StraightSh00ter

I stopped paying attention to weather reporters a long time ago - too much of a crap shoot.

I had 3 Tripp mags. After borrowing a Wilson at a monster match and having a feed issue I ordered 2 more Tripps. They are perfect. I also ran a .45ACP mag in that (monster) match. I modified the feed lips and follower to work with 9mm and the mag ran fine, although the intent was to use it only when absolutely necessary. I couldn't load it to max capacity because the angle of the follower wasn't right for the tapered case of the 9mm and I didn't have time to mess with it. I bought the extra Tripps since then. I was thinking about making a long 9mm mag for shooting Limited in monster matches. We are allowed a 171mm magazine in Limited, which is almost 2" longer than the standard mags. I haven't figured out how many extra rounds that would hold yet though, or if its worth pursuing.

I'm glad someone is working on new trigger options. I find there are surprisingly few given the history of the 1911. I think the reverse crown or whatever its called looks awesome, and I want to try a hinged trigger some day. I am a little skeptical of the threaded trigger shoe attachment though.

Welcome from SW Ohio. This is a great site and a great sport.

Ammo out of the tumbler is so nice (Thanks Sarge!)

I got Cabelas lube for loading pistol rounds. It leaves the finished product kinda sticky, so I've been running the rounds through the tumbler with corn media for ~15min. They come out beautiful.

I have a nice compressor - I like the idea, but I don't know that I want to learn bead blasting on my 1911 or that I really have space for the blast cabinet. I was looking at it a couple of days ago in the store. I really want it to come out pretty, so I'm considering chrome as well as blasting.

Pay attention to the alignment of the barrel with your strong arm with the different grips. See what you can do to change that alignment while maintaining the grip you want to use (ie, move the point where the first knuckle of your fingers wraps around the front strap). By using the grip Keith suggested, it should put the barrel in line with your strong arm. Your arms obviously stem from the side of your body and make a triangle when your shooting with 2 hands. So having the barrel in line with your right arm would aim the gun to the left. Try experimenting with where you hold the gun in front of you - see if you notice a difference between Weaver and Isosceles stances (I think traditional Weaver naturally puts your shoulders such that your head and arm are more inline with the target).

Try both and see what works best for you.

I noticed that different grips on the gun are affected differently by tension in my hands. For example, when I had my left thumb riding firmly on the frame, changes in left hand tension would move the muzzle around. A similar thing happened (but worse) when I shot with my left index finger on the front of the trigger guard. Tension in your hands can very easily change between practice and timed fire. My grip today is less influenced by hand tension/pressure, and is now showing me that tension still exists in other places (arms/shoulders) when I try to 'go fast'.

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I'm having some work done to my gun and will need to send it out for blasting -it's a stainless 1911 with a glass bead finish. I can send it back to Sig for a reasonable cost, but I'd like something a little more custom if possible (grit options, attention to detail, etc). Any suggestions?

There's a lot of good input above. I second what is said in posts #15 and #16. I was in a similar position a few months ago, buying my first 1911. I looked at the Range Officer, but I personally liked the Sig guns - to me they felt like a step up in class/quality, for a pretty similar price point. I'm totally in love with my 9mm Traditional Match Elite. I did have the S80 components removed with my trigger job. I think I spent about $100 on the trigger work which gave me a really nice 2.5lb trigger. People say most of these guns need trigger work anyway, so I wouldn't consider that an extra cost over the Springfield, but I'm not sure about the DW. Dan Wesson will be worth the money, but if the Loaded Target has everything you want and feels good to you, then go for it. (Or if the deal is amazing, you can grab it and always sell it later.) Sig 1911s are going for around $900 and I think are well worth the money. I'll have mine at Circleville on Saturday if you want to see it. FWIW, Hard Chrome is around $250 for a gun, looks like stainless but wears better than steel, and will tighten up the fit a little.

I'm using this bench too. I used a level to shim under the legs and it's rock solid (using a 650 with strong mount).

Thanks everyone. I think everyone had bits and pieces of the puzzle - collet not tight enough, pin position, sticky lube, etc. I have new pins on the way and will grab a 1-in deep socket on the way home today. I'll set everything up as mentioned above, and will get some Lanolin or Dillon case lube. I took the shell plate off to install the low-mass ball and bearing and won't make a habit of taking it apart. I have to say I'm really happy with this machine (and support of this forum and local members) - I've made almost 1000 rounds in the past couple of weeks and this is the only little hiccup I've experienced so far.

