ck1

I think I switched from AR9 to MPX early on enough to where I don't notice the balance being different all that much... That said, I have been through 3 different stocks and 3 different grips (not counting the OEM Sig stuff I took off pretty much immediately) trying to find the right feel for me. IMO, when picking up one next to the other, I actually tend to prefer the balance of the MPX because I think I like having most of the weight in my hands instead of towards the back. Could just be familiarity, but it doesn't feel front-heavy to me and I run the stock 16" barrel. YMMV type of thing.

I forgot to mention before that there is definitely one obvious big pro for buying another OR slide if one can find one: if one plans to swap between CO and Production, that’s definitely the best way to go even if it ends up costing a little more. A swap is an easy process that way and takes only seconds with 2 slides. The guys who’ve mentioned that, in getting another slide, have a great point. Plus, if one then decides they only need 1 slide for that gun, it’ll be easy to find a buyer for the extra one down the road. Yeah, the S2OR can do both, but now that I’ve got an optic mounted and setup, I’ll probably never put the iron-sighted plate back on again unless I totally decide to abandon CO... it’s just too much of a PIA to go back and forth, my iron-sighted plate will more than likely spend the rest of its life in a box.

For just figuring it out, if you’re aren’t sold either way, you might want to check out the EGW dovetail mounts... most of the dovetail mounting options seem pretty crappy, but theirs don’t look nearly as bad as most of them...

If getting a slide cut is all you can do, then I’d say go for it, just use someone who’s established and not new to the party. FYI/FWIW, if you can’t get one cut to use P-10OR/S2OR plates, you can just choose a “team”, IMHO the best “teams” right now are: team Trijicon/Holosun, or team C-More/Sig Romeo3Max/XL... lol.

I kind of got lucky and saw the CO rule change as far as weight (old 45oz max to new/now 59oz max) the day before I was going to send off a new-to-me regular S2 to get cut/milled... then, somehow got lucky again and scored one of the first S2 OR's released in the US. I'm sure the rule change has pissed a lot of guys off who had spent the money to make weight (and I was very nearly one of them)... Cost-wise, it ended up being nearly a wash getting the factory S2OR vs getting a regular one cut (and I mean cut for the optic only... which is a bunch cheaper than what the extra milling a lot of guys had to do in order to make weight previously cost). But, that's only because I also somehow didn't have to pay top dollar for mine, they're so new right now that most of them (if you can find one) are overpriced by $100-150 or more right now if the dealer knows what they've got. And, I got my regular S2 for $1000, which is a hard price to find at this time now too. Honestly though, that took a lot of things breaking right for me for things to get close money-wise, and once you factor in re-nitriding/coating the slide, and shipping and such... IMHO, chances are having a regular S2 cut for an optic is still probably more expensive than just buying an S2OR. Then there's the wait time, some of the shops turn things around faster than others, but most are 3-4 weeks if not longer, and then seems you usually have to end up picking a lesser slide finish (like Cerakote or whatever instead of Nitride/DLC) versus adding to your turnaround time... For me, the factory S2OR is the better way to go because I'm new to CO and with me not 1000% in love with a particular optic just yet, having my slide not married to a certain optic/cut for now and forever is a huge plus. Also, and I haven't really heard about this with Cz's/Shadow's, but if an aftermarket shop cuts your slide and it cracks/breaks, you're out of luck, no warranty... not that big of a deal if it's a Glock where sub-$200 optics-ready slides are out there all-day no problem, but it is a problem when a Shadow slide is around $500-750 and tough to track down. As far as a cut/milled slide having the optic sit lower: yeah, maybe some of them by a few millimeters, but that's about it... the optic sits pretty low on the factory S2OR, I was definitely surprised how low the optic sits. The trigger job thing is a separate deal altogether, either gun can be sent off for that (but IMHO I think it's best to just buy the right parts and learn to do it yourself), I wouldn't factor that into the cost of getting a slide cut/milled unless one is absolutely decided they'd rather pay for a shop to do the trigger job.

Hahaha I've thought the same! It's like a "kick-stand" for your rifle lol.

I don't think I'm a Geissele fan anymore... seems they're going the route of Knights Armament Corps and you end up paying a hefty premium more so for the "name" than performance... But, at least they're still like a 30/70% part-vs-name ratio versus KAC's 5/95%... was looking for an Aimpoint battery cover, OEM $15, KAC $50 lol

Sold out... again. C'mon

Yeah, that would suck. I was thinking an oversized pin... but no bueno.

+1. That'd work.

