regor

Just because I said I'll running it in Open doesn't meant I want to spend open money! If there's nothing stock then I'll probably just stick with 140s. Maybe stick the extensions for the 17 rounders on to the 18 rounders.

Are there any base pad options around to extend the CZ75/SP-01/Shadow factory 18 round or Mec-Gar 17 round mags to 170mm? I scooped up a P-01 that I plan to appendix carry and want to shoot it in the occasional club match just for fun and practice. I'm planning on shooting it in Open to keep the Classifier scores in their own bucket, and I think it would be really funny to run it with a 170mm mag, but I haven't been able to find anything from the usual suspects. Plenty of options for 140mm plates, one which would probably be around 150mm on the factor 18 rounders, but I'm hoping someone makes 170s. I've seen enough SP-01 based Open CZs that there must be something, right?

What power recoil spring are folks running for ~170 PF loads? I'm not entirely sure which one is in mine now because I bought it used, but I have the CGW tuner pack that I can fool around with.

The safety model is definitely easier to DIY, but the decocker sear cage isn't that bad after you've done it once and know what's what. I agree with the discussion that the safety model gives a better trigger pull, but I think it falls into the "in theory" territory alongside the over travel trigger screw in that it is such a small difference that when you are actually shooting you won't notice the difference, especially when both are well polished. Changing the hammer spring will give you a much more noticeable difference in trigger feel than the decocker vs safety. So really, IMO, it comes down to whether or not you think that tiny benefit outweighs the extra safety precautions needed to manually let down the hammer during Make Ready.

The relevant rule you are looking for is Appendix D4 21.3 Aftermarket slides and barrels So any SP-01 slide should be fine. I assume you want to keep the original slide for use with a suppressor, but if you don't care about having suppressor height sights made you could just buy a replacement set of sights or have a custom set made by Dawson Precision. Their price for custom height sights is list price + $20 for each sight, so a front/rear set would be list price + $40, which if you wanted the competition sights with fiber optic front would come out to $118.95 + tax and shipping. You are not going to find a replacement slide for that price. FWIW, I have been competing with the same exact model for the last 6 months and also am not a fan of the sights. I ordered a custom front sight of the same height as factory from Dawson. I was told to give them ~3 weeks to get it made. I don't know what your timetable is on this, but I will post the end results of that in the CZ form once I receive it.

Do you mean the 26 round mags like this? http://gregcotellc.com/cart/cz-factory-mecgar-magazines-c-173/cz-75b-cz-75bd-cz-85-or-cz-75-sp01-9mm-26-rd-magazine-11109-p-1401.html I don't know for sure, but I would be surprised if they were under 140mm. Max capacity for pretty much any 140mm 9mm mag is 23-24 with special followers (like Grams or CZ Custom), so if there was that much extra room I would think base plate manufacturers would be taking advantage of it. You might want to consider moving to production or getting something that can make major power factor in Limited since shooting 9mm minor in Limited is a pretty large handicap. But, if you are set on shooting Limited Minor your best bet is to get MecGar 17 round mags and add base plates designed to take that out to 140mm. Grab A Gun has the best price I have found on the mags. Extensions will be your choice, there are a bunch of options (Springer Precision, CZ Custom, TTI, Henning, etc.) Mags: https://grabagun.com/mec-gar-usa-inc-cz7517afc-mag-cz75b-9m-17r-afc.html

I believe Grab A Gun has the cheapest prices on the MecGar 17rd mags at $21.39 each vs $24.95 each for BS and GC. Shipping fees may effect which is cheapest based on quantity ordered. They were also cheapest for TS/TSO mags from what I found. https://grabagun.com/mec-gar-usa-inc-cz7517afc-mag-cz75b-9m-17r-afc.html

Does anyone know what the correct size Dawson sight would be for a suppressor ready SP-01?

Check the classified here, TSOs pop up every now and then. I scooped up a lightly used one for $1500 with an extra ~$300 in add-ons. You can find brand new ones online for <$1600 regularly.

So you're fine with people being able to buy a $1200+ pistol designed to fit into the Production rules from the factory instead of buying a $500 pistol and putting in a $150 trigger and swapping some springs? Disallowing modifications only makes sense if it is paired with a price cap for Production gear (like PRS does in their Production division with a max MSRP for the rifle and optic), otherwise companies will just release models that are tuned from the factory and designed for Production (like the Shadow 2 and Q5 SF) for 2-3x the cost of the base model and the division turns into "who has the most money".

