More Pistol Choice Advice Needed

Brian Lafferty · Post by **Brian Lafferty** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 7:37 am

conradin wrote:Brian,

Take a look at Matchguns too.

Don't they rebrand under the Gehmann label? Think I read here that there were some mechanical issues with them. I've seen them at Airguns of Arizona. Anywhere else here that they can be had.

william · Post by **william** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 8:00 am

Champions Choice lists the MG1 Hybrid.

Brian Lafferty · Post by **Brian Lafferty** » Sun Jul 14, 2013 8:07 am

william wrote:Champions Choice lists the MG1 Hybrid.

lol
you beat me to it.

jcar · Post by **jcar** » Mon Jul 15, 2013 7:13 pm

Don't forget the Walther LP400. You can get the carbon barrel if you don't like an aluminum shroud.

Brian Lafferty · Post by **Brian Lafferty** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 7:39 pm

jcar wrote:Don't forget the Walther LP400. You can get the carbon barrel if you don't like an aluminum shroud.

Looks lke it will be the Benelli. Driving up to loo at it and likely purchase one tomorrow. Thank you all for the ifo, advice and opinions.

Rover · Post by **Rover** » Thu Jul 18, 2013 7:51 pm

I only owned one Benelli (a .32 match pistol). I thought it was extremely well made.

Brian Lafferty · Post by **Brian Lafferty** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 8:46 am

Rover wrote:I only owned one Benelli (a .32 match pistol). I thought it was extremely well made.

My brother has a semi-auto Benelli 12 ga shotgun. Beautiful firearm.

Brian Lafferty · Post by **Brian Lafferty** » Fri Jul 19, 2013 9:29 am

Kite is ordered. Should have it by Tuesday. :)

Brian Lafferty · Post by **Brian Lafferty** » Mon Jul 22, 2013 3:40 pm

The Kite arrived today from Larry's in Maine. Nice case, two cylinders and a Kite with a med. LH grip. The grip was too snug until I extended the shelf slots downward by around 1/8th inch. I also had to round two edges that were digging into my palm. Feels quite comfortable and stable. Compared to my P-11 Piccolo with the P-44 grips, there is noticeable muzzle flip with the P-11 compared to the Kite. I easily shot near my personal best for 40 shots after perhaps 50 rounds and adjusting the grip. Nicely made pistol. In the hands of a really good shot, it must be even better. ;)

Brian Lafferty · Post by **Brian Lafferty** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 9:01 am

The Kite is wonderful. Only one glitch. One of the cylinders has a leak. Sent it back and will get a replacement. Folks a Larry's are quite nice and helpful.

My groupings are better with the kite. Now to eliminate those lapses that lead to 6 ring hits. lol

So far the pistol itself is a flawless performer, unlike me.

conradin · Post by **conradin** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 3:35 pm

Congratulations. Please make further posts about the kite in the near future.

Gwhite · Post by **Gwhite** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 6:12 pm

I'm driving up to Maine tomorrow morning to pick up 4 Kite Junior's for the MIT team. That will bring our total Kite collection up to 16, and we've been pretty pleased with them.

We got four new Kite "Seniors" earlier this year, and before I let the team have at them, I tuned them up a bit. I can't find my notes at the moment, but I remember there were a couple of things:

1) The rear sight notch was set too narrow & too shallow for my liking. I cranked them open to about the widest & deepest settings.

2) The factory trigger setting was very heavy. In some cases I think it was over 700 grams. I set them down to around 550 or so.

3) From some previous discussions here, the pivot screw that holds the dry fire lever in place tends to work loose. There is actually a locking screw below the screw in question. I took out both screws, cleaned off any oil, and put a tiny dab of purple Locktite on the pivot screw. One note from the manual that I think may be crucial is that the dry fire lever should only be operated when the pistol is cocked.

The one problem several people have encountered is that after a lot of shooting, the trigger mechanism wears, and the pistol may discharge when the loading lever is pushed down into place. There is a trigger adjustment screw ("G") that you can turn counterclockwise to fix this. One thing that seems to help is to cock the pistol by pulling back on BOTH ears. I think this ensures full sear engagement. Adjusting Screw G affects the trigger pull, so you may have to go back & tweak the weight a bit after fixing the sear engagement.

We have one or two with more serious issues. I haven't had time to try to diagnose them further. In general, they have been reasonably reliable, and they can shoot quite well. One of our top students switched from a Morini to a Kite this year, won the Collegiate Sectional with it, and made All American.

Larry tends to be heavily backlogged with repair work, so over time I hope to be able to learn how to fix a lot of Kite issues myself.

Brian Lafferty · Post by **Brian Lafferty** » Thu Jul 25, 2013 7:28 pm

Gwhite wrote:I'm driving up to Maine tomorrow morning to pick up 4 Kite Junior's for the MIT team. That will bring our total Kite collection up to 16, and we've been pretty pleased with them.

We got four new Kite "Seniors" earlier this year, and before I let the team have at them, I tuned them up a bit. I can't find my notes at the moment, but I remember there were a couple of things:

1) The rear sight notch was set too narrow & too shallow for my liking. I cranked them open to about the widest & deepest settings.

2) The factory trigger setting was very heavy. In some cases I think it was over 700 grams. I set them down to around 550 or so.

3) From some previous discussions here, the pivot screw that holds the dry fire lever in place tends to work loose. There is actually a locking screw below the screw in question. I took out both screws, cleaned off any oil, and put a tiny dab of purple Locktite on the pivot screw. One note from the manual that I think may be crucial is that the dry fire lever should only be operated when the pistol is cocked.

The one problem several people have encountered is that after a lot of shooting, the trigger mechanism wears, and the pistol may discharge when the loading lever is pushed down into place. There is a trigger adjustment screw ("G") that you can turn counterclockwise to fix this. One thing that seems to help is to cock the pistol by pulling back on BOTH ears. I think this ensures full sear engagement. Adjusting Screw G affects the trigger pull, so you may have to go back & tweak the weight a bit after fixing the sear engagement.

We have one or two with more serious issues. I haven't had time to try to diagnose them further. In general, they have been reasonably reliable, and they can shoot quite well. One of our top students switched from a Morini to a Kite this year, won the Collegiate Sectional with it, and made All American.

Larry tends to be heavily backlogged with repair work, so over time I hope to be able to learn how to fix a lot of Kite issues myself.

1. Mine is set this way. After maybe 300 rounds I am kind of liking it that way. My P-11 is wider and deeper and I find it is now ummmm less easy to sight. Who knows where I'll wind up with it.

2. I haven't actually measured mine but it seems very similar to my P-11 which is at about 550g.

3. I've heard about the dry fire pivot screw from another area shooter. So if I just don't use the dry fire at all.........?? :)

I've been using two fingers to open and close the loading lever. I was afraid of bending it by using one side only. Time will tell if this is related to any sear wear.

Just did a first 60 shot practice match and bettered my previous best score by 3 points. My immediate goal is to be another 10 to 15 points better by September. Hope springs eternal.

Good shooting.
Brian