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NO, it isn't. That powder chart is wrong. HS-6 takes 1 gr more powder to make the same PF as CFE and WAC. It is definitely slower.

I purchased the barrel from Eric (aircooled6racer). That's his handle on these forums. Send him a PM. He builds his own guns (lots of them) so he may fit the barrel for you. If not, there are any number of local competent gunsmiths who can do that for you. If not, Hellfire Custom Guns is relatively close to you. Scott can do all you need, including building you a complete new gun. If Eric doesn't have one available, you can buy one online and send it to him for the comp cuts. You definitely want someone to fit it for you, because it is a PITA. You can't even get the barrel into the slide until you remove a lot of material from the barrel. I have no idea why STI decided to machine them htat way. Probably to cut costs.

Here is my three cents. Buy a good, used 9mm Open gun and run it for a while. When you decide to step up, you can sell it for most of what you paid for it. If you want to buy new, give Scott at Hellfire Custom Guns a call. 610-247-0793 http://www.hellfirecustomguns.com info@hellfirecustomguns.com He just built a new open gun for one of the guys I shoot with regularly. Cheely Custom frame, Caspian slide, KKM barrel with Binary Engineering Ti comp and all EGW internals. $3k. He does good work. It will cost you more if you want to do real fancy slide lightening, etc. If you buy a 9mm major gun you DO want a frame mount and reflex sight. you DO NOT want a Slideride. The mount has to be offset so the brass can clear. You DO want to buy fully processed once-fired brass. You will have no problems at all, at only 4 cents each. If you are not locked into 9mm major, consider a good, used 40sw gun. There are zero ejection problems because it is a straight walled case. It is super easy to load for and pressures are below SAAMI limits. You could go stupid crazy with PF and still not exceed that limit. Good luck with your hunt.

The simplest was to convert to 9mm is to buy a new Trubore blank and have it fitted. I bought two from aircoller6racer with his custom comp cuts and fit them to my two new builds. He places the ports way forward, so you have room to add two 3/16" poppels in the comp itself. This way you end up with an almost identical feel when you are done.

My home club is like that. They don't run sanctioned matches and have their own criteria for selecting their ROs. I'm fine with that, because the pistol range is actually a 27 lane bullseye range and special rules apply.

I routinely shoot USPSA at four clubs. The MDs handle the problem differently. One club allows you to register, but not squad. They ask if you are a certified RO at Practiscore registration. Then they allow all the ROs to squad, with the expectation they will do so evenly throughout the squads. After that, shooters are allowed to squad. A second club asks if you are a certified RO at registration, but does not do a good job of balancing them. Once I was the only RO on a squad of 15. I was exhausted by the end of the day. None of the other shooters had ever run the timer and were reluctant to do so. I shot last on each stage and did get one guy t run me. Now, at that club, I make sure to squad where there is already at least one RO. A third club asks if you are a certified RO, or experienced enough to run the timer. If they are short of ROs on a squad, they will ask one or two ROs to move. It's rare that I am asked to move, because there are so many certified ROs shooting those matches there are usually three or more on each squad. The fourth club doesn't ask and lets everyone squad where they want, except the wait list. They get a choice, but balancing the squads comes first. There have been occasions where there was no RO on a squad and the MD moved to that squad to run the shooters. I've never run into the OP's scenario. The one time no one wanted to run shooters was not because they were lazy. They were scared to because of lack of experience.

I know a couple of M Open shooters who tried CO for a while, then switched back. All of the newer shooters going into USPSA shoots seem to pick CO.

I don't shoot Co because I do not own a production legal pistol. However, I have five FF3 8 MOAs. They are great. Three of them are slide mounted in dovetail adapters. The oldest wa on one of my 1911 45s shooting major and minor. It went 40,000 rounds before the little plastic cover over the diode port broke. The sigh still worked fine, but Burris insisted on replacing it. I sent it in and Burris sent a new sight. I have a second mounted directly to the milled slide on another 1911 45. Works like a charm. A third is also on a reciprocating slide. All hold zero and I have no problems with any of them. The other two are on 22s . One is on a custom Buckmark (reciprocating). The other is on a sight rail and does not move when the gun fires. About the only thing I can knock the FF3 * MOA for is if the battery is a year or two old, it isn't quite bright enough for steel challenge in bright sunlight. You can definitely see the dot on the white steel, but I'd like it a little brighter.

This ^^^^.

I think you should shoot whatever you have the most fun with. I switched from Limited to Open when my eyes forced the switch. There was no CO then. There are a lot of older shooters who did the same. Many of them shoot Open minor. They don't care and that lets them keep shooting. I have been shooting major, but that might change. My elbows are shot and a long match means I'm really sore for days afterwards. I build my own guns, so repairs are not an issue. That being said, if I were starting out again today, with the rules as present and knowing what I know, I would shoot CO with an S2, milled slide, dot and 140 mags. It is effectively Open minor. 23 in a mag is absolutely no disadvantage, as there is almost always a spot or three where you can reload without costing time. Open major guns are definitely cooler than CO guns. The downside is you have to reload for them. Available new or reloaded major ammo doesn't cut it. So if you shoot a lot, you will be spending a LOT of time on the loading bench. I've just decided to buy all my minor ammo for steel matches because I have a hard time keeping up, not even counting the 40 and 45 I need. If you want to tinker in Open, buy a good used Open gun and have at it. BTW, a 40sw Open gun is a viable option. It will shoot softer than a 9mm (I have both) and is waaaay easier to load for. You would plan your stages just as you do now.

