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Ditto. Same with their 140s and SI Gen1 tubes. BTW, for you guys experimenting with loads to make the comp work, here is mine. My main 40 Open wears a 4-chamber, 5-port comp and two 3/16" poppels. 10.2gr Major Pistol powder under a 155 (i use Rainier and Montana Gold) makes 172PF and shoot flat and soft.

Both 3N38 and Major Pistol have periods of unavailability; 3N38 a little more so. Both are out of stock at the moment, at least where I buy my powder from. The trick is to order ahead. I have 12 lbs. of 3N38 and slightly less than 16 lbs. of Major Pistol. I buy MP 16 lbs. at a time. I just opened an 8 lb. jug. When I'm about halfway through it, I'll order another 16 lbs. Even if it is on backorder at the time, I'll get it before I use up the last 12 lbs.. Yes, I'm tying up money by stockpiling, but I'm never without. Same thing with primers. I order 15,000 at a time. That's the price you pay for using something with spotty availability. 10,000 primers and 16 lbs. of powder will get me through a year of shooting 9mm major. I've never seen a powder or primer I wanted be on backorder for that amount of time.

Then use a JEM Guns steel grip slide, which is machined specifically for an EVO, or a PT frame. If you go JEM, make sure you specify an EVO grip frame. It goes on with a slight tap. The poly grip frame will not work without about 8 hours of filing according to Ed. The poly frame fits the Cheely e2 grip perfectly.

Matt won't sell any of his stash of slides. Only frames.

MP is a very fine grained powder that meters like water. I think it is finer than AA7. 10.2gr takes up less space than 9.4gr 3N38. It is also very compressible if needed.

I won't name the brands I'd never use again. I'll just same that my last two builds were on JEM Guns frames. All the holes were in the right locations and perpendicular to the frame/receiver. The 2011 needed absolutely no work. The only thing I had to do to the 1911 receiver was ream out the thumb safety holes. They were the right size, but there were tiny burrs on the insides of the hammer cut. 10 seconds of work total. I had JEM machine fit the slides and frames/receivers. They were perfect. I hand burnished them to smooth everything out. They were really tight, as in a 168PF Open load barely cleared the port with a 7 lb. recoil spring. After seeing these two I will never, EVER fit a slide by hand again. I had planned to use a Cheely Custom frame for my next build. I might try a Brazos, because it also takes the Cheely e2 grip that I prefer. The harder part is finding good slides. There were some for a while, but the supply dried up. I see Brazos is now machining their own slides. Warwick also makes good slides. So, if I wanted to fit everything myself, I'd probably go with a Brazos slide and frame. Since fitting a slide, frame and gunsmith fit barrel by HAND is extremely time consuming, I would go with a Warwick Tactical short block. For a touch over $1k you get a slide to frame fit with .0004" clearance, parallel, and a Barsto barrel fit, timed and linked.

I messed up the first match barrel I tried fitting. I did cut the hood too short. I had it welded up and I refit it. It worked fine. A little while later I was reading an article about hood length. Bullseye shooters said it had to touch the slide for best accuracy. Competition shooters said BS, why take the chance that a little debris could keep the gun from going into battery. Some said they want .001" clearance. Others said no, it should be .003". Bullseye said interference fit. In the mean time I had fit a new Barsto barrel to the gun. I cut the hood so that when it went into battery it would scrape half the thickness of a magic marker film placed on the slide. So essentially I had about .0003" clearance. The barrel shot fine. So I had the original barrel lying around and decided to experiment. I shot it for group, then cut .001" off the end of the hood and shot for group again. Same size. Next I cut another .003" off. Same group size. I cut another .003" off and another. At.013" too short I gave up. Group sizes were exactly the same as the bullseye fit hood length. Everything else about the barrel was fit perfectly. It locked up perfectly. That's why I think the hood length didn't matter. If everything else is okay with your barrel and you are happy with the accuracy, just shoot it .004" short. If you are not happy with the accuracy, I'd look for problems elsewhere. It is very unlikely to be hood length.

135 and 155gr bullets will give you the least muzzle flip, at the expense of a harder hit to your hand. Also consider loading minor. Use a fast powder like Alliant e3 and a 155gr bullet at around 850fps. That will knock steel down with authority and not beat you up. That won't hold you back a bit for Open in steel challenge, but your splits in USPSA Open will not be as fast as with a comp'd gun. It's a shame you are not closer. I'd let you shoot one of mine.

You are wasting your time. Adding a frame mounted dot and a racker just means you are shooting a Limited gun with an optic. How is that going to simulate Open? If you use your Limited loads you learn nothing, especially if you are using heavy bullets. If you use a light bullet, slow powder major load, all you get is more recoil. What makes an Open gun open is the comp and the load you develop for it. The comp makes the gun shoot softer and flatter. In 40 you can tailor a load to make the gun shoot dead flat with just a comp. That's something you cannot do with 9mm. You also want the slide lightened so action is sped up. It also reduces dot rise. My suggestion is to try and find one to shoot before you make any changes to your Limited gun. They are not as rare as you might expect. If you decide to modify your Limited gun ( a valid option ), be aware that you can't go back. At the barest minimum you have to have the front of the slide milled down and cut at an approx. 1 degree angle. The you have to fit a barrel and comp. Those three things will run you about $600. Then you won't like the fact the slide and comp are different sizes. So another $50-$100 to machine the comp to match the slide. Then slide lightening. Cost depends on what you have dome. My last slide cost $480 just for the lightening cuts. Another suggestion is to find a used one to buy. I've bought several used Open guns. When I've decided to sell one or two, I'v been able to get fairly close to what I initially paid for them. That's how I initially got into Open. I wanted to try it so I bought an Open upper for my CZ TS Limited gun. I was hooked, but wanted to stay with 1911/2011 platforms. So I bought a used custom Open in 40sw. Later on I bought another used semi-custom gun as a backup. If I had it to do over again, I'd skip the CZ upper. Otherwise I'd do exactly the same.

