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As a follow up to the STI Costa thread I had the opportunity to do some testing ( nb. It’s not the U.K. - everything was Covid compliant). 

I wanted it to be unbiased and I wanted to do the vids. I enlisted the help of a couple of friends who shoot about 50k 9mm a year in practice. They have good technique. Consensus was the Shadow S2 does exceptionally well for the money ( about 3-4x cheaper than either of the other two). We have at least one Shadow 2 each so this is not news. The STI Costa was the softest and flattest shooting- you could run the trigger very fast. The Alien had the most abrupt recoil. Recoil is sort of sharp and direct. The video of the Alien shows a little muzzle dip but I didn’t notice this shooting.

The STI was the lightest and only one with a compensator - it works very well. Its not just a matter of reducing muzzle flip but that the muzzle returns to the same place after recoil ( return to perfect zero). You don’t want the muzzle to dip. Tuning and stroking  a pistol is an art. The STI is not eligible for shooting in the same class as the other two in IPSC - but I didn’t buy it as a game gun.

The Shadow 2 and Alien are competing together in things like IPSC optics Ready division...... if I am honest the Alien is superbly made  like the STI ( Shadow 2 is not in the same class quality wise) but I think the Shadow 2 eats the Alien for shoot ability.

Shadow 2

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rtR-NUAD-H-ZGohnBCy87uC0LPpwwtQf/view?usp=drivesdk

STI Costa

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hmCcVZEXXIZTcQzDO8lfNB7Y_vW9Q6I6/view?usp=drivesdk

Alien 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1d3S4qCQabFlWdtj7sxAqDCBzONTApK3I/view?usp=drivesdk

Did I say you can run the STI fast....

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17YmWhU8oXvFUeBQ07z6RKCliE_VS1Knt/view?usp=drivesdk

Lego wheels are the way forward !

Sako Finnfire Range. Replaced the end cap with a Lego wheel........ plenty of different shapes etc.

Alan, the Britarms was fine, just the slide hold open pin kept flying off. I moved on to a FAS 602.

Terry, still a connection, Alfa is Czech...... factory is in Brno. They supply the pistol sans cylinder to mr Westlake. Westlake also made the Britarms.

Chris Costa, I wanted that particular model..... the magnum PI over run I guess it is  because it has no slide markings, so no Costa Ludus billboard on the left hand side ( bottom pic). I can understand STI pairing with the likes of Costa and Taran (John Wick 3 pistol) to gain a foothold in a new to them market - good marketing maybe.

And a Britarms .22lr. That’s a blast from the past........ used to shoot one of them in a club in Penzance of all places.......30+ years ago.

Lapua, I would say it’s not like the Wild West. People are discrete. Of those that I know with CCW I would say at least half carry on a regular basis.

Random page from ‘ hunting bazar’ - cz version of gunbroker. Pistol section - it’s more or less all practical size - glocks, cz.

http://bazar.hunting-shop.cz/sekce/66-pistole/?&list=2

BD, done by test as part of your FAC. To get an FAC you need a doctors letter ( no mental illness, medication etc - that’s 5 year renewable). A physical shooting skills test - rifle, pistol and shotgun for hunters- consist of shooting competence test and disassembly/ reassembly and a written test - covers firearms law, first aid and technical aspects of firearms. The result is point based - more points = more categories you can have the lowest is collectors and the highest is concealed carry or open carry as part of your job ( cannot open carry otherwise). At the moment the FAC last 10 years ( except doctors cert) but you only need to do the test once. Provided you meet those conditions and obviously no criminal convictions you can have a FAC. It’s written into the constitution that people have a right to an FAC provided they meet the legal requirements.

Lapua,  CCW (Carrying a Concealed Weapon).....short version....concealed carry. It’s legal in CZ ( I think even protected under our 2A - Second Amendment type rights). Cz -11m population.......about 370,000 FACS of which 250,000 have CCW.

Ewen, I have tried it but only 20 rounds a while ago. Think of it like a Chiappa Rhino. Very little muzzle rise but the recoil goes back into your wrist - it’s quite a direct recoil. The 2011s that I have shot have less direct recoil and muzzle flip is controlled by the compensator.

The grip on the Alien feels nicer than the 2011  in my hands - it is very cz like. The gas system- same principle as HK p7 -/m13 etc and same issue - it gets hot, a German YouTube channel shot 50 rounds through it fast - around the trigger was 90+C I think. Barrel life may be an issue from what I’ve read on Czech forums - around 40k, not surprising considering the heat issues. This is not one season of IPSC shooting practice for some I know. It’s an IPSC game gun but some top shooters have used it and gone back to a Shadow 2.

