IceDevil

No problem. BTW, if you call them on the phone, Dawson is very helpful in figuring out the appropriate sight/height to match w/your rear.

Sorry to hear about the accident and hope your injuries heal quickly. Not sure how that happened, but I'll stay tuned to see if you have any further information or ideas. Thanks for sharing this as a helpful reminder to respect the reloading process - even if those tiny little primers don't look like much.

Baer uses a Novak cut front sight. Keep in mind Baer blind pins his front sights which can make them a pain in the butt to remove.

Since your mount is steel, you won't do any damage by switching it back and forth. I have heard of aluminum mounts getting chewed up by repeated mounting/removal. I doubt your zero will be the same from rifle to rifle, but if you have thumb turrets you can figure out what adjustments need to be made when going to the 22 and dial those in. If everything works right with the system, undoing those adjustments and moving it back to the 223 should take you back to your original zero.

My local club bills one its two monthly IDPA matches as a "compact" match. It's the second match of the month and uses the same course of fire as the first. Participants can choose to shoot non-compact guns but they are scored separately from the compact shooters. At most matches about half of the shooters will choose to shoot "compact" guns so there is clearly interest but this approach means you don't turn away the people who don't want to shoot the compacts. I keep putting "compact" in quotes because the definition is pretty loose. A lot of people end up shooting Glock 19's, which is a uniformed duty weapon for some agencies, but "compact" for these matches. These are definitely not back-up guns and the courses of fire are not watered down like the IDPA BUG rules require. Like most games, whatever rule you create to define "compact", competitors will find the largest and easiest to shoot gun that will fit that definition. That's just human nature.

Ever since another shooter who lost his FO frantically came up to me at a match and asked if I had an extra piece of FO in my bag, I have kept extra FO and a lighter in my range bag. Never lost a piece, but it's cheap insurance and doesn't add much weight to my already overstuffed range bag.

I can add a datapoint to this. I am under 40 and prefer red. Tried the green, but just doesn't seem to light up like the red does.

I just put a limbsaver on my m1 S90 tactical straight stock. You need to use the model 10112 (actually designed for a Rem 700 variant) but it requires a little work. The shape of the pad is almost the same as the stock, but not a perfect fit. The holes will not line-up so you will need to drill new ones in the pad to match the stock. It's a little extra effort, but the limbsaver was probably the best shooting accessory purchase I have ever made. It is 100x more comfortable than the hard plastic thing that Benelli calls a recoil pad on the M1. It has made the gun so much more enjoyable to shoot. I can post pictures later if you want to see what it looks like, but the not so perfect fit is not noticeable unless you are looking for it. Get one - there is nothing wimpy about being smart.

I guess I got off easy on this one. I really do deserve some ridicule for asking why my gun doesn't run and then admitting that I haven't changed a spring on it in 18 yrs. A little preventative maintenance wouldn't hurt. I have a new disco and spring for it, and my guess is that would fix my problems (at least for a while). That being said, yesterday (before reading his post) I came to the same conclusion as Kurt and ordered a new Geisselle 3G trigger group. I'm confident that a new FCG, good cleaning/lube, new buffer spring and running my other unmolested bolt carrier will fix my problems. My range is an hour away and can't get there as often as I would like, so I just didn't want to waste a range trip or screw up a match replacing FCG parts one by one. With so many knowledgeable people questioning the quality of the FCG parts, it only made sense to take the safe route and replace them all. The side benefit is I should have a much improved trigger pull. Thanks to everyone for the input and once I've got the new parts tested, I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Not sure if this is too late, but you can shoot at 50 near Los Angeles through these guys - http://www.justshootit.net/

I feel like in addition to having the privilege of getting troubleshooting advice from a pro I've watched on TV I am also about to get my b*lls busted a bit.... If there really is an obvious solution here, please let me know before I order my new match trigger group!

