michael1778

+1 I was very impressed when I looked at these earlier. Well done. You can do my 24" SuperNova!

I'll get on the bandwagon here. Our good friend Pat is completely correct. Get another gunsmith to work for you. 18" rifle gas is fine as fine gets. I don't mean that it is the only solution, just that it certainly works. I see 18" rifle gas systems run all the time at Tarheel 3-gun. We have over 80 shooters a month. Two of my rifles have been 18" barreled. And both had Syrac adjustable gas blocks. I could turn down the gas in each rifle. I happen to like 14.5" and 16" mid-length systems also, but 18" rifle is very nice and my general go-to unless I know I'll be in shoot-houses or similar CQB-style scenarios.

I saw that, but the inventory at FA has been going down and down. With Criterion not having any of those 308 products on their new web site makes me think they got out of that market, at least for now. I may have to get the barrel I was considering now and have it incorporated into a rifle early next year. I really don't have the cash now to do a full 308 rifle. I was planning on waiting until later on all of it.

Criterion's new web site is easier to navigate but also alarming. I say alarming because they don't have any 308 AR barrels listed? Are they getting out of that market? Anybody have any ideas? Thanks.

Across my M&P 9 Pro 5", 45 full-size, 40 compact, 40 Shield, and 40 CORE 4.25" I would have to agree with you.

The sear itself seems to be better. That part of the trigger seems somewhat better than stock in my earlier M&P pistols that were not from the Performance Center. But I'm thinking that the striker block (hope I name these right) hole in the slide seems to have some excess material. When depressed at an angle it seems like it is catching on rough edges that were not machined away when the slide was drilled out for the striker hole and striker block/blocker. I bought mine online so I never had a chance on the trigger before getting it. So, the moderately better sear behavior gets lost in the "noise" of the pre-travel and striker block movement.

Personally, I don't know anything about that Seekins product. But, I would point out that JP offers either their historical adjustable gas block or Syrac on their rifles for customers. That says something to me.

"+3" on Syrac, I suppose. I've used them twice under the AP hand guard with no issues. Easy to adjust and they don't back out on you again later.

With the offset FF3 you are set on the 1x hoser range stuff. So, don't think you are limited to 1x on the bottom end. Would it give you even more flexibility than 1.5-2.5x on the bottom end of a primary optic? Yes. IS that significant for your style of shooting? You get to answer that. With 1x taken care of with the FF3 you could do a Vortex/Burris 2-7x, or Burris MTAC 1.5-6, etc., etc. In an ideal world, I suppose rolling like Jerry Miculek with a 1-6x primary and the offset RDS is nearly ideal. But his wife does a 2-7x as the primary with her RDS offset. One is a whole lot cheaper than the other. Open can cost you tons on the shotgun, but I don't think the rifle or its optics should break you. Indeed, I think you can put together a package with more capability and flexibility than Tactical Optics shooters restricted to one piece of glass. In my own case, my Viper PST 2.5-10x and the FF3 offset are cheaper than a single Vortex 1-6x (which is excellent from what I can tell). Even with mounts, I'm still much cheaper. That said, 10x is too long for most, if not all of this game. But, I can always roll it to 5x instead.....which I do. If I ever come up to a really long shot next season in Texas or New Mexico or Colorado, I'll be all set. Open does not always mean a massive cost premium over all other divisions. It can be pricey, but it doesn't have to be too much so by comparison, especially when 1-6x and similar expensive glass is being considered for the more restricted divisions. As to reticle: Whatever the heck you want. MTAC BDC, MOA, MILs, and on and on. Lots of choices. Pick what you like that you can shoot quickly and roll with it. We aren't milling man-sized targets at unknown distances with sniper rifles in our battlefield du jour, thankfully. We are playing a timed game.

Now that they make extensions that handle +3 through +9, and every integer in between, I bet they don't see the need for a cap that essentially was allowing an additional round.

Ken, what was the turn around on that installation?

That makes perfect sense. Seems very reasonable to me.

I've never had a rifle failure that anyone could remotely pin on the JP Low Mass Carriers that I use. And that's regardless of the gas settings on my gas blocks. They simply work, in my opinion.

Saiga. Open. Enjoy!

Hi Robert, Have you had any opportunity to try a magazine fed shotgun? Even with high round counts, it keeps the weight much closer to you and centered on the gun's receivers. And if you have a super long stage that requires a reload it's not an unwieldy long-tube gun. Just pop a mag and put another in. Don't get me wrong, I think the Vinci and 1301 are great guns. But, I'm using my engineer brain while thinking of that shooting video of you earlier in the summer. And I'm a guy with a VersaMax and an Akdal. I can feel the differences. I can't help but wonder what could be done with a R&R Saiga, perhaps and its good compensator. Relatively low recoil (as reported by alaskapopo) and weight centered closer to you. I haven't felt my Akdal yet, so I don't want to tout its capabilities, especially when many say it recoils more than a tricked out R&R Saiga. If you have had the chance to try such a system and consider it, then my apologies for being redundant. Be well, my friend. How about some other thoughts from other forum readers? Thanks.

