carry it forward for those to reference as needed...

I'm curious... On all the S_I guns that I have, the forward grip screw attach point is somewhat strange. The little bushing is wider than the thickness of the grip or frame lug and so when you run the little screws into it from both sides, there is always play that allows you to never have it tight... The play allows the little bushing to *float* back and forth across the frame/grip. Is this a design feature, does the bushing in the frame and grip provide enough support for what is needed here or does not allowing this to be tight, create a point of flex or POI shift? (note, it wouldn't be very darn much). What would really be needed to fix this is that the bushing would need to be shorter such that the screw heads would pinch the grip before they bottomed out on the bushing... Do people just bottom them out and forget about the float that exists? Inquiring minds want to know... Seems all my guns are the same... once the screw heads are bottomed out, there is approx 1/32 - 1/16 of an inch of lateral play that I can feel by pressing one side or the other screw head in, pushing the bushing back and forth... Alan

All, if you look, I give you the mcmaster carr part numbers for the bearings and washers (I think this is a flat needle bearing right)... and it's used a bunch on 650's solve the snapping shellplate issue with full cases... It's the only way I'd reload on a 650. Either check my posts or search for 650 bearing... it's about $4.00 form mcmaster carr so that may save you some money... Alan

I'm about 90% there... I say 90% because I believe it was a combination of primers *and* primer punch... I had been using all WIN brass, and Wolf SPP primers. I was crushing one about every 10 or 15 shells, until I changed the primer punch, then it went to about 1 in 200... But I just decided to try some CCI SPP primers and I think that rate will improve even more. The wolf primers are well known for being on the *largeish* diameter size... and a few rounds with CCI's felt so much better... If anyone is following along... I did try a few other things back when things weren't so good just to rule them out. I tried a new shellplate - made no difference, I tried a new primer punch bushing - made no difference. I have a new primer rocker arm that I may try as I don't like how the rocker arm cams over the primer punch and causes it to move back towards the rear of the press when it cams. The only part that I haven't tried a new primer slide, but I doubt that would make any difference. So I think this is going to come down to primer punch and primer selection. I'm also going to go to mixed brass as a science experiment. Basically throwing the gauntlet at it. I'll provide a summary when I'm finished.... Got to load a few 100 in the next couple days as I have an upcoming match and I have to check the zero on some scopes... Hope this is helpful to all...

Very nice JL gun you have there... rumor has it that he's building again... I should seem him next week and hope to confirm... Alan

Did you try shooters connection, they may have a tube Aimpoint mount... seems I recall one on their site... Alan

Ultimately, I may have found my solution... I just played with an Aimpoint MicroDot, an H1 on an MCG mount.... In a word... Wow. I decided to try an experiment... closed my eyes, indexed the gun, opened my eyes... Dot was smack in the middle of the scope. Did that 3 times in a row... Then missed one, but found it easily. After an hour of playing I was hooked. The dot is a bit smaller, but it seems easy to pick up. This is with a mount that puts a tiny bit of mass on the right side of the gun (the on/off dot intensity knob)... If you have Serendipity mounting holes on the right side of the gun, you could go with Derek, or Sauls mount and solve that, it turns the scope at 90 degrees and puts the on/of/intensity knob on the top... For me, this just might be the best of all worlds.... Still have to shoot it to see what the dot does as the glass is smaller on the H1/T1 than a Cmore, but with the mounts noted above, even holes in the barrel aren't going to be an issue, nor is ejection.... While everyone is different, I really like the looks/feel/index/dot/presentation, etc of this combination... But again, I've not shot it yet... Also as a note, I talked to Cmore today... The RTS is available for purchase and they are in stock... Info should be up on their website next week... And they were quickly working on a flyer...good things coming from there too... I'd like to see one in person.... Alan

Ok, without the short extension ,it's 8+1 for a total of 9 in the gun, the little extension adds one additional round, makes it 9+1 for a total of 10 in the gun. Alan

Let me convert mine to 8 right now and I'll post the tail of the tape... I'm pretty sure it's 8+1 and 10+1... Get em from Power Factor Shooting - http://www.powerfactorshooting.com/ Sean's a great guy and will take care of you there... I'll be right back in touch... BTW, I ran mine a week ago for the first time, worked perfect, no issues and I really like it's look/feel on the SX3. Alan

Here are a set of pictures from a 9mm slide and barrel. I'm just trying to understand what a rounded lug looks like on the upper lugs and recess lugs? Do these appear to be normal wear, or is the timing off and the lugs are rounded? I pulled a couple of my guns apart and while there is some difference, they all looked pretty similar... Just trying to educate myself? Thanks for looking and helping with my education. Alan

I'm looking at a standard STI frame, there are a bunch of reasons why this happened, but regardless, the frame is cracked vertically from the top edge of the frame in the square notch where the slide release cutout is... The crack extends from the top of that notch, vertically down to the flat or shelf where the slide release sets... this is right behind the detent to put this in perspective. Here's a picture taken through a 7x loop. so, what are the options to fix this? I doubt it can be welded and recut, So besides the costs for the frame kit from STI, how involved is the fix and how costly? I'm pretty sure I know what happened, but until my gunsmith looks at it, I'm going to keep that to myself... This isn't my gun, but I might have an option to buy it... In the course of looking it over, I found this problem and what I believe caused it (which can easily be fixed). The top end looks pretty good. Thanks for any advice, Alan

