Cottonland Hunting/Shooting Thread
- Thread starter wngrog
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I don't know.. Not sure I can trust something invented by a guy with the first name, Georg.
I am not sure 9mm has always been worthy.
It's lower impact is the reason my stepfather moved away from the 9mm and purchased the 10mm shown above for police duty in the 90's.
Today, ammo technology has improved considerably making 9mm worthwhile.
I don't have a 45acp 1911, but have it on the bucket list.
Really like the small frame 45's like this defender
Plenty of pistols in .45 that hold more than 7 rounds. 12 rounds with flush fitting (126mm) STI magazines in a 2011. 14 rounds if you want to go to 140mm length. 7 rounds in an officer sized 1911, 8 rounds in govt/commander 1911, or 10 rounds with extended mag.
Sig P320 in a .45 (carry or full size, not compact or subcompact) will hold 10 rounds of .45
I had one of those once... shot the target, put two holes in it. One from the bullet, one from the recoil spring and plug after the bushing sheared off. Unless they have improved the design over the last decade or so, I'd avoid the 3" "officer's" size gun. Stick with a 4" or 5".
It's not so much about what they like, it's about capacity. 21 of 40 >> 14 of 45. I honestly don't notice much of a difference between shooting a .40 out of a full size 1911 and shooting a .45 in terms of recoil.
SV makes awesome stuff. It's probably the finest gun you can buy. I am currently trying to decide whether to redo my grip with silicon carbide or fit a steel SV grip to it.
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I love the way my Glock 22 .40 shoots. It is super accurate. Smooth. Big enough but not too.
My sole gripe is the trigger safety eats my finger. I need gloves to shoot it much.
My sole gripe is the trigger safety eats my finger. I need gloves to shoot it much.
Or you could get some man hands.
Project CZ. The Poor Man's Shadow.
I'm bored. You will probably not find this near as interesting as the stuff Cam does in his garage, but I do have some pics of a recent project.
I bought my first CZ about a year ago. A CZ Sp-01 Shadow built by a top shooter/gunsmith in the Great State of Arkansas. This is the top of the line "production legal" CZ competition gun.
I liked it so much that I bought another. I liked that so much that I decided I wanted to try and trick out a CZ myself just for something to do and maybe make a decent carry gun out of it.
For CZ, the "Shadow" designator means that there is no firing pin block. I.E. like a 70 series Colt vs an 80 Series Colt. The problem with the Shadows is that they not produced in great volume and are in high demand, therefore they are expensive... to the tune of about $1500 per for one professionally tricked out or close to a grand in bone stock from the factory. The benefit of not having the firing pin block is that you can obtain a lighter trigger and a shorter reset because the trigger systems are less complicated. The draw back is that you can *allegedly* drop it and cause a negligent discharge.
So I didn't want to drop a G on a project gun just to see if I could do the work myself to get the trigger right, so what to do...??? Well fortunately, firing pin block safeties are a fairly recent (in the last couple decades) innovation driven by greedy lawyers, a litigious society, and corporate management that is scared s***less of getting sued. So any CZ made before about 1995 lacks this feature... These guns are colloquially called "Pre B's" because they lack the "B" designator that is found on most CZ's you will find these days, ie the CZ75B. The issue with that is that they were all made in the Soviet bloc and were never imported into the US aside from GI bring homes that were bought while stationed in Germany or what not. So most of what you find in the US are police/military trade in guns from some 3rd world s***hole... but the good news is that they are cheap.
I'm bored. You will probably not find this near as interesting as the stuff Cam does in his garage, but I do have some pics of a recent project.
I bought my first CZ about a year ago. A CZ Sp-01 Shadow built by a top shooter/gunsmith in the Great State of Arkansas. This is the top of the line "production legal" CZ competition gun.
I liked it so much that I bought another. I liked that so much that I decided I wanted to try and trick out a CZ myself just for something to do and maybe make a decent carry gun out of it.
For CZ, the "Shadow" designator means that there is no firing pin block. I.E. like a 70 series Colt vs an 80 Series Colt. The problem with the Shadows is that they not produced in great volume and are in high demand, therefore they are expensive... to the tune of about $1500 per for one professionally tricked out or close to a grand in bone stock from the factory. The benefit of not having the firing pin block is that you can obtain a lighter trigger and a shorter reset because the trigger systems are less complicated. The draw back is that you can *allegedly* drop it and cause a negligent discharge.
