Alan550

Yep, another convert!! Glad to help and that you tried it. Alan~^~

I mentioned this several years ago on here, so here goes again. Spray the inside of the comp with Dillon (or similar lanolin & alcohol) case lube prior to shooting, between stages and then again when you're done for the day. It keeps the fouling soft and can be cleaned out with your usual bore cleaner and a cotton swab, no matter how long you let the gun sit after shooting it. Spray it between stages at a big match and you'll be surprised at how easily the comp cleans up after the match. I've let the gun sit for literally months between the last match and the cleaning process and it remains the same....easy cleaning. Alan~^~

He must be a busy fella! He spends his weekends at the drag strips across the country following his wife, Alexis, who drives a Top Fuel Funny Car in the NHRA Mello Yello series for a living!

If you're talking semi-auto here your problem could be that the first round that you chamber in the gun is hitting at a different POI from the rest that are chambered by the action. Common phenomena with most semi's. Even when I use a Ransom Rest, I "throw away" the first round in the gun before getting down to the real testing with rounds that were chambered by the gun's action. YMMV Alan~^~

You probably already know this, but with rifle rounds, i.e. heavier loads of powder, you have to hesitate and wait for the powder to drop completely. Much different from pistol loads where it drops almost instantly. Makes a huge difference if you don't wait on it. Alan~^~

Kyle, NRs can only be set @ State, Regional & National matches. Alan~^~

The Lyman can be made to work. Tie a small string through the hole in the Weigand gauge to make a loop that can be used to test the pull weight of the extractor gauge. Alan~^~

"Nobody wants to leak!" Walt Rauch said it long ago.

After 2 requests for the info, here it is: The man's name is Richard Fletcher and he's in the Lexington, VA area. Web site is: http://www.fletchercustompistols.com/ Great guy, easy to work with and as noted in the first post, quick delivery, especially for the ladies new to the game. Alan~^~

You're right! A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with!! Alan~^~

Thanks for the input! I think we'll try the newer prone pad that has a larger opening to see if the standard mags will fit inside. Alan~^~

Thanks for the input guys. I think we'll get it solved by replacing the prone pad with a newer version that has a larger opening. Alan~^~

Only 7 hours to get the answer to your problem? Lucky guy, I'd say!! Glad I could help. Alan~^~

Possibly has a Shok-Buff (or similar) that shortens the slide travel to the rear except under fire. The "sling-shot" method needs to have enough slide travel to the rear to kick down the SS. Or the recoil spring is already compressed so much that it won't allow that travel either, even without a buff in place. Alan~^~

I'm working with a new shooter to get her into NRA Action Pistol match competition. She bought an STI Trojan that needed many parts replaced to work in Metallic Category. We replaced the plastic MSH with a steel one and installed a Protocall Design prone pad. It has a narrow opening at the bottom that won't allow many of the magazines available to fit. Believe it or not, a Wilson 38 Super (47 series) mag works fine, fits, feeds and drops out fine. In checking availability, they don't seem to be made any more (47 series). All I can find are the new ETM mags that have a wider base-pad than the older 47 series mags, so they won't fit inside the prone pad. Can the newer ETMs take the base pad from an older 47 series mag? Anyone know of a 1911 9mm or 38 Super mag that has a base pad that's not any wider than the mag itself? Thanks, Alan~^~

I'm working with a new shooter to get her into NRA Action Pistol match competition. She bought an STI Trojan that needed many parts replaced to work in Metallic Category. We replaced the plastic MSH with a steel one and installed a Protocall Design prone pad. It has a narrow opening at the bottom that won't allow many of the magazines available to fit. Believe it or not, a Wilson 38 Super (47 series) mag works fine, fits, feeds and drops out fine. In checking availability, they don't seem to be made any more (47 series). All I can find are the new ETM mags that have a wider base-pad than the older 47 series mags, so they won't fit inside the prone pad. Can the newer ETMs take the base pad from an older 47 series mag? Anyone know of a 1911 9mm or 38 Super mag that has a base pad that's not any wider than the mag itself? Thanks, Alan~^~

