Robb tells us about a stage from hell he shot in last weekend. I also shot a tough stage yesterday but it wasn’t entirely because of the stage design. And strangely enough both of our stages were “Stage 5” in the match.
Do you notice anything wrong with this gun?
Update: A close up of the broken safety.
People familiar with 1911s and sharp eyes will notice the safety is in the ON position but the hammer is down. This can’t happen on a normal 1911. It turns out the ambi safety was broken but I didn’t know that when I inserted a magazine and racked the slide to “Make Ready” for the stage. The tip of the safety ripped a trench through the end of my left index finger. It bled profusely.
We didn’t really understand why my finger got ripped open and after getting a band-aid I went ahead and shot the stage.
The stage was unusual. The shooter had to traverse between two barricades in the shape of a U with ports in both sides. There were targets on the sides, bottom, and the interior of the U.
Since it was a 38 round stage even with my 18 rounds magazines I had to change magazines during the course of the stage. At the far side of the U, shooting into the interior of the U at targets near the ground from a high perspective my bullets impacted the ground on the other side of the U in the shooters path–the path I had just traversed.
Good shot, huh?
Despite a mutilated finger and destroying a magazine I did pretty well on that stage:
| Stage: 5 | U Turn Again | |||||||
| Place Name | Class | Division | Pts | Pen | Time | Hit Fact | Stg Pts | Stg % |
| 1 BROWN, MIKE | A | Limited 10 | 176 | 10 | 30.43 | 5.4551 | 190.0000 | 100.00% |
| 2 HUFFMAN, JOE | B | Limited | 188 | 0 | 36.51 | 5.1493 | 179.3490 | 94.39% |
| 3 MCINTOSH, ADAM | M | Limited | 185 | 0 | 40.50 | 4.5679 | 159.0990 | 83.74% |
| 4 HIPPS, KW | B | Limited 10 | 188 | 0 | 45.30 | 4.1501 | 144.5471 | 76.08% |
| 5 WOOD, DON | A | Limited | 176 | 20 | 41.31 | 3.7763 | 131.5277 | 69.23% |
| 6 WATSON, ROGER | U | Limited 10 | 187 | 0 | 55.32 | 3.3803 | 117.7351 | 61.97% |
| 7 ASTRELLA, JOSH | U | Production | 186 | 0 | 56.34 | 3.3014 | 114.9871 | 60.52% |
| 8 Moore, Bill | U | Open | 180 | 0 | 65.68 | 2.7406 | 95.4545 | 50.24% |
| 9 Uhle, Bob | U | Open | 187 | 0 | 68.60 | 2.7259 | 94.9425 | 49.97% |
| 10 Grimes, John | U | Limited | 174 | 10 | 68.69 | 2.3875 | 83.1561 | 43.77% |
Update: My verbal description of the stage wasn’t very good. Here is a rough drawing of what it looked like:
There were ports in most of the walls. I started on the left side of the U and dropped a magazine about half way down that side. I went around to the other side and shot through the port at the target on the left side of the interior of the U. The bullet passed through the paper target and hit my magazine which I had dropped on the other side.
Dang Joe, that’s some good shooting. 🙂
I’m not entirely sure I’m following what happened there. Were your shots richocheting back at the spot where you were previously, and one of them hit your ejected magazine?
No richochets. The shots went through one of the targets in the middle of the U and hit the magazine on the ground on the other side of the U.
Congratulations on the good shooting (and for two accidents I have never seen before…)
Yeah, thanks. I would rather receive congratulations on winning the lottery, the Area 1 championship, or even getting home before it started raining.
[…] Gun bites man, then shoots itself […]
How strange. Glad your OK. That’s extra good shooting, considering.
Infringing on your own magazine?
I suggest counseling. B-)
Having never handled a 1911, I am impressed with myself that I caught the safety/hammer “this never happens” problem. I didn’t see the crack until I saw the detail, but the hammer and safety positions didn’t add up.
Ouch! Hope I never slice my finger open on my 1911s. Excellent shooting.
Ouch. Bummer. Nice shooting.
One more reason I STILL don’t recommend ambis on 1911s. I’ve seen it happen more than once. Now even the chick that called me a “mall ninja” for some of my views has seen web pics of it from somebody she seems to trust. Ambis are inherently weaker, it’s the nature of the beast mechanically if you actually look at how they fit together and are made both internally and externally, just like you’re more likely to have a case failure if you over-ramp a barrel and leave too much brass unsupported. It’s really not that hard to swap your thumb over the other side. It’s why Virgil’s 1911s come with BOTH standard and you can pick which you want installed on the gun depending on your purposes. Light duty use it doesn’t really matter, race guns it matters, duty guns it matters. Of course he’s a curmudgeon too, but he’s built guns that won rather a few tournaments.
Nice one on drilling the mag, though. That’s a funny pic.
I’m still confused (well, I’m always confused.) You cut your finger on the safety sticking up in what should be an impossible position?
Also, 18 round magazine? Is that some really really large gun, or does the magazine really hang out the bottom?
And congratulations on a great shoot, and on getting home before the rain (:-)
Yes. The safety was sticking up when I racked the slide to put a round in the chamber. The pointy end of the safety ripped through the skin of my left index finger.
The magazine sticks out a little bit, but not a lot. Look at the water-mark on this blog. That is the same gun with the same magazine.
Damn stage would be interesting to shoot but is a RO trap. The only safe place for the RO is uprange of the shooter and too far away to do his job(which is to keep the shooter safe)!
Yeah. It was tough for the RO. Going into the U was okay but then he had to get ahead of the shooter and back out faster than the shooter was backing. I bumped into my RO a little bit because I did things a little different than the other shooters.
Bryan; “…or does the magazine really hang out the bottom?”
Double stack .40 S&W. I don’t know about Joe’s standard STI mags, but the standard full sized Glock .40 mag is 15 rounds, as is my 10 mm. Add but an extended floor plate and you’re there.