openclassterror

On behalf of everyone with a machine shop everywhere in the world, I hate you LOL! These are the kind of projects that put gray hairs on machinist's heads. Huge liability, can't charge enough money to actually be worth doing, but for a buddy, I always end up saying yes. And then working 'til 11:30pm on Friday to make up the hours I wasted on the one-off. GRRRRRR!!!!!

Jeez Terry, you would KNOW about the certificate thing if you went to the big matches and not just your "local club shootouts". I shoot my iron-sighted, plastic framed, striker gun against the big boys in open with their .38supers ALL THE TIME. And I am ALWAYS within milliseconds of their scores. Just don't ask how MANY milliseconds

Be CAREFUL about cutting down where your marks are with the port cut as far forward as you have. If you take it to the red lines you drew and bevel the opening much at all, the tiny lip that keeps the follower from jumping out of the magazine tube will be just about gone. If it is removed all the way around the bottom and the follower pops free, the receiver will require professional help or it is scrapped. What you have so far looks pretty aggressive. I would leave it alone until you can try it with healthy range of motion.

+8 gives you 12 in the tube. You may get 13 sometimes, depending on the shells. My +9 allows 14 in the gun if 4 or more of the shells are slugs.

The factory magazine tube has an orange restrictor (bird plug) in it, and a snap-ring that keeps the spring from flying out when the mag cap is removed. If you don't have a proper snap-ring plier set, then you can use the end of a coarse threaded bolt (a 1/2" lag-bolt works great) to remove the snap ring. Simply thread it into the center hole (not far enough to get tight, just enough for the threads to grab) and wiggle the bolt as you pull the plug out. The spring and follower will fall (fly) out at that point. If you have an M3k, it probably came with a bright orange plastic follower. It is quite likely that it will not work with a magazine extension. It is very short, and the edges are sharp. Probably 80% of them hang up on occasion where the extension meets the mag tube. I highly recommend a low-drag aftermarket follower if you got the plastic one from the factory. If you got the black anodized aluminum follower I wouldn't bother replacing it unless it gives you trouble. There are several others on the market if you don't like ours. If you use our adapter nut and extension kit, there is no modification necessary to the factory magazine tube. It will thread right on without grinding or cutting. The proper length for the spring is approx. 12-14" LONGER than the total magazine tube assembly from receiver to endcap. Start there, and adjust if necessary. I often cut mine shorter, but as stated above if you cut it too short malfunctions will occur

It is a USAS12. Undoubtedly one of the ugliest shotguns ever devised, but I think it was pretty much the first successful (sort-of) mag fed shotgun.

This is the setup I had come up with, but wanted to find out if I was missing the boat on some other slick setup. The only downside to this is that the clamp affects POI, and unless it is mounted very close to the fore end makes the sling loop pretty long. Looks like it is still the consensus among available options though.

I am not trying to troll this thread at all. That said, this post may ruffle some feathers even though not intended that way. We live in a free country, and capitalism is (theoretically) still king. So, the only reason the run and gun type matches would have displaced the scenario based, "real life" type matches should have been because more people wanted to shoot the way it is now, right?. Unless there was an infrastructure type cause, which is believable if the old days required a full reset crew. People busting ass so others can shoot wears out volunteers lickety-split. So the real question is, did the SOF type matches go away because the majority of shooters like this style better, or because the people necessary to make those type of matches succeed would rather be shooting instead? That is not a trick question, or one intended to induce death threats. I would LOVE to shoot a retro SOF type match. BUT, I have also been a past President, Secretary, Match Director, Head RO, and many other jobs for our local 3gun club, and it burned me out. Like, to the point where I quit shooting for a while. From THAT perspective, I would bet a few of my hard-earned dollars that the shooter-reset, easy setup/teardown type matches currently in vogue are not driven so much by shooter preference as by the level of effort that the crew putting on the match is willing to expend making it happen. Can any of the old(er) guard comment as to the validity of my hunch?

I hope you have an explanation for the grip technique on the guns in the lower photo That said, Thanks! it is a very good visual account of how the different optics look from the shooter perspective. I want a little red dot with a big window, and I'm hoping the RTS2 (or3 if rumors are true)will be the one that makes me retire the big sideways monstrosity I have now.

I'm that guy in the big truck with the fog lights on. For some reason, the fog lights are on whenever the low beams are on, and turn off when the high beams are actuated. I know it must be a particular combination of switch rotation and push/pull or something, but I haven't gotten around to figuring out how to make it stop. And besides, they are never pointed in MY eyes..........

The reason we don't have a lot of specific info on the site is because every gun is essentially a custom build. If I recall correctly we have only put together one shotgun with the "standard" package in the last 3 or 4 months. Nearly everyone adds a recoil pad, or sights, or lefty or Double-head safety. We try to tailor each build to the customer, with the basic package as a starting point. Also, there are subtle differences starting with an M3k vs M3000 etc, which are difficult to convey on the website.

If you want to make the drive over for one of our monthly club matches here in Grants Pass, your wife is welcome to shoot it and see what she thinks before plunking the money down. I am more than happy to bring it out to the range

Considering the fact that a weakened (worn-out) lifter spring can cause loading malfunctions on guns with this type of lifter setup ( Benelli, Versamax, Stoeger, Franchi, etc), I do not ever deliberately trim this spring, even at customer request. The minimal gain in loading effort is more than offset by potential reliability issues. I have seen guns run with the spring cut, but I have seen many more need a replacement spring.

