Almo

Yes. 9mm brass is much easier to come by than Federal primers!

In addition to the smaller flash hole, I've noticed that the primer pocket is smaller. I've ruined several Federal small pistol primers loading it. Now it goes into the junk brass pile.

I have the Mcarbo buffer. Like bigdawgbeav says, the difference is really subtle. But time will tell if it saves wear on my bolt. It's like an insurance policy.

I've been practicing with it and testing a wide variety of ammo. So far, it's handled everything flawlessly, from target loads to high power loads. It's accurate but I'm still trying to get used to shooting fast with the red dot. So far, I'm still faster with my 1911 conversion with iron sights.

I did a test with 4 Shadow 2's. Each had an extended firing pin and an 8.5 lb hammer spring. I left the 8.5 lb hammer spring in, put the original firing pin and firing pin spring back in, and tested them with Blazer 124 gr, Eley Competition 124 gr, Federal Syntech 150 gr, and my handloaded 125 gr (with Federal primers). One gun wouldn't set off one of the Blazers, otherwise everything fired every time. I tried the one cartridge that wouldn't fire in all of the guns, and it wouldn't fire in any of them even after several strikes, so it may have been a defective primer. So, I'll probably err on the side of safety and leave the original firing pins in. If I have problems down the road, I could change my mind, since this would be such a rare occurrence. This is with an 8.5 lb hammer spring so, if you're running a 10 or 11 lb hammer spring, I can't imagine you'll have a problem.

S&W and Colt should be ashamed to ship out high dollar guns with apparently no quality control or testing. At this point, I'm afraid to buy either of their revolvers.

That's really disappointing. You'd think that, after sending back the first one because of major issues, they would have made sure they sent you back a good one. For all the bragging Colt did about this gun when it came out, they sure have a lot of quality control issues.

Joe4d, that's good to hear. How was the factory trigger pull on the 617? For that matter, how was the factory trigger on the 929? I may have to reconsider. When I bought my 929, they were advertising a 10 lb double action trigger from the factory; I see they no longer say that. Mine was off the scale on my gauge (which went to 12 lb. I measured it on my fish scale, which may not be as accurate as the trigger gauge, and it was 16.5 lb. And the timing was off, so it shaved lead.

By the way, gargoil66, I'm still considering the S&W 617, but I'm a little leery after my S&W 929 experience. I had to do $500 worth of gunsmithing on a Performance Center gun just to get it to do what they advertised it was supposed to do out of the box.

DS-10-SPEED, did you get your King Cobra. The store I was on the wait list for sent me an E-mail saying they were back in stock. By the time I opened it and clicked on "buy," they were sold out. Still curious about the trigger pull. By the way, I heard that the GP-100 speed loaders work in the King Cobra; is that true?

Check for rough spots or machining marks on the surfaces where the slide fits the frame. If you have them, burnt powder could be getting in there and it might be enough to lock it up. Being that you've put 2,000 rounds through it, this seems unlikely, but you never know. Another possibility (which I hope isn't the case) is a cracked slide. If the slide is cracked, it could be flexing enough in recoil to jam up.

DS-10-SPEED, when you get your King Cobra back, could you tell me how the double action trigger feels? I may have to commit to one without actually seeing it, so it would be nice to know if it's worth it. Thanks.

My 929 is 8 years old. Didn't seem like it was that long ago that I got it.

My Q5SF fits in my PDP holster, but my PDP doesn't fit in my Q5SF holster. They are close, so, depending on the holster, it might.

Get one of the free ballistics calculators on the internet and calculate various zero distances for your load. You'll need to know muzzle velocity, ballistics coefficient, bullet weight, and height of dot above center of barrel. Pistol ballistics coefficient is the only one that can sometimes be difficult to find. If you're shooting factory ammo, the calculators will often let you just enter the ammo name. That being said, I've found that, for USPSA-type loads, a 15 yard zero puts me at +/- 1" from 5 to 40 yards (typical distances for USPSA and Steel Challenge targets).

DS-10-SPEED, I re-read your post. It sounds like Colt redesigned the King Cobra 22LR (presumably due to many others having issues like yours). It sounds like they will be shipping not just your gun, but new ones to stores. Is that what you got from Colt's message? That may be encouraging after all, assuming they don't screw up the trigger pull in the process.

Thanks for the info. That's discouraging. By the way, DS-10-SPEED, how would you compare the double action trigger on your 617 vs. the King Cobra?

Does anyone know what's going on with the Colt King Cobras in 22LR? I've been on wait lists for up to three months now and not one has come in. I wonder if they are having issues with them and have temporarily halted production. It kind of makes me wary to take one if they do come in. Does anyone have one that they have had issues with?

My 929 double action trigger pull was also off the gauge (>12#) when I got it. Very disappointing for a supposedly semi-custom gun. Had a gunsmith do a lot of work on the trigger pull and the timing. Finally got it down to 7# double action (Apex double action only hammer). Accuracy was mediocre, but acceptable. I wanted the 929 to standardize my auto and revolver loads, so there is that.

With a fully-cajunized Shadow 2, you should be able to shoot 3-4" groups ay 25 yards. It should be a matter of finding the right load for that barrel. On another note, I'd recommend going back to your 15 zero (with follow-up testing at 25 yards). I've run ballistic calculations on several loads and found that, with a 15 yard zero, everything from 5 to 40 yards is within 1".

Another vote for Red Hill Tactical. I have them for both the polymer frame and the steel frame PPQ's.

For your information, Ben Stoeger Pro Shop sells brass mag extensions. They also sell standard size brass base pads. I don't use them personally, so I can't give an opinion on them.

I received the other basepads and installed them. They are Hennings, which have a similar attachment method to the TTI's. It's a spring-loaded pin instead of a push pin. They also easily fit the gauge and appear to be very high quality.

I stand corrected. My left side slide release, which also serves as the trigger pivot was very tight going through the right side slide release. I don't think it was as tight going through the trigger pivot hole, but I put a drop of oil on that. Not sure how much of a difference that made. Then I received and installed the Sprinco kit. The trigger pull dropped to 3lb even. I haven't had it to the range yet to make sure it functioned. That'll probably be next week. If everything functions as it should, I'm going to be very happy with it.

I installed the Dynamic Performance Trigger in my PDP. The pre-travel and over-travel were reduced, but the trigger pull went up from 4lb 11oz to 5lb 8oz. Has anyone else had a similar experience? I have the Sprinco spring kit ordered, but I can't imagine it will get the trigger pull down to the 3.5lb that I always hear about. Any thoughts on this?