Unscientific, Biased and Fun Testing

[AGE]

There haven't been too many shooting topics submitted lately so this old shooter decided to work one up today.

Some generous, wealthy (and evidently dumb) shooter left a couple of B-34 silhouette (if the spelling is right) targets at the range recently. I carefully took them down for future use. Today was the day. These are evidently half scale targets about 11" wide with a 3" wide head. I set one up at about 20 feet today. I also had a small sighter bullseye mounted near the bottom of the target frame.

I decided to test a Luger, a 1911 and a Colt SAA under "combat" conditions. I don't do combat practice (I'm an old bullseye shooter) and I don't carry any of these guns (I carry a S&W 3914 or a Colt Mustang), but these three heavyweights are really my favorites that I do shoot a lot. Also, I don't have holsters for the Luger or SAA.

Anyway, not to be deterred by these trivial facts, I continued onward. I decided to begin my one shot tests with each gun at my side in my strong hand in safe condition (no miserable Luger holster to cloud the issue). The Luger and 1911 both had the chamber loaded and safety on and the SAA had the hammer down on an empty chamber.

Luger tests:

The Luger is a '36 matched reblued Mauser shooter with grips reworked by Hugh Clark, polished sear and striker mating surfaces, and the front sight drifted over to sight it in with Wall-Mart Winchester ammo. I started warming up with the Luger (to refresh my trigger and sight memory) by firing a magazine sighting at the center of the sighter. Got a 1" group perfectly centered. I then shot a magazine applying the safety before each shot. To have any speed at all I had to use my free hand to release the safety. Just imagine the speed if I had to work the toggle before the shot.

Well now for the one shot (scientific?) speed test without a timer. I raised the gun, popped off the safety and shot an 8 at 3 o'clock about 3" from the center of the target in "about" 1-2 seconds. How is that for precision time measurement? Next I chambered one round, raised the gun at the target, closed my eyes and fired. I hit the paper at 10 o'clock about 6" from the center. Scared heck out of the target, but missed it clean. Of course this would have been a fair shoulder hit on a full size target.

1911 tests:

The test gun is a bone stock WWII GI gun with a long trigger (I can't stand the late model short triggers). Again, I warmed up with a magazine of hardball ammo into another 1" group in the sighter (this finished off the sighter). I shot another magazine engaging and releasing the safety before each round. The safety was easily released with the thumb of my shooting hand.

Repeating the rapid (?) speed test with the gun initially at my side gave a 7 at 9 o'clock in "about" 1 second which would have been a decent chest hit on a full sized target. The single shot eyes closed test gave a 6 o'clock hit at the edge of the 7 ring right through the target's stomach. Again, this would have been a pretty good hit with a full sized target.

SAA tests:

The gun used is a genuine Colt 1971 Arizona Centennial in .45 LC. Very purty gold, blue and pearl. Anyway, also dirt cheap a few years ago.

The warm up cylinder gave a somewhat disappointing 2" group. Then a practice run cocking and firing each shot fairly quickly. The gun is absolutely (well almost) stock with only a Pachmeyer spacer under the hammer spring to lighten the trigger pull a little. Cocks and shoots very easily.

The one shot "speed" test gave a dead center hit in the middle of the X zone in about 1 second. The eyes closed test gave a 9 at 9 o'clock just outside the 10 zone. No wonder Matt Dillon always won the shootout at the beginning of each Gunsmoke episode and Pat Garrat got Billy the Kid in the dark.

Conclusions:

Born 100 years too late.

Too much time on my hands.

Need a CCW holster for the SAA.

I wonder if Wilson or Brown can fix my SAA up with a hicap magazine or belt feed like John Wayne.

Life is great.