FTDMFR
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Posts posted by FTDMFR
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Liquid chalk on the meat of your weak hand thumb and on the outsides of your strong hand fingers where your weak hand fingers wrap around.
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I love my 650, but I wish Dillon would improve the spent primer catch.
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What is your methodology for setting up a Lee PAD? I found out the hard way that just jiggling the powder hopper then filling a case 10 times will get consistent results... for jiggling the powder hopper like that. The powder charge was .2-.3 heavier in actual operation (with a flake powder, specifically 700x). With small ball powder I could get it pretty consistently to what I wanted (Titegroup / 231). I've recently made the decision to go back to small ball powder for consistency sake. Do you have any "Pro Tips" you have for getting your PAD dialed in?
For 45 I use the Adjustable Charge Bar as the 4 grain + loads seem to do well with it.
When I'm dialing in a charge on my PAD, I leave it in auto-index mode and cycle through between each powder drop. Takes forever.
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When making ammo for Major Matches, do you do anything different (besides chrono) than when you make your regular match or practice ammo?
All my match ammo (major or not) I case gauge and inspect for fully-seated primers 100%.
I have one of those 20-round DAA case gauges, which makes it quick to case gage and inspect primers at the same time.
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What has always made IDPA a bit less fun for me is that IDPA has several areas that required the SO to make a subjective judgement call.
Yeah, the subjective nature of cover is a pain in the ass, especially now that I'm an SO and I'm the one making calls and getting bitched at for it.
Maybe it would work better if there were a fault line based on the cover line for the first target in an array. I know cover is supposed to change from target to target, but moving your feet when slicing the pie costs a lot of time, so if someone were set up behind cover for the first target in an array, then they would likely stay in cover for the remaining targets.
On the other hand, there are plenty of rules in actual professional sports that are very subjective, like offsides calls in soccer, or all of scoring for boxing.
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My Google-fu reveals that the EGW chamber checker doesn't have a leade, so if the bearing surface of your bullet extends at all past the case mouth, it won't fit in the gauge.
The gauge is doing its job, though. If a round will fit in the gauge, then it will definitely fit in your barrel. A good gauge is supposed to reject some good parts.
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The switch on my 650 case feeder gets hung up on the case feed tube if I don't push the tube down towards the bench after clipping it to the case feeder bracket
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If you are wet cleaning brass yourself, try using Armor All Wash and Wax with Carnuba wax
instead of Dawn. It leaves a dry slick coating inside and outside the case. It also has a side benefit
of keeping your cases shiny, longer, and severely reduces tarnishing over time.
My tumbler holds 1.5 gallons. I use 10 lbs pins, no more than 8 lbs of brass, and fill with water.
I add 2 tbs of AA, and 1 tbs of Lemishine Booster.
Dawn, or similar dish washing liquids strip everything off of whatever you are washing.
You must use a case lube. I have found that using the AA permits me to load on my 650 without any additional lube.
Thanks. I'll have to try this.
I dry my brass in a food dehydrator, and the brass gets too hot to touch. Do you think this would be a problem with the Armor All?
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Turns out it was the sizing die after all.
After cleaning the sizing die, and removing all the galled brass from the powder die, my press is running buttery smooth.
Thanks for the help, everyone.
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WEDNESDAY 8/5/15
I was going to dry fire, but the power went out, so I saw Ant-Man instead.
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One other nice thing about Lee seating dies that I learned recently - you can send them a bullet, and they'll make a custom seating stem for you for $8. I'm not sure if any other die manufacturers offer this service.
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In terms of volume, you're right on the border where people start considering a progressive. 1000-1200 a month is 10-12 hours a month loading at a moderate pace. If that's manageable, then I'd definitely go with the LCT to get your feet wet. IMHO it's the best press for the money. Easy to learn on, easy to deal wtih stoppages.
If you end up outgrowing it and getting a progressive, you can still use the LCT for other things. I upgraded to a 650, but I still use my LCT for load workup and for loading .223, which I only shoot in small volumes.
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Wanted to know if anyone else is having, or had this problem, and what they did to correct it.
When I load X-treme 9mm 124 gr round nose on my XL650 with a Dillon seating die, about 80% of the rounds end up with a ring impression on the top of the bullet.
The round nose seating insert has a hole in it that is apparently causing this issue.
I know it affects accuracy to some degree.
I use these to shoot steel, and although I'm not a great shot, I was miserably bad with the round nose bullets with the circle impression on the tip.
Any ideas?
I had the exact same thing happen with X-treme 147gr RN bullets on my 650. The Dillon seating stem isn't a good match for that bullet profile, I guess.
I switched over to a Lee sizing die and the rings went away. And as others have said, the Lee die is a hell of a lot easier to adjust.
