[m102404]

I picked up a package deal that had a bunch of TM 226 parts, a G&P slide, a Guarder frame/slide kit and a bunch of other little bits.

This was my first in-depth into a TM 226, whereas previous experience was limited to KJW Glocks and TM HiCapas.

After messing around with the setup as I received it (TM lower, G&P upper), I swapped everything into the Guarder kit.

The 226 is currently setup with:
- Guarder frame/slide
- Dytac night sights
- enhanced hammer spring
- enhanced recoil spring
- G&P metal outer barrel (threaded but thread adaptor/silencer not installed)
- 6.03mm tightbore
- stock piston head (nineball head removed...it was binding really tight on the piston)
- stock piston/nozzle
- Firefly power valve
- Firefly HiFlow valves (on 3 mags)
- Firefly ball bearing recoil guide

After a couple of hours of fiddling, the pistol shoots and cycles fine. However, the first few shots (1-3) vent a lot of gas from the blow back unit. After those shots, the pistol shoots "normally".

The internals are certainly used...but don't look too bad. Everything is lubed and moving smoothly.

I'm not sure if it's due to the extra venting from the first shots, or from the highflow valves, or from the enhanced hammer spring...or a combination of all three...but I only get 15 (shot 1 to 15) reliable shots before the pistol sounds "weak". Definitely by the 19-20 shot it's out of gas.

Q. Is that the typical number of shots for a 226 with the above upgrades? Perhaps I'm spoiled by the near-bottomless gas reserve and miserly gas usage of a HiCapa.

Q. Is there anything to do to alleviate the excessive venting on the first few shots? It doesn't really bother me...but it does sort of.

Not that I'm expecting this pistol to be a tack driver...but I'd like the shots to be consistent from first to last.

I've got a bunch of stock parts that I can swap in and out...but before I did that I wanted to get feedback from those with more 226 experience than I.

Thanks,

Tys