pisgahrifle

Kinda reminds me of when we had a microwave on our dorm floor, for an extremely short period of time, in college. It's amazing that quasi-adults could be so entertained by burning CDs and seeing what would and wouldn't blow the microwave up. Your tax dollars at work!!!

Have you tried Brownell's? I'd have curled up in a ball and died by now if it weren't for that big, silly book.

Citations? Try looking up good common sense. Yeah, quite a few gunwriters have argued for it, and for the aforementioned reason they're right. The trick to not having one's finger ground up in a meat grinder is to keep one's finger out in the first place. BTW, a little more tact in posting makes every forum a bit more pleasant for all involved.

While most folk say to go without it (and it really is sorta superfluous) if the Commander is a carry gun, PUT IT BACK!!! If, God forbid, you either ever had an AD resulting in injury or used the pistol in self defense, a civil attorney or DA would have you by the short hairs because you knowingly disabled a safety device. You, I, and everyone else on this board know that it doesn't make much of a difference, but attorneys, jurists and bench judges aren't always shooters and may read your intentions in a manner other than what they actually are. BTW, Cylinder & Slide make a set of replacement S80 Firing Pin Safety parts that're TiN coated to help your trigger out.

Since I got this ball rolling, i'll make a few comments. The ROs at the IDPA club I USED to shoot at shot the stages first or last, their choice. Thus they not only had knowledge of the stage design before the fact, they got to shoot them fresh. For the state match, the ROs got to shoot the stages days beforehand. I'm sorry, but if ROs are going to shoot, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander- fair is fair. For the record this was remedied for the state match last year. They got some very good volunteer ROs, many very good friends of mine, who made mention of this contradiction and saw it remedied. I appreciate the efforts that ROs put into the matches, as i'm sure we all do. But this is a competition, and an unfair advantage is just that. It should also be noted that not always are ROs going without compensation. Oftentimes MDs pay some ROs while insisting that everyone is a volunteer to others. It's not necessarilly in the "spirit of the game," but it's legal and it's happening every day. IDPA is, after all, a business, right? That's why it's important that clubs are run democratically and have transparency to the membership in where money is going. And while I'm still a dues-paying member of IDPA, and have been for three years, I'm going over to USPSA in January for the Single Stack Provisional class. Blind stages are one of many myriad reasons for this, so I'm hoping that USPSA doesn't jump on this bandwagon. And no, Ken, I don't shoot at your club.

Being acrylic I'd definitely use either a flat or semi-gloss clear coat, otherwise you'll lose most of that "PollockGlock" finish from regular handling.

Yeah, I used to really like blind stages, until i noticed something. ROs tended to have awesome times on those stages opposed to other shooters, oftentimes by gaps that won matches. i wonder why that was?

Am I the only one capable of locking my arms with elbows pointed out or down? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Nope, Me to. Gifted joints?

The Wilkesboro matches are, I hear, LIMITED with a capital L. No magazines loaded over 10 rnds for rifle, no shotguns over 6. i also heard from a buddy of mine that shoots down there that they've established a "major" and "minor" scoring system- .30s only have to hit a target twice, but .223s have to get at least 3 per target on the paper. I think they've got a website linked of of the IDPA site.

Since you're going to be in Houston, don't forget to go to the NRA Annual Meeting the weekend of the 15th.

Yeah, I almost forgot- both my A2 barrel and my lead-hose bbl. are chrome moly. Lots of the high-power folk still shoot them for the simple reason that unless you're already a high master you'll get more mileage with CM. Which brings up another point- you sometimes need those super-duper 1/8 and 1/7 barrels in high power, but I agree with you in that I don't much see the need in three gun. (You don't see the "cool factor" here though- it's either shiny or it ain't, and everyone's gotta get it under handguards and through a front sight block) Sure, it's nice to have, but awful pricey when you can get the job done in 1/9. You can also get a passable CM barrel for less than $200. A friend of mine's got a 1.5 MOA lead hose DPMS M4 profile he picked up for $140, gas block and barrel nut installed. A little short, but it works.

