Action Pistolero

If the ratchet mechanism is still enabled I would think that a double charge would be pretty much impossible. The other alternative is the powder check die. I would think that if the shellplate was too tight you would feel it drag. I believe that it's too loose and also causing problems because the speed of the shellplate is too fast. Try raising the handle slowly and see if things get better. I can't help you with the rim thickness. You might also want to be sure that te part that pushes the case into the shell plate is clean and lubed. A piece of media in there reeks havoc. Good luck, Kevin

Mike, Glad to hear this years match is still on. I'm sorry to hear that Jim is having a tough time. Hopefully Brookston will pick up the slack. There will be four of us coming this year. See ya there, Kevin

I had this same problem with 9 supercomp and the 223 shellplate. Make sure that you have the nylon adapter installed in the case feeder. It sits in the funnel at the output of the feeder. Check to be sure you have the proper adapter installed at the base of the case tube. I received my machine with a 380 adapter. The other trick is to tighten the shellplate a little. This will lower the plate so the case can find the slot in the plate better. When I'm loading I look at station 1 before I put the bullet on the case and pull the handle. This saves my decapper pins. I can load 1200 rounds an hour now but I still have this problem every now and then. Kevin

Maui, The grip safety rule came from the top at NRA down to us. The chairman told us that he was approached by an NRA lawyer to have the grip safeties activated and come up with a minimum trigger pull. The trigger pull was shelved until the next meeting which looks like to be on June 11th. This was supposed to limit NRA's liability. It would seem to me that the liability release form that we had to sign with our Bianchi entry would take care of this. I was forwarded an email from the A/P chairman that read something like this. "All 1911's have a grip safety and a thumb safety. If John Moses Browning himself showed up to shoot the match, he too, would have to have a functional grip safety. This includes custom built guns." Like it or not, and I don't like it, you will have to have a functional grip safety to shoot the Cup this year. The trigger pull thing is a different matter. In my opinion, this is going too far. One of the main reasons that I don't shoot bullseye is because of their trigger pull rule. We'll just have to see if common sense prevails. Kevin

38stupid, If you want to shoot production I would stay away from any gun produced by a custom shop of any manufacturer. If you want a Kimber just make sure it comes with an ambi thumb safety. You won't be able to add it. A friend of mine has a Kimber nine and has had some problems with it. Mostly with the extractor. Production is a sub category of Metallic. You would have to place third or higher to get anything out of production. They pay cash to 20th place in Metallic. We are getting to close to the Cup to worry about getting a gun right out of the box to work like you want it. I would find a custom shop that has some guns on the shelf and get one of those and shoot Metallic. For me the extra $25 in the entry fee would be worth it. See ya there, Kevin

Steve, Stick with the Federals. Make your loads as consistant as possible, sight the gun in at 50 and concentrate on the shooting. Bianchi will be here before we know it. Kevin

Lee, Try 5.1 grains of 231. It works well with 115 or 125 grain bullets. I'm currently using 4.6 grains of WST with a 115 Sierra. Kevin

Steve, If you had used Winchester bullets you probably wouldn't have seen as much of a change. As reloaders we cannot get the same powder that Winchester puts in their factory loads but we can get close to the same results. Just because two bullets from a different manufacturer have the same weight doesn't mean the results will even be close to one another. I have found that the jacket material is not consistant between manufacturers. I was trying to make major with a certain brand bullet and always came up short. I switched to a premium bullet and gained 50 fps with the same powder charge. mcolivar, Powder charge can certainly effect accuracy. Part of the "fun" in handloading is experimenting with different powder charges to get the results that you want. I have seen groups increase from 1 inch to over 3 inches because of a 0.2 grain increase in the charge. Kevin

Flyin40, To use the powder check you have to have a hole in the toolhead for the rod that pushes up the buzzer. On the 650 there is a hole in the toolhead for the rod and as the shellplate comes up it pushes on the rod. On the 1050 the rod hangs over the side of the toolhead and a washer is added to the end of the rod so that it will hit the shellplate. Looks to like you would have to have a 5 station press. It's not offered for the 550 either. Kevin

