twikster

I'd never bother to own such stuff, and what I am seeking is a comparison with what we were doing back in the day. 7 seconds, all A's, was a very fine score, but that was before the mag well funnel just handed guys a free .50 second reduction in reload time. I mean the full 10 yd distance, now, and the full 3 yds from edge to edge on the targets, surrender start, facing uprange, 180 degree pivot as you draw.

I've run the Cooper a time or two, and gone to several others. I had no idea IPSC had become so wimpy. We shot the Cooper, albeit with a 4 ft wall, at the 1978 US Natl's. Many guys loved the Cooper.

They did size the bullet to .356" tho, IIRC. They used 4.5 grs of unique, for 1050 fps, in a 5" barrel. In the American Handgunner, maybe 10 years ago, a 5" 9 easily made major in IPSC, using the Lee multigroove bullet and lee lube, and AA-7 powder. I forget the charge wt. 7 grs or so, and they said it wasn't even plus p pressures.

unless that powder is REALLY filthy, 1000 rds shouldn't even smoke the extractor tunnel. Have you had it near sand or some other sort of hard debris? It sounds like "stem bind", which is usually due to having slightly too long a barrel link. Are the cases dented on the sides? A sort of half moon mark on them pretty well id's this sort of malfunction.

I no longer go to the practice range with only one gun! :-) It probably isn't true, but it sure SEEMS like the times I tried to do this, something always ruined the day. I"m not saying that I had 2 of a kind, tho. It might be 1-2 1911's and an AR, or a pocket 9 might be part of the load, etc. Then the trip doesn't get wasted. I used to have to drive 50 miles to shoot. that's no longer true, but the times that things went wrong really sucked.

If I was interested, I would. I'm not, tho. Maybe one day,again, but not now.

of novice and intermediary guy's speed? A lot of this is "just" athleticism, of course. I'd like to see how today's guys do, as vs the 19 seconds or so posted in my day, with 7 shot 1911's. The course is a draw and 2 hits on each of 2 targets at 15 yds, reload and holster, then run the 15 yds, get over a 6 ft high barricade (a step is on it, at 3 ft of height) land, draw, and get 2 hits on each of 2 targets at 10 yds, reholster, run 8 yds, crawl thru a 2 yd long "tunnel" of easily knocked down boards (each one a 5 second penalty). When you emerge from the tunnel, you must function weak hand only, move 2 yds to a barricade with an 18" window in it, at kneeling height. Draw WHO, and hit one target 2x, and hit the stop plate. The range is 7 yds. With a double stack mag, I'd say that a young guy can do this in 16 seconds, with a space gun, maybe in 14 seconds.

Surely with all the advanced gear and training, some spectacular times could be demoed? What killed it off, IMHO, was the use of sloppy-loose unsafe "open front" holsters and the "hand hovering above the gun" starting position, This is the start used in Western Fast Draw. They do have to lift the SA revolver out of the rig, an inch or two, and they do have to hit a torso at 5 yds (wax bullets and primer only) and their 5 shot averages are in the .30' s, or so I am told. The only time I saw such a shoot was in the 70's. and a time in the high .50's won it. The SWPL record was .57 sec, IIRC, using an open front rig, a 6" revolver, and a 1 hand point. Bill French tried that for 8 years straight, Mike Dalton told me, until he put 5 hits together. I had an open front, and with only a few hours practice, got Weaver hits averaging in the low .60's, and the SWPL "retired" the match! With surrender start, and a rig that will actually hold the gun, and 10" A zone at 7 yds, I'd say today's guys ought to be getting 5 shot averages in the .60's. TGO once said that his wife could demo times in the .80's, at 10 yds, with a concealable (but openly worn) rig. That was in American Handgunner, I believe. From what I see posted here, the guys are giving away about .20 second, because they haven't truly worked on their draw speed. Now perhaps this is done with a reason, because such speed hurts accuracy at longer ranges, maybe causes a grip that is "bad" enough to ruin subsequent shots. I never was much at ranges beyond 10 yds, but I was hell on wheels at 5 yds and less. s

In karate training for the "chop" (shuto, or "knife hand) strike, they work on side to side strength of the fingers. My instructor had a hunk of what looked like truck mud flap matherial. It had 4 holes poked into it. He'd squeeze it together like it was sponge rubber. I don't know what all else he did for his grip, but he could grab you by the gut or the buttocks, and you could NOT jerk your way free of his grip. He could also thrust his spearhand (fingertip strike0 halfway up to his elbow into a box full of gravel. I've worked with a sandbox a bit, thrusting into it, gripping, and spreading the fingers against sand-resistance, and in a few months, you can see the increased size of your tendons. An orthopedic surgeon said that you have no muscles in your fingers, only tendons. The muscles are in the other part of your hand. Dunno, myself.

