Posted: 1/25/2004 6:15:13 AM EDT
|
I just got my first 1911. A Springfield Mil-Spec 1911 A-1. Very nice gun for the money. Functions great. Anyway I was just wondering about accuracy of 1911s. Not just the model I got but overall. I know using a bench rest they can get around 2" groups or lower at 25 yards. But what about no rest just standing up and shooting? 15 yards - 30 yards or so. At around 15 yards I was usually able to keep all 7 shots in about a 8" circle. When I moved back to 25 yards I was doing good if I could keep all shots on the paper. What should I expect in terms of standing up no rest accuracy?? Thanks |
|
Practice...Practice...Practice! I own a S.A. 1911A1 'Loaded". It is an accurate pistol. Any handgun in good working order is only as accurate as the shooter,ie stance, grip, sight picture, breath control etc. I had a couple of friends who bought Glocks and both said to me that these guns are POS. They are not accurate at all. I went shooting with them and put ten rounds from each gun in the ten ring. I told them,"It is not the gun. It is your execution of proper stance ,grip, sight picture and breath control." The biggest problem with anyone who can't shoot well with a handgun is the anticipation of the recoil. Most tend to pull down on the gun right when they pull the trigger. A good training tool to get rid of this is to practice with a revolver and put a round in every other cylinder leaving the others empty. Spin the cylinder and don't look to see when the live round is coming. Get your sight picture on the target and see if you pull down on the gun on the empty shots. Practice this until you do not anticipate and pull down on the gun. |
|
If I really concentrate and have not had much coffee to drink I can get 3" ragged holes @ 15 yds with my CQB. It'll probably do even better than that, but I can't............yet. Put another 100 rounds through her at the range yesterday and she worked fine but I shot terribly. |
|
If you can keep your shots on a paper plate at 25yds, you are doing good. Take your time and practice the fundamentals at that range - sight picture, trigger control, and slow follow through on the trigger return. Another thing, the initial results from an entire magazine can be disappointing at first. Fire two or three shots and go assess your results. Build off that and you'll be up to speed with practice. |
|
Quoted: Take your time and practice the fundamentals at that range - sight picture, trigger control, and slow follow through on the trigger return. Front sight...press. If done properly, it should be a suprise when the gun fires. Anticipation and jeking the trigger is the #1 reason people miss the target. Do'nt forget to focus on the FRONT sight. Let the target blur. You WILL improve with practice. |
|
First thing, change your ammo brands. Guns don't love all ammo brands equally. Next, IIRC your SA has a two-piece barrel. These are less than desireable, shall we say. I replaced mine with a Wilson NM bbl & my groups dropped to 3" or less at 25 yards using cheap ammo. SA makes great 1911s, I own two of them, but that two-piece barrel is a POS, IMO. |
|
http://www.americanshooter.com/Features/features.html Go here ("lessons with Rob Leatham") there's a lot of good info there. "Anyway I was just wondering about accuracy of 1911s. Not just the model I got but overall. I know using a bench rest they can get around 2" groups or lower at 25 yards. But what about no rest just standing up and shooting? 15 yards - 30 yards or so. " Bullseye 1911's can sometimes shoot 3/4-1.25inch groups at 50yds from a machine rest. Your 1911 is a mil-spec and usually they will group 3-7.5inches at 25yds. It's the barrel. You should get a Kart Easy fit match barrel (or if you don't feel confident doing a little ultra-simplified file work, get a Kart barrel from Brownells and have a gunsmith fit it. Your gun should then shoot 1.5-2inches at 25yds. Your accuracy will improve dramatically When I had a SA loaded SS 1911 my groups looked like pie plates at 25yds I called them "patterns". I got a kimber and they turned into groups (6-8inches) I sent the Kimber to the smith and when it came back it shot 3.5-4inches at 25yds offhand. (yeah the gun would do ragged holes in a machine rest or from the bench, but I don't expect to have a bench when I need to save myself or protect