I don't really know what was done to the trigger. The gun was built from the ground up by a D&L Sports and I'm sure he did did something to the trigger. It's not super light but much better than milspec. You are right that when this gun was built, the "state of the art" in the AR world was very different. It's hard to imagine given where we are now, but I don't believe there were any commercially available trigger kits or flat top receivers when I had this built (or much of an internet to find them!). I am in California and this lower is a registered assault weapon and I have been told it cannot be shipped out of state and returned. That may be BS but I would have to do some research before sending it to Jim. Definitely when it's time to replace the 18 yr old upper, Jim seems like the guy to call. In the meantime I will replace the FCG with the Geisselle I've been eyeballing. I have another upper that I was planning on stealing the carrier from, but I just looked and it is a similar vintage and also has the cutout that exposes the FP. Everything I have read says that the cut-out carrier itself is not really a problem, particularly if the hammer doesn't have the hook, so maybe I can still swap them. Would you recommend keeping the bolt with the barrel or also using the bolt from the second upper? Thanks again for the input.

Wow - this latest round of comments has been eye opening. Clearly I need to update to the current carrier and hammer configurations, but does anyone think the hammer catching on the FP is just a symptom of a FCG problem that is allowing the hammer to follow? My understanding is that the notched hammer and cut carrier were designed to prevent the gun from going full auto in case the FCG failed. Could this be what is happening here? Keep in mind this gun has at least 4k+ rounds through it with the same hammer and carrier and it was only recently that these problems surfaced. Why all of a sudden would the hammer now start catching on the carrier/FP? Neither one of those parts got any bigger over time. Doesn't it seem more likely that wear or fatigue in the FCG or its springs is now causing the hammer to follow, which then causes the hammer to catch on the FP and locks up the gun? Keep in mind that I had a few cases where the gun cycled, put a new round in the chamber but the trigger didn't reset and the hammer was down with a primer strike on the chambered round. This screams FCG problem to me and I don't see how it could have been caused by the hammer notch/carrier cut. Just thinking out load because I would hate to replace the hammer and carrier only to find that it goes FA. The collective wisdom of this group continues to impress me. Thank you for all your assistance. Based on what I've heard here, I don't think I'm rushing back to the original builder to have him troubleshoot this one.

Is there any way to put a F/O front sight on an 18" bbl M1 S90 tactical? I was looking to get a longer field barrel for it but the $450+ price was a bit of a shock.

Ammo was Federal American Eagle 55gr FMJ and Federal XM193 55 FMJ. Are either of those considered underpowered? I plan to clean and lube the gun thoroughly before its next outing. New springs and disco were around $15, so not much money being thrown around yet.

Here are some pictures of the bolt carrier and hammer. The hammer is notched and my bolt carrier has an exposed firing pin, so I think it is working as designed to catch the bolt if the hammer is following. If the hammer followed but occasionally failed to catch the FP, that would explain the cases where I have found the bolt closed on a live round with a primer strike but the trigger not reset (slam fire but without enough force to actually fire). Based on all of this, my plan is to replace the disco spring and disco and re-test. The only thing doesn't make sense is that I can't replicate a disco/hammer follow problem manually. Is it possible to have something wrong w/the disco or its spring that only shows up in live fire? While I'm at it, I will replace the buffer spring, clean the buffer tube and try some new magazines. Any thoughts on this approach or other suggestions? If that doesn't work, I may just buy one of the drop in fire control kits (AR Gold or Geissele) I've been looking for an excuse to buy and see if that fixes my problems.

Thanks everyone for the input. I'll try to give some responses. Does it with all 5 mags I have tried. I oiled up the bolt before firing, but a good detailed strip and cleaning is probably in order. I don't think the carrier key is getting far enough forward to get stuck or even hit the gas tube. I'll check the two pins. Even before reading his post, Ericm's idea is along the lines of what I was thinking after doing some more research. The bolt gets stuck about where you would expect it to be if the hammer were catching on the FP. I know my bolt carrier has the cut out that exposes the flange of the firing pin. I don't know whether my hammer is notched or not. I will take some more pictures tonight. The intermittent nature of the problem and the fact that I haven't made any changes to the weapon are making this a little hard to understand. The fire control group is passing function checks and I can't manually induce any hammer follow.

