Regarding the 1911 vs. "X" etc.

The content below is made up of 1/2 forum posts and 1/2 updated text to make it read better here without the other posts present to piece it all together.


I don't know why exactly, but some people act like the 1911 platform had somehow managed to pour sugar in their gas tank while simultaneously lighting a bag of poo on their front porch and soaping their windows.

We've all seen the "Which 1911" threads, or the "1911 vs. "X"" threads, and my favorite "What's so great about the 1911?" threads. But what I just don't get are the folks that just can't wrap their heads around the fact that some people just like 1911s, we like how they shoot, we like how they carry etc.

Yes they are heavier, yes they have lesser capacity than other guns, yes they have those "funny" things called safeties, yes they are usually carried with an evil, menacing, ominous cocked hammer but for whatever reason it's what I shoot best.

Those things listed above don't bother me. Back in 2003 when I came back from the Gulf, my Dad lent me several pistols to take to the range and try them out to see what I liked as I was to be applying for my Concealed Pistol License (CPL-Michigan ). I had a Glock 22, a Smith 4506, a Colt Light Weight Commander and a J-Frame.

Of them all I shot and liked the LW Commander the best. Shortly after taking my CPL class I moved to PA and applied/received my Pennsylvania License to Carry Firearms (LTCF). My first pistol was a Para P16-40 which is a Government sized 1911 pattern pistol with a double stack magazine chambered in .40S&W and held 16rds of .40. It didn't last long as a carry pistol, it was just too big of a gun. But for the better part of the last six years I've been carrying some variant of 1911 pattern pistol. Along the way I've carried many other guns as well. Sig, Glock, Springfield XDM, S&W J-Frame etc. I have a wide variety of guns to choose from and of all of them I still like the 1911 best and perform the best with it, the XDM is a close second.

Now with all that being said, some will totally disregard it and claim that I am just being sentimental, compensating for something because I like the .45, or some other rubbish. As for why I like the .45ACP, it's not that I'm enamored by it's girth, it's that I like 1911s and for me (and according to others more in the know than I) 5" 1911s in .45ACP run best. I've had a bunch of 1911s, 3", 4", and 5" and had a couple of them in .40. I've had single stacks, I've had double stacks, I've had Light Double Actions (LDA) and traditional single actions. In other words I know a thing or two about 1911s.



A couple of weeks ago a thread was started titled "Why Carry a 1911 over a Glock or XD. Now without even getting into the grip angle of the Glock or the lower than average opinion of the XD in general (I like mine by the way) what gets under my skin is why is it always the 1911 being questioned?


Why is it always the 1911? How come no one harps on the Sig 220 or 220 SAO? Those are larger heavier, single stack .45s, one of which has a thumb safety. Why is it not the Hi Power which is larger than a G19 with less ammo and has a thumb safety? Why is not the single stack S&W models with the safety/decocker?
Why is it not the HK P7 which is smaller than a 5" 1911, but about the same weight (8oz diff) with only 9 rounds of 9mm? How come it's not the Kahr line with their limited capacity and weight in the steel frame selections?

No News...

On the Nighthawk yet, it's very hard to not call them each day and see what the status is. What would have been cool was if I had requested pics for the blog during the build process but I really don't want to be a pain.

I did call them before my Langdon Tactical class to see if the gun would be ready but it was still awaiting shipping of the slide for the Diamond Black (Ion Bond) finish. They did offer to Permakote the slide and ship me the gun to use for the class but I'd rather just have it when it's complete...otherwise I wouldn't want to send it out to get the slide refinished.

Meanwhile I figured out what I wanted for grips on the NHC. I'm going with some VZ Black Cherry 320s with the NHC logo and mag notch, I also ordered a VZ hat and some Wiley X glasses while I was at it, my hardware store safety glasses just weren't cutting it. While I'm usually not keen on logo gear, I think I own seven pairs of VZs so I think I can feel secure in wearing something with their logo on it.

My Sig 238HD is Getting Replaced.

As I previously noted, I sent my Sig in for the 3rd time on the 21st of September. Received a phone call this morning from Sig asking where to send a replacement gun.

Hopefully this one will run better than it's predecessor. I've got 200rds of Blazer Brass waiting to test it out. Provided they shipped the gun today via next day carrier I will hopefully get a chance to run it this weekend and post an update.

To recap.

July 24th: I got to the range the other morning and had the place to my self and was able to do some initial testing on my two latest guns, my Glock 21SF and the Sig 238.
I started with the 238 as I was pretty sure what to expect from from a used Glock.

First the good news, it fed all the types of .380 ammunition that I keep on hand, Remington 102gr Golden Saber, Speer 90gr Gold Dot, Hornady Critical Defense, and both Remington UMC and Winchester FMJ all fed well.

Bad news is that I had two failures to extract the spent casing from the chamber. All in all I fired 50rds of Rem. UMC, about 25 rounds of the Winchester, 20rds of Gold Dots, 15 rounds of the Golden Saber, and only about 12 rounds of the Critical Defense. Also of note is that several casings were mangled up pretty good, I meant to take pictures of them, but didn't. I'll follow up with those later. As for the extraction, I think the extractor is just a little stiff, some more testing is definitely in order.

August 6th: Took the 238 back out to the range, fired 50 more rounds of Remington UMC, the brass was no longer getting mangled, I did have a few more failure to lock open on empty issues and one more failure to extract. I'm thinking it's time for that shipping label to Sig.

172 rds fired, 3 failures to extract, and about 6 failures to lock open.

All shots today were using the Sig factory mag.

