I received the SS guide rods yesterday but didnt get a chance to hit the range until today. I went through 150 rounds here (all Federal 115gr. FMJ), with another 50 by my friend which isnt the best shot so i left him out of the testing/review
So the gun ran GREAT with the SS guide rod in place! I had one FTL, but it was my fault as my finger slipped on the recoil and hit the slide stop and i literally caught the slide after the first round, i'll count that as my bad since i felt it and the other 149 rounds went flawlessly! I did multiple types of shooting from different distances, took some pictures of the targets and have the distances written down for each target and how i was firing. So, onto the first target!
@ ~10yds, i fired at target #s 5/6, slow, single fire shots trying to get a tight grouping. I then moved it back to ~15yds, and did the same thing for target #s 2/4, used 2 mags for each target this time. I then stepped it back again to ~25-30yds, almost al the way back of a 35yd. range and did the same thing for the triangle head target, again using 2 mags and shooting for accuracy. Damn this little thing is impressive! For the two center square targets, i started doing double taps @ ~20-25yds, just moved in a tiny bit and started shooting more like i would in a self-defense situation. At this particular in-door range they dont let you practice draw-firing, even if you have your CCW permit, etc. One of the few that wont allow it around me even if you have CCW, so i pulled the gun to my chest and went from there for the two square center targets doing double taps, and also the same type of shooting at the same distance for target #s 1/3. The top square was BY FAR my best shooting that day! 14 shots from ~20-25yds, all double taps, and 5 rounds went through basically the same hole, and keyholed another 4 shots basically. only pulled one shot to the left just a bit out of the square, the other 13 were all center mass, i was VERY happy with that, im not that good of a shooter . Can't do much better than that for defense double taps IMO at that distance with this gun '8)'. Here is a picture of that target:
Now for this second target, it was 50 rounds of strictly double taps from as close of a draw as i could get to without getting in trouble, basically having the gun at my stomach and coming up and out from there. I was shooting @ ~20-25yds with this target and was strictly doing double taps only, no slow shooting whatsoever! Here is a picture of that target. After going through 100 rounds my arms were a bit shaky when doing this so i may have been able to do a bit better since i didnt take a rest really, but this is how i shot, only missed with 4 rounds, all the rest were kill shots basically. Here is a picture of that target;
After going through the first ~21 rounds and making sure everything was functioning correctly, disassembling the gun multiple times to check for rubbing on the hole of the slide, damage to the guide rod itself, damage to the barrel, and any damage to anything that i could see or any unnecessary wear, i then proceeded to shoot the other 130rds. without a single problem! After all the shooting i definitely noticed that my double taps were tighter groups, and usually after ~100 rounds my hands are a bit tired and half of the time i dont even want to shoot anymore. I believe this reduced the recoil a bit because i shot 150rds and i could have shot 50 more before i would have started to get really shaky. Again, part of this could be because i have been practicing dry-firing just about everyday so that definitely contributes, but IMO with the recoil since dry-firing doesnt really help that, IMO the guide rod helped out noticeably adding that weight to the very front. Not only that, since it doesn't flex like the stock one does, the recoil spring has to compress more in order for it to eject the shell and have the slide move to the rear, i forgot to mention this but i did notice i wasnt throwing brass as far as i normally do, so there's proof right there that it tightens it up a bit! Not only that, but with the stock guide rod bending the inner spring, being so tight against the rod, gets caught up and doesnt have to compress as much, etc. Since the SS guide rod stays completely straight, you dont have the flexing problem and the inner spring wont start to eat up the stock rod like it did to mine after ~600 rounds, although still totally functional it did have noticeable indentations from the spring and barrel, since the stock one bends so much it definitely makes contact with the barrel/inner spring.
