Flatland Shooter

I recently purchased several tuned STI mags from Brazos. They recommend a minimum length of 1.200" for reliable feeding. Shorter and the spacers are recommended. But to load this long may present problems with the barrel. The longer bullet may hit the rifling too soon and even if it does go into battery, you may see some very high pressures. This would be solved by having your gunsmith run a throater reamer to your specs. If you want to load 1.170", consider finding some SVI mags. These seem to feed 9 x 19 round without the need for spacers. If you have a good load with a PF of 135, you may want to stop there, especially if it functions well in both guns. Much lower and you need to reduce recoil springs and cut out a little slide weight. Bill

Thank you John and Dave. This is a good way of handling it and I'll give it a try later this weekend. Bill

Very nice. Please post more. Bill

Thanks Scott and Dan and Merlin. Now that I see what they are talking about I know that none of my triggers have that tab. Like I said, something new fangled. But it also looks like something I can do to my trigger bow. Current pretravel measures at 0.086". I hope to reduce it to 0.050". Again, thank you. Bill

In the old days we either welded or silver soldered a small metal spacer to the back of the trigger bow to adjust pretravel. From the forum I gather that most triggers have an adjusting tab that, bent forward, reduces the pretravel. Either my triggers are so old that this is a new fangled feature (anything new in the past 10 years or so I consirder to be new fangled), or just as likely I just don't know what to look for. I assume its located at the front of the bow on either side (or both sides) of the trigger shoe. So, if someone could tell me what and where to look, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Bill

First, I do not allow loaded ammo into the "practice" area. Hard fast rule. All "shootin" ammo is Zero JHP, so for the dummy loads I used some 147 gr lead bullets to distinguish the difference. I do not like to leave rounds in a magazine, so I keep the dummy rounds in a zip-lok bag in the practice area and load them into the mag at the start of the session and unload them at the end of the session. I need to try the magic marker. I didn't think it would stay on the brass very well, but will give it a try. Bill

On a very light and poorly installed sear/hammer combination, dropping the slide will cause the hammer to follow possibly causing damage to the sear engagment face or the hammer hooks. Even on a well built 1911, repeated dropping of the slide will take its toll on the sear and hammer. Or so I've been told. Rather than risk it, I just never decided to test it. Holding the trigger back was an old bullseye shooters action. It was not used to drop the slide on an empty chamber, but to chamber the first round off of a new magazine on slide lock. The thought was holding back the hammer kept the disconnector disengaged resulting in less wear on a delicate sear. I don't know if it worked or not, but it was common practice until the mid-80's. I believe John Shaw, in one of his shooting books, even mentioned this once. Bill

I'm not a pro, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express once. That said, I've always been told that dry firing will not damage a well built 1911. Snap caps are not necessary. There are people on the forum that dry fire their 1911 pattern firearms hundreds of thousands of times every year. Go ahead and pull the trigger with the hammer back as much as you want. (Yelling bang is optional, but will get old quickly.) However, dropping the slide from slide lock on an empty chamber is a quick way to destroy a decent trigger job. To practice mag changes, load up a few dummy rounds (no primer and no powder) and put at least a few into each magazine to avoid damaging the feed lips. Most people go ahead and fill the mag up with dummy rounds so that the mag weight in practice is the same as its weight in a match. HTH. Bill

Hello Steve, I believe I have held a "B" card in Open for longer than anyone in USPSA. My best classifier was probably 65% or so back in the mid-80's. After a 10 year hiatus, I started shooting USPSA again last fall. No range to practice so I relied on dry firing to shake off the rust. Now at 54 I really didn't expect to set the world on fire. Just wanted to go out and do my best. Through Mr. Enos, I bought your first book several months ago and I am doing the exercises religiously. But hey, I'm old, overweight, and I just want to have fun. Just pulled up the scores from a match this past Saturday where we shot Classifier 06-06 "Golden Bullets Standards". My HF of 6.4438 put me, per the Ohio Classifier database, at 75.5%. Holy crap. I finally did an "A" card classifier. Like fine wine, I age well. No way. But the exercises do work! Just wanted to tell you my results and to say THANK YOU. Bill

Shucks, doesn't anyone like a real challenge. Let's call is IPSC roulette. Buy a handful of parts from Brownell's and replace all the original parts the day before a really big match. It doesn't run? What went wrong? You forgot to get out the Dremel tool!

