want2race

Although my hands aren't as big, I had the same issue with the heel of my hand sitting on the mag well. Didn't feel right. I cut my Dawson magwell with a ball endmill. It doesn't extend down as far as the CC you pictured, but it fits me. Someone must have shared it with Dawson since they offer these for sale now.

Sometimes you can find a deal on someones unwanted 3 gun rifle. This is how I found my dad a rifle. Very good deal since most builds are tailored to the builder/owner and they'll take a loss when selling it. I built mine from scratch because I wanted to do it super cheap, yet use the best components. I started shopping for used light weight buffers, used rifle length buttstock (A1 buttstock for $5). Had a friend make a handguard for me (doesn't everyone have a friend with a mill and lathe?). Kidding aside, I put the money into the barrel, comp and low mass operating system. I built the rifle around the barrel since I was building a 20 inch iron sight gun for limited. Even in TacOptics, I would build the gun around the barrel and internals. Receivers can be found cheap, parts kits, furniture, all can be found used or cheap. Spend the money on the JP light carrier, and the best barrel you can find. Most factory guns will give up either barrel twist rate, barrel length or gas system length.

If you just dropped in an Apex kit, but don't have a trigger pull gauge, you might be suprised. Some will drop in at a crisp 3.5#, some will drop in around 2.5#. I've had pretty good luck using their parts, I work it over though to get the trigger how I want it. I like a short reset, but there does need to be a little overtravel. Short reset is so I don't short stroke the trigger when trying to hammer targets. Pull weight, lighter the better but not at the cost of mushy. I hate Glocks 3.5# connector because it's very mushy. I've worked several M&P's that ended up at 2.0#-2.5# on my trigger pull gauge. The test mule M&P I had for a while was at 1.75# by the time I was done with it. Still had some pretravel and "just enough" overtravel but it had a better break than my 2011. It was very easy to shoot fast with it. Gotta be carefull of "dead trigger" and don't compromise striker spring strength for trigger pull wight, reliablity is more important than that extra .5# of trigger pull.

I meant to say that I start to Pre-hydrate the day before. I left out that part. Starting the match off pre-hydrated means as I drink water I'm not in "catch up" mode during the day. Back in A&P class, the statistic was that 70% of Americans go day-to-day partially dehydrated. Then throw in physical excertion on a hot day and you are playing catch up to stay hydrated. This is also important when planning "How to survive the postapocalypse." Stay hydrated, every day. I'm pretty good about keeping fluids levels up, but I almost went down a couple years ago at the Tulsa Pro-Am. I grew up in the desert, spent some time in the "real" desert, but still almost fell out at Tulsa. If I would have had the gear I would have shot the last 3 stages with IV's in my arms. I will never forget what that felt like.

The one thing I do different is to pre-hydrate if it's going to be very warm. I start drinking the "light" versions of Gatorade or Powerade along with extra water. Staying hydrated is more important to me than caffeine. If it's hot, I try to skip all forms of it. When it's really hot I see other shooters performance start to really suffer towards the end of the match. Dehydration leads to poor decision making and sluggishness. Caffeine amplifies this since it's a diuretic. If it's cold, I will drink a Monster before the match and a 5hr Energy at lunch time. Keeps my motabilism up and I feel warmer. I get cold easy.

Top picture looks like a standard bore, bottom picture is a different barrel with a much larger exit hole.

I'm trying to make arrangements to shoot this one. If I can, another SS.

Moly's are sometimes too big for a standard throat. I have to open the throat up just a bit and add a small bevel to the headspace rim (like AET barrels). I get smileys on my lead .45's. BUT, it's only when ejecting a loaded round. The round hits the ejection port on it's way out. Not everytime, but some of my ULSC rounds have it. The FTF you mention, where the round stops at a 30* angle (3 pt jam?) can be caused by the extractor or the barrel feed ramp (chamber mouth). Look for brass coloring inside the hook cutout on the extractor. The circumfrance of the rim should not hit the inside of the hook cut out. You can also pull the extractor out and try to chamber a round. If it still hangs up look at adding a little more radius to the chamber mouth of the barrel. With ramped barrels you can get pretty aggressive without exposing too much (if any) of the case wall. When you get one of the 3pt type jams, use a small punch and try to lever the extractor to the right (away from the case). If the slide goes forward and the round chambers, that is a good sign it's the extractor. The last gun I built had an issue where the extractors tried (EGW and AFTEC) were too short. Not enough hook clearance to allow the case to cam up on the breach face. It showed up as an occasional 3pt jam.

