Markbo
25th September 2006, 15:12
It was the best of times... it was the worst of times.
We went up to mom-in-law's little house in the country this weekend. 20 or 30 acres (she can't remember and I just don't know!) of East Texas woods that is quiet and beautiful. Had to deliver our old couch and take out the OLD hide-a-bed back breaker. Spent some time reading and watching movies and a little time doing maintenance/repairs. See the best and worst thing here? It will be a recurring theme.
The old couch I manhandled in easily... the hide-a-bed must have weighed twice as much and easy was not one of the words I used dragging it out and loading it into the truck. Even though it is extraordinarily uncomfortable, it looks great (if you like nappy avocado green cloth) and we donated it to a local charity.
The shooting part was restricted to two 22's - both conversions. Both recently installed as purpose built, full time guns on RIA lowers with Chip McCormick parts: Beavertail grip safety, hammer, extended thumb safety and slide stop and sear. Despite some negative reviews I have seen recently the CMc parts all fit great on both guns. The only real alteration on the lowers besides the levers and sear was to add some skate board tape to the glass slick fronts of the grip frame area.
I don't need grip there for recoil, but it sure feels weird without it! The two conversion kits were a Kimber stainless and a Marvel railed version. The Kimber wears Kimber black open sights and the Marvel a cheap 1" red dot sight from Adco. The only saving grace on it is that the lower you adjust the brightness, the smaller the dot gets so the more precision aiming point it becomes.
I don't believe this to be designed... I think it just the nature of the glare as the brightness increases. All shooting was done at around 15 yards and unfortunately all offhand. The weather did not cooperate and I could not get properly set up off the cement table that sits on the back slab. First:
The Kimber: With it's all black sights, it was pretty easy to shoot at the targets I had which had multiple orange dots on them. It functioned well enough, although there is a hitch in the trigger pull... I don't really know what it is but you take up the slack... stop.. keep pulling... kind of hitches and stops.. then releases. Measured weight was just over 4 lbs so I will have my smith look at it. I have never felt any 1911 with that hitch in the trigger.
It was already fitted to the frame, fully lubed and tested so I will tell him it's something he did wrong. ;) It shot really, really well but ONLY with high velocity hunting loads. The few target loads I tried did not function well with failures to fully cycle and pick up the next round. Maybe this will change as it wears in - I don't know. But since these are both hunting guns that is really not a big deal to me. It actually shot best with Mini-mags, which in my experience is unusual in a pistol. But I was getting routine 1" groups and smaller, which for ME offhand ain't bad! Only 15 yards, but that is still minute of squirrel head out to 30 at least.
Of the 6 or 8 loads I tried they all shot to a slightly different point of aim - not by much, but none landed exactly on top of the previous load so I will have to be sighted in with what I hunt with. It also means I am going to have to load up on Mini-mags. Anyone know of a good case price?
Also, I noticed something that was really not good - the whole good thing, bad thing: Of the 5 Kimber magazines I have only ONE functioned perfectly. Two would not even fit into either guns. I have not taken a caliper to them yet, but I can see that they are slightly thicker - one side to side and the other front to rear.
Of the other 3 only one functioned. One had a bent follower - the rear was just bent down into the body and the other just wouldn't feed. The other just would not feed reliably.. it was like the rounds were not being pushed up high enough. I also noticed that of the two that fit but wouldn't function, I could feed 13 or 14 rounds into them. The one that functioned perfectly held exactly 10 rounds and solidly stopped. I have no idea what all that is about, but that is unusually poor quality control for Kimber. I am undecided whether I will mess with them myself or just send them back and tell them to send me tested replacements. What do you think?
Marvel: This marvel was also fitted to the RIA slide. I have the scope rail upper and am actually going to forego the open sight upper and just install open sights within this rail. That way I don't have to swap anything when I want to shoot with different sights... I just remove the red dot rings and when I remount it 'should be' pretty close to zeroed.