Richard  makes the holster and bags for it so I would sooner cut my di*k off with a pair of rusty scissors than buy one but I fully acknowledge that as my personal bias. The Alien comes with much more kit than the STI like separate top rails with iron sights and an included RTS 2 red dot so I think is better value.

BD, glocks (g17 gen5 ) start about £600. These days the red-dot you put on it - (trijicon SRO pictured next to the Costa), cost about £750.......Holosun considerably cheaper.

I like Aaron’s take on cost - he’s talking about a Nighthawk, which does what the Costa does but at considerably more cost - but then again it is hand built by one gunsmith.

Derek the baseball cap I can do  The Hawaiian shirt......don’t know. 
 

No I deer, enjoy your retail therapy. Remember the key principles - see-want- buy

So birthday time, and it’s been a crap start to the New Year. Decided to cheer myself up......some will know on here that I own my own range in CZ and run courses for sport shooting, civi CCW , police. 70% of the time it’s pistol stuff and the rest carbine 9mm / 223 etc I want a pistol that I can CCW and also be a range toy that’s fun to shoot. The Cz Shadow 2 ticks most of the boxes but it’s heavy to CCW and I wanted something of better quality.

 I ended up with a STI Costa Carry Comp. it’s an integral compensated  2011 9mm that’s very well put together. I would describe it as middle of the road price wise at around £4K and not a custom gun. There are better- SVI, Atlas, AKAI, Nighthawk and others spring to mind but you can easily drop 6-8k for them. The 2011 design - basically a double stack 9mm was around in the U.K. I think just before the pistol ban - Caspian sold frame kits. The primary market is / was IPSC / USPSA but companies particularly STI ( name now changed to Staccato) developed the 2011 for more service / duty use. The Costa is an early collaboration with Chris Costa on a limited production run to get them into that sort of market place. The first run had Costas name on the left, side ports in the compensator and a flats on the barrel hood to match the slide tri-cut. They then did a limited (200) run for the Magnum PI series ( new version of Tom Selek ). It had black grips, no Costa billboard and solid compensator side walls. I guess after they made 200 they carried on making them with normal serial numbers and tan grips......which is what I have. 
 

The pistol feature a monolithic barrel and compensator, billet steel frame with plastic grip. Island front sight.  Trigger weigh is a bit heavy for me at 3lbs but reset is excellent. Tri-cut slide. Attention to detail is excellent- lack of any machine marks and the slide is as smooth as glass on the rails. It has it’s price.  I will try a trijicon Mount for the SRO on it but it will take time to arrive from the states.

I've not shot it yet - plan is next week to go to a private range - a bloke bought a cz Alien so want to get some testing impressions side by side against that- also happens he has his own legal shooting range in the basement of his house - 20m - as you do.

John, from the video and first comment a mate made here is that it’s only available in 6.5 Creed. In the equipment PRS race this is old news - 6mm something, particularly 6BRX being the latest fad. Also longer barrels are favoured.

Not the first time AI have made a dedicated competition gun though- they made a wooden stock version of the AW. I shot Bob Clark’s about 25 years ago at Milpool.

Marine and Mark..... 45 degree key slots. From the picture if whatever you attach comes loose it falls off - the release hole is at the bottom of the slot......... the grub screw next to each hole I guess is a lock to prevent this?

I’ve got the ar15 grip mod  from Alan on my AXMC, so I like that part ( some mates prefer the original AI grip however). I’m somewhat befuddled by the 45 degree key-slots-why? Bottom rail Arca Swiss?

Just personal opinion-it looks like another chassis rifle - Cadex , MDT etc. I guess CAD and optimal  production solutions are very similar these day.  It looks the same AT / AX bolt and receiver which is a good thing and uses same AI mags of course.

A PRS shooters wet dream I guess, with a key-slot fetish......and colour blind.

Are the rings on the right way around?  And do they have any cant in them?. I ask as I usually see cantilever mounts with the cantilever towards the front ( for ar15s). I have no experience with the product you are using - it’s just an observation from the picture - the rail obviously has a 20 degrees cant in it but I cannot tell from the pic if the scope is sitting parallel to it.

Pops another different  possible alternative is a mass driver - change spring  tension and alter the harmonics? It in effect does sort of what you and Matt talked about - changing barrel length as far as harmonics go..... you could regulate this.

The Annie barrel was also thicker at the end - maybe for the choke but also might haven influenced the nodes.

Pops,  Walther wa2000 had a tensioned barrel- they have a couple in Royal Armouries I had a look at...... not sure that I would call it tensioned or supported.  Go look for yourself. Or extend the bar around the barrel- it’s called a tube and tension that - Lothar Walther also did that as did PGM Ultimate Ratio - they even contoured some sleeves. Just skip to structured barrels - someone has already done their homework and made a viable product for that.  .... it’s a bit beyond a muzzle break strapped to a micrometer though.