Flyin40, When you start using light loads alot of factors come in to play. Like mainspring, slide weight and mag spring pressure. The lighter that things are the lower you can go on the recoil spring. I shoot Action Pistol almost exclusively so we deal with the light loads all the time. My current gun has had the slide lightened by 3 oz. I'm using an 8 lb recoil spring and a 17 lb mainspring with 2 coils cut off. The mag springs have also been weakened. I learned a valuable lesson when I was messing around with my STI Steel gun. I was using a 7 lb recoil spring and a full weight slide. It took 5.5 grains of 231 to make the gun run with only 10 rounds in the mag. I made the slide look like a Beretta. It now runs with 5.1 grains of 231 and will run with 27 rounds in the mag. Good luck, Kevin

Steve, I recently bought a replacement 012. The thing held the gun so tight that I almost pulled my pants off before the gun came out. I removed the spacer between the trigger block and the side. Problem solved. I got one for the STI and it works great. I couldn't remember if you bought one but when you talked about how the gun comes out of the holster I figured you may be having the same problem. You do have to pull straight up but it shouldn't take much movement to clear the holster. What loading manual did you find your load in? I couldn't find one for WST so I made up my own. I'm using 4.6 with a 115 grainer. 1250 fps is a 143 pf. We only need 1043 fps to make power factor. Why beat yourself and the gun? My load is shooting 1115 fps. Plenty fast enough. I was just giving you a hard time about having difficulties with the Open gun. I know you'll have it figured out by May. Kevin

Steve, Glad to hear that she made it back. We haven't heard from you in a while so I figured the boss arrived. I know you'll get the Barricade figured out. Just remember the trick to the Barricade is in your technique and patience. Have fun and good luck, Kevin

Shot an Action match yesterday in Salisbury, NC. They only shoot the Los Alamitos and the Plates but it's good trigger time. Shot both Open and Metallic. The new Metallic gun looks promising. Open Los Alamitos- 408 out of 420. Gun didn't eject case after firing the first round. Too cold? Ran like a watch after that. Plates- 470 DAMN!!!!!!!!!! Missed one on the first run at 25, PRONE. Just a dumb mistake. I let the dot get too low on the plate. Metallic Los Alamitos- 407. I was clean back to the 25 yard stage. Got a little wobblly around the left side. Plates- 410. Still needs work but I'll take it. I sighted the gun in at 15 yards and ran with it. The gun ran great and feels real good with 13 rounds in the mag. I notice a big difference with only 7 in the mag.

Schmitz, If you are going to shoot Metallic don't bother practicing prone except at 50. Trader, Try this: www.nrahq/compete/newsevents.asp . I just checked it and there's nothing posted about it yet. I tried to make it a link but I couldn't get it to work.

I just got this hot off of the phone. It is " understood" that the Metallic, Production and Open Modified can only go prone at 50 Yards. The change was made for the Open class only, like I said before. There will be a Match Directors Bulletin stating this at the Cup. It will also be posted on the web page at the sign up and Rudy's News and Notes. I also got some clarification on squadding for those of us shooting two guns. You will be squadded as before. In other words you will have to shoot the four events over the 3 days with both guns. You may shoot Open in the morning and Metallic in the afternoon or vice versa. It was seen as an advantage to shoot through with one gun and then switch to the other. I would have preferred to shoot through with Open first so I could get all the nerve racking stuff out of the way and then go have fun with it. Oh well. I thought that you "abroad" shooters were doing your own thing anyway?

Mark, Glad to hear about Steve's gun. From the looks of your match results he's going to need a whole bunch of that Wallyworld ammo. I guess it's not all that easy shooting an Open gun afterall. When are you going to get yours back? Kevin

SRT, I don't mean to rain on your parade but I wouldn't count on the prone thing in Metallic. I was under the impression that we were talking about Open only but somehow every division was included. I was trying to think of a way to get the prone back for the Metallic guys but it looks like someone already accomplished that. I talked to Rudy about it and he said they would issue a Match Directors Bulletin changing it back. I would check with him to see what the latest thoughts are. Alan's right. We will go back to it for monthly matces and our two registered matches in Sep. It is, after all "in the rules". Kevin

