FrancisB

This. Last month I got a G35, a KKM .40 to 9mm conversion barrel ($160), new Taran sights ($85) and a 9mm ejector... Wow! super accuracy and love having the extra sight radius. And I can also use the gun for USPSA major by putting back the original barrel.. Like having 2 guns in one...

Hi Steven, thanks! PM sent. A question; the ejector will (probably) take care of the BTH issues, but the inconsistent cycling - don't I need a weaker recoil spring?

As the original poster on this thread, I wanted to thank everyone for their advice and suggestions. My plan is to get into the action games again, after a 10 year hiatus (when I used my 1911 .45s). To try to keep cost of ammo down, I'm planning on shooting mostly 9mm, hence the conversion barrel. Based on this thread, I went with - a G35, found an FDE at Cabela's, cool! - a KKM .40 to 9mm conversion barrel My only upgrade so far is a set of Taran's TTI (thank you Taran, really appreciate you making a set available). These sights are amazing. 8/16/15 - Range report - first outing I scrounged up a bunch of mismatched and cheap .40 and 9mm from when I was shooting 10 years ago, threw it into my very long of tooth Waller range bag and headed to Tri-county (Sherwood, Oregon) early. Started with .40, at the 25 yard line. 200 rounds later of different stuff, (including a few magazines of Golden Saber hollow points defensive rounds), I had zero malfunctions or failures to feed, and all the brass was well behaved and went 3-4 to the right. Perfect right out of the box. I was surprised at how soft the gun shoots stock - I've taken 2 day shooting classes in the past with my G23 and felt that has much more bark than the G35 (which I guess you'd expect given the size of the G35). After a few groups that were low/left, I figured out the trigger press, and got some nice groups the size of my fist standing offhand at 25 yards, which I was really happy with. If I did my part, it shot where I aimed it. It would be interesting to try to bench rest it and see what it can do. I was anxious to try the 9mm barrel, so I dropped that in, and tried a few mags of old Wolff 9mm.The ammo fed fine, and shot OK, but it would FTE or stovepipe every 2-3 rounds, which I sort of expected. I tried some American Standard 9mm and that cycled it fine, but the brass pooped out and would occasionally clock me in the head. The 9mm shoots super easy, and feels like shooting a .22lr. Maybe it's the bigger gun and the conversion barrel, but recoil is non-existent. The one thing I noticed is with fast shooting my support hand moves around, which is probably a grip technique problem I need to work on. If I want the 9mm to behave, can I assume I need to - get a lighter recoil spring? (what weight would handle most 9mm)?? - get the 9mm ejector to eject the brass correctly (ideally 3-4 feet to my right like the stock .40 set up does?) anything else? I'm really happy with the G35, and can't wait to get the 9mm tuned and start doing some local matches. And because every thread is better with pictures - my latest child after her inaugural outing. I threw on a set of tactical grips, we'll see if that helps my grip.

Thanks 9x45 Turns out Taran replied to my email and let me know he has sent a bunch to be coated 3 weeks ago, and doesn't have a specific date when they'll be back, but he expects them soon.. I'll wait for his sights. On the barrel comment; I was planning on getting a conversion barrel (probably KKM, but maybe LW). I wasn't planning on getting a fitted barrel, but a drop in. Does fitting make that big a difference? Who actually does this type of install? Thanks in advance Francis

Thanks for the advice everyone - I've picked up a beautiful G35 in FDE from the local Cabela's. Can't wait to get to the range this weekend to see how it shoots completely stock. The sights are junk, and the first thing to be replaced. I was hoping to get a set of Taran sights, but they are out of stock and I can't get an answer as to when they'll be back in stock. So I'm thinking of the Warren Sivigney instead. Then a barrel, a DK trigger (maybe, the stock one feels pretty nice) and I'm only 10,000 hours away from mastery :-) Then

Given this, does the fact the 9mm barrel is slightly smaller than the .40 affect accuracy in any way? Does the 9mm barrel "flop around" in the slide of a G35?

Welcome!

Thanks for the heads up on needing the 35, makes sense. As for what I'll be using this for; mostly because I don't know what I want to do exactly game wise. I want to be as flexible as possible. The range I belong to (tri county in Sherwood Oregon), has many different shooting matches (steel, idpa etc.), and I'm looking for something that'll let me play most of them. I also have many thousands of rounds of 9/40 that I've accumulated over the years and I want to be able to shoot. Thanks, Francis

Hi, I think I'd like to get a long sight radius glock, and would like to be able to shoot both 9mm and .40 from it. I think all I need is a barrel swap and mags, but wanted to confirm. Does anything else need to be changed when moving between calibers? Also, does it matter if you get a G34 or G35 to do this? Thanks, Francis

Hi Jack, Sorry, I should have specified, Portland Oregon. West... Having said that, I've been to Portland Maine many times, and it's a beautiful area also. Regards, Francis

Hi UFO, yes it does suck :-) Thanks for the reach out!

