Joe L

I've had a lot of shooting time this weekend and am slowly getting my skills back with all the guns. Yesterday 400 rounds through the 22, then picked up the SIG P226 and shot it better than I have in months. Went back this morning and shot 200 rounds of 22 then 100 of 9mm with the SIG, again, good results. Not excellent result yet, but I'm getting there. I think the summer spent NOT shooting the CZ 22, instead loaning it to the interns to shoot, is what has hurt me. (The interns really learned to shoot it well, and that was more important than me maintaining my skills anyway.) It's not the difference in the pistols. It IS focusing on the trigger press, which I am slowly relearning. Joe

Brian's book is excellent. I bought it a year ago and still go back and re-read sections. After you learn the mechanics of the fundamentals, the book will be helpful, very helpful. It is the mental side of shooting that is so difficult to address by yourself. I continue to learn from Brian's book. But I didn't really appreciate the book first time through. That changed the more I shot. Or, come to think of it, that changes the more I shoot. I'm still learning from it. Joe

Barrel hood width, I think. Maybe removed 0.002". This is the best group to date with it, standing, 25 yards. As good as my X-5. Joe

I have a Bar-Sto 9mm conversion barrel in my P226 0.40 cal slide. Took about 20 minutes to fit it. That was a year ago. It's a tack driver. Excellent. Joe

Scout--I'm a little late in seeing your question. I had to take a Dremel wheel and cut the front sight out of my All Around slide to get it out so that I could put the Dawson sight in the slide. SIG pusher wouldn't budge it. You have to be very careful or you will cut too far and put a little groove in the slide. Don't ask me how I know that. I also hope you got a wide (0.140"?) front Dawson sight to go with the wide rear sight. Joe Just measured the original sight (still on gun) its .130 wide and the dawson i have is .100 wide. They have a .125 listed for the #6 @ .170 tall Place your 0.100 wide one on top of the slide as close to the current one as you can and see if it is wide enough for you. I don't like as much clear space around the front sight as some people so maybe it is just me, but the 0.100 was just too thin for the width of the rear sight. I have the widest one available now--must be a 0.125, can't remember-- and it is OK for a game gun but not for tight groups at 25-50 yards with my eyes and my capabilities. Joe

Scout--I'm a little late in seeing your question. I had to take a Dremel wheel and cut the front sight out of my All Around slide to get it out so that I could put the Dawson sight in the slide. SIG pusher wouldn't budge it. You have to be very careful or you will cut too far and put a little groove in the slide. Don't ask me how I know that. I also hope you got a wide (0.140"?) front Dawson sight to go with the wide rear sight. Joe

Thanks, Brian. Range is shut down for a few days. Can't wait until it opens again Thursday evening, so I can continue practicing the trigger press. Thanks, Steve. Joe

It's now September, and I've continued to improve strength in both shoulders. All is good, actually all is excellent. I've learned a lot about training, persevering, and staying positive and patient while recovering. I offer my experience in the hopes that others will have as positive an experience as I have had in recovering from surgeries which, at first, one may have assumed would end their shooting hobby. I'm better now than before the surgeries. I'm certainly more confident about what can be achieved through good doctors, good therapy, and good efforts. Joe

I did OK in the club match but still can't shoot good groups at 25 yards with anything. I went back to the CZ 22 for a little refresher course in sight picture and trigger control. Took 100 rounds to get the groups back to 3" after starting out at 6", same as the 9mm guns. I'm going to shoot the 22 a bunch until I am consistently back to sub 3" 10 round groups at 25 yards, then try the 9's again. I think I had loosened my grip some and just gotten sloppy with the trigger finger during the months I let my interns shoot the 22 instead of me at nearly every range trip. Fundamentals. Again. This is still fun, even when frustrated. Joe

Boy, have I had a good week with the SIG P226. Shot our weekly IDPA club training stages on Thursday night and had the fastest time with zero down on one practice stage, a 4 shot stage from a draw, one target close, one at 20 yards. 2.66 seconds from a draw. That is good for me. Actually, I was lucky on that one run, couldn't get under 3.00 seconds on later attempts. A week in the mountains without a gun didn't hurt too much. Will dry fire the P226 tonight, club match on Saturday, but I'm timekeeping so may not be able to shoot the match. I'm going to enjoy shooting the SIG and the AR only for a few weeks. Joe

I've gone back to shooting just 3 firearms--AR-15 with 3.5 lb trigger, CZ-75B SAO with 3 lb trigger, and P226 SIG with 3.5 lb trigger. Will hold this for a month or so and see how it goes. I am slowly but surely getting back in to form with the SIG. Joe

Just try the kit and see. I had to take a couple of file strokes on the front lugs of the Kadet with a file and one on the side of the barrel lug. You can do it yourself. You won't have to touch the frame, just the Kadet kit. By the way, I have well over 10k rounds through mine now. Joe

Well, I've learned something. First, I can shoot an AR with a good trigger pretty well for a newbie, 1" groups at 100 yards using a bipod. Next, I still can't group the SIGs as well as I did 2 months ago. What I am going to do is go back to what I was doing a couple of months ago--shooting the CZ 22 a bunch followed by the SIG in the same range session. I think when I dropped my round count by letting my interns shoot the CZ instead of me, my skill level just dropped off some shooting any pistol. I am going to go back to what worked in the past. Joe

I've put the X-5 aside until I can have Gray take another look at it in September at a class I am attending. My new SSE is excellent and 100% reliable and easier to handle in an IDPA event so I see no reason to use the X-5 at this point. I have done enough work on my P226 guns myself to get the trigger creep and weight just the way I want it. I use a 17lb hammer spring and the Gray Guns reduced power sear spring, trim the hammer hooks slightly and polish the sear and hammer surfaces as well as the trigger bar. Has worked well on 4 frames. The barrel and slide fit on my particular SSE is as good as my Bar-Sto barrel alloy gun and my X-5, so accuracy is excellent. Maybe next year for my X-5. Joe

