Smokecloud

I like Varget for my Bolt gun, but I typically run H4895 in my Semi-Auto's. Varget popped up on Gunbot yesterday, it was through Cabela's, which is near the top of the price chain for powders right now. It sells out fast. I also saw some on the shelf at Sportsmans Wharehouse about a month ago, but they have turned into gougers lately and wanted $29.99 for a bottle, I had 3 on my shelf at home and didn't need it that bad, so I left it for the next guy. I haven't been shooting my .308 lately, so i'm willing to wait for 8lb jugs at good prices right now. One powder that has been available ALOT lately is IMR4064, Bimart has gotten in lots of small batches, Powder Valley and it pops up on gunbot at several other places, usually around $23 a 1lb bottle. IMR4064 should have been named IMR308 as it really shines for that caliber.

Since I could not score any TG for the last 2 years, I started shooting WST and WSF in my .40 guns. I like the WSF for major PF loads, but if I want something for speed steel or 3gun and just want light to med, then I prefer the WST. At this point, I don't think I will go back to titegroup after running it for 8 years or so.

For 308, he runs 178gr Amax, for .223 77gr Nosler or Sierra, he was also running some form of a 75gr Hornady, but I don't recall which it was. What excited me about the 8208 was his report of 6-9fps variation on the 308 loads. sorry for the late reply, my internet has been down for a bit.

Don't forget H4895, I have had really good results with 77gr Noslers, Its a full stick powder, so not real friendly in auto powder measures, but I run it through my electronic measure and weigh each round for the LR stuff. Pretty much zero temp sensitivity and very low ES. That being said, I have a friend that has been running the IMR 8208XBR for a couple of years with awesome results and it meters a whole lot better, but I have not been able to get my hands on any to try for myself. I just scored 16lbs of TAC for my 55's for close work.

it really depends on how wide the nose of the bullet is in addition to how long the bullet is. Both profiles are pretty good if you get your COL right, but I have had more hitches with the 175swc than I have with the 180tc. I shoot factory bullets for most matches, but I also cast bullets for practice and plinking and I have molds in both of these profiles. I had to seat the 175 deeper than I wanted to get reliable feeding in one gun, but the 180 runs flawlessly. Probably the best overall profile that I have never had problems with in any gun is the 180gr RNFP. They all have their pro's and con's. If its shooting steel, all work great, if you want to punch more visible holes in paper, then the SWC is a cookie cutter, it also works better on critters like Jack Rabbits.

I hadn't considered the limiting of lights and lasers, but shotgun capacity for me was 8+1 and there were a couple of stages where I saw it made a pretty good advantage to have even just 1-3 more shots. I didn't really feel at any disadvantage running my rifle that's setup for Limited, in the dark the targets are close enough that my Eotech was just as fast, but I don't shoot big comp's either. Pistol, I normally run an STI in 40sw, but it doesn't have a light rail, so I ran my Glock 35. My strong suit is normally pistol, but my shotgun skills are just average. That was the only match I was able to shoot last year, so I only managed to place in the mid 40's. Perhaps Tac Ops rules, Im considering swapping out to a Leupold firedot 1-4 (from the prize table) and try a scope for a match or two.

This match was #1 on my list, I usually only shoot a couple of major matches a year, but If I could only shoot one, this one got the vote. I was bummed to say the least, especially since its local for me. My hope for the new match, would be divisions like other matches. I only have "Limited" gear and guns and would like to see a Limited division for the new dark hour 3gun match. Although a little practice would help my score more, I was always tempted to build new guns just for this match. A look on the bright side though, our T-shirts just became collector grade! I will always be appreciative for Crimson Trace putting on this match though.

I made 168 PF with 4.3gr of TG and 180 Xtreme bullets with both the stock and KKM bbl out of my G35. Im at about 3k ft elevation.