I also wanted to mention that i have a total of ~1k rounds through the gun now total. I have dry-fired the gun (i use A-Zoom snap caps just to be safe) ~2500 times to get the trigger pull down so im very steady with the trigger break. IMO being accurate with this gun has almost eerything to do with learning the trigger. If you can shoot other guns but can't shoot the LC9 for the life of you, practice dry-firing a couple hundred times and make SURE you dont jerk and stay on target even after the trigger break and is fully cycled, you should be on target steady until you start to release the trigger. If you jerk at anytime durning the trigger break, your shot placement is going to be off so if you're shooting all over the place, dry-fire it a bit at the target and see how you're jerking it. I notcied that i meeded to ue a bit more finger, almost to my joint and grab low on the trigger so that by the time the trigger breaks im pulling as straight back as possible so i dont jerk at all. With other guns that are bigger/full-size they break perfectly in the middle so you use the pad of your finger because that's where you're pulling straight back as the trigger breaks and it's the least likely that you'll jerk the gun doing that. Just something that worked for me, might not work for you but try different things and DRY-FIRE the gun!
Anyways here are the rest of the pictures i took of everything to show that there is no unnecessary wear and that my groupings are IMO VERY IMPRESSIVE for such a small, short barreled gun. Here are the rest of the pics;
So to wrap it up, the guide rods functioned GREAT! Still going to put a couple hundred more rounds through it to make sure they're GTG, but so far they're AWESOME! Not to mention it matches my polished barrel very nicely! (BTW in the last pic, i know that looks like a scratch mark along the whole of the guide rod, it tripped me out when i first saw it, but trust me it's just the reflection from my barrel )
As you can see from the pics, no unnecessary wear, no ovaling of the guide rod hole on the slide, or even noticeable wear on it from rubbing. No marks on the barrel (although i do have mine polished, if you'rs is blued you might notice a couple of tiny marks, insignificant though and wont effect the gun.) Only thing that was even a LITTLE BIT noticeable was the SS guide rod had the tiniest little indentations that could only bee seen and not felt if held up EXACTLY right to the reflection, otherwise you cannot see anything. (the stock guide rod in the same section is WAY worse since i have ~800rds though my stock guide rod, and trust me this is a big improvement, not to mention the barrel is harder than the guide rod so if anything the guide rod would get a mark on it, not the barrel (unless yours is blued , but even then the bluing around the very edge where it makes contact occasionally is already making contact with the slide because it took the bluing of mine of all the way around, so i doubt you'd notice any mark on the barrel unless it was a BRAND NEW GUN, never fired and you threw that guide rod in and used that only, for the first ~50 rounds yeah, you might see the bluing wear off faster right under the rod but thats it, it's BARELY possible for them to even make contact so im not the least worried about it, i was worried about it wearing on the slide but that seems to be a non-issue unlike kel-tecs!
So again, only thing NOTICEABLE, besides the reduced recoil , was a couple spring marks on the guide rod and those 2-3 TINY little indentations that are so tiny i didnt see them until i cleaned it all off and held it up perfectly to the reflection, and not only less recoil (i believe it feels like it has less recoil because the guide rod isnt bending, and it's DEFINITELY noticeable!) I tried for the life of me to capture the tiny indentations with my camera but couldnt. I talked to the maker and he said that's definitely not an issue, but to be 100% safe before he starts selling them to the general public he wants another couple 100 rounds through it so hopefully i can get that done here within the next week or two, then i can post up ALL ordering info, etc. for you guys to buy!
If you have any questions or something i was unclear on, please feel free to comment or ask! Thanks for checking this thread out and hopefully this product will be available very soon! If anyone wants to donate 2-300 rounds i'll get it done tomorrow But got to wait until at least thursday until i get another paycheck lol.. Anyways happy shooting to everyone and be safe!
EDIT: Here are your two choices of what type of tip you can choose for your guide rod.
Here's the rounded flat tip:
And here's the checkered tip that they offer for an extra ~$10:
This is the only option you get for your Stainless Steel Guide Rod, which tip you want. Like i said before, the checkered one is ~$10 more. BTW in the picture with the flat guide rod, with it sideways in the gun it looks like it has something on it if you look closely, but if you look even closer you can see it's my reflection! tripped me out at first
Please post in this thread and let me know if you're interested as production for them is going to start very soon and if your name is on the list you won't be waiting in line for one when the time comes, i'll have the list so i can give it to him and the orders can be placed, just be almost positive you are going to order one if you put your name down on the list. He does have a major website and you can order from there, however if there's not enough made the people on the list are guaranteed there's shipped out as soon as they pay! So you'll have your Stainless Steel Guide Rod in ~3-4 business days! Post now and let me know so you're not one of the ones waiting!
