Revolver? Die on the vine?

[-JCN-]

If the Alien is getting the okay for CO, it might be okay for Production soon too.
 

That’ll make it easier to make Production  USPSA and SCSA goals in the future for me as well, so I might postpone those. 
 

They’re already okay for IPSC Production. 
 

The iron sights don’t reciprocate. 
 

I might just start prepping those if that’s coming. 
 

See how the goals drift to be the most efficient?

[-JCN-]

My only reason to revisit CZ Shadow 2s currently would be for USPSA and Steel Challenge classifications. 
 

If Aliens will be allowed in those divisions in USPSA like they are in IPSC… then I’ll hold off on trying to retrain my CZ index and reloading ergos. 
 

So instead of Revo, Production and LO I’ll simplify to Revo and LO for now. Maybe Limited for Steel Challenge to get ready for when Alien is Production ready. 

[-JCN-]

Aaaaaaaand… piggybacking off the Alien irons thought…

 

I can run it in IDPA ESP….

 

I have an equity EX rating for ESP. 
 

If IDPA isn’t a primary sport for me, I can just enjoy trying to match bump up. 

[-JCN-]

 

Had a nice vacation, heading home today. Eager to get to work and sort out some equipment and get some baseline data. 
 

When I set goals, I feel like I have to get some sense of where I’m at (and where I want to go) in order to set a realistic timeline. 
 

I also usually like to set realistic goals to set myself up for success rather than failure. 
 

I can always make more goals. 
 

How you set up the goals matters in how well you can extend the goals. 
 

What do I mean by that?

 

If I’m working to improve skills and have benchmarks reflect that… it’s easy to extend training goals. 
 

If I’m looking to just make a classification… well, that can have certain compromises inherent in that. 
 

That’s where having a reproducibility parameter built in differs than just a peak (lucky) performance. 
 

That’s how we are structuring V’s training. Making B class takes a lot of work…. but it can hide some fundamental compromises. 
 

We aren’t training for B class if that makes sense. 
 

We are training for efficiency and as it improves, the benchmarks will fall. 
 

On a good day, she’s perhaps A class. On a bad day, B class. 
 

For now. 
 

In a month, she’ll likely be A class. 
 

Next year, maybe M. Who knows. But we plan on continuing to work efficiency and when the benchmarks fall, they fall. 
 

 

 

 

[-JCN-]

 

Sitting in the airport… working my trigger finger. 
 

More strength is going to be the key to my revolver performance, and that’s not going to come with a casual effort. 
 

 

I could come up with excuses… you can always find an excuse if you look for one. 
 

I prefer to look for solutions. But in order to look for solutions it helps to know what kind of problem you’re trying to solve…

 

.

Edited March 20 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

Swapped the 327 night guard cylinder into the 327 PC frankengun. 
 

 

 

Probably would make more sense to just use the 2.5” night guard. 
 

But I want to try the longer barrel and the night guard guts are sitting in a box somewhere. 
 

Will test accuracy before I start optimizing parts. It has the benefit of being an N frame with a 357 mag cylinder cut for 9mm by Eli at TK. 
 

He set up one of my 929s and the night guard the same as Michael Poggies. 

 

Will also go back to testing the 986 as well. I really dislike the red ramp sights, though. 

[-JCN-]

Woke up feeling under the weather. Probably caught the kiddo’s virus. 
 

Achy and slow. Really feeling my age today. 
 

Cleaned up some sharp edges on the training tools. 
 

 

 

Showed V some nuances of zeroing at distance. 
 

She purchased her own Wheeler Laser to rough sight in guns. 
 

We talked about carboned crowns and the whole “trust but verify.” You can’t blindly assume it’s correct unless the certain assumptions are met. 
 

She did some work at distance today and we finished up with CYC. She biffed the reloads twice and we talked about the reproducibility and how easy it is to get lazy with vision or skip steps like looking at the inner lip of the magwell.

I shot my CYC and I’m getting more in tune with the recoil management. 
my draws were glacial today because virus, but still able to do a solid M run. 
 

[-JCN-]

I tested the 986 versus the Franken-327 and the short iron sight radius (for both) is difficult for me. 
 

The ramp sight on the 986 gives me fits.  I might have to black out the lower part of the ramp. 

[-JCN-]

Still trying to figure out how much is sight versus barrel length…

 

Without a change, IDPA revolver MA isn’t realistic. 
 

There’s only one way to find out… make the front sight into something else and test again. 
 

Commercially available fibers for SW dovetail sights are scarce. 
 

So modification is a good option. 

[-JCN-]

Hopefully I feel better tomorrow so I can get going on some of my projects. 

[-JCN-]

Okay feeling a whiff better today. Especially after some cold medicine.

 

I think I’ll have enough energy to do some car stuff in the garage and perhaps do some work on the iron sights I need fluffing.

 

Maybe even clean the Alien for the weekend’s match.

 

I’m at close to 2k rounds on it and it’s feeling better. Reliability is good with my oiling and brushing regimen. 

 

Swapping pistons (or at least cleaning them) when things get draggy at about 1300 rounds is a good idea.

 

I’d like to make 2k rounds before cleaning but I don’t want to chance a failure in outdoor cooler weather.

 

Will have to decide if I’m going to soak pistons in CLR, C4 carbon cleaner, ultrasonic cleaner or a combination of them.

 

 

[-JCN-]

Angle grinders and Dremels…

 

They are problem solvers.

 

Today I went to put on my reverse plow hitch on my new Subaru… I had used it on my old Outback and it worked well.

 

But instead of installing the hitch this time, I had the dealer do it since it involved more fascia cutting than I cared to do.

