I HATE when that happens!

S

Sport

New member
Maybe this should be posted in the
Competition Forum, but I didn't feel
very competative today.

IDPA. Six challenging stages.
Looks like its going to be a great
match. Am breaking in new Horseshoe
holster and belt.

Stage One: I'm up. Bang! Click! Rack
slide. Bang! Click!
Look more closely at gun.
Hammer followed slide twice.
Sitting at half-notch.


Stage Three: Tactical magazine change.
Sproing!Clatter! Thud!
Magazine floor plate lets
go. Contents fall to ground.


Stage Five: Pull trigger. BAM!BAM!
What the??!!? Gun doubles.
DQ self. Retire from rest
of match.

Funny thing. I recently had the gun
expensively (oops! Freudian slip!)....
extensively worked on by a really good
area gunsmith. Had shot it without glitch
through two earlier IDPA matches and a
two day Ken Hackathorn advanced pistol
class. Since then, the only things I did
was replace the recoil spring with the
same brand/weight, and remove the compe-
tition mag chute and replace it with the
original mainspring housing.



Am not looking to find fault. My gunsmith
will analyize and correct the problem.
What Does disturb me is that this is my
daily carry gun and it has been working
flawlessly for the past 900 rounds.The
magazine that went south today had been
totally reliable,too.
I trusted the gun as it was set up.
Had no reason not to. Lesson learned>
 
Sport:

I've been down that road in the past with "cusomized" carry guns that I used in my LE duties (read: 1911s). It took a long time to convince me but I learned two basic lessons that your situation clearly illustrates:

1. Mechanical things break...sometimes unexpectedly (and in secret it seems). It doesn't matter what kind of mechanical thing it is...it will break.

2. Use safety equipment (especially guns) that don't need "customization" to be trustworthy and useful. When I started in LE in 1978, if you wanted to carry a semi-automatic pistol, you could pick a 1911, 1935 or SW (gag). NONE of them were truly reliable with anything but ball ammo as they came out of the box and even with ball ammo all of the foregoing pistols MAY NOT be reliable. This got the custom pistolsmith business going along with the growth of IPSC. About the late 1980s, Beretta, Glock and Sig came along with guns that worked as delivered (what a concept!!). I've owned and carried one Beretta and several Glocks for service pistols and have never looked back. I do have a hankering for another 1911 but it will NOT be a duty or carry gun. I love them and wouldn't feel nekkid (Texas way of spelling "naked") with one in a bad time, but will henceforth carry guns that reliably work with duty ammo as delivered if given the choice.

Wayne Dobbs
Richardson, TX PD
 
Wayne,

Now that you mention it, the ONLY guns
I use that have never "glitched" on me
are stock.

Unfortunately, most of my firearms have
had some custom work; mostly trigger and
"slick'em up for street carry" jobs.

This is not an indictment of gunsmiths.
Most of my after purchase "fiddlin'" has
been done by the factory. At this moment,
the only two handguns I absolutely, posi-
tively trust are my Glock 19 and a second
generation Colt Cobra. I pull the trigger,
they go bang!

Your "Mechanical things break..(and in
secret it seems)", comment is on target.

I didn't want to mention it, though,
because I have the impression some of my
earlier posts have "spooked" the members
already.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top