Aloha Robert

At E-TAC (aka GoGun) we have been doing wild colors on firearms pistols and rifles several years. Our trade name for finish is Lava Shield but it is basically Cerakote. The prep is thourough degreaseing with solvent, then bead blast, then paint, then bake. Finish internal parts also (except Hammer, sear etc). It is extremely durable and corrosion resistant Only certain Cerakote colors are certified for blast and heat, but there are lots of colors for non blast parts. Our experience is Duracote has a wide variety of colors and camo kits but does not wear as well Here is link to Cerakote Gallery http://www.nicindustries.com/handgun_gallery.php I have had Cerakote on my race guns for about 5 years and on my personal self defense gun and have had zero problems with them. If you want to get fancy it works great for mags too. About the comment on DIY, yes you can save some money but there are a lot of tricks to do it properly. At E-TAC we have a dedicated paint shop. Yes you can DIY but things like spray hoods, the right airgun, tricks for suspending parts while drying all make a big difference. One thing I would definitely not do is have someone who has not had experience with race guns put ANY kind of finish on my gun. And yes we have done pink, I dont think we are supposed to link to our website on forum but you can go there for lots of examples And better yet, Cerakote works GREAT with Brian's Slide Glide

The really interesting thing about this is that it seems the accelerator pedal is not actually "sticking" but seems like the insiders are talking about a software glitch in the embedded drive by wire Throttle Control Unit that tells engine to rev max no matter what. If that's really the case, there are a huge number of potential deadly flaws in all (not just Toyota) auto drive by wire systems. I think this is only tip of the Iceberg. It not a case like the old mechanical sticking throttle caused by a problem in mechanical linkage or broken return spring on old fashioned carburator. There have been fatal flaws in Aircraft Fly by Wire Systems but engineers have addressed this with much more complex and expensive redundancy not found in autos. Also there is a VERY strict aircraft software certification system, which I dont think is comparable to standards if any in autos. Its one reason I love my 1911, no electronic parts.

If you had to figure out the hole patterns you did NOT get a genuine *thumb rest [generic]*. "*thumb rest [generic]*" is a trade mark of ETAC CNC (aka GoGun). At present all genuine Gas Pedals are customed drilled at factory for your specific mount patern. So if you had to figure it out you got a knock off not a real *thumb rest [generic]*. That being said, a *thumb rest [generic]* may be sucessfully mounted with 5, 3 or 2 screws. When we first started, folks wanted a 3 hole patern to match their C More, which works fine, BUT you might change the zero when attaching or detaching the *thumb rest [generic]*. After a LOT of research we figured out the optimal partern is 2 screws in between the traditional C more holes, which makes attaching or removing a breeze. The down side of this is you have to drill and tap two holes into the frame, which is easy to do but should probably be done by a professional gunsmith unless you are very familiar with drilling and tapping

I can't speak for Titan but can give you GoGun's experience with Titanium. In a nutshell you can design a Ti comp to withstand blast but the cost benefit is off. There is only marginal reduction of swing weight which is not as bigger a factor as with pistol. As to machining costs, they will be much higher, Ti is very difficult to machine and breaks expensive bits easily. As a rough rule of thumb a part in Ti vs Chrome Molly will end up cost about 2-4 times more expensive at retail. As for demand, a lot of shooters say they want one, but our experience is there is not a big enough demand to warant it when they realize the cost and benefits. That being said, if anyone makes one, I want it too, but probably wouldnt buy it.

Well I didnt start this thread but the best brake on the planet is the Talon Brake. No one has been able to beat it yet. Check out the GoGun vendor tent for some cred.

This is such a fascinating thread, sorry I missed it when it was hot. I agree with Brian and Duane that you just need to pay attention to make whatever stance you have work. But this reminds me of a dinner cconversation I had with Dave Walker (Dave is VERY tall) who was one of the top GMs in the nineties. He said he did a lot of timed drills with arms locked and then with arms EXTREMELY bent so gun was almost in his face. He said his times were faster with the gun closer ( we are talking Open Red Dot now). I tried it and it worked for me. I think the lesson is, in practice you can do some extreme things but if you pay attention, you will learn from them. Now I dont pay ANY attention to stance or arm position just watch the dot and let your body and brain do the rest. Depending on what kind of matches you shoot it can be a REAL advantage to be able to shoot comfortably with your arms in ANY position. For example if you are shooting with a lot of tight ports, really bent arms help. I live in Hawaii where we shoot "Open 10" and bent arms makes mag changes faster for normal folks like me. For the top guys it dont matter. On the other hand if your club does a lot of stand and shoot with accuracy shots, some claim the locked arms are better. I think you will get a lot more JOY out of shooting, the less things you "think" about. So if it dont matter where your arms are then you dont have to think about it. But I REALLY like the idea of going to JUST limited for a while if things aren't going well. I had a medical problem a few years back and could not seem to execute the fundamentals with the Dot. Back to Brian's book to relearn the fundamentals and only shooting Iron sights forced me to relearn all the basics. In my case the "trick of the day" was the "trick of the year" ( a year of shooting just limited). And BTW when you get older, your arms are NEVER long enough to see the front sight clearly without glasses.

