Garrison Joe

I've found that the small primer .45 AUTO brass is the brainchild of several of the companies who wanted to make non-toxic .45 practice ammo for police departments (who often shoot on poorly ventilated indoor ranges, and buy the vast majority of non-toxic pistol ammo). But, they were having a HARD time making non-toxic large primers - they just had lousy reliability. So, someone got a real stupid idea to go against the 100 year old SAAMI, mutually-agreed upon, shooting industry guidelines that .45 AUTO needs to be large pistol primed, and started making small primer pockets to hold the non-toxic small pistol primers that were easier to make reliable than the large primer size. So, it was a combination of errors. PD's which would not upgrade their ranges with suitable ventilation to meet OSHA standards, government entities that refused funding to upgrade local departments and larger ranges to meet current air quality standards, and companies making primers who still have not figured out how to make non-toxic large pistol primers reliably. But if someone has more recent intelligence on this situation, I'd like to hear it. GJ

Yes, having to replace plated parts (actually nickel on almost all silvery-colored plated guns, not chrome) when you need to do some fitting is the normal thing to have to do. Two ways to avoid this - buy stainless guns, or use blued guns and touch up your work with some cold blue. Are you sure this 1911 is plated, not a stainless gun? From the picture, looks stainless. The pinch spot is between the top of the grip safety and the bottom of the hammer spur. Relieving some of the grip safety or some of the spur of the hammer are things that are feasible. Learning to hold a grip that puts your hand lower on the frame also works, but I do not feel the same control of the gun as when I grip high (right up under the grip safety spur), and of course, a low grip lets the gun pivot more during recoil.

The guns that I know well and can get parts for, I don't worry about manufacturer's warranty. Need any more clarification? GJ

Since I do ALL my "warranty" work on my Uberti guns, I don't even read the warranty conditions. GJ

The catalog page for that gun includes this caveat: I would not have a gun for a sport that DEPENDS on reloaded ammunition with that restriction on it. Just me, but those gentlemen are not granting the purchaser full use of the firearm that they built. I don't buy Glocks for a similar restriction, either. I use a couple of Colt 1911s that I have and will put up against any comers for quality and reliability, fit and function. As always, there are requirements that each shooter has for their firearms, and I am satisfied mine fulfill my requirements. Of course, I had to replace the collet barrel bushing (a dumb idea from 1970 trying to make a single part of the gun magically garner high levels of accuracy for cheap) with a solid bushing, after that collet broke and jammed in a match. good luck, GJ

TiteGroup will work for what you are trying to do......might start with 9 grains. No "filler" material is recommended anymore by Lyman or other handbook publishers, due to ringing of chambers that is loosely suspected to be made worse with dacron or other filler. Varget would work if you were shooting 100, 200 yards or more; it would be more powerful than you need for TR matches. good luck, GJ

Anyone who is shooting 30-30 in TR events is reloading it. I'm sure several do. Are you looking for a good cast bullet load for it? What powder(s) and bullet(s) do you have around? I have seen about 8 or 9 grains of Unique and a flat pointed bullet about 170 grains shoots well at the short ranges that TR is shot. GJ

Even before the rule changes, the .38-40 (which is really 40 caliber) was a legal cartridge for Wild Bunch. GJ

Since you claim I have no grounds to express my experience on this, I shall not bother you with much further discussion about this topic. Take what I offered for a reason and a history, or not. If you have a strong desire to precisely explore the rules applying to WB about a non-conventional powder use in main matches at this transitional point in WB operations, then you need to contact the Rules Committee. Making inquiries of the general WB community may never satisfy your curiosity. GJ

This "extension" of Cowboy rules to WB has prevented expanding the WB rulebook to be the same page count as the Cowboy book. It was not an oversight - it was intentional. Perhaps this intent has slacked off a bit, as the WB handbook is almost as "bloated" as the Cowboy now. GJ

The cowboy rules which disallow duplex loads! If WB rules don't say something is permitted, but Cowboy rules say that same "general shooting" practice is not allowed, then the Cowboy rule almost always applies to WB. Good reloading sense also - a large bunch of BP shooting sports no longer allow duplex loads.. Besides, there is no practical reason to combine a smokeless and black powder in a pistol cartridge. It's not difficult to get BP to burn in a small case. GJ

For all things Cowboy/WB main match related: Ditto Red Dot. Ditto Clays. Ditto WST. Ditto Bullseye. Ditto TiteGroup. good luck, GJ

The Wilson 920 series of magazines are legal, though. Stainless: 920-45FS7 Blued: 920-45FS7B Even this 8 round mag, but no Wild Bunch need to spend the extra few bucks: 920-45FS8 good luck, GJ

This whole thread is about the Shooter's Choice options, some of which involves watching for engaging a target.

