drewbeck

Tough crowd today! Perpendicular to belt at point of attachment inner belt is in the pic if you can't see it. Pass?

If you're doing it I would highly recommend the 1911 trigger track stone from brownells. Makes polishing easy and can be used for all sorts of things when you're done

Just got it put back together

Yes it meets both distance and height requirements. I think the pics are distorting the perspective a little making it look that way

I was having a lot of flex and movement in my DOH and couldn't find a better solution so I decided to make one from some aluminum. It ended up being really comfy all day and the design lets me change offset, angle, drop, and keep the gun rock solid. I was also getting a lot of flex in the safariland mag pouches so I made some aluminum ones for them as well. It was all done with hand tools and a drill press but the project is making me want a mill now to fab up all kinds of goodness! I still need to final sand and polish them and may have them anodized locally but I thought I would share if anyone else is having issues with theirs.

One last thing, this is designed to be drop in but nearly all of them will need some polishing due to STI frame tolerances. If you are comfortable putting a tool on a gun it's straightforward. If the thought of that scares you just have a local smith throw it on and make sure it's right.

I'll end up trimming the safety as it's designed oversized to be trimmed but I want to shoot it so I know where it rubs

So it took a couple days to get the Pheonix Trinity Stainless grip and Thumb guard safety 100% done but it is now and I figured I would share my experience as detailed info was a little scarce when I was researching thee purchase. The grip took about 6 weeks to arrive from PT which was right in line with what they told me when I ordered it. I also chose to give their new thumb guard safety a try as I occasionally slow my slide down with my thumb. On arrival both parts felt awesome. The machining on the aggressive texture grip is outstanding and the sandblast finish gave it a nice dull gray. This was my first time fitting a grip or a safety so I think I definitely took more time getting it done than it would now that I know what to look for. On first try as slipping on the grip it was very tight but could be pushed on 1/2 way with the help of a rubber mallet. I covered the inside with blue and gave it another go to see where it was rubbing. TThe main areas it rubbed was at the front inlet and at the corner of the trigger guard. I picked up a fine trigger track stone and basically ended up polishing the points where it was rubbing. I didn't really need to removeany material but just flattening the sand blast to a polished state allowed the grip to slide all the way on and fit like a glove. For the trigger I went with the standard SVI and not the triglide. I spend a lot of time polishing the trigger track and made this super smooth. I also polished the trigger bow to make everything as smooth as possible. The trigger itself needed a slight radius put on the top left and right side. The way the grip was machined there is a very sharp radius where the track opens into the mag area which could catch the top of the trigger if the trigger is set up with a lot of overtravel. With that done the trigger fit great and was super smooth. I have a dawson mag release and with the button on the width of the frame wouldn't allow the release to be pushed in far enough to release the mag. I made a very thin shim to push the button away from the grip and it worked fine. I could have also take a little material off the grip to allow more travel of the release but I didn't want to do this yet. Fitting the magwell ended up being the biggest challenge. I currently have the STI stainless and I'm thinking about changing to an aluminum in the future to give me flexibility on overall weight. WIthout having other magwells to test fit I wanted to remove as little material from the grip as I could and chose to modify the magwell instead. The inside front angle of the magwell needed a fair amount of material removed but because I wanted a really tight fit, I probably marked up and test fit the magwell 100 times removing a little each time until it snaps on and the holes align. This took the most time for me but if you were comfortable with your current magwell and just took a little off the grip this would have been about a 20 minute process. The thumb safety fit was fairly straight forward. This was my first time at it so I took my time not knowing exactly what I was doing and used a little rougher stone to remove the material. I also polished the inside faces to ensure smooth travel as you engage the safety. The sand finish would probably be fine but I wanted a little smoother feel. I probably took 45 minutes for me to do this, but the next time would be much quicker. Without any lightening cuts and with a long frame, bull barrel, and stainless magwell this thing is now a Heavy gun. The balance is awesome but I may switch to an aluminum magwell to reduce the weight a little bit. I haven't weighed it yet but I'm guessing it's in the mid 50's ounce range. If you are on the fence about getting one of these from PT I would highly recommend them, the gun now balances more like a single stack (although heavier) and feels how it should be! Gonna get out blasting this weekend we'll see how it goes

If the slot is wallowed out you can fill and recut with ptex stick the same thing used to fill ski base damage. You could also fill and file as a permanent shim. Bottom line the spring is likely moving somehow and you just need to figure a way to make it stay in place consistently.

Yup, as far as a machined piece of stainless goes, it is right up at the top! It's pretty sweet to have a blaster where the only piece of plastic is the fiber rod

Still needs final fitting but you get the idea

I think it was right at six weeks, when I ordered they said about five so I would say they have a pretty good gunsmith time vs real time multiplier which was awesome,

Mine arrived today, had to run home at lunch and check it out. Took about 20 minutes with a fine stone for a perfect fit. I'll post pics when I can but I still need to figure that out. The aggressive is awesome, I also got their new safety but haven't tried the fit on that yet but it looks great and it would block oger thumbs if needed

My LNL works great and I rarely make any adjustments once it was set up. Using bullet feeder die and lee case feeder tubes on top works awesome and cheap compare to the case feeder

Agreed

agreed, I think it's basically like this, if you like the Stock STI Grip as is - get the regular grip. If you prefer a stippled STI grip, get the aggressive PT texture. Of all the reviews I've read, no one said they got the aggressive and wished they hadn't, but a fair number of people got the standard and wish they had gone aggressive.

