practical_man

Awesome Warren! Glad to see it has come together! -john

Is your bolt carrier key tight and staked?

1.15 nominal OAL

You should be safe with fmj data. I like 4.4 grains of 231 for minor PF 9mm. Start at 4 grains and work up to find the accuracy load in your pistol. My glocks like a little higher pressure. The XD liked 4 grains for accuracy

Sounds like you want to take out the pre-travel. Many triggers have preferable tabs in the front that are easily adjusted to do what you describe. None of my past Springfields had that type of trigger so fitting an aftermarket trigger might be in order. Easy enough to do. There are other ways too but might be a little more skill and tooling to do at home. Shorter hammer hooks and a good trigger job will also helpdo what you describe. I like a little pre-travel in my 1911s. Not a ton, but some. Adds a margin of safety for good reset when running the trigger faster. I like .018 hammer hooks and full sear engagement on both legs. Others like a different set up. I don't think factory pre-travel or the longer factory hammer hooks (.020-.026 approx) going to limit you much after a little practice. Once you learn the reset you can run it like a scaled dog. If you like the pull weight now, you might want to do a little more dry fire and run a case of ammo thru it before you make any big changes. You might learn that you want some other tweaks too. A scent trigger job will be money (or time) well spent. You can set the trigger press weight wherever you like once all the parts are more precisely fitted together and optimized for a competition pistol. Hope this helps your journey.

Pix of the rear sight would help us understand what you are trying to describe. I have an older Kimber. It came with a Champion adjustable rear sight from the factory. Not sure what they do now.

Ktm Glad you enjoyed it. Clays are a fun sport. Don't sweat the gun. I started with my duck gun, bought a Citori when I got serious about it. Have had a bunch of shotguns over the years. Still have the Citori and enjoy it. Shoot my 870 a lot more often cause it's more fun to win with a cheap pump gun Whatever you do get a gun that fits well. Spend the time and money to get the stock fit to you. It pays off. -John

Nice. Crowning is not well done at factories. Re crowning is almost always worthwhile. Never tried Briley bushings. I have had great luck with the EGW gunsmith fit angle bore bushings. I like them a lot.

SHurt I have had sights milled off and replaced with fiber optics and am very glad that I did. I enjoy those revolvers much more now. So if you like the model 19 then I say go for it. It will cost some but not near the price of a used revo. Check out ToolGuys fiber optic sights in the vendor forum. They are simply fantastic. The .100 width is great. You can also have the sight replaced with the DX type rib so you can change sight blades. I just had this done recently and wish I had gone that route long ago. Good luck -John

I have been using 20/40 corn cob for a while. It works fine for pistol and rifle and doesn't seem to get stuck in the primer pockets like the lArger media did. Doesn't get packed up in .223 cases either. Hope this helps.

I can't say for the 2011 specifically. I can tell you we did some experimenting with para ordnance high cap frames in the mid 90s when I was at Fort Bragg. Pistols were built in 45 ACP. Sometimes the pistols would lock open with ammo still in the magazine. Grinding away the slide stop a bit solve the problem on those pistols. I still have one and it runs great.

I spent the money with Springer Precision and don't regret it.

TOOTHGUY described basically what I do. Resting on the butt alone hasn't been fruitful for me. I rest the barrel or dustcover on sandbags for load testing.

Neck tension matters at longer distances. I shoot an AR-15 in service rifle competition. At 200 yards most any ammo is fine. At 600 everything matters more. 600 yard loads are made with brass from the same lot of ammo and trimmed to same length. 77 grain bullets are weighed and selected to all weight within .5 grains (not hard to do with Matchkings). Bolt guns are a different animal but neck tension will affect group size. Neck length has some effect on bullet pull. Nominally shorter brass isn't likely to be dangerous to the shooter. Consistency is what matters in the quest for accuracy.

Sand in one direction with coarser grit. Sand 90 degrees to that direction with next finer paper. When all the scratch marks from the first paper are gone go to finer paper, rotate part so you can see when coarser scratches are out. Continue till you are happy with the result. With some practice you will know when to change grits by how the part looks under strong light.

Zero has always been a superbly accurate bullet for me. They do very well at 50 yards. I have used a bunch of the 230 RN for bullseye device pistol and loads of the 115grain 9mm. The 148 HBWC is great for PPC too. More than you asked for sure. Zero is an accurate bullet. That's one of the reasons they are so hard to get.

Blue medium strength loctite is a good idea on fixed sights.

I can't tell you what THE process is but I can tell you the one I use. First, start with a widely accepted accurate load. Shoot it off sandbags. Any bag will do. I rest my shooting grip on the bags. Others rest the dustcover. Consistency is what matters. Try to grip the same way every shot. Now you know how your pistol shoots a known load. Next, change only one thing at a time. I like to change OAL first. Start long and work shorter. As long as will feed in magazine and reliably chamber. Then change powder charge for the reliable OAL. I go in .2 grain increments for pistol loads. I shoot 10 shot groups for each load. I test at 25 yards first, then at 50 yards to make the final determination and adjustments. 50 yard groups tell the whole accuracy story. For 9mm I have had better results with higher velocity for a given bullet. OAL is good enough for me with pistol rounds. As you note the ogive is what matters and that's how I load service rifle ammo using the hornady comparator. I don't think it matters nearly as much with the pistol. I don't care for titegroup powder. Others like it a lot. I use a lot of 231, bullseye, and clays for pistol calibers. Power pistol, silhouette, and Autocomp are on my list to experiment with. Others may have a different process. That's what I use. Hope it helps you sort it out.