One thing that a local Carry Optics M shooter told me in my first match (which had a similar stage, but with an unloaded start, pistol on one barrel, all mags on the other) was to lay out your mags in a V pattern with the base plates of the mags just touching kind of like \ / with the bottom of the V pointed towards the direction you are going to be approaching the table/barrel from. You'll have to experiment with it to find what angle is comfortable to grab with you and your mags. That shape makes it easy to grab both and maintain separation between the two (you'll split the two mags with your index finger and have your thumb and middle finger on the outsides). Then stash the first one and reload with the second one and continue shooting.

Glad it went well and you had a safe and fun time! It looked good for a first match. I think you hit the nail on the head with moving more quickly between arrays (and make sure you get your reloads in while moving instead of standing still). Taking video like this and analyzing your performance will help you spot things to work on and accelerate your improvement, so keep it up. One tip I had from watching your video is to keep your pistol up high when you are doing your reloads. On both the reloads in the video you dropped it down to around your stomach, which meant you had to take your eyes away from the target to perform the reload, then bring the pistol back up, reacquire the target, and engage. I think almost everyone starting out does it because most are used to shooting stationary in a stall at a range and pick up their spare mags from a bench/table in front of them at waist height. It wasn't until my 3rd or 4th match (and lots of dry fire reloads) that I started to break that habit myself. It will take a good amount of practice to train that habit out but it will give you a pretty substantial speed boost once you get it down.

Not check the weather forecast and pack clothes/equipment for the best and worst scenarios for the day.

I will load up the rest of the sample pack at 4.8gr and test them out the next time I go to the range. I will follow up here when I do. Your load was also substantially shorter. 1.12 vs 1.165, even shorter than the listed 1.13, which is bound to make a difference. Here's the data I'm looking at, from Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, 4th Edition (2017). The load above this is a 175gr projectile at 1.125" with a starting load of 4.8gr Unique and a velocity of 911 (164 PF), perhaps that's the load you are referring to? A heavier pill over an identical charge is going to result in a higher PF (e.g. my highest tested 147gr 9mm load was 3.5 gr Unique and 142PF, versus my lowest 124 gr load which was 3.8gr and 129 PF, both loaded to 1.11"). My results seem to match this data; though that doesn't explain why this data is so different than what other people are saying and what other manuals say.

Were you using 180 gr projectiles? Lyman has 5.0-6.3 for their 150s. My Hornady book doesn't have Unique in it but for all the crossover powders Lyman has higher min and max loads, and as I said, so I would be surprised if any other manual had higher loads, especially loads that listed their min as Lyman's max...

I got a sample pack of these 180s with my last order of 124gr 9mm projectiles. I'm going to load up the rest to verify the results but 170 PF with 4.8 gr doesn't seem odd to me. The Lyman book said 4.6 gr min = 926 fps out of a 4" barrel, 5.2 max = 998 fps. That's 72 fps over .6 grains; extrapolated linearly that's 12 fps/gr, which would put the predict velocity for the 4.8gr load at 950 (171 PF), compared to my observed 945 fps (170 PF). Lyman uses a shorter barrel, but I seated mine substantially longer than the 1.13" from the load book and am using coated bullets with more bearing surface than the cast bullets with lube grooves from the manual, so I wouldn't be surprised if those factors pretty much offset the difference. W.r.t. the oal, I am aware that CZs tend to have shorter throats but with these projectiles 1.165 plunk tests fine, I was able to seat out to 1.17 and still plunk test, but I wanted to have a little wiggle room for seating depth because I'm using mixed brass, and I wanted to make sure there was plenty of room in the mag (rounds started getting tripped up around 1.175-1.18 in the mag for me). If I see any feeding issues I'll shorten them up a little, but at this point I see no need to.

