jmtyndall

Thanks for the kind words. I'm having a lot of fun and feeling really motivated. I'm hard on myself and pick my shooting apart but there's clearly a lot of stuff I'm doing pretty okay at considering I'm 5% away from B class and generally beating other C-class shooters at matches. That said I know that the only way I'm going to improve is by identifying and targeting things I'm not good at.

With the move going on I haven't been able to go out to the range or get a real dry-fire session in. I was able to get out to a Tuesday night match at the range that's near my house. Overall it went okay, but I could definitely have done better. Time-wise I was 12 seconds off the production winner, and 10 seconds of that was on the first stage. I showed up a bit late and ended up being first to shoot. First stage was an unloaded table start with a large shooting area. Targets on each side and some in the middle. I loaded and shot from the start position but it became clear to me afterwards that the right stage-plan was to load while moving all the way to one side then reload, stop in the middle to engage targets before moving to the last position. Then on the classifier I rushed the transition to the last target and shot 2 mikes on a 15 yard open target. There's absolutely no reason I shouldn't have been able to shoot at least charlies on that. What should have been about a 60% classifier ended up as a zero. Overall 3rd/5th in Production. Just over 1 week until the sectional match. Won't be making any big gains but I'm going to try to work on my grip consistency during the draw and target transitions in dry fire until then.

Agreed. The proof is in the numbers. I think they've found the right recipe

For the amount you're loading you want to go progressive. If you plan on shooting multiple calibers and are price sensitive (IE, you'll only have one press), buy the 550. Caliber changes are much quicker and easier, and if you really want to be fast set-up 2 550s, one for large primer and one for small primer. Then caliber changes take just a minute or two. If you plan to have one caliber that you reload, or aren't price sensitive and will have multiple presses then go 650 for the increased production rate. Another way to use the 650 is to load in large batches. Load 3-5k of one caliber before changing to another. IMO if you're loading 300-500 at a time and changing calibers often you just waste too much time changing calibers and fiddling with the press. The Hornady LNL is also a fine press, but to me it falls under the same use-conditions as the 650. The 1050 is great, if you're made of money or shoot a TON of ammo. I don't see that I'll ever be in a position where I could shoot enough to warrant that kind of machine. The 550 is the machine for me. 1) I'm a bit cheap, 2) I have lots of control and can observe a lot of the process, 3) I don't shoot that much, and 4) I load a bit of this caliber then change and load a bit of another.

Finally got back out to the range. It's been a while, but with a new gun and a major match coming up I had to get it sighted in and dial in my loads. The good; I like the new gun and it shoots dead on. I got a load worked out. The bad; It was a cloudy day and my inability to get a sharp focus on the front sight reared it's ugly head. I shot several 10 shot groups in the 1.1-1.5" range at the 10 yard line before heading to the 25 yard line, where my inability to focus had me shooting 6-8" groups. I want to keep working on this some more and see if I can resolve the issue, but it just might be a fact that my eyes are always going to have trouble picking up a hard front sight focus. Just ordered a Vortex Venom to try out, maybe CO is a better division for me. I have my first major match in about 2 weeks so it's not the time to go trying out a whole new division, but I might bolt it on after that match and see if optics are any better for me.

Here's some loads I tested today 3.6gr N320 Xtreme 147gr 1.150" - 136PF 4.2gr N320 ACME 124gr 1.150" - 133PF 4.0gr N320 ACME 124gr 1.150" - 127PF Have a sample pack of Brazos bullets coming which I'll test in the 4.1-4.2gr range where my ACME will be loaded too

There's this gum/putty stuff you can use to put up posters. I stick that to the back of my BSPS dry-fire targets and move them around at will. Though I don't have a concrete block wall. I'm sure it won't stick as well to that as it does my painted walls.

I like to use my Spotify workout playlists on the way to the match. High-energy, gets me excited and keeps me focused.

I've not seen any accuracy difference. My Dillon sizing die doesn't size the last few thousandth's of the case. Occasionally this causes a round which will not case gauge. Those rounds get run through a FCD and then put in a separate box. I see no difference in accuracy or PF with that ammo than I do with my ammo which doesn't touch the FCD.

UM....URBAN CAMO: https://www.boombah.com/us/product.html?class=3584&item=214365 Only missing the molle though

I'm pretty new at this and don't have a ton of advice to give. The first thing I see right away is that the trigger guard is lifting up off the support hand and coming back down. Look at the screenshot I posted below. You can watch the video at 1/4 speed on YouTube to get better sense of what I'm talking about. How hard are you gripping with your support hand? The piece of advice I see thrown around is if your hand/forearm don't hurt after 15-30 minutes of dry fire, you aren't gripping hard enough. Also your support hand wrist is locked pretty well, but your strong hand wrist is moving during recoil. After the recoil the gun dips then takes a bit to settle in. Hwansik and Ben are going to be much better at diagnosing this and helping you fix the issue over at PSTG. But I think you're going to have to get a silver membership to post a video for review.

The lube groove isnt the reason. Theres a small shoulder just below the nose of the bullet so the nose shape is a smaller diameter than 0.356" The thinner nose profile probably gets the bullet past the start of your rifling

Take the barrel out of your slide. Drop the loaded round into the barrel and the round should fall all the way into the chamber making a distinct "plunk" sound. Put your finger on the back of the round and spin it. If it doesn't plunk or doesn't spin you need to go shorter because the bullet is touching the rifling (or your round is out of spec in some other dimension). Racking rounds in and out of your gun isn't going to tell you much. Too many mechanical interactions for you to know what's going on in the chamber. A round that's hard to eject from the gun is more likely brass that's too big at the base unless you see rifling marks on the bullet.