The Marvel functioned nearly 100%. Not fully 100% because of my danged thumb! I couldn't remember to move it out of the way. But when I did it swallowed up target and hunting loads alike. I got some crazy small groups with Aguilla SE and Wolf MT. I might even consider these for hunting IF they will function after I use an Eabco hollow point tool. I have used this tool in rifles and find a routine accuracy improvement. Whether or not they will function on that sharp little feedramp, we will have to see. Overall, accuracy was not consistent because of the trigger pull, which I measured after getting home at almost 6 lbs - not conducive to my best shooting. But all in all, the Marvel performed just as it has before... fantastically! The two Cotl magazines worked perfectly,but would not work with the Kimber.
I have a couple of cheap kydex holster I am going to try to heat and melt and move some material around to get to hold this gun scoped. If I can make it work I might order a couple more to try it with the scoped .460 Rowland as well. We shall see.
The hardest part of shooting both of these was remembering to move my right thumb completely off the safety. Leaving it there continually caused failures to function. Just the slightest drag on the slide would mess it up. I must admit it remained difficult to do because I have so conditioned myself to leave it there while shooting .45. It will take more practice and I HOPE it doesn't cause me to change my defensive shooting. I'd rather have to re-wrack a .22 at a squirrel than a .45 at a threat.
So... the best of times: I got to spend a weekend in the country laying back with my best gal, watching movies, reading, relaxing and shooting at my leisure.
The worst of times: Just as I was getting close to finishing my shooting Sunday about Noon, one of our 3 dogs suffered what we believe was a stroke or maybe some heart fibrilation. He gets excited and always hangs around barking like crazy when I shoot. It was not unsafe since he stands right in front of me and doesn't jump... he just barks at me.
Anyway, I looked up while reloading a mag and notice he was walking a little funny. Within seconds he was walking like he had been spun in circles. I immediately called my SO and went to get him - he is about 40 lb short haired mixed breed - and he for the first time that I have known him, snapped at me. He obviously was very confused and didn't understand what was happening. He by now fell over and was just flailing and kind of fell into a bush.
Lynda finally grabbed his face so I could lift him (he was now completely under the bush) and I saw his eyes rolling around like a dizzy child... it was really, really scary. I have never seen any dog look like that. I got him to the table on the patio and laid him down, kind of laying on his rear to hold him down while Lynda held and stroked his head. We were both talking to him trying to calm him down... you could tell he was scared. He was panting so hard we couldn't hear his heart and I couldn't find a pulse and Lynda checked his gums and they had turned white... we knew he was having a heart attack or a stroke.. it was absolutely heart wrenching. His eyes continued to roll around until finally they rolled back in his head and he stopped panting.
Lynda said... "That's OK... you're OK now... you're a good boy..." and looked at me and said "he's going now..." And just as suddenly he started panting again and looked at her "Nope, he's back!!". Holy Smoke!! His eyes were spinning around and he was panting, but he was alive. I went and got some water and poured it on his feet and his neck trying to cool him down. It took about 10 minutes before he was quiet enough to hear his heart and we just kept talking to him to calm him down and keep him awake. He finally calmed and just lay down. We had to keep him still so we could pack and get him to a Vet or home, since apparently he was going to live (we hoped!).
I got him in his porta-kennel we transport him in and he couldn't hold his head up... he was just spinning like a drunkard. We decided to get him home and hope and pray for the best, so we loaded up fast. I roped a dark sheet around his kennel to keep the wind down and visual stimuli minimized. 2 hours later we got home, I was just throwing stuff onto the garage floor to get to the sheet and when I literally tore it off, we saw him.
Tongue hanging out.... ears erect... and looking for all the world at us like "hey... are we home yet?". I opened the gate and he just jumped out of the truck, headed into the yard for a long pee and looked just fine. He was last night and today absolutely exhausted, but he looks OK. I cannot begin to explain the range or strength of emotions yesterday. But if you have a dog... you already know. Old Seamus... all 16 1/2 years of him... is still kicking! Can't hear much... can't see too great either... but he is still here. Needless to say we will be keeping a close watch on him.
It was the worst of times... it ended with the best of times.
edited to add: One odd thing I noticed is that the Kimber recoil spring feels a LOT lighter than the Marvel. With the hammer down I can move the slide back on the Kimber much easier than the Marvel - just the opposite of what I thought it would be based on the Kimber not cycling match ammo.
