J.L. Hardy

tmc, one advantage is due to the decrease in power factor requirements recently. with the lower pf the shorter barrels allow the comp/hybrid ports to be closer to the powder charge. this results in more efficiency of the comp and porting. some shooters stuck with the long guns and just put a lighter bullet on the original powder charge with the same results. good shooting, j.l. hardy

eric, all barrels were 38 super. all according to the shooters were used almost exclusively with 3n37. the case mentioned above with brass sticking in the chamber is an example of the higher pressure i refer to. to go along with it flame temp is high. if you get a chance try loading up some different powders and going to an indoor range where you can turn out the lights and have someone else fire the gun. watch the flame colors coming out of the ports. what i saw was yellow and blue flames out of most powders except sp2. sp2 seemed to give off dark grey gas. 3n38 gave off just a little yellow flame. if you have ever gas welded then you know that the color of a neutral flame is blue with a yellow tip. i prefered to have gas and not flame coming out of the ports. my information on the powders also came from extensive conversations with wil schumann who claims to have tested the powders or has extensive knowledge of their properties.good shooting, j.l.hardy

rufus, i have been working with 9mm major as much as anyone and there are a few reasons i don't reccommend 3n37. it has to do with about 6 or seven barrels hanging over my work bench that i have changed out for shooters. on each barrel they are missing the rifling from the chamber up to an inch down the bore. i had a lengthy discussion with wil schuman regarding this and am convinced that the reason for this wear is due to the fast burn rate and high flame temp of powders which are so fast. at the time of this conversation with wil,i was just starting to work up the 9mm guns and he agreed to make me a few of the new aet commander hybricomp barrels with the 9x19 chambers. he reccomended i try the 3n38 because it was developed specifically for small case capicity open class guns used in ipsc. it also had the proper flame temp and burn rate to help reduce the wear i had been seeing with long term use of fast powders. during the conversation he also mentioned another powder with the same charactistics. that powder was vectan sp2. as luck would have it i had an 8 lb jug that i had never opened on the shelf. i bought some 3n38 and compared the sp2 to it and found that both powders performed the same and used the same charge weights(not same charge volumes). sp2 is slightly denser. i located a bunch of sp2 real cheap and bought a bunch. due to the cost and the fact i like the way it performs it is my favorite. if i didn't have it i would be shooting 3n38 even though it is slightly more expensive than the other powders that can be used. i don't think that the extra cost involved would compel me to risk premature damage to a gun that i like. good shooting, j.l. hardy

if you have a standard extractor (non aftec) it is probably time for a new one. the metal fatigues after so many cycles. its just like a recoil spring or mag spring. you can tighten it up but it will lose tension in increasingly shorter round counts. get an aftec and don't worry about this again. good shooting, j.l. hardy

just look in the gallery section in this forum. i have a post with my 9x19 open guns. the one rc1 bought is the top gun. good shooting, j.l. hardy

300lb gorilla, the spacers go in the rear of the mags, and even the sti ones have some time consuming fitting that has to be done. they also will not work on mags with anything other than flat basepads with keeper plates in the botom. i have asked sti to make them longer and i have also asked ralph arrendondo to look into making them. i currently make the spacers one at a time myself out of flat delrin that i get from a local supply house. as to the sti mag versus sv mags, they both need spacers to work properly. now someone may get lucky and get by most of the time without them, but my experience has been that both mags need them to push the bullet closer to the feed ramp for controlled feeding. and there is no source for spacers for big sticks so they absolutly have to be made regardless of the basepad used. i would reccomend that if someone for some reason wanted to use the same mags for both super and 9x19 that they have a seperate set of springs and followers and spacers( for the 9) and number them to the mags so that they could be switched rather easily.

blkbrd, i am director of operations for a retail chain with over 100 locations. i can tell you no one fails to get a job due to self-checkout. we can't find enough applicants to fill the positions we have and have resorted to self-checkout to better serve customers. we once had very high standards when filling positions that delt with 99.9% of all our customers and as positions began to be harder and harder to fill lowered those standards. studies have shown that shrink at self checkouts is less that at clerk manned registers. mostly due to underringing sales for sweethearts and family/friends or outright theft of money where the clerk cancels or voids the sale and pockets the money. a huge number of applicants that we have to consider are functionally illiterate. they can't even fill out an application. we have actually attended meetings at our local HRS offices and offered to extend employment to anyone who would show up to work and had no takers. but we do have these folks come by frequently asking for us to fill out a slip of paper for them so that they can turn it in to show their search for work. they are mostly surprised and leave the store post haste when we refuse and instead give them a time to report for work.