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MONDAY 8/3/15
Dry Fire
- I didn't have a lot of time to dry fire, so I just worked on trigger control at speed. Targets between 6 and 25 yards.
- At the last match, my point of aim was a little off on rotated targets, so I rotated my dry fire targets during this drill. I'll work on this all week.
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I shoot and enjoy both.
Even though there's usually only one way to shoot an IDPA stage, sometimes there will be an opportunity to use a slightly different plan that will save a ton of time. Not as fun as planning an entire USPSA stage, but still kind of fun.
I like using cover and drawing/reloading from concealment.
The rules around reloading aren't all that complicated, especially now that they got rid of the flat footed reload rule.
The 18 max round count is a huge minus for IDPA, though.
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Powder funnel.... the wet tumbling essentially make the brass too clean and extremely skeptical regarding your choice of case lube (I use HOS)
I would give your powder funnel a good polish and change your lube or go back to dry media cleaning.
That was my first guess too, but the squeak happens well before when the case starts to get pulled off of the funnel.
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My 650 has started squeaking right at the start of the handle upstroke (lowering the platform). It's a very short metallic squeaking / rubbing sound that happens right as the platform starts to lower. I have no idea where it's coming from.
Things I've tried so far that did not make it go away:
- Greased / lubed the entire press (other than the powder measure)
- Lubed the roller handle
- Cleaned the crimp die
- Cleaned the sizing die
- Cleaned the powder die (definitely not it, since the squeak happens before the case is pulled off of the die).
Some other info that might be relevant:
- I'm loading 9mm
- I wet tumble
- I lube the cases with WD-40 Specialist Silicone spray (not the regular WD-40 stuff)
- The squeak seems to be dependent on how much force or torque I'm applying to the roller handle as I start the upstroke. If I relax on the handle before the upstroke, the squeak seems to go away.
Any thoughts on what could be causing this? I was hoping that it's being caused by one of the dies, but now I'm worried that something is wrong with the shaft and/or platform.
Thanks in advance.
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AAR, IDPA MATCH, 8/1/15
Stats
- 118.61s, 39PD, 4 mikes, 1 HNT, 1 PE
- 2nd of 37 SSP
- 3rd of 64 Overall
The Bad
- I'll start with the bad this time.
- Four mikes. Three were missed headshots (1" low), one was from not taking enough shots at a target.
- Visualization. I didn't do enough visualization on one stage, which cost me 1 mike, 1 PE, 1 HNT. That's 10.5s.
The Good
- Even though this was one of the least clean matches I've shot in a long time, there was a lot of good stuff happening at this match.
- Shooting on the move was a lot faster and more accurate than I've shot before. I was able to call most of my shots, and most of them were 0s. Although I did miss two headshots on the move, they were very close misses (within .5" or so below the neckline), whereas a few months ago, I probably would have missed the target completely. I'll take the improvement.
- Mental game. Within two stages, I had racked up 3 mikes, 1 no-shoot, and 1 procedural. I knew by then I had lost high overall. However, instead of slacking off for the rest of the match, I got my head back in the game, refocused on the process, and ended up winning the last two stages.
- Raw speed was pretty good, especially with shooting one-handed and reloading with retention.
- Accuracy. Other than the three near misses on headshots, and the one miss from not firing enough rounds, my accuracy was pretty good, with no -3s, and only close -1s.
Key takeaways
- Even though I made some mistakes this match and didn't win high overall, I still saw signs of progress, which is what it's all about.
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The drill that made the biggest difference for me in the last year is where you set your timer on a random start time, prep the trigger, and then on the beep, break the trigger without disturbing the sights before the beep has ended. Before I started working that drill, my trigger control was pretty good in slow fire, but not so good when shooting at speed.
It also helped whip my strong hand / weak hand shooting into shape.
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AAR, USPSA MATCH AT [REDACTED], 7/26/15
Stats- Pending. Will be posted here.
The good- For the most part, my stage execution went according to plan. I'm not saying that my stage plans were good, just that I executed them well.
- Accuracy was good, when it was good. More on this below.
- Footwork is coming along nicely. I'm getting into and out of positions faster and more efficiently than before.
- I'm keeping the gun up a lot more than I have been and aiming sooner during position entry.
- Transitions still coming along. There was one near-180 degree transition that I was pleasantly surprised with.
- Reloads were looking pretty good this match. The mag seemed to fly in to the magwell for some reason. I'll keep working on Burkett reloads this week to reinforce it.
The not-so-good- Shooting on the move. I really need to stop trying to do this in matches until I've practiced it a lot more, in both dry fire and live fire. At my current skill level, it ends up eating up more time and throwing my accuracy out the window.
- Overly-creative stage planning. On a couple of matches, I've had stage plans that were a little different in an attempt to create a shorter movement path, but they usually end up increasing the target difficulty enough to cause more harm than good. I'm reasonably fast on my feet, so I should stop doing this for now and keep stage plans simple.