Shoot your factory barrel (floated) first so you can send the JP back if you don't need it! My Eagle Arms A2 did 1/2 all day long once I floated it. I haven't stretched it any farther than that, noe do I probably intend to. Nonetheless, it's still "good enough for gummint work!"

According to Armalite both windage and elevation drums are 1/2 moa- at least on my A2. Accuracy Speaks and I believe White Oak Precision offer complete 1/2-1/2 and 1/4-1/2 rear sight assemblies. As far as I know both the USMC and USAMU teams are using 1/4 wind, as well as many of the leading service rifle competitors- gives you a bit more fudging room. We've left the poor front sight out of this as well. I don't have the book handy, but if I recall right most all A2 fronts are 1-1/2. I think the A1 may be 1 1/4, and most are smaller in diameter already- this lets get a shad finer on the front end, and works well whether you're shooting six o'clock or navy- though I'm not sure if they'll thread in an A2 gas block. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't, though I'm to lazy to swap mine and go re-zero. If you like the look, though, Derrick Martin makes a .050 and .055 round front post for an A2 that's service rifle legal.

I've thought about picking up a few 03A3s through this program for kids I haven't had yet- the A3 was my first real rifle, you see. Let me know how the rifle runs when you get it.

Apparently you've ripped off my last match load I've been using the remains of a friends stock of Valiant semi-hard cast 200 LSWCs in front of 4.4 grs of Bullseye. When I had a need to shoot factory I found an excellent substitute in Magtech's 200 gr. LSWC (softer than a baby's a**, but they shoot just so for a factory load).Unfortunately, both foul about the same way you describe. I guess I'll just have to start shooting looser-shooting loads of some sort so I don't clean as often......... j/k

Everything east of the Anacostia, up to and including the Anacostia itself. There was actually an initiative by some civic group around DC awhile back that proposed to reduce the crime rate by 20% or better- by kicking the area east of the river out of DC and incorporating Alexandria. It didnt get to far.

Thompson made his own decision. It was, as it should be, his to make. The supreme irony of this discussion is that it is taking place in a room in which (one should safely assume) many folk strongly support the right to bear arms. one can also assume that these same folk support the remainder of the Bill of Rights equally as well as the earlier enunciations of the Bill's basic premises in the Declaration of Independence. Let us assume, then, that the goal of citizenship in the Republic is, essentially, to partake in the blessings of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, at least until the point where that pursuit is a detriment to the life, liberty or happiness of another. Suicide is a choice that the individual undertakes, and if he or she does no harm to another in the process, so be it. To say that the act itself harms those left behind is true to a point- the actor in this case is still a free being, and is not owned by those left behind. Thus if the individual, for whatever reason, chooses this path, is it right that they should suffer along if only for the emotive satisfaction of others? Who, then, is comitting the more selfish act? Liberty is not easy. If we are to accept the concept, then we accept that we choose our own path in life and make our own decisions. I do not make decisions for another- it is not within my natural rights as a human being to do so. Not only this, but as a citizen of this Republic I know that it is most certainly not my place to decide what actions another citizen make nor may I pass judgement on anyone who has done no harm to me. Whether spiritual or secular, the rights on which Hunter Thompson made his decision are affirmed not only in the rights of man but in the very fabric of the Nation.

Where do i find this "Kellube"? Does Brownells carry it?

As an aside, all my non-practical shooting friends that shoot three position, highpower or hunt are aghast that I let it go that long between cleanings.

The big reason I do the complete tear down as often as I do is that for the last season this was my daily carry gun as well. Thus in addition to the 450 it's got probably a month's worth of carry crap in it. I lived in a rural area at the time that was in the middle of a dry spell. Lint+dust+fouling= sloooow to stalling automatic.

