Hank Ellis

I could tumble and load them up. However I don't get a warm fuzzy not knowing what primer it is and it's condition. Granted they're probably good, but maybe not. So my plan is to take Steve Anderson and Patches ideas. Throw a few in the range bag for squibs and pop the rest in a 2x4. I should have mentioned that the flood was a salt / brackish water flood from Hurricane Andrew. Some of the cases are going to the trash due to corrosion. Corrosion in the primer pocket is a possibility. If was fresh water I wouldn't be as concerned. dajarrel, the avitar is a representation of my last Bill Drill. 1.85 first shot and .38 average splits. All A hits. Seems a lot slower visually than when I shot it. It's there as a motivator to myself. Done with Paint Shop Pro 5 and it's Animation Shop.

I have both. The laptop is used at work as a maintenance terminal for rotorcraft powerplant monitoring and troubleshooting. Business software is used for my convenience as I don't like waiting in line to use a company terminal. During breaks, I make use of the 11g wireless network to do the 'Net. The beige box at home is a homebuilt thing from obsolete hardware the gamers at work get rid of. Which means it's about 6 months old. Current uses other than business software are photo editing, and document archiving via Adobe Acrobat. In the future I plan to install video editing hardware and software to transfer my VCR tapes to DVD. This where the beige box shines. Altering hardware configuration to match the task to be completed is much easier than with a laptop. Synching files is no problem. I've been using PCSync by the Laplink people and can sync both machines in about 10 minutes. A computer is a tool. I match the tool to the job. The laptop isn't adequate for some of my home work. Dragging my beige box to a helicopter to download a FADEC isn't practical.

I was given a sizeable lot of 45 rounds that had been in a flood to salvage what I can out of them. Pulled the bullets and disposed of the powder. Now I have these cases that have live primers. Running them through the decapper on the press is verboten. I have a problem with tossing the cases in the trash with live primers. Just doesn't seem to be the right thing to do. I'm assuming that running them one by one through the gun would do the trick. The question is what method would work best in a SA 1911 without damaging any gun components. One method is to chamber the brass then slowly close the slide. The other method is to place the brass between the extractor and slide them slowly close the slide. Any ideas?

As a currently U class shooter returning from a 15 year hiatus to IPSC, allow me to add my perspective. I participate in 3 sports, action pistol, skydiving, and scuba diving. What they have in common is that they are equipment intensive. I have seen it over and over in sky and scuba where newbies buy the latest, expensive high tech equipment thinking that the equipment will make up for any of their skill shortcomings. Farther from the truth. As long as the equipment is adequate and safe, use it. As we always tell our new skydivers, 'Buy decent used gear for your first rig. As you gain experience you'll know what you want and need. Save the money to buy skydives. Gear doesn’t make the diver.' When I returned to IPSC I dusted off my Ernie Hill rig and purchased a new Loaded SA in 45. It works. TGO and BE turned hit factors with similar rigs years ago that I may never see. I’m spending the money on reloads and range time. If / when I get good enough to notice that the gear is limiting me, I’ll notice it. Can't agree more.

I've got two spud guns. One is your garden variety 2" tube using hair spray as the propellant. Loaned to a family of visiting Germans who went through 15 lbs of spuds before they got tired. I was told that having one of these is illegal in his country. Made me appreciate the 2nd Amendment a bit more. The other was built to launch Mardi Gras throws. Compressed air propellant. Scuba tank to scuba regulator. Hose from reg to ball valve. Ball valve is at the bottom of an old freon tank. Top of freon tank has 2" ball valve. Downstream of that is a 4" barrel. Take a roll of toilet paper and remove the cardboard center. You now have your wadding. Close both valves. Stuff in the wad and your throws. Open small valve and pressurize freon tank to 25 to 30 psi. Close valve. Quickly open 2" valve and WHOOSH. Knocked a beer out of drunks hand at 25'. Hey, he asked for it. I was informed not to do that this year due to insurance reasons. Weenies. Till later Hank Ellis

