drewbeck

Ya there is always that risk. I keep a cover on it and take it off before I go to the line which helps remind me. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I’ve not fit a hybrid but I’d imagine any clocking of the barrel would be a nightmare with clearances around the “island”, it should be super easy to tell though with feeler gauges during the full action of the slide which is not as easy to check on traditional barrels. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

If you have to shoot in gloves you're better off staying home for the match. if you want to keep your hands and gun warmer, I've found golf mittens, especially titleist mittens to be great. You can put hand warmers in them if it's actually cold out. You can also put a hand warmer in you grip while not shooting to keep the gun loose and not have to grab a cooler gun. I'm actually curios if you can find or buy hand warmers in Louisiana though as your winter temps are out fall or spring temps in CO and summer temps up north?... Only kinda pokin fun!!

Charlie, you said push thru is the “only” way but have you found it’s more consistent than roll sizing? seems like a auto roll sizer would be well spent money at your volume

Then I’d get the mark 7

If I was shooting much .40 still I think I’d get an auto roll sizer or figure out an automated push thru before I spent money on the mark 7. To me making Ammo is kind of fun, but making brass is painful!

I haven’t shot either two but have put maybe 15-18k of eggleston thru my guns without any concern of issue to the gun. This included a lot of 115gr at 175ish PF. Smoke was no different for me with these but others may vary. In my experience the difference with coated lead and jacketed is the ease of accuracy when reloading. With jacketed you can get away with overcrimping the crap out of them withou a huge loss in accuracy. With coated lead it’s much easier to swage the bullet with to much crimp so that’s where most people screw up while using them. to set crimp unscrew your crimp die until it doesn’t touch the round when the press is fully canned over. Then let the handle down just enough to feel a little pressure as you tighten the crimp die roughly an 1/8 turn. Check case gauge and push as hard as you can against a bench and measure OAL to see if there is any setback issues. the biggest challenge with a lighter crimp is making sure your case length is pretty consistent as any change in length will change the amount of crimp on the round. Manufacturers case length can vary so it’s really best to sort them by manufacturer and set the crimp as you load them in batches. Just my experience but I had planned to only shoot them for practice but soon decided there was not point in loading different ammo for majors

Was it just cerakoted? If so it’ll loosen in short order. also check the wear pattern on slide and frame and see where it’s tightest. If it’s reliable it’s nothing to worry about but it seems like it’s still a little tight

Take the disconnector out and try it and confirm it’s the same. Usually there can be a higher force needed to push it down and let the slide start moving. i think the “correct” answer from Jerry’s manual is that the slide should fall free from slide under its own weight

Ya make sure the hood has clearance on all sides, and be damn sure the barrel isn’t springing before you do the finish cleanup of the lower lug. you can check for springing by putting the barrel in the slide, turn it upside down and gently tap the lower lug with a ball pein hammer. If it “tings/rings” when tapped it’s springing and you need to figure out where and relieve the barrel likely near the muzzle. If it “clunks” when tapped you’re good to go. if you trim the lower lug but the barrel is springing you’ll get a vertical string shot pattern when you test fire it. At that point you’ll fix the springing and then have to weld and recut the lower lugs correctly.....been there, done that

But if you need a spring to hold it in lockup your flats are too short or cut too steep. My experience is that the recoil spring helps more to gauge whether the fit of the hood/lower lug is correct during unlocking vs lockup because at least for me it’s always been easier to get the gun to “lockup like a vault” vs getting the timing right so it locks up tight then unlocks smoothly and that the slide clears the barrel hood and that the hood length/shape is correct for unlocking. the biggest factor in consistency in my experience for lock/unlock is how much vertical play you have in the slide/frame fit. Every .001 of clearance vertically makes the lower lug fit that much more critical, challenging, and nearly impossible to make it reliable and accurate. I’m not a paid GS but I’ve fit a few and this has been my experience as I’ve gotten better measuring tools to really understand what’s going on but it sounds like the flat is too short on your lower lug cut

If the slide is moving backwards then you are unlocking the action..??..and the barrel should be going down because of the link. it sounds like you need a recoil spring to hold it in battery and ease your mind

Over travel vote here as well. On the bench it works perfectly but in real life you probably need another 1/4 turn + to make it reliable when things are all in motion. it will feel like more than necessary on the bench but it’ll be unnoticeable when you’re shooting. you may also need some some additional disconnect/return pressure on the middle leg of the sear spring to make sure things aren’t free to play around while shooting.

Mmm, why not just trim it?

ya, the only PIA is when you forget the allen on the way to a safety area to check something during a match = double trips. Otherwise, non issue

“Top end”, I like it! i believe you are correct on being able to cut a - c/p barrel to w/n and you can also cut a w/n frame to a cp but not the opposite. the c/p barrel frame is superior in my opinion due to more consistency and strength during lockup. Strength is due to more surface area on a radius vs a flat and consistency is sure to the frame shoe horning the barrel into alignment vs hitting a flat which could be left or right of consistent center line. i believe this is true but someone who gets paid to build them can correct me if I’m wrong

