JonF

Ramshot TAC is also popular with 223 for the lighter bullets such as the typical 55gr.

Practical in the sense of being competitive? No. Is it fun? Hell yeah! You can certainly bring it out, it won't be a problem. Aside from our little game, i do see someone shooting one at the match once or twice a year. Just be certain he is proficient in loading it, reloading it, and clearing it out safely during the course of a stage. Guns are bagged and stored unloaded and only loaded under direct supervision of the range officer when its the shooters turn to shoot the stage. The RO will give commands and supervise him during the process, but don't expect the RO to know how to operate a levergun with any proficiency if there is any issue or confusion on the shooters end.

1. Yes, you can enter up to 2 classes per person. 2. yes, 5 mags is all you need. We fire 5 timed strings of fire of 5 plates per string per stage so with a fully loaded mag, you'll have plenty of ammo for that string. If you don't miss, 25 rounds per stage, 6 stages = 150 rounds total for the match (per gun). You WILL miss so bring more like 300 rounds per gun so you'll be prepared. 3. Have at least 3 mags per gun and a helper to reload for you. Someone on the squad will help you reload if you have no one designated though. if you have less than 3 mags, its not advisable as we end up waiting too long to reload. 4. matches generally go to 2-3:00 pm. Bring a lunch, PLENTY of water and sunscreen/hat. 5. plenty of people, they are a very popular match and the entry fee is very reasonable. For shits and giggles, a few of us brought our lever guns out in lieu of our normal semi's and had an informal competition amongst ourselves. So yes, you can shoot a lever gun, but it will just be lumped in the rest of the "rimfire rifle" shooters.

Steve, since you're looking from a purposeful competition standpoint, i'll offer my observations and experience with the same angle. To start, you probably don't care about trivial nitpicking about roll-marks or proper historical extractor style, so there's nothing wrong with either of these selections inherently for competitive use. The STI and the S&W are both known to be excellent runners and are easily found new for a reasonable cost. Amongst our usual group at various matches, there's probably a handful of both those brands in 9mm and they all run so i dont think you can go wrong there. I personally have the Trojan 9 and its been flawless, even with my handloaded jacketed hollowpoints! Other guys on our squads run FMJ's with the same success so its not picky for sure. Use good mags like the 10-round metalform or dawson with integral feedramp and they run all day long from first to last round in the mag. I also have a PM-7, and while its not a 9mm and i can't comment on its feeding reliability, i can say that across the DW PM-x series, they are very tight guns, like frogs ass tight--almost too tight! lol. Mine had to go back for a "fluff and buff" as they call it to loosen it up as it was VERY intolerant to any variations in ammo. IT still choked up every once in a while and needs to be impeccably clean to run smooth. I don't use it anymore as i have the trojan to beat on, but i will say in the DW's favor that its a VERY accurate gun. I think the PM series is better off as a bullseye shooter, static paper puncher or BBQ piece, not a run and gun pistol. I'm sure it can be made more reliable with a little 'smithing, but with the already high expense of the stainless gun and its rarity, its would take a second seat to the other two option IMHO.

Its a little too far for aim surplus to have a booth here. With nearly 800 tables and two halls, there's almost one ar for every table and a million varieties so you'll have to find your own deals.

Its true. They are hiding behind your curtains right at this moment! I heard they have this new sensor system on the highways that can tell if you're driving around with any illegal gun parts. My cousin's dog's groomer got nabbed on the turnpike on the way back from PA with just a new-in-box Magpul stock and no guns because of this new digital system. Swear!

Steve, Update on my mag usage suggestion: SKIP the KCI mags. JUNK! At the last match i was using a random mix of G19 mags and i would get all kinds of issues in a very random fashion. Well, it wasn't so random after all. After the match, we loaded up all the mags so some other guys could try it and found that even in slow fire, the KCI mags were the only ones to have issues. Something about them could cause binding on the bolt carrier such that it would slow and malfunction or even ejection failures. Furthermore, one of the KCI mags experienced a weird failure where the internal steel sleeve mush have busted its seam weld and caused the mag to "bloat" so much so that it wouldn't drop free or insert without undue force. These things aren't even fit for plinker duty. I think the next time im out at the range, i'll shoot AT them, not with them. Be sure to get it out at teh range before the match and put an ishload downrange to test her out first. Hopefully yours general experience is more trouble free than mine! lol

Generally some old hikers for me unless its a fairly clean range of i'm not doing much hoofing about. The rifle ranges at CJ are very sandy and if i wear sneakers, i come home with shoes and socks full of grit.

im in.

I understand where you're coming from since our state is so hostile towards gun ownership from every angle, but still, if you're legit, do you truly have to be worried? Is there a particular scenario or aspect of having a C&R you think is most troublesome?

Nope, no interest. The standard lite spring is way too sweet to muck with and this is for a competition gun so it'll never see any use from me, not even for curiosity.