my family from someone. as far as offhand accuracy; It's all in your grip and take that from Rob Letham, all I have to say is remember to use a push pull grip (push with you shooting hand and pull with your support hand) and you want to make sure you can feel the heel of your left hand pushing into the grip pannel near the base of the frame. Grip to white nuckle and back off a little bit, if someone tried to grab the pistol and wrench it from your hands while firing, they should encounter heavy RESISTANCE. Consistency is everything (the 1911's recoil is hitting you before the bullet leaves the barrel, your consistency of grip means that the 1911 will only be able to move exactly the same way every time you fire. The rounds will all fire to the same POI when your grip is consistant. And if you aren't focused on your front sight post make sure you do next time you shoot. |
|
There's an old target shooter's saying that still applies..."You can buy "X's" but you can't buy 10's"...meaning, of course, that you first need to learn to get the very most that your gun can deliver before trying to "buy" your way to more accuracy. With a decent 4-5lb. trigger, your gun is plenty capable of meeting Lumpy's minute-of-paper-plate standard out to at the very least 25yd. and probably much farther, with decent ammo. The real key is trigger control...work on it...dry-fire a lot with a dime balanced on top of the front sight (it should stay there at least until the hammer falls and the vibration knocks it off) etc. Stay with it...it takes concentration at first, but you CAN do it if you are serious about your shooting. Worry about things like match barrels or extra light trigger jobs, or fancy sights, blah, blah, blah, after you have reached the point where you can out shoot the gun you have now...which will be a while, I imagine. In the meantime, buy ammo! |
|
"So the accuracy of a 1911 is pretty much all in the barrel?" The quality of barrel is important (not a 2-piece) then barrel fitting accounts for about 85% and slide to frame fitting the other 15%. Trigger jobs can make the gun as much as 50-75% more shootable (user friendly). I had a 2.7lb trigger on my SA SS loaded and it still shot minute of pie plate. I sold it for more than I paid for it and bought a beat up Kimber Royal for $625 and it shot about 5-7inches offhand at 25yds (at least a 50% improvement over the SA.) What this means is Not that you should get a SA but that a good barrel properly fitted will get you what you are looking for. I had that gun match fitted and when it came back it would shoot 4inch groups offhand at 25yds. Don't waste the ammo trying to learn how to shoot with a gun that won't give you feedback (did you pull or did the gun just have a flyer? How would you know. best bet is to get a Kart Easy Fit Match barrel and a .22lr conversion kit. The .22lr conversion and the 1911 with the new barrel will shoot about the same at 25yds. the .22lr kit will help you ingrain the fundamentals of marksmanship and then you can confirm your progress with the .45ACP top-end. I don't see a point in turning a Mil-spec into a $1000gun, the Kart Easy fit match barrel should only run $150. I hear they are a breaze to fit, just take your time and your gun will be turned from a 4-7.5inch gun to a 1.5-2inch at 25yd gun. You'll be astounded at how much better you shoot. |
|
All the other posters have given good advice. Sincve you state the gun will do 2" at 25 yards off a bench and you are making 8" at 15 yards it is obvious the problem lies with you. There are four things you do that dictate the accuracy you achieve: grip, sight allignment, trigger control, and follow through. If the problem is in your follow through all/most of your shots will typically be pulled down if you anticipate the recoil. If it is a trigger control problem your trigger finger could be pushing or pulling the gun to one side or the other as you squeeze the trigger. If you jerk the trigger this will be difficult to see as you do it. It's obvious you know how to allign the sights if you are making 2" groups from the bench. The only issue might be the sights wobble around a large area of the target when you are unsupported. My suggestion here is fire one shot, lower the gun rest a moment and fire another. Get the shot off within 10 seconds or less otherwise a wobble will set