Thanks for the new pic. It does appear to be a threaded hybrid comp with the threads (and a little more material) removed. It actually does like like a QD hose connector.

nevermind, reread "lightening", not serrations.

You did mean .15" rear notch, as in .150" right? Hot dog in a hallway sight picture. LOL Easiest method is the file. #2 Swiss, 4 inch file. It's .061" wide with two safe edges.

The muzzle of the barrel looks odd. Like a blast attenuator. If it's a 9mm, that exit hole looks like it's .50". The case looks bigger than 9mm but it could be because it's blurred. Any pics of it with the slide closed? I built and tested a barrel with a built in blast attenuator last year.

Don't know that I classify as a "real rifle shooter", but the way my rifle is set up my weak hand just holds the rifle up. I don't push forward, down or back. If it was light enough I could shoot with one hand and still snake eye at 15. Or at least I'd like to think so. Just like weak hand on a pistol, if I use too much input (force) it moves my shots around. If I just hold it up, I can hammer two shots in the A out to 50y.

what generation striker do you have, silver our black?

Read my earlier post. The trigger bar pushes against the side of the sear during some points of the trigger pull.

My vote would be a nice 2011.

I can usually get most M&P's to dead trigger if I hold the trigger in the "sweet spot". It's not really a "sweet" spot, but there is point where the trigger is pulled just enough to allow the trigger bar to hold onto the sear and let the striker pass right by. There is a reason why I work over the "drop in" Apex kits. The shorter the reset the less it will dead trigger too. Your finger naturally comes off the trigger enough to get out of the "sweet" spot. If you pull and hold the trigger, it is VERY rare to get the dead trigger. Take the Ram out and retest. The ram is holding the trigger bar against the sear. If it resets properly, take the sear assembly out, pivot the trigger bar up, then bend it inwards .020". Measured at the 110ish degree bend on the sear loop end. This will give you a slight click for reset. Too much and it mimics using a RAM. If you couldn't tell, I've worked through this a few times.

Watch that no-tool guide rod. I've had them fail and cause issues. The latch bent and started to catch on the recoil spring causing failures.

I shoot 52's as well. I don't have experience with flashers at 300 but the 200 flashers at the KY multi gun swung just fine. .5 MOA accurate out of my 1/8 twist too. I like them. I've shot them back to back with MK262 and they are significantly lighter in recoil.

I'll try to get my video up tonight, or at least edited....

My weak hand does the same thing. There are several ways to fix it. Make sure you have a nice solid "click" when the safety goes off. I sharpen the plunger as well to make it more difficult for the safety to go "on". Then I thin down the back of the paddle on both sides. My strong hand 1st knuckle can also engage wide ambi's.

I like the unloaded tip. Especially for pistols with thumb safeties. I will be using that from now on. Stage 1 was my last stage of the match. As I dumped the pistol into the drop box, I felt the saftey click OFF. Before my hand left the gun I was able to sweep the safety back on without loosing any time. That would have sucked to not catch it. Pistols unload so fast that the insurance of empty gun is worth it and I'll be doing that from now on. The RO did a visual check of the gun before I picked it up to clear it too. He would have caught it if I hadn't. This match was so much fun. I got some learnin' to do with my rifle. Although I had a solid zero for 200, I shot low everywhere all day. I think I would have shot much much better with my iron sight set up. Oh well, gotta learn to shoot with glass sometime I guess. Sorry for the topic drift, forgot which thread I was posting in. Bummer for TJ. I watched it happen.

I just about got the swinger to flip with only two rounds. I shot the bottom with buck, then two other steel with field, then hammered the top with buck. I hit the top one late and it went level but didn't flip. I nearly tied Gary's time without the flip. If it would have gone over it would have meant a stage win. That's what I meant earlier about places to go "hero" our you could shoot safe. I took the risk to split load buck and field. It was my best stage of the match.

I thought the stages were the best I've seen. Good split between fast and technical. There were places to go "hero" or you could play it safe. I started hydrating the day prior and continued all during the match. Water at the stages probably prevented some heat casualties. I don't shoot 3 gun very often but this is a match I always look forward to. Thanks the staff that had to endure the heat over two days.

I ran a shortened Apex striker spring, and an 11lb recoil spring. It worked on all ammo EXCEPT RWS. Super hard primers. I bumped up to a 13lb spring with the Gen 5 striker assembly (has a slightly stronger striker spring) to get the RWS to ignite every time.