AustinMike

I picked up a Shooting Chrony Alpha Master on ebay last year. Think I paid about $85 new, if I remember. Works OK for me and seems to be consistent with others I've compared with at the range. Definitely get one with the display and "brains" in the remote. Makes life easier at the range and if you shoot the sensors it's only like $35 to get it fixed by Chrony. Midway gets them on sale fairly regularly too. They have a 4th of July sale going on this week.

I've been running Ralph's kit for a while now in my limited and production guns (well about most of it anyway) and the trigger pull seems to be getting lighter with time. I decided to take out his modified trigger bar because on my Glocks (2nd gen. frames) the trigger safety wouldn't always engage and that made me nervous. Running his striker spring, safety plunger and spring, and connector, it feels super light. I'd guess initially that it was around 3 pounds or a little over without his trigger bar. With usage and regular oiling with FP-10, I'd say it's in the neighborhood of 2.5 pounds with the stock trigger bar in my G22.

I'd see if you can find someone with a chrono, especially loading to the higher published levels. My experience with the moly coated bullets is that it usually takes the low end of published data to push them to major PF. Every gun is different and that may very well be what your gun needs, but the chrono is the only way to know for sure.

In what gun and what PF are you getting? Jacketed bullet? That sounds like a really stout load at 1.135"! I just chrono'd 6.0gr. Power Pistol at 179PF out of my Glock 22 with KKM barrel and the Precision 185gr. moly coated bullets. I'll be backing down to 5.8gr. or possibly lower.

I used to shoot plated bullets, but switched to jacketed due to noticeable accuracy improvement in my gun. Using fast powder like Clays, FMJs can have some smoke and even leave a little lead in the gun to clean up, especially in revolver. I wanted to use the FMJ round nose profile for best feeding in the bottom feeder and the revolver and found these: Hornady HAP. They are an accurate jacketed round nose with an enclosed base. They're a little pricey unless you catch them on sale or find some folks you can bulk order with.

There's a really good local coffee place by the UT campus (JP's) that we will get coffee at sometimes. We buy their beans from time to time and think they are the best in town. We try to roast our own as much as possible though. We order raw beans from Sweet Marias and roast 'em ourselves. My wife's roaster sits on my reloading bench in the garage next to the 550B! Yep, we "roll our own" ammo and expresso! Freshly roasted beans are the best, but when we don't have time to do it we hit the local coffee places that do their own roasting. Starbucks will do as a last resort or sometimes out of sheer convenience and I usually just ask for their darkest roast coffee, black.

Bet that hurt worse than that time I stapled your hand to a target. Good thing OSHA doesn't regulate our matches.

Yeeeouch!!!!!

Don't know if you're still looking, but I'm ordering one of these, since all my other Glocks are geared up for competition. Mark is a good guy to deal with. Cheap Glock 23

How 'bout this? Cruzin' Cooler

My Shooting Chrony will start acting up sometimes in the sun. I'll lay the white side of a windshield shade that I keep in my truck over it on top of the sun screens and that usually fixes it. A no-shoot target works too.

I settled on Clays myself. General impressions of powder in .45acp: 231 - meters well, recoil not bad, easy to make major PF, leaves the gun very dirty. Titegroup - meters well, harsh recoil, slight residue on gun, burns HOT, spent cases too hot to touch and the slide/barrel get that way in a hurry too. N310 - meters well, soft recoil, consistent, clean, expensive. Clays - fluffy and some say it meters poorly (haven't had any problems as long as I keep the powder bar/channel on my Dillon clean), soft recoil, clean, pretty consistent at major PF, inexpensive. I favored N310 just slightly, but not enough to convince me to pay the price. I run 4.1gr. Clays with 230gr. FMJs out of any old piece of brass I find on the range. I'd run N310 if I were to shoot 200gr. bullets at major PF though. It seemed like that was pushing Clays a little too much in my gun.

Ain't it the truth! Austin seems to have more than its fair share of people barreling around in bloated gas guzzlers weaving around on I-35 while yapping on cell phones and drinking Cafe Lattes, eating Krispy Kreme doughnuts, wondering why traffic is so slow and why there are so many accidents and why somebody won't do something about it, for free, of course!

Can't speak for everyone, but the basic idea here is recoil control. A heavy bullet with fast powder feels softer to a lot of folks than a slower powder at the same power factor. "The Great One" explains it better than I can: Rob Leatham on bullet weight / powder This discussion was on .45acp, but it's the same concept.

Tim, Here's my current load. Gun/barrel: J.L. Hardy Mongoose (commander length) Schuemann AET barrel w/ 2 ports Bullet: Zero 125gr. JHP Brass: Winchester OAL: 1.155" Primer: WSR Powder: HS-6 8.4gr. 1377fps, 172PF Same load with Win. magnum small pistol primer was 1344fps, 168PF. More experimenting to come with other powders to come.

I've been getting a hold of a lot of once-fired Sellier & Bellot cases lately (9mm and .40) and they are a bear to prime. Don't know if it's a crimp or just primer sealer that they apply. I was wondering if the Super Swage would help with this.

