On 5/14/15, three weeks and 1 day after I sent my 1911 to S&W with a request to repair a “failure to extract” issue, FedEx rang my door bell and I signed for my gun. I happened to be home with an appliance repair contractor and that saved me a drive to the FedEx facility. FedEx will not leave the package unless they get a signature. It has a gun inside so that makes perfect sense, even if it is incredibly inconvenient in most cases.
There were 3 pages of paperwork included. The net:
Replaced extractor
Replaced extractor Spring
No mention of any funds due. I asked my gunsmith how this works and he said they would call if they were going to charge me to repair – to get authorization for the charges. No call was good news. Getting the gun back was better news.
I had plans to shoot with a friend at the Wake County Range that night so of course I took the 1911 with me. I only put 20 rounds through it as I needed to get in practice time with my H&K, but there were no malfunctions. Excellent.
I sent my 1911 back to S&W. I asked them to address a “failure to eject” issue. They estimated a 2-3 week turnaround. I shipped it 4/29. I haven’t heard from them. So…
I decide to start shooting an H&K USP Compact I bought a few years back. It’s mostly been sitting beside the bed since that time. Not any more. I started dry fire practice a week before the 4/29 Action Pistol match and took it to PDHSC for live fire practice. This gun has a sweet trigger in single action mode.
I started the match with my mags downloaded to 10 rounds each. It’s what I’d shoot in IDPA so I figured that would be a good approach. After Stage 1, one of my shooting buddies encouraged me to top them off and plan my reloads, so for Stage 2 I did that. Here’s the result:
I think I loaded that gun 5 times before the reload “stuck”. I had the same issue loading for Stage 3. I think I said to the RSO, “This won’t go well..” but I had no further issues.
When I got home I reloaded all the magazines and counted the rounds. I managed to cram 14 rounds into one of the 13 round magazines. BINGO.
I’ll be counting when I load and probably keep it to 12 rounds in the future. Another lesson learned at a match and another reason to shoot matches.
I spent most of my Sunday (April 26th) at the Sir Walter Gun Club coaching new shooters. I volunteered for a Women on Target event a few years back and now it’s become a habit. These are scheduled in the spring and the fall and are advertized as “rain or shine”. We had great weather last November but we started this event with rain. The weather was wet & cold for the first half of the day and stayed chilly in the afternoon. I got to try out my rain gear and it did keep me dry. We set up canopies over each shooting station to keep shooters out of the rain but everything got damp.
I set the alarm for 5:30am so I’d have time for breakfast before leaving the house at 7am to assist with setup. I remember thinking… “Why did I agree to do this?“. I instructed at the reactive pistol station. We had two bays and at each bay we had 50 minutes to teach 6 women to shoot a 9mm pistol at steel targets: if you hit them they fall down. It provides great visual feedback. Once we gave every lady the opportunity to shoot 15 rounds of 9mm (S&W M&P), we also let them shoot a S&W 67 revolver (.38 Special) and explained the different between shooting double and single action. We worked with 3 groups of 6 before lunch and 2 groups after lunch in our bay.
I personally instructed about 25 ladies. I don’t consider myself an experienced instructor but I can help a brand new shooter get the basics right, help them build confidence and insure every one stays safe. My co-instructor was very seasoned and he helped with the women that found this to be challenging. We were very serious about calling the range hot and cold (to reset targets) and checking in each time before going hot again.
Typically our groups of women have shot .22 pistols before rotating to our station for larger pistols. The first group has not. This group included a women that was very quiet and tentative. I talked her through stance, grip, sight alignment and trigger control. She looked apprehensive. Then she shot. I think it took about 3-4 tries before she hit the first steel target. Wow! She went through a transformation! She broke out into a big smile and said, “I can do this!”. Once experience like that will keep me coming back, getting up early and staying out in the weather.
More about the Women on Target Events:
There are two “Women on Target” events (NRA sponsored) in the spring and in the fall. They are intended for women with little or no shooting experience. They are hosted at two local private ranges in the Raleigh/Creedmoor area. Each event is limited to 60 women. Groups of 12 women rotate through 5 different types of shooting clinics during the day. The events run from 8am till about 4pm and are rain or shine.
The attendees are all ages, a mix of races, and can include multiple generations of women from the same family. Come with your family, your friends, or just come alone (I did).
