kcobean

Coincidentally, I may have an opportunity to take a class with him in the Spring.

I see the point you're making. It could be argued either way: the loading process was complete and the AD was a separate action, or the AD occured *as* the gun was going into battery, which is part of the loading process. I lean toward the latter myself, if for no other reason than it encourages competitors to ensure their firearm is in safe operating order before bring it to a match. The shooter in question stated that he'd had a similar occurence with the gun the day prior to the match and he still chose to bring it out and shoot it.

Yeah, I'm no gunsmith for sure. I guess I was more wondering about cause than correction.

Great advice. I've heard of shot coach, but never used it. I'll definitely check it out. Thanks.

My 2011 had a couple of instances of hammer follow at a match this weekend. Cost me a few seconds having to deal with re-cocking the hammer. What causes this, and what's the fix?

Kevin, You owe NO apology to any of us. We are ALL learning as we go. We do what we think is right and this wasn't meant to be a "call out" thread in any way. I wanted to see if there was any past "case history" for such an occurrence or if we were in one of those "grey areas". The likelihood is that if you keep RMing, you'll end up in this position again. It is what it is. I'll CRO for you any day brother. It was a great match.

At the MD State Championship this weekend, I had a decent match. I shot a 4:1 (121:30) ratio of Alphas to Charlies, only 5 Deltas, 0 Mikes, 0 procedurals. I shot more raw points than the top 4 finishers in my division (3 GM's and an M). But, I still came in 17th of 52 in division and 37th of 167 overall. So now I have to ask myself why. The first answer is stage execution. I put together stage plans where a single makeup shot threw my reload plan right out the window (i.e. my plan had me running the gun to an empty mag with one in the chamber.) As a result, I did 2 or 3 standing slide-lock reloads. Awesome plans, zippy. I also had a few small gun issues that added a second or two here and there. It's a new-ish gun and I'm still sorting things out with it, so that's fine, but that's not the real issue. The division winner took 137 seconds total to shoot the match. I took 189. Standing reloads and and a few instances of hammer follow don't add up to 52 seconds. I simply need to move faster. I need to leave shooting positions faster, I need to cover non-shooting distances with bigger strides and I need to decelerate and enter shooting positions faster. The top guys are certainly pulling the trigger faster than me and I know some of the time I lost was time with sights on target, but that wasn't the bulk of it. Watching guys like Chris Tilley and Eddie Gammons was truly humbling. Neither one of them are small guys, but they move like rabbits. It leaves me wondering....I can learn to SHOOT like those guys, but can I learn to MOVE like them. If not, I better get comfortable with 17th place. This winter I'm going to try to figure out how to get movement into my training regimen, which right now is relatively static dry fire only. Anyone have any good suggestions to help with this effort?

I can see that, if in the process of shooting at a target a gun doubled/tripled. This competitor was in the process of loading. He was clearly not engaging targets at the time of the occurrence.

At a match this weekend on a stage with an unloaded table start, a competitor (shooting an open gun) got the start signal, picked up his gun, inserted a mag, and when he racked the slide the gun went off, sending a round into the dirt about 20 feet in front of the table. I stopped/DQ'd him under rule 10.4.3. The competitor insists that his finger wasn't on the trigger at the time of the AD and I don't think it was either. Afterwards, the RM asked to inspect the competitors gun. He went to the berm, inserted a mag, racked the slide and the gun fired multiple shots into the berm, so the gun was clearly unsafe and it was clear that the competitor did not pull the trigger to cause the discharge. The RM left for a bit and then came back and said that an AD that is a result of a verifiably broken gun is not in fact subject to 10.4.3. While he took a zero for the stage, the competitor was allowed to re-enter and complete the match with his backup gun. So my question is, is an AD that is verifiably the result of a broken gun subject to a DQ under 10.4.3?

Actually it is just the opposite, the magazines are too wide. They are allowing the ammo to get close to being side by side and jamming against the sides of the tube instead of laying in a staggered position that loads and rises smoothly. The micrometer will tell. It is standard practice with the Caspian .40 mags to put them in a vice and squeeze them front-to-rear to "bulge" the sides out a few thousandths to solve this exact problem. I'll post my findings tonight.

