yellowthunder

What FP are you using?

In terms of firing pins, I have had good luck so far with the CMMG stainless. Still, FPs are expendable in this firearm and I always keep a couple extra springs and firing pins. I had good luck with a broken FP continuing to function when it broke in the middle. I've seen the pins break in the middle and at the back. When they break at the back it's a catastrophic failure immediately. I'd like to pick up a QC10 bolt and firing pin as the reports of longevity are very good for the FPs.

I don't know why everyone is so set on continuing to use an outdated garbage sight. The c-more is a piece of junk, both in construction, display, and battery life. I've run one in the past and couldn't be more disappointed. The fact that this sight cannot remain turned on for a match day without fading is amazing. In terms of value for your money, get yourself a holosun 510C. Great battery life, easy to pick up dot and a big window. Everything you need for being fast. That is just one of many good options available.

Thanks for the input. I guess I'm just surprised at the battery life. Considering these are basically THE sight to have for a 2011 open rig, I expected more out of it. I always have to have it at full brightness, unless an indoor match. Outside with any decent amount of sunlight it isn't near bright enough unless it's turned all the way up. For comparison, I use a holosun on my rimfire steel rig and that thing has been on almost constantly for the last year with no brightness issues. The only downside of that sight is that it is a 2moa. Is there any other sight you've seen that looks like it would be worth trying? Something in a 6 or 8 moa? It seems like there should be a bit more selection than there is in this area. I'd love to see some competition for c-more just to get them to work on improving the battery life.

Hey everyone, I was wondering what battery life you are getting out of your c-more. Mine is a 6 moa, less than a year old and what I've found is that I cannot leave it on full brightness between stages with a fresh battery. It has an advertised life of 300 hours, which I know is not at full brightness. I was able to regain some brightness by turning it off between stages. I contacted c-more about this and asked if this was normal. I didn't get a good answer, they just said to turn off the dot when not using it. I get that these dots are not as efficient as an aimpoint and whatnot, but it seems to me like a fresh battery should be able to last a day at a match on full brightness. Talking to a guy at the match, he mentioned that 8 moa dots are a little more efficient with their battery, but I haven't tried one so I can't say if that's true or not. Is this a normal experience for c-more users here? Is there a solid alternative to the slide-ride for a 2011? Thanks for your help

The quick spray of one shot made all the difference in the hornady sizing die. In the future I might get a dillon set of dies when I get around to picking up a 650.

Don't forget they are shooting steel loads. Yes they are. From what I've seen the majority here think major loads shoot flatter than minor anyway though. That's pretty hard to believe. Around 140 to 150 pf my pistol certainly feels more controllable and "flatter" than at 169 pf using 115s. Steel loads are going to be much lighter and easier to control even though your comp is not working as hard. I do know people that run full pf loads in steel at local matches, but I'd be really surprised if they were doing that at that high of a level. They'd be putting themselves at a disadvantage.

Yeah, 38SC is my first true straight case that I've been loading for. Everything else pistol wise has been primarily 9mm, and that was all minor. I didn't realize how much of a difference resizing a straight case would be, but it does make sense.

I knew the Lee FCD resized also. I use it for crimping, but haven't used tried using the sizing portion by itself.

I'd never heard of the case pro 100 until now. Roll sizing looks pretty slick. Agreed about one shot, I've actually never used anything else and I don't have a reason to switch. I'll give it a try and see how much of a difference it makes for me.

Thanks for the replies everyone. I noticed my chamber is a bit generous itself, but on the same barrel my friends 9mm major chamber seems pretty tight. I may start using case lube, I try to get pistol dies that don't require it though. I use one shot on all my rifle stuff and I have a carbide set of 9mm dies that don't need it. I'll see if it makes a difference in how the sizing on 38SC feels though.

I'm sizing my once fired 38SC brass and have noticed that compared to 9mm, it seems like there is a lot more sizing going on with my 38 SC. I'm using Hornady dies with the titanium nitride sizer. Has anyone noticed that their SC brass feels like it's being worked harder than they would expect?

Are the specs for the 38 Supercomp the same as the 38 super listed here? http://www.saami.org/pubresources/cc_drawings/Pistol/38%20Super%20Auto%20+P%20-%2038%20Automatic.pdf Looking for chamber specs. Thanks for any help.

