RippinSVT

Just finishing up a 9mm 1911 build, everything functions wonderfully so far...feeding, ejection, extraction, extremely accurate. However, I'm getting light strikes ever 20 shots or so. Firing pin alignment is good but not perfect, but no worse than most of my factory guns. Barrel was headspaced to the minimum so there's no voodoo there with case deflection. My concern lies in the firing pin. It's an EGW titanium as I recall, with an extra power spring with 2-3 coils cut. I am running the Extreme Engineering Lightspeed sear/hammer/disco and a 17lb ISMI mainspring. I have friends running this setup successfully, but they are using a steel firing pin. This is with Winchester primers, all seated properly. Winchester is the hardest I use and Federals have been 100% reliable that I can remember from my small (200rd) sample size since I finished the gun. So where to go from here. I'd rather keep the 17lb spring since I've got a nice 2.6lb trigger currently. Any input on steel versus titanium? Does the firing pin spring really have a bearing on energy on primer? Any merit to moving to a Dawson extended pin?

A few of us from Illinois are driving down, at least 3.

I guess they make an exception for Indoor Registered, according to Damien today. Probably because there's no others lol.

I say give it a shot. We talked about this on Rob's FB post with twist and stuff (Kyle). You mentioned a barrel fixture, do you have one? If you can get it so shoot 1/2-3/4" or so at 25yds from a fixture I say go for it. That'll be a 2"@50 barrel in the gun. Bullet diameter can help. I have shot a LOT of 8's that would've been 10's with a .45. I'd go straight to the 20-twist and 165's, get something with an XTP profile or wadcutter. I like outside the box thinking, keep it up. There's a reason benchrest Score shooters abandoned 6ppc for 30Major. They realized a slight decrease in accuracy was worth breaking more scoring rings. Let's just go straight to 50GI?

I think I'm gonna drive up Kevin. I guess we can set NR's there? I'm pretty much going just to do that and play around. Probably shoot all 3 guns. -Kyle

Have any details regarding the indoor match? I was thinking about making the 6hr drive in a few weeks, but was unsure about the match. Is it shot to 25yds max? Reduced targets? What kind of turnout do you get? I figured I'd come up and shoot all 3 divisions for fun.

Low was 1320 with SPM, high was 1377, average around 1350. That's major, and I'm happy. Thanks gentlemen.

I actually like the Lee for small batches and test loads, a lot easier than changing my 1050 every time I get a wild hair, but obviously it has its drawbacks. I'm gonna shoot them now and report back.

Well the deal is I'm using my Lee Loadmaster just for work-up and it uses those pesky autodisks that don't really let you dial in powder exactly so I'm stuck at the 164/174PF until I can find my misplaced adjustable charge bar. So yeah, same powder (WAC) at 2 predetermined loads. I would use my auto driven 1050 but I don't wanna change anything until I get all my Minor Bianchi Cup loads done, which is about 6000rds off still. As it turns out, I got off work early today so I'll be able to chronograph the SPM/6.6gr load and see if it makes Major. I was gonna load 500 real quick on the LM, which isn't a lot, but I still wanted some assurance it would stand a chance of making Major if I couldn't find time to check speeds.

Has anybody done velocity testing with different primers? I ran out of light yesterday when I was chronoing some loads. Essentially I had two 9Major loads, one at 164PF and one at 174PF, The 164PF load was obviously a hair light and I was hoping to switch from a standard SPP to a SPM primer to snag the 10-20fps I needed to make Major. I went inside and loaded a handful but like I said, couldn't chrono. I'm only asking because I really wanna load a bunch up but I'm not sure I'll be home to chrono during daylight hours this week. Yes, I understand its a gamble that I could go minor, but being like 10fps off and having some sound data that says the SPM will knock me over the line is good enough for me right now.

I run the same as Doug. I have also used factory STI mags, Chip Shooting Stars, and Kimber mags without issue. Strangely, the Wilsons gave both my metallic guns fits.

Even though I usually shoot Metallic, I've been thinking about shooting Open or Production to increase my chances of getting into the finals, and thus, the prizes (because there's 4 solid 1900 shooters in Met, and I can't quite get there currently). Anyhoo, if I shoot Production it'll most certainly be with my K38, which I'm certain won't fit in a box. That concerns me. It would make sense to simply exempt revolvers since there's not a whole lot of external tomfoolery that can be gamed into one aside from grips.

I might add, given the lackluster attendance of the special categories last year, we likely won't even fill all 4 of the spots in each of those categories, and if we do, it'll be by people who got it by default.

