Buckmark + TacSol 5.5 or 7.5?

[Carlos]

I think I finally talked my better half into trying out shooting - and maybe even a little competition. Steel challenge is the perfect venue. So,

I just ordered a used 5.5" Buckmark.

But I can already hear what the first impression will be: "it's heavy!"

So, for Steel Challenge, which TacSol length barrel is preferred? 5.5" or 7.5" ???

[itchy]

I think I finally talked my better half into trying out shooting - and maybe even a little competition. Steel challenge is the perfect venue. So,

I just ordered a used 5.5" Buckmark.

But I can already hear what the first impression will be: "it's heavy!"

So, for Steel Challenge, which TacSol length barrel is preferred? 5.5" or 7.5" ?

If you're shooting open, go with the 5.5 if you're shooting irons, get the 7.25

Seiichi

[Carlos]

Longer sight radius for Limited rimfire - that makes perfect sense!

Thank you Seiichi & hope we meet you at a match someday.

Regards,

C.

[gng4life]

The longer sight radius is nice but it would be better if she could handle the 7.5 first. It just seems a little unwieldy to me and I really didn't care for it. The 5.5 I currently have is "zippy" and feels so much better. The longer sight radius is nice but comfort level and "gun in hand" feel is more important. Good luck with Steel Challenge, it's a blast!

[itchy]

Longer sight radius for Limited rimfire - that makes perfect sense!

Thank you Seiichi & hope we meet you at a match someday.

Regards,

C.

Come to Piru in August and you can shoot my Buckmark with the 7.25 inch barrel.

And a Glock 17 and S&W 627. These aluminum barrels are so light that you won't even notice the extra 2 inches. I prefer the extra sight radius, but it may just be psychological.

Good luck,

Seiichi

[Rolex]

On my BuckMark I have the 5.5" slab side.

Iron sights. I am leaving this bl. on. I

have a 5.5" TacSol on my MKIII with a C-

More and love it/so 5.5 or 7.5- its all

up to the shooter! Try before you buy!

[B.J. Norris]

Doug,

I always preferred the balance/feel of the 5.5", but shot better with the 7.25", go figure... To me, the 7.25" is more useful, since the longer sight radius makes shooting iron sights a lot easier, but still balances very well for Open.

[prreed10]

Get both!

I have a TS 5.5in on my Buckmark. After shooting the factory 5.5in barrel for so long it feels incredibly light!

Edited July 6, 2010 by prreed10

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: I have a Buckmark with the short bull barrel. It works great for my 7 year old and 11 yeear old. I would let her shoot the stock barrel for now since she may not like the lighter weight of the Tac-Sol. On a Ruger 10/22 the Tac-sol is the way to go. Thanks, Eric

[ExtremeShot]

I like the 5"/5.5" barrels:

http://s583.photobucket.com/albums/ss276/dkent72/BuckMark%20Stuff/

[Sterling White]

Carlos, after you get her this wonderful new present go for the Nordic Component AR22 next. Got mine a couple of weeks back and it is very nice!

[photoracer]

I think I finally talked my better half into trying out shooting - and maybe even a little competition. Steel challenge is the perfect venue. So,

I just ordered a used 5.5" Buckmark.

But I can already hear what the first impression will be: "it's heavy!"

So, for Steel Challenge, which TacSol length barrel is preferred? 5.5" or 7.5" ???

Since I started shooting seriously last year I've done a little experimentation although I have not finished all of it.

I started with a TS 7.25" on my Browning first, then had a local gunsmith bore out a Volquartsen V-Comp and mated that to the TS 7.25. I used that combo for steel and bowling pins during 2009 with various red dots. I switched to a TS 5.5" threaded with one of their 34 hole comps over the winter and shot that this year so far. That combo is so light that the gun transition speed is faster than most shooters that have tried it. While the muzzle flip is low that kind of comp causes the barrel to wiggle a little so grip is very important for fast followups. I'm thinking of trying the V-Comp on it this weekend to see if vertical ports change the characteristics of the recoil action.

I actually liked the longer 7.25" barrel. I was considering getting another Buckmark to make an iron gun with that but happened to win a Ruger 22/45 at the Ruger Rimfire event in NC so made an iron sight gun out of that instead. I use an Allchin low profile mount with polymer C-More red dot currently.

[AzYooper]

I think I finally talked my better half into trying out shooting - and maybe even a little competition. Steel challenge is the perfect venue. So,

I just ordered a used 5.5" Buckmark.

But I can already hear what the first impression will be: "it's heavy!"