in and you will have to rest and try again. Start slow, once you have the basics you can shoot accurately fast. Combining sight alignment, trigger squeeze, and follow through is where your dry firing pracice will help. The last issue is your grip. In my expirince unless you are extremely inconsistent, you will not have large point of impact changes with differing grip pressures at 15 yards. When I shoot at 50 yards I can change my POI plus or minus 6" when I go from death grip to limp grip. Some of the best advice was to get a .22LR to practice with. This way when you transition to the .45 the only thing you will have to watch is anticipating the shot (flinching) because the basics will have been mastered. Edit to add: I wouldn't worry about the drop in barrel. The gun is not the issue. 2" at 25 yards is pretty respectable. There can be some problems with just dropping in a barrel. Check out some of the 1911 gunsmithing sites to see what I'm talking about. When you are shooting 3" at 25 yards and are not satified then go see a gunsmith about having your gun properly accurized Kent |
|
"Sincve you state the gun will do 2" at 25 yards off a bench and you are making 8" at 15 yards it is obvious the problem lies with you." That is what I initially thought, but he is implying that is what he thought the 1911 in general was supposed to be capable of- oblivious to the fact that a 1911 can be built to many varrying standards of accuracy and quality by even the same company in some instances. HERE IS THE LINK www.brownells.com/aspx/NS/store/ProductDetail.aspx?p=7611 I guess the barrel is $165 and the tool kit to fit it $40, that puts you at $205- you could probably re-sell the tools here for around $25 when you were done, Otherwise an alternative option (if that price bothers you), I know a smith (Josh Halfman) http://halfmanscustom.8k.com/custom.html who will fit a new barrel and bushing for $65-$90 (I wanna say $65 but I'm not sure ($90 is the price with a ramped barrel which is a much more complicated install.) Les Baers barrel is Kart based and is $145 so a complete install with that and a new bushing would probably run $225+shipping. Or you could probably get a significant improvement though not as good as fitted from the Baer "pre-fit" match barrel, and bushing for around $150. |
SNAP CAPS 
|
|
Ah, Yes... I reread the first post and have seen my error in comprehension. Now that I'm on the same page as everyone else, I'd say the most important thing to do is shoot it off a bench and see if it is the gun or if it is you. If you are not sure of your abilities to shoot small groups with a handgun that recoils fairly hard, find someone who you know can shoot good groups with the heavier recoiling handguns. I say this only because I do not know your skill level. (Disclaimer: The .45ACP does not recoil all that hard. It is just more challenging to learn on a gun that recoils. Hence, all the rumors of the 1911s inaccuracy among the recruits) The reason I want you to be sure is: Since this is a new firearm, I think even the factory would find 8" at 15 yards unacceptable. I would expect they would make it right under warranty. I would expect 4" max. groups at 25 yards would be the limit the factory would garantee. I would want 3" or under. For comparison my bone stock Colt 1991 (the cheap Colt) will hold 2.5" or less with any ammo I feed it. Good luck, Kent |
Without trying to sound like the expert (I don't cosnsider myself one), "practical" accuracy (as opposed to "mechanical" accuracy from a machine rest) has more to do with the shooter than the gun (though certainly some things about the gun contribute to practical accuracy). Armand Swenson used to test his guns firing one handed off hand at 25 yards - normally the guns he built would stay on a target paster (I think those are about 3/4" square) - but Armand was a gifted gunsmith and accomplished bullseye shooter. But the point is that if there is no time pressure then we should probably be able to shoot almost up to the mechanical limits of the gun from standing. If the gun will group 2" at 25 off of sandbags then certainly with no pressure we should strive for 4". Perhaps a more pertinent question is what about Marksmanship - which is the combined relationship of Accuracy, Power and Speed. Then the group size might expand a great deal in order to be more effective with the weapon...but of course "you can't miss fast enough to win." Food for thought, Jim |
