austinkroe

I am a relative newb to the AR and I recently built one with a JP/Cooley brake. I have fired around 600 rounds through it now and there is some build up (what I would consider to be a lot for the amount fired). I am not very good at taking macro pictures so I will do my best to describe it. There is some build up on the baffles that appears to be a combo of lead and carbon. It has a rough texture. There is also Some buildup on the muzzle. It appears to be a sizable carbon deposit on the muzzle face and threads inside the brake. I am not sure if this should cause any concern. Should I clean it or is it a self limiting problem? Will it eventually effect accuracy? How should I clean the brake if I should? Are there any other eccentricities of a muzzle brake that I should be aware of? Also, do you all locktite your brakes on or do you merely tighten them down so you can remove them easily? Let me know your experiences. Thanks

At least some of the Brits saw this coming far in advance.

She should be careful or that gun may backfire. That or she could pose for an HK catalog photo.

Seeing as though 6 left our squad, I think the earlier numbers are pretty accurate! There were at least two squads that ended with 3 shooters. On Friday my squad started with 3 shooters. We did a lot of waiting all day. But it is kind of interesting to go first on 5 stages in one day.

The easiest and cheapest way I have found for my STI hicap mags is to use a paster. I write all the info I want on a paster then I put it on the bottom of the basepad. None of mine have fallen off or worn. It is really easy to see the info when the mags are on the belt. That being said, I do have some HSMITH mags that are laser engraved and I would love to have all of mine done the same way.

I shot last year on Friday (in shorts) and I loved every second of it. I will be back this year to shoot on Friday. Although, this time I will be bringing more clothes. That, and I wish my limited mags could hold more. 21 reloadable just doesn't seem like enough for this match. I even thought about intentionally shooting minor just for the mag advantage. I did win B class shooting minor (on accident) at the MO Fall Classic this year so I have thought pretty hard about it. Although I still haven't decided if 24 round mags is worth it. It may work on hoser stages so I am open to thoughts and comments. Thanks for all of your hard work Scorch. Last years match was the best match I have ever attended and this years looks to be even better.

There are several ways to do this. First make sure you understand how the mag and slide stop interact. Put an empty mag in the gun and lock the slide back. Look at where the follower and slide stop meet. This is where most of your work will be done. One is to modify the followers and the other is to modify the slide stop. Or, you could do both. Modifying the follower involves removing the piece of plastic that engages the slide stop or lowering it to make sure it does not push on the slide stop. I use a dremel for both operations but you could use a file. To remove the tab you need to look at the follower and how it engages the slide stop. You would then remove this piece and relieve it so the follower has plenty of space around the slide stop so it does not catch when you go for a reload. To change the engagement of the tab you need to lower it so it does not push the stop up. Keep filing the tab down until it doesn't push the stop up. There are also several ways to modify the slide stop. One is to modify the tab that engages the mag and the other is to dimple the interface between the slide stop and the detent for it. To modify the tab you need to remove as much metal as possible from it where it engages the mag (make sure you round the corners). Keep at this until the follower does not push the slide stop up. The next way is to make a detent spot on the slide stop. Look at the slide stop from the side. There is a little button that pushes against it. What you want to do is make a little divot for this pin to rest in where the pin meets it in the down position. This will make it harder for the slide stop to be pushed up. I have a friend that actually cut a slot for the pin to go into in his slide stop. This makes it impossible for the slide stop to move up. The next step in protection from the slide stop is to remove the stopping tab. This is the piece of metal that moves up into the slide to make it stop. Look at the gun from the side and see the piece that move into the slide. Remove that and make it more of a straight line. Then round the back upper edge. This makes it so that even if the slide stop is pushed up it will not stop the slide. Sorry I don't have pictures to help you with this. I am glad to help more if you need better descriptions. As always, if you are not comfortable with this then you should see a gunsmith that knows their way around the 2011 or you could call a reputable mag tuner or gunsmith such as Brazos. ^^^ the article link did not work for me but it is a good article with some good pictures showing what I was talking about. Go to www.brazoscustom.com click on guns then magazine articles on the left side. the article is from 2005 and is titled "slide lock back or not?"

He's funny. Worth it to watch his videos on the Youtubes. I think this one is my favorite. He has one sweet airsoft set-up in that video. That outfit is a riot. It concerns me that amount of people that are out there that buy this crap and take it seriously. This stuff makes me want to bang my head against a wall.

Hmm, for the same price I could get a Beta mag and a couple of P-Mags. Lets see here... 4 mag + this silly looking "tactical advantage" gear thing = 120 rounds with three reloads @ ~2 seconds for the low low price of ~$400. Total reload time of 6 seconds A beta mag + one P-Mag = 130 rounds with one reload from my pocket @ ~3 seconds for the very reasonable price of ~$320. Total reload time of 3 seconds. I think my money is better spent with the Beta. Although that cool little kid from "Mil-Spec Monkey" seemed to think they were awesome and great so I am torn. In all seriousness I have seen these types of set-ups for moonclips and singlstack mags and thought they might be useful to some extent. This thing is just a silly cumbersome piece of overpriced junk that is sure to sell very well to the "I wanna be a backyard operator" crowd. BTW: thanks to whomever mentioned "Mil-Spec Monkey". I just had to know so I googled him and watched some of the videos. It is time from my life that I will never get back.