Guilty! I absolutely run 9mm for cost savings and flat out laziness because I'd rather not have to pick up brass at matches. Actually, it's not laziness so much as between setting up matches, helping with R.O. and score-keeping duties, resetting stages, etc., it's nice to have one less thing on my mind to distract from my shooting. I'm sure Dave thinks I'm quite insane (probably for many more reasons than my reloading practices. ) I buy "once-fired" brass and pick up some stuff on the range that people leave lay. I try to be cautious about it though. When I sort through the brass, it's not that tough IMO to pick out good cases to load to major. Apart from case defects like torn up rims, cracks, really flattened head stamps, etc., the primer and pocket tells a lot of the case's history. Obviously enlarged pockets, smeared or top hatted primers, etc. get tossed. I feel good about picking up brass that shooters leave around here from striker based guns. There aren't many (if any) open Glock shooters around here, so it's a good bet that the cases have only been exposed to minor loads. Of course, things like lots of extractor marks and other signs would indicate a lot of those loads! I've loaded some cases a couple of times with my major load (currently 8.4gr. HS-6, WSR primer, 1.155" OAL, 125gr. Zero JHP) to see if the primer pocket loosens up and it doesn't appear to really. I've picked up plenty of range brass though with hellacious looking primers/pockets (scary what some people are running.) So, how do I know that the cases I use are once-fired? I don't. I inspect as best as I can and toss the blatant rejects. I keep an eye out for pressure signs with my loads. Is known once-fired or new brass safer? Maybe...maybe not. I've seen brand new brass crack myself and there have been reports that I've read, but can't verify, of things like case head separation. If you push the envelope with faster powders, it's false confidence to assume that known once-fired or new will never fail you (and I'm sure that's not what Dave was implying. ) I hear lots of folks saying that they buy new brass and it gets lost before it wears out. Frankly, I've been known to subscribe to that line of thinking myself with .45 brass - shoot it 'till it cracks or I lose it (that cartridge is an entirely different animal though.) There is uncertainty in this approach too. Even though it's from your own gun, I wonder how many shooters can say with certainty how many times each of their cases has been fired. Unless you only shoot with one batch at a time and cease using the cases at once before starting up a new batch, it would seem to me that it would be pretty hard to track case firings. If you assume that you'll lose it at a match before it becomes "dangerous", is that really that different than the "guessing" about case life that we once-fired niners do? No jabs intended, just food for thought. I'm actually doing some experimentation myself now with 3N37 and N350 that I have on hand since they look to be slower than HS-6 (and single based.) I would like to use the slowest powder possible (that won't spill all over my press. ) OK...snappy comment repellant suit on...brace for impact!

Yeah, but the shipping will get you!

I just got that cart with the sides on sale at Lowes a couple weeks ago. It's big (2' x 4'), heavy, and very yellow! It's a little cumbersome getting in and out of the truck, but it hauls everything I need at 3 gun matches, including a big ice chest. I like that it has a trailer attachment for hooking on to my lawn tractor. That will come in handy out in the yard.

Ditto. Exposed lead base sucks in comped guns. I shot WWB for a few matches until I got loads developed and it made a mess in the comp. Never again.

I use Wolff variable Commander length springs in my gun, which is similarly configured. I shoot 9mm though and have been using 10 pound for major (170PF) and 8 pound for minor (140PF). 9 and 7 pound respectively seem to also work well with a little snappier feel, but I don't want to beat the gun up too bad and opted for heavier. I try to go a little lighter than the heaviest spring that the gun will run with reliably, with my ammo.

Use what works well in your gun. I did a bunch of comparisons between VV and the less expensive powders for my .45 last year. I found the difference between VV310 and Clays to be virtually nill with my loads. Clays runs the gun fine and it's pretty clean, so why spend almost $8-10 more per pound? VV seemed to be slightly more consistent at the chrono, but not enough to make me want to change. I'm doing the same comparisons with my 9mm open gun now. HS-6 seems to work wonderfully right off the bat, but I'm chronoing against some VV and other powders this weekend to see if the grass is greener with anything else. It will take a big perceptible improvement in dot/gun movement to make me want to spend more on powder. I LOVE my bike, but it stills drinks 87 octane and it seems happy with that!

Oops, meant sizing die of course. Not enough sleep or coffee...

Quick thoughts that come to mind: Is the sizing die set to size the case all the way down? It should just about touch the shell plate with the ram raised. Too much or too little expansion? Too much bell and not enough crimp is one possibility. Or too little bell and the lead is getting shaved and building up a ridge on the outside of the case mouth. Could be everything else is fine, but not enough crimp being applied.

Hmm...I'll have to give another listen. XRe let me borrow a copy and I listened through a couple times in my truck. Gotta say, first impressions, it just didn't grab me. Not like the other albums. Some of it is great, but I got bored several times and had to shut it off. Too much droning ethereal stuff, I think. Diet Tool? Not quite violent enough? It's Tool, so I'll give it more listening chances. I have to appreciate Danny Carey's drumming, if nothing else.