BeerBaron

I can. Aftec costs $85 retail (maybe $50-$60 at trade to sti). Their own conventional extractor costs them about 10 bux. $50 per gun adds up.

btw, please check the screw size. my brain says 5-40 but I'm coming up with lots of mounts saying 6-40... likely if you buy the ipscalex for sti/svi (or whatever brand) it will come with the correct size screws. he is a great guy to deal with btw (even for a canadian! lol). also, I should add it's definitely a job you can DIY. Just go careful with the heat and make sure you've removed anything plastic. If you do leave the grip on make sure you check the trigger guard screws and grip screws when you're finished as the heat may cook off the loctite on those too. I prefer to remove the grip as it makes it much easier to mount the frame in the vice. using the vice also makes things much easier as the gun isn't shifting while you're applying torque to those screws.

with my high grip and with left wrist canted forward the GG thumb rest is way too far back to be useful to me. I use a little one (similar to the RHT) that is mounted as far forward as it can go and it suits me perfectly for what I want (which is another index point for my grip, nothing more than that). The marketing info with the GG ones is that it's 'monolithic wing' enables you to drive the gun with it. personally I think that's a recipe for messing with windage while shooting. but this stuff is very personal so what works for some doesn't for others...

I love your setup KA.

that is a fairly significant variance. as pointed out the shotgun powders can have a bit of variance but that is a massive change in colour and performance. the grains even look a bit different to me in that pic? I know it's expensive but VV N320 I have found to be very consistent. it's expensive but it's lovely powder for minor 9mm loads.... and at the end of the day next to brass powder is the cheapest part of the load. even shooting 10s of thousands of rounds a year the cost difference from cheap powder to expensive is not that great.

if your 650 is not indexing as smooth as this one (mine), then you need to do some work on the setup: The feeding of cases as dictated by the case insert caming pin is important. note how the case inserts to station one just as the shell plate stops. The index tab/pawl on the left of the press that interfaces with the plastic indexer ring also needs to be set properly. The final 2 pieces of the puzzle are the spring and detent ball and shell plate tension. I like the lighter delrin ball and cut approx 1/2 a coil off the spring. this removes any jolt as the ball goes into it's socket in the shell plate. For tension I found it easier to set properly with the bearing installed. it's still very much a knife edge setting but without the bearing it's very easy to go from too loose to too tight. you want it set so that it's not excessively dragging but that it's got no slop or play at all. I run just the bearing with one washer on top (saves messing with the ejector spring). oh, I also painted an index mark on the bolt head (right at 9 o'clock) so that I can monitor if the bolt moves at all.

lol, yeah they are pricey but that $16 is for 6. I'd say with some hunting you could find them for $12 or perhaps even less. When you see them $2-$3 each seems reasonable for what they are.

it shouldn't be walking out like that. the lee lock rings have a rubber o-ring in them which does provide some traction against the toolhead. they may help (they are cheap alloy rings though). The other option is the hornady rings which clamp onto the die then you can really wang them up tight to the toolhead and if they do for some reason walk loose you won't have to re-adjust as the lock ring stays in place on the die body. I think just a little more elbow grease when you tighten them might solve it.

uniquetek have a solution for the toolhead slop. as dillon posted they have a reason for it. personally once i have it aligned (with a case up in the die) I then want it to be locked down tight for consistency during reloading. it could be placebo but with the clamped toolhead the press seems a little smoother to me and I also have more 'feel' as in i can really feel the brass entering the sizing ring etc. you can add the clamps to your current toolhead: http://www.uniquetek.com/product/T1230 or do what I did and buy the whidden toolhead with the clamp kit inserted. it's a lovely toolhead too. http://uniquetek.com/product/T1333 I've been very happy with the whidden toolhead and with the clamp kit. you can still easily remove it (just undo the 2 bolts) but to just dump powder it's probably just as easy to remove the 2 bolts on the collar that hold the powder measure to the die. my solution is I run the lee auto drum which has an 'off' setting for the hopper. so you just rotate the hopper to 'off' then it lifts straight off the top of the press with no pins or bolts etc and easily empties back to a container.

I was a grease man, then a car oil man (mobil 1, motul chrono etc) but I've recently been converted to thin oils and like the lucas gun oil but if really cold I would use the battle born extreme oil. It's thin like water but still lubes and protects nicely. being thin it pushes the dirt out rather than retaining it like grease does. so I'd say either the lucas of the battle born stuff.

set screw is a great idea. 2 set screws is even better. it means you don't have to crank the single one up so tight. 2 will hold it nicely. 3 of my 4 open guns have 2 set screws (1 SVI and 2 CK arms). The 4th one that doesn't have any had the comp come loose after 12 mths....