Hello All, I'm a old/new shooter living in Portland (beautiful place if you can stand the political plant eaters). I started doing steel / IPSC type matches 15 years ago, and then my son was born, and then a new job, and then it seems life get busy and 10 years went by and I was in late 40's. But I really wanted to get back into shooting, so I went to the range a few times and realized my eyes were gone. I was wearing progressive lenses, but I couldn't see the front site worth a damn, and lost interest in shooting competitively. Fast forward to 54, and at my last visit to the eye doctor, I jokingly asked him when was he going to perfect plastic lenses so I could shoot again. Being an ex-army guy he said "if you want to shoot, I can get you set up". Long story short, multi-focal contacts optimized for front site distance has made a HUGE difference in my pistol and rifle shooting. I can see the front site and the serrations on the front site, who knew they were there :-) So now that I can see, I figure there's I have no excuses for not pursuing this more seriously. I love this site and the quality of the information and discussions here. I look forward to the day I can contribute something back. Regards, Francis

Hello All, I'm toying with the idea of changing the sites on my stock TRS, which has novak night sights. I'm pretty new to the action shooting games (although I've dabbled a few times years past). I'm finding that as I work thru a lot of the dry fire drills I have a difficult time finding the right dot quickly. And in bright light, the rear dots are way brighter than the front dot, which seems backwards to me. I've looked a few guns that has a plain black sight (rear) and a fiber optic front. I haven't actually shot this setup. but it appears to be easier to see. I was thinking of a dawson FO front sight, and a Heinie plain slant pro rear. I have no clue for the right size of the front (.110?) or the width of the notch in the back? So, Any thoughts? Should I just try to suck it up with what I currently have, or if I do change the sights, what would be the optimal sizes, given I want this to be a general purpose gun; steel, IDPA, limited 10, and every day carry. I realize a fiber optic front isn't as durable as an all steel sight, but I figure if I do knock it off, I can simply go to the safe and pull out my Kimber until I get the broken sight fixed. Thanks for the info. btw - I've been reading a bunch of the threads on this site; What a great resource. The depth of knowledge here is the best that I've ever found. Francis

Thanks for sharing some of your times. I don't have a good feel for what's an OK time and what's not. It seems many posts I read talk about folks having a .8 sec draw, and I'm thinking holy cow, that's about twice as fast as I can do... I'm sure I'll improve with some practice, but .8 seems incredibly fast to me. And I know the GM's can go even faster. Thanks again for the input. It does help put things in perspective.

The statue of Paul shows him wearing Wilson football cleats, model year 1971. Everyone knows that Paul's last season was 1966, AND Green Bay was equipped by Converse. That's what happens when you let art majors design something... Need I mention they have him posed with his hip kicked out the wrong direction for the foot thats up... :-)

Good input all, thankyou. I should point out 1.2 was the exception, rather than the rule. The average was probably around 1.5... I do find it problematic to get a consistent grip, as I have to raise up my right shoulder, and try to get between my body and the gun quickly. If I get the grip well, it's usually an OK draw, otherwise I fumble around a bit. I like the idea of the DOH. It's a shame, because the VMII is very comfortable, and conceals so well for me (which isn't the same thing as being fast, I realize), but I can see it's a comprimize WRT getting a solid draw. Having to reach back behind my right hip, and raise my shoulder up, and peeling the gun away from my body makes this harder than it should be.. So, sounds like I should drop a drop holster, at least for sport.

Hello All, I've dabbled off and on with competitive shooting; several years ago I did a few steel and local IPSC matches (I live in PDX, OR). One of my friends has gotten interested in competing, and I'm at a point where I have a bit of time and money to devote to shooting sports so I thought I'd try to stick with it for more than a few weeks. Today I went out to the range, and practiced drawing from an IWB (Sparks VMII), and firing my 1911. Wow, ~1.2 seconds to 1.7 @ 10 yards (if I really wanted to see the sight picture clearly). I figured I was slow, but having recently gotten a timer, I had no idea how slow... 2 questions. - how much quicker would a competition holster be? - assuming I dry fire 20 minutes / day, and follow the routines in Steve Anderson's book, how quickly can I expect to see noticeable improvement - what would be a 'good' time for drawing and firing from an IWB holster? - suggestions for a holster that would be OK for limited, limited 10, and possibly steel matches? I'm interested in using my single stack 1911 for the foreseeable future. Sorry, guess that's 4 questions...

