Glock Race Gun-Phase (3) Better News.

Alright after the mighty FAIL that was mounting that regular C-More Slide ride to the top of  My G17 with that ‘The Accessories’ Mount.  (Which is for sale by the way).

I switched gears, did some horse trading, and got the rest of my package and now we have this:

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Improvements include:

  • LoneWolf Stainless Steel Match Barrel, locks up good-n-tight, threaded. (nabbed of ebay since LoneWolf was out of stock, good thing cause I saved a few bones).
  • LoneWolf Compensator
  • C-more STS 7MOA red dot.   I like it, but I also like my dots to look like dots and not ‘fish’.   I’m a little disappointed in the shape of this dot.  My TruGlo Red-Dot on the Ruger has a better defined Dot.
  • A Lonewolf (new design) Skeletonized Steel Striker and 4lb spring to further sharpen the trigger.Striker

So I swapped out the components, installed the barrel and comp, installed the sight, got all giddy, grabbed some ammo and headed to the range.

Bummer, the gun wouldn’t cycle.   I was skeptical when I bought the compensator because of the note on the product: “We highly recommend the use of LWD stainless guide rod and ISMI reduced power recoil springs with this product. Light loads or reduced power ammunition may not run reliably.

Well pfft, I already have an 11lb ISMI spring, on a captured stainless guide rod. I looked and ISMI doesn’t seem to make a 10 but I’ve inquired.  I know my loads are a little light but they aren’t super-light.

So back to the house, crank out 20 or so loads more loads with .5 more grains and grab a box of factory ammo.  Back to the range.  (Sure is nice that the range is in my back yard).

Some success but still not enough success, not even the factory Federal Red-box ran to my satisfaction.   So I called up Jeff, and talked it over with him.

I verified that I am running an 11lb spring.  Cranked out another 25 rounds with nearly a grain more than my standard round that cycled the gun perfectly before. Back to the range to test.

I giggled inside.   This thing is awesome.  

Now next up is the slide lightening.  Actually it involves getting a new LoneWolf Slide, one that hopefully is cut to using their Skeleton pattern.

Though I’m trying to get a feel for just how much weight savings that is.  Hopefully the lonewolf guy can answer that.  I’d surely hate to spend the coin and end up with insignificant savings.  I am also considering just strategically swish cheezing my factory slide.  Holes, lots of holes.

G17 SuperSlide

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There is still work to be done, but for now I should have ‘enough’ open gun to start making a couple guys sweat.   We’ll find out Saturday.  I wish I had more time to test, hope I don’t lay a big egg. Smile

Glock Race Gun-Phase (2) Bad news.

Ugh, this is unfortunate.

I shot the Ghetto bottom feeder Glock ‘open gun’ friday night.   Other than some dry fire practice it hadn’t been shot previously.  At this time the only thing that makes it open is the cmore.  Parts (Barrel, Compensator and other go fast parts) have been ordered but they have yet to arrive.

Stage 1, and Stage 2 went pretty well.   I was happy.   Then it happened on stage 3, a malfunction.   Tap-Rack and go.  I noticed I got a live round and an empty case. Hrm…

Then Saturday while shooting a bit at the range with a buddy I brought it out to show him.   He shot it and was kind of excited.  I shot it a couple time and again had a couple of issues.

Then Molly showed up and she wanted to shoot it so I sat back and watched.

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Sadly she too had a couple malfunctions and it was clear, the cartridge were being ejected straight into the Cmore, even though it was offset quite a bit.

About 1 in 20 times it would bounce straight back down into the chamber area and jam things up.   I wasn’t happy with this mount to begin with but am not excited about a mount that requires me to alter the frame.   So if you have a good source for a mount that allows me to use this Cmore rotated 90 degrees and doesn’t require me to modify the frame let me know.

Otherwise the plan now is to go slide mount with a smaller optic.

More as this unfolds.

Glock Race Gun–Phase (1)

OK, We just got back from the PSA Shootout and had an absolute blast. 

Unlike the local gigs around here where I’m able to shoot both my G19 and G34 in ‘stock auto’, cause, well they are basically stock (except for some trigger work).. In Palmyra I could only shoot one gun in each class.  

I elected to shoot the G19 in stock auto, and the (stock) G34 in Open Auto.   At every stage I’d whip that thing out and the RO would say “Hey wait, we have you down for Open Auto”.   And I’d tell them, no, that’s right, but I don’t have an open gun.

Anyway fast forward to the results.   I shot extremely poorly the first day with the G19.   Nothing wrong with the gun, I just laid an egg.   I was nervous, and had some mental break downs as well as fundamental break downs.

