mvslay

I've enjoyed my DVC Limited so far. I'm just shy of 1300 rounds. I had to do some fitting on the slide stop to get it running right. I swapped in a few Dawson parts (Ice Mag well and Dawson Mag release). The trigger was closer to 4 lbs out of the box. I did some polishing and several thousand dry fires and it is now a little shy of 2.5 pounds.

I've been pretty good about dry fire practice so far this week. I got some miniature silhouettes from DAA. I've been dry firing at those. I've mixed timed and un-timed draw and "shoot" a good bit. I also spent some time working reloads tonight. I'm definitely improving on those. I'm getting my support hand on the mag and out of the pouch before the new one hits the bed. I know I can slow down a bit now in competition and make sure I am aware of a good support hand reset. I should have a laser trainer tomorrow. That way I'll have some feedback on my dry fire. I'm getting a single stack rig together. Mainly just getting mags and pouches together. Hopefully I'll have it up and running for the ICORE match the club host on the 5th Sunday. It'll be a challenge to add more reloads in and fun to shoot something more practical. As a bonus it won't affect my USPSA classifiers.

I didn't get as much dry fire in as I wanted to. That said I placed 9th today. I had 2 pretty bad stages. I need to maintain focus. The dry fire I did do was very helpful. We had one stage with no shoots piled up around weak hand shots. I did well on that one. I also scored my highest ever classifier. It should be a 64%. Unfortunately it will get flagged for being more than 15% above my current class. I had a total of 6 misses and 1 NS. The NS was on the stage I helped set up (irony). The other good thing was I made 2 A's on the longest paper on the course, but generally did poorly on the long paper. So, I know I can hit the long shots. I believe my trigger pull deteriorates when I add speed. I also did well on the steel generally. So I need to focus on tightening and speeding up long paper shots this week. Everything needs work, but I'm gonna list my weakest points from this match: 1. Long Paper Shots 2. Establishing a firm grip out of the holster 3. Long shots on paper near NS's at speed 4. Re-establishing grip after reload (Support hand tends to roll forward on the grip) 5. Engaging around barrels 6. Prepping and Executing a plan

I made it to the range today. I did 2 more good dry fire sessions since last Monday. I started with a chrono of the new load. It's just a hair slow. I'll be adding a little powder to correct that. I started with a dot torture drill at 5 yards. I was 45/50. I tend to hit low after the mag change. Still in the circle just low. I jerked 1 easy one. And I heeled up another. I missed to of the weak hands. I think I got impatient on the other miss. I hit the plate rack a good bit. I have a new best time of 4.97 at 10 yards. I know I can go faster, but it will take some work. I also timed some single hits. 1.43 was my best from the holster. There is a lot of room for improvement there. I shot a few El Presidente's. Best hit factor was 5.096. There is much room for improvement there. I finished up with some bill drills. They were not timed. The battery died in the timer. The new gun crossed over 1200 rounds today and had no malfunctions. I have one of the factory STI mags that doesn't want to drop out. My dry fire helped with the sight picture/ front sight acquisition. Right now my weakest point is trigger control at speed. I will work that this week. Also, I need to be conscious of support hand. It is creeping forward after reloads. I am going to try and dry fire every night this week. If I can do that then I feel I may see some improvement at the match this week. I definitely need a good classifier.

I did some dry fire tonight. I used the dot torture target and modified the procedure a little to suit dry fire. I ran through it twice. Then I did some times draw, sight picture, and trigger pull. I started at 2.2 and did at least 10, then decreases by .1 till I got to 1.6. I did at least 70 of those probably more. I need to get better at sight acquisition, particularly out of the holster. I am noticing the sights line up quicker the more I practice. And I am getting better at shifting focus from target to front sight on the draw. It's almost like a move rack focus. I have seen enough improvement from dry fire to know it helps. I think I'm going to tie my reloading to dry fire. That will force me to dry fire. If I make myself dry fire before I reload cartridges I'll do it more. Once I get started on the dry fire it is easy to do.

