lee blackman

Start the match with your best ammo, and use your best magazines first. This seems redundant to say that, but a casual and somewhat repeated observation has me pointing this out, much in the manner of advising brand new shooters to download their "reload" magazines on their belt by a round. More than once over the years, more so in the days of the horrible Clinton era magazine ban of anything over ten rounds, I would see a new shooter show up to a USPSA match with a mixed lot of ammunition and magazines for their gun. On the first stage they would have repeated hick-ups and malfunctions, and/or would be doing emergency slide lock reloads early in the stage. Come to find out they had one standard capacity magazine and two other low capacity 10 round magazines. They were starting with the ten round magazines and saving the high capacity one for last for whatever reason. Along with the mix mash of ammunition of which they were shooting the lowest quality stuff, and saving the factory boxed cartridges. One could easily see the frustration piling on for the shooter. Recently a regular customer of mine (I own a gun store) passed away. He would commonly buy cheap guns online and transfer them through my establishment. In a given year he probably bought a couple thousand dollars worth. He would always look at or point out something like a Colt Python and say "I would love to have one." I asked why he didn't buy one, and he always had some random lame excuse. I mean after all, he was spending it on cheap guns. Then after hearing of his passing, it made me wonder, if he knew he was going to pass, would have bought the Colt Python. It clicked to me that its a mentality. Things are a trophy, save the best for last, etc.... And its counter productive. In the realm of reality life is finite, just like a match or a stage. You shoot it, and its done, thats your score. If your there for fun, thats fine, but I want to bring do my best, even just for fun. Otherwise whats the point. I'll sacrifice getting two or three lesser guns for the collection to buy that Akai or SVI (and I did, more than once.) Because its alot funner running that race car, than it is that pickup truck on the race track. You might not wanna spend that money on that high end division specific CZ, Tangfo, Staccato, etc.... But seriously why not, if you can afford it. Thats why we shoot USPSA, IDPA, 3-Gun, PRS, etc, to get the most out of the experience and have fun. Its worth it. Don't be left wanting, cause we don't get to shoot forever. Things change, and life happens. Take advantage of the opportunity while you have it, and get the most out of the experience. Just a school of thought, Lee

Wow this is an old post brought back from the back catalog isn't it. Thats crazy seeing how much has changed in just a year. I remember when carry optics was nothing more than production with an optic added, and now its a whole division of its own right. I have to say its growth in popularity makes sense. In all honestly, I see it replacing Limited. What was a limited gun a decade ago, generally speaking, was a tricked out service gun of the era. Extended magazine, magwell, tuned trigger, etc. Now a modern era tricked out service gun has a slide mounted optic. So perspectively carry optics IS the new limited.

For the money, I really like the Safariland 773’s. They are pretty simple too, they don’t really break or come loose on a ball joint like some waaay more expensive pouches. Sometimes there is just to much going on and it’s easier to keep it simple to focus on other things.

I shot that one before, I think was 2016 or 2017. They have a great match and an awesome prize table.

The last time I saw them was on the rain6 website, that was a little bit ago. I just looked and don’t see it anymore.

Incentives and deterrents.... this is how your direct people to do or not do something. I’ve seen my local club change a lot since I shot my first match in 1998. Not just the membership, and leadership, but the shooters themselves. The competitive nature of our sport deters the weak “everybody gets a trophy” crowd, which is a heaven send more than we realize. I’ve shot with slot of different clubs, and slot of different matches over the years. Some places are strong and viable, constantly bringing in new shooters and growing or maintaining crowds. Other seems to struggle for various reasons. But it’s the long term members, the guys who show up every match, volunteer their labor, and run things who make or break a club. If you can find or build a good crew, then your ok. But finding talent willing to work for free is getting harder to come by. That volunteer spirit doesn’t seem to be as abundant as it once was. And yelling at shooters or harassing them into helping after they paid a fee to shoot, especially new shooters, can kill turn out. The answer may be better organization and financial incentives. In other words, delegate and assign specific duties. Folks who show up the night before to put up stage props and help from beginning to end get match money kicked back to them. Folks who down show up for setup and tear down but do other tasks like RO, Score Keep, Past, or Roll Brass and sort it on the tables for everyone maybe get to shoot for free or reduced fee. Everyone else pays full match fee but you can literally show up, shoot, and leave. And not just anyone can do it, you have to earn your way into it, as a reward for service to the club. Incentives... and deterrent would be it’s a lost brass match to all consumer only shooters. Just an idea. I think staff volunteers and RO’s should be rewarded for their hard work. Just expecting everyone to step up and do their part in generals, especially since everyone is paying the same amount isn’t really the best model for success. It seems to be the way it’s always been done but it’s short comings are obvious by this topic post alone.

what this guy said... someone smarter than me explained how the little sensor works in digital scales, and they do require time to warm up or they will shift reading weight as they do. I’ve been running an RCBS chargemaster for probably a decade now, and there has always been about a .2 gr shift after warm up.