Given the fact that a high majority of people have issues with Stock STI's out of the box, most people don't want to pay $2200 or so for a gun that is more likely than not, going back to the factory to have it sorted out. Yes, STI has great customer service and typically if you send a pistol into them, they will make it right. My question is always why they didn't ensure it ran before sending it out the first time. Having seen that several times, I think that if your set on a Stock Edge, or whatever model, going through someone like Brazos or Dawson and purchase the Factory Gun through them, where they basically go through the gun and tune it up to ensure it runs perfect when you get it, is a good way to go.

from memory, I think I had about $90 each into building my own mags. Its worth a piece of mind to have tuned mags for a few bucks more. Get a 4 pack of Brazos Mags, you wont regret it. After that, if you want to chance putting some together, go for it, but you will always have 4 that are absolutely perfect and you can rely on. I also just run my STI grip in stock form. It has more grip than most of my other guns. any high round count or vigorous practice sessions and anything meatier will start rubbing you in places.

I looked at Franks Site, I get to the Phoenix area on occasion and may have to drop in sometime. If I were you, I would have Frank tune an extra extractor for your gun while he has it. Its one of the most likely parts to fail down the road, and having one that is already tuned for your gun by the smith that built your gun is as good of insurance as you can have in your bag. He lists a tuned extractor for $40, well worth it.

I usually run 3 on my belt for USPSA and speed steel. For matches like the Ironman, I run 4 on my belt and have one in my pocket to make the gun hot on the line, but those round counts aren't average by comparison to any other match I have attended.

I originally bought 10 STI magtubes and only built 5 of them with dawson base pads and Grams followers/springs. I was sold on the fact that I would have to have them tuned, but I also believed in trying them before deciding they were broke. To date, all 5 have never caused feed issues. I did polish them some, inside and out, paying attention to the inside of the feed lip area. The only downside to my mags, is that every one of them only holds 19 rds, but the gun runs awesome, so I had decided to just leave it alone. The other 5 mag tubes still sit inside my safe.

when I was looking for a Bar-Sto, they were difficult to obtain in 2008 as well, best I could do was get on a wait list, with a minimum of 6 months estimated time. KKM was my 2nd choice because I wanted a stainless barrel. When I went to order my slide and frame from Brazos, I found that he stocks Bar-Sto's and had a few in stock, I added it to the order.

Sounds like your parts box was similar to mine. STI Long Wide frame Brazos slide Bar-Sto Bull barrel (40sw) Pretty much all Ed Brown small parts. IonBond 2-tone finish Still love it today

yes, taper crimp with semi auto pistol, but very light crimp. Another way to see the thickness, is with some aggressive rifling on some revolvers, it will cut into the plating, but its usually not ever an issue with any semi auto barrels, the lands and grooves are pretty shallow.

you are correct sir, I got my wires crossed on pistol vs rifle dies. But you will find that the mechanics are still true, and that the dies hit the shell plate on the Dillon early in comparison to a single stage press. No more pre-coffee posts, I promise.

The Dillon dies are great, but have more radius at the mouth for reliable operation in the progressive press. running a Lee FCD in the last station will finish sizing the base of the brass about 1/8" farther down than the full length size die will, due to the smaller radius on the opening of the die. If you want it to size even further, put the Lee FCD in a single stage press such as a rockchucker and you can see the size marks on the side of the case wall, it will size down about 1/16" further in the single stage setup than it will in the Dillon. Do that as a final stage and I would bet your case gage results are 99%.

Varget H4895 IMR 8208xbr (absolute lowest fps variation I have ever seen) are my 3 top choices because they are all temperature stable. If I cant get those, I move on to RL15 IMR 4895 IMR4064 which is showing up again BLC2 748 (good luck getting some)

your original post indicated you had over 1000 rds of factory ammo through it with zero problems, on top of your 500 questionable reloads, if you add some dry firing in the mix, its quite possible to be over 2000 trigger pulls, if the spring was a lemon, it could be done with. I have seen the reduced power striker springs bite the dust at 1000 rds and I have also seen them live past 10k without issue In the event that you only have 500 rds, and not the 1000+ as originally indicated, that's still enough to have enough trash inside your striker channel to slow or retard your striker to the point of a misfire. in your original post, you were asking for other possible causes rather than your questionable reloads, I was only trying to provide you with my best two alternative answers that were not ammo related.

