A Nurse with a Gun

Sunday, February 01, 2009

Double Taps

At the range today there was an occasional mist blown in from a gray sky. Except for a couple of die hard shooters, the place was deserted in favor of Super Bowl parties. I had brought several 1911s to shoot, but with the occasional precipitation, I kept the blued guns in the bag.

Click to enlarge
I put another hundred and fifty rounds through my Defender today. Since my cure, I have had no further issues with the grip screws vibrating loose. My cure? I placed some Permatex #2 black automotive gasket sealant on the threads of the screws. Click to enlargeThis type of sealant stays pliable, and is not easily dissolved by solvents.

As I was shooting, a young man with a lip ring and a S&W Sigma showed up and began shooting. He walked his targets out to 25 yards, and when he was unable to hit even the backstop, he finally brought them back in to the seven. He first blamed his poor performance on the sights, then he cursed the trigger on his pistol a few times.

Since the range was pretty much deserted, one of the older range officers limped over to provide a little instruction to the young man. The same excuses were voiced, so the RO asked to shoot the Sigma. "Yep, that trigger is pretty heavy," he said, dry firing the plastic pistol. Then the old RO placed a round in a magazine and chambered it. Weaver. Squint. X Ring. Spit.

"I usually shoot a three fifty-seven," said the young man.

I went back to my shooting. I was practicing double taps this afternoon with the Defender. The little lightweight 1911 can be a handful to shoot double taps with, especially over and over again. Click to enlargeThe slim and stubby frame does not give much purchase, and the lightweight makes for fairly significant recoil. My target looked like a deranged beaver had gnawed out the center. I managed to keep my hits in the eight ring though. That was a good enough compromise between split times and accuracy. My Defender is certainly not a range gun. It's a high powered compact self preservation device. After 150 rounds, I was ready to move to the heavier and more relaxing Government Model. What I need for defensive use is an accurate double tap, not 150 rounds.

My Colt Defender is well past the 1500 round mark now. I figure it's about time I ordered a new recoil assembly. With the exception of the grip screw issue, there have been no problems, and no failures to fire from day one. The stainless Defender rides on my hip as a favored carry gun.

Labels: ,

6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I see 'those guys' every week at the range I manage. Lotta excuses, and they don't really want any tips or help.

Oh well.

8:25 PM  
Blogger Old NFO said...

Good job on the double taps! I'd recommend wiping the blued guns down with a silicon rag, even if they never came out of the bag...

10:12 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Removing ridiculous body piercings, coupled with a few thousand rounds of slow-fire .22 practice result in tremendously increased accuracy!

11:24 PM  
Blogger Keith Walker said...

I had a good experience this weekend teaching a guy not to jerk the trigger. I introduced him to something he had never heard of before. A snap cap. ;-)

His first two shots were very low. The third round in his mag was the snap cap. Once he saw what he was doing, his next 14 out of 15 shots were exactly where he wanted them. He was extremely thankful and I guarantee he'll never forget yesterday's lesson. I know he felt good, but it made me feel better. ;-)

11:31 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just out of curiosity, what range were you doing those double taps at?

1:27 PM  
Blogger Xavier said...

Ten yards.

2:07 PM  

Post a Comment

<< Home