LikesToShoot Posted October 4, 2014 Share Posted October 4, 2014 I've switched to a green front on my other guns so may as well run one here too. I did notice that the factory rear AA sight is huge and I could have gone wider on my front sight but I'll get used to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted October 7, 2014 Share Posted October 7, 2014 Ok, second range session and 300 flawless rounds though this kit. I really like the green FO front sight and the blacked out rear sight. I've been shooting an M&P so this XDm will take some time to get used to but shooting .22's will let me get plenty of trigger time for cheap. (I stocked up on .22's six years ago when I found what my AA 1911 kit liked.) I don't like the Black Ice mag well I bought, when removing the plastic insert so these mags will seat I cracked it. Tonight I ordered the Pistol Gear Unlimited from Springer Precision. The AA conversion slide is wider than the factory, really resembles a Glock, and fits tightly in my Blade Tech Black Ice holster. Loosening the screws helped but I think I'll slowly file the inside of the holster to give it some relief. I did plenty of draws at five and seven yards as well as several Bill Drills. So far my fasted 5 yard draw was .84 and fastest 5 yard Bill Drill was 1.84. After I get the holster smoothed out and learn to index this gun things will get better and I'll move back further. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted October 9, 2014 Share Posted October 9, 2014 OK, I took a new shooter to the range yesterday to sight in his SR9c w/laser. Zeroed the sight and had him run a few rounds through the gun. Gave him some pointers so he could dry fire using the laser and work on his trigger control with that heavy SR9c trigger. Then I let him run some rounds (50) through my XDm, PRP Extreme 2 1/4# trigger and AA .22 conversion. Five A's in the head and five A's in the body, gotta love on good trigger. Next the plate rack and video of him mowing it down. During this range session I did witness a few failures to fire, didn't pick up a round. Well tonight I just had to stop by the range, it's on my way home, and launch a couple hundred rounds with draws and Bill drills at seven yards. (Just a short session since we still have daylight and good weather.) I discovered that two mags can come loose and drop down causing the FTF after being fired. I've isolated this down to the ones' that I can wiggle and disengage from the mag release. I left a message with AA on the way home and hope they'll contact me about this problem. While at the range tonight a shooting pal dropped by when he seen my car and I had him run a mag through it. He like the (PRP) trigger and was pleased with how the gun ran and with the FO front sight and blacked out rear. (Sights will be an individual preference) I did clean and lube the gun before last night's shooting, so maybe 500 rounds before cleanings. .22's are a dirty round and there's no need to tempt fate. So far I'm pleased. New mag well expected this Friday and then I'll try reloads. Forget about slamming the mag in and dropping the slide by itself, not happening with this kit. Not a problem. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 AA replied to my voice message with an email questioning if I had the correct mags. I sent them pictures and a video showing the two mags being able to come out without being released compared to the other three. Now they are "confused" that three can work since the four pack I purchased extra came from the same batch. The good news is that the mags come with a life time warranty. So, I measured my factory mags and the AA mags. On my scale, at the mag release catch, the factory mags are 1.250", the AA mags that don't fail measure 1.235" and the one that do fail measure 1.230". Basically, they're too small and I'm lucky that three work. I asked for and RMA so I can swap these out. The new mag well arrived and it fits really nice. Apparently it's meant to work with the size 1 grip so I modified #3 to work since that fits my hand better. At least the conversion mags will work with this new Pistol Gear mag well without and mods. I think I'll hold off taping and extension onto these AA mags until I get the bugs worked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 The striker safety block prevents conventional trigger jobs from working in the kit. The easy solution is to remove the part of the striker that hits the striker safety block. We did not see an easy way to remove the block and did not wish to destroy the conversion kit lent to us by our customer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted October 11, 2014 Share Posted October 11, 2014 I guess I just got lucky that it works with my PRP Extreme trigger and the other guy here wasn't so lucky. So, if a guy had a kit that didn't work with his trigger job then the easiest thing would be grinding off the striker edge that hits the block. Cool! Trigger safety and grip safety still work and basically it's a Series 70 type gun vs. Series 80. Thanks Scott. I'm sure that'll help some folks out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 I guess I just got lucky that it works with my PRP Extreme trigger and the other guy here wasn't so lucky. So, if a guy had a kit that didn't work with his trigger job then the easiest thing would be grinding off the striker edge that hits the block. Cool! Trigger safety and grip safety still work and basically it's a Series 70 type gun vs. Series 80. Thanks Scott. I'm sure that'll help some folks out. Yes, if it did work, make sure that the striker is not clipping the edge of the safety block. That could damage the striker. