sinnsyk

Hey, I'm at the Newark airport and heading to Oslo, Norway for the first - ever European IPSC Rifle Championships. The match starts Monday next week, goes on for 4 days and it's a 20 stage, rifle only IPSC competition. For info on the match, visit European Rifle Championships Emma will be attending the shop until she joins me in Norway next Thursday. Then, her sister Dora will be taking care of orders and answering the phone. If you care to pay the international call, I can be reached at +1 47 993 49488 which is my Norwegian cell number that I activate every time I'm in the cold part of the earth. If you really have a question, it really isn't that bad. I make international calls all the time, so don't be scared. Weather should be good in Norway in July. They've been having "heat waves" in the 90's which is unusual and people end up suffocating and turning to beer for support. All good means. I will be having a good ol' time in Oslo Thursday until Sunday with my old shooting buddies and heading to Kongsberg (where the match is held) on Sunday morning. For those interested in history, Kongsberg is a very interesting town. It has some old silver mines dating back to the 1600's and you can visit them. Something Brian [Enos] and I did back in 2005 when we did our Norway tour. Check out Where the Vikings Live Also have new shirts that I'm wearing for the match. Been working on a pretty cool Viking logo that will now be my official logo which also indicates the start of my company as a weapons manufacturer. Competition AR-15 rifles will be made available in the fall. Hope to do well at the match. Been shooting lots of rifle the last month. Both the Finnish and the Norwegians have some very good practical rifle shooters. As do the US which is represented by Dan Horner, Jerry Miculek and Kurt Miller ! About 250 shooters from around the world is attending the match. Something which might instigate a future World IPSC Rifle Championships ? Sure is a lot easier than dragging 3 guns along. But who's talking, I've got 3 suitcases with 70 lbs in each... Call or email if you got a Q. Don't hestitate. I might be blasting, but will try to answer. ;-)))))))) Henning

Rob's right, can be done. I always disassemble completely. Once my straight trigger is out, the return spring won't be an issue to re-assemble again.

Armalite AR-10 in .308 Lothar Walther shortened to 18" and fitted with Thor 308 Compensator JP V-Tac Handguard Ace M4 Socom Stock Magpul Miad Grip JP Trigger System Wilson Combat Mount IOR Scope 2.5 - 10 x 42 Tactical MP-8 Dot Illuminated Custom BearCoat Camo Armalite 25 Round Magazine Ready for hunting season... btw I also have matching 5 round mags for hunting purpose

I'm shipping out all backorders today. If you need one I've got them in stock. Rifle length only. http://henningshootsguns.com/shop/ar.main.html

ZootShooters, Just a reminder. We will be holding the first official ZootShooters match this Saturday, May 30th at Clear Creek County Sportsman's Club in Dumont, CO. Match entry is $20 and open to anyone that currently participates in another active shooting sport (ie, USPSA/IPSC, SASS, IDPA, etc). Henning, Alan, myself and others are going to set up our new walls after club shooting stops on Friday evening. We will finish set-up before the match Saturday morning. If you would like to help, be at the range by 7:30AM on Saturday and you'll get $5 off of the match fee! We've had a few questions in regards to gear and not having exactly the right stuff. Our answer is...wear a Prohibition era costume and make a good, honest attempt to be correct according to the AZSA rules. We want everyone to come out and have fun! There are no prizes at stake. The only thing you can win is a good time and bragging rights. There are two divisions (Pistol and Rifle-Pistol) competing on the same stages. You do not need a Thompson to participate! Also, we're allowing "New York Reloads" for those of you that have more than one pistol that is AZSA correct(ish). Of course, we plan to get more strict with the rules especially at our next match which we are labeling as the National Championship. Shooters will have to be correct for that one! Henning may have extra Galco shoulder holster rigs. Let him know if you would like to buy one. Also, Alan has plenty of Auto-Ordnance 1911s for sale. The new website is well under way. We should be able to show the home page soon. It looks great! Please forward this message to anyone that may be interested in shooting or spectating. See you Saturday!l Jason Huss / Henning Wallgren aka The Hustler / aka The Undertaker American Zoot Shooters Association

