ckfarris

There is a fine balance between too tight and too loose. Tighten it just enough so you can index smoothly.

Great! See you then

+1. Springfield is great to deal with and I hear that the Range Officer is a lot of pistol for the money

I try to make the Joplin match and the Bone Creek (just North of Pittsburg) monthly matches. Bone creek shoots on the 1st Sunday of the month. both are pretty decent matches. There is also a good match in Pryor Oklahoma. Although I have necer been, I also hear there is just an outstanding match in Fort Smith, AR. That should only be a couple hours from you. Hopefully we will see you next Sunday in Joplin.

Howdy from up the road in Pittsburg, KS

+1

I decided that since I would more than likely change the sights anyways and install an apex competition trigger kit, I decided to get the 9L since it was a little cheaper. I am glad I did

Tuned mags are a must for 2011s

I have used 200gr RN with no problems. Once I get through with them I will probably switch to Precision Molys however. No particular reason why, I switched to them in .40 and have been really happy with performance.

I tried the EGW U-die for awhile and found it was ok, I just couldn't get over the way my finished rounds kind of looked bottlenecked from the U-die. So instead, I now run all of my brass through a Lee Bulge Buster on a Rock Chucker single stage press. It takes about 15-20 minutes to do 200 pieces of brass and then I proceed to load with the standard resizer die. The Bulge Buster is inexpensive and really works well. I have had no problems doing this at all.

That sucks man, I am sorry to hear that. I like to run Solo 1000 which I hear is inverse temperature sensitive. At my home chrono I was running 935-945fps out of my 5" 2011 with a 180gr BBI. I took that to Double Tap recently and averaged 928 giving me a PF of 166 something. Of course it was 102 degrees at double tap. Still a little closer that I would have liked. I am thinking about bumping it up a tenth but then again, I can't imagine shooting anyplace hoter that 102 degrees.

I have been using 124gr JHP from precision delta. I have thought about switching to 147gr bullets but the 124gr have not failed me yet

Take the afternoon off and go to Powder Valley in Winfield, KS. Just call ahead and tell them what you want. They are awesome people to deal with and you can't beat their prices.

I think the Strong Mount and roller handle are both must haves for the 550. You can get by without the bullet tray

Give Dillon a call and maybe try a new powder bar

Calipers are definately your friend when reloading. Take a factory round and adjust crimp on your reload until it matches with the factory round using your calipers. You could also get a case gauge and keep adjusting the crimp until fits perfectly in the gauge.

I shoot through the chrono at about 5-8 feet. I am fairly sure that the rainier plating is fairly less consistent that other, higher priced brands. I may just say screw it all and load these up light and then use my BBI's with Solo 1000 at the matches. Thanks to everybody who replied, I am still trying to figure out burn rates, pressures, and all that other fun stuff that comes along with reloading.

Roger that. Thank you ML

Let me ask this then since I apparently stumped everybody with my first question. If I reduce the OAL closer to the factory recommended (1.125), is it possible that will stabilize my fps? Is it possible that having that much space in the round where I was at was causing the large variations?

I currently seat with a lee die and my 4th stage is a hornady taper crimp die

So I have about a pound of bullseye powder that I am trying to use up before before I crack the seal on my 8# jug of solo 1000 and thought I would use it on the 1000 rainier plated 180gr rn bullets I had laying around. I am shooting a 5" sti and am having some problems. Here is what I am doing on my Dillon 550: 1.18" OAL 5.2 gr Bullseye powder Winchester primers I went and chrono'd this load and out of my 10 shots got a range of 887-1005 fps. This seemed like a huge variation to me so I went back and loaded 10 more, this time double checking my powder charge and each charge was no more than .05 from 5.2. Went back out to the range and same thing. Anybody got any ideas? Am I loading too long? I like loading to that length because I have always heard that STIs like em a little long and have never had any issues with the length.

I am looking for somebody that might know how to stipple or enhance an m&p grip without using grip tape. I have heard of the soldering iron tricks but I didn't know if anybody had any other ideas.

I cant shoot good...but my bullets look pretty. I just am happy with the small victories in life.

I am under the impression that the M&P9L does not have any type of factory trigger enhancement. I am not sure either why it would be $89 more.

It seems it was a combination of OAL and crimping. I loaded my Para rounds to 1.2" to ensure reliable feeding. That was too long for this Schuemann barrel so I have scaled it back to 1.17". That combined with a slightly tighter crimp, and everything seems to be running smoothly now. Thanks for everybody's help on this.