A guy posted on 1911forum earlier needing advice on cleaning his 1911. So I figured since I didn't have anything else to do I'd send long a few tips, which turned into this..... Sigh..... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When I started shooting the practical sports I cleaned that d****d pistol every time I yanked the trigger on it. I had a spiffy little copy of Wilson's "Official 1911 Maintenance Manual," or whatever it's called, that told me I should field strip and clean every couple hundred. (NOTE: This little pamphlet is the best guide to complete stripping that I've come across outside of an adult bookstore) I thought, "that's neat, but I'D never let my pistol go that long between cleanings. Then I got sponsored. Then my practice sessions reached 200 rnds, 2-3 times a week. Cleaning a 1911 2-3 times a week, especially after a practice session after an eight hour workday, is NOT fun. I got to a point where I'd let it go 600 rounds or so and then strip the whole thing down to parts, SCOUR its innards then throw it back together. This worked OK as long as I was shooting lead. I got ahold of some Speer Lawman 185s awhile back that had a loose taper crimp and they didn't fare so well when the gun got dirty. Turns out my sloppy old Colt pistol, much like Colt rifles, has a chamber that errs on the tight side of Brother Browning's original specifications- a bit of fouling in the chamber caused these poorly crimped loads to slow down as the bullet shoulder hit the top of the chamber, and the increased friction fored it back into the case. Which exposed the case mouth to the top of the fouled chamber. Which it then stayed in contact with. Presto! Tap-n-rack practice! As a result of all these experiences, I now do a complete tear down cleaning every 350-450 rounds or so. Simply getting it down to the bones won't necessarily make sure you're cleaning it well, so here's a few tips I've found that cover the spots most folk don't think of. 1. Chamber. OK, Yeah, it's a sore spot for me, but it's an important one. The chamber on an auto loader shouldn't be neglected any more than a revolvers chamber's are, but you see damn few chamber brushes in ACP calibres. Fortunately, Wilson makes one and a tiny little handleto accompany it to boot. Many folk recoil in horror from the idea of getting near their prized slabside with an evil stainless brush, but used properly it's the best tool you can find to rid your pistol of chamber fuling. The trick to using this brush id to go SLOWLY and CONSISTENTLY down into the chamber and back out again. Slowly corkscrew the brush down into the chamber (like 1/16" per 1/4 turn slowly) and make a few slow turns when the hadle contacts the barrel hood. Then back the brush out at the same rate you went in. Go easy and you'll get a clean chamber. Race through it and you'll have a new chamber to replace the one you scored the fire out of. 2. Extractor. Noggy to the fellow who mentioned cleaning the slide recess!!! Lots of folk who recite the same old rote about extractor tension and tuning never bther to clean the pad off, so when they're tuning extractors they're actually working against that concretion that's built up on the pad and in the port. give the entire business end of the extractor (claw, shank and pad) a good scrubbing. Then affix an old .22 brush to a chamber rod and clean the extractor port (and the firing pin hole, if you want to kill two birds with one stone) from the rear of the slide. Soak all these parts with Kroil, scrub with Hoppes, hit with gunscrubber or a similar product, soak with Kroil again and wipe down thoroughly. 3. Breech face. Scrub it as you would the parts mentioned above! Next time you open the slide, take a look at that little arc of corruption at the top of the breech face and around the inside of the slide near the face. All that as wel as the small amount of corruption actually on the breech face causes friction that each round coming into battery has to work against. Using the Kroil-Hoppes combinaton, soak these areas then gently scrub the corruption away with a brass bristled brush. Despite soaking you'll find that the crud in this area is harder to remove than you'd think. It's similiar, however, to the carbon deposits you'll find on an AR bolt- it's baked on, hard to see and tougher than a banty rooster. 4. Trigger Ways. Keeping a good trigger job from wearing away prematurely means keeping abrasive fouling away from the trigger bow. Corruption will be blown down into the frame where it will settle in the recesses of the trigger ways, forming hot spots between the ways and bow. Your frame will not be excessively worn by this, but the softer metal of the trigger cetainly will. This will eventually lead to increased friction between bow and way, leading to you being unhappy because your nice, smooth pull has disappeared, leading your wife's teeth into your rear because of the money you spent on yet another trigger job. Using the teeny end of the military cleaning "toothbrush" you can get into the ways and clean them effectively. Once again, Kroil-Hoppes-Gunscrubber-Kroil. Hitting all your frame recesses in much the same way will assure that the small parts you'e cleaning go back to clean homes. 