|
"I would expect 4" max. groups at 25 yards would be the limit the factory would garantee." The guarantee for Colt's Gold match was 5inches at 25yds. SA would have NO accuracy guarantee, (I could almost guarantee you that.) A gun magazine did a ransom rest test of the SA SS loaded gun a while back and (I bought the magazine because I wanted to know if they could get the gun to shoot.) Their groups were 3.5-7.5inches at 25yds (average groups with 8 different kinds of ammo). That was pretty close to what I would get off the bench. My guess is that SA Mil-specs shoot similarly. Get a different barrel or sell the gun (that's my advise.) without either of those things you will probably never be able to shoot this as well as you hope to. (you can waste a lot of money shooting trying to "get good" when your handgun simply won't allow you to do it.) Once your gun will shoot approx 2inches or less at 25yds it begins to be a gun that will give you the good feedback you need in order to improve your shooting ability. Oh I forgot there is another option for a non-gunsmith, no-work guaranteed method: Jarvis makes a Bull barrel for the 1911 with a front lockup ajustable collet style bushing. you simply install and tighten the bushing till your slide will not go forward completely into battery and then back it off 1/4 to 1/2turn. The barrel will have your gun shooting .75-2inch groups at 25yds depending upon ammo. the only downside is it does alter the outward appearance of your gun slightly. |
|
Thanks Green0 and everybody else. I like the idea of the Jarvis bull barrel. No gunsmithing required and great results. Once it warms up outside its -10 degrees without the wind chill right now, I going to get a rest and see what the gun will really do. This might sound stupid but I have never shot a handgun on a rest before. How does one go about it?? |
|
get a sutable rest, something hard with a soft cover, like a block of wood with carpeting on it or sandbags and lay them down and then rest the dustcover (the forward projection of the frame) on the bags. you may want to put another bag under the bottom of the grip frame. Then assume a standard two handed weaver style stance only seated. and fire away. Focus on the front sight post and remember to try to imagine aiming with the POI being the center of the post, NOT THE WHOLE POST. If you focus on the whole post your groups will suffer- remember the idea here is not training, but wether or not you can shoot it. |
|
My only caveat with the method descibed above is: The point of impact will change when the gun is rested on the dust cover. Even more so if the bottom of the grip is rested on the bench. You will still get good groups if everything is consistent, but don't adjust your sights to the point of impact you get with that method. When adjusting the sights to the POI, rest only your wrists over a solid padded bench. This quote: "This might sound stupid but I have never shot a handgun on a rest before. How does one go about it??" leads me to believe you do not have extensive handgun shooting experience. That is o.k., but don't write the gun off until you either practice a lot with a .22 or .38 to develope the technique of shooting a handgun or have someone with that experience test it for you. It takes a bunch of practice for most people to be able to shoot a handgun with any degree of accuracy (i.e. 2-3 inch groups at 25 yards unsupported). Kent |
|
Who cares if it changes POI (which in my experience it doesn't anyway)? The point here is for this guy to see wether his gun is accurate or not, wether to modify or not. Even an innexperienced shooter should be able to fire a handgun with some degree of accuracy off a bench. I sold a SA 1911 and picked up a Kimber and I began to learn how to shoot, it is hard to learn how to shoot if you have NO IDEA WETHER THE FLYER IS YOUR SCREW UP OR THE HANDGUNS ERRACTIC PATTERN. You need accurate weapons to learn how to shoot accurately just like you running shoes to learn how to run. Taking an innaccurate POS handgun and trying to learn how to shoot well is like putting on sorels (winter boots) to try out for the track team. |
He will if he starts adjusting the sights.
Yes, as long as he isn't flinching.