I don’t think it matters after it goes thru your 38super sizing die... Sure factory 9x23 ammo (if there is such a thing) might have an issue. Like you ever notice when you size 9mm brass thru a carbide die its no longer a tapered case... does anyone even make a non straight wall sizing ring full size die for 9mm that leaves it tapered? Basically if you size it smaller than your chamber, it fits, it shoots... the issue you might come into is ejection or extraction, pending how picky your gun is. Ive been amazed at what kinda brass has run thru my super 1050, fired in my gun, and ended up reloaded again. 38 super, supercomputer, TJ, 9x23, 9 supercomp. It all ends up in my practice ammo that I don’t even bother to case gauge check. Does it feed and cycle, I mean I have more problems with 38 super brass stamped armscor or a-USA than 9x23. I’m not paying to much attention, I clear the malfunction and keep shooting, so I’m not claiming it’s always 100%. But can you run in in a 38super and safely, of course.

Way to bring back an old post and an old show... is it still running? I completely forgot the show. Started watching FTWD, which really seemed to do a little better, then at the end of whatever season I never picked it back up.

Best thing I ever did to my Rem 700 SBS tactical 20” was throw the hogue stock in the dumpster where it belonged, drop the gun in an HS Precision I picked up used off this forum, recrown that barrel, and drop an old adjustable factory Remington trigger on it. I went from an extremely inconsistent 2ish moa pain in the rear to a solid sub minute rifle.

Assuming the scope has a 1” tube a low .275” rings will put your objective lens on the barrel. A medium .375~.400 height ring should be just right.

Make sure that the gun your looking at fits the division and game your planning on competing in. The best recommendation I can give you is show up at the local match, befriend some fellow shooters. Learn everything you can about the divisions, and think heavily on which division would best fit you. After you decide on which division, find out what the predominating platforms for that division are. That is the platform I would recommend investing in. All to often I see people go out and just buy something without researching, then get to a match and get stuck in a division they really can't compete or even learn in with the gear they purchased. Wasted money would have been put to better use buying ammo for practice.

Squatch, the issue doesn't look like the dies. From what I see your probably using the standard F size dillon powder funnel which has a straight angle to it. Its for most 9mm, but from the pictures I'm assuming your running 147gr projectiles which are very long, so the bottom of the projectile is caught by the taper of the case. Instead of changing all kinds of sizing dies and messing with stuff that probably won't help and just cause more issues, I'm going to recommend changing to the D size dillon powder funnel, which is designed for the 38 special/357 mag. Mess with the depth to get it right, but I have a theory this will fix your problem.

I used to irritate folks who picked up my 9Major brass. It would crunch and not resize because the web was blown out to much. Then the stuff that somehow did make it thru the sizing die and ended up a reloaded cartridge wouldn't pass a case gauge. For future reference and simplicity sake, you could always buy off the shelf new brass and load a batch, just to eliminate that as a variable, but I'm almost certain that the brass is not your issue. And if it passes a case gauge it should chamber in your gun. That said, The case head isn't going to "swell" outside of spec when you fire it an additional time and cause any type of extraction issue. Extraction issues are often related to the extractor in a 1911... And we all know 9mm's, more so 9Majors are more sensitive on having the extractor tuned just right. And if its an open gun with a sight mount covering the top of the ejection port while the slide is open, tuning the ejector is also critical. There are a ton of forum posts about tuning extraction/ejection for 9 Major to reference.

I've had better luck with Autocomp than 3N38 for 9Major. There is plenty of load data on the forum here if you go back and search.

I was having a similar issue in my 929, turned out my hand was getting worn and I was having a slow time issue on two chambers, where the firing pin wouldn't hit center of the round on the anvil, more often when I was pulling the trigger slow.

Own both, like both, still prefer M&P with Apex.... I run 115gr Xtreme Bullets with AA#2, CCI primers, and range brass... in the same everything... The P320 X5 has great recoil impulse for such a high bore axis. Personally the trigger is the biggest fail, playing with the apex is a little better, but haven't had a chance to play with the grety guns. The Glock 34 I've been shooting for years and compare everything to it. I have reduced weight springs (excluding recoil spring which is stock). I think it has a better recoil impulse and second best trigger only to the M&P with the Apex. I think the key defining difference for preference between the P320 and Glock is going to be the grip angle... The trigger can be modified and I honestly don't think one is better than the other. There isn't really anything significant other than grip angle to shift between one of the other. On the other hand the M&P with the apex trigger installed is a significantly better trigger than either.

I use ammoseek... had excellent luck with it as a search engine.

Well from what I see in this failure to feed, the slide isn't to the rear long enough or far enough to let the next round come all the way up for the back of the slide to engage the case head. In my personal experience, its a short throw charge in a reload that ended up in the mix, probably had a noticeably different report and recoil impulse. I've also had the same experience running very fast powder with a inconsistent batch of fiocchi primers which had an insane extreme spread over my chrono.