I put together a Mossberg SA-20 for my son when he started 3gun. He has since graduated to 12ga. The only problem it had in competition was during the NWMGC in Bend, OR. The extractor broke off right in the middle of a stage. To their credit, Mossberg overnighted a replacement to a gun shop in Bend, and I ran into town the next day to pick it up and get him going for the afternoon stages. The lifter has an evil thumbnail remover, and it is a VERY exacting science on a 20ga to weld it up without causing feeding issues. The lifter needs a trough in the middle to keep the shell centered or it hangs up on the chamber mouth when feeding. If you weld it up too far forward there isn't enough lifter travel to get the shells under it into the mag tube. Make sure the gunsmith who welds it knows what he is doing.

If it is a disconnector release issue, it would likely only happen if the trigger was reset while the bolt was slamming shut. The easiest way to be sure is to have a buddy record in slow motion. My brother's smart phone does super slo-mo, so you can see every bit of the cycle if the camera is about a foot away from the ejection port. You can see the hammer fall through the bolt handle slot, and you can see if the trigger is resetting before the hammer falls as long as the screen angle is wide enough. If you test by pinning the trigger to the rear ( pull hard and hold against the travel stop) until well after cycling is complete and it never doubles, but in normal operation it happens, then likely your trigger release is coinciding with the bolt closing, and this is what is jarring the hook loose. We have the advantage of being able to swap out every component until we find the culprit. Your 100% sure diagnosis would be to swap the hammer from your first M3000. If that doesn't make it go away, try swapping out the trigger and/ or disconnector. Only change one part out at a time until you isolate the faulty part. If you could, I would like to see a close-up side view of the trigger and disconnector hooks. The hammer hooks don't look obviously out of spec.

Anyone have a link to the actual SHOT show match? the one provided is just a generic SHOT main page. Edit- Nevermind, found it on Practiscore.

I have both, and use both. Good results with both. Only input is that the aluminum color-code ring on my Briley Diffusion dug into a plastic dump barrel and tore halfway off. The Extended Carlson chokes are laser-engraved, so you can't lose the ID mark

TRUTH^^^^^^^^^

I have attended several majors where a shotgun sling was supposed to be required, but everyone whined enough to make them change the course and eliminate the sling. The only match I have been to where they followed through was Northwest Multigun in Bend, OR. I want to come up with an elegant sling setup so I never have to worry about a match that requires it. What sling setup do you use on your shotgun, and WHY do you have it set up the way you do?

I am starting to warm up to the 2-screw attachment method used by Taccom. My Matchsaver has been on the gun for almost 2 years now, and the Velcro is losing its grip. The single screw allows it to pivot, and I find myself chasing it sometimes when I wish it would stay put. I liked the idea of being able to adjust it when I first put it on and wasn't exactly sure where I wanted it. Now that I know where I want it, I just want it to STAY THERE!

FWIW, A Benelli hammer will work in the Stoeger. There is a cam at the bottom of the Benelli that is unnecessary in the Stoeger, but 99% of the time it doesn't rub anyway. If it does, you just hit it with a belt sander or grinding wheel. On the picture, it is the tab below the pivot pin. On the Stoeger, it is a smooth radius around the pivot. Here is a pic of the Benelli M2 vs the Stoeger hammer

We have seen a couple Stoegers that have the rear hook on the hammer rounded off from the factory, like someone slipped on the grinder or something. Whatever the cause, it happened prior to the chrome plating, because the plating was applied over the rounded off end. What happens is that the disconnector DOES grab the hammer after the shot, but when the trigger is released the disconnector lets go of the hammer too early on the reset, and the trigger hook can't engage before the hammer slips past. In essence, it fires once on the trigger pull, and again on the release. I am not saying this is the cause on yours, but it is a possibility. Here is a picture. The one on the right caused exactly the problem you describe-

Never use your skin to determine how hot something is

Do you double-tap when using the "approach" technique as well, Pat?

I use a heavily modified XdM in Open, and use the front of the guard in combination with a "gaspedal" type thumb rest. I am sort of 'pinching', by which I mean that my index finger and thumb form a squeeze between the front of the trigger guard and the thumb rest. Obviously being a striker-fired gun with a 7-port comp and a 14lb recoil spring it CAN'T track as flat as a well-tuned 2011, but the dot never leaves the glass and returns to the middle of the window quickly after each shot. A friend of mine went to a TPC class, and when he got back he showed me how my grip was all wrong, and I would have better control and faster recovery using the thumb forward grip that is so popular with the limited guys. Well, let me tell you. My scores went to hell. I couldn't find my dot after each shot, my fast pairs went every-which-way on the second shot, it just wouldn't work with my setup. Every setup is different. Barrel length. Comp design. Powder choice. Bullet weight. Hand size. Grip strength. Barrel weight vs slide weight. Thumbrest position and angle. Spring arrangement and balance. The list is endless. The PERFECT setup on a 5" 2011 with a 5 chamber and popple holes and a .200 stroke shooting 115s might be useless on an unstroked CZ launching 124s. The trick is finding enough time to play the variables and test your setup in a scientific fashion until you find the hot ticket for you. Then 3 years later whenyou have a Gorilla Grip, you will have to tweak it to make it right again. To me, half the fun of competing is the tweaking in the off-season