I absolutely agree. I've never owned a Springfield, but I'm making the assumption it is not a piece of crap. It may be, but I doubt it is an 8" at 15 yard gun. I'm not trying to be contrary to your opinion, rather I don't want Star to put money into his current gun or lose money on a trade only to find out he still can't shoot little groups. This is why I stress IF you are not a practiced shooter employ someone who is to check the gun out. This is why if he is new to handguns (which I do not know) I continue to recomend getting a .22 or .38 as a companion piece. The .22 in particular is cheap to shoot and an excellent learning tool. This will allow the mastering of the basics before bringing in the added dimension of not anticipating the recoil. I've very rarely found a handgun that wasn't more accurate than the shooter when fired offhand. I've only found two handguns out of the 50 or so I've had expirience with to not hold 3" or better at 25 yards off a bench. Maybe I've just been lucky. Kent |
| Hey guys. Little background on me. This is not my first experience with handguns. I have shot 9mm's and .22's before. Having said that I am still learning to shoot handguns correctly. Next time I go to the range I am going shoot my 1911 with a rest and see what kind of groups I can get. This should tell me what the gun can do as well as give me more practice. I am not going to considering selling or replacing the barrel until I have benched the gun and practiced with it more. |
|
Ok I made it home this weekend to shoot. I picked up several wal-mart value packs in .45 and got the 1911 out. I remembered the recoil deal so after shooting a couple of rounds I would empty the gun and dry fire it to see if I was flinching. I was. So I worked on that. I continued to shot 2 or 3 rounds then dry fire and I got to the point where I wasn't flinching everytime. But I also knew that the gun wasn't loaded so that was kinda of cheating. Is shooting a handgun from a bench easy? I tried it with my 1911 and I was all over the place. I didn't do any better than offhand. I had my dads 9mm Ruger P89 there as well I couldn't do better with it either. So I think the problem is me. In terms of anticipating recoil I thought I could get a couple of snap caps and load several mags and then mix them up. Then when I shoot I don't know when I have a live round or not. |
|
Yep... Sounds like you have your answer. It also sounds like you have a good solution to work on your problem. It took me a summer at 100 rounds a week to master my .41 mag due to the increased recoil over what I had shot to that point. I used the same technique, load the chambers of the revolver at random and then shoot. By the end of the summer pop cans at 50 yards weren't safe from a field rested position. The .45 is much easier to master. A few sessions of the practice you describe and you should have the flinch conquered. Start out with the snap cap mystery then shoot w/o the snap caps. then go back after a few mags to see if you have a flinch. I'm also going to stick to my guns about getting the .22. It's not cool, but I don't know of any out standing shooter that doesn't practice with a .22. (Maybe I just don't know any rich or sponsored shooters.) Good luck, Kent |
|
star2323 Pick up some snap caps snap caps and have someone else load you mags for you. This way you will not know when the hammer is going to fall on a snap cap instead of a live round. Just remember all the practice in the world is worthless if your practicing bad habits. Try and find a knowledgeable shooter to act as a coach. Good shooting. |
|
"Is shooting a handgun from a bench easy? I tried it with my 1911 and I was all over the place. I didn't do any better than offhand. I had my dads 9mm Ruger P89 there as well I couldn't do better with it either. So I think the problem is me." It really depends on wether the bench is nice, if you are banging your hands or elbows or forearms on the bench with every shot it will be hard to shoot without flinching. That said though, I fired about 700rds through a SA loaded 1911 and never really shot better, then I bought a Kimber and all of a sudden I was shooting groups (5-6inches at 25yds offhand, as opposed to pie plate sized patterns.) If you have a gun that will do 1inch at 25yds and you do 3inches you have a 3.5-4inch group If you have a 5-8inch grouping gun and your accuracy is 3inches you then have a 8-11inch group at the same distance. That's why you are probably better off at least investing in a decent barrel first. That way when you shoot and your shot is 5inches off at least you know it wasn't the gun. That is called good feedback as opposed to worthless feedback (what happens when your 1911 is more or less likely to throwrounds 2-4inches from the point of aim in either direction.) As far as flinching there are 3 things that can help: 1 dry fire practice till you don't move when the hammer drops. 2 squeeze the trigger in such a way that you do not know when it will go off (with rifles I never do this but believe me with handguns it helps [if you don't know when the gun will go off your muscles won't anticipate the recoil and jerk before the bullet leaves the barrel.]) With time this will get faster and faster, and the accurate result will be the same. 3 Get a recoil reducer (worst case scenairio) a recoil reducer will take the bone jarring metal to metal contact out of recoil and greatly reduce your tendancy to flinch. I had a Kimber with a Cominolli Frame saver guide rod and tungsten plug in it and it was three times as smooth as the average .45, recoil was less that my perception of felt recoil in 9mm Glocks. |
