binary
6th August 2004, 06:47
Hello everyone, I'm sure some of you can relate to my little story...
First of all, I honestly want to thank all members here and John for such an informative place. When I started my search on 1911's on google, I thought that nothing would come up since I must obviously be crazy to consider every handgun inferior to the 1911-A1. Luck turned out that I was wrong (or maybe everyone here is crazy along with me! :p ) Anyway...I really need to rant about this as the wife is getting very fed up with hearing the same thing over and over (I'm thinking about replacing her with another 1911 too! They don't talk back! :rolleyes: )
I grew up with my grandparents. My grandfather who was an MP at the end of WWII to the Korean War has many original firearms from that period. I grew up admiring his Springfield M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, 03A3 Bolt, and his Gov't issued Colt 1911 from 1943.
I fired many guns growing up starting at age 7 with gunsmiths who were relatives: a S&W .357mag, .22, win & rem shotties, and various rifles. Never a .45. They never really hit the spot...left something a little unfilling. To this day I can not give a word to it. I don't want to say 'dissapointment', as that may offend members here.
With that out of the way, I loved my g'pa's .45. I always thought now that's a man's gun. He would tell me stories about it when he was in service. I loved the design. Even young, the gun fit so perfectly in my hand, that it was more of an extension than a real gun. He would show me his .22 wheeler and dealer and old italian 9mm, but I would say i didn't care to see them :D . So I was set on what I wanted back at the age.
I turned 21 not too long ago and ran to every dealer my wife would take me to. I was (and still am a bit) naive, and saw Kimbers that I thought were odd compared to the 1911 I knew. I just learned about series 70 and 80. So I started tracking down a replica instead, unfortunately Colt still hasn't sent their guns to the dep't of justice in California for them to be drop tested and sold, so I had that manufacturer out of reach (for now). Luck was with me when I was at a dealer a bit of a ways from where I live. I saw a Springer GI in park. I checked it out and it felt just like gpa's colt, but nicer. I was expecting to pay a lot and told the guy to go ring it up. I got it for $399 and he brought one from the back in a box, only one of the two left.
Anyway, so I get down to the range (after convincing the wife to do chores for her and stuff, still haven't done 'em :p ). I ran 100 win USA 230gr USA monsters down that bore there. When this gun fired, my god!!! Awesome! It didn't fly up like the others I'd always shot, but in that unique back and ramped-up motion. I remember firing the first round after just loading a single in one of my mags. I wasn't quite sure what to expect; once I pulled the trigger I remember seeing a quick double vision of the target and that loud "cling" at the top of the cage. I yelled at the wife to come shoot it and she like "I don't think so!". After the first shot I instantly got comfortable with it and started going out. I look down to pull out some more ammo for the 3 mags and see about 52 rounds left. I thought my wife stole some of them to get me out of there sooner and gave her an evil eye before I saw all the brass around my foot. Wow! She didn't pay attention though while she read her Oprah magazine with those earmuffs on :D . Anyway, time flew and it was 15 mins later and I was depressed to leave. I loved it all, even the poisonous lead gasses! Smelled darn good!
I only got about 3-4 headhitter ejections out of the 100 rounds. No malfunction at all! After firing during one mag cycle, I realize that i was 3 rounds into a mag that was about 1/2" hanging out of the mag well. That thing was still pullin' em! I had no FTE's, no FTF's, no hangfires, nothing bad.
Anyway I had a few questions (if any of you have reach this point of my long thread):
1)How many rounds can I put through it before needing to cool it down? I remember pulling back the slide to make sure a round was chambered in that un-clicked-in mag and saw bellows of smoke whisk out. Was afraid of it heated the shells up too much.
2)When I field stripped it after, I notice second grooves next to each old one in the barrel. Like a pair. Are these from damage or is that normal, or were they there before? The rifling looks like 1 groove, then another one to left of it about 1/5" away parallel.
3)The feedramp has tiny scratches (that you can't feel) from an empty (fired) shell having the action closed on it from being inserted in the mag. I had dummy rounds that I was using to show the wife how the mechanics worked, but she grabbed a mag with a single empty shell in it since I had it in there to check the spring tension and the shell was the same color as the dummy round-loaded mags. I think the mouth of the shell scratched it a little. Should I do something about this?
4)My aim sucks, bad. I was an excellent aim with all firearms up to this. However, when I don't even glance at the sights and shoot (like in the movies) I will hit the bullseye, but rarely. My slugs fly far below my intended area. The rangemaster said I was flinching from looking at the paper target, but I am not closing my eyes or moving the gun down or squeezing hard. I think it has something to do with the sights (which I love and have no quarrel with). Since the front sight is so low, should I really level the tip of it to the top of the rear, or just in the middle of the rear?
5)I need something for the wife to protect the house with when I'm gone. She's scared ghostly white of the size of the .45 in all shapes and forms. She likes the Berette M9, but if she can't rack the slide on my springer how would she do with that?
OK then, sorry for taking up so much time. I'm just hoping to get some comments like "I remember back then too!" or something I guess.
P.S. I put a Kimber Custom II and a black stainless Springer Loaded on layaway. Is this a good family to match my springer?