I made a range trip last Wednesday. I ran a little over 350 through the STI. It did well at 15 yds. The gun ran flawless. I also shot a local match. It was nice shooting a couple of stages without needing to change mags. I also broke into the top 10 for the first time. I could have done better. I shot 4 M's. That is higher than my usual. I think I was feeling a little over confident and made a few mistakes because of it. I tried to go faster than I am comfortable with. I did horribly on the classifier. 2 of those 4 M's were on that stage. On the bright side I did way better on the steel. I cleared a Star in 7 rounds(not perfect, but much better then I'd anticipated). I had a major mental hesitation on that stage. I shot at a target that had a NS over half of it. I was convinced I'd hit the NS. I moved to the Star and froze for a second. I didn't hit the NS, but it rattled me. So, I placed the best I've ever placed, but there is room for progress. In other news, next week I start working for a new company with a way better schedule.

I rarely let anyone else shoot any of my guns. I'll have to get back on that.

I have a quirk about my sight in. I have noticed when I Zero sight in on open sight/iron sight firearms I end up with the rear sight hard right. I don't feel this is a trigger pull issue. It is also on AR's and other open sight rifles. I have fairly tight groups. When I jerk a round it is low and a good deal left. Do I have a vision problem? If so do I need to correct it or just slam the sights full right and drive on? I shoot both eyes open and am Right eye Dominant and right handed.

I made it to the range today. I did 200 rounds of WWB ammo through the new STI. My groups are better. My tendency to flinch is decreasing. The no slide lock on the MBX mags is a great training aid in that regard. The flinch still creeps in. But it is much less. Far as reliability, I had one FTF on the first mag (stock STI mag). The other 199 rounds were flawless. The slide lock mods and fitting worked great. I added a detent to the Slide lock. I broke out the Sherline lathe and I also cut the shoulder on the slide lock plunger back for more positive engagement. I really enjoy the gunsmithing part of shooting. I did slow fire at 7, 10, and 15 yards for the first 100 rounds. I did some fast stuff for the last 100. For the fast stuff I worked on following the front sight. I can tell I'm reacquiring the front sight quicker and totally following it ocassionally. After the STI I ran another 200 or so rounds through the .22. I can just about follow the front sight 100% with that gun. The STI needs to have the rear sight drifted right. Every handgun and riffle I own has the rear sight nearly full right. There is something about my vision that makes it that way. It is consist across platforms.

I've done some dry fire over the last week and spent some time on reloads. I'd do more, but bed time stories still take precedence over dry fire. I should be changing jobs soon. I'll be able to have a later bed time and that should open some more dry fire time. After the match today I worked on the breaking in the new STI. I know the dry fire is helping. I was working on draw and shoot times. I drew on an empty chamber and broke the empty with no flinch after shooting 300 rounds. However, I'm still having trouble with flinch after transitioning and after the first shot. It's much better than it was a month ago, but it's still one of my biggest weaknesses. So, I came in 14th out of 20. I feel like we had a stronger showing than last match. I had one bad mental error. I failed to engage a steel and got a M/FTE. That could have cost me a place or two.I had one other M. I went a bit slower than usual. I worked on sights. I only used the Dark Side (point shooting) on 2 or three targets. I'm trying to break that habit. The shinning point for me was the Classifier. It was my first C at about a 42% since being back. It is also my second highest ever. I ran the Para for the match. It is now at about 700 without cleaning and no malfunctions. The only maintenance has been cleaning the mags and oil the slide. The break in on STI is going well. The slide stop is going to need some tuning. It locked open twice prior to empty. And it popped out while loading once. By out I mean enough to stop the slide, not fall on the ground. I plan to fit it and add a detent. I'm running a 14lb spring for break in. The STI is at 155 rounds. I'm going for 1000 rounds and no malfunctions before it goes to a match.

I went to a USPSA RO class Saturday and Sunday. It was a good learning experience. There was a lot of good game information. Some of my scoring questions were answered. There was some good safety tips too. We ran a practice stage on Sunday for our practical exercise. Assuming all goes well with the STI break in this weekend will be one of the last matches for the good ole Para 14-45. I plan on running the round count to about 1500 before cleaning it just as a torture test. It's at about 584 without a single malfunction. I'm getting my little guy to bed and plan on some dry fire tonight with the STI. I've also decided to set up a single stack rig. I think I'll run it at the ICORE matches to work on reloads. The club I shoot with runs ICORE on 5th Saturdays.