i use the limcat holster and mag pouches on a cr belt. it was tough getting them on but worth every bit of the effort. i didn't grind on anything just got the belt through enough to hold the tip of it in the vise and used some dish soap for lubrication on the belt and pulled like he**. another good thing about limcat mag pouches is that ar-15 mags fit them also if your a 3 gunner. and they are completely ambidextrious. the belt is the nylon one that is very stiff. had the leather one before that and decided to upgrade. good shooting, jlh

eerw, three of the four have the same comp. the bottom uses the d&j jet comp that used to be listed in brownells. the other three are egw 7 port comps that are in brownells. i cut off the last set of radial ports to make them shorter. i personally think the egw is hard to beat. it has three chambers that are angled forward and the radial ports to stabalize dot oscilliation. what little bit of dot movememt i get is straight up and down. good shooting, jlh

Just thought i would try and post a picture of my current 9x19 commander open guns. thanks singlestack for the help. good shooting, j.l. hardy

the overall length of my loads are 1.155 using the following powders and 125 zero jhps. n340,n350,3n37,3n38, sp2. my favorite powder is the sp2. there is no way possible to get enough n105 in the case. i previously used n105 in my supercomp open guns and loved it. i found it possible to make major with 115's using n340, 3n37, n350 and sp2 ,but just barely before seeing pressure signs. all of these powders were used in a commander length gun with 2 small hybrid type holes. the longest overall length i have tried is 1.165 as i use spacers in all my mags.

i think i was in error regarding the state in which mullins is located. the correct business name is mullins extreme ammunition. it is located in clinton, va. their phone number is (540)926-6772. good shooting, jlh

greg, on the bottom lug issue. this is correct about a commander shuemann barrel havning shorter lugs. i have probably used about a dozen kkm barrels that have the same lower lugs as a govt model (kkm actually used a gov't barrel and altered it to my specs). the thing is i always bevel the guide rod head so there is no contact. i have actually seen contact with a govt set up, so i started doing this long ago when building gov't models. good shooting, jlh

guy's, been there done that with both aet barrels and standard twist (non-bull) barrels and there is no problem with doing it. i build commander length guns and up until i started getting kkm to make the barrels for me already threaded for a cone comp i only had 5 inch barrels to work with. just make sure the barrel is crowned properly and your good to go. good shooting, j.l. hardy

Rush, a couple other things you might want to investigate. both of which i encountered on my own path to improvement. one was trigger length. i happen to have lost the first joint on my trigger finger when i was 15 so i have to use a very short trigger. when i use one any longer i tend to shoot left consistantly. the faster i shoot the more left the point of impact is. the other thing to look for is the grip safety torqueing against your thumb. i get a real high grip on the gun and found that i actually developed a callous (spelling?) where my thumb was contacting the grip safety. sti's grip safety's are relieved on the sides to help with this, but i have found that for it to feel comfortable for me i need to blend it more. without doing this the faster i would shoot the farther left and low i would shoot. just make sure your gun fits your hand. Bob at Brazo's can help with this. if everything fits fine most open guns with efficient comps will track straight up and down if you use a proper grip. good shooting, j.l. hardy

jeff, i started out with a smaller range bag, and then got a big one from chuck at shooters . it will hold a small car if you want to carry that much. i still have it but haven't used it in about two years because i first got a dillion back pack, after using it until it showed some wear i passed it on to a junior shooter and bought the CED one . in my opinion the ced is made with a little heavier material and heavier zippers. i wouldn't consider giving it up. the bottom compartment will hold 250 to 300 rounds of ammo and is very convienient during a match. but both the ced backpack and the shooters connection bag are very high quality. good shooting

the rods are indeed easy to make by anyone with a lathe that can thread. i get delrin rod in 5/16 diameter X 3ft lengths at a local supply house. the guide rod heads are available from brownells. they are made by Ed Brown and are pretty inexpensive. the threads are 1/4 x 24. the only time i have broken one is when i have overtightened it in the head and the rod cracked at the threads. good shooting.

