want2race

I just shot my new open project with an Aimpoint (mounted as low as possible, tube is .100" over flat top slide) and compared it back to back with a 9 Major with a C-more. Wow, glad I went with the Aimpoint. It felt like a full inch difference in height. I actually like looking through the tube better too. My eye aligns the tube pretty easy and the dot is...just there...where it's supposed to be.

Since we are talking mags for a minute: I spent some time last night tinkering with my 170 tube. The problem I have is that it is very difficult to load the last 5 or 6 rounds. They'll go, but I have to tap the bottom of the mag to get the rounds to set down a bit. I have to do this for every round past 20. I tried a Grams and a Bolen follower. I have a bolen spring. What I found is that the follower is tilting, a lot, at about the 20 round mark. I cut a groove in the follower to hold the first round and that seemed to help a bit. Basically made it look like an Arredondo follower. Will test it soon.

Once I can properly test the barrel fix, I'll post pics and a write up. I set the optic quite low on the slide. I ignored the hole locations from Wiegand. It's around .150" over a flat top slide, at the front. The rear is a little higher. I shot it today. One, it doesn't like my minor load with a 9lb spring. I built this top end to shoot the Pro-Am. Wouldn't fully eject the empty. I shot my standard Limited load and those shot fine. 180gr Zero's over 5.1gr of Universal. Not the ideal open load I know.

March 1st. BGSL Wilmore KY.

Take one old 5" top end with ill fit bull barrel. Add one used Aimpoint, $20 Weigand mount and a $125 EGW cone compensator. Throw in some elbow grease, a dremel, some files, barter for some lathe and mill time and yes....a HACKSAW. Add that on top of my 6" Limited frame... The $400 Open gun. I had to get creative with the barrel fit. Don't own a welder, too cheap to pay for some TIG time. Came up with a dandy solution to fix over cut lower lugs. I don't have my park tank heat source yet so I haven't refinished it yet. Use your imagination, it will be all black except optic and mount.

Drink 4 Red Bulls and do 100 jumping jacks before your practice session. Since that's what I feel like at big matches, that's how I practice (at club matches).

The 771's are just fine for IDPA. They meet all the requirements that I read in the rule book. It's the location that matters most any-hoo. I was using 771's for both SS and CDP until I found a double mag pouch from Comptac on ebay for $5. I like the open front on them. You can literally RIP the mag out.

Little bit of an update. I checked the main spring just to be sure it was a 19. It wasn't. 17 was in there. I must have swapped back a while ago. I also noticed on my other pistol that when the hammer is down, it fully depresses the firing pin. My Limited gun did not. After swapping to the 19 pound spring the pull went up to 2.25 but the hammer still did not rest fully against the stop. I compared my hammer strut with a new one (both Ti) and the new one was longer. I swapped out the strut and the pull went up to just over 3#. I put the 17 back in it and it's now 2#. Funny how so many varibles affect the trigger pull. With the slightly longer strut the hammer now is resting on the firing pin stop.

I'm currently A in Ltd, L10 and SS. I was always hit and miss with classifiers. I was trying to burn them down. Basically, that equates to shooting beyond my ability. Very high crash factor. I started shooting the classifiers to "not loose the match" a little while ago. Just another stage. I just shot my second 86% in a row and an 81% before that. I know everyone tells you to "just shoot it", but we all want to classify well so there is extra stress. I really stopped caring about it as much and my classifiers shot way up. I will make Master when I can shoot at Master level without "trying". Of course the road is longer when you don't live fire practice...

Just spent an hour on ebay looking at BP's. Couple of nice'uns on there. Power Drawbar, got it.

I'm currently looking for a used Lagun. Usually about $5k though. I used a Bridgeport in the shop a little, but the Lagun with air powered collet ratchety thingy (technical term, look it up) was awesome. So much faster than reaching up on top with a wrench to release the tool from the collet. I passed on a $1200 mill a year ago because I didn't think I could run a 3 phase in my single phase garage. I was wrong.

Just found this one.

Serpa. I even use a modified one for my Tactical STI. Modify the paddle release so you barely have to press on it. It's what I use for IDPA, and what I carry with too.

If I'm sippin', I have some short straight wall classes that look like ice. If I'm drinking, I use a plastic tubler that holds about 12oz, with ice.