Thought I'd post an update after getting a chance to do load dev on this. Working from the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, and using 180gr RNFP projectiles, min load is 4.6gr seated at 1.13" and should be 926fps (166PF) out of a 4" barrel. I have generally found the Lyman loads to be hotter than they list, and the TSO has a 5.2" barrel, but I am seating longer so I decided to start at 4.8 and work down, and that worked out well because my highest load was the only one that had a comfortable margin for Major. Pistol: CZ Tactical Sport Orange Barrel Length: 5.2" Projectile: Missouri Bullet Company 180gr IDP #5 Grooveless (RNFP) Powder: Alliant Unique Primer: Winchester SPP OAL: 1.165" (max that will reliably plunk for me when using mixed brass. Mag length for the TSO with this profile is around 1.18) Charge weight | Velocity | Power Factor 4.8 945 170.1 4.7 930 167.4 4.6 891 160.4 _________________________________ Something weird going on here. I'm not sure if this was a scale issue when loading or a chrono issue. The 4.5 group had an atrocious SD and spread (30 and 90 fps respectively), the other two had fliers up around 165 PF that brought their averages up. Not too concerned about this anyways since all of them are still way below Major. 4.5 878 158.0 4.4 883 158.9 4.3 880 158.4 _________________________________ 4.2 854 153.7 Probably closer to 152 true average, but again had a flier way up at 162 that pulled the average since I was only loading 7 rounds at each weight. The other 6 were all within 151-154 PF Hopefully that helps someone else figure out where to start out for their loads.

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Lighter recoil spring + practice (I throw in 2-4 reps to my dry fire practice, with dummy rounds to keep your racking honest). The larger part of the force is overcoming the initial force of the main spring to push the hammer back (you'll notice how much easier it is to rack when the hammer is already back) so you could also lighten that, though you'll need to make sure it still reliably lights off your primers of choice and it will also effect how the slide recoils so if you have already tuned the recoil spring you may need to redo that after replacing the main spring.

I did some testing for Unique in my CZ TSO last weekend. 180 gr Missouri Bullet Company IDP#5 Grooveless projectiles over 4.8 gr Unique loaded at 1.165" was 945 fps (170 PF). The profile on the BB 180 gr looks nearly identical to the MBC so I think those results should be reasonably comparable, especially since the G35 barrel is only .1" longer than the TSO. I'm not sure how the polygonal rifling in Glocks effects velocities so you could be higher or lower with the same load. The Lyman cast bullet handbook has a range of 4.6-5.2gr for Unique for 180 gr projectiles (I don't have it in front of me but it definitely suggested a shorter OAL). 4.7 still made major for me but not by enough to feel like I had a comfortable margin (167). If I were you I would load a ladder from 4.6 to 5.0; something in that range is bound to give you a proper power factor.

Did you do anything to lighten the TSO? Normal seems to be in the 1.5-1.75 lb range.

The only justifications I've ever heard for slide rack over slide release is (A) that it causes premature wear on the slide release, which even if true is almost certainly negligible in a well designed pistol, and (B) because it makes the manual of arms standard for all pistols as addressed here by David Royer. Larry Vickers identifies a key issue slide rack in particular designs like the Beretta. I've never heard anyone claim it is faster because I think it is pretty objectively not; it requires substantially more movement to execute. Personally I think Larry's comment about strong hand thumb is not a relevant point because that's an issue with grip, not with using the thumb to manipulate the release during a slide lock reload (which should be avoided anyways). IMO slide release strong hand if you don't have to break the grip, weak hand if you can't get it with strong hand thumb, and slide rack only if you are a left shooting a pistol with only right hand controls.

The serrations can be rough if you don't already have calluses built up on the part of your hands you are using to rack. Re: slide lock. Did they not allow you to use the slide release for slide lock reloads? Or are you lefty? IMO it makes no sense for a righty to rack a SP-01 after a slide lock reload since anyone with all but the tiny of thumbs should be able to reach the slide release with their strong hand thumb without breaking their grip. It's just wasted movement to load, then turn the pistol and move your support hand up, rack the slide, turn the pistol back to vertical, acquire your grip, and then press out. Slide release means just load, rotate pistol back to vertical while acquiring support hand grip and releasing slide with strong hand thumb (all one fluid movement), then press out.

Ahhhh that makes sense, I never would have thought about that. If you want a lighter spring you could try to just snip a couple coils off the original one.

Then I would guess it is an issue with the slide stop or the slide itself, though as before this really does not explain why you are having feeding issues. Do you have another CZ you could swap the slide/slide stop with?