shred

I think the 'big-blast-every-few-shots' (especially noticable indoors) is due to unburned powder collecting in the comp, and not the primers-- I get it with N350 and almost any sort of primer I care to use in my open gun.

While it is technically possible, it's a bad idea to try and shoot .40 through any 10mm semi-auto I know of (610's are cool with it..). It's a good way to get jams and extractor breakage. It is usually fairly simple to swap the 10mm barrel for a .40 one if your mags work or you can get some .40 ones. Also, if you want, there's a small 10mm cult that likes the witnesses, so you should be able to dump it for almost what a .45 will cost you if you want to go that route.

I've fiddled with holster position over the years and have pretty much settled on the position TJ (and others) suggest-- a bit forward of the hip, muzzle pointing about 4-5" forward and inboard of your strong-side big toe. I find it's about as fast as the others, doesn't involve sweeping any body parts on the draw, and doesn't poke you every time you sit or bend over. Practicing by myself a lot on a range far from medical help has me much more aware of sweeping and such..

I agree with Nik's comments on consistency-- 'trashed' classifier stages are automatically thrown out, so if the 90% shooter also has a bunch of poor scores, it could be they aren't consistent-- that'll catch you in a big match, but is filtered out of classifications. It could also be an indication that the shooter in question likes to run wide-open at 110% all the time. You can get away with that on most classifiers, but if you don't turn it back a notch at major matches, it'll bite you. And then the whole classifier-reshooting question comes up..

Just FYI, there are still some slots left.. I sent my app in today since I'm suddenly free that weekend. Hopefully there's still a hotel room in Shreveport somewhere.

Glock 18's are cool. For those of us without the connections to get our hands on a real one often enough, there's a gas-operated Airsoft version that rocks. I got one the other day and spent the rest of the afternoon loading bb's and gassing up magazines.. brraaaap.. btw, if you haven't checked out some of the super-realistic Airsoft's coming out of Japan and Taiwan lately, you're missing out. My G18 operates exactly the same, trigger safety and all, the slide cycles and it has the same markings (minus one glock-logo) and fits perfectly in my G17 holsters (no cardboard box is safe from me now...) (Edited by shred at 11:13 am on May 16, 2002)

While I'm not sure exactly how recoil springs are officially measured for "poundage", I believe it's at full compression, which is closer to 1.4" in length than the 2" I measured at. A while ago I ran across This Article on building and using a recoil spring tester and just re-read it (it's worthwhile). In there he computes the maximum in-gun compression distance to be closer to 1.5 or 1.6" instead of 2". I may need to recheck my math and measurements.. (Edited by shred at 2:06 pm on May 14, 2002)

Yeah, the SDM tool is the "Pro" version of this. The scale I got in the fishing aisle at MegaMart. The recording feature is handy for this sort of thing. And for anyone with only a push-scale like a bathroom or mail scale, you can make this work by sticking a bit of anti-skid tape to the bolt head, turning the whole works vertical and pushing down on the washer. I don't suggest doing this in the produce section of your local grocery store, however..

I threatened to do this in another thread, but figured this engineering masterpiece deserved it's own.. Here's how to make your basic recoil spring tester: Pop by your favorite hardware store and acquire an 8-inch 5/16" bolt and fender washer. Drill a hole crosswise in the threaded end that will fit the hook of a handy pull scale (somewhat more than $0.99 at fishing-supply stores, but multi-purpose). If you've already got a pull scale that won't reasonably fit, you can do what I did and twist up a coathanger into an appropriate adapter wire. Mark two marks on the shaft of the bolt. I made mine at 2" and 3.7" from the shaft-side of the bolt head. These numbers came from some measuring I did on an STI, and if I did it right, are approximately the length of the spring with the slide closed (3.7") and also at slide-lock (2"). Here's a picture of the parts: To use it, slide a spring onto the bolt and follow it with the washer. Attach your scale and pull until the washer is even with one of the marks. Record what the scale says. Repeat with the other mark. Here it is ready to go: As an experiment, a brand new Wolff 15 lb variable recoil spring measured 8 lbs at "slide closed" and 13 lbs at "slide-lock". With one coil chopped off, it measures 7 & 13 lbs. Missing two coils, 6.5 & 12.5 lbs. With 4 coils gone, it comes in at 6 & 12 lbs. (Edited by shred at 9:31 pm on May 13, 2002)

I hammered the case in lightly (that's where the ding in the case came from), but basically it's just jammed in there. It's worked through the first bottle full of primers so far.