Friday I shot the G34 ‘respectable’  Not great but considering the previous days events, oh so much better.   Enough that I would have scored well in stock auto with that gun.   There is mucho room for improvement across the board.   But I can easily see, with some adjustments getting a Glock Race Gun in the top 25 in Open.

That’s right a ‘bottom feeder’ Glock Race gun.

I know what you’re thinking, this has been done, you should just go buy an STI or something.

Well I’d love to do that too, but I don’t have the funds.   I think I can build what I want out of parts I already have, with a few additions, and some bartering for under $400.     That’s the goal, heck I can probably do it for less than that even.  So here goes.

I’m starting with my G17, which was a GSSF won handgun so my cost there is literally the $25 FFL fee that I paid to get it to me.

Trigger work has already been done to my satisfaction. It comes in at around 2.8lbs. Let’s call that $40 in parts, plus a lot of polishing. That includes the connector, the trigger stop and some springs, some of which I already had.

I already had a C-More 6MOA red dot that I picked up last year, I just needed a mount.   $40 later via ebay and I have a nice external/frame mount.

This probably won’t be the be-all-end-all.   I think I really want a slide mounted small optic, but that would immediately blow the budget.   But I’m shopping on ebay and have some targets in mind.

With just those items we have a good start:

Glock_RaceGun_Phase_02

Yeah the mount, I don’t like it, but it’s a start.  I’m going to shoot this a few times and make some decisions.

Next up will be a barrel/comp combination.  Again, ebay and online auctions will be my source if possible.

Then slide lightening/milling.   I’m hopeful that will be low cost through one of my machinist friends.

I already have a plethora of Magazines (haha, thanks Jeff) which helps keep the costs down.   If I picked up another race gun I’d be faced with buying another bunch of mags for that one gun.  

I’ll post up more as this develops.  It could be a HUGE mistake, but then even if it is, it won’t cost me much to find that out as I’ll be able to re-use most of the parts.

More as this develops.

My Glock 19 and it’s new 3.1 lb Trigger

So last summer I had a semi-successful time shooting steel.   More importantly I had a boat load of fun and look forward to doing more of it this year.  During the couple weeks that I played at Friday Night Steel, I met a guy who slicked up my Ruger 22/45 so it would drop magazines, and who offered to slick up my Glock 19.

So last week I took him up on the offer.   He told me to order up the Ghost 3.5lb connector, and not to order any springs because he had them.

The only previous modifications made to this Glock were:  The front high-viz site, and the extended magazine release.   Other than that all internals were bone stock.  This particular Glock has about 3500-4000 rounds through it, possibly more.

Before we got started we measured the trigger pull with the gauge, and we consistently measured it at 8.5lbs.

(Note: the actual procedure took place last Sunday but tonight the Titanium trigger safety plunger arrived today so I’m installing that and taking photos.)

I had cleaned it well before he showed up and this is what we did:

My Baby:

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First and foremost we made sure it was unloaded (duh)

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Removed the slide and disassembled it.

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The Red arrow points to the shinny new Titanium Trigger Safety Plunger. ($17.00).

We did replace the Striker spring from the factory 8lb spring to I believe a 6lb spring.

Other than that everything else in the slide stayed stock.

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We also polished the bottom of my barrel, and the top mating surface of the locking block.  We didn’t change any angles or remove any edges, just a light polish.

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We installed the new Ghost Trigger Connector 3.5lb $12.95.   And polished (lightly) the radius on the trigger bar.   Again we did not change the shape of the trigger bar in any way.

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We polished the back and top of the trigger connector, and replaced the trigger spring, with a lighter spring, not much lighter though.  

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Just another shot with arrows showing the surfaces we polished.  AKA the $0.25 trigger job.

So with $12.95 in parts, after re-assembly the trigger tested consistently at 3.1lbs.   I can’t wait to go shoot it!

Thanks again to my buddy who shall remain nameless, but honestly he gets all the credit.   I know if you’re a Glock guy none of this is new or rocket science.

We just polished metal on metal parts, and replaced the connector with a lighter one, but I was amazed that we dropped 5.4 lbs off the trigger just by doing that.  The difference between this G19 and my G26 which is still stock is amazing.

I’m saving up for the Titanium Striker, but I want to see a difference with the changes we made and hope that we haven’t affected reliability.   My buddy doesn’t expect that we did.   Having watched him smoke the steel with a similarly slicked up Glock I’m really looking forward to the results.