I could usually do 2.0 seconds at 7 yds with the basic GM, but my draw and hit was around .65, hands at sides, which left quite a bit more time for the other 5 shots. I never could get over the silliness of just standing there, in the open, taking too much time, at longer ranges. So I worked at being faster "close up".

do you fire with a foot in the air only, or both on the ground only, or does it make any difference? I've only done the Mex Defense course on the move, and it's very slow. I've done fast assault courses, but unless it was like 10 ft, I always stopped for the shots, or got too many non-A.s A few complete misses, too, under big time match stress! :-)

TGO has put on a bit of wt since his early days. :-) Dunno about shooting in place, but it probably hurts his assault course times.

The only time I've ever seen that sort of bulge was after cases were reloaded like 20 times each (carbide sizer) with no tumbler available. I've cut slides to Detonics length, I would think that makes them as light as any cutting you could do and leave them GM length?

The Bill Drill helps you learn to "get rolling', but including a draw in things just complicates the evaluation. If your draw and first hit takes .80 second, instead of .60 second, and your time overall is the same, then your other 5 shots were a lot faster, to make up for the .20 second slower draw and hit.

On ANY frame? I've seen Colts with pin holes that were OBVIOUSLY not at 90 degrees to the frame. I"ve seen pretty wide variances of the distance between sear pin and hammer pin. Also in the angles between the 2 parts. Can you really demonstrate some sort of a easily discernable advantage to the lighter trigger, faster repeat hits on one target, mabybe?

Wow. I always see my "guy" clutching his chest and falling. :-) Sorry, couldn't resist that. chalk it up to being a "martial artist", I guess.

I"ve seen bullet lube cause tumbling. Specifially, the green RCBS lube. The RCBS rifle lube, or Tamarack 50-50 Alox/beeswax lube fixed the prob, same barrel, bullet, alloy, powder charge.

Siefried supposedly put 1/2 million rds of ball duplication loads (230 gr lrn cast bullets) thru a pair of 1911's on his way to becoming the 1981 IPSC world champ. The last time it was won without a compensator. he fired 100,000 rds per year (300 a day) for 5 years. He said he had to replace the barrels and tighten the slide every 50,000 rds. The wear that bothered him was not in the bore, but between barrel and bushing, slide, and frame. I once had one gun that had seen 30,000 cast loads, 200 grs at 750 fps, mostly, and after fitting a new collet bushing, it shot 2" for 5 shots at 50 yds, repeatedly, using 185 gr jswc match ammo, in a Lee machine rest.

I"ve seen peening signs at the stop-point, where the slide's lower "tunnel"drives the recoil spring guide back into the frame. I've also seen the frame torn out, at the little area below the mainspring housing (MSH). that is a huge weak spot in the 1911 design. I always bypass it by means of a pair of setscrews, thru the frame and into the sides of the MSH. That is so radical a solution, however, that everyone else considers it to be "butchery". I don't engage in it except for alloy frames, or for something on the order of a 460 Rowland.

I"ve done many 1911 sear jobs with the Tom Wilson sear jig. I never did see that the hammer jig accomplished anything. I just used the old Nat'l Guard technique of putting an .018" thick feeler gauge in the full cock notch, and stoned the notch edge down until the layout blue showed contact with the feeler gauge. Then the hammer is held in one hand, and run along one corner of the stone, switching sides with each stroke, until the notch is square. I never tried to get much under a 4 lb pull back then, tho, because the sear and hammer pin holes in the frames had too much variance. That might be fixed on a high grade frame today. Dunno. The guys get reliable 1.5 lb pulls somehow, or they say that they do, anyway. :-)

as for what a couple of guys can do, who started with the best gear, the best coaching, were never allowed to make a mistake (like firing without ear or eye protection) never had to do much of anything but shoot, who fired say, 100,000 rds a year, one day's "results", on one match, doesn't seem too pertinent as to an evaluation of a general learning method, for others less blessed in the way of time, money, coaching, etc.

the x ring is only for breaking ties, right? so unless you first fire a perfect score, the x means nothing.

That sort of depends upon the range to the target, distance between targets, and who you are shooting against, doesn't it? If you are at a big match, and the big boys are there, I'd say 50% of the time, speed of repeat hits matters a lot, if you are trying to run with the big dogs, anyway. If you are in C or D class, no it doesn't matter. If 10 good ol boys with Star 9x23's are behind Fred's barn, it doesn't matter, either. At ranges beyond 25 yds, it doesn't matter.

I held down a full time job, carried 12 credit hours in college on the GI bill, cast all my own bullets, loaded all my own ammo, did my own smithing, taught others, reloaded and cast for them, and still shot A class, back in the day. Didn't have time for anything else, tho.

Normally, when I have this happen, it's because I was a bit slow twisting the gun in my hand, to access the mag release. I don't want the mag catch to be "hittable" while my hand is in the firing position, (as I gather can be arranged with some of the custom mag releases). That strikes me as being too likely to cause a disaster, probably at the worst possible moment.