Just a followup concerning my post dated December 1, 2003, on this thread. Figured out that not all of the problems were with the nut pulling the trigger. Digging around on this site I found a thread concerning service model SA 1911 hitting way low from the factory. Hmmm. Guess I should do a proper sight in and see what happens. Short story. It shot at least 7" low at 25 yd. At least 7" because it wasn't hitting the paper at all! Filed off .025" to .030" from the front sight and it now puts a bullet where I aim it. The malfunctions were primarily from the one Chip McCormick Power 10 mag I had. The others mags I have are the now discontinued McCormick Tacticals. The mag spring in the Power 10 was simply not compatible with the Minor loads and recoil spring I was using. Chip McCormick was cool enough to send me a couple mag springs for me to experiment with. Cutting coils as required to make it function properly. This is a work in progress. I guessing some of the other mals were from the 15 year old Minor reloads I had laying around. I've since shot all that up and now using a Major load that one of the Limited Masters is using. The perceved recoil between my old loads and the new loads is barely noticeable. Lessons learned: 1. Always do a proper sight in on any new firearm. Sandbag or Ransom Rest at 25 yards. Probably wouldn't hurt to do a sight in every 6 to 12 months depending on your shooting volume. Definitely after any change that could affect accuracy. 2. Never go to a match with a piece of untried equipment. Go to the range and do some solo practice with the new equipment to make sure it functions properly. A match is not the time to find out something doesn't work. I'm seeing progress. Times and points dropped going down. Confidence level going up. We'll see in February at the next match whether I'll meet my original goals. {Results of February match. High overall Unclassified. Placed 3rd of 6 in L10. Didn't DQ. Didn't zero a stage. Too many positives to list. Only negative was a Mike on the classifier. Left the range with a grin.} Till later Hank Ellis

My history is a bit convoluted. 15 years ago I shot IPSC at the local indoor range Wednesday night "fun match". I sucked. But I got less sucky. The local guru wanted me to give a 'real' match a shot as he thought I was ready. I didn't get around to it. The real world got involved and I had to stop shooting entirely. Now I'm back. Picked up a 45 again and I realized the barns of America have nothing to fear. Yeah, if you don't use it, ya lose it. I still suck. Went ahead and went to my first 'real' match a couple weeks ago. My only two goals were to not DQ and don't zero a stage. I succeeded in one of those goals. Stage 1: CM-63. Six shots at a target at 35 yards. Hell, I've never shot outdoors or at any target farther than 50 feet. "What am I doing here?" As I stood ondeck, my heart was pounding and the butterflies were in full flight. The feeling flashbacked me to round 4 of 8-way in the '91 US Skydiving Nationals. Take a deep breath. Slow down. Forget the clock. Get your points. Short story. The gun mal'd at least one round per mag. Got rattled. Lost count. Let's just say the scorers didn't use too many pasters. Stage 2: A four string stage started sitting a table. Close stuff at 15 - 20 feet with a couple of round steel. Around barricades and through a room. Walk through this and it's doable. At the buzzer it was like the old days. Called my shots. Got what I wanted. Walked off satisfied that I did the best I could on that stage that day. Stage 3: A four room stage with multiple hardcover and noshoots. Yeah, I can do this. Did OK till the gun mal'd again at the last string. Got rattled (again). Jerked my shots low and hit the hardcover. Stage 4: A three string stage with the last one through a port in a barricade. I have no clue as to why I pulled seven shots low into the hardcover on the last string. Mental overload from Stage 1 and 3? By this time I'm expecting the gun to mal, and it did. Stage 5: Simple stage. Brainlocked it big time. I know it was from the mental trash from the previous four stages. The results in L10 with me shooting minor: Stage 1: 00.00 % Stage 2: 37.51 % Stage 3: 27.52 % Stage 4: 03.65 % Stage 5: 00.00 % Overall: 16.09% against a Master class shooter. Dead last any way you want to slice and dice it. Next closest had double my score. Initial impressions: Man, do I suck. Hoover vacuums have nothing on me. Can't hit the side of a barn. But I didn't DQ and the RO only made one comment after a stage was over. Later impressions. Stage 1 was a killer. No real shame at this point personally in zeroing this one. Four of the seven in L10 zeroed it. Stages 2 and 3 were OK but I've got to work on hardcover shots. Stage 4 hardcover got me bad and I still don't know why. Stage 5 was a pure brain fart. I need to flush the negative vibes of the previous stage when I step up to the current one. In other words, quit thinking. Afterwards, a Master in Limited who was in my squad told me to not to worry. You have to start somewhere. You will brainlock, it takes time to condition yourself mentally to this game. Go practice and get your shots. Forget the clock right now, it's not important. Excuse me. I need to load up the car and go to the range. And on the way stop by the mall and pick up a sundial for the RO. Till later Hank Ellis