So I didn't want to drop a G on a project gun just to see if I could do the work myself to get the trigger right, so what to do...??? Well fortunately, firing pin block safeties are a fairly recent (in the last couple decades) innovation driven by greedy lawyers, a litigious society, and corporate management that is scared s***less of getting sued. So any CZ made before about 1995 lacks this feature... These guns are colloquially called "Pre B's" because they lack the "B" designator that is found on most CZ's you will find these days, ie the CZ75B. The issue with that is that they were all made in the Soviet bloc and were never imported into the US aside from GI bring homes that were bought while stationed in Germany or what not. So most of what you find in the US are police/military trade in guns from some 3rd world s***hole... but the good news is that they are cheap.
So with a bit of patience, I was able to acquire one off gunbroker for less than $400 including shipping and ffl charges... and as you might guess, it looks like it came straight out of heavy duty in a 3rd world s***hole.
I was being very selective, because this was the absolute prettiest one I could find. It looks like someone pitched it out the window of a car on I55... but she was a prom queen compared to the other ones I could find... and most importantly it was complete and still functioned as a firearm with a glorious 14lb double action trigger pull and a 8 lb single action pull.
I was being very selective, because this was the absolute prettiest one I could find. It looks like someone pitched it out the window of a car on I55... but she was a prom queen compared to the other ones I could find... and most importantly it was complete and still functioned as a firearm with a glorious 14lb double action trigger pull and a 8 lb single action pull.
So it was time to get to work. The main mission was to get the trigger on a par with my custom shop CZ's and to install some non-awful sights. Total disassembly is pretty straight foward. There are a lot of parts, you could build 10 glocks out of this thing, but it's really not any more complicated than anything John Browning invented in Utah before his state even had electricity.
Really the only specialized tools I needed was a starter punch to get the trigger pin out and a steel punch with a BFH to remove the rear sight. It is the tightest rear sight I have ever seen on a gun.
Here's another pic of how pitted the frame was. CZ uses a polymer coat on their guns that is super durable. I have no idea how rough you have to be with a gun to get it to look like this. I've had one with 30k draws on it that looked damn near new.
Really the only specialized tools I needed was a starter punch to get the trigger pin out and a steel punch with a BFH to remove the rear sight. It is the tightest rear sight I have ever seen on a gun.
Here's another pic of how pitted the frame was. CZ uses a polymer coat on their guns that is super durable. I have no idea how rough you have to be with a gun to get it to look like this. I've had one with 30k draws on it that looked damn near new.
So after disassembly, I polished and smoothed all the surfaces internally where metal touches metal, without changing any of the engagement angles on the sear and disconnector. This includes polishing the trigger bar, the hammer strut, the sides of the trigger, the sear cage, the faces on the disconnector, etc.. if metal moves against metal, I wanted it snot slick. These guns are very rough in terms of fit and finish from the factory, and still plenty rough after 20 years of duty in a foreign country. Most of the parts on the gun were fine to keep. The only parts I replaced was the hammer, the springs and the extractor. I could have used the hammer, but a CZ competition hammer changes the interface between the sear and hammer hooks and allows for a lighter trigger and removes the camming that you find in the factory ring hammer. The new hammer did require fitting to get the safety to engage. If you are cheap, the best way to accomplish this is to file on the cheapest part, the sear leg. If you are bold and want to be done with it in a fraction of the time, you can file the safety. I chose to file the safety as repeated assembly and disassembly of the sear cage to check for fit is an enormous pain in the ass.
One additional thing that I decided to do while I had it completely stripped down was to bevel the mag well a touch to remove 30 years worth of dents and dings that a mag could hang up on during a reload. So break out the dremel and a steady hand. It definitely makes it a bit more forgiving on speed reloads. But the magwell is still lacking when compared to a factory built Shadow.
One additional thing that I decided to do while I had it completely stripped down was to bevel the mag well a touch to remove 30 years worth of dents and dings that a mag could hang up on during a reload. So break out the dremel and a steady hand. It definitely makes it a bit more forgiving on speed reloads. But the magwell is still lacking when compared to a factory built Shadow.