reneet, i do notice that my gun gets sort of an oily looking sludge around the chamber and can be seen in the ejection port.but i do put alot of oil on my guns. but so far, thankfully , i havent had any problems. good shooting, j.l. hardy

anyone interested in looking at or test firing a 9x19 commander open gun at the open nationals can look me up or come by Jack Norris's table where they will be displayed. good shooting

[admin edit] ...all open guns need to be set up by someone competent to do so. some people get lucky who aren't really competent, some people ask questions and follow good advice and some people get a competent person to set up the gun. 9mmx19 is just another caliber. it shoots the same bullet , same primer , same powder as the other 9mm's and supers. as i have been told by a well known GM shooter that is currently switching to 9x19, the typical shooter interested in 9x19 because brass costs are so low , is also the type shooter who doesn't want to spend the money to get a good gun. The only cost savings one can expect is on brass and an insignificant amount of powder ( i typicall use 1 grain less than a friend ,with basically the same gun i shoot, in 38 supercomp) but for me the difference in brass cost for a year was about $700 .

reneet, strange that you would have big flakes of powder on your gun, considering that sp2 is a very dense, very small grain powder. almost like sand. i have been shooting it for a while and have about 120lbs more to go and even though its not as clean as say vv n320 it in no way is so dirty as to cause any malfunction with regular maintenance. graf and sons have no more. mullins ammunition in clinton, tenn has about 1500lbs in 55lb containers. good shooting, j.l. hardy

for anyone who is interested and attending the open nationals. i will have a few of my 9x19 commander open guns at the match. they will be displayed by jack norris. for seriously interested parties test firing probably can be arranged. good shooting

ok, i'll put my 2 cents worth in also. bob's set up with a shortened 5 inch slide is a very good one. i have shot it, as well as several other variations of short and long guns. some with heavy long comps, and some with short light comps with extensive lightening to the slide. in my honest opinion the advantage to building the shortened 5 inch gun is in the fact that it is easier to cut down a slide than it is to set up a commander length gun properly. properly set up commander guns are every bit as reliable as 5 inch guns because when set up properly the stroke on the slide is equivilent to a 5 inch gun with a thin shock buff installed. even though the commander set up is inherently lighter than the 5 inch set up i do take some more weight off the back of the slide to lighten it up further. bob's technique of shortening and lightening the slide works off the same principle(and looks real cool also)of having less reciprocating mass, therefore providing less dot movement. i personally prefer the commander set up properly in either 38supercomp or 9x19. lets face it almost any modern open gun set up when used with the proper load and handled using the proper techniques will provide good results, but even a jedi has to put in many hours of practice with a light saber before becoming proficient.get yourself a good gun that you are proud of and practice, practice, practice. no amount of gadgetry will make you a better shooter.

if you are going to use supercomp or tj brass(especially tj) you need the aftec for supercomp brass. if you put in an aftec for regular super it will not hold tj or supercomp reliably to the breachface for ejection. some folks report that they are lucky enough for one extractor to work for all, but if you contact rusty kidd at david's gun room in Atlanta, who designed the aftec he will tell you that he disigned the different extractors due to different case head dimensions. a quick test is to take a few dummy rounds and put them in a mag, insert the mag in the gun and rack one of the dummies in the gun then remove the mag. hold the gun and ease the slide back slowly, if the round fall out the magwell then the extractor is not holding the round to the breachface. this is likely the cause of the jams. you can also pull the top end off the frame and take out the barrel, slip a loaded round up in the breachface, under the extractor and see if it will hold it in place. if it drops out, even if you shake it ,it's too loose.good luck

does anyone know where i could get ahold of some speed loaders for a 20ga. i have a benelli super 90 that i use to shoot open class with but no speed loaders and before i give up on it i would like to either make some or find some. at one time i heard that Kay Clark Miculek used a 20ga rem 1100 with speed loaders. so maybe some could be found.