This is going to be a long one, so get the popcorn and settle back! In November of '16 a lady showed up at our range to shoot her first NRA Action Pistol match. She'd gotten into CAS about 8 months earlier as her first experience shooting in competition. I had my doubts, as would most MD/ROs. I'll give her this....she was accurate, but slow, as expected from her background in shooting. Her score showed accurate shooting but too slow, even for AP, shooting an XDm. Fast forward to today. She bought an STI Trojan, granted not the most desirable gun for this game, but "adequate". I've been coaching her, meeting at the range at least once a week since mid-to-late November when she expressed a serious interest in NRA AP. She'd been dry firing on a daily basis since then along with getting the 1911 platform to try in Metallic Sight category. That's what inspired me to take her on as a "protege'" of sorts, the dedication to learning and improving her shooting. After buying the Trojan, and a Dillon 550B, she wanted to upgrade it to a relatively decent competition gun, so I started making suggestions to which she immediately said, "Do it!" So over the last month or so, we added a tungsten guide rod and a 4-leaf Clark sear spring to lighten the trigger pull somewhat from the factory 7# and ordered a steel mainspring housing to handle the prone pad set screw since the gun came with a plastic MH. Also got a 17 lb mainspring to go in the gun when it came time to change it out. After a few range sessions where she was tearing out the X-ring @ 10-15 yds, I suggested that she have some more work done on the gun to improve its handling characteristics and get better equipment. She agreed. (money isn't a problem for her, obviously) She ordered a Safariand 014 holster and the ELS belts system in red to fit her gun and her personality. I contacted a gunsmith with whom I'd done business over 15 years ago to 1. checker the underside of the trigger guard, 2.install a Swenson Thumbshield safety & fit a Protocall Design Prone pad both of which I had on hand, 3. cut the grips for the ambi safety & prone pad and re-blue the trigger guard. He's been featured in American Handgunner and one of his guns was in the monthly giveaway that they do, so he's "pretty good"! When I contacted him in late December, he said about 3 weeks time to get these things done. Quote was for about $120.00 + the prone pad fitting, as he was unfamiliar with that aspect of the project, and no quote on hogging out the grips for the safety or cutting them off for the prone pad, or re-bluing after the checkering. I figured $200.00-250.00 total bill for the work. I dropped off the gun on 1-13 with the expectation of early February for delivery, as he'd said ~ 3 weeks. I got a call from him around 5:30 today (1-18) saying that he's done! I asked him "What are the damages?" He replied that it was No Charge because he wants to promote any woman who wants to get involved in the shooting sports! The shooting sports have some of the most generous and giving people that I've ever run into in any sport, but that shocked even this cynical old guy! There's one in every crowd, but finding them is rare. I'm not posting his name or web site unless there's a demand, out of consideration for his privacy. I'll send that info on request only! Thank you to a great guy! Alan~^~

Refer to my earlier post for the link to Target Barn. They sell pasters for $4.99/1,000. Alan~^~

Also, if you're using lead as opposed to copper-plated, you need to clean off the wax that they use for lube on the bullets before a match. CCI Std Vel & Green Tag ammo is wax coated. It's shipped with the bullets in a horizontal position. When exposed to heat, the wax melts and forms a "blob" on one side of the bullet. Wipe this off, and you'll have much less problem with FTF, FTE and jams. I try to "boresnake" the barrel between stages to help with this problem as well, and that seems to work for me. YMMV Alan~^~

^^^^^^^^^^^ +1

Powder drop - none of which I'm aware Seating - what DKnoch said. I've been running the Redding Competition Seating die for years and it's extremely accurate. Mostly it comes in handy when trying different OALs testing accuracy. Turn it up or down according to the markings and it gives you what you ask for with no second guessing. Crimp shouldn't be a problem with the Dillon unless you're using range-pickup brass that varies in case wall thickness or length. If you're using all the same headstamp you should be good after one setting of that die. Initial setup is a pain as you said, but it only needs to be done once.

I'm working with a new shooter who's going through nearly the same transition, XDm to 1911. As Edge40 said, the safety is the most difficult to get used to it seems. Practicing slow-motion draws at first seems to have remedied that problem, but it's taken nearly a month to get used to taking the safety off after the gun is indexed down range. Natural instinct seems to be to take it off immediately upon getting a firing grip with the strong hand, even before it clears the holster........BIG NO NO! Also, activating it again before holstering takes some getting used to as well. Practice, practice and practice some more with dry fire will get you through it, but making the switch just before a big match, mid season or not, isn't a good idea IMO. Alan~^~

Mine usually kicked out to the right as the rod was bent out from the frame. Alan~^~

Take the actuating rod loose from the rollers, put it back in its hole at the top of the frame and hold it straight up vertically. If it's bent and doesn't end up totally vertical, 90 degrees from the bench top, that could be your problem. If it's not straight up like that, it's kicking out the primer slide at the end of its run to the feed tube. That's what mine did and bending it back made things OK. Alan~^~

I'm, as the saying goes, "on a fixed income" (SS) and my primary interest is in NRA Action Pistol (Bianchi Cup). That's not the main focus on here, and I understand that. I only post infrequently but this is pretty much the only online forum that supports, in ANY way NRA AP shooting. I donated for that reason alone, and am willing to keep it up and unless the "real shooters", i.e. USPSA/IPSC & IDPA aren't willing to help in some fashion I don't understand! I think the people who get the most from this forum are the newbies who monitor the site and have very little that they feel is important enough to contribute. That's pretty much where I started years ago. I spend more on magazine subscriptions (AH mostly) than a few dollars less would help keep this thing going. For me, it's worth a donation to keep things as they are.....ad free and informative for all. I've only bought/sold in the classified once or twice but always ran into great people. Even shipped before receiving payment a time or two and NEVER had a problem. Donate if/when you can according to how you value the forum, but don't shortchange the host because you think you "deserve" a free source of knowledge! Just my $.02, and it probably isn't worth that much! Alan~^~