Mike, All of my 1911 triggers are under 2 pounds. I shoot Action Pistol and the trigger on my primary gun weighs in at 1 pound. I use the Koenig hammer, Cylinder and Slide ultra light sear and disconnect, Clark 4 leaf sear spring, 17 pound mainspring with 2 coils cut off and Marvel oversize pins. This would not be the set up for a gun using Major pf loads. The lowest that I have seemed to get on my STI is 1.5 pounds. Stick with .020 or more on the hammer hooks. A full auto 1911 can be quite a handfull and it's not worth getting hurt over. My Action gun is a Les Baer and when using the 4 leaf sear spring I back off the leaf for the grip safety as much as I can. The left leaf is straightened so that there is no bend. The center leafs are rounded over and I keep more tension on the disconnector than the trigger bow. I have a good many rounds through this gun and it has never doubled on me. The other thing to watch out for is the trigger. I didn't have any luck with the SV trigger. I went with the carbon fiber that comes in the STI. Make sure that everything is slick and not binding anywhere. I also use a mixture of STI trigger slick and Wilson ultima lube oil. I have found that this will lower the weight by 1/4 pound. Good luck, Kevin

Husker, I had this same question back when the big primer scare was on. The only primers that I could get were magnums. I called Speer and they told me to reduce the load by 10%. If you're not running anywhere near max I wouldn't worry about it. Kevin

Pigahrifle, Try Predator Custom Shop in Knoxville, Tn. They can be reached at predatorcustomshop.com. The gunsmith's name is Bob Howard. He's built quite a few guns for me and they are all top notch. Kevin

Mark, Glad to hear about shooting two guns. If I can get the same number of shooters that I had last year I plan on having prizes in a combined aggregate. That would only be for centerfire Open and M/S, not rimfire. The shooter will have to declare their primary gun just like they are doing at the Cup this year. I plan on handling the prize distribution differently though. It will be interesting to see how this plays out. It looks like I'm not going to make it to the regional in Lake Charles. There is a big steel match in PA that same weekend. I was looking at your schedule for April and I may be able to make that one. My next scheduled trip for your neck of the woods is around that time. Hope the gun came back and is working well. Did Steve get the solenoids for the turners? Kevin

Steve, Hope your new gun works but I'm starting to have my doubts upon hearing that you are going to shoot cast bullets. You didn't mention if the gun will have a comp. If it doesn't, then it will probably work but what's the point? If it does, I would dred cleaning all the lead out of it especially considering you will have to use a hotter load to get the slide to move. The comp takes alot of gas pressure away that is needed to move the heavy slide. You would have to lighten the slide but then you lose all the advantages of a 6 inch slide. My slide was lightened to 9 ounces and I'm using an aluminum comp. If I had it to do over I would have used a commander slide. I shoot 4.6 grains of WST behind a 115 grain bullet with a velocity of 1100 fps. The recoil is not much more that my 22. I tried the same load in my new M/S gun and the front sight barely lifts. I'm not trying to put down what you want to do but I have a little experience in this area and I just wanted you to be aware of any problems. The bad part of it is that fixing it can dig deeply into the wallet. Kevin

Kim, I expect to see you there. I noticed you were missing at the Kansas City match last Oct so get with it, suck it up and get practicing! If I have anything to do with it the shooters meeting will be the most shooter friendly meeting that they've ever had. I want to be able to make A/P pistol better and get more participation instead of heading off rule changes that we don't like. I have a few ideas on my own and I'd like to get more input from the shooters. Hope to see you there. Kevin Angstadt

Warren Moore's phone number is 913-422-8966. Call before 2 PM central. The last I heard he was selling them for $150. They are almost an exact copy of the prone pad that Riley Gilmore sells on his custom pistols. The problem is that Riley will not sell you one unless you buy one of his guns. I had Warren make these last year before the Cup. They work very well. Some would say that they cost too much but they are basically the only choice out there. EGW used to have one but it doesn't provide the support that this one does. If you talk to him tell him that Kevin says hello. I'm sure he'll get a kick out of it.

Hey! This isn't figure skating ya know? Leroy is really starting to put things together. He's only had that gun a few weeks and he's really improving. I predict he will be shooting high expert scores and bumping Master by the end of the year. I picked up my Metallic gun today. As soon as I got home I ran out back and tried it out. It runs!!!!!!!! I shot my pet Action load of 4.6 grains of WST and a 115 gr bullet. The gun is an STI 6 inch longslide with a long dust cover and I was surprised at how little the muzzle jumped as the shot was fired. Now all I have to do is get the trigger pull down and do some cosmetic work. So watch out Steve. If you guys let me shoot 2 guns this year I'll give you a run for your money. Kevin