Just want to throw in that I've loaded 4.9-5.0gr under a 115 Xtreme plated. This was a moderate load, in the same ballpark as most factory ammo. With a 124gr bullet you'd be asking for trouble at 5.0gr. Use reliable sources. Youtube is not a source. In fact internet forums aren't a great source. But at least if you can find many data points from various sources all in the same ballpark you can make assumptions. Reloading manuals and powder manufacturer websites are pretty good sources. If you can't confirm a load in a manual or manufacturer's website, probably a good idea to stay clear.

Quick thought popped into my head. Do you substitute all these coated 125s over the same charge and see similar PF, or have you seen a need to adjust loads?

I've been shooting my Q5 Match a bit and have been getting some "Glock Knuckle." For those unaware of the issue, its basically just irritation of the strong-hand middle finger knuckle where it hits the frame. Interestingly enough I dont have the issue at all on Glocks, but the Walther frame uses a small "fence" below the magazine release to protect it from accidentally being pushed while in a holster. Great feature for a carry gun, not really necessary on a competition gun. It also sticks out quite far right where the trigger guard meets the frame, which happens to be about where my knuckle goes. The harder I crush with the weak hand, the harder I crunch my knuckle and the more it hurts under recoil. Here's a few images trying to highlight the problem area. So I did what any reasonable person would do and looked online to see who was doing stippling and/or frame mods on Walther guns. The grip is not textured well, a good stipple would be a benefit and I was sure others would have had this problem too. Turns out, I found a couple people who did custom stipple jobs but couldnt find any professional outfits offering the service or any kind of grip reductions. I love the pistol in a lot of ways, but pain while shooting is absolutely a deal breaker. So I took matters into my own hands and decided to reprofile that area of the frame with some sandpaper to mimic a more traditional polymer frame without the protrusion. Grabbed a couple of my favorite beers, a sheet of 150 grit, 320 grit, 600 grit and 1200 grit sandpaper and got to work. Slowly and by hand (didn't trust taking a dremel to my new gun) I worked the hump almost all the way down until I was able to grip the gun hard without any pain. Then used the 320 grit to blend the area back into the natural curves of the frame before polishing out the sanding marks with 600 and 1200 grit paper. All in all I spent probably an hour and it seems to have completely resolved my issue. The left side of the gun doesn't give me any issues, so I haven't touched it yet. But I feel positively about the results here. In the future I may look at doing some stippling or silicon-carbide texturing and at that time I'll probably reduce the other side and remove the finger grooves on the front strap. Anyways, I hope if anyone else has this issue they might find this helpful.

Thanks, got an order in tonight. To try them out

Does Brazos have sample packs? Been digging around the website and dont see any there. Been shooting ACME but seeing some reports of better accuracy with the Brazos so I'd be interested in trying them out

Spent last night modifying my magazine pouches to fit the Q5 mags. Also got the BOSS hanger all setup for the Q5. So far so good. Got a dry fire session in today. Definitely a bit of adjustment to get a consistent grip but draws went about as good as they have been with the M&P. Then came reloads. I have heard some rumors that the Q5 magwell was not good so I was a little apprehensive about this. Turns out...the magwell is way better than my M&P! Had much better success today than I have in the past with reloads. Another note is that I like the slightly wider front sight. I think it's easier to keep centered in the notch than the super thin front on the M&P. I think overall I'm going to like this gun a lot more. Side note, I think I'm going to try and buy or borrow a red dot and try the whole carry optics thing. Might be too late to change my division for the major matches this year but I just have to scratch the itch and find out of the red-dot hi-cap division is the one for me

Actually I had something wrong set on hodgdon data center. Sorry. Remember their data is based off a hollow point design, not your bullet so the OAL isn't a good reference for you. Also we usually use lead data for coated bullets, which is usually about 10% reduced over jacketed loads. 4.2 max reduced by 10% is about 3.8gr max. And you have a shortened OAL. Your brass is telling me you're over-pressure...I think, the picture is poor but I see extractor and breechface marks, primers blown out. Chrono data might help, but you said you don't have access to one. I'd drop down to 3.3gr and see what happens. You need a chrono, you'll never know if you're making PF without it and chrono data can give semi-reliable pressure information if you track your SD

As I mentioned, yes. Generally I reduce 0.1gr per 0.010" length. That usually works fine when talking about small changes.

Agreed. The pistol holds the case against the breechface with the extractor. I've seen .380 cases loaded to 9mm spec shoot fine in 9mm pistols. I think maybe something like a 38 super case might be so long it would cause issues but I doubt the recoil spring has enough power to chamber that in a 9x19 chamber

Looking at the data here I'm guessing my existing loads (for a 4" m&p) are going to be a bit too hot for the Q5. 3.6gr N320 with Xtreme 147 and 4.2gr N320 with ACME 124gr. Both make 135 PF in the M&P I'll work up new loads and share the data here

This isnt a good picture but those look way over pressure. What scale are you using? Remember that the Hodgdon data center loads are at 1.250" and you're 0.160" less than that. Had a wrong setting on the data center. You took a pretty good guess at reducing the load for your OAL length but the brass in those pictures look beat up. Could you maybe take a better picture? It should be clear enough we can read the headstamps

I just read through some of your range diary and watched some videos. Nice shooting! But I don't think we've met yet. I've definitely met a few of the high-ranked open shooters and even briefly talked to Hwansik Kim at the last Custer match, but I didn't get a chance to shoot with him. Hopefully as I get a few more matches under my belt I'll get to know more of the local regulars. I like having a high-bar to measure myself against. Speaking of high-bars, I just realized I'm signed up for a sectional match that's only a month away! And I have a new gun to work up a load for, get sighted in and load a bunch of ammo for. Can't let that fall through the cracks.