Looking at a burn rate chart, which can be taken with a grain of salt, CFE-P is listed right between Autocomp and Silhouette, both of which work great in a comp. You should have good luck with CFE-P so long as you aren't seeing crazy pressure signs. Glad you have a chrono, you will see gains in velocity up to a certain point, and once those taper off you're getting the most out of that particular setup that you can expect. This is the burn rate chart I found. https://www.hodgdon.com/PDF/Burn%20Rates%20-%202014-2015.pdf In general, 115 major pf loads will work the comp "better". I think a better word is more. There is more powder, more gas, the more the comp works. From what I've shot, I've found that 124s will have slightly more mild recoil. My major pf 115 load with Silhouette definitely feels more violent in terms of recoil. There are a few things I look for in my load, once PF is made. I try to load around 169 PF. At that point, I'm checking for pressure signs, and making sure that my pistol is operating well. Good ejection, etc. I make sure the load groups well. I'm still new to open so getting used to dot movement with a new load is important to me. I know some people that push to 175 pf, but I don't see the point. If your extreme spread is low you shouldn't have anything to worry about, at least in terms of making pf. In my opinion, no reason to beat the gun up more than need be. Hope this information helps out.

At least you noticed the issue. In open at least, I'm pretty new, so I end up forgetting my stage. Hard to notice little things like that right now.

Something I do the same in practice as I do in a match is while I'm setting up etc, I leave my muffs turned on so everything is loud and distracting. When I'm set up to shoot on the timer, both in practice and when I step to the line at a match, I shut my muffs off and it helps me really get into the mental state quick. I found that to be one of the most helpful things to do during stages especially. Yes, you can kind of hear things still, but if I have the muffs turned up so everything is loud and then shut it off completely, it helps me get into that zen state.

Sorry ahead of time if this is in the wrong area. I've got a couple of questions. The first is what pull weight are most people running on their open/limited guns? In addition to that, what did you do to achieve your current pull weight? Right now, I'm averaging around 3 to 3.5 lbs. It's not bad, but if I can lighten it and still feel comfortable with it I'd like to. I've got an adjusted Nowlin sear spring, 15 lb mainspring, EGW hammer and C&S tactical match sear. I haven't touched the hammer/sear.

Thanks msg73. I'm running a 15# mainspring. I'll have to weigh my slide to see about that. I may try the 17# mainspring to see if that helps out.

I've definitely had something similar happen. First time I recall it happening was messing around with firing pin springs in my G17. Running a stage and all of a sudden *click*. Couldn't for the life of me figure out what had happened. After my brain finally came back to help me out I got it racked and kept going. At that point, my whole stage was messed up. I'm still trying to work on recovering mid-stage when something like that happens. When you never have to think about a malfunction it definitely comes back to bite.

If you can justify a Wilton, go for it. They are awesome and I would never say no to one. On the other hand, they are pricey and you can definitely work with something for less. I have a 4" craftsman I picked up and it works great. Grab a few different sets of soft jaws and mount the vise to a sturdy bench. You'll wonder how you went so long without one. In addition to a vise, make sure you have some good lighting. Makes a world of difference.

G17fan Just curious, are you having any gas cutting issues with the plated bullets?

I had another thread about this. Still trying to figure out my ejection tuning. I went as heavy as a 13# recoil spring, had good operation and still pretty far ejection. This is with a 38 super with 115s doing 169pf. Went back to a 11# after some suggestions in that thread, but do you have any recommendations on how to go about tuning that? I have a friend with 9mm major doing similar pf with 11# spring and his brass drops out at his feet.

Oh man, I almost had that happen the first stage, I holstered my pistol, heard the ready command and was like CRAP, hold on, and got my dot on It's a 38 super and is an SPS. Haven't done anything to any of my mags, I have 3 140mm standard STI mags also. They run great, but I will have to double check about whether that is with 20 or 21.

I built my first 2011 over the summer and finally felt comfortable enough to compete with it yesterday. Holy crap was it fun, but it also felt like the very first time I competed again. I had a bunch of little screw ups, procedurals etc throughout the day. Only one of my mags doesn't seem to work consistently, and sadly it's my big mag so I guess I'll be replacing that. Other than that, it was pretty crappy conditions for a 2011, with the wind and fine dust all day, but it ran really well. Good hits, but I've gotta pick up the speed to be competitive. I've been a production shooter for the last year so moving to open was a pretty big change. I had a rough match overall, but had a blast. Since it was a new gun I was definitely overly worried about the reliability. I'll keep at it and hopefully get more comfortable with the gun. I thought I'd have less to think about with open, but at least the first time around, it seemed like I had more to think about. I realized I need to approach my stages differently now, where in the past I would make an extra move to get some targets, I can hit a lot more targets that are further out with the dot. How did everyone else's first open match go? Or in that case, their first match where they switched categories?

Thanks for all the input everyone! I'll try out a lighter recoil spring and see if that helps out. My thinking was that with the 115s the comp would be working hard and the ejection would not be so violent. My friend runs a 9mm major and his loads seem to dump his brass right at his feet, so I was hoping to get something similar to happen. As for the dot movement, I'll try practicing some more with it. I am pretty used to focusing primarily on the target, but I guess I'm really relying on looking for the dot. Definitely has been different switching to an open gun from production.