Obvious

Haha fondling fees, I’m gonna have to start using that. Yeah that price was without fees, it just sucks seeing prices nearly double because you don’t wanna buy 8# of powder to try out something lol. I’m brand new and personally would like to be able to buy a few 1# containers of different kinds of powders to see what I like the most, but the fondling fees nearly double the cost. Gonna have to start shopping around at the few stores I have locally and see when they get stuff in stock.

My biggest problem has been hazmat+shipping brings $40 closer to $70 unless you add a bunch of extra stuff for free shipping. And nobody has primers in stock I can add on

SNS has a 220 gr .40 bullet, might just have to give that a shot to see how it compares to other rounds.

Basically just whatever I can find online. No great reloading stores around me but I’m gonna start checking academy more often. I found N330 but it was like $52 for 1#

That’s me finally bought a 550C, and soon a TSO in 40. Now I just need to figure out how the search function here works lol

Ordered my 550C yesterday and dies to go with it. Next I’m gonna be ordering my bullets and powder. I’m leaning towards a 180 or 200 grain bullet for my 1911, when I tried 165s they just felt super snappy. I’m wondering what’s the go to powder for a heavier bullet? Do you want a fast or slower than average burn? I’m looking for the softest shooting major round first, and then I’ll probably work my way backwards to what cycles the gun faster and find a happy medium. What are the go to bullets around here? Forum/USPSA guys get discounts anywhere?

I don’t have my TSO yet but I’m looking at picking one up soon and would love to make some sacrificial mags on my ender! Have you posted the 140 files anywhere?

Any idea what I should be expecting to pay for a used one here? It looks like they’re around $550 new so I’m guessing $450-500?

Wouldn’t that be a bit cost prohibitive for shipping? Not sure if folks often offload hefty presses here lol

Appreciate the clarification help! For reference in 7 months during the “bad times” of 2021, I shot around 4K rounds of factory ammo in just my competition gun in .40. I would LIKE to be up to around 10K or so a year but I just can’t afford that buying factory ammo. I could set up a small closet space or maybe a work bench for a reloading press/tools. The only other caliber I have right now is 9mm so I’d like to reload that as well, but don’t shoot nearly as much. As far as time, I could dedicate an entire day off to doing so while listening to music or something but it seems rather repetitive and I’d likely only want to do so for an hour or two at a time. As far as mechanical inclination I’d say I’m fine. In school for engineering and I tinker with my 1911, work on my own cars, built/fix my 3D printer. Probably could setup and operate/modify a press okay

Alright fellas with tax season coming up I’m able to write off a lot of my school expenses and will hopefully be investing in a reloading setup so I can reload .40S&W. Keep in mind I have just about nothing right now besides some brass I’ve previously shot and some harbor freight calipers. For a grand, what press, tools, components, etc would you buy? Is that enough to get me started or should I save even more? I’m looking to get a progressive press as that seems where everyone ends up anyways.

Yep! it was my first real step when I actually pulled the gun back out to diagnose it. Thank you for the advice!

This was actually huge. I decided to get out the flitz and dremel and very carefully went over the disconnector again, the sides of the sear, and the face of the spring and back of the trigger bow (it was previously cerakoted) and really polished it up and it made a huge difference! Probably dropped a pound and a half after tweaking the sear spring

Awesome visual! I already got most of the spots but it gives me a few more I can focus on

Thats the smith i was planning on taking it to. Have shot a couple matches with him and he seems like a pretty decent guy.

Sadly I would say a hack has been inside the gun but didn’t mess with the ignition system. I had a smith cerakote it, and he decided that cerakoting EVERY internal component was the best idea. I’ve often wondered what kind of impact this had on my trigger. https://imgur.com/a/KAa4sg4 I can’t do much about the cerakote inside the trigger track but if it’s harmful I can sand off the cerakote on the trigger bow and polish it with flitz. I don’t believe the trigger binds inside the gun, I can drop it in and out freely with no problem. I have some lapping films I could run over the sear/disco where they mate to polish it up a tad and move smoother, along with the trigger bow. That’s what I used to take off all the initial hard edges. Sear is quite smooth and flat already, the frame walls are also covered in cerakote so can’t report back on that.

