Who Knew

For me stage 3 was the biggest upset. I've only shot the classifier one time. On the first two stages I was shooting low EX / high SS times and points and tried to shoot the same speed. Big mistake, I ended up a whopping 53 points down on stage 3.

I think they may be growing on her as she hasn't mentioned anything about taking them down. Maybe I just need to put them in a fancy frame and call them practical art.

So this afternoon my wife ask, "How many wives do you think let there husbands hang dry fire targets from the artwork in the bedroom?". In my defense the Christmas tree is in front of the area were I normally use them and she never notices because I take them down between uses. They are 1/3 scale on normal printer paper put do look really out of place hanging taped to the glass on large picture frames. So I need an answer if I want to keep them up until after the holidays. If not dry fire targets, what kind of leisure does you wife allow in the house pertaing to your shooting obsession. Help me out.

ESP MM. Hoping to up that in the near future.

You may have gotten some older product. It's my understanding that they are now shipping with longer screws. I went through the same thing and ended up just buying some longer screws. When I contacted Double Alpha for help they stated it would be a very tight fit and they would send some of the longer screws but I declined and just bought my own. I had another small issue with a belt and there response was quick and over the top of what I had expected to recieve. They definately have my business for future purchases.

To clean the baffles on the Spectre you take it apart with the supplied tool, it simply pushes them out via a threaded rod and special little pusher. I then soak them in the "dip" for a day or two depending on how many rounds have been through it. Last time it had several thousand rounds of CCI std. velocity and I had to let it soak for three days. Then I use a brass bore brush to finish it up. It takes about an hour of leisurely scrubbing to get it back to squeaky clean. If you do get stainless and use the "Dip" be sure to read up on safe handling of the solution.

I have the SWR Spectre and love it. It's easy to take apart and is super quiet. The only downside to it is the weight. I have the stainless model and it's a little muzzle heavy on a pistol but balances nicely on rifles. If I had to buy another I would go with the Spectre again. Take your time deciding and save some extra money and get what you want.

My son is 9 and has shot a two or three matches with his .22 open gun, once he realized how much faster he could go with the dots he changed over. We are now working on him shooting a 9mm 1911. Having said that, his first few matches were shot using iron sights in Ruger Rimfire type events and then progressed to Steel Chanllenge. He shot around 20 of these types of matches before anything with movement. For practice with movement I let him set up some different stages shooting at cans or whatever he wanted, I have no idea if he hit them or not because all I watched was his movement,the gun and trigger finger.

The STI tactical magwell would look great on that gun, especially if you painted it to match the grip. How much did you have to take off the frame to fit it to the slide? Just curious.

I've been using the Dawson no gap basepads and the work real well and are easy to take off if mags need to be cleaned.

I like magwells with a large flare, not for reloads, but to rest the bottom of my weak hand on. It seems to give a little extra leverage for downward pressure. So far I'm happy with my Dawson. It's the only one I've tried but it fits my hand nice and makes for a very quick reload.

I've been using the Dawson's with no problems at all besides being a little difficult to unload by hand when full.

NOW THAT'S HOW YOU CLEAN STEAL TARGETS.

I would give a thumbs up for the RIA. I've had one a short time and so far it has operated perfectly. For the price it's a great gun. The finish isn't as nice as some of the others but I'm guessing it won't be used to win any beauty contest.

I too suffer from the first stage jitters. I don't know why but sometimes it seems worse than others. Although it has gotten better. Trying to relax and visualize what I'm about to do helps. For the past year or so all I have shot was steel challenge and rimfire matches. Last month I shot an IDPA match after about a 1 1/2 break. When I got finished with the first stage I realized that I didn't have the jitters or nervousness that I normally have. I don't know exactly why I didn't but I think it just came down to getting comfortable with the whole process of match shooting. It may also be because I had no expectations of a great performance because I hadn't done IDPA in a while. Either way I'm going to incorporate these two principles in my pre-game thought process. A.) Knowing I've done this before and I'm comfortable with the format and B.) Having reasonable expectations of performance. That's not to say that I will lower expectations, but knowing what I'm capable of at that particular moment and then follow through and making sure I shoot the best I can, learn from mistake, and shoot better the next time.

98sr20ve, I think you found my problem. I had a little time this afternoon so I've been messing around trying some of the suggestions. I first lowered the sizing die all the way down and sized a few which all fit the chamber, some were close but I would say they're good for practice. Next I tried loading some with jacketed bullets instead of the moly coated I've been using. They still wouldn't chamber so I pulled the Lee Seating/Crimp die and started all over with it. After a little experimentation I finally got 20 bullets in a row that passed the chamber check. Funny thing is that I only had to turn the crimp die down 1/4 turn from where it originally stared, which I thought I had already tried. Carlosa offered my a superb deal on the EGW die so I'm hoping that will help fix the few cases that were a little close when I was testing just the sizing die. Thanks for all the help and suggestions. Maybe my problems will be gone and I can start enjoying this gun a little more.

I'm currently using a Lee sizing die adjusted down to the shell plate until I can barely see light from a flashlight betweeen the two. I will check and make sure the bullets are seating straight but I think they are. When I chamber check using the barrel the ones that don't fit will go almost all the way leaving approximately 1/8" out of the chamber. You can visibly see what seems to be an area that is bulged. When I run them back through the FCD I do it one at a time (which is so SLOW).

Didn't realize this, if nobody comes up with a used one I will order from EGW.

The description on the Midway site for the Lee U die states that the die is undersized .002-.003 while the EGW says .001. The Midway description also states that The solid carbide insert inside of these dies is ground to a special contour that does not leave a belt mark on the case. So it seems that both have a special contour or radius cut on the bottom. Seems like I'm back to square one. I would be interested to know if EGW does something else to the die once they recieve it from Lee. Sarge, didn't see this part the first time I read it. Maybe they are the same.

I've been having problems with range brass not chambering in my STI barrel and I'm pretty sure it's due to bulged brass. Approximately 15-20% of reloads will not chamber, of that 15-20% I can run them back through the Lee FCD and half of them will then chamber. I would like to get this percentage down quite a bit or completely get rid of it. From reading on here it looks like the least time consuming option is to install an EGW U die. While browsing Midway for some other items I need I saw that Lee makes a U die also but it's labeled "Lee U Carbide Small Base Sizing Die 40 S&W". I understand the Lee make the die for EGW but is the Lee die the same thing or does EGW do something else to their die? I don't mind ordering direct from EGW but I thought I would cut down on shipping by ordering from one source. I've searched and can't find anything definitive on this. Thanks for any help

Thanks for the info. I didn't think I would burn it up, but when I go to the range I like to shoot rather quick. I know this may not be the most effective way to practice but I can only get the range about once a month for now. I found the other half of the video and that was just crazy.

I'm a newby to the 2011 style guns. I bought a used STI Tactical 5.0 a couple months back and have only had a few opportunites to try it out. So far I'm very pleased. My question is how many rounds can I fire in a hour or two without damaging the gun? I have read of people going and shooting 900 rounds a day but is that in a couple of hours or over several hours? Last time I took my new gun out I shot about 200 rounds in 45 minutes and the slide and barrel were HOT. So I guess my question is how many rounds/hr is to many? or am I just being a worry wart?

Anyone else running one of these. I'm in the market for a new holster for limited. I have a Blade Tech for a different pistol and it's OK. The Racer looks nice and it won't break the bank if it works properly. I don't want to do much fitting if possible.

Ready for them when you get up and running.

Just have to give ditto's for excellent service. Ordered Monday after closing time and recieved complete order Wed. 41 hours after order placed. Never had anything ship that fast.