I stack those beasts up to limit slide movement. Although I do top them off with a Dawson Aluma-Buf. I have never had a problem with them and the Aluma-Buf keeps them all looking like new. I like the way the gun feels with shorter slide movement. It also makes it impossible for the slide to lock back. I have 5 of them in my 9mm STI and 3 in my 40.

It is so ugly... I love every bit of it. It looks like one of your targets from accuracy practice, holes everywhere with no solid pattern. Just kidding. Athough, I am going to call it your double tap gun. Because you could have won all the tools you used to do this bit of ghetto gunsmithing off the DT prize table and you got the slide from STI contingency from DT. Sadly, I know you will continue to beat me by 5% all the time with this hideous thing. I guess it doesn't have to look pretty to shoot pretty. Now put some grip tape on that beast to cover up the monster you have created and shoot it like you stole it.

Just a back-up post on the doubling. I was there the day he got it to double. He bumped up the sear spring until the pull was around 6.5 lbs. He was still getting it to go. He handed it to me when it had the light trigger and I could not get it to double. I am one of the locals that runs a 2 lbs trigger and I think the problem was the nut behind the trigger more than the sear hammer relationship. Not to mention, he was not getting it to double when he had the 5" slide on the same frame. We will see tonight how it works. -Res Ipsa Loquitur

For reference, every Dan Wesson I have held has one of the tightest frame to slide fits I have ever felt. I think it would be a great place to start. I have no experience with NH but I have a couple of customs and have played with dozens more. The DWs were on par or better fit in the slide area. That said, I would buy custom (gunsmith) before anything else if I wanted a specialized gun. SS 45 I would look elsewhere but a 10mm I would see a smith. I think you could have a good smith build one for less than the NH.

More pretravel than before. I went from an SV bow to an STI and I set the pretravel long. Although I do feel like the reset is shorter now. Any way to make the reset longer?

Thanks for the advice RPD. I was doing it at home away from ammo with an empty gun. What happened was that I put in the parts and tested them out by dropping the slide not touching the trigger and touching it. Then all of the sudden I had a follow and I noticed that I didnt have the trigger pressed all the way back. I soon found that if I racked the slide holding the trigger just so that the hammer would follow every time. I have not even taken the gun to the line yet. I just wanted to make sure it was safe to take up. What I can tell from your post is that it is fine and that if I act like an idiot I can make most all 1911s follow.

Ok so i haven't even shot the gun yet but this came up while I was installing a new trigger kit. I was just looking to set-up a new set so I could have a backup. Here are the parts I installed: Extreme Engineering Hammer and Sear STI Gunsmith Blank Trigger This is in an STI frame. So, I adjusted the parts as per the Brazos website. I backed out the overtravel screw two turns past the breaking point and there is plenty of pretravel. The sear doesn't hit the halfcock notch on the way down. All the parts were new. I put plenty of pressure on the sear. Here is what is happening: The hammer fully follows if I put LIGHT pressure on the trigger and let the slide go. It also happens if I pull the trigger to dry fire and then loosely hold it there and I rack the slide hard. However if I do this with the trigger firmly held back or not touched at all it does not happen. I am scared to take it out and fire it because I am not sure if it is safe in its current condition. I played with it for about an hour and I just cannot figure it out. I cant get my other STI to do this so I figured something must be wrong. So either I am being paranoid and it wont double or there is something odd going on. I figured you all might be able to tell me what the problem is.

The story is sad but the Officers lack of mastery of the English language is sad as well. Read the report.

I believe the modulator would bump you to open.

Yes.

4.48 first try

I would say the same goes for the STI spacer. I am not a fan of the Arredondo one either.

Dawson SNL pads, Shooters Connection Steel Spacer, and Grams 9mm follower spring at 11 coils. Then check the feedlips and tweek them parallel on the low side of what STI recommends. 23 reloadable every time for me. Some can take 24 but they turn into salt shakers. None of my mags are tuned and they are all 100%. All the stock STI mags I have purchased hold 21 out of the box. Always watch the feedlips, the only problems I have ever had is when the lips get too wide. Make sure they fit the gauge and look out for follower rollover. I respect HSmith and I would happily buy his mags in 9 if I needed them. As it is I have a set of his for 40s and they are wonderful. Although, I cannot accept that I cannot get more in my 9 mags than in my 40s. My 40s hold 20 easily. Sometimes I shoot limited minor because there can be a mag advantage.

Pick up a copy of Brian's book and use it to keep learning while your friend is gone. I have read the book several times and I learn something new every time. The book is worth 1000 times its weight in ammo.

Yes, if we give the nothings a defined space. Kind of like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle for nothing. If nothing exists between the parts of an atom than there must be an infinite distinct nothings in the universe. Lumping everything that is nothing together is to ignore the things between the nothings. The voids make the substance more valuable. In a matter more on topic, I want to money too. No matter how you do your math.

Somewhat harmless except in the case of how I use it. I use my soot for tailgaters. If you cruise around in your diesel long enough at low rpms then you can build up the soot in the tailpipes. When someone unnecessarily tailgates me all I have to do is drop a gear and run up the rpms to get the soot out. I have found that there is nothing like a black cloud of smoke to deter tailgating. My Jetta will do it on the highway but it is not super impressive. However, the '89 diesel Suburban (22-26mpg hwy) I learned to drive on and drove for years could do it with impressive results (tailpipes on both sides of the car with a 6.2L engine). Save your soot and use it wisely; someone needs it but not everyone deserves it. Matt will have to comment on what exactly soot is and if it is bad or good(see above).