tbarker13

Well that seems to have done the trick. Some of those springs required a lot more twisting than others.... Now, to see if they work on Saturday.

I'll give that a shot tonight and see what happens.

I recently picked up my first 2011 - STI Edge frame, but custom built. It came with six mags. The gun has been exceptional so far. But I noticed that occasionally, the last round in a couple of the mags wouldn't feed. (The slide would pass over the round as though it wasn't there) Having no idea when the springs were last replaced, I decided to get new springs. I ordered the 126mm-140mm versions from Dawson. But when I installed the new springs, they push the followers too high in the case. A couple of them actually push the follower almost halfway out of the mag. You have to work them back into the magazine before you can load it. Not sure what brand the followers are, but the base pads are Arredondo. The followers and base pads are both red, so I'm assuming they were purchased together are likely both Arredondo. My first thought was the magazine feed lips might be too wide, but according to the info in the Dawson mag tuning kit, they are actually a bit too narrow.

I do love the way this one turned out. But I'm pretty sure the next gun I have done will be in the bronze color.

Just back today. Titanium Blue cerakote, with black controls.

So here we go. Titanium Blue, with black controls. Was going to put black grips on, but don't have them yet. May just stick with these.

That is beautiful. That was one of my two final options when I chose my colors. Ended up going Titanium Blue, instead. Hope I don't regret it.

Gun is ready. Hoping to pick it up Saturday evening. Will post photos, hopefully, on Sunday.

Love the CZ Shadow, but I do wonder if I will ever truly be comfortable withe DA on the first shot. Lots more practice to do before I'm willing to try it in a match.

He be sneaking and stuff..... Just watch your OAL. Some bullet profiles won't allow you load as long. I had the barrels reamed on my CZs so I could load a little longer. I use a light crimp. Never had any problems related to that. But I did have the barrel throated after I ran into issues with Precision black bullets - the 147gr version. They wouldn't feed at my OAL because of the profile. The same length on 147gr Berrys worked fine.

I currently have two shadows from CZ Custom. One is almost brand new, with about 200 rounds through it. The other is about 5 months old, and just passed the 4,000-round mark. I would say the one that is more used is noticeably smoother in double action.

Pretty much sums up my CZ parts kit that I carry in my gun bag. Plus spare fiber optic material. (so far, that's the only that's actually given out during a match.)

The guy who's doing the coating is somewhat local. I wanted to avoid the extra expense of shipping the gun. I suppose I could have taken it apart and kept the internals before handing it over to him. Oh well. Too late for that now.

The gun in finished. But I haven't seen it yet. The guy that's doing the coating hasn't worked with a lot of CZs. So he ended taking it to his gunsmith for disassembly and reassembly. Would love to get it this weekend, but I'm betting next weekend is more likely.

Funny. That's pretty much how my guy described it.

tomorrow is two weeks. pics? I wish. Heard from the guy last week - he'd just finished doing the controls in black, but had not yet done the fame/slide. Expecting to hear more this week. He's working on my two-tone Shadow. I guess we knew the finish on those isn't all that strong - but the guy was kind of surprised at how easily the original stuff came off.

Are you certain it's the top round that's getting caught? I was having a similar problem with my Shadow, but traced mine to the mag release button. When I pushed it in, the button-side of the release was extending far enough into the magwell, that it was actually catching the top of the mag. Once I filed away that extra little piece of metal, my problem went away. With the mag out of the gun, push that button in as far as you can. Then look down the magwell and see if a small bit of metal is sticking out.

I think I may feel the same way. I guess I'll get to see the two options side by side in the very near future.

I went back and forth between bronze and blue titanium. I hope I don't regret the choice. I do have two of these - but I've been thinking about leaving one (my main competition gun) with its increasingly worn finish.

So I decided to go with Titanium Blue over the entire gun - with black controls. Figure I will put black grips on the thing. I'll post photos when I get it back in a couple of weeks.

I find myself about to go the opposite direction. I've been shooting nothing but 147s. But want to go give 124s a shot to see if I can actually tell a difference.

I just did this tonight with my Shadow. It was driving me crazy - unable to figure out why my mags weren't falling out. At first, I thought I wasn't smashing the mag release button hard enough - something that also appears capable of keeping the mag from falling free. But then finally figured out I was actually pushing it too far in. I filed away most of that excess material. Seems to be working much better now.

My competition gun is a 75 Shadow - just as it came from the custom shop, with a new set of VZ grips. My backup also is a 75 Shadow. Again, the only change is a different set of grips. I sort of figured that my backup should be pretty much the same as my main gun.

The polished flats do look pretty cool. Stupid question, but how do the accomplish that? Is that just bare metal?

I'm now starting to think of doing one in all bronze, with black controls.