Chuck Merriam

I am going to post to bring both of your topics to the top of the board. You have an expensive choice to make. It is both fun and frustrating....good luck. Unfortunately you are most likely not going to know what you want until you have shot a while. It took me a year before I knew I needed to upgrade my gun or buy a new one....I was starting to out run the trigger on close and fast stuff. But that problem could have been fixed with $250 of parts and some slide lightening if I wanted too. Oh and I have been beaten by many a beater (some look like the were tied to the bumper on the way to the match.

What color is it? The bottle online looks very much like the bottle of lube SVI sends with thier guns. Is it an ink blue color?

Check this thread 1st page pics 2nd page discussion Same ? with glock

Long wide with tungsten guide rod. I like a lightened slide but want the weight too....so sighttracker for me. My SV has the butler cut...and it takes just a bit off the front because the SV's are so heavy. If you want a sighttracker the man above builds a nice one. What gun do you shoot now? If it is light stay light, if it is heavy stay heavy. A really light gun will magnify any bad habits you have...a heavy one will quiet them to some degree.

6.35 sec 52 points 8.19 HF....finally shoot an A classifier but barely...75.8%. I have been very close with this new gun...but a few malfunctions...mine and the gun...have kept me from some blistering times lately.

I love my .45's don't get me wrong......but .40 is a hard caliber to beat. The recoil may be like what you have now (assuming you don't shoot production with your glock). The second thing for me was how few problems there seem to be with making a Ramped barrel feed. And one more thing..super tight guns are great, but can be a problem...in the 1911's the bushing and lug lockup is the key. I have an Ed Brown I can take apart with my hands that shoots just as good as my Les Baer that I need a hammer to dismantle!

M2Tactical.com has a nice holster for about $45.

Yes, a large difference. The longer loaded ammo will give a greater margin of error while loading with heavier bullets with ultra fast powders. However, if you do not go with the fast powders....I don't think you will see as big of a difference. Back to the thread....Kydex I had the opportunity to shoot the Area 6 match with Shannon Smith and let me tell you his Kydex holster didn't hold him back. He is like lightening...his finish at the match was tainted by a malfunctioning (in the rain and lightening) timer. Kydex will allow you to really go after the gun, without thinking you may lose it. There are some production guys that will kill you with Kydex holsters on the first shot. Just some food for thought.

I don't mind the Warranty issue. I really want the powder check. I think the KISS feeder is in my future. I am a person who cuts to the chase with nice things...I have a case feeder for one of my 550's and it is nice but not quit it for me. I find myself unable to pickup any gun except my SVI sighttracker...so 4K/month is not out of the question.

I have loaded for a while with (2) 550's and I am only going to do .40 with the machine. Going to get the powder check too. Just wanted to know if the thing is a pain in the a$$ to keep running, or priming system is tricky or ??? Just general stuff like the: 550 primer bar gets slow with crud and needs to be cleaned 650 can set primers off (not the first time I heard this one) Thanks, Chuck

On my 550B I have a small LED light that's on a flex shaft that came with my last dremel (no snickers please ). You can buy these things at home centers everywhere. Anyway, I stick the LED head into the center hole and wrap the flex shaft around the dies so it does not move. I wrap it so it points sort of toward the bullet seating station and it allows me to see clearly, with no shadow, the powder as I advance the plate.

I'll chime in too. Top down, but if you shoot with confidence you may miss one and shoot the next and the thing goes a little weird. If I do my part it goes quickly, sometimes it gets funky. I think alot of it comes down to timing, and anticipating the shot. Some people are good and some are not. You could fix it with practice but some just hate stars. I have watched some decent shooters just totally go bonkers knowing they have to shoot one. I shot the double star at Area 6 last year (13 shots in all) in just 12.88 sec....my best stage. All the top shooters were fast but some had trouble...I was only 1 sec back from a well known GM. I still believe it comes down to, If you believe you can you will! Most of the time

You are playing in the last sport where you may get a tee time with Tiger Woods. Really...even if you shoot terrible you get to watch how it is supposed to be done. Even shooting with someone who is a level higher can help. Anyone who is better will show you how to play the game better and teach you a great deal. You will find they disect the stage differently than you....and better. Some people are afraid to shoot with better shooters...I am glad to hear you are seeking them out. Good luck.

I would say no to the danger part. Glock barrels have very long throats...so long in fact, that you cannot load a bullet long enough to get it into a mag that even comes near the riflling. And too close to the lands(sp?) or touching them will cause an overpressure. The chamber would have to be so tight the thing would be unreliable at best, most likely would be a single shot for the tightness to prevent the bullet from leaving the case with ease. I would be very happy to have a barrel like this. Sounds to me like it is so near perfect the brass cases are expanding and still retain thier memory to contract back to size when finished. Another good sign of a tight but perfect barrel are the spent cases ability to drop right back into the chamber as if they never left. Congrats.

