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What brand of hammers were that far off out of the package? I have only bought 4 or 5 sets and all of them were 90 deg. at .020 inches. BOB MARVEL 1911 AUTO SEAR & HAMMER JIG is the only one I have seen. It is the cost of a good Cylinder & Slide Enhanced Match Quality Trigger Pull In A Drop-In Kit. The Bob Marvel Jig has mixed reviews but most Negative reviews are procedural and seem easy to over come. Let us know how you make out.. Thanks

I did see this and they were not using the best parts to rebuild an ignition system, It was not a kit but individual parts. I only replaced one ignition system and used a C&S kit. I also felt he had to little trigger movement when he installed the trigger. I had this problem one time. I increased the trigger movement by bending the arms back in on the trigger bow and the problem went away. Out of the five 1911 that I have worked on that has been the only problem. I am off to the range shortly to sight in mt new Dawson Precision F.O. sights on my Springfield Range Officer. This is the pistol that I have replaced everything, It is one of my best shooting guns except for the Les Baer target pistol SWC 45ACP with the scope mount using an ultra Dot sight. The nutnfancy video were informative but the books I mentioned and the instruction that came with the sear jigs were also very informative. Have a great day, The range opens in 30 minutes so I am off. Have a good Day. (quote name='Quack' timestamp='1344392307' post='1756990'] I hope you learned from Terry G. If you saw the later nutnfancy video, they had to put the stock parts back in because the 1911 had hammer follow, which was after Terry G's "trigger job" Sent from my ADR6425LVW using Tapatalk 2

The best books were JERRY KUHNHAUSEN THE U.S. M1911/M1911A1 PISTOLS A SHOP MANUAL Volume 1 and 2. The other reading material was the instruction manuals for the Brownell's sear jig and the instruction manual on the Ed browns sear jig. I bought the Brownell's first and did not like it. I photo copied the instructions and then bought the Ed Browns jig.I also leaned a lot on a double instruction series on You Tube by Terry B at Impact Guns. He did a complete trigger job on a 1911 and he explained what he was doing and why. I studied these videos a lot and learned a lot from them. I have a friend on another forum that owns his own gun shop and does internet business and walk in business. He has helped me so much with all of the recommendations. He suggested the Range Officer and what parts to buy to replace the stock ignition set that was in the pistol. He recommended that I buy a C&S drop in 3.5 pound kit. And that is when I bought all of the tools to do a complete trigger job myself. If I had any question I would PM my friend and would get an answer the same day. He has another gunsmith that works for him that used to work for Les Baer. I learned a lot and have worked on all 5 of the 1911 that I have and the triggers are set to the pounds pull for the gun application. For the two S.D. pistols I set the triggers to 5 pounds. on the range guns I have, two Les Baers and The Range Officer I have the trigger st between 3.2 pounds to 3.5 pounds. I set the range officer lighter just experimenting and had it at 2.75 pounds and did not like it. It was to light. I adjusted it back to 3.2 pounds. I have been lucky with all of the work I have done and never had a gun run away on my. I always start with 2 bullets a few times and then three bullets for at least 6 times 18 bullets and then go to four and do the same 5 rounds of four. Then I was sure that it was safe and was not going to empty the magazine with one trigger pull. I have seen this one time. It was on a bulls eye league. When the command was given to load the guys gun shot all 5 bullets without ever pulling the trigger. I have worked on 5 of my own 1911's. Some I replaced the ignition system others I have changed the sear leaf spring to the colt springs. I like them. They are lighter and I like the way they split disconnector and the hammer fingers so there is a gap wear hammer strut goes. I am also changing both of the Baer hammer strut. the stock ones were surprisingly not as good as I have used in other pistols. I have two on order from Dawson Precision the 1911 AUTO TITANIUM HAMMER STRUT made by STI. The have a good fit in the hammer and do not flap in the breeze or twist under pressure. I am also going to change the main spring from 23 pounds to 19 pounds. I only did this on the gunsmiths recommendation. I have short fingers and the best thing I have done is replaced the triggers to the Wilson Combat shot trigger. You can also adjust this trigger for how much movement you have. You can adjust the over travel screw. then you can adjust the trigger on how far it move towards the barrel by bending the two wings that are cut in the bow. If you have any questions feel free to ask. I am disabled and cannot work anymore. I have had 6 major back surgeries, the last one was December 9th on 2011. Since then I cannot hoot on the bulls eye league any more. I have always had hobbies. Now it is collecting good pistols. mostly 1911's. I then started reloading and reload for 9mm 38 357 and 45ACP. I have a Dillon XL 650. I can still do this o I am happy. I wanted to start learning more about the 1911 and that is what has brought me to this stage where I have learned how to do trigger work on my 1911's and make them btter shooting pistols. I have also got over the fear of using a non marring punch to remove the sights on the slide and replace them with Dawson Precision fiber optic sights. I put a set n my Kimber stainless ultra carry II and it has mad a huge difference. I have an order in right now for front and rear fiber optic sights for the Springfield Range Officer. I will do that next week. I always thought you needed the $150.00 sight pushers. I spent 8.00 on a non marring punch from Brownell's and and use a ball peen hammer and they come out without any damage to the slide. I have fitted the new sights and installed them. It made the kimber a lot easier to shoot. The stock sites were really bad. Same with the Range Officer. It will be nice to have the fiber optic on the front and rear. Dawson makes a great sight.. I enjoy being able to work on a trigger on a gun and get rid of all the creep, now when you gently squeeze the trigger it is a complete surprise when the gun fires. This makes me a lot more accurate. On the 45 Les Baer I was used to the creep and there was a slight feeling just before the hammer would fall. So your brain knew when it was going to shoot and it would cause you hand muscles to move ever so slightly, Now that it breaks and it is a complete surprise my groups have gotten a lot tighter. If anyone know of better reading material than Jerry's books let me now, The more you read the more you learn and the better you get.

