Oh, well.
This is what I brought to the range:
A generic 1911A1 in God's Own Caliber and a S&W Model 66-8. Before going to the range, I loaded a shitload of magazines and speedloaders, so that I could maximize the time shooting.
This is how the Model 66 did at about 30' or so, shooting double-action:
Later on, I kept up a good rate of fire with the Model 66 to see if I could make it fail in the same way as its predecessor did. I got the cylinder too hot to comfortably touch, but the gun kept working. I now have Pachmyer wraparound compact grips, which are nice, but the gun still is not fun to shoot with heavier-bullet .357s.
As for the 1911, it has a SFS kit installed. What I like about the mod is that it facilitates hammer-down carry, which is less likely to snag clothing. What I don't like about it is that the trigger now feels like a target trigger. The next time that I detail-strip the gun, I will probably bend in the trigger-return leaf of the sear spring. I shot Wilson magazines; 47s, 47Ds and ETMs. The slide would not lock back on firing with an empty mag on the 47Ds, but would on the others. It's kind of a known problem with 47Ds and these have new springs. (They will lock the slide back if the slide is manually pulled back.)
A good day at the range, followed up with some gun-cleaning.
4 comments:
Nice shootin', Text. Those Pachmyer grips are good but .357s are just not fun to shoot.
So you carry the 1911 with chamber loaded and hammer eased down?
The army standard carry method for the 1911 in 1969 was magazine loaded but no round in the chamber. You wracked the slide as soon as you clawed the thing out of the leather flap holster (the kind the cops of the day called a 'widowmaker').
Pretty fast actually but it does take two hands. There is basically no way I'd carry any single action holstered and cocked with a round in the chamber, dont care how many mechanical safeties it has. Though I think that's what John Browning had in mind.
So you carry the 1911 with chamber loaded and hammer eased down?
No, I don't.
Here's how the Safe Fire System works: You chamber a round and the gun is cocked. Instead of applying the safety, you push forward on the hammer. The hammer goes down, most of the way, and the safety springs up. When it is time to shoot, you click off the safety and the hammer springs back into firing position.
It's available for Browning High Powers and 1911s. The hammer in the kit does away with the spur and it eliminates hammer bite without needing to add a dovetail. There is less snagging of clothes.
For LEO use, there are retention holsters for guns with the system and it eliminates the sight of a cocked hammer, which seems to bother some people.
Yah, a snub-nose .357 with full load is definitely not fun. A longer barrel make them much nicer to shoot, at the expense of weight and concealability of course.
I'm about to buy a 1911 here in California. It's one of the few pistols we're actually allowed to own here thanks to the insane California law that only allows grandfathered pistol types to be sold here (since any new pistol types need non-existent micro-printing technology to be sold here). Plus if we're going to have insane magazine limits, I at least want a pistol that makes big holes in what it shoots at.
While we din’t have an approved gun registry here, we have capacity limits. So there is no point in carrying a full-sized 9mm.
Hence the 1911. But if recoil gets to be an issue as I age, a .38 Super or 9mm 1911 may be the ticket.
Post a Comment