MikeRush Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 (edited) I shot an informal comparison of 4 limited guns at the range yesterday. I shot a pretty standard load of 180s with WST, recorded it at 240 FPS and slowed it down to 30fps for the YouTube upload. In the stroke thread lots of people said they wanted to shoot 2 identical guns, one stroked, the other not stroked. I essentially did that with two guns that were nearly identical. The guns were was follows, in order of appearance: An Edge style 5" gun built by Will O'Hara. My custom 6" titanium tracker finished by Glenn at Lone Star Innovations. A 5", butler cut sight tracker built by Jimmy Vidanes at 1911 Speed Shop. This gun has a PT steel grip and rear internal lightening. A 5", butler cut, stroked sight tracker built by Shay at Akai Custom Guns. This gun also has a PT steel grip and rear internal lightening. I tried to maintain a neutral grip throughout without clamping hard via support hand, to let the guns lift and return as they want to. You can see this in the magwell approaching my left hand in recoil. I felt gripping it like I would at a match would potentially mask differences in lift. The lift/return as captured on camera may not be conclusive, but behind the gun I definitely could tell a difference in recoil impulse and return. Impressions: The stroked gun produced noticeably the softest recoil impulse. It also cycled more than quickly enough- I was able to run splits down to the .14s on bill drills, which is about all I can reliably control at this point. I really, really, liked the gun. I think some time spent learning the timing could make for a very fast setup. The standard sight tracker was also very controllable, although the recoil impulse was sharper. It was snappier which is more like what I am used to. I liked it. It had the least perceived movement in the front sight to my eyes. My titanium tracker had the sharpest impulse, but being the only bushing barrel and short dust cover gun in the line up I had expected that. It's the "control" in the group, I suppose. I like it a lot. I can comfortably get into the .14s with it on bill drills as well. It was much easier to draw and transition for me, which I would expect being both lighter and what I am accustomed to. I may weld the dust cover back up to tame the lift a bit although the lift doesn't seem to hurt- it doesn't dip much and it is easy to follow the sight. The extremely light slide on this gun cycles more like an open gun than a limited, which I like very much. The Edge was the surprise for me. I'd rank it second softest in the lineup, between the Akai and the 1911 Speed Shop tracker. It had the heaviest slide and the most perceived sight movement. After shooting a tracker for 9 months I wasn't used to the sight reciprocating with the slide. It may be the "flattest" on video, although it is hard to tell without a more rigorous test procedure. The potentially disturbing plot twist? I don't feel like any one gun stood out as the clear winner. If you like soft, go for the stroke. If you like light, the Ti Tracker is an excellent option. The full dust, bull barreled gun has been the choice of most of the Limited champions in recent years. The standard tracker cycled quick, was still plenty soft, and was easy to track the sight. The more I shoot, the more I realize the inevitable conclusion of, "pick one and practice". You can select a gun that plays to your strengths, or mitigates your weaknesses, but at the end of the day its going to be how quickly you can acquire and fire acceptable sight pictures. Edited July 4, 2015 by MikeRush Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aircooled6racer Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 Hello: A couple things come to mind for me. What recoil springs are you using in the guns. The Edge type pistol seems to have a lighter recoil spring because of the distance the brass was being launched. The 6" gun seems to be setup very well shooting very flat. The last two have steel grips so they will feel softer since they are heavier with the weight in your hand. Now the real question is which one do you shoot the best? I am voting the 6". You may want to try some 165 grain bullets in the gun to see how good it can be. Thanks, Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMike Posted July 4, 2015 Share Posted July 4, 2015 This is an interesting write-up and video. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeRush Posted July 4, 2015 Author Share Posted July 4, 2015 Hello: A couple things come to mind for me. What recoil springs are you using in the guns. The Edge type pistol seems to have a lighter recoil spring because of the distance the brass was being launched. The 6" gun seems to be setup very well shooting very flat. The last two have steel grips so they will feel softer since they are heavier with the weight in your hand. Now the real question is which one do you shoot the best? I am voting the 6". You may want to try some 165 grain bullets in the gun to see how good it can be. Thanks, Eric The Edge I believe was an 11 lb sprinco. My tracker and the standard tracker have 12.5s. The Akai has whatever Shay puts in, I have heard 10 lbs thrown around but I am not sure. I am quite fond of this 6"! I currently shoot the 6" the best because I have the most time behind it. I've tried 165s, 180s, 200s... I shoot the 180s the best because they are cheaper from my source so I can shoot more of them. The problem of "shooting the best" is the different guns have different characteristics. I have been a vocal supporter of very light limited guns, but the drills I used to determine that I shot them better were close range hosing, and steel (1 shot per target) drills. That was what I was good at, and I saw measurable improvements in those areas by taking more weight off of my gun. Shooting 15 yard bill drills, tight partials, and longer range targets the results shift. The heavier guns settle down quicker and I don't see a big difference in transitions between light and heavy at further distances anyway. As I have started to add a bit of weight back in the gun my performance at distance has become easier. The light guns just demand more grip pressure and consistency. This is an interesting write-up and video. Thanks for taking the time to do it. Thanks! When my friends got nearly identical trackers (except for the stroke) I figured I had to do it. I'd like to do something a bit more scientific but I haven't had time to construct and evaluate a setup, and honestly I am probably better off practicing with that time instead... but it is still fun to shoot a bunch of high end limited guns back to back! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cnote Posted January 31, 2016 Share Posted January 31, 2016 Thank, I am going to go with your advice of practice the hell out of what you got until it holds you back (or so you think) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Climbhard Posted February 17, 2016 Share Posted February 17, 2016 Thanks for the write up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EngineerEli Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 Very interesting! Anyone have the video editing expertise to put each gun side by side to see them all recoil at the same time? That would be very interesting to see. I do personally thing the 5" sight tracker is really the sweet spot for limited. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrashDodson Posted February 18, 2016 Share Posted February 18, 2016 What camera did you use to record at 240? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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