tollarja

Be careful of heavy bullets in short barrels because they may not have enough velocity to stabilize. My 18" shot 75 Hornady terribly. Turns out they were marginally stabilized at 2500ft/s with 1:7.8 twist. Try the Berger twist rate calculator, remember 16" is short so you'll lose a lot of velocity from book load data. My rifle also hates Hornady 68's so it could be Hornady. It absolutely loves 69gr SMK's, which sucks because those are expensive.

Dang it, I cracked it in half when I tried to use pliers. It's threaded. It must have jammed tight when I broke the pin.

Hi, I broke my decapping pin. I have a new one and can't get the expander ball off. It's stuck on tight like it might be seized threads. Any tips?

Thanks, that'll help get me shooting for a while.

Sorry to dig this up, but I had to put my two cents in. Lighter bullets have greater recoil because it takes more powder (energy) to get them to a greater velocity to be at the same PF (which is really just momentum multiplied by gravity and divided by 1000). Using conservation of momentum at the same PF and including powder mass, which is the important part, we can see that this is true. Momentum equation: Momentum Gun = Momentum bullet + Momentum Powder MassGun*VelocityGun = MassBullet*VelocityBullet + MassPowder*VelocityPowder 147: mg*Vg = mbVb + mpVp MomentumGun147 = SameBulletMomentum + (lower mass of powder)(lower velocity) 124: mg*Vg = mbVb + mpVp MomentumGun124 = SameBulletMomentum + (greater mass of powder)(greater velocity) MomentumGun124 > MomentumGun147 By inspection we can see that the powder mass ejected is the most important part of the felt recoil and that the slide momentum will be higher with the lighter bullet with greater powder.

Just adding my input because someone else might look in this post. There are two square tabs on the trigger safety that would hang up on the trigger when I put my finger on it. Slight adjustment with a razor solved the problem for me.

Well, I think I end up ahead, but it is hard to tell because occasionally things go wrong. The problems seem to come in groups. I am getting quicker at diagnosing the problem and I think I have had just about every problem. I can get around 100 rounds in 13 minutes when it is running smooth. I used to do this in 20 minutes before the case feeder. I'll do around 200-300 rounds clean and then have a batch when everything goes wrong. I lose a lot of time if it is something new or complicated like a feed tube brass jam and I'll end up with around 300 in an hour which may not be faster than before. I would say if you are lucky like TGibe or mechanically inclined then this is a good investment. If you don't like the hassle of refining it I would skip it. I feel I am getting closer and closer to getting all the kinks worked out. Here are a list of problems I've had and my solutions. I think my 550B or feeder were out of spec from the beginning because I had to dremel the feeder bracket hole about an 1/8" so that it would fit my machine. 1. Brass does not enter resizing and depriming die. Make sure that the part that pushes the brass does not push so far that at speed you can see the brass tip towards the center bolt. When it releases at speed it will sometimes rock and slide out enough that it will not go in the die. 2. Brass falls on side and gets skewered by depriming pin...don't know yet. I suspect that every once in a while a case falls in upside down and just tips over when pushed into position. 3. Handle hits housing. I tried adjusting everything, but ended up filing the feeder housing corner down until it didn't hit. 4. Primer rod rubs on case feeder caliber adapter and popped in and out of pulley/wheels. I knocked the pin on the primer arm wheel so it would have better alignment, but what really solved the problem is using case lube. There is very little friction when resizing now and I think there is less torque in the machine due to the reduced force required. I notice it doesn't even come close to the spot it used to rub on. 5. Brass jam at the top of the feeding tube. Put some double sided tape where the top of the brass hits to slow it down so it has a bit more time to rotate and fall vertically. Thank you Chris F. 6. Switch doesn't shut off the feeder. I put a kink in the bottom of the metal part that contacts the brass so it puts more pressure on the switch. The machine will drop one or two cases now rather than three, four or overflow. 7. Brass wedged in the metal part of the feeder tube before the switch...I think this had something to do with the overflow problem. Cases would back up and then get wedged in hard when I operated the machine and the tube system moved.