ZootShooters, Just a reminder. We will be holding the first official ZootShooters match this Saturday, May 30th at Clear Creek County Sportsman's Club in Dumont, CO. Match entry is $20 and open to anyone that currently participates in another active shooting sport (ie, USPSA/IPSC, SASS, IDPA, etc). Henning, Alan, myself and others are going to set up our new walls after club shooting stops on Friday evening. We will finish set-up before the match Saturday morning. If you would like to help, be at the range by 7:30AM on Saturday and you'll get $5 off of the match fee! We've had a few questions in regards to gear and not having exactly the right stuff. Our answer is...wear a Prohibition era costume and make a good, honest attempt to be correct according to the AZSA rules. We want everyone to come out and have fun! There are no prizes at stake. The only thing you can win is a good time and bragging rights. There are two divisions (Pistol and Rifle-Pistol) competing on the same stages. You do not need a Thompson to participate! Also, we're allowing "New York Reloads" for those of you that have more than one pistol that is AZSA correct(ish). Of course, we plan to get more strict with the rules especially at our next match which we are labeling as the National Championship. Shooters will have to be correct for that one! Henning may have extra Galco shoulder holster rigs. Let him know if you would like to buy one. Also, Alan has plenty of Auto-Ordnance 1911s for sale. The new website is well under way. We should be able to show the home page soon. It looks great! Please forward this message to anyone that may be interested in shooting or spectating. See you Saturday!l Jason Huss / Henning Wallgren aka The Hustler / aka The Undertaker American Zoot Shooters Association

Another project not mentioned so much here is the aftermarket barrels. With good help I am working on doing this right. Aftermarket barrels for all calibers will be made (bull barrel). It will require gunsmith fitting, but they will have a short chamber so you can chamber it to anything you want and also accomplish a tight chamber that doesn't blow out the cases like the factory chambers do. Calibers that can be made are: 9mm, 9x23, 357Sig, 38 Super, 40 S&W, 10mm, 45 ACP. Another very interesting project that will take quite a bit of time, but will be appreciated ... are complete aftermarket conversion kits. After re-designing the barrel, we are talking about making a new slide/barrel design where the goal is to completely eliminate the barrel wear problems we are seeing today. It will have some very significant changes to the factory design. Here in the US, EAA isn't selling the complete conversion kits for 40 S&W and 38 super for the Elite Limited and Gold Team guns (except for the Match Conversion kits if you can get them). With our conversion kit it will be possible to have a Limited, Match, Gold Team, Stock, Full Size Steel or Hunter model pistol in 9mm, 38 Super, 40 S&W, 10mm and 45 ACP. The aftermarket conversion kit will be made to eliminate barrel wear forever (that is the main motivation) and have the same competition top-end in any of these calibers for your gun. Many little tweaks will be made to upgrade the slide from factory spec. But please be patient. I'm trying to keep you in the forefront of what's going on. Developing a barrel and slide combination that will blow the factory stuff off the map will take time. I've got good help on this project and we will be doing it the right way.

If you want to get started, get the other parts now would be my recommendation. The rear sight is probably July. Drawings and everything is approved, just waiting on machining time on the rear sights.

Fitting the sear "cage" or "block" is important and will ensure a super-light trigger job to not fail. The "easy fix" is to weld/solder on the side of it and file to fit. In the Springfield P9 days some gunsmiths would drill and tap a hole on the side of the frame and put set screws in from the frame. I'm doing a lot of maintainance on the website to bring part of the shop up to speed. For a while I have been using BearCoat Teflon paint as a custom color option on my grips and the shop will soon reflect these options. A few other things have been tweaked here and there.

btw. A new Wallgrens t-shirt will be available shortly. It'll be the 2009 Wallgrens Prescription shirt which will be in a cool green color. I'm also working to have more holster and mag pouch options for us also. As you know, the 10.75# spring just became available and there are a few other springs in the works that will be better tuned springs for this gun. I am working on an improved magrelease with screw-on buttons that will either have or offer a lighter magrelease spring.

