jim vaughan

the real question is who doesn't!

IPSC has a different length to that used in uspsa.

Having been through this problem before I would like to suggest trying an STI follower. The best day of my open career was when I ditched all other followers and just used these big black tilted followers. Since then I have had no magazine problems.

These prices are not reflected on the European web site.

You cannot accurately fit a 6" bull barrel in a 5" slide. The taper cut on the top of the barrel means that you will have a gap at the intersection of the end of the slide and the barrel top. A 5'4" bull barrel will however work. Jim

If you want your open handgun to last consider the following combination: Round profile slide with no metal removed between 10mm in front of the barrel locking lugs and 10mm behind the breachface. Remove metal from the swoop above the firing pin to obtain a slide weight of approx 310 grams. Use 157 round nose lead bullets sized to .357" in a full length case such as 9x23 or 38 supercomp. OAL 31.7mm in a 9x23. Slight amount of additional throating. Use a bullet such as the Lee 6 cavity RN bullet which has a bevel base. I use Hitek coating. Use a relatively slow powder such as 3N38. Do not use fast powders. Have a compensator with relatively large ports and quite long. I use 3 v ports with a large square port in the front. Do not use any Popple holes. Set up the handgun for a 7lb recoil spring, 17lb mainspring. Remove your steel grip and use a plastic grip. You might just be amazed by how good this combination is - light, accurate, reasonably fast, soft, low pressure, predictable dot lift, fantastic dot return, ejection distance quite close, etc Back to back tests show that this compares very well with open handguns shooting minor factor loads in terms of feel and recoil but is major factor. Jim

or 5 years in my case with Wolff springs in 170mm STI gen 1 magazines.

I found a great load using 160 grain coated bullets using a relatively slow powder, 6.5 grains of Somchem S221. Admittedly I use a 9x23 case and a long overall length of 31.7mm.

Let's try this.

pictures attached

Just make an angled shelf and silver solder it to the slide stop. I have been using these for the past 30+ years with no problems. Just make sure that downwards pressure keeps the slide stop down at the back and not going into slide lock. Also grind clearance for weak hand shooting.

A koppie is a small hill.

shooter squatting inside a mine bucket accelerating downhill on a rail line suspended in a parachute harness and swung forwards and backwards whilst engaging targets standing in the back of a truck whilst being driven from the front of the range to the rear field stage performed whilst remaining inside a golf cart. fixed time mover stage where the target is visible for 3-4 seconds per run (left to right and immediately return) and there is no limit to the number of hits (fun stage) 6 buildings on one range at the 1977 world shoot stage with multiple cars where the targets are all over the place and the optimum path often involves going over the cars Proper long jungle lanes in granite koppies or vertical banked river beds Diabolical speed shoots such as two double swingers, each in a Y shape frame, through the same aperture using mini targets Any new stage where the designer has come up with some challenge that is totally different to the norm

1.5 lb for my open 2011 using a 19lb mainspring. This gives a much better feel than the lighter pulls using 15 or 17lb mainsprings.

1.5 lb for my open 2011 using a 19lb mainspring. This gives a much better feel than the lighter pulls using 15 or 17lb mainsprings.

Ever had galling when sizing a cast or coated bullet? The force required just gets higher and higher even when using a strong single stage press. Try taking approx 500 bullets in a container and put a short spray of Dillons' case lube across them. Shake well and then size them all with almost no effort. Bullets that are 5 thou oversize (or more) also cause no headaches. Jim

Perfect answer!

It depends on what cartridge you are using. I run 9x23 with gen1 STI magazines and it seems to be the only combination that is perfect for my IPSC use. I don't need baseplates as I am restricted to 170mm magazine length. Grams springs and followers resulted in nose dives on all of my magazines. The cheap standard STI follower which raises the bullet nose and has no gap to the second round is perfect for me.

Why can't a gunsmith machine a spacer ring that is 3.70mm long and sweat it into the forward part of the chamber? No new barrel, comp or fitting. I would just recut the lead into the new spacer. One of our club members ran 9mm in a Caspian 38 super for years and had no problems. His spacer was made out of brass. Even if there was a failure of the spacer at some point in the future, the 9mm would still fire until a new spacer was inserted.

Find out how much lead is in your barrel (not lead as in bullet material). Has the initial rifling been removed for say 4-5mm? This is standard practice to reduce pressure signs in open handguns.

Coat the plastic grip with Carbide and use it. Often a steel grip is not the best item for improved performance due to the excessive weight.

Use pure lead to slug your barrel. Anything else will spring and give you false information.

I see that the STI Trubor barrel and compensator in both T1 and T2 have been discontinued by the factory. This info is on the Brownells site. The STI replacements are named TX1 and TX2. Does anyone know when these will be brought onto the marketplace?

If you want to try for the smallest possible grip then there are two additional steps that make a huge difference. The first is to cut away excess material in the plastic or metal grip behind the trigger. This is the large section of material that lies directly in front of the trigger bow. A short trigger finger often gets caught on the square corner. Secondly cut away the bottom part of the grip and mainspring housing to make a bobbed grip. It is amazing to feel how much of a difference these two mods make. I can send pictures when I am back from my trip next week.