1066, I’ve never understood the reason why 22 standard ammunition is produced ( in a 16” barrel @ 20c around the speed of sound .....343 m/s). Possibly way back when, it was only thought to be used out to 25m but now people seem to want to take it out a lot further ........maybe better off with subsonic to start with and not have to deal with transonic problems.......a bit like the venerable 45-70 for long range.

As an aside I also have a Sako Finnfire Range for 22 plinking......I never went to a Lija barrel or geissele trigger however - standard one did fine with a toy rubber car wheel stolen from the kids Lego set replacing the thread protector - a mini dick ring if you will. Still it’s high maintenance- Eley Tenex is its preferred diet ( I can buy 9mm cheaper here).

Have a look at the suppressor thread in the target and informal LR section. It’s discussed there.

A few caveats having played with these things over the last 20!years.  Tuners and barrel dick rings are based on modifying / flattening the harmonic nodes. Browning came out with a BOSS system to do this about 30 years ago and it has been the way forward for .22lr  where you cannot tune the load. However you start  (or at least I did) to notice when you fire 40 rounds of something like 300wm or larger in a relatively short time  that consistency can drop probably due to heat changing the harmonic nodes. Firing 5 shot groups can be fine. Depends on what you need and how much heat you are putting into the barrel. Try barrel ringing with a cold and hot barrel - the dead spots will change. 

Hand in hand with this there have been heat mitigation systems developed like blowing Co2 down the barrel to keep it cool.

About 15 years ago I played around with tensioned barrels in a PMG Ultima Ratio rifle - nice idea ( borrowed). The latest take on this is structured barrels- primarily for ELR kit but similar principle. I think Walther also make / made tensioned barrels.

 It’s  also a good reason / argument for having stiffer, shorter barrels. That’s where I am at the moment.

If you consider harmonics/ vibration induce heat then a structured barrel makes a lot of sense.

So I’m in a minority of one here, I have a Wilson expander mandrel die and mandrels for 338 and 308. I get the concept but when I test rounds in two 338 rifles and one 308 rifle I find more consistent velocity ES without using the mandrels ( around 15 FPS for 10 shots, so still not ideal). I have tested it with varying bullet lengths ( seating depths) above and below the donut. No ES reduction. Concentricity - measured at the case neck and just back from the bullet ogive is always acceptable ( 4 thou or under) with or without a mandrel.

Bottom line is does it improve anything- ES, accuracy or runout - if yes great I’ll do it , if not I won’t. Just started using an Autotrickler so I will re-test the mandrel process again - it’s possible any benefit was getting lost due to consistency variations from the Charge MasterLite. 

This ( also a thread about it a couple of post below).

Has been working well for me for about 2 years. Difficult for me to justify buying anything else.

I’ve always thought of a bore scope as being a nice to have thing but not essential. I’m too tight to pay for a Hawk-eye so I took notice when the likes of Erik Cortina started using a Teslong borescope. It cost about £120 including postage - well worth it considering you get a 4.5” display that you can record photos ( SD card), also usb / mini usb cable connections for pc or mobile (so video possible) 3 lens sets  that go up from 22 cal. Bottom line is it works and works very well. Model is ntg 450 with memory flex cable. The cost of the display is worth it to me ( I think this is about half the cost of the unit but available without it). The unit seems  very well made but obviously a ‘best China’ product.

Uses, obviously seeing barrel condition / throat wear  but more important for me is seeing how effective my cleaning methods are. Of the barrels that I have looked through I am not surprised that my Krieger 338 is the best but the AI 308 border barrel is not far behind. The cz pistol barrels by comparison look like crap - showing  much more copper build up and tooling marks.

This is a good place to start:

There is a balancing act between not wasting time reinventing the wheel and experimenting for yourself.

One example and it is about reducing ES is equating seating pressure to neck tension...... I took 6 fired cases  - 3 I left uncleaned  and 3 I polished the crap out  of the inside of the neck with steel wool and polishing paste. I then neck sized them with the same bushing ( and trimmed them) - so equal neck tension but massive difference in seating pressure (or so I could feel on the co-ax press with the polished ones being much  lighter to seat. . Next 6 more cases that had been through the Lem cleaner - inside of necks left like that - 3 through the same bushing die as before and three through an expander mandrel which which enlarges the ID by about 0.0005”, so neck tension had changed - on the co-ax hard to feel the difference when seating a bullet. Real world testing for me - rounds loaded with just the Redding body die and bushing neck die produced less ES and marginally better groups than ones loaded with the neck bushing die and expander mandrel after - this seems contrary to what others have found - I don’t really care - I can find what works for me.