TonyK

Since one of the main ideas behind the IDPA is that you can go to the store buy a gun off the shelf and some ammo and shoot a match, just why create a division for guns that may be the future but are not here in large numbers yet? Why not bring in the full race guns of IPSC?

If you think about it ESP and SSP have even more in common than ESR and SSR, is eliminating ESP next?

I spend a lot of time training with a former SWAT cop who carried a 1911 on duty and still does. He fired thousands of full power law enforcement rounds through his guns and never found evidence of battering. But he also maintained his guns to the extreme, can't blame him his life depended on reliability. And shock buffs just may degrade the reliability of your gun. Pretty much unnecessary in a 5" with the proper recoil spring. Change it often as well. My favorite gunsmith recommends only a thousand rounds on a carry gun. Besides a recoil spring is less than $4.... In a commander (or even in a govt) they may interfere with the function of the slide. They shorten the available space for the slide to cycle and in a short slide they just may prevent it from picking up a round from the magazine. They can also make clearing jams less than reliable (ie manual racking of the slide) due to less clearance with the slide pulled all the way back. Just my two cents...

Nightmare?

I use mag pouches from thewilderness.com. While I use mine for 45 mags, the way they are made would allow them to hold your 9mm mags tight. They are made from nylon and attach with Velcro and webbing. Simple and effective. Very different than typical Kydex or other plastic mags....

Had some problems when using a combo tapercrimp seat die when loading flat point Xtreme's for my 45. Die worked fine for RN's but just wouldn't work with the FP's but even a buddy using a different combo die couldn't get them to work either so it was somewhat of a problem with these particular bullets. But going back to a separate seater and crimper solved the problem. And in all honesty after looking at loaded rounds I think you get better quality finished rounds from the separate dies Just my .02 cents

I EDC a full size 1911 and the most important thing you should do is find a holster that works for you. Not the easiest thing to do. I use a Wilson Low Profile that I modified by adding Tuckable clips to. When I installed the clips I decided to raise the holster and add a bunch of forward cant to it. This allows me to sit fairly comfortably, including drive a car. Sitting down is the true test for an EDC holster in my book The clips converted the holster to a tuckable IWB which is pretty much mandatory for carry while only wearing a tshirt which I do frequently. It is placed on my belt so the slide is just behind my hip bone. As for the guy who said it has to be a 5", not true at all. Commander size 1911's have more than proven themselves. I even fired a buddy's officer size frame that had a 4" slide that was an absolute tack driver. Just be sure to practice with what you carry because if the crap hits the fan you will do your best with what you are most familiar with

Just tried some walnut and I have to say I was less than impressed. Nothing wrong with the product, it was RCBS ground walnut if you want to know. I use a Lortone Tumbler that has two 6lb buckets. I loaded one with walnut and one with my usual plain old pet litter corncob. Turned it on and ran it for an hour. This is all it takes with my tumbler and no I don't add anything to the media, just use it right out of the bag. Dumped the results out side by side on a towel on my bench. My non reloading spouse and I both agreed that the cases ran in the Walnut appeared shinier while the corncob had more of a satin sheen to them. But closer inspection showed that the corncob actually were a bit cleaner, less staining and grime on the cases. Interior of the cases seemed to be the same in both after cleaning. The other thing that bothered me about the Walnut was the amount of cases that had a chunk of walnut stuck in the flash holes, it came out with some aggressive tapping but I don't have the same problem with corncob. I also ran a batch in a combo of both, nothing spectacular cases looked pretty much just like straight corncob. Nothing scientific about this just my observations of the results...

Hodgdon lists a 200 gr Speer JHP at an OAL of 1.155, 3.9gr of clays at 714 up to 4.3 gr at 785 but in all honesty why would you want to load a defense round so slow? I would use another powder that pushes that bullet closer to 900 fps or faster. The Hornady 200 grain XTP factory rounds I bought were loaded for 900 fps

So far in all my test rounds 10 thousandths less OAL only changes fps by about 10 fps (chrono results off numerous powders through my 1911's loaded with the same powder and bullet but intentionally different OAL's) Any issue at 25 yards and less or while shooting on the move is going to be virtually unnoticeable, so what issues are you talking about? Feed issues with your particular gun notwithstanding. And how much does 15fps effect accuracy at minimum Power factor? My inaccuracy can be blamed on the shooter not the loads How about some facts and figures that back up these statements? Just how much does 15fps effect accuracy of a gun fired free hand at 15 yards? The temperature alone can cause a variance of 15fps so who loads with temperature in mind? (This doesn't include you guys in the really frozen part of the world who have to consider the temperature!) How you operate your press, the powder drop or how your press is set up can all cause a variance of at least 15fps. There are tons of variables we can't control and yes these minor differences will effect things but the effect is so miniscule it takes a microscope to find them. Or a Ransom Rest... The point I am trying to make is that worrying about these little things is like arguing how many angels fit on the head of a pin. If the fine points of this hobby are important to you, nothing wrong with that at all. For me I just want to use up the rounds I load at the range!

Unless you shoot thousands and thousands of rounds a year the cost savings may not be worth it, even if the lead is cheap. We buy bulk lead for ballast at about $2 a lb last time I looked and currently there are about 18 50lb ingots in my shop right now. Yes that would make a lot of bullets... But consider that the batch of Plated rounds I just bought were $3.56 a lb (225 grn Xtreme Flat points for my 45) and this is plated rounds that can be used anywhere and are better for your gun. And Xtreme pays the shipping cost, great company to deal with. Yes it would save money but cost you time to make them, time that might be worth the extra cost of the factory made lead. Casting your own might be worth it if you enjoy that part of this crazy hobby but I doubt the savings would be worth the trade off.

Hope everyone appreciates just what Mark is doing. It takes much more than just buying a small bearing to make this available for sale. There is time, effort and machinery involved and they all cost money.... If you add in your own time its gonna be way cheaper to buy the ready made part than to do it yourself. And in the long run consider how much use you will get out of it. As for the UHMW tape long term durability depends on the surface area and how much pressure is at the contact surface. A large flat surface may never wear out and a small point will wear fairly quickly. (I fabricate components at work with a lot of UHMW but more for its toughness and water resistance than as a bearing/slippery surface). Be interesting to hear from someone about long term use of the tape.

If you are looking just to punch holes with a full size 1911 frame why not use a 22LR conversion? Way cheaper to shoot in the long run if you can find 22LR... You also might find that downloading a heavier bullet is a good option and will use even less powder than a lighter bullet. I once had a friend do some loads for me with 230 lead RN's and that were only doing about 650 fps and they felt like the recoil from a 9mm without the snap. Try the lightest load data you have for the heavier bullets and you may be surprised....

I always start with a clean pistol and have never noticed the first batch being slower and gaining velocity as the day progressed. I would be tempted to run another test batch with your clean gun to confirm that this is a valid result for your gun and loads. And 5 rounds seems like an awfully small number of rounds for a test. I generally don't chrono less than about 10 rounds to get an average.

I am willing to bet that the AVERAGE shooter handed 25 rounds of mixed headstamp and 25 rounds of the same headstamp rounds, all loaded by the same guy on the same press, is not going to be able to tell the difference in how they shoot. Of course the chrono can see it but just as our guns are more accurate than we are, the chrono is more sensitive than any human. If you are loading right on the edge of power factor for a match then maybe you should sort by headstamp or better yet just bump up the fps a touch and you won't have a problem nor are you likely to notice the difference. We can be overly concerned with details if we choose but I reload so I can enjoy my hobby more, not so I can worry about 15 fps, a minor difference in power factor or 10 thousandths in OAL.