My STI Eagle 5.1 is in need of repairs. There was the thumb safety which I still hadn’t fixed even though I had the new safety in hand. It requires some fitting and I just hadn’t taken the time to go to the farm where all the good tools are.

I also had purchased a RecoilMaster nearly two years ago and found it didn’t fit right. My gun is old enough that some milling needed to be done before it could be installed. Newer STIs come from the factory in a configuration where you can just drop the RecoilMaster in. I had never followed through to get the work done.

But my biggest concern was that the hammer, on two occasions in about 300 rounds, followed the slide. Requiring the hammer to be manual cocked before it would fire. I’m a little surprised it didn’t “double” on me. After the first time I inspected and cleaned the gun. I couldn’t find anything wrong and I tried to duplicate the problem manually, without ammo, and could not. Okay, maybe the auto-disconnecter was dirty enough that something didn’t work right. The gun is clean now so maybe the problem has gone away. Shortly after saying that the problem happened again.

The gunsmith that built the gun for me is no longer in business so I asked the guy behind the counter at Wades if their gunsmith would have a reasonable turn around time. It turns out they don’t really have a “gunsmith” on staff. They have an “armorer”. The difference being the armorer doesn’t do work that involves milling or other major metal moving. So I went to the website of a gunsmith I know in Idaho. Shawn Carlock is an USPSA shooter and I was pretty sure he did pistol work. I couldn’t find reference to it on his website. There was lots of info about rifle work but nothing about pistols. I called him up and he told me they stopped working on pistols and shotguns about three years ago. Bummer.

I asked around for some recommendations and called up a couple guys.

As I was explaining the work I wanted done to the first guy he asked, “What type of gun is it again?” “It’s an STI”, I told him. “Oh, a Stye”, he said. He pronounced as a word like the eyelid infection. After a few seconds he interrupted me to ask, “Is that like a Colt?” “Uhhh… yeah. Except Colts are called 1911’s and this is called a 2011 and has a grip wide enough to take double stack magazines.” At this point I was pretty sure I wanted to get someone else but I asked him what his turn around time would be. He said he could get started on it right away and could have it back to me in a couple days.

I talked to the second guy and he was familiar with STIs in general although not the Eagle 5.1. I asked him for his turnaround time and he said he was currently quoting sometime in November. Ouch.

I called up STI thinking that it would probably be expensive getting the work done at the factory but maybe they could recommend a gunsmith in my area of operation. I talked to Bobby in “Warranty” who said turn around time was usually five to seven business days but currently he was essentially all caught up and they had him working in production part of the time. How much is this going to cost me? This gun is over 10 years old and can’t possibly be considered still in warranty. It turns out it will (most likely) just cost me the shipping cost of the gun to Texas. Wow!

The shipping isn’t cheap. I’m not sure who made the rule but handguns require overnight shipping and with the additional insurance the total was $77.55. The gun arrived at the STI factory yesterday. I’m hoping to have it back by next weekend.

I shoot a STI gun in competition, I carry a STI gun and you should too.

If I were 30 years younger and in the market for a mate she sounds very nice:

She likes long walks on the beach, men who aren’t afraid to cry, and puppies.

Her dislikes include feed tray stoppages, tracer flareout of her NVGs and premature fixed-wing strikes scattering her high-value targets.

(Via email from Carl, my first formal firearms instructor).

My old link to this was broken so I had to go looking for it and thought I would share.

It’s a Classifer Calculator for USPSA stages. If you know your hit factor [(Points – Penalities)/Time] for shooting a stage then it will compute what percentage of the best shooters in the world your score represents. This percentage is used to calculate your classification. I’m considered a B-class shooter. The percentage ranges and classifications are:

Grand Master 95 to 100%
Master 85 to 94.9%
A  75 to 84.9%
B  60 to 74.9%
C  40 to 59.9%
D  2 to 40%

The USPSA will compute your percentage and post it on their website a week or two after your club sends in the results but if you want to know sooner you can use the Classifier Calculator to get the answer immediately.

Using Caleb’s recent practice result I compute his hit factor at 7.8717 which yields 72.878% in the Limited Division. If he can do this consistently on a number of different stages in competition he is an upper B-class shooter.

Last night when Barb came home from work she told me that Mrs. Petersen was in the hospital. She was Barb’s patient and she had talked and talked about how much her late husband had loved guns and how much being able to host the Lewiston Pistol Club on a small patch of their land meant to him. He loved to shoot and he knew it was important to have a safe place to shoot. The Lewiston Pistol Club, and before that the Palouse Practical Shooters, have been using his land at no charge for over 10 years now.