Finally remembered that I wanted to give this a try. I did ten runs and got an average of 8.66. I missed by less than an inch four times only, two of which I was trying to go faster just to see what I could see. That half second penalty normalized those times, so I am not too worried about how it affected the average. I saw some interesting things; I tend to be very predictable, the draw is around two seconds at that distance and my splits were around 0.8. The time was long enough that my eyes would lose their focus near the third pass, possibly due to oxygen usage. I would pause a bit more on occasion to see the front sight clearly, but it wouldn't happen that late. I think this has also been happening on long distance steel lately. I am working on snapping my eyes to the next spot before the front sight gets there. It seems to help when I forget I am trying to learn to do that. When I remember it feels clunky and slow. This is a good drill and has been very helpful so far. We'll see what I can do once I start to get used to it and I get part II from be.

not speed and make sure your license is current if you do...

Shoot 'em both. I think you will appreciate the ergonomics and the ability to configure the M&P to your hand. I can't speak to the reliability as I shoot a G34, which has been excellent, but I have only shot 15,000 through it so far The slide action has finally smoothed out...some are finished pretty roughly (Oh how I miss my HK, but I digress) The only thing I can think of that nobody has mentioned is the glocks have a significant "clunk" when the trigger is released and you know and feel when the gun is ready to fire again. This is nice if you reset your trigger like you are supposed to and I'm told the key to shooting glock quickly is reset, reset and reset. The M&P's reset is barely noticeable, at least to me. As to pointability, who among us could pick up a pistol and point it in perfect alignment when we first learned to shoot? Not I. We all learned our index and it is the same with the glock. Once it breaks you in it will be fine. Oh, if you have a "husky" hand like I do, you may develop twin callouses where the slide occasionally rubs hand fatness. My heart says join the dark side, but my brain says you will probably like the M&P. Oh, one more thing; with guns barrel length doesn't really matter (That's what she said). I shoot the same groups with my 5.3 inch glock as I did with my 3 inch compact HK.

If anything I think we both err on the side of too much bell. I am confident that is not likely to be the problem. He is getting the competition die and the factory crimp and we will see what, if anything, will solve the problem.

We both use mixed brass. Josh will have to tell you if specific brands cause more problems then another, because my factory crimping die makes all the problems disappear. I think it is just covering up the problem though.

We have looked at the round through every stage and the round looks fine after it is seated before crimping and then comes out bulged a little less than 50% of the time.

My bad I don't know how to post pictures with my new phone.

My friend and I have recently started reloading MG. JHP and both of us have experienced problems with the case gauge and barrel checking finished rounds. On some of the bad rounds it looks like the bullet is being loaded off center. We have looked at the rounds after each station and have narrowed it down to the crimp station. My friend is using Dillon dies and I was using a Lee. I have switched to a Lee factory crimp and don't have the same problem anymore, but it shouldn't be that way. One thing I have observed is that there are some very sharp edges on the base of the JHP when compared to the MG CMJ and I notice more bullet print through on the case even on good rounds. The crimp is set to Dillon specifications. The pictures below show the asymmetrical bulge.

Shot a match at Marysville today. I was well rested and did pretty well. I totally killed it on a really tough stage. The stage had two poppers that activated repeating drop turners (they appear three times) and a mandatory reload before engaging the "evil death star" which was a Texas star behind a wall leaving only two bottom plates visible. I nearly chickened out on my original plan when I saw Steve (a master shooter) shoot one popper, the drop turner and then repeat for the other side. I intended to shoot both poppers, and hit the drop turners to save some time. Ken (another production competitor) and I agreed that we would both try it so I did. Well it worked out fine. I hit both steel, got my first turner and got one shot on the first (maybe second) appearance of the other, then two follow up because it was turning during the first. I forgot the mandatory reload, but stopped myself before I fired because something felt wrong. I remembered and reloaded (about 3-4 second process on video) then proceeded to shoot the star, I got three plates immediately (I think) then the final two on their initial appearances after going full circle. It took 15 seconds and was good enough for second overall in all divisions and second on the stage in production. The lessons learned from this "hero" moment are that I am capable of shooting better than I sometimes let myself and that I need to get out of my comfort zone once in a while to really see what I can do. As Albert pointed out this just shows that my practice is taking me in the right direction. It felt good, but I was very disappointed to see another production shooter beat me by two seconds especially because I forgot to reload and might have won. At least I beat everyone else on this stage especially those pesky open shooters. The rest of the match was an average performance. Mostly A's, a few C's a mike on a steel plate that didn't go down and one premature magazine release turned into a standing reload. My movement was a little sluggish, but at least it seemed smooth and I knew where I was going and where the targets were. The best part of my shooting is the number of alphas and very close C's I get. My times seem to be dropping for the different types of stages, but my hits are just as good if not better than a month or two ago. My game is precision and I will let the speed come. My motivation to get in shape is building slowly as I realize just how much Ken, Scott and Yong benefit from their quick movement between shooting positions.