So, for Steel Challenge, which TacSol length barrel is preferred? 5.5" or 7.5" ???

I scored high enough at the Steel Challenge to win a Buckmark and it was instantly commandeered by my wife (she wanted me to win one of the Ruger 22's for her). First thing she said was, "It's pretty heavy!" She does not like to hold a heavy pistol up too long. So I have been looking at the Al barrels also and was not able to decide which length. After reading the responses here I might go with the 5.5.

[photoracer]

I think I finally talked my better half into trying out shooting - and maybe even a little competition. Steel challenge is the perfect venue. So,

I just ordered a used 5.5" Buckmark.

But I can already hear what the first impression will be: "it's heavy!"

So, for Steel Challenge, which TacSol length barrel is preferred? 5.5" or 7.5" ???

Since I started shooting seriously last year I've done a little experimentation although I have not finished all of it.

I started with a TS 7.25" on my Browning first, then had a local gunsmith bore out a Volquartsen V-Comp and mated that to the TS 7.25. I used that combo for steel and bowling pins during 2009 with various red dots. I switched to a TS 5.5" threaded with one of their 34 hole comps over the winter and shot that this year so far. That combo is so light that the gun transition speed is faster than most shooters that have tried it. While the muzzle flip is low that kind of comp causes the barrel to wiggle a little so grip is very important for fast followups. I'm thinking of trying the V-Comp on it this weekend to see if vertical ports change the characteristics of the recoil action.

I actually liked the longer 7.25" barrel. I was considering getting another Buckmark to make an iron gun with that but happened to win a Ruger 22/45 at the Ruger Rimfire event in NC so made an iron sight gun out of that instead. I use an Allchin low profile mount with polymer C-More red dot currently.

After doing a muzzle flip test comparing the TS 5.5" + TS 34 hole Comp verses the TS 7.25" + 6 port V-Comp. I can say now that the 5.5" combo flips less and sort of wiggles around while the longer combo does a verticle muzzle flip mostly that will fly completely off a 12" target before it settles down again. Next I will compare the BM 5.5" package to a Ruger 22/45 5.5" w/Volquartsen V-Comp to see how much the greater weight of the Ruger helps or hinders follow up splits.

Edited September 22, 2010 by photoracer

[photoracer]

Well haven't got around to doing the Ruger work yet to do the comparison. But I decided to remount my TS 7.25" + Volquartsen V-comp and shoot that pistol combo in the Palmyra (PA) Multi-gun Rimfire this last weekend. 300+ targets in 7 stages, some rifle ones, some pistol ones and a few were both.

The tie breaker stage was a static 7 plate double row shot 3 times each with pistol and rifle at about 13 yards. I got down to a little over 3s with the rifle and did a best of 2.4s with the Buckmark. That was the best pistol score I saw at the time. Don't know if I would have done better with the TS 5.5" setup. Exchanged some things with TS from this. I'm getting one of their 2211 screw on steel comps sent to be to try on the 5.5" for balance, plus a set of their aluminum grips to try instead of the Browning rubber target ones. Since this comp is a 1911 style and has to be mounted just so I ordered one of the AR-15 peelable washers so I can get it tightened up in the correct orientation. I ask them to see if they could do the 34 hole comp in steel, but haven't heard back yet.

I did some more testing today. One thing I noticed was that with both setups now I can keep the muzzle flip within the C-More sight window. Maybe my grip is betting better. Also went back to left handed shooting to see how that hand was feeling (arthritis). Wasn't bad but I am now definitely faster right handed.

Another issue is ammo. I've decided to try and tune the BM to be able to use CCI SV instead of CCI MM. My testing today showed that the gun definitely can be shot faster with lower power ammo, as both the timer and my subjective opinion showed it was faster in a wide 7 plate string. Since nobody seems to make any different recoil springs for the BM I ordered some stock ones from Midway. I'll cut 1 coil off the first and 2 off the second, test, and then cut another 2 each till I get to where I want. The stock spring with CCI SV stovepipes on an irregular basis which I don't get at all with any ammo in the 1200-1300 fps rated range.

Hope to get this done before the York IWLA(PA) fall Steel Challenge match at the end of this month. If I had a second BM this would be easier. Also going to add a mag release extension for those lots of steel matches and a *thumb rest [generic]*. Maybe I should put some photos of both setups as a "Before" and "After" on here or RimfireCentral.