I made it to the range today. I was a bit off. I didn't get much sleep the night before. I did make a couple of really good runs. I made a 5.04 seconds (new personal best) plate rack run and a few others under 6. Other than the few really good runs I was generally slower on the plate rack. I re shot the classifier from last weekend's match. I made a 60.04% according to classifier calc. But, it doesn't count until you do it for real in a match. If I can perform 2 levels above where I'm at in practice, I should be able to at least perform to the next level in a match. I've been working on loads for the Para 14-45. I ran about 550 through today. Of which 500 were reloads. The gun ran flawlessly all afternoon. I just cleaned it and polished the feed ramp. I think I'm settling on Bullseye with the 230 gr Blue Bullets. Of the previous 950 I had a few feed problems. One was definitely an ammo issue. I had a high primer that caused a FTF. I believe the other 2 were mag issues. We'll see how this batch does. In other news my STI came in and I'll be breaking it in soon. Most likely it's first match will be next month. I'd like to get at least 1K through it to break it in.

The kimber I speak of is about about a $850 gun. The 51738 was $850. I happen to work with a lot of Filipino technicians at at my present job. They are very detail oriented and generally some of the better mechanics and technicians we have. If they cut the frame down to accommodate the Magwell that makes feel better about returning it. My Para 14-45 has a Dawson Magwell that was a drop in that only needed minor blending. I plan to swap the STI stock magwell for a dawson too. Still my comment about making the frame incompatible with a dawson magwell is a negative. If the top of the barrel is 12 O'clock then I can tell you .012" at either 12 or 6 o'clock. The guide rod bushing may have been under sized. At 3 or 9 o'clock the measurement was like .008". The Barrel link was also visibly oversized. The breech end of the barrel was also loose in battery (probably due to the barrel link not positively locking it into battery). I did get a follow up email from Armscor. They offered to expedite the repair and were apologetic about not calling me back as requested. However, the wheels are already in motion for the return. The STI will be here some time between Thursday and Monday.

I shot a match last Saturday. I did better this match than the previous match as far as placement. I was terrible on the classifier. I made three shots on the first steel and ate up a chunk of time. It should be around 32%. If I would have taken the time for better sight picture and trigger squeeze I could have been in C range. But, I'm not there yet. I started working on some draw time with the timer. I dialed the speed back and am concentrating on sight picture and trigger squeeze. Funny thing is out of the holster I'm doing better with trigger pull than on transitions. I've also noticed my support hand tends to be a little forward of where I want it. It's also high about 10% of the time. Got to go slow to go faster! But you have to push to see where your flaws are. I've notice I do better on the longer courses. I think my footwork is better than my shooting. Also I'm gonna put together a checklist for my range bag. I've been meaning to do this for a while.

My expectations are probably a bit high. I've been a technician for nearly 20 years. I currently work in a field where I can get parts delivered to me overnight from nearly anywhere in the world if need be. I've also been on the repair shop side of things. Some repairs do take a considerable amount of time just because of parts or whatever. And I am fully aware that I am an amateur shooter. That being said, Armscor wouldn't even talk to me over the phone. That was truly disappointing. I was an Instrument tech many years ago. It's a very similar trade to gun smithing. We would always talk to a customer. And we would always make sure the pro grade instruments got out in a timely fashion. I realize the Rock Island is an entry level into double stack 1911's. However, that gun is pretty much their flagship. A little direct communication and expediency would have been appreciated.