Practiced some reloads tonight. I tried concentrating first on moving my free hand to the magazines faster and then hitting the magazine release button. It really seemed to work better.

Practiced Wednesday, Thursday and shot the action shoot today. Wednesday I practiced some transitions on steel behind a barricade and through a port. I was hitting pretty well, but wasn't really calling my hits. I also worked on reloading which was made difficult by my baggy cotton shirt that I kept grabbing along with the magazine. I finished with some shooting on the move perpendicular to the target. Thursday was a very useful practice day. I put some grip take for my weak hand on the left side of the pistol and it made a world of difference. The gun seemed easier to control and the front sight returned to the center of the notch more frequently than usual. Josh and I started with transitions on four steel plates. I discovered that to really benefit from this drill I had to pick a specific order to shoot, quickly visualize and "air gun" it and then shoot it. This eliminated hesitation caused by not knowing what to shoot next and allowed me to practice at a good speed. I did miss a few times that I didn't call, but overall I did well. Next was bill drills at approximately 7 yards to practice watching the sights. I don't think I missed any A's and I feel like I was shooting pretty fast. We then shot a symmetrical course of 4 papers (two on either side) and 4 steel broken up with a reload in between. The reloads went pretty smooth with my new plug. I find that it is much easier to be confident reloading now that the glockmeister plug prevents the rim from snagging on the pistol grip. It feels like things are starting to come together again aided by the few modifications to the pistol. Today I shot the action pistol match at Sam's. I did well. The first stage was some plates at around 15 yards of which I hit 5 of 6, some upper panels on a triple and some strong hand weak hand on three singles. I did really well on this stage and was one of the only ones to break 100 of 120 points (I think I got 107.) I freaking owned the strong/weak stuff. The distance was close and I didn't wait for a perfect sight picture, I just waited for good enough and squeezed the trigger. The reset during recoil was spot on. As soon as the picture was good the gun fired. The second stage was symmetrical from left to right, one shot per target then repeat, two triples on the outside and three singles shot twice through two ports. I got 118 of 120 points, but don't know the time. I think I was a second slower than Josh. The third was a shoot on the move, less than seven yards, hoser stage which feels like it is my specialty. It had short distances between reloads, so I focused on being really smooth, hitting quickly and getting good reloads before changing directions and targets. This went really well and I think I got a pretty quick time and scored 119 of 120. The whole "match" felt really good and I was locked in and the sights were tracking very well. Loving the grip tape. One thing I feel I need to adjust in practice is to focus on one or two things at a time. I feel like there is so much to work on that I want address it all. This is as effective as a dog trying to fetch several tennis balls. She can get one or two, but loses them all while trying to get more.

For dry fire I practiced reloads and a bit of target transitions. My eyes are still slow to focus. I think I should work on more transitions to strengthen them. I got a new plug for my glocks magwell and it works very well in eliminating hang-ups with the rim of the top round. I also tried an airsoft Glock for the first time today. I really feel it was valuable practice. It is a blow-back model and although it has minimal recoil, the sight still jumps up and down in the notch. I think it will turn out to be very useful in working on my grip. Small adjustments really showed in how the sight tracked.

Had the second to last Northwest Challenge Series match today and I did better than I felt I did during the match. It was one of those matches where everyone was somewhat disappointed in their performance and I guess I had less to be disappointed with. I hit 79% of Yong's score, which is partially due to him getting used to a new gun, but I also closed the typical gap between myself and Ken and also did better than my series rival Brooks. It might be enough to negate the 2% higher he has on me in the series. I find that I care less and less about my screw-ups which is really allowing me to have more fun and make better recoveries after crashing and burning on a stage. I had plenty of screw-ups today to forget, but I ran my stages individually and didn't focus on the previous issues. Overall I think it was a good day.

