d_striker

[frunkenstein]

Well the thing is you have to have goals in life and a business is something you want. I hope you get out from time to time, Let me know whn you want bullets.

[d_striker]

It's been a busy 12 months with work but I finally have made it back now that we're up and running and in the slow part of the year. The build out to our brew pub was long and challenging but we got open. It took a lot of oversight to build, get up and running, and establish all processes with a focus on continuous improvement but we're almost there.

I managed to get some blasting back into my schedule and started hitting up matches about a month ago. My first match back was an indoor match and I did surprisingly well for my ability considering I hadn't touched a gun or done any dryfire for literally a year. I was getting my hits and calling shots. I think I did well because I wasn't worried about shooting fast; I was simply letting the shooting happen.

The next few matches didn't go so great. One of my biggest challenges has been patience. Waiting for the front sight to come back down into the A is something that I still struggle with. Furthermore, I couldn't break the habit of aiming at brown rather than aiming at the A.

I think a big part of this is due to both my ego and self image. It's easy to get an inflated ego after burning down an easy stage with open targets at 7 yards. The problem is thinking that I have the ability to shoot at that pace on every stage regardless of how many partial targets or no shoots there are. I think a lot of B shooters fall into this trap of having a great stage and thinking they can apply the same shooting to every situation. While I think having a self image of being better than one actually is is better than having a negative self image, it's equally devastating to one's overall match performance.

I started shooting Production a couple of matches ago to force myself to value the A zone. It's still hard to do but I feel like it's working. Instead of aiming at anywhere in the A/C zone, I'm forcing myself to break the shot in the A zone.

Last night I shot an indoor match and did okay on two stages but had a meltdown on two others. Well, I'd say it was a meltdown on one stage and poor trigger control on another. I had a malfunction on the first shot of the first stage (FTE) and then panicked which I tend to do. I tend to let emotion dictate how I shoot after something doesn't go my way, rather than simply executing as planned regardless of what happens. The feeling is that, "Oh shit I'm behind so now I have to hurry up" which typically leads to other mistakes in the form of misses, no shoots, and fumbled reloads. One thing I'll pat myself on the back for, though, is that I didn't let that stage get me down. I told myself to forget about it and continued to tell myself to "see the front sight in the A zone."

The other stage that I didn't do well on was a standards type stage with two strings. Four targets, two rounds each, freestyle on the first string and SHO on the second string. Each string was at about 15 yards on open targets so they weren't hard shots. I was pushing myself on the draw and the shooting and I was certain that I was only breaking shots in the A zone. I had poor hits and two misses. In my recent dryfire training, I've discovered that I'm pulling the trigger really hard when I'm trying to draw fast or transition fast. At 7 yards, I can get away with it but at 15 it's apparent that I can't. What I also realize is that while I feel good about calling my shots, I'm calling them at the moment I'm making the decision to push the trigger rather than when the shot breaks. I'm not seeing the sights move from yanking the trigger....Is this normal???

My focus for dryfire for the next week is going to be to break the shot like I would in slow fire but at speed.

Edited December 18, 2014 by d_striker

[CHA-LEE]

Welcome back buddy!!! Its nice to see you at the range again. It sounds like you are picking up where you left off and having fun while doing it. I look forward to seeing your skills progress.

[d_striker]

Welcome back buddy!!! Its nice to see you at the range again. It sounds like you are picking up where you left off and having fun while doing it. I look forward to seeing your skills progress.

Thanks man.

Do you see your sights wiggle when you have a heavy trigger finger?

[CHA-LEE]

Welcome back buddy!!! Its nice to see you at the range again. It sounds like you are picking up where you left off and having fun while doing it. I look forward to seeing your skills progress.

Thanks man.

Do you see your sights wiggle when you have a heavy trigger finger?

Yes. Being observant of what is going on during the trigger pull process is a must.

[d_striker]

I had a fun day shooting at the HPPS match. It actually got a little warmer than I thought it was going to be so that was a bonus.

This match was a great test of patience and execution as I had malfunctions on 3 out of 6 stages. The worst malfunction was a FTF on the first shot of a stage where you had to hold an ammo can in your weak hand. It took awhile to fix the malfunction as I had to set the can down, lock the slide, drop mag, seat mag, release slide, and pick the can back up. I sort of fell into panic mode on this one and felt myself starting to spray bullets everywhere but then made the decision to surrender to the sights. I got back on the sights and at least salvaged 81% of the stage points rather than pissing away more than half. The other two malfunctions were a light primer strike and an FTE which cost me at least 1.5 seconds per malfunction. It's hard for me to not go into point shoot/hoser mode after a malfunction but it's something that I really need to focus on overcoming. The sooner I can go into emotionless, robot-mode with my shooting, regardless of what happens, the better my match performance will be. I also need to improve my shot calling as I'm not calling shots on steel. I'm wasting time waiting for an audible or visual cue from the target itself.

