Good thread
I learned about 1911s when I was issued one.
That's how old I am, but I'm not old enough to be a curmudgeon!
I've done things pretty much the way I want, and what I want is this:
I have two weapons, and only two weapons. A SA milspec (otherwise known as My Beloved Milspec) and a SA loaded model. As a side note, I got the loaded model when I sent a Micro back and told them to keep it. I'll never own another small 1911, but that's probably another thread.
I'm qualified to hold these opinions, but I'm not interested in telling war stories. Take what I say for whatever it's worth to you.
Not reality based enough for you? One handed racking too much of a stretch?
You'll panic. You'll ruin your pants. You'll start to pant. Vomit will fill your throat. You'll start to shake.
Then you'll do whatever you can, and you'll do it as hard and fast as you can, given your panting, shaking and the tears in your eyes, and either you'll get it done, or you'll become a casualty. The only thing I have for someone who thinks they can predict their reaction to hostile fire or the conditions under which they will use their weapon is contempt. Maybe you know what you'll do, maybe you really can say how it'll happen. I just don't believe you.
The other thing I'll say about experience is this: everything changes, no exceptions. At my tender and impressionable age, I took my first shots using a flashlight about two months ago, and I learned a couple things that had never occurred to me.
My two weapons are both the same, government 1911s because I don't want to learn a new weapons system under fire, and I don't want Bad Things to happen when I'm carrying a weapon that's new or different.
Because of that, I've done what I can to make the weapons the same, choosing the features I like best. Then I practice with and carry both of them, so it just isn't going to matter which one I have when I need a weapon.
To My Beloved Milspec, I've added:
- McCormick ignition
- S&A beavertail
- Brown extractor
- Brown hammer strut
- Trigger job
- Pachmyer wrap around grips
- Some weird extended ejector
Note that I couldn't have done any of this without 'Tuner's advice and support, and let me take this opportunity to thank him again.
The only things I've done to the loaded model are to replace the grip safety with a S&A beavertail that is identical to the one on My Beloved Milspec, and to get rid of that ridiculous guide rod, and replace it with a GI plug.
Now, the reason that I chose the loaded model when I jettisoned the Micro
is simple: it's the Mispec with some options. The loaded model is the right size, and it isn't "tightened"- it's built to milspecs and the frame isn't Baer/Wilson/Kimber/To Damn tight to the frame.
You can keep a weapon nice and clean in an indoor, well lit, clean range. You can even clean and oil it daily, and carry out a wonderful maintenance program on your carry weapon.
But you don't know what will happen in the seconds preceding your first shot. Really.
As 'Tuner said, you may be face down in the mud, ankle deep in a lake, you might dive for cover (a VERY worthwhile endeavor, particularly for those of us with large yellow stripes down our backs) into a pile of sand/gravel/pine needles/sawdust. You might be lying on your weapon, grinding it around, in that mudpuddle when you reach for it. Maybe your weapon was all sparkling clean and fresh smelling when the argument started, but it can be covered in and filled with sludge in the time between shots.
Won't lie down? You will if you're shot, believe me. You'll loose track of everything, including where your weapon is and what it's doing the instant a bullet hits you.
You don't know what condition your weapon will be in when you reach for it, so I chose weapons that were built to tolerate the worst there is.
On that note, Tamara, a more impressive picture would have been to open the slide and cover it in MUD, not dirt, and then re-load it, rack it twice, and pull the trigger. My Beloved Milspec will pass that test, and I'm interested in knowing if a Pro will.
That all said, there are at least two other reasons I didn't upgrade to a Pro when I relieved the Micro of duty. Debbie, the custom shop coordinator at Springfield, told me that there are no beavertails available for the Pro that don't have a bump, and that the slide-to-frame fit on Pros are tightened.
Both reasons disqualify Pros for me.
I replaced the grip safety on my loaded model with an identical safety as My Beloved Milspec because the loaded model comes with a bump, and I don't like them. They hurt my tender little hand, and I'm philosophically opposed to pain.
The differences that remain are the mainspring housing, (because I can't decide which one I like) the sights, the grips, the ambi safety, and the slide serrations.
On the sights, I loved the night sights on the loaded model, until I shot with a flashlight, and discovered that they're not necessary. As a civilian, I'm going to do my best not to shoot in the dark, at an un-illuminated target, and with a target in enough light to identify, sights stand out as a black silhouette.
As a coincidence, I had just decided, about a month ago, that the reason the loaded model is easier to draw than My Beloved Milspec is because the loaded model has the stock cocobollo grips, and the milspec has the Pachmyers. I'm seriously considering buying a set of identical grips.
I don't like the ambi safety on the loaded model. I can't shake the feeling that something can snag on and brush the right side to "fire" when I don't want it to. In addition, the right side has loosened up, and moves when it's locked. I've taken two separate shots at changing it out, and I've ruined two new safeties. Furthermore, I haven't found a GI thumb safety to buy, which is what I want.
The slide serrations make no difference to me, I don't use them. Cosmetics, in general, make no difference to me. The Brown ejector is still proud of the back of the slide, there is still a SS plunger tube on a Parked gun, and I haven't blended the beavertail into the Milspec yet.
Function first, cosmetics later, if I get around to it.
The mainspring housing makes a significant difference in how the two weapons feel. I go back and forth, and as soon as I make up my mind, I'll make them both the same. At the moment, I'm leaning towards flat, because it's easier to reach the magazine catch with my strong thumb with the flat housing.
I participate in another sport, diving, and in both sports, I use the same rig the same way for the same reasons every time. I've been involved in two honest-to-god emergencies under water, and there's no time. In diving, the first thing that happens is the worst thing that can happen: your breathing triples, and multiplies the time pressure.
Having no time at the moment of truth is why I only have two weapons, and why I want them as close to the same as I can get them. I don't want to remember which grip to use, and I damn sure don't want to have to remember which sight picture to use.
The other lessons from scuba are the elimination of points of failure, (like an ambi safety) and the principle of not using hardware as a substitute for training, and introducing points of failure in the process. (Like ambi safeties and night sights.) In scuba, we call that a "convolution".
I'll never own a "target" gun, and I'll never own a gun that I don't carry. I shoot what I carry, and I carry what I shoot.
I don't want to talk, think, argue, remember, consider or change when it's time to shoot.
Great thread, 'Tuner!
8/8 edited for grammer.
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