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Looking at both slides a little closer it appears that the AA plunger has a larger step than the factory. This insures that the striker can move forward enough to fire the round and doesn't weaken the striker. No signs of chipping, yet, but I will keep an eye out for that area. Me thinks I'll want to have another striker, plunger w/spring and recoil assembly in my spare parts bin anyway. AA told me I don't need an RMA so the mags will go out later this week. Too busy to shoot this week anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slymantis Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 The striker safety block prevents conventional trigger jobs from working in the kit. The easy solution is to remove the part of the striker that hits the striker safety block. We did not see an easy way to remove the block and did not wish to destroy the conversion kit lent to us by our customer. Interesting. I'll take a look at my pistol tonight to see what part you are talking about. Would there be any ill effects of removing that material from the striker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slymantis Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 (edited) so, stealing one of LikesToShoot's pictures. If I remove this area of the striker that contacts the striker block on the kit, it should work? Edited October 14, 2014 by slymantis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 I'll try to take another picture from a different angle of the plunger ledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 so, stealing one of LikesToShoot's pictures. If I remove this area of the striker that contacts the striker block on the kit, it should work? Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Loves2Shoot Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 The striker safety block prevents conventional trigger jobs from working in the kit. The easy solution is to remove the part of the striker that hits the striker safety block. We did not see an easy way to remove the block and did not wish to destroy the conversion kit lent to us by our customer. Interesting. I'll take a look at my pistol tonight to see what part you are talking about. Would there be any ill effects of removing that material from the striker? You are disabling the "drop" safety. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 If he just took a little off the contact surface, that mates the plunger, to allow to move forward when the plunger is depressed his drop safety should still work. Correct? Apparently my trigger bar moves my plunger deep enough to let the striker hit the rim and light the round off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted October 15, 2014 Share Posted October 15, 2014 (edited) OK, here's a few more pictures that I hope may help. Edited October 15, 2014 by LikesToShoot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Today I went to the range today and ran another 250 rounds thru it using the Dot Torture drill at mostly 5 yards and then 7 yards. http://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture The front sight I installed is a little too tall since it shoots low when the rear sight is fully adjusted down. A 12 o'clock hold works really well. I used double face tap to adhere 1/4" pieces of rubber onto the bottom of the three good mags and was able to do some reload practice. (dropping my mags on a heavy coat to protect them) I decided to wait until the winter off season before I send the two undersized mags back for exchange. A piece of black gorilla tape on the back of the mags make them 100% reliable so they'll work for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 10/27/14 After work I shot a couple hundred rounds doing Bill Drills and Dot Torture drills. I had a few failures to fire towards the end of my session. The breach face and barrel shroud here pretty dirty and after wiping some off grit it seemed better. I definitely need to clean this more often. Ordered the shorter Dawson front sight when I got home. 050-329Sight/Glock/Front/All Except*/Opt/.130T/.125W/Ramped/*Except 17L or 24/Tools Included 11/1/14 Installed the new front sight, cleaned / oiled the gun and went to the range. It was a pretty cold morning, around 30F, and the gun wouldn't fire. Not enough over travel on the PRP Extreme trigger so I had to file a bit more off the stop. After that it was pretty much good to go for another 200 rounds. Thank goodness I decided not to shoot the steel challenge match this morning. There were a few times that the slide didn't close completely, due to the extractor hitting the barrel, and the striker didn't release. I noticed this