Well, I'll throw my two cents in here. I have Open guns with bull barrels and steel comps, bushing barrels with steel comps and two with custom Trubore blanks. What used to be my main Open blaster had a poly grip and was nose heavy. It swung like a log, even though it was lighter than some of my others. The cone comp gun swung faster, but had more muzzle rise. My latest is the heaviest with a SS grip, but it balances perfectly. Even though it is heavy, I feel it transitions faster. I can't measure it, but my HFs are up.

Josh, although I broke the advice I'm going to give you on my first 1911 45 ACP build, I'll recommend no through cuts on the slide. Take metal off where it doesn't count and leave it full (or very close to full) where is does. I have three slides done as shown below. The oldest, on a 40sw 2011 has seen a boatload of rounds with absolutely no issues. Not sayin' it won't ever crack, but I doubt it. The one shown below is on my latest 9mm Open gun. It already has 7,000 through it and I expect it to last for 100,000. Same with the slide on my 1911 Open . Obviously you cannot lighten as much on a Limited gun, but you get the idea.steel gun.

Yeh, right. It would be a nightmare trying to find a slide, extractor, etc. that would work. Then $85 each for 5 round mags you have to tune for weeks to get them to run. No thanks.

Okay, I'm bored out of my mind. My 9mm major Open build runs 100%. My 9mm 1911 Open build for SCSA runs 100%. My 1911 45 ACP runs like a top. It's not like I don't have many other 1911/2011 guns, but I can't think of any rational excuse to build another. So what do you think of a 38 Super/SC gun for the Centerfire leg of bullseye? I've been shooting 45 for both.

Geez! Hellfire Custom Guns just did a 2011 Open gun for a friend. Price? $2600. It was plain Jane, but it runs. Pass on the botched Czechmate.

None of the clubs I shoot at is AMG timers. Mine will pick up a dry fire hammer fall.

I can shoot 135PF in mine, but nothing lower. If you buy factory ammo, make sure the bullets are heavy copper plated or JHPs. Anything else will lead up you comp. Blaser Brass h is thin copper plate. CCI does not recommend its use in a compensated gun. I know several who use it and they don't complain. Blaser Aluminum cased ammo has thicker plated bullets, and that is what CCI recommends. You can buy new and remanufctured ammo with X-Treme copper plated bullets from LAXammo. Everglades sells new and reman minor PF, as well as new major PF ammo.

I shoot with a lot of Open shooters using DVCs, plus a couple of SCSA shooters using the S version. All of the Os had problems taking up to 6 months to sort out. The Ss seem to run, but I haven't know those guys for long. So I don't know what they went through. For as much as a DVC costs, you could get a custom gun built by good custom gunsmiths who don't have nationally recognized names. For example, Hellfire Custom Guns just built an Open gun for a friend. Cheely Wide frame, Caspian slide, KKM barrel, Binary Engineering comp and all EGW internals. Cost? $2600 with a plastic grip. Or, you could do what a lot of Custom gunsmiths do and start with a Warwick Tactical short block. Order it with a Barsto bull barrel threaded for 11/16x40. The slide to frame fit will be .0003-.0004" clearance and parallel within .0005". Barrel fit perfectly, timed and linked with their proprietary link. Instead of the usual 5 links to choose from, they have 27. So the fit is always perfect. It will cost you a whopping $1100. Then give it to your local smith to install a grip and good internals. That is child's play. If you want a lighter slide, send it to Gans Custom for milling. If you do buy a DVC, MBX mags work 100% after conditioning. Conditioning involves leaving them fully loaded for a week to set the springs. STI Gen 2 mags work, but require tuning for 100%. Cheely e2 grips fit the DVS frame with no work, or any other new frame deigned for a plastic grip. PT Evos require fitting.

He polished the parts and then applied Dykem. He made no mention of oiling the parts.

FWIW, I buy my brass from Ammobrass in 6,000 case lots. They are resized and decapped, primer pocket swaged, roll sized, cleaned in SS media, dried and lightly waxed. https://www.ammobrass.com/product-page/9mm-fully-processed-reloading-brass They look better than that in person.

Everglades 172PF shoots well, is accurate and moderately soft. They use a faster powder than I do, so it hits my hand harder than my load. I tried some while I was working up my handload. I've shot gobs of their 135PD 124s for steel challenge. Good company. Their bullets are great also.

You don't use Prussian Blue on oiled surfaces.

Yes.

To use a bull barrel requires your slide to have a reverse plug cut. Some manufacturers do that automatically, even if the slide is fitted with a bushing barrel. Take your spring tunnel plug and push it back towards the rear of the slide. If you can push it all the out to the rear, you have a reverse cut. If not, you'll need a trip to a gunsmith.

A black Sharpie won't transfer. So you'll only know the high spots on the Sharpied side. With PB, you know on both. The clear spots on the side you applied the PB are high, as are the blue spots on the opposing side.

You have a Production gun, so shoot that for a while. For not a lot of money you could add a dot and mag extensions and shoot Carry optics. You approach the stage like a Limited shooter, but you have a dot.