5. Frame interior. Even if you don't have an extended magwell, you want magazines to slide in and out freely. Cleaning the magwell and frame interior assure that you're magazines are working against clean, smooth surfaces. It also assures that crap from the magwell doesn't get into the trigger ways. Kleenbore makes a brush and swab for this chore, both of which also work for cleaning your magazines (which I recommend doing semi-annually, fall and spring). Alter the Kroil-Hoppes formula here. I usually soak in Kroil, brush, spray down with Birchwood Casey shaeth and them mop down thoroughly. Done properly this leaves a film of lubrication inside the magwell while not leaving enough to draw in excessive dirt and fouling. 6. Small Parts. This is the easy stuff. Take all your small frame and slide parts and dump them in a 50/50 solution of Hoppes and Kroil. Let them sit while you're cleaning everything else. Then, part by part, draw each one out, scrub it off with Gunscrubber, treat with either Kroil or Sheath, and wipe down. Each part then is not only clean but has it's own extremely light film of lube, but once again not enough to draw dirt. Doing this assures that you need very little lubricant in the spots you normally lubricate. Them's me tricks. Insofar as you're barrel is concerned, you've probably got you're own way of doing it which I won't intrude on. I do a preliminary cleaning using a Hoppes-Kroil scrup and wipe down followed with an abrasive cleaning with both JB Bore Cleaner and Polish. I usually leave the barrel with a pass of Kroil since it's the lightest oil I've found that still protects. Do the barrel as you will. Some folk say I over lubricate, some say I don't lube enough. My wife wonders why I have more varieties of lubricants than a Chinese brothel. Anyway, here's what I lube and how much. GREASE- Here defined as Brownell's Action Lube- Moly at it's best. Trigger bow (thin film), disconnector pad (thin film), and just a teeny, tiny, miniscule touch on the ends of the sear spring where it contacts the sear and disconnector. Also, put a touch (I mean a near non-existant one) on the sear and hammer engagement surfaces). OTHER GREASE- Wilson's Ultima-Lube Grease. Sort of like lithium but not quite. Doesn't flake and fall out after it gets good and hot. Inside slide-to-bushing contact area (film), locking lugs (enough to where your barrel hood isn't snowy looking when the gun's not in battery) and on the slide-disconnector contact surface on the bottom of the slide. OIL- Wilson Ultima-Lube. I don't know where they get it, but it's nifty stuff in a nifty little syringe. On the inside of the barel-bushing contact are (thin film), two pinhead-sized spots on the inside of each frame rail and slide rail, and a dab between the mag catch and frame. Put some of this on you fingers and put a thin film on the slide stop, hammer and sear/disconnector pins as well as the safety strut. So that's how I do it. It may seem a bit OCD, but it certainly produces a pretty clean pistol. If you're willing to take the time to do it I know you'll b happy with the result. I do not, by the way, enjoy cleaning guns. However, much like taxes, visiting parents and colon exams after age 50 it's got to be done. Unlike these other things, though, you can eventually have children to do it for you... "No, little Johnny, learning to clean your guns after you shoot is an important part of the learning experience. You're cleaning Daddy's not only to help you learn more, but also because you're not paying rent and I may one day decide to send you to college! Now to the basement with you!"

Is it a pin-on or set-screwed gas block? I'm assuming that it's of the latter variety. I've got one on my HP upper, as do a good number of other folk. About the best i can tell you is to jsut make sure the tube's not binding and the port's lined up. Then if you're going to put on an iron front you block becomes one more thing to adjust when you zero, thus you get to add allen wrenches and a nylon mallet to your tool kit! Yay fun!

I'm glad someone has good luck with that f$%(@@)n American Eagle stuff. When I swapped from my normal 200 yd load over to AE 55 gr at the range a few weeks ago my groups blew up to about 2".

You know, I was never quite sure that such a magnificent bastard could ever die. Thompson took the American people by the throat and scremed at us to take our country back in a way that pretenders like Mike Moore can merely fantasize about. You made us think, you made us reasess our inhibitions, and you reminded us of what the American character is and should be. You tried your best to make us see. Thanks, Doc Thompson.

I know that Eagle Arms/Armalite drums are 1/2, but I can't vouch for the others. The Bushie drum on my M4 seems like it could be 3/4 MOA some days....