No I bought a budget gun and expected a fit similar to other guns that the company produces. The barrel was free floating on the muzzle end and the breach end in battery with the hammer back. I could fit a .012" feeler gauge between the barrel and slide. It could not make it through a single magazine without a feed problem. I have a comparably priced Kimber I've carried for 10 years and has a bull barrel. It has an excellent barrel fit. For whatever reason they totally missed the mark on this gun. I expected a little slop in the slide, which it was better than expected. I expected a trigger job (to include parts) would be needed. It had about a 5.5 pound trigger. That was within the advertised specs and easily dealt with. But I did not expect it would require a new barrel to be fit just to make it function. Another thing I noticed was the mag well. The fit was excellent on the factory mag well. What I didn't like was it looked like they added material to the bottom of the frame under the mainspring housing. That means Dawson magwells for Para would require modifying the gun to fit. The guide rod was also odd. It had a slot milled in it to provide clearance for the barrel link. I feel like the frame was milled to set the guide rod back slightly. A weird set-up in my opinion. I decided to return the gun to the retailer who has been awesome. If I'm going to have to wait 4-6 weeks I'll just scrape some more up, go with an STI, and be happy.

I bought a 51738 to shoot USPSA. I received the pistol Monday. I took it to the range on Tuesday. I couldn't get through a single magazine without a fail to feed. I tried the factory Mag and 4 other mags. The bull barrel is poorly fit. There is at least .008" side to side slop. There is at least .012" slop top to bottom. Both were measured with feeler gauges. With the hammer down you can't feel the slop. When the hammer back the barrel can be rattled easily. The barrel link to slide stop fit is visibly loose also. I've contacted Armscor and the best they can do is give me a 4-6 week window to get it back from the time they receive it. Oh and that 4-6 week window is subject to change without notice. All of the single stack guns I've seen of there have been excellent. This one is not. The dealer has offered to take the gun back and refund me. But then I'm out an FFL fee and shipping both ways. Or, I wait and maybe get a working pistol. I'm really disappointed and frustrated. To me a 4-6 week time frame tells me one of two things. 1 they are so over run with defective pistols they can't turn them around in a reasonable time frame. Or, 2 they don't care enough about customer satisfaction to put a rework in front of the production guns and get them turned around. I'm really leaning towards returning the gun and eating the shipping. What do y'all think? 4-6 weeks is at least 2-3 matches, and 2-3 classifiers. I know USPSA is just my hobby, but it's important to me. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be important to Armscor. I'm not sure how long the offer for a refund is good for.

I made it to the club range today. I did two things primarily. I set up the classifier from the previous match and made a few runs on it. My first run was way better than I shot in the match. I was well into C classifier territory. My best was around 51% according to the classifier calc. So, I know it is well within my ability to shoot above the level I'm at. The other thing I did was the plate rack at 10yds. That was fun outside of a match setting. My best was a 5.85 sec from the holster. I averaged in the high 6's to 7's. I practiced heavily on driving my eyes to the next plate and bring the sights into alignment. I also was able to see some improvement in my grip too. When I found myself down to my last bullet I did one last draw and shoot on a paper target. 1.25 sec at 5yds on the A zone perf. It was a good day to build some confidence. I've shot matches, and I've shot at ranges. It was nice to get a chance to practice in bays in a match configuration.

I built up a new load at around 170 PF. Previous I had been using WWB .45 ACP. My gun was flawless with WWB although I was not. I had a a feed hiccup today. I started a tap, rack, bang and the feed issue cleared with just a tap. I know I need to replace the mag springs and they are on order. My question is this. Do I need to lighten my recoil spring to compensate for the lower PF rounds? My understanding is that a lighter spring will let the slide stay back longer and give the Mag a little more time to feed. I've got a stock 16lb Wolf in it right now.

I shot a Level 1 match today. And I found I'm classified a D Limited shooter. I shot stages 3,4, and 5 first at the match. I had a feed malfunction on stage 4 that cost me a second. I had a mental error in that I shot my gun to slide lock on stage 3. Stage 5 was a disaster. I dropped two mags out of the gun after reloads. So overall I probably cost myself 3-5 seconds at least on those three stages. That said I came in on top of the D shooters and a couple of C's. I shot my best Classifier thus far. It should be around 34 percent. I had 2 old scores from 8 years ago that were a 35% and 44%. So I'm nearly back to where I was. I can easily see some C level classifiers in the near future. I did really well on our stage 1 also. I beat several B shooters on that one. In matches I have a problem of going to the dark side of point shooting. It serves me very well in 3-5 yard range but, I do far worse at longer ranges. I've consciously been trying to avoid it and focus on the front sight. I know I can go faster point shooting in short ranges, but I feel overall I'll be better off to discipline myself to use the sights always. Our stage 1 was one that had to be shot with sights and I feel good that I did that and did it relatively well. Turns out stage 1 was my best stage. Overall I did well. If I would have eliminated the malfunctions and errors I would have been a little better. I had no NS and 1 M overall so that was my biggest positive for the day.