|
I think I'm going to get a .22 conversion for my 1911. This should help me get the basics down and save some money while practicing. Out of all the .22 conversions looks like Marvel makes the best ones out there. They cost more but they look like they are extremely accurate. 5 round groups from 50 yards under an 1" is pretty dam good for a pistol. I know that is machine accuracy but at least I won't have worry about if its the gun or me. Anybody have any first hand experience with a Marvel kit? |
|
The .22 conversion is an excellent idea. I don't know anything about the Marvel. A fellow regular at my range uses a .22 conversion and has very good accuracy. Another thought for further down the road... When you have conquered the flinch and are shooting pretty good groups with two hands try shooting bullseye style (one hand). I do the majority of my shoot that way and when I change over to fast shooting w/ two hands it is very easy. (This is only my expirience. It is not a recognized training method. BTW I shoot 4 times a week all summer. Roughly 6000+ rounds a year. YMMV) |
|
The good thing about a 1911-A1 is that there are plenty of accessories and good gunsmiths around to make you pistol as accurate as you want. The rest is up to you. If someone hasn't suggested this already, join IDPA and go to matches in your area regulary. You will soon learn a lot and get much better. |
|
Get a Kimber conversion kit, they are up on Gunsamerica.com for around $270shipped. The Marvel is accurate but the training value is not there. No reciprocating front sight to learn to track. No slide lock (I think the Kimber has one.) Can't be holstered (bigger than std slide) Harder to re-load than most. A M-60Joe magazine loading tool is a good companion to any .22kit you buy, more shooting time less wasted loading time. Hunting/competition? get the Marvel. Training? get the Kimber. < by the way the Kimbers are only about 50% less accurate than Marvel. If you get the kit and start shooting 2.5inch 25yd groups you will know it is the gun and not you that is not accurate. |
|
I was told that the Kimber .22 conversion was actually made by Jonathan Ciener. Kimber is just starting to make their own. Also, when dry-firing a 1911 always use a Snap Cap, never let your slide SMACK closed on an empty chamber nor let the hammer fall on an empty chamber If you want to keep your 1911 in top shape. |
|
Yeah I also heard that Ciener makes the kits for Kimber and that they are not real accurate. I would hate to spend the money on a .22 conversion and then have it not be accurate. Then I would have the same problem of is it me or the gun. Hey Green0 what did do you mean by: "No reciprocating front sight to learn to track." on the Marvel? |
I just shoot Sellier and Bellot 230 gr all the time...you can get 100 rds for under 20 bucks if you shop around...I just keep shooting it and I get better and better week by week. It's a nice feeling. |
|
Hey Green0 what did do you mean by: "No reciprocating front sight to learn to track." Part of shooting quick with a handgun is focusing on the front sight and even following it through recoil, if you don't lose the front sight your next shot will be quicker, the Marvel has fixed front and rear sights. The Marvel in my experience had accuracy twice as good as my Ciener. 1.5inch groups at 25yds (my slide was too tight to fit when I got it and I used a file to open the rails and I think that may have effected it.)<If that isn't the case than Marvel is full of shit and these kits will never do that at 50yds. Also my marvel shoots far worse with factory brick ammo than match 40grain ammo NOT A PROBLEM? Think again, it doesn't function well at all with 40grain ammo. 2-3 jams a mag with 40grain. So what do you want? Accuracy or reliability? I choose reliability as it is the only way to get through a range session and shoot more than 50rds. Only then accuracy is about as bad as my old Ciener kit. Also with the Marvel it seems like accuracy depends on the tension screw being just right, too tight or loose and it shoots like crap. Most of the time it loosens while firing and your zero wanders and groups open and close at will. In short in my 4000rds of experience with the system I have learned it is tempermental and flawed. On occasion it really shines but not always. The Kimber kit should not be confused with Ciener. It has a close toleranced slide stop hole in the barrel, match barrel, better extractor, and an actual barrel bushing to tighten front end barrel fit. The result is that the Kimber will shoot about 1/2 way between a Marvel and Ciener in terms of accuracy. In my experience the Ciener style kits weren't dramatically affected by std ammo. My guess is that similar rules would apply to the Kimber. I think the Kimber also has a last round slide lock. I've shot a few of these and to me the Kimber unit sounds like it combines most of the features I want. and Kimber hasn't made anything I haven't been happy with yet. By the way I used to own an old Kimber/Ciener unit and it was accurate also 1.5-2inches at 25yds. The New units are supposed to be noticeably better. |