Depending on your level of comfort going at your gun and grip with a file, you should also consider the added cost of having the SVI fit by a gunsmith. The SVI is not drop in, whereas the PT is. There still may be minor tolerance fitting issues on the PT but it is designed as a drop in part vs being designed to a different spec. This makes the PT / SVI cost delta even more significant in the end

No argument that hiking and shooting are different animals, but for reference we weren't on a standard 14er death march "trail". I took them on two non standard class 3/4 routes on two of the sketchier 14ers in CO and the grip was impressive to say the least and they dug in just like a cleat until there was solid ground to hold the lugs. The cross has a very soft rubber, if you want a more firm cleat like rubber take a look at the fellraiser. I too wore cleats and for our typical shooting conditions of gravel, sand, casings, I find I have much better traction with more points of contact and smaller lugs on the salomons than I did with the mizuno cleats I was wearing. Not a sales pitch, just my experience. I could really care less what other people wear and I wouldn't feel at a disadvantage wearing cleats, the stiffer shank just gets old after a few hours

I got the aggressive stainless. From what PT told me this is by far the most popular regarding textures for the stainless. They said there are a lot of people that get the flat and use grip tape. I think the general consensus is, if you're into the whole grip tape thing get flat, if not, get aggressive. I wasn't interested in Aluminum and couldn't afford the Titanium so I didn't ask about the best texture on those. My thought though is that if it's a little too aggressive, I can knock it down with some fine paper but I definitely don't have the machining skills to make the normal texture more aggressive. In preparation, I've been working on my skin toughness by dry firing with a rasp, I'm up to 20 minutes a day without blood! Their new thumb shield safety is also on the way, it's a pretty sweet little piece of machining if your interested in that check it out

Me too!! luckily you don't need a set you only need one

I just got word my pt grip is shipping today, looking forward to trying it and I'll report back how it goes

Perhaps that is true. I used to race cyclocross (8th in nationals in 98 or so), and in a few events that had heinous mud I just wore soccer cleats instead of off-road cycling shoes, had perfect grip and ran away from the competition. No idea what the tough mudder is like, but I doubt it looks like typical uspsa terrain in the west. We shoot in a lot of loose dusty gravelly terrain. Regarding the salomons, I see people wear them alot, and I see many of them slipping in loose terrain where I am not slipping. Based on that observation, I probably won't bother trying them. (plus they are a little too trendy and rudy-project-esque for my tastes). But whatever, people should wear whatever is comfortable and works for their movement style and terrain. Yep, and that reason (imho) is that people are sheep, and very susceptible to marketing and the desire to fit in with the herd. If Nils and Rob L used a red rubber clown-nose when shooting and claimed it improved their peripheral vision and oxygen uptake, droves of shooters in team jerseys would be lining up to purchase red rubber clown-noses from Dawson and Shooters connection. Where did you say you can pick up one of these clown noses?! Sounds like that would definitely be just the thing to help my transitions! Regarding the salomons, I wore them on two 14ers last weekend here in CO which covered a multitude of terrain, from loose gravel, steep dirt, scree, wet rocks on creek crossings, granite boulders, and descending on super steep wet grass and snowfields and the traction they had was pretty impressive and far better than a hiking shoe made specifically for the purpose. Whether or not they are a necessity for anyone or their shooting, they are a very solid performing shoe when it comes to getting traction on varying surface conditions. For the people that are still slipping with them, they probably have footwork issues and would likely be on their face without them

It sounds like when I miss a 10MM shell! Double check they are not a 9MM variant

It didn't sound like he would be buying a new custom built to his needs but a used one which would have been built to someone elses. If he wants to get a new custom, I would still buy a stock one as he said he wanted to do it in a month and the custom would likely be a lot longer wait. I What he said. I went with a Brazos HP edge to start. A friend went with a Dawson CRP. We both went custom after we knew exactly what we wanted and now use them as back-up guns. I'm pretty sure this is the best route to take. I've known people that bought used customs and have no way modify them to what they want. I would also suggest getting it with the blue finish. I did not, I bought one hard chromed and will take a big hit if I ever want to modify my slide. Buying a blued gun is probably the best option as well. I bought a used executive which is factory hard chromed which makes it challenging to do any slide lightening without paying a huge premium. I got a good deal on it so it didn't matter to me then but now I'm looking at a custom because I want to do some slide lightening and it doesn't make sense to do it to a HC gun from the factory. Had I bought a blued gun I could do the cuts and then HC it as I'm really happy with the fit of it from the factory.

Moto - I would argue that the true "mud" running shoes from Innov8 or salomon are not typical trail running shoes and the tread design and rubber composition is nothing like a trail runner. From your post it doesn't sound like you have tried a true mud shoe, and I would suggest giving them a try if you find trail runners lacking in grip. The tread provides outstanding grip on loose and even on indoor concrete due to the stickiness of the rubber. I too wore cleats but they are a very stiff rubber and not nearly as comfortable. I have both the Speedcross and now using the fellraiser which I like better because it has a little firmer rubber (more cleat like) but it is not as grippy as the speedcross on slick surfaces due to rubber composition If you google competitions like Tough Mudder you will find reviews on the current best group of cleat like trail runners from a multitude of different manufacturers. Salomons are trendy just like S_I's but there is a reason people are using them. At the end of the day, your choice of footwear is probably the 3rd most important choice in gear for safety after your eyes, and ears