might be a problem before but I suspect that the cold weather may have slowed the slide down a bit. Luckily the plunger block prevented the striker from releasing and firing out of battery like it did on my early AA 1911 conversion kit. TAKE NOTICE OF THIS IF YOU DECIDE TO MODIFY YOUR PLUNGER OR STRIKER AS MENTIONED EARLIER IN THIS THREAD. When I have time I'll take a few pictures of the extractors from both kits. Since I received such a cold response from AA with their defective magazines I'll modify the extractor myself. They can figure this out for themselves or read it here on Enos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted November 2, 2014 Share Posted November 2, 2014 After comparing the AA 1911 to the XDm. The extractors look very similar but the recoil spring is noticeably weaker on the XDm. The 1911 has well over 5K rounds thru it compared to the 1K in the XDm. AA has a fairly decent list of replacement parts available so I ordered the things I like to have on hand and will do some mods when I get my spare parts order. Here are a few pics, guide rod w/spring, extractor, slide not closed due to weak spring and closed fully. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter115 Posted November 3, 2014 Share Posted November 3, 2014 Appreciate all the the updates on this thread. Keep up the good work LikesToShoot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 Appreciate all the the updates on this thread. Keep up the good work LikesToShoot. Glad you like them Chris. Another 150 rounds tonight with the Dot Torture Drill at seven yards. Maybe 5 or 6 failures to fire but fired when striker reset and slide pushed closed. I don't see how this guide rod comes apart so I'll wait until my parts arrive before I start messing with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 After talking with a shooting buddy on the phone tonight I started playing with this kit again. I was wrong about the plunger block keeping the striker back when the slide wasn't fully forward. It does release the striker which in turn does move the slide forward but most of the times it doesn't fire the round. I had a couple rounds go off tonight when I suspect it was slightly out of battery. It had a different sound report and I felt a little blow back / spray. This kit is grounded until further notice. I'll call them tomorrow and let them know what I have discovered. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted November 8, 2014 Share Posted November 8, 2014 11/3/14 I went ahead and sent AA an email describing the problem with the slide not closing. Not surprising, based on recent dealing with them, I received NO reply from them. (Six years ago they were right on top of any correspondence regarding their products.) Today I received my parts order and the first thing I tried was the guide rod w/coil spring. Slide closes fully again. Myself, my smith and a couple others don't see how this captive rod and spring come apart. I'll call them next week and leave a message, that seems to be they way they work. You call them, leave a message then they reply with an e-mail. At least this'll run again without not firing or firing out of battery but the long term fix has yet to be determined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Shot another 250 rounds tonight with the new guide rod w/recoil spring. It only had one failure to fire and it had a firing pin strike on it but fired OK the next try. The key thing is that the slide closes fully with the new GR w/spring. Tomorrow I will give them a call, leave a message stating the problem and ask to have someone give me a call to discuss their mag problem and recoil spring issue. I guess I'm spoiled from dealing with companies that try to take care of their customers. Not the case so far from AA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LikesToShoot Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 I got ahold of someone to talk to today, the same gal that's on their phone service. When I told her of my problem she told me to contact management at customerservice@advantagearms.com . When I told her that the recoil spring took care of the problem she said "good". I told her that I thought 1200 rounds was too short of a service life and that I'd send a message to CS. Well I tried to send CS a message and it was returned as a bad address. (ran into this before with them). So I called back and spoke with her again about the bad address. She then told me she had since spoken with management about my issue and said they don't have a stronger spring but could order a replacement from their website. Again I told her this kit was only a couple month's old and this seemed like a very short service life. She told me that their product has a 30 day warranty. So there you go folks. You're on your own once you buy this kit from them. Once I find a source for better springs I'll let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shooter115 Posted November 11, 2014 Share Posted November 11, 2014 Well that's unfortunate. I was really hoping this was going to be a home run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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