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I tried to check the first, second, fifth and last. All four apply. You say it ain't broke. That's OK. We can fix that! Bill

Don't quote me, but I thought the Stinger was discontinued. Bill p.s. I'm a niner fan. Edited to add: Did a quick check on STI's website. Per STI -- SkinnErgram #88 "Guns that will be discontinued at the end of the 3 rd . quarter ( Sept. 30, 2006 ) unless their order quantities pick up dramatically before then. 6" Trojan ….. all varieties. 6" Eagle ……. all varieties. Stinger ……… all varieties." Maybe sales did pick up. Bill

Last weekend I shot a match that required 139 shots over 5 stages. One reshoot when the timer failed to record the shots, one reshoot when a newbie got carried away taping targets, and one reshoot when our entire (but fortuneately small) squad just plain shot the stage incorrectly. When I got home I only had 8 rounds left. In the future I will take the round count plus 100% just to be safe.

Thanks to everyone for their help. Bill

Check your Yellow Pages for metal fabricators and supplies. They usually carry square and rectangular aluminum material in various sizes and metal thicknesses and will on a $$$ per cut basis will cut to length. If there are none listed, possibly check under metal building supplies. HTH Bill

Now I see. Consider some aluminium box tubing (square or rectangular) for strength. Some 1-1/4" x 2-1/2" might be the ticket. Straight, rigid and light weight. Can also be easily drilled for mounting to material or your workspace deck. Bill

January 1980 "Honey, is that a new dress?" She says, "What, that old thing?" January 2007 "Honey, is that a new gun?" I say, "What, that old thing?" After 27 years I've learned from the master. Bill

Maybe if you explained what the project is we might be able to help. Fairly straight with holes to mount to a piece of wood, you might see if you can find the frame to an aluminum door. Bill

I was thinking that after 40 miles or so he would wear it down to where it would finally work its way under the car. Now the guy has this horrendous noise from under his car and since he was carefully watching the road, has no idea what he hit. Then again, he may back out of his garage in the morning only to see it lying there. Just because I live within 60 miles of NASA doesn't mean we have more than our share of rocket scientists. Bill

Eric, Please keep us informed when Cabela's and other sponsors drop Zumbo. I want to make sure each and everyone of them gets a "thank you from a grateful customer" Bill

For those who took the time to express their views of Mr. Zumbo's comments to his many sponsors asking they withdraw their support, also take the time to commend those sponsors who understand where their customers, the shooting public stand and have therefore severed ties with Mr. Zumbo. Remington Arms was quick to sever all sponsorships with Mr. Zumbo. And for that reason, I have e-mailed Remington Arms a message showing my support for their decision. I currently own several Remingtons and I'm sure I will own a few more before I give up the ghost. So as Mr. Zumbo's supporters withdraw their support, we should remember to support the people that support our views and let them know where we stand. (Even if you didn't let his sponsors know your objections earlier, I suggest you still consider letting those whose actions are in our favor know you agree with their actions.) After all the blasting they took in the past 24 hours, they could sure use a few kudos. Bill

As I was leaving the parking lot of the local Home Depot I spotted a nice shiny Mercedes coming my way. But wait, there's something a little different about this one. Sticking from the front of the Mercedes was an orange traffic cone. Not one of those dinky little ones, but one of the 4' high big ones. Somewhere along his route this guy knocked down the cone and was pushing it down the highway. The side of the cone was on the ground with the base up against the bumper like a miniature snowplow. Fell in behind this guy and followed him for over 10 miles. He didn't have a clue. Bill

Interesting. I did have slight primer flow when I went to a lighter hammer spring. I guess this may be the same principle. Thanks for the info. Bill

Not to thread highjack, but what is the purpose of the long firing pin. If I understand correctly, they are great to avoid light strikes due to light hammer (main) springs, but wouldn't the extra length have the effect of piercing primers on hot major loads? Bill