Final Update
I'm sure I'll be posting at THR more, but I wanted to wrap up this little chronicle.
I swung by the gun store on January 2 to get my gun, and I had to wait in a looooooooong line for "pick up". This would be the appropriate place to insert an Obama joke, but I'm going to just go on believing it was because the store was closed over the holidays so there was a backlog.
Had to demonstrate loading and unloading the gun (CA law) to pick it up, then went ahead and picked up some accessories. A little gun cleaning kit, some snap caps, 2 extra mags (Kimber makes 'em, they were $26 ea, but they worked perfect) and 250 rounds.
I was planning on heading to the range immediately after picking it up, and really didn't need to buy any cartridges at the store, but this was to be my HD gun and there was just something about "completing" this journey and having a gun and ammo in my possession "just in case" that I wanted take care of. With a sigh of relief that I finally (check the date on OP!!) had all the tools required, I hopped in the car and headed to the range.
There I picked up some eyes and ears, as well as 100 more rounds of Blazers Brass (230 gr FMJ), and rented a lane. On the way to my lane I ran into the gentleman who taught my NRA Basic Pistol class, so I re-introduced myself, told him I was there firing my first gun, and thanked him again. That class really was tremendously helpful in giving me the confidence to handle a firearm, especially coming from zero as I was. And finally...
I hooked up a target, rolled it out to 7 yards, loaded a single cartridge into the factory RIA magazine, put it in the gun, racked the slide, assumed my stance, took aim, exhaled, finger on the trigger, and BANG! Dead center... I nailed the 10! Looks like the start of a beautiful relationship. That was probably my best shot of the day, and strangely I seemed to get worse the more I shot, but for the next 20 minutes I had a ton of fun.
Not to put too fine a point on it, but the 1911 was a dream to shoot. I couldn't tell you how much of that is elation from firing
my own gun for the first time, and how much of it was the 1911, but it felt like the smoothest, most accurate, most "bang-happy" gun I've ever shot. I had trouble keeping my finger off the trigger, in multiple ways. On one occasion, after finishing a magazine the slide locked back and I put the gun down on the shelf, I caught myself with my finger still on the trigger (yeah, I've still gotta drill the four rules into my head). But mostly I just couldn't keep a magazine full for more than a few seconds. After a shot the sight would just glide back onto the target and BANG again. It felt like this gun wanted to shoot.
I wasn't very accurate overall, but most of my shots did hit the paper.
I still can't "suprise myself" (as Jeff Cooper says) with the shot, so I've got a long way to go in my actual shooting, I know. But I burnt through my 100 rounds rather quickly and gave up my lane early. I packed up and headed home, where I fired up youtube and watched five or six videos on disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling 1911s. At this point I fumbled through my first field strip and cleaning. I don't think I did a very good job, but the gun was just covered in a greasy black oil from the factory, so I figure my clumsy cleaning won't cause many problems while I get up to speed on maintenance. I've got a million questions about cleaning and maintenance, but I'll save them for another thread. I put everything away safe and sound (leaving one magazine loaded - just in case), content knowing that, should I ever be unlucky enough to need it, now I have it.
In California you can only buy one handgun every 30 days. I plan on going back next month to pick up something in .22LR - a MarkIII or a Buckmark. That way I can start taking friends and family to the range (with something much less intimidating to shoot) and start converting more liberals into gun nuts.
Thanks again THR! I have a theory that nothing one does is the first time that thing has ever been done, so there's no need to make "first timer" mistakes. One just has to gather information and knowledge from those who have "been there, done that", and you can skip the beginner mistakes and learn something new relatively pain-free. Thanks to you, I have.
1911 as your FIRST weapon? Now that is style.