I've been having some issues with my resizing/depriming die. What's the proper way to setup of this Lee die in the Dillon 650? Should the top of the pin be even with the top of the adjustment bolt (per Lee instructions)? Should the die fully touch the shell plate? I believe the Lee instructions say to screw the die in until it touches the plate, then finger tighten the locking bolt. It doesn't stay tight that way (need a wrench) so maybe that's too much contact with the shell plate? Right now my method is to screw the die down until I just barely feel any resistance, then finger tighten the nut and give about 1/16 turn with a wrench. If I see the die move, I'll back it out a touch and repeat. I tried installing the die with the pin loose, then lowering it down. With the die against the shell plate, the pin never seems to touch anything so I don't think pin depth is the issue. Here are the issues I've had: During my first reloading session, cases didn't seem to feed fully under the die and the case would hit the side of the die and stop. I could fully seat the case by hand and continue. I then found the locking nut was loose, and then found the depriming pin had been forced out of the collet. This may have been related to cases getting stuck to the plastic that pushes them into the shell plate? Sarge came over at one point and said that can be an issue. We cleaned things up a little and I was fine for another 500rounds (so I thought - there was one round that got made with an old primer). Last night I loaded about 300 rounds of different (sorted) head stamps and things seemed great. I got to the Perfecta batch and started having issues with the primers not getting pushed out. Again I had the pin come loose and forced out of the collet, but this time there was no issues with alignment or resizing, just depriming. I tried to see if primers were getting pulled back into the hole. I didn't think they were but it's hard to tell. I did hear some random primers bouncing on the floor, and found they were fresh so that led me to think the old primer was getting in the way. I tried rounding off the edges of the pin which seemed to help. The problem is not solved but now I don't know if it's because the pin is bent (new one on order). The brass is definitely not crimped, and I've deprimed and resized Perfecta brass before with no issues. After my session last night I removed the shell plate for cleaning and noticed one of the stations had indents all around the case slot. I figured it was from the resizing die, but thought it was odd it was only prevalent at one slot.

I started shooting a couple of months ago. I was hooked on CZ until a friend took me to the range with a pair of 1911s. That night I went online and realized I was about to decide to 'throw away' a lot of money for the simple reason of wanting to shoot a 1911, and the cost of my first gun purchase doubled instantaneously. I am thinking about a gun for Limited. If I was OK with shooting Minor PF I'd go with a CZ 75SA for $550. Otherwise I'm looking at 2011s in the $2.5-3k price range. I guess I can relate to the OP - it's either 'top shelf' 1911/2011 or something else. I seem to be reluctant to spring for a Para or Rock Island high-cap for $8-900. I appreciate and respect the OPs decision to be smarter with hobby spending. That is harder to do than it should be.

Seems to be a shot in the dark with no description, but this could be it: http://www.midwayusa.com/product/645104/smith-and-wesson-extractor-spring-1911-government-steel-blue

I got a $20 AWS scale on Amazon that reads to .01gr. I thought I wanted the extra decimal to see if/how things fluctuate. But the scale is small, and if you are one to weigh out 10 charges and take an average, you basically get the same resolution. It does come with calibration weights, and it seems to be pretty perfect so far (repeatable reading of the 2 calibration weights and the powder tray). http://www.amazon.com/American-Weigh-GEMINI-20-Portable-MilliGram/dp/B0012TDNAM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1446612906&sr=8-1&keywords=milligram+scale I'd eventually like to get a bench-top scale with an A/C adapter. Probably either the Dillon or the one Brian sells. I guess it depends on what you want it for though - I just need mine for USPSA loads.

I was watching a few videos of him the other day. One thing that stood out was him talking about shooting while moving. He was saying that he keeps his knees bent to absorb forces, and uses the heel-toe to stay smooth and mitigate the up-and-down motion that usually happens when you walk. It's all about being smooth and steady, especially while trying to get a sight picture.

I don't know if anyone here uses this, but I saw a recall notice on Hodgdon's site and thought it was worth mentioning. I did a search and didn't see much talk about it on this forum, but you never know... http://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/4007sscsafetywarning.pdf

Here's a press release from Remington, talking about moving Para operations to Alabama and keeping popular products and features, and honoring the lifetime warranty: http://www.remington.com/pages/news-and-resources/press-releases/2015/corporate/remingtonannouncesparaintegration.aspx

I know the number of Para replacement parts is limited - is it a bad idea to get a new Para Pro Custom in 2015, or are there plenty of other aftermarket parts? What parts on the Para are not interchangeable with other 1911 or 2011 guns?

I like the Eagle. I've shot the Edge and it was nice, but I generally don't like the extra weight at the muzzle (I love CZ 75, don't like SP01 at all). I also think the short dust cover looks better, and it's hard to spend decent money on something without wanting to like the way it looks. According to Brazos website, the Tungsten guide rod adds about the same amount of weight to the gun as the full length dust cover. A bull barrel adds weight too. The guide rod can be removed if you end up wanting to shoot a lighter (faster) gun. I'm sure most people already know this, but it's worth saying that more weight at the muzzle damps the felt recoil, while less weight allows the gun to get back on target faster (it has less momentum). My experience shooting guns with heavier muzzle weight is limited, but I notice the extra weight right away whenever I pick one up and sight around with it. That being said, the STI guns with poly grips are pretty light (compared to a 1911) which helps with all that. The extra weight is a lot less noticeable on and Edge than it is on a CZ SP01 (yuk). Eagle can be used in IDPA, for what it's worth. That could be a selling point should you decide you don't like it. As people suggest to me, get the one you like!

Thanks everyone. My biggest concern was that I wasn't measuring OAL right in my barrel - it sounds like the chamber could very well be cut to 1.217" length. I will see what the max length is that works in the mags and feeds reliably in the gun. I've been happy with the accuracy of factory ammo, so I guess there's not much of a reason to load too much longer than 1.160" and it seems sensible to stay below the SAAMI spec max. That being said, the next step for me is to learn about OAL vs bullet weight/shape; I don't know if heavier bullets should be seated differently.