Recent Range Visit

Last night I visited Elite Shooting Sports to shoot my .22TCM MS 1911 and Metro Arms ACC .45ACP 1911.

First, I started out with the .22TCM 1911.  I was immediately accurate with it (well, accurate enough considering I’d not shot it since April 2015, I was shooting it pretty well):

I then moved the target out and focused on the head:

I then moved to the .45ACP and didn’t fare as well.  The last time I fired this handgun was Feb 2015:

The recoil took me aback.  Now, when I first shot this gun, it felt great in my hands.  For some reason, it didn’t feel great this time around, but this could be because I’d just shot the .22TCM 1911, which has VZ grips.  It could also be because I’m more used to 9mm now (this gun has substantial push/recoil, even with it being a beaver-tailed).  Here’s more:

I can’t understand what I was doing wrong.  Yes, I’m aware of target analysis and what it means when I’m grouping to the lower left of the target.  I actually took my time with several magazines to ensure I was properly actuating the trigger, but I was still hitting lower left.  Although I was able to touch the bulls-eye, I wasn’t able to do it consistently.  I couldn’t hit the head of the target, either.

I was using TulAmmo and Winchester white box JHP.  The TulAmmo was inconsistent, power-wise, as I noticed that the slide moved slowly many times, so I switched to the Winchester and noticed less of that, but only shot maybe 25 rounds of it.  I still wasn’t hitting where I wanted, but at least the slide was acting normally when the gun went BANG.  Another thing — this gun does NOT like TulAmmo.  The ammo kept hanging on the feed ramp.  I didn’t notice this when I first shot it back in February.

Here are my range notes from February:

Half of the ammo was Remington UMC (green/white box).  47 of it was Perfecta FMJ.  I had 3 x FTEs with the black (original) mag.

This gun is FUN to fire!  The recoil is much less than the P220.  It is also very controllable, aim-wise — I nailed the bulls-eye several times and the majority of my hits were toward the middle when compared to the groupings of the other guns I’ve fired.

Back to this range visit.  The Winchester JHP did fine, but TulAmmo is dirty as hell…the feed ramp was heavily covered in carbon.  I can polish the feed ramp but I won’t.  I just won’t shoot TulAmmo as defensive ammo…that’s the best solution.  It’s the ammo, not the gun, and since this is practice ammo, it’s all good.

 

Very odd failure to extract situation here…I had to drop the mag to clear it (it wouldn’t rack back).

 

I had several FTEs in Feb that I attributed to a possible mag issue.  I think that was a wrong assessment, since the mag would have nothing to do with any problems after the round has been fired.  I also had several FTEs with this range visit (2-3).  All of it was with the TulAmmo.  None of the Winchester FTE’d.  A friend suggested I was limp-wristing.  I don’t think I’ve ever limp-wristed a big caliber handgun before…I don’t think it’s happening now, either, but I’m not sure how to test for that, but like I said, none of the other ammo failed to extract.  I’m going to attribute this to the the TulAmmo.

 

Lesson learned – don’t shoot TulAmmo from this gun!

Notice in my notes that I had no issues controlling the gun, I was able to nail the bulls-eye several times, and most of the rounds were hitting toward the middle.  What has changed?  The ammo?  My perceptions on this gun’s recoil?  I’ll admit, when I first pulled the trigger, the recoil caught me off-guard (I’m used to firing 9mm).  It could’ve ruined the rest of my session with this gun.  Should I keep practicing with it?  I’m not planning to carry any of my .45ACP handguns, so it’s not essential that I train with this particular gun.  It’s a range gun, for now, but it does bug me that I can’t put lead on target with this gun like I can with my other handguns.  I just might change the grips, though (to a set of VZ grips).

And then, when I went back to my .22TCM, I found that I couldn’t hit anywhere near where I was aiming, when I had such a good session with it at the beginning of the range session.  I fired 25 rounds before deciding to quit for the night…I left the range in a bit of a fog.  I’m not sure why my aim was so jacked up after switching up guns…maybe I was slapping the trigger or maybe I the gun wasn’t properly centered in my hands…I don’t know.