My Production gun is an XDm 40 that I got a couple of years ago. I haven't really shot it much and I think that it needs to be broken in with some major loads. My 40 minor loads run flawlessly in my two other XDm's so I think it's just a little tight combined with running minor. The other issue that it might be is that I'm running all of my minor loads in nickel plated brass that I previously used for major. It's starting to split to where I'll find 2-3 split cases per 100 fired. It's just a guess, but these soft minor loads might have a little trouble extracting a split case.

Overall, it was a really fun match with really fun stages and the weather was great considering it is the middle of December. I'm starting to really get into Production as well. Shooting minor with only 10 rounds is a different game but it's fun. It's making me place more value on seeing the front sight in the A-zone, making me place more importance on getting into/out of shooting positions sooner, and getting my sights on target before entering a shooting position.

Edited December 21, 2014 by d_striker

[CHA-LEE]

What weight recoil spring are you using? If the recoil spring is too heavy and you are using mouse fart .40 Minor loads it can cause FTE issues. When you shoot, how far is the spent brass flying out of the gun? If its just dribbling out then you either need to run a lighter recoil spring or bump up the powder in your Minor ammo to make it cycle more aggressively.

[CHA-LEE]

You need to stop and assess the FTF jams to see how the bullet is jamming. This could be a nose dive, or a nose high hitting the top leading edge of the chamber type of jam. When was the last time you measured the width of your magazine feed lips? Use some calipers to measure the feed lip width and see if one or two of your magazines have a different width verses the others.

If all of the magazine feed lips are the same, then it could be weak magazine spring causing slow registration of the round as you shoot. When was the last time you replaced the magazine springs?

[d_striker]

What weight recoil spring are you using? If the recoil spring is too heavy and you are using mouse fart .40 Minor loads it can cause FTE issues. When you shoot, how far is the spent brass flying out of the gun? If its just dribbling out then you either need to run a lighter recoil spring or bump up the powder in your Minor ammo to make it cycle more aggressively.

14lb is the lightest spring I can find for an XDm. The brass doesn't eject very far. They are definitely on the light side but still running around 132PF. I actually loaded a couple hundred rounds tonight using a couple tenth's more powder.

You need to stop and assess the FTF jams to see how the bullet is jamming. This could be a nose dive, or a nose high hitting the top leading edge of the chamber type of jam. When was the last time you measured the width of your magazine feed lips? Use some calipers to measure the feed lip width and see if one or two of your magazines have a different width verses the others.

If all of the magazine feed lips are the same, then it could be weak magazine spring causing slow registration of the round as you shoot. When was the last time you replaced the magazine springs?

The times I've noticed it, it looks like the bullet makes it into the chamber but the case does not. The round gets caught at an angle going into the chamber. The profile of the Ranier's are a little different than the Xtreme's I was running previously. I've seen this problem before when running ammo too short and also not enough crimp in my XDm. I'm going to bump up the powder and run it at 1.135". Mag springs should be good. I haven't really run these mags at all since I first got them.

[CHA-LEE]

The FTF jam sounds like a possible extractor hook tuning issue. If the extractor hook is too tight or too sharp the rim of the case can't easily or smoothly get under the hook.

Alternately you may have too light of a recoil spring and there isn't enough force to push the rim of the case under the extractor hook. This also gets worse when you use mouse fart loads.

[d_striker]

The FTF jam sounds like a possible extractor hook tuning issue. If the extractor hook is too tight or too sharp the rim of the case can't easily or smoothly get under the hook.

Alternately you may have too light of a recoil spring and there isn't enough force to push the rim of the case under the extractor hook. This also gets worse when you use mouse fart loads.

Thanks for the leads. I think you're right about it just being too light of a load. I was running Clays back in the day for my minor load and then switched to E3. When I got the E3 a couple years back, I just chrono'd a few dozen to match the PF of the Clays load and called it good. While I matched the PF, I think I still need to bump it up more...In retrospect, I mistakingly assumed that the pressure of the two loads would be the same at the same velocity since the burn rate is fairly similar.

They seemed to run fine at warmer temps but this is the first time running them at colder temps. Thanks for the input.

