SSGJohnV

I think I fixed it. I did some reading and apparently SVI triggers are a bit different from STI triggers. I replaced the trigger with the STI one I was running and I think I cleared it up. A shame, as I love the feel of it, but not worth it right now to screw with it. I'll get it fixed by a competent smith when I get other major mods taken care of. And bounty, the problem wasn't the tension. It was the spring not being long enough it seemed to keep the sear under tension after the sear released the hammer. When the trigger was pulled, bang, then the spring would fall off of the sear, and then hammer follow. If anyone else has an idea of what else I could do please let me know. Thanks again. -John

Hello All, I just recently got my new Edge 2011 in .40. I took the advice of some of the guys here on the forums and bought a Brazos Custom Gunworks fire control group along with a donated SVI trigger. I installed it all myself with little fuss besides fitting the safety and making sure there was clearance with the grip safety. I took it to the range today to do some load testing and about 30 rounds in started having hammer follow. It was not touching off the next round, but it was definitely hammer follow (have it on video, actually) and was able to recreate it without firing any more. About half the time when I work the slide I feel no "clicks" of the hammer hooks, half-cock or full-cock. I stopped shooting for the day and took it home to disassemble, and found the problem. Please let me know if I need to post pictures to get this resolved. So, with the grip and thumb safety removed I can see that the left leg of the leaf spring is barely touching the sear. When I pull the trigger that leg is either almost, or does in fact, fall off the sear. Now, I have the stock FCG that came with the gun, but I would very much like to get this FCG working. So, what can I do to rectify this short of just re-installing my old FCG? Is this a common problem? What can I do to prevent this in the future? Thanks. -John

Dirty, I think he means the mainspring, not the leaf/sear spring. Mainspring is what powers the hammer. Leaf/sear spring puts tension on the sear, disconnector, and grip safety.

Ive heard before that the mainspring can go a loooong Tim without change out. The FP spring I change when I change recoil springs, usually, as they tend to come with the recoil spring.

Hello All, As I've posted before, I just got my new STI Edge CRP from Dawon on Thursday. UPS sucks, so even though my magazines have been in Anchorage (where I am) since Friday morning, I was told by a rep that there is no physical way for me to receive my package before the delivery date...of Monday the 17th...wow. So I borrowed three stock STI mags from a buddy on Thursday and went to the range Friday...dang, two of them don't work in my gun with my rounds...geez. Did some break in/zeroing. Whatever, I'll borrow some mags on Sunday. Sunday comes and my other buddy lets me borrow 3 Dawson tuned mags. First stage goes well, one full mag flawlessly (even though I had two mikes, dangit). So on comes stage 2, a long field course, 28 rounds. No biggie. Reload before the last 5 targets and I'll be golden. Get to right before my reload position, BANG-BANG-BANG-BANG-click-bang-WTF?...Mag is on the ground...OK, whatever, have to reload anyway. Reload. BANG-BANG-clickbang...mag is on the ground...WTF?!!? RELOAD! BANG-clickbang...mag on the ground...again... Grab my last mag, and calmy insert it...feel the click... Finish the stage...What could have been a 18 second run and near the top was a 26 second run... Yup. That extended mag release that comes on CRP Edges? My weak hand was hitting it when I squeezed my grip too hard. Took the button off and just dealt with it for the rest of the match. Lesson of the day? Practice with your equipment before you expect it to work 100%...which I thought I did, but apparently not well enough. Take care...and try to learn from my screwup. -John

I just bought an Edge CRP from dawson precision, and besides some slide cuts and a new grip, I'm very happy with it. I priced out a custom gun and it was going to be almost double what I was paying for my factory gun. If I had the money and the time, I'd go full custom. I don't, so I didn't, and I'm happy. In the end, its up to you.

Unfortunately Mr. Cheely is only doing full builds at this time. Judging from his gallery I would be happy to have a custom gun built by him in the future, but just looking for some slide mods right now. Ordered a Brazos trigger group today, and a shooting buddy was kind enough to donate an SVI triglide trigger to me, as well as an SVI grip...now to have it fitted to the frame and get a trigger insert. I'm still in shock that I finally got a gun worth customizing. I've been shooting an older used Para P16-40 in limited most recently, and my single stack .45 in L10 before that. Went from D class to C class and am keeping pace with the mid-high B shooters in my local matches. Just trying to amp it up a notch with quality equipment. Any other suggestions for a smith? Thanks again for all of the input. -John

Thanks for the input. Just to add, I have a refinishing guy here in Anchorage, so refinishing is already taken care of. I guess what I'm rally asking is what should I expect to pay for slide lightening and tri topping?