Just read through the 2017 program and found a few takeaways. -they added Grand Senior as an entire category for the shootoff -Meanwhile entire gun Divisions that make up over half the field (Metallic, Production) only get a total of 4 each to the shootoff -Now 32 Open shooters will shoot off compared to 4 Metallic and 4 Production -Prizes will only be awarded to these 40, so there is nearly no point in shooting Production/Metallic unless you can shoot a 1900 under pressure, which only a handful of people in the world can do. Naturally, as an 1850 Metallic shooter +/-30, I don't like that prize pool. I might have to dust off my Open gun and get to practicing. I think I can muster a 1910 and squeak in there if I work at it...but I really don't want to.

Both my Minor and Major loads shoot under 2" at 50 yards in several 1911/2011's, and under 1" in a couple. Try 115 Zero JHP's or Hornady HAP's (nearly identical) with 3.8-4.2gr of Titegroup, loaded at 1.15". Get 'em going about 1100fps. Size the brass with a U-die if using mixed brass for consistent bullet holding and chambering, and crimp slightly at .374-375" at the case mouth without deforming bullet bearing surface. I prefer Winchester and Federal primers for consistent ignition. A great low-cost alterative is Acme's coated grooveless 122TC, it shoots phenomenally and is cheap at $31-35 per 500. For a Major load, use same specs, but substitute a 124gr Zero/HAP and load using AA #7 at 8+ grains (work up), this is actually a book Major load at 168ish PF and it shoots incredibly from several of my guns.

Thanks, I got the same one shortly after I posted that.

Anybody know when 2017 registration opens? I thought it was usually Jan 1.

They want it for TV/media purposes I'm sure. I'm not crazy about it either.

I spoke at length last week with NRA HQ. The main championship match will be fired Wed-Friday the 24th-26th, as it was 2 years ago. Saturday will be the championship finals as it was in 2016. Tuesday May 23 will return to the old format of multigun/ironman shoot. As I understood it the fired team match goes away (that was just a filler last year when attendance was low), but the team paper match comes back. Kyle Weaver has been terminated, along with some of his upper management, and they are trying to get sponsorship and attendance back to where it was headed 2-3 years ago.

If you ever want to sell this, I would love to buy it!!! So cool.

I'm not terribly worried about the leads, I'll get them in there one way or another. Shot the barricade today just messing around and shot a 469-30X first time out, but I see what everybody talks about with the left side being tricky with a wheelgun. I pulled my factory hammer out and I'll be internally lightening it when I get motivated to fire up my mill, since I can't bob it. I've been shooting the crosshatched Hornady 148HBWC's at around 830fps and they cut little bit groups, I'm probably gonna stick with a full wadcutter.

Okay guys, now that I've become distinguished in Metallic, I'm gonna go back and dabble in Production to get my distinguished in that hopefully. I recently started shooting my K38 Masterpiece in practice and I've been doing well with it...Practicals in the 470's, 470-480 plates, haven't tried mover/barricade yet. Anyways, the biggest issue I have with it is drawing that long barrel from a standard enclosed leather holster without drastically slowing me down and cutting time real close. What exactly is allowable in Production as far as wheelgun holsters? As for grips, I've got some thick wood handles on there that do the trick since I suppose the RO's would frown upon Big Butt Hogues. How about hammers? Since it is DAO, is it acceptable to bob the spur, or would that automatically bump me back to Metallic? I've seen a few "Production" guns that made me roll my eyes a bit, so I wasn't sure how far I could push this stuff. While we're on the topic...has anybody ever got a 125gr load to shoot tiny groups? I never have in the dozens of 38/357's I've owned. This thing cuts a ragged hole with Sierra 140's and lead 148HBWC's, but I'd like a little quicker pill if possible. Thanks, Kyle

Excellent, good to know. I think I'll pass on it then. Seating and crimping in two steps is a must for me. Plus, I don't think I've ever missed a charge on the 6-7 progressives I've used, that wasn't my own fault. Great thanks. I think I'll run some processed/roll-sized brass first during the initial automation runs to avoid issues. I was thinking about just setting it up to process 10-15k pieces of 9mm to start, then going back and loading it. Is that dumb? I had a pretty well known shooter, who had several auto 1050's, tell me that he'd never run unprocessed brass through an automated setup.

If you just wanna jump to a purpose built gun, PPC bargain guns in the Smith or Ruger persuasion can be found by the dozen on gunbroker for $400-1200. I shoot a Clark Customs Grandmaster built on an old Security-Six. It's slick shit. Otherwise, it is my humble opinion that the 6" S&W Model 14 Target Masterpiece is the finest factory target revolver ever made. When I start down the road to becoming Distinguished in NRA-AP Production, I plan on taking out my 14.

okay cool. I was planning on the guide rod and bearing kit already. Is the pocket check sensor a waste of time? I was gonna add that but won't waste the $160 if don't have to. How about the powder check alarm? That one seemed like a no-brainer.