Jim Watson

The question to me would be, does the OP just WANT to shoot his 17L in lieu of a compliant gun or is it the only thing he owns that is reasonably suitable? If the latter, I would make him welcome. There is one club member here whose only centerfire handgun is a 6" .38 revolver. Do I tell him to buy a rulebook gun? No. If the former, I would give him one trial run. After that, he would have to fit in. There was the uberkewl ninjaswatsealoperator who just HAD to shoot his 5.7. OK, once. After that, he would ding a plate and I would just stand there with the timer waiting for him to realize it wasn't going anywhere and I was not scoring by ear like CAS. Finally he got the picture and dug out the Glock.

I have shifted to BBI .45 RN to get the shape and moly coating. They are doing fine so far, no more smoke than any other coated bullet and as accurate as I can tell handheld. He is setting up for a 135 gr 9mm RN that I will be glad to see. The usual 147 FP is not 100% in one of my guns.

If you are new to the sport and own those guns, take the one you shoot the best. If you do not own one of those guns, be advised that the leading IDPA pistols are 1911, Glock, and S&W Plastic M&P.

No. I doubt if a club shoot would care but it is disallowed by the rule book.

Caveat, my "STI" is an assembled gun, not an all-STI product. One of my STI magazines will not accept 1.25" .45 ACP. Two others accept but are not reliable with that OAL. (The other four are fine at 1.25", which is apparently why there is a cottage industry "tuning" these things.) All but the short one are spotty with SWC, so I am loading roundnose at 1.24" for trouble free shooting.

This is one of the current rules that gives me heartburn. Each Division has a MAXIMUM weight limit, yet we are not allowed to REDUCE the weight by cutting on the slide. Maybe the Tiger Teams have fixed that.

Wolf says the stock recoil spring for a .38 Commander is 16 lbs. You could get one of their reduced power* "calibration packs" with springs from 12-16 lb conventional or 10-17 "variable" and swap them around until the gun shot more smoothly. *Most competitive shooters use recoil springs lighter than stock. A "heavy duty" spring seldom lets you go as fast. http://www.gunsprings.com/Semi-Auto%20Pistols/COLT/COMMANDER%20SERIES%20PISTOL/cID1/mID1/dID2#796

I have one match a year out of eight sanctioned shoots that does a serious equipment inspection. Maybe half the rest give it a glance and if it is anywhere close, you are ok. The rest only check for placement on the belt.

There is certainly nothing wrong with the ambi safety. I would call the square trigger guard a cosmetic feature and not worry about it.

I never tried that exact combination, having shifted to Bullseye for powderpuff loads (IDPA ESP with a .45) but 3.0 gr of Clays will be in the ballpark for a nice mild minor load. As Doug says, power factor below the mid 130s seems not real practical. Some of the old bullseye shooters loaded very light for 50 foot indoor shooting but warned against loading TOO light and "lobbing" the bullet.

If you want me to speculate in advance of firm information, I predict an AWB like 1994-2004 permanent and closing the "gunshow loophole", i.e. requiring all gun sales to be through a FFL. (If you think the FBI's clerks are deleting those sales records iaw the law, I have some Kansas beachfront for you cheap.) I have deleted my projection and opinion of USPSA policy because it would get me banned from the board.

You may shoot your 686 4" in IDPA SSR or ESR. Power floor for SSR is only 105,000, acheivable by 130 gr econo-ball or even midrange wadcutters. Power floor for ESR is 165,000, same as IPSC Major, a 158 at 1045+ fps for example. ESR may use moon clips. You could have your gun cut for them or just use speedloaders. I did not find clips a lot of help with long floppy Specials or Magnums, which is why you are using .38 Short Colt in USPSA. However, you may NOT shoot .38 Short Colt in IDPA, either SSR or ESR.

the round cap was always to keep a level playing field. A little clarification. At the time IDPA was organized, the ten round magazine capacity limit was THE LAW. It still is in several states and countries where IDPA is shot. Regarding the knee pad rule, some say you don't wear knee pads to Walmart. I say you don't get in half a dozen gunfights while out for a carton of milk, either. I am sure that if my only injury after a real gunfight is sore knees, I will be glad of it.

My six shot cylinder dropped right into my seven shot gun, timing, gap, and all. So I ordered a loose cylinder off the www. IT didn't fit. So I coughed up the money to have S&W furnish and fit one. I have way more in the gun than I will ever get out of it, but it is a good shooter.

A .38 Super reamer MIGHT clean up the jugged chamber or the shorter case not get into the damaged spot. Problem is, it will cost you the price of the work to find out and if it is not successful it is wasted and you are still on the hook for a new cylinder. Maybe the gunsmith can tell with ID gauges or borescope.

Since I am loading a scant 3.8 gr of HP38 (checked charges weigh either 3.7 or 3.8, so maybe we could call it 3.75) with 147 gr Berry's, I cannot offer much help on a softer load.

Show us a picture. It is easy to identify if you know what to look for.

That is baby talk for Tactical Sequence.

No, it is recoil operated. It has a horseshoe locking block that a cam pulls out of engagement between barrel and slide in recoil. So the barrel sets straight back until unlocked. That gives it a low bore axis with no room needed for the barrel to tilt. Their ads compare it to SIg which is kind of sneaky, the DA Sigs being famously tall guns anyhow. Wish they had it up side by side with a Glock.

I think so. Heavier and slower is usually an advantage with cast bullets. You might think about the 145 gr RN, which is what I like in 9mm P.

Yes, that is acceptable. MY .45 Barney is a six shot magazine. Since it is not used during the CoF, it does not count and it does not matter. Sheesh.

IDPA does not have an approved list like USPSA Production. If it fits The Box, it is allowable. To enter SSP it has to be in series production at 2000 a year or more. If they are not cranking them out that fast, it is an ESP.

Because it won't fit The Box. The G34-35 "Practical-Tactical" were designed to fit The Box and get them into IDPA and USPSA-IPSC Production. The tactical part comes in because they are no larger than a 1911 and lighter in weight, therefore not the "competition" gun some deride them as.

On one stage, the shooter started without cover facing several targets, which had to be shot in tactical sequence and tactical priority. No problem. That IS a problem. It is no longer allowed for an IDPA CoF to require both TS and TP on the same set of targets. Draw and start shooting. I tripled a few of them and shot to slide lock - completing all the targets in that area. Now, I'm standing WITHOUT COVER. I start to move to cover (where additional targets need to be engaged) while re-loading and get a procedural. RSO says I needed to complete my reload before moving to cover. WHAT?!?! That sounds very hokey to me with the requirement that reloads be started and finished under available cover. And if there is cover for the next target array, then it is available. I would expect you, if required to empty your gun in the open, to dash to cover to reload and engage the next target. It would take a very strange layout to do otherwise. I think you were still shooting "IDPA Lite "type"" because they were not adhering to IDPA rule and policy.

A silly gimmick, a machinists tour de force. Now if the same outfit's Strike One gets in, it might give Glock, S&W, and SA/XD a run for their money in plastic pistoldom.