9mm 1911 for a Bullseye, Service Pistol and Centerfire 900

john bickar wrote:Why you gotta make fun of old, fat, and slow?

I feel persecuted.

I am equal opportunity, I easily belong in to at least 2/3 of that group possibly the entire group depending on who you ask. Which reminds me do I still have ice cream in the freezer....

chiz1180 wrote:Len, Does the 10mm brass act like 10mm sockets and just magically disappear?

There’s a vacuum that sucks every thing 10mm into the nearest dark hole, sockets, wrenches, brass…everything.!

I have stuck to shooting the same gun, the same load, and as often as possible.  A certain feel and rythm is acheived. Changing the powder charge, bullet weight, gun or caliber introduces a variable that is undesirable.
Bill Blankenship spoke of shooting his .38 rather than the .45 on a still day as it was worth a "couple points" however these guys are in a diiferent class.

I no longer compete so enjoy shooting a couple of .38 1911's and a Sig P210. I aquired the .38's planning on their use when the competitive yrs were over.

Ron Habegger

Ron,

I agree with your thoughts on feel and rhythm, though I also like to explore variety. If I bothered to look back at my match log my "best" scores were shot with the "primary guns" while detours to explore different options had mixed results. To me (and hopefully others) what is interesting about this little endeavor is that this I am not a Blankenship or near peer level shooter, I'm just a guy that kinda sorta(but really probably not) has this whole precision shooting thing figured out. I may not learn anything "new" but I will have the personal experience of trying.

How many of you would be shooting BE if there were no scorings?

Ron Habegger

Then only dueling would be left!

We would still get to show off at the range. 

Colt711 wrote:How many of you would be shooting BE if there were no scorings?

Ron Habegger

This is going to sound incredibly arrogant, but with very few exceptions, if I only cared about score, my shooting progress would stagnate. As I have mentioned previously score is a metric, but not one that I put a lot of thought into. I more care about how well I follow my process. If I focus on score during a match it is really easy to get caught up with what everyone else is doing. 

If I am training, I don't score my targets at all. 

Back to the project update. 

I did shoot a EIC match with the it, I shot fairly well all things considered (have been busy lately) shot above the cut score, don't remember the exact score, it was 260ish i think. I do not think the score would have been any better or worse with the 45. Most importantly it was a fun match. 

Going to be taking a bit of a break from shooting this one for a bit, need to put some of my focus on a few other projects for a week or so.

I actually scored Chris on that EIC match. I can definitely say that he did not lose any points shooting 9mm vs 45. I was really hoping to call one just out just to give him shit, but alas, not meant to be. I wholeheartedly support his foray into 9mm. Hell, I'd still like to build a bullseye 9mm 2011 someday...

Dave

Dcforman wrote:I actually scored Chris on that EIC match. I can definitely say that he did not lose any points shooting 9mm vs 45. I was really hoping to call one just out just to give him shit, but alas, not meant to be. I wholeheartedly support his foray into 9mm. Hell, I'd still like to build a bullseye 9mm 2011 someday...

Dave

Can confirm, he had the overlay ready. I think really the only "benefit"  on that day, my brass was easy to identify. 

Now that I think about it a bit, the biggest benefit at the moment is the current "novelty" of the 9mm has me training more service pistol than I would other wise. 

I too would like to explore 2011 potential, hell even with a 2011 in 22lr would be crazy fun.

Chiz,

Keepin track of your score during the match is not a good idea...surely the time to be thinkin about what your doin!

Where do you shoot in the Buckeye State? I shot @ Oak Harbor, in fact I was there the night the range opened.... 1968, maybe Sep or Oct.  

They were a great group of guys.  Practice was EVERY Fri evening. We didn't grant excuses for being absent easily! I'm the only one of those there at the start left. Moved to FL in '04. 

Ron Habegger

Ron,

My base camp is out of Central Ohio, my home club is Lancaster Pistol and Rifle Club. But if their is a match in Ohio and I have the time available, I will shoot there too. The first match I won was at Oak Harbor, First EIC points were at Adams, first Hard Leg was at Canton, first class win was at State Indoor at Warren, Had a great mentor early on out of Cincinnati Revolver Club. Unfortunately not as many active clubs now as in times past.

