Jeff686

I was flipping primers in the cup a lot. I found the problem to be cup height. It was catching the bottom of the shell plate a little, and 'popping' the spring, sometimes flipping or turning the primer. I got that sucker down tight and low (ouch, hurts the thumb) and now it runs well. (I know, I didn't answer your question. Sorry, don't know.)

Those of us who can't shoot, have to look good somehow!!!

It's supposed to have the mic in the magazine base pad, and the speaker in the dust cover.

Things to say during the procedure: 1. "Take it easy, Doc, you're boldly going where no man has gone before." 2. "Find Amelia Earhart yet?" 3. "Can you hear me NOW?" 4. "Oh boy, that was sphincterrific!" 5. "Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" 6. "You know, in Arkansas, we're now legally married." 7. "Any sign of the trapped miners, Chief?" 8. "You put your left hand in, you take your left hand out. You do the Hokey Pokey...." 9. "Hey! Now I know how a Muppet feels!" 10. "If your hand doesn't fit, you must acquit!" 11. "Hey, Doc, let me know if you find my dignity." 12. "You used to be an executive at Enron, didn't you?" AND FINALLY (drum roll and cymbal crash.....) 13. "Could you write me a note for my wife, saying that my head is not, in fact, up there?"

Ask Henning. He's the man. Post in the Dealers Forum under the EAA/Tanfoglios Shop group.

I bought a used Square Deal B last year. It was very old, and a little dirty, but not too bad. It was my 2nd, and was setup for 9mm. I figured I'd keep one set for 45ACP (my workhorse), and use the 2nd one for a few different small primer calibers. I've loaded about 500 rounds of 9mm since then, with no significant problems (all with titegroup). I recently got an open gun, and set the SDB up for 38 super. It still ran well, but after switching to SP2 it started acting up. Things were sticking and primers were flipping and flying across the room. I did spill some powder, but no more than usual when adjusting and setting the bar. I have a brush to keep the mess down. I figured it needed cleaning, so I started with the primer feed system. I took it off and looked inside... OMG!! What a mess!! Powder was caked everywhere! Muck and gook all over the place. I couldn't believe it! I started cleaning and wiping, but found grease everywhere!! All over the plastic (self lubing) parts, caked around the brass wheel inside, everywhere!! The plastic primer tube stop pin was caked in grease. I can't believe the thing worked at all! What a mess!! I'm going to take the whole thing apart, clean it, and replace all the delrin parts with spares from my kit. My question is, can I clean the metal parts with action blaster or brake cleaner? I'd like to get all the grease residue gone and only lube the parts that Dillon suggests.

From Steel Challenge Rules: 4. "IDPA STOCK SERVICE REVOLVER DIVISION" "Any revolver of 9mm/38 Special Caliber or larger with a barrel length of 5" or less (7 & 8 shot revolvers permitted, but may only load six rounds). No external modifications other than changing sights and grips will be permitted." and "REVOLVER DIVISION" Entrants competing with revolvers will compete in Open Class AND overall Revolver. Open Revolver has no restrictions for maximum rounds or use of optics. So, it appears that you can, but I don't really understand what the divisions really are. The rules seem to be very vague and not very well organized with headings and descriptions.

Do it yourself. Use a dremel!!

I put one of these magwells on my single stack. It was extremely easy. The ONLY work is to chizzle a little material out of the back side of the wooden grips. Just trace an outline of the 'hooks' onto the back of the grip, score it with a knife, and chizzle until everything fits. As mentioned above, I think you can buy Alumagrips with the backside relief already completed. Wilson Combat Mag Well

I use a long allen wrench with the 'ball' end on it. They are a little more effective when you can't get the perfect angle...

Umm, I thought this sucker was stainless, not plated. Am I confused?

I can't really see a reason for owning a Desert Eagle, other than to compensate for other shortcommings.

We had a classifier match this past weekend. Unfortunately, I didn't have a rig for the new Gold Team, and couldn't shoot it. I guess I'll have to get classified the old fashioned way. I did bring my new gun with me. Several people were looking at it, and I even let a few of them shoot it after the match. All comments were favorable. Thanks to Al for the SP2. He's a real nice guy. I didn't understand that SP2 was 'discontinued', and no longer available. For long term consistency, I'm thinking about giving him back the SP2 and trying something else that is US made and available off the shelf. I hate changing loads, and once I find one I like, I hope to stick with it for a while. I also took the gun to my smith on Sunday. We looked at the safety that I was unhappy with. He noticed that the hammer was moving back a bit when the saftey was applied. Is that normal? He's going to do some fitting, and adjust it a little. I also showed him the nick in the compensator (cosmetic only). He's going to 'flat top' the compensator by a couple of thousandths, then bead blast it. We'll see how it looks, but at least the nick will be gone. I also switched to small pistol primers (from small rifle primers), and it ran 100%!! I did tighten down the crimp a little (.375), but they didn't seat any deeper in the chamber than the larger crimp (.379). I CAN'T WAIT to get the rig and start shooting matches with this puppy.