This fall:
Oct 10th, 2015: Durham County Wildlife Club: Pistol, Rifle, Archery, Skeet and Trap
Nov 1th, 2015: .Sir Walter Gun Club: 22 Pistol, 9mm Reactive plinking, High Power Rifle, Smallbore Rifle, Skeet
You must mail in your application on a specific date as they won’t take them before that date and tend to fill up quickly.
If you’d like more details, please send me a private message and provide your email address. I can email you the flyers/application forms.
I’ve attended as a participant and as a volunteer instructor in the past and most ladies are smiling and confident by the end of the day! This group provides a safe, positive experience.
The level of frustration with my 1911 finally got to the point I reached out to a local instructor and asked him if he could “fix me and the gun”. I’m guessing this isn’t the first time he’s gotten a request like this.
I’ve taken the gun to a gun smith and it showed improvement for about 6 months, but then I had an ongoing set of evolving issues and I needed to know if my shooting was contributing to the malfunctions or if it was an issue with the gun. I’ve been told I was limp wristing more than once lately by shooters in my squad. I thought I might be riding the slide. In any case, I felt that selecting an instructor that could work with me and diagnose the gun at the same time would be the best way to get past these constant malfunction drills I’m doing mid-match. And then move on to improving my shooting.
I had my first session last night. The gun will be in a box and headed to S&W shortly with a request to fix a “failure to eject” issue. Several issues with the extractor were pointed out to me and I was told I’m not limp wristing. I’m pretty excited by that. The potential of a well functioning firearm is thrilling!
As for my shooting, I learned a few things that made perfect sense now that I’ve been shooting a few years and I’m ready to hear them. I have some work to do but I see the possibility of improvement.
I haven’t asked the instructor’s permission to post my experience online so I haven’t mentioned a name on purpose. But my gun and I will be back for more coaching as soon as S&W ships it back.
This is a follow up to Part 1. If you don’t want to read the entire blog post, the final verdict: new trigger weight after replacing the springs and the sear: between 4 3/4 and 5 pounds.
Part 2:
I finally received the Spring & Sear kit from Powder River Precision. It comes in a more costly but more professional looking package compared to the original spring kit. More to throw away after you unpackage the parts.
To install the sear, you have to take everything apart again that you disassembled to replace the springs. It’s non-trivial and frustrating to get everything lined up exactly right. I find this review from the Powder River website to be dead on:
” The video is pretty good, but in several places the demonstrator is holding the gun out of the camera range. Also the focus goes in and out. It’s obvious that he has done this a number of times, he goes really fast. There are a couple of parts that could use more clarity. A few of the springs are hard to figure out just because the kit is not marked for what spring goes where. Most importantly, when reinstalling the grip safety, there is a little lever that needs to be put in the exact right spot and the video doesn’t really show where. I put my gun back together with the lever off somehow and had to force the gun apart because the trigger would not trip. I then moved the lever around until it felt free, he tells you how to check it by having the grip safety locked by moving the trigger bar. Great trigger now, 4 hours later.”
So be sure to have an open block of time before attempting this. Here’s a comparison of the old and new sear:
Old and New Sear (with spring)
We re-tested the “before” weight with a calibration set of NRA certified Weights (always the most accurate way to measure). Previously we used a trigger pull gauge
but that is less accurate. We did take 3 measurements and averaged them to be as accurate as possible, but it appears that measurement was high, I had it listed at 6.5 pounds. When we measured again with the more accurate weight set, it tested at 5 3/4 pounds with the original sear.
NRA Certified Weights
You basically stack up weights until you can no longer pick up the stack with your trigger. Here’s the final test for my updated gun. Yes, I’m impressed by the simplest things:
Here’s a summary of the different trigger weights
Trigger weight before the spring kit: 8 lbs
Trigger weight after the spring kit: 5.75 lbs
Trigger weight after the sear replacement: 4.75 – 5 lbs
I had a round (brass, primer, powder & bullet) with 3 firing pin strikes and no “bang”, so I took it to Kapp and he showed me how a bullet puller works. I’ve embedded a video I found on tube that explains how this works:
Here’s my round set into the bullet puller, then taken out of the bullet puller:
My round in the bullet puller. Note the multiple firing pin strikes.
The brass, bullet and powder that came out of the bullet puller. The gun powder looked like glitter.