My very first big match I shot. Started to rain and we went to the chrono....so I stripped some off one mag and gave to the chrono man. Forgot to top off mag....raining and ready to get it over with. Went to the next stage..a fairly long one..shot down into the bay and was getting to the end and making my last mag change. As I grabbed the mag, my mind said TOO LIGHT so I dropped it and grabbed another full one. Cost me nearly nothing for time, as I was on the move, but sent me a clear message. Full on belt...anything less goes into the bag. The weather can cause you to get out of normal habits...even more reason to bare down and stay focused. I feel your pain above...helping can cost you...I make it a habit to go straight to my bag and take care of my mags before even moving to any other stage or doing anything other than shooting. I shot a big match once on a Friday with the RO's...weather turned bad and we had to do everything including RO ourselves and solve any problems with the stage...very hard to do and will not do it again. I love to help but it is much more fun without a holster.

If the shock buff is not the cause, an extended ejector will get it moving. The brazos tuned ejector takes most of the fitting out of the equation. I used one on my last build and it worked great. Just my .02

This is the best forum on the web. Thanks to the mods for keeping it A**H*** free Our sport is one of the only places I feel people like us, are the norm. There are always exceptions, but here on the forum everything is very open. Even to the point that the people we help may very well be the people who beat at the next match

I talked to Vanek about this very question awhile back and he told me it causes problems with the reset. I had a buddy having a rest problem and he increased the overtravel a little and it went away. Just give it a try. After pulling the trigger you need to hear the Striker rattling around in the channel just to be sure. It needs to fully get out of the way. Kinda like the overtravel on a 1911 being too short...causing the half cock to hit the sear nose on the way by....it too needs to fully be allowed to clear. Hard to hear if you have a Ti one. If you think about it, the trigger bar will be too low to hold on to the striker, especially if it is older and worn smooth. Chuck M.

Hornady One Shot Lube = no need to retumble. My .02 and I have never had any problems with my ammo....chambering, firing, etc. I have a buddy who retumble because of the Dillon lube...man that stuff must be nasty. The One Shot just quickly air dries and leaves very little stuff on the finished case after it makes the trip round the machine.

That's why I will be forever a customer of people that do things better than I Thanks.

I just did my xd9 tactical the other day. It had a 7 to 8 pound pull! I shot it some to get the parts to wear so I could see the spots to polish. I studied how the trigger and parts worked on the frame just pulling the trigger and watching. I took the entire gun apart and polished the parts that touched. I did the sear and striker and even took out the firing pin and polished the outside of it so it would move smooth in the tunnel. I clipped about 1 to 1.5 coils off the striker spring to lessen it a little. Some of the flat parts in the back part of the frame system I sanded flat with 600 grit to mate better. I polished the outside of the trigger bar where it touches the plastic frame. I polished the striker block button on the sides and the top and clipped 1.5 coils off it too. I also polished the top of the trigger bar bump that depresses the striker block button. After everything polished sanded and put back together the pull was smooth and down to about 4.5 lbs. I am going to leave it alone now and see how it shoots in. My next mod will be to drill and tap for a hex screw to get rid of some of the pre-travel. Looks to be easy, right on the frame where the bend on the trigger bar bottoms out on the frame at the back. I will be awaiting the sears from the above post because I am not adjusting the sear angle...as I do not have a mill! The reduced power springs will be nice too...let us know when they are avail.

I would not go with a diff brand disconnector....the triglide system needs enough room to operate with those balls taking up room. I think SV makes thier disconnector to a different dimension to allow for this. If an after market disconnector is used you may not have enough pretravel to allow the system to reset properly. Better check with Brandon at SV on this.

I have a SVI similar to the one above. I had a chance to shoot Chris Tilley's SV just before the Nationals and I shot it on a classifier right after I shot my own lightened gun. The difference was .5 sec and I could really see the sight bounce. I had never even shot or held this gun prior to this so the gun was doing the magic. It made me understand a lot more. It is like a lightened slide gun with all the weight still on the end. The gun recoils like the slide is not moving. Take all the metal they cut off when they lightened it and put it back on the barrel. I wanted a good backup gun and needed one to match my SVI sighttracker, and I already had my old Edge so...I sent it to Derek. To answer the question about $$$$ He had to mill the frame and flat top the slide--mill for and fit the barrel with new link and slide stop--mill for sight and reinstall it.....so if he can use your old sight I would say around $750. You will need to reblue the milled slide and frame. I went a little overboard and had him--fit an aftec--grit the grip and undercuts--needed new front sight--and while I was at it have it all dressed in chrome =another $500. I could have stopped short but the gun is now finished to perfection. If you have a $1300.00 used Edge laying around with all those cool parts on it you will never recover the money for, go for it. I have waisted far more money on other unworthy guns.

Just thought I would post a pic of my first Limited blaster. It was kind of close to my heart. And now a little deeper in my wallet Derek at Millennium did a great job. I just wanted to share in case there are others out there who have an Edge and want a Sight Tracker.

From what I know from asking many more acomplished shooters is that the VV powders do not have a big flux with the temp, altitude, or weather. I have personally shot my 320 load in 80 and sunny on the coast, and 60 and rainy at 2000ft and neither had any difference. I will tell you that powders like Clays for example, have a big flux with altitude and temp. The higher price chases many away from VV powders, but for me the extreme predictability and performance keep me coming back every time. The VV powders also drop great in almost any loading machine.