First let me appologize you any one who feels they have been ridiculed. That is not my intention and if the words I chose were offensive I am sorry. I was merely trying to make the point is you answers all over the map and it is not know with precission what the original problem is. Also you see that folks tend to drift of the subject and Tendonitis is not the same as a ruptured tendon nor not the same as a variety of shoulder conditions mentioned. Again the message is get someone experienced who can give you precission in diagnosis first. The one great pearl I did note was the notion of eccentric exercise ( for lay folks, resistance while the muscle tendon unit is lengthening rather than contracting, like lowering a weight rather than lifting it). This concept was very popular in 70s and 80s but you dont hear as much about it now. But it is still the best way I know to rehab AFTER the problem is mostly in control.

This opinion is not mainstream thought. In fact it is the opposite. Inflamation almost ALWAYS occurs in sports injuries and as a sports medicine MD with 30 years expereience treating these injuries my opinion is concurrent witht the almost universal view that inflamation is a final common pathway for almost all injuries. The article referenced is largely annecdotal and not hard science. The article also references treatments advocated by Physical Therapists and states many dont work. I have know about those for 30 years which is why Physical Therapy only works in small number of specific injuries with inflamation. Now THAT is something most Physical Therapists wont tell you. Again I stress there are LOTS of types of tendinitis with different types of inflamation. Some have more of less of the micro pathologic changes alluded to in the referenced article. The rhetorical question of "When’s the last time you saw a warm, red and swollen case of tennis elbow?" is misleading because most athletic injuries are deep enough not to show superficial signs such as warmth or redness. HOWEVER YES I have seen hundreds of cases where the inflamation of deep tissues is so bad that there is visible redness and palpable warmth. If you want to make your treatment decissions based on Rhetorical questions, your odds of successful treatment are diminished. But here's a rhetorical question for you. Why is it that almost ALL acute injuries at least improve to some degree with Anti-Inflamatory medicine? If there is no inflamation, how can this be? Whatever answer you give, certainly understand Anti Inflamatory Medication is not a cure all but certainly it is one of the "guns" in the doctor's arsenal. All this is misleading, Again common sense should prevail here. Get yourself to a specialist who is experienced with your problem. To put it bluntly all this extraneous stuff is really just misdirection to keep you from getting the proper treatment.

No that is not correct, inflamation by itself is not the cause, it is a result. It is the body's attempt to fix or annihilate something it does not want. That being said the inlamation needs treatment before symptoms resolve. Then there is the type of inflamation which there are bunches of eg, acute, chronic, infectious, necrotizing, etc. etc. which influence how you treat it. What Jake should have said is in almost all cases of tendinitis inflamation plays a major role. As for Jake's comment about diet influencing inflamation, the answer is with regard to athletic or traumatic injuries the answer is there is no diet that will cure it period. There are some types of arthriris such as Lupus and Rheumatoid that a minority of patients will show improvement with dietary manipulation but what we talking about is a sports injury. However for those that insist on dietary treatment and I know there are some, this is what I recommend. Drink a quart of pregnant Mare's piss by the light of the full moon.

You don't take your $3k blaster to the down the road gunsmith. Is a gunsmith a gunsmith...ah...no not really. Is any Ortho competent to correctly diagnose the type of injuries we suffer in this sport...ah...no not really. Yet they all claim they can. Chiropractors...yea...ultrasound, laser therapy, friction massage, electric stimulation therapy...ask to be directed to the studies that support these "treatments." Silence. Your a racehorse-don't see your local vet. See someone who treats racehorses whose job is to get them back on the track winning money. There is so much on the thread besides Woody's astute comments I agree this thread is useful and should not be closed. As for the 85% harm idea, well I would say that the majority of stuff you read in lay media whether it be forums, newspapers, magazines or TV can be put in exactly the same light. Another poster is correct a lot of what has been suggested by lay folks is either harmful or delays proper treatment making it ultimately more difficult or impossible to treat. The analogy of vet for racehorse and great gunsmith for racers is a good one. Sad fact is the lions share of of both regular docs and orthopedists dont know much about soft tissue injuries. They are ok for the simple ones but its time to see a specialist in the field. Unless you require surgery you dont have to see an orthopedic specialist necessarily. There are excellent Family Practitioners, Physiatrist (Physical Medicine Guys not the head shrinkers), podiatrists etc. Woody's suggestion of getting a referal from the Physical Therapists who treat athletes is a Pearl and half. You dont necessarily have to be treated by a Physical Therapist to get a suggestion of who really knows in the locality. To be clear, Physical Therapy by itself is unlikely to be sucessful after two years on any problem. GET your self the best specialist you can find for your problem.