That is great. I enjoy the whole reloading and understanding the mechanics and being able to shoot 2 in groups at 50 yards with a 1911 because of the work that I did. To each there own. Enjoy shooting and lets hope we never loose that right.

That is why I purchased video's books and learned from a gunsmith how to do my own trigger jobs on 1911's. It is not rocket science. As long as you know what you are doing and spend the time to learn there is a lot of money saved and it is just another part of the hobby and sport of shooting.

I purchased a Range officer and replaced the ignition system and did a complete trigger job on the new sear and hammer and stoned the disconnecter with a fine Arkansas stone on any part that contact another. I set the trigger pull to 3.2 pounds. This is a target only 1911. After doing the trigger job I started to notice that I had a lot of creep on my other 1911's, two of them were Les Baers. I pulled the one apart and was shocked to see that thre was no trigger job. It was like taking the ignition system out of the bag and putting them in the gun and that was it. They did not even break the edge on the sear leaf spring where it contacts the disconnector. The hammer struts were made of blued steel and wobbled all over the place. If I never learned how to do a trigger job Like I did on the range officer and find out what a good trigger feels like I would of been happy with all of my 1911's. After asking around and then calling Kimber No production gun and at least Les Baer's do not do any trigger work when making a pistol. It is for their liability in case a guy is not used to a three pound trigger and has only shot 5 pound triggers like most guns come off the line at. So in short I would recommend a stoning of the sear, check the hammer for 90 deg. hooks and check all of the pins for wear and in the case of the Baers I am replacing the hammer strut to the Titanium I have used in the past. Chances are after doing the trigger work you will need to replace and fit a new thumb safety. I really like the Brownell's #965-600-007 6BN NARROW BLUE EXT. THUMB SAFETY Wilson Combat. It took a lot to properly fit it in the Range officer bt was well worth it. I would recommend that you check all of your 1911 for trigger work and if you know how fix them or take it to a qualified gunsmith to have the trigger work done. Good luck.