Back to the 9mm project. Still not sure what I will run at Perry for the service stuff. I am leaning towards the 9mm but I do like my 45 options. I am tempted to run the warm up match all metallic run the 9mm for CF.

chiz1180 wrote:...

Back to the 9mm project. Still not sure what I will run at Perry for the service stuff. I am leaning towards the 9mm but I do like my 45 options. I am tempted to run the warm up match all metallic run the 9mm for CF.

Or, you know, you could go old school and shoot metallic for the entire 2700. I tried to last year, but got snaked with the CG search during 22 day, so I don't feel like I got my entire bite at the apple. Hopefully I can get all three guns done this year without anyone drowning in the lake, which is a big win win for all involved.

While I've got some amount of eyesight, I'd like to do it the old way; but also a bit of the Army way. In order to earn a dot sight, a shooter must meet or exceed 870 during a 900 using iron sights. I call this the "870 Challenge," but I'm sure the Army just calls it "work." (No idea if other branches did/do something similar, or what historical practices were across branches, etc.) Regardless of what it is called, there is a bit of wisdom here- a path to inform future progression. Sort of like shooting a 9MM in CF. 

May we all shoot 870+ with irons!

-Chase

Chase,
I shot metallic 22 and 45 in 2022 (shot a dot in CF because I didn't have enough jacketed ammo available, as I loaned some to a friend so they could shoot service events that year), It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.
I am fairly certain I am going to shoot my "normal guns" for the 2700 as perry is one of the few matches that I can just show up and shoot. I have been known to adjust the plan last minute so who knows. Bottom line though at Perry my plan is to just to the best of my ability at the time and enjoy the match.

Little bit of an update. I was able to find time for a serious training session. I shot both 9mm and 45 service guns back to back, I shot them both at roughly the same level of proficiency with maybe a slight edge to the 9mm as I had not touched that 45 service gun in quite some time. 

I did get the slide finished, really happy with how it has come together. The project in general taught me a lot. Also shot my first clean service pistol target. Looking foreword to shooting it some more this season. 

Clark Sr. FTW

chiz1180 wrote:Probably due for an update. 


July stuff
I was not able to shoot as much of the July festivities as I would have liked, but I did shoot the 9mm for the Service 900 at Cardinal. Weather was challenging (rain), but I did ok all things considered. Later I found that the rear sight came loose at some point during that match. I rushed it back together, but I didn’t have adequate time to get a good zero which was apparent on NTI and P100.


Since Perry I have been shooting it in my local league. It is still fun and rewarding to shoot and I am shooting it well with plenty of improvement potential. In some ways it probably is a bit less intimidating to newcomers rather than a wadgun with what looks like a model Hubble on the slide and in a caliber that is a bit more relatable.



P.S. For those who think shooting a 9mm means you “can’t shoot a 45”… Yes, I can still shoot a “real” ball gun. 

Clark with gold medallion grips plus 50 points

I can't speak to the strengths or weaknesses of a 9mm 1911 for Bullseye competitions.....That said, the platform i shoot best, most accurately and the one that feels best in my hand and who's cadence feels most natural and satisfying is my Bruce Gray 1911.

Really nicely done, love the sights....did you do the checkering as well? I find that aspect of a 1911 build to be even more challenging to effect than seamlessly fitting the grip safety. That is in and of itself an art form. Congratulations.

brand-new wrote:I can't speak to the strengths or weaknesses of a 9mm 1911 for Bullseye competitions.....That said, the platform i shoot best, most accurately and the one that feels best in my hand and who's cadence feels most natural and satisfying is my Bruce Gray 1911.

Really nicely done, love the sights....did you do the checkering as well? I find that aspect of a 1911 build to be even more challenging to effect than seamlessly fitting the grip safety. That is in and of itself an art form. Congratulations.

I did all the work on the gun with the exception of the chemical part of bluing the slide. Not my first build, but I attempted some more advanced procedures with this one. It was hand checkered, and isn't perfect. Feels good though. I have a few things that I probably will change/tweak at some point but the build was a good education in the cost of quality.