I am the MD Sports Medicine guy with over 30 years experience with these types of probems. More of story comes out now, but here are. Key points 2 years anatomic location not clear from post somewhere Shoulder or Elbow No response to conservative therapy Diagnosis unclear. Treated by non specialist ( a big RED FLAG) Diagnostic tests unknown. SO again I am not YOUR doc but at this point the proper recommendations are See a specialist and if not satisfied, see another one Make sure specialist gives you precise diagnosis in term of location and type For specialist to do this will probably require diagnostic testing which may be any where from Neck to Fingers in location. Types of Test might include MRI of primary or adjacent location, Xrays, or electrical tests. AFTER the above the treatment plan can be proposed. Since a lot of folks have made humerous suggestions and since your condition is chronic,I will say this, Fish Oil no matter what orifice you put it in will not fix you. But if you take enough by mouth you may need a silencer at the other end. Best wishes to Godzilla for a speedy recovery

I would agree with all of above. Saiga12.com is full of info on Saiga's and other AK variants. The emphasis there is on just about anything you can think of with Saiga but a small minority of info there is IPSC related. Almost anything else you want to know is there. For IPSC stuff Brian Enos is as good a source as you will find If you want to buy some Saiga parts there are lots of reputable folks out there but my favorites are http://store.carolinashooterssupply.com/servlet/StoreFront (Carolina Shooters) and http://www.mississippiautoarms.com (Mississippi Auto Arms) They both are very knowlegeable about Saiga and have very good service and inventory.

Seems like I am the only MD who has answered so far. Specializing in Sports Medicine for 30 years I know a thing or two about "Tendonitis". One of reason you get answers all over the map, is very few folks understand what "Tendonitis" means. Generally it means an inflamation of a Tendon, but unless you get VERY specific with a diagnosis, the term is too general to answer. There are more flavors of Tendonitis that you can shake a stick at AND that presumes the diagnois is correct. To make matters even more confusing, "Tendonitis" is often an incorrect diagnosis or found with other simultaneous problems You need to know a lot about this problem before you come up with an anecdotal answer like " well (fill in the blank) really worked good for me" First advice find a physician who has a LOT of experience with your particular problem and make and accurate diagnosis of EXACTLY which structures are involved. Then and only then after you have description of problem will you possibly know the answer. If he or she doesnt do a great job convincing you they know exactly what is going on find someone else. Here are some general guidelines however. "Acute" Tendonitis ( generally lasting less than 6 weeks) can be treated with a variety of methods some of which are described in this thread and include Anti-Inflamatory medication, ice, reduction of activity (as in you gotta rest it) and sometimes physical Therapy. "Chronic" Tendonitis is a totally different animal, much harder to treat and rarely if ever respond to some of the simpler measures advocated in this thread. "Acute" Tendonitis if not properly treated, rested, or otherwise cured can frequently turn into a Chronic Problem. Exercises of any kind only cure a small portion of very specific kinds of tendonitis but can be terrific in avoiding the repeat of the problem in future AFTER you have improved.

Well actually at E-TAC, we did a lot of R and D on the frame mounted comp in a lot of variations including comps on barel AND the frame simultaneously. Although the idea has merrit we could not make it work significantly better than our own comp design and it is rediculously expensive to fit and run properly. Only a few of problems we could not solve were increased nose weight (even with Titanium components), consistent barel comp alignment, and easy to use attachment of comp to frame. Someone will probably figure it out in future but we couldn't. There are commercial varieties in service pistol such as HK that has frame mounted comp but we could not make something worthy of competition. The HK version works ok for a service pistol but not good enough for competition.

