Archive for November 10th, 2010

Gunsmithing and 1911 reliability

My first 1911 was a Seriea 80 which has a firing pin plunger, but in my opinion that was a good thing to add to the design and IMHO does not take away from the novelty of the firearm.   I have heard from so many of my friends that Kimber makes the best 1911s, but I still have yet to understand why I should bother spending over $1000 on  a firearm when I already own two 1911 handguns that cost me less than $400 each.   Springfield Armory GI models are very well made and I have had zero reliablilty issues with my guns.   I have to admit that I am not one to push the limits on the types of ammo that my guns eat and I think that may be the real reason I don’t have issues with them.

When I first carried for work, I carried a Colt 1991A1 and used hollow points, but I  had an awful lot of malfunctions with the 2nd round.   Not that often, but maybe about 1 out of 75 rounds might not seat all the way and I would have a stoppage.   I was told to polish the feed ramp and I did, and the gun did run more reliabile, but then I did have maybe 1 out of 300rds jam  on me.   I took a good look at ballistics charts and realized that a 45acp FMJ does enough damage and worrying about bullet expansion with such a large caliber was kinda pointless.   I wouldn’t get too caught up in doing too many tricks to get your 1911 to run reliable.   Find the ammo that really does work, in my case, FMJ and try sticking with Wilson combat magazines or Chip McCormick.  I mostly use 8rd mags and although there are some that claim that these are not as reliable as 7rd magazines, I have had zero issues.   One thing I do not do any longer is one up the magazines.  There seems to be some magazines seating issues if I force an 8rd magazine in the guns with 1 round in the chamber.

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Deer Hunting in Vermont with a semi-auto

Last year I had the fortunate experience to actually hunt in a State that allowed the use of a semi-auto rifle.    In Pennsylvania we are retricted to bolt actions and lever actions, but I often wanted to take one of my Ruger Mini 14 rifles out to that part of the Country and use it for it’s best purposes.   The Ruger Ranch rifle is a great lightweight hunting Carbine that isn’t bulky and can easily and comfortable hold 5rds in the magazine.   I’ve done enough hunting in the rest of the Country to know that when you really get out there, you really have to be aware of your own safety and having the right kind of ammo with you means that that little .223 Carbine is capable of killing anything from a prairie dog to a black bear.   I have seen pictures of black bear being taken with M4 Carbines in other parts of the Country with Black Hills 77gr, most were taken under 75yds, but that still gives you a realistic view what the caliber is capable of.

There were issues with finding reliable 20rd and 30rd magazines for the Sturm Ruger Carbine, but now that the 1994 AWB is over, even Ruger is selling them for their guns to the open public, but getting back to hunting, the 5rd magazines are more practical because shooting from a rest or cover is easier with a less protruding gun magazine.   I would suggest that with the popular 1-9 twist rate on the Mini 14, you try the Seirra 60gr HP for varmint and go with a 75gr A-max for deer or bear.   Remember that effective range is going to deminish with the heavier bullets and I would not suggest anything over 200yds unless you have a longer barrel bolt action.

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