Happy shooting and be safe!
So the gun ran GREAT with the SS guide rod in place! I had one FTL, but it was my fault as my finger slipped on the recoil and hit the slide stop and i literally caught the slide after the first round, i'll count that as my bad since i felt it and the other 149 rounds went flawlessly! I did multiple types of shooting from different distances, took some pictures of the targets and have the distances written down for each target and how i was firing. So, onto the first target!
@ ~10yds, i fired at target #s 5/6, slow, single fire shots trying to get a tight grouping. I then moved it back to ~15yds, and did the same thing for target #s 2/4, used 2 mags for each target this time. I then stepped it back again to ~25-30yds, almost al the way back of a 35yd. range and did the same thing for the triangle head target, again using 2 mags and shooting for accuracy. Damn this little thing is impressive! For the two center square targets, i started doing double taps @ ~20-25yds, just moved in a tiny bit and started shooting more like i would in a self-defense situation. At this particular in-door range they dont let you practice draw-firing, even if you have your CCW permit, etc. One of the few that wont allow it around me even if you have CCW, so i pulled the gun to my chest and went from there for the two square center targets doing double taps, and also the same type of shooting at the same distance for target #s 1/3. The top square was BY FAR my best shooting that day! 14 shots from ~20-25yds, all double taps, and 5 rounds went through basically the same hole, and keyholed another 4 shots basically. only pulled one shot to the left just a bit out of the square, the other 13 were all center mass, i was VERY happy with that, im not that good of a shooter . Can't do much better than that for defense double taps IMO at that distance with this gun '8)'. Here is a picture of that target:
Now for this second target, it was 50 rounds of strictly double taps from as close of a draw as i could get to without getting in trouble, basically having the gun at my stomach and coming up and out from there. I was shooting @ ~20-25yds with this target and was strictly doing double taps only, no slow shooting whatsoever! Here is a picture of that target. After going through 100 rounds my arms were a bit shaky when doing this so i may have been able to do a bit better since i didnt take a rest really, but this is how i shot, only missed with 4 rounds, all the rest were kill shots basically. Here is a picture of that target;
After going through the first ~21 rounds and making sure everything was functioning correctly, disassembling the gun multiple times to check for rubbing on the hole of the slide, damage to the guide rod itself, damage to the barrel, and any damage to anything that i could see or any unnecessary wear, i then proceeded to shoot the other 130rds. without a single problem! After all the shooting i definitely noticed that my double taps were tighter groups, and usually after ~100 rounds my hands are a bit tired and half of the time i dont even want to shoot anymore. I believe this reduced the recoil a bit because i shot 150rds and i could have shot 50 more before i would have started to get really shaky. Again, part of this could be because i have been practicing dry-firing just about everyday so that definitely contributes, but IMO with the recoil since dry-firing doesnt really help that, IMO the guide rod helped out noticeably adding that weight to the very front. Not only that, since it doesn't flex like the stock one does, the recoil spring has to compress more in order for it to eject the shell and have the slide move to the rear, i forgot to mention this but i did notice i wasnt throwing brass as far as i normally do, so there's proof right there that it tightens it up a bit! Not only that, but with the stock guide rod bending the inner spring, being so tight against the rod, gets caught up and doesnt have to compress as much, etc. Since the SS guide rod stays completely straight, you dont have the flexing problem and the inner spring wont start to eat up the stock rod like it did to mine after ~600 rounds, although still totally functional it did have noticeable indentations from the spring and barrel, since the stock one bends so much it definitely makes contact with the barrel/inner spring.
I also wanted to mention that i have a total of ~1k rounds through the gun now total. I have dry-fired the gun (i use A-Zoom snap caps just to be safe) ~2500 times to get the trigger pull down so im very steady with the trigger break. IMO being accurate with this gun has almost eerything to do with learning the trigger. If you can shoot other guns but can't shoot the LC9 for the life of you, practice dry-firing a couple hundred times and make SURE you dont jerk and stay on target even after the trigger break and is fully cycled, you should be on target steady until you start to release the trigger. If you jerk at anytime durning the trigger break, your shot placement is going to be off so if you're shooting all over the place, dry-fire it a bit at the target and see how you're jerking it. I notcied that i meeded to ue a bit more finger, almost to my joint and grab low on the trigger so that by the time the trigger breaks im pulling as straight back as possible so i dont jerk at all. With other guns that are bigger/full-size they break perfectly in the middle so you use the pad of your finger because that's where you're pulling straight back as the trigger breaks and it's the least likely that you'll jerk the gun doing that. Just something that worked for me, might not work for you but try different things and DRY-FIRE the gun!
