SteveZ

Ok...so assuming there is a problem with the gun that is somehow related to the trigger/disconnector/sear/hammer/spring....there is reason for it to be more prone to fail when I'm trying to go fast vs going slow? In other words, the defective part(s) will be just as likely to fail if I'm going slow as they would be if I'm going fast with respect to hammer follow....correct? It's not possible to have defective trigger components that will only fail if your going fast?

I've looked for signs of cracks and couldn't find anything. I'll say this...I don't think this is probable....but I do think giving exact timing (and probably a bunch of other circumstances, like grip, finger pressure, etc) that its possible. So what would you say if I came back 3000 rounds from and and say "and its never happened again"?

At last Sundays match I had something strange happen. I was engaging a target REALLY close (5 feet) and was about to transition to a steel popper at 10 yards. I had fired one round at the close paper target and when I went to fire the second, the gun had stopped, WTF? I looked at the gun to see what had happened and noticed the hammer was at half-cock, WTF!!!??? The gun (STI Edge) has about 5000 rounds on it and has NEVER had a problem with trigger (which breaks at about 27oz). At this point, I started wondering if I had possible out run the gun....pulling the trigger before the slide was fully forward. Of course everyone in my squad thought I was nuts and said its not possible to do that. At close target distances...I am slapping the trigger. I watched the gun for the rest of the match and didn't have a single problem. After the match was over, I went into one of the empty bays and ripped off 40 rounds as fast as I could pull the trigger. Then I did the "drop the slide on an empty chamber" test (I hate doing that) 5 times and it passed each time. Took the gun home and tore it down to the trigger components thinking maybe I'd find a piece of crud on the hammer hooks or sear (or somewhere) and found nothing. So I posed this question to some local FAST on the trigger guys...have you ever out run your gun and had the hammer follow (assuming the gun was mechanically safe and it didn't have trigger problems). The answer came back YES. So thats my question....is this possible? When it happened to me, the hammer was at the half-cock notch which means that either 1) it didn't engage the primary hammer hooks and dropped (the crud on the hammer hook theory) 2) the overtravel screw isn't set right (I check that...it is), 3) I possibly slapped the trigger so fast that the sear disengaged from the hammer...but I wasn't holding the trigger back and the sear caught the half-cock notch? or 4) my grip allowed me to nearly "bump fire" the gun (except my finger came back off the trigger)? What are your thoughts?

Interesting....I had known Tom Stidham for some time. I may have been his first customer and very likely was his last. In September of last year, Tom had mentioned that he was seriously thinking of closing the business...and I took his remaining stock of 180gr 40S&W bullets. Tom said that he was looking for someone to buy the business and I had heard he sold it...but never heard "who" bought it. I would have figured it might have been someone local...but obviously that isn't the case. This is not to slam the new owner...but the pricing seems a bit...shall we say...high. The last batch of bullets I bought from Tom was produced from a stock of lead he had purchased at 80c/lb and ran about $63/K shipped USPS flat rate. BBI's charging roughly $30/k more than MB and lead is.....back down to 80c/lb again (it was fast approaching $1.40 and climbing when MB closed their doors). I've been extremely happy with my MB bullets and have also experimented with Bear Creek bullets (which are now running about $73/k shipped). The Bear Creek bullets perform nearly as well as the MB's. I don't doubt that BBI's quality is the same as MB...but at nearly $100/k.....I'll stick with BC when I need bullets again.

I nearly had to DQ someone on that stage (needless to say...I didn't like it). After the MR command, the shooter loaded his gun, placed it on the table and just started to walk around the edge of the table to go downrange and place stage some magazines in one or two of the window shelves.....I caught him right as he got to the edge of the table...probably just inches before the 3 foot rule and well before he walked IN FRONT of his loaded gun. After that...I modifed my start instructions with "do you want to go stage any magazines in the windows?" instead of the MR command.

Nope...I should have received one by mail. I checked the site that Flatland Shooter linked....says it was sent on the 27th of June...and if I don't have it by the 25th of July.....contact us.

Never got mine. It sas supposed to be mailed on June 27 (according to the letter I got from the IRS) but never got the check. Now I have to wait until the end of July before I can even inquire about it...and who knows how long before I'll ever get a replacement.