It's a shame you have so many poppels. The four baffles in that comp will do fine if you make enough gas to get to them. After you have experimented for a while and know what you can get, you may consider having a gunsmith thread and pug the V2s. You can definitely make major with a 115 and two 3/16" poppels.

I use purple, blue and red. Purple is just a tad weaker than blue. I use it in lieu of removable thread locker. I use blue for red dot mounting screws and the like. Red is only for the comps on my Open guns. I don't use Loctite for iron sights, but if I had to it would be purple or blue.

Don't use video. Use the Brazos test. I gave you the link in another thread.

Hold the barrel a couple of inches away from a white no shoot, or white cardboard. Pull the trigger and examine the hole. At worst it should be slightly speckled. If it is more than that, you have too much gas going out the front of the comp. Here is his article. http://www.brazoscustom.com/magart/0607.htm scroll down for the picture.

Considering only to Analog sound, there are three dB scales. Flat, A and C. Flat is just as it says. The measurements are actual. The dBA scale adjusts the actual readings to approximate the way humans here low level sounds ( 10dB to about 85dB ). It is based on the Fletcher-Munson plot. The dBC scale adjusts actual readings to approximate how humans hear high level sounds. It is a more accurate scale for the levels involved in shooting sports. dBA would significantly under-report lower frequencies, and some higher.

The PF of your load is irrelevant as long as it consistently makes major. You have four holes in your barrel that will bleed off a lot of gas before it reaches the comp. That means you will need even more gas generated to 'work' the comp. That may be impossible to do with 115gr bullets, given the limited case capacity. You may be stuck using 124s and you'll have to live with the recoil. He is how I approached working up my 9mm Open major load. I had been using WAC and Silhouette in my 40 Open loads, and they hit my hard harder than they should have. Also, the muzzle rose more than I wished. The reason is the two 3/16" poppels robbed the comp of gas. I switched from 7.3gr Silhouette to 10.2gr Major Pistol and the results were terrific. The larger powder charge generated enough gas to work both the poppels and the comp, so the gun shot softer and flatter. Knowing that I started with MP in 9mm. 10.2gr under a 115 HAP gives me 168PF with an SD of 4. It shot soft, but again the muzzle rose more than I had hoped for. I added two 3/16" poppels in a V2 and it flattened out, but at the expense of additional recoil to the hand (robbed the comp). I don't want to go to 124s, so I'll live with it. The rules for making a soft shooting load is to generate enough gas so that all the ports (baffles) of the comp are working, but there is almost no gas jetting out the front. Jetting out the front increases recoil. So does not having enough gas. Gas hitting the comp baffles pulls the gun forward. That's why you want all of them to work. I'd start your development with either AA7 or Major pistol. If you can't get enough in the case to make major with a 115, go to a 121 or 124.

Limited is easier to shoot for noobs. CO is also a good starting point if they want to shoot minor.

I'm just not afraid to put poppels in barrels. My main 40 Open gun was shot for years with two 3/16" poppels with absolutely no ill effects. IMO letting a Scheumann barrel drive your other choices is not wise. I also think a 4.5" slide stroked to gov recoil length is going to be problematic. I'm with rishi. Go to Shooters Connection and buy a KKM ribbed barrel if you feel you absolutely have to have a rib.

This ^^^^^.

dBs are a base 10 logarithmic scale (essentially exponents of a number expressed as aaa x 10 to the yy power. A 3dB difference is perceived by humans as halfing or doubling the sound level. Reducing a 140dB impulse level from an Open gun by 11 dB actually is not enough.

Yes. I refuse to shoot Open major indoors. Geez! I double plug when shooting it outside.

I RO at matches, so all mine are essentially lost brass matches. I don't care. I used to buy cleaned 40sw brass for 3 cents each. Now that I shoot Open I buy fully processed brass in lots of 6000 for 4 cents each. I'm through my first lot this year and just ordered another 6000. I recover a lot of brass I shoot for practice (brass catcher) but I've decided I'm not going to reload it. It isn't worth the bother to me. I'll sell it to my buddies for $10/500. I'll run about 10,000 9mm this year between USPSA and SCSA. It is worth the $400 to me, because I don't have to do anything except load, shoot and leave it. FWIW, all five clubs I shoot at allow you to pick up brass after everything has been put away. Some people do.

No. You do apply some pressure, but if you apply too much the muzzle dives when it returns. You also tend to shoot low. Plus you get a sore thumb.

There was a trend to go to 4.5" shorties, but that has waned. A lot of the custom builders are pushing 5" midis instead of the 5.4" gov length. I personally don't feel any difference in the hand. The 5" has to be stroked to get the slide stroke back, and you have to clip the recoil spring to avoid stacking. So you basically end up with a shorter gun that shoots the same as the 5.4. I considered the 5" for my last builds, but I was tired of having comps come loose. So I went with Trubore barrels with custom comp cuts. The 2011 balances right where I want it. With a 5" the slide is a tad lighter. You also need more powder to make major. If I ever decide I need a fifth Open gun, I'll build a 5" with a conversion cone and Ti comp, probably Binary Engineering's.

Even perfect feed lips will nose dive the first round if the spring is too strong. If your springs don't take enough set, you can go to a TTI +1 follower and spring Add a gen2 3mm pad and you will easily get 29, possibly 30.