Tapper

I think this is a fantastic idea, and an opportunity for those of us in the competitive shooting community to do something more positive than to make jokes about the shooting abilities of LEO's. It might just work too, if the participants go into it with the desire to make it work - both during the first matches, and long term. The NRA will have to find a solid middle ground between the interests of the participants, the policies of their departments, and the interests of the local Clubs. They have to make it possible and reasonably easy for a club to host the match. Large beauracracies like the NRA, have a tendency to want to impose a lot of conditions that make these things tough to pull off at the club level without spending a bunch of money and time. The words "unfunded mandate" sure come to mind. Obviously, some things need to be done for safety, and uniformity between matches, but at the same time, if these matches place too much stress of a clubs facilities and budget - this program will die before it starts. The club chosen to inaugurate this thing has put on thousands of matches, including state and regionals. The NRA would do well to listen carefully to them in this process. The Club members, will have to have their collective act together, and adopt a very professional and friendly attitude towards the LEOs that show up. The club chosen for the first match, was probably a pretty good choice.

Right. Glock 35. OAL currently at 1.130 for this gun (load the plastic shorter than the 2011's). Crimp at .418 (FCD), sized with a U-die.

I've been using n320 and Zero 180 TCFM's for major loads, and I'd like to whip up a batch of powder puffs for practice and IDPA SSP shooting. I ran off 1,000 at 4.0g and they shot pretty soft, but I'd like to get a little closer to the minor PF (125K in IDPA) so looking for something not far north of 700fps with these components. Haven't seen much data anywhere taking n320 lower than 4 grains, anyone shooting something lighter? I wonder what the minimum safe charge of n320 is for this bullet (flat nosed plated 180g). Comments/experience?

I recently picked up a used SVI race .38Sp open gun with a seven port steel compensator with reverse angled ports. The gun also has two small blowholes located about half an inch back from the comp. The compensator is still listed on SV's website as a currently available item. The gun appears to have been made in late 1999. It's a beautiful blaster. Question: what power factor was this compensator designed to be run at? I've been messing about with loads, but would like to have a target PF to utilize the design efficiency of the comp. Loads at 169pf still appear a bit bouncy to me (leave reticle and return). The previous owner of the gun also set it up using three shok buffs (2 CP, and a Hiett). Any opinions on stacking buffs in these guns? Looks to be an 11lb fixed rate spring in the gun. I'd also appreciate any experiences springing up similar guns. What works for y'all? Thanks for advice in advance..

>> I am clamping the pistol with my non dominant hand >> locking out my wrist, and leaning in to the shot. Unless I am reading that wrong, it sounds like you are actually shooting one handed, and trying to prevent muzzle flip by preventing your wrist from swiveling with you weak hand clasping your wrist. If so, that's not optimal Muzzle flip itself is no big deal, and is going to happen regardless. The suggestions by the other posters to get a handle on the fundamentals currently being taught is a good one. You can find numerous posts on this board with descriptions, but you might have better luck picking up a video produced by one of the better shooters. It helps to be able to see the right way to do it. I'd recommend Matt Burkett's video/dvd for this purpose. It's inexpensive, and covers a lot of important fundamentals. You can find it on http://www.mattburkett.com. (Edited by Tapper at 12:32 pm on Sep. 18, 2002)

It's true, the pressure required on the downstroke is slightly higher, perhaps a pound or so, but this has never been an issue for me. I'll gladly trade it for the hassle of cleaning the lube off the cases before running them through the remaining stages, or the increased frequency of cleaning the press necessary. In addition, dillons should be operated briskly anyway, to ensure proper functioning of the powder measure (i.e. preventing bridging and keeping the powder settled in the hopper). As for additional stress - these are straightwall pistol cases, and the amount of sizing force needed is minimal anyway. The Dillon compound linkage is plenty robust to handle it without any additional wear. Just keep it lubed, and crank away. If you do lube, the "right" way, is to size and decap the case first, tumble clean, then run the cases through the press using the first station to seat primers only. Otherwise, you end up pushing wax up into the powder/expander die and seater die as well. Beyond that, using lube means cleaning a lot more often, since the stuff attracts primer residue and creates a lovely abrasive paste everywhere it accumulates.

The simple solution to the lube problem, is to use a carbide sizer die in station one. Using a carbide die with straight-walled pistol cases eliminates the need for case lube. You'll note, that this works only for straight-walled cases. Bottlenecked or tapered-wall cartridges still require lube. Some folks will claim you should still use lube, but I've loaded hundreds of thousands of .45 ammo this way, and measured many many cases. No negative effect there I can see. Once the die gets a little burnished, there's no difference in the amount of effort used to resize. Just be sure to clean the brass well before loading it. The abscence of case lube (wax) has beneficial effects for the machine too, since the dies stay cleaner, and the wax would collect particulates everywhere it becomes smeared. One other thing I'd add for Dillon owners. Once a year, tear down the linkage and lubricate it according to the manual (grease on bearings, SAE30 on the ram). The upper link bearings in particular, will run dry of lubricant and gall without occaisional service (cmon, once a year is nothing). When this starts to happen, all sorts of weird things go on, particularly problems seating primers. A little lube, and a Dillon runs like glass indefinately. You also want to be a little anal about cleaning the primer bar on a 550 - use alchohol. As for the quality of the Dillon - I don't think it's possible to truly appreciate these machines, without having spent some time on the machines available before Dillons showed up. Ever try feeding your shooting habit on an RCBS "Green Machine"? *shudder*

Pat, I'd disagree just a bit, if you'll forgive me. >If you lengthen the loaded round, you increase the >volume of the combustion chamber, thus requiring >more powder to pressurize the case and cause >explusion of the bullet. What happens when the OAL is shortened in pistols burning a fast powder, relates more to travel time. Consider two rounds, one with a "normal" OAL, and another with a shorter length. If we assume the same charge in both cases, and that the distance from the breechface to the leade is the same, then the reason we see higher chamber pressures in shorter rounds is a fairly simple matter of travel time. Bullet 1 travels distance X during the initial period before encountering the leade, and Bullet 2 travels distance X+(difference in seating depth). Pressure is proportional to the amount of gas produced (a function of burn rate) and the volume the gas occupies. So - Bullet 2 travels a slightly longer distance, and in time it takes to travel that distance more gas is generated for the same volume, - and therefore, pressure is higher. Same absolute volume, more gas = higher pressures.