I would suggest discarding any rule which involves having to watch for "target engagement" with the 1911. Thus, we would not have to try to get into the shooter's head about "did he or didn't he" have the gun covering a target when a failure to chamber or fire occurs. Especially when considering only the TO is usually close enough to the gun's firing axis to even begin to guess about pointing at the target. Just: 1 - watch the shooter for safety violations, 2- count the misses, 3- watch for violations of any specific shooting order that instructions call for on the target array (to award any earned Procedural penalty), 4 - someone (preferably TO) watching the rounds-fired count (to award a P for too many rounds fired, or to let shooter know he is not yet finished with the required rounds-fired count). And to know what target(s) to direct the shooter to, when they need a "brain-restart" sometime through the string. That is about enough for any TO and Spotter crew to keep track of when the competitor is shooting 28 to 42 pistol rounds in a WB stage. good luck, GJ

That is a major difficulty for some shooters to understand. Review the definition of engagement of a target once more. And, no, engaging a target is not fully equivalent to firing a round down range intended for a target. The use of "engaging a target" is mostly to protect a shooter from a "target-sequence P" on specified-target-order scenarios (like sweeps) during situations where the round does not fire. I have never liked that the rules ever included having to watch for "engagement" of target just in case the shooter could not get the round to fire, and then protect the shooter from the P IF they skip trying to fire another round there. I am much more in favor of discarding "engagement" with just counting rounds fired and misses which occurred. good luck, GJ

Big money to replace a barrel, especially if it shoots well as installed by RIA. Lots of labor, as even the drop-in barrels often are not as easy as the name makes it sound. And not a job for a first time 1911 surgeon, as some things require some special tooling and measurements. So, WHERE on the existing barrel are rub points or tight spots when you install the barrel or work the slide with gun empty? If replacing the barrel simply because of "rub marks" - that is not very wise. If you do not change dimensions where that barrel was fitted to the gun (the locking lugs, the under-lugs on the barrel, the chamber fit to the feed ramp, headspace, barrel hood fit to slide, or the last inch of the barrel where the barrel bushing rides, you can probably file and sand on your factory barrel to clean up cosmetic drag scars or slight rub marks. Maybe take a few pictures of the barrel (or a disappointing target at 10 yards) showing what you don't like right now. good luck, GJ (just GJ, or Joe, or you can spell it out, too. And MR? I keep thinking my Dad (a 1st Sgt in 82nd Airborne in three theaters in WW II) might be looking over my shoulder as I i write. ☺️)

Use a diamond grit, small round ball-tip grinding bit and a Dremel or other rotary tool like a die grinder. Knock in a starting ding with a center punch where you want the retainer dimple. Then, secure the slide stop in a vise, brace your arms and carefully grind a single divot into that rather hard slide stop surface. Use other commercial slide stops as a guide. Grinding hardened steel is easier than spot drilling it. If you do put a stronger slide stop plunger spring in, it WILL make it slightly harder to operate the thumb safety. Not a problem in WB but if you need to shoot quickly for other purposes - consider if increasing spring strength is what you want to do. I've deepened worn dimples in slide stops before. It's pretty quick. good luck, GJ

How About: Call Mernickle Holsters and tell them exactly what you wrote above. They will be honest with you about how any of their holsters will hold the gun. Cliff is one to ride the river with! good luck, GJ

That would make it a clean stage, yep. Drop mag at end and rack to slide stop to make sure the 1911 is open and empty. GJ

He did have 3 misses. He had a jam preventing firing on T5 of the second sweep. Yes, it was "engaged" when he attempted to fire at it. But no round fired on it, and he skipped 2 targets in the second sweep (I assume) without engaging T6 and T7. How many unfired rounds fell out of gun when clearing the jam are inconsequential. A miss on T5. 2 misses for T6 and T7 that he did not shoot NOR engage, and a P for not engaging T6 (also T7, but P already earned). But, I did not read in the "theoretical play-by-play" that the shooter EXPRESSED his decision to skip 6 and 7 target "to save time" - so it's real hard to read that into the shooter's intent and not simply accept that they were working from memory shooting sweeps, and with the fresh magazine they started on T1 again. IMHO. So, P and 3 misses. GJ PS - the definitions section of the handbook, of course, sets the meaning of the term Engaged on page 38

Buckshot - I know that the Red Dot you have a stock of would work REAL well for you. It was not on my list because here in the US, Alliant has not released any to the marketplace for 18 months or so now. Same reason my list did not include Clays - has been impossible to find ever since Ukraine was invaded. And, if you have a newly-made ADI powder that is a Clays replacement, that would work well too. GJ

If you are going to cite the VV powder company, then to be useful to the shooter, you should say WHICH of the several VV powders you see being used for WB. GJ

I'm not sure what availability of powders in Australia looks like right now, but to answer this with a US-suitable reply, I'd have to say TiteGroup (aka High Gun). A good replacement for both pistol cartridge and shotgun, but slightly louder report and can be slightly dirty at low pressure. Followed up with 700-X,Trail Boss, Bullseye, Solo 1000 and Winchester Super Handicap (won't be much data for these last two). If you have to drop to slower powders, then Unique or Win 231. We are not seeing any Alliant pistol/shotgun powders in our marketplace in US. good luck, GJ

You are correct on the rules as written. It may seem like a slight advantage is being given to the double shooter, but that disappears as you shoot, due to time needed to load and eject any additional pairs. And, no, a pump or lever shot gunner, does NOT get this advantage. GJ