Gordian

As promised here are a couple of photos of the spacer that I built out of acrylic. This material is super slick and offers little to no resistance on the draw. When locked it stays locked...

I ended making my own spacer today out of some acrylic. Got a small sheet of 0.08 thick stuff at Lowes and built up a three layer piece using some quick drying epoxy. Cut it out and shaped it and used some small screws countersunk into the material to attach to the holster with washers and nuts (and loctite). No permanent changes were made to the holster so I can always buy a kit if needed. Cost me about $5 including the acrylic, glue, screws and countersink bit. Works like a champ and the gun is rock solid. I'll be posting a picture later. If I did this again I'd probably use a dollar store cutting board for the material instead of acrylic...

Good tip - I'm going to try that too.

It looked like it might be possible to add a plastic spacer to the inside of the trigger guard holder. In pictures it looks like the STI specific model has this installed. I've sent a couple emails out to Rescomp and to the forum dealers but no response yet. I may try and purchase a plastic sheet and try to fashion one myself. I can always sell it...

This was probably the case but it was purely unintentional. I may have pulled the trigger on 5 or so rounds, but I guess that was enough. Usually I put hot melt glue in the primer pockets but laziness got me this time... Lesson learned not to do that again. Thanks again for the help and hope this helps someone else.

I found that there are basically two sizes of firing pin from both STI and Wilson. The small 9/38 and the large 45. My buddy picked up a 9/38 for me while I was at work and it works great. Yes - several calls were made around town, but didn't call Ed. Thanks to everyone for their help. I have a spare in the mail from Bob.

Great idea - thank you!

Ok - good point. Will a .45 firing pin work in a .40?

I have a bent firing pin in my STI 2011 (not exactly sure how this happened but it did). I'd like to shoot this gun tomorrow night but I don't know of any place that's local that has an STI firing pin. I do know of a local gunshop that stocks Wilson stuff and that will have a Wilson firing pin. Will this work? Thanks for the help.

Did you ever get an answer to this question? I'm in the same boat.

Double espresso

In addition to G-man's very good advice, you may also want to experiment a bit. Have you tried other 1911 style pistols and found one that fit your hand better? What was different about it? Thicker or slimmer grips, shorter/longer trigger, curved mainspring housing, magwell? For me personally I don't start changing parts until I've dryfired the gun every day for at least an hour for 2-3 months. By then I can figure out if it something I truly need to change. I also hate spending money if I don't have to... Good luck

I'd recommend rethinking that plan. You want your press to be on a rock solid mount in order to get the best quality and consistency possible. If you really need it to be movable you could probably figure out a way to attach it to your bench with nuts and bolts so a few turns would allow you to take it off. My press sits on a bench I made out of 2x4's and 1 inch plywood. There are multiple cross braces under the press to keep the bench from flexing and the whole thing is anchored to the wall to keep it from moving.

Fantastic thread! I'm a C soon to be B shooter and I've been struggling with this topic myself. My shooting on the move skills aren't that great, but neither are my movements into and out of position. When I'm standing still I'm shooting A's almost all of the time. After reading through this thread it sounds like that I want to really focus some training on position entry and exit - this would be a primary goal for improvement. A secondary goal is to improve shooting on the move, if and when the easy shots present themselves so I can have the confidence to take them. Does this sound like the way to go?

This might be slight topic drift, but has anyone tried Saul's iPhone/iPod app? Do you like it?

I have 2 XD's with 15k plus rounds through each of them and nothing has ever broken. I bought some spare striker retainer pins to keep in my range bag because a buddy of mine broke one on his. This is the only thing I've ever heard of breaking - it's something that can happen with a lot of dryfire. The steel on the mags is a bit thin. I've bent the crap out of several by dropping them on hard floors by mistake when practicing. You can typically bend the mag lips back into shape once or twice but then they are done. SA service is top notch. If you do ever have a problem they will turn your gun around very quickly. I had them do one of my trigger jobs and it's the best one I have (and the gun is still fully under warranty)...

+1 on ABC's of Reloading. Get a few books though. I've been reloading for almost 5 years now and I still continue to learn new things. I'm constantly developing new loads, tweaking my press for performance and figuring out what I like and don't like about various barrel, projectile, powder, primer, and brass combinations. The best thing is to take notes and work your loads up from a safe starting point and keep on learning, experimenting safely, and researching. I've found reloading to be my second favorite hobby. Making empty brass is the first! Welcome onboard.

I've been shooting the 170 with 5.0gr of Solo 1k at 1.185 OAL through my new 6" limited gun. Haven't chrono'd it yet, but I'm glad to hear that others are making PF with this load.

I'm shooting something similar. 170gr Precision Moly 5.0gr SOLO 1K OAL 1.185 Six inch Schuemann Barrel. I haven't chrono'd yet but I think that it will make PF with a point or two to spare. Very accurate and not a lot of smoke.

Thanks for posting the link to the Schuemann website. Tons of useful information there.

So I've been reading through this topic and I have a dumb question (from the noob)... How do you know what trigger length is right? Is there a way to do it without buying all the inserts? Thx

I have an XD Tactical 9mm and I'm thinking about getting a match grade barrel. Not sure if I should just spend the time and money and go with a Barsto or if a Storm Lake or other less expensive brand would work just as well. My goal is to eek out a little more accuracy from the gun. All recommendations and suggestions are welcome!

XD9 Tactical with a Canyon Creek Tungsten guide rod and a 14 lb spring. I shoot 147's over WSF and have never had a FTF or FTE.

I'm new to this board but I've been shooting and reloading XD's for about 4 years now. I haven't had this specific problem, but I can tell you what I'd look at.... You may have a few bulging cases that are getting stuck. Are you using range brass? Have you noticed that it happens with a certain headstamp? Take a look at your brass and make sure you cull out anything that looks like it is bulging. Next take a look at your resizing die and make sure it is resizing as much of the case as possible with your setup. Finally, make sure you are case gauging your rounds with the actual chamber of your pistol. Take the barrel out and drop a round it to make sure it is seating properly/freely and will practically drop back out when you turn it over. Check it with factory ammo if you're not sure how it should look. I found that my XD 9mm's like a certain OAL - and it is different for each cartridge. There's an easy way to figure this out too. Just drop a bullet (projectile only) into the chamber - it will stop when it hits the rifling. Lay the barrel on the bench and take a dowel (I use a cleaning rod) and insert it from the muzzle end of the barrel until it just touches the bullet. Take a pencil and make a mark on the dowel to mark the length of the barrel from crown of the muzzle to the bullet. Then tap the bullet out and put the barrel chamber side down on the workbench. Insert the dowel into the muzzle and let it stop at the bench. Now make another mark on your dowel - this should be the OAL for the particular bullet. Measure the marks with your calipers and back it off by a couple thousandths so your loaded rounds won't be hitting the rifling. Now load up a couple dummy rounds and check for proper fit in both the chamber and your mags. If the OAL is way off what you were using before you may want to back your load off and work it back up again until it chrono's at PF. If this is confusing PM me and I'll help.