HSMITH

Jack, the spacer pushes the case forward so that the case is on both ribs in an STI magazine, if you load short enough you can get the case far enough forward to get it off the rear rib in extreme cases. When the case isn't on both ribs the stack of ammo in the mag can get out of control. 9mm is a tapered case also, so if you load only a bit shorter, like 1.13" the ammo can move forward and back in the magazine, when you have some of it forward and some of it back it isn't as consistent as it is when the ammo can only move a little bit forward and back.

In a spacer mag stick with 1.16-1.165". Just enough front to back room for everything to work right and not too much room for things to get out of control. In an SV or spacerless tuned STI run 1.18-1.195".

Learning not to hurry was REALLY hard for me. It's easy for me to feel bored if I am not going 100 miles an hour. I turned it into a quest for efficiency to get past it at work. My day job for the last 15+ years includes a lot of super precision work, a thousandth of an inch is loose in my world, like throwing a pickle down the hall, and you can't hold very small parts of a thousandth of an inch when you hurry but you can do it easily when you focus on doing it efficiently. There is a downside though, now I time study stupid stuff like mowing patterns on my yard to see what the most efficient path is. It's OK though, it keeps my mind occupied doing mundane repetitive tasks and I shaved 17 minutes from my lawn mowing time.

I used a free app to copy my iPod to my PC, worked great. The one I used doesn't support Mac though.

Chris Keen has it, he likes it a lot.

I am extremely honored, out of town for a bit to return and find this. Amazing really. Thank you all.

I have tried many different configurations and don't like them. They do flatten the gun out, but at the expense of major noise and crud on the scope. I'd rather have a gun that tracks well than a flat shooting gun.....

Well done Doug, though I expected as much from you. First class all the way!

I have had the CCG mount for a couple months and it is absolutely kick ass!!!

That sounds good to me Brian!

Well, I have already won (edit:personal feeling just due to the responses in this thread). Thank you all for the kind words and thoughts. I was quite surprised to see this thread and never expected to be recognized like this. Thanks again!!

Take the spring out of the gun, reassemble with all parts but the spring, retract the slide fully and mark the slide and frame. Assemble with new spring, clip one full turn until the marks line up, then one more full turn. If it is a reverse plug set up you can also take the guide rod out and clip until the reverse plug touches the guide rod head and then one more full turn. Be careful though, a reverse plug hurts if you slip LOL.

Good for you Don!!

The thing that sucks about the Millet is that you can't turn the scope off at anything but 0 on the illumination scale, with the Meopta you can decide what level of illumination the scope should be in when it is off, there is an 'off' setting between each illumination setting. So far that is my only complaint with the DMS 1 scope. Time will tell if there are more, but it is a very nice scope for $200.

I used them for a while, then I figured out that a well built gun will run a couple hundred thousand rounds on a couple different barrels without them. If your guide rod isn't fitted right a buffer is a good idea. If your recoil spring preference is a couple pounds lighter than is prudent a buffer makes sense. Otherwise ditch the buffer, just one more thing that can go wrong.

Clipping coils does not change the rate of the spring at all, it only changes the overall length of the spring at full compression. Clip away and be happy, also be glad that you can get a spring long enough to get the rate you want that you can fit to your application. Having a spring that needs a coil or two clipped isn't a bad thing. I like to see a full coil short of coil bind after clipping, springs that don't go solid by a full coil last a world longer than springs that almost go solid.

Dan does really nice work, worth the wait, and waiting for Dan isn't nearly as painful as some other smiths. Dan is on a VERY short list of guys that I would trust to work on my own guns.

You open a package that says 8#, it might be 8, it might be 6, it might be 10. You shoot it a couple hundred rounds and it will be different again. Buy two of each and try them all, if it were me I'd buy a pair of 8's, 10's and 12's. Six springs won't break the bank and they should be enough different to get an idea of what is going to work for you. Buy or make a spring tester to find out what the actual weight of the spring that works for you is, and buy more. This brings to mind that Dave Re, or at least I think it was him, said that springs from Sprinco are actually tested and correctly packaged for sale. If you bought them you should be assured that at least the first couple hundred rounds are at the advertised weight and that subsequent purchases would be very close.

RIP Shifty and God bless our veterans. EDIT for a huge spelling blunder...

Hope it all works out soon Scott, best wishes man!!

I've played with torque settings, 30-120 lb/ft doesn't make a difference if the face of the upper is true to the barrel extension bore. Now I just crank them down snug (EDIT: after squaring the barrel extension face of the upper to the barrel extension bore; end edit), then the next opening for the gas tube. If it isn't ass tight when the next opening is lined up I will grind a tooth off the nut and then it lines up perfectly ass tight.

Hurry up and beat the shite out of that thing Mike, 30K rounds ought to be good. I need a couple BCG's and this one looks good to me, so let me know how it works at the end of the month when you finish the 30K rounds.

I have beaten the sheet out of my 9 major gun, it has 60K HARD miles on it with all of them being in the white, and is just starting to show a decrease in accuracy. It is still very tight, runs great, and not many could tell it is losing accuracy. It takes a bench rest for me to see it. If I cleaned the rust off it and made it look new again you wouldn't be able to tell it had 60K rounds through it. I have beaten this gun like I borrowed it from someone I hate, and it is still a great gun. It will last two more barrels at least. It was fit right and tight the first time, has never lacked for lubrication, and from there it is all gravy.

I'd put the front sight back in it and grind it down near the contour of the slide where possible, will save you a TON of welding by having it in the slide as filler material. Then I would TIG it, going slow, cooling the slide. If you don't get in a hurry you can hold it in your bare hand the entire time you are welding on it and the heat will be limited to the very spot you are welding. How hot it gets is up to YOU.

You can get into a NEW custom built STI from a number of guys WITH magazines for $3500. Insanity.