Jon.... True, enough. Good input from both posters... I got ahold of my friends micro do (T1 or H1 Aimport) so I'll take a look at that... Guess I may have to see how much I could improve my index on a top mounted cmore ... Alan

Hmm... really? It certainly looks like it will but if not, I'll be hunting for that dot too ... Ya know, you just reminded me... Ive got a friend with a Micro Dot Aimpoint on a mount from Derek... I should at least look at that first... if that will bring the dot down to an acceptable position, I would think an DP would... The Cmore setting on the mount sets up at least 3/8-1/2 before you even get to the hinge and the glass is above that, so I'd have to look, but the bottom of the glass has to be almost .75" above the top of the slide. And the dot then another 3/8-1/2 above that... call it 1 1/4 above the slide. The DP *has* to be closer to the top of the slide than that... Of course the 90 degree cmore puts that dot the same 3/8-1/2" above the slide plus clearance that the mount provides... I just don't see how the sideways mount can help the dot track, but I know I can't index a Cmore upright... (well, I'm sure I could, but it would take lots of practice and I would prefer not to take that step backwards... Plus I really like that my index stays pretty much the same between irons and glass with the sideways... .if it just didn't have the other issues... Never is a holy grail is there? ... Alan

I know that Cmore is coming out with a newer compact version of their scope, but I'm itching to try something in the offseason. For the life of me I can't index a Cmore in a traditional mount on an open gun... I hunt around for the dot like a wild person, and yet on the 90 degree mount, I find it every time. But to be honest, I'm getting tired of transitions right to left and having the target blocked by the scope. I'm also fairly confident that the dot track on a sideways scope is *different* than a Cmore that's right side up. It actually has to be given the way the hinge works on a cmore and how the scope has no support. To flex side to side (when upright) becomes flex up and down with at 90 degrees mount and actually it's worse than that, it's 90 degrees in a twisting motion so actually the dot will have a tendency to track up and to the right or left just given the way a Cmore is hinged. So... I'm curious to lower the dot to the bore so I can find it *and* to keep it upright to avoid the left/right target blockage... I'm wanting to try a Deltapoint. And I dumb to even think of going there? Will it be a waste of dollars? (I can always put it on my AR if I don't like it on an open gun ...) I'd most likely use JoJo's mount... The other fundamental question... I shoot a 6 MOA dot on my Cmore and quite like it... but a 3.5 on the DP seems *really small*, would be be approx 1/2 the size of my 6MOA dot? I'm not sure I could get used to using te 7.5 MOA Delta, and using the tip of the delta in a 6 oclock hold type fashion... So, I'm looking for feedback... Good, bad, talk me into, out of, etc... I searched, but didn't really find the answers to the above, and out of all the microdots, I like the size, qty of the DP better than the STS, or the others... Let me know you thoughts on the topic, Alan

The on target benefit is huge if your are a benchrest shooter for example. I doubt other than pride that there is much value in pistol brass for a run and gun type shooting discipline... just my .02. Alan

Just a quick followup... I re-checked everything and loaded up the press with bullets (mr. bulletfeeder ) and brass... Primed the pump and started cranking... After a total of 150 rounds (very small sample, but given where I started a major accomplishment).... No crushed primers, not even any that felt strange... Best part was I didn't need to change anything, just checked OAL (redding comp seating die), reset the swage station to Win WCC crimped brass, and some FC crimped that I happened to have. Still using only WIN brass, but I'll switch to mixed here shortly... All this in 9mm, with 124 JHP MG bullets, and true blue as the powder - have to use the arredondo powder bar as that stuff is wicked fine (just like SP2 - which I can't tell the difference with in either of my guns). So unless something changes, I hope I'm good to go... Does suggest that at some point, standard maint needs to include replacing the primer punch.... but let's see what that number is... I really hope I can go through a flat of primers without an issue... That might be dreaming, but I'm being optimistic at the moment! Yeah - jumping for joy at the moment!!! Alan

Ok, good news. I got the new primer punch this morning, and while only a small sample... I can tell you that instead of crushing a primer ever 10 or there abouts, I ran 50 primers into brass with nary a problem. I was only running decap/size, swage, prime, and then pull them out... but it was the same test I was running yesterday and crushing one in 10. The new primer punch is .1505 vs. the original at .149 in diameter, it looked pretty good on it's flat surface, was round, still a couple of tool marks where edges where rounded off, but nothing like my original. I placed a primer on it and held it up to the light, it was well supported on all sides... Again, unlike my original which on one side had daylight between the primer and the punch for about 1/4 diameter in one area. So, later, I'll load up the press, check everything and see if I can't get through a few 100 rounds without a problem. I want to set back up my swage station as well and I may run a few mixed brass through to see how that goes. I'm still going to leave my other mods in place as I don't think any of them can hurt... the primer bar going in too far mod etc. The brass retention block at the primer station is set per the manual... with brass in the shell plate and just after priming, with the handle down, I adjusted it so that the retention block just kissed the shell and then back a couple of .001". Shellplate nut is down pretty snug, way more snug that the manual calls for but the press feels pretty good and is not binding. Remember for those reading this after the fact... I *never* had a pickup problem, I've only had a crushed at seating problem.... the pickup problem can be solved with Brian's procedure... Hopefully a successful resolution, with little impact and true to form with Dillon, no cost. Thanks Gary!.... I've got my fingers crossed. unfortunately, life has to give way to reloading for a few hours however! Alan