Hmm, ok thanks for that. I'll consider my options.

I never handled a Nova, just tried out the SuperNova off the rack at a regional shop. It was a floor demo model and discounted. 24" barrel. I really like it. Good point about the recoil, I do think it is softer shooting than the 870 guns for rent at Edwards AFB back in my day shooting trap on base. I keep thinking about shooting Heavy Metal with it just so I can go use it. That's how much I like mine.

Thank you. I got my Qty 2 limit. That's actually all I needed, thankfully. I noticed that they had M&P Shield 40 magazines (both 6 and 7 round) in stock, as well. I picked up one of each to go with my little carry gun.

That seems like a solid plan to me. I look forward to a range report and some pictures.

Dan kept the same trigger. Back then I think that was the typical option his customer's used. Also, I was so new I didn't ask all the right questions. I should have taken the option for a more forward sitting trigger. Anyway, that gun will hopefully find a nice new home where it will be loved and used. RWF, those magazine prices are crazy!!! Something is obviously terribly wrong between supply and demand for those. I wonder if S&W ran into a supply chain problem there. I can find .40 and .45 mags. M&P 9mm full-size and any caliber Shield mags are rare these days. I should be taking the new .40 CORE out to get the optic zeroed. I wonder how far off the settings will be for .40 and 9mm. I'll find out....... Assuming the trigger only cleans up a little (as I expect) I will try the Apex route since I did a gunsmith trigger last time. This way I can compare and contrast. Variety is the spice of life, after all.

Thanks guys! I expect that if Dan B could have replaced some parts it would have been an even better result in my M&P 9mm Pro 5". It's still lightyears ahead of the factory trigger on my new 40 CORE. THe unfortunate thing is the pre-travel is still fairly long. I'd like to try reducing that. FSS seemed like a way to try that out. Fortunately, I've got 9mm mags from my M&P 9 Pro 5" that is being retired. I hope I can find new ones soon so I can package a couple with that gun and put it up for sale here soon. But those mags appear to have vanished form the face of the Earth, for some reason. This M&P 40 CORE 4.25" is strictly a competition gun. I'll clean it up and try breaking it in to see how it feels after a bit. I still think it's 'sloppy' for what should be a precision pistol and am not expecting any miracles. Time will tell. I'll set aside the money for at least the FSS kit as an insurance policy. First, the cleaning and break in work.

Your latest test video (from your original post) sold me on becoming a customer of yours. I appreciated your testing methodology. Got your shipment of components today. My local gunsmith will be a busy guy very soon. Also, I look forward to seeing more on the compensator design. Might be a customer myself if I need one.

Received the 4.25" M&P CORE 40 today. Nice gun.....awful trigger. And I do mean awful. I wasn't expecting it to feel so much like my older 40 compact's stock trigger, but it does with just a cleaner break. All other qualities are pretty bad (sticky pre-travel, too much pre-travel, too much over travel, and indistinct reset). It might improve slightly as I sight in the RDS on top. However, I don't think it will improve enough for my taste, so I'll get some form of Apex replacement. I'm thinking the FSS kit as a start. I still hold hope that someone will chime in and share thoughts here. One specific question is if anyone has used the FSS as well as the competition action enhancement kit simultaneously in the same pistol. I see some part redundancies in the kits that make me wonder how often that is done.

Let's see. First I had a complete rifle built. Then (before that rifle even arrived), I had a shorter upper made. I've long since benched that complete rifle. Wasn't my competition style despite it being completely awesome. It goes on sale in a few days, BTW. I got to building my own competition lower and mounted the other/shorter upper. Ran that for a while. It worked well, but I wanted some modest changes. Finally, I selected each and every component for a new upper, down to pins and barrel nut.....everything. Then I took that bin of new parts to a local gunsmith that used to compete in Open class competition. He assembled them for me since I don't have a vise, good table, etc. I have that upper running on my self-built lower. Runs like a champ and should cover me for a long time. I personally don't get much enjoyment from assembling stuff. Building that lower that one time was enough frustration for me. However, I very much enjoy designing systems. Heck I have a .308 AR design I want someone to build, just to prove it can be done. It isn't the most conventional design. For me, I've found the right balance. I pick the parts with consultations with more experienced shooters and then have a competent gunsmith put them together. It really helps when he is a precision marksmanship instructor and totally "gets" Open 3-gun competition. Any time tuning anything has to be done by me. But I usually only fool with the gas block settings and maybe could fuss with buffer spring rates. At my skill level I need to worry about fast and accurate operation of the gear, not as much the components (despite how much I enjoy finding the "right" parts for the job) If I wanted to buy a full-up competition rifle, I'd give my money to JP and let them handle it. I use enough of their parts already. I almost did it this past time. I really like the SCR-11 and LRP-07 designs. Anyway, that's my story. I hope it is helpful in some way.

Which mounting adapter plate is needed for the Vortex? Would anyone care to share pictures? How far off from co-witness with the irons is it?