My experience is, racker on Right = easier to take slide off / points for being lazy, and no double trips (because you forgot an Allen) to safety area during a match to check something out, this doesn’t matter at home. racker on left= better table starts (but can be negated depending on optic mount and/or thumb rest, lots of double trips to safety area, back to bag and back for an Allen during a match. The other thing I’ve noticed is racker in Right can be easier to rack the slide depending on gun and lateral fit of the slide. I think it’s easier to fight the twist of the gun with the racker on right side because it’s easier to fight the outward rotation. When racker is on left the muzzle moves more laterally to the left because it’s less natural for your wrist to fight an inward lever. at the end of the day I think it’s a matter of comfort and convenience, or table starts biased and I don’t think there is a tangible time benefit either way as long as you’ve practiced the way your gun is setup

Cool, sounds good. by the way, it’s semantics and probably my own issue but “upper” to me = AR15, and “Top end” = built by someone who gives a damn....call it whatever you want to but my mom could assemble an upper from YouTube, but if she needed a file it’s gonna be for her nails. (Though an emery file has its place in metal work she just doesn’t know it)

Glad you were able to see my humor as well as recognize it being a bad idea. why did you replace what seems to be a good working upper? If it works, buy a w/n frame and built it into a backup

Without the VIS and HIS being timed and located correctly the link will be the thing that has to stop the barrels rearward travel....you may get one shot, maybe a dozen or more before it’s catastrophic failure. id be curious to know so please report back on how long it takes to break your gun

not disagreeing with anything Chalee is saying but I think when trying to figure out the shot calling thing, it's easier (at least for me) to think of the whole process as more of a movie than a bunch of "sight pictures". If you think of your eyes as a video camera that are recording everything they see behind the gun as it moves through a COF, the shot calling process and "sight pictures" are really just single frame snapshots or freeze frames that need to be analyzed by your brain to confirm that the sights were good when the gun went off. The whole shot calling process is really simple (though not necessarily easy), you basically just need to teach your brain to grab a still image from the recording as the gun goes off and then have it analyze subconscously whether the shot was good based on how the sights were aligned at that moment. If they were good you move on, if they were bad you makeup the shot. It's really not much different than instant replay on a football game to confirm the foot was down when the ball was caught. The only difference is you have to make your mind do this analysis continually as every shot is fired. If you ever umpired or refereed a sport or game, that's basically all you're doing, at every shot you call it good (move on) or bad (fire makeup) based on what you see and feel. As you get better you're able to see more and more visually and refine this ability which is no different than an umpire learning to really know whether someone was out vs knowing someone was out by 6", a step, two steps, whatever. As far as shot calling movers goes, the process is identical, but I think the reason it is generally more difficult is that the moving target is much more distracting mentally and this pulls your focus and visual attention further away from the sights which makes it more difficult to get a clear snapshot of the sights when the gun went off. Without a clear snapshot, it is difficult if not impossible to call the shot. The key is to not let yourself pay more attention to the target than you're paying to the sights.

You need to remove material from the slide rails so they fit in the frame ways. Don't remove that step, in the frame or mess with the frame dimensions in any way for that matter. What you really need is to measure the slide rails and frame ways and see how much you need to remove from the bottom of the slide. A caliper is not good enough in my experience, you really need a micrometer. Brownells sells a rail mic but they are $279 ish but if you search eBay for a "can micrometer" you'll find the same thing from starrett and can pick one up for around $50-60 if you're patient. A "groove micrometer" can also be used to accurately measure but they are generally more expensive. I fit fit my first slide without anything but a caliper and you are kind of shooting in the dark without being able to accurately measure the parts. It turned out ok but in my opinion a jig is worthless if you can't accurately measure anything and you're better off with a rail mic and sandpaper/glass than you are with a mill without a mic. I now now have a mill but prefer to still use hand tools and good measurements to fit the frame and slide. It's a hobby and I'm fine with it taking a little longer to get good results with hand tools but if you can't measure it accurately you'll have more slop than necessary. The gun can still be accurate but it'll be more difficult to make it happen. my biggest advice is to try to figure out where it's bound up and then sleep in it for a night, then start removing material. In that time period you'll think about the things to double check before you cut something that isn't really the problem

I'm guessing they machine those from bar stock without any type of heat treating process. Due to the size of the part, it may be work hardening in their machining process and if the internal stresses in the steel aren't relieved through tempering or annealing after its machined the part would be much more susceptible to fatigue cracking and embrittlement which could be part of the problem. You could check with them on whether they are tempering the part or easily do it yourself in the oven depending on steel properties. Either way it shouldn't hurt and may fix the issue. Just an idea Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm guessing they machine those from bar stock without any type of heat treating process. Due to the size of the part, it may be work hardening in their machining process and if the internal stresses in the steel aren't relieved through tempering or annealing after its machined the part would be much more susceptible to fatigue cracking and embrittlement which could be part of the problem. You could check with them on whether they are tempering the part or easily do it yourself in the oven depending on steel properties. Either way it shouldn't hurt and may fix the issue. Just an idea Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Compare the two rounds made from each press. SOMETHING is different and you just need to figure out what. Just because they are the same dies doesn't mean you reset them the same in the new press. Look at your loaded round primers from lnl vs Lee what's different? Something has changed and you just need to adjust the new press to make the same consistent rounds. A blue press isn't the answer, I had the same primer issues when I switched from a LNL to a 650, the tool that made the ammo isn't the problem, you have to identify what's different in the finished product and adjust the press to make that ammo consistently