I don't want to thread-jack this, but you bring up something I was thinking about recently. I normally carry a 1911 in a IWB for daily carry. About a year ago I picked up an airweight for the days when I didn't want to carry my TRS. However, it creeps me out to have the gun in my front pocket (in a kramer pocket holster), because when I sit down (e.g. at a restaurant), the muzzle is pointing at whoever is sitting across from me, such as my wife or son. I know it's in a holster tha protects the trigger, but I don't feel comfortable carrying it that way. And if I'm going to get a belt holster for it, I might as well carry my 1911. Anyone else feel this way, or am I being dumb?

I'm late to the party on this one; but I was just rewatching Matt's DVD's volume 1-3, and he talks about cross dominance. His take (for pistols) is to simply go in your iso stance, and shift the arms over about an inch to line up the sights with the left eye (assuming right handed). Don't cock your head. FWIW, I've been doing that for a few years now, and I don't think about it, and it seems to work fine (my shooting sucks for other reasons.. :-) I do shoot long arms off my left shoulder, and found it took about a year or so to get the movement to feel natural. Now it feels awkward to shoulder a rifle on my right side. Regards, Francis

Hi, I fretted over this when I started shooting a few years ago. I'm right handed and left eye dominant, and for handguns I simply turn my head a bit to the right, and use my left eye (both eyes open) to sight with. It works fine. As for long arms, I now shoot off the left shoulder, again using my left eye, and it only took a few months to make it feel totally natural. I remember reading some story about an olympic shogunner who lost an eye in an accident, and relearned to shoot off the other shoulder, and won gold with his recently retrained eye. Pick a way, and practice, and it'll be fine. Regards, Francis

I agree w/what everyone has said. carry it loaded, or don't carry it. You should probably take a self defense shooting class or two. I have the good fortune of living in Portland OR, and have access to Firearms Academy of Seattle and Insights Training, both top notch, self defense shooting schools. These type of classes are very different than competitive shooting. They teach you how to carry safely, the legal implication of using deadly force, what to look for before an assault, etc. Self defense is really a very different purpose than competition. Several world class shooters will be quite blunt and say they don't feel competent or comfortable giving "self defense" advice. They understand the difference. I'm sure if you let us know where you live, someone could recommend a shooting school which would help in this area. Regards, Francis

This reminds me of my old high school golf coach. for 4 years I was a member of the golf team in Strongsville OH, but never got to play a match because my practice round scores were never in the top 6 (we had some damn good golfers). Every monday I'm go see the coach and ask him what my handicap this week was (based on how well you shot last week). Looking at his elaborate spreadsheet, factoring in scores, averages, shots around the green, etc., he always chuckled; "Lack of ability Francis, lack of ability".. The point of the story (besides showing what a jerk he was) is that he was right. It's the golfer, not the club that hits the ball... I couldn't help thinking of this story when I read the topic title, guns don't shoot, people shoot... OK, maybe I'm just trying too hard to get enough posts to move up to "hunter" status... :-)

Hi, I'm not sure where this fits, and I assume the moderator will move the correct forum. I've recently started shooting my .45, (instead of my G19), and I'm finding I'm spending a small fortune on bullets. About $180 shipped (S&B, or PMC or some other FMJ 230 grainer). *Ouch* I can pick up a case of Wolf 9mm for ~85 at a gun show. This is a big difference. How much can I expect to save if I start reloading my own? I realize there's probably a ~$1000 outlay (I'm assuming a Dillon 650 & various goodies, primers, powder etc.) and time is money... I've held off on getting into reloading because my time is pretty limited, and I don't really have a kid friendly place to setup a workbench... but I can see if I want to get serious about pistol shooting, I'm going to have to do something to get the costs down. thanks in advance, Regards, Francis

Humm, Nicknames. Everytime I think of nicknames I think of "Animal House". And the poor shmuck they called Pinto... Maybe no nickname is better than a bad nickname... :-) *They called him Pinto because his *ahem* member was mottled with different pigmentation... Nice of them 'eh? Thanks for all the advice. I'm just working on getting smooth, and relaxing on the draw. Maybe it's my imagination, but after 4 days, I'm feeling more at ease and getting an easier time getting the front sight focus quickly... Maybe there's something to this whole practice thing...

Bird / Bonedaddy, (damn, I need a nickname! :-) Thanks for the input, I'll worry less about time and work for a while on being smooth. About sight picture, good info. Looking back, I'm sure I don't have a razor sharp sight pic, but rather, "look, there's a front sight, go!" (Just having read Brian's book, I'm guessing type 2ish...) Thanks again! I'll keep working it, no matter how much my wife laughs at me... Francis