We went up to mom-in-law's little house in the country this weekend. 20 or 30 acres (she can't remember and I just don't know!) of East Texas woods that is quiet and beautiful. Had to deliver our old couch and take out the OLD hide-a-bed back breaker. Spent some time reading and watching movies and a little time doing maintenance/repairs. See the best and worst thing here? It will be a recurring theme.
The old couch I manhandled in easily... the hide-a-bed must have weighed twice as much and easy was not one of the words I used dragging it out and loading it into the truck. Even though it is extraordinarily uncomfortable, it looks great (if you like nappy avocado green cloth) and we donated it to a local charity.
The shooting part was restricted to two 22's - both conversions. Both recently installed as purpose built, full time guns on RIA lowers with Chip McCormick parts: Beavertail grip safety, hammer, extended thumb safety and slide stop and sear. Despite some negative reviews I have seen recently the CMc parts all fit great on both guns. The only real alteration on the lowers besides the levers and sear was to add some skate board tape to the glass slick fronts of the grip frame area.
I don't need grip there for recoil, but it sure feels weird without it! The two conversion kits were a Kimber stainless and a Marvel railed version. The Kimber wears Kimber black open sights and the Marvel a cheap 1" red dot sight from Adco. The only saving grace on it is that the lower you adjust the brightness, the smaller the dot gets so the more precision aiming point it becomes.
I don't believe this to be designed... I think it just the nature of the glare as the brightness increases. All shooting was done at around 15 yards and unfortunately all offhand. The weather did not cooperate and I could not get properly set up off the cement table that sits on the back slab. First:
The Kimber: With it's all black sights, it was pretty easy to shoot at the targets I had which had multiple orange dots on them. It functioned well enough, although there is a hitch in the trigger pull... I don't really know what it is but you take up the slack... stop.. keep pulling... kind of hitches and stops.. then releases. Measured weight was just over 4 lbs so I will have my smith look at it. I have never felt any 1911 with that hitch in the trigger.
It was already fitted to the frame, fully lubed and tested so I will tell him it's something he did wrong. ;) It shot really, really well but ONLY with high velocity hunting loads. The few target loads I tried did not function well with failures to fully cycle and pick up the next round. Maybe this will change as it wears in - I don't know. But since these are both hunting guns that is really not a big deal to me. It actually shot best with Mini-mags, which in my experience is unusual in a pistol. But I was getting routine 1" groups and smaller, which for ME offhand ain't bad! Only 15 yards, but that is still minute of squirrel head out to 30 at least.
Of the 6 or 8 loads I tried they all shot to a slightly different point of aim - not by much, but none landed exactly on top of the previous load so I will have to be sighted in with what I hunt with. It also means I am going to have to load up on Mini-mags. Anyone know of a good case price?
Also, I noticed something that was really not good - the whole good thing, bad thing: Of the 5 Kimber magazines I have only ONE functioned perfectly. Two would not even fit into either guns. I have not taken a caliper to them yet, but I can see that they are slightly thicker - one side to side and the other front to rear.
Of the other 3 only one functioned. One had a bent follower - the rear was just bent down into the body and the other just wouldn't feed. The other just would not feed reliably.. it was like the rounds were not being pushed up high enough. I also noticed that of the two that fit but wouldn't function, I could feed 13 or 14 rounds into them. The one that functioned perfectly held exactly 10 rounds and solidly stopped. I have no idea what all that is about, but that is unusually poor quality control for Kimber. I am undecided whether I will mess with them myself or just send them back and tell them to send me tested replacements. What do you think?
Marvel: This marvel was also fitted to the RIA slide. I have the scope rail upper and am actually going to forego the open sight upper and just install open sights within this rail. That way I don't have to swap anything when I want to shoot with different sights... I just remove the red dot rings and when I remount it 'should be' pretty close to zeroed.
