The STI Returns

Last week the STI came back from the Gunsmith. New barrel, new extractor, new front sight. It's like having a brand new gun. The action is smooth, like to pieces of glass sliding across each other. The fit of all the new parts is excellent. It also turns out that my front sight height was off, so a new one was installed. The barrel has gain twist rifling, which is just a fancy way of saying that it starts off slow and speeds up down the barrel. I shot about 150 rounds thru it last week, this gun is smooth! All that is left now is a trip to the painter. Any body have any color scheme suggestions?

My apologies for the horrid photos, my camera isn't quite cut out to do the real close up pic's. I do like how the fiber optic in the front sight is slightly recceses, and it seems to glow brighter than the factory Novak.
As for the rifling, I tried to show how the twist accelerates down the barrel.


as usual, clicky to embiggen

My STI is no longer broken, but I am.

So the STI is up and running again. Repaired the grips that I broke, I think that I took the super secret Todd Jarret kung fu grip too far. I found a cracked firing pin and repaired that. I also installed a new mainspring housing and a larger magwell.

Double Tap is two weeks away and my confidence in this gun is not as high as it should be. I went to the range on Tuesday and fired about a hundred rounds thru it, no problems except that I seem to be developing a slight flinch. The solution? More dry fire and practice with the 22.

I shot the indoor match at Let's Shoot Gun Club last night. I performed very well when I slowed down. Yet again, or still, I am trying to go too fast and I start dropping points. I need to slow down and focus on my transitions. When I watch that front sight I do very well, I was running about .2 seconds behind the leader. But if I lose my discipline I start to go to fast and lose the front sight. If anybody has some good ideas about how to fix these problems, I would be very interested.

I don't have time to repair these issues before Double Tap, I have decided that I'm going to go and have fun, take my time and get good hits. I have no delusions about winning, so we will see what happens.

Lack of training time

The Double Tap championship in Wichita Falls is only a few short weeks away, and I have not gotten all of my training in. I have been plagued by gun troubles(the STI is down, again), and the real world is preventing me from sending as many rounds downrange as I would like. So my training has suffered, and my performance does not appear to be match winning at this point. Any ideas on how I can get more bang without the necessity of being on the range?

I also shot a USPSA match Sunday and noticed that I am having a problem on my target transitions. More specifically I'm already looking for the next target before I fire my second shot on a target. I'm not getting all of my hits because of it, and all I can think is, SLOW DOWN!

More later this week on how to repair your STI when you break the plastic pistol grip.

Awesome Stage

Normally, I would try and keep my ego in check, but, just this once I don't think that I will. 4 targets, 16 steel, 24 rounds 7.76 seconds. I know, I know, this is not a huge accomplishment except for I was shooting against the USPSA Limited C champion. His time? 7.75 seconds.

I know that I had some doubles on the steel, but I never claimed to be a master class shooter. Another thing that I noticed was how small the STI appears in my hands. That's a full 5" gun!

This match is held in a gentleman's converted, over sized garage.

He sets up 4 to 6 stages once a month. The rules are a combination of USPSA and IDPA, there is no equipment rules. There is a premium placed upon accuracy, you cannot shoot C's and expect to win. My overall standing out of 26 shooters? Third.

Finally, a good picture is as good as a good shot(unless you are a photographer in India). Please note the brass, the flash and the bullet in the air!

Stay safe, shoot fast, shoot true, but most importantly: 'Aim small, miss small'

Front Sight...Press

I can see what I'm doing! I can make head shots with-out having to think about where I have to hold!

I was slightly apprehensive about having Novak install adjustable sights on my STI, however, it was the besty money I've spent in a long time.

The turn around time was about a week. I sent them my slide and it came back clean with the slight smell of gun oil. And of course there was the shiny red fiber optic sights.