I have an 18 yr old AR that has recently started having some interesting problems. The last few outings, I can't get through a mag without having the bolt hang up midway through it's forward cycle. This leaves the new round partly in the chamber. The round is not what is holding the bolt half-way open. The round is loose. Here is what it looked like on two different occassions: When I drop the mag, the loose round falls out of the magwell (sometimes along with the top round from the mag) and the bolt remains half open. If I retract the charging handle back and release, the bolt will cycle closed. I had this problem with 5 different magazines (20 and 30 rnd GI), two of which had brand new springs/followers. It happens probably on average of once every 5-10 rounds. I also had another issue but I'm not sure if it is related. A couple of times, the gun cycled but the trigger did not reset. When I ejected the round from the chamber it had a light primer strike, which I know is common in AR's but mine doesn't seem to do that on other occasions. Makes me wonder if this is a fire control problem. I know this stuff is not easy to figure out over the internet, but any ideas anyone has are greatly appreciated. This gun is about 18 yrs old but was in storage for the last 7-8 years that I didn't do any rifle shooting. I did a bunch of research on the net and haven't seen anyone with the exact same problem. The gun probably has 4k rounds through it, but only in my last two outings after pulling it out of storage has this problem surfaced. No changes to the gun were made except for changing the optic, but I'm assuming that's not the cause. Based on my research, it seems like a good place to start would be new magazines and replacing the springs (particularly the disconnector and buffer). I don't believe any springs have been replaced since the gun was built. Gun was custom built by D&L Sports in WY in the early 90's and hasn't been modified since. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

And another. Best bang for the buck right now. In your guys opinions is the Mtac worth the extra $100 over the Tac30? As the MTAC becomes more common the street price should get closer to what the Tac-30's are going for. I just bought an MTAC from Optics Planet on eBay for $55 more than a Tac-30. To me it was worth it to get the latest and greatest, but I doubt it will make a difference in my shooting.

I just bought my first 40 and need some help picking a safe starting load. I have N320 that I have been loading in 9 and 45 and just bought some 170 grain Precision moly coated bullets to try. This combo is not in the VV manual and I am having trouble coming up with a starting load. I have searched the site and there is a lot of data for N320 and even the Precision bullets, but it's all for major loads. I am looking to start with a MINOR load for IDPA and Steel Challenge. The VV manual shows a starting load of 3.5 grains for a 180 LTC for a PF of 158. I know the lighter bullet should require more powder to achieve the same velocity, but since I'm looking for a lighter load, would it be safe to start with the 3.5 gr load with a 10 gr lighter bullet? My only concern is that the VV manual shows a starting load of 4.9 for a 165 TC-FMJ? I know the 5 gr lighter bullet and the fact that it's FMJ should dictate more powder than the lead 170 I am loading, but 1.4 gr seems like a lot. I am loading for a stock STI which should be able to handle longer OAL's then in the VV manual. I am considering something in between the load data for the 180 lead and the 165 FMJ (closer to the 180 since it is lead seems logical) and am considering this as a starting load: 3.9-4.0 N320 170 Precision 1.17 OAL I would appreciate any thoughts on my approach. I know I will have to chrono to see what the combination is actually doing, but at this point I want to come up with a safe starting point that will allow me to get some rounds through my new toy safely. Certainly if anyone has any experience with N320 and a 170 lead bullet at minor velocity that would be most helpful. Thanks!

Gunnuts.net is reporting that BJ Norris won rimfire open with Sevigny and Jerry next. Other than that, haven't seen any other info or results.

You can have your bull barrel machined down to fit with a bushing. As to the weight question, I will defer to someone else.

David Bowie has his LX trigger that moves the release point forward, if that is what you are asking. Dan Burwell wrote the book on M&P triggers and Mike Cyrwus at Accurate Iron is highly recommended. I'm sure both of them could shift the release point, but they are all busy and have long waits or are hard to get in touch with. The Apex FSS was designed to cause the trigger to break farther forward and is a drop in part.

But the other Apex Trigger is legal, correct? Yes - the Comp AEK and Carry AEK should both be legal since they are internal modifications. The FSS is illegal because the actual trigger is different material and design.

I bought a 1200 from Tony and I can tell you that won't be big enough for you. I can fit two limited guns without mags or one with 4-5 mags. Tony can tell you what will work and will get you what you need for a great price. On another note, make sure you have two locks for each case. The last time I flew TSA claimed that without two locks the case could be pried open enough to steal the gun. That's not really the case but it didn't matter to TSA. Fortunately I was able to take the lock from the outside of my bag, but the whole incident almost caused me to miss my flight.