For the hammer you just want to make sure the hooks are square using a special stone that is 90 Deg. on the end. With my Ed Brown Sear Jig it came with a 20 thousands shim and I use that to make sure the hooks are not to high on the hammer. The other thing you want to check is that the sear is contacting both hooks evenly. I use the pins that go in the outside of the frame to check the hammer sear alignment. I add some blue to the sear and the put pressure on the sear and release the hammer and you can look at you sear to see if the bluing is removed evenly on the sear. I found the Ed Brown Sear jig to work fine and the price is right. .

I have purchased them from Brownell's. They are made for the caliber and are thread so you can put a brush on it and have a Squib rod/cleaning rod in the feild. If you do need the squib remove the brush and get the mallet. Depending what you are shooting it can be difficult to remove the bullet. I shoot a slightly over sized lead bullet and it took a lot of force to remove the bullet at first I had a hardwood dowel that just splintered. Then I bought the rods from Brownell's and only used it once in the last 2 years and it saved me from going home.I have two sizes. 45ACP and 9mm. They come in two sections and for just about any handgun you only need one section so you can reduce the cost by going in on the purchase with a friend that has the same caliber gun and split the cost. I know for the more expensive guns I have like the Les Baers I want a perfect fit on the barrel to rod so there is no way to damage the rifling. Hope this helps.

Another thing I learned is never believe a recipe from HandLoads.com if it is from a guest. Make sure it is done buy the powder manufacture like Alliant. Even then get all of your Load data books to verify. With a Dillon 650 you can crank out a lot of mistakes FAST! I am lucky to only be 15 minutes from the gun club so I can run off 20 bullets in a few loads and test them almost immediately.

I bought a 357 S&W 686, Before I got my Hornady reloading manual I was given information at the gun club I belong to that a good load for these Hornady Hollow Base Wad Cutter is 3.0 grains of Bulls Eye powder. I got my Hornady book in the mail and it says that I am at the max load for that bullet. I was stupid foolish and a few other words I will not say. I always check my loads in a book before making them up. I was in a hurry to make the bullets and trusted the person that gave me the load data. I made up the whole box of Hornady HBWC the good thing is I loaded them in 357 magnum brass rather than 38 special brass so the pressures should be lower. My concern is being at the max is shooting the center of the bullet out and leaving a doughnut in the barrel. There are three things I can do. 1, throw them out and chock up the loss of the new brass to stupidity 2,Use a bullet puller and bang them all out. I do not consider this an option as it would take to long and I would be sore as heck from banging out that many bullets. 3,Go to the range and shoot each bullet single action and check the target for a good hole with my binoculars or spotting scope and if in doubt run my brass squib rod down the barrel after each shot. I made up a whole box of 250 Hornady HBWC. I have purchased other HBWC that were less expensive and I can see that the Hornady bullets are made better and I loaded them with Accurate powder at 2.7 grains and they shoot great. So I am asking if anyone has loaded HBWC in 357 magnum brass and had a problem blowing the centers out???? I am open to suggestions and am I being to worried as it does say it is a load in the Hornay book and I know that the powder did not shift. The Dillon XL650 is a great machine and I have never had a powder shift once set up. I usually check the powder load after 50 rounds and it is always spot on. The next inexperienced 357 magnum bone head move is I bought a bunch of hard cast SWC 150 bullets and loaded them with a heavey crimp. I jut assumed that you used a crimp on a 357 load. I could not group these bullets at 25 yards for the life of me and I am using a Ultradot red dot sight on the S&W 686 from a rest I talked to the gentleman that makes the bullets that I bought and he informed me that you never use a hard crimp on a lead bullet because once you damage the lead bullet in any way it is not going to be accurate. I have a lot of these made in new Star Line brass and would like to pull the bullets and re-size them and start over. I have 1000 of these made up. So my question is is there a bullet puller die that I can mount in my Dillon XL 650 to pull the bullets using the press? If there is can you please send me a link so I can purchase one. It would be worth the savings in powder recovery and primer recovery verses just winging them down range and not enjoying shooting them. So can someone please tell me how foolish I was. I have said it enough and help me with my problem with a bullet puller solution? Thanks a lot B