The Marvel functioned nearly 100%. Not fully 100% because of my danged thumb! I couldn't remember to move it out of the way. But when I did it swallowed up target and hunting loads alike. I got some crazy small groups with Aguilla SE and Wolf MT. I might even consider these for hunting IF they will function after I use an Eabco hollow point tool. I have used this tool in rifles and find a routine accuracy improvement. Whether or not they will function on that sharp little feedramp, we will have to see. Overall, accuracy was not consistent because of the trigger pull, which I measured after getting home at almost 6 lbs - not conducive to my best shooting. But all in all, the Marvel performed just as it has before... fantastically! The two Cotl magazines worked perfectly,but would not work with the Kimber.
I have a couple of cheap kydex holster I am going to try to heat and melt and move some material around to get to hold this gun scoped. If I can make it work I might order a couple more to try it with the scoped .460 Rowland as well. We shall see.
The hardest part of shooting both of these was remembering to move my right thumb completely off the safety. Leaving it there continually caused failures to function. Just the slightest drag on the slide would mess it up. I must admit it remained difficult to do because I have so conditioned myself to leave it there while shooting .45. It will take more practice and I HOPE it doesn't cause me to change my defensive shooting. I'd rather have to re-wrack a .22 at a squirrel than a .45 at a threat.
So... the best of times: I got to spend a weekend in the country laying back with my best gal, watching movies, reading, relaxing and shooting at my leisure.
The worst of times: Just as I was getting close to finishing my shooting Sunday about Noon, one of our 3 dogs suffered what we believe was a stroke or maybe some heart fibrilation. He gets excited and always hangs around barking like crazy when I shoot. It was not unsafe since he stands right in front of me and doesn't jump... he just barks at me.
Anyway, I looked up while reloading a mag and notice he was walking a little funny. Within seconds he was walking like he had been spun in circles. I immediately called my SO and went to get him - he is about 40 lb short haired mixed breed - and he for the first time that I have known him, snapped at me. He obviously was very confused and didn't understand what was happening. He by now fell over and was just flailing and kind of fell into a bush.
Lynda finally grabbed his face so I could lift him (he was now completely under the bush) and I saw his eyes rolling around like a dizzy child... it was really, really scary. I have never seen any dog look like that. I got him to the table on the patio and laid him down, kind of laying on his rear to hold him down while Lynda held and stroked his head. We were both talking to him trying to calm him down... you could tell he was scared. He was panting so hard we couldn't hear his heart and I couldn't find a pulse and Lynda checked his gums and they had turned white... we knew he was having a heart attack or a stroke.. it was absolutely heart wrenching. His eyes continued to roll around until finally they rolled back in his head and he stopped panting.
Lynda said... "That's OK... you're OK now... you're a good boy..." and looked at me and said "he's going now..." And just as suddenly he started panting again and looked at her "Nope, he's back!!". Holy Smoke!! His eyes were spinning around and he was panting, but he was alive. I went and got some water and poured it on his feet and his neck trying to cool him down. It took about 10 minutes before he was quiet enough to hear his heart and we just kept talking to him to calm him down and keep him awake. He finally calmed and just lay down. We had to keep him still so we could pack and get him to a Vet or home, since apparently he was going to live (we hoped!).
I got him in his porta-kennel we transport him in and he couldn't hold his head up... he was just spinning like a drunkard. We decided to get him home and hope and pray for the best, so we loaded up fast. I roped a dark sheet around his kennel to keep the wind down and visual stimuli minimized. 2 hours later we got home, I was just throwing stuff onto the garage floor to get to the sheet and when I literally tore it off, we saw him.
Tongue hanging out.... ears erect... and looking for all the world at us like "hey... are we home yet?". I opened the gate and he just jumped out of the truck, headed into the yard for a long pee and looked just fine. He was last night and today absolutely exhausted, but he looks OK. I cannot begin to explain the range or strength of emotions yesterday. But if you have a dog... you already know. Old Seamus... all 16 1/2 years of him... is still kicking! Can't hear much... can't see too great either... but he is still here. Needless to say we will be keeping a close watch on him.
It was the worst of times... it ended with the best of times.
edited to add: One odd thing I noticed is that the Kimber recoil spring feels a LOT lighter than the Marvel. With the hammer down I can move the slide back on the Kimber much easier than the Marvel - just the opposite of what I thought it would be based on the Kimber not cycling match ammo.