And, the fun part, we lit up the gunpowder just because I wanted to see how it burns in a non-contained space:
Yesterday morning, a well dressed man in business attire stopped me in the 5th floor lobby of the building I work in. He had a slightly apprehensive look, then just asked, “Didn’t I see you at the Wake County Range last Monday?” I laughed and answered, “Yes you did! I’ll be back there tonight.” It’s a small world. Our companies have suites on the same floor. He was at the match last night and thankfully he reintroduced himself because he looks quite different in a ball cap. We shot on different squads but I’m sure there will be future conversations. He did make me aware his co-workers aren’t really aware of his hobby, so I’ll have to tone down my enthusiasm for gun conversations in the building where we work. But, it really started my day on a high.
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I shot the Wake County Action Pistol Match last night. From a performance perspective, it was probably hands down my worse match ever. A “mike” is a miss – as in “no holes in the target”. I had several. But I left with a smile and a feeling of contentment.
I started shooting because it was fun. I noticed along the way that at many matches, the competitors were friendly and chatty before the match. Conversations included:
what new gear they’d bought, what gun they were shooting,
how their day had been, how the family was,
what they had been practicing, what their specific goals were for the match, etc.
But at the end of the match there were many disappointed, disgruntled, and humbled competitors. Not performing as they had hoped just took all the fun out of the experience. Then it was mutters and grumbles about about missed targets, dropped points, fumbled magazines, and malfunctions. Not a state of mind I want to get sucked into.
I always come in at the bottom of the pack, so that’s nothing new. But up till last night I’d always hit the stationary targets. Well, last night I even missed some of those! It was so bad I had to just shake my head and laugh. “Wow. No shit? I totally and completely missed the entire target! And it wasn’t even moving!” To top that off, I had two tightly grouped shots in the dead center … of a non-threat. That non-threat was covering the lower part of a threat target. Things had gone by in such a blur that I didn’t honestly remember if I’d aimed at the top part of the target (and slapped the trigger to drop the shot) or if I’d just aimed at the center of mass.
I could list a string of excuses but as I pondered what the heck had happened it came down to this: I wasn’t totally focused on the fundamentals. So I thought about what had distracted me:
I’ve shot 3 matches in the last 10 days, including my first low light/no light match
I have had less than the usual amount of sleep. I managed to fit a trip to Minnesota into those 10 days.
I bought a Flip camera to record the matches. And I offered to film for a friend I made recently when looking for someone to carpool with to Oxford. The camera went dead after Stage 2. He & I shot back to back and I was more focused on passing the camera than thinking about the stage. Then it was :”Why did the @#$& camera stop working???”
I shot a different gun combo in each match: 1911 in 9mm once, then the 1911 with a flashlight, followed by the XDS.
I clearly was doing something different because my strong side forearm was seriously sore today. That hasn’t happened before.
I decided to just take all that into account and give myself a break. Bad guys do show up when you are tired. I carry the XDS so I need to shoot it. I want to learn skills for shooting in the dark. I really do want to capture some of this on video:it’s easier to explain to friends, family and co-workers what a match really is like. And I’m finally making friends so I do want to nurture those friendships.
OK, let me say that again: I’m finally making friends. That is huge. When you know you are going to spend 4+ hours around strangers and know you are not good at the one thing they care about, you arrive with a mix of apprehension and uncertainty. It is a very different experience knowing you will recognize faces, knowing it’s ok to ask “Can you film this for me?” and getting a smile and a hug when you arrive. Maybe that’s a girl thing, but it’s the reason I shot 3 matches in 10 days: I felt welcomed.
I shot poorly but I know I have work to do. That will never change. I was smiling because I had added a few more conversations to the foundation of a few friendships that I look forward to growing in the future. That made it an excellent evening!
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Here are the two stages I got on video. My mom watches them… LOL. And blog posts are always better with pictures. This isn’t excellent shooting, but it’s safe shooting and you get to see what these matches are like:
The guys who host the Wake County Action Pistol Matches hosted a no light / low light match last night. It was my first night match. I wasn’t the only night match “virgin”. Only after I arrived did I stop to think about how to reload a gun with a flashlight one hand. Turns out you do it pretty much they same way you do it without the light – but probably slower.
I entered the handheld light division. I’d picked up an Olight T20 at the local gun show last year for every day carry. It seemed to me it would be bright enough and it worked fine for the match. I have small hands and I picked this due to it’s very small size. It puts out 270 lumens. This was plenty bright to shoot the match.
We didn’t need to draw from a holster, but I picked up a $9 belt holster at Lowe’s last week just to have a place to stash the light when I wasn’t shooting. You get what you pay for: it was so tight that I could barely squeeze in the (very thin) light. I shoved a larger light in and let it sit for a week – that loosened up the elastic enough to make it functional for the match. I see the value of a holster designed for the light.I just don’t know where to get one for this light.
