Zeke Menuar

The following is a quote from a post I made in the "What I Like" Section. It is safe to say I am pissed at such comments, and the thoughtless snobs that make them. I left out the person's name. It looks like a lame attempt at humor. But I am pissed that anyone would turn a thread like mine into a slamfest. Some of you Dillon fans are a piece of work, slamming anyone or anybody that has the audacity to use anything other than Dillon. Yep my wife hates me. In her constant mission to make my life miserable, she buys me Lee equipment. How dare she. I punch a time clock for a living. I do not have thousands of dollars to throw at this sport. I do the best I can with what I have. One of the reasons I left IPSC in 2000 was because I was sick of the "haves" slamming the precieved "have nots" because the poor folks didn't have the right trendy gear. Constantly telling the "have nots" that their gear is inferior is a great way to introduce people to YOUR sport and keep them coming back. My bench has a lot of red on it. Unless I win the lottery it's going to stay that way. This is my opinion. Your opinion may vary, especially if you like Dillon gear. ZM CLOSED

Yep. I have a lot of those fire blackened jeans, ZM

About ten years ago my wife shocked the heck out of me by getting me the Lee Anniversary kit for Christmas. That press is still on my bench cranking out rounds. I have cranked out about 700+ rounds in the last month getting ready to start shooting IPSC again. Well she really did it this time. Evidently she got into my Midway USA wish list and took a look around. Got a call today from her today. She got her bonus from work and she ordered me to get the entire Lee Loadmaster 45ACP set-up. Never being one to disobey "The Imperial Red-Headed Scorpio" I dutifully ordered the Loadmaster today. Should be here in a week or so. I can't wait. I've been slogging away with the Challenger press forever. It will be nice to crank out pistol rounds at a reasonable rate. Of course I'm keeping the Challenger Press. Try as I might, I can't seem to break it. ZM

That specific waterfall is about 25 miles due east of Salem Oregon. It's about 10 minutes from gravel pit #1. ZM

Update Ran 200 rounds through the Commander with ammo resized with the Lee Taper Crimp Die. Ran a mixture of Wilson and McCormick Mags. The four Wilson mags ran fine. The McCormicks hit the trash can. Two failures to lockback on empty mags won't fly. I guess I had two issues at once. Ammo and bad mags. Both seem to be fixed. Ran some of the ammo through my new XD45 Tactical. The gun ran fine with the 172PF ammo. Threw a neat pile of brass three feet out and four feet behind me. This is about two miles from my secret gravel pit. I hang out there sometimes when I head to the hills. ZM

I was planning to shoot my first match since 2000 on Sunday. But that plan went down the tubes today. Took my Commander to the hills to do a final test on ammo and mags. I was greeted by numerous failure to load malfunctions. After uttering several of the "words you can't say on TV" I changed out the 17lb spring to a 15lb spring. Same problem. Changed out mags. Same problem. More colorful language and a trip home. Consulted my Ed Brown manual. At the top of the list was bad ammo. Hmmm......... Did a search here, also at the top of the list was bad ammo. More cussing and Hmmm..... Broke out my expensive mics and calipers and started measuring. Compared a factory 230gr round against one of my handloads. My hand loads were .003'-005' larger than the factory round. Removed the barrel from the gun and started checking for chamber fit. Surprise! some of my rounds would hang up and need some help to fully chamber. Never had this problem before. What did I do wrong? Possible answer? Back in the day I used the RCBS die to just seat. Then I used a Lee Taper Crimp Die to apply a firm crimp and resize the case. This time I left out the Lee Die. Bad move. I now have 300 rounds to run through the Lee Die to get back into spec. Ran some of the ill fitting ammo through the Lee Die. They now fit fine in the barrel chamber. Don't ever cut corners. Glad this didn't happen at a match. Not going to the match in Eugene on Sunday. Instead I'll be up on the hill running 200-300 rounds through my Commander to be sure everything works. ZM

Everything you have always wanted to know about the XD is here. http://www.xdtalk.com/forums/index.php ZM

As I impatiently wait for the XD45 Tactical to get approved. I am getting the gun ready. I have picked Dawson Precision fiber optic sights. Rear sight adjustable and front sight to match. I want to be able to be reasonably accurate from 0-25 yards. What diameter rod for the front sight .100" or .125"? Should the rear sight be black or have fiber optics? This will be a dedicated race gun. Thanks ZM

Think it shoots soft in your Commander? You ought to try it in a steel 5"! Which, of course, is exactly why I use it. Where are you going to be shooting? I'm a regular at Albany. Ed I work swing. Hard to get up early on Saturday. Probably down in Eugene first. They still do the barbecue after the match. Makes finishing last a little easier to take. If I can get up at the crack of dawn I might try Albany. It's much closer to me. ZM

UPDATE.....for those of you that shoot Commanders. 3.9grs of Clays under a 230gr cast bullet gives an average (10 shots) velocity of 748fps from my LW Commander. That is a PF of 172.04. Not sure why they call it "Major Power". This shoots pretty soft in my Commander. As an extra added bonus it works in my stock XD45 Service. When my XD45 Tactical shows up (next week) I'll be trying the load in that gun as well. Time to barracade myself in the reloading room and make some ammo. ZM

I have an XD45 Service and an XD45 Tactical. Neither gun is currently legal for any class except open. The XD45 Service is legal in early December '06 and the XD45 Tactical is legal in early January '07. That's why I'm pushing my old beater gun back into service. ZM

It's an old beat up alloy framed LW Commander. I've heard the same thing about durabilty. The Commander stood up to a pretty heavy schedule of matches and full power loads for years. It held up fine. I retired it from match duty in 2001. After that it was 50 or 100 rounds a month. It has been succeeded by a XD45 Service for carry duty. I'm using the Commander on a temporary basis for Single Stack class for a few months until my XD45 Tactical becomes legal for Production class(early Jan 07). After that I'll be retiring the LW Commander to home defense duty and the occasional backwoods hike. ZM

Waitaminute.......Don't I know you from somewhere? Right now I use the Lee Disk Measure. The slots for Clays are either 3.9 or 4.2 grains. When the springs get here I'll get everything together and run some loads across the chronograph. I needed a starting point. Thanks ZM

I am getting back into USPSA/IPSC after a five year layoff. I'll be using my recently retired carry gun in Single Stack class until January '07. The gun is a LW Commander. It was used in from 1997 to 2001 for IDPA style matches and as a backup to my Limited/L10 gun(at the time). The insides were gutted and replaced with racegun goodies. Lot's of steel parts on it. Almost as heavy as a Combat Commander. It's the only 1911 I own so it will have to do. I need a load to make major in a Commander legnth 1911. I'll be using 230RN cast bullets and Clays powder. Anyone have a load with this combination? Back in the day I used full power loads and a different powder. This time around things will be different. The stock spring is 18 pounds. I am ordering some lighter springs, from 14 thru 17 pounds, to match to the load. Anyone know offhand what spring I need for a 165-170pf load? My first match is at the end of July so I need to get things sorted out before then. Thanks in advance ZM