Month: September 2023

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1911 2011 AF1911-S15 Alpha Foxtrot ammo Bul Armory defensive ammo SAS II Ultralight training

Another 1911 Range Visit / Upcoming Training

Once again, I took the Alpha Foxtrot S15 to the range, as it exhibited some failures during my last range visit, which I believe I documented on this blog.

I also forced myself to shoot the SAS II UL this go-around, since I’ve been neglecting the gun (and I’m also carrying it).

I brought some of my open boxed SD ammo to test the S15, as I initially thought it was having issues due to bad ammo. Another culprit could have been the mag (there was one magazine in particular that was having issues). Another culprit could have been me – I’d shot the gun toward the end of the visit and I was probably getting tired (hand/wrist/arm fatigue).

Right off the bat, I got two fails to feed, with the suspect mag (I’ve marked it). I ended up stopping everything, emptying the mag of ammo, and putting the ammo in a different magazine. The failures stopped.

I’m thinking I might ask Shield Arms to replace this mag. The mag is new and should be covered by manufacturer’s warranty. It’s odd that the failures don’t always occur, though. The ammo it was choking on was Sig Sauer V-Crown 147-gr JHP.

It also failed once when shooting Remington Golden Saber 147-gr JHP. It ate 21 other Golden Sabers without issue, though.

Those were the only failures, so it wasn’t really all that bad this time around.

I’m at 623 rounds through the S15 now. The gun is uncannily accurate. It doesn’t seen to be as snappy as the SAS II UL, but it has better grip surfaces (by far). Now that I know that it’ll eat JHP without issue, and now that I’ve tested the mags, I can actually consider carrying this gun now, although I’ll keep testing it (I’m still wanting to carry the SAS II UL, too).

I’m at 661 rounds through the SAS II now. I shot 38 rounds tonight, all Herters Target 115-gr FMJ. There were no hiccups or failures. I shot all the ammo at 10 yards, quickly (since I’ve the optic installed).

I’ll be working on posting range video footage this weekend, of both guns. I have footage from the last visit but the settings were out of whack and the field of view wasn’t the best (the framing was off-center, as well).

Next week, I’ll be attending my first handgun course. The plan is to use my current carry gun (SAS II UL). I’ll be bringing my Glock 19 as a backup gun, in case they state my SAS II is too small and in case the SAS II has a breakage. I’ve other guns I can consider as backup guns but most of my guns are DA/SA and I’m more used to SAO nowadays. I’ve several striker fired duty- and compact-sized guns but I’ve no holsters for them (nor extra mags). At this point in time, the Glock 19 is my best option (I’ve extra mags and several holsters for it).

I plan to shoot Blazer 124-gr FMJ for the course (was told that I’d need 200 rounds, so I’ll buy 4 boxes of 50). Blazer is reliable for me, but so is the Herters Target, so I may buy that brand instead, although the Blazer is just a few dollars more.

I was planning on a rifle course too, but I need the time to purchase mags and magazine pouches that’ll fit my carry belt. I may have to wait until next year for that, although I can also take a rifle course by XCal. We’ll see.

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Alpha Foxtrot ammo defensive ammo SAS II Ultralight

This is how $90 of SD ammo appears…

I went to Cabela’s to get some SD ammo and was actually looking to buy Sig 365 SD ammo to test with my Bul Armory SAS II. They only had the Sig 365 in FMJ, though. I’ll keep looking for it or order it online.

Since I was there, I bought what they had, and focused on types that I haven’t shot before. I bought (from top to bottom, left to right) all 9mm, Sierra Outdoor Master in 124-gr, Hornady Custom 124-gr XTP, Federal Punch 124-gr, and Barnes Vor-TX 115-gr. Those are boxes of 25 rounds each.

I also have an unspent box of Koenig Defense 110-gr JHP (from the last time I visited Cabela’s).