I have been shooting three different pistols. One is for practice for the bulls eye league I will hopefully be back in this summer after recovering from a back surgery. That is my Les Baer 1911 45ACP with a Ultra-dot Red dot sight. The other is a revolver that I bought new. I have wanted one and got a New S&W 686 that was drilled for a scope mount and I put the same Ultr-adot red dot site as my les Baer. I really like shooting this with hollow base wad cutters with 2.7 grains of Unique. I like the Berry's plated bullets. They load nice and shoot great. This gun is very friendly on my back as I do not have to pick up brass. It is also very accurate at 25 yards shooting a 3 inch dot. I can fit 12 dots on a backer and shoot 6 rounds at each one and after 72 rounds I have had enough and only need to get my target once. That other 1911 45ACP that I shoot is my carry gun a Sig Sauer C3. I practice with Berry Hollow base round nose 185 grain plated bullets. They shoot very accurate and with the officer grip I practice shooting 6 dropping the magazine with one bullet in it and loading the second and then I have 8 in the gun, 2 torso's and 1 head 2 times and then two head shots. I like dropping the one magazine with the bullet in it as it drops faster for the next magazine to be installed. I usually will only bring the Les 45ACP and practice only that day with that. and finishing with the Sig. And then I will just bring the 686 and then finish with practicing with the Sig. The nice thing is on the indoor range there are hardly any people shooting on a Friday or Monday and I can turn the lights down so I can see the laser on the Sig carry gun and shoot well and shoot with the iron sights and then point and shoot with the laser and at 12 yards I am keeping all of my shots in the center of the 3 inch dots. So I do shoot more than one hand gun but I have a reason for each. The biggest thing is having fun. I have to say with my back I really love the 686. Good luck with your Glock 17.

Congratulations...

For just under 2 grand I had a custom made Les Baer 9mm. It looks like the standard 5 inch 1911 single stack only it is 9mm. I have his same 1911 in a 45ACP. It was $200.00 less than the 9mm, the 45ACP is more accurate. For a 3 inch 1911 single stack I have a 9mm Kimber Stainless Ultra carry. It is a very reliable 1911 and it is compact for CC. For under $1,000.00 is is a well made pistol. Why do you want a double stack magazine? I have some in other styls pistols and CC is a lot more difficult. Good luck and show some photo's of what you get.

When I started reloading 9mm on XL650 i was getting a small bulge in the bottom of my brass. I called Dillon and he went through the whole press settings with me and then had a run 1 case through each station to see where the bulge was forming. We found that it was in the fourth station when I was seating a bullet. as I seated the bullet I could see a slight bulge form. He had me back off of the seating depth by a 1/4 of a turn on the seating die until it did not bulge. The OAL was fine and the bullets fed fine. My question is what is the other names for the bulge in the bottom of the case. It was not a technical name. It did prevent me from clambering the bullets. After that I never had the problem with any caliber I loaded. Thanks for the Help!!! B

I shoot a Les Baer 1911 and have been using Matt Dardas 200 hard cast lead bullets. The Les Baer that I a shooting is made for Baer 1911 Bullseye Wadcutter SWC Pistol With Baer Optical Scope Mount. I have always shot hard cast 200 grain SWC. I would like to try shooting Berry's 185 or 200 grain bullets. With the Lead SWC I always shot 3 grains of Bulls Eye. Can anyone give me some bulls eye load datta to try for the Barry bullet. in the 185 and 200 grain. This is a great pistol and shoots well. Last years summer league I shot the best I ever did. A 258. Any advice would be greatly appreciated Sincerely Bob