In combination with bringing this thread back up, here's a shot of my contraption (Edited by shred at 6:23 pm on May 6, 2002)

Sounds like what you're looking for is either a Production-class IPSC load or a GSSF load-- both are way down there in the PF category. Here are a few loads that barely cycle the slide in my .40 glocks: 180 FMJ, 3.3gr Titegroup 180 FMJ, 3.8gr WST 170 LSWC, 3.8gr 231

While I've never tried the Dillon muffs, I like my ProEars. And they were not only cool enough to donate some to a prize table so I could win them, but also to swap that pair out with the set I wanted.

A while ago, back when the IPSC e-mail list actually had useful info on it , there was a discussion of the "Glint Doppler Effect" of sun reflections from shiny bullets fooling the skyscreens. Half the people never believed it, and the other half thought of black magic-markering a bullet or two to see if it helped or not. Maybe something to try next time just for the sake of science. With .22's being smaller, maybe they shine differently.

I've heard of people dropping the mag into a large shirt pocket, but that might be an IDPA no-no by now. Done right , you might not even need to handle the old mag.. (Edited by shred at 2:50 pm on May 6, 2002)

Well, when guns are outlawed we can all stand around and have "Timerslap" matches.. Actually this is a decent idea for checking reaction times without firing. I'll have to try it sometime. (Edited by shred at 2:14 pm on May 2, 2002)

I've got one of the Dillon fillers on the way (thanks BE!), so hopefully soon I'll be able to report on it (based on y'all's reports, hopefully my Scots ancestors will stop wincing when it shows up ). From the thread above, it looks like the Frankford thing does half the job-- you have to shake the primers all the same way up in the provided tray, and then it dumps them into the tube.

This is reminding me of the hilarious Monty Python Coal Miner's argument sketch.. Gawd I love search engines.. I type "Utrecht Monty Python" into google and get a dozen hits on the script. What did we ever do before the internet.... http://www.saifai.co.uk/pse26.shtml

Are Area 4 slots still available? I've been idly considering going for a while now, but am having trouble getting excited about it.

Around here when there were four clubs most everybody shot at every month, we agreed on the list of classifiers between the clubs, so we didn't all end up shooting the same one. Of course that 'agreement' required some publishing of which clubs were going to shoot what. The shooters that cared (some call them grandbaggers) would call the MD or club president to find out what the classifiers would be. Out of the 50-60 shooters, only one or two actually did call and pre-practice the stages. FWIW. (Edited by shred at 11:39 am on May 1, 2002)

Well, there are a couple of substitutes.. you could pop by a climbing gear store and grab a chalk bag or an 'eco-ball' (no chalky mess). I've also used some stuff I found in the Tennis aisle of my local sporting goods store. So far the Pro Grip is still the best for me.. (and we need it down here in TX right now..)

Naah, all sorts of wierd things happen in IP law.. this isn't so far off.. My personal guess is that this is one of the constant trading spats that bubbled out into the public realm for whatever reason midway thought they could benefit from it. For grins, compare Brownells tools and the 'Wheeler Engineering' stuff midway sells. If they're not the same OEM, somebody definately should be suing..

One of these days I'm going to cobble up a spring tester with a couple washers and some coathanger wire. Won't be near as cool as the SDM one, but I'll get a few thousand primers out of the deal.

Years ago we had a small plague of classifier sandbaggers at club matches. What we did was set up two of the (usually 5) stages as classifiers, and only sent one in-- we didn't say which one until after the match. Some went away, some shaped up, some got moved up anyway.

Also, if for some reason you're loading a super-bulky powder, the bullet can start oozing back out before it gets to the crimp station. I doubt this is your problem, but it hits the Super folks occasionally. I'd go look in your seater die first. If it doesn't match the bullet well, you can try this trick: Clean out the die and put a small ball of wax on the bullet-contacting-part of the seating stem. Then cover it with a small chunk of aluminum foil and run a loaded round up into it. If all goes well, you now have a custom-shaped seating stem.