I’ll be shooting these 125 rounds of ammo from the Alpha Foxtrot S15, since I’ve not tried shooting good ammo from that handgun yet. Maybe I can shoot half from the AF-S15 and half from the SAS II, since I’d prefer to be practicing shooting my current carry gun.

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9mm AF1911-S15 Alpha Foxtrot Grand Power limp-wrist P11

Summary of Range Session – 9/8/2023

I went to the range tonight because I wanted to work off some steam (been busy with work and have been stressing).

I’d been thinking about my Grand Power and recently had someone reach out to me on YouTube. She said that she has the P11 and that she’d been having the exact same issue (fails to return to battery, or FRTB), but that her husband didn’t have the issues when shooting it. She hinted that it may’ve been limp wristing that caused it.

I did a bit of research and it seems that limp wristing can cause FRTBs.

I never realized that I could’ve been limp wristing the gun. It is rather slick, with no significant texturing on the grip.

I decided to begin taking it to the range to see if I can shoot it without experiencing the FRTBs. I shot 50 (well, 48) rounds of Koenig 110-gr JHP Match through it tonight and I didn’t have any failures. Note that the gun is configured a bit differently since I last shot it — I’m using a small Hogue rubber grooved slip-on grip, which helped with getting control of the handgun. I was ensuring I had a strong grip on the gun. I’ll continue to bring it to the range, shooting 50-100 rounds from it when I can, and trying to practice good grip technique so that I’m accurate as well as not limp-wristing.

I also shot 155 rounds from the Alpha Foxtrot S15 1911. The ammo of the night for that gun was Herters Target 115-gr FMJ with a splash of Fiocchi 115-gr FMJ. Whereas I didn’t have any issues last range visit, I had 8 FTEs this range visit. I shot the same ammo last visit, as well.

The issues could be (possible solutions are below, in italics):

Bad magazine – I shot with all six mags and only one mag generated failures, so I kept shooting with it to see if I was limp-wristing and causing the failures. I shot many rounds through that mag tonight and there was only one time where I got thorugh a mag without failures. I marked the mag and will put it aside. The plan is to use the other mags next range visit – if the failures stop, then I’ll know that the mag is the problem.

Bad box of ammo – I bought 200 rounds of Herters (2 x 100-round boxes). I got through one box with only two fails to extract. The other box had five FTEs. The Fiocchi had one failure – not only did it the spent case not extract, but it was still fully in the chamber, and the slide did not lock back (it was the last round of the mag). Also, I noticed that the slide would sometimes seem to be moving a bit slower than normal after a round is fired, which is usually indicative of inconsistent amounts of powder within the case. As well, some of the ammo looked funky where the case crimps onto the projectile, as if the ammo had possible QC issues. I’ll bring some good JHP with me next range visit, to see if the issues still occur with good ammo.

Limp-wristing – I won’t count this out, since the FTEs started occurring mid session of my range visit. I tend to fatigue myself as I practice (this is normal). Next range visit, I’ll test the S15 (and the other 5 mags that didn’t have issues) before shooting any other guns.

I did have fun shooting the Grand Power again. I was accurate with it. I shot it once at 10 yards but the spread was wider than when I shoot the S15 at that range, which I initially thought was odd until I realized that the S15 has far better grip texturing. I ended up sticking with shooting at 7 yards.

The S15 is accurate AF! I spent a large amount of time shooting at 10 yards and was accurate. Not only that, there were times where I was shooting pretty fast and my groups were tight as I shot further out. And that was with irons. This gun is uncanny, but it’s really because of the front checkering on the grip. It’s going to seriously spoil me. I’m already thinking about selling all my other 1911s so that I can focus on 1911s and 2011s that have front checkering. Yes, I can get checkering added to my existing 1911s, but some gunsmiths won’t touch non-US guns and all guns that get checkering will need to be repainted/refinished.

I also now have just under 500 rounds through the S15. I’m slowly accumulating the round count on this gun. I’ve just under 1600 rounds through the GP P11.