Personal Preference on 5" Limited Gun

[sfchorn]

My Limited gun is an STI 5" Long/Wide, bull barrel, Dawson Tool-less guide rod. This seems to be within the "norm" of what most people use.

Well, it's in the shop, so my buddy let me use one of his guns until mine is fixed. The loaner is a Dave Dawson-built gun with a standard frame and classic slide. Just as an aside, this gun has a quarter of a million rounds through it, is on it's third barrel, and still has barely any perceptible play in the slide to frame fit. Wow.

At my first practice with this gun, it took a few minutes to get comfortable with it. The balance was so different, less weight out front. The two things I noticed were:

1. Recoil was a hair sharper. But the odd thing was the gun seemed to come back on line quicker. Didn't seem as .......sluggish?

2. At first, I was over-driving the gun on transitions between targets. It seemed to move quicker, and didn't take as long to stop.

I was shooting some of my best-ever splits bewteen targets. My practice buddy (a GM) said there was a NOTICABLE difference in how I was driving the gun. I know not to base any conclusions on one practice session. Chances are, I was focusing more intently since the gun handled differently. But still, it has me wondering if maybe I ought to consider a standard frame/classic slide?

I remember a chart Bob from Brazos had in the Front Sight magazine a while back. Weight differences between a bushing .vs bull barrel, steel .vs tungsten guide rod, etc. Maybe I'll have to go back and look at that again.

Edited May 18, 2011 by sfchorn

[RangerTrace]

My first Limited gun was a full custom long/wide 5" gun built by Tripp. It was a great gun. I then went to a short dustcover, bushing barrel SV with a metal grip. I liked it even better than the Tripp gun. Now that I'm shooting a 6", the 5" gun seems pretty harsh.

So far, everybody that has shot my 5" pisol next to my 6" pistol, has preferred the feel of the 6" pistol. Keep in mind that they are the same, except for the 1" of barrel and slide.

[G-ManBart]

Quite a few threads on this already...here are a few:

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=115380&view=findpost&p=1308457

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=80248&view=findpost&p=928894

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=55007&view=findpost&p=637835

http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=5262&view=findpost&p=65800

[BBoyle]

I always seem to be able to do just as well, if not better, when trying some one elses gun and they almost always feel good in the hand or questionably better. To get a true perspective you will have to do a side by side comparison while warm and compare splits, transitions, feel of the recoil, etc.