[thermobollocks]

Maybe stage 5's artifact was cursed. Next prop we use I'll try to give it some good juju for you.

If you're like me and clean your guns about every thousand rounds, when it's cold all of the crud sitting around kind of congeals into gun cheese.

The way I look at Production, it's a very raw experience, kind of like a tent vs. an RV. I haven't (yet) seen super fantastic gains via lightweight recoil spring (of course the M&P bottoms out at 13 pounds compared to the 9-10 the S_I guys can pull) or even trying to work down my power factor. I shoot 127PF Titegroup ammo about the same speed as I do my 140PF Power Pistol ammo. Some of that's psychological, and the rest is in the hands and eyes. The main difference is how tired I am afterward. Might there be a couple hundredths I'm losing in splits on Bill drills? Maybe. But there's other stuff to work on to do well on a 20 second field course.

[d_striker]

Maybe stage 5's artifact was cursed. Next prop we use I'll try to give it some good juju for you.

If you're like me and clean your guns about every thousand rounds, when it's cold all of the crud sitting around kind of congeals into gun cheese.

The way I look at Production, it's a very raw experience, kind of like a tent vs. an RV. I haven't (yet) seen super fantastic gains via lightweight recoil spring (of course the M&P bottoms out at 13 pounds compared to the 9-10 the S_I guys can pull) or even trying to work down my power factor. I shoot 127PF Titegroup ammo about the same speed as I do my 140PF Power Pistol ammo. Some of that's psychological, and the rest is in the hands and eyes. The main difference is how tired I am afterward. Might there be a couple hundredths I'm losing in splits on Bill drills? Maybe. But there's other stuff to work on to do well on a 20 second field course.

It was a good stage. I should have gamed it and just shot put the artifact at the barrel after my malfunction to get a reshoot. Just kidding.

Yeah, the Clays load allowed me to shoot at around 130PF and have the gun run good (man I miss Clays.) The pressure curve of the E3 is different enough to where I think I just need to bump it up a little bit. I'll just save all the rounds loaded up at 3.3gr for summer/practice and have already started loading a bunch up at 3.5gr. I'm sure it will still be stupid soft compared to major.

I've noticed the same thing about running the gun clean/dirty. With major loads, I clean my other XDm about every 1k-2k rounds and it runs fine. 40 minor is a different story. I don't even run Slide Glide on the 40 minor gun as it tends to run a little sluggish. Even though E3 is one of the cleanest powders I've used, I keep the gun pretty clean and wet.

As previously mentioned, the loads ran fine during the summer. I hear that E3 isn't really affected by temperature but cold weather definitely affects the gun itself. Especially plastic guns.

Edited December 22, 2014 by d_striker

[d_striker]

I've just finished up a lot of Wolf SPP primers that I got about 6-7 years ago. Had about 20k of the nickel colored ones. While they were hard to seat, I rarely had a misfire due to not seating properly.

I just switched to the next lot of Tula primers in my stash (KVB-9) that I got about 3-4 years ago. They are brass colored and seem to be smaller dimensionally than the nickel Wolf SPP's as they are much easier to seat. I'm getting an extremely high failure rate with these primers. I started noticing the failure last week when I started using the new primers.

I just did a test of 100 and verified that all primers were seated between .003"-.009". I had 4 failures. Tried setting them off 3 times each and nothing. I'm not sure if these just have a harder cup or if this lot of Tula SPP's are just crap. I've heard of other people complaining about duds for years but I always shrugged it off as the nickel plated Wolf SPP's always worked reliably for me. Could it be that all the complaints I heard were referencing the Tula KVB-9's?

I changed out the striker spring prior to the test but it didn't seem to help. I'm incredibly frustrated right now as I just spent a good deal of time loading up 1000 new 40 minor loads with the new primers.

The good news is that the new 40 minor loads (the ones that go bang at least) seem to run the gun reliably and make minor PF by a wide margin. I figured out that it was my grip that was causing the FTE's on the lighter loads. My weak hand thumb would ride against the slide whenever I drew with a really high grip. It was enough to cause the FTE. I tried recreating the failure with my thumb deliberately exerting pressure on the slide and it seemed to still run fine.

[CHA-LEE]

Wolf & Tula primers are cheap for a reason. They are crappy. Save those Tula primer loads for practice to burn them up and if you have ignition issues it won't wreck your training session, unlike a match. I have tried using "Cheap" primers in the past and its just not worth it headache. The little $$ you save isn't worth the frustration of them not working when you want them to work. Personally I prefer to use Winchester Small Pistol primers (WSP) and if I can't get those I will use CCI Small Pistol primers (#500). If I can't get either of those primers, I simply won't load any ammo until I can beg, borrow, or buy them.

