Need help setting up a SV for Limited/ESP

[matto]

I have been pounding away with Glocks for a few years and have just broken the ice with a SV for the first time.

I purchased a used Infinity double stack with a standard dust cover. It is chambered in .40 s&w with a bull barrel. The gun shows almost no sign of wear, and I know the guy I bought is from rarely shot it, so I'm happy with the quality.

I shot it for the first time last night and have a couple of questions.

1) the gun seems to be very finicky about ammo. I was lucky to hit the paper with some rounds tumbling down range. Others would group well but didn't want to feed. Is this normal?

2) When doing a slide lock reload, ala IDPA, the mag keeps going up inside the gun until it's stopped by the ejector. How do I fix that?

3) I know I'll have to have a bushing barrel fitted for IDPA. Should I go 9mm with or stick with .40 and load lighter for the 125 pf?

I have no Limited gear for holsters or mag pouches, any suggestions would be very much appriciated.

[BigDave]

I shot it for the first time last night and have a couple of questions.

1) the gun seems to be very finicky about ammo. I was lucky to hit the paper with some rounds tumbling down range. Others would group well but didn't want to feed. Is this normal?

2) When doing a slide lock reload, ala IDPA, the mag keeps going up inside the gun until it's stopped by the ejector. How do I fix that?

3) I know I'll have to have a bushing barrel fitted for IDPA. Should I go 9mm with or stick with .40 and load lighter for the 125 pf?

I have no Limited gear for holsters or mag pouches, any suggestions would be very much appriciated.

1) My SV 40 likes ammo loaded long. With standard OAL for 40 S&W being 1.125-1.135", my SV runs best at 1.190". Some others have the most success at 1.200-1.250". You'll just need to experiment here. Also, don't overlook magazine tuning. Do a search here, you'll find lots of info.

2) You'll need to stick with standard SV followers and not the competition (red) followers. Those were designed not to engage the slide stop. You might consider getting some IDPA specific mags.

3) I'd stick with 40 and get a bushing barrel fit. 40 minor out of a S_I is really sweet, just drop a 8-9 lb. ISMI spring in there and go. But, if you want to try 9mm, you likely have the best gun to make that switch, especially if you have interchangable breechface. If you do swap between 40 and 9, you'll have the ejector to worry about and a different set of mags.

For IDPA there are a few kydex holster makers that will do fine. There is also the Safariland 560 (which you can get from our host here) that is also spoken of well. For USPSA, you can run the same gear, or if you want to go full race you can do that also. I use and love the Safariland 012 and 773 pouches. Others like CR Speed, Garcia, Rigbas, Ghost and Limcat. They are all good and really fast.

Don't hesitate to do a search or two on these topics. There's a boatload of info here.

[DGINAZ]

Regarding questions 1 & 2:

1. OAL seems really important for proper feed - I am loading my 40 S&W at 1.21. The mags are designed for 45 ACP with a length of 1.25.

2. As I understand this problem, you get around it by inserting the mag into the gun with the slide closed - this will keep the mag from being inserted to far in the magwell. I have a Brazos Limited gun on order and they actually disable the slide lock function so the slide does not lock back on the last round.

I hope this info helps.

Duane

[BigDave]

sorry about my reply to question 2 - I misread it

[DGINAZ]

Question 2 does pose an interesting challenge is you plan to shoot both USPSA and IDPA. Doesn't IDPA require the slide to lock back on the last round?

Bob at Brazos did mention something about setting the his limited guns up with a slide stop that would lock back the slide on the last round, but cautioned doing this because of what could happen if the mag is inserted to far into the gun.

Thoughs?

[smokshwn]

I have a factory SVI set up with a Bar-Sto bushing barrel short dustcover and SVI magwell that meets all the regs for IDPA ESP and also Limited10/Limited. For a good example go to Matt Burketts web page and look at his Cross Competitor.

answers

1) My gun feeds almost anything. Most of the S-I guns like the ammo loaded longer but mine feeds ammo with lengths from 1.12-1.20 just fine. As far as accuracy goes the loadings I have tried have all been extremely accurate. Currently for 125pf I am shooting 180 gr MG bullets over 3.6gr of Titegroup loaded about 1.17.

2) With the 126mm mags and SVI international basepads to be IDPA compliant there seems to be no way to get the mag in that far. If you are using 140mm mags then I would check to see if the mag catch opening was correct. Probably a gunsmith fix. Also getting the slide to lock back will involve either the stock followers or Grams spring and follower kit. The grams work very well for me. Also make sure someone has not cut your slide lock catch on the magazine side of the gun to keep it from locking back.

3) If you are ever thinking of shooting Limited10/Limited stay .40. You can't shoot major in limited with 9mm. As for a minor pf load, .40 at minor is very soft, again do a search and you will find tons of loadings.

[Steve Moneypenny]

load 40 minor just as soft, (actually softer than most 9mm's)

[Guest Larry Cazes]

Magazine over insertion at slide lock is a problem in my SV as well using anything longer then 126mm mags and I suspect it will be in a lot of them. I have my SV setup to NOT lock open on an empty mag so it isnt ever an issue for me in practice. On my para L10 gun, the magazine basepad hits the bottom of the dawson DP magwell and keeps it from jamming the slide. On all of my singlestacks, when we use extended wilson 10 round mags, there is a metal stop welded onto the front of the mag that stops on the surface of the frontstrap and keeps them from over inserting. If 126mm mags work, why not use them for IDPA and save the 140s for USPSA?

[matto]

That's great help. Thanks to everyone.