The IPSC alex will work. you will need to heat up the screws with a heat gun/hairdryer/blowtorch (careful!). Or use a soldering iron and apply the tip directly to the screw (from inside the dust cover). first thing to do is field strip the gun so the slide is off. if your grip is polymer remove it too. best to remove the scope from the mount too as you don't want to damage it with heat. make sure you have a decent set of allen keys (like bondhus or eklund) that fit tightly. the screws are likely 5-40. this is best done with the gun in a vice (using soft jaws of course). heat up the screws. they will be hard to crack but if they're too hard you need more heat. Once the screws are out clean up the threads (wire wheel on a dremel works well, or use a brush with some hoppes #9 or wax and grease remover). you'll need 2 new screws (assuming you're putting 2 screws through the thumbrest). Most mounts will come with 2 longer screws. Put the scope mount and thumb rest on the gun and put in those 2 new screws. you want them to end up just slightly short of being flush with the inside of the dust cover. you absolutely do not want them protruding at all inside the frame/dust cover. if you are super lucky they'll be the right length. if you are like the rest of us you will have to cut them. you can use a hacksaw or dremel with a cut off wheel works too. if you have a bench grinder you can drill a hole in a piece of scrap steel, stick the screw through it (holding back of screw with your thumb) and put nuts on the other side to the correct length then just grind it down to length. if you are cutting it still use a nut as a guide for the correct length. then clean up the ends with a file. Once cut and ready and all the screws are clean and the threads in the frame are clean and dry you can re-assemble. use red locktite by applying it to the screw threads. tighten it up, remount the scope (I use blue on the scope screws but red is fine too) let it set for 24hrs then you can go and check the zero and start shooting again.

Ball cuts like that remove a lot less weight that tri-topping (which is allowed). Since they don't penetrate through the slide my guess if they will be fine. But for sure check with dnroi.

My 1050 knowledge is pretty weak having not messed with them much. On the 650 there's a pawl on the left side of the machine that interfaces with the user plastic indexing ring and determines basically when in the handle stroke the indexing starts (and by extension when it ends). Getting that right does make things smoother. On the 1050 it operates differently. But the principle is the same. You want it set so that the index mechanism is finishing its cycle just as your handle reaches the rest position. Hopefully a 1050 guru can explain it better.

There is no doubt a 2011 is easier to consistently load under match pressure than a 1911. The 2011 mags are bigger and are tapered so you only have to get the narrow part into the massive hole to get it started. Id also take gooldy's word on that given I've seen footage of him running 0.80 reloads on his 2011. I'm sure he's good with the single stack too but I'd be surprised if he can regularly stick 0.80 reloads with it.

Hi, I cut just half a coil from memory. Maybe 3/4 of a coil. Before you cut it get a spare as they go from useful to useless pretty quick if you cut too much. I do use a bearing kit too. I can't remember which brand but they are all basically the same. I just used a single washer on the 650. It goes shell plate, bearing, washer, bolt head. The 1050 I think is a little different because the ram goes through the centre of the shell plate. Getting the index adjusted with the index pawl was first. Then I played with delrin ball and cutting spring, then added bearing and the final improvement was tuning the tension on the shell plate bolt. Im sure with some time spent adjusting things you'll get your 1050 just as smooth with no more snap.

Why would the warranty go away once you shoot it? if its fitted too tightly recoating the barrel is just going to let it happen again. Shooting it will let you: 1, figure out if it has any other issues. 2, wear in those high spots that are damaging the coating. Also it's supposed to be TiN pvd coated which should be super hard and should not wear easily (if at all). I have a 6 year old svi with Schumann barrel that has just small wear at the end of the hood and the barrel foot. 99% is still gold and mirror shiny.

My current aftecs are only about 2,000 rounds on one and basically nothing on the other but yes, the 'main' one is running with just the rear spring in and has run very well from the get go (breaking in the gun too which was also new). I will probably pop it out and add the new spring to the rear and move the current rear to the front within the next 500 rounds or so. With the aftec it's important to follow the fitting instructions for the firing pin stop plate. Unlike regular extractors the aftec doesn't 'bend' for tension. It effectively moves along its whole length in the channel and kind of pivots at the middle section with the springs. Because it pivots like that, in order for the front claw to move freely the rear must also move freely at the firing pin stop. We are not talking about much movement here but it must have some clearance there otherwise it will always have way too much extractor tension. The aftec is great but but it does need some fitting/setup as it operates totally differently to regular extractors. Hth.

One tip, don't spend money like that dude above on press monitor and other do dads etc in place of a case feeder! You need the case feeder to get the most out of it.

The mark at the case mouth is likely not the problem (9mm headspaces on the case mouth) but the mark lower down is an issue. A lee sizer or u-die will likely solve this.

What I was advised to do with the aftec was run only the rear spring for 500-1000 rounds. Then move that spring to the front and put a fresh one in the rear. After 5,000 more rounds do the same again (move rear spring to front and put fresh one in rear) and keep doing this ad infinitum.

Sarge, do you have any marks on the disconector rail on the sides of it? if not I believe it's a barrel/barrel fit issue. Take the top end apart and just install the barrel and slide stop. Check how the barrel links down and how it sits in the frame. I'm guessing this barrel has a Clark/parra cut?

I have zero scientific testing other than shooting the things and the odd bit of super slo mo footage to observe gun behavior (which is also affected by the shooters grip). I like the combination of the cheely titanium comp with 3 popple holes. Ive also shot the new style Akai gill comp (this one had popple holes and a slot cut in the top of the comp) and I thought it shot nicely too. For me the first thing is it must be titanium. Heavy comps suck. I think there are are lots of good options at the moment and all work best when the rest of the 'system' (slide weight, popple holes, spring weights etc) are optimized. The cheely supposedly had cfd work done for its design. The binary comp has published some of the cfd modeling behind its design. The Akai seems a bit 'out there' but seems very efficient and the lone star seems well received too. My choice would be one of those 4.

For the $$ you are spending get them to send you a sample aggressive and tactical so you can cop a feel. It's the only way to decide.

No speak americano?