Thanks everyone for the warm welcome...
I'd like to make a few more comments.
Someone asked about the hard chrome finish on my gun making it smoother. Maybe, I don't know. I have mostly stainless guns and a couple of blued ones. Quite frankly they all feel smooth to me, but the smoothest I ever remember feeling was not mine, it was a carbon steel gun built from the ground up using a frame and slide with oversized rails that were fit by hand.
I'm left-handed, so all my 1911's have ambidextrous safeties. I find them more comfortable to shoot with a beavertail, which means they get Commander hammers. I like Heinie sights. I hate rust, so guns with stainless or hard chrome finish tend to get used a lot and guns with a blued finish tend to spend more time in the safe.
Knocking off the sharp edges and beveling the magazine well make the gun more comfortable and easier for me to use. I also bump up the recoil spring to a Wolff 18.5 conventional for a more authoritative slide stroke. The particular gun I used in the shoot happens to have an Ed Brown barrel because I wanted the corrosion resistance of stainless steel, not because the stock barrel shot poorly.
I really don't think these are radical modifications. I have owned Colt XS series guns that came from the factory with a beavertail and Ambi safety, and I shot them just fine in stock form.
Have I mentioned I carry a Glock 22 every day as a duty gun? I just happen to like 1911's, but I have no problem with Glocks.
Some of the shooters in this match failed their guns. One experienced shooter showed up to the match with a gun he had not personally zeroed after having someone else install sights on it. Another shooter did not fully insert a magazine and though the gun, magazine, and ammunition were all capable of performing, they never had the chance due to his error.
I have shot this match 4 times and failed twice. I failed once due to a stupid error I made. I failed to complete the match another time because of a defective factory round which I could have spotted if I had visually inspected each round of my ammunition prior to the match.
Bottom line.... if you want to have the highest probability of shooting 1000 rounds without a failure, shoot your gun a lot first to make sure there are no problems with it. Any reliability or accuracy problems should be addressed to your satisfaction, or the gun is a paperweight and not worthy of ownership. Make sure you are familiar with its point of impact vs. point of aim at the distances you plan to shoot, using the ammunition you plan to shoot.
Make sure all of the magazines you plan to use function properly in your gun (including locking the slide back on empty, and replace springs if needed) with the ammunition you plan to use. Clean and lubricate your gun immediately prior to the match. Clean your magazines immediately prior to the match, but don't leave any lubricant in them because it is likely to attract grit and cause them to malfunction.
Use factory ammunition, not reloads. Visually inspect each round of ammunition you plan to use. (I lost last year due to a primer blowout that tied up my gun. The primer hole in the round was visibly deformed and would have been detected upon visual inspection.) Using the barrel of your gun as a guage, make sure each round of ammunition you plan to use fits in the chamber.
Some of the above is a bit tedious. I admit that I don't check all my factory ammo. I just open up the boxes and stuff it into my magazines as fast as I can during the match. I also realize that if I wanted to absolutely give myself the best chance of success, I would go through each of the steps above. I admit that if I skimp on any of the above, it is ME who is lessening my chances of success, not whether I shoot a Glock or a 1911.
Seriously folks, alll of the stuff above is common sense. I don't mean to be condescending in pointing it out, but we seem to loose track of some pretty basic principles and start pointing fingers and/or jumping to unfounded conclusions when we see failures that could have been prevented.
And last but not least.... it's just for fun anyway, so lighten up and enjoy, or move on and don't worry about it
-Tim
I'll step down from my soap box now
