MWP

38 super die solved all my brass sticking problems. Federal brass isn’t the thickest at the case mouth so you need the 9mm die to get some neck tension back. Win brass will do fine with just the super die. Yes mark 7. I use the flare die in the same spot I prime, and did the same when I was on a 1050. Only thing different now is I have decapping and sizing separated, and I would set and seat at the same time on a 1050 with gsi tool head.

In order: Lee decap. Lee 38 super sizing. Lee 9mm sizing. Hornady flare. Powder. Powder check. Mr Bulletfeeder bullet drop. Lee 9mm seating. Lee factory crimp. That’s for .355, .356, .357 and .358 plated and .358 coated.

This pitting is from leakage around the primer like was called out above. This can happen from loads too light to seal the primer, or loads too hot to hold it. Primer/brass relationship have plenty to do with this too. I bought a gun that only had 10-15k on it, but they were all light loads with a slow powder. The erosion was much worse than this example. As always, if you want it done once, right and anytime soon- never send it back to the factory.

I’ll trade you one for a 929...

What springs are you using?

Does TSA day you can have empties in your carry on? Can’t say I’ve read the rules lately about carry ons. TSA does say 50lbs ammo checked, although very few airlines do. I think ammo is best separate and unlocked from any other gun things. It’s not uncommon for TSA to want to look at ammo (which they can do) and I don’t want them having access to any of my guns or other gear (which they cannot do.)

9mm S&B boxes, tucked into an unlocked pelican box. Haven’t had an issue domestic or international.

There’s only 1 choice if you’re looking for 1 gun to go all the way. 929

Brian and I have been talking about shooting a few locals with it. Might dig the old girl out soon and give her a go again.

No, not really. I made GM with it and the rules changed 2 weeks later. I carried it to 2014 and 2015 nationals along with major and minor ammo, but I never saw enough to convince me 6major was the way to go. I’ve shot it a lot in IDPA though. I’ve shot it quite a bit in practice to compare hit factors major and minor, it’s always an interesting outcome too.

Thanks boys. Hell of a fight like always. Matt we didn’t get to officially meet, but I’m happy to shoot major with you sometime, it would be an honor.

Couple updates to that list, order changed a little bit.

Try sizing with a super die and then 9mm die...

Try all one head stamp. And try sizing with a super die then 9mm.

LPA I think.

I believe that classifier came out of 20-02 that we shop at nationals. Is 9.4 the clean time on that for 100% run?

I’m a fan of this as well. It was brought up to the board at one point. They concluded that revolver had too much of an advantage because the dot is frame mounted and doesn’t move like it would on a slide.

New tires, regular oil changes.

Hit me up on FB messenger if you want to get more in depth on anything. I’m happy to help.

Have a look at these screen shots form the PS Competitor app. Lots of info there. If you’ve shot at a club that uses the AMG Lab timers there is lots of good info in there.

Well I don’t know any nice way to say this, but the timer is off on most of those strings. It’s not picking up most of your shots. And I really hate to break this one to you, and you might already know this, but that’s not a 1.8anything... Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, I’ve shot all the stages enough to know times without hearing a timer. You’re a 2.50-2.70 in a match clean on that stage. Draws are right at 1 second when you nail them, 1-2 is sub .40, 2-4 is .45-.5, 4-3 is sub .40 again and you have about a .40 to the stop. Makeups are around a .50 if you transition and stop plate make ups are high .30s to low .40s. The first string in that video is accurate- 4.20. That’s 2 extra swings (.5ish each) and an extra on the stop (.4ish.) The second string is accurate- 3.38. 2 extras on the stop comes to about .75. After that the timer took a coffee break. Most likely a timer to gun relationship, revos are quiet and in that bay you have zero sound reflection. Smoke is an interesting stage with the irons to optics relationship. It’s not like any other stage I think. The optic only really “helps” on the stop plate, and on everything else it’s a hindrance. It’s really easy to start to paint the big plates with a bright front sight and get hits, but then the stop plate is a problem. Vice versa with a dot. I shot smoke much better with irons than I did optics for a long time because I could see the plate and front sight all the time, vs the dot when I could only see it when it was in front of me pointing at the plate. It took some work, but I learned to “point shoot” the dot gun at the big plates and make sure I could see it clearly before the stop plate. Now, don’t take that to mean that I don’t see the dot on the big plates, I still do, but I’m not waiting for it. It takes some trusting yourself, but swinging at low to sub .80 draws you have to already have some faith with either gun. Now, back to your question- How to improve time with optics. You’re waiting for a clean sight picture on the plates. At 2.50, that’s approaching as close as you can go at your skill level and “seeing” every shot. Push that down in practice. Go do .95 draws, .90 draws. Take a tenth out of every gun movement. Look at splits each individually rather than all at once. You’ll start to see that to really knock time off you’re going to have to start pulling the trigger earlier. A .9something draw isn’t going to happen with a revolver if you wait for the sights to be lined up before you start putting weight on the trigger. Same with moving the gun- you’re waiting to get the gun on the plate to start moving the action. This is normal, but you aren’t asking for normal once you’re in the 2.30-2.50 range. You have to find the dot sooner. This comes down to proper mechanics. Dry firing is going to be your friend here. And never fire less than 3 shots in live or dry fire-2 or less you can cheat and get lucky with a bad grip and sight picture. I’m more than happy to keep talking about this. It just starts to get much more focused after this to each person rather than public. I do classes- individual and group settings. People have come to me for a weekend, I’ve gone to them, or some variation. And my match schedule isn’t very private, we could probably schedule shooting together if you wanted to.

I have an early 929 with north of 500k on it. Probably 4 times that in dryfire. No issues.

I hear you. I miss 6 major too. Too bad no one makes a competitive gun in the last 20 years.

In my head it makes sense that going all the way through is a more consistent speed and less violent. Since that 686 I have probably less than 10k through a stainless cylinder though, everything has been titanium. It’s very rare for me to stage a trigger today. There’s a few reasons for that. When I do, it’s when I’m sighting in a gun. When I sight in a gun, it’s usually very precise. I really like to know it’s me and not the gun when I have mistakes. The other time I use it is only on shots I would never see in a match setting. Today in practice I shot a plate rack at 50, and a mini popper at 100. I used both techniques, and in this case the staging was my friend. For me, staging doesn’t have a place in a speed game. If I’m on the clock I don’t have time to stage a double action trigger. Now that’s different for everyone- what defines a hard target is different to each person. There are many super squad level shooters that stage, so don’t think it’s necessarily “wrong” to do so, I just think it’s slower, and speed is usually what wins with current hit factors where they are.

A lot has to do with how you pull the trigger. Early on I wore out a 686 cylinder in dryfire, probably only 80-100k on it. My dad burned up a brand new 625 with dryfire in less than a month, and he’s a D class shooter (just a reference to say how much he probably didn’t dryfire) When I started I pulled the trigger halfway, staging it, then quickly finishing it. After burning up that first cylinder I changed to pulling all the way through without pause, and it appears to damage the cylinder less or maybe even not at all. There are people who shoot a lot that burn cylinders annually, and there are people who have guns with 7 digit trigger pulls on them without peening.