HSMITH

If you want to be pissed at anyone be pissed at your federal, state and local governments. The oil companies make 15% or a bit less on a gallon of gas, and 15% is not a high margin when compared to other businesses. The oil companies make their 15% on the wholesale price. Gas here is $3 a gallon, the state tax is 33 cents per gallon and the federal tax is almost 19 cents per gallon. 52 cents per gallon in federal and state taxes. That takes it to $2.48 a gallon, the retailer is making around 10% on a gallon, or roughly 25 cents taking it to $2.25. With transport costs and other costs subtracted the wholesale price of gas right now is around 2.10 per gallon, meaning the oil company is taking about 31 cents, or taking over 40% LESS out of your pocket than the TAXES on a gallon of gas! The oil companies provide a product we need, pay incredible sums in corporate taxes, employ people that pay taxes, and support a distribution and retail chain that again pays taxes and employs people that pay taxes. Distill all that down and 70% or so of each dollar spent on gasoline is going to TAXES. I support the oil industry making money, I hope they make record profits every year. It is what good businesses do, and good businesses are stable employers, good citizens and stable tax streams.

No way would I buy a ramp cut frame, I cut the ramp cuts or it is a NO GO but you should check with your smith to see what he wants. Some guys will build on the factory W/N cut. Your smith is still going to have to cut the frame to allow the barrel fully into bed (down and stopping on the ramp instead of the chamber area hitting the frame and stopping it), and a C/P ramp cut only takes a few more minutes to do perfectly correct. The ramp cut is a critical factor in making a really accurate, durable and reliable gun.

I have an EOTech and it SUCKS. Poor dot quality, terrible adjustments, it shuts off on it's own after 4 or 8 hours, eats batteries if you leave it on, glass is not sharp, reticle goes away at 90* with polarized glasses, overall I don't like it much at all..... It is just a heavy expensive C-More IMO. I have a Meopta and prefer it to the EOTech by a mile but if I was going to do a red dot for defensive use it would be an Aimpoint, hands down no question. It doesn't have to be turned off so it is ALWAYS ready, battery life is measured in YEARS, adjustments are predictable although not too precise, the glass is clear, the dot is crisp, polarized glasses don't make the dot disappear, light weight, incredibly rugged, on and on. Best red dot sight period. Not cheap but well worth what they cost.

In my guns the 200 is the way to go, the gun is super flat, super soft, and the front sight returns better than anything I have ever seen. With different gun configurations the better load might not be a 200, but mine is anything but slow and sluggish with 200's. Even with 220's it doesn't seem sluggish at all to anyone that has shot it. My gun was built with specifically managed weight distribution though, not lightened to a number or cosmetically cut on. It took for EVER to figure out how to move the weight where I wanted it and have it look halfway decent after I figured out exactly how much needed moved and where. I have played with 140's, 155's, 165's, 170's, 180's, 200's and 220's, several powders with each. I always end up with 200's in the 6" and 180's in a 5" bull barrel gun.

George is convinced that it is a robust system that is without problems, they won't be going away from it in my estimation. IMO it made a decent gun completely undesirable.

Send the gun in. The PXT is problematic, it is probably chipped, cracked, worn, or the spring is soft. When you get it back sell it and get a conventional extractor model if you really like the gun.

If you get 20K out of it you have gotten your money's worth and then some. I would be surprised to see one go less than 40K....

Call Brian and get the big ass Dillon. It isn't cheap but once you use it none of the others measure up. I've had a bunch of others, including the ones recommended in this thread, and the big Dillon kills them. Far better unit.

Very low or slow to peak pressures can back the primers out and then reseat them giving the look of a flattened primer when they aren't, but you should have seen similar indications with 800X in your gun if the chamber was long enough to let the primers get far enough out. 800X is impossible to get pressure problems with in 9mm without a ton of effort.

It flattens out, but it is WAY down the power factor trail. I ran out of case capacity at short lengths before I saw pressure. I am sure I could have gotten low if not mid 190's in my Open guns with 115's.....

Bending barrels doesn't last, been there and done that, eventually they work back to where they want to be.

200's are softer given the same powder and power factor. Bart is 100% right.

I have been in the mid 180's power factor with Power Pistol and 115's loaded to 1.19" and never flattened a primer. I have been in the mid 150's with 115's at factory length and never flattened a primer out of a G17, a Taurus 99 and a CZ75. If you chrono map it you will see the end coming, if you don't chrono map it you are guessing.

LOL, they are TOAST. Tested to the point of near failure/failure you might say.... My Limited gun has not one part from the original two top ends left on it other than the Bo-Mar. Even the firing pin was sacrificed. You never know where the wall is until you hit it. As far as I know no one else has done it, at least no one that I wanted to build a gun for me had done it well enough to answer my questions. No one would make what I wanted so I got frustrated, not one of them told me what I wanted was reasonable or agreed to build it, most even told me it could NOT be done, so I called Chuck to order the parts and the rest is history. Even Chuck tried to talk me out of it LOL. I figured if I was going to jump off and figure it all out myself I might as well have data points from here to WAY past there, so I cut up a bunch of really serviceable parts incrementally until they didn't work anymore LOL.