Also, I am starting to notice the peening of the slide stop engagement area in the slide referenced above. Will upload some pictures tonight.  

Gun shipped to Sig for first time on August 9th, received it back August 17th with a busted front sight. Requested an RMA that day and testing the gun. They had replaced the slide and extractor.

AAR: Langdon Tactical Technology: Two-Day Advanced Tactical Handgun

8-10-11--Langdon Tactical now has a new website, http://www.langdontac.com/ 

  I really don’t know where to begin with this AAR, the class was fast moving and very little time was spent in the classroom, we learned on the range and I think we all learned a lot. I shot just shy of 1000rds and that didn’t leave a lot of time for note taking during the shooting portion of the class.

There were seven of us in the class and I can say that I was in very good company as I was probably the “worst” shooter present. I don’t know why but I was off my game a little. I couldn’t shoot a group standing still to save my life but when the moving and shooting, and the moving and shooting of moving targets started I was back to a good level of performance.

I think one of the most unique things about this class is that Ernest knows every thing about the origins of what is currently “modern” pistolcraft. Ernest is a former Marine Corps sniper turned instructor and competitor and has worked for Beretta, Smith & Wesson & Sure Fire. The list of schools he’s attended is lengthy. He has spent the last 28 years or so learning his craft. The other students could shoot, and Ernest spanked us all with a M&P in .357 Sig that looked to handle like a 9mm in his hands, his recoil control is unreal. Not only did we get into the whos and whys but he went deeper in to why the whys are the whys if that makes sense.

Which stance is preferred? Where did the Weaver stance really come from (Jack Weaver couldn’t fully extend his left arm which is why he shot like that) we got answers to all that and then some even going into how the muscles of the hands and wrist work to explain why certain grip techniques work better than others.

We covered a little of the color codes in class as a refresher and talked a little on mindset. Something new to me was focus on the “visualization” of tasks/actions and how they can benefit performance. On a side note while flying to and from the class I managed to read “On Combat” by LtCol. Grossman and he touched on some of these same topics. Reading the book actually tied in very well with this class and I would strongly recommend it to anyone who carries a firearm. Ernest also went into how visualization of scenarios and even the way we phrase such scenarios can improve our mindset and psychological performance. Little things such as using “When” instead of “If”, making it a forced realization that things will go wrong instead of making them hypothetical as to remove denial when things do go wrong…

What was of note during the class room portion on “Training the subconscious”

Basically what that means is that our goal is that our techniques must work at the subconscious level in order to work fluidly under stress. We also need to think about “training stance” movements work at the subconscious level, or rather do what we practice really mesh well with reactive moments. A good example of this was when comparing the Weaver & Isosceles and looking at dash cam footage of officer involved shootings. They couldn’t find one case where an officer ended up in a Weaver style stance, however a modified two handed iso. position could be seen in many cases. Apparently the final straw in trying to find a case of anyone using the Weaver was when the found footage of a known Weaver proponent going to a modern iso. in a shooting.

Regarding the Weaver vs. iso, it’s Ernest’s opinion that the Weaver is fine for planned tactical actions, but the isosceles can be applied as a reactionary response and as such using that method more in training may improve performance under stress as the reactionary response is also a practiced response.

Getting further into the training aspect we covered the three levels of performance.

The first level is basic learning, I’m pretty sure we all know what that is. The second level is focused learning. Range drills; practice sessions, focusing on key elements of shooting. The third level is subconscious execution of actions. Of course no one can just leap to the third level, but with lots and lots of focused training/practice you can increase subconscious reactions/muscle memory/”neural pathways” or whatever buzz word suits your fancy. Bottom line is that you can reach a higher performance level with lots of practice. What also enables subconscious performance is “stress training” in the forms of competition, training classes, and FoF, simunition training, time/speed drills… Things that can take you out of your comfort zone and force you to perform under stress.

Also covered in class was reloading and using the slide stop/release or the slingshot method. I’m sure all of us here have discussed this time and time again, but Ernest brought up some valid points in favor of using the slide stop. Mainly that the sling shot generally requires a little more umph and can be short stroked and actually requires more fine motor skill than using the slide stop/release. Think about it, using your off hand thumb and index finger to retract and let go of the slide is doing more movement with two digits while the using the slide release is usually just done with the thumb of the firing hand. As for the argument that hitting the slide stop with your thumb is a fine motor skill, so is pulling the trigger and dropping a mag but we’re obviously able to do that just fine otherwise we wouldn’t need to be reloading and it takes less movment/number of digits than the slingshot method. And for the record I had two hiccups with my 1911 during the class, each one the result of a flubbed reload using the sling shot method which is now a training scar that has to be removed.

On to the range portion.

We shot a variety of drills starting off with slow fire on what must have been 2” circles painted on IDPA targets with some larger 4” circles at the bottom. I had a hard time keeping my shots in the circles and kept skirting the dots.

The first day is kind of a blur, along with shooting like a noob someone didn’t hydrate all that much in the days before class and that Saturday ended up being around 95 and despite pushing water once we started shooting by the end of the day I was suffering mild heat illness with a splitting headache. Most of my time in between strings of fire was spent loading mags and sucking down water. Note to single stack shooters, bring lots and lots of mags to a training class. This class required a minimum of four mags, I was toting nine to the line and doing well with four more loaded up in the bag in case I needed a fresh batch quickly. You don’t want to run short on the line and you don’t want to waste your time (as well as the other students time) having to load mags every 5 minutes. If you’re shooting a single stack, be it a Kahr, Sig, Walther, whatever, have at least double the amount of required magazines and have at least four on your belt.