nathandewalt

Hey guys. I am sorry to hear that some of your experiences were less than expected with our products. I can guarantee you that you are the exception and not the rule. We are very careful about what we produce and distribute. That's not to say that mistakes may not be made but if we don't know about it we can't make it right for the customer. Bottom line is that like any other person or business mistakes will be made but if we don't know about it we can't make it right to the customer. Please send me an email anytime if you have questions. (thebluebullets@gmail.com). I answer them pretty much anytime I'm awake. Thanks Nathan The Blue Bullets

If you are strictly talking about performance for the long run then I believe switching divisions with a like gun is a good way to keep you interest and learn different skills. It will probably lower your scores for the short term. Productions teaches accuracy and reloads over movement. Limited teaches some shooting on the move, movement, and some accuracy. Open teaches shooting on the move, movement, and some accuracy. For me I have shot across all the divisions except revo and learned great things from each. I do stick with 2011/1911 like guns and run my holsters/magazine carriers in the same place so I'm not relearning the gun handling skills (grip, draw, reloads, safeties.)

My wife has recently started shooting with us and the biggest thing I would say it to tell her to listen to everything everyone has to say and forget it. I was amazed how many people want to give advise to a new female shooter. Most of the advise was good but not things that she needed to be worrying about at her first match. I really enjoy having her out there shooting with us and hope that she continues. She is improving really fast.

Sounds like the same issue we experienced for a while. Conventional wisdom has always had lead and coated bullets sized to .401 which works great in most guns. However if you get a competition gun with a tighter chamber (in our case STI Trojan and STI Edge) they have to be absolutly straight or they will rub the barrel and not chamber check. I would fail 10-15 rounds per hundred sometimes. I experimented with sizing them to .400 and found that I fail maybe 1 in every 400-500 and they have that nice clank sound. We also saw no reduction in accuracy or speed. So I would get some .400s and give them a try. I bet thats your culpret.

BTW A soft lead alloy can cause bullets to tumble because the case can undersize the round as it is seated into the case. When we were handcasting our own bullets I got into some soft lead that I had that happen with. Good luck

What crimp die are you using. If its a lee factory crimp I would bet that's your culprit. A lee factory crimp die has a carbide sizer at the mouth that can actually undersize your bullet as it resizes the case. Because of the tolerances some are fine and some aren't. My Xd was fine but my dads M&P tumbled them. We replaced the die and the problem disappeared.

What kind of crimp die are you using? Lee Factory crimp dies are great but cheap. If you get one that the carbide sizer at the entrance to die is a bit smaller it can actually undersize the bullet causing tumbling issues. I have 2 of them. The .40 is good. The 9mm caused tumbling with lead and plated bullets out of an M&P but not an XD. I use the .40 die still but chucked the 9.

Hey Jack We have using Bullseye for years with good success in 9 and 40. The only complaint I have is that it is dirty and a bit more smokey than WSF or 320 but it makes noise just fine. My dad and I have been running .40 major for 8 months or so and have went through probably 16 lbs right now. My reload is a 180 Blue with 4.7 Gr BE at 1.18 making 173 at Area 6 out of a Edge.

What do people put in their spare parts kit. I saw the Striker retainer pins. What else do you recomend? Thanks

Able ammo has them now

I had a similar issue that costed me a few light strikes at area 8 last year. Turns out they said their earlier firing pin blocks werent quite right and it would rub the striker. They sent me a new firing pin block and I was able to talk smith into giving me a new striker.

I was looking at ordering an sp-01 shadow custom. I have had good guns in the past and they all have their problems. Anybody had any reliability issues as far as parts wearing out. I have a bad problem of having gun issues at area matches and that's part of the reason for me considering switching. Do these strike harder on the primers than say a glock or m&p because I have been running Tula spp s. Also accuracy is somewhat of an issue for me. If I shoot an alpha from 20 yards with a gun that will only shoot 5 inch groups at the distance it may end up a Charlie. What kind of groups are normal for these guns? Anything else a perspective buyer should know or consider? Thanks

I recommend trying it yourself after doing two of mine. The experience and understanding if how your gun works is far worth a few dollars for replacement sears. I managed to not trash one but it's easy to do. Gave me a much better pull than the apex parts that were in it did.

Did for a while with bullseye then longshot because of tumbling issues. Ultimately determined there was not really any advantage to 160s over 147s after you consider all the additional problems they created. Higher pressures more picky about powders and amounts it took to stabilize them so they didn't tumble. Also the cost factor. Others opinions may differ but it just wasn't worth it for me.

I took some time when I got the first batch of Bayous and shot them with several different powders to see which produced the least amount of smoke. I tried Bullseye WST WSF and TiteGroup.. Watching the video titegroup smokes like a freighttrain. Bulleseye and Wsf were just about the same. WST produced a noticably less amount of smoke then the rest so thats what i shoot lead and bayous with. I shoot a 147 gr with 3.2 grains of wst now for a PF of 132 of so out of my M&P 9 PRO with the factory barrel.