Thanks for the additional replies and advice. I put a Geissele adjustable DMR trigger in the AR on Friday and shot it today after an IDPA match. I think it will help. I will shoot the SIG slow groups on Sunday and see how I am doing. Will also shoot the CZ again just for kicks. Trip next weekend will involve shooting several different guns again. But that's OK, I will try to limit it to 3, each shot well. Joe

I had another gun transitioning problem Sunday. Shot a new 6lb trigger AR first, then went back to the 3lb trigger SIG pistol. Could not shoot a 6" group at 25 yards with the SIG right handed. Left handed, no problem. After 50 rounds right handed, started getting better groups again. When I got home, I ordered a Geiselle adjustable trigger for the AR. I gotta be able to shoot both during the same range trip, regardless of which one I start with. Sticking with the SIG this week, match and qualifier next weekend. Thanks for the recommendations and comments. Joe

I know this is crude, but it works great still after 7k rounds or so. I cut a slot in the stock 75b safety with a Dremmel cut-off wheel and trimmed a washer to fit and epoxied it into the safety. This was just an experiment to see what I really needed and it worked so well I just stuck with it. No interference with the holster and just enough extra wing to allow me to get to it. I have converted this gun to SAO so I use the safety a bunch. Joe

That is beautiful. Joe

Excellent, thanks. I think I have about come to the same conclusion. Consistent with what I have found already, that I can go from the SIG to the CZ or 1911 and shoot them well, but can't do the reverse transition. The other approach I have taken is to make the SIG trigger closer to the CZ. I've gone from a 4.5 lb trigger pull single action to a little above 3. That has helped. Surprisingly, I don't have any trouble shooting the SIG double action, and shoot maybe 10% of the live fire in DA mode, both strong and weak handed. I think it is so different from the single action that I have developed a distinct response to the DA mode. Don't have a revolver but I think you are correct--shoot a DA revolver well, and everything else is easy. Joe

Made another range trip tonight and shot 75 rounds through the SIG. All good, shot the SIG very well tonight. Haven't shot the CZ since Saturday except for 10 rounds tonight. I will shoot the CZ a little more on Sunday while concentrating on the SIG. Will try the Laser Ammo tests before Sunday. Joe

Thanks, guys. I'll try the Laser Ammo in both guns in dry fire and see if I can duplicate at home what I see at the range. I spent so much trigger time with the 22 earlier this year when recovering from 2 shoulder surgeries that it could well be a timing difference. If so, it probably won't show up with the laser. If it is trigger control, dry fire with the Laser Ammo should help a bunch. I haven't tried the CZ with the 22 then switched over to the 9 and see how shooting the same frame with the 9 compares to the SIG. Perhaps that would be one way to differentiate between a trigger control and timing/recoil differences. I appreciate the input. You have definitely got me thinking. Joe

I have a CZ-75B with a 22 slide as well as a 9mm slide. The CZ trigger is single action only with a 3 lb trigger pull. I also have three 9mm SIG P226 DA/SA pistols with a 3+ lb trigger pull. I shoot an all stainless steel P226 most of the time. I love shooting the CZ in 22 and have shot 200 rounds per session at 30 to 50 yards with good groups. I can also shoot the 9mm SIGs well, but only if I HAVEN'T shot the CZ first! Not so much of a problem going from the SIG to the CZ. Once I get in the groove with the CZ, it may take me 50 rounds through the SIG before I can shoot decent groups at 25 yards. By decent, I mean 3" five shot groups at 25 yards. When I first pick up the SIG, the groups may be 6" and I can't seem to control the shot placement. I move the gun when pulling the trigger, at first...I think. If I simply don't shoot the CZ for a few range sessions, accuracy with the SIG becomes very good and very consistent. I can shoot the SIG well when I first pick it up, with no "warm up" required, if I avoid the CZ. I can shoot a magazine or two through the CZ when at a range session with a new shooter, without any problem resuming shooting the SIG. I will have a problem with the SIG accuracy if I shoot 100 or 200 rounds through the CZ first. Is there any way to learn to shoot the SIG well while continuing to shoot the CZ? What should I try? Shoot both guns equal round count each range trip? Alternate weeks? Reduce the CZ round count? Just shoot one gun and forget the other? I'd love to hear how other shooters have overcome this difficulty, assuming its not just unique to me. Joe

We told you! Glad it all worked out for you, great results. Congrats on a good match and a fine weekend. Joe

Sunday, I shot the alloy frame gun with the 40 slide and 9mm Bar-Sto conversion barrel. This gun has a little more recoil movement than the all stainless SSE but is very accurate because of the tightly fit barrel. I shot this gun last year and then got the X-5 and then the all stainless SSE. The SSE is still my favorite but I could live with the alloy gun just fine if I had to. Slow groups go just fine with the alloy gun. I think most SIG shooters would be happy with either one. I personally still prefer the SSE for a game gun just for the weight. I think the secret is to get any SIG SA trigger pull down to 3-3.5 lbs and then it can be shot well much more easily than one with a 5 lb creepy trigger. Joe

Shot a club match yesterday, July 14. All went well physically. I made mistakes typical of someone that hadn't shot a match this year. Two procedurals, slow transitions, but I shot accurately, just slowly. Shoulders were no problem at all, so I would say I have improved my slow group shooting skills while recuperating from shoulder surgeries, but I have to almost start over learning shooting on the move. Joe