runnerguymn

Thanks for all the replies guys! I ordered up a sporting clays piston from midwestgunworks.com and I'll keep you posted on the outcome. I do have my lifter welded up (with a little shade tree fabricating...or maybe more accurately pantry fabricating see http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=166969) so I'll have to see how it behaves. I hadn't heard the Glock extractor spring mod, but it might be just what this gun needs. Thanks again guys! ~runnerguymn

Hi everyone, I was at a competition a while back and overheard someone helping a new shooter with an SLP and some cycling issues with light loads. I thought he recommended replacing the FN light gas piston with one from a similar model under another brand (maybe winchester?). Does anyone know anything about this, or did I overhear incorrectly? I'm curious about this because I've been having some issues cycling light loads in my SLP and was thinking this might be a solution for me. Thanks!

Thanks for the feedback Dan! I've looked at the briley stuff and I might have to bite the bullet and order one, although I like the NC design a little more. I didn't think one was necessary until I had some cold weather cycling issues at a 3 gun competition recently and managed to wear a hole in my right hand in an afternoon with the stock charging handle. I was hoping to find someone here that had an extra NC or knew of a little hole-in-the-wall gunshop that might have one.

Hi guys (and gals), I'm hunting for a copy of the NC bolt handle for my FN SLP, and I can't seem to find one in stock anywhere. I've got one on backorder with midway since mid-January...but every time they get close to the expected stock date, they move it out another 6 weeks. Does anyone have a spare one of these laying around or know where I can get one before the season starts up in earnest?

So...with a little more heat and the addition of a strap wrench I was able to get the magazine tube free. If anyone else has to do this, I would suggest using a propane torch and heating the mag tube just a bit above the tube/receiver junction and letting the heat soak down into the receiver threads from the mag tube to make this as painless as possible. Cheers!

Hi Guys and Gals, I'm trying to remove the magazine tube on my SLP and I seem to be running into a bit of trouble. I haven't seen the receiver naked, but I think the magazine tube is just a plain jane threaded part that's held in with some red loctite. I've been heating the receiver and tube to get the loctite to loosen up, but I don't want to get it too hot and screw up the receiver and finish. Using a IR thermometer I've gotten the tube/receiver up to 500*F which is a little above the 482*F where the loctite is supposed to give way, but I haven't had any luck getting the tube to move around by hand at that temperature. I looked everywhere and didn't see any pinning or anything else that is holding the mag tube on. Am I missing something really dumb, or do I just need to be more persistent and keep more heat on the two parts while applying torque by hand?

McFly: I was a little skeptical about the spring/timing argument as well. Given the extremely short cycle times, the amount of spring force required to move the mass of lifter+shell upward would be so strong that you probably wouldn't be able to budge it with your thumb which would render the design useless (or at the very least quite likely to remove a finger or two). It seemed to me that all the spring action was there to do is return the lifter down to the firing cycle start position after the user loaded a round into the magazine. The rest of the action's motion seemed to be based on the inertia of the bolt. I was really surprised at the very short throw of the piston system on the SLP. After stripping everything down, it looks like the design relies on the first 3/4" or so of the bolt travel to impart a little inertia and then transfer that energy to the return spring housed in the stock. I can understand where they're worried about larger loads imparting a pretty substantial velocity on the bolt and causing damage to either the return spring or the rear of the receiver (or deforming part of the trigger group/lifter system) if the incorrect gas piston assembly is installed. Is a short piston cycle common in shotgun actions? I know it's supposed to be quick, dirty, and sloppy, but it does give one a bit more appreciation for the controlled round feeding of a good bolt action. Since this is the first shotgun I've ever owned, this is all pretty new to me. Is there an analog to the Winchester 70 controlled round feeding system in the shotgun world or an action that doesn't rely on glorified moving funnels to try to blindly stuff a shell into the breach? it seems like cycling most shotgun actions upside down would really do a number on the loading gate type system (not that I'm advocating a batman style 3-gun training approach...although video would be quite entertaining if anyone has tried).

casanova: I hadn't thought about getting a primer strike from the lifter, I'll have to do a little more work and figure out a shape that's not grabb-y but has some releif in the primer area. It seems like all of the lifter gate modifications I've seen have a pretty flat profile on the forward edge. Has anyone ever heard of a cascading detonation in the magazine tube from a primer strike on the lifter gate? I shudder to think of what the mop-up on such an event would look like.

Have you seen the lifter springs on the SLP break frequently? I thought I was going to have another episode of searchcing my dining room for a small part while trying to install that little bugger. God must really hate gunsmiths, because all the small parts I've seen in trigger groups are at the end of a spring perfectly fabricated to throw them somewhere you'll never find them.

Hrm...sounds like I'll need to chuck it up in the mill and make a couple of chips with it then. The gun is still unfired, so I figured I'd try to run a couple boxen of loads down the pipe before pulling *everything* off the receiver and trying my hand at widening the loading port with the mill. I read somewhere that customer service gets cranky when you complain about issues on a modified product. Thanks for the enlightenment Steve!

Hi guys and gals, I bought an SLP last week and I'm working on getting it ready for 3-gun season...and I wound up mashing my thumb on the forked part of lifter on the first day I started doing loading drills. OUCH! No blood, but plenty of bruise. I'm new-ish to shooting sports, but I've been doing metalworking for a while, so this didn't seem too tough to get done in a couple of hours. I've gotten my loading gate welded up, reassembled, and function checked and everything looks good, but I had a question for people that are more knowlegable than I. I noted that some of the pics I've seen of others that have done this have a slot cut in the lifter ( http://www.boomershooter.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7260-must-do-mods-for-the-fn-slp-shotgun ). Is this slot for some practical purpose, or is this just from someone yanking a lifter off another model shotgun and they happen to have a slot cut in it? I've attached a couple of pics of my lifter in progress. Yes...that is the remnants of a table knife...I couldn't find a good piece of stainless laying around that was the proper thickness. I figured it would even out the cosmic balance...remove a fork by adding a knife! ~runerguymn