1911 Picture

The other question

The reason we debate Glock (and clones) vs 1911 is to answer the age old question* “what hand gun should I buy”, usually asked by a new shooter. I have three criteria I’d use to answer this: 1) will you be treating that gun like a lawn mower or a classic Porsche 2) what fits in your hand 3) what will your carry routine be?

Finding one gun to meet your requirements in all three categories may be impossible, so you’ll have to accept some tradeoffs.

That may lead to learning to maintain your 1911, which is frankly not rocket science, and if you can change your oil and a flat tire you can learn to maintain a 1911.

It might also mean learning to deal with the ergonomics of a plastic double stack.

The best case you can hope for is that it gives you an excuse to buy several guns and use the appropriate one for the appropriate job.

AE

*Other than being bored, and having nothing better to do then argue on the internet.

Asking the wrong question

All the discussion of the 1911 platform over the last couple weeks got me thinking, and 4 pages of statistical analysis, discussion of abusing the central limit theorem, and questioning the link between the reliability of a pistol design to the reliability of the one in your holster* right now I came to this:

Magazines are the weak link for self-loading firearms.

If this assumption is, true does the Glock/XD/M&P vs 1911* reliability debate really come down to an inherent reliability advantage in double stack magazines over single stack magazines? This could come from two things: 1) a mechanical advantage to the double stack, because of the feed lips, the tapered upper mag body or the wider spring or 2) most of the mags for these guns are made by the company which designed the gun and the mag as a matched pair.

*I'll spare you my sleep deprived analysis.

AE

Gun Blogger Conspiracy Christmas

This year I participated in the GBC Secret Santa.

I got John the Texaner some parts for his AR build, and one of my 'training mags', basically guaranteed to cause at least one good jam per range trip, providing the user a training opportunity.

Wai got me an awesome vacuum mug. Shown in its natural habitat keeping my coffee warm during our southern Virginia winter.

I'll be keeping that present close at hand until we get around to summer weather again.

Thanks to Wai for a great Christmas present, and PDB for putting it together for us.

AE

1911s vs the World

I've been agonizing over this for a bit, because I think Lady Tam has a valid point about gear arguments on the internet, but Phlegmy's first soliloquy during the VC new years show convinced me to share.

GunNutmegger wrote a bit on why the 1911 sucks, and on the whole missed the point. He's got a couple things right on technical issues with the platform: many of them ship with shitty magazines, and there are boatloads of the same for sale in the after market; on the gun-smithing issue I'm unconvinced that most 1911s are less reliable or require more worth to get right than other auto-loaders. That said, the cheaply made guns, and the very top end highly tuned guns are exactly as reliable as you'd expect. My experience running a couple thousand shooters through IDPA stages is that Wheel guns are the most reliable (only ever have ammo or speed loader related issues) followed by the Glock or XD (rare mechanical issues, but average for ammo and magazine related issues) followed by all other auto-loaders.

Far and away the most common failure is Magazine related, usually either they break into multiple parts or just jam up from dirt and filth. No auto-loader is immune from this. Maintenance is the only solution here.

Those are the averages, some people just had either bad luck, or too much time to monkey with their guns. Every club has that guy, and no matter what gun he has it doesn't work, and design doesn't seem to matter.

One clear advantage of the Glock or XD design is the lack of cleaning required, but a 1911 with proper tolerances (see highly tuned or cheap above) is probably good enough for the casual gun owner who cleans the peace after shooting. Personally, the Kimber I carry every day gets cleaned every month, or every 1000 rounds.

And yes, it feeds hollow point or any other ammo you can find, with out issue, after more then 1000 rounds of my reloads (230gr at 950 FPS).

Now for the area's where I disagree with GunNutmegger:

Single action is no more or less safe then any other. NDs happen when people pull the trigger and heavy trigger pulls don't seem to make that much difference. I've yet to see any study done but from all the stories I've seen its across all designs. The 1911 itself doesn't seem any more or less safe, and if 95% of owners were unsafe we'd see it on CNN.

As for the thumb safety being too hard to operate: the folks who get confused by the thumb safety also get confused by the slide locking back on an empty gun. Practice with the platform corrects this issue fairly quickly. The amount of practice needed to properly operate the 1911 is the same as the amount needed to operate any other semi-auto.