Yes it does but that's the only advantage I can see for slide mounted optics in Open IPSC competion, and it's not much of an advantage at all. I agree you dont "seem" to notice the movement. My biggest gripe against them and why I switched back to Cmore is the field of vision is smaller which makes dot aquistition sometimes slower, like in oddball positons and its harder to see dot. Also for me after shooting lots of different guns, comps etc. I just love the way if you get your gun tuned the dot patern really does stay in center of C more as opposed to taking up considerable field of vision in smaller field of vision slide mount. There is some advantage to getting dot closer to bore if you are used to limited and dont shoot Open very often, but like any other piece of equipment if you practice with it you wont even know any optic is there. Although I have tried a lot of slide mounted dots and rejected them, I am currious to see how the new Cmore slide mounted unit works

From Gramham No I'm not trying to fake you out at all, when my frame comes back from plating I'll post a pic to show that it is definately on the slide stop, not to be picky but if you know any thing about Tanfoglios/EAA Witness, the photos clearly show it is a slide stop and not a thumb safety. Thanks for pointing me in the right direction on your site, I can now see what your talking about, the *thumb rest [generic]* looks good and although still mounted on the scope mount it does sit back a long way, out of curiosity how do you remove the slide stop? it doesn't look like it theres much room there. Ok I plead uncle, I dont know much about Tanfoglios, so that explains it. To answer your question, on our design it does requires removal to remove slide stop to field strip gun. It takes about 30 seconds if you go slow. You can mount ours on C more( or any other mount that is solid). On my personal gun, I had mounting holes drilled and tapped to FRAME and thru the C more. That way it is super solid, easily removes and does not affect zero of gun. Although I am almost revealing trade secret, 3 Cheers to Graham for figureing out you HAVE to have a *thumb rest [generic]* very close to axis of slide stop (at least on 1911/2011). That is weakness of most other "Thumb Rests" They are in wrong position.

I thinkGraham is trying to fake me out with images from Oz. First, he assure me that what makes him shoot better is attached to slide stop. no pic on gun but what is that little sqaure thing we see on thumb safeties but not slide stops? Who would have thunk it? My theory, eveyhting is name different there, only sounds the same. Whateva, good for you Graham! And he has a good question what does a real *thumb rest [generic]* look like. Well I am sponsor member and am not supposed to post commerical url except on my forrum tent. But on I can tell you if you hit our home page and select galleries, you get to look at 1911. All our rippers pictured have the orginal trademarked Gas Pedals. Or if you look at page 26 of Sep/Oct Front Sight you will see it in action. Although a distant shot it does show the anatomically correct position of the thumb and more importantly the wrist for max good things happening from Open Gun. BtW is does help shooting on the move.

Graham has the right idea, but curious the post says it is welded to slide stop but pic sure looks like welded to a thumb safety. For the absolute most recoil reduction the non dominant thumb needs to be close to axis of slide stop which is why most "thumb rests" dont work, they are too far forward. Putting pressure on the dominant thumb with thumb safety also works but is gunshmithing wise a little more difficult as unless the thumb saftety has support directly to frame, it will eventually fail on the axis. Also takes a little more practice to take avantage of recoil reduction with dominant thumb. I love the comment about size, because our own desingn works extremely well with petite thru huge hands

This is one of my favorite pet subjects and one I can speak authoritatively on. The discrepancy of opinions on this subject is huge and largely due to misunderstanding of what that little thing on the non dominant side is really doing, but first understand the terms. “Thumb Rest” is a generic term for just about anything you can put your non dominant thumb on and if you “rest” your thumb on it, it will NOT control recoil or decrease shot to shot time (decrease splits). “*thumb rest [generic]*” is a trademark of E-TAC CNC, Inc. and by it’s design can dramatically decreases recoil and shot to shot time. It is designed to put the non dominant shooters hand in the correct anatomical position to easily control recoil with thumb pressure. The original idea behind the name was if you want to go faster you “step on the Gas” aka more pressure Generic “Thumb Rest s” are all over the map with regard to position and most are wrong, or encourage old fashioned thumb position. So one shooter will say don’t press on it while another might find it helpful or harmful. The real “*thumb rest [generic]*” should be pressed on forcefully which does a lot of great things including controlling recoil, reducing flip, gives a perfect grip every time, naturally increases grip of non dominant hand with resultant better trigger control because of much more relaxed dominant hand. To the naysayers who say this alters the shooting style or takes some practice, they are right, but a few mags worth of amo is about what it takes to understand it and a few practice sessions to get faster with it. Although today still a highly controversial idea with open shooters, Esteban from E-TAC and myself developed and promoted the “*thumb rest [generic]*” in the nineties. BTW Eric G does not have a genuine *thumb rest [generic]*. His Thumb rest is from another company and similar to our earlier designs we discarded long ago. But he does appear to use it for recoil reduction to some degree as we had envisioned years back.

