Penguin & Dragon at the Range, 3/7/15

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Gathered up all the guns and headed out to our favorite indoor shooting spot today. Seems like it was a popular choice as we wound up waiting about an hour for a lane. There was a flyer for a New Competitor Orientation for USPSA which I dangled in front of HereticalDragon but she has not yet taken the bait.

HD surprised me by selecting some zombie targets. Her distaste for all things zombie is well known, but apparently shooting them is OK.

PiratePenguin Goes Postal
I started out shooting a sneak preview of the LGC March Postal Match, after convincing Paco to add a centerfire category (due to my shameful lack of .22). This is really my first attempt at anything structured competition-wise so I am not sure my feedback was much help to our competition coordinator, but I am confident I have set the bar so high that the biggest danger will be from people tripping over it. I really should have done some warmup first. I can see myself improving from target to target as the match progresses. I also have some faint regret that I didn't shoot it with the 1911 instead.

PP Fails to Blow Up his Wife Or His Gun
We had several new loads to work with today, but the ones I was most nervous about were the [urlhttp://www.missouribullet.com/details.php?prod ... &keywords=]180gr "Strikers"[/url] I had from Missouri Bullet. There's next to no load data out there for these guys but I can report that 11.4gr of 2400 made them extremely accurate with no pressure signs in either of our revolvers. My reloading guy loads them a little hotter still which I may try for HD's GP100. These were a little stout out of the SP101 but personally, I think I need to work on my revolver grip.

Our testing on the .44 was equally successful if a bit less scientific. (HDs patience for shooting at simple circles is fairly low.) 7.8 grains of Unique under a 240gr RNFP was her favorite of the lower power loads, and the higher power (18.5 gr and 20 gr of 2400 under the same bullet) still seemed to be gentler than the factory stuff we were shooting. Not for the first time, I wish we had access to a chronograph.

Last but not least were the .45s I had loaded up: 5 grains of Bullseye under 230 grains of hardcast lead. I stole one of HDs targets and put several magazines into the brainpans of the four zombies depicted. This load is supposed to mimic the standard GI combat load, but despite the power it seemed very controllable. Now I wonder what it would do with some of the 200 SWCs. I hear they're popular in bullseye shooting. They definitely would have made scoring my targets easier.

That was a lot more detail than I planned to go into about the loads so I guess I will wrap up. HD still loves the .44. (Best moment: my ears picking up a quiet "whoah" from someone two lanes down when HD lit off the first rounds.) I feel like the 1911 is spoiling me. I am finally getting a deep appreciation of exactly why it remains so popular.

Re: Penguin & Dragon at the Range, 3/7/15

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I think 1911s are in a category by themselves. My commander seemed completely unmanageable when I first got it but now that I know my way around it, the recoil seems like nothing. It might just be the practice that is reducing your noticed recoil.

What length 1911 were you using?
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