Anyways here are the rest of the pictures i took of everything to show that there is no unnecessary wear and that my groupings are IMO VERY IMPRESSIVE for such a small, short barreled gun. Here are the rest of the pics;
So to wrap it up, the guide rods functioned GREAT! Still going to put a couple hundred more rounds through it to make sure they're GTG, but so far they're AWESOME! Not to mention it matches my polished barrel very nicely! (BTW in the last pic, i know that looks like a scratch mark along the whole of the guide rod, it tripped me out when i first saw it, but trust me it's just the reflection from my barrel )
As you can see from the pics, no unnecessary wear, no ovaling of the guide rod hole on the slide, or even noticeable wear on it from rubbing. No marks on the barrel (although i do have mine polished, if you'rs is blued you might notice a couple of tiny marks, insignificant though and wont effect the gun.) Only thing that was even a LITTLE BIT noticeable was the SS guide rod had the tiniest little indentations that could only bee seen and not felt if held up EXACTLY right to the reflection, otherwise you cannot see anything. (the stock guide rod in the same section is WAY worse since i have ~800rds though my stock guide rod, and trust me this is a big improvement, not to mention the barrel is harder than the guide rod so if anything the guide rod would get a mark on it, not the barrel (unless yours is blued , but even then the bluing around the very edge where it makes contact occasionally is already making contact with the slide because it took the bluing of mine of all the way around, so i doubt you'd notice any mark on the barrel unless it was a BRAND NEW GUN, never fired and you threw that guide rod in and used that only, for the first ~50 rounds yeah, you might see the bluing wear off faster right under the rod but thats it, it's BARELY possible for them to even make contact so im not the least worried about it, i was worried about it wearing on the slide but that seems to be a non-issue unlike kel-tecs!
So again, only thing NOTICEABLE, besides the reduced recoil , was a couple spring marks on the guide rod and those 2-3 TINY little indentations that are so tiny i didnt see them until i cleaned it all off and held it up perfectly to the reflection, and not only less recoil (i believe it feels like it has less recoil because the guide rod isnt bending, and it's DEFINITELY noticeable!) I tried for the life of me to capture the tiny indentations with my camera but couldnt. I talked to the maker and he said that's definitely not an issue, but to be 100% safe before he starts selling them to the general public he wants another couple 100 rounds through it so hopefully i can get that done here within the next week or two, then i can post up ALL ordering info, etc. for you guys to buy!
If you have any questions or something i was unclear on, please feel free to comment or ask! Thanks for checking this thread out and hopefully this product will be available very soon! If anyone wants to donate 2-300 rounds i'll get it done tomorrow But got to wait until at least thursday until i get another paycheck lol.. Anyways happy shooting to everyone and be safe!
EDIT: Here are your two choices of what type of tip you can choose for your guide rod.
Here's the rounded flat tip:
And here's the checkered tip that they offer for an extra ~$10:
This is the only option you get for your Stainless Steel Guide Rod, which tip you want. Like i said before, the checkered one is ~$10 more. BTW in the picture with the flat guide rod, with it sideways in the gun it looks like it has something on it if you look closely, but if you look even closer you can see it's my reflection! tripped me out at first
Please post in this thread and let me know if you're interested as production for them is going to start very soon and if your name is on the list you won't be waiting in line for one when the time comes, i'll have the list so i can give it to him and the orders can be placed, just be almost positive you are going to order one if you put your name down on the list. He does have a major website and you can order from there, however if there's not enough made the people on the list are guaranteed there's shipped out as soon as they pay! So you'll have your Stainless Steel Guide Rod in ~3-4 business days! Post now and let me know so you're not one of the ones waiting!
Happy shooting and be safe!