Why is it that I have one .40 mag with a Gram's spring and follower that will take 20 rounds and still seat easily, and 5 mags that have stock follower/spring that will only take 17 and still seat without pounding them into the gun? The Gram's kit is only a +1 kit, right? So where are the other 2 rounds coming from? I've also noticed that on the 5 mags that only take 17 currently, they are VERY hard to load (I can't get the last couple of rounds in without a loader), whereas the 20 rounder I can load by hand no problem. The answer, I suspect, is that the 5 mags are out too narrow and are not allowing the ammo stack to sit properly in the mag, so as the the spring tension goes up, so does the sidewall pressure of the stack trying to settle properly into to single columns of rounds side by side. But because the mags are too narrow, the stack cannot settle out. Instead in binds on the mag walls more and more. So....when I get around to replacing these mags, is there a way to ensure that I get properly sized mags that will go to 20 reloadable with a Gram's kit or is it the luck of the draw? I'm going to put a micrometer on them tonight to confirm my suspicion, but this isn't the first time I've seen this (hello, Caspian). Kelly

I was working up a new Limited load, so I bought sample packs of Blue Bullets, Bayous and Montana golds. All were 200 grain round nose. At 4.3 grains of N320, the PF's were as follows: MG: 155 (expected to be the lowest because it's jacketed) Blue: 169 Bayou: 179 Given that the Bayous made so much more power, I am choosing to stick with those and back the powder down to 4.1 grains. The Blues shot fine through my STI though, and kept the barrel pretty clean. I suspect that just the harder coating they have is why they're slower.

I'm just getting around to sorting all of the .45 brass that I've picked up over time. Sometimes it's hard to spot the small-primer brass, particularly if the primer has flattened at all. Anybody come up with any good suggestions/tips/tricks to make this easier so I don't squash LPP's during reloading?

Are you seeing any polishing or rounding of the upper or lower barrel lugs that might indicate the barrel is unlocking too early or too late?

Just to test, I would pull the follower/spring out of the mags and then seat them. Do they drop free? If so, it's your follower. If not, it's your mag body.

Check to make sure your followers aren't worn. I had a follower that was wearing where it contacts the slide stop, so rather than push the slide stop up into the slide-lock position (which creates the spring tension to eject the mag), it was slipping up next to the slide stop and sticking in the gun. I finally just used a dremel to take a little more material off that follower, so now it doesn't lock the slide back on last shot, but it doesn't hang up, it will actually drop free.

You want to shoot a soft round that's reliable with a tool-less guide rod and a 12 lb spring? Try 3.7-3.8 grains of N320 under a 200 grain Bayou. My STI loved that load, it cycled perfectly and man was it soft.

Just bought 4 lbs of Vhit N320 from Powder Valley. Bought 8 lbs of Ramshot Comp at a gun show a few months ago. Starting to come back....slowly.

Wasn't my video (it was mtpistolshooter's), but yeah, my gun was the same way. I torqued the set screw down until I was afraid I'd strip the head out of it and it'd make it through one or two stages before it was loose again.

Scott, do you make a baseplate to extend an XDm mag to 170mm? I have moved to a 2011 for Limited, which means my XDm might need to turn into an open gun. Also, what are the optics mount options for the XDm?

Nice Heinie! LOL

LOL...We should have a competition.

bthoefer is correct. I have reviewed your video and your set screw isn't tightened down. That is why it is moving so easily through the dove tail cut in the slide. I had the same issue on a 2011 that I own. Just tighten the set screw and you should have no movement. Then reinstall the elevation screw and you should be gtg after sighting it in. If you have movement after tightening down the set screw, then you have a problem. I can tell you from first hand experience that even with the set screw torqued down, a rear sight that fits that loosely in the dovetail will eventually shift. I just had a rear sight replaced on an Eagle for this exact reason. The set screw, even with loctite, wouldn't hold the sight in place.

I can't find anywhere in this thread that he said this. He did say he could tighten down the little set screw to snug the sight up. The elevation screw shouldn't be part of the retention mechanism of the sight.

That sight is SO loose in the dovetail that it will be able to twist off bore-axis. Even with the set screw cranked down and loctite applied, there is no guarantee that the sight won't shift/pivot and change POA.