mnpfamily

Finally got a Shooters Connection Tournament Series Pro. Wish I'd picked one up sooner as I've been through several range bags. I read the reviews, (yes it is big), but not overly big for my needs. Easily fits all the gear for range practice and matches (for both myself and my wife), but it can get heavy. Solid construction and very well thought out features. When my wife first looked through it as she looked for her ear pro, her first comment was, " wow, I can't believe how organized our bag is!" Excellent bag in my opinion and very versatile.

I've checked numerous times, my BP is actually considerably lower after smoking a cigar than before.

I haven't tried those in particular, but from the picture, they look really similar to the Dawson pads I'm using.

Forgot to add, another benefit, with my gun anyway, is that these Dawson followers didn't need any mods to keep the slide from locking back when empty. With the stock STI followers, the slide was getting hung up after the last round, not locked back, but not fully forward either. I was getting ready to take the edge off the follower when I read this thread. Saved me some work, thanks again, the info is much appreciated.

Yes sir, those are the ones. I believe the SKU # was 033-001, picked mine up from Shooters Connection. I'm using them with the EZ-OFF baseplates (+300) and a Cameron's magwell and they seat with 10 in the mag. Still stiff, (mine are brand new mags), but not impossible to seat like before I switched followers. I haven't tried them live fire yet, but all fed fine when I hand cycled dummy rounds through them.

Thanks again for the advice, got the Dawson followers in the mail yesterday, tried them in my mags this morning and they worked for me.

Thanks again for the assistance, I'll try the Dawson followers first as I already have a couple of the EZ off pads for my 38 mags.

Just trying to clarify before I order as I've run into the same issue with my new Limited gun. The Para basepads you mentioned originally are the +2 Awesome pads by Dawson. These will work the stock 10 round springs and STI followers when the pads are filled with epoxy? Or the EZ off pads that add length but not capacity will work with Dawson followers? Thanks in advance for the assistance. It's weird how the 10 round .38S mags for my Open gun don't seem to be quite so hard to seat.

I've used predatortactical.com, the other I believe can be found in the Training section area. Both are really good.

+1 on the above. It almost looks like the bottom most portion of the red tip is missing. Mine has a groove/slit and then a smaller part below it. Hard to tell for sure from the pics though.

Where I live, humidity is a problem so I do empty the powder after every session. Fastest way I found is to remove the fail-safe rod, pull the 2 pins on the top of the press, slide the whole tool head out and then dump the powder back into the jug. Pretty much painless. Picking 100 spilled primers off the garage floor is a pain, as I've also done that, but I think I found something worse. When you remove the shellplate to clean or change calibers, make sure that little ball-bearing thing doesn't roll into the hole in the middle of the press. Took me 30 mins or so to get that ball out. Not quite sure why they made that ball the perfect size to fit down that hole.

I reload 9 and .45, and use MG CMJ for the 9mm. Not sure if .40 is different, but CMJ refers to the bullet being jacketed completely. No exposed lead at the base of the bullet like FMJ. Kind of like how the JHP bullets are. No exposed lead potentially means less smoke depending on what type of powder is being used. I use N320 with cast .45 bullets and notice very little smoke, so I don't know how much the CMJ bullet matters. I would think its cleaner, and pretty much limits lead vapor when fired, but I'm not totally sure. I use the CMJ for 9mm simply because I've had no issues and its what I started with.

The front sight on my 9 Pro (brand new) was set to the left also. It was visibly noticeable. I took it to the range to confirm, and groups were far right at 25 yards. Brought it back to the LGS where a buddy confirmed using a laser bore sight that the sights needed to be adjusted. He was kind enough to drift the front sight back to the center and applied LocTite. The front sight ended up drifting back left after about 800 or so rounds. He ended up sending it back to S&W for me to be corrected. Took a couple of weeks, but all has been well since then. The repair tag didn't specify how they corrected, but the slide wasn't replaced so I assume the front sight was replaced, perhaps the original was a tad undersized for some reason. The sights on my wife's JG were perfect out of the box.

