Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Range Report

Well, I said I was gonna.

Took the Colt Commander down to the range.  Shot off about 100 rounds.

Now, LAST time went shooting, my lil' epiphany was, "Hey, no foolin'.  Really really REALLY concentrate on that trigger squeeze."

So, after I shook the rust off, I really concentrated on that.  How?  Slowing down and squeeze so imperceptibly that the pistol seems to go off of it's own volition.  The so-called surprise break.  Grip really hard and the only finger NOT trying to strangle the pistol is the independent trigger finger.  Hold your breath, get a sight picture on the front sight, and that whole squeeeeeeeeeeeeze thing.  We all know about this.  I'm just more reliably DOING it.  When I do manage it, I still hit to the right and lowish, but it's MUCH closer to the bullseye.



I am so jealous of people that always hit the bull or around it with their carry pistol.  I can't tell you how frustrating it is not to be able to do that naturally. 

And I know this super slow concentrated trigger would be totally out the window in a self-defense situation or under the stress of something like a IDPA type competition.  I'll be back to "get the sight picture, make the gun go bang" manual at arms.  ANd the holes will be low and right.  How do people train that out of themselves?  I have no idea.  At least my sight picture is not a problem.

You know, when I cheat and aim high and left, the bullets STILL fall in the low and right area?  I try not to compensate like that, often.  For one, it doesn't help.  And what if I actually do hit what I am aiming at someday?

Another fun little wrinkle.  Some of the ammo I broke out this time WEREN'T simple hardball .45ACP FLJ.  They happened to be 230 grain SWC.  Semi-wadcutter.  There is a little ridge around the copper clad bullet near the case.  This helps make sharper wholes in the target paper.  It's also something that can hang up on the feed ramp on 1911s that are finicky about what they eat. And since I didn't know if MY 1911 was finicky, I was looking forward to finding out.  No problems.  One less thing to worry about.

1 comment:

Boat Guy said...

I disagree that "...this super slow concentrated trigger would be totally out the window in a self-defense situation or under the stress of something like a IDPA type competition." The folks that win these kinda things do so because they HIT, hit well and hit continually and they way one does that is EXACTLY by concentrating on the trigger. If you train yourself to manage your trigger you will succeed - and be surprised at how fast you CAN become.
Back in the dawn of time at Orange Gunsite there was a saying that slow is smooth and smooth becomes fast. Don't surrender your quest for accuracy. Remember "There's no such thing as a miss; every bullet you shoot winds up hitting something" and if that something is a passerby/noncombatant (or even a "no shoot target" in competition) you lose...