The advantage of the conversion is having the same trigger and grip as the large caliber pistol. No disadvantages I'm aware of except for the potential reliability issues Green0 mentioned. I have both the Browning Buckmark and the Ruger MkII. I like them both. The are on par for accuracy and trigger, but I have twice the number of rounds through my Ruger as I do my Browning and I believe the Ruger is holding up much better. Don't let people talk you out of the Ruger due to some supposed difficulty with the disassembly. If you have any mechanical ability at all, it's a snap. You don't even need tools like you do for the Browning. You remove the sight rail on the Browning to disassemble it. (My Browning has to be periodically tightened over the course of 1000 rounds to keep the sight rail tight. I've seen this discussed on a few boards, so it not just my pistol.) A .22 of any kind will be one of the best investments in improving your shooting skill. Kent |
|
I have been reading really good things about the Ruger 22/45. It is suppose to have grips similar in size and feel to a 1911 and the controls are in similar places. The 5.5" bull barrels are really accurate from what I have read and a NIB can be had for under $250. |
|
They say a smart man learns from his mistakes, but a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Well I don't feel very smart but allow me to relate one of my huge mistakes. I taught myself how to shoot (well OK, my dad taught me a few things about shooting a rifle - for what he covered he actually did good). Anyway, when I stared out seriously shooting a handgun (meaning effort here not anything big time), a friend and I would each shoot 1,000 rounds of .22 a week. We graduated to shooting centerfires and we both got to where we could hit the target and had a little speed (enough that I came in second in the 1977 Second Chance match). I also won a few local IPSC matches (since I shot with people whose names you would recognize this was no mean feat). The above may sound like a boast but it is not, for I did not know beans about real practical marksmanship! I finally went to school. I had so many bad habits that you would not beleive. Some were actually dangerous. And the sad part is that I had shot so much that they were deeply engrained. Some of them I still have today and I guess they will always be with me. Fortunately some were corrected by dilligent practice. What I am trying to say is, don't let performance lull you into thinking you can shoot - or rather that you "know how to shoot". Get some serious training and learn how to practice right. Only *Perfect Practice* makes perfect. You don't know what you are doing until you have a good coach watch you (I suppose you could film yourself but I did that - I just did not know what to look for). Be selective about choosing your school though. Be careful out there! Jim H. |
|
I used to have a bullseye gun built to shoot at Camp Perry, not that I ever did. The gun had a BoMar tuner rib on top with NM barrel and bushing, hand fitted. The rails were peened and it had an excellent trigger job. The gun would shoot a cloverleaf at 25 yds all day, from a rest using my own handloaded ammo. I made 185 grain linotype lead semi wadcutters pushed by 4.3 gr. of Bullseye powder. I worked this load up for this gun over the course of a year. Each bullet was weighed for consistency and I didn't use a bullet over 2 gr. off. Cases were new or once fired and resized. I consider this to be as accurate as possible with a 1911 style auto. You need to shoot your gun from the rest to establish a baseline accuracy using a few different loads, but stick with the semi wadcutters and light loads. You need to get the baseline to evaluate your own ability and take the gun out of the equation. With a box stock mil spec 1911 you should be able to fire a 4" group at 25 yards from a rest. If you are shooting worse, let someone else fire the gun, someone who's a decent shot with the 1911. The single most significant factor for you will not be a barrel but a trigger job, IMHO. The 1911 is heavy and will wobble. A great trigger will allow you to get the shot off while the sight picture is over the target center, without adding another 2" wobble due to a gritty or heavy trigger pull. |