Didn’t happen… again

/ hsoi

My second attempt at pistol competition was a bust. The Aggies say if you do something 3 times it becomes tradition… so I hope my next effort is successful. 🙂

While most of the Austin area didn’t get rain yesterday, apparently parts of it did. One of those parts was the Austin Rifle Club. Got there this morning and the match was cancelled. They got dumped on with rain and the new action bays were muddy. Some were also full of standing water. The bays were only recently completed and I’m going to guess this was the first time they were rained upon. So while most of the drainage was good, it wasn’t perfect and this was the first time they got to see that. A lot of ARC members were standing around talking about that and how they’d have to fix the bays to remedy it. So… while perhaps the match didn’t happen, hopefully the rain meant good things for the future.

Before I left I dropped an email to foo.c to see if he wanted to join. He called me back, I missed it (don’t know how…. but the iPhone’s vibrate apparently doesn’t vibrate enough, and for whatever reason I didn’t hear the ring either). Called him from the muddy parking lot and asked if he just wanted to go to the regular bays at ARC to shoot. I swung by his house, picked him up, we came back to ARC and shot for a while.

I got to try out his new Rock Island Armory 1911. It’s not as sweet at his Wilson, but pretty darn close. Certainly makes you wonder if all the money in something like a Wilson is really worth it. Wilson had a slightly better trigger, the RIA wasn’t too bad. He also had this Sig P6 which … gah… if you can’t say something nice don’t say anything at all, so I’ll just stop. 🙂  Fun little beater gun, but wow, that DA/SA action is ugly and the DA pull is junkyard dog ugly.

I shot my Buck Mark a bunch. Gosh that gun is fun to shoot.

Then got some trigger time with my XD-9. The fiber popped out of the front sight. Put it back in but it popped out again and I couldn’t find it. That sucks. I’ll contact Dawson Precision in the morning. I was shooting OK. It’s evident I haven’t been to the range in a while. Dry fire all you want, in fact you should dry fire a lot. But in the end, you gotta get to the range some because you need that recoil to really make things go. Darn this ammo shortage situation… a big reason why I haven’t been to the range and only dry firing. 😦  Still, shot OK.

So, while today wasn’t the day I wanted, it was the day I needed. Happy to have gotten the trigger time. Good to hang out with a friend. I’ll try competition again some other time.

16 thoughts on “Didn’t happen… again”

  1. Yeah, that was fun. Got to do a little long range shooting, got to do a little more self-defense type shooting.

    I kinda have an appreciation for the P6, I’m still going to trade it off, but I see the potential. Ultimately, it’s not going to work for me and that’s really all there is to it.

    • I would have preferred to shoot on the move. But ah well. You got to practice your reloads.

      The P6… well, you can appreciate it all you want I guess. 🙂 It wasn’t horrid to shoot, but certainly I’d not spend any money on such a thing.

      • Well, in all fairness, the Germans were apparently very afraid of actually making the guns usable and specified a very heavy mainspring. (Kind of like the NYPD trigger.)

        The US version, the P225 isn’t quite as horrible on the DA pull.

        A new mainspring is only a few bucks, and I’m told improves things a lot.

        There’s more you can do if you’re inclined to spend the money.

        I felt like the best P6 still wouldn’t be as good as the worst 1911 (to me), so I’m trading it. (Although it looks like I’ll be replacing it with a Hi-Power.)

  2. Yeah, we’ve all been hurting on ammo. I went shooting last weekend and was able to score some 9mm NATO they had sitting on the shelves at Cabelas. First time I’ve seen 9mm range ammo on the shelves anywhere in months.

    The RIA Tactical is something I’m looking at for a future purchase. Tell foo.c that the Pachmayr wraparound grip ( http://www.pachmayr.com/signature-grips-wo-backstraps.php ) with the finger grooves is a nice addition to that gun. I’ve got a friend with one of those outfitted with that grip, and it’s awful nice to shoot. I’ve got the same grips on my Hi-Power.

    Also, he might want to change out the firing pin and firing pin spring on that for a lighter pin/heavier spring, as there’s no firing pin safety mechanism on that gun. There was a guy on the Texas CHL Forum who dropped his on the muzzle and had it discharge into the floor, causing minor shrapnel injury to his leg:

    http://www.texasshooting.com/TexasCHL_Forum/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=16443

    • I was lucky to score a bunch of PMC 9mm online a little while back, but I have to save it up for an upcoming class. Once that class is done, I’ll feel a little more at ease in what I shoot.

      Foo.c actually put some Wilson grips on it, including some little front-strap dealy that put some nice checkering there. I didn’t like the grips that much, felt a little aggressive, but I do think they would do the job very well. I’m probably just too used to the “slick” texturing of my XD’s grip. I am planning on getting a stipple job done on it once it’s economical for me to send it back to Springer Precision. I want to get another of my XD’s tricked out (gaming gun???), so I may send the frame of my currently customized XD in just for stippling. It’s just too expensive to ship the guns unless you’re getting a lot of work done. That’s all.

      That thread on the Texas CHL forum is nuts. I’ll mention it to him. Thanx.

      • The G10 diagonal grips on there new feel rock solid in my hands, and I don’t find them uncomfortable at all. Different strokes for different folks.

        In regards to the firing pin and spring, I’m not too worried about it.

  3. I’ve got tons of 9mm on the shelf? If you don’t mind Prvi Partizan in the 115-grain FMJ flavor, it ain’t as cheap as it once was (what is?) at $11.99/box. This morning I had Remington and Winchester 100 packs at the BBOD, $24.99/100.

    -Rob

      • Big Box O’ Discounts retail store…. it’s where RevolverRob works, or rather, is the pseudonym for where he works.

        Check out his blog for the full skinny. 🙂

      • John, BBOD, as hsoi said is a pseudonym for my retail masters. The truth behind my secret is the big place whose motto is, “Right Stuff, Low Price.” 😉

        • Ah, got it. That’s where I bought the EBS, minus the sling and rear stock, which were purchased at McBrides and Cabelas, respectively.

          I’ve not been over there in a couple months now, mostly because there’s never one on the way to the range, and I haven’t had much time for shopping lately.

          Also, you’ve been added to the blogroll. 🙂

  4. I’ve used Prvi’s .308 168 grain match stuff. It’s not bad.

    Those prices aren’t too bad either…. not what it once was, but not too far off, actually. So, this is good to hear! My problem is cash shortage… what with just having done that big back-to-school clothing shop for the kiddos. 🙂

  5. Well there is plenty of it and we have had it for about two weeks now (when I say plenty, I mean 16,000 rounds). In fact, we’ve gotten shipments of all major calibers, I bought 500 rounds of .45 ACP this weekend. The PPU stuff is marketed as the same brand as a common butterfly, but check the head stamps, all brassed cased stuff is PPU.

    I’ve shot thousands of rounds of it, in every caliber except a couple of the rifle calibers, it’ll do until something better comes along.

    -Rob

  6. Pingback: Another shot at competition? « Stuff From Hsoi

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