We shot this stage at one of our club matches recently. A pretty good open shooter did it at 5.3 HF....so I'm going to guess 6.3 for Limited.

4.43gr of Titegroup using a Masterblaster 180gr Moly bullet (same as the Bear Creek 180gr bullet) loaded to 1.18"....about 169pf.

For 40cal, I am running MasterBlaster (moly) or Bear Creek using Titegroup....I get some smoke but its not too bad. For 45acp, I was running MasterBlaster and Clays which makes a really nice soft shooting load and again...a little smoke but nothing too bad. I've heard (but never tried) that TG doesn't work well in 45acp to begin with.

Can I blame it on sunspots? Thanks guys for the input.....glad to hear its not a crack. To be honest, I've never looked at my grips this close before in the past and this was the only mark that looked suspicious. I probably didn't get the mag seated all the way or something ( I did make a note of which mag it is). I'll test it in practice...and if it works fine there, I'll write it off to shooter error.

So over the weekend I had something strange happen. On the start signal, I drew and my magazine fell out of my gun. I don't know if I didn't get it seated all the way (I was called to the line in a hurry when the shooter before me wasn't ready...and I wasn't really ready either but shot anyways)...or if I somehow bumped the mag release on the draw (which had you opening a door your weak hand). I've heard stories about cracked grips around the mag release and while cleaning my gun, decided to take a closer look at the grip and saw on both sides of the grip a small hairline....I don't know if its a crack or if its a mold mark. Attached is a picture of the suspected crack. Can anyone tell me if cracks happen in this area of the grip...or are those mold lines in the grip?

both guntalk.com and downrange.tv said that they'll have audio tomorrow/wednesday

For what its worth...I ended up taking some JB weld and carefully (and sparingly) applying it to the opening....that was about a year ago now...and its doing just fine.

I've been using TiteGroup...but I might start playing with Clays again. I was able to create a major PF load last year using 180gr MasterBlaster bullets....but it was just before Area 1 and I didn't want to run something untested. During preliminary test...it seemed like a softer load....however I think I like the snappier recoil of TiteGroup better.

Any body got a picture? Any way take a file and break that edge to allow the pivot. Have no fear. If you screw it up I can sell you an Aftec. There's a good article on Brazos site here: http://www.brazoscustom.com/magart/ejection%20perfection.htm It tells how to tune an extractor (and ejector)...and shows how to knock the edge off the extractor hook. I bought one of Brazos extractors as a back-up for my Edge...tuned it (per Brazo's info) and it runs perfect.

I remember years ago....when you .... ah never mind.

Its funny...the number of years that I've been playing this game and NEVER seen this classifier at a club match. We shot this one yesterday at Marysville and coincidently, the guy who designed it (Joe DeSimone) is from our club. I started leaning to the right and started on the right most target and went to the left most popper...then did the reload and continued going right to left. Had a little trouble with the grip on the gun (probably because of my contorted lean to the right start move). 5.76s, 56pts Limited.

Hope you can make it out to M'ville next weekend to "unfold" them. I've designed a stage JUST for you! Sounds like you've made some serious progress over the last few weeks.

You're Gonna Get It! If the world didn't know before what a great guitarist Mike Campbell is....they're gonna know now! Somehow I think that Howie would have enjoyed this.

There's another way....and its free if you are using Dillon dies. Read all about it here! How To Modify Dillon 40S&W Die EricW came up with this idea and it works. I sometimes get 40 brass that has been Glocked...I've modified my Dillon sizing die per EricW's instructions...never had a problem...and I don't have to use case lube.

Really??? Hmmm. I may have to look into that. To me this is the most impressive part of the story. I think one of those IR thermal imaging devices would have been really cool.....I wonder just how hot that gun was (besides ......yeeeeeeooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwww hot gun...hot gun)

To me, what lube he was using is more impressive. When the gun heats up...its going to get tight. Thats when the lube is going to break down.....thats more important to me then what gun he was using.

The way Todd was flipping that gun around...I'm not sure that guy at the end of the table was in a very safe position.