Combat pistol shooting's a fine hobby

[don't]

While it can cost you thousands of $ per year, it doesn't have to be that way, unless you insist on winning a lot of the matches that you enter. The competition IS stiff at the state and regional levels, and it's backbreaking at the Nat'l and World shoots. The only time that I've been on TV was shooting in the finals of the IPSC world shoot, in Salisbury, Rhodesia, 1977. My knees were knocking.

If you get a basic 1911 .45, used, with most of the goodies done to it, for $400, set up to cast bullets and load ammo, (another $600 or so)dry fire and gun handle a lot, you can shoot your way into A class (top 10%) at the National level, on say, 2k a year. Most of that money will be spent on travel and entry fees, actually, not lead wheel weights and ammo components. It's more important that you practice properly, with a few k rds per year, than to fire 10's of k rds, in a way that just worsens your flaws.

Speed of draw and of the magazine change, all of which can be built with dryfire, makes a world of difference in your rank at the matches. So does physical fitness, since many of the matchs are "assault courses", shot on many targets as you move from place to place, against the timer.

For instance, it's quite easy for me to react to the "beep" of the electronic shooting timer ($100 or so) draw, hit the A zone (a 10" circle) at 10 yds, swap mags, and again hit that A, in 2.5 seconds. The average cop will have trouble doing the same thing in 4.5 seconds. That 2 second difference is time enough to hit another 8 men. A really fast man, having a good day, with a "mag well funnel" on his 1911 can do this in 2.0 seconds, flat. I no longer care enough about this drill to practice it that much.

 

[Bible_Belt]

Does practice with a lower and cheaper caliber like a .22 help your skill with a .45? The ammo cost is a killer for the big rounds.

 

[metoo]

it does up to a point. I've owned 8 of the out of production, very expensive Colt 1911 .22 conversions. The floating chamber and steel slide enhance the feel of recoil a bit, but it's still way short of that of .45 and the blast is nothing like that if the big bore'. I'd say that for sure, once you are posting B class scores, you should stop using the .22 unit, cause you DO have to learn how to force the gun down in recoil, in order to get the required speed of repeat hits and traverses to other targets. You will be "unlearning" that recoil control whne you practice with the .22 unit. I did not learn this fact until I'd wasted about 80,000 rds of 22lr. Get a propane fired plumber's furnace, a Star Progessive luber, several 6 cavity lee molds, and at least one 55 gall drum full of wheelweights, and a bit of tin and antimony to alloy the lead, and learn to turn out 600 or more finished cast bullets an hour. You can easily sell enough of them to recoup the money spent on the gear. You will save about $60 per 1000 bullets. Get a Lee Progressive loader, the big one, which loads rifle ammo, with a bullet and case feeder, used off of E bay, so that you can load 1000 rds per hour. A used one, without the accessories, runs about $200, or a hair less. The bullet casting set up will run about $700. Selling reloads is legal as long as the customer provides the brass. Otherwise, you need a license and insurance, which is expensive and hard to obtain. There is no liability attached to selling cast bullets. If you get the scrap lead free, your cost for casting bullets might be zero, basically. If primers and powder and once fired brass are bought in bulk, and you are careful about retreiving the used casings, you can be shooting .45's for 8c a rd, or a bit less.

 

[Bible_Belt]

cool. thanks.

 

[BMX]

Do you all have night qualifications during these tournaments too? I had to pass the day and night combat qualifications courses with at least a 70%. I shot 84.4% day and 94% at night with a .40 s&w m&p. People do shoot better at night which is convenient since I was assigned to night patrols. I'm no longer in that field of work and all I own now is a benelli which is still very fun to shoot with. I do agree with the physical fitness component so you can perform much better under duress with auditory exclusion and tunnel vision issues.

 

[don't]

% of possible score means nothing without furnishing info about ranges, target sizes and numbers, and times involved. very few people shoot anything like as well at night as in the daylight. With luminous inserts in my sights, I have turned in some fine slowfire groups at 50 yds, with just barely enough light to see the target.

 

[BMX]

% of possible score means nothing without furnishing info about ranges, target sizes and numbers, and times involved. very few people shoot anything like as well at night as in the daylight. With luminous inserts in my sights, I have turned in some fine slowfire groups at 50 yds, with just barely enough light to see the target.

mental masturbation :yes:

 

[don't]

So is practically everything else. I've held men at gunpoint 4x in my life, scared men off with my hand in my pocket (with or without a gun there) many more times, had to point a gun at dogs many times, had to shoot one, and WISHED I had a gun many more times, yet I don't drink or hang out in bars, etc. YOu can THINK that you can avoid violence, but it aint so. Were I not 6 ft and 180 lbs of black belt, I'd have had many more occasions to need a gun.

it's true that the sort of stuff that we do at the matches is more shtf, or SWAT team training than realistic defensive training, but it's good fun and you easily meet a lot of worthwhile people at the matches and the shooting ranges, gun shops, etc.