I have a blade tech DOH with tech loc for my XDm 5.25. Worked fine fo me till I loaned the whole rig to a family friend when I moved to Korea. I like the blade tech holsters. The are cheap and work. Can be "adjusted" to your preference with a heat gun or hair dryer No idea what TGO uses.

JD Shotgun loading is more following the recepie than metallic ctg loading. You just don't get reliable pressure warnings with shotguns. Ok. I loaded over 100,000 12 gauge skeet and trap loads last year. Yes, i am loading for two shooters. Here is my advice. It's worth exactly what you paid for it First and foremost. Use the manual for load data. Safety first. Standardize on one or two hulls. I now use Remington plastic hulls for most loads. I like the plastic base wad one piece hulls. They last a long time and you don't get a paper base wad blown into a barrel obstruction. As has happened to me with paper base wad hulls like the cheap federal hulls. Federal gold medal hulls are also quite good. I no longer use AA hulls because the two piece hulls are finicky about wads and load pressure. Your mileage might vary. They load fine a couple of times but not with the price and trouble for me. Do not interchange hull brands. They have different internal volumes which gives different pressures. The come in straight wall or tapered wall configuration which requires a different wad style. Primers. I stick with Win 209 now because I have good loads for those primers. Rem 209 run a little hotter but are also good. Cheddite and CCI can enlarge primer pockets. Not always but it can happen so I do t use them. Wads. I use Claybuster replacement wads. Their Remington, Winchester, and Federal replacement wads are all superb quality and pattern very well in 12 and 20 gauge from 3/4 to 1-1/4 ounce loads. Very economical too. You can pay more but you can't get a better wad. The big shot you note above tends to do better with a buffer. You will need to weigh the buffer and adjust your powder charge for the heavier payload. Powder is determined by payload weight and desire velocity. For up to 1-1/8 ounce 12 gauge loads you have many choices. I have used Titewad, e3, and clays with good results up to 1250 fps with 1-1/8 ounce loadings. Longshot is also good for higher performance loads. I have used unique and red dot too. Good powders but the Hodgdon offerings work better for me. Hope this helps -John

Had not chronoed any loads for a very long time and have a big shoot coming up.Lucky I did, I'm shooting a colt gold cup at the moment and now using berrys plated 230 grain same coal and 5.1 g of 231. Average of 650 fps and need 740 from memory to make major - big drop changing from the sig and to plated from lrn. Just brewing up a batch using 5.4 of 231 which should do the trick ?? 5.4 grains easily makes major in my Kart barrels with lead 230 RN.

Whenever I shoot a dot I am target focused; pistol or rifle, paper target or meat is all the same process for me. Put the dot on the target and try to keep it there while the shot breaks. I like warrens description very much.

I'd have to buy a press though right? It's the pressed in dovetail type, not target style that can be adjusted with a screwdriver. Trijicon night sights. I have a target .22 that all I have to do is get a small screwdriver but these ain't like that. Metro Others have given good advice on figuring out where the pistol/ammo combination groups. I have always had to move fixed sights on new to me pistols. Commonly encountered problem. You can do it with a hammer and punch as Steve said. I do it often, except with Tritium night sights. The vials in them are a bit fragile. I am not lucky enough to pound on them without breaking. Others might have better luck. I bought a P500 sight pusher from brownells years ago. It has paid for itself several times over For me and friends that have borrowed it. It's about $100 but works with Glock, 1911, CZ, most anything with flat parallel sides. Even Marlin front sights. I think a pusher is cheap investment if you install or adjust night sights. MGW sight pushers also enjoy a good reputation. Slightly less spendy. Hope this helps -John

40x40 When I first starts shooting skeet a lot I experimented to get proper lengh of pull with my 11-87. I didn't want to spend a bunch of money on an adjustable stock at the time. As you know he Remington stocks are pretty short on the field guns. I used 1/4" spacers cut from nylon Sheeting led over from another project. Plexiglas would probably work too. For the pad I used a standard kick-eez recoil pad from brownells. I used a 1/2" pad on that gun. They com in 1/4" increments and several styles. I am fond of the clays style because it is tapered at the top for a quick mount. I also have one on a hard kicking 9.3x62 rifle. Good pads that last. Easy to fit if you have a palm sander and a little patience. Start with 80 grit paper for shaping. Use 220 for final finish. Hope this helps ya with an alternative approach -John

Are there burrs on the barrel locking lugs? Other deformation on the top side of barrel? Is the barrel binding on the bushing where it should be relieved for unlocking? just a couple of things to check.