- On the stage where I was the first shooter, I blew a stage plan and shot an array out of order. It wasn't disasterous, but it cost a couple of seconds. I've noticed that I haven't been able to burn in stages well when I'm the first shooter up. I need to figure out a way to work on this.
- Stowing mags on the move was dogshit. This also hurt me at my last IDPA match. Work out a better technique in dry fire.
- I shot a wall. Twice.
The terrible bad- I absolutely tanked the classifier (CM13-01) and got a 28%. I decided to shoot for the A zone in the headbox at 10 yards, which is not something I've done before or practiced, and I sent a couple of shots over the target. Keep practicing Blake Drills and 6-Reload-6 type of drills, with hard shots mixed in. Also, stop praticing new stuff on match day.
- On stages where my accuracy was off, it was waaaay off. Like 5 mikes in one stage off. Partially due to shooting targets on the move that were outside of my skill level.
Takeaways- Despite tanking two stages, I was pretty happy with this match. I saw some improvements in a few key areas, and as long as I see some improvement, I'm happy.
- I should work on hauling ass more between positions. I'll run a few simple drills the next time I'm at the outdoor range.
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For 9mm, I toss any brass with Ammoload / IMT or NATO headstamps, and any with flattened primers.
For .223, I'll toss anything with Berdan primers. I'll also inspect for cracking or case head separation after tumbling.
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Right hand shooter, right eye dominant here.
When I shoot WHO, I tilt the gun inwards by 45 degrees. This 1) gets the sights in front of my dominant eye, and 2) keeps my wrist neutral and the gun parallel with my forearm, which helps a lot with recoil.
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TUESDAY 7/22/15
Dry Fire
- 60 minutes
- Trigger control microdrill, freestyle, SHO, and WHO
- Shot calling / match mode drill, WHO
Observations
- I'm pretty happy with my WHO accuracy in slow fire, but it tends to fall apart a bit under time pressure. Add WHO Bill Drills and Blake Drills to the list.
- This might sound stupid, but I think one of the things that's throwing my mental game off at matches is dicking around with my Pivotheads right before shooting (i.e. after LAMR and before Standby). So, I'm going to get into the habit of starting to record when I'm standing in the start box and the stage is still being reset.
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TUESDAY 7/21/15
Dry Fire
- Practiced the match mode/shot calling drill, with detailed nvisualization, strong hand only, for about 45 minutes.
- The added visualization while doing this drill is fun and challenging. I noticed that even in dry fire, I can't turn on match mode 100% of the time. And if I can't do it 100% in dry fire, then there's no way in hell I'm going to be able to do it 100% in live fire. I've clearly got some work to do.
- I live in a pretty busy part of the city, so there's constant background noise from people walking around, ambulances (there's a hospital close by), music from the bar across the street, an insane homeless dude playing the trumpet, and another insane homeless dude screaming at nothing. So, if I can get to the point where I'm able to reliably turn on and stay in match mode while visualizing myself at a match, even with all that noise going on, then I think I'll be in a pretty good place.
- More than once, I've forgotten to turn off my Pivotheads after shooting a stage, so I probably have close to an hour's worth of authentic match day background noise and chatter at my disposal. I wonder what would happen if I made an an .mp3 of all that noise and played it while practicing this drill.
- I also practiced Burkett reloads, while standing straight, leaning left and right, and side stepping.
Observations
- I need a new slide stop. Mine is now worn to the point where it's easy to drop the side by accident by lightly brushing against it with my trigger finger.
- Practiced the match mode/shot calling drill, with detailed nvisualization, strong hand only, for about 45 minutes.
FTDMFR's Range Journal
in Range Diary
Posted
WEDNESDAY 8/26
Although I've been practicing regulary, I've gotten pretty lazy about updating the journal. I'll be updating regularly from now on, especally as I prepare for IDPA Worlds over the next few weeks.
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Random equipment-related epiphany:
For a while now, I've been struggling with inconsistency during reloads, mostly from missing the magwell ever so slightly.
I've had the feeling that the root cause was random variation in friction when yanking the mag out of the pouch, which causes random variation in how the mag is presented to the well. I've been assuming that the problem was friction between the mag and the pouch, and I've tried to fiddle with the pouch tension to improve things, but it hasn't worked so far.
However, tonight I discovered that the random variation in friction isn't between the mag and the inside pouch, but between my hand and the outside of the pouch. I put a light coat of silicone spray lube on the outside of the pouch, and holy shit balls the mags are flying into the well now.
I can't think of any downsides so far to lubing the outside the pouch, so I'm adding this to my regular equipment maintenance. I'll also lube the outside of the holster for good measure.
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Tonight's dry fire practice: Accelerator