The X-Long Firing Pin version 2 is now again available.Just updated the shop. The new pin is 3 grains lighter with a 1/15" hole in the back. Also updated the EGW and Wolf pages with some more info etc. I have the EGW slide pins back in stock. They now make it in-house so their price doubled to $50 for the pin. Mine is made in a screw machine shop so I am able to sell it for $25. Btw mine is built using a more appropriate material which makes it stronger and tougher. S7 shock resistant steel handles the abuse much better than 4140 does. Even though most 1911 manufacturer uses 4140 for their slide pins, very few of them have discovered that S7 is a better steel for this application. My friends Alex and Jay at GunCrafter Industries who make the 1911 .50GI tipped me and recommended me to make mine out of S7. I listened, made them and haven't broken or bent a pin yet. I've broken a few Huening / EGW pins over the years. When I told other 1911 aftermarket parts manufacturer's about it they've responded... "hmmm never thought of doing that. Makes sense." 18lb Wolff spring in shop so now have a full line of recoil springs from 6lb to 20lb. EGW hammers are out to be re-cut so Trigger Kits and backordered hammers will be shipped out shortly. The Wolff Extra Power Magazine spring has proven to fix a lot of problems for shooters with 10mm. The internal length of a 10mm magazine is 1.300". 10mm Factory loads can be 1.265" OAL which leaves very little room and can cause feeding issues when the rounds bind after putting more than 12 rounds in the mags. The Extra Power Magspring helps push the rounds up. Has also shown to be effective in 38 super mags using the factory follower. I shorten the legs on factory followers and cut the spring to fit the length/basepad. If you are having nose-dive issues in 38 super or 9mm, a shorter factory follower and a wolff extra power magspring can be a better setup than the Grams follower/spring. It will depend on your magazine bodies and your ammo/loads/brass. You won't get as high of a mag capacity as with the Grams, but if you are having problems I've had good luck with this combination. Also in the process of making H-141 basepads for the small frame magazines. This means 9mm and 40 S&W in the small frame can increase capacity. Small Frame magazines are shortage in the US at the moment. When they come back I will build higher capacity magazines for small frames. They are typically more reliable in both these calibers than the large frame versions. Hammer and Sear Pins will be made and available as soon as the shop have machine time. June/July. I agree that a better sear assembly would be a good thing and it may be something I will try to tackle. It will have to be machined and will probably be Winter 2010 project. Trigger, Trigger Plunger, Trigger Bar... all the trigger parts will eventually be improved to refine trigger pull and reset. ;-)

I just picked up the X-Long Ultra Light Firing Pin for Large Frame / Single Action. It's the same design as the previous XL Firing pin, but it's 3 oz lighter. This was accomplished by drilling a 1/16" hole 1/2" deep through the back of the firing pin. Besides being lighter it looks pretty f... cool. Also have the 10.75# recoil spring available online. Other things in the works that is not available yet, but will be soon: 1) 416 Stainless Sear Pin with an OD of 3.05mm to keep the sear rotating tightly on the sear assembly. Ensures a more consistent trigger pull 2) 303 Stainless Low Profile Torx Grip Screws. Custom designed and manufactured for aluminum grips. Works with all grips. 3) 416 Stainless Hammer Pin for Limited, Gold Team, Stock II. Oversized, hardened pin to keep the hammer rotating tightly. Ensures a more consistent trigger pull. 4) 416 Stainless Hammer Pin Pin. Better quality hammer pin pin. I'm just tired of using low quality factory pins in my guns... 5) Adjustable, Straight Single Action Trigger. We're doing the prototyping right now and I promise the new trigger will have some really, really cool features... ;-) 6) Adjustable Rear sights for Limited and Match. Drawn and in the works. Just waiting on machining time. 7) Aftermarket bull barrels. Several other parts in the works that'll be available throughout the year... ;-) Henning