With your striker fired XDm you should be running softer primers like Federal or Winchester. The good news is that you can get these primers pretty easy these days, unlike a few years ago.

[d_striker]

Wolf & Tula primers are cheap for a reason. They are crappy. Save those Tula primer loads for practice to burn them up and if you have ignition issues it won't wreck your training session, unlike a match. I have tried using "Cheap" primers in the past and its just not worth it headache. The little $$ you save isn't worth the frustration of them not working when you want them to work. Personally I prefer to use Winchester Small Pistol primers (WSP) and if I can't get those I will use CCI Small Pistol primers (#500). If I can't get either of those primers, I simply won't load any ammo until I can beg, borrow, or buy them.

With your striker fired XDm you should be running softer primers like Federal or Winchester. The good news is that you can get these primers pretty easy these days, unlike a few years ago.

Yeah, you're right about the cheap primers. It's just not worth it. I bought them back when I was desperate for ANY primers.

I just went to Sportsmans Warehouse and bought some Remington and Winchester primers to try out. They didn't have any Federal primers unfortunately.

There were a lot of Remington's on the shelf but I got the last 400 Winchester.

[thermobollocks]

My M&P with the stock striker spring will ignite the Tulas as long as the striker itself is fairly clean. I know some rifle guys who swear by the Wolfs, but they're GI weight hammers and hammer springs. The other weird thing I found with Tula is there's a big difference between getting a sealed bag from Powder Valley and a big box from "some guy." If it's lived in a garage in Florida for a couple years they will probably be even less sensitive than they should be.

[d_striker]

My M&P with the stock striker spring will ignite the Tulas as long as the striker itself is fairly clean. I know some rifle guys who swear by the Wolfs, but they're GI weight hammers and hammer springs. The other weird thing I found with Tula is there's a big difference between getting a sealed bag from Powder Valley and a big box from "some guy." If it's lived in a garage in Florida for a couple years they will probably be even less sensitive than they should be.

I never had any problems with the nickel plated wolf primers. Just the batch of Tula's I got about 3 years ago. As far as storage, they've been kept sealed in the plastic bag, in the box that they came in, in a climate controlled environment since purchase from one of the major online vendors. I can't remember which one but I typically order from PV, Grafs, or Wideners.

Let me know if you're interested in them. I'll give you a hundred to try out for free if you want. I'll make you a good deal on 8k of them.

[d_striker]

It's been a busy week at work. Long days hauling around hoses, kegs, and turning clamps has been back breaking to the point where I hadn't been dry firing all that much. I did manage to get some outdoor practice in a couple weeks ago which was good. Did some movement, distance, and steel work. I realized that I've been settling for a much too sloppy sight picture on 20+ yard shots on paper. I also realized that on tough steel shots, I need to really focus on a good trigger press to get my hits. At the end of the practice session, we did some really fast draws on a close target. I had a few draws that felt great and fast but were much slower than I thought. I think that I'm slow on the beep.

Saturday's HPPS match was frustrating from an equipment perspective. My Production gun just isn't running the way it should be. Lot's of light primer strikes even with Remington primers. I changed out my striker spring to a brand new, standard weight spring halfway through the match. It helped a little but I still had at least one light primer strike on each stage following the swap. I'm certain that I didn't have any high primers as I mic'd each and every round the night before the match. I'm also certain it's not the striker safety as I took it out last week in order to get to the root cause of the problem. Yes, I know it's illegal for Production but it's going right back in as soon as I get the issue worked out.

I took the striker out and polished all of the contact surfaces and thoroughly scrubbed out the striker channel. There were quite a few rough machine marks on the striker. I think this helped quite a bit. Prior, the striker felt a little gritty when sliding it back and forth in the channel. After polishing, it felt much smoother. I'm going to try the Springer striker if this still doesn't work.

Hopefully this works as having a gun that doesn't run absolutely kills the fun of shooting a match.

Edited January 21, 2015 by d_striker

[CHA-LEE]

Another possible cause to your light strikes may be due to the barrel not being totally locked up when you pull the trigger. The next time you do some live fire inspect the brass after shooting to see where the striker dimple is in the primer. If its not centered then you know you have a lockup issue. What weight recoil spring are you running and how long has it been since you replaced it?

