iain53

I bought a SteelMaster this past summer with the idea of getting a gun that I would not have to work on to get it running properly. I was disappointed. The disconnect and sear were MIM, you could see they had been polished, but there was a significant dimple in the middle of the flat surface. The finish of the sear surfaces was abyssmal, it was a heavy, dirty trigger. The CMore almost fell off as the fasteners were all loose. The mags (8 due to 10 rd limit) all had to be relieved on the lips as the edges were literally cutting into my cases, and all of the base pad lips were incorrect. All of them. In retrospect, I wish I had bought a tuner gun because then I could just shoot it and not spend my time and money learning to be a half-assed gun tuner. This was my third STI, but likely my last.

(Disclosure: Canadian) I just bought a SteelMaster and had to do a few tuning items to get the gun to RUN. First off, the C More was not fastened securely and almost fell off. Made zeroing the pistol challenging. Second, the 10 round mags were next to impossible to load 10 rounds into, and then the spring tension was so great that the pistol was choking up -failing to return to battery, jamming empties sideways and other shenanigans. In the end I had to file and sand each mags feed lips, cut one coil from the mag springs, and shave the bottom of the followers. While I was at it, I blended the mag well so that mags don't hang up on the nice ledge the build in there. There appeared to be issues with the extractor not managing the cartridge very well so I started smoothing it, then remembered I had an Aftec from another project so that went in. Finally I looked at the sear/hammer MIM sear (sigh) did a quick clean-up on the sear and left the hammer alone. It seems to be happy now and has real potential. Time to start load development. Anybody have any loads for the SteelMaster in 9x19 minor?

She's turning 26 next month. Right now, she has just taken over my STI Edge. Prior to that, we had started on an XD9, then a Colt Government in .40. The prior was a poor fit when shooting- the grip changed too much. The Colt was a huge improvement, but it wasn't "legal" for Standard Division with a 10 round mag (Canadian rules; the law was written in response to a massacre of women at a College in Quebec. The shooter had large capacity mags and semi-auto firearms, so mags are restricted to 10 rounds. Nobody in government is adept at mag changes)

Hi everyone! I started shooting IPSC in 2004, got very close to Master level, then dropped out of the sport. In 2007 I had a serious motorcycle wreck which left me paralyzed from the waist. I have returned to IPSC and have the pleasure of having my eldest daughter as my shooting buddy. Needless to say, things are a bit more challenging now, but it is still a lot of fun. I tried doing things in a manual chair, and while possible, it is enough of a hassle to make things not so much fun so I switched to an electric scooter- now that's made things fun again! I imagine there are a few vets who are dealing with disabilities in this forum, hopefully we can share ideas and experiences. I live in Canada, so the rules here are just a bit more restrictive but there's enough in common to overcome the small differences. Iain

My daughter expressed interest in shooting about a year ago. She took the Black Badge course and we settled on an XD9 as it seemed to fit best. Our subsequent experiences were interesting. She found that she could not shoot under match conditions- her accuracy was appalling and she was getting very frustrated because she could shoot accurately when doing bulls-eye type shooting. We determined that the issue was that the gun was moving around in her grip- you could see her adjusting her grip after every shot. She tried my M&P40, but still could not get it to work. Then we tried a 1911 Colt in .40 and she started to get much better, to the point where the mag changes were impeding progress. In Canada we are limited to 10 rounds, but the long mags are too long for the box. Grrrr. Then she tried my Edge and the difference was amazing. The quality of her shooting is very promising now. I have just lost my pistol to her though. She is a solid girl- 5'10" and was a swimmer all her life so she's got shoulders, so this might not translate well to smaller framed women. I don't think that the wide body guns are too much unless a person has smaller than the average hand. Grip tape clearly makes a huge difference also. My position is that shooting is fun, so don't saddle yourself with a gun you don't enjoy shooting!

True story. I read about it in LIFE magazine back in the '60s. It is somewhat heartening to see I'm not the only blind guy around. I am going open.