Well, I'm not far off from your suggestion. I don't mind picking something and going with it for a while, but want to pick something reasonable. I'm running RN 124 plated with 7.3 of 7625. I tried it today, and thought there was still considerable muzzle climb. The dot would dissapear off the top of the window. Will adding another 0.2 grains make much of a difference? I thought maybe I should go to the 121gr recipe that Henning uses, which is very similar to the 124gr load. Will removing 3gr of bullet weight change things significantly?

Alright, I know this is a wide open question. What should I see and feel as I develop a load for my new open gun. My new guns is a Tanfoglio Gold Team in 38 super, with ports and a comp. I know that preferences may be different from person to person, but what is the end-goal for load development? How much dot motion is reasonable and how much is too much? What should it feel like? During the process, what should I be looking for, and what should I change to achieve better results. For example, when should I consider going up or down in bullet weight? When should I consider changing springs? Educate me...

OK. My bullets measure .355. The case walls are about 0.014. Thats a crimp to .383 using your formula. Can that be right? It's looser than my current crimp... ?!?

Mr. Elliott, Great pictures! Thanks! Could you give me more details about how you modified the 'stock' cocking handle? It looks like you took some material off the bottom, but you also bent it. Did you have to heat it? What's the safest way to do it? I'd love to install a ball plunger/detent, instead of the set screw. Anyone done this on a Gold Team. The set screw and slide hole for it are off-center, which makes drilling them out for a plunger more difficult (not much material). What bullets are you using? You said they were plated, but what brand/wt? Thanks! Jeff

There's no doubt it's not the gun. I've never loaded 38 super before. Plus for safety sake, I started with an obviously minor load. Also, it's hard to get bullets locally, so the plated were my only choice. I couldn't stand to wait... Anyway. I've got an order in for some MG. I'll also try to get some of the HAP that Henning likes. Then, I'll try again.

OK, but I don't have a reference point for comparison. How does this look:

Can I determine if it is in full battery without going to the range? I'm tempted to put my reloading bench in the truck, and drive it to the range

Thanks Josh!! Now I have a better understanding. I'll have to keep playing with the plated right now I'm going to order some Zeros and MG bullets, since I can't get them locally. Educate me: why does not getting full battery lead to light strikes? Isn't the breachface already tight with the primer? I would think that too much crimp might make the round chamber too far, and lead to light strikes. Sorry, my ignorance is showing.

Well, I'm happy to report that I found the take-up adjustment screw. Now the trigger is really sweet. I'll have to shoot it a while, then maybe consider adding a touch of blue loctite. Now I just need to fix my primer ignition problem, and maybe adjust the safety a little, and I'll be good to go. My load: Armscor RL brass WSR primers 6.9gr of 7625 (plan to increase) Ranier plated 125gr RN OAL 1.256 - 1.259 (oops I was aiming for 1.245) Crimp is .378 (as best I can measure) OAL too long? Crimp too little or too much?