[d_striker]

Another possible cause to your light strikes may be due to the barrel not being totally locked up when you pull the trigger. The next time you do some live fire inspect the brass after shooting to see where the striker dimple is in the primer. If its not centered then you know you have a lockup issue. What weight recoil spring are you running and how long has it been since you replaced it?

Are you talking like out of battery not locked up or just slightly not locked up?

I'm running a 14lb Wolf recoil spring that probably has about 3-5k rounds on it.

[CHA-LEE]

I am thinking that a slightly unlocked condition may be happening. For an XDm A 14lb recoil spring is right on the ragged edge of having enough lockup pressure as it is when the striker is cocked. When I was shooting and fiddling with my XDm the lightest recoil spring I could run and have it function and lockup reliably was a 16lb. The 14lb recoil spring feels nice when shooting but it has very little lockup pressure when the striker is cocked. This leads to all kinds of funky issues.

Try putting a fresh 14lb spring it it or simply bump it up to a 16lb spring to eliminate the chance of lockup issues. Once again, shoot some rounds and capture the spent brass. Inspect the primer hits to see if they are consistently in the center or if they vary off of center. If the primer hit location is varying then you know there is a lockup issue.

[d_striker]

I am thinking that a slightly unlocked condition may be happening. For an XDm A 14lb recoil spring is right on the ragged edge of having enough lockup pressure as it is when the striker is cocked. When I was shooting and fiddling with my XDm the lightest recoil spring I could run and have it function and lockup reliably was a 16lb. The 14lb recoil spring feels nice when shooting but it has very little lockup pressure when the striker is cocked. This leads to all kinds of funky issues.

Try putting a fresh 14lb spring it it or simply bump it up to a 16lb spring to eliminate the chance of lockup issues. Once again, shoot some rounds and capture the spent brass. Inspect the primer hits to see if they are consistently in the center or if they vary off of center. If the primer hit location is varying then you know there is a lockup issue.

I'll try a 16lb spring. I think it might be a little too heavy for the .40 minor loads though.

One other thing I've been pondering is if perhaps I'm seating primers too hard in my over zealous attempt to eliminate high primers.

[thermobollocks]

I am thinking that a slightly unlocked condition may be happening. For an XDm A 14lb recoil spring is right on the ragged edge of having enough lockup pressure as it is when the striker is cocked. When I was shooting and fiddling with my XDm the lightest recoil spring I could run and have it function and lockup reliably was a 16lb. The 14lb recoil spring feels nice when shooting but it has very little lockup pressure when the striker is cocked. This leads to all kinds of funky issues.

Try putting a fresh 14lb spring it it or simply bump it up to a 16lb spring to eliminate the chance of lockup issues. Once again, shoot some rounds and capture the spent brass. Inspect the primer hits to see if they are consistently in the center or if they vary off of center. If the primer hit location is varying then you know there is a lockup issue.

I'll try a 16lb spring. I think it might be a little too heavy for the .40 minor loads though.

One other thing I've been pondering is if perhaps I'm seating primers too hard in my over zealous attempt to eliminate high primers.

Crush seating them is a thing, something like .006 below flush can actually help ignition depending on a pile of things. The good news is the primer cup has less distance to squish up against the anvil, but the bad news is if your striker/firing pin is too short that can still not happen. As for .40 minor, my M&P (which is not an XD, I know) is generally fine with factory recoil spring weight and does not need to be lightened. My WAG on that is if a 9mm slide and a .40 slide weigh the same you won't run into cycling issues with 9mm power .40.

[d_striker]

Crush seating them is a thing, something like .006 below flush can actually help ignition depending on a pile of things. The good news is the primer cup has less distance to squish up against the anvil, but the bad news is if your striker/firing pin is too short that can still not happen. As for .40 minor, my M&P (which is not an XD, I know) is generally fine with factory recoil spring weight and does not need to be lightened. My WAG on that is if a 9mm slide and a .40 slide weigh the same you won't run into cycling issues with 9mm power .40.

The actual depth below flush is dependent on the primer pocket depth and also the dimension of the primer itself. Take Winchester 40 brass for instance which has shallow primer pockets compared to Federal 40. Two primers of identical dimension, hypothetically seated with the exact same force, will have different seating depths in two different cases.

The only way to get the primer cup in the shallow pocket to the same depth as the one in the deeper pocket is to exert more force, thereby setting the anvil deeper into the pellet and/or deforming the primer cup itself to where the edges lose their radius. Using more force will compress the anvil into the primer pellet and may even crack it. While the anvil needs to be set into the pellet, cracking it is no bueno.

What PF is your 40 minor load?

Edited January 22, 2015 by d_striker