I was making 38 special and 357 cast bullets using card cast bullets. I made a few that were not shooting well. I founf out from the bullet manufacturer that you should not use a roll crimp on a cast bullet. You want to use a taper crimp to keep the cast bullet in pristine condition the same way that I make my 45ACP and 9mm. So I have a number of bullets I would like to take apart to recover the brass. It is new Starline brass and has never been fired. I have another box that I do not care as much about as it is range brass and I do not know the history of the brass. I see that RCBS makes a Collet Bullet Puller that goes on the press and you grab the bullet and lift the handle up to remove the bullet. Will this work on the Dillon XL650 or is there another brand of bullet puller that would go on the Dillon. I have about 100 of the starline bullets and do not want to use the Frankfort Arsenal hammer style bullet puller. It is hard to justify my time to do it this way. Thanks for any help or input.

I just recently purchased a 686 for a fun gun. I mostly shoot 1911 Les Baer's in bull eye leagues. I shoot 148 HBWC using 2.7 grains of Unique. My eyes are not the best so I took advantage of the pre drilled scope rail mount and installed a Ultra dot red dot 25mm 1 inch tube sight. I can shoot 25 and 50 yards no problem. I am having a problem to get my SWC to shoot well out of it but I could not get a good group. I called my cast bullet maker and he told me to read his forum on cast bullets and I saw my problems. I was using a roll crimp where I should of been using a taper crimp. Here is what he has posted on his forum. I made up a few rounds today and will shoot them tomorrow with the taper crimp. From his site. "There are two important elements that need to be considered to produce trouble free cast bullet reloads. The first element is case mouth preparation. I always recommend that the Lyman 2 Step M Die be used to prepare case mouths properly. This die will allow the cast bullet to be placed into the mouth without tipping. The second element is the seating stem. Make sure that your seating stem is contacting the bullet's ogive about mid way down from the tip of the bullet. And make sure that the tip of the bullet is not contacting the seating stem where the hole opening is. The clearance hole MUST be large enough to allow the bullet's tip to clear. Please do not use a Factory Crimp Die for cast bullet reloading. Cast bullets MUST be seated perfectly square to provide trouble free accurate reloads! Cast bullets MUST remain in their pristine state in order to shoot accurately. Factory Crimp Dies will alter the cast bullet's sized diameter and thus will cause many unwanted issues." I hope this takes care of the problem. I shoot a lot of his cast bullets in 9mm and 45 ACP it would be great if I can get the SC to work out of the 686 using 357Maag cases and 38 Special cases. Does anyone else use a taper crimp on cast bullets for a revolver? Thanks Bob

If I was shooting with iron sights I would need at least a 6 inch barrel for better sight picture. I purchased a S&W 686 with a 4 inch barrel and mounted a UltraDot 1 inch tube sight on it. The new models come with the scope mount holes drilled and tapped. The revolver is very accurate to 50 yards and a lot of fun to shoot, I make my own loads so the bullet you shoot from HBWC to SWC and really hot Hornady XTP with H110 powder makes it a lot of fun and a very diverse revolver to shoot over other guns like a 1911 or Glock. For SD I carry a J frame with a 1.5 inch barrel and a Laser. It is great for the summer and winter when it is not easy to get to or conceal with a good pocket holster. I think revolver barrel lengths are not a set thing and you need to get it to the size you need for the task at hand. SD, Hunting, Target shooting. If you want to shoot at longer ranges where I shoot you need to be able to reach 200 yards to the back berm. So I would want to have a 6 to 8 inch barrel so you can get the velocities to carry that range while shooting a 75 or even trying a 100 yard target. A shorter barrel would never give you the velocities to reach out that far. So I would suggest buying 2 or three different revolvers with different length barrels just to be safe.

