GunBugBit

At my club we walk around with holstered unloaded guns all morning or all afternoon or all evening with zero issues. The only places you holster or unholster are: when starting or finishing a stage, in the designated gun-handling areas where no live ammo is allowed, or at your vehicle in the parking lot. I agree with this statement: "If you are concerned with 'accidentally' taking your gun out of your holster when you're not supposed to, you should do everyone a favor and stay far away from an action pistol match." It's not at all arrogant. It's a statement of a completely reasonable discipline.

"Level playing field" is a utopian concept. If we could achieve level playing fields, we'd soon see it's not the utopia we hoped it would be. It would be incredibly boring.

Handling the gun often, preferably for dry fire, should help with your comfort level. Your skin will thicken in just the right places for that gun. It made a big difference for me to find a mag catch button that let me keep my same grip for dropping the mag.

One great thing about Pro Grip, and probably similar products, is that a very small amount works well.

From what I gather, if extractors are of high quality and fit correctly, they will last a very long time. Another variable is how the owner treats the gun.

I hear ya but my problem with being too high is I dont engage the grip safety. I really dont want to deactivate it because I just may be bored enough to shoot IDPA again someday (but in reality I dont see myself doing that again lol). OK interesting. Everyone's hands are different.

Last Thursday we had a stage that was 6 shots freestyle, reload, 6 shots strong hand, reload, 6 shots weak hand. I had time to rehearse this in my mind before it was my turn and the stage went well for me. On the one-handed strings, I remembered to tuck my non-shooting hand the way I had practiced, but I kept my stance wide and did not shift my feet. My reloads were some of my better ones and I hit only A's. I did not try to go fast but focused on crisp execution. This put me 30th out of 71 shooters (all divisions and classes) for that stage. Two months ago I would not have performed anywhere near that well on a stage like this. The time I've put into weak-handed dry fire has certainly helped.

I move my hands holding a phantom gun through the stage as I plan on shooting it, complete with a pretend draw and going through the motions of the reloads. My thumbs pressed together serve as fake rear sights, so I get a visual preview close to what I'll be seeing when I shoot. If there are multiple boxes to shoot from, I take a few seconds to visualize myself moving and executing even though I can't see the targets as they'll appear from the other boxes. I do one practice turn if there's a turn-and-draw involved.

I'm sticking with .45 but I'm open to switching to 9mm at some point. My days of being able to close a #2 CoC gripper with either hand will end soon (I'm 56).

At first I didn't like the RO's thumb safety. I had put STI (MIM) thumb safeties on some of my other 1911s because I find them comfortable. After outfitting my RO as one of my comp guns (it's intended by Springfield as an entry level comp gun but it does need some finishing touches), and leaving the factory thumb safety on it, I found that the higher thumb safety helps me get a good high grip on the gun. The STI safety I thought I liked so much is lower at its high point and doesn't help me get that good high grip.

Good one. I find that O-rings are excellent for keeping the grip screws in so I have them on my comp guns, but I'm sure it's still possible to lose one or more during a match.

Makes sense and doesn't seem paranoid. You've equipped yourself to be able to keep shooting the match.

Last Thursday night's single stack division was dominated by a young fellow shooting a 9mm RO. He had been having some function issues in prior matches. Now that his gun appears to be running 100%, he is the guy we'll all be chasing. He is fast, aggressive and possessed of admirable enthusiasm. I believe he is using the factory black sights, and he isn't missing much. For my own part, I like the plain black sights on my .45 RO.

I haven't done enough careful shooting at the 25-yard distance, but the time I've spent on that has helped me improve. Recently I've become more consistent at hitting A's and knocking down steel at the 20 to 35 yard distances.

I keep the same aiming eye for strong/weak hand shooting, but I'm wondering if any of you guys change your foot placement when you go to support-hand-only shooting?

A nice bright fiber optic catches my eye, and that has its advantages. The tradeoff is that it can be the dominating object in my sight/target picture when it's not really what I should be looking at. More important is the centering of the front sight post inside of the rear sight notch, and often the tops of the sights being aligned. I'll be trying a plain black sight setup for a few matches and see how that goes. It already served me well for one match and I hadn't even been practicing with that gun. While it can make a difference for sure, a shooter at my level isn't going to be made or broken by one or the other sight configuration.

I think my extractor was cracked before breaking off, because earlier there were malfunctions that I thought must be related to the extractor or ejector, but both parts were there and seemed solid upon field stripping. The day before the extractor broke, I had it out of the gun during a detail strip/cleaning. I handled it and it was intact. It could have had a crack without me noticing it with my eyes or hands, but still causing malfunctions. On the stage when my gun would not fire more than the first round, I went with a gunsmith to the gun-handling safe area and a field strip revealed: no more extractor claw, it had broken off inside the extractor channel.

I was waiting for someone to say firing pin stop. I've heard that one from 3 different guys at the club. Aren't there quite a few MIM FPSs out there?

The Pro Grip works well, almost too well. It does what it claims to do, no issues there.

During one chapter of my life I was a performing musician. There is the equivalent of the shooter's "Set" when picking up the instrument and getting ready to play in front of a crowd. It is a feeling You go to it every time, it's a big part of your bread and butter.

Oh yeah, a loose plunger tube was my very first 1911 failure. I haven't bothered to check if my comp guns have well-staked tubes, almost forgot about this potential issue.

I like the RO's plain black sights. I might change my mind later but for now I'm leaving the black front sight on my .45 RO. I lightened the trigger, added a Nighthawk one-piece MSH+magwell, a Wilson extended mag catch button, an Ed Brown ledge-style slide stop, 10-8 front strap grip tape. That'll do for now, pretty middle-of-the-road.

Good information Rob! Thanks, I learned things.

I thought of another reason. The few matches I've shot have shown me I still have a competitive side. I think it's a healthy kind of competitiveness, as in: I'll help my fellow shooters and wish them well on every stage they shoot, but I have the burning desire to be better. That's all. I would not want to beat them if they aren't trying their hardest and shooting their best. If they are and I'm better that day, or they are better instead, so be it. They'll have a chance to shoot better another time, and so will I. I respect my fellow competitors by trying my hardest. Not trying hard would be disrespectful to others and myself.

How about parts AND a backup gun? If the slide cracks, that's not a simple small-parts swap. Backup gun would be the answer in that case.