I was honestly disappointed with my Type B. Not saying its a bad gun by any means, it seems to be well built, please don't assume I'm bashing it. I'm just not satisfied after the wait and price. I preordered, and mine came in with the second batch to ship. I waited over a year, and was super excited. I had a wonderful experience with the Arsenal Strike One Speed model prior. Being a very flat shooting gun, with a great trigger. At the time was the only polymer gun on the market that actually was different than every other one enough to impress me to want one. When the Type B shipped and I finally got my hands on it, it just was not the same. The gun was excellent quality, came with four mags and some kinda funny smelling lubricant. Felt amazing in the hand, but I noticed right off the bat it seemed kinda heavy, and the slide was kinda wide. Played with it, noticed it the slide was sprung extremely heavy. Side by side comparing to a Glock 17, it was about as long, a hair wider on the slide. I had assumed it was going to be more in the realm of the Glock 19 size guns but it wasn't. The trigger was different, and alot heavier than I expected. Nothing like the Strike One. A pencil test revealed it had very light ignition. Light to the point where maybe it might be a federal primers only kinda gun. When I finally shot it, I ran off the shelf federal 115gr FMJ. It ran flawless, no light primer strikes, but it had the recoil impulse of a hi point!!! Between the heavy compound recoil spring system and the slide weight it shot nothing like the Arsenal Stryke One. Its like those two things completely cancel out the whole point of the low bore axis. I didn't even bother trying heavier defensive loads. Even my minor PF handload was rough. Just to much moving mass and to much spring. I didn't measure it but prior experience would compare to a 18 or heavier pound recoil spring. A fellow shooter at my local club showed up with a Raven edition... Which hands down felt entirely different. I don't know if they've changed the recoil spring system but it was considerably lighter, and the gun was actually lighter with the additional mill work. I didn't have an opportunity to feel the trigger break. I honestly wish they were still importing the Strike One's, and really wonder if the Type B's had been made where they were originally supposed to under the Arsenal trademark if they would have been more like the Strike One. Still I have hope for the Type B. I understand they are making constant improvements, even selling a kit to lighten the trigger. However its $95 for two small springs and a small fabricated metal part. For the money, just about any other common cheaper production gun like a Glock 17, Sig P320, or M&P has a better recoil impulse. One could buy an M&P 5" with an Apex trigger, competition sights, and a stack of mags for the money of the Type B, and end up with alot flatter shooter gun with a heck of alot better trigger.

124gr Bayou Bullets with 3.4gr Titegroup, 1.135" COAL, you can work it down pending how consistant your powder throws are. Possibly 3.2gr and still have enough buffer in power factor. Light recoiling bunny load... Your comp is going to get dirty as all get out, but I found it had considerably less dot movement than the plated bullets, and the 124's have less movement than the 147's. The 115's had move movement, but also had more powder.

So typically when shooting high power rifle, your not just trying to verify power factor. Usually your trying to find out extreme spread and standard deviation, along with you average velocity over a larger string of shots. This kinda changes the game. There hasn't been much in terms of improvement in the lines of "sky-screen" chronographs in the last 20 years. The $100 rcbs and chrony's are not accurate or consistent enough to get data that you need. The CED and old Ohler are decent, but their interfaces are like trying to program a 90's era home security system. The Labradar is an awesome creation. Its relatively easy to use, provides all the information on the screen at hand, and is by far one of the most accurate ways of measuring possible. Its great all around for rifle and pistol, and if I had to get only one chronograph this would be it. It basically has two downsides... The first being price. The other is trying to use it on crowded firing lines. Unless you have a range to yourself, it can be problematic. The Magnetospeed is another option, specifically the more expensive V3 version. Its multi button interface is considerably easier to scroll thru and work than the lite version. It ironically doesn't seem to effect barrel harmonics as much as one would assume. Its a very simple design that works quiet well. And its about $150 cheaper than a lab radar. Its easy to pack in your gear bag, and not awkward to setup (no tripods or sweet spots) as it literally just clamps on your barrel. The big winner I give it is the user interface. It give standard deviation and extreme spread on the fly, so no math work involved on your part, and its archiving ability is really cool. They work on suppressed guns, and quiet guns that sometimes the lab radar has problems picking up, and it doesn't care if someone is on the bench next to you. Also if you want to get it off your barrel, a little creativity can go a long way. I've seen folks buy cheap picatinny attachments and use pieces of extruded aluminum to make mounts to isolate sensor from the barrel because they perceive it might effect their accuracy, which in my experience it doesn't.

IMHO if you really want the best trigger in a budget poly gun.... Instead of the three you mentioned, pick up an M&P and drop an apex trigger in it... I've yet to find anything as short and light with a short reset that will offer reliable ignition that will run as fast and flat in leu of a 2011... And I'm a Glock guy...

Hyperfire triggers have a significantly faster lock time and a little more ignition force over a stock trigger. From what I've seen there is a common them with faxon bolt firing pins breaking. The common problem seems to be folks are replacing broke firing pins with the same brand or quality one so yea they continue to break. I bought a JP bolt, and never broke a firing pin. My Spinta bolt never broke one either. My buddy put a hyperfire behind a faxon and it didn't last a week... He replaced it with a Wilson S7 tool steel, went to become a PCC master, took a state title, all on that single firing pin constantly getting hit by a hyperfire 24 3G trigger.

So polishing systematically removes very small amounts of material by using a micro abrasive compound. If the surface is already smooth, why not just clean it? Why would you keep polishing it?