I just picked up another SD3G for my pistol carbine and i noticed something new in the package. Apparently Geissele has taken into consideration those folks who like to limp grip the gun on the bench and experience doubling with the standard light trigger spring and thrown in a 4.5lb spring as an alternative to those who still insist on using the gun improperly. lol

Funny you mention the x-dies; i've been using them lately for my 223 and 30-06 reloads and they seem to be holding true to thier claim of minimizing growth. I have only a few reloads on the batch of brass ive been using them with but so far all the cases are still well under the max case length value and in no need of a trim. Reports ive read online state that others are getting not only many reloads on the same brass without trimming, but also longer overall case length due to minimized brass thinning. The way the die works, in a nutshell, is that during resizing, it holds the entire neck and shoulder as a unit and pushes the actual material down rather than to just move the position of the shoulder down. its an oversimplification , but its all about controlling (or limiting) material flow. Traditional resizing merely relocates the shoulder position, it does not actually compress the expanded case length down at all whereas the x-die will actually reduce the shell's overall length during resizing. You do have to prepare your brass specially for the x-die in that for your initial trim, you trim about .010" more than the typical trim to length which allows some buffer room for the case to initially grow and then still maintain an overall length in the normal range once growth stabilizes. No big deal so long as your case trimmer is adjustable and not fixed to index off the shoulder at some static value.

Anyways, Vlad, check out the official Geissele spec sheet PDF below, it lays out all the differences in the various families (Hi-speed, Super, Super dynamic, etc), the typical use case for each (competition, precision, leo/mil, etc) and the details of each model in each category. IF you know what you want in a trigger, you can easily figure out which one is for you. If i recall, you are a bit of an AK-phile, in which case i'd direct you to check out the Super 3-gun and super dynamic 3-gun (same as S3G but with flat trigger shoe) trigger. It has a trigger pull similar to an AK with a nice G2 upgrade where its smooth, but with no pronounced 2-stage feel. Its a constant, yet relatively short, sweep through and the trigger breaks. Its actually really nice because you can inherently shoot very fast with it because there's no anticipation or flinch at the break point to pull shots. I wont say it surprises you, but it definitely does not have the traditional "glass rod" type break. http://geissele.com/pdfs/TriggerSummarySheet.pdf

Contrary to popular belief, the BATF isn't hiding behind your living room curtains lying in wait and ready to pounce on you for merely purchasing an un-pinned collapsible stock or filing too much off your disconnector and proclaiming it on some corner of the internet. Of course, getting caught with it in public is another story...

Geissele triggers are reliable; they do not compromise thier triggers with soft springs to achieve lighter pulls. A good litmus test for striking power is if it will reliably ignite a 22lr as the rims of a 22 cartridge is definitely harder to ignite over a centerfire primer. I have a Geissele SD3G and a SSA-E and BOTH will ignite EVERY round of even the more "problematic" catridges with harder rims like CCI and Blazer. I've had other triggers such as a Jard, Gi trigger with both JP yellow and stock springs and other than a stock GI trigger, they all would have issues igniting 22lr (but never 223) when i put my conversion bolt in my rifles. I've shot various types of 223 and 5.56 nato in brass and steel case and never had an issue with the Geissele triggers.

So, did anyone show up with fully automatic firearms as per the rules? lol

There is a bluing and rust removal chemical you can buy made by Birchwood casey. I've used this to remove bluing and minor corrosion from some small parts and it works quite well. Not sure how well it scales up to larger parts though as you might need more than the little 2-3oz bottle it comes in. You may need to do a couple treatments to fully strip the finish off though unless you can get enough chemical to soak it entirely.

Weather is clear, game on!

can you point me out a link to the actual part? I'm having a hard time finding the spring i need for the Yugo M24/47.

I'm curious to know about the multiple gun thing too. I typically shoot in production but wouldn't mind getting a jump start on single stack classification.

Weather isn't looking so good for tomorrow. Any idea if they might cancel the match?

If the weather holds out, i'm in! The new 9mm carbine is ready to roll and i want to put her to the test. If not, i guess its 3-gun at Monmouth...

Steve, i tried several different mags in mine. Glock brand G19 and G17 mags and KCI G19 mags. Both brands of g19 mags ran perfect as long as you dont load them fully to 15 rounds. The reason being is that the overall tension of the bullet column in the mag makes it too difficult to seat the mag on a closed bolt (I imagine this is an issue with glock pistols too). Downloading them just 1 round make them work great in my gun. The same issue existed with the 10 round glock 17 magazine except being only 10 rounds means downloading it makes it not a very attractive or desirable capacity option. All mags dropped free without any problem.

It depends on the particular mag block what the specific pro's and cons are. But generally the bottom load ones will need some pressure tensioning mechanism so they don't fall out and make sure you check it from time to time. Top loaders will insert from the top and simply rest on the receiver and so they cannot fall out. Depending on the model, it may have some implications as to how the bolt hold open works, whether the stocker is retained or a proprietary one is used instead. Some slip in easily, some need the BHO removed, it all depends, but generally i prefer this style and the Hahn comes in this configuration. Hahn makes them all anyways (hahn, RRA and spikes) so they're all well made, just have different features to whatever the brand specifies. Not sure about the twist rate, I never had a selection so i just took whatever i have. Try searching the web for what the Beretta Storm, Keltec, Mechtech conversions, ruger PC9 and other 9mm carbines have as a comparison. I'll have to ask what mine is now that you bring it up.