I am using the same 185 grain bullet out of a Sig Sauer C3,with new Star-line brass and an OAL of 1.22 inches, Crimp .469, 4 grains of Bulls Eye powder with CCI large Pistol primers. The bullets shoot well out to 45 feet @ 3.5 inch groups. The C3 only has a 4.2 inch barrel. I would shoot better at distance from a rest but the gun is mostly for S.D. I put a Crimson Trace Laser on it and it works real well at short distance when you will not be able to get to a full draw. Where the red dot is after shooting there is a hole in that spot. The Berry's Bullets are a great practice bullet and are fun to shoot when you tame them down to a target load. They shoot very close to what I carry Speer Gold Dot 200 grain +p for short barrels. These bullets have a lot more power but they hit within an inch of Berry's bullet at 4 to 8 feet. I give Berry's bullets a big thumbs up for practice and the price of 128 to 129 /1000 shipped is not that bad. I am used to paying $190 for 2000 SWC BB hard cast bullets delivered for my Les Baer so paying twice the cost hurts a little. I did load some very light loads of the cast bullets for the Sig and they did not lead up the barrel. I may end up shooting lead out of the Sig when I shoot up all the Berry's????? I cannot wait for the weather to get nice so I can shoot more outside at 50 yards for the Bulls Eye league.

Where is a good place to buy these by the 2 to 3 thousand range?

I was loading 9mm ever since I got my XL 650. I move up to a 45 ACP Les Baer bulls eye gun that shoots swc beveled base. The pistol was rated to shoot 2.5 inches at 50 yards. I love this gun for the bulls eye league I am on.It came with the optical sight/scope mount mounted on the gun. Now here is my problem the bullets look really bad comming out of the XL 650. The crimp die i set to .472 inches. It is a perfect barrel fit. The crimp is not straight like the 9mm that I loaded before. There is a slight knife edge that is tight at the tip of the brass where it meets the brass I looked at other peoples crimped homemade bullets and the side walls are straight. It is not crimping the brass. If I back the crimp off it will not go in the gauge. I called Dillon and they said that it could be a bad die. and sent me another. I got that and it is doing the same thing. here are some Macro photos of my bullets and I am looking for a suggestion on a different manufacture die or any ideas. The OAL is correct according to the manager at Dillon. and the crimp is .4725 I am not over belling the case I have made over 9500 bullets I am open to any help at all. The biullets shoot great, They just do not look right..

I am looking to replace some of the Allen head screws on my Dillon XL 650 with thumb screws. Does anyone know the screw size and thread count for the case insert slide and the primer cam screw. the primer cam is what contacts the primer indexing arm that rotates the rotary primer disk. I take these screws out a lot when changing powder loads and the seating die and the crimp die. It would be nice to use a thumb screw instead of having to use the Allen wrench that is on the tool holder on the back of the press. I see they sell kits that have the thrust bearing and the powder knobs for about $30.00, I already have the powder dial and the thrust bearing so I am just looking for the thread size and screw size for those parts so I can get thumb screws. Thanks a lot and have a great weekend

Thank you both very much, I need to camouflage mine a little, I live in an apartment and sometimes the maintenance people come in and they go in the room where the 650 is. I am looking to cover it so it does not look like it would make anything like bullets. An execise machine covered up is the look I am going for. I like the post of the 550 home made one with a cable sewn into the bottom hem for a small padlock that can be cinched up around the strong mount. Thank you for your time and photo. Bob

I have the same Springer. I would think about sending it in to the custom shop when you buy it for another $600.00 they tighten the slide, put in a new barrel and bushing and a trigger job. Then they guaranty that it will shoot 3 inch groups at 50 yards. I had mine for about 4 months and I shot that thing a lot and I could not get 3 inch groups at 25 yards. I went to another forum and was told it was the shooter and I got a ration of crap. Today I took the Les Baer and the Springfield and shot them with the same load at 25 yards on the left is the target of the Springfield at 25 yards on the right is the target of the Les Baer at 25 yards I shot on Friday night. I knew that I was shooting better than the gun could. You can see the difference of what the gun can do.

Check out these grips, They are called monkey grips. don't let the name give you the wrong idea. Gtreat grips Here are the ones I bought for my Les Baer, Springfield, Kimber, Les Baer