Les and The Race Gun

I've been working with Les for a couple of years now, ever since I transferred from the Oregon University System to Oregon State University during a re-organization at The Office.

Les has always been both an Alpha Geek with Banner and Oracle applications, and very friendly as a co-worker. When I have technical problems at work, I often find Les is a good source of advice and support.

In turn, he has always shown a candid interest in That Thing We Do .... competitive pistol shooting.

Since SWMBO was out of town this weekend, there was no IPSC match scheduled, and also because I had to work up a new .38 Super load using 115gr. HP bullets from Montana Gold instead of my usual 115gr FMJ bullet, I found I had an almost free weekend with nothing to do but go to the range.

Gee, tough choice.

So I invited Les to go to the range with me. We could both shoot the STI Open Gun ("The Race Gun"), and give the new load a workout. More, I have a small handful of pistols which haven't been used in a while and they needed some attention, too.

Sunday afternoon (a bright, sunny day that just cries out for some Range Time) I packed up the Kimber Custom in .45acp, the STI Edge in 10mm, the Mech Tech to go with the Kimber, the compensated STI Tru-Bore with a C-More Electronic Dot Sight, and a Ruger Blackhawk "New Model" single-action revolver in .41 Magnum.

I met Les at the Albany rifle & Pistol Club range at 1:30pm. We appropriated Bay 5 for our very own and started packing guns, range-bags, ammo cans and targets from the Damned Old Ford to the counter on the bay.

After we went through a brief talk about Range Safety, I decanted the guns.


NOTE: If you just want to see the video, skip down to the bottom of the article!


First choice was The Beloved Kimber. You gotta start with the rough, and work your way up to the sleek, so I set up a practice mini-popper and a single IPSC target downrange and did a short demonstration on gunhandling with live ammo.

Then it was Les's turn. He had no problem hitting the ten-meter IPSC target, but the mini-popper was safe from him. "No problem", I said. "I can't hit it either." Then I demonstrated that I couldn't hit it for the first four shots, and somehow managed to nail it the last six shots of the 10-round magazine.

we spent a few minutes talking about Sight Alignment, using 140mm and 170mm single-stack .45 magazines as make-shift representations of rear sight/front sight alignment and aiming point. Les took the Kimber back to the IPSC target, and did a fair job of search-and-destroy on the A-zone.

Then I dragged out the STI Edge in 10mm, compared and contrasted the two cartridges, and let him shoot some short-loaded magazines, finally working up to the full 20-round 140mm magazine of 200gr LTC (Lead Truncated Cone) bullets. I asked him if he could feel any difference, and he admitted that he could not. Even though I was shooting 230gr LRN (Lead Round Nose) bullets in the Kimber, I have to admit that the perceived recoil and muzzle flip is very similar to the same, even accounting for the Extended Dust Cover of the STI Edge.

My personal opinion?

They're very similar to shoot, but HEY! The STI Edge gives you 20 rounds in a magazine while the Single-Stack Kimber only gives you 8 to 10 rounds, depending on your magazine choice. The Edge has the edge in competition. (No apologies for gratuitous puns here!)

We played with the double-tap concept for a while, as I explained the concept of fitting your double-tap to the tuning of the gun. As Les was getting 0.60+ second split times it wasn't a major problem ... and that's as it should be. I did demonstrate a 0.25 sec. and a 0.33 sec. split time just to show that the bullet placement depends on the tuning of the gun and the load, but he was (correctly) working for the sighted shot every time instead of pushing for a true double-tap.

Yes, the slide on the Edge was slow enough that the 0.25 sec. resulted in a 'high' 2nd shot, and the 0.33 sec. split time resulted in a 'low' 2nd shot. If I could see the sights well enough that I was still using this pistol in competition, I would have to practice more to get the shots in line with myprefered 0.18 sec. split time. And yes, I know your split times are MUCH faster.

In between shooting the Kimber and the STI Edge, I dragged out my Mech Tech and quickly assembled it with the Kimber. Les shot the nasty mini-popper with it and got 7 out of 8 hits very quickly. The more he shot, the faster he went and he didn't lose any stage time after he got the feel of it. That's a powerful argument for the advantage of the Electronic Dot Sight.

(The Mech Tech mounted a PDP-1 tube-sight, and it works just fine for both Les and for me.)

Moving on, we finally got to the meat of the nut when I dragged out the STI Tru-Bore (Prototype) and shot some of the new ammunition at the mini-popper. I wasn't as much concerned with hitting the popper as I was checking the new load.

To digress, I ran out of 115gr MG FMJ bullets and was forced (due to availability of the one, and not the other) to change to 115gr MG HP bullets. Some people swear on the HP as being more accurate, but I'm not accurate enough to appreciate the difference.

However, I AM cheap enough to appreciate the higher price tag on the HP bullets. My understanding is that my supplier, "Big Dawg", had 13 cases of the HP and couldn't affor d to restock the FMJ until he got rid of it. I bought a case (partly because I want to help Big Dawn, mostlyl because I was down to my last 100 FMJ and was desperate!) and in return Dawg gave me a break on the price.

But that means I had to work up a new load.

Comparison of the old FMJ with the new HP bullet showed only a couple thousandths of an inch difference. I cranked down the seating die on the Dillon 650 loading press until that difference was obviated in the Over All Length, and pumped out a couple hundred rounds Saturday Night.

Somehow, between the change in the bullet and having to replace my last bent decapping pin, my sizing die doesn't quite manage to resize the case as well as previously. Ninty percent of the loaded rounds failed to pass the Chamber Gauge. No problem for my, my .38 super chamber is as welcoming and accomodating as a crib-hookers .... uh, I mean, it's very accomodating to oversize ammunition. But I will have to work on the sizing die adjustment, because SWMBO's STI Tru-Bore is as tight as a ... uh ... as tight as factory specs. Uh, so, uh, that means I have more work to do on the load.

Moving right along, I know that I need to work on the sizing, but I was concerned about pressure levels AND overall length. Turns out, the cartridges loaded with the new bullet exhibited some cratering, but going back to the baseline FMJ with the ammunition I loaded last month, there was also some cratering there. I suspect that it was due to the warmer weather (I have no idea how I'm going to justify this to someone who really knows about this stuff!) but it wasn't excessive so I'm going to ignore it for now.

Whew! Did I get away with that?

So, the new load is acceptable although arguably a little 'hot'. At least I didn't have primer smearing problems. If I resolve the case circumference problem (so SWMBO can shoot it in her STI) I should be okay.

More important for the moment (and a much-appreciated end to the digression), the new load feeds reliably from the magazine to the chamber, and it seems safe to shoot.

So I had Les load up a short-stack of .38 super/HP and go downrange with the mini-popper.

Les had experiences problems getting hits with the small (4") plate at medium ranges. So did I. But we were shooting iron sights, and we're both half-blind in one eye and can't see for shit out of the other. I scruplously neglected to keep track of my hit/miss count, but my best guess is thea Les (who hasn't shot a pistol for 20 years)and I (who have been shooting 3 or 4 times a week for the past 24 years) performed equally well when using Iron Sights.

Talk about The Blind Leading The Blind!



After Less shot the 25-round magazine at the mini-popper, he shot six rounds from the Ruger Blackhawk "New Model" single-action revolver. Didnt' hit anything but Dirt. Well, I wouldn't have done any better. But at least Les learned why we say "Lean into it a little .. lean forward from the waist".

There are few guns better than the .45 magnum Single Action Revolver to teach you why it's important to do that.

(NB: The full-size (15mb) version of the video is available here.)