I did hunt down a few youtube videos to check out technique. I’d taken a class a few years back where we tried this but I honestly didn’t remember much. These were helpful:
The RSOs were great. Everyone was encouraged to take their time and above all be safe. We shot 4 stages and had some special treats: one stage incorporated a flashing blue light, one had a swinger, and one had a target with a flashlight pointed at the shooter.
Lessons I learned:
I shoot well with one hand. So the FBI Technique worked well for me. However, when I keep the light close to me, I also tended to hold the gun in close. I need to remember to extend my shooting arm.
I limp wrist when I use the Harries Hold. I lost count of the malfunctions I had on Stage 4. The entire stage was shot from a sitting position and I tried using this hold. I really want to give that another try and focus on holding the gun rather than creating opposing tension against each hand. But this is why I shot the match: to learn where I need to work next.
Below is the video that Ben posted after the match you give you an idea what the shooter saw. I really look forward to the next opportunity to try this again.
I was WARM last night at the Wake County Range! The January match started just above freezing and dipped below freezing by the end of the match. I grabbed a screen shot from my phone before I headed home that night.
I wore fleece long johns and jeans. On the upper body: a wicking layer, a stretch fleece pull over, a cotton zip front hoodie sweat shirt and a down vest over it all. I stripped out of the vest and sweatshirt when it was my turn to shoot. I put chemical hand warmers in the pockets of the sweatshirt to keep my fingers warm. My socks were “Smart Wool” and my feet never got cold. Worked great!
I February it was slightly warmer and I stuffed the vest in my range bag. I drove home that night in sleet & snow. All this is to say I’ve just come to associate shooting with cold weather. But no more for this season!
I was in a t-shirt last night and the new challenge is juggling 5 magazine and pasters in my jean pockets. Helps if your t-shirt also has a pocket.
Don’t hit the good guy!
The “new thing” I experienced last night was a stage where you opened a door then shot targets behind a swinger that was a “no shoot”. Put another way, don’t shoot the moving target that is in the way of the stationary targets. The swinger was white versus the targets that are a neutral cardboard color. I grabbed a photo of another shooter after she opened the door. You can see the swinger leaning to the right.
First, you had to let go of the gun with one hand to open the door. Then focus on the stationary targets. It’s amazing how much that swinger could distract.
I only connected with one shot out of four on these targets… and the first thing I though was, “I want to try that again!”. So I will. The match on Wednesday, March 25th will use the same stages. I think I’ll switch from my 1911 to my XDS and see how I do.
He installed the spring kit back on February 7th. I brought him the gun, watched the entire procedure, then took the gun over to PDHSC later in the day just to verify everything was working. It shot fine. We watched the “how to” video and referred to photos he had taken when he’d done this in the past. The video is just over 15 minutes. It took my gunsmith longer to swap out all the springs because he was patient enough to let me ask questions throughout the process. There is no way I’d have done this. I did remember to ask that he test the trigger pull both before and after.
Trigger weight before the spring kit: 8 lbs
Trigger weight after the spring kit: 6.5 lbs
Trigger weigh of my S&W 1911: 3.25 lbs
They now have the sear available, although oddly, they only sell it with the spring kit. I wrote Powder River and mentioned I’d already bought the spring kit. I asked if it was possible to just buy the sear. The response: “We do not offer the sear as a stand-alone product at this time, but the price you pay is the cost of the sear, and our cost for the springs.”
My gunsmith thinks replacing the sear will take off another pound, possibly getting it down to 5 lbs. I asked him to order the sear, so as soon as I get that and get it installed, I’ll post another update (part 2).
I did shoot the XDS in the Wake County Action Pistol Match on February 25th. I bought a red holster and mag pouches for matches and this was the first time I used them.
Snow was predicted and it started as we finished up the match. Attendance was low due to the weather but I was glad I went. It was warmer than the January match. I had no malfunctions with the XDS and I never got cold. It was a good night. A few lessons learned:
Grip the gun very high up on the grip to avoid a NASTY pinch (and bruise) on my palm when I reload. The bottom of the magazine seems to hit just about the bottom of my palm and it seriously hurts if I slam in the magazine and pinch flesh.
If you have to turn before you shoot., turn in the direction of the gun
Don’t walk into a doorway to shoot – because it’s going to take time to back out and move to the next target.
I was overdressed. I didn’t need a down vest. We started off at 40 degrees and were still slightly above freezing when the match ended – even though we had snow dusting the cars when we headed home.