Read this. Ordered one. Received it. PROBLEM! It is 1/3-16 in diameter. To big around to use in anything but open class. Screwed it on anyway to see if it worked as described. For me,"normal body, stance, grip," it moved sharply to the right. Funny thing, all very fast double taps at 35 yds were in the center. My timing, don,t know? Anyway, called them, they said they were working on a legal one for our game and would exchange it for the one I have. Take care. I got one too but got it knowing it was only legal for Open and not so much designed for competitions as much as it was made for shear durability to withstand repeated full auto firing . But my intention was for Full Auto. But on a 10.5" gun it made a huge difference and looks mean as hell on the end of the muzzle. We could basically mag dump and the dot never left the center mass of the US Popper(fixed position) we were shooting at. Even one handed. We took it off and shot it naked muzzle and it climbed over a foot above the target. It also does a great job of taming flash. We took some great video of it in action and I will be sending it to Robert at GoGun for use on his website. I do look forward to checking out the competition version. At GoGun We have tried to make it very plain, the Talon comp is not legal for tactical only for open. Also it is designed to just plain work great under semi auto or full auto fire. It is was over built to take real punishment. I am thrilled to hear that dot does not leave center of mass on full auto fire, that was our goal, and just plain shootability. We have not had any other coments about pulling to right. It seems to stay extremely centered. One shooting problem that just does not happen with Talon Brake is naturall tendency to tense shoulder just before shot and to let up and not follow thru with shot which might cause pulling to right. But if you really relax, the brake shoots the gun with out much muscular input at all. About the wicked look, Yes it looks WAY wicked, but practical also. The aggressive talon tips have a beveved edge that will not cut skin easily but will splinter wood for breaching without getting stuck. If all else fails, your rifle becomes a VERY Effective hand weapon.

I know its a little after the fact but I cant send enoung good vibes to Mr Eegan (Mr. TimE to his aquaintances) and his crew who are just the best. The match was fabuloous and the hospitality was exceptional.These guys and gals in Idaho know how to make guests welcome. GoGun was a sponswer their efforts in 2009 and willl be again in 2010

I second Alex's opinion, Greg at Carolina Shooters is a great source for Saiga parts. Good service and he knows his stuff.

We have done a LOT of Saiga conversions in our shop. There are two seperate issues being discussed here. 1) the way to reliably cycle IF all the mechanicals are right 2) are the mechanicals right? There is a ton of info on Saiga Forum on this. If the mechanicals are are right you should be able to, and we routinely do shoot low power loads first time without need to break in gun. For the ins and outs of cycling any load here is good summary on their forum http://forum.saiga-12.com/index.php?showtopic=45743 It is unlikely the gas ports are the problem because if that true, you get weak cycling no matter what. (Gas ports on Saiga have long threads totally dedicated to that) It is true bad mags and poor amo have been a well recognized problem with feeding but post sounds like a failure to extract not failure to feed. If that is true the most likely culprits in Saiga are the extractor itself, or the bolt carrier hitting the dust cover. (Yes some Saigas come from factory with bolt that impinge on dust cover). Another common problem is a hammer spring that is part way off hooks causing increased resistance on back stroke (the OEM hammer spring is very problematic in general) As with 1911 pistols your empties should reliably fly well away from gun everytime even with light loads. Have you are your buddy watch as you fire. If they dont fly out nice, it is likely an extraction problem. Once you get things sorted out Saiga are one of the most reliable shotguns in cycling period.

Well to be honest, I have a horse in this race, so take what I say accordingly, but there is a comp that has none of these problems and has no discernable movement at all. Check out our dealer forum for more details and a video to demonstrate it. You dont have to fiddle with tuning or adjustments, we alreday did all that stuff.

I am not sure I really understand this question. Seems to me you would want a comp that works in first place rather than modifying it. That being said, if you other wise like the brake and it pulls one way or another, the first thing I would do is rotate the comp slightly off the 12 o'clock axis to adjust for pulling one way or another. Eliminating "lift" of sights is really an inherrent property of the original comp design but if you want to play with it, I would start with one small hole at time about .100 in diameter, closest to muzzle. In general, the farther you go away from muzzle the less effective it will be to reduce sight lift (flip). However more maximum anti lift is only obtained if the top hole is close to a baffle. Not sure why the Miculek comp is designed the way it is, but one thing for sure, if you do drill a hole wherever, make sure there is lots of metal arround it or you may get total comp failure with crack. Also if you do drill make sure you do it slowly and use lots of coolant or oil. If you get over aggressive and generate a lot of heat you may get micro anealing arround the hole which can cause cracks and failure later. Also one of the pics shows drilling holes thru the baffle, that is a definite no no. That would decrease effectiveness of comp to control recoil AND gives possiblity of comp failure, with early cracks in the baffle you would not be able to see