If it’s not going to cause an issue, just a pin would be fine... but seems like it’s asking an awful lot of a $0.02 sheet metal roll-pin to keep the front end of the gun together without any added tension, those pins are pretty thin/weak. If I hadn’t ground down a front sight to make a spacer to put tension on the roll-pin, my “plan B” was to find/make a solid pin out of an old gun pin or cut-down drill bit... just something more solid than a cheap soft roll-pin.

Someone has leveled up their motion graphics game... Nice match, the local guys must love it when you show up lol

Cool. The Boombah's are great if they fit you, and for the money you can't go wrong. Kind of makes you wonder why all the others' out there are $100+...

So far so good... but I haven't worn them a whole lot besides outdoor range practice sessions and match days, so I don't know how long they'd last walking around on pavement a bunch, it's not one of their VIbram rubber models. But, I was looking on Merrell's site, and it looks like their "Momentous" model is Vibram and looks a little more aggressive on the tread and more rugged, so I might give those a try too.

If one prefers a wider toe-box, and a lower heel-toe drop, I'm about to order a second pair of Merrell Agility Synthesis Flex's and like them a lot and would recommend trying a pair on. I've had both the Speedcross and the Boombah's, but I found those both kind of have narrower toe-boxes and feel like high-heels to me as compared to the interval training Crossfit-type shoes I'm used to, and I feel like for me, being able to splay my toes out leads to better comfort. Plus, the Merrell's are a little lighter. I've never really been a Merrell fan, but their trail-running type shoes are pretty nice. Most of them are a lot like the Solomon's, but normal laces, and not as overbuilt, more options on heel-toe drop. Worth a try. YMMV.

+1. Nice. Mine came out almost as nice, but not quite.. . FWIW, my transition or learning-phase to the dot has been going pretty well as compared to some of the stories I've heard... think that has something to do with me taking the front blade off right from the start: since there's no blade to distract/confuse me, I don't think about it and just find the dot. I won't be surprised at all if I come in dead last at my first match with it, but it hasn't felt nearly as awkward as I thought it would be...

Woke up this morning and it occurred to me that IIRC all my malfunctions happened when using my extended mags (Cz/Mec-Gar 17rd nickel mags w/ TTI +4 pads, stock guts, mags are brand new)... In my experience, weak mag springs usually lead to feed issues, not really failure-to-extract/eject type issues, but the stock mag springs not being strong enough to push up rounds could have contributed in some way. It is a possibility that it was the mag springs and not the ammo. Whether the stock springs were contributing or not, I’m not sure they’re up to the task of pushing up 21rds reliably, so I’d feel better about stronger guts. Ordered up a bunch of the 11-coil Grams spring/follower kits, and ordered up a bunch of +10 mag springs from Wolff, so one way or another, depending on what I choose to go with, I can have some piece of mind that it’s not the mags. I’m going to try the Grams kits first because after searching the forum, sounds like that’s working for guys (and I’ll get 23rds), but if the Wolff +10 springs seem better, I’ll take reliability over 2 extra rounds... Nearly $200 in mag springs... I thought CO meant “Cheap Open”... wtf? Lol

Yup. Now what I'm curious about is the "why" it feels better? I remember reading on the forum here somewhere, someone (think it was Rowdy) mentioning that they decided to try the buff because all full-size CZ-75-based CZ's get recoil springs that are the same length, and the S2 gets that same spring even though the guide-rod is longer, so maybe the spring sits looser on the rod than it probably should when at rest without the buff in there to shorten it up and add a bit of pre-load. To me that makes the best sense. If one considers the "recoil spring+guide-rod" as kind of a shock absorber (like on a motorcycle or something), it would make sense that having some pre-load would make it react differently.

Thanks. I just was more interested in finding out how the gun feels "with vs without"... I don't care at all about whether the buff helps with frame battering or durability or whatever. I'm sure one could buy at least 3 more guns for what it'd cost in ammo to wreck a gun by not using the shock buff, but if it makes it shoot better..?