Before I admit defeat and go to a proper smith I’d like to get some ideas from other folks here. I’m using a double stack 1911 from RIA in .40 and I’ve finally made some upgrades. I put in a lightened hammer, sear, and disconnector from extreme engineering as well as a 17lb main spring. Very shortly I’ll be adding an extended firing pin as well. Even after these changes my trigger pull is around 4.5lbs, while a buddy running the same ignition kit in his 2011 has a sub 2lb trigger. His take up is extremely light and he recommended tweaking my sear spring to lighten the trigger pull some more since my take up requires a good bit of force. I may have dropped a few ounces but nothing very noticeable, it was either too much tension and the trigger was still meh or too little and there was hammer follow. The extreme engineering sear has two obvious angles cut into it and I don’t want to mess with those, and I’ve already tried my best to deburr/polish the other parts. Just wanted to see if there were any other options before shelling out and letting a smith see if they can get it any lighter.

I have a double stack RIA 1911 in .40 that I’ve recently put an extreme engineering lightened sear, disconnector, and hammer into. I also dropped in a 17lb main spring and will soon be putting in an extended firing pin and extra power firing pin spring. After all of this I’m still getting a trigger pull of about 4.5lbs. A buddy with a 2011 setup using the same ignition kit (he recommended it to me) has a sub 2lb trigger. I’ve messed with my sear spring by gently bending back the sear and the trigger legs of it and that maybe knocked off a couple ounces but nothing crazy. If I can’t figure it out I’ll take it to a smith to get it looked at but I like working on my own stuff and figuring things out, so I’m curious what you guys would recommend to drop the trigger pull a few more pounds. My buddies 2011 has almost no resistance during the take up portion and mine has a decent amount, but if I take out too much tension in my sear spring I end up with hammer follow.

One of the first things I did was replace the slide lock with an extended WC one so I could actually reload with it, that was within probably the first 500 rounds. After the new firing pin it’s going to a local smith to check sear/hammer angles and to verify the lockup. I want to replace the ambi safety with a shielded ambi safety and the trigger with the infinity billet trigger, but those are both expensive parts and will come with time. Likely in the next month or two before any major matches.

I just wanted to leave an update because I like when the solution is posted after being found out. I'm not sure what type of spring I need to use yet but I just pulled the firing pin and sure enough it was bent pretty badly. This wasn't noticeable until I rotated it while keeping it from rolling away. new extended firing pin and spring are on the way already. I suspected this because the last time I pulled it out to clean the channel I had to rotate it until to slotted back into the channel but I wasn't sure, and at the time it was still setting off primers so it wasn't a big deal. Either way, I agree with @Bakerjd most of the stock MIM parts are likely to be pretty meh. I'm keeping them for now but will change them as they will surely break down the line. Bent firing pin and I first noticed when I gave it a deep clean around the 3k round mark.

I don’t think it’s an issue with my main spring, it just seems that everyone that replaces it with 17lb also used an extended firing pin/spring, and I didn’t realize that. I only had half of the equation lol

I just dropped in an extreme engineering sear, hammer, and disconnector along with a 17lb ISMI main spring. First match and boom light strikes, along with a heavier trigger pull than I was expecting even after messing with the sear spring a bit. So once I get my ignition issues sorted (ordered an extended Dawson pin and a 12lb Wolff recoil spring that came with the firing pin spring) I’ll probably have an actual smith look over the sear/hammer angles and make sure they’re okay

That’s what I was thinking. Gonna order the Dawson extended firing pin and an extra power firing pin spring in the next day or two. Even after all new internals and tweaking my hammer spring and sear spring I’m still getting a trigger in the ball park of 4lbs, might need to go to a smith and make sure the angles are correct

Yep it worked stock, and honestly I suspect that the my firing pin is bent but the gun only has around 4K rounds on it. So 4K rounds through the stock gun and no light strikes, tossed in new parts and now light strikes. https://imgur.com/a/X0mI5Qi here’s a picture of the stock firing pin, I can’t tell if it’s bent or not but I pulled it to clean everything around the 3k round mark. Also just an update, the new RIA match guns appear to be shipping with a trigger adjustable for pre and over travel. My stock trigger had the ears that I could bend

Yeah, I’m not sure why it’s off center but it definitely it. It’s not something I ever noticed because I don’t reload, once my brass is on the ground it stays there so I’ve never looked at my primers before. Any possible fixes for it being off center other than using more force to ignite the primer?