Hello All, First off, let me say that I appreciate and understand the work gunsmiths do, especially ones that are well versed in USPSA style guns and making sure they run. I know that it takes time to get to that level and you get what you pay for. Having said that, no one wants to pay more than they have to. I am looking to get some work done on my new STI Edge and am shopping around, so to speak. Work I would like done includes slide lightening, flat or tri-topping, blending a safety, trigger work including fitting an SVI triglide trigger, blending the magwell, and perhaps refinishing What should I expect to spend on work like this from a gunsmith worth his salt? I'm in Anchorage, Alaska, and none of my usual go-to gunsmiths have much experience with competition work, so I know I'm going to have to have the gun shipped off. Any suggestions for gunsmiths to look into? I would like to keep it in the sub $1k range, and if I'm being unreasonable, please tell me so. I want to be realistic on this before I decide to have it done at all. I appreciate your input on this. Thanks. -John

I think its just because of the Bayou Bullets I'm using. My xTreme 165 grain RNFP's loaded out to the same OAL feed fine from good mags and pass the plunk test. I think its just the extra .001 of .402 lead bullets vs .401 of plated thats doing it.

Just got back from the range. Unfortunately, 2 of the 3 stock STI 140mm mags wouldn't feed the 165 grain xtreme's I have on hand. The rounds wouldn't angle up on the feed ramp and would instead jam against it. I have 4 Dawson tuned mags inbound for deliver on Monday, so I'm not too concerned. I brought my screwdriver set to zero the gun at 15 yards...shouldn't have bothered. Its a damn laser beam with a 6 o clock hold. Oh, and how in the hell do people ever fumble reloads with an ICE magwell? This thing is like a damn electro-magnet for magazines. The mags disappeared into the magwell like a pizza at a weightwatchers convention. Only things I'm going to change for sure is getting a new grip. Most likely an SRT grip from Advanced Performance Shooting. Love the feel of the current grip, but it tears my delicate lady hands up a little. Also going to have to blend the safety a bit, as it poked the skin in between my thumb and fore finger. To be expected, though, as I have to do the same thing with my other handguns usually. And finally, going to have to have the chamber free bored a little as my 180 grain Bayou Bullet TC's set at 1.175 don't pass the plunk test. Set at factory OAL with minor loads they work fine, but I would prefer to have a long load with the 180's for feeding and safety. Trigger job will most likely be a simple Extreme Engineering sear, disco, and hammer and install it myself. Maybe have my gunsmith check it and polish it a bit. Other than that, time will tell if I want a slide lightening and refinish. Until then, I'm going to shoot the ever loving hell out of it.

Hello All, My much anticipated STI Edge CRP in .40 arrived at my local fun store today from the great folks at Dawson Precision. They truly are team Awesome, by the way. To put it simply, I think I'm in love. After shooting a Para P16-40 for a few months, going to handling an STI that is mine, and no one elses, is like going from an SUV to a sports car. The slide to frame fit is just amazing. I can't imagine how the true custom 2011 style guns match up if this is a factory gun. Wow. Also, one of you could have warned me. I loaded up some mags with my handloads to see if they hand cycle in my new precious, and they did, but the gun was also marked as mine...by taking skin off of my left hand thumb. It looks like I tried to load some razor blades in a magazine, and there are deposits of skin in the slide serrations. Seriously. They don't call it the Edge for nothing. DIdn't even notice it for a while, thanks to my calloused thumbs, but WOW. Talk about sharp machining. Overall, I'm so glad I have tomorrow off of work so I can go to the range and put this puppy through its paces. Thanks for all of your input and knowledge that led me down this path. My wallet is still sore from the beating it received, but it will recover. -John

And my wife called me crazy when I was just getting into reloading and bought a 4# jug of clays in late November 2012...still have about a pound left over. Good find!

Hey All, I recently got some 200 grain SWC from bayou and am just checking to make sure that my thinking is in the right ballpark. I have a load for 200 grain lead SWC with Clays (4.0 grains IIRC, I could be wrong) at 1.245 OAL. Are there any reasons I can't just transfer this load over? I'm going to chrono these to make sure they make PF of course, but am I missing something right off the bat? Thanks. -John

Ok. I worked up some HP-38 loads today when my Bayous came in. Data: 180 grain Bayou TC Winchester SPP HP-38 @ 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 OAL 1.175 I cross referenced my loading manual and all seems OK. Will see how accuracy and chrono goes. Looking up data for autocomp is a bit harder. Book says 5.6-6.2 with a Berrys 180 grain at SAAMI OAL. Where should I start? Worth the trouble?