I have approx. 9000 or so rounds thru my 9 Pro, and no major issues to speak of. You might want to check for the newer striker (I believe the old one was black, the new one is silver), there were some reported failures with the older striker. I guess the only problem I had was that the front sight would tend to drift left after a few hundred or so rounds, even after loc-tite. Sent the slide in, so far no issues since, but their repair tag is fairly vague so I don't know what they did. I believe S&W switched to a larger sear spring after late 2010, but I'm not sure if it only applies to the PC sears. Some of the PC sears were having a failure to reset problem, but so far I haven't had the problem.

You might want to wait a bit before resorting to tuning the mags. Here in HI. we also have the 10rnd. mag cap for pistol, and my wife and I both had the same issues with our M&Ps. Both loosened up quite a bit after a leaving the mags fully loaded like posted above, and after a thousand or so rounds thru the gun. We have probably a little more then 9000 rounds through each of the pistols now, and fully loaded mags seat easily with the slide forward. I still remember our first match though, we both dropped mags on the ground because of not seating them forcefully enough. I can still tell which mags are newer, as it is still noticeably harder to load the 10th round. I actually find it easier to load the last round in these mags by hand rather than using the speed loader.

Will do , thanks again.

Thanks for the suggestions guys, I appreciate it. I didn't really understand why so many guys here are running 2011s in limited when mag cap is limited to 10 anyway. Faster reloads do make sense with the wider opening of the 2011s. I just wasn't sure if there was something else trigger wise or anything that made it better than a 1911 platform. Thanks again for the help, I'll be using my 1911 in L10 when I pick up some 10 rnd mags. Actually its my wife that wants to shoot Open (she tried one of our friend's open guns and just totally loves the red dot and how flat it shoots with the comp). I prefer iron sights, I tried the open gun, it kinda seems that if the gun is tilted just a bit off, that little dot just disappears. I guess I'll start saving my pennies, just have to stop looking at all the tuned limited guns that are for sale.

I can't seem to decide between looking for an Open gun or one for Limited. Here's the twist, here in HI, pistol mags are limited to no more than 10 rnds. Are there that many benefits by choosing a 2011 style pistol or should I just use my SS gun, pick up some 10 rnd. mags and shoot L10/SS and concentrate on looking for an Open gun? I can't afford both, so I'd like to decide between the two. I load for 9 and 45, so I'll have to add either .38 Super or .40 in either case. Am I over-simplifying the L10/Limited differences? I've been looking around, and a "tuned" Limited gun can be had for close to the same price as the TruBore. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated. I'm not in a real big rush, the wife and I are still having fun shooting Prod. and SS, just looking to try other divisions. Thanks in advance.

Are you still making these? How much to ship to HI? (96792) Thanks

Sorry to revive an older thread, but I've just found that my S&W Pro Series 1911 (.45) also has problems ejecting live rounds. I've been shooting Production with an M&P, but finally got together the gear to also shoot SS with the 1911. I had been loading 200grn. LSWC to 1.260, all cases feed and eject fine, but found that loaded rounds wouldn't eject. Shortened OAL to 1.250 in hopes of solving the problem. With dummy rounds, all will eject by hand cycling until I get to the last round, then it'll get stuck in the ejection port. Why only the last round? It jams perhaps half the time with the mag removed or still inserted. It does it with the S&W mags and with new Wilson Combat mags. Any suggestions short of sending it in? It has improved a bit since I've shortened OAL, but don't know if I should go any shorter. Its just weird that it only FTEs on the last round. Perhaps most importantly, is this a safety issue that I should be concerned about, or should I just take my time at ULSC, and wait for the round to come out the bottom? How would this affect trying to clear a double feed? Thanks in advance for any suggestions you all may have.