So, put 400rds through my new S2OR today starting with running the thick shock buff... made some very clear "with vs without" observations, but this is only one session, so I'll need to test more going forward. For setup specifics: I'm running a fresh CGW yellow 11lb recoil spring, a CGW blue 11.5lb hammer spring, a CGW extended firing pin, and an Eric Grauffel "Ultimate" reduced power firing pin spring (I like Eric G's RPFPS a lot better than the CGW spring because the CGW RPFPS's are a little too wimpy IMO and get killed way too fast for me). This is my usual Shadow spring setup and I know it well. For ammo, I brought: 200rds Impact Ammo 147gr RN (advertised as "guaranteed" to make USPSA power factor) guessing 125-130pf, usually on the lighter side* (I'll get to that). 100rds Federal Syntech "Action Pistol" 150gr FN (also advertised as "guaranteed" to make USPSA power factor) 133.5pf, usually pretty consistent in my experience. 100rds Sellier & Bellot SB9B 124gr RN 146pf, ubiquitous range plinking FMJ. Results: Started with 100rds of the Impact Ammo 147's, then shot the 100rds of Syntech 150's, then back to the Impact Ammo stuff... right off the bat I preferred the recoil impulse with the installed shock buff as compared to what I'm used to when running the same setup without one. No contest. It's hard to describe feel-wise; I'm not sure I would say it felt softer, but it just felt less "clunky" and smoother. And being that this is with a dot-equipped gun, it was immediately apparent that the dot was much easier to track under recoil for follow up shots (I just ran 500rds yesterday without the buff with the same setup/ammo so my "gun-cam" memory is fresh). Gun just felt really good, really fast, real easy to track, double-taps were all within 2" of each other as long as I did my part, and it felt like I didn't have to try as hard as I normally do. Now that said, over about 180 rounds, I had about 8 failure-to-extract malfunctions, all with the Impact Ammo 147's... It was pissing me off! I got my first CZ in 2008 and have owned about 10 different ones over the years and I don't think I've had that many failures of any kind if I added them all up over all those guns and I don't know how many thousands of rounds... I seriously was annoyed with all the malfunctions, was getting even more pissed thinking that if it was my extractor and/or spring I was going to have to pull the optic, fix, reinstall optic, and then re-zero... no f'ing bueno. Looking for a quick fix (and really just looking for blame), I pulled out the shock buff... I then tore through my last 20rd mag of "good stuff" (which was the Impact Ammo 147's), and then the 100rds of S&B, all without a single hiccup (while cursing the stupid shock buff, thinking I fixed the problem by pulling it). The gun felt way clunky without the buff though, it felt like a downgrade. Thing is, when I thought about what had occured on the drive home, the lightbulb went off, and I realized that every malfunction I had was with the Impact Ammo 147's, and that I had actually *noticed some of the rounds feeling too-soft, actually stopping 2 different times because I thought I might of had squibs. Got home, put away most of my gear, and decided to run some checks: cycled a few mags worth of dummy rounds through the gun without the shock buff, sometimes slow enough to try to cause a failure to extract. Nothing, it extracted and ejected fine. Same thing again, only this time I installed a thick shock buff... again, I was sometimes cycling the slide slowly, purposely trying to reproduce the failure. Nothing. Next, tore down the slide, slid a dummy round under the extractor, and knocked on my bench like I was knocking on someone's door who owed me money (hard), no problem, round stayed put, extractor has good tension and seems fine. I've decided the failures must have been ammo related, NOT shock buff related. (Let it be known that I'm not slagging Impact Ammo in any way, they make a great product at a very fair price and this is the first time I've encountered any problems with their ammo at all, through thousands of rounds, both in their 147gr RN and 135gr HP varieties. I just think I may have been unlucky enough to have received a less than perfect batch with some undercharged rounds.) So after all that, my verdict is: IMO the shock buff is good. It does kind things to the recoil impulse and I like it** **(but if I have problems again while running one, and am absolutely positively sure it isn't anything else, it goes out of the gun and into the trash and stays there lol.)

That’s exactly how I’ve felt about them too, I totally get it... But, having never tried them, for curiosity’s sake, I can put a few rounds down range with one just to see what I get I guess...

Thanks, think I might give the thick ones a try... I'm just wondering what the recoil impulse is like with the buff in there, and guess there's only one way to find out lol.

Do you roll with the thick ones or the thin ones?

I’ve never used them in any gun ever and always heard the best way to use them was to pull them out and throw them in the trash... That said, they do come with the gun from the factory so...... I'm not really curious about them at all because of any worry of frame battering or any of that jazz... I'm more wondering how they might change the way the guns feel, kind of like when you short-stroke a PCC, or if the cycle feels any better when the recoil spring has a bit of preload on it due to the spring being more compressed at rest because of the buff taking up a little space on the guid-rod..? I know I'll probably just have to see for myself, but I imagine there are guys around who've already been down this road and I'm wondering what they noticed?

Searched everywhere I could find, info was all over the place and spotty, with those who use them, most weren’t specific about whether they were using the thick ones or the thin ones... thoughts/experiences..? I’ve been running an S2 without one for a while and it’s been fine with an 11lb recoil spring, but thinking I might give the shock buffs a try on a new gun I just picked up... curious how others feel about them? Thanks.