Major Subjects: Match follow up, midweek match, reload technique. I was 70.76% of Yong's Score on Sunday. 3 mikes and 1 Delta for the match. I don't think I should try to push the speed of movement in matches anymore. I didn't do any better total score wise, but I did lose some ability to call shots accurately. Delta's and mikes hurt. I shot a mid-week match on Tuesday at Paul Bunyan (Mount Rainier's Shadow) that I think I will make a routine occurrence. I shot 100%, but the usual suspects were not there, so it doesn't really count. The whole match I was in a funk because I was tired from working that day. I didn't even visualize my plans and it showed with a medium performance. I did do well on the classifier (68% estimate) and classifier like stage, and a quick lateral stage with barrels blocking the targets. Since there were only four stages I guess, I just didn't do well on the long course which it is most important and difficult to visualize. Yesterday I practiced with my friend Josh at Renton. Together we mostly shot 8" plates. Before we were informed that we should go more inside the bay we were shooting at a 35 yard plate. I hit it 5 our of 6 with a 2-2.5 inch group of 4 shots (one just nicked the plate on the bottom) It was surprisingly easy and if I had taken more time I think I could have gotten all six within 5 inches or better. Most of the shots were used to practice transitions and I hit most even with my left hand only. I need to work on calling my shots better, because I would move slightly off target before I realized I missed. I finished up with some work on shooting on the move on some hard cover targets and steel. Dry fire practice of this at home would help improve my comfort in using this technique greatly. Today I dry fired and focused on Reloads. The technique that works the best and keeps the muzzle close to exactly down range is: 1. Bring my pistol back (around 8") 2. Release the mag 3. Turn the gun like a door-knob until it points toward my magazine pouches. 4. Magazine pauses at the well then quick insert, regrip and thrust out to position. I feel the pause allowed me to make the final movement more confidently and quickly reducing the overall time it took.

Possibly so in an Iraq or Afghanistan (or insert a similar desert of your choice/locale). Doubtfully so in Seattle. Best, Jon Nope just rain and we know the glock will shoot when wet. Perhaps there is a universal danger of cops getting a piece of donut in it ;)

Today I shot a match in Custer. I haven't shot or practiced much in the last two weeks and did not expect to do very well. I shot 160 rounds on Saturday and was noticing that I couldn't call shots very well. I was flinching sometimes. Probably more than I realize. I was also pushing my groups about 4 inches to the left at 25 yards on Metric targets and 4" high on paper plates. I can tell that my eyes are not focusing as fast or as sharply as they were a few weeks ago. I did however get some good recoil control towards the end on close targets. I had a string of fire in which the front sight just plopped back down in the center of the channel instead of requiring correction. Anyway the match went ok. I expect to see that I will still hit around 70% of Yong Lee, a local GM. I felt like I was moving faster than usual and still getting a high percentage of alpha's. I did throw two mikes and a couple of delta's though. One mike was at a 50 yard target which was my final shot and I called my front sight two inches below the upper panel, but out of the groove. I think the shot went over the shoulder or upper panel. The second I didn't see on paper, but was told it was on a triple target with a no shoot. I don't know where I missed, or what my sight pictures were for these targets. I imagine I put an extra shot in one. My planning is pretty good and I was happy to see that Ken (production competitor) and I seemed to chose similar routes and reloads. I lose 4-5 seconds on each course to his movement speed, but it looked like I may have gotten better points. I'm not certain how it will turn out with those mikes and delta's though. Visualization and memorization was as good as I have been able to get it with less sleep than I require. I didn't go into any courses wondering what I was going to do, but I was unable to attack targets with absolute confidence that they would appear in front of my sights when I got into position. I feel I was a bit sloppy in the transitions. One day I will go to sleep on time and wake up and it will be a fantastic match in which I operate with near omniscience and confidence that I know every target location and body movement before I start. Going for speed I payed less attention to the direction of my muzzle during reloads and my friend Albert informed me I came very close to the 180 several times. This is something I will have to focus more on when I formulate plans. I was more cautious in the stages that followed his warning and am sure it was not as close. This match had a ton of near 180 targets and I failed to take this into account in my reload plan. This is not acceptable. Things to work on: Reloads-focus on muzzle direction Transitions-get my eyes working again Grip-almost there.

Oh, just my two cents, but dirt and debris can also get into the gun through this hole. I think this is a more real danger than having so much dirt inside the gun that the cavity fills to capacity and stops the function of the gun.

ok. In the NROI website they have a rules interpretation for production that says flush fit is legal. In addition the rules for 2010, which I don't think are complete yet, says the same in appendix D4-22.3. Looks like I have something to order, because I get hung up on that little edge sometimes. It is just part of "glock's perfection." I was so excited to see the shape of the "magwell" when I ordered my G34 only to be disappointed by this flaw. Hopefully this helps.