Barb suggested I bring some flowers and a card to the hospital and stop and chat for a while. Since there was a steel match out at the range today I bought a card before I headed out.

Just as I turned off the engine at the range Barb called and asked, “Have you left yet?” “Uhh… yes”, I answered. “Do you have your camera with you?” Again I answered “Yes.” “Mrs. Petersen would like a picture of the range sign that mentions her husbands name.” I was relieved. Nothing tough or involving a trip back into town causing me to be late for the match.

I took my gear, camera, and the card to the group of people prepping for the match and told them the story. Most of them knew her husband and everyone knew how much having access to that land means to the shooting community. They signed the card and some agreed to pose for the picture after the match.

I took pictures of people shooting (and without me knowing it someone used my own camera to take a picture of me when I was shooting! Thanks to whoever you are!) and the sign.

When I got back into town I had four 8″x10″ prints made and delivered them and the card to Mrs. Petersen. It was the first time I had met her. As Adam (Club President for several years) had said many times, and Barb told me just today, she is a very sweet woman. She was appreciative of the card and picture and told me about her daughter who loves to shoot and her grandson who now has one of her late husbands rifles and needs someone to teach him to shoot since he lost his father and both grandfathers. I’ll be forwarding the contact info on to the instructors in the club.

Here are the pictures I made prints of:

Adam and Jackie (new shooter at her first match!)

Don B., K.W.H., and Mike B.

The range in use.

Don B., K.W.H., Mike B., Adam M., Don W., Josh A.

I didn’t make a print of this picture but since I don’t get that many pictures of myself shooting I include it here.

K.W.H. and Joe Huffman

If I had a TV and cable I might actually watch an episode or two of this:

LOCK ‘N LOAD is a six-part reality series offering viewers a fly on the wall experience at “The Shootist” gun store in Englewood, Colorado. Salesman Josh T. Ryan is always in full-on pitch mode and for every gun sold by this expert gunslinger at this family-owned store, there’s a fascinating story and a fascinating buyer.

LOCK ‘N LOAD doesn’t take sides or argue a political perspective. Instead, viewers on both sides of the issue will be able to watch Ryan, a born salesman, wield his patented quick-draw humor and inherent likeability in each exchange, making jokes and big-ticket deals over the blasts echoing from the firing range down below. And all is done before hidden cameras which will only be revealed after the transaction is completed in order to insure a particularly candid and compelling point of view. America is and will probably always be fascinated with the gun culture in our country and this show will help to explain why.

Maybe I can watch them on-line. The promos are intriguing.

Sebastian has a post up about Tall Tales of High-Power Shooting which I started to comment on but got a little carried away and decided to make a post out of it.

I remember showing a 100 yard target to some co-workers. I put four groups on it. Each group was a little under one inch in size with most of the holes touching. The groups were arranged in a square about 10 inches on a side. One guy held it up to his chest, smiled, and said, “Pretty good. If we were on opposite ends of a football field I would be in trouble if you were shooting at me.” I raised an eyebrow and another co-worker laughed at him and explained, “At 100 yards he can put every shot into your eyeball.” The first guy went white and was skeptical and it took a minute or so of convincing that it was even possible.

After I had shot a little bit of pistol I heard about IPSC.

Within a year I was shooting better than what I would have thought was humanly possible when I first started. Really, now. Who could possibly be facing away from three humanoid targets ten yards away, hands in surrender position, then turn, draw, fire two rounds of each target, reload, then fire two more rounds on each target–all in under nine seconds? A turn, a draw, 12 shots, and a reload all in under nine seconds? It’s got to take at least one second for each shot making the total much more than that, right? Wrong. The stage is called El Presidente. The last time I did it in competition it took me 6.94 seconds (with one miss).

What is even more interesting to me is that I was shooting better than the best shooters in the world of 30 years prior. Equipment has improved some but mostly it’s the technique that has improved.

Even though I know, probably much better than most, all the math, physics, etc. involved and I’ve done it multiple times under different conditions I’m still amazed at putting the first round on target from 1000 yards away. When I point out objects that are 800 or 1000 yards away to people to aid explaining this they get this look on their face like I was talking about being abducted by aliens.

I am of the opinion all politicians should observe a 1000 yard match prior to taking office with a short refresher course on the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and a reminder that they are servants of the people. I’m mostly joking when I suggest that prior to running for a second term they have to have an apple shot off of their head by a random pick of volunteer constituents from 100 yards away. Third term it’s a plum. Fourth term it’s a grape. Fifth term, well… we just shoot the politician. I think it would remind them to not let their power go to their heads lest someone else let something go to their head.

It’s been up for less than a year and there aren’t many guns there yet. But it’s free to both sellers and buyers. GunListings.org.