 

What I didn’t realize is this hitch receiver is very shallow and didn’t reach the pin holes…

 

So. Angle grinder to cut some off the end. Solid steel.

 

 

Some people would say “I don’t have the time for that!” But it only took 30 minutes and will save me a bunch of time and work compared to not having my plow work properly.

 

 

[-JCN-]

I’m kind of new to irons. I don’t know what I don’t know and getting up to speed with them has helped me learn. 
 

I’m primarily a dot shooter and have most of my time on dots. 
 

Having iron sub goals have helped me learn about them. 
 

I think I prefer something round on the front sight. Whether a fiber, gold bead or just white dot. I think I also prefer the fiber to be as bright as possible (especially shooting indoors a fair amount). 
 

 

 

The 986 is the lower gun. The broad red ramp and deep rear notch made it hard to be precise at speed. 
 

.

Edited March 22 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

 

Okay, a little trimming and I cut the front sight and ramp down. Will see how this works and if not, I can drill it for a fiber. 

[-JCN-]

IPDA ESP Alien

 

Cobbled together some parts for an ESP IDPA build to try and match bump and get some trigger time with irons. 
 

I have to test recoil springs (which will likely be different than the optic mounted slides). 
 

I also have to massage the slide stop to auto forward. 
 

I can also use it for SCSA limited.

[perttime]

My local Alien guys (with the "normal" version) are saying that the slide stop is very sensitive, stock. Inserting the magazine with any force is supposed to release it. Some were complaining that the slide won't stay back if you lay the Alien on a table. Some commercial ranges require you to leave it on the table with the slide back.

[-JCN-]

1 hour ago, perttime said:

My local Alien guys (with the "normal" version) are saying that the slide stop is very sensitive, stock. Inserting the magazine with any force is supposed to release it. Some were complaining that the slide won't stay back if you lay the Alien on a table. Some commercial ranges require you to leave it on the table with the slide back.

Unfortunately that’s a wear thing. Just like Shadow 2s auto forward when the slide lever is worn but not when brand new. 
 

Same thing with the Alien. Very positive initial engagement but wears in pretty quickly. 
 

I only do slide lock reloads for IDPA and usually prime the lock for that and only use it for actual gaming knowing that it can wear too far. 
 

With Shadow 2s, I’ve been able to recut the face of the slide stop to reestablish the positive locking surfaces, I don’t know there’s a lot of room to do that on an alien slide lever but I anticipate trying that when it’s worn too much. 
 

 

Edited March 22 by -JCN-

[-JCN-]

Tested the auto forward at the range and zeroed. 
 

Still a whiff stiff but should break in. 
 

Also cleaned and tested my primary LO Alien. 
 

Pistons looked like this:

 

 

The third ring gets caked. I used C4 carbon cleaner, a pick and a brass brush. Wasn’t that labor intensive. 
 

Good news and bad news with the IDPA iron revolver. 
 

The good news is that the groups were much tighter at speed. 
 

The bad news is that my front sight is too short and I’m out of adjustment on the rear…

 

I might cut the original rear sight to height. 

[-JCN-]

Thinking about it, it was probably the wide notch rear that allowed a lot of slop. 
 

I’ll see what I can do with holdovers and aiming spots. And see what I can do with the rear sight. 

[-JCN-]

 

Option 1: cut the left sight down by 2mm including the notch. 
 

Option 2: cut the top off the right sight completely and make a smaller notch. 
 

I might fiddle with option 2 and then go to option 1 if need be. 

[-JCN-]

Very shade tree. 
 

 

I need to test a little more before I cut top down further and make it a little cleaner. I think I probably need to trim down another 1-2 mm. 

[-JCN-]

Oh man. V and I shot a match and we struggled. It's amazing how much work it takes to be "good."

 

I wasn't confident in the 8MOA sight and the gun recoil impulse and wound up shooting a lot of make up shots (I made up alphas with alphas). Had too many alphas at the cost of slowness and hesitancy and make up shots.

 

V did pretty well on stage execution, just feeling her way around the trade off of speed and accuracy.

 

It's a hard sport. I definitely have to dedicate more time to this new platform before getting comfortable with it.

 

[-JCN-]

Also, I had a similar malfunction to the other match at around the same round count. 
 

Because I was dumb and forgot to re-oil the barrel and brush the chamber. 
 

Gah. 

[UpYoursPal]

On 3/22/2024 at 2:38 PM, -JCN- said:

IPDA ESP Alien

 

Cobbled together some parts for an ESP IDPA build to try and match bump and get some trigger time with irons. 
 

I have to test recoil springs (which will likely be different than the optic mounted slides). 
 

I also have to massage the slide stop to auto forward. 
 

I can also use it for SCSA limited.

Glad I found this thread.  Been wondering for a while if the Alien would fit for ESP/CO.  
 

Can you measure your Alien LO without the magwell and see if it fits the box?  I’m looking to get one for USPSA LO and IDPA CO but I’m not sure if it would be legal

[-JCN-]

3 hours ago, UpYoursPal said:

Can you measure your Alien LO without the magwell and see if it fits the box?  I’m looking to get one for USPSA LO and IDPA CO but I’m not sure if it would be legal

 

To the best of my knowledge the modular grip system is held in place by the magwell, so it can’t be run without the magwell. 
 

You’d need to put a regular creator magwell on it for IDPA (LO magwell is too wide). 
 

Or cut an LO magwell down. 
 

You’d also have to get the original Alien mags because the base pads on the Creator series stick down too far. 
 

I can take some photos if you need them, but I did test those combinations previously.