daytona955i

The M&P front sights are a bitch to remove. After bending the blade on my sight pusher and mushrooming a brass drift, I finally got it to move with a steel punch. Make sure you put it against a hard surface, an armorer's block might not cut it. I used a piece of hardwood. Going back in, lots of sights are oversized, use a good diamond file and try it slowly. Couple swipes, test fit, swipe, fit, etc. It should move 1/3 of the way into the dovetail

Depends on the points available and the typical stage time (which I guess is the hit factor). An IDPA stage that takes an average of 15 seconds in raw time, one miss adds 33.3% penalty to your score.

The problem I had and am working on wasn't slow splits or transitions between every shot, but specifically before I'd move from one position to another or the last shot before a reload. I usually agree that a tighter grip can fix most issues that arise in handgun shooting, but I'm not sure it applies to this unique issue. Put it this way. Imagine I'm shooting an el prez at 10 yards in 8 seconds, 11 A hits and a Mike. The Mike is the 6th shot. Would you think it was the grip?

The guide rod hole is made wider for a reverse plug.

If it's done by the manufacturer, according to how other guns have been treated (34 slide cut), then it would be. I think ESP should be an anything goes place for slide machining, but that's not how it currently reads.

I worked on being very patient and allowing myself to feel the trigger breaking and the sights moving in two different steps. It feels slow in the moment, but the results speak for themselves.

I know you're probably right, but I was hoping someone knew something that I didn't!

I'm competitive, but mostly with myself. I know that I'm holding me back when I screw up. I take video of everything. It's important for review. After a bad match I go through the results and see how I did overall on each stage and identify the ones that I did not perform well on, then I figure out what steps I could go through to do better in the same situation next time, or what I would do differently if I could do that stage all over again. I don't dwell on the bad performance, but I am hard on and critical of myself. I'll try to see where I could have placed if I had done things better or differently. But you can't stop at "well I would have won had I done XYZ." you have to say, "next time I am faced with this problem, it won't be an obstacle where I face my past failure and regret it, I'll be happy to have failed so that I learned to not do it again." It's important to learn to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses to know how risky you can get with your stage plans, and where you should be practicing. You should pick your strengths during a match and use those on your stage plan. Then go home and practice on the weaknesses. Get your equipment in order first, there's no reason to have that in the back of your mind. And so what if a magazine explodes or something crappy happens to you once in 10k rounds and it happens to be during a match. There's nothing you can do about it once it has happened. Don't let it be the anchor that you drag through every stage the rest of the day. Lastly, what itch are you scratching by shooting? Is it the competition? camaraderie? Do you want to win, or are you just seeking to get better for yourself? Is it your passion or your business? Are you having fun of not? The answers to those questions are for you and you alone, but they are what you should keep in mind on a bad day.

But they don't build the Accu-Shadow from the ground up, or off a bare frame. If they did, I'd say there was no question that it was legal.

Thanks for the reply. It is the same three chambers, and from what I know, Ruger reams the cylinders three at a time, so it makes sense that they might be different. Rounds drop smooth and clean when cold. I use a stainless chamber brush and get the fouling out until the cylinders are shiny.

The rules don't specify an acceptable amount, only that removal outside of certain explicit changes isn't allowed. If this was a custom gun maker, then the rules would allow the gun in SSP too, as it would have come from the factory this way, and if it met the production amounts. A similar Tanfoglio would be legal if it came stock with the bushing.

You can't miss fast enough to win in USPSA, especially on a stage with less points, but a miss and a no shoot in IDPA is 10 seconds to the total stage score. On stages with a raw time of 15-20 seconds, which is a bulk of IDPA given the round count and movement constraints, you can add 40-50% to your stage score for one errant shot (miss and a no shoot).

Don't over think it. Lots of people shoot VP9s and G19s in SSP. Reloading more often or on different spots than others is going to be more of a disadvantage than the little bit shorter gun. It'll give you a better idea of where you stack up versus the competition because 75% of the shooters will be SSP or ESP. Reload with retention shouldn't be too hard to master, just don't drop the mags. Accuracy counts much more in IDPA than it does for USPSA so definitely get good hits.

Was it firing twice on one pull, or once on the first pull, and once on the let off?

I really like the 10-8 Performance u-notch rear sight, and whatever the thinnest front sight is from Dawson (.100" ?) http://www.10-8performance.com/s-w-m-p-rear-sight/

How often do you need to do it? Once a year I put my whole frame and slide (in two pieces) in a pan of simple green with the grips removed.

This plus polishing of the trigger bar and the reduced power trigger return spring is all I really did. 4.5lb SA trigger, 7.5 DA. The short lifter with the extended firing pin help with the lower trigger pull and keep the reliability the same. The trigger return spring and firing pin retainer are also common points of failure with OEM parts, so it's good to upgrade those right away.

It's a poorly written rule. It specifically mentions grip panels and back straps so I assume those are the only areas they want modified, but didn't say it that way. They should modify it to any part of the frame below the slide and behind the trigger guard.

Are you sure you didn't reuse the factory seat spring? The FSS sear spring is actually more stout than the stock one.

I'm getting POA as POI most of the time, but occasionally I'm getting complete misses. On video, it's clear I'm moving the gun before the shot breaks. On the surface, this is pretty simple. I know I need to stop doing that but it's proving hard to correct in live fire. Right before a reload or on the last target in an array are when I do it the most, but occasionally it will be a random target, always the second or last shot. When I shoot an auto I get off the target fast without settling the front sight back down to reduce transition time and haven't had this issue. When I follow through and bring the sight back down, I feel like I'm moving through syrup. Has anyone else had this problem? Any remedies besides just working on knocking it off?

What everyone else said about not counting but pre-planning where you reload is right on point and doesn't need to be repeated. Action beats reaction, so knowing the last round was fired when you pull the trigger is always faster. However, in reviewing my shooting on video later, the times when I have been surprised (sometimes your plan goes to shit and you compensate by shooting more, not better), my slide lock, actual emergency, not planned empty, reload is only a hair slower, .20 seconds maybe over time. The difference is I'm watching the front sight and not the target. It's a much different sight picture when the slide locks back.

Sorry, brain fart, they're FP bullets, no ledge.

158gr Xtremes FP. I'll mic some again and see what I get.

I don't have a .38spc case gauge, but the rounds drop easily in the clean cold cylinder.

Slightly from the factory, just enough to break the edge. The rounds drop pretty far, but not enough to close the cylinder every time without a secondary tap.