[Tom E]

Since nobody seems to make any different recoil springs for the BM I ordered some stock ones from Midway. I'll cut 1 coil off the first and 2 off the second, test, and then cut another 2 each till I get to where I want. The stock spring with CCI SV stovepipes on an irregular basis which I don't get at all with any ammo in the 1200-1300 fps rated range.

Try cutting the mainspring (hammer spring) in the Buckmark. You can cut 1 to 1 1/2 coils usually without affecting ignition. This really helps how they cycle. Get a couple springs because the only way you know how much you can cut is by cutting one too much.

Edited October 19, 2010 by Tom E

[gmantwo]

I have a 5.5 Tac-Sol on my sons BM, with a C-More. He really likes it, but we have WAY too many misfires. Probably average one each magazine. No problem with stovepipes, but the misfire thing prompted me to get a Tac-Sol 2211 top end. That thing runs like a sewing machine. NO misfires, NO malfunctions

[Tom E]

I have a 5.5 Tac-Sol on my sons BM, with a C-More. He really likes it, but we have WAY too many misfires. Probably average one each magazine. No problem with stovepipes

I've seen that happen when the firing pin gets worn.

[photoracer]

Didn't know that about the hammer spring. One local gunsmith here who is a shooter told me they used to cut the Browning recoil spring in 3/8" increments because it is overly stiff to get any noticeable amount of reduction.

Right now however I have been doing some comp experiments, trying to find the best overall combination of reduced muzzle flip and reliability. So far I've found one combo that seems to have an advantage over the others. My tests first included my old TS 7.25" + VQ V-Comp and the TS 5.5" + TS 48-hole Al comp. The longer barrel combo works OK and the stainless steel VQ comp on the end improves the balance. The shorter combo has the least weight and the fastest transitions, however the muzzle flip is not really any better and the gun has too much weight towards the grip end. I thought about adding some kind of weight forward, but instead opted to see what kind of 1/2-28 threaded comps I could find that were steel. As it happened TS had one that was worth considering, the 2211 steel comp for the 22 conversion kits. It even comes with an AR-15 type peelable washer to get the correct spacing for alignment. the comp looks like a smaller version of a centerfire open class gun, but has 2 vertical ports and 2 huge side ports near the end. This combo give the shorter barrel a much better forward balance point. And the muzzle flip is visably less. However it was doing a few FTEs that I'm leaning toward was caused by lack of cleaning after the last major match I shot. Tests under dark conditions confirms that it produces more visible gas discharge than any other combo including some Ruger + VQ comp combinations. I tried 5 different ammo types and at least a 1200FPS rating appears to work the best from Fed. AutoMatch, thru CCI Mini-Mags, to Win. SS RN. My group is doing 2 more SC practices before the York SC event on Sunday. If I can solve the reliability issues I'll shoot this combo on Sunday.

[Mike in Salem]

Photoracer, How did your testing turn out? I have been following this thread and kinda forgot about it until I got my TS 2211 comp. Now I need to A/B it against my 34 hole comp on my Mk II with a TS 6" barrel. I will post results.

A note on the 2211 comp, I had to get a PWS 1/2" shim kit from nokick.com to get it to index correctly.

[Bansheex]

I'm shooting a Buckmark Target model with the 7 1/2" TS barrel, and a red dot and it works great. There is a guy where we shoot Steel and he has tried a few comps on his Ruger 22/45. I do know he has one that has the holes all the way around the comp. He did not seem to happy with it, but he has a friend that made him a few different ones to try. I will ask him the next match and see what he says. I have both the 5 and 7" stock barrels for mine. I was thinking of having a buddy of mine thread them so I can play with comps. The only thing is I like the lighter barrels for steel.

Edited January 13, 2011 by Bansheex

[photoracer]

Ok here is my latest update. Sold the Ruger I won cause I could not get used to the ergonomics compared to the BM. Bought another BM and mounted the 7.25" TS barrel on that with a set of Williams FO sights. Or I can switch to a rail and the old V-Comp on it if my open class BM screws up. So I shoot the 5.5" setup in open and the 7.25" in iron sight class at my club. As for the comps on the open gun I've gone back to the TS multi-hole comp for accuracy reasons. I've also built a thumbrest/gaspedal on it and using the modified grip for that has improved my speed some although it took some getting used to. All of this has actually improved my open sight shooting also.

Looks like the first event for this year in the Mid-Atlantic is going to be the SC match the first weekend in March at the York IWLA. It was going to be at the end of the month but I pointed out to them that would conflict with the Steel Nationals in Titusville, FL so they moved it up. Should get my STI racegun by then also.

Edited January 24, 2011 by photoracer