I did a day of slow fire today. I also got a new batch of Blue Bullets done on the reloading press. 1 of the first 30 was outside of a 2" target spot at 20' and that was totally me. I fired my work up loads and about 20 of the final product. All of the brass looked good. All cycled the gun with no malfunctions. I'm trying out clays with a federal primer. This week has been mostly dry fire. I got a grip master and have been working that throughout the day at work. Tomorrow will be dry fire and mag change practice. I also started reading Brian's book. The big break through was I was able to follow the front sight through a couple complete cycles. I think it was combination of a good load, practice, and the new tungsten guide rod.

I made a range trip with some friends from work yesterday. I put a little over 100 Winchester white box rounds through my Para and my M&P .40. I did a little slow fire, however, since I had friends there i had little fun, I did one full mag through the M&P rapid fire with a emphasis on recoil control. It was a fun exercise. https://youtu.be/ZOUkLUo7vQw

Did about 70 dry fires at 1" target spot. Support hand grip, sight picture, and trigger squeeze was the focus. Loaded 300 primers in tubes.

I'm getting back into shooting after nearly 9 years away. I've always been a firearm enthusiast. I got interested in USPSA in my late 20's. I changed jobs, moved, got married, had a son, and got away from shooting. I've gotten divorced and settled into a new career. I now have time and a the desire to get back into the sport. I've made it to the last 4 "local" matches (three USPSA and an ICORE). During my first go around in USPSA my main goal was to sharpen my shooting for self defense. I held myself to using full power ammunition and minimum equipment that was similar to carry equipment. I was shooting a stock Para 14.45 with a poorly fit mag well. This time around, I'm going for the sport of it with a goal of being competitive in the game. The first stage of the first match I shot went extremely well in my opinion. Then it went down hill from there. Fast forward to my last match. Right now I'm competing against myself. My main goal is to make no mental errors. The last match I made one major error in that I failed to engage one piece of steel. I made one other minor error. I was running my plan and began to break left when I meant to go right. This was a much better go then the previous match where I had multiple foot faults, and a mag drop during my first string of fire on a stage. My goal now is to leave the match knowing I shot to the best of my ability. This last match was closest I've come to that. Now I'm beginning the process of sharpening my abilities. When I left the sport nearly a decade ago I was approaching C level. Right now by my best estimates I'm well in the D range. I have had a couple good of stages, but my classifiers are in the 20% range. The only advantage I have is that I know the practice does make you better. I'm going to begin developing a practice regimen. Right now my biggest challenge is making time Daily. Yesterday I mostly did slow fire with the Para 14.45 and a Ruger Mark III. I was working on trigger squeeze and grouping at 5-10 yards. I spent about an hour at an indoor range. I'm working on grip and stance. I'm satisfied with my strong hand for the time being. The match before last I noticed my support hand was bad. I kept allowing my support index in front of the trigger guard. That does not work for me. I also am working on locking my left wrist. On the equipment front, I'm working on upgrading to a Para 16.40 Limited. The magazine capacity of the 16.40 will be a big help compared to the 14.45. Since I started back a month ago I've improved the 14.45. I've got the trigger safely down to about 3 pounds (sear, hammer, disconnector, and trigger track cleaned up, series 80 components deleted, and replaced the plastic trigger). Hopefully with a reduced power hammer spring I'll be in the 2.5lb range. I swapped the front blade sight for a Dawson fiber optic. I fitted the Mag well. I did a little light stoning to the frame rails. So far the only problem I've had with the gun was some cheap ammo (Independence brand) failing to feed because the crimp on the bullet was bad. I've since got my Dillon 650 back up and running so the ammo won't be a problem any more. Incidentally, all of my 9 year old reloads worked great till I ran out of them.

I've been away from shooting for about 8 years and am getting back into USPSA again.