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Krumble

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Looks for Range

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  1. I know this is an ancient thread but I just want to say that I picked up an SPS 126mm High Capacity mag for my 9mm major STI open gun at my local shop yesterday and found that it worked flawlessly with 20 in the tube + 1 in the chamber. The follower is designed so the slide doesn't lock back on empty, so no mod to do. It is hard to find STI mags here in Thailand and we are not permitted to import mags directly by ourselves. I chose the SPS over a 126mm STI 17 round mag. There were no longer mags available in either brand and it had been a long wait for these shorties to come in. At first I bought the STI mag and tried to extend its capacity with a Dawson +1 base plate but the base plate wouldn't fit in my Dawson Ice magwell on the short mag. Also the feed lips on the STI mag seemed so badly out of spec that an Uplula speed loader could hardly work with it. So I took it back and changed it for the 20 round SPS mag of the same length and was extremely pleasantly surprised. I will try to get some longer SPS hi capacity mags when more stock comes in. It seems a good way to avoid the chronic STI feed lip issue and save by not having to buy the Dawson tuning kit, even though the latter is an excellent piece of kit.
  2. To follow up on this, I found a club just outside Bangkok that stocks locally manufactured 9mm major ammo, specifically for IPSC. It is 130 grain polymer coated LRN, rated at 1,290 fps. The DVC Open runs really well with this load with nil malfunctions in a few hundred rounds so far. The OAL of this round is about .020 inches longer than the same manufacturer's 9mm minor coated LRN, which seems to allow it to run in .38 super STI mags without the 9mm spacer without malfunction (so far), another plus point because I can only find .38 super STI mags here at the moment and can't even get the ready made spacers from the US to do the conversion to 9mm due to ITAR.
  3. Thanks for posting 1eyedfatman. You've helped me out a lot. I had the same issue trying to install the free wide bodied safety that came in the box with my Shadow 2. Slide woudn't close, visibly sticking on that raised piece of the safety bar and sear spring notch in the safety bar didn't come completely through out of the sear cage, so it was tough to get the sear spring leg back down into it. I removed a little metal from the two spots you indicated with a file and the slide now closes and the sear spring notch is fully accessible. The safety works properly and the gun is fine with dry firing. I also installed an 11# recoil spring, a 13# main spring and a lighter firing pin spring and will test it down at the range tomorrow. It sucks a bit to get a factory part supplied with a new gun that didn't fit but I didn't want to travel to the gun store to get them to sort it out and now good to go, thanks to your post.
  4. I can see that a sideways mount will also be in my near future, if a 7# spring can't fix the problem. Which mount did you go with and did it fit the existing screw holes in the frame? Did you have to add a separate thumb rest?
  5. My DVC Open came with a brightly polished feed ramp that wasn't TiN coated out of the box. The TiN seems pretty durable to me so far. I have been scraping away at the compensator with bronze brushes and a brass scraper to get the carbon out and haven't managed to put a scratch on it yet. Also not a single scratch or sign or wear on the outside of the barrel with several hundred rounds through it. My stainless KKM bull barrel showed pronounced signs of wear after the first 50 rounds. The TiN coating seems to be in the last half inch of the bore and in the chamber and is wearing there but the coating there is presumably just an unavoidable by-product of the coating process. At first glance I thought I had thick copper or even rust in the end of the bore!
  6. Thanks Phil. I have now counted the coils of the recoil springs. Despite being 1/4 inch longer at 6.25" free length, the spring in the 6" gun has 32 active coils, the same as the springs in the three 5" guns. I have just read somewhere that 6-6.5" free length springs with 32 active coils are pretty standard for 5" guns. So I guess I am good to go and order some 5" springs and get out to the range for some testing. Does anyone use shock buffers? Opinions seem pretty divided on those.
  7. I have a 6" 2011 in .45 ACP and am thinking of trying different recoil spring weights for different loads but I am new to changing out recoil springs. The gun came from the factory with a reverse plug of the type that is listed as taking a standard 5" 1911 spring. On comparing the factory recoil spring to the factory springs in my two 5" .45 ACP 1911s and one 5" 9mm 2011 I notice that the free length of the spring from the 6" gun is .250" longer than the springs from the other three guns which are all exactly the same length as each other. All four guns have exactly the same length space to house the springs, taking into account the reverse plug of the 6" gun which prevents the spring from entering the last inch towards the muzzle. I am wondering if the 6" gun can in fact take standard 5" springs with its reverse plug or whether I need to look for a custom length spring .250" longer. Help and advice from more experienced shooters would be appreciated.
  8. This is an old thread but I find myself facing similar issues to Kepo. I am new to competitive shooting and, perhaps rashly, decided to go straight to an STI DVC Open gun, seeing as my eyes are not getting any younger and I really like using a red dot sight on another type of pistol. I went for the 9mm version due to the fact that .38 Super ammo is hard to find and expensive in Thailand, where I live, but I didn't do quite enough research in advance and was foolishly unaware that the gun might not run on minor ammo. Unfortunately, hand loading is not a legal option for private gun owners in Thailand and there is no Atlanta Arms or other major 9mm ammo imported or produced locally of which I aware. So far I have tried the gun with Speer TMJ and Magtech FMJ 115gr ammo and it seemed to run OK and I was very happy with the gun. Next I tried it with some locally manufactured 124gr FMJ and it stove-piped 3 or 4 times on each mag and made a nasty mark on the underside of the scope mount. I haven't chronoed the local ammo yet but Thai manufacturers don't comply with SAAMI specs and I suspect it is underpowered. I was hoping I could get this local ammo to run in the gun, assuming it has enough power to make minor, since it is the only brand that is readily available at ranges here, as well as being a lot cheaper than imported brands. So I started looking into whether a 7lb recoil spring might resolve things. I asked STI about a 7lb spring with shock buffer and got a prompt reply as follows: "The factory recoil spring in a 9mm DVC Open is an 8lb spring. It might run minor ammo with a 7lb spring however it is unlikely. These pistols were designed to run on major ammo and in order to guarantee function with minor ammunition you would have to send it in for a “minor tuning package”. This would include the recoil spring and all modifications in order to run production minor ammunition. STI does not recommend shock buffers; they redirect the stop point of the slide onto the spring tunnel, which will crack over time and will not be covered under warranty. Price for the minor tuning package on a DVC Open in 9mm would be $285 + $90 for round trip shipping." Unfortunately, legal obstacles in both countries prevent me from sending the gun back to STI, although perhaps the $285 minor tuning that the importer might have considered having done when ordering the 9mm guns. I don't trust local gunsmiths after some nasty experiences and few of them have more than basic expertise. If I lived in the US I would gladly buy Atlanta Arms major ammo or hand load but I guess my only options are to stick to whatever imported ammo I can find or try a 7lb spring, even though STI advises it is unlikely to help without their minor tuning package which is not option. Another option might be to try to get hold of 90 degree scope mount.
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