band saw worked best. cut bullet in half and, goto clean cut area and measure with calipers. I have also smashed them with a hammer in an attempt to get a flake to come off, but that stuff is pretty malleable and seemed fused rather well with the lead. I have also tried to drill holes in them for a clean measuring area, but found that a good blade on the band saw provided the easiest results. I started wondering about thickness when I was shooting more of the .38 spcl stuff and using a roll crimp. If I used an aggressive crimp, I managed to cut through the plating on some recovered Raniers, I tried a box of Xtreme's (actually one of my first boxes) and even with an aggressive crimp, I was not finding any that were cut through to the lead. I started testing to see how thick the stuff was. That was about 8 years ago.

finish your load process with a Lee FCD and Im sure they wont be .357 anymore. If your really still worried about trying them, acquire a inexpensive Lee bullet size die, they run about $12, they come with the die, lube and a stem/pusher that goes where the shell holder normally does. you can just run them through that die and all will be uniform when your done.

First, make sure your striker channel is clean, any debris or metal shavings that find their way in there, will cause light strikes. 2nd, springs do wear out and when you run light springs, you are much closer to the failure point. In my G35, I run Wolff reduced power striker springs and I get about 5-7k reliable out of them, as soon as I start getting light strikes, I just throw that spring in the trash and install a new one. I get them in 3packs from Brownells. And like others have said, Federals are the softest, so if you can find them at all, you will get more mileage out of them on the same spring before failure. I run whatever is cheapest or available, but I don't shy away from CCI either. I typically run Winchesters because of bulk prices in the past.

I have shot about 25k of the 180gr RNFP in .40 over about the last 8-9 years. I love the Xtreme's plated bullets, thicker plating than Berry's and Raniers and seem less sensitive regarding how much crimp you can apply to them. I had not ordered from them in quite a while and very recently found that they were selling 223 FMJ's, which are jacketed, not plated. I decided to give them a try, so I ordered 500 along with a small pistol bullet order. I started casting pistol bullets and have been running my home cast bullets for all practice and some small local matches and reserving my plated stuff for larger matches, so my volume of plated bullet usage has been low since things got out of whack price wise over the last 3 years or so. I was impressed by jacketed 223 bullets in the box. After watching intently for the last year to find hornady 55gr fmj on sale and in stock from Midwayusa, I thought it would be nice to have a 2nd go to bullet. in comparison, I think the xtreme's look better in the box, but have a slightly wider nose, which may effect their BC and overall performance out to 300 yards, but that is just a guess at this point. I have only started load development, but at 100 yards, my groups were identical to my Hornady 55fmj, only it printed 1" to the right of the Hornady's, but this was a plus for me, as that was where my 77gr Noslers are hitting. They are basically about $90 per 1k with shipping included, which is what I have been waiting to buy the Hornady's at, but then add shipping on top of it. If you go to the Xtreme Facebook page, that is where they list their discount codes and they pretty much have weekly sales of some sort, its not uncommon to have 5-10% off and looks like occasional 15-17% off codes. I ordered another 1k of the fmj's to try out a little more extensively as soon as the weather allows and the great thing is that they seem to always be in stock. Its been nice to decide to buy rifle bullets, just get online and order 2 boxes and get them in a couple of days, instead of spending the day researching dozens of sites trying to find the best combo of in stock, purchase price and shipping to keep the cost under 110 per 1k, and ending up not ordering for weeks because prices are either jacked up or are backordered into next year. with their 10% off coupon a few days ago, I ordered 1k of the 9mm 124gr and received them, shipped for $77.

Don't forget Bruce Gray at Grayguns, he mostly advertises Sig Sauer stuff, but he still works on 1911's and is an amazing smith.