Ninth Annual Single-Stack Championship

Next weekend, I will be competing in a Single-Stack IPSC match.

This is a match in which the competitors are expected to use a single-stack 1911-model pistol.

(Other pistols which meet the qualifications for USPSA Limited 10 Division will be allowed to compete, but they will be eligible only for ribbon awards, not for trophy awards.)

You can see the competition rules by clicking on the title of this post. For applications, go here.

I missed the first match. I don' t know how but stuff happens. However, looking at my Trophy Wall I see that I took 2nd "C" in 1998. This isn't likely to happen again.

Those of you who know me, know that I switched to Limited Division with the acquisition of a new STI Edge around this time. Even though I qualified as B-Limited using my Kimber Custom (fixed sights, Kimber-Krap finish), after switching to the STI Edge I ignored my Kimber. As a consequence, I have not been able to shoot the Kimber at the B-level.





A couple of years ago, I noticed that my eyesight had deteriorated to the point that I was unable to easily see iron sights clearly. I started shooting Open Division in February of 2003, and am now shooting it at a mediocre B-Open level of competence.

Speaking from personal experience, I can tell you that Growing Old is acceptable only in comparison to the alternative ... which is grim.

Accordingly, I dragged the Kimber from the Gun Safe last week with some trepidation.

It was well deserved.

I hadn't shot the Kimber since the last Single Stack Championship, last year. Somehow, I had failed to clean the gun after I used it, which is a violation of some Ethical Rule by which all right-thinking people abide.

There was some rust on the trigger-adjustment screw, and a little surface rust under the grips. Mostly, the gun suffered my abuse with little complaint. So I took it to the range, where I scrubbed off the accumulated powder reside on the slide rails and frame rails, and the chamber ramp, before I started shooting it.

Every other round missed the target. I don't know if it was my grip, or my trigger-finger, but when I tried to shoot double-taps the second round went invariably low and to the left. I know, you're saying things like "Jerking the trigger" and "It's your GRIP, man, you're putting too much Left Hand into it!"

You're probably right, no matter WHAT you're thinking. I was doing everything wrong.

This practice session was using old ammo which I had loaded last year ... which is not as much a pathetic attempt to blame the ammunition as it appears, but merely a lead-in to the next paragraph.

I realized that I was going to have to do a LOT of practicing, and I only had a couple hundred .45ACP bullets to load with. Using the Internet, I order one thousand 200gr LRN bullets from Laser-Cast.

That was last Wednesday. UPS delivered the bullets on Saturday, which was a shock to MY system because I had no idea that they delivered on weekends. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that Monday was Independence Day, and they delivered Saturday rather than have to deliver Monday. Whatever the reason, I had plenty of bullets to reload all of the old (dirty!) cases sitting in cans on the shelf.

Wuff! No alibi about being unable to compete because I didn't have ammunition. Bummer, man!

SWMBO came down on Friday, and Saturday, Sunday and Monday she helped me reload about 1300 rounds of ammunition for the Kimber. (I had a partial box of Laser Cast bullets left over from last year.)

We got a bunch of bullets (about 500) loaded up on Saturday, and took 'em to the range. I shot about half of the loaded rounds, and couldn't hit the target at any useful speed at all. I don't mean I wasn't getting A-zone hits regularly (which I wasn't), but I was demonstrating a deplorable tendencey to miss wide left/low.

(Sunday was not much better. We used the video camera to record the process, took it home and watched it on the computer. Nothing was obvious, except that my grip seemed to slip frequently, and I was seen to be re-adjusting my grip every now and then. The slim single-stack grip was too small for my hands, and while I don't believe it is the primary reason for the misses it was still something I need to work on.)

My friend Gary the Fish joined us for the end of the Saturday session, and on Sunday he actually did some shooting. He kicked my butt all day, and I can just see how it's going to look NEXT weekend when we shoot for score.

Monday, we loaded up all the rest of the Laser-Cast 200gr LRN bullets. We marked 400 of them for the match, and I set aside the rest of them for practice.

Then, after all of the reloading was completed, I took a look at the pistol. I had intended only to give it a thorough cleaning (which I did), but during the process I realized that I had not replaced the recoil spring since 1998!

The recoil spring was about 8-1/2" long. A new recoil spring is about 10" long. (Eye estimation ... if I'm wrong in the precision of the spring lengths, it's because I'm half blind. Accept the stated differences as 'proportional', not exact.)

Take a minute to appreciate the singularity of the original Kimber pistol design. It doesn't use the same barrel bushing as the standard Cold 1911; it uses the same barrel bushing as does the Colt Commander.

And the slide is just a little bit shorter, too. When I replaced the recoil spring in 1998, I found that it was too long. I discovered this the first time I shot it after replacing the spring. The overly long recoil spring tried to stop the slide before it reached full recoil, and consequently blew the ears right off the barrel bushing. Bushing parts, spring, recoil spring-guide ... everything that wasn't glued down ... went down-range.

But still I decided that I needed to replace the recoil spring. I had two 18-pound 1911 recoil springs which I had bought from ISMI in 1998, along with installation instructions. I followed the instructions (a first for me!) and determined that the spring was somehow NOT too long for the gun. Still, I dutifully cut off a coil on the assumption that I had never measured anything correctly before, so I probably screwed up again. Besides, that 18# was REALLY heavy.

Here's my theory:
If I didn't cut enough off the recoil spring, the first time I shot it I would lose the barrel bushing, the spring-guide, and maybe even the spring. I have replacement parts, but I've never actually fitted them to the gun. I have no idea if they will fit.

When I test-fire the gun, it may happen that the parts will break or be lost, and the replacements may not fit. Since the earliest I could order replacement parts would be Tuesday, chances are they wouldn't arrive in time to be fitted to the gun and be tested before the match on Saturday.

If THAT happens, I could legitimately claim a broken gun, and instead of embarassing myself on the rage (remember, I still can't see the sights very well), I'll end up sitting in front of the air conditioner and making up statements for later publication bemoaning my 'lost chance' to shoot the Kimber in at least one more match.

I put the parts in on Monday, Independence Day, and was just to darned tired to drive to the range to test the gun. Instead, I tried it out after work today ... Tuesday.

The darned thing worked just fine, and it even shot better than it had over the long weekend. Wouldn't you know it. I will be competing at the Single Stack Championship this weekend, and making a damned fool of myself in public.

I remember how much I use to enjoy shooting a Single Stack in IPSC competition, glorying in how I could beat the Open Gunners who hadn't shot a Single Stack with iron sights for at least a year.

Now I find myself on the OTHER end of the stick, and I must tell you that it smells terrible!



There's no avoiding it. This weekend, I WILL be competing at the Ninth Annual Single Stack Championship at the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club in Albany Oregon. If you want so see something REALLY scarey, show up and see history in the making.



I do have a slight edge, though. After cleaning the gun, I painted the fixed sights with bright orange fingernail polish. You can see them suckers from a mile off. (I can't see them from the furtherest length of my extended arms, but never mind that.)



SWMBO has declined my invitation to compete, which is at least one fewer person who will beat me. But she has promised to take pictures.

Maybe she'll start her own blog, and post 'em.

For damned sure, you won't see them HERE!