SharonAnne9x23

Jack, I suggest you head over to Scottsdale to the Scottsdale Gun Club. It is the largest indoor range in AZ and maybe the USA. They have a huge rental gun section. Many of their staff are active USPSA/IDPA shooters. You will not be disappointed.

nice sturdy bench. 5k bullets in one year?!? That is less than 100 a week. Be positive. Shoot 10k rd this year. The more you shoot the more fun!!!

It was not PC or 'Green' but I always did mine outside on the driveway.

Cooper and his cronies used a 'ballistic pendulum'. It was a steel plate hanging from a shaft. To make major you had to move the indicator a certain amount. The amount was established by what a Colt Commander shooting 230gr ball ammo, would move the indicator. So it was 230gr ball from a 4 1/4" barrel, not a 5" barrel, to get major. The ballistic pendulums were notoriously inaccurate. When lower cost chronographs came about that is when we got a number for power factor. bullet weight in grains X velocity in feet per second = 170,000 for major, 125,000 for minor. When the .38 Super made major ol' Coop about had a fit. HIS game was not following HIS teachings. He forgot about all of his own research into what I think he called the 38 Sooper Cooper. A cut down .223 case hot loaded with a 125 gr bullet. Some one dared to make major with a cartridge that Coop did not bless. Another reason for the .38Super is the reduced torque of the .355" bullet compared to the .45". It was especially noticeable with counterclockwise rifling. The pistol would twist up and to the left. This resulted in the pistol trying to pull out of your right hand. With the smaller diameter bullet there was much less twist and rise.

I ran my clubs IPSC division for 16 years. Our indoor range had poor ventilation. I used my lead reading of 32 to force the BOD to install proper ventilation. Once my count came down and with the better ventilation I never had a problem again and I reloaded with cast lead bullets (bought them, not cast them). The vast majority of lead intake is respiratory so proper ventilation is a must. We had OSHA check our range and make recommendations and that was what we had installed. Another source of lead is picking up brass from the floor of an indoor range. If you smoke after picking up brass you are increasing your intake. Do not eat, drink or smoke while on an indoor range and wash your hands thoroughly after shooting. If you are concerned about lead from handling bullets you can purchase a barrier cream to put on your hands. It is a block from chemical contact. I tried latex gloves and gave up. Once the ventilation was repaired I never had a high lead reading again.

contrary to Howards' experience, I never had any problems with 155/152s in my Metalform magazines. I did not need to tune them in any way and shot many 10s of thousands of 155s without any magazine problems. Granted, these Metalform magazines are of older design. They have an orange plastic follower, stainless steel floor plate on a blued body, and a relatively soft factory installed mag pad. The 155 was intended for comped barrels. The light bullet allowed for faster muzzle velocity and the higher gas speed worked the comp much better. I don't know how they will work in a standard barrel at slower velocity.

snow, THE #1 reason I left Michigan

I had a shooting buddy back in the 80s who bought a Bridgeport Mill and fancied himself a gunsmith. He made all kinds of compensators, some worked, some didn't, all were butt ugly. He had a Spanish Mauser rebarreled to 7.62x51. He then threaded the muzzle and made a 3 chamber, 6 port compensator. The ports were at 90 and 270 degrees and angled back. On a 200 yd 6" plate I could see the hit when I fired offhand. Comps work, some better than others, but they all work. You see side ports on rifles, or radial ports, because centerfire rifles make so much gas pressure that top ports ( at 0 degrees) push the muzzle down.

they are de-certified because they refuse to play the Kalifornika game. You have to send in so many pistols of each type plus a bunch of cash for certification. the gun manufacturers have told Kalifornika to pound sand.

poor baby. Send it all to me and have a nice clean room.

M1 is an awesome rifle. I wish I still had mine. Perfect Heavy Metal set-up. M1, 1911 .45 w/7 rd mags, Winchester 1897 12ga. w/heat shield

Jake installed my Accuracy Speaks trigger in my AR15 back in oh, 1995 or so. Everyone who tried it got that 'OH WOW' look when they tried it. I love it. It is a great trigger for an AR15

I was a plant operator, running the equipment to make polyethylene plastic. It went in to plastic film and milk jugs. We made 250,000 lbs a day. I was down sized out of that job (12 yrs) then went back to school and became a Nurse, RN. I started shooting a couple of years into the first job. I work on my guns because I like to understand how they work. An intellectual exercise. I was a pretty good trouble shooter. Some at my old club called me 'the gunsmith', which I most definately am not. But I could usually work out why something went wrong. Now most guns are so reliable there is not much need to troubleshoot. So we just bull(et) shoot.

and some us are having a tough life. Reminding us about kindness is a welcome reminder. Kindness goes both ways.

my fastest was 0.87 hands at sides, Ernie Hill 666 holster. I witnessed TGO do a 0.38 from the same model holster but with no effort to hit a target. Back then (the mid 80s) he could do 0.9s all day long.

Colorado Cast Bullets make a .356 150gr RN and a .356 162gr RN. They have the lube groove moved way down toward the base so you can seat them out if loading in a .45 length mag. They used to load what I called a Super 9; a 9x19 case loaded to 1.24" with the 162grRN bullet. It was loaded to 38Super length. The only justification was the cheap brass. It was not tremendously popular because of the heavy bullet.

in a 9mm frame there is no advantage to using 9x21 brass. 9x21 brass was just a way around the USPSA prohibition of 9x19 being loaded major power factor. In a 45 frame the 9x21 could be loaded longer and that helped to bring the pressure down, some. I still have not seen any 9mmP factory load cataloged at major power factor.

Howard and Scott, thank you. I did not know there was a trigger wt lower limit for NRA AP

A/P thanks. That makes perfect sense now.

Scott, you mention trigger pulls, 2.5# legal, 1.75# too light. Legal and too light by what rules? for which sport?

I have a Heitt Technology scope mount on my Open Para 9x23. I have no slide racker. I have front serrations on the slide and grasp the slide from underneath.

My Para 9x23 Open pistol is 1.75#. My Para P14-45 is 2.5#. My 1911 is 2.5# with parts I carefully selected and installed but I did not adjust or stone any part. They literally dropped in at 2.5#.

what is with shooting the first round into the berm? You can't do that in a match. I can see it now. Everyone shooting the first round into the berm as part of "load and make ready". Come on, hand chambered rounds DO count.

it sounds like you are trying to rotate the bushing within the relief cut in the comp. Don't. Remove the spring and guide rod if it has one. Push the barrel forward until the comp is clear of the bushing. Now remove the bushing normally.

I have had a pistol grip full stock on my 870 since the mid 80s. I don't have any trouble and find it helps control recoil.