The bottom line, and why the 1911 pattern still sells, is that it fits allot of shooters. The combination of a big steel frame, and the slow .45 bullet make for very manageable recoil. The single stack grip and the short trigger make it easy to hold for normal sized hands. The grip angle works for a lot of people. These are not universal statements, I've had several students who said all the same things about the glock and hated them about the 1911.

It seems more about what works for you then about there being a single right answer. To paraphrase Lady Tam: "The best gun is one you'll practice with and carry". And thats where I'll leave it: the right gun is the one that works for you.

AE

Top Tip for Trike Commuters

I realize that your shiney new trike has opened a new world of experiances to yor previously cage bound experiance, but unless you want that to include major surgery and the ICU here is a top tip from the cager in the truck next to you: 

Left Turn Only means we're going left.  If you are in the inside of the two left turn lanes and I'm in the outside turn lane you're either going left or under my rear wheels.  I'd rather you went left, personally.   

Fortunately for the idiot on the trike I was paying alot more attention to him the he was to me. 

Stay safe

Posted from my Droid.

Blackwater Day 2

Another day of shooters. 

Pictures and video to follow when I get home, but sun rise out here is nice.

For all the issues with following the course of fire, and using cove, I had no unsafe gun handling on my range.  All the shooters were very consciouse of muzzle control.  This was especialy critical given the number of doors to be opened.

Posted from my droid.

Black Water IDPA

Observations from the first day of competition at the 2010 Blackwater IDPA Shoot house Shootout:

This is the second year I've worked the match, and its interesting to see the varying styles of the SOs and the shooters.

Watching the shooters try to take cover in close quarters forces them to either move back to avoid crowding the cover, or expose to much of thier bodies.

the shooters are very good at diferentiating between shoot and noshoot targets.  But the extra queues (flashing lights on the frame) and opening doors cause confusion, or were outright missed.  Presumably because its not part of thier usual mind set.

The supprising thing to me was the number of folks supprised by thier guns running dry.  When the slide locks open they stand like a duck in thunder, or dont notice and try to pull the trigger harder.

Posted from my droid

Usefull Idiots

From the Lady Breda we get this. A former KGB agent, interviewed in 1985, speaks of the wonders of the Marxist-Leninist state.

He states openly: all the useful idiots will be rounded up and shot, because after they find out that a) in the New Marxist-Leninist state they will not be in power and b) its not a very nice place to live if you aren't in power, they will revolt. And former useful idiots make very deep enemies for a Marxist dictator. So they get shot first.

And the money quote: "If this happens (the Marxists come to power) there will be no where for you to defect to like there was for me. Unless you want to move to Antarctica and live with the penguins".

AE

NCRR IDPA Write Up

The Norfolk County Rifle Range hosts 3 IDPA club matches every month. I've made it too three of them since moving down here. The matches are well run, and consist of four indoor stages, often with one low/no light. The first thing to note is the SO staff: they're quite helpful and have a good system in place for getting new shooters up to speed, and keeping the rest of us in line.

For the size of the range four stages is impressive. The down side is moment is limited on a couple of the stages, and the round count is low on all. I have yet to need more then 50 rounds of ammo for the night. This is made up for but devilish stages that require a good plan, and careful execution.

Front site, press. Just keep repeating that.

The club is very well equipped with props and moving targets, and puts them to good use. This is good practice for big matches, where you will have to shoot at such contraptions.

My performance has been very satisfactory by my own standards, and not bad in the overall rankings. My times have been getting faster, and my points are staying very low, which is what needed to happen.

Match videos from last week:

You'll note how the black plastic 'wall' is moving when I shoot in the beginning of this one. That was seriously getting in my way seeing the targets. The tac-load is to have a full gun for engaging the popper and single exposure mover, then another on the way forward because I could, and it saves a slide lock load on the clock latter. Also note my attempt at a procedural error leaving cover too soon.


This one went great, except for the swinger at the end. In the end I got the points I needed on the target, but getting there was ugly. Also note in the beginning: there is a no-threat moving up range at the shooter, its only in the picture for a few frames, but this use of the 'normal' range wires added a very interesting dimension to the stage.