Picked up a pound of HP-38 and a pound of Autocomp today. Going to play with the loads to get what I need. If there is anything I need to know about using autocomp, I would appreciate the info. Thanks for the input so far.

I have a line on a pound or 2 of W-231 and I use it for .38 special anyhow, so I'm going to pick it up today from a small distributor up here. I asked about clays powder and he said they don't exist anymore as the plant burned down last year...I'm not going to say anything, just take my powder and drive on. I look forward to being in the lower 48 again if only for mail order powder and primer.

CLP is rated to be used up here in Alaska, so that's what I use when I shoot at outside comps in the winter. Been down to -15 or so. When shooting indoor I use whatever I have on hand. Hoppes lube, Rem Oil, militec, clp, that kinda thing. A drop on the rails, drop on the barrel hood and off I go. I clean my guns thoroughly every 150-200 rounds anyhow, so as long as they are lubed I don't worry too much.

I think you're right, kneelingatlas. I still might do the conversion for my lcr though, if only for the advantage of being more sure of the ejection of my cases.

Hello All, I am not a revolver shooter, usually, but I do have two revolvers. A Ruger LCR .357 mag, and my mothers old police issue (made in 1964) SW Model 15-2. I made a promise to my dad that I would never sell the gun, and I have no intention of doing so, so that it can be passed down when I eventually have children. All of that being said, I was thinking of competing with it in USPSA or Steel Challenge for giggles, and I had considered getting either a new cylinder and cutting it for moon clips, or just getting the current cylinder cut for moon clips by Clark Custom ( http://www.clarkcustomguns.com/moonclip.htm ). My question is considering I only want to use it for competition, never carry, would there be a hassle I am not expecting in doing this? I understand from the website that I would still be able to single load rounds in it and the limitations of the moonclips. Do you think it would be better to just get a new cylinder and have it converted? Are there cylinders I could buy that are already converted and will work in my Model 15-2? Thank you all for the input. Take care. -John Vlieger

Forgot to add I have Unique available, too. I plan on loading long regardless, but any tips on making major safely with clays?

Hello All, I have an STI Edge inbound in a few days along with some Bayou 180 grain TC. I've been using 165 grain Berrys or Xtreme's to make major with Longshot, although there is considerable flash and it took like 6.7 grains to get there. I was wanting to try another more economical powder to make major in my new Limited STI. Powders I have on hand in any quantity: -800x -Clays -Longshot -VV3N37 -Trail Boss (ha, just kidding) -about 1/3 pound of Zip -Red Dot I've used 3N37 to make major with 165 grain plated, but it was loud and flashy. I'm in Alaska, so mail ordering powder is kind of out the door. I'm limited to what I can find on the shelves. Should I try to make clays work, or should I just accept the limitations of longshot and 3N37 and make do? Thanks. -John

Purely local match. Like, 15-20 shooters max. Indoor range with one stage at a time. The RO, we'll call him A, and the peanut gallery, we'll call him M, basically run the IDPA matches and A runs the USPSA matches with M's help. We compete amongst ourselves and don't even separate ourselves on the standings by CDP or SSP or whatever. We mostly treat it as extra trigger time. What I'm getting at is A and M know each other pretty well and even if A thought it was wrong probably wasn't going to call M out on it in front of all of us. I'm going to have a private discussion with M and A before the next match. Hell, M lives like. 2 blocks from me so I might just stop by and talk to him about it. Trying to keep it all civil while following the rules and all.

Kinda the wrong place for this topic, bud, seeing as this is for introducing yourself. To kind of answer your question, just replacing the trigger won't do that for you. I would recommend taking it to a gunsmith to have them work on it if you want the trigger pull modified. Also, did you buy this off of someone. I was in the 82nd Airborne during OIF 07-08, and couldn't buy that pistol because of my age at the time. Does it say what brigade it was on the gun? Take care. -John

Ordered my CRP edge through DP today and they are not offering tigger work at this time. They will install the trigger I bought from them at the time of purchase for a small fee, but no trigger work. Excellent customer service from Dawson all the way around btw.