This felt slow but it scored well. 10.48 down 1 in Limited. Calculator has it at 86%

I appreciate the input. I went though everything last night. Turns out the sear spring tension, center leg, was well below 8oz. It's now right around 10oz and it feels much heavier than before. This should help the short stroking a little. The sear had some impressions on it from the hammer. I redid both angles. Just cleaned it up with my hard stone. Interesting note about EE hammers. Since they are wire EDM'd, there is actually a depression at the base of the hook. If the secondary angle is not right the sear nose will drop down into a bit. The bonus is that the engagement surface of the hammer hook is very small. I started with a 2.5lb pull, weak trigger return. Now I'm at 1.75 with a good return feel. I had it tuned before to have a very distinct "stack", now the pull is more even

I usually run 8oz of center leg tension. I'll double it, and see how it works. I've had issues with 17lb springs in the past. My SS had one for along time (1.4lb trigger pull) but I didn't like the feel compared to my Limited gun so I switch it out to a 19 (now 1.6lb trigger). Since I run the plastic mainsprings, I bore them out during the build process. Not bigger, but I go into it to clean it out and make sure the cap doesn't drag. I've actually had one that was so tight the cap acted like a piston. The hammer dropped so slow due to the vacuum formed behind the cap. I just watched a video of one stage. Trigger freeze for sure on that stage. It went bang the second time I squeezed. On another stage I had to rack the slide and the round had no dimple. Don't know for sure if the hammer was down or not. It didn't bang when I squeezed so I just racked the slide without thinking or looking.

I had a couple issues at the club match sunday. One light strike. Could have been high primer, could have been that I soft racked the first round into battery. It was the first shot on the second stage that went click, instead of bang. Could have been my lightning fast draw caused the slide to open slightly....ok so maybe not that one. Looked at the round. Obvious light strike, primer did not look high although the FP usually drives it in anyway. I inspect as I load them into the 100 boxes. First a little about the set up. 6" 2011 with lightened slide. 19# main, 12.5 recoil springs. 2.5# trigger with less than 2k on the sear angles. DP long firing pin with lightened FP spring. I checked out the pistol today. Firing pin had a slight flat spot with some peening around the edge from the hammer. Easily fixed. Also increased the bevel on the inside of the firing pin stop. I've seen firing pins hang up on the inside of the firing pin stop. This will prevent it from happening if that was the issue. I've already ordered another 19 pound main. It may just be worn out. With the hammer down, the FP spring is still strong enough to keep the hammer from fully resting on the slide. Other stage issues. Seems to happen on close targets. Mimics trigger freeze, or failure to allow enough room for the trigger to reset, but the hammer is down. Like a hammer follow from a worn sear. Something I was considering: Not enough trigger return spring tension (center leg). It's at 8oz, but I'm thinking about cranking up the return strength a little. I may be double pumping the trigger and with a soft reset it doesn't move fast enough to reset fully. I cannot get the hammer to follow during testing. Hammer hooks are correct as are the sear surfaces. It's odd. It doesn't happen often. I lost the match by .685 points.

I took my old 5 inch bull barrel from my limited top end, turned the muzzle end down to accept a cone comp, trimmed the length back to 4.5 and shortened the slide as well. Just waiting on some lathe time to turn the threads and ream the comp. Overall length will be very close to my 6 inch top end.

Although I completely agree with RadicalP's comments...how much pretrave does the trigger have? Try dropping in your old trigger and repeat.

I started out with a .090 x .180 on my 6 inch. I too found that the front sight was swimming around. I was using a .110 on my 5 but wanted to try a .090. I didn't like it at all. My hits were terrible. I switched to a .110 and immediately improved my hits, scores and results. Still use the .180 height. and Bomar clone rear. The rear is one and a half turns from bottomed out. I shot it from a rest last weekend to see what I could print with it at 25y. The FO was really distracting. I wouldn't shoot USPSA without it but if I was to shoot bullseye or something like that I would install a black insert.

For the non-Mega-power tool users. Dremel tool, sanding drum and MX wheels from brownells. Or, 240g paper, followed by 600g. Works for both inside and out. With care it can be done very nice and no one would be able to tell the difference. A wood dowel with a slit in the end makes a nice tool to hold the paper to do the inside. Spin it by hand, drill press, hand drill, etc.

You just trying to argue or something? Your guns might have somewhat generous chambers. In two STI .40 barrels and one Schuemann .40 barrel I get nearly a 100% failure rate if I try to reload brass that's been shot out of my Glocks (four of them in .40) and then loaded with just an SDB resize die. Heck, they stick out of the chamber what seems like a quarter of an inch...not even close. Clearly, plenty of other folks are running into the same issue. I doubt very highly that there's much variation in the dies, so it's got to be individual to each chamber. I'd be willing to bet that if you measured the diameter of the case (just forward of the extractor groove) after you've resized them on an SDB and compared that with a factory round you'd find a noticable difference. I bet you'd find a similar difference if you measured a case resized on an SDB and compared it to one resized on even a standard Lee resize die and even more using a U-die. Nope, not at all. Just wanted be restate that I have experience on it and that it has been positive. My .45 barrel is shuemann, but my .40's are STI and KKM. Also, I think it matters less the barrel make and more the person reaming the chamber. All of the barrels have to be reamed anyway. My old Lone wolf G23 barrel in .40 was tighter than anything I've seen. That one had to be opened up a bit to run .401 moly's. I love my SDB. I guess I'm biased. I want another so I can run both .45 and .40's without changing anything.

...and to restate...I currently load 100% Glock fired brass through my SDB with zero issues at all (they get shot though several STI's). It gets rid of the bulge just fine.