Had our old washer not given up the ghost, and had our son not been up here on an unrelated matter with his Dan Wesson, we'd've not pursued an all-.45 indoor range trip on Saturday. But it had, and he was, so we went.
I'm glad he'd come up, as washers are pretty heavy. I'd managed to tie the box into my Saturn's trunk, so I got it home OK, but I could not have moved it myself safely. So he popped over. Now all's I have to do is find a way to recycle the old one. It's in my driveway.
He has this gnarly Dan Wesson race gun. I got to shoot it, and he got to shoot my Springfield mil spec. We found the triggers remarkably similar. Not being familiar with 1911 triggers, I did not have much of a reference, but he had. He said my trigger was good with a tiny bit of "creep." Due to my inexperience, I did not see much difference. His DW is designed for carry, though with a standard length barrel, so it is narrower in the grips than is mine. I liked my fatter grips. However, he totally knows how to use his, and he's a really good shot. We shot at 15, 10, and 7 yards, about 60 or so rounds a piece. Turns out his 10-round mags do not fit in the Springer, though the Springer mags fit his DW.
One thing amazed me about the Springer. As you all may recall, I'm a one-handed shooter. I wanted to try two handed shooting under the watchful eye of my son. When I first mounted it and held it up, the first shot would not go. I dropped the mag and cleared the round, then I asked my son what might be wrong. Turns out, in mounting the gun up, my right thumb had brushed the safety, putting it in some kind of half-safe, or not-quite-engaged safe mode. This made me doubt the use of the 1911 platform for personal defense unless a person would have practiced extensively with it. My son showed my some mounting training he'd picked up at Front Site in Nevada, which entailed sweeping the safety off when "punching" the gun out from chest to full extended arms. So, if this habit is a habit, there will never be a moment like I found. Thus, for personal defense, I'll stick to my double action GP100. Never a problem. The 1911 for me will remain a fun gun for the time being.
One fun thing was having someone else shoot my gun. I was standing behind him, so I got to watch where the brass landed. I put my range bag there and managed to get about 2/3 of the brass to land in there.
Fun times by accident. With factory ammo, yet.
CDFingers
Replacing dead washer = range trip
1Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack