Ammo Drought & Shooting Games: A Story On Saving Money & Having Fun With 1911s

By Community Contributor: Jan Gerstner (If you’d like to contribute an article, please email submissions to kjwcare@gmail.com)

What can a shooter do during this ammo shortage and gun drought? 

I’m going to talk about actual shooting, not just great but ammo-less training techniques like dry firing

First, don’t buy in panic.  A gun store nearby was selling 9mm ammo for $60 per box of 50 [at time of this post, 50 rounds of 9mm are selling for over $100 dollars].  People paid it.  Don’t do that.

I support my local gun stores as best I can, but right now they have little-to-no ammo.  The owner of one told me that a few people have come in to buy a gun, but after being told they do not have it and there is no ammo for it, ask what gun they DO have ammo for, and then buy it.  So, How do you LIKE your M1895 Nagant 7.62x38R Revolver?

If you look for it, you can find 9mm for $25/box of 50 [at the time of writing].  That’s expensive, but not egregious. Where?  I use the Ammo Seek phone app.  Enter the data that’s important to you and in seconds you have a dozen sources or more, listed by cost.  Some of them will still not have ammo, but you’ll have a long list to choose from.  I frequently find ammo at a price I can afford.  

What about your shooting friends [and people in this community]?  I associate with a group of active shooters, most of whom make their own ammo.  We give ammo to each other regularly at the range, and nobody keeps count.

Look further out than your usual neighborhood.  I have friends who have driven over two hours to get ammo they learned about by word of mouth!

Targets.  You can spend $5 for monsters or evil bad-guy targets, and nice bullseye or silhouette ones with colors.  Or, you can cut pictures from magazines.  Paper plates make good targets, too, just mark a face on them, or tape or staple balloons to them.  Before shooting, spend time at home focusing on techniques for accurate shooting.

On my recent trip to the range I took my Colt Commander Lightweight 1911, 9mm.  With it I took two magazines and fifty rounds of my handloads.  I wanted to see if I could get useful – and FUN – shooting for less than a full box.

Typically for me, I modified the gun a little.  It comes with Novak three-dot sights and I wanted tritium, so I bought Novak Low-Mount Tritium Sights that are specific for the 9mm Commander.  Rear: LMC03WN and Front: DFS02-6.  Though they are described as “low-mount”, I found them prominent and easy for my aging eyes to acquire.

I wanted ambidextrous thumb safeties since I carry both left- and right-handed.  I decided on one from Wilson, part number 192B.

Specific features of the Colt that I find makes it easy to shoot include a dual recoil spring that Colt says reduces felt recoil.   Colt also touts their G10 black cherry grips.  They are fine for me, dark but not particularly showy, and there are thousands of aftermarket grips to choose from.  

Trigger pull is stated as between 4.5- and 6-pounds, and mine is at the upper end.  That’s OK by me.  The main thing is that there is very little take-up, very little creep – maybe 2mm, and the let-off is instant with no drag.  I like it.

So that’s the playmate, let’s take it out to play!   

I loaded nine rounds into each magazine, 124-gr JRN that run ~1,100 fps.  For targets I use EZ2C with two orange 2.5”X3.5” (6.5cmX9cm) ovals on a pseudo-tombstone shape.  I first set one up at 10 meters (~33 feet).  Carefully squeezing the trigger, I paused just enough to align the sights.  I had two holes touching.  I fired the next two with less time between, putting two holes about one-inch apart above the first two.  Going faster still, two holes blossomed on the right side, a half-inch apart.  After the last three, all nine rounds were inside the lower oval.  Really.  They were.  You can trust me…

Before shooting the next magazine, I traded shooting-prowess lies with other Olde Guyes in our group.  We’re good at that.  We are also respectful of each other when shooting, trying to be quiet and stay out of the shooter’s peripheral vision.  With the exception of an…involuntary…coughing fit that caused me to stagger around next to my friend. But a good shooter is ready for anything.

For additional pressure on the shooters we place bets, with handicaps.  Winners get beer, losers have to drink Metamucil.  It hones one’s accuracy.

Such would be the atmosphere for the remainder of my shooting.  Shooting a little faster than the first time, there were two rounds that fell about an inch-and-a-half (~4cm) each outside the oval.  Not my fault. The rounds hit huge Wisconsin snowflakes.  My friends, coughing and sputtering, allowed that handicap so long as I allowed the same for them.

Flush with success I moved the target out to 15 meters (16.5 yards).  One of our guys is a long-time IPSC shooter and oft times champion.  He set a 5-inch (~13cm) gong out at 25 yards (~23-meters), just to taunt us.  We all had terrible coughing fits when he came to the line, but he just kept making it ring.

I grabbed a reloaded magazine.  Jumping to the line before my coughing buddies could gather around me, I fired all 9 at medium speed, double taps with a triple at the end.  The spread across the oval was broader, and two flew out 2.5cm or so to the upper right.  I was so dazzled by myself that I didn’t even wait for the others to shoot before I grabbed the last reloaded magazine.  I was faster still, but by no means up to competition performance.  By shooting immediately I minimized any effects from the coughing and staggering fits of my friends.  Check the photo for my dazzling performance.

The Colt Lightweight is no light-weight.  The 9mm round has a comparatively soft kick to begin with.  The Colt is easy to keep on target and I have scored well on stages with five targets set at three distances on both sides, with four rounds required in two ovals on each.  Side-by-side with a Hi-Power I find the Colt easier to shoot well. I’ll credit Colt’s engineering and the double springs.

I also give high marks to the Novak sights, with or without tritium.  I have a lot of muscle memory and they just magically aligned with the target.  While I was once proficient with the teeny little pimples on “GI” 1911s, today those are all point-and-shoot guns for me.

Many shooters get all watery in the knees about checkering.  But, the sharper the checkering the harder it’ll be on your hands.  The Colt has vertical ribs front and back on the grip, as they have since the Series 70.  I shot many an M1911 in training and competition with those ribs on the rear only, and they are all I need.  The Lightweight has the “speed bump” on the tang safety, and I’m happy to have it.  However, just like checkering, I have used many 1911s that did not have it and I did not miss it.

So.  A nice afternoon dodging Wisconsin snowflakes with supportive friends and shooting a really nice gun.  After the shooting was done, I drank more beer than Metamucil.  Thirty-six rounds was enough to see my accuracy and speed improve, and I saved 14 for another time.

There are people who denigrate the 1911 guns.  I think they are all blowing hooey to sell ink.  I’ve been shooting them since 1969, when I first introduced myself to the Army of North Vietnam.  People talk about jams.  I have personally owned or been issued some 20 of them by several manufacturers and I have seen exactly two that weren’t the fault of ammo, through tens-of-thousands of rounds.  Accuracy?  Some professional shooters and writers report regularly shooting groups under two inches at 25-yards with the newer Colts.  That’ll do.

Several writers reported failure to go into battery when the gun is fresh out of the box.  They tend to blame the magazines.  Our IPSC shooter asked to shoot mine and it failed to go into battery on the second round.  He is highly attuned to guns as they function and instantly saw that the slide stop lever had backed out of the frame.  I called Colt and they sent me a new one.  I don’t count rounds, but some 300 have gone through it since without problem.  As is always said, if you’re going to carry it, test it thoroughly first.

The bad news:  Good luck finding one.  Nobody has one in stock or can tell you when they will.So, here are a few other “Commander”sized guns I’ve had or been issued.  All are excellent:

S&W 1911Sc, 45ACP.  Scandium alloy frame.

S&W PC1911 Performance Center Round Butt, 45ACP.

Springfield Champion Operator Light Weight, 45ACP.  Everybody who has shot it side-by-side with others say it is the best Commander-size 45ACP of them all.

SigSauer 1911 Fastback Emperor Scorpion Carry FDE SAO.  This is THE best when chambered in 357Sig.  45ACP available.

Sig 1911CA-45-BSS.  It’s really just another cosmetic difference Sig uses to sell guns.  Downside: “Sig profile” slide complicates holster selection.  They’re excellent, if you can find one.

Sig Sauer 1911CAR-45-SCPN “Scorpion Carry.”  It features Hogue’s Magwell Grip Set, blending grip plates and mainspring housing into a magwell extension they say promotes rapid magazine changes.  Has “Sig profile slide.” don’t like it because the sharp checkering and texture of the grips is murder on my hands.  I seriously considered doing something to flatten the sharp points.  The points on the rail are so sharp they cut holsters.

Others?  Sure.  Lots.  One of our sons is a gun snob and if it doesn’t say “Wilson” on the side, he snubs it.  Wilson, Baer and Kimber advertise a 2” group at 25 yards.  Testers say they do better.

There are plenty of others to choose from.  They are small enough to carry and conceal, but don’t require an expert to shoot well. 

Check one out! – Jan Gerstner