The first official match is held on May 30th at Clear Creek Sportsman's Club in Dumont, Colorao (just west of Idaho Springs). The National Championships will be held on August 29th, same range. We are planning a banquet with a swing band in high 1920's style. http://www.zootshooters.com/index.html For the first match we will have 10 of our new brick walls made up (6' tall x 8' wall painted brick). Some with ports and some solid. For the Nationals we will have a total of 20 walls plus hopefully a lot of other decoration. If anyone is psyched about this sport and want to join us please contact us through the website or post here. All you need to bring is a suit, hat (look the role), 45 acp ammo and whatever guns you can bring. If you've got a single stack 45 that's cool, but in worst case we'll lend you one. We also have Tommy Guns that we can help you out with if you don't have your own (most people don't so we lend ours out). If you want to shoot a full auto Tommy we might have a rental gun available for that. As of now looks like Auto-Ordnance and Sabre Defence will have their people out to shoot the Nationals and have some guns for the prize table. If you're wondering about it, just call me at (720) 352 1080. Henning

I'm working with Grams to get 45 followers made up. Personally I don't use the slide lock just because it's something that will typically need to be tuned on each gun for 100% reliability. If you draw reference to the 1911 world you'll see that almost all top competitors have their slide lock disengaged. I just came back from the Single Stack Nationals shooting a Springfield 40 S&W that Canyon Creek built for me. Without me even saying anything about it, Rich built the gun with the slide function disengaged. He knows as does most shooters.. that they are not reliable. The problem you are seeing on the 45 is because of a poorly designed 45 follower. They pop through and I'm not in any way impressed by how little effort Tanfoglio put into designing their 45 followers. I've put in 40 followers in the 45 mags which doesn't come through as bad. I don't own a Tanfo 45 any more so I don't know how they would work for slide lock. If you can live without the slide lock... if that is an option... put my TiteFit slidepin in your gun. It's a much tougher steel which can handle a punch. Factory slidestops don't typically break, but they can bend which isn't a good thing either. I don't know what kind of steel the factory uses, but they sure haven't found the trick. EGW uses a 4140 steel I believe and harden it. I have and others with me have broke those. It's a very common metal to use in 1911 slide stops as well. When I made mine, I consulted GunCrafter Industries which are two Danish friends of mine. They built the .50GI on the 1911 single stack platform. Their message was clear; S7 tool steel, hardened to 45. So that's what I went with and so far my slidepin has been a tough little thing. It's also 0.003" thicker which makes it sit tighter in the frame and puts the barrel in a tighter lock as well. IF you have a loosly fitted barrel, this pin will help mend that and improve accuracy. Off topic, but on new stuff in the works is a hardened sear pin which does a similar thing for the sear. It creates a more consistent trigger pull and doesn't wear like the factory one. Torx grip screws coming soon as well as the newest extra long, ultra light firing pin for large frame. All top notch stuff. Stay tuned.

Not sure, a piece of jacket come off and shoot out through the ocmp? Take your barrel out and check the barrel porting to see if the porting are drilled clean or if there may be something cutting the jacket off the bullets? What's your accuracy like if you shoot a group at 25yds? And what kind of bullets are you shooting?