My first open gun arrived today. I thought I’d share a few of the details with everyone. Please keep in mind that I’m VERY NEW to open guns. For the last several years, I’ve been shooting an ‘economy’ 1911 in L-10. I recently made B-Class, but was frequently winning at many of the local matches in my division. It seems that with the advent of Single Stack, there are not that many people in L-10 where I live. I considered getting a Limited gun, but that seemed like a lot of money just to get bigger mags. If figured I might as well go all the way to the dark side, and buy and open gun. I was planning on buying a new 9mm Gold Team, but when presented with a great offer from one of the members online, I had to take him up on it. It is a slightly used 38 SC with a black C-More. It came with 2.5K of Armscor brass, a case, springs, and several magazines, including a big-stick, all tuned and ready to run. It also has all the EGW/Henning trigger work. RELOADING: Everything but the actual gun arrived last week, shipped directly to me. I had also just received new 38SC dies for my Dillon Square Deal, and bought some powder and bullets locally. In anticipation of the arrival of my new gun, I loaded up a hundred rounds of copper plated 124gr RN Ranier bullets with 6.9gr of IMR7625 and WSR primers. I knew this would be minor, but thought it was a safe place to start. I know, some of you may cringe at the plated bullets, and you might be right. I didn’t have many choices locally. We'll see how they work. I did have an interesting problem (discussed in a different thread). The Armscor brass does not all fit in the shell plate. Some of the rims are too thick. I had to sort it, and set aside about 400 pieces, for later consideration. I gather this is not a problem for those using the 550 (or fancier) presses. Maybe the SDB shell plate has tighter tolerances for some reason. ARRIVAL I had the gun shipped to a local FFL near my office. Unbeknownst to me, he was closed New Years Week. I had to wait (watching UPS online tracking: exception, exception, exception) until the gun was delivered today (his first day back). The gun looks to be in great shape. There is a noticeable nick on the compensator (gunsmith must have slipped), and the anti-skid treatment of the grips isn’t perfect. However, all-in-all, it looks really nice. I couldn’t wait to try it out, so I skipped out of work at lunch and went to the range for the afternoon. TRIGGER I was a little surprised by the trigger. It seems to be an appropriate weight, but had significant take-up/over-travel/reset. Having a very nice trigger on my 1911 (thanks to Mr. V. Tripp), I was not overly enthused by the Tanfoglio trigger. It is supposed to have Henning’s famous trigger job, with the EGW parts. Upon further inspection, I found that the over travel set screw was fully retracted. This, of course, didn’t look right. I adjusted it until the trigger didn’t work, then backed it out until it work every time. Now, the trigger feels much better. There is still some take-up, but the over-travel/reset is very comfortable. Nice, but not as nice as my 1911 (or maybe just different, and I need to get used to it.) Question: can a gunsmith reduce the take-up? SAFETY I was shocked at how difficult the safety is to operate. I have very small hands, and my thumb does not reach the safety completely, so I don’t have the best leverage. I seriously considered that something might be wrong. After playing with it some more, I’ve decided that it is probably normal, but very tight. Question: can a gunsmith reduce the force to move the safety? SHOOTING When I got to the range, I immediately took it out for a few quick shots, just to make sure everything was working. The thing I really love about this gun, the reason I bought it, is that it really feels natural in my hand. It points easy, and feels comfortable. So, there I was, ready for the first shot, steel plates at 15 yards. Squeeze… click. No Bang! I waited a few seconds and cycled the slide, ejecting the unspent round. There was a nice firing pin mark in the primer. I’m always careful to seat my primers. After playing with it for a while, I had about 50% success rate. I’m not sure why. I’m positive that Henning said he uses Winchester small RIFLE primers. I’m supposed to have his long firing pin, so all should be fine. Later, after re-reading his notes, I found that a 13 lbs hammer spring and EGW hammer might not work well with the rifle primers. He also said the only reason for the rifle primer is to get a little more out of SP2 or N105. Next time, I’ll use pistol primers. I’m sure the issue will go away. There was another problem, however. Every 10 rounds or so, it didn’t pick up a fresh cartridge. It wasn’t a jam, just an empty chamber. I also noticed that the slide did not lock back after firing the last round. I confirmed that the slide-stop was working by hand cycling the slide on an empty magazine. I assume that the slide was short-stroking. The gun currently has a 14 lb spring. I measured my ammo over the chrony at about 161pf. I’m a little worried. Shouldn’t 161pf work the slide with a full stroke? I see that Henning is running a 10 lb spring. Maybe when I juice it up a little (or try a lighter spring) it will work. I also noticed that I wasn’t getting much action from the comp/ports. I only assume that they’ll start working better when I juice it up more. This is my first open gun, and don’t know how easily I’ll notice a change with incremental increases in powder. SLIDE RACKER The slide racker was mounted on the right hand side of the pistol. I assumed this was because the previous owner is left handed. However, after moving it over to the left side, I noticed that it is precariously close to my strong hand thumb. Maybe I’m worrying over nothing, or maybe I should move it back to the right side. OVERALL Great Gun!!! I’m very happy, and am not too concerned about getting the bugs worked out. I’m sure the problems are with me and my ammo, not the gun. Exceptions: 1. Nick on compensator is ugly. Maybe I’ll shave a little off the top and get rid of the nick. 2. The take-up seems a bit long. Maybe that can be fixed. 3. Safety is hard to move. Maybe that can be fixed.

How about this one? Front and Back

I was going to order something similar from one of the 'do it yourself' T-shirt places. I thought that 'Tanfoglio' might be obscure enough that they wouldn't recognize it as a Trademark (it's not 'NIKE' or anything). However, that would still be infringement, none the less. (of course, posting the picture in this thread might be infringement.. any lawyers out there?) [EDIT] I OWN PAGE 2!!! HA Ha.