Have you tried shooting a USPSA match? Believe it or not, that's how I learned to shoot with both eyes open. After my first match, I realized that on all the paper targets, I shot with both eyes open. I did however squint when shooting the smaller steel plates that were set farther out. Something about the buzzer/being timed seems to force you to shoot with both eyes open as much as possible. That carried over first into dry fire practice and then into live fire practice at the range. For awhile now, the only time I really even squint my non dominant eye is for that last plate on the star, or if I'm having problems taking down a steel plate. (I really dislike steel, but I'm getting better at it). Anyways, it worked for me, I've been trying to learn to shoot with both eyes open for awhile, plus the matches are unbelievably fun.

Initially started with 3.3 grn. of Titegroup under 147 grn. MG. OAL was 1.126 or so out of a M&P Pro 5". Very little muzzle flip. Have since switched to 3.5 grns. VV N320, same bullet, OAL and gun. Prefer the VV, it may be a little more expensive than TG, but seems to be cleaner and has a somewhat different recoil feel. Another thing I like is that with VV, its easier to see how much is in the case after Sta 2 on the press. It also meters a lot more accurately than TG. Either way though, I prefer the 147 over the 124 factory Amer Eagle my wife and I used to use at the matches.

I just got back from the range and both guns ran flawlessly with the reloads. The Pro Series is stock, the JG has had the S&W M&P Action Job done. I sent the gun in hoping it would lighten the trigger enough that my wife would like it, but no luck. She still likes the Pro better. I was a little worried about the Pro because of the longer slide, but no issues whatsoever. If anything, as was posted in some of the suggestions, the rounds with the tighter crimp did print less accurately, however all the reloads were a lot more accurate than the factory ammo I brought along. At 25 yds, the vast majority of holes were 8 ring and in. A bunch were 9 and in. Not so much of a real grouping, but a lot better than I usually do. If its the ammo, I wish I would've started reloading a lot sooner. Either that or all the dry fire practice is finally starting to kick in. Either way, great deal all the way around. Thanks for all the help, I know I'll have more questions as things come up. I'll continue to monitor OAL for setback every once in awhile.

Thanks for the info on that, I figured loading longer would affect pressure/velocity. I initially was aiming for 1.125 with 3.2 Titegroup as I had read it made 130 PF with 147 MG. I think I'll try 1.130 and see if I can get someone to help me with the chrono at first. Usually a couple of days before a match a bunch of the guys will show up at the range with a chrono. I know 1.130 works in both of our guns, so I guess I'll leave the OAL alone and adjust powder a tenth or two at a time and shoot for 130 PF. Makes sense that with less of the bullet in the case, less tension, hence more chance for setback. I didn't really think about it in that sense, just thought it might give me a little more margin of error in case setback occurred, and perhaps a little more accuracy (I need all the help I can get). Terrific info here, thanks again for all the assistance, and for putting up with the newb questions. My wife and I have a bunch of factory ammo left, so I'm not in a real hurry to get the reloads dialed in.

I agree, shouldn't have to chamber more than twice, but with my luck, that'll be the round that keeps ending up in the chamber at the "unload and show clear" command by the RO. My wife and I have been picking the ejected round up (up until now factory AE 124 grn.), wiping it off, and loading it back up for the next stage. Neither of us really knew about setback until I started reloading and finding my OAL to be getting shorter after cycling. Anyways, I checked station 1, the die could be perhaps just a hair more off the plate but I decided to try reducing crimp first. Crimp is now at .378, setback seems to be limited to .002-.003 after cycling 3-4 times. Loaded approx. 40 or so rounds and will see how they shoot tomorrow. There does seem to be a bit more ledge to the rounds than the factory rounds, but all cycled without much hang up. Hopefully no feed issues tomorrow. Just another quick question: I know that shortening OAL will increase pressure, is it reasonable to say that loading a longer OAL will decrease pressure? By loading to a longer OAL without increasing powder charge, could I be under minor PF? To be honest, I haven't searched this question, I apologize if its been answered before. Both my wife's and my M&Ps feed Fed AE 124 FMJ without a hitch, and they measured 1.152 or so OAL, so I am thinking about loading to at least 1.140 or so. I don't have a chrono yet, so I'm going by what results others have posted using the same weight bullet, powder and equipment. Thanks again for all the suggestions, your help is truly appreciated.