It's a good question and not necessarily obvious. I asked EAA once and they said absolutely the barrels doesn't cross over between large and small frame. Misleading on their part... and incorrect What matters on the barrel is two things; 1) the length of the hood of the barrel (from the back of the top of the barrel to the first upper barrel lug). (approx 1.10" length) 2) the shape of the "barrel link" (kidney shaped hole). (no good way to measure this to convey the shape) I have a 2008 small frame Stock II in 9mm and I just compared it to my 2007 large frame Limited 40 S&W. Both measurements specified above is 100% identical. I have one reservation with all this... old model small frame 9mm may have a slightly different "kidney". I also have an early 90 Briley barrel for 9mm small frame and they shaped the "kidney" slightly smaller than the 2008 Stock II sf 9mm barrel. I used to shoot the small frame 9mm Gold Teams from 92 - 95, but I don't have any of those guns or barrels anymore. I did fit a Briley barrel to my gun back then which worked great. ALSO: 1) The slides are different and don't mix. 2) Frames are very different and don't mix. 3) Trigger bars don't mix. 4) Firing Pins don't mix 5) Magazines and mag parts (except springs) don't mix ;-) Henning

You can remove both the pre- and over-travel screw which will give you the most amount of movement in the trigger. That's how I shoot my Limited gun. It's a lot of trigger movement, but also a feeling of no restrictions. I don't like restrictions.. That said, everybody tries to reduce the free movement of the trigger to as little as possible. On my open gun I've got the pre- and over-travel set to a short travel in both directions. Ultimately this is considered the best. Pre-travel just need to allow for the trigger system to reset properly and consistently. Over-travel need to make sure the sear can clear both the hammer hooks and the half-cock hooks.

I've sold a lot of Blade-Tech holsters and they have become the popular choice for anyone with a Limited or Match to be used for IPSC (or IDPA.. but remove the drop-offset). In fact, I bought so many holsters from them that they made a higher volume mold to produce them. The latest shipment I've got from them is of the latest version. I stock them for both Limited and Match. "Limited" fits the Limited model, Limited Pro, Stock II. "Match" fits the Match model, Stock and even Steel. If you are shooting IDPA you can remove the drop-offset and mount it directly to the belt loop, making it legal for IDPA. The Ghost holster is still the choice for open and probably a tiny bit faster. But I feel I'm getting a safer, more consistent draw from the Blade-Tech and I don't worry at all about dinging my gun up against anything. My 6" Hunter can fit in, just have to cut out the holster at the bottom. When I do get my "Hunter" Hunter finished with all the modifications I'm doing to it, I might have a special holster made up. If this is something that tickles you, let me know.

The box I'm using is 149.50mm which is a little small and it's just too big for that one. I will probably slide into a 150 - 151mm box, but before I'm heading out for an IPSC match I'll grind a little off the bottom. For USPSA it doesn't matter.

...which... is about the same as my 1911 Canyon Creek Single Stack Wonder (including an empty mag). It weighs in at 43 ounces 1911 SS Gun w/o magazine is 41 ounces

Haven't had time to take pics today. Been a busy day. But.. I weighed my gun with the CCC magwell, a slightly lightened slide, EGW trigger parts, iFiber front sight, TiteFit slidepin, longer aluminum grips (same as Stock II) it ended up weighing in at: 1215 grams which equates to: 43.4 ounces

Actually reload isn't as big of a deal as how it improves the grip.

Get my limited back yesterday. Rich also has my open gun and my Hunter 10mm. All being dressed up with magwells. Changes the whole feel of the gun - huge difference in grip - grippability - grippaliciousness to be exact

Probably cruel not to post pictures. Will attempt to get some taken tomorrow. But have to say that I'm super excited about my Limited 40 with the new Canyon Creek magwell. Lately been stuck behind my desk answering phone calls and emails. Of all the modifications and upgrades I've done to my gun over the past two years, adding this huge magwell is the first new thing that's really getting me super-excited about going to the range to shoot. Besides making reloads easier, the way the magwell sticks out in the front it closes the grip in a way that will help with recoil management. I shot these guns before magwells were available from the factory and we dealt with it. But all factory attempts have not been able to accomplish how the gun grips now... Looking forward to Double Tap..

Mike at Schuemann built me a mount for the Aimpoint Micro. It's going on my Hunter 10mm 6" gun. It's over at Rich now for a few tweaks before it's getting finished with a Micro and ready for Hunting season. I'm thinking of doing a BearCoat Camo paint job on it... we'll see ;-)).