Thanks!!
First of all, I honestly want to thank all members here and John for such an informative place. When I started my search on 1911's on google, I thought that nothing would come up since I must obviously be crazy to consider every handgun inferior to the 1911-A1. Luck turned out that I was wrong (or maybe everyone here is crazy along with me! :p ) Anyway...I really need to rant about this as the wife is getting very fed up with hearing the same thing over and over (I'm thinking about replacing her with another 1911 too! They don't talk back! :rolleyes: )
I grew up with my grandparents. My grandfather who was an MP at the end of WWII to the Korean War has many original firearms from that period. I grew up admiring his Springfield M1 Garand, M1 Carbine, 03A3 Bolt, and his Gov't issued Colt 1911 from 1943.
I fired many guns growing up starting at age 7 with gunsmiths who were relatives: a S&W .357mag, .22, win & rem shotties, and various rifles. Never a .45. They never really hit the spot...left something a little unfilling. To this day I can not give a word to it. I don't want to say 'dissapointment', as that may offend members here.
With that out of the way, I loved my g'pa's .45. I always thought now that's a man's gun. He would tell me stories about it when he was in service. I loved the design. Even young, the gun fit so perfectly in my hand, that it was more of an extension than a real gun. He would show me his .22 wheeler and dealer and old italian 9mm, but I would say i didn't care to see them :D . So I was set on what I wanted back at the age.
I turned 21 not too long ago and ran to every dealer my wife would take me to. I was (and still am a bit) naive, and saw Kimbers that I thought were odd compared to the 1911 I knew. I just learned about series 70 and 80. So I started tracking down a replica instead, unfortunately Colt still hasn't sent their guns to the dep't of justice in California for them to be drop tested and sold, so I had that manufacturer out of reach (for now). Luck was with me when I was at a dealer a bit of a ways from where I live. I saw a Springer GI in park. I checked it out and it felt just like gpa's colt, but nicer. I was expecting to pay a lot and told the guy to go ring it up. I got it for $399 and he brought one from the back in a box, only one of the two left.
Anyway, so I get down to the range (after convincing the wife to do chores for her and stuff, still haven't done 'em :p ). I ran 100 win USA 230gr USA monsters down that bore there. When this gun fired, my god!!! Awesome! It didn't fly up like the others I'd always shot, but in that unique back and ramped-up motion. I remember firing the first round after just loading a single in one of my mags. I wasn't quite sure what to expect; once I pulled the trigger I remember seeing a quick double vision of the target and that loud "cling" at the top of the cage. I yelled at the wife to come shoot it and she like "I don't think so!". After the first shot I instantly got comfortable with it and started going out. I look down to pull out some more ammo for the 3 mags and see about 52 rounds left. I thought my wife stole some of them to get me out of there sooner and gave her an evil eye before I saw all the brass around my foot. Wow! She didn't pay attention though while she read her Oprah magazine with those earmuffs on :D . Anyway, time flew and it was 15 mins later and I was depressed to leave. I loved it all, even the poisonous lead gasses! Smelled darn good!
I only got about 3-4 headhitter ejections out of the 100 rounds. No malfunction at all! After firing during one mag cycle, I realize that i was 3 rounds into a mag that was about 1/2" hanging out of the mag well. That thing was still pullin' em! I had no FTE's, no FTF's, no hangfires, nothing bad.
Anyway I had a few questions (if any of you have reach this point of my long thread):
1)How many rounds can I put through it before needing to cool it down? I remember pulling back the slide to make sure a round was chambered in that un-clicked-in mag and saw bellows of smoke whisk out. Was afraid of it heated the shells up too much.
2)When I field stripped it after, I notice second grooves next to each old one in the barrel. Like a pair. Are these from damage or is that normal, or were they there before? The rifling looks like 1 groove, then another one to left of it about 1/5" away parallel.
3)The feedramp has tiny scratches (that you can't feel) from an empty (fired) shell having the action closed on it from being inserted in the mag. I had dummy rounds that I was using to show the wife how the mechanics worked, but she grabbed a mag with a single empty shell in it since I had it in there to check the spring tension and the shell was the same color as the dummy round-loaded mags. I think the mouth of the shell scratched it a little. Should I do something about this?
4)My aim sucks, bad. I was an excellent aim with all firearms up to this. However, when I don't even glance at the sights and shoot (like in the movies) I will hit the bullseye, but rarely. My slugs fly far below my intended area. The rangemaster said I was flinching from looking at the paper target, but I am not closing my eyes or moving the gun down or squeezing hard. I think it has something to do with the sights (which I love and have no quarrel with). Since the front sight is so low, should I really level the tip of it to the top of the rear, or just in the middle of the rear?
5)I need something for the wife to protect the house with when I'm gone. She's scared ghostly white of the size of the .45 in all shapes and forms. She likes the Berette M9, but if she can't rack the slide on my springer how would she do with that?
OK then, sorry for taking up so much time. I'm just hoping to get some comments like "I remember back then too!" or something I guess.
P.S. I put a Kimber Custom II and a black stainless Springer Loaded on layaway. Is this a good family to match my springer?
Thanks!!