Chuck, those 7" guns came with VERY specific load data when new too. They aren't feasible from a production standpoint and I apologize for not making that clear, use a load not suited and you will destroy the upper locking lugs in a hurry. It certainly can be done as you know, but it is an extremely sensitive proposition. AFAIK Jim Clark pioneered the 7" guns.... As far as taking more time to line up with a 6" vs a 5", hmmm...... Doesn't bother me at all, and I appreciate the added accuracy when I am actually using the bump on the front. I am not a GM though, and I tend to use the outline of the gun on close hoser targets or go to the front sight with some clarity on all other shots, if I have to aim I might as well aim. I use a .090" wide fiber with a slightly wider and lot deeper notch on the Bo-Mar that gives me a 30-40-30 light bar to front sight ratio. Could be you used a wider front sight that didn't give the light bars? IDK. I'd love to burn a couple hundred rounds with some of you guys after a match and get your input. Don't kid yourself, I know at least a few super squad guys that haven't fielded a 6" gun are/were playing with 6" guns and trying to figure out a way to switch. I think you would have seen a couple at Nats this year that hadn't run 6" guns before, but with the sponsorship things going on a lot of guys are holding back. Switching platforms in one or more divisions is hard enough without adding another gun to the mix when what you have works good. The best shooter I personally know well found a .3 hit factor improvement with my personal 6" gun over a couple thousand rounds of testing against his normal match gun, and my gun was not tailored to him. The grip is too small and the trigger too short for him on my gun. I am not going to say who it is, if he sees it and cares to comment that is up to him. Flex, I hear you, there are a ton of different 6" guns out there and some of them are just turds to me. From violent to super sluggish, light and heavy. What I like doesn't suit everyone, and what someone else likes doesn't suit me. Trust me though, anything that can be done in a 5" gun can be done in a 6" platform with the only change being another inch of sight radius. I know, I have done it, with bull barrel and bushing barrel, slides from 17 ounces to 8 ounces and all combinations including frame weight changes. It took months of work and a couple grand, but it was educational.

Have whoever screwed up the choke tube installation buy you a new barrel. If the choke was put in straight it would shoot straight. If you don't want to go that way Simmons Guns in Kansas can make offset choke tubes to compensate for the screwed up installation.

H, AMEN!! I couldn't agree more. Journalism is dead, entertainment/misdirection has taken it's place.

Chuck, a 7" gun isn't feasible, the pivot point of the barrel locking and unlocking gets too far from the fulcrum point for one, and two the timing of getting the bullet out of the barrel with the resulting loss of pressure before the lugs start to unlock gets extremely tight. 500 of them would be a huge issue.... 6" guns come in really light and fast or heavy and stable, my 6" can weigh as little as 32 ounces and as much as 38 with simple parts changes. I can change static weight, reciprocating weight and combination's of both. If desired it wouldn't take much at all to make one that was well over 50 ounces with a light slide. The RIGHT gun for everyone is out there. Flex, I hear you. But..... The ONLY difference between a 5" and 6" gun that is necessary is an inch of sight radius one way or the other, otherwise they can have the EXACT same weight, balance point, cycling speed, recoil, you name it and it can be matched. I have a bad tendency to shoot with really soft hands and that can make the gun look a lot slower, but that is all me. With a proper grip my gun is extremely flat and soft yet will still cycle in the .05-.06 range. EDIT: My next open gun is going to be a good bit heavier than the one I have now, so we are in agreement there. I don't see how giving up an inch of sight radius when all else is equal makes sense, but that is just my opinion. I also think that the reason you don't see a lot of 6" guns on the super squads yet is because those guys have a pair and a spare 5" guns already, and can win with them if they shoot a solid match? The investment to replace several guns is a huge cost. For the average weekend hacker, like me, a 6" gun is worth the cost.

I don't think it is the one shot, I load the casefeeder and spray it on the cases as it turns so it is getting inside the cases. I do not load for a couple minutes, maybe 5 minutes, so it can dry. I do not get inconsistent ammo doing it. I'd check for setback. Safely cycle 25 rounds through the gun without firing them and measure OAL, see how it compares to ammo from the same batch that hasn't been cycled. I haven't seen case capacity in different brands amount to a significant difference in 45 acp.

I submit that you guys haven't shot the right 6" gun yet. They come in more than one flavor just like 5" guns....

That is SUPER COOL!!!!

I use regular Clays. No way in H would I short load them with fast powders, 1.2" minimum and I run mine at 1.23".

I carried a P14 for a long time, both concealed and open carry. Mine is alloy so it weighs about what a government single stack does with 14 rounds on board. Without a magwell it isn't much if any harder to conceal than a gov model.

I very much prefer the 200's to any other bullet, but I shoot Zero's when I can get them. They are a tad more accurate and a tad faster in my gun.

I am very sorry to hear that Kyle.